Chapter Text
“Victor!”
Locking his arms tighter around his husband’s waist, Victor shook his head vigorously, as stubborn as a child.
“Victor, please. Phichit is already waiting outside! And just look at Makkachin, he can’t stay here like that.”
Whimpering, Victor reluctantly loosened his death grip around Yuuri’s waist and turned his head to look at said poodle, grimacing at the sight.
Poor Makkachin had been a recent victim of one of Guang Hong’s famous “make overs” that usually involved the heavy use of sequins, glitter, poster paint and glue. His normally brown fur was almost imperceptible, instead looking like the messy hybrid of a rainbow and a disco ball. If disco balls could whimper pitifully.
Victor turned away once more,resting his forehead on his husband’s shoulder and sighing forlornly. He felt the shoulder beneath him shake with laughter and gentle fingers stroking the fine hairs at the nape of his neck.
“Come on, Victor. It’s only one day”, Yuuri chuckled, pressing a kiss to Victor’s temple.
“They’re going to eat me alive”, Victor mumbled into the fabric of Yuuri’s shirt.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Now let me go, Vitya, I can’t keep Phichit waiting any longer”.
Victor shuffled away morosely just in time to receive a quick peck on the lips.
“See you later Vitya. Bye everyone, I love you! I’ll see you all later!”
Receiving a chorus of “Goodbyes” and “I love you”s in return, Yuuri shut the door with a final farewell, Makkachin trotting behind him (still continuing to whine) and left Victor alone with his four children. It was going to be a long day of quick thinking and resourcefulness. Not to mention, one that would no doubt put his entertainment skills to the test.
Soon enough, he felt tiny hands grab onto his own.
“Papa, where’s Daddy going?”
Victor smiled down at his youngest son, bending down to lift the tiny blonde boy into his arms. Yuri was clad in his latest gift from his Uncle Phichit: a tiger onesie complete with feet and a hood. Ever since he had been given it, he refused to wear anything else, going so far as to put it on over his everyday clothes.
“Daddy went out with Uncle Phichit to get Makkachin all cleaned up, but don’t worry Yurio! He’ll be back in a couple of hours. In the meantime, let’s see what your brothers are up to. It’s too quiet in the living room”, Victor huffed out a laugh.
Adjusting Yuri on his hip, Victor made his way into the living room, where Leo had apparently just finished refereeing a thumb war between Minami and Guang Hong. All three boys looked up at their father’s arrival and immediately flitted towards him.
“Papa! I won the thumb war against Minami! I won!”, Guang Hong exclaimed, clutching onto the fabric of Victor’s sleeve.
Victor bent down to Guang Hong’s level, setting his youngest son down.
“Well done Guang Hong!” He looked towards Minami, who was pouting slightly and scuffing his toes against the carpet.
“I’ll win next time. Guang Hong cheated”, he mumbled.
“No I didn’t! You’re just a sore loser! Leo saw it, right? Tell him I didn’t cheat, Leo!”
“That’s right, he didn’t-“
“Yes you did!”
“No I didn’t”
“Did too!”
“Did not!”
“Hey hey hey!” Victor interjected, wrapping an arm around each of the twins. “I’m sure Guang Hong would never cheat, Minami. You’ll have better luck next time, alright?”
Both twins grudgingly nodded in agreement, huffing slightly.
After a moment of silence, Guang Hong spoke up.
“Papa...I...is Makkachin gonna be ok?” his lower lip wobbled dangerously, still no doubt feeling guilty about the make over, especially after the long lecture he had received from both of his fathers.
“Makkachin’s going to be just fine, so don’t worry about that anymore, alright?”Guang Hong sighed in relief, so Victor continued. “Besides. Daddy is going to be out with Uncle Phichit all day so let’s just forget about it all, hm? And you can tell Papa what you’d like to do!”
Immediately, all four children wore identical looks of deep concentration as they wracked their brains for fun activities they could do with their Papa. Minami’s eyes lit up first.
“Let’s play with my Nerfs!” he piped up.
“No, let’s draw!”countered Guang Hong.
“I don’t really mind,” murmured Leo, ever the mediator.
Victor hummed in contemplation, looking to his youngest son.
“And what about you, Yurio? What would you like to do?”
Yuri thought for all of five seconds before he waddled over to where his father kneeled, and planted his face in his shoulder.
“Sleep”, came the muffled reply.
Victor couldn’t help but burst into laughter and hug Yuri closer, letting him fully rest his head on his shoulder, his little body already going limp from sleepiness.
“My my, Yurio, we didn’t get much sleep last night, did we?”
Yuri shook his head, burrowing his head further into his father’s shoulder and sighing contentedly. Victor began stroking his hair, knowing that the soothing action could always get Yuri to relax and fall asleep quicker. He looked towards his three remaining sons once more, who seemed to be arguing over their suggestions. Victor suddenly thought of an idea and interrupted their bickering.
“Since Yuri seems to be really tired right now, why don’t we watch a movie here on the couch? You can pick whichever one you want”
All three pairs of eyes lit up at the suggestion and they immediately scrambled over to the shelf where all their dvds were kept. Victor made himself comfortable in the centre of the couch, being careful not to jostle Yuri (who had already drifted off) while he placed his little body on his chest. He resumed stroking his smooth blond hair just as Leo and the twins returned with armfuls of movies. Victor sighed quietly. He could already predict the oncoming storm.
“So, which one would you like to watch?” he asked.
“Cars!” exclaimed Minami.
“No, let’s watch Dumbo!” responded Guang Hong.
“I’d like to watch this one”, Leo held up the DVD cover that displayed Mary Poppins clad in white and red, holding up her frilly striped umbrella.
Minami rolled his eyes so hard Victor could only see the whites of them. He knew from experience that this could only mean a blunt and honest comment from Minami, honest enough to hurt someone’s feelings.
“You always want to watch that one, Leo. It’s so boring.” He groaned.
Leo held the DVD close to his chest, as if Minami would snatch it away at any moment.
“No, it’s not. It’s not boring, right Papa?” Leo looked determinedly towards his father.
“Yes it is. It’s boring and stupid. Even Guang Hong thinks so”. He looked pointedly towards his twin. He really wouldn’t let this go.
“Well...it is...k-kind of...” Guang Hong looked to the floor, nervousness preventing him from finishing his sentence, afraid of hurting his older brother’s feelings. Victor had noticed before that he had picked up this habit from Yuuri; anxious words coming out shakily, unable to finish what he wanted to say and either jumping on to the next idea or repeating it. As much as it worried Victor sometimes, it was endearing to see his kids resemble them somehow.
Leo looked absolutely betrayed. Victor decided to step in before there were any tears.
“Minami, that’s not a nice thing to say. Apologise to your brother. Mary Poppins is a wonderful movie, Leo” he assured his eldest son, receiving a little smile in return. After a very quietly mumbled apology from Minami, Victor decided to try to resolve the conflict once more.
“Well, let’s see what other movies you brought and then we can decide in the end, how does that sound?” he asked. The children promptly began sifting through their many choices and Victor prayed that they could find an agreement among the dozens of DVDs that now littered the living room floor.
Unfortunately, he had not been so lucky.
The children had begun bickering about their tastes in movies with more fervour than before, the twins in particular, completely ignoring Victor’s attempts to quiet them down. He sighed deeply as Yuri began to stir on his chest.
“I don’t want to watch that one!”
“We watched Mulan yesterday!”
“I am not watching that”
Victor groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. He wished Yuuri were there. Although this was a problem that often occurred during movie picking, Yuuri was always there to quieten them down and find a choice that they could all agree on. At least he had Leo, Victor thought as he watched said boy attempting to shush the twins, who had started borderline yelling at each other.
“What if we just watch them all? We can put them on one after the other, right Papa?” suggested Leo, his little angel.
Victor smiled and nodded. He knew they wouldn’t be able to truly sit through three movies in a row but hoped that maybe they would actually fall asleep and take a nap for once. Really fall asleep. Not just those five minute ‘naps’ that often resulted in all four of them becoming irritated and crying easily from tiredness when night fell. Attempting to put any of the children to sleep in the day almost always ended in disaster.
Hopefully this wouldn’t either, thought Victor as the opening music of Mary Poppins began to play and the rest of his children snuggled into him on the couch, including Yuri, who had woken up with all the racket and now turned around in his father’s lap to watch the movie. Victor once again prayed that they would settle down and maybe nap.
If only it had been that easy.
Mary Poppins lasted a whopping total of ten minutes before the twins declared themselves bored and replaced the dvd with another. Followed by another. And another. And another. It only ended when Minami became so enthusiastic with one of his choices he ended up pushing the disc in and closing it with too much force, not only cracking the actual disc, but jamming the dvd player also. Victor spent the next few minutes attempting to scold Minami while simultaneously holding Yuri back to stop him from punching the daylights out of his older brother all while Leo and Guang Hong tried unsuccessfully to muffle their laughter at the sight.
After making sure that no blood would be shed between Yuri and Minami, Victor made several failed attempts to fix the DVD player to no avail. It was on his fourth failed attempt that he was struck with a solution so obvious he almost smacked himself for not thinking of it before. Standing up, he smiled at his children.
“I have an idea. Since the dvd player seems to be broken,” his heart ached a little when he saw Minami look down and bite his lip in shame at that. “I’ll let you watch The King and the Skater on Papa’s laptop”. All four children practically lit up at the suggestion but Victor continued before either could say another word. “But only if, and I mean it, only if there’s no more fighting, alright?”
Victor tried for a stern look but seeing those four hopeful and innocent expressions softened it completely.
“Come on then, let’s go upstairs. You can watch it in Papa’s bed.”
He was met with immediate cheers of delight followed by the sound of four pairs of feet bounding up the stairs. Chuckling quietly at their enthusiasm, he dug out his laptop and followed them at a much slower pace. He could already hear the sound of hushed bickering between Yuri and Minami over their seating arrangements and Victor cleared his throat pointedly.
“I really hope what I’m hearing isn’t fighting”, he sung. He smiled smugly when he was met with instantaneous dead silence and entered the room. Sure enough, there they were, innocent expressions plastered on their faces. The four of them were already snuggled underneath the covers with Yuri on Leo’s lap, a significant empty gap and then Guang Hong and Minami on the other side of the bed. Minami patted the gap lightly and Victor smiled, understanding it as ‘his spot’. He clambered onto the bed and took his seat, opening up the laptop and letting the home page load. As soon as he sat down, his children pressed closer to his side, Minami linking his left arm and Leo linking his right. Yuri’s little hand also wandered up to play with Victor’s hair as he waited for the movie to finish loading up. Somewhere among the chaos of limbs, Victor also felt a little tug on the hem of his shirt and could identify it as Guang Hong without even looking.
Victor couldn’t suppress his beaming smile if he tried. As he watched the opening credits of The King and the Skater appearing on the screen, with Leo already singing along under his breath, Victor was suddenly overcome with a fierce wave of affection. Hugging them all closer to his sides, he could honestly say that there was no other place he would rather be in that moment. No amount of Gold medals, world titles or awards could ever amount to how Victor was feeling right then. The sensation of his heart bursting with overwhelming fondness yet feeling completely relaxed and accepted at the same time, was so much more valuable than any of those things. Sometimes he really felt like the luckiest man alive.
He was suddenly snapped out of his reverie by a little hand waving itself in front of his face. He took it in his own and looked down to see Minami frowning at him in confusion.
“Papa, you’re not watching the movie”, he huffed.
Victor laughed and gave his hand a squeeze.
“I’m sorry, Minami, Papa’s mind was just wandering a bit. I’ll pay attention now.”
Minami turned his attention back to the screen, seeming satisfied with his answer, and Victor settled back properly into the pillows to watch the movie he had seen countless times already. Still, he never tired of the sparkle in the children’s eyes when Arthur finally saves the kingdom with the power of his magical trading cards or hearing them all sing along to the finale of Shall We Skate. Their adorably enthusiastic reactions made it seem as though they were watching the movie for the very first time all over again and it was honestly Victor’s favourite part of the film (and of watching any other films with his kids for that matter).
It was no different this time either. They sang along to every song, gasped with every dramatic moment, clutched onto Victor worriedly when the fire broke out in the palace and sighed in collective relief when Arthur saved the day (all except Yuri who had fallen asleep fifteen minutes in and had to be relocated to Victor’s arms to catch up on his well needed rest). Finally, the end credits began to roll and they all began to fidget around and stretch, muscles stiff from staying in the same position for so long. Yuri also began to stir in Victor’s arms and his eyes blinked open sleepily, his expression changing into one of drowsy confusion.
“Is it....over already?” he yawned.
All of his siblings broke out into fits of giggles. Victor ruffled the top of his head lightly, biting his lip to stifle his laughter.
“Yes, sweetheart, you fell asleep.”
Yuri blinked a few more times in bewilderment.
“oh”, he mumbled in surprise.
“oh”, Victor echoed, smiling fondly.
A feral growl suddenly pierced the air and Yuri was startled out of his bleary state by his own stomach, his hands shooting out to press against it in shock. A shorter, quieter rumble followed soon after and Yuri stared at his belly accusingly.
“I’m hungry”, he declared.
Minami shot his hand up in the air.
“Me too! Me too!”
Guang Hong and Leo made similar sounds of assent and Victor stood, climbing out of the bed.
“Right. I’ll see what we have,” Victor declared, making his way down the stairs and into the kitchen. He prayed that they still had leftovers from the day before, or that Yuuri had left something already made in the fridge since Victor’s cooking skills unfortunately still had much room for improvement. Opening the fridge he discovered that neither of those were true. It was practically empty. There was nothing fit for a decent meal in the cupboards either, or the pantry. Victor sighed forlornly. Well, there was only one thing to do at this point.
“Kids!” he called out.
Hearing the rapid thumping of footsteps down the stairs, he smiled and grabbed his coat from the stand, shrugging it on as they filtered into the kitchen, expressions of curiosity marking their faces.
“Put on your coats! Papa’s bringing you out to eat!”
Cheering in delight, the four of them rushed to grab their jackets, helping each other with the buttons and zips.
Even though Yuuri wasn’t with him, Victor would still be able to handle it, right?