After three days of feeling like I was going to die, I could finally move freely again. Victor could go back to being my husband and stop nagging me like he was my mother. Don't get me wrong. I appreciated him taking care of Yuri and Yurio and the house while I was sick, but sometimes, he could be a tad insufferable.
And I needed to get out of the house for a while. I felt almost one hundred percent better, but I knew Victor would yell at me for pushing myself too hard. I had to be sneaky. While my boys were good and distracted, I slipped out of the front door with my gym bag in hand. If there was one place in all of St. Petersburg that would help me get my bearings back, it'd be here.
The skating rink always got me to center. And a nice, long session by myself at the rink would be just the thing I needed to get back into the swing of things. It felt like I had been off my feet for a month. And it showed. When I stepped onto the rink, I stumbled like a newborn deer fresh out of the womb. I was worse than Yurio when he first came out here.
Maybe before I start a routine, I do a quick practice run without any music? That'd be a good idea. I just need to keep my balance. That's all for now. Focus. I delved deep into that special place in the back of my mind that essentially worked like an off switch. I didn't need to do anything else but skate. Move forward.
I had a coach once that liked to blindfold me when I was off the ice for so long. People thought he was weird for that sort of thing and saw it as a kinky, sexual thing. Actually, his logic behind that was that my eyes wanted to play tricks on me. I didn't need to see to skate. I knew exactly where I was going. I knew what the rink looked like. I just needed to put my feelings on the ice. Unfortunately, he long since retired and I had to coach myself, but I didn't have a blindfold, so I just shut my eyes.
And landed a quad loop, first try. My coach might have been a little eccentric, to say the least, but he knew what the hell he was talking about. Being on the ice was so much more to me than a performance. It allowed me to let go completely. I could show the world every single facet of who I am and all it took was a pair of skates. Let's try a little music, shall we?
I scrolled through my phone, looking for something perfect to help my meditation even more. With the way this trip down memory lane has got me, I decided to pull out something to further my borderline religious experience. Besides, I always loved skating to Take Me to Church. Even more when I wasn't on ice and I was by myself in Natalia's studio.
I always loved a good, minor piano to dance to and some beautifully reverbed vocals. And for whatever reason, the music always reminded me of, in a kind of twisted sense, a ritual. Casting all inhibitions aside and acting on pure instinct, but all in the name of a higher power. Being both worshipped, but on the same token, being critically scrutinized at any given time. That was my skating career in a nutshell after Victor and I got married. Especially after he finished his last season.
When I was still skating, people loved me. I was known around the world and almost as notorious as Victor. And I was pretty damn good at what I did. Victor always told me he was better than I was, but only by a microscopic margin. But because Victor Nikiforov's ego is big enough for its own orbit and kept under the guise of being humble, that was personal growth for him.
Then, everything changed when we skated our last duet together, when Victor skated his final program. They all turned on me. Because I wanted him to come raise the babies with me, that made me the villain that took Victor Nikiforov away from the world. Little do they know, I begged Victor to keep skating. But he said he wanted to be more involved in the boys' lives, we settled on one last season.
I didn't miss the cattiness that came along with it sometimes, but with the time I've spent in this rink lately, I keep missing it more and more. I miss it so much. But I have a family to take care of. Victor was lucky his head was attached most of the time and he was only that much more scatterbrained while I was sick. Still, I'd kill a man to compete again. Maybe one more routine today. Just to get it out of my system.
How self-flagellating do I want to be today? I mean, I just got better from whatever plague cursed my body. Do I really want to drive a stake further in my heart? What the hell? Why not? I threw on a very familiar tale of a warrior wanting to save, no...Conquer the land. I had to choreograph Yurio's program anyway, right? I might as well. I'm almost sure this is what he's going to use. All I had to do was convince Yakov.
It's going to feel so strange, doing this from the perspective of the warrior and not the dragons. Let's do some broad sword slashes in the form of a double salchow. Yurio's good, but he's not good enough to do quads quite yet. At least I don't think he can do quads. Three days have gone by since I last saw him skate. Maybe he's finally landing them. Yakov jabbed him enough with a cattle prod.
No. Because Victor wouldn't have stood for it. And he was there practicing with Yuri anyway. I'm sure he kept an eye on Yurio, too. But according to Yurio, Yuri hasn't been skating very well either. When he told me, it was almost like Yurio was pissed. I could still hear him clear as a bell. Piggy's better than that, Mama. I've seen it! I never saw him so angry when it came to Yuri.
I hadn't been to one of Yuri's practices in quite some time. Not since I took him instead of Yurio. When I saw him, though, Yuri wasn't exactly the most graceful thing to step onto the ice, but he's trying. He had the determination where Yurio had the natural talent. Kind of like when I started skating. Victor and Chris were extremely instrumental in that.
They both held my hands while I took my first steps on the ice. I tripped all over myself and I thought Chris shattered his knee at one point, but we managed. Somehow. I missed those days. Before I hung up my skates. When I had put them on for the first time at that rink in Brooklyn. They spent most of their off season that year teaching me to skate.
Victor wanted to get me out of the burlesque scene and onto the ice from the moment he met me. I've always had fluid movements and when I was doing burlesque, I was only seen for my body. I might as well have been stripping, but I kept more of my clothes on. And our MC wouldn't allow us to take tips. Honestly, Victor telling me about how much he loved my form made me think he was just some other guy hitting on me. Never in a million years would I have expected this.
"You really haven't lost a step, Vi," a familiar voice broke the silence after the song had died out.
"Victor!" I jumped, almost falling on the ice, "When did you get here?"
"Around the end of your first routine," he took my hands, helping me back onto solid ground, "Flawless as ever, dorogoy."
"Thanks," I sat on the bench, "Damn, that felt good."
"You know," Victor wrapped his arms around me, "I sometimes wonder what would've happened if I would've stayed home with the boys and let you have one last season."
"Why?" I chuckled a bit, "So I really could've been branded as the bitch that made Victor Nikiforov retire? No, thank you. I'm enough of a pyriah as it is."
"No, you're not," he gave my nose a little swat, "Really and truly, though, Violet. You deserve another season. After what I just saw, I bet you'd go back to the Grand Prix Finals and take home gold."
"Probably," I agreed with him, "But no. I can't."
"Please?" Victor begged, "I'm sure I'm not the only one that would love to see you skate another season."
"No," I shook my head, "I got too much to take care of here."
"In that case," a little bit of a smirk graced my husband's face as he offered his hand to me, "May I have this dance? It's been far too long since you and I have skated together."
"Not since Barcelona," I blushed, taking his hand, "It'd be my pleasure."
"Any song preference?" Victor grabbed my phone.
"Surprise me," I retied my skates, "Victor?"
"Yes, sweetheart?"
"Where are the boys?" I worried, my maternal instincts kicking into overdrive.
"Relax, Violet," he settled me, "I left them with Natalia. They're fine."
"Now that we have that out of the way," I stepped back onto the ice, "What are you doing here?"
"You up and left," Victor pointed out, "I had no idea where you were. I had to find you."
"I wasn't missing, though," I retaliated, "You knew where I'd be."
"Of course I did," he pulled me against his chest, "This is like a second home to you."
"It really is," I sighed out. Then, it dawned on me. Maybe a little table turning wouldn't be such a half bad idea, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Fire away," Victor had finally settled on a song anyway and started skating out to me with the sound remote in hand.
"What about you?" I wondered.
"What about me?"
"Would you ever consider coming back to this?" I took his hand.
"I would," he nodded, "On one condition."
I had a feeling I already knew what that condition was, "And what's that, my love?"
"I'd come back," Victor pushed the play button, "if you'd come back with me."
"Thought so," I laid my head on his chest, "Don't pin this all on me."
"If I were to make a comeback," he went on as the intro of our song began, "I'd want to enter in pairs and skate with you. In my ten years of skating, Violet, skating with you was always my favorite. Do you remember when Yakov would yell at us for getting to into our performance?"
"Celestino would, too," I giggled, "But he thought it was cute. Yakov, on the other hand..."
"I kind of miss Celestino," Victor got caught up in my nostalgia, "I wonder what he's up to these days."
"God only knows," I spun away from him.
"Until you and I make our comeback, Violet," he pulled me back, "We coach."
"Ok," I did my quad loop while Victor worked the nonexistant crowd. When I made my jump into his arms, I nestled my head in his shoulder, "You know, this is the most time we've spent alone together since we started coaching the boys. I missed you."
"I missed you, too," Victor gave me a quick kiss, "And you know what?"
"What?"
"We still got it," he held me a little tighter, "I think we have one more season in us."
"We also have two babies at home, Vitya," I reminded him.
"Technically, they're at Natalia's studio."
Smartass...I loved him, but I wanted to hit him all the same, "We're not leaving them with Natalia, so we can go globetrotting."
"Who said anything about leaving them?" Victor took a more serious tone, "I've already submitted Yuri's paperwork for the season. And Yakov did Yurio's, too. I'm sure we could tag along for that."
"As their coaches," I shoved my finger in his face, "Not competing."
"This isn't over," he put me down as the song finished.
"Hey, Victor..." I spoke softly, "Can I ask you a favor...?"
"A favor?" Victor perked up, "What kind of favor?"
"All this talk of you and me getting back into the game," I thought it over, "Can I watch you? Like I used to?"
"Just like the old days," he melted, "You were to scared to even step foot on the ice."
"Shut up!" I giggled, rolling my eyes.
"But you did!" Victor defended himself, "And you got your first beautiful bruise on your thigh the size of my fist."
"You're an asshole," I shoved him. But he caught my hand.
"For you, though, Violet," his lips brushed my knuckles, "It'd be my pleasure to do a routine for you."
"I feel so honored..." I swooned.
"You should." There it was. There was the ego I fell in love with. So Victor's getting cocky now? Alright. I could get on board with that. When he had that level of overconfidence, it always showed. Victor's ego never got in the way. They worked hand in hand. Just like we did.
And I wasn't the only one that hadn't lost my touch. Victor had the same fire he always did. I knew that wasn't going anywhere. Was I not the only one that missed the thrill of competition? That wasn't just my husband I saw on that ice. That was truly the one and only, the great Victor Nikiforov. And he was all mine...
Well...Not exactly all mine. I had to share once every few weeks, but the time in between? He was mine. I was the one that stole him from the rest of the world. The more I thought about it, the more ok I was. In fact, I was almost proud. Maybe too proud. Victor's routine must have had me in a trance. Yep. I'm not the only one that hasn't missed a beat.
A/N: Don't get me wrong. I love my babies, but sometimes, Mama and Daddy need some alone time and I don't know about you guys, but this is probably my favorite chapter to date. And that's saying a lot, considering my favorite chapter before that was Victor and Yurio spending some quality time together with the story of how he and Violet met. Thems some big shoes to fill.
Sooooo…I know I kind of teased a new YOI fic last week and that it was going to become my new Monday slot. Well, I opted against it and this is why. Because in a couple months, this fic's going to be over anyway (I know. Brace yourselves, my children. If it's any consolation, I've had the ending relatively plotted out since the beginning of February, I think…), so when this is done, I have a new YOI fic on deck. And it's another AU, but a little heavier on the romantic Victuri than the parental Victuri like this one.
But instead of that fic taking my Monday slot, I've done a reboot of my Black Butler fic, if you'd care to give that a lookity doo…Writing for Black Butler is what got me started on this site and it's giving me a really weird full circle feeling. Anyway, see you next chapter! xx