Pardon my writing. Do cringe or squeal as you may.
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Penguins. Vitya doesn't like penguins.
That's why he finally woke up.
Not just because he is well rested. But that dream of swimming with penguins and zebra dolphins just triggered a wet call to his mommy.
Vitya sluggishly sits upright. His small puffy hands naturally rub his closed eyes. "Mommy…" he wails. The moment his mother peeks at the doorstep upon the call, Vitya stands up wobbly, small feet scampering side to side and holds up both hands. "Shi shi… I want shi shi..!"
His water tank is at his limit. Anytime it would burst like a firetruck's hose and go wee woo wee woo.
Vitya's mommy sighs when she spots the discoloured map on his blue dolphin bed sheet as she lifts him. "Vitya… you have to call mommy before you pee, okay?" Yet her helpless warning is already 30 seconds late.
Nibbling his slim forefinger, Vitya mumbles on the way to the toilet, hooking his round chin over her shoulder. "...owie mommy."
.
.
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Vitya stares at the big mirror.
His face barely pops up from the bottom edge of it. Vitya brushes his incomplete set of teeth with his favourite cherry toothpaste.
This is
… a hyper realistic dream.
I can even taste the flavour in my mouth!
Vitya grins at his reflection, tiny tongue poking between his front teeth. The makeshift missing tooth out of foam is now an ugly spittle on the mirror. He spits the remaining foam -just kidding, he swallows half- into the sink, rinses his tiny mouth and finally wipes off the foam on the mirror at close stare.
Vitya tilts his head side to side.
He puffs his chubby cheek with air.
He makes an 'o' shape with his mouth, mimicking a supposedly surprised face.
Then, giggles to his heart's content.
Shoulder-length silver hair, big cerulean eyes, small pointy nose and rosy lips. It is not an exaggeration if he proclaims to be the cutest most charming little child... in the universe -until Yuuri- ever born.
Vitya is so proud of himself.
I almost forgot I have been this cute… can't wait to wake up and tell Yuuri about this!
Hopping off the stool, little Vitya announces that he is ready. Shortly, his beloved mother dolls him up in his light yellow kindergarten uniforms with yellow scarf and a button saying 'like the sun in the sky, I rise and shine' is pinned on for Tuesday.
Yep.
Different pins for each day and Vitya wants to collect the stars for 'perfect outfit'. He never missed one so far.
Vitya likes stars. They sparkle. They shine in the dark.
So he wants to be one. But shine in the light!
Like… clouds? Ice…? Milk…
...
...and that's the limit of his vocab.
Oh well, time to show his new crayons set to his chums!
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7.55 a.m.
Vitya reaches his kindergarten 5 minutes early.
The car stops just before the gate. Swinging his short legs in the fastened booster, his mother turns to him while reaching out to his fluffy poodle backpack at the back seat. She reminds, "Vitya, how do you ask for permission before going to the toilet?"
His small right hand automatically shots up.
"Teacher! I want to toilet!" He says out loud.
Am I this embarrassing as a kid…
"I want to go to the toilet, please. Don't forget to add 'please'." His mother corrects. "Did you have your lunchbox?"
Vitya shakes his fluffy bag with his might. It clatters.
"How about the pasta for your projects?"
Vitya blinks.
He struggles to open the zip. Small hand rummages through the pile of crumpled papers, legos and colour pencils. Vitya pulls out a plastic filled with some rotini, broken spaghetti and a bunch of macaroni.
"Good." His mommy praises him. She pats him on the head gently. "Now, give mommy a tight hug and a lot of kisses!"
Ah… I do remember.
...
Kisses on the cheeks~
head, nose and lips~
a short Eskimo kiss and hug across the ribs~
Hook our pinky and tell mommy this,
'I love you, mommy! More than those kisses~"
…
...I should teach Yuuri this.
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It is finally art time! Vitya is an excited puppy.
Why? Because...he cannot wait to show his dreams! The future that he saw!
Or I share some memories with mini me whatsoever, not that this little Vitya understands anyway.
One thing Vitya knows is he will get married. Because he wears rings! And it is gold! it sparkles! Little Vitya happily sprinkles the glitter over his drawing of a huge ring while humming to the cuppycake song he heard during the morning dance just now. Vitya likes that song. It is cute, like it means for him. The small Vitya cups his cheeks, internally squeals at his wonderful piece of art. Thus, a speck of glitter graces his chubby cheeks resulting in a sparkling blush.
"Teacher! Teacher! I am done! Here, teacher!" Vitya raises his little right hand up, tiptoeing to add a tiny bit to his height from the rest of his playmates. He can't wait to show his dream life!
The young lady with a warm smile claps her hands once and announces, "alright! Let's start sharing your drawings with everyone! Drum roll please…"
The whole squad stops for a while and rapidly taps the table with their petite forefingers as Vitya walks up to the front of the class with all three drawings.
"Tada!" Vitya exclaims as he reveals his first drawing with his head poking to the side. The class harmoniously awes.
Still and all, his clueless mates couldn't really figure out his Picasso art.
Hence, there is a few wild guesses. "...a pacifier?"
"You want to be a baby?"
"I know!" A boy in the middle seat excitedly rises up from his seat. "I saw this in the TV! You want to tutor some useless kid to be a mafia boss!" He explains with a puff up chest.
"No!" Vitya denies, stomping his feet. "This is a wieng…"
Vitya glances back at his drawing. It is a big golden ring with a happy couple and colourful rainbow in the center.
"I know! I know!" This time, that boy raises up his hand. "You want to be that mafia boss!"
The bother passes over his head when Vitya happily continues. "This is a wieng… and and I want to mawie!"
Yet, the same kid still gets in Vitya's hair. "Huh? You want to marry the ma-ffphm"
Thankfully, his desk mate stops the boy from saying nonsense again. While covering his mouth, the sweet little girl says, "go on, Vitya… don't mind him."
Vitya blinks his clear cerulean eyes and hums shortly. "So… I want to mawie… and... I wanna mawie Yuwie! And and be happy! Like wainbow!"
"Who is Yuwie?" One of his playmates interrupts.
"You mean Julie?" The person next to adorable Julie pokes her, making her completely red.
"No! No! Yuwie is Yuwie." Vitya denies again, his voice pitches higher and unconsciously crumples the edges of his drawing when he stresses, "I love Yuwie… vewwy much!"
Before more teasing occurs, the teacher concludes generally as she pats the head of the silver hair. "That's a wonderful dream, Vitya. You will be a great husband that loves his wife."
"But but… teacher~ I wanna hubby…" Vitya pursues his lower lips into an adorable pout.
Yuuri does not need a wife. I am is more than enough.
"So you wanna be a girl?" His friend asks.
"No..! But..." Vitya narrows his eyes at the question at first, before tapping his chin and tilting his head at his second thought. "I am vewy pwetty for my hubby…"
…
There is no lie, right there.
"But only girls get a hubby… and be pretty." That annoying little boy strikes again.
Vitya also has enough. He nudges at the hem of the young lady's skirt. "Teacher~ Bewnie is mean~"
The teacher gives a harmless brief stare. "Bernie, that is not good. Let Vitya tell his dreams first." She warns with a light tone before turning to Vitya with a smile. "Then, what are your next dreams, Vitya?"
Thus, Vitya places down the previous drawing and takes the next one up for a show. "This! I wanna skate with Yuwie! We become staws on ice!"
The second drawing is still the same couple with quite huge ice skating shoes and blueish background of random strokes.
"But two boys can't-"
"Bernie dear, do you want to stand up for the rest of the class?" Her tone is heavy with punishment this time. Kudos to her quick reminder before he could finish his sentence.
"No, teacher. Sorry teacher…" Bernie slowly sits down again. He is much quieter now.
"And the last one?" The teacher curiously resumes.
"Last one… last one…" Vitya mumbles, putting down the drawing back in the middle and takes the rightest one on the table. "Oh! Yuwie and Vitya live happy with manyyy puppies!"
Yeah… Vitya stops counting after twelve. The couple in the drawing are swarmed with fluffy puppies.
"That's great! You love animals. Thank you, Vitya." The whole class claps along with the teacher and Vitya returns to his seat. "Speaking of ice skating, we are on a trip to an ice rink after this!"
The class immediately fills with another round of cheer and applause!
"But first~ who is next? Perhaps Bernie? Aren't you excited just now?" The teacher swiftly controls the mood back to the drawing task.
Sweet payback time~
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This is his first time ice skating.
Well, if we count his future memories, this should be easy. So, why is he not on his feet and lying on the ice rink? Vitya is still in his shock though. His small butt is tingling with pain.
Let's recall the events, after lunch at the kindergarten, they all went to the nearest ice rink. Everyone got a pair of skating shoes, gloves, safety helmet and most importantly, a penguin aid. The rest is cool with Vitya except the penguin aid. Vitya didn't like it. He hates penguins.
He already told the instructor, 'I don't wanna penguin… I can skate!' but the adult took it as his enthusiasm for ice skating and made him the first to demonstrate with the distaste penguin. At first, it was nice and clean as the lady instructor was also moving along with him. So he just needs to follow like a baby duckling.
But the thing is, the penguin aid is the same height as him! He despises it so much! Why must he skate behind a fat penguin that blocks his view? Great! Vitya found another reason to dislike penguins.
Beside the past nightmare of being chased hysterically by one at the petting area in the zoo-ahem! ...I was three! Those birds are the evil one!
Needless to say, he makes a fatal mistake.
Not that it kills him but it still hurts.
During the free roam, his hostility towards penguin drives his urge to lift his right foot and kick the penguin aid's butt- for his own satisfaction. The rest happened comically.
As he wobbly raised his foot, he lost his balance when the leg swung forwards. The handlers slipped from his hands at the same time too. It was futile. The penguin didn't budge much. It just rotated to face him and his undignified fall.
Vitya swore on his pudding that he could hear the poker face penguin screams 'it's karma! You tiny meanie~' as it was his butt that paid the price.
Currently, the penguin aid is still staring down at him. Vitya's eyes grow hotter. Even if he is not the first to fall, he is certainly the loudest to cry.
"I HATE... PENGUINS!" He wails.
Vitya loathes it with a passion now.
.
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On the way home, Vitya tells his mother again with creased little eyebrows and loopside down lips.
"Mommy, penguin is a bully. I don't like penguins." Vitya begins to sob, huffing through his weeny nostrils.
"Don't cry, Vitya. You are a good boy, right?" His lovely mother soothes his head with a quick glance over him. She continues to drive and changes the topic with haste. "What else did you do today, Vitya?"
As quick as you say 'ice cream', Vitya's sour mood flips half-turn. "I dwaw a lot!" He answers with a bright face and goes full rant. "I dwaw Yuwie, I dwaw wieng, a big gold wieng!" Vitya extends both hands. "I dwaw… I dwaw wainbow!" Then, he begins counting on his fingers loudly, "one, two, thwee, four, five, six, seven! ...seven colour wainbow! And puppies! Cute puppies… more than twelve..!" Vitya tries to show it with all his fingers though he only has ten.
He peeks at his two feet. They wiggles.
His cute antic is truly his mother's stress remedies. The lovely woman slips a delighted chuckle at her only son as she playfully pokes his chubby cheeks. "Wow! Vitya, that's great! You, sweet honeybunch~"
"Oh! Mommy~ I wanna skate!" Vitya suddenly exclaims, grabbing her hand. "I wanna skate with Yuwie! I wanna go ice wink… evewyday!"
"Oh, you love to skate, Vitya… Of course~ you can!" She is pleasantly surprised, tapping the steering wheel happily. "But if you wanna skate with Yuri, you need to ask your friend first…"
"But… but… Yuwie… he is not here…" Vitya gradually sounds dejected.
Actually… where is Yuuri right now?
I know he is in bed, beside me, in Russia but… at this moment...
"Then, you have to ask him tomorrow when you go to school." His mother simply states the easy solution.
"Noo… mommy, Yuwie didn't go to school…" Vitya shakes his head slowly and stares at his feet. "Yuwie is not here." He repeats.
"So, where did Yuri live?"
"Um… he lives… he lives… in… um…" His answer has delays in between. Vitya could not find the right word in his limited vocabulary. "that… you know… he… he… that place!"
"Where is it, Vitya?" His mother asks again.
"He… is in…" Vitya certainly knows that place is a far away land. Yuuri must be in his homeland right now. The fact he is nowhere near Vitya wrenches his fragile little heart so much. He wants to meet Yuuri, but... "Yuwie is not here."
"I know, but where? Vitya, how does mommy find him?" She still asks him patiently, knowing well he is struggling.
"Je..pan? Is Yuwie in Jepan?" Finally, Vitya kinda figured out the name. When the realisation hits him, his tears unconsciously well up. "Mommy..."
His mother practically widens her cerulean eyes. "Jepan? You mean, Japan? The country…"
His breath hitches, voice wavering as he repeats, "Mommy, Yuwie is... in Jepan… he… is not... heree…"
Vitya breaks into full cry inside the car. It is much worse. His wail even goes soundless due to unbearable sorrow. Mother could only sooth his back in silence. It is important for Vitya to let it out, all of his emotions.
Oh dear…
"Mommy…" Vitya calls out between his sobs, wiping his streaming tears with his sleeves. "But but I want Yuwie... but Yuwie is not here…"
Looking at her sweet little child bursting in sadness, the loving mother tries to cheer him up once she pulled up the car to the side. "It's okay, Vitya. You can meet him when he comes here again. Don't cry…"
Then, another realisation hits him and it shatters his heart completely. "But Yuwie is a baby…. Yuwie… Yuwie cannot walk…" Vitya lets out a louder cry. "uwaaaa… but I want Yuwie here…"
Taking him out of the booster, she hugs him close, calming him and wiping his tears. "Hush, Vitya… Mommy is still here. Don't worry… you will meet Yuri sooner or later."
That day, the tear jerking journey to home feels the longest.
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Before he goes to sleep, his mother stays with him, combing through his silver locks until Vitya closes his eyes.
"Mommy…"
"Hm..?" the mother traces his tiny nose.
Vitya tells with a little bit drowsy, "I will mawie Yuwie. I love Yuwie…"
She smiles. "Really... Do you love Yuri? Like... a lot?"
"Mm… I love Yuwie a lot…" Vitya slowly nods and blinks his eyes. "Yuwie is nice… and and Yuwie... loves Vitya too…"
"Vitya…"
"Hm… mommy…" He yawns.
"Is Yuri... still a baby?" She bridges his wide open lips with her two slender fingers, staring at him with her softest eyes.
"Mm…" He nods again very slowly and rubs his eyelid. "He is a little bit… teeny weeny than Vitya…"
"I see… Then you have to be nice to Yuri, Vitya." The mother warmly advises and continues to stroke his head. "Take good care of him and make him happy. You must protect Yuri like a hero or a prince…"
"Mm… Okaay, mommy…" His response fades as he is about to enter the slumber land. "I love Yuwie, like I love mommy… I love mommy… and Yuwie."
His mother smiles again. "So, like a family huh… and you want to marry him. Is Yuri really a baby boy- ah…" she pauses. Her son's calm breathing means he is already in a deep sleep. Hence, she softly pecks his forehead and tucks his favourite blanket. "Good night, Vitya. Sleep well…"
…
You are not entirely wrong, mother.
I do love Yuuri. So, I want to have a family with him. That's why I married him.
And I am as happy… as I always wish.
...
That night, Vitya dreams of everything he loves.
Vitya and Yuuri meet and play together. They ride a dolphin. The dolphin also skates on ice. Then, another dolphin joins in. They laugh happily. Like a dolphin trick, Vitya kisses Yuuri.
Vitya sleeps peacefully with the softest smile.
Tomorrow,
Let's ask mommy how to kiss Yuuri properly tomorrow.
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-extra-
Finally, for real, Viktor Nikiforov woke up beside his lover from a deep slumber.
Even with his skeptical stare through the blue-rimmed glasses, Viktor greets him anyway with his happiest grin. "Yuu~ri, mornin'..."
Yuuri blinks. He pushes up his glasses as he states what has been bugging him and woke him up earlier than usual. "...Viktor, you laughed in your sleep, twice."
As a result, Viktor turns to face him completely, closing their distance to a whisper. "Really..?"
Yuuri nods several times. "It crept me out at first but…" he pauses, his left hand gently touches his lover's cheek before curiously asks, "what did you dream of?"
Viktor hums for a while. His mind is still patching up the gap in the dream. So, his right hand naturally reaches Yuuri's extending one on the side of his face. His gold ring is sure sparkling under the morning rays.
Thus, his blue green eyes grow wider. Viktor immediately sits up on the bed, pulling Yuuri with him.
"Hey, Yuuri~ I just remember this. I want to teach you something!" The bed bounces along with his excitement.
"Huh..? What is it?"
Despite Yuuri's confused gaze, Viktor begins. He places both hands along Yuuri's jawline with his fingertips featherly touching his earlobes. Taking his sweet moments, Viktor's smiling lips make it to both sides of his face.
Kisses on the cheeks~
Then, softly lands on his forehead,brushing past his glasses and towards his nose tip, and finally a warm peck over his slightly parted mouth.
Head, nose and lips~
"Viktor, wha-" Yuuri's surprised response is cut with onslaught affections as Viktor brushes their nose together side to side along with a bone breaking hug that topples them back onto the bed.
Yuuri couldn't help but titters, being happily attacked. "Wh-why are you being cuddly?"
a short Eskimo kiss and hug across the ribs~
Next, Viktor lifts up his face a little, waving his pinky finger. "Yuuri~"
Hook our pinky and tell me this,
Reading through his actions, Yuuri encircles their pinky together. When the calm seas meet warm chocolate pools in tranquil pause, the latter awaits.
Viktor beams, radiates with adoration, realising his tiny wishes are all fulfilled!
Happily he says, "I love you, Yuuri. More than those kisses~"
Fin.
before Ice Adolescence, there is Ice Baby. Behold~
Btw I know how messy the dialogues are, but children -as far as I taken care of and not all- speak that way at early age. Just replace those mispronounce as 'w' with 'r'.
I am not sorry for making Viktor hates penguins with burning passion. it is cute!
Short and jumpy, still an enjoyable result. Thanks for reviews! Favs! Follows! until next stories~