Chapter 4
Ivan and Vladimir
Ivan placed a recently dusted picture of his family back on his desk. His whole house had been cleaned and is now ready for the meeting with China over trade. Although he didn't have the Baltics to help him clean up his house due to their independence, he still managed to clean it in time. Ivan glanced up at the clock. He actually had time to spare, so he decided to walk around his house, and make sure he didn't miss anything.
"What are you doing?"
Ivan looked to his left as he passed the hallway mirror. "Oh, afternoon, Vladimir. How are you today?"
Vladimir continued his expressionless stare. "Fine."
Ivan smiled at his counterpart. "Well, I guess that's better than being bad. I'd love to chat, Vladimir, but I'm busy."
"You didn't answer my question."
"I didn't?"
Vladimir shook his head. "No. I asked what you were doing."
Ivan glanced around the hallway. "Cleaning my house." He said, making it sound obvious.
Vladimir narrowed his blood red eyes. "Why?"
"Because my friend, China, is headed over for a meeting."
"Wait, your what is headed over?"
Ivan looked behind himself, then back to his reflection that wore a black, torn coat and a blood stained scarf. "My friend, China."
Vladimir closed his eyes and shook his head with a small amused smile. "Wow. You're even more ignorant than I thought."
Ivan tilted his head to the side, drawing his eyebrows together. "I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by that."
"When have you ever understood?" Ivan's counterpart snapped.
"What?"
"Ivan, you don't understand your position at all, do you?"
"My… position?"
Vladimir's slight smile faded. "Once, I heard you talking about your dream. 'To live in a warm place with sunflowers', right?"
Ivan nodded slowly.
"You don't understand, but that will never happen."
Ivan stiffened. "You don't know that."
"I don't?" Vladimir hissed. "You live in the coldest, most barren wasteland that you call a home. And yet you still think you can find warmth."
"I can. All I have to do is-"
"Conquer someone who has a warmer home?" Vladimir snapped, interrupting Ivan.
"No, I wasn't going to say that." Ivan said, shaking his head.
"But what else would you do?" Ivan's 2p asked. "It's not like you can find warmth here."
"Well," Ivan started, "I know that by now."
"Then what else would you do to get your precious warmth?"
Ivan looked at the ground, thinking. "I…" Ivan trailed off.
"You what?"
Ivan closed his eyes. "I don't know."
"When have you ever?" Vladimir grumbled.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Earlier, you said that China was your friend, is that true?"
Ivan nodded slowly. "Da."
"Really? Would China say the same?" Vladimir snapped.
Ivan took a step back, he wanted to leave this conversation.
"Answer the question, Ivan." His flawed reflection ordered.
"Da?"
"Is that a statement, or a hopeful guess?"
Ivan narrowed his eyes. "Where are you going with this?"
"China wouldn't say that, because he isn't. No one would say that they're your friend, because they're not. You don't have friends, Ivan. You're alone, just like you've always been."
Ivan shook his head. "No, that's not true."
Vladimir rolled his eyes. "You're such a child."
Ivan narrowed his eyes, anger filling him. "What do you mean by that?" He hissed.
"What I mean is that you surround yourself with these lies, just to make yourself feel good. And when someone tells you differently, you don't believe them, because you don't want to face the truth of what you really are."
"What am I?" Ivan yelled.
Vladimir's pitiful smile returned. "Evil."
"No." Ivan mumbled. "I'm not evil."
"Really? Then explain Lithuania's scars."
Ivan's eyes widened. "I didn't mean for that to happen. I didn't mean to hurt him."
Ivan's twisted, faulty reflection's smile grew larger. "But you did. And it broke him."
"I didn't mean to…"
"Or what about all the other lives you've ended? All the other countries you've tortured? What about them? How would you explain that?"
Ivan closed his eyes tightly, he couldn't look at this mirror anymore. "I didn't mean to."
"You're right!" The mirror shouted back. "You didn't! But you're just so damn crazy, you can't control yourself anymore! You've never been able to control yourself! But you got your wish, right? You wanted to be powerful! To be feared! You got your wish! Why aren't you happy?"
Ivan's eyes snapped open. "Because I didn't know! I didn't know what being feared would do to me! I was just tired of being bullied! I didn't know!" Tears began rolling down Ivan's face.
Vladimir narrowed his eyes, dropping his smile. "When have you ever known?"
Ivan turned his back on the reflection that wasn't his and walked away. He didn't want to answer that question, because he knew the answer. But for some odd reason, he did. "Never." He mumbled, turning the corner, and walking to the front door with a piece of paper and a piece of tape. He taped the note to his front door:
I'm sorry, China. The meeting's canceled. Please don't be too mad. Will next week work for you?
-Russia
