Most mornings in St. Petersburg started with a cheerful Victor, humming in the kitchen as he made coffee, carefully calculating his noises so that they gradually increased in sound level. Eventually, a sleepy Yuuri would be lured from the bed, in search of hot caffeine and warm arms to snuggle in. If it was an off day, they would lounge on the couch, wound together like an intricate tapestry with Makkachin's weight added to their pile. On practice days, they would sit at the joined corners of their dining room table to eat breakfast, knees brushing underneath it, no words exchanging between them. Occasionally, if Yuuri found himself awake first, he would make an elaborate breakfast, setting the table with his favorite dishes from his home in Japan before waking Victor with grazing kisses. The mix of routine and surprises meant mornings had somehow become Yuuri's favorite time of day, a consistent reminder of what was real and good in his life.

On this particular morning, Yuuri heard Victor shuffling in the kitchen, smiling into his pillow when he realized that Victor was giggling whispers to Makkachin as he moved around. Whatever silly mood his fiancé had found himself in was making Yuuri giddy as he imagined Victor tiptoeing around their apartment telling secrets to their beloved dog. There was always a light around Victor, a vibrating beacon of happiness that Yuuri felt pulled to, and he finally flipped himself in bed, unable to contain his need to hug his fiancé any longer. Reading his mind, Victor bounded happily into the room, jumping off both feet to land with a bounce on the bed. Without his glasses, Yuuri couldn't identify the object being balanced on his forehead and he squinted at Victor for clarification.

Victor swore there wasn't a lovelier sight than a sleeping Yuuri, although a dazed, drowsy, lop-sided grin Yuuri was a close second. Reaching over the chest of his love, Victor retrieved Yuuri's glasses, carefully placing them across Yuuri's bridge and hooking them behind Yuuri's ear. Leaning down, Victor followed his own movements, placing a kiss on the end of his favorite pink nose (Makkachin's being his favorite black nose) and then stopping to add an Eskimo kiss to the affectionate gesture. He attempted to resist the desire to curl back into bed, failing completely as Yuuri began to trace his shoulder with kisses. Sliding his body back under the covers, he tucked the basket above his head, briefly abandoning his mission in order to succumb to a very warm, very cuddly Yuuri. A cuddly Yuuri was also one of Victor's favorite Yuuris.

Curiosity peaked at the hint of a basket handle over Victor's head, Yuuri stretched to reach for pink and blue woven plastic. His breath hitched as Victor's tongue ran over his nipple, staying flush to his skin and creating a wet trail to his jaw as Yuuri slid back down into Victor's arms. The basket lay limp in Yuuri's hand as he looped it over Victor's waist, finally settling at eye level with Victor, who traced pathways over Yuuri's face with his nose. The caress was a balance between arousing and relaxing and Yuuri wasn't sure if he wanted to wander back into dreamland or flip Victor on his back. Humming in serene pleasure, Yuuri failed to hear Victor's murmur.

"Yuuri," Victor tried again, speaking slightly louder and pinching Yuuri's right cheek until his favorite brown eyes fluttered open, "I have a surprise for you!" Propping himself up on one elbow, Victor continued tracing the lines of Yuuri's face and neck with light fingertips, smile so bright it was a wonder they needed sunlight at all.

If there was anything more adorable than an excitable Victor, Yuuri had yet to experience it. Even cuter was that Victor seemed blissfully unaware of his level of adorable, adding an overall innocence to his excitability. An excited Victor was an irresistible force in Yuuri's world, and he knew whatever Victor had up his sleeve, Yuuri would go along with it, simply to keep the heart-shaped smile from disappearing from Victor's face. "A surprise, huh?" He wanted to be more clever and flirty, but his body was so comfortable he couldn't find the words.

Reaching behind his own back, Victor gently removed the plastic basket from Yuuri's lackadaisical hold. "This is for you!" Victor rolled slightly to make room for the basket between their chests, peering under the handle with an enthusiastic beam.

Confusion settled into Yuuri's mind, understanding limited by the lack of caffeine and the still hazy veil of sleep. "Thank you?" Yuuri took in the sight of the pink and blue plastic straws, wound together to create a shallow basket with a comically large handle. It looked more like a children's toy than a viable household accessory.

Victor giggled, wrinkling his nose at Yuuri's obvious confusion. Yuuri would never purposefully hurt his feelings and turn away a gift, but Victor could tell that Yuuri had absolutely no idea what was going on. This made Victor even giddier about his surprise. "Do you know what today is?" Victor snuggled into his pillow, threading his arm through the basket handle to run light touches over Yuuri's chest.

"Sunday?" It was an off day, and yesterday had been a morning only day, so Sunday was an appropriate guess. Although, Yuuri considered, he had been known to sleep straight through Sundays when he trained in Detroit, so it wouldn't be beyond him to have passed straight through to Monday. He assumed, though, that Sunday was a correct assertion, watching Victor nod with enthusiasm.

He was going to burst if he didn't tell Yuuri soon. "It is Easter Sunday!" Victor announced with a flourish of his hand. Waiting a beat to see if Yuuri would catch on, Victor huffed out a breath making his bangs flutter. His lack of patience combined with his childlike enthusiasm wouldn't let him continue his guessing game much longer. "Do you know what happens on Easter Sunday?"

Yuuri had absolutely no clue. Easter had only recently began to gain popularity in Japan and therefore was never a holiday that Yuuri had celebrated as a child. Though once in Detroit Phicit had volunteered them to help with an egg hunt at a children's hospital, and if Yuuri remembered correctly, that had something to do with Easter. Eyes falling on the brightly colored basket, Yuuri suddenly had a very sound guess as to what Victor was up to. Picking the basket up with his right hand, Yuuri swung it lazily over his head, dramatically considering it from every angle. Just because he had come up with a guess, didn't mean he had to spoil Victor's game and couldn't add his own fun into the mix. "Hm," Yuuri hummed, glancing at Victor in his periphery, "what does one do with a basket like this?" Playing dumb was more than worth it watching Victor vibrate with the anticipation of his surprise.

"You get to hunt Easter eggs!" Victor declared proudly, kissing Yuuri on the forehead. "In Russia, we give away eggs to neighbors and friends, sometimes filled with treats, or sometimes real eggs that we cook and paint first. I tried to research what you do in Japan, but only came up with some odd pictures of a parade, so I decided to go the American way." Sitting up, Victor stripped the warmth of the covers away from Yuuri's upper body, driving Yuuri to cuddle into Victor's lap. Stroking the haphazard black hair, Victor shook with eagerness as he talked. "I hid little eggs everywhere! They have stuff in them! Once you find them all, you can open them for your surprises."

His lips spread into a smile against Victor's thigh. It had been months since he had moved into Victor's place in St. Petersburg, but the sheen on their love hadn't dulled. Every time Yuuri began to feel settled in their relationship, Victor surprised him in all the best ways. He felt the kiss on his temple and smiled harder, feeling as enthusiastic to hunt plastic eggs as the children he remembered from his Easter with Phicit in America. Finally sitting himself up, Yuuri leaned forward to kiss Victor. "You are very sweet, you know that?" Yuuri rested his forehead against Victor's hearing the pleased hum coming from his beautiful significant other. Leaning back he twirled the basket in both hands, "so where do I start?" His body quaked with laughter as Victor zealously hauled him from the bed, leading him to the living room to begin the hunt.

For an hour Yuuri had been hunting little plastic eggs all over their apartment, his basket growing so full that he had to empty some of them onto the counter to make room for the rest. When he had started, Victor had gleefully clapped with every egg he found, making Yuuri giggle even though he felt semi-ridiculous stalking around their apartment in nothing but pajama bottoms in search of tiny treasures. At his last count he had twenty four eggs, and as he stood, paused with his hands on his hips, he audibly contemplated how many there were to go.

Thirty. There were thirty eggs total, twenty four which were accounted for, and six that Victor simply couldn't remember where he had hid them. He shrugged sheepishly at Yuuri, cheeks a slight pink with embarrassment. Declaring the hunt for the last six eggs a joint effort, Victor joined Yuuri in the middle of the room, each rotating in a different direction looking for the brightly colored dots.

Dropping to the ground, Yuuri crawled on his hands and knees to look under their couch. In triumph, he held up a green egg, chuckling when Victor cheered. Continuing his Makkachin-level sleuthing, Yuuri crawled to the bookshelf, peeking behind the corners. When Victor cried out with success, Yuuri startled and promptly smacked his head against the wooden side. Resting against the wall, Yuuri rubbed his throbbing crown, watching as Victor added his bright pink egg to the pile. "Next time you decide to hide Easter eggs, let's make sure our kids are around to find them."

The comment was casual, and Victor tried to convince himself that Yuuri was only joking, but his heart skipped several beats anyway. As he had been stuffing eggs (while hiding from Yakov during what should have been practice time), Victor had experienced similar thoughts of a little Yuuri and Victor hybrid running around with a tiny basket. He had let the fantasy fully bloom as he had crammed chocolates and love notes in between stubborn halves of snapping plastic eggs, even imagining a smaller child, perhaps an infant, cradled in Yuuri's arms as Victor chased their older child. It had been a nice image, one that Victor had continued to play with and develop over the past few days. Yuuri's casual mention of children made his heart unsteadily patter in his chest.

"Got a blue one!" Yuuri exclaimed, dropping it into his basket with a dull clink, "that makes, what? Three more to go?" He didn't notice Victor's frozen stance against the counter, attention caught by Makkachin, who was hiding by the dog bed, suspicious crunching noises emitting from the brown fluff. Moving carefully so as not to warn the dog of his approach, Yuuri pounced over Makkachin, reaching into the dog's mouth and retrieving an orange egg after a drool-covered battle.

"Open that one," Victor leaned over them both looking worried, "please make sure there wasn't chocolate in it. I don't need another heart attack over Makkachin's insatiable appetite."

Teeth worriedly bit at Victor's lower lip, causing the anxiety to rise in Yuuri. Crossing his legs, he failed several times to open the slobber covered egg, finally succeeding and removing a single strip of paper. Everything I do, I do it for you, it read. Yuuri raised an eyebrow at Victor, "did you quote Bryan Adams for this?"

Relieved that the egg Makkachin decided to egg-nap wasn't filled with a sweet substance that would have killed his furry child, Victor slowly nodded to answer Yuuri's question. "That song makes me think of you," he threw over his shoulder as he resumed his hunt, "I listened to it quite a bit when I first arrived in Japan."

There were always these casual revelations, little tidbits of information that Victor would throw around as if they wouldn't completely upend Yuuri's world. The most effective were the ones about Victor's arrival in Hatsetsu, because Yuuri had been woefully unaware of Victor's real feelings and every glimpse into Victor's headspace during that time made Yuuri's heart throb. He had loved Victor for so long and it still took his breath away that the same man he idolized had patiently waited for Yuuri to identify that love. Pushing up from the carpet, Yuuri pulled Victor from where he stood half inside of their food pantry, kissing him clumsily as he stumbled into Yuuri's arms.

Victor strongly hoped that there would never be a time when he would become immune to the power of Yuuri's affections. Sighing into the kiss, Victor wrapped his arms around Yuuri's bare waist, prepared to forego the discovery of the last two Easter eggs. Pushing his love toward their bedroom, Victor slowly registered the sound of cracking plastic once again echoing from Makkachin's spot in the corner. Unlocking himself from Yuuri, they both set off at a run, collapsing on either side of Makkachin to wrestle away another egg.

Eggs halves were scattered all over their comforter, chocolate wrappings and tiny pieces of white paper sprinkled between them. Victor accepted another piece of chocolate from Yuuri's fingers, darting his tongue out to lick the fingertips with a devilish smirk. With an equally teasing air, Yuuri leisurely licked the chocolate from his fingers, taking his time for Victor's benefit. Snapping open another egg, Yuuri pulled the paper loose, unfolding it to read it aloud, "eros is NOT katsudon!" Yuuri choked on his piece of chocolate, snorting against his hand as Victor howled with laughter at his side. "Nice," Yuuri said, rolling his eyes, "you ever think about the fact that I had only ever heard you say that you loved katsudon and Makkachin? And if I had declared eros to be your dog, I think you would have gotten the wrong idea about me," his laughter was barely restrained as he tried to finish his joke, "and Yurio would have stabbed me with a chopstick for grossing him out."

Victor's side hurt from laughing, and his stomach felt queasy from too much chocolate, but the ache of his cheeks, put there by smiling so frequently, was the most welcome pain of all. He had tried to be sweet with all of his love notes, but somewhere around the tenth one he had become pretty punchy. There were only three eggs left to open, meaning the pole dancing comment was still left to be unveiled and he wasn't sure he could handle the inevitable hysterics.

"You pole danced right into my heart," Yuuri read, side-eyeing Victor so hard that he almost gave himself a headache. "If I had known you would be that easy, I would have tried that tacit years ago." Yuuri winced as he was slammed onto his back, Victor pinning him down by the shoulders. "Hey now, whose eros now?" He playfully slapped a hand out at Victor's chest.

Teeth back at his lower lip, Victor leveled his gazed into his favorite brown eyes, "did you mean what you said before?" He saw the confusion return to Yuuri's face, realizing that he would have to be more specific, even if his nervousness was currently strangling him. "I mean, what you said about the kids thing?"

A brief moment passed before Yuuri connected the dots. Resting a loving hand on Victor's cheek, Yuuri smiled, "that you are only allowed to hide eggs if we have kids around to find them?" Victor nodded against his palm. "Yeah, I meant that. Does that bother you? I mean, it is not like I want a kid tomorrow or anything, but…" he was beginning to ramble and he was useless to stop himself until Victor kissed him, bringing an end to his awkwardness.

KIDS! Victor's mind screamed. Yuuri wanted kids. WITH HIM! There were brain cells banging pots and pans in his head, his heart screaming into the cavity of his chest. He had set out with a plan to surprise Yuuri that day, and instead Yuuri had upped the ante, surprising Victor with Yuuri's own desires for the one thing that Victor wanted most in the world. Feeling his heart grow impossibly large in his chest, Victor let his weight press down onto Yuuri as their chocolate-flavored lips met, uncaring about the sea of discarded egg pieces being crushed under their bodies. "I love you," Victor declared, breathing the words against Yuuri's lips, "and it doesn't bother me. I want them too." It was such an understatement, but Victor couldn't explain further with the emotion locking the passageway in his throat.

Yuuri wrapped his arms around Victor, smile burrowed into his love's shoulder, heart drumming a happy rhythm in his chest. He decided then and there that Easter was definitely one of his new favorite holidays.