Oh, sleeping in…How I've missed you. That's one of those shitty things that comes along with preseason. Don't get me wrong. I love skating, but getting up so early to practice was my own private Hell. And I know I wasn't the only one in my condo that thought mornings should be abolished altogether. If Yurio had his way, all of his practices would be at night, too.
Damn…That kid clocked out around 10:30 last night and he's still sleeping? It's almost ten o'clock now. You deserve it, though, baby. Celestino's probably working you to the bone at practice and you haven't had time for your midday nap. Looks like it's just going to be Nadya and me making breakfast then. Not that I'm complaining. As long as she kept out of the flour, we'd be fine.
"Morning, Violet," Gene sat at my kitchen table with today's Wall Street Journal and a cup of coffee, blissfully unaware that he just scared the shit out of me.
"Good morning…?" I gave him a look after I came down, "Uh, Gene…? How in the hell did you get in my condo? And how long have you been in my kitchen?"
"Celestino gave me a key," he showed me the ring on a little purple star keychain, "And since eight o'clock. The start of my shift."
"New rule," I decreed, "No coming here until at least nine on days I don't have practice. And text me first, so I don't have a heart attack first thing in the morning."
"Sorry," Gene put his paper down, "Do you want me to go?"
"You're already here," I allowed, "I don't care if you stay."
"Yay!" he went back to his stocks and his black coffee, "Did you need anything?"
"No thanks," I got some coffee of my own, "I'm good."
"Alright," Gene turned the page, "So, how'd it go last night with you and your little guy?"
"He hardly made it past ten," I awed, getting some mixing bowls out of my upper cabinets, "We played Skyrim for three hours and he fell asleep on me. He's still sleeping, though, so we should keep it down."
"Yeah," he nodded, "No problem. You know, Vi, feel free to laugh at my ignorance, but what the hell are you making?"
"Breakfast," I already had flour and eggs on the counter, "When I was in Japan last year with my boys and my Victor…"
"Your Victor?"
"My ex-husband," I clarified, "But when we were in Japan, Yurio thought the crepes in Harajuku were the coolest thing, so we went for crepes before competition. They quickly became one of his favorite foods, so I thought I'd make my baby some nice-looking Harajuku style crepes."
"You know how to do that?" Gene wondered.
"Yep!"
"Where'd you learn to cook?" he teased, "You kind of strike me as the type that the only thing you're good at making is reservations."
"I had a few good teachers," I admitted, putting my biggest frying pan on the stove, "I used to be the type to only make reservations, but uh…"
I started to get a little uncomfortable. Not full blown triggered, but just a little uncomfortable. Learning how to cook was a strange form of therapy for me for so long. A lot of things came flooding back into my memory. Between my hospital stay and the wicked nightmare that still haunted me from Tokyo about how Yurio could've easily fallen into that path, I couldn't help but go completely blank for a minute or two.
"Violet?" Gene snapped me out of whatever haze that put me in, "You ok? I lost you there for a sec."
"Sorry," I came to again, "I learned to cook out of necessity. When I first started skating, I was struggling with an eating disorder, so to help with that, Victor taught me a lot. Celestino's mom wouldn't let me leave her kitchen for a while. And now, I can make a lot of Russian food better than Victor can. Saying the same for Mama Cialdini, though, is sacrilegious. She'd find out somehow and get on the next flight to the states just to kick my ass personally."
"Sounds like a sweet lady," he giggled.
"She really is," I remembered Celestino's mom with a great fondness, "That was a post-season that I will never forget. If her not letting me leave her kitchen wasn't working, my inability to move would've worked wonders. Mama Cialdini's cooking is definitely a gift from God. That's for sure."
Then, the soft shuffling of little, tired feet came out into the living room and toward the kitchen, "Mama...?"
"Morning, Yuri," I headed straight for the fridge and got Yurio his usual morning poison of choice.
"No," he shook his head, "I don't want apple juice."
"Are you sure?" I worried, "Yuri, are you sick? You always have apple juice in the morning."
"Can I have coffee instead?" Yurio sat down at the kitchen table, still half asleep.
"Sure, baby," I wasn't turning him down. By the sounds of it, he was in desperate need of it. This is what happens when you oversleep, kid. It feels like a hangover, but a little more forgiving.
"You give your kid coffee?" Gene gave me a look, "Are you high?"
"When did he get here?" Yurio jumped, not expecting to hear Gene's voice so early.
"Eight o'clock," I settled him, putting a cup of coffee in front of him, "And yes, I give my nine-year-old coffee. I know he can handle himself on it. The cafe's our usual stop after practice on the way home. What kind of creamer do you want, Dovahkiin?"
"I don't know," he shrugged, "The kind that doesn't make it completely taste like coffee."
"Any aversion to coconut?" I asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Here," I gave him my cup, "Take a drink of mine. Tell me what you think about it."
Yurio studied the new flavor in his mouth very carefully, "I want that."
"Almond Joy, it is," I made it just right for him and went back to cooking.
"What are you doing?" he looked over my shoulder.
"Making breakfast," I told him, "You know those crepes you liked so much in Japan?"
"Yeah."
"That's breakfast," I smiled, watching Yurio's face light up.
"Really?" Yurio squealed.
"That's right," I promised, "What kind do you want?"
"The good kind I had in Tokyo," he sat back down at the table.
"You're real specific, kid," Gene joked.
"I know what he wants," I shot my baby a quick wink. I've gotten creative with my cooking before. And after seeing the crepe cases in Harajuku, I knew what I could do. Usually, I'd be a little leery about giving Yurio ice cream with breakfast, but for aesthetic sake, why not? And it was only orange sherbet. He'll be fine, "Yuri, come here. You can pour batter, can't you?"
"Ok," Yurio got up from his chair and took the cup I had the batter in.
"Be careful, sweetheart," I warned him, "Don't burn yourself."
"I won't."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gene putting two and two together in his head. And I didn't like where it was going. I just hope to God he knew when to keep his mouth shut. It's bad enough we've brought up my problems today. We didn't need to do that with Yurio, too. I didn't even know how sensitive he was about that. Before things could even get to that point, I broke the silence.
"So, Yuri," I gave him a little poke to the hip, "The world is our oyster. What do you want to do today?"
"I don't know," he shrugged, "Maybe play some more Skyrim?"
"Are you sure about that?" I looked him over, "You didn't sound too enthusiastic about it."
"No," Yurio came clean, "Don't get me wrong. Last night was really fun. But I'm not really in the mood."
"Neither am I," I agreed with him, "Come on, Yuri. If you could do one thing in the whole world today, what would you want to do?"
"Actually, Mama..." he blushed a little, "I really want to skate with you again."
That caught me a bit off guard. Yet, all the same, it warmed me inside, "Really? You want to skate with me?"
"Please?" Yurio begged, "It's been forever since we got to skate together and when I ask Celestino about it, he always says no. Please, Mama? Please, please, please?"
"Alright," I giggled, shaking off what Celestino said. He and I were going to have to have a little talk very soon, "We can skate together for a while. But because we don't want to make Celestino mad..."
"Why not?"
"Because," I explained, "If Celestino isn't happy, no one's happy. That goes for both of us. If you think you work hard at practice now, when he's angry, it'll only be worse. And we don't want that, do we?"
"No," Yurio shook his head, damn near giving himself whiplash.
"So, we can't go to the home rink," I flipped the first crepe. That's going to Yurio. Baby needs his strength if we're going skating today.
"Then, where are we going?" he wondered, drawing a complete blank.
"We'll have to go to the Coney Island rink," I smiled, "Is that ok with you?"
"Can we play on Coney Island, too?" Yurio asked meekly.
"Of course," I started building his crepe while another one was on the stove, "Stay and man the stove, ok?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Gene?" I offered, "You want one while Yurio's cooking?"
"No," Gene declined, "I don't want to be an imposition."
"So, make you one anyway," I figured.
"Yes, please."
"You think Victor and Uncle Chris and Yuri want any?" I looked down at my sous chef.
"They don't deserve it," Yurio decided.
"Alright," I wasn't going to fight him. While he kept going with the stove, I got to decorating. If I'm making crepes for Yurio and he wanted them nicely decorated, I could only make one thing for him. I got the orange sherbet out of the freezer and took the ice cream scoop out of the holder on the counter. Precision was key now. In through your nose and out through your mouth, Violet. Let's do this.
I started with a line of sweetened cream cheese filling on the inside. I was going to let a little leak out from the back to make a tail, but I had other plans. Now, face. One perfectly rounded ice cream scoop of sherbet and a melon baller sized scoop cut in half for the little ears. Things were starting to take shape! For around the mouth, I used a spurt of whipped cream and did one on the back for the tail. Fortunately, I had some writing icing left from last Christmas, so I used the black to make some striping on the head and the face and some whiskers and a couple of eyes. There!
"Yuri," I relieved him of his stove duties, "Go sit down. Yours is all done."
"Mama!" Yurio caught a glimpse of it, "It's a little tiger!"
"Better than the ones in Harajuku?" I wondered.
"Definitely!" Score one for Violet being the best and most extra mom in the world right now.
"Wow, Violet," Gene awed over it just as much as Yurio did, "You have a hell of a talent here."
"Thank you," I beamed, taking pride in my work, "Any requests?"
"No," he shook his head, "I'm a simple creature. I take my crepes plain anyway."
"Ok," I fixed Gene's crepes up and started on my own. Gene might be a simple creature, but I wasn't. In a perfect world, I'd have some matcha ice cream in the freezer and have matcha crepes, but alas, I'd have to settle. A little bit of strawberry and a little bit of dark chocolate. Not nearly as elaborate as Yurio's, but it's a labor of love I'm willing to give.
Once breakfast was all said and done, Yurio and I got our skates and headed to Coney Island with Gene following behind us, making sure we weren't being followed or we won't be picked out of a crowd. I didn't need that and Yurio sure as hell didn't need that. When we got to the rink, it felt like coming home again. We haven't skated at the Coney Island rink since Yuri's birthday and the Lady Marmalade incident. And to make things even better, we had an empty rink.
"Alright, kid," I tied Yurio's skates for him, "Pick a song."
"I have one," Yurio got up and walked on his blade guards toward the sound booth, "I'll be right back."
"Ok," I put my own skates on and skated to the middle of the rink.
"I've never seen you skate before, Violet," Gene admitted, "You any good?"
"I've won international competitions, Gene," I pointed out, "I've got my medals hanging from my mantle. I'm professional."
"I don't follow figure skating!" he defended, "I'm sorry!"
"Don't worry about it," I brushed him off, "But yes. I'm very good at what I do."
"Ok, Mama," Yurio came out to me, "The song should start in a second."
A soft choir began, followed by a heavy beat and a light piano. I knew this song. I never expected Yurio to be the type to play Beyoncé, but I can't blame him. Even worse, I didn't think he'd play Halo on me. This was one of those songs that hit me way too hard. If I wasn't mentally prepared to hear it, tears were inevitable.
When Victor and I first started seeing each other, this was one of those songs we'd skate to all the time. He always saw me as an angel, even when I couldn't see it in myself. And at the time, I couldn't see it in myself. I was still dancing at the Red Room and escorting on the side. I only saw myself as a glorified prostitute, the furthest thing from pure. Despite all that, he promised me that he still loved me. That I wasn't the impure creature I saw in the mirror. But I was not just an angel. I was his angel.
How could he see something like that? Especially then? If anything, he was mine. He took me away from the hell I lived day to day and brought me to the light. I wouldn't say I'm the overly religious type, but I did believe in guardian angels. And on that night, I had two of them. Even now, Victor's trying to be that for me yet again. However, we didn't have that kind of relationship anymore. I didn't need saving anymore. If that was the truth, why couldn't I stop crying?
"Mama?" Yurio skated over to me as I fell to my knees on the ice, "Are you ok?"
"Can I ask you something, Yuri?" I pulled myself together, "Why? Of all the songs you could've picked, why'd you pick that one?"
"Was it bad?" he worried, "Should I have picked something else?"
"No," I wiped my eyes, making sure he didn't see me crying, "It's not that. Answer me. Why'd you pick that song?"
"I don't know," Yurio freaked a little, curling into my lap, "It's been on my mind a lot lately. It's not my fault Victor's been playing it on a loop!"
"Alright, alright," I wrapped my arms around him, suppressing another wave of tears. Here he was, worrying about me. Victor needs to worry more about himself, by the sounds of it, "And it is a good song. I'll give you that."
"So," he looked up at me, "You're ok?"
"Of course I am," I kissed the top of his head, "Why don't we get one more routine in and we'll go to the café, ok?"
"Ok…"
Now, I couldn't help but worry…
Victor, are you ok?
A/N: I'm sorry. This made my heart hurt, too. Actually! Fun Lumi fact of the day: I don't know if I've told the story of Halo yet. But I'll tell you here. Halo has a very special place in my heart. Normally, I don't listen to a lot of Beyoncé (I know. That's borderline heresy on the internet), but one day, long time ago, around the time Halo came out, I was feeding my nephew his morning bottle. He was probably eight months old at the time. But mentally, I was in a really bad place that I didn't think I was going to come out of and Halo came on the TV. It hit me so hard in my heart and I started crying a little bit. My little baby nephew's hand, I shit you not, came up and wiped the tear off my cheek. That kid's going to be ten in June and I was telling him about it not too long ago. He thought it was the sweetest thing. So, I thought I'd throw in Halo for something special between Violet and Victor, too.
Now, friends, we have a new friend to welcome into the fold. So…And don't tell them I sent you…If you want to go to Bigcatlover1's profile and follow and favorite and be super, super nice, that'd be really cool of you. Because they're a sweetheart and deserve some follows, too. Alright? Alright. If you'll excuse me, I have a really messy desk I need to clean up and a bulletin board to situate and a message to answer. I'll see you next chapter! xx