See any of the many previous chapters to get the disclaimer. I want to thank all you all who have faved, reviewed, watched or even just read this story since I have started. I normally take a long time to update and get to this point but your encouragement really helps me along. Anyway, enough of this A/N, on with the fic!
The next few months were busy for everyone. Toris and Natalya had spent most all their time studying and finishing their degree requirements. Matthew and Katyusha had both hardly slept much since Charlotte was born and with the family leave up, he had to return to work at the station and be able to put his sleepiness aside and act like nothing was draining him for the cameras. There were times that he said he drank more coffee than Alfred did durining finals week in college. He hated having to leave Katyusha alone to take care of the baby most all the day but between work and helping with the housekeeping, it was wearing them both down. Arthur and Francis both had come up to visit frequently and help them out, this often being the only time they got a good bit of uninterrupted sleep.
Alfred and Ivan were having quite and adjustment for themselves. Sure Nikita and Dmitri were not infants and mostly potty trained, they were still only 3 years old, or three and a half until September when they would be 4 years old and big kids, as they would both proudly correct whoever stated they were only three. Many aspects of their life before adoption had to be changed and while both their jobs were ones where they could work from home most of the time, it was hard to keep an eye on them while finishing a project. Alfred was finding himself just wishing they were old enough for kindergarten just so he could have time to work on his projects in peace. Ivan had suggested that one works during the day other toward the night but after two weeks of this idea, even with them being telecommuters, it cut into the family time and bonding, something Ivan had stressed they have. Nikita was becoming rather moody because she could not see Natalya as much as she would like, despite the many times both Alfred and Ivan had tried to explain to her that she had to study to get good grades and that stealing her Papa's phone to try and call her and convince her to come play with her was not allowed, she still was mad at Natalya thinking she was ignoring her. Ivan figured an email to her would let Natalya know what happened so she could read it when she had a chance to when she was not studying. But it was soon after there was a call.
"Natalya!" Ivan said in shock when she had called his phone back. "I was not expecting a call from you."
"I just checked my voice mail. I will say that I did not expect Nikita to call me like she did!" Natalya yelled.
"Do not worry, I have told her not to do that again." Ivan said.
"But I am worried." Natalya began. "About Nikita. She sounded very upset."
"She does like spending time with you, yes but you need to focus on your school work. You've almost got the degree and you were helping Toris with his." Ivan reminded her.
"I am doing fine, my professors say so. Put Nikita on." She demanded.
"I will." He sighed as he headed to the corner he had put her in for a time out after he had caught her. "Nikita..." He said as he tapped her on the shoulder.
"What you big meanie Papa..." Nikita sulked.
"Your Aunt Natalya got your call. She wants to speak with you." Ivan said as he handed her the phone.
"Yello?" Nikita asked with hints of tears in her voice.
"I see you answer the phone a lot like your dad." Natalya said with a smile. In her eyes Nikita saying it was cute, Alfred was childish and stupid.
"Yeah huh." She said energetically at him being mentioned. "Papa, Dmitri and I watched his baseball game the other day and he hit it out of the park. I want to do that. Mr. Allen says I am doing great on my tee ball team. I wish you could see it Aunt Natalya. But you're ignoring me."
Natalya felt a pain in her heart. Yes, she should stay firm in her and Ivan's stance on what she did, after all Natalya had schooling that was very important to take care of. And if she was to be a true role model to Nikita, who looked up to her so, she needed to pass with the same standard that she had been so far. "I am sorry I could not make it. I am sure your papa told you about the schooling I have at college. I have many big tests coming up and I have been studying hard."
"You forgot about me..." Nikita sulked.
"No, I did not. You see your daddy and papa told me you look up to me. Think I am pretty awesome." Natalya said as she skimmed her book.
"You are awesome Aunt Natalya." Nikita said.
"Well I want to be worthy of that. And to do that, I have to study. My professors, teachers are saying I am doing a great job. I want to finish with that great job for you my little plemyannitsa" Natalya said.
"What is plemyannitsa?" Nikita asked.
"It is Russian for 'niece'. Has your papa been teaching you?" Natalya said.
"I know koshka is cat, as our big fluffy grey cat we adopted from the shelter is named that." Nikita said. "and malen'kiye is little ones, it's what Papa calls us."
"Well, ask your papa to teach you and Dmitri more." Natalya said. "And tell your papa you are sorry for stealing his phone. I am sorry I didn't call to check on you more often. But do you understand why I cannot visit as often as I would like?"
"I guess so." Nikita sighed.
"I promise you though, once I do finish this and graduate, I will celebrate with you and your brother." Natalya said.
"Will Uncle Toris be there too? Dmitri likes him and he's really fun." Nikita said
"I will ask him, but I think he can." Natalya said. "Now apologize to your papa. I will talk to you later."
"Study hard!" Nikita said.
"I will. I love you my little plemyannitsa" Natalya said.
"I'm not little! I'm older than Dmitri!" Nikita said
Natalya rolled her eyes. "Okay, my big plemyannitsa. Is that better?"
"Yes." Nikita said.
"Now go apologize to your papa. I have to go." Natalya said.
"Okay. Bye bye..." Nikita said.
"Oh and he will tell me if you had not apologized. Don't make me sad you didn't."
"I won't. I am going now!" Nikita said as she hung up and run over to Ivan who was standing in the corner watching her. She gave him his phone and started to cry. "I am sorry for being bad Papa. I didn't know I was causing a problem for Aunt Natalya. I just wanted to talk to her so bad! I miss her. I didn't mean to be a bad guy and steal from you!"
Ivan blushed and sighed as he saw her crying, shooken up and upset. "It is okay, as long as you learn. Although you will need to do one additional chore now then your will, as your daddy says, have served your time."
"Which is?" Nikita asked as she saw Hero come out of the litter box. "Ewwwwww..."
"You will need to scoop out the litter box. I will watch you and help you if something is heavy but if you want your daddy and Aunt Natalya to be proud of you, you must do your punishments and learn from the mistake."
"I will learn..." Nikita said as Ivan gave her the litter scoop and a grocery bag to put the poop in. "I really did learn..."
Ivan took the bag and threw it in the outside trash can and then turned back to Nikita with his pleasant but sort of intimidating smile. "We will see. But what do we do now that we did such a dirty chore?"
"Go wash hands." Nikita said as she headed to the bathroom to wash.
"Hey there!" Alfred said as he was walking with Dmitri to the living room. "This one is in trouble..."
"What for?" Ivan asked as he saw Dmitri's pouting.
"For stealing my phone and calling Toris with it. Then when I found it, he called me "Mr. Alfred.' like Toris does," Alfred sighed. "So I had him take out the trash in my office. I mean I don't want it too harsh."
"So, let me guess, he took your phone, called Toris because he thought that he was ignoring him and didn't like him anymore?" Ivan sighed rolling his eyes as Nikita shut the bathroom door behind her.
"Yeah actually." Alfred replied surprised. "How did you know?"
"Because Nikita just got caught doing the same thing. Hero made his presence in the litter box known," Alfred stuck his tongue out knowing what that cat could do. "Natalya had called and I overheard the conversation, she told Nikita why she hadn't been calling and why she shouldn't do that again."
"Toris did much the same." Alfred sighed. "Those two are so in synch it is scary."
"Must be a twin thing." Ivan said.
"I don't recall anything like that with Mattie and I..." Alfred said.
"I mean I do recall when we were in college how he could sense things about you you were in denial about, and it could be funny how he knew what you were going to say." Ivan smiled at those memories.
"Dude we were like 21 or so at the time. We grew up together." Alfred said. "But when we were little I don't remember us being so linked like Nikita and Dmitri are."
"Well I will have to ask your fathers then." Ivan smiled.
"Ask us what?" Arthur said as the door opened.
"Why you didn't knock for one..." Ivan rolled his eyes.
"Grandpa! Grandpear!" Dmitri and Nikita said as they ran up to Arthur and Francis hugging their legs.
"Just because your grandpas are here does not mean you two are not still in trouble." Ivan said.
"Oh ho ho ho ho..." Francis said. "What are these two getting up to? Not even biologically related and already acting like your daddy?"
"Oh these two apparently took Fredka and mine's phones and called Toris and Natalya because they missed them so." Ivan explained. "We really need to set a security lock on those things."
"And I have a ton of apps to delete. There's tons of dinosaur games on mine..." Alfred sighed.
"So Dmitri got to yours." Arthur said.
"Yep called Toris." Alfred sighed. "And apparently Nikita did the same to Natalya."
"Well while that was very wrong for you to take your papa and daddy's phones without asking, I do find it sweet the notion you like Natalya and Toris enough to do that." Arthur smiled while wagging his finger at the twins.
"Well it's soon their bedtime anyway." Alfred sighed.
Dmitri looked on sadly. "Do I still get a story despite being bad?"
"Of course you do." Alfred smiled as he rustled Dmitri's hair.
"Why not let us do it you two? It's been so long since I had seen my petits enfants." Francis said as he looked at the twins.
"You sure you want to?" Ivan asked.
"Of course," Arthur smiled. "That is if you two are happy with it."
"Yeay!" the twins said.
"Well looks like they had spoken." Alfred smiled.
"They each have a storybook by their bedside and we've been reading them a chapter a day." Ivan informed. "It's marked where they are at."
"Sounds wonderful." Arthur said as the twins jumped up and down.
A few weeks after the stolen phone incident, Nikita and Dmitri were sitting at Matthew and Katyusha's house where Arthur and Francis were looking after Charlotte as well as the twins. It was the graduation ceremony. Both Toris and Natalya had passed their finals with distinguished honors. Natalya had invited her brother and sister and Toris had invited Alfred as well. Matthew had wanted to come but Gilbert said he needed him at the studio to help keep the ratings up. Katyusha was worried she would have to miss her younger sister's graduation and Alfred had offered to watch the children while Ivan and Katyusha had attended but since Toris had invited him, Katyusha had wanted him to come and then contacted Francis and Arthur who had agreed to sit the kids during the ceremony as having an infant and two three and a half year olds at a very long graduation would cause nothing but trouble. Ivan, Alfred and Katyusha were sitting next to Toris's parents. Before the students were to walk across the stage, Toris had spoken to Ivan who had come back to the seat looking rather stern. "What's up?" Alfred asked as Ivan sat down.
"Just had a talk with Toris. He made me promise not to tell what it was about."
"Oh." Alfred said. "Is it good at least?"
"Well, maybe, I don't know quite how to say it." Ivan said. "But he requested all of us and his parents to meet him at the library." Ivan sighed.
"You remember the way right?" Alfred smirked.
"Yes." Ivan smiled back. "How many times have we gone there, planning to study and work on our assignments and done other things..."
"More than anyone would care to know." Alfred laughed. "One could say we were studying biology and anatomy more than what we were supposed to be..."
"Hush!" Ivan said firmly tapping Alfred on the shoulder as the dean of students began his speech. "Natalya has a speech to make."
"I am recording it for Matvey and to show the children." Katyusha smiled as she held up a video camera.
"I don't know about Dmitri, but Nikita would like it." Ivan said. "She idolizes her so much."
"She's not going to understand half the words Natalya says..." Alfred replied. "And I don't mean by her accent." He said rolling his eyes at Ivan's look. "I mean she won't understand what the words mean."
"Not yet." Ivan agreed. "But it can be a source of inspiration as our little girl grows up. Be it to the Majors as she wants right now or something else."
"God to have my little Nikita be the first woman in the majors..." Alfred smiled at the image. "She'd be so awesome on the Red Socks...or the Phillies..."
"Oh Matvey wants to teach the twins how to ice skate and play hockey." Katyusha added. "Says he wants instruction experience for when Charlotte gets older."
"Well I don't know..."Alfred began as Katyusha's eyes began to water.
"Sure we will big sis!" Ivan smiled, not wanting Katyusha to start crying.
"Wonderful! I will tell Matvey when we get home! He will be so happy!" Katyusha smiled and focused back on the stage where Natalya had walked up to the podium and began to give her speech.
"I think Katyusha knows how to cry on command..." Ivan whispered to Alfred so that Katyusha could not hear.
"Cut her some slack. Besides, the twins are loveable, who wouldn't want to spend time with them?" Alfred smiled. " And in a little under 20 years, we'll be here and they'll call up Nikita Braginsky-Jones and Dmitri Braginsky-Jones and they'll get the loudest cheer from me ever."
"They don't have to go where we did..." Ivan sighed. "Would be nice," Alfred nodded. "But in the end what they do is their choice. We must support them to do their best."
"I know." Alfred sighed. "No matter what, I do have college savings funds started for them. I did it the next business day after the adoption was final. Dad wouldn't let it go until I did so."
"Well Arthur has a good point." Ivan said as he paid attention to his youngest sister's words as she spoke of determination and dedication and how hard work can lead to great reward and one must be strong enough to visualize the future and strive to the goals and never give in.
"You think I am waiting till our kids are nearly graduated high school to start saving for that? Hell no! Sucks that Matthew has a few years jump on us." Ivan looked confused. "He started one for Charlotte pretty much the same day. So he's got 3 years more savings than we would for the same time."
"It's the thought that matters Fredka..." Ivan said kissing Alfred on the top of the head as they watched the graduates walk across the stage. "But Nikita and Dmitri have a wonderful future to look forward to. He have to help Dmitri be the best paleontologist he could ever be. And I know Nikita has her heart set on professional sports but she will find something to study as well as a back up."
"I love you so much Vanya." Alfred smiled.
"Ya tozhe lyublyu tebya, dorogaya." Ivan smiled back as the last student walked across the stage, and the dean gave the final speech and the students threw their caps in the air.
"So, Toris told me that you two went here before and you'd lead us to the library and the section he wanted us at?" Toris's father said to Ivan and Alfred.
"Sure." Alfred smiled. "Follow us." At this they led the group the 650 section of the nonfiction section of the library where Natalya was standing with Toris.
"Great, you're all here!" Toris sighed as he turned to Natalya. "I wanted to do this with my parents and your family here where I first asked you out. Now I need to ask you a very big question..." He looked to his mother and father and then to Natalya. She looked on eyes widening. "I met your requirements and even got your brother's permission. Natalya, will you marry me?"
"Oh my..." She paused. Looking at Toris's parents, Katyusha's joy, Alfred's thumbs up that wasn't a flip off in disguise and lastly, Ivan's nod of approval. "Yes. I will." She smiled as Toris kissed her and put the ring that had belonged to his grandmother on her finger.
"Oh this is so wonderful!" Katyusha cried as she hugged both Toris and Natalya tightly. "Not only is my baby sister graduating college but she is getting married! I am so happy."
"Treat her well. I trust you can." Ivan said.
"Good luck dude." Alfred said.
"Thank you all. Now, Natalya, I want to talk with Motina ir tėvas alone for a minute. I had already discussed my education plans but want to a little more." Toris said.
"Go ahead." Natalya said looking at her ring with a slight smile.
Translation Guide
(obtained via Google Translate)
plemyannitsa-Russian-niece
petits enfants-French-grandchildren
Ya tozhe lyublyu tebya, dorogaya-Russian- I love you too darling.
Motina ir tėvas- Lithuanian-mother and father.
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otherrealmwriter
aka
Realm.