The scrape looked bad. Red blood oozed from it, running down his leg at a pretty good pace. Toris bit his lip to stop himself from crying. He didn't know what to do. Should he go in and let Ivan know what had happened? Alfred wasn't here, he had taken Francis to the dentist, which only left Ivan and Arthur home, along with himself of course.
He had only been here for two weeks, and the five year old had to admit that this place was much better than his old home. Not once had he been hit, and they even fed him a lot of food! This whole experience was quite new, and a bit nice. Now he had two brothers, and two dads. He was unsure about his dads though.
Alfred was a lot easier to be around. He was always talkative and cheerful, and just generally a comfortable person to be with. Ivan on the other hand was big, strong, and sort of scary. He wasn't exactly 'mean' but he still had Toris scared. That left the question...should he go tell Ivan that he had fallen off his new bike and got hurt?
What if Ivan took away the bike? What if he would be punished? Would Ivan belt him, or make him drink toilet water like his old dad had done? He didn't think so, but he was still unsure. Sometimes people acted nice at times, but then got angry eventually. Sort of like how his mother had been. He didn't quite trust Ivan all the way yet.
His knee was really starting to string. The child took rolled his bike back into the garage and slowly walked up to the house. He opened the front door as quietly as possible, hoping not to be heard. Luckily nobody was in the living room. He could hear voices coming from the kitchen, so he slowly crept towards the doorway, to see what they were doing.
"Arthur, what happened to all the chocolate chips?" Ivan was asking in confusion.
"I eated them," Arthur replied, face covered in chocolate.
"Now we won't be able to make chocolate chips cookies," Ivan sighed sadly. "Oh well, I suppose we can make sugar cookies later instead."
Toris couldn't help but smile a little. He really liked his new little brother, as well as his older one. They were both very nice to him. He shared a bedroom with Francis, and sometimes his older brother would talk to him at night until they were both too sleepy to keep their eyes open. Francis didn't seem to mind that Toris didn't talk that much as of yet.
His little brother Arthur always made him happy. Sometimes Arthur would just randomly hold his hand when they were walking somewhere, or he would ask of Toris to play with him. Sometimes when a movie was put in Arthur would choose to sit next to him, and share his blankie with Toris.
"Stay still Arthur, I need to wipe the chocolate from your mouth. Oh no, you have it on your shirt too..." Ivan's words startled Toris from his thoughts, and he came back to the present.
"Can I have more cho'late?" Arthur asked, mouth still sounding full of the chocolate chips.
"Nyet, you have eaten all of it. Besides, it's time to put you down for a nap." Ivan answered.
Perfect! While Ivan was in Arthur's room getting him to go to sleep, Toris could just go into the bathroom himself and make his knee all better. He would have to change out of his shorts so nobody would see the bandages, but that would be okay.
"No nap!" Arthur whined.
"I'm sorry Arthur, but you need your nap. Come along now, I'll read you a story before nap time if you're good."
Toris hid in the playroom until he was sure that Ivan had taken Arthur upstairs. After that, he slowly crept up the stairs himself, towards the bathroom which was located directly at the top of the stairs. Unknowingly on the way up the stairs, droplets of blood from his knee fell onto the carpeted stairs, leaving little red stains.
It turned out that the 'boo-boo kit' as Alfred called it, was all the way on the high shelf above the sink. There was no way he could possibly reach it, much to the young child's distress. His knee was stinging, and he couldn't help but sniffle a bit. He took a small wad of toilet paper and pressed it upon the scrape, hoping to at least make the blood stop bleeding. He sat down on the bathroom floor and allowed more tears to escape his eyes.
He hoped that he wouldn't be in trouble.
Ivan got Arthur to sleep relatively quick. The three year old would always deny being tired, but as soon as he was put down he'd fall asleep right away. Naps were very important for him...if Arthur missed a nap, then the whole house would be turned to hell. He knew that from experience.
When the Russian got downstairs, he glanced out the window to make sure Toris was still in the driveway. Much to his shock though, the driveway was empty. Maybe Toris had come back inside? He looked into the shoe bin and saw Toris' sneakers there, which answered his question.
"But where is he?" Ivan asked himself. He didn't seem to be anywhere downstairs. But then again, their newest child was so quiet that sometimes it was hard to keep track of where he was. He felt the need to check on him though. Toris was so fragile...he knew that the child was afraid of him, but he wanted to get through to him.
Deciding to check upstairs, Ivan headed towards the staircase. He stopped suddenly though, seeing something red on the carpet. Had something spilled? That wasn't there before. It almost looked like...blood.
His eyes widened.
"Toris? Where are you?" He called, trying not to sound too frantic. After all, he didn't want to startle Toris, but if the boy was hurt then he needed to know. He saw the bathroom door closed, and quickly made it to the top of the stairs.
Meanwhile, Toris was still getting the blood to stop. When he heard Ivan call him name, he instantly felt sick. He was caught...no no no! Now he would probably be in huge trouble for trying to hide it too!
Ivan didn't waste any time opening the door. When he was the scene before him, he was alarmed. Toris was sitting small and curled up on the floor, pressing a pad of toilet paper to what looked like quite the bloody knee.
His heart hurt to know that their newest child had hid it from him. Whenever either of the other kids were hurt, they'd make it well known and always run to him for comfort. Ivan wished that he wasn't so intimidating. He wanted to hold Toris and make all the hurt and fear of his past go away. Yes, he was indeed rather large, but he wasn't scary! He was just like a giant teddy bear...Alfred told him that on multiple occasions when they cuddled together after making love!
"Toris," Ivan said very calmly, raising his a hand up to show he meant to harm. "Did you get hurt on your bike outside?"
The five year old was shaking with fear, his eyes as wide as saucers. He looked as if he wanted to bolt, but chose to curl up into himself instead, since Ivan's large frame was taking up most of the doorway. Finally his head rose up a bit, and he spoke very quietly.
"I-I'm sorry."
"No! Don't be sorry!" Ivan was quick say, accidentally being a bit too loud. "It wasn't your fault, you have nothing to be sorry for. But I need to look at it so we can clean it properly, yes?"
At first Ivan thought Toris was going to either breakdown or attempt to escape. He was proved wrong however, when the child got up off the floor and slowly edged closer to his new parent. Ivan slowly and cautiously lifted Toris up the armpits and sat him on the bathroom counter.
"Alright, lets fix you up," He murmured, leaning down to inspect the scrape. It looked pretty nasty and painful, but it was nothing life threatening. He reached up to grab the first aid kit and got to work on cleaning and dressing the wound. He gently wiped the blood from the knee, patting Toris' leg apologetically when the boy winced.
"Almost done," He told him, and praised, "You've been very brave."
Then he tenderly bandaged the wound with a band-aid coated in neosporin.
"There, all done." Ivan announced, satisfied. He helped Toris off the counter, being careful not to aggravate his knee at all. "How about you stay inside for a while, yes?"
Toris nodded mutely, but then opened his mouth and said very quietly, "T-Thank you."
"It is not a problem," Ivan said softly. Then he held out a hand, saying, "Would you like to help me make some sugar cookies?"
Toris stared up at him for a moment, but then slowly reached up and put his tiny hand into his adopted father's large one. Ivan smiled happily, leading his child downstairs to the kitchen. Toris would need a lot of love and guidance to heal from the horrors of his past, but between himself and Alfred, they wouldn't have a problem.
Sorry updates have been so slow, I put an explanation on my profile page. Either way, please tell me what you think!
