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Mila was getting on his nerves…well that wasn’t news, but she was really pushing it this time.
“Aww! Our little Yurachka is in love! How cute! <3”
His eye twitched at the text, he could practically hear her high pitched giggling.
“Shut up hag! You don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Yuri had a habit of yelling his texts out while typing them, especially when he was annoyed. Which was a lot, whether or not he was in public. But at home, he was texting almost all of the time. And it was so easy to annoy him. His poor cat had gotten used to it by now.
“It’s okay,” he’d coo at the scared kitten each time. “Women may be crazy, but don’t worry, you’re the only one who isn’t.”
Then the name that had recently been making his heart jump right up into his mouth flashed up right on the screen.
“Hey Yura, it was a tough day at training, I just got home. Sorry, I didn’t see this until now.”
He opened up the text and found himself smiling stupidly at it. After that, he found himself scrolling through their texts and the smile only grew. His face hurt, but he really couldn’t care less about that right now.
He hated how the blush creeped up on his cheeks. Otabek really could’ve been talking about plunging the toilet and his heart would be hammering in his chest. Really, Otabek had to exert zero effort to draw a blush out of Yuri, but he would die before he ever said that to him.
And then Mila effectively killed the moment by texting him right back.
“So it’s just my imagination that I see you smiling and blushing at your phone during break? Or how your eyes light up when you or someone else is talking about Otabek? You’re in love with him and that’s so cute! I’m so happy for you!”
Yuri wanted to say something really mean. But he couldn’t bring himself to. No matter how much he insulted Mila to her face, she was like his big sister. ‘Hag’ had become a term of endearment over the years.
But the final straw came when:
“Admit it! Just admit it! You love him! And if how he looks at you is anything to go by, he loves you too! I wonder who’ll admit it first…”
What the hell was she? 12? Or had Victor absconded with her phone and now was teasing him over text? He hated being teased. Unless it was Otabek. But that was a secret. Either way…
“IF IT’LL GET YOU TO GET OFF MY BACK, YES! I’M IN LOVE WITH BEKA OKAY? I’M IN LOVE WITH THAT EMOTIONLESS FACE HE MAKES 99% OF THE TIME! I’M IN LOVE WITH THAT GENTLE SMILE HE ONLY SAVES FOR ME OR WHENEVER HE ACHIEVES A PERSONAL BEST! I’M IN LOVE WITH THE WAY HE TAKES ME AROUND ON THAT DEATH TRAP OF A MOTORCYCLE THAT I’M SECRETLY TERRIFIED OF BUT IF IT’S WITH HIM I DON’T GIVE A FUCK! I FALL IN LOVE A LITTLE MORE WITH EACH TEXT HE SENDS ME! I FALL IN LOVE EVERY TIME I SEE HIS FACE AT A COMPETITION! I LOVE HIM! I LOVE OTABEK ALTIN! NOW WILL YOU KINDLY SHUT THE FUCK UP?!”
If he typed any harder, he would’ve broken his phone screen. When he hit the send button, he went back to the message home screen to finally answer back to Beka, telling him all about how annoying Mila was. But that’s when he realized something.
And he let out a soft whimper of absolute horror.
He had forgotten to open up Mila’s text and had texted that whole thing to Otabek. He had just confessed to his best friend that he was in love with him.
He desperately went back to the message, hoping that the signal was shitty and that the message hadn’t sent. And his hopes were dashed when he saw that the message had indeed gone through. And the noise that left his mouth resembled that of a dying whale.
Read 10:51 PM.
He felt himself trembling as unshed tears filled his eyes, making everything blurry. Otabek read the whole thing. He knew. Oh god…he had fucked up, hadn’t he? Mila was wrong, Beka didn’t love him back like that. That’s why he wasn’t saying anything. He was disgusted with him. It was over. He had lost his best friend. The first person in his life besides his grandpa who didn’t annoy the crap out of him to some extent.
His only impulse was to turn his phone off. He couldn’t deal with Beka’s silence and obsessing over it. He couldn’t deal with what he had to say next. He just wanted to crawl under the comforter and die. He found himself crying himself to sleep slowly, his cat crawling up and licking his face.
Well, she loved him at least. But for the first time in his life, it just didn’t feel like enough…
Yuri woke up with a pounding headache the next morning. The tears he had cried the night before had left a dry trail on his face and his eyes were sore. He didn’t turn on his phone either. He didn’t want to see it all over again.
Beka would probably never want to see him ever again. He had probably not answered back because he was too polite to say anything mean. But it was probably true. He could’ve directed the blame at Mila, but it wasn’t her fault that he had been so stupid. Once again, his hair trigger temper had screwed him over.
“Beka, I’m sorry…” he groaned into his pillow, a fresh batch of tears cascading down his face. As if Otabek could hear him…
That’s when he heard a knock at his door. And his sadness quickly turned to annoyance. What the hell did they want? He didn’t care who they were, they just needed to leave. Because fuck them. He didn’t want visitors. His own neighbors knew that and never approached him. Somebody had better be dying…
He felt like shit. His head was throbbing, his eyes were so sore that he could barely keep them open, and his hair probably looked like a tumbleweed. Did he care who saw him? Not particularly.
“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU-?!” he barked as soon as he answered the door only to cut himself off mid-sentence. In front of him was a person, a huge arrangement of flowers covering his upper body. And Yuri felt himself grow completely red when he saw Beka peak his head from behind the flowers, that gently smile on his face.
What.
“Beka, what are you doing here?” he asked, quietly. He was bracing for his to be a dream. A beautiful dream that reality would wake him up from.
Beka set the flowers down only to frown at the sight before him. Yuri looked terrible to say the least.
“I wanted to surprise you for your birthday. I bought the ticket a month ago so that I could be here for it,” was his answer as he stepped forward.
Yuri must’ve looked like a scared cat. He sure as hell felt like one, wanting to run away as fast as he could.
Wait, did Beka say…birthday?
Today was his birthday? And he had completely forgotten?
“B-birthday?” he repeated the words.
“It’s your 18th birthday today, Yura…did you forget?” Beka’s face was unreadable.
“No I just, uh, yeah…” he conceded, hanging his head. He had been too caught up in his dumbass move from last night that he had forgotten the date. Today was his 18th birthday.
They said nothing until Otabek finally asked, “Yura, you look terrible. Why were you crying?”
Shit, he had forgotten about that too. He looked awful because he had assumed the worst. While he had been agonizing about how much Beka hated him, Beka had flown all the way out here just to surprise him.
“That…text…” he replied, his voice was hoarse now. He didn’t want to bring it up, but Beka had an annoying thing where he could tell when Yuri was lying to him. So Yuri had long given up trying to lie to him about things.
To Yuri’s surprise (and quite possibly horror) he saw that Beka’s cheeks had a dash of pink on them. He was blushing? Why was he blushing?
“I saw,” Otabek whispered, stepping closer. They were so close now. “Did you really mean it when you said that you’re in love with me?”
Yuri couldn’t speak while his mind was completely jumbled. What was he going to say? No, it was a joke? Because that wasn’t true. And Otabek would know it.
Slowly, Yuri’s mouth made the words, “Yeah Beka. I meant it. I meant every word.”
The morning was full of surprises because not only did Beka not back away in complete disgust, he smiled. It was the softest smile he had ever seen. His eyes held an emotion Yuri had only seen…when Victor was looking at Katsudon.
Oh.
Oh!
“Beka, do you?” he asked vaguely, his voice barely audible.
Beka didn’t answer for a few seconds, the longest few seconds of Yuri’s life. And then came the slow nod. And the breath Yuri had been holding in since last night was finally released.
“I do, Yura. I have for a long time. A really long time…”
They didn’t say anything after that. They just looked into each other’s eyes, unsure of what to do now. Or perhaps they were waiting to see what the other would do. But neither moved.
“So…” Yuri started, but stopped because he was unsure of what else to say. His cheeks were on fire.
“So…are you going to kiss me or what?” Beka let it out hoarsely. It must’ve taken a certain amount of courage for him to say that. Beka wasn’t shy or anything, he just wasn’t sure.
Yuri felt his body move on its own, his mind had gone completely blank as he wrapped his arms around the older boy’s neck to kiss him. Yuri wasn’t sure what he was doing quite, but it kind of came naturally to him. Beka’s arms wrapped around his smaller torso, kissing back. The kiss was hesitant, but sweet.
They broke apart after a few seconds, but their arms were still wrapped around each other. After looking at each other for a few seconds before bursting out into a fit of giggles.
Yuri felt incredibly stupid, but that hardly mattered.
“Yura?”
“Hm?”
Beka’s face was completely serious now, “I have something really important to ask. Two things actually.”
Yuri didn’t say anything. He waited anxiously.
“First, can I take you to dinner tonight? Just the two of us? Yes, this is a date.” his first question had made a smile appear on Yuri’s face. His own rare smile.
“Yes. Of course Beka, please…” he didn’t care how desperate he sounded and then he teased, “Were you waiting for my 18th birthday to ask?”
Beka just chuckled, “I would’ve waited till you turned 100, Yura. I wouldn’t have minded if you never felt the same way back. But knowing that you do, it seemed perfect…”
Yuri blushed. That was sweet and normally this kind of lovey dovey crap was puke inducing. He’d watched Victor and Yuuri for years. But now…he got it.
“And second…” he paused. It was a dramatic sort of pause. “Do you really think my motorcycle is a death trap?”
Yuri felt his ears eat up. Oh shit, he had confessed to thinking that when he confessed to loving him.
“…shut up.”
Beka laughed. Not a chuckle or giggle. An actual laugh. Honestly, that was music to Yuri’s ears and even if it wasn’t an actual birthday present, it felt like one. The best birthday present he had received in years. After his cat, of course. He hoped that this wouldn’t be the last one he’d hear.
“Happy Birthday, Yura…”