Chapter 3: It's This Girl

Ever since Senior Skip Day Ivan had to come to terms with himself and his "Alfred situation". He realized that he couldn't keep feeling so miserable just because his best friend fell in love. It was stupid to feel that way when all he wanted was for Alfred to be happy. He guessed that he just felt so bothered by it because he was just used to it always being him and Alfred that nothing would ever change between them. He knew deep down that things would change, but he still hoped it wouldn't be so soon.

In the past he and Alfred had had girlfriends from time to time, but they never last long. For whatever reason that was, but Ivan had a feeling that Monika would be different, and he had to accept that. He was Alfred's friend and he was meant to be supportive of him. He would help him approach Monika, help him not make a fool of himself through text or in person, would help him with anything he needed, which he had been doing well for the past three days.

There was no reason to feel so miserable, no reason at all. As long as Alfred was happy and they still got be around each other everything would be fine. That's what Ivan came to think and accept. It eased the negative feelings in his heart easily, and he soon found himself out of his funk and back to normal.

'No matter what happens, we will still be friends.'

Ivan took a deep breath after saying this in his head and moved his hand up to knock on Alfred's front door. It was his turn to drag the blonde out of bed and to school. The front door opened easily to reveal Alfred and Matthew's father, Arthur Kirkland.

"It's about bloody time you showed up. Alfred said he won't leave his room until you got here," Arthur said irately.

Ivan felt his heart skip a beat at hearing this, but he quickly beat it down.

"Sorry, is something wrong?"

"I don't know, you'll have to ask him," Arthur said as Ivan passed by into the house.

Ivan gave an "Okay" as he mounted the stairs. He walked up to Alfred's door and knocked on it three times.

"Ivan?" came Alfred's voice through the blue door.

"Da, what is wrong?" Ivan asked curiously.

The moment he asked this the bedroom door opened and he was yanked inside. The door slammed shut behind him and what he saw was Alfred pacing around in his underwear.

"I got a text from Monika today," he blurted out, and Ivan effectively kept himself at ease.

"What did she say?"

Alfred blushed slightly at the question then went to his bed to get his phone and hand it over to Ivan. The Russian unlocked the device, having figured out the code years ago, to which Alfred didn't mind, and saw the text. It merely said good morning with a kiss mark and sun emoji next to it. Ivan arched a brow at looking at it then looked below if there was anything more. Unsurprisingly there was, a short message that came a few minutes after the first asking if Alfred could met up with her after school. This quickly got Ivan's attention and he looked back up at Alfred who stared back waiting for an explanation.

"So, what do you think?" Alfred asked. "Is this, ya know… It? Not IT it, but the asking out it? …Is she going to ask me out first? ….Or is it nothing at all? DAMN IT IVAN SAY SOMETHING!"

Ivan looked at Alfred practically ripping out his hair then looked back to the texts. He sighed then set down the phone and gave a serious look.

"She likes you," he said seriously and Alfred instantly froze. "She might ask you out, but it seems a bit soon. You've only been talking for three days now, so relax."

Alfred stayed silent for a moment then nodded his head at Ivan's logic.

"Yeah… Yeah, you're right. Getting ahead of myself," Alfred said with a sigh of relief. He moved over to Ivan and draped himself over his lap. "What would I do without you?"

Ivan couldn't help the smile that came to his face at hearing the praise.

"You'd die probably."

"Probably," Alfred agreed as he made a thoughtful expression.

Ivan chuckled then pushed Alfred off.

"Hurry up and get dressed. It may be a late dayk, but we're going to be pushing it if you don't hurry up."

Alfred shrugged his shoulders and Ivan through a pair of pants at Alfred's face. He stuck out his tongue at Ivan as he took the pants off then held them open to step into them.

"You know it's a crime to hide this hot bod behind clothes," Alfred said matter-of-factly.

Ivan let out a gasp of horror in response. "Fredya, you're turning into your Papa!" he cried, struggling to hold back a grin.

The instant the words left his mouth Alfred fell over with his legs caught in his pants then looked up at Ivan in dismay.

"Oh God! I'll have to start speaking French and grow out my hair! Vanya, I'm sorry you have to see me this way!"

Ivan tried to hold his horrified look, but Alfred's over dramatic acting was too good not to laugh at. Both of them ended up laughing together for a while, until Matthew interrupted them by saying they only had ten minutes left. This quickly got them to shut up and get ready—Ivan getting Alfred's backpack ready and finding his shoes in his messy room while Alfred tried to find a clean shirt and socks. Eventually they emerged from the room and ran out the front door to find Francis, the twin's papa, waiting in the car for them. All three scrambled in and Francis raced to the school to drop them off before heading to work.

The school day went by uneventful. Ivan trialing after Alfred and Alfred trailing after Ivan through the halls from class to class. Occasionally Ivan would hang back while Alfred slipped into the AP classes that Kiku had to see Monika or stop Monika in the halls to talk to her. When lunch came and went Alfred was teased by their friends and Matthew for his flustered behavior, but in all the day was normal. Ivan was finding that as long as he kept in mind that Alfred would still be close to him that he'd be fine. Alfred had been his true and only friend for years and he wasn't going to let some ugly feelings get in the way of it. The year was almost over and there was no sense it ruining anything for no logical reason. But even if it became easier to get through the days, it still took a toll on him. Especially when he found out what happened to Alfred after school at 12 a.m.

Ivan had to walk back home alone for the first time in a long while and had stayed in his room all day. He hadn't done much other than do his homework then lay in his bed with his laptop. He didn't even realize it was midnight until he got a call from Alfred. His ringtone was a song that Alfred had picked out for them after watching a show called Rob & Big. The lyrics "Oh he's my best friend" cornily floated through the air until he answered his phone.

"Yes Fredya?" Ivan asked as he kept his focus on the laptop.

"Uh, Vanya…" Alfred trialed off and Ivan's interest was quickly taken.

"Is something wrong? What happened?"

There was long sigh in response then a groan and a thumping sound.

"Nothin's wrong just… I'm just so happy right now," Alfred mumbled into the phone.

"Oh?"

"Yeah… Monika… She wanted to hang out today, which is practically like a date, ya know? She was just so awesome. She beat me in arm wrestling to win the rest of my fries!"

Ivan felt something heavy on his chest and moved to sit up so he could breathe.

"Oh? See, I knew she looked strong enough to break you in two," Ivan said with a weak laugh.

"Psh, I guess," Alfred replied. "But… I, I wanted to ask you if I should ask her out? I mean, there's like… a week-ish of school and I really like her."

Ivan sighed as he felt his throat go raw.

"You love her Fredya," he corrected, "And I think you should. School will be over soon and you don't know what will happen during the summer before we go to college," Ivan advised with a heavy heart.

Alfred gave a thoughtful hum then asked out of the blue, "Will you be okay?"

"Me?"

"Yeah, like… You'll tell me if I'm being an ass right? If I do ask her out and stuff, because you know that one time that Gilbert got a girlfriend and he vanished for two months until they broke up."

Ivan let out a staggered breath and covered it up to be a weak laugh.

"Yeah, I'll beat you up if I have to."

"And that's why I love you," Alfred cooed into the phone.

Ivan rolled his eyes and upon doing so Alfred said, "If you keep rolling your eyes like that they will get stuck!"

"I'll believe it when I see it," Ivan retorted.

This launched Alfred into a rant about how Ivan wouldn't be able to see it and Ivan easily lost himself in their usual stupid conversations. It was passing one in the morning when they finally hung up and as Ivan settled in for sleep he tried to keep his mind off their conversation, but failed. He lay awake as his head buzzed with Alfred's happy news. His gut twisting oddly and his chest tightening because of it once more.

"What's wrong with me?" he asked the darkness of this room.

He groaned and put his hands to his burning eyes and pressed down.

"Stop it." He demanded and took deep breaths to relax. "Alfred is happy. He's still your friend first. Be happy for him!" Ivan growled lowly then rolled over to smother his face into his pillow.

It was there that he remained, using the pillow to smother his frustrations. He didn't know what to do with himself, about Alfred, or about Monika. He felt frustrated and lost, which was completely new to him, and he didn't like it. He sighed into his pillow until he ran out of air and the hot feeling of anger drained from him.

'Don't think about it. Be supportive.'

Ivan rolled onto his side and repeated this thought until he yawned. He ended up falling asleep soon after.

As the days passed it only took another three days before Alfred came running over to Ivan's house at 9pm. Ivan was in his room the last time he had checked, having left Ivan after school to go with Monika to hang out. He banged on the door until Aleksis answered it and Alfred gave a quick hi before booking it up to Ivan's room. He busted into Ivan's room to find the Russian nowhere to be seen then ran to the bathroom and busted into that room. There he found Ivan sitting on the toilet with his phone in his hand. He looked as white a sheet and Alfred didn't even bat an eye.

"There you are!" Alfred shouted happily from the doorway.

"Shut the door! You know I hate it when you do that!" Ivan shouted back, but not moving to pull up his pants.

It wasn't the first time Alfred busted in on him to tell him something that he deemed of importance. Even so, Ivan still wished he didn't do that. He was lucky he had done a courtesy flush just before Alfred came in.

"Oh right, sorry!" Alfred said quickly then walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

"Well what is it?"

"I asked Monika out today and she said yes!" Alfred shouted and threw up his hands in victory.

"R-Really?" Ivan asked as he looked up at Alfred.

"Yes! I did what you said! I waited a while, then subtly dropped in the hints, though I added a few jokes and pickup lines, and then asked her out while walking her back to her place, and she fuckin' said yes!"

Ivan felt like shit when Alfred announced this, but he put on a smile and congratulated his friend.

"Nice job, Fredya!"

"I know right! She's way hotter than any of my other girlfriends," Alfred swooned and leaned against the sink. "I even got to kiss her too," he confessed and Ivan just shook his head.

"If you're going to drool, lean over the sink properly."

Alfred stuck out his tongue then moved to sit on the sink. He swung his legs back and forth while he kept his goofy grin on his face.

"I honestly can't believe she said yes dude. It's like... surreal or something…"

"Well it happened, and now you'll have to try to keep her."

"So true. I'm not gonna blow it like before." Alfred said in a serious tone. "I really love her."

Ivan sighed and started to say something, but then a knock came to the bathroom door.

"Vanya, Alfred! Get out already, I gotta take a shower!" Natalia shouted.

"There are other bathrooms, Nat!" Alfred shouted back.

"My stuff is in there!"

"Alfred, you really want to stay in the bathroom with me? You do realize what I was doing and that I have been holding it in since you arrived," Ivan informed.

"Dude really? You know you can go with me in here! I do it all the time!" Alfred said as he recalled the few moments when he had made Ivan get in the bathroom with him.

"I know, but I have morals."

Alfred let out a laugh but let Ivan be. He opened the door then shut it before Natalia could wiggle herself in.

"Vanya's taking a shit so you still gotta wait," he said plainly.

"Thanks Fredya!" Ivan shouted through the door sarcastically.

"You're welcome!" Alfred replied then headed off to Ivan's room.

While Alfred busied himself with playing on Ivan's laptop, Ivan was busy trying to keep himself in check. He knew it was inevitable that Alfred would be with Monika, but a part of him still hoped it wouldn't happen. He sighed as he accepted the news and finished his business. He practiced smiling in the mirror as he washed his hands and when he went to his room he was back to normal. He opened his door to see Alfred laying on his bed and looking at his laptop. He moved to sit down next to him and laid back, using Alfred's back as pillow.

"So, you gonna be Alfred Schmidt?"

"Huh?" Alfred asked then after getting a raised eyebrow in response, it clicked. "OH! Oooooh, oh god, no!"

"No?"

"Well… I don't know! Shut up!"

Ivan laughed at Alfred for his flustered response and felt like maybe this small change wouldn't be such a bother after all. It was what Alfred wanted, and he was okay with that.