Chapter 1: Of Peer Pressure, Online dating, and Old friends
It wasn't meant to be serious.
The entire thing had started when Yao had gone to Alfred's little get-together seven years after high school. Though Yao had been three year older than him, Kiku, Yao's half-brother, had been best friends with Alfred. It was an annual tradition to go and have dinner with Alfred's other friends. Somehow the group got larger each year and he was certain that half of those invited weren't even people that went to the school.
Both Kiku and Yao were always there early to help out. Arthur would come through the door several minutes later and somehow they would have to start distracting the blond haired man from the kitchen as food poisoning did not seem like an honorable death.
Francis soon made a grand entrance with Gilbert and Antonio. Yao was quite certain that the trio was inseparable. The French man had made it his personal favorite thing to talk about people's love lives. Somehow he had a talent of making people talk about all sorts of relationships that they usually kept in secret.
So it became assumed that there was something on and off between Alfred and Arthur, Gilbert had gotten one step closer than before with his 'friend' Roderich (whom he was texting throughout the night), Lovino had finally accepted Antonio as some sort of partner, and Kiku had a long distance relationship from some guy in Greece.
Smug that he had drained all the information from the people present, Francis' sly eyes turned to Yao.
He knew the drill.
"Nothing."
"Mon Dieu, Yao you have got to be kidding me. Have you even gone out with anyone before? And that one year relationship in grade seven does not count."
So he sat there and thought about his supposed love life, but he couldn't even think of a crush. It wasn't that Yao had high standards, but he just never seemed to find any interest towards dating.
He shook his head.
"Yao," Arthur had started to break the silent shock throughout the table," I usually do not agree with Francis, but honestly you have got to go out and live a little."
Francis nodded and continued, "See Yao, you've got to take some chances. Maybe you'll get some hot and sexy times. You see there was this one time when I went to the club and then he took me to the back washroom and it was so good. He put his-"
Arthur put his hand over Francis' mouth as Alfred shouted "Too much information!"
Then, in a softer voice Alfred said, "But seriously, you gotta get a life."
So because he was tired of being called outdated and without a life (also since he wasn't completely sober from the party), Yao made an account on a dating site with a real picture of him, a real name, age, and his entire identity.
And Yao had realised it was probably a terrible idea in the morning. Right before he deleted the account he looked at his picture. A selfie that definitely showed he wasn't in his brightest state of mind when he made the account. His long brown hair was in knots, and his drunk smile was the kind he would never want to see again. Yao thought it was blackmail worthy. It was only a matter of time that the picture would be held against him by Liz, another of Kiku's close friends.
But the second of scanning through his profile was all it took for Yao to see that he received a message. So, out of curiosity he opened it and saw an entire chat history.
Words that he sent which he still vaguely remembered.
1 AM
Hellokitty88: That's not a very creative name.
Ivan_B: I would not say that yours is very original.
Hellokitty88: It's better than yours! I mean who uses their real name in a username?
Ivan_B: Who uses their favorite animal and number as their username?
Hellokitty88: I still think it is better than yours.
Ivan_B: Yao, this is not very like you to make an account. Are you alright?
Hellokitty88: Never been happier!
Ivan_B: Are you drunk?
Hellokitty88: Why would you think that you stalker?
Ivan_B: Because of your picture and because I know you. Please be more careful.
Hellokitty88: Ivannnnn let's talk!
Ivan_B: Sleep it off, we can talk in the morning.
Hellokitty88: But I can't sleeeeep I wanna talk to someoneee
Hellokitty88: Don't ignore meeee
Hellokitty88: Ivannn what's your favorite colour
Ivan_B: White
Hellokitty88: What's your favorite plant?
Ivan_B: Sunflower
Hellokitty88: Ivannn do you remember me?
Hellokitty88: Ivan?
Hellokitty88: Fine I'll sleep
2 AM
Ivan_B: Yes I do.
Except Yao didn't remember who Ivan_B was. And Ivan's profile page didn't have any picture.
Another bad decision probably wouldn't hurt.
9 AM
Hellokitty88: I'm sorry, but who are you?
Ivan_B: An old friend.
Evidently his drunk self had recognized this 'old friend'. But his sober self with a chronic headache couldn't remember any Ivans in his life.
Luckily before Yao was too distracted, his alarm for work went off and he sprinted out the door, his brown locks still in a mess.
Yao cursed under his breath. It was his fifth day in a row of being late, and his boss evidently didn't like it.
Naturally he prepared for the worst when Francis told him he had a package at the front, the day was going downhill anyways.
With his blond hair bouncing, Francis jogged toward Yao.
"I can't believe you lied to me!" was the exclamation from the French as he dumped a bouquet of Chrysanthemums into Yao's open arms.
The flowers had been his favorite from his childhood, a memory of a somewhat peaceful life when everything had been taken care of for him.
But the flowers now offered confusion as the tag only said
To: Yao Wang
From: An old friend
Part of him wanted to conclude that Ivan was a giant stalker, but another part of him felt some sort of memory trying to come forward in his clouded mind.
His brain decided to compromise between the two ideas and he brought the almost golden gleaming chrysanthemums home.
Kiku tended to come over to visit Yao regularly as they lived closeby.
"It smells different in here today, almost like-"
The Japanese stood still when he saw the flowers, which continued to shine in the sunlight.
"I- You- Yao what is- I thought you said you would never see him again."
It wasn't anger, but confusion in Kiku's voice as he looked at Yao, his face in a frown.
In equal confusion Yao responded with "Who?"
"Ivan Braginski"
It clicked.
Ivan came with flowers every day after Yao's mom passed on. He had been only ten, and Ivan knew that Yao loved Chrysanthemums. Ivan also knew that the flowers somehow calmed him down, a fact learned after Yao's father had divorced and remarried. After all, the Asian man had always been closer with his mom then his dad.
Through the days of silent mourning, Ivan had been the only one Yao let into his room. They never talked, they just sat and somehow, one day, Yao got up and went with Ivan to the park.
They had always been close friends, communication never needing to be out loud. Through bad times and days of joy they went through it together. Teachers and students alike knew it was always Ivan and Yao, never one without the other.
An almost sacred bond not to be broken.
So when they were 12, Ivan had asked if they were already more than just friends.
Yao had responded that they were for so long that he could not remember when it started.
But one year Ivan left as his family called him back to Russia.
Ivan was never heard of again.
It had probably been a painful memory, something buried deep inside because when Ivan left, Yao lost part of himself. And the happy memories he had seemed like a backstabbing pain, though it had never been Ivan's fault.
Adrenaline pumped through his body as he sprinted up the stairs to his laptop.
Hellokitty88: I remember
Ivan_B: And?
Hellokitty88: Can I see you again?
Ivan_B: Yes. Why?
Hellokitty88: I miss you. I haven't seen you. I missed you so much that it hurt and I buried my own memories with your absence. But I miss you again and I want to see you again.
Ivan_B: If I could have come back earlier, rest assured that I would. I miss you Yao. A lot.
Ivan_B: Tomorrow, 8 am at Willow Park.
Hellokitty88: I look forward to seeing you again.
Ivan_B: And I too, more than I could ever say.
So Yao went downstairs with a smile, finally something to look forward to when the next day came.
-fin
A/N: That's the first oneshot of this series! Hope you liked it, review to express your opinion. If you want to request an oneshot, you can put it in your review, pm me, or dm me on Instagram. Also if you want a continuation or a separate story of any of these chapters, you can do the same as mentioned before.
Thank you for reading!