**Author's Note!**

Random little update, I have shin splints and they hurt like HELL, plus I pulled a muscle in my thigh so now I can't touch my toes without intense pain. Fun.
Also, there's this girl in my French class and Homeroom and I just found out that she loves Yuri!!! On Ice too and I finally have someone to fangirl with in person!! I'm so excited! Author's note over, enjoy the story!

June 19, 2025- 18 Weeks- Three Weeks Later-

Yuri's POV 1st Person

I roll over in bed, comfortably hovering in the realm between being awake and asleep. Before long though I float to consciousness and reach for my phone to check the time. 8:15, Otabek'll be long gone by now, off at training, not home until 5. I sigh, I miss being able to go with him, it was nice seeing him all day. I get out of bed and stretch, dropping my phone on the covers as I do so. As I go to pick it up again it rings, the caller ID registering Yuuri (Formally known in my phone as 'The Pig'.) 

I answer and am at once hit with a rush of words, "Yurio, I am so sorry to ask but can you watch Maria for a while? The sitter flaked and we can't find anyone this last minute, and she especially requested you." He pauses, and I sigh. They're obviously desperate if they're calling, they've been trying to stay out of my hair these past few months which has been a welcome relief, but I do miss Maria, I haven't seen her in ages.

"Sure," I reply, just this once in a nonhostile tone, "When?"

"Now," Yuuri says a bit apprehensively, "I'm at home with her at the moment but I really can't stay, Victor's waiting for me at the rink and my shift started almost an hour ago," He's obviously referring to their rink, the one Otabek's in right now. They bought our training rink last year, and in the time since have turned it into one of the best in Saint Petersburg. It's very successful and even though I hate to give him credit, Yuuri really has pulled off something incredible. Theirs is the only 100% non-hockey rink that I know of and is completely geared towards encouraging figure skating. They offer Freestyle seven days a week and public skate three additional ones but never stick time (Suck it, hockey players!). They even teach skating lessons and offer coaching, advising people on everything from programs, to how to make it competitively, to which skates fit their needs best. Yuuri's the mastermind behind this and how he's pulled it off I'll never know. While Victor's tried to help he just isn't as good at business and mainly works with people instead of with practicalities and budgets, but the two make their dynamic work well.

"I can be there in fifteen minutes," I reply and hang up. I'm true to my word and fifteen minutes later I'm pulling into their driveway. The door opens immediately by a desperate looking Yuuri,

"I'm really sorry to bother you, thanks again," He says as he stands back to let me in, obviously (although trying not to be) searching my petite frame for the small bump that's visible even underneath my loose sweater.

"Whatever," I say with a noncommittal shrug, "What time will you be home?"

"My shift ends at 6:15," He says and I nod, not having any idea what I'll do to entertain the six-year-old in the time until then. Speak of the devil, Maria comes running up to us from the living room and stops just before she hits her father,

"Bye Daddy!" She says brightly and gives him a hug,

"Bye Maria," He says and returns it before standing up and turning to me once again, "We owe you," He says and I agree,

"You do," He goes and I find myself alone with the bouncing energetic little girl staring at me. "What do you want to do?" I ask her and she grabs my hand at once, pulling me to her bedroom.

She leads me through to the small pink and white flowered table that sits in the corner of her room, the sight of many a tea party. We drink our pretend tea for a while and I listen smiling while she talks about what her stuffed animals are saying. I even wear my tiara, and at her insistence, make the stuffed animals on my side of the table talk back. After a while of this Maria gets kind of grumpy and I can tell she's hungry. I check the time discreetly on my phone to find that it's almost 11:30, I've been here for three hours already? 

"Are you hungry?" I ask her and she nods. I get up and she follows me, the two of us making our way down to the kitchen, "What do you want?" I ask her and pull open the fridge, finding it entirely full of organic healthy food. Poor kid. Maria shrugs and goes off to play in the living room for a while, leaving me to my own devices, figuring out lunch on my own. I search the cabinets, snorting when I find something that looks remarkably like a bottle of vodka hidden behind some snacks. So the adults do have fun every once in a while, I think as I bypass it, leaving the bag untouched. Finally, I find a box of Macaroni and Cheese mix that looks suitable and scan the back, looking for the instructions. It may seem ridiculous that I need to follow the directions being the half-decent cook that I am (I basically only make Piroshki and a few other select dishes) but I only saw the one box of this and if I screw up and burn it or something I doubt Maria will eat it, and that could present an issue.

I move around the kitchen doing what the box says and fifteen minutes later my work yields a satisfactory result, the pasta looks edible at least. I call Maria in and she gives her approval, eyes lighting up at the sight of the, in her words, 'junk food.'

"Daddy doesn't let me have macaroni very often," She says putting a forkful in her mouth, "He makes me eat carrot sticks too," Oops, forgot about that. Oh well, I'm the babysitter, I get to be fun and disregard the rules.

"Your dad's right," I say, trying to preserve any parenting for when they get home, "Carrots are good for you," She gives me a look that says, Really? You're going with that story too? 
"Even if they don't taste very good," I amend and start eating my own macaroni and cheese, slightly more interesting with garlic salt added.

When we're finished Maria herds me into the living room and sits me down on the couch with no less than six Rainbow Fairies books, waiting expectantly. As I read it becomes increasingly obvious how well she knows them, correcting me here and there about how a name is pronounced (Bibble?) And telling me which characters are 'mean' and which ones are 'nice' so I can adjust their voices accordingly. I almost burst out laughing at one point as Maria cuts across me while I read a line, reciting it perfectly from memory. "Uncle Yurio, you're doing it wrong!" She tells me imperiously, "Heather the Violet fairy says 'Don't be rude Chrysanthemum, it's unbecoming,' not 'Don't be rude Chrysanthemum, it's mean,'" I hold in my smile and it takes everything I have to nod earnestly; that shows me for trying to dumb it down for a six-year-old. We continue reading without any major interruptions until I get another part wrong, or at least, I do in Maria's eyes who doesn't understand what's going on. 

"'Don't worry! Heather the Violet fairy's here and I'll stop Jack Frost for good!' Heather exclaims happily, shooting through the open window to both Rachel and Kirsty's delight wh-'" I draw in my breath sharply, feeling something unexpected and cutting off midsentence. 

"No, Jack Frost doesn't gasp yet," Maria says patiently, pulling the book from my hands and pointing at the page, explaining this to me as if I'm two, "Do you want me to read for a little while?" She asks sympathetically, "You seem tired," 

"Sure," I say, not really paying attention as she continues on from my place, too preoccupied with what I've just felt. I lower my hand slowly to my stomach, and even under my sweater I feel it, a strange fluttering sensation. I smile as it happens again, knowing exactly what it is, I just wish Otabek were here to feel it too, although it's so tiny I don't know if he could.

We continue like this for a while, Maria showing off her reading capabilities as I force myself to pay attention, the fluttering having yet to cease. "Uncle Yurio?" She says to me once we finish with Heather and are about to move on to Inky, the Indigo fairy. "Does your tummy hurt?"

"What?" I ask her, surprised, "No, why?"

"You keep holding it," She says and looks at where my hand rests on top of my small yet obvious bump, "If your tummy doesn't hurt why are you holding it?"

I struggle for a second, unsure how to explain something as complex as this to a six-year-old, "Well," I begin and then stop, searching for a way to explain this without explaining anything at all, like a politician. Finding nothing I decide on an exceptionally watered-down version of the truth. "It doesn't hurt exactly, it just feels funny,"

"Bad funny?" Maria asks me, not satisfied with my version of events, 

"No, good funny," I say with a smile, and when she still looks skeptical I reach over and place her hand where mine has just been, "Be very still," I instruct her and she does what I tell her. When she feels it she giggles,

"Why is it doing that?" She asks me, her eyes bright and inquisitive,

"Um," I hesitate again, really not wanting to be the one to explain to a six-year-old that's not even my own how the world works, "I'm pregnant," I tell her, somewhat awkwardly, "That means I'm going to have a baby," 

"I know what that means," She says wisely, knowledgable as she is on the subject of reproductive health and processes. 

"Well that's the baby," I say vaguely, she doesn't need any specifics. At that moment the door opens and she runs into the hallway, abandoning me on the couch at the prospect of seeing her parents. I leave Inky's book on the coffee table and meet them in the foyer. Victor, being the dumbass he is, openly stares at my midriff but stops quickly at a slap from his husband. I don't mind this, at least not too much; it's just Victor being him, I remember what it was like for Yuuri. Poor guy.

"Thanks for sitting," Yuuri smiles and picks up his daughter, swooshing her in the air, 

"No problem," I say and leave the house, though not before giving Maria a quick hug. I drive home excited, one hand still on my bump and eager to tell Otabek what's happened. "Beka!" I call as I walk in the door, finding him reading on the couch, 

"Hey Yuri, how was Maria?" He asks me, looking up and smiling, I ignore his question completely, sitting down beside him and taking his hand. He raises an eyebrow, amused, as I guide it to my stomach, removing my sweater as I do. His eyes widen as he feels what I expected he would and smiles so brightly I think he might start glowing, "Oh my god," He says softly and kisses me, his hand not moving a millimeter from its position. Mine joins his and I laugh as the flutters intensify, "Hello,"

**Author's Note!**

Sorry for so many of these but I loved writing the Rainbow Fairies part so much! I read those books when I first learned to read and when I looked them up to get the names it was a blast back from my childhood! I'm honestly laughing so hard right now I sound like a lunatic. Also- does anyone else put garlic salt on their Mac and Cheese? I think it tastes better that way, lol, that's probably just me.