I love the Summer of Mutual Pining vision of Yuuri and Victor’s courtship as much as anyone.
But I would also be bang on board with the two of them starting to sleep together out of what Yuuri assumes is convenience, so he’s careful not to get messy and emotional about it, and Victor is a bit disappointed (or, well, really, heartbroken, but in denial about it) because he really wanted messy and emotional but Yuuri makes sure to keep it just about sex.
Victor goes with it because their chemistry is so intense, and in their day-to-day, Yuuri treats him like a friend, and honestly that’s the closest Victor’s had to a caring relationship. And even if he doesn’t hide his feelings very well, Yuuri just sort of politely ignores them. What more could Victor ask for, really.
As they get more comfortable with each other in bed, Victor coaxes some of Yuuri’s poster-inspired fantasies out of him and makes a point of fulfilling them, even if behaving like a Victor Nikiforov™ blow-up doll is kind of unsatisfying (or maybe just slightly soul-crushing) because at least that way he’s making Yuuri happy, so there’s some emotion involved. Meanwhile every time he asks about Yuuri’s fantasies, Yuuri’s shuffling through a dozen “Victor and I walk to the rink holding hands / Victor tells me something I can do for him, haha, what a dream, like Victor would ever want anything but convenient fuckbuddying from Yuuri / actually, Victor tells me literally anything about himself that I haven’t already read in a magazine while I hold him and kiss his hair” fantasies that he thinks would be unwelcome.
They could easily go on like this all summer and well into the season, because they’re emotionally-dumb skate boys who never talk to each other. But after the Cup of China kiss they finally have this ‘Surprise, We’re Making Love!’ moment when Victor is especially bad at hiding his messy feelings and this time Yuuri is able to see it and accept it at last, and of course, he returns it.