This is a birthday fic for my dear friend Ahmerst. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :D

I hope I did justice to both your prompt and Reflection Lake... and that this will at least entertain you for a while. Otherwise, just tell me and I'll hunt down something more to send to you!

Enjoy, I hope!

On a beautiful sunny morning in August, Ivan awoke to the sound of merrily chirping birds just outside the window of the bedroom. The curtains were drawn, yet a thin ray of sunlight still managed to shine into the room. What was supposed to be a sigh escaped his lips, but it sounded more like a croak, as his voice was still thick with drowsiness. He withdrew his arms to his body, expecting to feel a stray strand of blond hair tickle his chin while another heart beat in time with his own – but all he felt against his chest were the cool palms of his own hands. His violet eyes flickered open and blinked confusedly. The spot beside him was empty, he was all alone in the queen-sized bed.

"Америка…" he murmured longingly. Not that he actually expected Alfred to materialize out of thin air next to him, but one could always hope, couldn't he?

He stretched luxuriously several times, which helped chase away most of his sleepiness, and just when he was about to get out of bed and search for a certain special someone, that very same person entered the room.

"Ivan?" A perky blond poked his head into the room, and when he noticed that he needn't bother with being overly quiet anymore as not to wake a sleeper, he marched in, filling the vicinity with his high spirits in the process. "Still in bed, huh? Well, now it's time to rise and shine! Up and at 'em!" In one swift movement, he pulled the curtains apart, flooding the room with sunlight.

Since his eyes were still more used to dimmer light, Ivan hummed softly in protest and turned away from the window, although he actually enjoyed sunlight very much, even more so when it was warm outside. Dull thumps sounded out as Alfred approached the bed, which dipped somewhat when he knelt down next to Ivan and kissed the Russian's cheek.

"Boy, you sure sleep like a rock when you're here…"

"That's because I feel so much at ease here." Ivan fondly brushed a stray bang out of Alfred's face. "In fact, even though this is far from my normal behavior, I would have been quite content to sleep the morning through, preferably with you in my arms."

"We'll get around to that, Scout's honor. But c'mon now, sleepyhead, I wanna show you a really nice place. I'm willing to bet a ton of cash that you'll like it."

"Is that so? I suppose I could be ready in, shall we say, ten minutes –" Ivan began.

"Awesome!"

"– on one condition."

A doubtful look appeared on Alfred's face. "That condition being…?"

"A proper morning's greeting, if you… how do you say?... 'get my drift'," Ivan told him.

"Oh, I get your drift, alright," Alfred snickered and bowed his head and planted a kiss on the other nation's lips. Ivan returned the affectionate gesture while trying to snake his arms around Alfred's waist to keep the younger man from escaping; although this day's plan did sound intriguing, the current situation was just too perfect – a warm summer morning in the company of his beloved with whom he had locked lips…

But Alfred wasn't apt to let his plan get thwarted, and with a laugh, he rolled off the bed.

"Oh no ya don't! More later, big, guy," he said with a wink. Then he jumped to his feet and bounded out of the room. "See you in ten minutes!"

Ivan chuckled and made his way to the showers, slinging his scarf over his shoulder as he went. Alfred denied being a morning person, but so far, he had made the exact opposite impression on Ivan… Oh well, he could ask him about that later. For now, he just hoped that this "nice place" would be a tad bit nicer than the last one – when he thought of nice places, he thought of lakesides and lush parks, preferring them over wild rollercoasters or large crowds in downtown New York.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"So, Ivan, are you ready for this really great place?" Alfred asked excitedly, removing a twig that had gotten caught in the sleeve of his bomber jacket.

"If I weren't, we would hardly be here, да?" Ivan asked back.

"Mmh… makes sense, I guess…" Not to mention that if Ivan had succeeded in "trapping" him during their good-morning-kiss, he would have eventually (sooner than later, that is) ended up dropping all other plans for the day for all the obvious reasons, but for now, Alfred was content in convincing himself that he possessed great persuasive skills.

"Alfred?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are we picking our way through this underbrush instead of remaining on the path that was provided when the park was established?"

Alfred laughed as if the answer to that question was painfully obvious. "Have you never heard of that magical moment when you brush the leafage aside and lay eyes on a sight that is bound to take your breath away?"

"You watch too many movies, little hero," Ivan sighed.

"I promise it'll be a magical moment! And besides, I'm just five centimeters shorter than you; I'm not little," Alfred mock-huffed, elbowing his tall companion.

"Whatever you say," Ivan smirked.

"What I say. Exactly." Alfred puffed out his chest a bit, not noticing the faint hint of sarcasm. "Okay, we're here. Prepare to be stunned! Welcome… to Reflection Lake!" he announced, brushing the leafage aside just like in the movies before stepping aside to let Ivan get a good look.

For a moment, the Russian could only stare, and even when he opened his mouth, no sound escaped his lips. Another moment passed before he made another attempt at speech, this time successfully:

"…Wow…"

Granted, it was merely a single word, but like Alfred had predicted, the sight had rendered him speechless.

The mass of water they were looking at was not so much a lake as it was a bigger pond, but it truly was a beautiful spot, even without the early-day mist (which had long since disappeared since it was well past mid-morning). The water was clear, reflecting the trees and bushes that grew quite close to the bank. Several ducks were swimming around lazily, maneuvering around the numerous water lilies, the mother ducks always keeping a watchful eye on their young. The path Ivan had mentioned earlier was close by, though one did have to stray from it and follow a little beaten track in order to reach the pond – or of course, adventurous types like Alfred could pick their way through the surrounding underbrush. Ivan's first choice would have been the nice gravel path, but that was of little matter now.

Drinking in his surroundings, Ivan stepped out of the bushes and ambled over to the water. His political schedule had been keeping him quite busy for so long, only granting him preciously few opportunities to retreat to a similarly tranquil place as this one. However, while that had not stopped him from occasionally dreaming about doing exactly that, this mini-world of peace was indeed real, and he was really standing here – he wouldn't suddenly wake up and find himself back in his home with lots of paperwork and issues to tend to…

A cheerful voice jerked him out of his musings: "Pretty, huh? But that's not all, I also wanna introduce you to someone! Hope he's around…"

"Introduce me?" Ivan repeated quizzically. As far as he could tell, he and Alfred were the only ones present.

"Yeah." Looking around happily with a huge smile on his face, the American shrugged off his jacket and sat down on it cross-legged before reaching up and tugging at Ivan's pant leg in a nonverbal prompt for him to follow suit. As he did exactly that, he noticed a plastic bag at Alfred's side, and seeing that the other man hadn't been carrying anything before, it was the only thing that could have possibly been behind the jacket's mysterious bulge Ivan had been speculating about ever since they had left the house.

"Alfred, what's in that bag?" he asked.

"A little treat. Watch this…" With those words, Alfred extracted a fairly large loaf of bread from the bag and waved it around temptingly. "Hey guys, Uncle Alfred's back again! Who wants a piece of good bread?"

The peacefulness of the water got temporarily disrupted as the ducks flocked towards the two nations, some of them already squabbling. The first duck that made it to the bank was a male, and while Alfred treated the others to a fistful of hastily torn-off bread chunks, he went out of his way to coax that particular male into coming even closer. He fed it a decently-sized chunk before announcing:

"Mayor Duckington, meet Ivan. Ivan, meet Mayor Duckington."

At first, Ivan was silent whereas the duck quacked and was instantly rewarded with another chunk of bread. Alfred grinned.

"I bet you anything he said it's a pleasure."

"…I guess it's a pleasure to meet you too, Mr. …Duck," Ivan finally said. He felt weird saying that; he was talking to a duck, for God's sake! And while Alfred seemed utterly convinced that the duck was "talking to them" and could understand them, Ivan wasn't so sure.

"Duckington," Alfred interjected helpfully. "Though come to think of it, that could have just been a short form of the name, so it's fine." He flashed Ivan a grin, then broke the rest of the loaf in half. "I think it's high time you experienced the joys of feeding ducks on a nice summer day…"

Of all the things Ivan had guessed that they would go do together today, feeding ducks hadn't been among them, but he found that Alfred was absolutely right about this activity being enjoyable. The ducks crowded around the two men not unlike a flock of pigeons, and some of them even left the water to be closer to the food sources, thus gaining an advantage. Another male – aside from Mayor Duckington – was particularly eager for some bread and wasn't shy to let Alfred know about that; it would start to nibble on the shoelaces of his sneakers or quack in an almost indignant fashion. But Alfred was far from deeming this annoying – instead, it always made him laugh, and he would quickly feed the persistent animal some bread crumbs to fend it off for a little while.

It wasn't long before Ivan simply couldn't help but laugh along. He loved the sound of Alfred's laughter, so much so that he didn't mind the other's eyes closing while that happened, thus concealing that vivid blue he also adored to no end. Just being around the younger nation made him feel so elated: he had certainty that he wasn't being feared, that his presence wasn't unsettling. Despite him having mellowed out somewhat during the past two decades, too many people (in his opinion) were still wary around him – especially the Baltics. But not Alfred. Alfred had never been afraid of him…

A small smile that depicted both relief and bittersweet reminiscence danced across his face as he fed the last bits of his bread to the mother duck and her ducklings, whom he had been trying to coax into coming closer (he wondered if they felt as fluffy as they looked). When that still didn't happen and he was out of "bait", he cupped his chin in his fist and slipped back into his musings, tuning out Alfred's ramblings about what he should call the shoelace-nibbling duck.

It took Alfred two or three more minutes to use up his half of the bread, and he ended up feeding the last two pieces to the duck that had taken a liking to his shoelaces and Mayor Duckington (of course).

"Well, I'm afraid that's all I've got for today. Over and out, Mayor," he said, saluting the duck. His feathered friend quacked – perhaps in acknowledgment – then returned to the water, and Alfred could have sworn he was herding the other ducks along as he went. A chuckle escaped his lips as he watched them waddle off, then he turned back to his companion.

"So, Ivan, was that– Ivan?" he asked, noticing the other's aloofness. There was no response.

"Ivan?" he tried again. Still nothing.

"Hmm…" With that thoughtful hum, Alfred leaned back, supporting himself on his hands and loving the feeling of cool grass beneath his fingers. Man, he lived for summer days like this…! But before he got sidetracked, he wanted to find out what on earth was on Ivan's mind to have made him become deaf, apparently.

He watched him closely. Like a predator lying in wait for its prey, Ivan was perfectly capable of sitting completely still, at times even looking as if he wasn't breathing at all. Or perhaps, Alfred thought as he tapped his chin, perhaps he was more like a sunbathing lizard. Or a crocodile, maybe? Then again, comparing the posture to animals wasn't helping much, so perhaps he should change his strategy… yes, that was it! Pleased to have reached that constructive conclusion, Alfred changed his position, copying Ivan's pose. Now that he thought about it, didn't this… remind him of something? Hadn't he seen this pose somewhere before? As he racked his brains, he began to rhythmically drum the fingers of his left hand on his leg. Any observer could have practically seen the wheels turning in his head. He might be mistaken about this, but he believed that this pensive pose was often associated with a sculpture, yet for he couldn't remember which one to save his life – it was something French, though, if he chose to listen to a small voice that piped up in his mind. Alfred grimaced and decided to give up on this, for if it was something French, what was the point in thinking too much about it? Alfred didn't tend to be a big fan of French things, after all (two words: Liberty fries)…

He sighed and shook his head. This wasn't working for him – he was the type who actually tackled the problem itself instead of pursuing the strategy of putting himself in another's situation. That usually required lots of patience, and patience had never been his strong suit. As he crawled over to Ivan, he mused that it would almost be a shame to disturb the other, for he looked so peaceful, sitting there with his eyes half-closed, a small smile playing on his lips and ignoring how the soft breeze played with his bangs.

That smile could deceive many people, but Alfred wasn't fooled. He had learnt to look past that smile and rely on the violet eyes instead, and even he was only able to do this because of all the nations, he was the least afraid of Ivan. In fact, for quite a few years now – twenty, almost – he had made it his private mission to chase away the other man's sadness and troubles to make that smile genuine again, if only for a while. 'Alfred F. Jones, reporting for duty!'

Once more, he tried to get the other's attention in a conventional way. "Ivan," he called to him softly. When that still didn't seem to work, he latched on to his arm and repeated with a faint whine: "Ivaaaaaaaaaaan…"

If Ivan was startled by this sudden physical contact, he didn't let it show aside from starting – not even a gasp.

"Alfred…" he murmured, and now even his voice alone indicated that his thoughts hadn't necessarily been the happiest ones.

Now that he had accomplished his goal, Alfred got rid of his kicked-puppy-look and settled for an empathetic one instead.

"Hey, big guy, what's wrong?" Noticing a distinctive spark of false cheerfulness in the older nation's eyes, he added seriously: "And don't go telling me that it's nothing, because it's clearly something."

An apologetic smile danced across Ivan's face. "Have I upset you, by any chance?"

Looking doubtful, Alfred cocked his head first to the left, then to the right before replying: "Well, I wouldn't quite call it 'upsetting', but rather 'worrying'. You shouldn't look so bummed on a day like this, y'know?"

Ivan blinked. "…I suppose not. Forgive me."

He must not have sounded very reassuring, for Alfred carried on just like before: "Look, there's nothing to forgive, but I'd like to cheer you up again." Seeing Ivan's gaze flicker back to the water, watching the ripples that were made by cattails swaying in a gentle breeze, he got an idea.

"Maybe a change of scenery is what you need. I get melancholic too sometimes when I zone out while watching water like this…"

Before Ivan could try to insist that it wasn't the water's fault, he was gently being forced to lay down on his back. The lake and its surrounding greenery vanished from his field of view and got replaced by white clouds against an azure sky. Alfred flopped down beside him with an award-winning smile.

"Better?" he asked happily.

"Да," was the soft answer.

For a while, they simply lay silently in the grass, side by side, watching the clouds lazily drift by overhead while the sun shone on their faces. His aloofness was gone now, yet Ivan found no satisfaction in watching the clouds.

"Alfred, I have decided that clouds are not what I want to see after all," he eventually said.

"They're not?" Concern arose in Alfred again; the cloud-watching-strategy usually worked. But giving up was absolutely out of the question – he would go to the end of the world to find whatever Ivan wanted to look at if he had to, dammit! "What do you want to see, then?" he asked.

Cool fingertips brushed his cheek in an affectionate caress. "You."

Alfred couldn't stop himself from laughing (and yes, he preferred to think of it as laughing instead of giggling, thank you very much) and joked: "Oh, come on, stop it; I'm blushing…" In fact, this wasn't even all that much of a joke, since his cheeks had actually turned faintly pink.

"Please don't play this down, for I am serious," Ivan asked of him.

With a sigh, Alfred rolled over onto his stomach and began to finger one of the scarf's ends. "You've been thinking about the past again, haven't you?" he guessed.

"I have," Ivan admitted, "After all, it is part of our lives, да?"

"That's true, but don't you think you're dwelling on it a little too much? I mean, after all the horrors and tragedies you've been through…"

"I was not thinking about that."

"What about, then?"

"You and I. Then… and now."

"'Then' as in the Cold War, huh?" He received no confirmation, but Alfred needed none to know that he was right on the money. With a somewhat wry smile, he bedded his head on his hands. Ivan's gaze followed him as he turned his head, not wanting to lose sight of him.

"That had to be the best act you ever pulled – I mean hey, you managed to fool the whole world, including me."

"It certainly was the most difficult role I ever had to play. Supposedly hating you while all along, I wanted to be with you, if only as a friend. Preferably more than that, admittedly, but I didn't want to delude myself…" Ivan trailed off with an ever so faint chuckle as he remembered all the times he had chastised himself for being a fool, a fool who had secretly daydreamed about his "sworn enemy".

"Looks like that supposed delusion became reality, if you ask me."

"Yes, and I am very grateful for that."

The pair shared a tender kiss, and as Alfred snuggled up to him, Ivan continued:

"That is why I keep remembering the past. By not forgetting how much time passed before I could indulge myself in situations like this and how hard it sometimes was to mask my true feelings for you, I prevent myself from ever taking your love for granted."

"I promise I'll do my best to keep you happy." A sweet kiss was planted onto his jaw, making Ivan hum contently even as Nantucket nearly got caught in his eye when Alfred nuzzled him. "And I'll prove it by keeping the promise I made earlier. Remember? 'More later'…" Here, the American let his voice drop to a whisper and acquire a trace of seductiveness. As he spoke, he took Texas off and pocketed them, true to the motto "better safe than sorry".

It didn't make any fundamental difference to Ivan if Alfred wore Texas or not, but the absence of the spectacles enabled him to freely touch the younger one's face without needing to worry about smudging the glasses. With utmost fondness, he caressed his lover's face and took his sweet time staring deeply into those bright blue eyes before saying quietly:

"That sounds wonderful, but there's something I would like to say first."

"Fire away," Alfred invited him.

"I love you."

Alfred smiled and softly kissed the taller man's nose. "I love you too, Ivan."

There was no need for further words at that point since their lips met in a deep, loving kiss. Soon passion joined the tenderness, and somewhere along the line, Ivan finally managed to cast the final remnants of his reminiscence aside so he could savor these moments properly; all that mattered now was the present and the happiness he shared with Alfred.

Translations (really nothing special, but for the sake of completeness):

Америка = America

да = yes

Lol, the beginning and the ending were by far the easiest parts for me to write, even though the ending turned out different than I had originally planned it to. Not to mention that I had two different versions of the middle part and tried to assemble the best parts while maintaining a certain flow. I hope I succeeded...

Btw, I had already written the bit about how they were feeding ducks when I found out that bread is, in fact, a duck's equivalent of junk food - you're supposed to feed them special pellets and frozen peas and stuff... XD But yeah, I had already used bread instead and stuck with that because honestly, can you picture Alfred bringing frozen peas along to the pond? ;)

Although I said the ending wasn't all that hard for me to write, I had to be careful about it because while I wrote it on today's little day trip, I ended up listening to Roxette's "Spending My Time" a lot, and that song's more suitable for a break-up fic instead of fluff, ne? But I just love ballads like that so much...

I haven't given up on WIAW, but I'm sorry to say that my thoughts are yet again preoccupied with something else: a Christmas fic (what, in summer? Yep, because Christmas in July has an entry on Wikipedia, and I don't care if it's already August) and perhaps a short fic about Russia's current woes with those nasty fires. We'll see. :)

That's all from me. Again: hope you enjoyed the fic, Ahmerst!

~dd

P.S: I know they're actually called French fries, but I was thinking about the anti-French sentiments some people had in 2003. I hereby quote from Wikipedia: "Freedom fries was a euphemism for French fries used by some conservatives in the United States as a result of anti-French sentiment during the international debate over the decision to launch the 2003 invasion of Iraq. France had expressed strong opposition in the United Nations to such an invasion. The French position was frowned upon by some in the United States, leading to campaigns for the boycotting of French goods and businesses and the removal of the country's name from products."

I believe both Liberty and Freedom fries were used (personally, I like the sound of "liberty" just a tad bit more than "freedom", so there. Why did I make Alfred side with Liberty fries? Subjectiveness, people. I love Hetalia!France, but in real life, I'm not keen on going to France...