March 1st, 2026- A Month Later- Three Months Old-

Yuri's POV

"Yuri," I wake to my husband's voice gently pervading my consciousness. I open my eyes and immediately know something's wrong; the clock on my nightstand reads 10 am. I'm never still asleep at 10 am. In addition to this, and, more worryingly, I don't hear our daughter crying.

"What is it?" I ask him quickly, getting out of bed, "Is Sacha okay?" Otabek sees my worry, and, in seconds, understands where it comes from.

"She's fine," He says and lightly pulls me back down onto the duvet "I dropped her off with Victor and Yuuri for the day, I thought I'd let you sleep in," I cock my eyebrow, confused. He's been getting just as much sleep as I have, which is to say, none, so why has he gone to so much trouble to let me get more?

"Why?" I ask him, "Today's nothing special," He just smiles at me, a twinkle in his eye. 

"That's what you think," I'm very confused now and follow him as he leaves the room. "Get ready," He says from down the hall, "Where something comfortable," 

I shake my head, laughing, as I return to our bedroom, following his orders and opening the dresser. It's empty. I raise an eyebrow and open the other drawers, finding three articles of clothing in the top one. I put them on, understanding my husband's excitement now, as I feel incredibly eager to get to our destination as well.

I step into the rink and a smile alights upon my face, uncontrollable and entirely automatic. Pulling on my skates and setting foot on the ice feels like a dream. Everything's so incredibly familiar and yet different. I haven't been on the ice in a year and returning to it is more than my heart can handle.

Otabek watches me from the boards as I take a few slow laps around the rink, warming up, with a small smile on his face. The wind twirls my hair as I fly across the glossy white surface, blissfully devoid of public skaters. I move without question, my body remembering what to do and reacclimating itself to what for so long was my home. 

From crossovers, strong and precise, I leap into the air, executing a beautiful Axel. My eyebrows crease slightly as I come down, the height of the jump dramatically less than before, but shake it off. I just need to practice, I'll be back to my normal quality in no time.

My husband, watching as I gear up for another jump, calls out to me, "No quads!" I land and come over to him, slightly disappointed. 

"I wasn't going to," I say in a dignified manner, then add, "I have to warm up psycho," He shakes his head,

"Nothing more than a double Lutz." 

"What? Beka!" I groan, "That is not fair!"

"You haven't skated in a year," He counters, raising an eyebrow, "You'll kill yourself,"

"I'll be fine," I insist and start to leave the boards, making my way out to the center of the rink.

"Yuri," My husband catches my arm and pulls me back, an imploring smile on his face, "Please," I waver slightly, unable to resist his tone, "Not yet, not so soon," He meets my eyes and I groan,

"Fine," I roll my eyes and skate away from him, preparing for a spin. I hate it, but he's right. I will kill myself if I try for anything more than a double, rationally, I know that. Unrationally, however, I'm extremely tempted to ignore his request. 

In time, and with extensive practice, I'll get the jumps back, I know I will, but I've never been a patient person, and after being unable to skate for so long, I'm finding it nearly impossible to hold myself in. He never said anything about arms.

With my loophole in mind, I soar into the double Lutz, both arms raised. I land it cleanly, missing some of my customary height once more, but cleanly nonetheless. I turn back to my husband, a triumphant smile on my face. He just rolls his eyes, looking slightly annoyed but amused nonetheless, and honestly, what did he expect?

We continue like this for a while, doing god knows what but enjoying it immensely. Eventually, though, we're both tired and, as our allotted ice time has ended, we're forced to vacate the rink. As we walk out the doors, the cold sunlight shining down on us, Otabek takes my hand, leading me onto the main street. I follow him, watching as he struggles to keep a straight face and smiling as we turn into the Summer Gardens and see what waits for us on our fountain. 

A cake box is placed there, stark white against the glistening blue of the water behind it. We sit together on either side of it and I pick up the box. Inside, I find a home-baked cake with the words 'Happy Birthday!' written sloppily on it in green icing. 

I laugh at this terrible attempt at a cake, looking up at my husband. "Thank you," I say and kiss him, grinning at how proud he looks of his culinary achievement. "I can't believe you did this, how did you even have time?" He shrugs and I shake my head slightly in amazement, loving him more than ever. "I honestly forgot it was today,"

"I know," He says and smiles, "It was more fun that way though, you had no idea what was going on," He laughs and takes the cake box from my hands, flipping open the lid to reveal two forks taped to the top. "Now," He says with a glint of humor in his eye, "Want to see how bad this thing is?" I grin,

"Hell yeah," 

It turns out not to be that bad, a few chunks of unmixed powder and eggshell bits here and there, but edible for the most part, plus it's not like I could do any better. After a while, we abandon the attempt at eating it and just sit together, joking and laughing in the dying light. "Beka?" I say after a while, looking up at him, "Thank you for all of this, it was perfect," He smiles, giving me a kiss,

"I love you," He says simply

"I love you too," 

And as we sit together, watching the sun set around us, I can't help but think how far we've come. In the bush over there, I puked when I first found out I was pregnant. At this very fountain, I told my husband. And now, almost a year later, our daughter is here, thriving and beautiful, and our relationship has remained more or less the same. We still have the same easy perfect connection and there's nothing on this earth that could change it. I love that about us, and I can't even begin to comprehend just how lucky we are.

**Author's Note!**

So, I have kind of a weird request. I had an idea for a new story (I'm not putting it up before it's finished for fear that continually updating three of them to a schedule will kill me) and for the first few chapters, I need cute little fluff scenes. My brain is hitting a block for fluff, all I can think of currently being rerouted to this story and/or my other book. If you guys have any ideas for things (potential oneshots, fluff, etc) for Otayuri, let me know! You can comment it below or dm me (dm?) if you want! I'd really appreciate it if you did, and I'll credit you with the inspiration in the chapters when they're published. Thanks so much, see you next time!