Disclaimer: MIOBI isn't mine, but I adopted it because it was being abused by the writers who actually got paid.
"Is it wrong for us to marry, Austin?"
Austin stopped in the middle of pulling a shirt over his head to stare at his fiancé, until he realized that staring at someone was difficult with a t-shirt covering your eyes. He finished putting on his pajamas and then said, "Don't you think the night before our wedding is a little late to be asking that?"
"Be serious, please. I need to know this. Is it wrong for us to marry?" She curled her legs to her chest, which he knew from years of experience meant that she was making space and wanted him to sit next to her. He didn't. He stood in front of her and lifted her face to look at him, which she knew from experience was him taking the subject very seriously.
"Why do you think this is wrong, V?" he asked.
Her frowned and said, "Because I'm not Payson."
"And I'm not Viktor. Which, if I'm remembering correctly, was the basis for our entire relationship." His words might have sounded sarcastic if his tone wasn't so obviously trying to comfort her.
"Exactly!" she said, getting distraught, the exact opposite of his purpose. "How can we base a marriage on the fact that we can't have the people we want?"
"Do you remember the first night that we were together? We were sitting in that hotel bar together and you said, 'Why should we be alone? If we can't be with the ones we love then why shouldn't we take comfort in each other?' It wasn't wrong then and it isn't wrong now. We shouldn't have to be alone."
Her next words were whispered. "Am I betraying Viktor?"
"No." He one hundred percent believed what he said. "Victor wanted you to be happy. And I make you happy, don't I?"
The worry in her eyes softened and she lifted a hand to cover one of his against her cheek. "You know that you do," she said. "I didn't think that any man would ever make me happy again after Viktor died, but you do."
That was the way they always said it—'you make me happy'. Never 'I love you.' That was part of why they worked so well together. He didn't expect to take Viktor's place in her heart and she didn't expect to take Payson's place in his. They felt something close to love, and if it hadn't been for Payson and Victor they might have believed that it was love, but they both knew better.
He bent to kiss her and they let themselves be drawn into each other. For their first two years together he always imagined she was Payson when they made love. She knew and never resented it, because she was pretending that he was someone else, too, but that changed when she moved to Colorado.
She came for Payson, not for Austin. After Rio Becca went to college and Nicky and Ava moved to Houston to coach with Kevin, so Payson understood for the first time the kind of loneliness that could come with success. She had her parents, Austin, Sasha, and her children, but they couldn't fill the spot of a woman her own age, and there was a line drawn between her and the other young mothers at school or the Rock. They couldn't move past her Olympic medals, so she needed someone who had medals of her own. She begged for months before V agreed to come.
Austin was pretty sure that Payson manipulated them. The need for a friend nearby was real, but there were other girls that she could have asked. It was no coincidence that she chose the one Austin was sleeping with. When V moved into his bedroom in the house that he shared with Payson and Sasha, they went from passionate flings whenever they were in the same city to a real relationship, and they stopped being a replacement for each other's past lovers and started being themselves. The first night that he called out her name in bed was the same night that she called out his.
He proposed on the two year anniversary of that night, and tomorrow, their wedding day, would be exactly five years since they sat toasting to old loves and she asked him why they should be alone. The timing wasn't entirely intentional, but he thought it was appropriate. They probably should have waited until after the Olympics were over, when it was less stressful in the Tucker/Belov household, but five years seemed like long enough.
She fell asleep after they made love, and he stayed awake watching her. He used to watch Payson sleep, too, and sometimes he still did when she fell asleep on the couch with Lottie. He missed the time that Alex would fall asleep sprawled across Austin or Payson on the couch. Lottie did the same thing with him now, but it was different when it was his own child. He was ready for another baby, but V wasn't. She was still young, and being a stepmom was enough of a challenge for now, so they would wait a few years. Austin had a sneaking suspicion that Payson and Sasha would be trying again soon, though, and going through a pregnancy with Payson might take V a long way toward wanting one of her own.
It was a little after midnight when she woke up again, and he thought it was cute that she pouted when she realized that she wasn't asleep anymore. She did it every single time she woke up, and every single time Austin thought it was adorable, even from the first time she woke up in his bed. Some things he never could pretend were Payson, and that was one of them. That pout was all V.
"Happy wedding day," he teased.
"Happy wedding day to you, too," she said. "I just realized something. This is my last day as Ivanka Kirilenko. After today I'll be Ivanka Tucker."
He chuckled. "When was the last time someone called you Ivanka?"
"The press still does."
"Let me rephrase, then. When was the last time anyone that mattered called you Ivanka? You been V or Evie almost as long as I've known you." He remembered a few times, early after London, that Payson called her Ivanka, but it had been more than seven years since he heard her called by her full name.
"Don't you like Ivanka?" she asked, pouting again, except this time it was intentional.
"I like V. Ivanka was an unhappy little girl who some bastard coach thought he could boss around. V is a confident, sexy, funny girl who plays Russian spies with my son."
She laughed at the mention of Alex's favorite game. "My father would kill me if he knew about that."
"Then we better not mention it tomorrow," Austin said. Then he turned serious, "No more doubts, V?"
"No more doubts. I want to marry you." Then she turned them back joking again. "We have to marry. We are setting a horrible example for the children in this house."
"This house is full of bad examples already," he said. "There's my general bad behavior between Beijing and London, me knocking Payson up when she was a teenager, Payson marrying a man twice her age…"
He continued to list all of the negative influences they had on Alex and Lottie until V finally shut him up with a laughing kiss, and they started off their wedding day by breaking the 'don't see the bride before the ceremony' rule as thoroughly as possible. He was glad that her doubts were gone. Even though they weren't in love, they were going to have a hell of a lot of fun spending the rest of their lives together.
A/N: Be honest, did you figure out that it was Ivanka? If not, then who did you think it was? I'm really curious to know who everybody pictured with him.
The original idea was for Austin to be sort of this tragic figure who stayed single because he could never find anyone to live up to Payson, but then Laura threw Austin/Ivanka my way and I fell in love with it in a heartbeat. If you're wondering, the name V is short for Evie, which is obviously short for Ivanka. She'll make a few appearances in AF later on.