bite - otayuri

4

4

"Let's go for a walk down Easy Street

Where you can be reborn

And kiss me on the mouth and set me free

But please, don't bite"

-"Bite" by Troye Sivan

Yuri is awake before Otabek. Such a thing isn't really surprising. After all, despite acting feisty Otabek can tell that Yuri fears him... Yuri is no longer close to him, no longer warming him up. Instead, he keeps a good two feet of distance between him. Otabek can't help but find Yuri's fear of him strange. Yuri hadn't seemed that scared of him last night... Then again, last night he felt too tired from his near death experience to do much of anything.

"What are you cooking?" Otabek asks him, as he watches Yuri cook a small piece of meat on the fire. The fairy, who hadn't been aware that Otabek was awake startles, and throws Otabek an icy glare.

"I'm cooking lunch. And before you ask, yes you heard me right, lunch. Do humans always sleep so much?" Now that he is aware that Otabek is awake, he shifts his sitting position so he can watch the meat and Otabek at the same time.

"No. Humans only sleep a lot if they're sick or tired," Otabek responds in the softest voice he can manage. Although part of Otabek screams at him to leave, to either go home or return to the ice he stays. He stays because an even bigger part of him tells him that he should stay. He should stay to get to know that fairy that saved him... The fairy that acts tough, but has a look of loneliness in his eyes.

"Are you feeling better now?" Yuri asks, his gaze now primarily focused on Otabek. Yuri studies Otabek with wide, observant eyes... Eyes that seem to be looking for even the smallest of injuries. "Do you feel cold anywhere? I think I got all of the cold out yesterday, but there is a chance that I missed some."

Otabek had been so focused on Yuri, the lonely, beautiful fairy that he hadn't checked... He hadn't check to see if he felt cold or sore anywhere... He hadn't check to see if he could still wiggle his toes and clench his hands into fists.

Otabek starts with his feet first. After all, since he is a skater, it is his feet that matter the most. Otabek wiggles his toes and even wiggles his feet a little within his skates. His skates... He slept in skates? There's no way that's good for his feet. With his little checks and small movements forgotten, Otabek reaches for his laces. He grabs hold of his laces to untie them...

He fumbles. He fumbles when attempting to untie his laces... Untying and tying laces is something he has likely done a million times in his life, yet he can't do it. His fingers are unable to perform such precise movements. In fact, his fingers don't see capable doing much of anything.

"My fingers..." Otabek whispers, just as he notices something. Compares to the rest of his body, compared to even his toes, his hands feel the coldest. Each of his fingers feels like ice, and the palms of his hands feels as cold as snow. "My hands... They're cold. I can't..."

"Take off your gloves," Yuri orders, with his meat now forgotten. At his command, Otabek gives Yuri a tired look. If he can't tie his laces, how the hell is he supposed to take off his gloves? "Shit, you can't do that either, can you?" Uttering some strange, curse like words under his breath, Yuri hurries over to Otabek.

"Is it going to hurt, taking my gloves off?" Otabek asks Yuri, as he takes Otabek's left glove off at a snail's pace.

"I have no idea," Yuri admits, "but it doesn't hurt to play it safe by taking them off slowly." After a brief pause, Yuri adds, "You might not want to look at your hands when your gloves are off. They might look discolored or swollen or... Or I don't know, just generally gross? I have no idea what they're going to look like. I don't have much experience with stuff like this."

"Even though that's not reassuring, I appreciate your honesty," Otabek replies, before turning his head to the side so he won't have to see his now exposed left hand.

"Oh my god," Yuri exclaims, "your hand... How are you not screaming right now? It looks so painful." Otabek's hand looks so discolored and swollen that Yuri is afraid to even look at it, much less touch it... Much less try to heal him. Even though Yuri would love to say, "sorry, there's nothing more I can do for you," he doesn't. He had decided to defy nature by helping the human, and it seems nature has decided to defy him. Stuck in the middle of these acts of retaliation is the poor human.

Yuri, even though he isn't sure if he can heal such horrendous damage, must try. He must try because he must make up for practically inflicted the pain himself. He must try because no one deserves to suffer so.

"In all honesty, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to heal your hands, especially if your right hand is in the same sort of condition that your left hand is," Yuri admits. "But I'm going to try my best. You are going to need to try your best as well. No matter what happens, don't look. No matter what happens, don't move."

"O-Okay," Otabek stammers, just now understanding the serious of the whole situation. "I won't. That is, I won't as long as your promise not to overexert yourself just to heal my hands."

"I promise, as long as you promise not to use your healed hands against me," is Yurio's quick response.

"I would never even think of it."