Chapter Text
Yuriy took a certain time to realize he had feelings for Julia. There had been no a-ha moment, no sudden revelation. It came to him in waves.
So many tiny clues he had initially attributed to platonic affection, or to his primitive Homo Sapiens brain going crazy because a pretty girl was near. So many moments he had managed to convince himself meant nothing.
Their first real goodbye at the airport, the first one of many more to come. They had hugged at the departure gate and stayed in each other’s arms perhaps a second too long.
That one time he saw her teaching Rick to dance bachata. Yuriy had kept a stone-cold facade while internally repressing the violent urge to novae rogue him out of the room.
All those moments where he had marveled at how well they clicked together. How well they could get each other.
He hadn’t fallen in love like one falls from a cliff. He had fallen slowly, like one walks into the water, until the shore is nowhere to be seen and it’s too late to come back. In retrospect, he had been dumb, and denial was a hell of a drug. He had drowned himself in it, until one day all these little clues, these little moments, couldn’t be ignored anymore.
Until the truth stood before him, unavoidable.
Terrifying.