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1.
One week after Victor announces he won't be competing next season, he posts to his Instagram account a photograph of an impossibly tiny onesie and a small stuffed poodle lying atop a comforter.
The caption reads "<3" and nothing else.
2.
Yuuri is still skating next season, though he thinks it might be his last one. He might not be an old man like Victor (who has begun to sigh mournfully on a regular basis on how he's going to be turning thirty this year, thirty, Yuuri!), but he's not so far behind him, either. Two more years, at most, but at least one, at any rate.
"It's fine," Victor says, "we will just plan for the baby to come once you're finished with Worlds. The timing will be perfect."
Victor seems very convinced that babies can be planned around. Yuuri doesn't have much experience with babies, either, but he's heard Yuuko talk about the triplets enough to have some doubts.
Still. Victor seems so excited. And Yuuri's never really thought about kids before, but now that the topic's been brought up… He can picture it so easily, he and Victor and their baby, all together. A family. And it makes him feel warm and happy all through his chest.
"Okay," Yuuri says, and Victor flings himself happily into his arms. Victor also does that when Yuuri remembers to pick up coffee at the grocery store, so it's not as big a gesture as it might have been, but it's still nice.
3.
Victor has been more or less carrying around the image of a tiny miniature Yuuri in his head (he and Yuuri's mother went over Yuuri's baby pictures more than once during Victor's time in Hasetsu, and he's clung to the memories jealously), so it's a little disappointing when Yuuri insists that Victor be the biological father.
"But why?" Victor says, ready to argue and wear down whatever silly objections Yuuri has come up with.
"Well," Yuuri says slowly, "there are things I don't want to pass on. If we had a baby and it had the problems I do… I would feel responsible."
Victor thinks but you're perfect and I want to pass on all of your perfect genes to our baby! -- but he bites it back, because Yuuri looks pained and maybe like he's going to cry if Victor pushes it. And Victor really, really hates it when Yuuri cries.
Compromises are important in relationships, anyway. That's what people keep saying.
4.
The advantage of the timing of everything, Yuuri thinks, is that he's too busy with his nerves over his skates this season to have much time or brain space left to have as many nerves about being a father soon as well.
5.
Three months before the due date, Victor shakes Yuuri awake in the middle of the night.
"Mmmph?" Yuuri says.
It's dark in their bedroom and since Yuuri's not wearing his glasses, Victor's face is blurry even just a few feet above him. Even so, Yuuri can make out the expression of worry Victor's wearing.
"Yuuri! What if Makkachin is jealous of the baby?"
Yuuri looks around -- yes, Makkachin is still sleeping at the foot of the bed. Yuuri doubts he's moved in hours, or will move again before breakfast. Makkachin spends most of his time sleeping these days. He doesn't go on runs with Yuuri anymore, but he'll still rouse himself up for walks. Old age has turned him from merely friendly and good-natured to the mellowest dog in the world.
"Makkachin will love the baby," Yuuri tells Victor.
"Are you sure?" Victor says. He still looks strained. It's the first time during this whole thing that Yuuri's seen Victor have any doubts at all, which is the reason Yuuri isn't crankier about being disturbed from sleep like this.
"I'm sure," Yuuri says seriously. "Now, go back to sleep."
6.
The baby is born precisely one week and three days after Yuuri takes silver at Worlds. They still haven't decided on a name.
The first time Yuuri holds their daughter in his arms, Victor recognizes the signs of Yuuri being dizzy and ready to faint; he hurries to guide Yuuri over and down into a chair.
Victor smiles the first time he sees her and he doesn't think he stops smiling for weeks after. Even after they bring her home, even after sleep becomes a distant memory.
He can't get over her tiny fingernails, her soft skin, the wild fluff of dark hair on her head. "Look at her eyelashes!" he'll call over to Yuuri, and Yuuri will come over to look again, even though he's come to look at them a half-dozen times already today.
7.
Of all the people in the world Yuri never imagined being a father, Victor is pretty high up on the list. It's weird. Not as weird as it would have been a few years ago, Yuri supposes, because ever since he started things with Katsudon, Victor's changed some. He's not as self-centered as before, maybe. He definitely remembers things better. He's still a moron, and Yuri would never say it to either of them, but gross as they can be together, Katsudon and Victor are kind of good influences on each other.
Plus Yuri would definitely attack anyone else who tried to suggest Victor wouldn't be a good dad. But those guys can never know that either.
All that said, the first time Victor brings the baby to the rink Yuri's half-convinced at first he's actually forgotten the kid. There's a stroller and a bunch of bags accompanying him and there's definitely some sort of weird fabric holder strapped to Victor's chest, but from where Yuri is across the rink it just looks like bunches and bunches of blankets. No way there can actually be a person hiding in all that.
Victor stands by the boards and watches Katsudon skate, and occasionally he looks down at the bundle at his chest and seems to whisper something. When Yuri gets closer, he looks over and waves.
"Yurio!" Victor calls out. "Come over and say hi to the malyshka!"
"Ugh, fine," Yuri says, skating over with a scowl. Victor turns a little and -- yes, all right, there she is after all. Last time Yuri visited their place she slept the whole time, even when he was holding her, but she's awake now and seems alert and curious. Her eyes are big and dark and solemn but her mouth makes a weird twitch as Yuri leans in close.
"Look!" Victor says. "She's smiling at you!"
Yuri hadn't realized that was a smile, but now that he knows he puffs up with pride. "Of course she is! I am her favorite."
Katsudon skates up to join them then, and irritatingly Victor moves so Yuri can't see the baby anymore, just so the two of them can kiss.
"How long until she can skate, too?" Yuri says.
Victor laughs, and Katsudon smiles. "Give her a little time," he says.
8.
The best gift Victor receives for his thirty-first birthday: a cheap novelty mug with a trophy printed on, emblazoned with the words World's Greatest Dad.
Yuuri isn't entirely sure who sent it -- it certainly wasn't him, and despite what the gift tag included implies, the baby isn't old enough to figure out how to order things online yet. He suspects Chris, or maybe Phichit. It doesn't really matter, though, because based on how happy it makes Victor, Yuuri kind of wishes he had thought of it himself.
He does think it's kind of silly that Victor wants to store it alongside his actual gold medals, but he helps him clear the space out for it anyway.