On Love: Agape!!!

Chapter 39

3:49 am
Tuesday, December 6th, 2023
Fukuoka International Airport, Fukuoka Japan

"Alright Masha, how do you want me to do your hair?" Viktor inquired, as she, him, Yuri, Yurio, and Yuuko sat in the airport waiting at the gate. Today was the day, the day that they were flying out to St.Petersburg, and Yuri could feel the excited electricity in the air. Not only was everyone excited to see the city (both Maria and Victor were practically bouncing off the walls the second they woke up), but Yuri was excited to see his old computers again. He already knew Phichit would be there, after all, he was competing this year along with Yurio. The other 4 competitors were JJ, Emil Nekola, Jacob Bähr, and Otabek Altin. Mila and Sara Crispino-Babicheva had both qualified the women's Grand Prix final as well, and of course, we're bringing Mickey. But Yuri was glad to report that while they were still close, Sara and Mickey were no longer attached at the hip. in addition, Yuri also knew that Chris was coming out to watch, and Leo De la Iglesia, along with his little sister Isabel, who was 10, only a few years older than Maira.

"Why are you doing my hair when I'm in my Pajamas?" Maria questioned. She had picked to wear her sleeping beauty pajamas, which consisted of a long-sleeve pastel pink nightgown (with a picture of Aurora on it, of course) and fuzzy pink pajama pants underneath. She had picked them out about 30 seconds after going to target to get some special things for the trip, along with a Rainbow mini-suitcase. He had felt like the biggest hypocrite on the face of the air, and it broke his heart to tell her that she should pick something else, but he had to keep her safe. Both Viktor and Yurio had reassured him that while things still weren't good for LGBT in Russian, it was definitely better than it had been the wedding and that nobody in their right mind would target her, Yuri still had this terrible gut feeling that something on the trip was going to go terribly wrong. But of course, instead of telling little Maira all this, he had just told her that there was a slightly bigger Elephant one across the Aisle, and want to be nice to have some extra room for souvenirs?. Another thing special about this trip Viktor and Yuri had discussed it extensively, and they had decided that at some point during the trip, Viktor was going to show both Maria and Yuri the neighborhood where he grew up. That was mostly what was worrying Yuri about the trip, because even though it had been over a decade since Viktor had originally left the neighborhood, he had left as soon as he came out, and the reaction had not been good. In fact, they hadn't even taken the risk when the pair was in St.Petersburg for the wedding. But even though Yuri wasn't 100% sure it was a good idea, it was only fair, and once Viktor set his mind to something there was no stopping him.

"You don't have to have anything in your hair, Masha, but if we don't brush it out now, then it will hurt to brush it out by the time we get to Russia." Viktor nurturing explained. A few days before, Yuri and he had nailed down a solid plan for Maria and the airport. She had never flown before and had never traveled to a different time zone, much less one 5 hours behind, so to try and combat the inevitable jet lag, the two das had decided that they would do everything they could to get Maria to sleep on the plane. The first face of that plan was already in motion, which was to wake her up about 15 minute before they had to leave, enough time for her to change into her sleeping beauty pyjamas and do things such as brush her teeth, and do a final check to make sure they had everything, but not long enough to let Maira fully wake up. They had also completed phase two, which was run Maria out of her 'I'm-leaving-the-county-for-the-first-time-ever-and-going-to-see-where-Papa-grew up-and-see-uncle-hamilton-skate-and-meet-all-the-skate-friends" energy by using foolproof tactics, such as having her run laps around the giant rows of empty chairs in the gate, or having everyone go one at a time to get breakfast and such, and have Maira join every single one of them. The last phase was now in effect, which was to keep Maira just awake enough to function, but sleepy enough to have her sleep on the plane to Shanghai, with would give her enough sleep to be fully awake and hopefully be able to quickly recover from the inevitable jet lag.