Natalia was a godsend. I loved my boys, my little champions, but sometimes, Mama and Daddy need some time to themselves to unwind. Especially after a competition like that. We learned after the last time Victor and I left Yuri and Yurio home alone (it was five minutes and we came back to Yuri duct taped to a chair and Yurio throwing goldfish crackers at him). Luckily for us, we had Natalia. Victor brought me to the nicest restaurant in all of St. Petersburg and got the best bottle of merlot. It's been way too long since he and I had a proper date. No better place to start than dinner.

"You know, Vi," Victor gushed, "I'm proud of you and how far you and Yurio have come together. After what you dealt with given the whole Yakov situation and Yurio getting sick, I'm so proud that you've both overcome so much more than what you deserve. And you deserved that win today."

"I miss this, Victor," I sighed dreamily, "I miss the feeling of competition. That pit in your stomach before you go on. The roars of the crowd. Coaching Yurio today felt like the weirdest out of body experience, but it was like coming home. And I miss it."

"Me, too," he agreed, "I know exactly what you mean. I got my one last season. You didn't. You didn't even get to announce your retirement."

"I don't even think they realized who was coaching him," I assumed.

"You did say his last name was Plisetsky, though," Victor pointed out, "You don't think that jostled something in their heads?"

"The last name Plisetsky in Russia?" I chuckled, "You really think that's going to stand out very much?"

"True," he giggled with me, "He might have blended in with his name, but you know that performance stood out. What made you take the mic like that?"

"Poor baby was shaking in the locker room," I confessed, "He needed to settle down or his performance would've suffered. What better to get him to calm down than me?"

"I never knew how fluent you were in Dragonspeak," Victor awed.

"I've played a lot of video games in my lifetime, sweetheart," I sipped from my wine, "I know many a fictional language."

"You know many a language, period," he played with my fingers, "That comes with world travel."

"And a hell of a translator."

"Violet," Victor asked, "If you had the opportunity now to return to the ice and go back to skating professionally, would you?"

If that wasn't a loaded question, "It wouldn't really be too farfetched. With Yuri and Yurio in Juniors this year, it's not like we'd be leaving them at home. And with you coaching Yuri, it's not like I'd be leaving you. I don't think I could juggle being Yurio's coach and my own skating career at the same time. Not to mention, I wouldn't want to take away from the boys. They're currently making a name for themselves and I wouldn't want my career to overshadow that. Right now, this is Yuri and Yurio's thing."

"Well," he smiled, "What if we were to make a comeback together? That way, you wouldn't be the only one handling double duty."

"Not right now," I put my foot down, "The boys are currently our top priority. Let's get them to the Grand Prix Finals and then, we can talk about next season."

"You know," Victor held my hand, "We're going to be back in Japan tomorrow."

"Tokyo," I beamed, "I loved being in Japan. The sights, the sounds, the everything. Aside from my home countries, Japan may be my favorite one I've ever been to."

"Are you going to be ok?" he worried, "Last time we were in Japan, it wasn't exactly pleasant."

"Victor," I scolded him, fully aware of what happened the last time we were in Japan. Something I'd rather not dwell on, "I'll have you. I got the babies. And I got better."

"I know," he nodded, "But if you start having flashbacks, I can coach Yurio through Japan, so you don't have to strain yourself."

"I'll be fine," I promised, "I appreciate your concern, but I'm pretty sure I'll live."

Victor let out a heavy, exasperated sigh, completely done with me, "Stubborn as always, aren't you?"

"I'm American," I shrugged, "Of course, I am. You knew that before we got married."

"And we still got married anyway," he blushed, "And the two reasons we did that are following in our footsteps."

"Their mama's, their daddy's, and their uncle's," I topped off my glass.

"Do you remember the last time we skated together?" Victor got nostalgic.

"I broke my ankle," I remembered, "And we still skated. I didn't tell anyone until I told you on the ice to be gentle with me. Celestino was pissed and he damn near killed me over it. In hindsight, I probably should've sat that one out."

"I don't want Japan to be like that for you," his voice shook, "If you get bad, I want you to tell me. Rival or husband, I worry about you, Violet. You keep too much to yourself. You know you don't have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders alone."

"Have I told you lately," I blushed, "how much I love you?"

"I love you, too, dorogoy," Victor settled down a little more, pouring more wine for himself, "A toast then?"

"To our boys," I smiled.

"To us," he added.

"To Japan," I really couldn't wait to go back. If it weren't for my trip to the hospital, Tokyo would've been perfect, "You know, Victor, it's getting pretty late. We should start heading back."

"What do you mean, it's getting late?" Victor scoffed, "It's barely ten o'clock."

"We also have a flight in the morning," I reminded him. Where I had my stubbornness, Victor was scatterbrained, "Or did you forget that?"

"I might have let that slip my mind," he bit his lip, "Let's go get the boys."

My beautiful, idiot husband paid our tab and the two of us headed to Natalia's apartment. She was going to take them to her studio to let them get some practice in with their individual step sequences, but those boys needed a night off as much as what Mama and Daddy did. I just hoped that Nat had the good sense to leave her vodka alone while Yuri and Yurio were there.

"Hey," Natalia answered her door, appearing to be in good, sober spirits, "About time! These two have been nothing but trouble."

"Really?" I gave her a look, "Because it's dead silent in here."

"Ok," she admitted, "You caught me. Yuri and Yurio are asleep. Have been almost since you two left them here. By the way, congratulations on the win, Violet. I didn't see you beating Victor."

"Settle down, fangirl," I teased.

"Honestly, Natalia," Victor confessed, "I think Violet might be a better coach than me."

"Don't even," I shut him up, "But thank you, Nat."

"Nervous about Tokyo?" Natalia worried, "Especially since last time..."

"That's both of you tonight!" I squeaked, "If I'm not sweating, you shouldn't be either. Yes, I was in the hospital for not eating last time we were in Tokyo. Yes, I was on feeding tubes for a couple days. Yes, it sucked. But am I nervous about going back? Hell no. I'm so ready to go back to Tokyo with my head high and my heels higher."

"That's my girl," Victor kissed the top of my head, "Where are the boys sleeping, Nat?"

"Couch," she directed us to our two little babies sleeping soundly on opposite ends. Victor took Yuri and I took Yurio and we brought them out to the car, strapping them in, "Both of you...Davai."

"Thanks, Nat," I hugged her tight and the four of us headed home. I had a lot to do before even thinking about going to sleep. Victor was kind enough to put the boys to bed, but I had Yuri's bag to pack, Yurio's bag to pack, and my bag to pack. Fortunately, Victor was a big boy and could do that much himself. Once I had everything all said and done, I threw myself into bed.

And stared at the ceiling. For the next hour. Or two, "Victor…?"

"Yes, Violet?" he hummed.

"I can't sleep."

"Me either," Victor sympathized, "I can only scroll through my phone for so long. On the plus side, though, I got a new recipe for lasagna."

"Silver linings, I guess," I giggled, "We have a flight in five hours and we need to get some sleep."

"What do you propose we do?" he pulled me against his chest.

"I'd love to go to the rink," I cuddled, "But I don't want to leave the boys."

And for whatever reason, something sparked in my husband's head. Normally, I'd be heavily alarmed, but in my delirious state, I was up for anything, "I have an idea."

"We need to mark it on the calendar."

"Meet me in the living room," Victor gave me a quick kiss.

"Ok?" I wasn't quite sure where he was going with this, but I went out to the living room with a blanket off our bed and got comfortable. On our coffee table, I already had a cup of chamomile tea waiting for me, "Victor, what are we doing?"

"Well," he joined me with tea of his own, "Obviously, we can't go to the rink, so I thought I'd bring the rink to you."

"And how are you going to do that?"

"YouTube is a gift, isn't it?" Victor paired his phone with the TV and brought me back a few years. These were the old tapes from our competitions. It didn't matter. His, mine, ours, we went through so many, "I kept a playlist of our routines."

"Oh my god," I gasped, "Weirdest time capsule ever."

"You were so beautiful back then," Victor pulled me to his hip, "It's good to know you haven't changed."

"There's no way I could skate like that anymore," I laid on his chest.

"Of course you could," he swatted my nose, "Don't give me that."

"But my moves there are so perfectly fluid," I pointed out, "Now, with the way my joints are, I couldn't be like that."

"I'm sure you could," Victor assured, "With a little loosening, you could."

"You're blindly optimistic, aren't you?"

"Is that a problem?"

"Mama…? Daddy…?"

Uh-oh…We woke the baby. Strike that. Babies. Yuri and Yurio got onto the couch with us, "What are you two doing awake?"

"We're too excited to sleep," Yurio nuzzled his way to my hip.

"What are you doing?" Yuri laid his head on Victor's ribs.

"Watching some old footage from our time on ice," Victor held him, "You both can watch one video and it's back to bed."

"Deal!" they both agreed; Yuri cuddling with Victor and Yurio cuddling with me.

"Alright then," Victor put on one of my favorites.

"No one can do swing like us, baby," I cuddled closer to him, "Give us Sinatra and we'll give you a show."

"Damn straight," we shared in a high five.

"Shh…" I hushed him, noticing the sleeping children in our lap.

"You tuck in Yurio, I'll tuck in Yuri?"

"Meet back in the bedroom?"

"Deal."

Victor and I went our separate ways with our separate children. I brought Yurio into his bed and got him all settled with his tiger and his pillows and his blanket I made for him when we brought the boys home. All of his essentials. With one little kiss, I left my little champion to sleep and went back into the bedroom. We had a flight to board in three hours…

A/N: Hi, guys! I promise next week we'll be in Tokyo. We needed some Mommy and Daddy alone time. And Victor did promise Violet a nice dinner after the competition. So, next week, we're about to have another MASSIVE component of the series introduced. And if you can guess what it is, you get a virtual cookie redeemable at any time. See you next level…err…chapter! xx