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Yuri has never had a crush on anybody. That's a fact. People have said time and time again that he likes his best friend, Otabek, in a non platonic way. It pisses him off to no extent; Otabek is his friend, plus he's nineteen while he's sixteen and it doesn't sound good to him. At all.
Yuri thinks he might never fall in love or even crush on someone. He's skating on the rink he grew up on, Yakov telling him to concentrate. And that's when he sees him. He has skates on and he has long black hair put in a bun. His brown eyes remind Yuri of hot chocolate in his grandpa's house during the winter. His skin is brown, severely contrasting with everyone else's.
Yuri's first thought is that he's beautiful. He doesn't know his name, but his eyes are so pretty and his messy bun is to die for. He hears how he enters the rink and he starts skating. Yuri's breath leaves him when he sees the dark-skinned boy do a quadruple loop with no much trouble.
He walks up next to him; it's probably one of Yakov's new students he hasn't heard about. He never really cares about what that old hag has to say, anyway, so if he did say something about this boy it must've escaped him.
"Hey," Yuri says. Oh God, is he blushing? "What's your name? Are you new here?" he ends up asking, his tone a bit questioning.
"I'm Aleksei, but you can call me Aleks," he introduces himself. He's soft smiles and bright eyes and Yuri feels like his intestines are being moved around with a fork. "I know you. You're Yuri Plisetsky, the Ice Tiger of Russia, aren't you?"
Yuri nods, his attitude of constant anger not leaving him. He thinks to himself that he's just a hormonal teenager who gets a crush on the first guy he sees. He bites down into his lips and looks up and down to Aleks. "How old are you?" he asks, hoping it won't make him laugh at him or something.
Aleks smiles. "I'm sixteen," he tells him. A small spark of hope builds at Yuri's heart, but he shakes it away before it becomes anything bigger. He doesn't want to date this stranger right away, but he's just so attractive...
"Good. Are you one of Yakov's new students?"
"Mr. Feltsman?" he asks, and Yuri nods. "Yeah, I am," Aleks says. It's that when he hears someone yelling and Yuri and him turn around to see Yakov yelling at Aleks and him to stop talking and start focusing on practising. "He never gives his students a break, does he?"
Yuri shrugs. "Yeah."
The rest of the day passes slowly, almost in a tortous way, as Aleks and Yuri sneak conversations there and here. By when Yuri goes home to his grandpa's house, he knows Aleks's favorite book is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, that his mom is Russian while his dad has African roots. He also knows that Aleks has been trying to make it to the Worlds but the farthest he has got was to the Russian nationals. That's because he gets really, really nervous at competitions, which makes him lose at most of them.
Yuri needs to tell someone about his newly found crush, and his mind gets the idea immediately. He must tell Otabek. He texts him and asks him if he can Skype and he answers with the thumbs up emoji. Yuri smiles as he goes to his bedroom and turns his laptop on.
After a few minutes, Otabek's face is on his screen. "You seem really happy, Yuri," Otabek says, his tone teasing. Yuri's cheeks turn a pale shade of pink and he goes back to his grumpy and mad face. "Did something happen?"
"I met a real cute guy, okay?" Yuri says. He can tell Otabek anything; he's his best friend, after all, and he knows he won't judge him for getting a crush on someone right away. "His name is Aleksei and he's sixteen and he's an amazing skater."
"You got a crush?" Otabek answers, his voice amused, and Yuri pouts. "Hey, it's okay. He's your age. If you end up dating him that'd be amazing. How good looking is he?" Yuri knows for a fact that Otabek doesn't like talking too much, he prefers to listen to people. So that's why he's telling him to talk and talk.
"Well, he has dark skin and he has these really pretty brown eyes and he puts his hair in a bun and..." he trails off and then lets out a dreamy sigh. "I've never liked someone like this before. It feels weird."
"Like you're being kicked in the guts every time you see him?" Otabek says.
Yuri raises an eyebrow. "I didn't think you'd get it, Beka," he murmurs. "You seem very emotionless all the time."
"I had crushes," Otabek mutters. "A girl called Sezim, a boy called Aslan. They were both really pretty." Yuri doesn't bat an eye at Otabek's subtle mention of his bisexuality; Otabek had come out the year before, soon after the Grand Prix Final in Barcelona.
"Did you date any of them?" he asks.
"Never dated anyone," Otabek tells him.
"Dude, have you even had your first kiss?" Yuri says. His first kiss is a bad memory in his mind. He was thirteen and in seventh grade and spin the bottle seemed like a great idea in that moment. Needless to say, it ended with him kissing a girl a year older, and he hated it.
"I have," Otabek chuckles. "I was fifteen. It was a girl in a party. She confused me with another dude in my grade."
"Sucky," Yuri says.
"Yours was because of spin the bottle, come on."
Yuri rolls his eyes. "But, I didn't even ask for his number," he tells him. "Should I do that next practice?"
"You should," Otabek nods.
Two days later Yuri gets to the rink earlier than usual to pop the question to Aleks as soon as possible. Aleks gets there twenty minutes after Yuri arrives, and Yuri notices two things different. His hair isn't on a bun, and it's a little farther down his shoulders. Yuri shakes with the need to kiss him.
One thing at a time, Plisetsky, he tells himself as he calls Aleks's name. "Yeah, Yuri?" he says, his voice silky smooth and his eyes beautiful.
"Can you give me your number?" Yuri croaks, and he swears his cheeks turn pink for a split second. Aleks nods and Yuri smiles for the first time since he saw him two days ago. "Good."
He takes his phone off his pocket, goes to contacts and starts adding Aleks's number as he tells him it. He puts him in as 'Aleks' and he saves it. "Thank you!" he tells him, and Aleks nods. Yuri swears his crush is so tall— he's standing miserably at five feet six inches, while he must be around five feet eleven or six feet nothing.
Yuri admits his crush two months later, after they've talked and talked and he can't stop thinking about him. They're at the locker room of the rink after a long day of practice, when Yuri talks. "Hey, Aleks?"
"Yeah?"
"I kind of like you so if we could go on a date or something I'd—" he stops abruptly. He knows this is stupid, Aleks probably doesn't like him back, this is fucking stupid. Oh God, he's so stupid. He's about to freak out and yell before he sees Aleks is grinning like an idiot.
"I like you too," he tells him. His eyes are more like hot chocolate than ever as he leans in. The kiss is magical, close mouthed and Yuri finds Aleks's lips the softest thing he's ever had on him.
When Aleks pulls away after what feels like hours, he's grinning. "I like you too, Yura," he tells him again, his hand looking for Yuri's. The blond boy squeezes his hand when they intertwine their fingers together, and Aleks pulls it up and kisses it. "You're stunning."
Yuri grins. "You're beautiful," he tells him. He doesn't want to make dating Aleks a priority; he wants skating to always be his number one priority. Aleks is his first love, his first true love, and he wants it to make it as good as possible.
The date is at an expensive restaurant and it doesn't go as well as Yuri thought it'd be. Aleks eats and talks little, and Yuri figures he's like Otabek; he prefers to listen. Yuri rambles about his grandpa and how much skating means to him.
"Yura?" Aleks says for sudden.
"Hm?" Yuri murmurs, his mouth full of food.
"What's your top priority right now? Dating me, skating, what?" he asks, and before Yuri replies he adds: "Listen, I don't care if I'm not your top priority. You're my first boyfriend and I don't want you to feel forced to prioritize me."
Yuri nods, his smile back to his face. He swallows his food and he grins before talking. "Skating will always be my priority, Lyosha," Yuri says. "But I think you'll always be second best."
He's never been interested in dating, not until now. Not until their lips meet for the third time when they're paying for the food. Aleks kisses him, short and sweet, and Yuri could melt right there.
"I love you," he tells Aleks.
"I love you too, Yura," he replies.
Yuri feels warmth pool at his stomach, and he knows he's found someone he can trust and love and care for. Aleks is the best person he's ever known besides Otabek, and it makes him happy to know he's dating him now.