"Violet," Victor whispered, shaking me a little, "Wake up, sweetheart."

"What?" I opened my eyes, feeling every ache in my body. Every old ice skating injury. My hips were killing me. Always did when I slept on the couch. I could hear my old physical therapist bitching at me in the back of my head.

"What are you doing out here?" he pulled me into his lap.

"My spot in our bed was occupied," I yawned, "And the thought of sleeping in the guest room horrified the hell out of me."

"Oh," Victor couldn't look at me, "Chris...Is that what this is about?"

"Yeah," I cuddled into his ribs, "I could've used some of this last night."

"I'm sorry, Violet," he cradled me, "Chris wasn't even there when I woke up, if it's any consolation."

"Victor," I had something weighing heavily on my mind for quite some time now, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Ask away," Victor twisted a lock of my hair in his fingers, "What's on your mind?"

"Do you..." I let out a heavy sigh, "Do you ever regret marrying me?"

The hurt in my husband's eyes broke my heart as his embrace tightened around me, "Of course I don't. I could never regret marrying you, Violet. If it weren't for you, Chris and I never would've gotten Yuri and Yurio. We can never repay you for all you've done for us."

"I know," I had to admit, I was a little relieved, "And you know that I can live without constant sex. That's why we work so well together."

"I do love you, though, Violet," Victor promised, "More than you will ever know. I swear that much to you."

"I love you, too," I nuzzled my face in his ribs, "By the way, Victor..."

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"I think today's going to be one of those days," I smiled, "Where I go and treat myself. And the boys are looking a little stir crazy, so when I leave, I'll just take them to daycare. Looks like it's going to be an empty house for the day. Just you and Chris at home, if that's alright."

Without another word, Victor hugged me tighter than he ever has before, "Thank you, Violet. I don't think I could do this with any other woman. No other woman would be as understanding."

"I love you, too," I kissed his cheek, "Now, go find your boyfriend. Do whatever kind of Twister you and Chris have planned for the day."

"Again," Victor gushed, "Thank you, Violet."

"You're welcome," I rested my head on his shoulder, "I have to wake Yurio up."

"And I have to wake Yuri," Victor felt my pain.

"No," I kept him down, "I got this. I'll go wake the boys up."

"It's like I made you in a laboratory," he slipped me a quick kiss, "And I really don't deserve you."

"Yes, you do," I assured, "Just know I passed up the hot stockbroker with the personality of a cardboard box and a yacht for you."

"Was he the one," Victor thought it over, "with the jawline to die for and the really nice ass?"

"The very same."

"I liked him," he sighed out, "He was nice. But you're right. Personality of a cardboard box."

"Pray for me," I got off the couch and headed to Yurio's room first. I knew he'd be the hard one. Might as well rip the bandage off. I took my usual seat at the edge of his bed and he lethargically pulled himself into my chest, "Yuri...You have to wake up, baby."

"No, I don't," he cuddled, "I don't have to wake up."

"Yes, you do," I kissed the top of his head.

"No, I don't," he grumbled, "Yakov can wait."

"We're not seeing Yakov until tomorrow," I reminded him, "You got the day off. You have to wake up, Yuri."

"I don't want to, Mama," Yurio let out a tiny yawn that made me melt like a popsicle, "I'm still sleepy."

"One of these days," I cradled my son in my arms, "I swear to you, Yuri. You're going to develop a taste for coffee."

"Doubtful," he rolled over, "It's hot water with beans in it. Where is the appeal?"

"You'll learn," I let out a heavy, exasperated sigh, "One day. Maybe not today, but one day."

"It's bitter," Yurio started to come around.

"So are you, but I still love you," I teased.

"Mama," he pulled his blanket over his shoulders, "Let me go back to sleep."

"I can't do that," I jostled him a bit, "Come on. I have an appointment and I still need to get your brother up."

"I thought that was a Victor job."

"I can wake him up, too," I pushed the hair out of Yurio's face and kissed his little cheek, "I knew you'd be a fighter."

"Always am."

"That's right," I sat him up, "You're Mama's little warrior, aren't you? Who's my little dragonborn?"

"Me..."

"What was that?" I smiled, "That didn't sound like my dovahkiin. Who's my little dragonborn, Yuri?"

"I am!" I finally got him all fired up and awake, "And your dovahkiin wants some apple juice."

"I can get you some apple juice," I promised, "After I wake Yuri. That'll give you some time to wake up a little more."

"Ok," Yurio rubbed his eyes, "I guess that's fine."

"Good," I gave my little dragonborn one last kiss and went to wake his brother. Yurio was always an uphill battle when I woke him up. Yuri on the other hand? Yuri was a lot like Victor in that respect, "Good morning, Yuri."

"Good morning, Mama," Yuri sat on my lap, resting his head on my shoulder.

"Did you sleep ok?" I asked, reaching over to his dresser.

"Yeah," Yuri wrapped himself around my waist. Both my babies were awfully cuddly this morning, "Where's Daddy? Why isn't he waking me up?"

"Because," I bounced him on my knee, "Daddy went to go find Uncle Chris, so you and Yurio are with me for the day. Is that alright?"

"Are they going to play Twister again?" he wondered so innocently. We haven't really found the right time to have that talk with the boys yet.

"Yeah," I gave Yuri his glasses, "And because Mama has an appointment, you and Yurio are going to go to daycare for a while."

"Ok!" Yuri jumped down from his bed and took the small pile of clothes from me. He was such a little ball of sunshine in the morning. After the rough night I had, I needed that. As I went into the kitchen, Makkachin had been scratching at the door.

"You want to go out, don't you, baby?" I figured, "Victor!"

"Yes, Violet?" he called back from the bedroom. Good. He hadn't left yet.

"Will you take Makkachin out?" I asked, handing him the puppy's leash, "I have to take care of the people babies."

"Sure," Victor patted his legs, "Come here, Makkachin. You want out?"

The little ginger blob of fur bounced over to him. I didn't understand why Makkachin had such a love for Victor, but it's like those two were destined to be. Warmed my heart. When those two went outside, Yurio toddled out, still half asleep, and sat at the table. Dammit! I was supposed to get him apple juice!

"Here, baby," I gave him his sippy cup, "I'm sorry. I've been a little scatterbrained this morning."

"Victor," Chris walked through the front door with half a dozen red tulips, "Where are you?"

"He just left," I told him, "He had to take the dog to go potty."

"Aww," he pouted, putting the flowers on the counter, "I was hoping I'd catch him before he woke up."

"Whole house is awake, Chris," I was still kind of pissed at him for last night, but I'm sure I'd get over it. Eventually.

"Look, Violet," Chris wrapped his arms around my shoulders, "About last night. I'm sorry about stealing your spot. I had a bad nightmare and needed some sympathy."

"Don't worry about it, sweetie," I brushed him off, "It's not like you get to do that often."

"Only after Twister games," he winked.

"Yuri," I shooed him out, "Go drink your apple juice in the living room. Uncle Chris is getting vulgar."

"Fine," Yurio got down from his chair and jumped into the couch.

"You know," Chris suggested, "You could've just crawled in with us. Neither one of us would've minded."

"Yeah," I chuckled, getting a cup out of the upper cabinet, "That wouldn't be weird. Sharing a king sized bed and being sandwiched between my husband and his boyfriend."

"You're the only one we'd allow," he assured, "You know that."

"Thanks, Chris," I laid my head on his ribcage, "I appreciate the sentiment, but like I said. You don't get to do that often. I figured you two would want to be alone."

"Such a shame I'll be leaving soon," Chris sighed out, sitting at the table.

"When are you leaving?" I asked.

"Tomorrow morning," he winced, "I need a way to break it to Victor. He'll be crushed. We haven't even had the chance to have our regularly scheduled Twister game."

"Actually," I joined him at the table, "I'm taking the boys to daycare today and I'll be gone for a good portion of the day, so you and Victor are going to have the house to yourselves."

"Really?" a smile returned to his face.

"Yeah," I nodded, "If that's alright."

"You really do earn wife of the year, don't you, Violet?" Chris kissed my cheek.

"Hey," Victor came back in with Makkachin, "What are you doing, kissing all over my wife?"

"I'm sorry, Victor," Chris gave a quick kiss to Victor, too, "There? Is that all better?"

"Maybe," Victor tried the little fake pout, but it never lasted long.

"Now that we have that settled," I broke them up, "Boys! Come on! We're leaving!"

"Bye, Daddy," Yuri jumped up into Victor's arms.

And just like that, my boys and I were out the door. To no surprise, once we pulled into the parking lot of Yuri and Yurio's daycare, I got some opposition in the back seat. I knew this would happen. Every time. You know how Yurio's separation anxiety gets, Violet.

"What are we doing here?" Yurio pouted.

"Sorry, sweetheart," I bit my tongue, "You can't come with me to my appointment."

"Why not?"

"Because you'll be bored the whole time," I assured, unbuckling both him and Yuri from their car seats, "You'll be fine."

"I hate this place," he grumbled under his breath.

"Yuri, please," I begged, "Just play nice with the other kids."

"I don't like the other kids."

"Please?" I helped the two of them out of the car, "Unless you want me to leave you with Auntie Nat for a while."

"No," he shook his head, damn near giving himself whiplash, "No Auntie Nat."

"Good," I took Yuri and Yurio's hands. I knew that would get him to settle down. After all the horror stories I told him about how much of a drill instructor Natalia was with me teaching me my short program, Yurio knew from that moment on that he never wanted her teaching him. Mostly out of fear.

I left the boys behind and began my day of treating myself. That was a perk of having Chris come over for a while. I knew that a day like this would be waiting for me. Chris and Victor play Twister. Violet gets a spa trip. This really couldn't have come at a better time either. I hurt everywhere and deserved every moment of this.

First order of business after getting just about every inch of my body waxed (always did when I was still skating. Now, it was just mostly out of habit.), I was getting a massage. My body hated me, I was sleep deprived, and the lovely gentleman that had a nice pair of hands knew how to take care of me. As he pushed down in all the right spots, sending chills down my realigned spine, I started to drift off, perfectly content with the world. Victor could have his orgasms. I could have mine. Life was good.

That is, until my phone started going off, waking me from my sweet slumber. I glanced down at the screen and a picture of Victor popped up. My idiot husband, "Victor, I told you. Stretch first. I'm not taking you back to the hospital for a pulled hammy."

"I'm not calling over a pulled hamstring," Victor promised, "And that was one time!"

"Anyway," I shook my head, "Hi, honey. What can I do for you?"

"I just got a call from daycare," he reported, "Yuri's gotten into trouble."

"Yuri?" I wondered, "You're sure it's Yuri and not Yurio?"

"That's what they told me," Victor said, "They just said he wasn't behaving."

"Hard to believe that," I rolled my eyes, "I'll call them up and see if I can get details. I'll probably go pick the boys up and keep them out for a while."

"I'm sorry this had to put a damper on things, Vi," he apologized.

"It's more quality time with my boys," I settled him, "It's no problem. Besides, I still have a second leg of this to do. Say hi, Sasha."

"Hi, Victor," Sasha, my massuse, called out.

"Hi, Sasha," Victor chirped, "My god, I could listen to him all day."

"You and me both, sister," I agreed, "Unfortunately, our time is cut short."

"I'll find a way to make this up to you," he promised.

"Don't worry about it, Victor," I hushed, "It's fine. Any more and I'd be a noodle."

"We'll talk it over once you get home."

"Leave a tie on the door," I requested, "Last time I walked in on that, I damn near needed therapy."

"Sorry," he had such a dirty smirk in his voice, "What can I say? Other than left hand, red while right hand went blue."

"Victor!"

"I love you, Violet," that asshole giggled to himself.

"Love you, too," I rolled my eyes and threw my phone back in my robe pocket.

"Everything alright?" Sasha worried.

"One of the babies got in trouble," I pulled myself together, "I have to go play Mama."

"Another time then?" he offered, "No charge?"

"Sasha," I hugged him tight, "Have I mentioned how much I love you?"

"Maybe once or twice," Sasha tied my robe for me, "Dasvidanya."

"Bye," I changed quickly back into my regular clothes and headed toward the daycare. Once I got there, Yuri and Yurio were sitting outside the coordinator's office. Yurio was pretty unscathed, but Yuri was sporting a black eye and a couple scrapes on his legs.

"Oh my God," I freaked, putting my hand to Yuri's face.

"Mrs. Nikiforov," the coordinator tapped on my shoulder, "You think I could speak with you?"

"Yeah," I left them outside and went in her office, "Do you have any idea what happened?"

"Neither one of them are saying anything," she told me, "Have things been ok with them lately?"

"They've never been better," I assured, "They've both taken up ice skating. They're not necessarily getting along and mostly that's Yurio's problem, but they've never had a fist fight."

"Yuri wasn't fighting Yurio," the coordinator explained, "He was fighting one of the older children."

"Are you saying Yuri started it?" I asked, "Because that boy probably couldn't fight to save his life."

"I don't know who started it," she grunted, "All I know is that two of my kids got hurt and Yurio won't leave Yuri's side."

"I'll get to the bottom of this," I got up, "Thank you for calling."

I knew exactly what she was going to say. Somehow, the coordinator was going to spin this to make either Victor or me to sound like terrible parents. We do the best we can with who we got. We knew that adopting would be a little sketchy and the boys would need all the time in the world to adjust to a new living situation, but I never thought it would've ever come down to this. A quiet walk to the car and the three of us pulled out of the daycare parking lot.

"Alright, boys," I checked the rearview, "Care to tell me what happened?"

"Are we in trouble, Mama?" Yuri asked meekly.

"You will be if you don't tell me what happened," I hated when I had to be the one to discipline the children, but it had to be done.

"There were some of the older kids picking on Yurio," he confessed, "I couldn't stand there and let it happen."

"They told me I looked like a girl," Yurio fumed.

"Are you a girl, Yurio?" I asked.

"No!" he squeaked, "And I could've handled them myself!"

"Yurio," I settled him.

"But thank you, Yuri," Yurio mumbled, "Really. I appreciate it."

"Looks like you have a defense squad, Yurio," I praised, "What you did wasn't exactly good, Yuri, but it wasn't bad either. You were standing up for your little brother and that's very commendable. There were a million and one ways you could've handled it better, but you did the best with what you had."

"So," Yuri quivered a bit, "Are we still in trouble?"

"A little trouble," I smiled, "And your punishment is coming with me to my last appointment for the day."

"What's that?" Yurio asked.

"I'm getting my nails done," I pulled back in to the spa, "And you two are going to be perfect little angels while they're doing it. If you are, I'll take you both to the rink."

"Ok!" The decision was unanimous.

I loved my boys. I loved them so much. I loved that it didn't take much to get them to settle down. The two of them sat next to me as quiet as church mice while my nail tech scraped down the dead skin from my cuticles. I caught Yurio cringe out of the corner of my eye.

"Doesn't that hurt?" he worried.

"Not really," I shrugged, "Only if the nail tech doesn't know what they're doing. Not to make you nervous or anything, Yurio, but you're going to end up having to have this done one day, too."

"Why?" I thought that child's eyes were about to pop out of his skull.

"I'm sure Yakov would have you doing this," I assumed, "Every little thing helps. It's aesthetic, baby. That's a part of being a professional figure skater. You just have to grit your teeth and put up with it."

"What if I don't want to?"

"That's between you and Yakov."

"What if I wanted to be a professional figure skater, too?" Yuri shared his brothers nerves.

"You'd be doing this, too," I told, "Sorry, sweetie."

"But Mama," Yurio pointed out, "You don't skate professionally anymore."

"True."

"Then, why would you be doing this willingly?" Yuri freaked.

"It doesn't hurt, boys," I settled them as she started to put the clear base coat on, "I promise."

"These your boys, Violet?" Greta figured.

"Yeah," I beamed, "Those are my babies. And one day, they'll be the two top figure skaters in the world."

"Which one of us will be the top, Mama?" Yurio jumped.

"Yeah!" Yuri matched his enthusiasm, "Which one?"

"Relax, you two," I giggled, "You're asking me to pick between you. I can't do that. Maybe you'll tie."

"No!"

"That's not enough!"

"Look," I blew on my left hand while Greta tended to my right, "You two are going to shatter some of Victor's records. I know that much. You'll leave him in the dust."

"No," Yuri settled, "I don't want Daddy to lose his records."

"I do!" Yurio kept his fire, "I want to break all of them!"

"Easy, dovahkiin," I kissed his forehead, "Your mama's coming out in you."

That was enough to get a massive smile on that kid's face. And that's all I wanted. Although, it left Greta rather confused. I keep forgetting that not everyone knows the dragon's tongue.

"What did you just call him?" she gave me a look.

"Dovahkiin," I reiterated, "It means dragonborn."

"I can see it," Greta agreed, "Did you have anything specific you wanted me to do, Violet?"

"Surprise me," I gave her free reign.

I had never seen Yuri and Yurio so content. They watched patiently as Greta delicately painted what appeared to be deep red scales and fire on my fingers. In all seriousness, her talents were wasted as a nail artist. She needed to be featured in galleries. Yet, this was where she was. I must admit, though. Every brushstroke was oddly satisfying. After an hour of detailing, Greta put her brush down.

"There we are, Violet," she stretched her fingers out, "Good enough for you?"

"Dragon scales," I assumed.

"You did say that Yurio was a dragonborn," Greta smiled, "He had to get that from somewhere."

"But my boys are adopted."

"Doesn't matter," she held my hand, "Those two are your boys. No matter where they came from. By some cosmic chance, you have them. And them, you. They may not be your blood, but they are, no doubt, yours."

"Yeah," I glanced over at my boys being all sweet, "They are. Now, I have to come through on a promise for them."

"Oh?" Greta wondered, "And what's this promise?"

"Watch," I smirked, "Yuri, Yurio, you boys feel up to a trip to the rink?"

"Yeah!" they were both on their feet.

"But Mama," Yurio got nervous, attaching himself to me at my hip, "It's during normal hours."

"Don't get stage fright on me now, Yuri," I took his hand, "If you're going to be world class some day, you're going to have to get over that."

"What if Porky's better than me?" he worried.

"Then, you're going to have to show him you're better than he is," I gave him that little push he needed.

"I will!" Just like that, Yurio bolted out to the car already.

"A lot of passion with him, isn't there?" Greta laughed.

"Yeah," I took Yuri's hand, "Thank you, Greta."

"You're welcome," she sent me off, "Victor's charge account, right?"

"That's right," I confirmed. And the three of us headed straight to the rink. I could stand a little free skating, too. But I had a mission while I was there. I needed to see if those two could be on the same ice together. A part of me wanted to call Yakov, but I didn't want to risk Yurio losing his coach to Yuri. That'd kill him.

"Aren't you going to skate with us, Mama?" Yuri offered.

"No," I shook my head, "I'm going to let you two go ahead. Show me what you got."

A/N: YOU CAN'T TELL ME THAT IN REGULAR CANON, YURI WOULDN'T DECK ANYONE FOR YURIO. HE IS CAPTAIN OF THE PROTECT YURI PLISETSKY TASK FORCE. Capslock aside, a lot happened in this chapter. Violet got a little jealous of Chris. Victor finally got his Twister. Yuri kicked the shit out of some asshole on the playground. And unfortunately, we're going to be saying goodbye to Uncle Chris next chapter. Don't worry, though. There's about to be a little more excitement with Yuri and Yurio's future in ice skating, so it's not going to be all sad. See you next chapter! xx