Underheard

Fandom: Yuri!!! on Ice
Title: who can sing both high and low
Pairing/Character Focus: Otabek Altin/Yuri Plisetsky (Yuri-centric)
Author: infiniteandsmall
What makes this a gem:

It’s startling to watch videos of his practices and see angles where he’d seen straight lines, broad shoulders where he’d seen a waist that had made him think sometimes, in a cool quick flash, girl.

Yuri on Ice takes place in a world without homophobia, and a couple fanwriters have taken that idea and run with it: why not consider it a world without transphobia as well? What if you tell a story about someone figuring out their gender, and the only difficulty they face is in finding the right version of themselves? This is that story for Yuri Plisetsky, who's now eighteen, a lot taller and broader, and starting to miss the days when he was encouraged to be pretty. The narrative voice is perfectly suited to the story; it's vivid and opinionated and gentle, all at once. And the compassion in Yuri's relationships with the important people in his life is like a balm to the soul. As a bonus, I really love this version of Otabek, who is warm and patient and wry and shows pictures of Yuri to his mom.

This is the second story in a series, but it stands alone pretty easily--you get all the context you need in the first couple paragraphs. That said, of course, the rest of the series is well worth reading too!

(Hi mods! Could I get an Otabek/Yuri tag for this post? Thanks!!)

Fandom: Yuri!!! on Ice
Title: the fences we mended
Pairing/Character Focus: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Author: sophiahelix
What makes this a gem:

It’s always awkward, seeing Yakov again; it brings back creeping, crawling memories of the night Victor missed the podium at Skate Canada last year, when Yakov cornered Yuuri in the hall. The way Yakov picked up the gold medal around Yuuri’s neck and tugged at it, hard enough to hurt. Is it worth it? he'd spat, in his guttural English. Holding him back so you can win? You think love is enough?

This is a short fic, less than 3k words. But after I read it once it haunted me. Here’s something we don’t always talk about in YOI fandom: Yuuri and Victor’s relationship is going to be hard to pull off. It’s a logistical nightmare, its romantic and professional elements are all knotted together, and the people in it are passionate perfectionists who don’t necessarily communicate very well. This is one of the only stories I’ve seen to push that train of thought to its logical conclusion. Both the emotions and the physical details are incredibly grounded in careful thought. It's also a shippy Yuuri/Victor fic, so don’t worry too hard about your heart getting smashed.