The Depth of Green

Chapter 8

Chapter 7 recap: Yuri decides what to do about Otabek having a crush on him in the way of setting him and Mila up through a mix of careful manipulation and skullduggery. At a showing, Another Alpha hits persistently on Yuri, who, nauseated at the man's scent, almost throws up and has to remain behind his parasol recovering for several minutes after Otabek chases The Other Alpha away. He decides to put some trust in Otabek, and mentions his grandfather; Otabek is thrilled beyond belief that Yuri is finally opening up.

~~~

Yuri's plan was going well. Probably. He thought.

Since the incident with The Other Alpha who Yuri, honestly, preferred not to think about (some things were just too close for comfort), Yuri had been implementing his mission with varied success. With Mila, it was easy to bring up Otabek and his attributes, easy to keep a conversation about him, too, but it came with the downside of Mila teasing that Yuri was interested in the alpha, which, really, was less than ideal. Still, Yuri had faith that if he drilled it into Mila's head with enough force and enough subtly (because, despite her numerous romantic failures, Mila was very smart), the girl would eventually take to the idea that she liked Otabek, and would direct her advances toward him and not Asshole Alpha of the Week #37, as she currently was.

At first, Yuri had been concerned that Mila's current infatuation with another miscellaneous suitor would prove problematic, but, with Mila's eagerness to discuss Otabek and the questions about him she tossed almost haphazardly at Yuri whenever she got the chance, Yuri thought that Mila would be an easy convert from someone named Sara, to a decidedly better someone named Otabek.
Despite his confidence in the Mila portion of the plan, though, Yuri could admit to some concern about the secondary, infinitely trickier and infinitely more important, part.

Introducing the topic of Mila to Otabek was far more precarious of a balancing act than vice versa, and one that Yuri had to be careful to bring about slowly. Otabek still liked him, this Yuri knew, and if he tried too directly, too obviously, to change the recipient of Otabek's affection, all manner of ill feelings would doubtlessly abound, reflecting the bitterness of being snubbed upon Mila and destroying the whole point of Yuri's operation.

No, Yuri knew: he'd have to slip Mila into the conversation only occasionally, enough that Otabek would know her name, perhaps recognize her in the garden, remember a tactfully-placed list of her greatest achievements, but not feel like she was being pushed onto him. It would take skilled work, a shit-ton of finagling, and a lot of masterful manipulation-- but Yuri was an actor, and he was nothing if not an expert at playing alphas' heartstrings.

It would take time, though, and, before the plan could even be properly begun, Yuri would have to carry out Phase 1 in making absolutely certain, beyond the palest shadow of a doubt, that Otabek was a good man, that he would make a good mate. Of course, Yuri was already fairly secure in his belief of this -- he never would've started this theatrical, arduous nonsense if he weren't --, but still found himself nervous at taking the necessary calculated risks to further reestablish Otabek's safety.

Slowly, methodically, apparently-offhandedly, Yuri had made it his mission to slip comments about himself into his and Otabek's conversations; personal information was the most egregious of banned topics, so, if Otabek didn't report him on it, Yuri thought it was an excellent indicator of character. Still, though, that involved a lot of blind trust on his part, and more than a little bit of the painful dredging up of long-repressed memories.

Which was why, ten minutes into a Thursday showing, Yuri was picking at his fingernail behind the parasol, doing his best to pretend that this was fine-- talking about his grandfather was fine. He didn't want to puke, or cry, or both, at all.