The Depth of Green

Epilogue: Part Three

Epilogue Part Two recap: Deda! Things are calming down with Yuri and Otabek, and Nadeika is a gremlin and I love her. They return to the US, yay!

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Two Years Later
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Yuri sighed as he fell against the kitchen counter, aware he was being stared at from three angles and uncaring. Deda, long-used to the routine following the bi-weekly Zoom calls to Japan, simply handed him a mug, already prepared and with steam issuing in spirals from the top of the liquid's faintly green surface. Inhaling deeply, Yuri felt his heart calm slightly at the scent of the green tea, the only kind of tea he could stand, and scrubbed a weary hand across his face.

Otabek, from the doorway, pursed his lips, but, only too privy to Yuri's emotions at the moment, only offered him an apologetic grimace and beckoned Nadeika from her chair at the kitchen table, helping her climb down from the formidable height of its seat, and gently fielding her questions about why Daddy was mad.

Yuri was mad because he was mad after every biweekly Zoom call to Japan, but, recently, had been handling it worse. As if he didn't have enough to be getting on with, right now, as if scornful mutters of "improper" were what he needed added to his plate.

Just because he knew Otabek's mother disapproved of him and his general existence in the vicinity of her child, did not mean he liked it. And, while he had once been able to deal with the biweekly belittling with some shred of grace, all, in the light of recent events, was gone from his store.

Initially upon meeting him, Mrs. Altin hadn't been so bad, he remembered, near-longingly, as he stared into the depths of his mug. Doubtlessly Otabek had forewarned her of Yuri's mental state, and, accordingly, she had treated him with kid gloves. And while, even back then, Yuri had known she didn't think much of the match, had overheard several hushed yet heated arguments, it had been easier to ignore. Now, despite the fact Yuri would never actually be okay, after what he'd gone through, he was far more stable, and his mother-in-law's qualms about openly voicing her distaste for him had long-since evaporated.

At least the woman had the decency to be kind to Nadeika. She'd visited once, for Christmas when the little girl was almost two, and, disapproving of Yuri as she had been, she'd been enchanted by his daughter on sight. Frankly, that was most of the reason Yuri still bothered to be present over Zoom these days-- Nadeika loved "Grandma" and was still too young to understand why her father sometimes couldn't look her grandmother in the eye.

Not all of Otabek's family was so bad, though, and for that Yuri was grateful. Serena and her mother, Aina, had always been kind to him, and their visits and Zoom calls were met with far more excitement than Mrs. Altin's.

The last time Yuri saw her, he and Serena had spent a little over an hour coloring and discussing whether pink or blue was the superior hue. (Yuri was still on the side of leopard print, but that option had been eliminated early on, so he'd had to shift his allegiance to pink in the final round of the game.) And Aina, for all her mischief and competitive nature, was far too willing to embarrass Otabek with tales of his childhood antics for Yuri to be anything less than in love with her.

And despite how Otabek complained that their alliance was his downfall, Yuri had caught his quiet, hidden smiles as he watched them together, the relief on his face when Yuri had first begun to relax around his family. Yuri couldn't blame him: after having been so skittish in the beginning, it had to have been reassuring to watch him not flinch when he was addressed unexpectedly. And, Yuri suspected, Otabek's family (with one notable exception) being so welcoming to him had to help matters; something about the hardwiring of an alpha's brain, his mate being accepted by his bloodline or whatever.