"Ivan!" China's eyes were wide in horror.
He grabbed the small Russian boy's hands, and stared at them.
"What happened, aru?"
No answer.
The snow was letting up a bit, and aside from that, Yao's vision was more clear now.
Not only was there blood on the child's hands, but there was a streak of red right across his coat, where his stomach was.
The blood was dry, it had been sitting there for a couple days at least.
China opened his mouth but no words came through.
Ivan was silent as well. The Chinese man looked into the violet eyes of the tiny nation, with his own dark colored eyes.
The little one furrowed his brow, trying to hide the slight pain that he hid.
"What happened, aru..?" China asked, softly, repeating himself.
Still no answer from the Russian child.
Yao's eyes shifted down to the streak of blood on Ivan's clothing again. He slowly started to unzip his jacket.
Ivan began to tremble, but Yao managed to ignore it.
He gently lifted up the child's shirt, to find a single scrap, right underneath his chest.
It looked like it had been deep. But not so deep that it was fatal.
It had most definitely been dealt out with something sharp, like a blade.
It had scabbed, but it was faintly red all around it.
It would become seriously infected if it wasn't treated.
China blinked, and reached a steady finger out, and lightly touched the wound to see if Russia was in pain from the minor infection yet.
Ivan hissed, slapping Yao's hand away, sharply, and backing up, only to fall right into the snow.
Yao was startled, but he quickly moved forward, after the child, scooping him out of the snow before he got too cold.
He tenderly asked for the third time.
"What happened, little one…?"
"Someone picked a fight with me, da.."
China was relieved that this wasn't self-inflicted, but at the same time worried.
Who in the world had the nerve to attack a nation of his age?
"Who..? Where is this person now, aru?" China asked.
Russia didn't answer.
His face was straight, but his eyebrows twitched slightly, his innocent-looking eyes filled with tears.
"Ivan..? Tell me, aru..?" China asked, worried.
The Russian boy finally answered.
"G-gone… they left my land, da…they won't be back."
China was confused.
The way Ivan twisted his words, made him think he meant something that he wasn't making clear.
"Where are they, aru?"
"Gone, you no understand me, da?"
"Gone, where?"
"Gone! They left my land!" Russia's tone was exasperated.
Maybe China was making too big a deal of this.
Russia had told him the truth, he had no idea why his mind was twisting it into something else.
"Why you keep asking the same question..?" The little teary child asked.
"I'm sorry, aru… I don't know… I'm being silly to pry like that. They're gone and won't hurt you again, that's all that matters."
"D-Da…"
After that, silence.
He wasn't going to leave him out in the cold.
Especially with a wound like that.
"I'm taking you back to my house again, aru.." China informed.
The obviously overly tired, and hurt child was curled up in his arms, but was conscious enough to hear and answer the Asian man.
"The place you took me other time, da?" He whispered.
"Yes, aru.." He nodded.
"But this time, I want you to stay, aru…I won't have a little one like you out in the cold where people will hurt you. I just won't, so you're going to stay with me."
There was no answer from the child for a moment, so Yao started walking.
"…I'll stay…" Russia muttered.
China looked down at the small boy.
"…But not only for a little while, da…?"
A/N: All right~ this chapter was short, but only because if I made it longer, it would ruin the flow of the story. Now~ the whole story doesn't revolve around Yao and the child version of Russia. It will progress, but for awhile, he'll be a child. A have a plotline for this. Theres quite a bit of time skipping in the story, you'll be informed of it, just like how I wrote the first chapter, and the next chapter it was six months later. You'll just have to stick around to see. I don't think I'll update as quickly as I am currently, I know I'll get busy with real life, but for now. Yeah. Heres my second update of the day. BI