Yuri sat on a bench, lacing up his skates and enjoying the silence of the rink. This was something that he always liked. Sometimes he had arrived at skating practices early in order to experience this: the complete and total absence of any human noise, accented only by the hum of the lights as they worked to illuminate the vast space. He finished with his skates and leaned back on the bench, enjoying the quiet.

A loud bang shattered his private sanctuary, followed by a babble of small voices that echoed and bounced around the arena. Yuri sighed in resignation. The children had arrived.

He rose from his seat, already regretting this. Yuuri and Victor had just brought home a new baby, so he had agreed to cover Yuuri's skating classes until the baby was old enough to go to daycare or have a nanny during class times. He watched as the preschool class began streaming in one by one. With a resigned sigh he picked up the clipboard Yuuri had left and walked over to the small group. He counted five children and glanced at the list on the top of his board. He addressed the group. "I'm your new teacher, Yuri Nikolayevich. I'll be here for a few weeks until Yuuri Toshiyavich comes back. He probably told you already, but he has a new baby at home, so he has to take care of the baby for a while. Until then, you're all stuck with me."

He glanced up to gauge the reaction of his audience, but they were all merely staring at him. He shifted a little and continued, "Then let's do attendance so I can figure out who you all are. First up is Matvey Solovev." A little boy with dark hair and eyes raised his hand. "Good. Then Filippa Guseva?" A blonde girl raised her hand. "All right. Then are you two Vera and Slava Zakharova?" He looked at a pair of girls who had to be identical twins. They nodded cheerfully and one of them piped up, "I'm Vera!" The other one glared at her and said, "No you're not, I'm Vera!"

Sensing an argument, Yuri cut them off. "Either way, I just need to know that you're here for right now. The next name I have is Iov Fedoro. I'm guessing that's not you." He addressed the last child standing before him, a little girl with chubby cheeks. She laughed and shook her head. "I'm Alisa."

Yuri glanced at his list. "Yep, Alisa Stepanova. That's the last person I need. Anyone have any idea where Iov is?"

Filippa offered, "He's usually late."

One of the twins added, "Yeah, Yuuri Toshiyavich usually starts without him. He says it's not Iov's fault since he can't drive."

Yuri scrutinized her. "Thank you for that, um…"

"Vera," she supplied helpfully.

The other twin wailed, "No you're not! I'm Vera! Stop being so mean, Slavica!"

Yuri sighed and flipped through his clipboard, hoping that Yuuri had left some notes or instructions on how to deal with these shenanigans. There wasn't anything on the subject that he could find, just some class lists and emergency contact information. Beneath the last page, however, was a sheet of stickers. Yuri peeled off a blue star and stuck it onto the first twin's forehead. "There. You're Slava, right?"

The twin with tears in her eyes nodded vehemently. "Right! She's Slava, and I'm Vera!"

"Okay, Vera. What color sticker do you want?"

Sniffling, she said, "Green!"

Yuri got a green sticker and stuck it to Vera's forehead. She giggled as he said, "There. Should be easy enough."

Filippa wailed, "No fair, why do they get stickers? I want a sticker too!"

Yuri looked around at the other children and was met with three pairs of expectant eyes. Resigned, he distributed stickers to them as well, and was just giving Matvey a yellow star when the door opened and a little boy darted in. He made his way to their group where Yuri greeted him. "I suppose you're Iov Fedoro, then?"

He nodded, and his tightly wound curls bounced a little on his head. Yuri said, "I'm Yuri Nikolayevich. I'll be here instead of Yuuri Toshiyavich for a while. Seems like we're giving everyone star stickers. What color do you like?"

Iov's face brightened. "I like red!"

"Okay. One red star, coming up." He peeled off a red sticker and stuck it on Iov's forehead as the children giggled. "All right. Now that we're all properly dressed–"

"Wait, Yuri Nikolayevich! What about you?" Alisa pointed at his head. "You don't have a sticker."

Yuri stared at her. "I'm an adult. I don't need a sticker."

The outcry from the class was immediate.

"But everyone else has one!"

"Why do adults not like stickers?"

"That's sad. I don't want to be an adult if I don't get to have stickers."

"Come on, teacher, get a sticker!"

"Yeah, what's your favorite color?"

Yuri raised his hands in defeat. "All right, all right! I'll get one." He pulled off a sticker at random and stuck it on his forehead. "There, see? I have one too."

They all stared at his sticker. Filippa exclaimed, "There were gold stickers? I didn't know there were shiny ones! I want a shiny gold sticker instead!"

"Yeah, me too!"

"Do you have shiny purple?"

Yuri felt the corner of his eye twitch. "No trading! Now come on, everyone, get your skates on. Let me know if you need help." He bustled the group off to the benches and spent the next several minutes ensuring that everyone was properly laced in for the practice session. Once he was satisfied, he herded them out onto the ice and assembled them in front of him.

"Now. Yuuri Toshiyavich told me that he wants us to get ready to do one-foot glides, so we'll start doing that today. But before that, I want to see how comfortable everyone is. Go ahead and do a lap around the rink so I can watch you. If you need to hold on to the wall, that's fine. I just want to know how each of you are doing on the ice. Go ahead and go around, I'll be in the middle watching you."

Obediently the children shuffled off, some of them making their way directly to the wall to have something to hold on to. Yuri was pleased to note, however, that all of them looked smooth and confident with their skating. "I guess Yuuri does okay with them," he muttered to himself. They all completed a circuit and came back to stand in front of him. He clapped his hands together and announced, "Okay. Here's where the real work starts."

For the rest of the session Yuri drilled the kids in exercises that would get them ready to skate on only one foot. To his continued surprise, he only needed to make minor corrections here and there in order for them to get the gist of what he wanted. He was getting so wrapped up in the class that it startled him when parents began arriving for pick up. He herded the kids back off the rink and helped them remove their skates this time before dismissing them. He even found himself watching them almost fondly as they walked away, waving cheerfully and shouting goodbyes.

As the last one left, he repressed a sigh. Oddly, the preschool class had left him feeling more drained than a regular practice. He gathered up his remaining energy. He still had another class to teach. Somehow he would have to find a way to soldier through.

When he arrived back home later that day, he was greeted at the door by his husband. Otabek had been sitting in the living room upon his arrival and stood up to give his spouse a welcoming kiss. As Yuri was kicking off his shoes the Kazakh man asked, "How were the classes?"

"Surprisingly fine. Yuuri hasn't done too badly with those kids, so it wasn't too hard to teach them. But it was kinda weird, I felt like the preschool class did better than the older kids. They're a talented group." He walked towards the kitchen, Otabek following behind him.

"Ah, so you like the preschool class."

"What? No, I didn't say I like them! They just weren't little shits like I expected." He reached into the fridge for a beer, then thought of Slava. "Well, most of them anyway." He handed the bottle to Otabek, who pulled the top off and tossed it onto the counter. Yuri nodded his thanks as the bottle was handed back, taking a slow swig. "Anyway, what I'm saying is I think I'll be able to survive until Yuuri takes his classes back."

His husband regarded him with those dark eyes that, in Yuri's opinion, saw entirely too much. At any rate, they never seemed to have any difficulty seeing through him. Yuri shifted under the stare, but Otabek just nodded. "I'm glad you enjoyed it."

Yuri sighed, not bothering to fight against that statement. Instead he said, "Come on, let's finish that movie we started last night."

Other than the incessant teasing of Slava, the preschool class continued to run smoothly for the remainder of that week. On the last day, Yuri was gathering them together at the beginning of class when he heard the arena door open. He was in the middle of placing a shiny green star on Vera's forehead. Without looking up from his task he called, "Do you want a red shiny star again today, Iov? I got some new ones, so there are more colors."

"I prefer blue, personally. It goes with my eyes better, don't you think?"

With horror, Yuri realized he recognized the voice. He raised his eyes slowly to meet the smirking gaze of his friend drawing closer. He sneered, "What are you doing here, old man?"

Victor put on an exaggeratedly sad face as he drew closer. "Aww, don't be like that, Yurio. We just came to visit." He lifted the baby carrier that was hanging from his elbow. As Victor spoke, his husband stepped out from behind him and the children went wild.

"Yuuri Toshiyavich!"

"You're back! Did you come back for class?"

"Why were you gone so long? Do you not like us anymore?"

Yuuri knelt down to talk to the wall of small humans that had mobbed him on sight. He laughed at the questions and held his hands up in defense. "It's nice to see all of you too! It looks like you all are pretty fancy today." He reached out a finger and touched the sticker on Matvey's forehead.

Slava stepped forward and with importance in her voice announced, "We have to have stickers because I told Yuri Nikolayevich that I was Vera!"

Yuuri raised an eyebrow at her. "You lied to your new teacher? I don't think that's something you should be proud of." The little girl deflated, and Yuuri patted her on the head. "Behave yourself for Yuri Nikolayevich, okay? I'm sure he'll see what a nice girl you are."

She raised her head to look at her teacher, eyes shimmering with nearly-shed tears. They evaporated as she gave him a radiant smile. "Okay!"

Yuuri surveyed the rest of the class. "Is everyone else behaving?"

There was a chorus of affirmations. As the cries were dying down, the door opened once again and a small blur launched itself at Yuuri's back. Laughing, he attempted to turn around and view the child clinging to him. "Is this Iov?" he asked, reaching his hand up to pat the curly hair.

"Yes, it's me! Yuuri Toshiyavich, are you back now?"

"Not yet. The baby is still very little, so he needs me at home for a while. We just came by to visit. Would you all like to see him?"

There was a collective gasp from the assembled children. Yuri did his best not to laugh out loud as they all scrambled over to Victor, clamoring to be the first to see the baby.

Victor held the carrier up out of their reach and lifted one finger to his lips. "Shh, we have to be quiet and gentle with him. He's very small, so you have to be careful."

The wave of children subsided almost immediately. Yuri bit the inside of his cheek to keep his face straight as the class did their best to nod quietly. Seeing that they were all cooperating, Victor lowered the carrier and placed it on a bench. The children crowded around, and the silence was broken by their coos of appreciation. Vera asked in a whisper, "What's his name?"

"It's Nikolai. Isn't he just precious? He's so small, but he's already so cute!" Victor was always ready to gush over his children.

Yuri snorted at the eager answer. "Yes, adorable, but we have practice to get to. Are you planning to hang around for long?"

Victor pouted at his friend. "You don't need to be such a grouch. We only stopped by to say hi. We'll get out of your hair in a minute. Yuuri wanted to see the kids, too."

The Japanese man smiled sheepishly and turned to the class. "We do have to get going now. I don't want to distract you from your lessons. Make sure to keep working hard for Yuri Nikolayevich, all right? I'll be back in a few weeks, and I want to see how much you've learned!"

The kids scrambled to switch their attention back to their departing teacher. They once again swarmed to envelop him in a hug.

"We miss you, Yuuri Toshiyavich!"

"I love your baby! He's very cute."

"Yeah, but when he's big enough, you have to come back!"

"We'll make sure to work hard so you can see how much we know by the time you come back!"

Yuuri gave a soft smile to the assembled children, and Yuri thought he saw a glimmer in his friend's eyes. Yuuri quickly squeezed them shut and stretched his smile into a grin. "All right! I'll be looking forward to seeing how much you've learned!" He rose and took his husband's hand. Giving one last wave, they left the rink.

As the door swung shut behind them, Yuri sighed. Filippa flipped her blonde hair out of her eyes so she could look up at her teacher. "Don't worry, Yuri Nikolayevich. We love you, too."

He looked down at her in surprise as Alisa chimed in, "Yeah. We love you just as much! I'm going to be sad when you're not our teacher anymore."

With a conflicted voice, Iov added, "But I miss Yuuri Toshiyavich, too. Aagh, this is hard!" He grabbed his head in both hands.

Yuri chuckled. "Don't worry about that. Even when Yuuri Toshiyavich comes back, I can still come to class sometimes, too. You know, to visit."

There was a pause, then the children all flung themselves onto his legs at once. They shouted their joy as Yuri struggled to keep from falling over. Looking at their happy faces, he felt his heart soften. Maybe having one of these of his own one day wouldn't be so bad.