See some of the many other chapters for the disclaimer, okay? I really got a spark for some more chapters. I don't have much else to say, so enough of this A/N, on with the fic!
Natalya curled up in the bed, holding closely onto the blankets. Toris was still not in from the airport. She knew that Feliks did not get in until late but also wanted to stop for food along the way. There was also a fair distance from their apartment to the airport, so it was going to be some time until he got back. However, she was still worried. Had something happened? She didn't know Feliks and hoped he wouldn't get into trouble with him being a bad influence. Sitting up, she sighed, knowing sleep wasn't coming until she knew Toris was back safe. Heading into the kitchen, she looked around for some tea until she found the last bag of chamomile tea and put the kettle on the stove, waiting for it to heat up. I could just put the mug in the microwave and get a similar effect, but the tea comes out better from the kettle. She thought as she sat on the couch in the living room and looked over the small Ded Moroz coloring book she had made for Dimitri and Nikita's class. Miss Michelle loved it and used a similar idea with her home country of Seychelles and many of the other kids in the class did drawings of what their families did, or if they didn't celebrate Christmas, what they did celebrate and how they did it.
The kettle started to whistle, and Natalya got up and poured the hot water in the mug when the door opened. She jumped up and grabbed a knife. "Stay back!" she yelled.
"Woah, it's just me." Toris said.
"Oh." Natalya sighed placing the knife down and looked around. "It's quite late." She said.
"I'm sorry for holding your Torriboy up." Feliks said running up, placing his bag on the couch.
"Oh I understand." Natalya said politely. "I have been on a long flight with Toris last Christmas to Lithuania.
"Yeah and the flight got delayed and all that. Taking my Krupnik..." Feliks said as Toris followed in carrying his bigger bag.
"How much do you have packed in here?" Toris asked.
"I have my other bags too. Hopefully they survived the trip, the mic an camera gear..." Feliks said as he ran to the car grabbing the boxes.
"I forgot." Toris said smacking his face.
"You've had a tough day." Natalya sighed as the kettle whistled and she got out another cup and poured Toris a cup as well.
"You can say that again. We'd have gotten back a little sooner, but Matthew's boss was too drunk to drive home and we had to walk him to the hotel by the truck stop Denny's he was at. Apparently it happens every now and again. We had the bad luck to be nearby and he kind of put us on the spot." Toris sighed.
"I swear..." Natalya sighed. "Did you get out the spare bedding?"
"Yeah." Toris said. "I have it in the closet." He said as he got out the pillow and blanket for where Feliks was going to sleep.
"Have it!" Feliks said as he placed down the bags and sat down and looked around the room. "So, you are Natalya." He said looking up at her.
"Yes." Natalya said simply.
"Well, you must have charmed Toris somehow" Feliks said. "Don't worry, I will let you guys do what you need to without inviting myself. I have to keep up some of my streaming."
"You do that." Natalya said as she pulled Toris aside. "So, you still want to see the twins tomorrow?"
"Of course." Toris said. "Dimitri was so sad I couldn't make it."
"I have the recording of the pageant so you can watch it if you want to." Natalya said.
"I will do it later." Toris said. "I mean I know Dimitri would be a little disappointed but we can make it up to them tomorrow."
"Okay." Natalya said.
Meanwhile, Francis was looking at the tree as Arthur made himself a cup of tea for the night. She looked up at the tree. It was a simple gold and red with the angel they had since Alfred and Matthew were little. "I cannot wait for Christmas." He smiled.
"I cannot either." Arthur said. "It's kind of like when the boys were young." He mused looking at the tree, taking a sip of his tea. "We will be hosting Christmas day, but both Matthew and Alfred want to do something for family at their places."
"Well Katyusha had told me that she, Natalya and Ivan were working on a Ded Moroz thing. She and Alfred had found the costumes for Ded Moroz and whatever they called his granddaughter, I can't remember." Francis said.
"Oh goodie." Arthur said as he looked at his phone for a tracking update. "The Christmas Crackers I found are going to be here on time."
"Oh those things?" Francis sighed.
"Yes, those things." Arthur sassed back. "They are fun and you get a fun little prize. It's something I think the twins would love."
"They are going to get so spoiled." Francis sighed.
"Oh now you're worried about that?" Arthur rolled his eyes.
The next day, Toris and Natalya got up and got ready to go to Alfred and Ivan's to spend some time with the twins. Toris had felt awful he could not watch the pageant despite how much Dimitri had wanted him to. But it would have been too much for Feliks to get a cab to get to the house. He had to do it. Dimitri had seemed to have understood, but he was still four years old and still was disappointed. They had thought that Feliks would still be asleep but they had found he had folded up the bedding for the pull out sofa and had already hooked up his laptop and camera and editing equipment in a small room they were using for storage and had a small desk in. He took a deep swig of an energy drink and looked back.
"Oh hi there!" Feliks waved as he paused the video he was editing in progress. "I've been up since about 5 this morning, getting this video all edited so my viewers can see how it was coming in."
"Well..." Natalya said, slightly amazed, not sure as to what she was expecting from Feliks. "That actually sounds like a lot of work."
"Tak!" Feliks said. "You may think it's so easy being a famous Youtuber but it is not."
"Famous?" Natalya asked.
"Mainly in Poland and Lithuania." Toris explained. "Apparently when he adds in some English, his viewership grows."
"Oh." Natalya said.
"Yeah, I wouldn't expect a girl like you be into it." Feliks said. "And I must spend some time with you, show you some of the dress designs I came up with Torriboy told me he was marrying you. Mind you, this was just off a picture I saw of you and what would suit how I could take the picture, but nothing like working with the client."
"I suppose." Natalya sighed.
"Oh and you are out of Toaster Strudels. I ate them all. Sorry." Feliks said.
"Well at least you let us know..." Natalya sighed.
"We can pick up some more on the way back." Toris said. "Let's get something quick before we see the twins, I need a coffee, bad."
"Have fun!" Feliks waved as Toris shut the door behind them.
After picking up a quick breakfast on the way to Alfred and Ivan's house, Toris and Natalya knocked on the door, for the twins and Alfred to come up, covered in tinsel. "Hey there!"
"Uncle Toris! Aunt Natalya!" Nikita and Dimitri said as they hugged them.
"Nikita! Dimitri!" Toris smiled. "How have you been?"
"I missed you last night." Dimitri said as Toris picked him up.
"I know, I'm sorry. I hope your aunt explained why." Toris said.
"Yeah. So did Daddy and Papa." Dimtiri said. "Did your friend get in okay?"
"Yes, yes he did." Natalya said as Nikita laughed. "I am more concerned on why you and your daddy are covered in tinsel?"
"Oh, we were starting to put up the tree." Ivan said as he came from behind what Natalya now realized was their tree from the year before. It didn't have very many ornaments on it yet, and Ivan was still holding a bunch of plugged in Christmas lights and looping them around. "I don't want to put the tinsel on until I have the lights finished." Ivan explained as he wrapped some more lights around the tree.
"I see." Natalya said.
"Well, kiddos," Alfred said. "Want to watch the pageant with your Aunt Natalya and Uncle Toris." He then looked at him and said, "Take it you didn't get a chance to watch it last night?"
"No, we did not get in until late because of the delays in Feliks' flight." Toris explained.
"I figured." Alfred said. "So, Dimitri and I thought it a good idea if you can watch it together."
"Natalya, I need to speak with you in the kitchen." Ivan said as he finished wrapping the lights around the tree."
"Sure." Natalya said as Ivan shut the door behind them. "Katyusha has found some Ded Moroz and Snegurochka costumes and thinks it would be a good idea for the twins for us to play them for them."
"Hmmmm... you play Father Frost and I, your sister play his granddaughter?" She smiled with a slight laugh. "I mean, I don't see why not. Alfred and Katyusha both had told me of their desires to have some Russian influences with the children at Christmas."
"We were thinking of doing it New Year's Eve, as per tradition and so it does not interfere with any celebrations of my birthday." Ivan sighed. He never really cared much for birthday celebrations, but Alfred loved doing it for him and he could not deny him the right to do so as it made Alfred happy and part of Ivan loved that someone would do that for him when he never had many friends growing up.
"Will Matthew and Katyusha be on the news again for the count down?" Natalya asked.
"That I do not know. We'll find out soon enough and work something out. Likely have the celebration before they would have to go." Ivan suggested. "But I didn't want to say that out in front of the twins. It would spoil the magic for them."
"Yes, they are too young to have that happen." Natalya said as she grabbed a drink from the fridge, motioning to Ivan if he minded that she did so and he waved to let her know he was fine with it.
"Yes, and while it seems to be going well so far, I don't want them to be traumatized or have bad memories. I mean they do know that their birth parents didn't take care of them. Sherrie and Tom told us that when they first got them, they had just turned 3 and had many questions about why they always had different people taking care of them. They don't have much if any memories of their birth mother and father, but they know why they don't." Ivan said. "And the case worker warned that the older a child was when they were adopted the more likely there would be trauma." Ivan explained.
"Well, you and Alfred seem to be providing them a good home. One that any child in their situation would love." Natalya reassured him. "They were still young when you did adopt them. Maybe you staved off some of that trauma." She sipped the water. "Embarrassment however..." She sighed thinking of Alfred and the tinsel.
Ivan laughed. "It's like Fredka says, as parents, it's our job to be embarrassing. As long as we do not act like his fathers, I don't see any harm."
"I guess covered in tinsel is better than arguing about things then making out in public." Natalya sighed.
"Yes." Ivan agreed.
Meanwhile, Alfred was sitting beside Nikita while Dimitri sat on Toris's lap as Alfred put the play on. Dimitri was going on about his role as cookie elf and how that for the prop, Francis had made a batch of Christmas cookies to be eaten. "That's Miss Michelle's friend Amadou. He asked we call him by his first name and he agreed to be Santa."
"He's from Cameroon and knew Miss Michelle well as they went to college together. He likes to come and help out with the kids." Alfred explained as Toris nodded.
"Grandpear made the cookies, but grandpa wanted to make his scones." Dimitri pouted.
"Scones are not cookies!" Nikita added.
"Yeah, and your grandpa can't bake as well as your grandpear." Alfred laughed.
"Yeah." Dimitri added.
Toris smiled as he watched the recording and Dimitri told him more and more about how much he had fun he had, how hard he and Nikita worked, how he helped color some of the decorations and make the snowflakes that were hung up around and how Miss Michelle taught about Ded Moroz and gave them a coloring paper to show off. Nikita then ran to her room and handed it to Toris. "See!"
"Pretty." Toris smiled.
"Let me get mine!" Dimitri said as he ran to his bedroom and pulled out the picture of Ded Moroz.
"Cool." Toris said as he looked at Dimitri's work. "Did you know that your Aunt Natalya made that for Miss Michelle?"
"She did?" Nikita said.
"She did." Toris nodded. "She told Miss Michelle of the story and thought it would be good to teach the class to learn more about Christmas around the world."
"Cool!" Nikita said excitedly. "Amadou brought in some fufu and it was pretty good."
"What's that?" Toris asked.
"It's made from plantain." Dimitri said. "They're like bananas."
"Sounds good." Toris said.
"Yep!" Nikita said.
Alfred looked at the door and knew that Ivan and Natalya were still talking. "So, I was trying to think of something to do for Ivan's birthday. It's the 30th."
"Papa's birthday is coming up?" Dimitri said as he perked up.
"Yep." Alfred said.
"Let's take him to Pizza Party Planet!" Nikita said.
"Okay, I know that's what you like, but it is your papa's birthday. He gets to pick what he would want to have for his birthday dinner." Alfred said.
"I'll go ask him!" Nikita said as she jumped off Alfred's lap and ran into the kitchen, opening the door.
"Okay I will contact Katyusha about that and make sure it fits-" Ivan began as he saw the door open and that Nikita was standing in the door way. "What is it Malenʹkiy?" He asked, hoping she didn't hear much more than what they had already said.
"Oh, Daddy told me that for your birthday you got to pick where to go, and he said you might not want Pizza Party Planet. So I wanted to ask what you would like." Nikita said as Alfred came up to her in the doorway.
"Did she bust in on anything that she shouldn't?" Alfred asked.
"Nyet" Ivan smiled. "But I think Natalya and I have most everything settled. Have you shown your Uncle Toris the pageant video?"
"Yes." Nikita said as Alfred picked her up.
"It was quite a showing." Toris said as he was followed by Dimitri. "The twins did a good job on it."
"Yeay!" Dimtiri smiled.
Ivan, seeing that his discussions of his and Natalya's eventual Ded Moroz and Snegurochka performance would be with the twins nearby, he looked around, "Well, now that you two are caught up on what the twins wanted you to see," He began looking at Natalya and Toris, and the fact Alfred and Nikita still had tinsel on their heads. "do you mind helping us finish decorating the tree"
"Pweeeze?" Nikita and Dimitri said looking at Toris and Natalya with puppy dog eyes.
"I guess we can." Natalya said.
"What about Feliks?" Toris said.
"He's got a ton of footage to edit, remember?" Natalya said. She honestly was not wanting to spend too much time with him just yet. While he didn't seem too bad a person, he did seem rather obnoxious for her liking and it made her rather concerned. Why, she did not know, but she also had to look over his designs for the wedding dress. And that made her think of the fact that she and Toris were indeed marrying and they still had nothing really planned. They had been asked about a date, and all they had was some time in the summer. As she saw Toris pick Dimitri up and help him place an ornament on the tree, she smiled. "Well, we shouldn't really drag this out." She turned to Toris, "Can you come here?"
"Sure darling, what do you want?" He asked as she headed to a corner while Ivan helped Nikita put up an ornament that was made in class with her class picture on a snowflake.
"I think that we should have a date decided by Christmas." Natalya sighed. "It would give Feliks time to plan better, and well time to get the dress made."
"Oh that's wonderful news." Toris said hugging her. "Motina ir tėvas were asking me and all I could tell them was summer some time."
"And of course will have the twins be the ring bearer and flower girl." Natalya said.
"Wouldn't have it any other way." Toris said. "You know they would want something to do with it."
"Of course." She smiled as Alfred was helping Nikita to wrap the tinsel around the tree, which was much more decorated now.
"Hey guys, can you hand me the angel on the coffee table there?" Alfred said.
"Sure." Toris replied.
"Okay so Dimitri and I are going to put the angel on top of the tree with Daddy and Papa's help." Nikita explained.
"Sounds like fun." Toris smiled. "We'll be sure to get the picture."
"Send it our way too guys." Alfred added. "I want so many pictures of the twin's first Christmas with us, it's crazy."
"Fredka, there's going to be an album of Christmas only if you keep taking pictures." Ivan replied slightly exasperated but still happy. He shared much of the same joy and anticipation that he did to have their first Christmas as a family, but one thing that Ivan noticed that Alfred did a lot was to take so many pictures.
"So?" Alfred said as he took Nikita by the waist and Ivan took Dimitri as each of the twins held onto a side of the angel.
Ivan rolled his eyes. "Okay, ready?" The twins nodded. "tri, dva, odin" Ivan began. "Put it on!" With this the twins placed the angel down and smiled.
"Nice job you two!" Alfred said as he tossed Nikita up and caught her and Ivan hugged Dimitri tightly. "Got the pic?" He asked Toris.
"Indeed Mr. Alfred." Toris waved.
"Great." Alfred smiled. "I will now have one more pic to print out along with the pageant's."
"Indeed." Ivan smiled.
Looks like I will have to talk with Feliks about the dress after all, some of the designs did not seem too bad. Natalya thought as she looked upon the twins with a smile.
Translation Guide
(obtained from Google Translate)
Tak-Polish-Yes
Malenʹkiy-Russian- little one.
Nyet-Russian-No
Motina ir tėvas-Lithuanian- Mother and father.
tri, dva, odin-Russian-Three two one
So how was that? Good? Bad? Short? Long? Let me know in a review. I don't have much to say on this chapter in particular, so remember the usual, remember to read, well you just did and to review. Ciao for now,
otherrealmwriter
aka
Realm.