A funny word called Love

Chapter 10

Otabek was in fact, going to come the next week. That Sunday in fact. And Yuri had to get out of practice. Sure, Yakov wasn't going to be happy about it, but it was the off season, so he wouldn't be too mad.

"Hey, can I have next week off?" Yuri asked.

"Why?" Yakov inquired.

"None of your business."

"If you want next week off, then I would advise that you don't take that tone with me and that you tell me why you need next week off."

"Okay, fine. Otabek is coming over for the week so I'd like to have the week off so that I can spend time with him. Is that okay?" Yuri said, looking up at the coach both hopefully and expectantly.

"Ugh, I suppose, but only if you agree to work twice as hard the next week. And yes, that does mean that you have to get up at 5 am every day to run instead of twice a week. Don't look at me like that, you're the one getting an entire week off!" Yakov said grumpily, though he was actually quite happy that Yuri was going to be spending time with his friend, something that had never happened before.

"Thank you so much!" Yuri said to Yakov, then, unexpectedly pulling the coach into a hug. Physical contact was an extremely rare thing for Yuri to initiate, and most of the time if you touched Yuri, you could expect to be met with a fist in your face, but Yuri was so happy that he was going to have an entire week to spend with Otabek that he actually hugged his coach.

Popping Yuri's happy bubble, Viktor, who had overheard the entire conversation, said, "Oh Yuri! You're hanging out with your friend?"

"Yeah, so what." Yuri snapped.

"Eh, nothing..." Viktor trailed off, using a voice that seemed to suggest that he thought that Yuri and Otabek were more than just friends, or that Viktor wanted them to be more than just friends.

'Why can't that idiot just understand that we're just friends, and that's just as meaningful as being in a relationship. Not everybody wants to be like Viktor and Yuuri!' Yuri's mind screamed, wanting to actually tell that to Viktor but feeling like that wouldn't end in the best way possible.

That week went dreadfully slow. He just wanted Sunday to come so that he could see Otabek. Yuri was extremely distracted during practice, and though not doing that poorly, he could tell that Yakov was shaking his head whenever he watched Yuri skate. However, Yakov knew that Yuri was just too distracted to perform well, and that he would be back to his normal determined and competitive mindset after Yuri and Otabek had hung out.

On Friday, as everyone was leaving for the week, Yuuri went up to him and said, "Have fun with Otabek, I hope everything goes well!"

And then Viktor said, "Let me know if anything happens."

"Go away idiots!" Yuri shouted. Again Viktor was implying that Yuri and Otabek were going to date. But that wasn't the case, at least on his part he didn't like Otabek that way. If Otabek liked him that way, though Yuri didn't think that that was possible, he didn't know what he would do. But, another problem for another day.

Yuri returned home to clean up all of the mess, incredibly excited to be able to spend an entire week with Otabek.