May 16th, 2025- 7 am Kazakhstan time (Kazakhstan is 3 hours ahead of Russia) 

Yuri's POV 1st Person

I yawn widely as I walk down the ramp to the International Arrivals Hall with Otabek by my side. Despite having slept on the plane I'm exhausted, while the few hours of rest were helpful it does nothing against the jetlag. Kazakhstan being three hours ahead of Russia in a different timezone makes the adjustment difficult, not to mention that according to my sleep schedule, it's 4 am. I join Otabek leaning against the wall, opening my phone to call a taxi to the hotel when I hear our names being called. I turn to see Otabek's parents and sister waiting by the door, holding a big silly sign with our names on it and waving enthusiastically. I laugh at the sight and wave back, starting over to them with my husband in tow. 

"Hi," I'm swept into a hug immediately by his mother and still not used to physical affection from people outside my immediate family (including Victor and the Pig because they're far too clingy) tense up, but relax into it quickly. "I didn't know you guys were picking us up," I tell them with a small smile, glancing at Otabek for confirmation that this was indeed the plan. He looks equally surprised at the greeting so I can assume he wasn't told about this either. 

"That's because it was a surprise," Allie tells me with an amused look on her face, "You weren't supposed to," I grin back at her, it's weird, she's so grown up-  and taller than I am. I do not appreciate this. She's a very pretty girl, and quite smart according to what I hear from Otabek who's better about keeping in touch than I am. She's headed for the Ivy League apparently, her sights set on Yale and settling for nothing less. She gives me a quick embrace before lifting a bag from her brother's shoulder and grabbing one of the rolling ones from his hand, following the group out of the hall. 

"I wish you'd let me help you with those," I tell Otabek futilely, watching as Allie carries his stuff down the hall, him carrying my own. I hate being useless.

"You know that's not going to happen," He tells me matter of factly, and continues his pace. Allie turns back to us, a questioning look in her eye but says nothing. We all pile into the car, Otabek and I in the middle and Allie shunted to the back as his parents take up the front seats. 

"So, how's the college hunt going?" I turn to face Allie and she smiles, "I still can't believe you're old enough for that, god I sound like an adult." She laughs and proceeds to fill me in on the horrors that are college applications, AP classes, and SAT scores, only to be cut off by Otabek's phone. He takes the call and she rolls her eyes at me, mouthing 'Rude.' I nod and shake my head mock disapprovingly at Beka as he hangs up,

"That was the hotel," He tells me, "They just called to inform us that they double booked our room by mistake and we can't check in until tomorrow night," Sounding like he'd copied the concierge's speech word for word. 

"Fuck," I swear and stop myself too late, Allie looks like she's struggling not to laugh whereas her parents blissfully ignore it, "Sorry," I mutter under my breath, I've never been good at child-proofing my language. That'll be an issue.

"I guess we'll have to find another one," Otabek glosses over my screw up by pulling out his phone to find someplace for us to stay, "I hope there's something near here, I feel like the jetlag's hit me over the head with a hammer," 

"But aren't you two staying with us?" His mother chimes in, looking surprised by our talk of hotels, "We made up the guest room for you two, it's ready to go,"

"No, that's okay," I assure her quickly, not wanting to put them in that position, "We can find somewhere, it's only for one night," 

"You guys can just crash with us," Allie chimes in, "You haven't visited in years and it'll give us a chance to reconnect," I turn to Otabek, an anxious look on my face. It isn't that I don't want to stay with them, I do, but in light of recent events it'll be quite intrusive, and most definitely awkward. I don't fancy waking them up at six am or god knows when as I run back and forth to the bathroom, and remain there for half an hour.

"No, really, it's fine," I plead but know I'm cornered when all three relatives burst into reasons why we should and how it won't be any trouble. I sigh and turn to my husband, who looks on the bridge of defeat but is waiting for an affirmation from me before agreeing. I nod and he silences his family's tirade. It's only one night, it'll be fine. 

When we get to their house we're shown up to the room we stayed in the last time we were here and immediately flop down onto the bed. I'm asleep the second my head hits the pillow and don't wake until I'm forced to, my natural alarm clock attacking me with my usual morning routine. I had been hoping it wouldn't come, thinking the time difference would trick my body or something but it did, painful as ever; just at noon instead of nine. I wake up curled in a ball with my hands clutching my stomach, the nausea intense. I dash across the hall and to the bathroom, retching into the toilet and praying no one hears me. This lasts for a solid half-hour, and eventually I sink down, a sweaty shaky mess. I hear a small cough behind me and mentally groan, Perfect. I turn to find Allie standing in the doorway holding a glass of water and looking concerned, 

"You okay?" She asks me, "You've been there for kind of a while," I nod and get to my feet slowly, hoping I don't look too terrible. 

"I'm fine. It's just-" I trail off, and shake my head slightly, "I'm fine," She hands me the glass of water she holds and I take a sip, grateful to get the awful taste out of my mouth. 

"You don't look fine," She observes, glancing me up and down, "You look like you're about to collapse," 

"This happens every day," I tell her distractedly, focused on willing the headache forming in my temple to go away, "Give me fifteen minutes and I'll be back to normal," 

"Every day?" She asks me and I kick myself, Obvious.

"Let me just get changed and I'll meet you downstairs," I tell her, evading the question and exit the bathroom quickly, leaving a suspicious Allie in my wake.

Otabek's POV 1st Person

I walk back into my house to find my family (void of Yuri) gathered by the staircase, talking about something. I'd forgotten my charger on the plane and after waking to find Yuri dead asleep, decided I had enough time and run out to the local drugstore to buy one. 

"What are you talking about?" I ask as I approach their little huddle. Allie whirls around to face me at once, her long hair flying behind her.

"Yuri's not feeling well," She says and raises an eyebrow, clearly saying, Spit it out, explain yourself. 

"Shit, Yuri," I brush past her and race up the stairs to my husband, immediately knowing what's wrong. I'm stopped however as she grabs my arm and pulls me down a step, 

"What's going on?" She asks me, "Why are you so worried?" I glance up, hesitating to answer her question. This isn't because I don't want to tell them or because I think they'd be upset- my family's very supportive and I know they'd be happy for us. We just haven't extensively discussed telling people yet, apart from a select few comprised of our rink mates, no one knows. I'm sure that by the time we head back to Russia we'll have let my family in on our little secret but I don't want to give anything away without Yuri's explicit confirmation. 

"It's nothing," I say and start to leave again but am pulled right back,

"Tell me!" She's not backing down and if there's one thing I know about my little sister it's that she's very stubborn,

"Just-" I sigh, "I'll tell you later, I promise," She hesitates for a second then nods, releasing my arm and letting me head upstairs. 

I find Yuri in our bedroom, seated on the bed with his eyes shut. He holds a brush loosely in his right hand while his left massages his temple, he looks pained. "Hey, are you okay?" I sit beside him and remove the brush from his hand, setting it on the bed behind me. He nods then winces,

"Headache," He says, "I'll be fine, give me a second. I'll be downstairs in a minute," I shake my head, 

"Why don't you go back to sleep?" I suggest, "The jet lag probably makes all this worse, after all you don't normally get headaches in the morning. I'm sure another hour or two could help a lot" 

Yuri shakes his head and presses his fingertips more tightly against the side of it, "I said I'd meet Allie downstairs, she saw me," 

"That's okay, she can wait," I tell him and start to help him lie down. While he doesn't fight me he still seems adamant about going downstairs, 

"We need to tell them," He says firmly, and after I agree that we'll do it at dinner he finally consents to going back to sleep. 

I walk down the stairs to find my family waiting at the bottom for me, questions in the air. "Yuri's resting for a while," I tell them, "He has a really bad headache and I forced him to lie down," They nod and Allie goes to open her mouth, undoubtedly going to interrogate me further on why he's feeling so bad but I interrupt her before she can. "We'll tell you everything at dinner," I say firmly, and there's something in my tone that says this is nondebatable, for they accept it and move on with their everyday lives. I smile slightly at my success and let my mind wander a bit. 

Now how are we going to tell them?