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Yuri slurped down the last of his broth and set the bowl aside. Next to him, Otabek was sitting and reading quietly. Yuri studied him. From the slight quirk of his mouth, Otabek noticed the staring, but seemed content to let it continue. Permission so granted, Yuri let his eyes wander.
There was no getting around it, not that Yuri particularly wanted to get around it—Otabek was handsome. Very handsome, with his dark eyes and stern brow and the firmness around his jaw that Yuri knew would solidify into a genuine ruggedness with a bit more time. Yuri knew well what he himself looked like, and together, they would make an odd pair.
Blast it. He was Yuri Plisetsky, and Yuri Plisetsky feared no one and nothing. He cleared his throat. Otabek raised an eyebrow and looked up from his book. “Otabek,” Yuri started, and once one had started one had to finish, “hadn’t we better get engaged?”
There, see, this was already a good idea; he had already been exposed to a side of Otabek he had never seen before, specifically Otabek startled. Yuri had had causes aplenty over the past week to envy the older man his self-control, and this was yet another; it did not show in his face beyond a slight widening of the eyes. Without looking away from Yuri, Otabek reached for his bookmark and snapped the volume shut.
Yuri knew full well that his whole future hung in the balance, but even so he would not have broken that gaze for anything; it was not in his nature to back down. In the end, Otabek did it, looking down at his knees for a moment and laughing quietly. “Well, you would not be you if you did not surprise me,” he murmured. Taking a deep breath, he looked up again. “I had planned on waiting a few years, until you are a more appropriate age, but I am willing to be convinced. Make your case.” His eyes were light and laughing, and Yuri felt himself thrill towards them.
“Nonsense,” was what he said. “I will not marry until I am twenty, but I am of a perfectly appropriate age to get engaged, Otabek, which is what is on offer. And I am perfectly settled in my mind that when I am twenty, it will be you that I marry, so what is the point in delaying?”
Otabek laughed again, a smile playing about his lips. “You settled this with no word to me?”
“Well, I am giving you the word now,” Yuri said, rather reasonably. “You are able to decline if you want, although I can’t see why you would; you like me as much as I like you.”
“Do I?” There was no hint of sincerity to the question; indeed, Otabek seemed in a better humor than Yuri had ever seen him in the whole of their acquaintance, which confirmed in Yuri’s mind that he had already won. The rest was just the dance, and Yuri was an excellent dancer.
“You do,” he said confidently. Otabek conceded the point with a nod of his head and a wave of his hand, and Yuri plowed on. “Five years is not overlong for an engagement, at our ages, and we shall be able to write to each other openly, and see each other without finding pretexts. And, as I have said, I am already settled on the matter and do not see the point in waiting to take the intermediate step for so silly a reason as age. I know my own mind, and you know yours, and damn the rest.”
Otabek steepled his fingers in front of his face. “So you do not intend this to be a secret engagement, then?”
“By no means,” Yuri said, and then, “Well, perhaps until the damned doctor clears me. Viktor will think me addled in my wits if I tell him tomorrow.”
Otabek’s face grew serious for a flash. “I will not insult you by suggesting there be any merit to that accusation.”
“You had best not,” Yuri growled. “I am perfectly well, in mind if not in body, and perfectly capable of making this decision.” He softened. “And besides, it is only an engagement, and a long one at that. If we prove to be wrong about each other, we can always change our minds. But I do not anticipate changing my mind.”
“Nor I,” Otabek said, and Yuri’s heart jumped.
He smoothed the bedclothes around him, unaccountably nervous all of a sudden. “There, that is my offer. I have never met anyone like you, and now that I have met you I cannot imagine anyone better. I do not think there is anyone in the world who could make us happier than each other, and I think we ought to take what steps we can now, and not delay.”
Otabek considered him for a long moment, and then: “Agreed,” he said, mock sharp. “You lay out a very compelling case, and after much consideration, I will accept your proposal.” He could not maintain the facade for longer than a moment, and soon was smiling wide across his naturally stern face.
For a moment, Yuri felt quite the boy again, a reckless joy leaping in his stomach, for all he had not seriously considered the possibility of failure. “That is that, then. We are engaged?”
“We are engaged,” Otabek confirmed, and they sat there smiling at each other for a length of time that Yuri, later, was never quite able to quantify.
“What are you reading?” he asked, when he felt himself able to speak again. “Will you read it aloud? It is dreadfully uncomfortable not being able to read myself.”
“You mustn’t strain your eyes,” Otabek said mildly, “so yes, I will read to you. It is poetry, though, and may not be to your taste.”
“Oh,” Yuri said softly, “I think I am quite in the mood for poetry.”