YOI Magazine Issue #1 - February 2017

01 | One Shot: Memoria

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Memoria~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~featuring. Otabek Altin and Yuri Plisetsky  ~~~~~~~~~~  
 ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~presented by Arisa T.R. ( -lorelei )~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~

Society, in general, rely on clocks and watches. On several, short days, one would be allowed to simply act carefree; just measure time using a playlist. Those who are most blessed are not bounded by the clock's ticking, and instead just bask in the beauty of dawn and dusk. What I mean to propose is that time is told differently for each one of us. For him, his raven black hair that cut short into a simple undercut – narrated the flow of time.

Summer. Season of heat and nothing more than two to three months of vacation, but to him, it meant sculpting himself to be a better skater. Otabek Altin was just as young as everyone else, even if his first season was coming up as a Junior. He had no labels or titles stapled to his back, nor had anything else to offer besides his mediocre ballet skills and tremendous hard work on bettering himself to be the figure skater he always dreamed of. Frustratingly, he was kicked back to the novice class in a matter of days.

The weather in Russia never got any hotter, only a bit humid on some three o'clock angles. Across the room was a young boy who's hair was not all over the place with plunging sweat trickling from his nape to the small of his back. Unlike Otabek. This boy was different from Otabek – completely so. Eyes of a soldier, they were a color of the glassy blue-green sky. Striving for survival, to be able to live through the day as the best. And only the best. 

When he spoke with kids his age, it felt like speaking to an alien being – a being from an entirely different world that he couldn't seem to grasp, no matter how hard he tried. They wouldn't be able to realize what sacrifice was. They weren't able to grasp the concept of what hard work truly was. What true responsibility felt and weighed like. The focus it took to devote one's self to a single dream – to train for eight hours a day – to bruise and sweat and tear muscles and push it till they nearly broke - to hunger for something so badly that they would give up everything; friends, family, a normal life. 

Yuri Plisetsky was a young god; he was the breadwinner of his family. He had a sense of responsibility – the sense of how he deserved to win more any anyone else. At the age of twelve, he was already able to dominate the Junior World Champions for the first time, and it earned him the glazed reputation. Aside from the pure happiness and innocence he felt for figure skating, it was also for his family. 

His mother was drowning in her unperturbed sadness, and his grandfather was going through the process of dilemmas that followed with his old age; Yuri had to shoulder the burden, alone, and lay it all over his small shoulders. He had traveled the world a dozen times over, he was able to taste every victory in arms reach at such a young age. He had won more medals than most skaters his age would ever dream of. Yet, all of a sudden, he felt the continuous delays of his steps and patterns. 

An existential crisis? At his age? Was it the lack of sleep that was making him feel so off-balance and introspective? Or was it just this day itself? The Russian Faerie did not want to find out the core of his mishaps; it just left him stuffy and completely forgetful. Jet lagged, probably. Irritation towards his mildly obsessed fans, probably. He felt the imbalance proportions between his mind and his body, proportions of control and within a state of stillness. Yet in the midst of floating thoughts, he was able to weave his fingers into the information he just grasped.

Riding Otabek's motorcycle away from his fans and the bustle, brought him far more clarity than he thought. Talking to Otabek Altin, did not feel like talking to an alien. Looking at Otabek did not feel like being lost in a world of something different from his. Shaking Otabek's hand did not feel like being drawn away from his pedestal. Standing in front of Otabek, made Yuri feel so close to home. It was a driving point of insanity, Otabek was so much different. 

 "Yuri Plisetsky had the eyes of a soldier." 

He wanted to stare at them longer. All day. As much as possible. He waited for his hair to grow a little bit longer before confessing his feelings to him. Of course, Otabek knew hair was never the basis for anything, but longer meant more hairstyles for the young beautiful god. More range, and more. . . time for him to condition his heart for rejection. 

 He saw his hand, brushing his hair aside and not tucking it behind his ear only pushing it aside closely. He saw himself reflected in his eyes and just. . . melted at the realization that, that was what home felt like. 

"Are you going to be my friend or not?" 

 But he didn't. Yuri treated him as gently as he could - not entirely different from the others but just a little bit while the pavement grew slightly a bit colder as night broke through the skies of day.

Otabek could see Yuri Plisetsky's eyes clearer from here, closer from where he was before. His eyes slowly melted into the golden rays, circling a peculiar eclipse. The way Otabek stared into his eyes the longer he felt close to whatever he wanted. Then the later hours encroached; his eyes just turned into a sunset of his own. 

White prisms slowly began to fall from the sky as they gather to form a white carpet of snow, the cold being everyone's lingering company. It was another season to overcome, Winter. The season when cold reigned and de-leaved trees streak the dim, cloud filled sky. Strangers wearing layers for comfort walked through the frozen pavement like skaters – effortlessly, aimlessly drift across the smooth icy surface. 

His frigid breath expelling clouded whispers to what the other skaters may hear. The tip of his nose dusted of red as he sniffed, the cold getting to him by every second passing. 

Friends. How peculiar that he never knew this was how it worked.

END

First issue of the YURI!!! on Ice magazine and the first one-shot of the issue! Nice to meet you, name's Arisa and I've been insanely hooked to the series since the PV. How did you find Yuri on Ice? Well, anyways, the first season – well assuming there will be a second season – of YOI has ended a few weeks ago, and the fandom is still going through a riot of emotions! Next to the power couple Viktuuri (Viktor Nikiforov/Katsuki Yuuri) I'd like to think Otayuri (Otabek Altin/Yuri Plisetsky) is the next biggest ship. Disregarding the age gap most people are pointing at, I'm quite happy for this ship. In this one-shot, I wanted to go through a timeline of scenarios between Beka and Yura – from the first time Otabek saw Yuri and to their prior meeting in Barcelona. Hopping from one scene to another, I think I did well. How about you? What do you think about this one-shot, or more particularly to the Otayuri ship? I hope you liked it, see you next issue! 

♡xoxo | arisa, a king