Who's the short one now?

The last person expected

  "Yuri?" the man asked as he lifted his sunglasses. 

"OTABEK?!" he nearly screamed.

Yuri wasn't sure whether he was about to fall over in surprise, or lose his cool and run over to hug the man he hasn't seen in over a year.

He ended up doing the latter, losing his shit and nearly plowed him over while knocking the wind out of both of them. He then realized that he looked like an idiot who almost suffocated a random guy and was smiling stupidly about it. Quickly letting go and trying to fix the other's jacket he managed to crumple, he took a deep breath to calm down

Otabek had about .2 seconds to brace himself from the oncoming Yuri. "That's Yuri, right?" He thought to himself, almost second guessing because of the male's body size. Somehow he managed to keep his balance while being tackled by the surprisingly tall Yuri, "is this seriously him? What the hell happened?" He was nearly frozen in place, still trying to process what is happening.

"Uh, sorry about that" Yuri cleared his throat and scratched the back of his head, pulling his ponytail to the side and faking a light laugh "it's been a while" he shrugged and felt his face heat up, trying to brush off one of the most embarrassing thing he's ever done in front of someone "so, uh, what's up?"

"I, um, well," he stuttered a few times before taking a breath to get back to his usual calm demeanor, folding his sunglasses and tucking them over his shirt collar. Normally he could keep himself together, but he ended up staring for a little too long since he was still amazed on how tall and attractive the other got, not knowing he was red from ear to ear. "I'm fine, yeah. Just fine" he said trying to get his cool back, "you?"

Yuri smiled for some reason as he started to tell Otabek what he's done recently "I went to skate all over the place, from here to all over Russia, then throughout Europe, to -" He stopped talking as he realized something was off about the other, able to tell he was somehow flustered still under his appearing calmness, "Otabek? You ok there?" He tilted his head to the side.

Still looking slightly puzzled, Otabek, for some reason, couldn't clear his mind. "Seriously, how the hell did he turn from, well, /Yuri/ into Mr. Russia?" He said to himself, or so he thought. His eyes widened as it clicked that he actually said it out loud, his face going bright red again.

"What about me and Russia?" Yuri raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "Are you going fucking crazy talking to yourself now?" He chuckled and smirked, trying to figure out what he was saying.

Otabek tried to pull the first thing from his mind that he could think of, "I asked what you were doing back in Russia." He sighed internally in relief, hoping he bought it, "Saw you walking, need a ride?" He asked while gesturing behind himself at the bike, "I got an extra helmet"

Yuri groaned, remembering why he was walking in the first place "I forgot my wallet in a suitcase at my new apartment," he gave a half smile, "bring me there?" He hoped it would be no issue since it was going to be a while if he tried walking again.

"Sure," Otabek shrugged and turned to grab the extra helmet, handing it to Yuri. He flung his leg over the seat of his motorcycle and slid his own helmet on, gesturing behind himself. "Get on," he said as he saw the other hesitate before mirroring his moves, quickly pulling up the directions to the apartment. "Hold on," he said as he revved his engine, glad his helmet hid his face as Yuri grasped tightly around his chest when they set off

Luckily the place was only about 20 minutes away on bike, rather than walking by himself over an hour. They slowed down to a stop in front of a complex that Yuri pointed to, "right here, second floor is where I'm at" he said as he slid off the seat, taking off the helmet and handing it to Otabek.

He was about to leave as he heard Yuri yell, "We never finished talking," he pointed back to him while he walked to the door. "You, me, tonight, we're hanging out." He didn't ask or suggest, more like didn't give a choice. "I'm taking you to the best bar in this area since I'm finally old enough. Don't dress like a douche and meet me back here at 9." He lifted his hand to stop him, but before he could, Yuri was through the door and out of sight.

"Shit. What am I gonna do?" He grit his teeth as he sped off, gripping the handles tightly

~(THIS TAKES ME SO LONG TO WRITE SINCE I PROCRASTINATE SO MUCH. PLEASE ENJOY MY PAIN)

[Published Aug 2017]