Title:
There's No Escaping It

Author:
LoveAnime18

Rating:
PG-13

Warnings:
Gakuen AU. Human Names.

Notes:
My contribution to the RoChu Secret Santa. My recipient was dare_de_chu_ka over at LJ. Her request was a Gakuen verse RoChu fic, but I included a bit of her second prompt of kid!RoChu as well.

The doorbell rang, and the little boy shot up from his seat at the table, and got up to run to the door. It was almost three o'clock to that meant his friend from next door would be at the door. Every Saturday this is what he looked forward to.

"Yao, you didn't finish you lunch," the boys mother said.

"I'll finish it in a bit. I need to let Ivan in," Yao exclaimed, and his mother just sighed. A boy filled with that much energy was a good sign for being a healthy young boy she supposed. Besides she knew Yao always stood by his word, so she had no problem believing him when he said he would come right back to finish it.

Yao open the door cheerfully, to see his Russian companion, Ivan Braginski standing at the door with a forlorn expression on his face.

--

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Yao grumbled, and reached his arm out to turn off his alarm. He just laid in his bed under the covers for about five minutes until he felt a slight nudge at his side. Yao peeked from under his covers to see his pet panda, Panda-chan staring at him. Yao sighed, and forced himself out of bed. After five years of taking care of this panda, he knew pretty much what he was thinking. And right now, he knew his panda wanted food.

He took some bamboo out of a container, and then fed it to his pet panda. Yao sat back down on his bed and watched Panda-chan as he ate his bamboo. In the back of his mind Yao thought about his dream. It has been a long time since he had dream about Ivan.

Yao grunted disapprovingly, and of course it had to be a bad memory of him. Then again, it was hard to remember the good memories with Ivan with the way he treated him at the end.

Yao glanced over to the clock. 6:39.

Yao figured he better get ready, since Yong Soo was going to be showing up his door any moment now telling him to come out, so they could have breakfast together. Yao made his way over to his closet and took out his uniform. He made sure to quickly get out of his pajamas, and into his uniform since Yong Soo liked to open his door unexpectedly while changing. Yao changed the lock many times, but Yong Soo still managed to open his door, so Yao has given up on changing his locks and just makes sure to change at rapid speed.

When he had his changshan and pants on, he walked over to the mirror to make sure everything was on properly, after his brief inspection he slipped on the school sweater vest.

Yao quickly walked over to his door, and opened it to make sure no one would be unexpectedly swinging his door open. Yong Soo was nowhere insight. Yao took this as a blessing from the sky, and continued to get ready.

When Yao was fully finished getting ready, he quickly glanced over to the clock again. 7:34. He wondered if he should be worried about his Korean companion, but quickly shrugged off the feeling. Yao felt a tug on his pant leg, when he looked down he saw Panda-chan done eating, and picked him up and placed him into his basket, which Yao then strapped onto his back.

Maybe Yong Soo is already at the cafeteria, Yao thought to himself, and opened his door. Right when he opened the door he heard the door to his left open as well.

"Yao~✩" Yao heard his neighbor say enthusiastically.

Yao turned his head to see his Russian neighbor, Ivan Braginski smiling at him, the same Ivan who was his childhood friend from all those years ago. Ivan was very different. He was no longer short and slightly pudgy, but rather tall and big-boned. Ivan far surpassed Yao in height now. He remembered being eye level with the Russian as kids, and now he had to constantly look up to him, which he found slightly irritating.

"Hello Braginski," Yao responded.

"Yao, why are you so cold? We're friends, da?" Ivan asked. Yao honestly didn't know how to classify Ivan. Would he call him a friend now? Yao has all these memories of Ivan, and yet Ivan doesn't seem to remember him at all. Did Ivan consider them friends as a child? Or did he simply forget him? Would Ivan forget him again when they parted ways again? Yao was pretty sure he couldn't handle the heartbreak if it happened again, that's why he spent all his time trying to avoid Ivan.

--

"Aniki! Aniki!" Im Yong Soo's voice echoed throughout the house, as he ran up the staris to Yao's room. When he swung the door open he saw Yao laying in bed. Yong Soo could see it in his eyes, Yao's body was awake, but his mind was not. Even though his eyes were wide open, there was no emotion, only emptiness and void of all emotion that Yong Soo was so used to seeing.

His face fell. It has been four months. Six months since Ivan has moved away and four months since Yao last heard from Ivan. And since the last letter, Yao has not been the same since. When Ivan first moved away, they Yao and Ivan kept in contact and sent letters back and forth, but suddenly Ivan stopped. Yao kept sending letters for two months, but never once got a reply. And now six months after Ivan moved, Yao was an emotional wreck. He didn't want to do anything. He didn't have the energy to do anything. He was not the aniki he loved anymore.

Yong Soo's fist clenched. If he ever saw Ivan Braginski, he made sure that he was going to punch him square in the face for what he has done to aniki. This wasn't fair. He couldn't bare to see what Ivan Braginski was doing to him.

--

But even after all that has happened to Yao, for some reason he was not able to break free from Ivan's grasp. Ivan was in almost all of his classes, so he couldn't escape him in the daytime, and then after class when Yao thought he would be safe, it turned out he was not when he learned Ivan was his neighbor. As if Francis being his next door neighbor already in room 69 wasn't enough.

Yao looked up at Ivan. Different, yet still the same. He still had the same innocent face, and even though he didn't remember Yao, he still clung to him over anyone else. A sense of nostalgia rushed through Yao's body. He didn't want that rush. He didn't want to remember. It was painful to remember everything, and seeing Ivan right in front of him, and doing nothing.

"I guess so, aru," Yao replied. To be honest, he had no idea why he said that. Maybe Yao was slightly masochistic. Actually, that had to be it. For him to accept all the torture that Ivan had put him through then let him do some more damage, it was completely masochistic though he had no idea why he did it. Only with Ivan did he do this. If anyone else did this to him, Yao wouldn't have accepted it.

Ivan smiled and hugged Yao tightly, "That's the first time you said we're friends Yao."

It became apparent to Yao that there was a part of him that still clung to Ivan as well. Part of him wanted Ivan to still be in his life. He didn't want to give him up, and he was willing to go through all sorts of abuse and punishment for it.

Extra Notes

[1] A changshan is probably better known to the English speaking world as Mandarin or Chinese shirt.

[2] I tried to keep as much as the canon of the Gakuen verse by Himaruya as I could (while completely eliminating the fact that they're countries), so I included the panda, who has been affectionately named, Panda-chan for this fic.

[3] Yao distrustfulness towards Ivan mirrors China's distrustfulness towards Russia in the canon after the Sino-Soviet split. You see what I did there.

[4] The fact he's willing to put the past behind is to mirror the reestablishment of relations between China and Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.

[5] France's dorm room number was totally ripped from my Gakuen RPG with some friends. Let's face it, that's too hilarious to pass up. There are a few things in this fic that is ripped from that RPG actually.