Yuri!!! On Ice Book 2

Chapter 16

October 23rd, 2018

Yuri's POV- 3rd Person Omniscient

Yuri sits in the taxi, his head pressing against the cold glass, rain pattering against it. Today can only be described as grey, the cloudy skies letting barely any sunlight through and shadowing the earth with dim, depressing, spectral rays. Normally, Yuri likes rainy days, but this one just feels... grim, as if it knows the subject of its occupation and adjusted the weather accordingly. As Yuri's blonde hair is dampened by the moisture seeping through into the cab, one of the raindrops slides down the glass against which his forehead rests. It gathers in force and slips across the surface, culminating just at Yuri's chin, so, from the outside, it leaves tear tracks running down his face, giving the illusion that he's crying. Which, in reality, is not very far off.

Today has been a fairly bad one, though, in the grand scheme of things, Yuri acknowledges that it could have been much worse. After all, Earth wasn't paved over to build an intergalactic superhighway. To the general population, it might have been a bit dreary, what with the relentless rain and muck, but, really, it had just been bad to him- well, him and Otabek that is. 

He watches the frozen landscape slide by out the window, the atmosphere bleak in the cold, snowy slush. Though it's only late October, Russia's already experienced a deluge of snow, freezing and unfreezing haphazardly, leaving muddy, sludge everywhere not paved over. 

The taxi reaches the airport quickly and Yuri departs, making his way through the winding hallways in the practiced fashion only years of coming and going can perfect. The lines are short and soon the gate is in sight; 53A for flight 252 to British Colombia, Canada. Sitting down in one of the open seats, Yuri takes out his phone, trying to immerse himself in Instagram- a strategy almost entirely effective. As he scrolls through his feed he's quickly lost in the contents. Laughing at a cat meme, he looks up, holding out his phone to Otabek to see it too. Except Otabek's not there, and, smile fading quickly, Yuri directs his attention back to the app, slightly perturbed by how used to the man's presence he is and how lonely he feels without it. 

It's odd for him to be so stuck on traveling alone- he used to do it all the time (well, when Yakov would let him anyway), but now he's adjusted to going places with his boyfriend, and he doesn't like how reliant upon it he's become. It's no way to be, he chides himself mentally- it's not healthy nor practical to care so much about another person's whereabouts in relation to his own, but he can't help it; here he is. For now, he guesses, he'll have to be content with Skyping, and resolutely turns his brain off until it's time to board the flight.

October 26th, 2018- Two Days Later-

"I kicked JJ's ass!" Yuri's excited voice comes through the computer, triumphant and filtering down from behind the large gold medal currently suspended over the frame. Otabek laughs,

"I had no doubt you would, but you don't have to be so mean about it- he did just fail, yet again, to make good on his marriage with Isabella." Yuri scoffs,

"The pig failed multiple times to do that, plus got treated like shit for months, I have no sympathy for anything less than that." Otabek rolls his eyes,

"Well, maybe you don't, but you forget I trained with him in Canada, and that it's because of him I can land the quad Salchow." Yuri blows this off too,

"Fine, whatever- but don't attribute that to him, you would've gotten it anyway." Privately, Otabek disagrees- he'd been a mess before JJ's help- but keeps it to himself, not wanting to stomp Yuri's victory.

"Well, either way," Otabek says, bringing the conversation around in a different direction, "You deserved the gold, your skating was really impressive- especially the Free Program, you were within a point of Yuuri's record," Yuri nods, though slightly bitterly,

"I could've broken it," He mutters under his breath, but instead asks, "What time does your flight leave tomorrow?" As if he doesn't already know, but still hopes the answer will change.

"Six." Otabek replies and Yuri's eyes light up,

"PM?" He questions eagerly, "I get in at four- I'll be able to see you before you go!" Otabek bites his lip, really not wanting to give the answer he has to.

"AM." He says, "Believe me, I tried to make it later but it was the last one going out in three days, I'd have missed the Cup of China if I'd waited," Yuri visibly deflates, damn it, 

"Oh well," He says, nonchalant in actions and tone but they both know he's disappointed, "The Cup's more important," Otabek doesn't respond to that, the rational part of him knowing full well that it is more important but the side of him that watches Yuri through the screen is tempted to disagree and skip the whole damn thing altogether. 

A bang on the door interrupts them both from their musings and Yuri swears, glancing at the time on his laptop before screaming over his shoulder, "I'll be down in a minute Yakov- hold on!" There's a gruff reply and Yuri turns back to the screen guiltily, looking torn.

"Go," Otabek smiles, "Have fun at the banquet,"

"How can I?" Yuri groans, "There's no one there! I'll be stuck with Yakov and Lilia the whole night- that is unless Chris gets drunk again and challenges me to another dance battle,"

"At least it'll be interesting," Otabek replies, lips quirking at Yuri's horrified yelp, "Kidding, kidding," He says quickly, raising his hands in surrender, "Believe me, I feel your pain,"

"Can I bring you with me?" Yuri moans comically at the screen, wincing slightly as another loud spurt of knocking sounds from behind him. "I've got to go," He looks miserable,

"Bye," Otabek calls through the screen, "Have fun!"

"Sadist," Yuri mutters under his breath before closing off the call. Otabek laughs at this, gazing at the black screen and vehemently wishing he was with him- even if it did entail going to that stupid gala.

**Author's Note!** 

This isn't too important but just clears up a few things with my update schedule so you can read it if you want to or you can just skip it- it's not like it'll change anything lol. 

So I realized that I've never really normalized my update schedule for you guys (I say to the literal two of you reading this lol). From this point forward, my updates, with both this story and my others if you follow them, will come on weekends, either Saturday or Sunday (she says while posting on Friday), though most likely the latter. Apart from that, with any deviation on my part, please try to understand that I'm human (and busy!) and I make mistakes, mainly consisting of not updating on time. (What was the gap between chapters 13 and 14- a month?) And, though this isn't something you hear from most authors, feel free to pester me into updating more quickly- if I'm late please let me know, because, while life gets in the way, it does help to know people are actually waiting for new content and I'm not just doing this for nothing. Though rest assured, I won't, under any circumstances, give up on this story, it'll be finished one way or another, regardless of readers. I believe that's it, so thanks for reading this *uber-long* A/N and I'll see you next time!