*picture isn't mine* Enjoy!

Without thinking, I step into the ice and move away swiftly with the rhythm my mind has decided to create. Viktor, Phichit and Anna took time to travel around Russia-Viktor's glad he's back on his hometown-while I took time to figure out what was wrong with Anna. As much as I wanted to see her fine and healthy, I step into the ice and my worries are gone. She'll be fine. I know that. She's a strong girl.

I spin around and land on my feet. Double toe loop. It's been a while since I've done one of them. I'm back at being the Yuri I always thought I was. This socially awkward figure skater that had the chance to be coached by Viktor Nikiforov. It was fate that played. I retired and married Viktor. I adopted Anna. I swore I would never return to the ice.

And I'm on the ice.

I'm on the ice and I'm never thinking of leaving. Without hesitating, I stretch my arms and being with my Eros. I imagine the speakers blaring with the tricky movements of the violin, my body having to do the same. I imagine Viktor standing on the other side, his calming and bright blue eyes analyzing all of my body movements, cheering when I land a jump or supporting me when I fail. 

My song was always the kind that would make Anna jump and dance. She knows the movements from asking me to perform it over and over to her in the little ice rink. I remember other mums would turn and stare and the little kids would attempt my jumps and their mums would scream and reach for them before they fell. 

Anna, if it wasn't for her increasing laziness, would be fantastic. She knows Eros so well she dances to it better than I would've done at her age. She's able to jump a couple of toe loops-not the quadruple of the tripe yet-and land on her feet, though Viktor and I are always there when she is in need of catching.

"Thought I'd see you here." A voice says and I stop abruptly. I was at nothing to finish. I've always imagined ice skating like an escape, a tunnel I could freely walk away from the world and the worries, but as soon as that bridge breaks, everything floods back towards me like individual bullets. I grab the railing for support and put two fingers to my temple. "I never heard figure skating could cause you a headache."

"Go away, Phichit." I mumble. "If you're going to insult me. Is Anna with you?"

"She's fine." Phichit says, walking towards me from the other side and patting my back in reassurance. "She got a little dizzy and stopped eating, but she's resting in the hotel now. I thought for a second she'd stop feeling so bad. What do you feed her?"

I shake my head. " Stop it, Phichit. I wanted a little escape."

"See, Yuri, figure skating helps you." Phichit says. "You had this escape and you let it go. I know you love Anna and Viktor and blah-blah-blah, but you should start thinking about yourself. Did you ever want to quit figure skating?"

"I did for a moment." I admit. "When I thought life didn't want me to skate. When I didn't have Anna or Viktor. They're my life now, Phichit, and they can easily be my new escape."

Phichit sighs and nods. "Okay, fine, just now that I'll be there when you want to join again. We were going to make Phichit on Ice real, remember? How am I supposed to do that when we're fifty years old and you've decided to skate again?"

I laugh. "I think it's going to be more than that."

Phichit raises his eyebrows, shrugs and says, "I just wanted to see you and tell you Anna's fine. Viktor wants to see you again, so, drop to the hotel later. I'm going to explore Russia and take some pictures for-"

"Yeah," I answer him, waving goodbye at him as Phichit pivots and exits the skating rink. I sigh and whirl around, facing the ice. There's a couple by the left side holding hands, the blond boy with emerald green eyes guiding his girlfriend around the rink. The girlfriend clearly inexperienced and clutching his hands tightly and neglecting to fall. On the right side there is some little kids, laughing at each other as some fall and always get back up.

There's no point of skating anymore. The ice is getting crowded by people and I couldn't just skate like I usually did on competitions. I skate towards the benches and take off my skates. In the end, I was only supposed to get Anna's medications. I exit the skating rink quicker than I got and face the crowded streets.

I've never loved crowded places, it's one of the reasons Viktor and I never visited the cities of my competitions. In Barcelona...I don't know, I had the urge to lift my butt from the bed and do something. In the end, Viktor and I traded rings in front of La Sagrada Familia, beautiful church, by the way. I recommend Spain...but not if you have children. Anna was desperate to leave Spain, didn't like it that much but she enjoys other places like Hasetsu and Russia.

"Hello," A voice says as I feel a tap on my shoulder. I whirl around to face a young girl with her mother holding her hand. If the girl had been quite smaller and with black hair, I could've imagined her as my Anna. My Anna can't be replaced, she's one of a kind. 

The mother pushes her little girl in front of me and she blushes intensely, she holds out her notebook and a pen. "I-I used to see you with my grandfather and Viktor. I love him-I mean, I love both of you. He's already taken...but I'm glad you're married. Can-can you sign my notebook?"

I beam widely at her and accept the notebook and the pen from her shaking fingers gladly. She looks up at her mother with hope and love and her mother pats her head. It makes me warm inside. I scribble my signature in the notebook and hand it to her. I mostly never signed autographs when I was at the competitions. Most people were always out there for Viktor. To see a young girl blush at seeing me...

"Thank you!" The young girl says with such chipper. She hugs her mother then looks back at me. I can't explain to you the happiness in her face. "You should return. I'd love seeing you back on the ice."

Without another word, she laughs into her mother's arms-she thanks me-and the two of them melt into the crowded streets of Russia. I continue to smile and make my way to the closest pharmacy from the rink, following Viktor's instructions. Just like I know Hasetsu, Viktor knows Russia better than the palm of his hand. 

 I enter the pharmacy and walk straight to the kids aisle. I look carefully at each of them, smile when I find the ones I'm supposed to, and stuck them into the bag. All around me are signs explaining child cancer, cancer in general, and I neglect to see them. I've never liked sad movies caused by diseases. The fault in our stars? I walked out of the cinema with Yuuko at my heels. Viktor and Minako stayed in the cinema and probably cried their hearts out.

"Is this all?" The woman behind the cashier asks. I nod. She hands me a white, plastic bag with the medicine I bought and a flyer with the same type of warnings. What if your child has cancer? Stop it before you say goodbye! "Have a nice day."

++++++

"I'm back!" I say happily as I open the door from the hotel. In bed I see Anna and Viktor laying next to her, she's tugged closely to his chest and he's making her messy braids from the little locks. I smile at the old memory Anna used to wear those when she went to school. Anna sits up happily as her braids hung messily from her sides. Viktor sits up too and blows me a kiss. I see Phichit isn't back yet. I move over to Anna and kiss her forehead. "Feeling better, honey?"

"Little bit." She admits and offers me a smile. "Where you chubby before you met daddy?"

I raise my eyebrows and shoot Viktor an alarming look. He waves it off with a laughter and wraps his arm around Anna. "That was our secret." He says in a loud whisper. I glare him daggers and Anna snickers this time. I wave it off and walk over to the table where I put out the medicines. I hear Anna groan behind me. "Yeah, sorry sweetheart, but if you want to feel better again you'll have to drink these."

"But I'm already feeling better!" Anna protests and looks alarming at Viktor. 

"I have to agree with your dad on this one." He says and rubs her hair. "Think about this-once you're feeling much better we can go to Moscow. And once Uncle Yurio is better, you can see him."

Anna nods and walks over to me. She's much smaller than the other girls, but she's strong and capable of many things. Her head reaches to the bend of my elbow, and Viktor looks like a giant compared to her, but she's not that small compared to Phichit who looks like a dwarf compared to Viktor. 

"Do these taste bad?" She asks, holding one jar of medicine and giving it a stern look.

"If it does, you'll still drink it." I warn her and take the jar gently from her hands. I pour it gently into another vase and hand it to Anna. She stares at it for a couple of moments, her blue eyes reminding me too much of the man I've fallen in love with as she raises the vase gently to her lips and gulps it down. She grimaces and sticks her tongue out in disgust. I roll my eyes playfully and receive the vase she handed out to me. "What does it taste like?"

"Rat poison." Anna answers, then clicks her tongue a couple of seconds. "Or maybe just asparagus."

Viktor snorts behind me. He, just like Anna, hates asparagus when I love it in additional food. In restaurants we used to go to, I'd order-I don't know, a salmon with asparagus at it's sides and Viktor and Anna would spend the entire meal looking at it oddly and grimacing at it while I stuffed it into my mouth. I don't take them out much often.

Phichit suddenly barges into the door, damped in rain and with a smile plastered across his fame. He walks over to the corner of the room and starts taking his boots and coats off. "It's raining."

"Quite an observation, Phichit." I answer back sarcastically as thunder booms outside of us. Despite the rain, it's hot. We have the air conditioner to it's full power and I still feel a beat of sweat come down my forehead. I take off my thin sweater and rest in my t-shirt as Phichit gets into the shower. Anna yawns and starts making her way back to the bed. Viktor looks like he's already asleep.

I sit down in the bed next to him and start talking off my shoes and socks. "How did your day go?"

"You weren't here with me." Viktor complains, scoots over and wraps his arms around me. He nuzzles his face into my neck and I tickle. Anna walks over to us and gets herself tangled in my arms. We used to have family hugs all the time back in Hasetsu it came to us as a family routine. We'd have the TV blaring it's nearly blinding light at us, but we wouldn't care. We had each other in our arms and that was the best of it. 

"Oh," Anna says out loud and jerks away from my arms as I see what's wrong. She's gone incredibly pale and clutches her bleeding nose. I wouldn't blame her. With enough heat that's going on, my nose would bleed too. "I'm sorry. Am I sick?"

"No, no, honey, no." Viktor says, taking Anna in his arms as I pass him a tissue. He takes it gladly and hands it to Anna who puts it into her nose. She smiles as Viktor presses a kiss to her forehead and drops her down on the bed. Her eyes shut for a moment, but we both know she's not asleep. I stand up and look at the night of Russia, the way the starts glister and the way the night sky cloaks the sun with the moon. It's outstanding how far I am from Hasetsu, yet still share the same sky.

Viktor stands at my side as he opens the window and guides me outside to the balcony. I smile at him and walk out in mid-air where it's even hotter. Viktor sits down on the little table our hotel room has and I sit down across him. He looks lost in the wonders of Russia, but still looks like he's centered on Earth with me and Anna.

"Do you miss the ice?" I suddenly blurt out, not meaning too.

Viktor's eyes snap up at my direction. "Of course. Do you?"

"More than anything." I reply, my hands moving towards him until our fingers are fully interlaced. "But, I guess what they say is true. We parents care of our children more than anything."

"You can return." Viktor offers. "Meanwhile I can become...a lawyer or something."

I crack a smile. "No, I've been you skate. That's what you're doing for the rest of your life. Tell you what-once Yurio is back on his feet and Anna feels better, we'll sort this out. I'm not spending the rest of my life as a lawyer. There's plenty of them. Did you know  I signed an autograph today?"

Viktor whirls around me, pure happiness in his smile. "Really?"

I nod. "It was a little girl. She'd look like Anna but she's irreplaceable. I think she mostly knew me because I'm your husband."

Viktor scoffs. "You're known because of your skating and second place in the tournament, not because we got married and adopted Anna."

I shrug. 

Viktor's tone grew serious. "I'm not kidding, Yuri."

I nod. "That's why we're going to find a plan that will guarantee both of us will stay on the ice."

From inside, I hear Anna cough. I jerk my head back to see her standing up, slamming her hand into her chest like that's going to make the coughing go away, like her lungs are a rusted car engine. I look alarmingly at Viktor and we both stand up at the same time, rushing out of the balcony and the busy streets into our comfy hotel room. Viktor grabs Anna some water and she sips it down gently.

"I'm sorry." She says again, her voice quivering as she winces. "It's hard to speak."

"Are you swollen?" I ask nervously, reaching down to cuddle her.

She nods, then coughs again. "It's like I can't breathe anymore. Do I have asthma?"

"No," I assure her, almost laughing. "You're fine, sweetheart. Nothing will happen to you. Go to sleep."

She nods again and rests her delicate head on her pillow. Her blue, blue eyes falling from sight. I stare at a spot on her neck. My heart stops for a moment. I reach out to lower the collar of her ladybug pajama and see what's in her skin. It's a purple path and spots. It's one, but enough to enlarger my nerves.

"Is this normal for a cold?" I ask Viktor who thought it was nothing to worry about.

He shakes his head, his eyes narrowing. "No. I'll call an old doctor, see what he can do with Anna."

I nod and rest right beside her. Viktor in the other side. Anna cuddling next to us.

It's hard to sleep when 1) You're afraid of what the future might hold to your family and 2) You're daughter is incredibly sick it looks like she has a hickey in her neck and she's eleven.

Thankfully, I manage to kiss Anna's forehead and squeeze Viktor's hand before my eyes fall asleep, and another day is leaked away.