Chapter Text
Yuri closed his eyes and the ringing of the music echoed through the dance studio. He took a deep breath and slowly began to move and gyrate his body, letting the song determine his next move. The hard guitars told him to run his own hands down his torso, rest them on his hips, sensually grind and pop his hip. He twirled and grabbed hold of the pole he stood next to with both hands. He pulled himself up off the floor, feeling the muscles in his core tighten. This was still new but he tried his best to concentrate on the song and not the screaming tension of his abs.
And she, she licked me
Like a lollipop
Like a lollipop
Shorty wanna thug
Bottles in the club
The speakers blared as Yuri wrapped one leg around the pole and swung. Fuck these lyrics are terrible he thought to himself. He couldn’t help but wonder what Otabek would say about this garbage. He knew his shit; he would have picked a much better song for Yuri to dance to. Yuri felt his cheeks warm up and it wasn’t due to the exertion from dancing. Dammit, he had to keep going but once on the topic of Otabek, Yuri’s heart rarely obeyed the demands of logic.
It had been a year since Yuri had haphazardly thrown together his exhibition skate. A year since his best friend had trained with him every day. A year since he got too comfortable with having that boy near him. It had been a year since they had met in Barcelona. Since Otabek had quite literally swept him away on his motorcycle. And even more since they had ballet class together as younger skaters. So much time had passed and Yuri still looked back on these moments with a pang of longing pulling at his heart strings.
Who the fuck had crushes on their best friend like this? Weak, cliché people, that’s who. And Yuri didn’t associate himself with those types. Yuri could never let this get out. Otabek could never know. This was yuri’s own little secret and that was okay by him as long as he could stare off and daydream about his dangerous dark eyes in his own spare time.
In your spare time, трахать голову! Not while you’re training. Yuri scolded himself. But what about Grandpa?
His own breath got caught in his lungs as a lump grew in his throat at the thought of losing the only person he really had. Any thoughts of his best friend were often followed by the terrifying reality that his feelings could ruin everything. Yuri definitely could not let anybody know about this.
Yuri was brought out of his own distracted thoughts by a burning pain on the skin of his calf and the snapping command from the dance teacher in front of him. The music cut out. His teacher’s long black hair was whipping around her shoulders as she scolded Yuri’s lack of concentration tonight.
“What’s up with you huh, blondie?” she questioned. “Your leg slipped right off the pole, you usually get this move, no trouble.”
“Sorry Kristy I uh. Maybe it’s the song, it’s not working for me I don’t know, maybe it’s just not my night?” Yuri gently lowered himself down from the metal pole he had been dancing with until both of his bare feet were firmly planted on the studios floorboards. He frowned. It was his own idea to learn new ways to move his body for some upcoming routines, why was he slacking now?
“Alright, alright. Just go through it with me one more time tonight. If you don’t fuck it up I’ll let you go, it’s getting cold and late anyway.” She rolled her eyes but she clearly understood more than she was articulating in that moment. She was somewhat taken aback by the fact that Yuri had actually apologised instead of bitching her out like he would normally do.
Thankfully, Yuri found himself able to get through his routine successfully just once more before he was allowed to stop. Yuri walked over to his leopard print gym bag leaning up against the wall, pulling out both his phone and water bottle. He took a swig from the bottle with one hand, wiping the perspiration from his forehead. He gazed at his phone as he held it in his other hand.
He noted that it was already 10:30pm and he had two missed calls from Grandpa. There was also a text from Otabek.
He knew that Grandpa would be worried. He wasn’t aware of the new dance classes Yuri was taking. He didn’t need to know. He wouldn’t approve. He barely approved of ballet after Yuri turned 13 years old.
“Too feminine for a man like you now, Yurochka” he would grumble. Yuri wasn’t exactly sure how the hell dancing on ice in glittery outfits was any different, but apparently it was. He ignored the missed calls, he needed time to think up an excuse. He’d just feed it too him when he arrived home soon.
Instead he slid open the text from Otabek. He smiled down at his phone as the contact name “Beka” followed by a bear emoji lit up the touch screen. The text read:
Skype me tonight before you sleep? Wanna run my set by you before my gig tomorrow.
Yuri felt the blood rush back to his cheeks and he looked around him to see if Kristy was close enough to notice. Hopefully The fact that he was just dancing could cover up his blush. He couldn’t help but smile as he replied to his best friend. He loved that Otabek held him in such a high regard that he played him parts of his sets before anybody else would get to hear them. It made Yuri’s heart flutter, but he would never admit that.
“Hey, blondie” Kristy’s raspy voice interrupted his train of thought as she strode up to him. She shoved a USB stick towards him. “I picked the song for you because I knew you wouldn’t appreciate a pop song. You pick your music for skating, so pick your music for this too. Just make sure it somewhat oozes sex. Got it?” she raised her eyebrow. He smirked and nodded, knowing that she was giving him a challenge.
“Got it.” He replied simply.
***
“Yurochka!” Grandpa’s voice rumbled the second Yuri stepped through the front door of their home in Saint Petersburg. Yuri groaned inwardly and began to head to his room. He loved his Grandpa more than anything but more recently he had found them butting heads far too often. He turned down the hallway, dumping his bag just inside his bedroom door.
“Yurachka, I am talking to you” Grandpa raised his voice louder as if Yuri couldn’t hear him already. “Where have you been?” He boomed. Yuri turned back down the hall to face him.
“Grandpa, I was just at the rink, chill. I just needed to clear my head” He rolled his eyes and stuck his hands in the pockets of his oversized hoodie. Unfortunately, that drew attention to Yuri’s booty shorts he wore for dancing and the large amount of his exposed skin.
“What are you wearing? Yurochka what are you doing showing your bare legs? Go. Get changed now.” Grandpa huffed and ushered Yuri into his bedroom, slamming the door as he walked away. “We can’t have the media seeing you like this Yurochka!” He was flustered.
“Ugh shut up, old man” Yuri flopped onto the mound of blankets on top of his bed, looking up at his bedroom roof. A large poster of a tiger stared back down at him. He sighed, remembering how much he struggled to reach to actually stick it up there. He had been jumping and climbing all over his bed to try and reach higher heights. It was Otabek that came to his rescue over skype that morning and told him to get a damn ladder.
He lay there, limp on his bed, reminiscing. He knew he should shower and change but at this point he wanted to rock his booty shorts til morning just for the sake of being oppositional.
Yuri sat up, removed his hoodie, revealing his bare chest and flopped back down onto his stomach, kicking his combat boots off onto the floor in the process. Grandpa had the heater on at a thousand degrees at all times, it was too hot to stay in any thick layers in this house. He reached for the laptop that was sitting at the end of his bed and opened it, double clicking on the skype app.
Otabek was online.
Two seconds later, the Skype dial tone sounded. Yuri’s heart jumped. If there was a physical representation of an exclamation point, his heart was it in that moment. His hand shook and he quickly clicked to answer.
“Yura, hi” Otabek’s deep voice spoke softly, affectionately through his laptop’s speakers. Yuri could see that he was in bed, wearing a grey hoodie and a soft smirk on his face. “I’m not worth enough effort to put clothes on for?” He questioned, gesturing towards Yuri’s naked chest.
“Pft. I just got home from practice, I’m hot and no, you’re not that important. Don’t flatter yourself, Beka” Yuri laughed softly, fighting off the red flushed tone to his skin that he knew was crawling up his neck.
“So. You really are naked right now?” Otabek questioned.
“No…” Yuri huffed. He shuffled his body and knelt on the bed on his knees. “I got these little booty shorts, they’re kinda cute, huh?” Yuri wiggled his hips to show his best friend. “Grandpa fucking lost it” He explained, laughing. He liked pissing people off.
“I can see why” Otabek raised an eyebrow. “You wore that on the ice, Yura?”
“Well…no.” Shit. “I was at dance practice” he skirted around the truth but he knew he was about to spill.
“You wore nothing but booty shorts to ballet? Lilia would have kicked your ass and –“
“I was at pole, actually” Yuri was definitely blushing now as he slumped back onto his stomach. “I’ve started pole dancing.” He explained but looked away. He didn’t want to see the look on Otabek’s face. Disappointing him was not something Yuri was ready for.
“Pole dancing?” Otabek questioned. “Why?” He asked. He didn’t sound disappointed. Or mad. So Yuri looked at the screen of his laptop, analysing his best friend’s face. He generally wasn’t one to express too much emotion but Yuri could usually guess what was happening in that beautiful brain of his. It looked to be that Otabek was curious.
With his face growing hotter and hotter, Yuri reached up to the ponytail on top of his head that he had forgotten he had tied. He yanked the hair tie out, allowing a blonde wave of strands to tumble over his shoulders and face. This would hide any of the red that came through Otabek’s computer screen, surely.
“I uh” Yuri cleared his throat. “I want to put some new movements into my routines you know” he shrugged. “I wanna show up that fucking Katsudon and show him what eros really looks like. Adding some sex to the ice. With class, not like fucking Chris.”
“Yura.” Otabek started, and then stopped to think it through. “Yura, you’re a virgin how are you goin’ t –“
“Look I didn’t say it was foolproof, okay?” Yuri snapped. “Besides, Welcome to the Madness was kinda sexy, right? I came up with that on my own. You gave me the music but it was hot, right?” He had to look away. He felt stupid, remembering the way he had dragged Otabek onto the ice last minute once he had seen Victor in Yuuri’s exhibition. He couldn’t help that he was competitive. Katsudon wouldn’t know sex appeal if it slapped him in his chubby face.
“Will you…show me?” Yuri couldn’t be certain but he was almost convinced that Otabek’s voice lowered about two octaves. Yuri’s head snapped up to the screen, staring his best friend in the eye – confused.
“You want to see me dance?” Yuri’s own voice raised an octave, embarrassingly enough but he ignored it.
“Yeah, you got practice tomorrow? Film it?”
“O-okay” Yuri stuttered, unconsciously biting his lip. “Sure.” He agreed. “So, anyway can I hear your set or what, Beka?” he asked, changing the subject.
Otabek’s eyes sparkled as he sat up, getting ready to delve into his music.
Fuck, he is so beautiful. Yuri thought to himself as he listened to his best friend speak with such animated passion.
***
They spoke online for hours. Otabek shared his set while also giving Yuri a list of new music to listen to. He loved listening to music his best friend recommended, it felt like pieces of Otabek were right there with him when he put his headphones on. Not to mention that Otabek completely understood what Yuri liked. Yuri always seemed to forget about the three hour time difference between Saint Petersburg and Almaty when they spoke like this though. He felt his heart sink just slightly when he looked up at the time in the right hand corner of his screen.
“Fuck, Otabek I’m sorry” Yuri cringed. “It’s like three in the fucking morning for you, what are you still doing talking to me?” He asked, not really wanting his best friend to leave. “You need to be up again in like two hours, right?”
“Mm.” Otabek replied. He was never much for words but Yuri knew that this meant he did. “I was thinking about pulling an all nighter, actually. It’s off season anyway.” Otabek shrugged.
“Beka, get your ass to sleep you’re working tomorrow night, remember?”
“Ha. But you’re way more fun” Otabek smirked and paused. “And those booty shorts are pretty cute…” He trailed off. He’d caught himself staring on various occasions when Yuri had gotten up to get something. The kid could never sit still but the tight, elasticated material seemed to hug his bony hips just the right amount.
“Pft Beka, quit it. Now I know you’re exhausted” Yuri rolled his eyes, refusing to read anything into what his friend had just said. “Go the fuck to sleep, I’m gonna take a shower.” He added. He noticed Otabek shift awkwardly in his own bed, causing the camera to shake and blur for a second but then he nodded.
“Okay. Sweet dreams, Yura” He whispered and gave a gentle half smile. There was something in Otabek’s eyes that Yuri couldn’t quite read through the screen and his friend’s dark room.
“Goodnight Beka.” He replied simply before signing out and closing the screen of his computer.