I opened my door bored out of my wits before seeing a woman I had never met before looking down at her hands, she looked... sad perhaps? "Hello... Can I help you?" "Are you Mao?" "Yes. Why?" She sighed. "I'm so sorry... But I talked with Ivan, he said he had to go, and he may never return..." She stated before grabbing my hand and putting a ring in it. Not just any ring, Ivan's ring, the one I put on his finger when I had asked him to marry me. "W-what? No! Where is Ivy?!" "I'm sorry... He said he might never come back." I started crying, my Ivy had to come back! He had to! "I'm sorry Mao..." "D-don't be... I'll go find him. He has to be okay!" I took off of my hat and looked at it feeling my tears pour down my cheeks. Ivy loved to wear my hat, he would have the biggest goofy grin in the world when he wore it, and that goofy grin, always made me feel better...
"I'll go look for him!" "I'll help you look then!" "No, you stay here, our baby pandas, Roza and Flavio need to know Mommy will be back, and she'll be back with Daddy, okay?" She frowned before nodding in understandment. "Alright, I'll tell them, you take care alright?" "I will and thank you..." I sat my hat down on the counter before walking out the door... I will find you Ivy.
I've searched for hours, hours turned to days, days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, months turned to years. I never stopped looking, I did run into my children at times, made sure they were doing fine. And they always were, Roza was always taking care of her little brother, and he is starting to stutter less, which I am proud of. Yet my conversations with them where always short, and I went back on my way to find my love...
I've never stayed in one place to long, I had to stay on the move, I never gave up finding Ivy then one day... I found him, he was on the ground, paler, weaker, but barely alive!
"IVY!" I yelled running over to him falling on my knees before I grabbed him, setting his head on my chest, and part of his body on my lap and stomach. "Mao-Mao?" He coughed, and he smiled up at me weakly, his beautiful smile... I missed it so much! "Yes, yes it's me love!" I laughed as I started crying before kissing his lips softly holding him close to myself. "I've been looking for you Ivy... I-I knew you were okay!" He smiled more. "My Mao-Mao..." He then coughed. "Where is Mao-Mao's hat? You never take it off." My hat? I... I left it didn't I? "At home, w-we're going there now, j-just stand up and we'll go! Roza and Flavie should be waiting for us!" He closed his eyes. "Home... I am home with you Mao-Mao..." "I mean a-at our house, watching Frozen, and singing Let It Go together!" "Mao-Mao has such a pretty voice when he sings..." "N-no, yours is better lets go!" He opened his eyes. "Я люблю тебя Mao-Mao." "I... I love you too Ivy..." He smiled, kissed me one last time before he closed his eyes going limp in my arms. "I-Ivy? N-no! Please wake up! Ivy! PLEASE!" I cried in his chest, he wasn't ever going to wake up again...
I spent the rest of that night in denial of the fact my love Ivy was gone, I buried him in his favorite sunflower field, and I left sunflowers on his grave before I stayed there just crying not knowing what else I could do. He. Was. Gone. Gone forever... I would never see his smile again... What will I tell our kids...?
After a while I left the sunflower field and came to Roza's house to tell her what happened, upon reaching the door I heard. "R-Roza! W-wake up! P-please!" I kicked the door over and ran in... My daughter was on the floor, it appears she had fallen, and Flavio was beside her, shaking her as he was crying in tears as he begged for her to wake up. I frowned before I sat down beside them. "M-Mama! R-Roza won't w-wake up!" He choked out in sobs as I took her pulse... Nothing. At first I didn't understand why she wasn't alive; then it hit me. Russia is dead, she is his capital, Moscow, if Russia is dead, there is no capital... "She... Never will wake up Flavio..." "W-what? Mama! S-she has to! W-we were g-going to g-go on a picnic!" I hugged Flavio bringing him on my lap. "She is in a better place now... She is with your Daddy, okay? You'll see them both again, and I pray that that will be a very long time..." He clutched tightly to me crying in my chest. "I-I don't un-understand...!" He choked out. "It's best that way... But Flavio, they both love you dearly, as do I. And I promise. I will always take care of you..."