***Hello, everyone! I finished writing this after I finished my schoolwork—fanfiction is important, but education is importanter! Anyways, I don't own Yuri or Otabek (my glasses wouldn't get dirty this easily if I did...), but I do own Nadya. Let's go!
Chapter Five: Begin Again
After that night came a long week and a half.
Yuri made no motions to contact Nadya. Actually, he was a lot less talkative around everyone. Even Nikolai and Otabek. Sure, this situation would call for a lot of thought and obviously wasn't one to be taken lightly.
However, it was starting to seriously get to Yuri's head, Otabek noticed. The younger man was never really a big eater, but he barely ate enough to sustain himself now.
And more often than not, when Otabek would wake up in the middle of the night to use the restroom or get something to drink, Yuri wouldn't be sound asleep in his arms. He would be in the living room, trying to stay out of the way as newfound insomnia made each night longer than the last.
It was driving Otabek crazy. After being shut out time and time again by Yuri, he asked everyone for help; Nikolai, Victor, even Katsudon. But their conflicting opinions on what to do just made the Kazakh feel more and more lost.
But everything began to look up a little more when he walked in from getting dinner in time to hear Yuri say, "Bye... Mom." over the phone.
XxX
In all honesty, Yuri had been trying to hype himself up to call his mother for the first time in over a week for hours now.
He distracted himself in any way he could, sitting on the couch; listened to the music he was already considering for skating to next season, watched videos online, caught up on TV shows, checked his social media, played with the cat. But Otabek was out of the house getting takeout, so he felt that now was the most opportune time of them all to do this.
He called Nadya, mentally beating the part of him that was nervous until she picked up.
"Hello?"
"Hi..."
"Yurachka! I'm happy to hear from you. How are you doing?"
Yuri hoped his sigh to prepare himself for asking this wasn't audible over the phone.
"Would you mind coming to the skating rink I practice at tomorrow afternoon? It'll be closed on normal hours, but a few of us are allowed to practice whenever. I figured that... we could talk. Just us."
"I'd love to. Are you sure, though? I mean, your arm is still broken and you seemed nervous around me at dinner."
Yuri cursed under his breath. He had been hopign that his mother hadn't noticed how nervous he had been at dinner. However, the back of his mind had told him for a while that he was never that good of a liar.
"I'll be fine. I've had some time to get over how pissed off I was at you, and... to be honest, I would like to get to know you. I didn't learn a lot about you at dinner."
"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon at the ice rink at around 2 PM?"
"That sounds alright to me. Bye... Mom."
"Goodbye, Yuri."
And like that, both parties hung up. Yuri felt ten pounds lighter. That was, until Otabek cleared his throat, announcing that he was back. "How much of that did you hear?" Yuri asked.
Otabek sat down, placing two takeout boxes in front of them. "Just the end. But I have a request," he siad. He rested his arm around Yuri's thin frame. "Now that you've called your mom, can you please function like you normally do? There's been four people worried sick over you for the past week and a half."
Yuri sighed, popping open his drink. "I didn't mean to worry you. This is just a lot to take in. But hopefully, some of the weirdness will get cleared up," he said.
Otabek pulled him closer, his embrace strong and loving. "I hope that it will too."
XxX
Yuri was surprised to see that Nadya came with her own pair of skates. "I didn't know you could ice skate," he said as he lead the way inside of the empty ice rink.
"Well, I can't do anything impressive, but I know enough to where I won't fall on my face," Nadya said. As she laced up her ice skates, she noticed that Yuri was having trouble lacing his own up. Having one arm out of use was frustrating him to no end.
So, with a smile on her face, Nadya walked over and laced up Yuri's skates. The blond smiled, even if it was a little one.
"Spasibo," he said before standing up. Nadya nodded, and they both got onto the ice. It felt refreshing for Yuri to take a lap around the ice. "Can you do any jumps, Mom?" he asked.
"I can try, but I'm not as good as you. I only can do one," Nadya said. Then, she took off for a successful single toe loop. "So, I guess I know where I got my talent from, huh?" Yuri said, his voice glimmering with pride.
"Not quite me. Your father taught me that jump," Nadya said. "Hey... what can you tell me about my father? I never asked Grandpa or Victor and got an answer," Yuri asked.
He was surprised when Nadya, on the other side of the ice after her jump, begun to pull something out of her pocket. Yuri saw that she was holding a wallet and went over to her. Nadya pulled out a picture from her wallet. "I've kept this since the day after you were born, when it was taken," she said.
So, Yuri looked at the picture. It was tattered from years of being kept. It was taken in a hospital, and a young Nadya was cradling a newborn Yuri, tiny, red, and pudgy. Standing next to her with an arm around her was a tall, well-built man. His hair was dark and messy, and his eyes were glittering jade. Hospital scrubs covered his pajamas, and it was clear that he hadn't shaved in a while.
Immediately, Yuri felt warmth in his chest. "Dad..." he whispered.
"His name was Fyodor Nikiforov. He and I weren't married, but we agreed to give you my last name. He had the driest sense of humor, and he liked dark humor too. He was a strong man, even if he was a little lazy. But he loved his family more than anything. He loved me, and he definitely loved you," Nadya explained. She smiled, eyes teary. "I can't tell you how many time I would wake up in the middle of the night and hear him singing lullabies to you when you couldn't sleep."
Yuri found himself trying to hold back his own tears. "I wish Dad was still here..." he said. He was surprised when he felt Nadya's arms wrap around him. "He didn't want to leave," she said, "but he was taken by his sickness nonetheless."
And despite Yuri's resolve to stay strong, he felt comfort in Nadya's hug, and tears dripped down his face.
***Does uploading a chapter count as being productive? Anyways, be sure to leave a review on the way out, and I'll see you all in the next one! Bye!