When they were about four years old, Vik and Tori’s parents (Named Kazimir and Iliana) were arrested and they were sent to live with their mother’s sister Alyona. Alyona moved them to Ithaca, New York about a year after and they lived in a decent house. They ended up sharing a room up until they turned 9, and Alyona made them get their own rooms. They both did well in school, Viktor and Tori being of equal intelligence, but they were troublemakers. Tori’s hair used to be fairly long until she turned 11 and, to piss her aunt off, cut it all off. Up until they turned 14-15 or so, Viktor and Tori would occasionally switch places at school. They didn’t get caught because A.) they looked/sounded similar and B.) They didn’t have too many friends til high school so no one noticed the switch. But yeah they had a pretty lonely childhood, Alyona swinging wildly from not giving a fuck and letting them do whatever to overbearing and controlling. Viktor is best described as fluid, going with the flow and avoiding conflict whereas Tori is like trying to tell a brick wall what to do, especially if she doesn’t like you. She and Alyona clashed and fought a lot. As a kid, Viktor was fairly sickly and Alyona wouldn’t really take care of him, which left Tori to take care of him. Tori would care for him when sick from age 5 to 12, both missing a lot of school because like hell Tori was going to leave him alone with Alyona. He returned the favor junior year when Tori had gotten pregnant, covering for her with their aunt. But yeah they were pretty lonely and both grew up to be touch starved and desperate for affection of any kind, which is partly why Viktor entered prostitution (also he was broke and desperate for cash). It’s also why he and Tori are so forgiving, they believe everyone deserves a second chance (also they’re desperate for any love they can get and are willing to be hurt by someone multiple times as long as it means they get affection from the person at least sometimes.) This led to a lot of unhealthy relationships (Physical and emotional abuse for both, though on a much lesser scale for Tori. Though she had to deal with getting cheated on.. a lot.) So yeah a childhood of neglect seriously fucked these two up and now have emotional scars and just really want to be loved and cared for and want to be able to shower their partners in love because by god do these two have a lot of love to give.