"I hoped you would," Otabek said. He finally felt able to look back at Yuri without feeling awkward. Everything felt a bit weird now. Had his doing that messed up something? But Yuri said he liked it... so it couldn't have been completely wrong.

"I just didn't know that you would. I'm -- " he's grasping for words, but decides to keep it simple for now, "glad." Really, that was all there was to it.

Otabek had remained delightfully uninvolved with others when it came to most things, so this was new territory. He approached it like he did everything else, though.