Pandora here with JJ and Yuri's 'first date'... sort of! In this Yuri is 17 and JJ is 21.
A large and very cynical part of Yuri's mind still wonders if what happened at Viktor and Yuuri's wedding was real. With his return to St Petersburg for training and life going back to largely normal, the only evidence he has to suggest that the whole evening with JJ wasn't a dream is his message log. Where before he was checking his phone with a sense of dread, now when he hears it buzz he feels almost light-headed, giddy with anticipation. Sometimes he annoys himself with how stupid he's acting, and often JJ annoys him, but the thing he becomes even more acutely aware of than before is distance and space and how much that annoys him. With seven hours between them, Yuri spends his mornings faced with frustrating radio silence (JJ being fast asleep at these times) and finds himself staying up late in hope for just one more message, but half the time JJ is in practice and Yuri falls asleep with his phone on the pillow beside him like some cold substitute. They Skype sometimes on weekends, mostly just talking about their weeks, their routines, trading equal parts encouragement and smack talk, all the time waiting to see each other again.
When they do, it's in China and they carve out space in their free time to be together, more often than not just hanging out in one of their hotel rooms to avoid scrutiny from their fellow skaters and coaches. It's easier not to invite questions at this stage, when they don't even know the answers yet. One such evening, JJ turns to Yuri.
"Would you go out with me?" he asks.
Yuri looks up from his phone, a confused frown on his face. "Uh, duh? What the hell are you talking about?"
"A date," says JJ. "Like, going out together and doing something."
"What, you mean sitting in hotel rooms isn't the pinnacle of romance?" Yuri snorts. "Besides, we're both leaving soon."
JJ sighs. "True, plus I don't know Beijing well enough to know where we could go."
They fall into silence again, music from the TV filling the space between them, until Yuri reaches out and takes JJ's hand.
"Say we were in Canada," he says, "where would we go?"
JJ grins. "I'd be spoiled for choice."
They settle into each other's arms, imagining their date together in murmurs, exchanging kisses – sometimes getting lost in the feeling of each other's lips, still so foreign, and forgetting their conversation – hands running up and down arms and fingers tracing jawbones. In the early hours of the morning, Yuri has to sneak back to his hotel room, but steals one last kiss from JJ, their heartbeats thrumming together.
"You'd better deliver on all this next time I'm in Montréal."
JJ smiles, sleepy but with a hint of excitement playing about his lips. "I can't wait."