Title: Remembrance
Characters and Pairing(s): Russia and America; RusAmerica friendship, not really yaoi.
Genre: Angst & Tragedy, maybe slight dark humor or irony if you look closely.
One-shot


As the evening light filtered down from the heavens, it was only a cruel memory of the day's tragedy. It had begun as any other day, the way Russia woke late and spent the day in the fields of sunflowers. But he had his own family to look after, and the surprise waiting for him when he returned to them was anything but a warm welcome.

Alfred had obliged to come see his friend, and although they weren't exactly the best of friends anymore, they were once, and America owed this to the grieving Russian.

Side by side they stood at the bed of soil where they laid, looking dead and broken and incomplete.

"…I'm sorry." Alfred squeezed Ivan's shoulder as the Russian did his best not to cry.

"…I…"

"You don't have to talk about it. Not yet."

There was a long pause while they mourned until Ivan finally spoke.

"…What kind of a sick person murders sunflowers…?" He let out. "It's not like… they did anything to anyone else! They were children, Alfred! Children! And… such a… way to do it!"

The stalks in front of them lay headless. Dead. Incomplete. The flowers gone, the stalks intact, though some lay on the ground, seeming to be trampled.

"…I'm so sorry…"

Ivan let out a muffled choke, burying his face in his hands. The flowers were like children to him. Why? Why?

"At least… one survived it, right?" Alfred gave a smile that he hoped to reassure the Russian, but it did little good.

"It was so broken, Alfred!" Ivan wailed. "The stalk was trampled and it was just lying there, on the ground, and it was so broken!"

Alfred squeezed his shoulder again as he sobbed into his hands, the expression on the American's face filled with remorse and mourning.

"But… it was there. It was intact, Ivan… It was there…"

"…It was there," Ivan repeated. "I wish… it would be there forever…"

"I'm sorry."

With the last words of mourning, the two turned back to the dirt road and made their way home, stepping like misguided ghosts as they walked.


A/N: This... it actually happened to me today...
I went to my sunflower plot to take care of them (they were so close to being harvested, too!) and I found all of them dead. The heads were gone, and the stalks were there, and it freaked me out. What kind of a monster kills sunflowers? They weren't even yours, you sicko! They were my children!

So aside from the fact that I'm just as emotional about my sunflowers as Russia, this was my mourning piece. It was going to be a drabble, but I exceeded the 100 word limit quickly. Dylan and I are going to make memorial videos about my sunflowers. I'm sad...