The Devil's Tears

Authors note: This story was inspired by the Angus and Julia Stone song by the same name. This is my first long fic so my dyslexic brain apologizes in advance for all editorial mistakes. Feedback is greatly appreciated! NekoDeijii

Present day; Surgut, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug RUSSIA

Yet another burning sensation in his throat. This seemed to be all Ivan could do; it looked like water and he knew that if he kept coming back to this place, this terrible place, that soon vodka would be his water just like it was to his father. But he didn't know what else he could do.

"The devil's drink that's what that is right there Ivan!" he could hear his mother's voice telling him. She was more right than she knew. As he stared at the empty shot glass without blinking, he realized that his vision was going blurry. He was crying. This happened to him sometimes, starting to cry without noticing. He made no attempt to wipe the tears from his pail face. He watched as one tear after another fell in to the glass in front of him. The Devil's tears he thought to himself. That was the only way he could think of what was going on in his head the, devil's work. How else could he be feeling the way he did about… about a man.

He had actually been looking for his father the first time he say the boy about one month earlier. Ivan was in a bar that was near the Transfiguration cathedral in downtown asking about his father's whereabouts, Ivan lived just outside of the Siberian city of Surgut. Although not a small city it isn't really a tourist attraction and foreigners were few and far between. So you could imagen Ivan's surprise when a man walked in the door of the bar who clearly didn't belong. He almost looked like he could have been one of the natives but his skin was to white, his build to slender, and his hair… falling just past his collar bones it was a dark brown that shown like silk in the yellow light of the bar. It was a deep brown, the kind of deep color that a man could lose himself in.

"Drink. Strong drink." The stranger said to the bar tender as he sat in one of the tall chars.

"Yah I saw him. He was drunk off his ass at 11. He couldn't have gone far." The bar tender said to Ivan but the tall Russian wasn't listening anymore. He was staring at this man; he was more beautiful than anything Ivan had ever seen. His entire being was soft, with even skin and a round face. He had never see anyone like this before. Ivan didn't know what to make of the stranger.

"Where are you from?" he blurted out. Ivan felt the blood rush to his face. What was he doing! He hardly said a word to people he had known for years, much less going around talking to total strangers in bars.

"China" the stranger said without lifting his gaze from the glass of vodka that was in front of him. Yao didn't know what to make of this strange colorless liquid, but he did know better than to return the gaze of a stranger who was staring at you; especially when the stranger was a giant of a man who looked like he could killed a bear with his bare hands.

"Kid either sit down or get out I don't need you bringing any unwanted attention by just standing there looking suspicious." The tender was referring to the raids that the cops had been conducting on bars and liquor stores in the attempt to stop the distribution of uncertified vodka.

To his utter surprise Ivan sat down in a seat two away from the Chinaman. The bartender pored him a shot and walked away.

They both sat there in silence for a long time. Ivan didn't mind silence usually. He was quite used to it since he didn't live in the city. But this was different, it was a thick silence that was just begging to be broken. Eventually Yao yielded to its demand in his broken Russian. "I need lodging, where do I go?" he asked the bartender.

"There is a hotel just down the street. I'm sure they have room at this time of year." Said the giant gestured towards the icicles that had formed on the windows. Everyone had told Yao that the Russians where mean people and that he shouldn't go there, which the minute he got of the plain he understood completely. Every person he came across was scowling and not one person had any patients for his terrible Russian. But in this random bar in a city in Siberia he found the only person in Russia with all the patients in the world, although he didn't know it yet.

Yao finally looked over at the man. What he saw was not at all what he was expecting. He was very tall with broad shoulders and fearfully toned arm muscles that stretched the stiches his thick knitted sweater, but his face seemed out of place to Yao. It was pail and slender with soft locks of blond hair that made seeing his eyes difficult. All of this was grasped by Yao in a single moment since the second he looked up the giant began to blush uncontrollably and managed to get his hair to cover his face even more than before. "I that I get an 'Asian glow' when I drink but I had no idea white people got so red?" Yao thought to himself as he pushed his empty glass towards the bartender.

Ivan took his shot, and put his hand out. He felt his stomach hitch as if he were going to hurl, weather it was from the vodka or the unusual social interaction Ivan didn't know but he knew that if he didn't do this he would regret it.

"I am Ivan Braginsky." Yao took his hand and shook it with more force than Ivan had expected. "My name is Wang Yao, Nice to meet you."

"Why have you come here?" it seemed absurd to Ivan that anyone would want to come to this place.

"I need change. And I found job at the port." This wasn't really a lie, but it certainly wasn't the whole story. Yao was supposed to be at Peking University one of the best universities in China, to study economics but he left without telling anyone one day and headed to Russia. He wasn't sure what he was doing there, he just knew he needed a change.

"Will you make sushi? Russian sushi, that would be funny" the awkwardness was heavy around them, Ivan knew he had said something wrong, how could he not have. That was what he did, he was the awkward kid in class that sat in the corner and would look at people sideways from under his curls. That one person who no one wanted to partner with in group projects.

"Sushi is Japanese, I am Chinese I do not make sushi." Yao tried to keep the annoyance out of his voice but it was hard.

"I'm so sorry! I well I…you see I have never met anyone from China or Japan so the difference is not very clear to me. Um… what is something that the Chinese do that the Japanese do not?" his hands where clammy. Why are you putting yourself threw this Ivan? He could just stop talking and leave the bar. What the hell was he doing!

"Kung fu. The Chinese people are very good at Kung fu."

"What is that?" Ivan asked.

"I show you." Yao stood up and motioned for Ivan to do the same. The second Ivan had both feet on the ground and was in front of Yao he was on the round. And Yao was standing next to him like nothing had happened. The stranger handed him a hand and pulled him up with great force.

"Are you alright." "Yes, Yes I am fine." Yao looked up at the giant and saw that he was smiling. His hair had been slightly pushed out of his face making his eyes clearly visible for the first time since entering the bar. Yao's breath caught in his chest, he had never seen anything as beautiful as the eyes of the Russian standing in front of him. They seemed almost to be the color of his favorite flower, zǐ sè or violet.

"Good bye, I think that is my father" the giant said as he quickly headed for the door. Yao wanted to scream out wait! But he didn't. He didn't say anything he only starred at the empty doorway with the image of those eye stuck in his mind.