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Otabek is 19 when he gets accepted to college and meets the love of his life. As soon as humanly possible, he rushed into Sigma with a couple friends he knew, and part of their outreach is to volunteer for different positions on campus. Otabek had chosen to be a tour guide because it cut into his practice time the least, and the tours usually happened pretty late, so if he woke up with a hangover it didn’t matter much.
18 had been a wild year for Otabek, punctuated by a lot of changes. He grew four inches, his shoulders broadened out, he started going to the gym more, got a cool-ass undercut, and started having a ton of sex with both girls and boys. His mother would be mortified if she knew. The thing is, though, Otabek has never liked himself more. He’s smart, he’s attractive, and he doesn’t have to try too hard to achieve much of anything. That’s the American-damn-Dream. The week he got a snapchat and instagram account solidified his status on campus as the ultimate thirst trap, and he never looked back.
On a Saturday morning during his second semester at school, his alarm wakes him up at ten to get ready for his tour group that day. He’s assigned to the general education lap, since freshmen don’t get to lead specialty tours.
Groaning, Otabek rolls over in his bed and directly into the shirtless back of the girl (Sara? Tara? Tiffany?) he brought back to his room the night before. He sits up, looking around for her clothes, and when he finally lays eyes on them, nudges her with his elbow.
“Hey.”
The girl jolts upright, eyes wild and a little bit glassy as she grumbles,“wha’s goin’on?”
“Hey. I have a tour today. I need to go soon. Do you need to take a shower? Can I walk you back home?”
“Alright there, prince charming,” she snickers, rolling out of the bed and scooping her clothes off the floor, “chill out, I’m good.”
“Just checking. Can you make sure the door is locked behind you?”
Otabek throws on a set of shorts, a polo (collar down, he’s not a savage), and some socks & slides before spraying himself with axe and running out the door. When he arrives to the meeting point for the tour groups, he whips his phone out and opens up snapchat. Posing in front of the mass of high school kids, he records a video and posts it to his story with the caption, “rdy 2 walk sum childrn around!”
Pocketing his phone, he strolls in the direction of the head of the tours department, but before he can be assigned, his eyes catch on a flash of bright blonde in his periphery. Turning his attention over to it, he sets his sights on the most beautiful boy he’s ever seen. He’s a little taller than Otabek, with long blond hair braided back over his shoulder, and the most impressive scowl adorning the brightest green eyes Otabek can remember seeing in quite some time. Unfortunately, he’s standing in the science group, and that just won’t do.
“Beth!” Otabek yells to the group’s guide as he jogs over, “I need to be your secondary.”
Beth sighs as she turns to face him, “Why, Bek? You have your own group today and mine isn’t even that big.”
“I know, but, uh, there’s someone in your group that I need to follow.”
“Yeah, that’s not fucking creepy or anything.”
“Beth, babe, you know I’m not like that. There’s someone in your group that wants to rush Sigma, so I’m gonna keep an eye on them.”
Otabek hopes she doesn’t call him out on his lie, because he really doesn’t want to have to explain himself, but-
“That’s a fucking lie, Otabek. You wanna follow that blond kid. He looks like your type.”
He can’t even bring himself to look ashamed at being called out, so he just grins and admits it, “Okay, okay, you caught me. But you still owe me one from last month, so I’m cashing it in today.”
“This is a terrible idea, but fine. Don’t you dare open your mouth during the rounds. I’ll get Randy to take your group.”
Otabek spends the next hour following the pack in general, but mostly following the boy he’s fairly certain the heavens sent directly to him. They arrive back at the starting point for the tour, and just before the group splits up to go onto other activities, the boy catches him staring.
“What’s with you, asshole?!”
His voice. It’s beautiful. It’s like the bells he hears every Sunday from the campus chapel – clear and deep, lightly accented and ringing. Otabek is determined to play this cool. He just has to say something charming and hook him. Nonchalant, but interesting. Nothing stupid. Nothing cliché. He can do this.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
What the fuck.
The boy snorts in his face and stomps away to the admin building. Otabek doesn’t see him for a long time after that, but he finds himself following a suspicious pattern of dating way more blonds.
++++
Otabek is 21 when he sees him again at a fall house party. He’s just finished messing around upstairs with a girl who he honest-to-god forgot her name a little bit (Emily? Emma? Melissa? ERICA!) when he hears the voice he’s dreamt of for the past year and a half and startles.
“…without a brother!”
“Well,” a female voice says, “if you’d hurry up and get drunk, I know that Fun Yura would help me get up there.”
Yura. So he’s Russian. The thought hits Otabek in the chest, a pang in his heart that reminds him of his family. He’s from Kazakhstan, but his second language is Russian and the thought of finally being able to speak it with someone in person strikes him warm and wonderful.
He takes a few silent steps down the stairs and plasters on his most charming smile, “Fun Yura, huh?”
The blond spins around on the stairs to face him, and god, he’s even more incredible than Otabek remembers. How is that possible? He would draw some flowery fine wine metaphor, but that would be weird and super uncool. If there’s anything Otabek knows how to be, it’s cool. He swallows and offers to give the grand tour, but when the boy shoots him down he honestly can’t say he’s all that surprised.
“I think we’re good, actually.”
The venom in his voice doesn’t match his whole vibe, Otabek thinks. He’s a laid-back vision in skinny jeans, high-tops, and a henley with a leopard print pocket on the front, hair all braided up like the last time they met, and eyes rimmed with flicked out eyeliner. Actual, factual eyeliner. Otabek loves eyeliner. It looks so good. When Yura whips around to clomp angrily down the stairs, it turns out he’s got an ass like Otabek’s never seen, too. It almost takes him out. He would follow that thing to the ends of the earth should he be asked.
Nobody can blame him for speaking directly to it for a second, as far as he’s concerned.
“Oh, you’re more than good.”
Yura growls and rounds the corner, his friend cackling in his wake.
Otabek does his best to shake off his less-than-stellar performance and continue on with his night. He gets roped into his third game of beer pong and his team wins, but he can’t keep his thoughts from straying to the gorgeous boy he keeps spotting in the living room, laughing and dancing, surrounded by people.
Eventually he gives in and goes in search of JJ. The good thing about your best friend somehow knowing everything about everyone is the fact that it makes finding things out about people on the low incredibly easy. He finds him on the back porch, holding someone’s feet up over a keg, and pushes his way through the crowd. JJ spots him and drops the kid, leaving him to drown or splutter to death, who knows really, because the crowd surges forward and they get pushed aside.
“Otabro, my man!”
“Jean. I need your help.”
Otabek doesn’t often ask for help unless he’s in serious trouble or he just can’t figure his way out of something. JJ stops moving and looks him dead in the eye.
“Okay dude, well I only have, like, 30 bucks in my bank account right now, and I don’t know where I put the shovel. I think I can still get a hold of Leo tonight, he might be able to help clean up whatever it is, but I-“
“Jean! God, I didn’t-do you think I killed someone?!”
JJ has the decency to look sheepish, but his voice sounds much more relieved than rebuked, “Well what is it then, man?”
“I need you to tell me everything you know about him,” Otabek gestures over to where Yura is grinding with some guy, and yeah, he did get blown off in a major way, and Yura definitely owes him nothing, but seeing some other guy with his hands all over his hips sets something aflame behind his eyes and WOW WHAT, he needs to stomp this down before it gets bad.
“…anyway, I mean, nobody’s had much luck so far.”
Otabek snaps out of his dangerous train of thought just in time for JJ to realize he wasn’t listening at all and sigh dramatically, holding his hand out.
“Phone.”
“What?”
“Give me. Your phone. Otabek.”
Otabek hands it over and within seconds, JJ has added Yuri Plisetsky on snapchat.
“There. Find out for yourself, bro. He’s an icy one, though.”
“It’s all good, man. I run hot.”
JJ lifts an eyebrow at him, “Yikes.”
“Was that bad?”
“That was bad.”
When the party winds down for the night, Otabek decides to run his best game on Yuri through their new snap connection and is soundly rejected. Huh. It’s…kind of a new feeling for him. He’s not entirely sure just how well it sits with him.
It’s fine, he tells himself. Otabek likes a good chase.
++++
The problem with chasing a boy who doesn’t want you is the fact that you suddenly see them everywhere when they don’t seem to want to see you anywhere. This is an issue that vexes Otabek more and more as time goes on.
Running into him in front of the Bio building and having him storm away one day, and seeing him walk into the coffee shop on campus on another (he thought he was particularly smooth when he messaged Yuri to tell him how nice he looked) only to specifically ignore the direction Otabek was watching from doesn’t do much to help his ego. He does his best to send Yuri every single snap that he takes, and even if he doesn’t answer, Otabek knows he looks. Well, he opens them anyway.
So how do you get the attention of someone who pointedly does their best to not give you their attention?
“Well, that’s easy,” JJ says around a bite of tuna fish, “Make friends with his friends. If they like you, he’ll like you. It’s science.”
Otabek rolls his eyes.
“That’s not science, dude. That’s high school.”
JJ just shrugs his shoulders and takes another bite.
“Look, he’s always with that Babicheva girl, so maybe try getting friendly with her. She’ll probably pass on a good word for you.”
Okay, that kind of does make sense when he thinks about it. Girls run in packs. Guys run in packs. Yuri doesn’t seem to run in a pack, exactly, but he does have a few people that Otabek always sees him with. Mila does seem to be the head of his not-so-pack, or at the very least, they’re each other’s right hand. He adds Mila on snapchat and instagram, and as soon as he does, he gets a dm notification on instagram.
BabyBabi
(OTABEK ALTIN.)
(WHAT ARE YOUR INTENTIONS?)
(HE’S A GOOD BOY, OTABEK ALTIN.)
There are few things on this earth that truly scare Otabek. Spiders. Failure. Smelling bad. Turns out, Mila Babicheva is now number four on that list.
(u can relax, i jus think hes cute)
(i jus wanna tlk 2 him)
(HE’S NOT ONE OF YOUR EASY LAYS, ALTIN.)
(I KNOW YOU.)
(I KNOW HOW YOU ARE.)
(I CAN DESTROY YOU.)
He has absolutely no doubt about that. She’s just been promoted to number one on the list.
(well u don’t have 2 worry, cuz he wont tlk 2 me anyway)
(he keeps running away :[)
(Have you tried not being a jackass?)
Okay, rude.
(Seriously. You sent him a bunch of 4am messages that all said “wyd?”)
(WHAT ARE Y O U DOING?!)
Okay, fair.
(Look, I think you might really like him, but he’s worth more than some fuckboy frat guy bullshit. He’s my best friend and he deserves the world. If you can’t deliver that, then I deliver you to an early grave.)
(yes maam.)
He takes it to be as good of a blessing as he’ll be getting at this point.
Later that night, he sends out his regular snap to invite people out to another party at the Sigma house. Both Yuri and Mila open it and he feels hopeful.
His hopes prove out later when Mila posts a photo of the two of them getting ready for the party. He has no idea why he wasn’t following Yuri on instagram to begin with, but he corrects his mistake and then loses fifteen minutes to flicking through his feed. Every picture is artfully taken, framed just right, and lit like a pro, but they also show a side of Yuri that Otabek hasn’t been allowed to see. Photos of street cats, coffee cups and stacked books, Yuri smiling softly in front of art pieces in museums, and a particular picture of him wearing reading glasses and frowning with a turtle in his hand all paint a softer picture of him that leaves Otabek’s skin buzzing and heart melting.
At the party that night, a few brothers call him into the front room as Yuri floats through the door on Mila’s arm, looking as gorgeous and angry as ever. Otabek can’t look away. Yuri can’t seem to get out fast enough and bolts for the kitchen. Alright, then, Otabek’s gonna have a busy night.
Throughout the entirety of the party, Otabek constantly finds himself one step behind. Yuri runs out of every room Otabek enters. Every time Otabek rounds a corner, he sees the whipping tail of a blond braid tearing through the other doorway. At one point, he takes off when Otabek specifically looks at him across the crowded living room and makes to approach, and he locks himself in the bathroom. You don’t do that at a house party. Do you know how many people would fist fight you over that? SO MANY.
Eventually, though, he’s able to track Yuri down outside on the front porch. He plops down next to him, cracks into a can of Keystone Light, and tells Yuri about the day they met. Yuri is dumbstruck over it, and Otabek can’t help but feel a little bit smug. He eventually screws it up, though, when he can’t keep his big trap shut and tells Yuri just how he feels about his glorious, heavenly ass.
“Yuri Plisetsky had the eyes of a soldier.”
“Really? Me?”
Otabek can’t help but smile a little at Yuri’s surprised, shining eyes.
“And the ass of an angel.”
He has to know. Otabek’s just doing him a service, really.
“WELP. IT’S BEEN REAL.”
As Yuri grabs the handrail to stand up, Otabek reaches out and grasps his forearm.
“Go out with me.”
“In your dreams, Altin.”
“You have been.”
“OH MY GOD. MILA, WHERE ARE YOU.”
He watches Yuri take off into the night and sighs.
“Fucked it up again, huh?” JJ asks through the window, and Otabek launches his can over his shoulder, not even looking. He hears a satisfying tinny smack followed by a small ow! and feels vindicated enough.
++++
The next week, Otabek is strolling out of the daycare he volunteers at in the city when he spots a familiar head of hair bobbing along just down the street. It’s Yuri. Coming out of a ballet studio.
Otabek adjusts his snapback and gulps in a breath. He tries not to think of Yuri bending over a barre. He tries not to think of Yuri doing splits. He tries not to think of Yuri in a full spandex outfit. It doesn’t go well. Otabek wants to die. Instead, he pulls out his phone.
BabyBabi
(he does ballet)
(u didn’t tell me he does ballet)
(he does ba l l e t)
(You didn’t ask, genius.)
It’s true, but still. That’s vital information to know about the guy you’re trying to pick up. Mila’s seemed pretty encouraging, if not meddlesome, so why would she leave this out?
(He’s really very good.)
(id like to see)
(A total natural.)
(do u have video)
(can i see)
(Verrrry flexible.)
Otabek drops his phone.
As he bends down to pick it up, he hears the slap of wheels against pavement and turns his head toward the sound. Yuri is skateboarding down the sidewalk, earbuds in his ears and coffee in his hand. He looks so cool. Otabek wonders what it would be like to be next to him while he glides around town.
Instantly, Otabek knows what he has to do. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and orders a longboard off of amazon. It doesn’t have to be great, he knows he won’t be very good, but now he has a reason to learn.
He’s gonna look so cool. Yuri’s gonna be so impressed. Hopefully.
++++
A week later, Otabek’s in the middle of class when he finds out another thing about Yuri that makes him kind of want to die: Yuri’s got jokes.
He’d just sent Yuri another good picture, and felt a little giddy because he opened it up immediately. He feels even giddier when, three minutes later (not like he’s timing it or anything), Yuri sends one back. Yuri’s never replied. Sure, he’s opened every single snap he’s sent: gym, bed, run, repeat, but he’s never replied. That’s a line he never seemed ready or willing to cross.
Trying to control his shaking hands, he slides the notification to open it up.
Yuri
Look, I’m you:
A picture pops up. It’s of Yuri in a sleeveless shirt, flexing his bicep and making a kissy face into the camera. Otabek’s mouth goes dry.
Yuri
u up?
Otabek nearly falls out of his lab chair.
Me
r u makin fun of me?
Yuri
Literally all the time.
++++
Later in November, Yuri sends out a snap from the stacks in the library. There’s no caption, just the zzz emoji. Otabek turns on his heel from the direction he was walking in and speed walks through the courtyard.
“Oh, it’s cool,” JJ shouts after him, “I’ll just…go to the gym…alone.”
“I’m glad you understand,” Otabek calls back, waving as he picks up into a jog.
The minute he steps through the doors, he spots the familiar shock of blond hair, all gathered up into a messy pile on top of Yuri’s head. Straightening his shirt and gulping in a few deep breaths to even out his pulse, Otabek strides over to the table Yuri’s seated at and tosses his gym bag down between them.
Yuri closes his eyes, shielding them behind pale lids and when he reopens them to peer up through long, glistening lashes, Otabek’s world stands still for just a beat. Yuri doesn’t seem to understand how attractive he is. How much Otabek wants him. He’s the only thing that’s never come easy, and it’s almost infuriating how much Otabek desires him.
“What do you want, Altin.”
“Go out with me.”
“No.”
“Then…do me a favor?”
“If the favor is going out with you, the answer is still no.”
“I mean,” Otabek scratches the back of his head, trying to think of the best way to convey his intentions to Yuri. Instead, Yuri interrupts his train of thought.
“You can ask any way you want, the answer remains no.”
“Okay, then, let me have your number.”
“You are certainly persistent.”
He makes up some bullshit about how he just wants Yuri be his study buddy, but the answer he gets in return is something that takes him by surprise.
“Look, Otabek. I’m sure you’re a nice guy in your own way, but no. I know what you’re doing, and it’s not going to work.”
Otabek stills, a slow, creeping smile taking over his face. He can feel how wide his cheeks are stretching as he leans forward over the table.
“That’s the first time you’ve called me by my first name. I’ll get you yet, Yuri.”
He floats out of the library and makes a mental note to like as many of Yuri’s pictures on instagram as possible when he gets home later.
++++
During finals week, he runs into Yuri and Mila coming out of the campus coffee shop. He’d just wrapped up his last exam and shift at the daycare for the year, so he figured he could use a treat in the form of his favorite calorie-laden iced coffee.
As he approaches the front door, Yuri drags himself across the threshold and runs smack into his chest. He looks slightly worse for wear, but Otabek finds it hard to imagine ever being able to look at him without being struck dumb. Today he looks like he put no effort into his appearance at all, but it still looks perfect. Magazines couldn’t do this look as well as Yuri does. God, he has it bad.
They exchange pleasantries for a little while, but eventually Yuri returns to his default of insulting Otabek. If it wasn’t so adorable, it’d be annoying. He’s like one of the cats he posts so many photos of; inviting eyes, but claws at the ready.
Yuri points up at his head, “Your hat is stained.”
“Oh, yeah,” Otabek says, taking his hat off to look at it, “I volunteer at a daycare in the city, and the kids got a little carried away with their paint projects today.” He chuckles as he puts his hat back on (Yuri’s eyes follow the motion and he preens a bit under the attention), and finishes, “Those kids can be messy, but they’re really very sweet. I love spending time with them.”
Yuri flushes and stammers out some excuse before dragging Mila away.
Oh yes, he’s wearing him down for sure.
++++
Otabek resolves to rope Yuri in before winter break. They’ve been dancing around each other for months now, and Otabek doesn’t see his crush going away anytime soon. So he waits a few days.
When finals week is over, he makes his move.
He snaps a close-up of his eyes and sends it over to Yuri
Me
wyd?
Yuri sends one back of the exact same shot, and the boy is obviously sick. His face is all puffy and he just looks like he has a fever. He needs someone to take care of him. He’ll die without help. Otabek has an honor-bound duty to nurse him back to health.
He double checks Yuri’s dorm and then stretches from his bed to grab his keys and toe open his bedroom door so he can yell down the hallway, “Hey, JJ!”
“Yo!”
“I’m headed over to Howard Hall for the day.”
“Okay, man. Why?”
“No reason.”
JJ’s head pokes into Otabek’s doorway.
“You tryna woo your princess?!”
“C’mon, dude, don’t be gross.”
“YOU ARE.”
“Shut up.”
Otabek shoves past him, but JJ grabs his shoulder before he can get by.
“Dude, don’t be mad. He’s cute. You’ll look great together.”
Otabek snorts, but lets the corner of his mouth lift in a small smile.
“I know.”
He stops at the grocery store and shoots Mila an instagram message.
BabyBabi
(mila what # does yuri stay in)
(Why?)
(hes sick)
(i got him soup)
(…)
He can practically hear her sigh through the chat window.
(221. I didn’t tell you.)
Otabek smirks and heads directly to Yuri’s room.
Yuri looks terrible. Otabek wants to pull him to his chest and hum him to sleep like his mother used to do for him, but he also doesn’t want to lose an arm. Instead, he offers up his tribute of soup.
“I brought you soup. Go out with me.”
“Jesus, Altin. I’m fucking sick, let me be.”
“I was hoping your fever would soften you up.”
“Sucks to be you.”
“Eh, I’m in your bedroom, so no, I don’t think so.”
He sets the grocery bag on the desk and takes a good look at Yuri. He’s swaying slightly on his feet and looks impossibly small. It makes Otabek nervous. If this boy passes out on him, he doesn’t think he’ll be able to keep his head level. He’s not usually one to panic, but the thought alone makes him itchy.
“Please get back in bed,” Otabek begs, “You look like you’re about to pass out, and I don’t know how I’ll deal with that.”
Yuri’s face softens and he looks a bit thoughtful at the admission.
“Fine, fine,” Yuri replies and tosses himself back into bed.
“So, now that I’m going to be your nurse-“ Otabek begins, sitting on the edge of the mattress.
“Oh no you are not!” Yuri shoves weakly at his arm, but it does nothing.
“-I figure it would only be right for me to get some important details out of you,” he finishes, as if Yuri hadn’t spoken at all.
“Like what?”
“Well, let’s start with your phone number.”
“You really are a piece of work. I’m dying in bed and all you can think about is how to get my number. For what? So you can really hit it home and send me dick pics?”
The accusation actually hurts a little bit. Is this really what Yuri thinks of him? Because, okay, Otabek knows what people think about frat guys in general, and he knows he likes to joke, but he thought he’d spoken enough with him to make a better impression than that.
“I would never send anyone unsolicited dick pics.”
Yuri deflates a little bit, “Oh.”
“But by all means, you’re free to solicit.”
Old habits die hard.
“IF I GIVE YOU MY NUMBER WILL YOU LEAVE.”
“Yes. Yes, I will.”
Yuri gives him his number, and he saunters from the dorm, whistling a happy tune.
++++
Otabek is 22 when he allows himself to be embarrassed all in the name of moving things forward. He and Yuri had been texting for a little bit, and Otabek could just feel the walls breaking down from the consistent onslaught. He would feel a little guilty if it wasn’t contributing to his overall endgame. He doesn’t even want much, just the chance to take him on a date. One date. That’s it.
He’s having dinner with Leo and JJ one night when he gives them a status update.
“We’ve been texting a lot. That’s good, right?”
Leo shoves a handful of fries in his mouth, “Buh whuh kinda tekstingf?”
JJ nods in agreement, “Yeah, man. Is it like, ‘hey pal, how ‘bout that weather’ texting, or is it like, ‘hey sugarlumps, wanna make out in a closet later’ texting?”
Otabek just stares at them both.
“Soooo,” JJ starts, “the weather kind?”
Otabek remains silent.
“Definitely the weather kind,” Leo agrees, snatching Otabek’s phone up off the table.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Otabek hisses and reaches out, but he’s just a second too slow. Leo already has his phone unlocked and is scrolling through their texts.
“Damn, dude. This shit ain’t gonna get you anywhere. Jean, look at this!”
JJ leans over and peers at the screen. They both read for a couple minutes before JJ glances up at Otabek, grabs a napkin and wipes his mouth, “I’d like to remind you that this is the second time I’m saving your ass with this kid.”
He starts typing.
“Please tell me what you’re saying. I need to know what you’re saying before you hit-“ JJ hits send - “send.”
JJ shows Leo the phone, and they both grin and high five as it slides back across the table, nudging into Otabek’s limp hand. He gulps and picks it up to see what was sent:
im not busy l8r so u can cum by n sit on my face 4 a while if u want
“GUYS WHAT THE FUCK.”
Leo and JJ both burst into laughter.
Three dots of doom show up on the screen, blink out, reappear, and then finally he gets an answer:
…I don’t think this was meant for me?
“You guys, what the fuck!”
Leo wipes away tears and wheezes, “Hey man, we’re just trying to help. Play it off like you normally would.”
Otabek panics, typing multiple things before finally settling on a final option:
im so sry tht wasn’t me it was
yuri holy shit im sory tht was leo nd jj
wtf yuri im sor
ok that wasnt me but
i mean its a good offer
;)
Smooth, Altin. Play it cool and wait for an answer.
WHAT THE FUCK, ALTIN.
He feels his chances slipping into the atmosphere and drags his hand down his face.
++++
Fortunately enough, Yuri is much more forgiving when you get to know him, and this plays to Otabek’s favor when he explains the circumstances of the text later. Yuri looks unconvinced (who wouldn’t be, honestly), but he lets it go and their strange friend/courtship continues forward.
The semester progresses and Otabek finds himself falling hopelessly, irrevocably, and disgustingly in love with Yuri as a whole person. They start studying together, and find out that they’re both med science majors, Yuri on track for vet school and Otabek working on his sports therapy degree. In person, Yuri is quiet and thoughtful, generous and stupidly observant. He’s a little nerdy and awkward when he gets excited. It’s adorable and it suits him.
They start sending each other random snaps, just pictures of their day or surroundings, and Yuri occasionally sends a selfie of himself flexing with the caption ‘u up?’ Otabek screenshots every single one.
Another house party rolls around in April, and Otabek decides to stop fucking around and finally ask Yuri out. Turns out, he kinda doesn’t have to. The night of the party, he steps out of the shower, throws the smallest towel in the bathroom around his waist, and snaps a photo, captioning it ‘so fresh n so clean clean,’ because who doesn’t love Outkast, seriously. He sends it only to Yuri. Who immediately screenshots it. Otabek responds by texting him a winky face and switching over to instagram to comment on the outfit selfie he knows he’ll find on Yuri’s account.
He’s the first person to both like and comment on it:
goldenaltin19 lookn good yura
Only Yuri’s closest friends call him Yura. He’s never used the diminutive when speaking with him before. He hopes Yuri gets the point.
That night, Yuri’s dancing in the living room with Mila when Otabek finds him. The lights in the room are low, the bass is loud, and he’s never looked more like an angel. Otabek approaches from behind, sliding his arm around Yuri’s waist and slotting himself along his body.
Yuri spins around, a light blush on his cheeks.
“Good evening, Yura.”
“Otabek,” Yuri breathes out.
“You really do look good tonight, Yura.”
“Thanks, Otabek. You look…the same.”
Otabek laughs, and Yuri’s blush deepens. He wants to kiss it deeper. So he does. He leans forward, waiting for Yuri to nod his permission, and grazes his mouth across the pink flushed cheek in front of him until he reaches an ear.
“Call me Beka, please,” he whispers. If Yuri gets a nickname, then so does he. His family alone calls him Beka. It only seems fair.
Yuri nods and whispers, “Beka.”
Sparks shoot down Otabek’s spine at the sound, and he plays it back in his head a few times.
“Now, then,” Otabek continues, shaking himself out of his daze, “let’s talk about that screencap.”
“Oh my god, let’s don’t.”
“If you let me buy you dinner, I can forget it ever happened.”
It’s really not a bad deal.
“Okay. Deal.”
“Finally.”
“Aaand, if you take me somewhere good, I can forget that you asked me to sit on your face on a Tuesday afternoon.”
Otabek makes a mental note to slaughter JJ and Leo later.
++++
Otabek is 23 when he realizes he wants to marry Yuri Plisetsky. They’ve been seeing each other for three months at this point, and things are going better than he could have ever imagined. Otabek’s not the kind of guy who usually dated for very long or even considered settling down, but as it stood, Yuri had been in his orbit for so long that officially beginning a relationship almost felt secondary. He already knew how he felt long before he admitted it to himself.
It’s a random Saturday in July and they’re on their way to see some superhero movie that just came out. Nothing important is happening, they’re just chatting while Otabek drives them through the city to the parking garage. The thing is, it’s a little bit rainy outside, and Yuri is laughing because Otabek finally admitted to buying a skateboard he never did anything with to impress him.
“You mean to tell me your dumb ass saw me skate once and immediately ordered a board off of AMAZON?!”
“I meeean, I thought you might think I was cool.”
“YOU BOUGHT THAT SHIT ON AMAZON, BEKA.”
Yuri is laughing again and when Otabek looks over, the lights of the city illuminate his profile. He’s glowing in the rainbow light diffused through the water droplets on the windows, and he just looks so striking and beautiful and alive that Otabek’s breath is punched out of his lungs as he realizes exactly how much he loves him.
Later that night, Otabek calls his mother and informs her that he found the person he’ll be marrying once he graduates. She cries on the phone, drags his father on the line (who also cries), and the duo bombards him with questions: Otabek are you sure? When do we meet her? Oh? When do we meet him? Can we see him? Please send a picture. Oh, there’s so much to do! Oh, my son, I love you so much, you make your mother so happy!
Otabek hangs up the phone, emails his mother a picture of the two of them and waits, terrified.
His phone chirps in his hand.
My darling boy, he is the most beautiful creature I have ever seen. You look so happy.
You will be blessed together, I just know it.
Otabek breathes a sigh of relief.
Three days later, he buys a ring and stores it in his sock drawer for the next three years.
++++
Otabek is 27 when they buy their first house. Well, Otabek buys it. Yuri is in his final year of vet school and works at a coffee shop in town (so he has no money), but they’ll be getting married soon and Otabek just took a position with the NFL, so he’ll be traveling more and he just wants a permanent base for them to be able to come back to each other.
They discussed it after Otabek graduated and received his mother’s final blessing on proposing. The minute his mother walked into the kitchen with teary eyes and announced that she was happy to finally meet her new son, he knew it was time.
The conversation was startlingly brief, punctuated by Yuri’s usual finesse:
“I think we should buy a house.”
“Otabek, you know I have a dollar and sixty three cents in my bank account, right?”
“Well, I have fifteen grand and a soon-to-be-loaded fiancé, so I think we can make it work.”
Yuri sets his textbook to the side and eyes him up and down.
“When the hell did you save up that kind of money?”
Otabek plops down on the couch next to him and drags him into his lap.
“It was my signing bonus. Did you know the NFL gives those to literally everyone they hire? Because it turns out they do.”
Yuri looks rather impressed. He drags Otabek forward by the collar of his shirt and kisses him.
“So,” he continues, resting his forehead against Yuri’s, “where should we live?”
“I honestly don’t care.”
The answer wasn’t what Otabek was expecting, but at the same time it wasn’t a huge surprise. So while Yuri finished his studies, Otabek set about house hunting, presenting Yuri with their choices and dragging him along for viewings as he went. They narrowed it down to a top three, but for some reason, Otabek just couldn’t move on to the next step. It started to grate on Yuri’s nerves, and if he was honest, it got to him, too.
After a month of hemming and hawing, Yuri literally tells him one day that he doesn’t give a shit where they live as long as it’s filled with cats and lube, and well, there it is. He chooses a cottage just outside the city where they can live in peace and quiet when they’re not going about their hectic lives.
The day Yuri steps inside as an owner for the first time, he cries in Otabek’s arms. It’s perfect.
++++
Otabek is 32 when they adopt their daughter. He and Yuri had been married for four years, and took the time to enjoy being newlyweds. They worked hard, went on trips together, built up some savings, and just generally reveled in each other.
When they finally decided that they might like to have a kid or two, Otabek’s family was overjoyed. His mother couldn’t wait to have a grandchild from her firstborn son, and so the buzzing of the nest was loud and furious.
One afternoon, Otabek’s sister called him and asked to speak to Yuri. It was a little unusual. They spoke all the time over skype and the like, but she sounded a little watery as he agreed to pass off the phone. Yuri quirked a brow in question, but took it anyway, and as he listened to her lilting speech over the line, his face shifted, moving from surprise to awe to tears.
Eleven months later, Aisulu gave birth to a beautiful baby girl with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. They had decided to use Yuri’s sperm, since an Altin would already be carrying her for them. A little bit of both bloodlines wrapped up in a tiny, heart-stealing package.
As their daughter grows, so does the business of their lives. Because of his job, Otabek very often finds himself out of town for days at a time, missing his little family. Yuri develops the habit of sending a picture at the end of every day just to say goodnight.
This particular evening, Otabek is in Buffalo for a conference, feeling particularly homesick. He’d been away for thirteen days and even though he only had one night left, the hours seemed to drag on endlessly before him.
He gets back to his hotel pretty late, ready to take a shower and launch himself into his bed. As soon as he walks in the door, his phone goes off in his pocket.
It’s a picture of Yuri with Evgenia sitting in his lap, both smiling up at the camera.
Otabek watches as the next message pops up on his phone and smiles.
Yura ❤
u up?