A funny word called Love

Chapter 36

The next day came all too quickly, the world not giving Yuri time to think through everything, or to even begin to process his grief. Nope, no time to do that. Instead he would have to compete in the stupid Grand Prix Final. And right now, Yuri didn't exactly feel like performing. Or being in public at all really. All Yuri wanted was to curl up in his bed and cry for a few hours, and then head over to Moscow to see if everything was true. But nope, he had to fucking compete. Something that Yuri was sure wouldn't end well.

"Why do you look so tired? Did you sleep at all?" Yakov asked harshly.

"I slept fine," Yuri lied. Every time he began to drift off to sleep, he had nightmares about his grandfather's death and after a while, he had simply given up on getting any sleep.

Otabek, who was nearby, went over to Yakov. He figured that Yuri was never going to tell his coach what was going on, and if Yuri didn't tell Yakov, Yakov would be really harsh on Yuri because Yuri definitely wasn't going to be his regular self. "Hey, Yakov, can I talk to you for a moment?"

Yakov followed Otabek down to an area without any people and said, "What."

"Don't be too harsh on Yuri today. I doubt he slept a wink last night. He just found out that his grandfather died yesterday," Otabek said, then began to walk away.

"Thank you," Yakov replied, thinking that Otabek and Yuri must've been closer than he thought. Otabek, from what he had observed, hardly spoke to anybody, and normally when something bad happened, Yuri would close in on himself and wouldn't let anybody help him. And Otabek cared enough to warn him to be less harsh with Yuri, which was a much needed warning, for he rarely let his students have any slack.

Yakov returned upstairs to find a scowling Yuri, and quietly said, "I'm sorry about your grandfather, Yuri."

Yuri shot him a questioning look, then realized that he had just gone off with Otabek a few minutes ago, and Yuri realized that Otabek must've told Yakov, probably to prevent Yakov from being angry at Yuri for being so distracted. Yuri made a mental note to thank Otabek later and then turned to Yakov and said, "Thanks, it's fine though."

"Make sure that it doesn't distract you today, though. I know that it's easier said than done but you won't be at your best if this is all you can think of during a performance about peace and tranquility," Yakov reminded.

'Of course I would get a lecture immediately after that moment of kindness. I guess this is Yakov after all,' Yuri thought and then said, "It won't distract me."

Yakov, obviously not believing Yuri, said, "Okay, let me know if you need anything else."

"I'm fine," Yuri snapped. He really didn't want to talk about was going on. It was hard enough to talk about it with Otabek last night, and that was with Otabek, the one person that Yuri was actually comfortable talking openly with. So having another person knowing what was going on just wasn't going to be good and would just make him him more uncomfortable. What would be best, really, was if Yuri could just shut his mind off for the next 24 hours so he couldn't think about it during his skating and manage to screw everything up.