A funny word called Love

Chapter 2

Yuuri's voice rang in the back of his head, asking once again, "What is he to you anyways?" What was Yuuri and all the others even trying to insinuate. What was going on here. Otabek was a friend. Were the others trying to say that they thought that Otabek was more than a friend to Yuri? I mean, he was, but not in that way. There weren't any romantic feelings at all. He didn't want to go on a date with him or kiss him or anything, he just wanted to talk into the night with him and be close to him and have deep conversations and be best friends.

Once Yuri got to his room a million questions spiraled to his head. Did he love Otabek? No. At least, not in the way that Yuuri loved Viktor and Viktor loved Yuuri. But they all seemed to think that he did for some reason. What even was love to him? What a funny word that love was, anyways.

Yuri's mind immediately flashed back to the waterfall, and realizing what his Agape was. It was his Grandfather, unconditionally loving him and continuously supporting him in his skating career. But was there any other type of love to him?

He never had really had time to dwell on love. That wasn't something he had time for. His life was skating, and I suppose you could argue that he loved skating, but outside of skating he didn't have time. Sure, he kept up his studies, but there wasn't time for things such as love. There was time for skating practice and more practice to become better and stronger so that he could one day be the best. But love? That seemed like a ridiculous thing to spend time contemplating.

Yet here he was, contemplating love, all thanks to his rink-mates interrogating him about having a friend. And sure, he wanted to be close to Otabek, but did he love him? Did he have a crush on him? He needed to figure this out. He didn't think he had a crush on Otabek, and he certainly had never had once before, so he had no way to actually tell if he had a crush on Otabek. Suddenly an idea popped into his head. A terrible idea, but he needed to figure this out god damnit.

'God this is going to be embarrassing' Yuri thought before pulling out his phone and scrolling through his contacts until finding the one entitled Yuuri, and typing in "How do you know if you have a crush." Yuri's fingers lingered over the send button for a few minutes, his mind asking himself repeatedly if he was actually going to send this. But he couldn't rest until he figured this out. It would beat away at him and distract him from practice. If there was one thing that Yuri couldn't stand, it was the feeling of not knowing.

He waited a few minutes, going to Neko Atsume and feeding his cats, until his phone buzzed in his hands. Yuuri had replied, saying, "It's a warm, soft, fuzzy feeling when you're around that person. I mean it's kinda hard to describe but I'll try my best. You might get nervous or flustered easily around that person, you might blush a lot, you might get butterflies in your stomach. You might just really want to date them or kiss them. You might just want to be close to them, though that could also be completely platonic. Wait, what is this about. Is this about Otabek???"

Yuri read through it once, and read through it again, and then again. Yup, he definitely didn't have a crush on Otabek. That's not what it was. I mean he did get nervous, but that was more due to the anxiety that came with having a friend. And he did just want to be close with Otabek, but in a 'I just want to be friends with you forever and never leave your side.'

Suddenly Yuri got another text from Yuuri, reading "Sorry, Viktor was reading over my shoulder and is about to take my phone. Good luck."

Oh shit.