How It Should Be

Violet and Evgeni woke up to Welcome to the Jungle. Geno groaned and handed Violet her phone off of his bedside table.

"What do you want?" Violet grunted. "What time is it?"

"Happy New Years Eve! I have bad news."

"Well that's not good news." Violet sat up. Geno, whose hands had been wrapped around her tugged at her waist trying to pull her back down again mumbling about how early it was.

"You can't go to Mario Lemieux's."

"Why?" Violet whined.

"Because you have to stay home with me."

"Again...why?"

"Because I'm in a fight with Julie. And I'm upset. And she thinks I'm going to some dinner your firm is having which you are not. I want to sit and watch The Mighty Ducks while eating chocolate icing out of a can with a plastic fork and eating raw cookie dough you actually make while we watch D2 The Mighty Ducks. I want to go to make smoothies while we watch a romantic comedy because the third Mighty Ducks sucks. If you deny me this you'll be breaking a six year tradition, and my heart and trust, and potentially betraying me to Julie that I'm lying."

Violet sighed. He was right. They had been doing just that for six years, going on seven. She had even made Henry do it with them and Matthew had made any girlfriend he had at the time join them. Just because she was dating Evgeni...

"Fine. We need to go food shopping though."

"Okay. Come home then." Violet hung up and turned to look at her boyfriend.

"I'm not going with you tonight."

Geno sat up abruptly, confused. "Why?"

"Matt reminded me of something very important that I can't miss."

"What?"

"Tradition."

"Really, Violet? You're going to not go with me to my party because of some silly tradition you have with Matt?" Geno raised his eye brows. His hands had since moved from her waist.

Violet sucked on her lower lip for a moment and stared at Evgeni. "Call it silly, call it whatever you like, but it's a tradition I have with my best friend. I've explained this to you. I would not be anywhere near as stable and happy as I am without Matthew. I have a problem, he helps me. He has a problem and I help him. That's how it works. He has a legitimate reason for asking me to stay with him tonight and I'm obliged to do it." Violet spoke flatly, her voice barely raising, but it did not seem to daunt Geno.

"We're in a relationship, you're my girlfriend. Mine. Not Matt's. I get it, yes, he's important to you and you help each other but where are you going to be in ten years, Violet? You want to have your own family right? You want to live on your own. That won't happen if you reject opportunities to live in what's become your custom." Evgeni replied calmly, although a thin layer of malice could be detected in his tone.

Violet stared at him. She knew he was right. She didn't want to think about that though. That was far, far in the future. She didn't respond so Geno kept going.

"You go and be with him tonight, okay? Have fun. But you better remember who the one you want to spend you life with is for next time." Geno threw the covers off of himself and pulled on a pair of sweat pants and walked out. Violet sat in bed and stared out the window. She sighed and closed her eyes. The things she dreaded hearing were coming from the one person she didn't want them to come from.

She got up and walked to the bathroom to shower. As she stepped under the warm running water all she could think about was what Geno had said. How he was right when he said that in ten years did she really want to still be completely reliant on Matthew? Was their relationship even healthy?

She also couldn't get his words. remember who the one you want to spend you life with is out of her head either. Was Geno really asking her that question? Did she want to spend the rest of her life with him? Quite possibly. What did he feel about her?

It was all too much and Violet let her back hit the slippery shower wall. Slippery being key, she fell and landed on her ankle with a sickening crunch. Crying out in pain Violet pawed at the shower until it turned off and pulled herself up, careful not to put any weight on the leg. She hopped out of the shower and wrapped herself with a towel, only to make a considerable amount of noise.

Evgeni heard the commotion and opened the door to the bedroom to see Violet struggling to get to the bed on one foot.

"What you doing?" Geno quickly went over to her and lifted her, placing her on the bed.

"I think I broke my ankle, I slipped in the shower." Violet pointed to her right foot that was already beginning to swell. Geno rubbed his face and gingerly prodded at it, making Violet cringe and pull away.

"Think so too. We need get you to hospital." Geno went about the room collecting clothing for Violet and helping her change. They didn't talk about before but it seemed that Evgeni wasn't as mad about it anymore and all Violet could think about was the growing pain she felt in her ankle.

******************************************************

A few hours later Geno was in Violet's apartment getting her comfortable. She had only sprained it and had an air-cast but Evgeni was still being fussy. He was relaying everything the doctor had told them in the ER to Matt, which wasn't much.

"Take good care." Geno said to Matthew before turning back to Violet who was watching him smiling from the couch. "Good thing you no come, you be on feet all night. Here you sit." Geno cuffed Violet on the head playfully and she giggled. He leaned in and kissed her.

"You call at midnight." Violet nodded and kissed him back and he left.

"You're such a spazz." Matt said as soon as Evgeni closed the door behind him. Violet gave him a pointed look and threw a pillow at him.

"Go make pizza, fat boy."

"Well that was rude, spazz." Matthew laughed at Violet who went to chuck the remote control at him and danced into the kitchen. An hour and a half, one Mighty Ducks, and three pizza's later Violet and Matt were in the kitchen making cookie dough when Matt's cell rang.

"Hello?" Violet ignored it until she heard Matthew say her name. "Yeah she's standing right next to me-of course I listened to what you-oh come on we've been sitting for-no! Don't shush m-FINE!" Matt handed Violet the phone. "I hate him, he's mean."

Violet chuckled and put the phone to her ear with a vague idea of who it could be. "Hello."

"You sit. Now." Violet laughed again and swung herself up onto the counter.

"Okay I'm sitting. It's okay, Geno. The air-cast is there so that I can walk on it."

"Still. No want you in it longer than have to." Violet smiled at the fact he cared so much. He told her the party wasn't as much fun without her except for the fact one of the guys had let Mario's daughter try a "sip" of some champaign and she was acting a little strange now so it was amusing. Violet said she and Matt were going to watch D2 and Geno told her to have fun and he'd call later.

When Violet hung up the phone Matt took it from her. "So how are things with you two?"

"They're alright," Violet said as they made their way back to the living room. "We had a pretty strange fight today, though."

"What about?" Matt took a giant glob of dough and began to lick it off his spoon.

"You. The future. How I can't be dependent on you if I don't intend to live my life with you. It made sense, really." Violet shrugged and licked a little cookie dough. "It got me thinking about the future though and it's scary for me."

"It's scary for me too." Matt agreed. The two sat in silence for a moment but the movie began and they let themselves get over involved. After watching D2 and Music and Lyrics it was midnight and the two celebrated by opening a bottle of champaign and splitting it, taking sips straight from the bottle.

"To us! To Herman Melville! To booze!" Violet held the bottle up and chugged.

"To Moby Dick! To my white ass! To the two most pathetic losers there ever were!" Matt took the bottle and chugged himself. "Happy New Years!"