I slept almost the entire ride to Lev and Alessios. I woke up just before Viktor stopped at a coffee chain drive through. He ordered for us both. 

Holding my warm white hot chocolate, I sniffed the sweet smelling steam that came out of it. It was delightful. 

“Thank you for this.” 

“You’re welcome,” he said, talking a long drink out of his coffee. “We’re almost there. I would have grabbed us something to eat too, but Lev’s darling husband threatened me with violence if we didn’t have dinner with them.” 

“Oh. Well then, I guess that is the plan.” I chuckled. 

“I cleared my day tomorrow too, on the odd chance they ask us to stay the night.” Viktor said, turning onto the gravel road. Stretching out, I was actually a little excited to see Lev and Alessio, Ilya, too. I texted Alessio and let him know we were about five minutes away. He texted back and told me they would meet us outside. 

“Alessio and Lev are going to meet us outside.”

“Alright.” Viktor nodded and drove a little slower down the road. He stopped at the gate, and the guards waved us through. He drove all the way to the back of the back and found a parking spot. Parking, he turned the car off, and pulled a gun off his hip, and tucked it under the seat. 

“Do you take that with you everywhere?” I questioned him. 

“Of course. I’m a popular guy for some not acceptable reasons,” he said, taking his seatbelt off and getting out. He walked around the car and opened my door. I took off my seatbelt and got out. He closed my door and walked beside me to the doors. 

Alessio came outside first, and he smiled at me. “Perfect timing. Nikita, you come with me for a bit. Lev is just inside the door waiting for you, Viktor. I’m just going to the Clinic with Nikita to remove his cast. We won’t be long.”

“Take your time, Alessio. Lev and I can amuse ourselves for the time it takes.” Viktor said and turned and went inside. Alessio and I walked over to the medical building, and I sighed once I got inside, realising I forgot what was left of my hot chocolate. 

“What’s up?” Alessio asked, looking at me with concern on his face. 

“Oh, nothing that serious. I just forgot the rest of my drink in the car.” I hummed, following behind him into another room. 

“Right. I can’t tell you the amount of times I do that. I swear that is the number one way I lose my drinks.” Alessio laughed and set up a cast saw. 

“You’re sure it’s properly healed now?” I teased him. 

“Pretty confident that it’s properly mended, unless, of course, you want to keep it,” he said and looked at me with a smile on his face. “How are things going with Viktor and you, Nikita?”

“It’s going. We are getting along mostly. He’s a busy man, and I don’t want to bother him. Ilya’s father is going to throw us a party, or rather me, a party.”

“Hmmm, I am aware. Ilya and I both got emailed invites to the event.” Alessio said and moved my arm onto the table. He worked at removing the cast, and about ten minutes later, he freed me. “Sorry, I went way slower than normal. Lev asked me to take a little longer. He said there were some things he wanted to talk to Viktor about.”

“Alessio, is this about the message that Lev sent to me?”

Alessio removed the cast and cleaned up the area. “Yeah.”

“What did he want to speak to Viktor about?”

Alessio let out a deep sigh and sat down. “I’ll get you some stuff to wash and soak your arm in a moment. Lev was going to tell you about Viktor, but he figured since he was coming too, he would just ask him directly.”

“Is Viktor in some kind of trouble?” I asked, and looked at Alessio for any telling signs, like his body language, to see if was lying to me. 

“Not yet. But Lev isn’t happy. Viktor is poking around in information about the death of your parents and his parents. Yuri called and informed him that someone stole information about those events. Viktor wasn’t even worried about the information getting back to Lev that it was him.” Alessio sighed. 

“He must have caused plenty of issues between you two. I know how Lev is about his parents.” I sighed and looked down at my arm, moving my wrist and fingers. 

“Let’s get that arm cleaned up.”

“Do you think our husbands are fighting?” I groaned, really hoping that they both were behaving.

“I fucking hope not. I just got the wing cleaned, and if the two of them make a mess of it, they will be fucking cleaning it.” Alessio groaned. 

“I really don’t know why Viktor is poking around in their deaths.”

“Viktor clearly cares about you. Though the way he goes about things is questionable at best. My husband and—- No. Our husbands really aren’t fans of each other. They both care about you in strange ways.”

Alessio took me to a deep metal sink and helped me clean off my arm. Drying off my arm, I handed the towel back to Alessio. “Please keep this between us, because I don’t know how to explain it to Lev without him going nuclear, but Viktor is the first man I ever had feelings for. I hate him, but I might still love him too. That’s the scary part.”

“First love is something,” Alessio said, smiling but hiding pain. “You will never forget your first love.”

“We should go check on them.” 

“I agree,” he said, and we walked back to the complex. Alessio held the door open, and we went inside. Something jelly hit his chest and exploded into slimy chunks, and he exhaled. 

Matteo peaked around the corner and apologized. “Sorry, my bad. Thought you might have been Nikki or Ilya.”

“Who all is playing?” Alessio asked. 

“Me, Ilya, Nikki, Fox, Blondie and Rory.”

“Of course it would be you six troublemakers.”

“We had nothing better to do. Andrei wanted to talk with Vito and Caio, so we left to hunt in teams. Also, hey Nikita, you look well, all things considered.”

“Thank you.” I said, following Alessio as he went up the stairs, bitching about younger brothers and the problems they cause. I found it pretty amusing. 

“Sorry. I was venting to myself. Those six are like giant children. They play this way often, and the teams are forever changing. A few days ago, Nikki could not play with them, so Lev was his stand-in, and Lev, Fox and Matteo dominated.”

“Of course, Matteo is aware of where Lev thrives. That was a guaranteed win for his team.” I laughed, glad that Lev could be free enough and comfortable here to have fun with everyone.

Alessio opened the front door of the wing and went inside, following behind him. Maddox and his son were here too. He raced to Alessio and jumped on him. “Oh look, it’s my favourite brat.” Alessio said, teasing him. 

“Evening Nikita.” Maddox said and looked slightly guilty about something. 

“Did something happen?”

“Ares, that’s your kid’s name, right?” Viktor said and lifted his hand. The smallest of bite marks shown on the top of his hand. “He got a little excited and bit me.”

“He bit you?” I said, confused. The kid looked perfectly fine. 

“Yes, it was an accident. No harm done.” Viktor said, and Maddox apologized, probably again. 

“Ares, let’s go. Da is making dinner. You can come see Alessio again later if they aren’t busy.” Maddox said and collected his kid from Alessio.

They left and Alessio let out a sigh. “That kid and his damn biting lately.” 

“He’s still a kid. He’ll grow out of it.” Viktor said, picking up his cup of coffee and taking a long drink. 

“He bites the wrong person and he could get hurt.” Alessio complained before he apologized to Viktor, too. Viktor finally looked at my other arm and chuckled. “Nice to see your other arm. I’m thankful that it’s gone. You have enough things to hit me with while you sleep. The plaster sleeve wasn’t needed.”

Lev frowned, and Alessio elbowed him. “You look alright, Nikita. Have you been sleeping well?”

“Of course I am,” I said, lying to his face, and Viktor called me out on it. “Do you always lie to him about your lack of sleep, Nikita?”

I turned to glare at Viktor, and Lev chuckled. “I’m used to it. Nikita always hides his feelings and needs. Get used to it. It’s my fault. I ignored his needs as a kid, and that’s why he is like this.”

“Lev.” I groaned. This was not the conversation I wanted to have or even touch on. Sitting down beside Viktor, I whispered. “Thank you for not punting Maddox’s child.”

“He was just a child. I wouldn’t.” 

Reaching out, I took Viktor’s coffee and took a sip. It was bitter, but not terrible.

“Good?”

“No. Manageable.” 

“You both look unharmed, minus the bite mark on Viktor. The talks went well then?”

“Yes, we came to an agreement.” Lev said and met eyes with Viktor.

“We did.” Viktor said, agreeing. 

“And?” I said, my curiosity getting the best of me. 

“It’s not really that important. We just agreed to share information.” Lev said, and I nodded. I looked between the two of them and just shrugged. I would not be included in this conversation, clearly. That was fine, though. I could just have Yuri fill me in on this shit later. 

“I made a roast, and all the fixings. It should be done in a few minutes. Alessio set you guys up in the spare room, and if you decide to have a disagreement in the middle of the night, lucky for you, the couch is free.” 

“Lev.” Alessio hissed and crossed his arms.

“The couch vacancy might be non-existent if I keep it up,” Lev muttered, pulling Alessio against him and kissing his temple.