So the time has finally come for me to go to college! I, for one, am supper excited because I have been trying to get into college for two years and now I can finally do it! In case you have not been keeping up with my Criminals on the Ice story, now that I ma in college it means I will not be posting new chapters/stories as often as I would like. Anyway, this is an idea I took from the My Little Pony episode 'Baby Cakes', so I hope you enjoy.

And yes, as the title of this story implies Mari is married and has children of her own. I guess it makes this AU?


UNCLE YURI

Mari frantically ran around the house as she tried to get organized. An emergency had come up and she had to leave her twin children for the day. As luck would have it, Yuri had some free time and agreed to babysit his niece and nephew. Or maybe perhaps he wasn't her first choice, and Yuri had to do a little bit of begging...

Mari had her doubts. She loved Yuri deeply, but her little brother had never looked after babies before. Unfortunately Yuri was the only person available on short notice. As Mari was almost ready to head out the door, she turned to her little brother.

Yuri was laying on the floor beside the two infants and tickling at their feet. The babies smiled and were cooing.

"Are you absolutely certain you can look after them both while I'm gone, Yuri? They can be a handful. It's hard enough to look after one baby," Mari asked him. She looked stressed by the emergency and worried.

Yuri smiled as he looked up at her. He knew she was worried for her husband when she got a call from the hospital saying he had gotten into an accident. He didn't have any server injuries, but Mari wanted to be sure and spend the day with him until he could come back home. She had enough stress for one day, and she needed to be assured that the little ones were in good hands.

"Don't worry, Mari. Yui and Yuuto will be fine, they're with me!" he assured her.

"That's not what I'm worried about, Yuri!" Mari said. "It's a lot of responsibility!"

Yuri got up and put his hands on her shoulders.

"I've got this, Mari. I can do this."

Mari looked at her brother for a long moment before nodding. "Alright." She wrapped her arms around Yuri tightly and smiled brightly. "Oh, Yuri! You really are the best brother ever!"

Yuri chuckled and helped her gather a few things before she walked out the door. She turned to him as she opened the car door.

"You'll call me the moment somethings goes wrong?"

"I will!" Yuri nodded with a wave. Mari nodded as well, but Yuri could see her nervous smile. He watched her get in the car and drive away.

Yuri went back inside and smiled at the twins.

"So who's ready to spend the day with Uncle Yuri?~" he sang as he expected positivity from the twins. But upon noticing that their mother was now gone they started to cry. Confused and startled, Yuri rushed over.

"H-Hey, don't cry! It'll be fun!"

But the babies continued to cry and cry. Yuri tried to distracted them with their rattles and was rewarded with zero success.

"Please don't cry!" he begged them. He picked them up and tried shushing them, but to no avail. He was beginning to think that maybe Mari was right about him looking after them and that he may have gotten himself into a pickle. He shook his head and dismissed those thoughts. He had to do this! This was important to all three of them! No one could do this but Yuri!

He tried to think about what they needed. Were they hungry? In need of a diaper change? A lullaby? A story? A nap?

"Think, Yuri, think!" he told himself. The crying was starting to hurt his ears now.

He decided to try feeding them and lied them on the couch. He turned to fetch the battles and tripped!

He fell flat on his face without understanding why. It took him a minute to get back up on his feet and brush himself off. He noticed the crying had stopped and giggles were in place. The infants were laughing at his clumsiness!

Yuri was embarrassed at first, but relieved that the twins were no longer crying.

"Yeah...funny," he mumbled. He really didn't see what made it so funny, but at least the babies were not crying anymore.

Yuri left the room to get the bottles and returned a moment later, only to find that his charges were gone! How could that be?! He was only gone for a moment!

He desperately searched for the two and called out for them. He got down on all fours and looked under tables and chairs.

"Yui? Yuuto? Come on, this isn't funny anymore!"

He spotted his nephew and almost had a heart attack. The baby boy was crawling around the electric wires of the computer. He was about to put one of the wires in his mouth, but Yuri rushed to his side. He picked up the boy and got him safely out of the tangle of wires.

"Don't do that to me, Yuuto!" Yuri scolded. "You've could have gotten very hurt, or worse!"

He looked around for Yui, hoping she wouldn't be very far. But she was nowhere to be seen!

"Where's your sister? Please tell me she's not getting into trouble, too!"

He carried Yuuto around with him as he looked for his niece. He didn't want Yuuto to get into mischief again. Yuuto wasn't happy being confined in his uncle's arms and began to squirm and make a fuss. Yuri knew better than to let him go this time.

They found Yui in the infants' bedroom, much to Yuri's relief. But then he noticed she was sucking on a toy and he began to feel worried again. He set Yuuto in the crib and turned to Yui with a frown.

"Young lady, we do not put anything in our mouth that we cannot safely digest!" He took away the toy and put her in the crib as well. "Now, be good and don't do anything like that again!"

The twins began to cry again and Yuri felt a bit bad for being harsh. But he had to. He shushed them and tried to get them to go to sleep, but they wouldn't listen.

"Now what? Are you hungry? I left your bottles in the other room. If you promise to stay put, I'll tell you a bedtime story."

The babies sniffled, but they stopped crying. Yuri left the room, but not before giving them one last glance to make sure they were fine.

He got the bottles and returned to the room quickly. Just in time, too, Yuuto was trying to climb out!

Yuri gasped and grabbed him before the boy could fall and hurt himself. Geez, he only left the room for a second!

"Okay, that's enough excitement!" Yuri said with relief. "You're hungry, right?"

He had to feed the two one at a time, and it was one of those moments he wished he had more arms. Since he was reckless, Yuri decided to feed Yuuto first. The boy seemed content and Yuri smiled with relief. After Yuuto was fed and burped, Yuri lied him down in the crib and picked up Yui to feed.

All seemed to be going well, until Yui decided to vomit on her uncle. Yuri stood there in complete shock while Yui cried. Yuri whimpered in disgust. Baby vomit, so gross!

He changed Yui's clothes and made sure she wasn't feeling ill. She wasn't warm or crying anymore, so Yuri figured she was okay now. He put her down in the crib and the two feel asleep after a promised story from their uncle.

Yuri left the room quietly and prepared for a quick shower after the feeding experience. He walked out of the bathroom a few minutes later, clean and in a fresh set of clothes. He sighed and lied down on the couch. Without meaning to, he feel asleep.


It wasn't long of course because his niece and nephew began to cry and cry again. Yuri woke with an unhappy moan and walked into the infants' bedroom to see what they were crying about.

Yuri shushed and picked them up. He wondered if a noise had startled them, but he couldn't be sure. He tried the rattles again, but they continued to ignore it and cry.

"What can I do?!" Yuri began to panic. "What do they need?!" He was hoping they would vomit again. He tried everything he could think of to distract them from their crying, but it didn't do any good.

He smelled something funny and wondered what the heck it was until he realized the diapers needed to be changed. Yuri hoped that's all it was and got to work on changing his charges. It was a dirty and smelly process, but he managed to change them.

"Is that better?" he asked, removing the clothespin from his nose. It must have worked because the babies no longer cried. Yuri sighed with relief and disposed of the dirty diapers.

He turned back to the two and noticed they were getting in trouble again. Yui was sucking on another toy and Yuuto had climbed out of the crib!

"Yui, what did I tell you earlier?" Yuri frowned as he approached the crib. "We don't eat our toys, only food!" he carefully, but forcefully took the toy from her and set it out of reach. Yui started crying again and Yuri felt a headache coming on. He didn't even know what type of trouble Yuuto was getting into yet!

He picked up the crying Yui and looked around the house for the infant boy. Where did he go? He didn't want to leave Yui alone and risk her getting into trouble again, so he had to carry her around with him.

"Yuuto? Where are you? Please tell me you're somewhere you won't get into trouble?"

He heard giggling and looked around, yet there was no sign of the boy. He passed by a slightly opened closet and spotted Yuuto...playing with mothballs.

Yuri gasped and sat Yui down. He made a dive and grabbed Yuuto before he could eat the mothballs. The babies began crying again as Yuri took them both to their room.

"I'm sorry," Yuri said as he put up the crib slat. "But I'm only trying to be responsible." His eyes began to swell with tears as he kissed their little heads.

"I...I've just been trying so hard to be a good uncle to you and I feel like everything I've done makes things worse. Maybe I am not cut out for this..."

He didn't notice that the two had stopped crying and started crying himself. "I just wanted to prove to your mother, to everyone, that I can handle this on my own! That I can be the person you would look up to! But it's so hard to know what you want or need! I just wanted us to spend time together, that you would like me! I've tried so hard, but now I fear I haven't done anything good and that I'm not cut out to be your uncle!" It felt good to let all his inner feelings out.

It was then that he noticed the twins were not crying or fussing anymore. They stared up at their uncle with big, confused, and worried eyes. Yuri got himself a tissue and blew in it.

"I'm sorry...I feel better now, I think. I just had to let it all out..."

The babies began to smile at him as if glad he wasn't crying anymore. Yuri found himself smiling, too. Without understanding why he began to chuckle a bit.

"You know...I do feel better now. Thanks, you two."

The babies began giggling and cooing at their uncle. Yuri picked them up and sat down in a chair.

"Now then, who wants a lullaby?"


Mari returned with her husband Kaito a little while later and she was surprised to find the house to be quiet. There wasn't a mess at all, neither were the babies crying.

"I told you there wasn't anything to worry about," Kaito told her with a smile. He rubbed the back of his neck and whimpered a bit. The accident had caused a bit of a whiplash, yet he tried to look as fine as possible. Mari continued to stare at the state of the house in complete shock.

"But...Yuri's never babysat before. The house can't possibly look this good! Yuri?!"

"Shh!" Yuri hissed as he tiptoed out of the infants' room. "They're asleep."

Mari and her husband peeked inside the room and saw their twin children sleeping peacefully in the crib.

"But...," Mari was at a loss for words. "What about...the house should be a mess."

"I had some spare time," Yuri smiled as he closed the door quietly. "I wanted to make sure you wouldn't have anything to worry about when you both got back."

"Well, I know I'm impressed," Kaito smiled and wrapped his arm around Yuri's head. "I knew we didn't have anything to worry about while you were here."

Yuri blushed a bit and smiled as he pulled his head free. "It was nothing, really."

"You did all of this?" Mari questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah," Yuri nodded.

"By yourself?"

"Yeah," Yuri nodded again, this time with another smile.

"Yuri...I...," Mari's eyes began to swell with tears. She wrapped her arms around Yuri in a tight hug. "I'm so sorry for doubting you!"

"It's okay..," Yuri said, blushing again.

"No, it's not! I was worried that you couldn't do this. But I realize now that all that worry was for nothing. I'm really, really sorry!"

"No big. But you're squishing me now.."

Mari finally let him go and Yuri helped her bring Kaito to bed.

"You know, Yuri," she said a little while later. "Seeing Yui and Yuuto earlier...It made me really happy. Do you suppose you could look after them again for me sometime?"

Yuri stared at her for a long moment. Go through all this again?! He hesitated and turned away.

"I don't know, Mari... Victor is coming back from vacation tomorrow, and I'll have to start practicing for this coming season, of course there's also..."

He couldn't finish and glanced back into the infants' room. A small smile appeared as he watched the two sleep and his heart melted. They were not so bad, come to think of it. He actually didn't mind so much. It may have been a crappy day and the first time he had ever looked after babies, but even he knew the twins would want to spend another day with him. He wiped away a happy and proud tear before turning back to Mari with a smile.

"I have some free time Thursday."

THE END