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Warning: Short Chapter, sudden change in narration voice, to the RusAme shippers: I put in some dramatic bonding time between them for your sake


Chapter 4: Don't Steal My Fries Again

This morning, the sun shone blindingly and radiated enough heat to make me sweat, despite the functioning AC in my classroom. When I stared out the window, I swore that I saw heat waves coming out of the ground, warping the view outdoors. The last thing I expected to happen this afternoon was rain. This was Midwestern USA, not Washington or England.

I walked home as the sky gave me a cold shower. I was a few blocks away from the Burger King I stopped by to pick up a couple whoppers and two large fries, in case Braginsky tried to steal them again.

I felt that my hair was dripping wet and so were the legs of my pants. However, my bomber jacket deflected some of the raindrops. In my left hand was a paper bag of burgers. The rain soaked the bag and it started to tear a little. I held the fries in my other hand, bringing the container to my mouth and eating the rain washed fries out of it as I walked, halting when I saw a shadow come up to me.

"Look at you, soaking wet. You're mother will yell at you again," the familiar voice behind me said in the tone my mother would.

And then I realized, the rain stopped pouring, at least above my head, when I looked up to see that I was standing beneath a black umbrella. The guy behind me wore a long, faded pink scarf with a familiar school uniform. Other than his shoes and the part of his trousers that touched the wet pavement, he was dry everywhere else.

"Ivan? Why did you bring an umbrella? It was burning hot this morning, and even the weather man didn't predict rain," I said without looking at him.

"You would think I'm crazy if I told you,"

"Go ahead,"

"Come on, Alfred, let's continue walking,"

"Okay," I spoke to him in monotone.

I forced my feet to move forward, splashing through the puddles. Ivan caught up to my pace, trying to keep his umbrella over both our heads. I didn't see the point, since I was already soaked.

"Let's stop here," I told him, rather as a command, when we were under a bus stop. Whenever I walked home during the winter, that stop would keep me warm, even if it was a partially open space. The curved, blue roof and the plastic walls blocked off the chilly wind when I needed it to.

"It will take longer if we stay out-"

"I don't want to go home,"

"Is your mother still angry about our joke?"

I silently nodded.

"Don't be so childish! If you stay out too late they are going to worry," he said cheerily.

"C'mon, Ivan. You're more childish than I'll ever be. And don't you want to kill time to stay away from Natalya?"

"That's true..."

We both paused for a few seconds, the sound of rain drops against the roof filled in the silence.

"So, what were you saying about the umbrella?" I reminded him.

"Da. Well, I had a dream last night that it was going to snow today,"

"A dream?"

"Yes, a dream. Do you hate how it starts to become sunny, then it starts snowing again on the first day of spring break?"

"Yeah. What does that have to do with anything?"

Ivan looked out the plastic wall with the bus schedules taped on it.

"Where I came from, the winters were always long and very cold," he touched the foggy plastic wall.

"I used to grow sunflowers to remind myself that there is still warmth, but they refused to bloom completely because of the cold. I would keep them as long as they would stay, it made me sad when I saw my sunflowers glazed with ice when the General paid a visit,"

"The General?"

"General Winter, they called the harsh season back in my home. Soldiers would fight wars in the freezing cold. I'm used to low temperatures by now, but I prefer to stay away from it,"

I wondered if that was why he wore a scarf in the summer.

"Natasha and I, we followed Katyusha a year after she found a job and moved to this country. I was glad that the seasons were less intense, and how my sunflowers looked happier here,"

Ivan stuck his hand out the bus stop, a few drops of water fell on his bare skin as he closed his palm.

"I like the rain. It's like snow, only it's melted. That means it's warmer and my sunflowers won't die,"

"And why did you bring the umbrella?" I asked him.

"I didn't want the snow to bother me, so I brought an umbrella to block it off,"

"It's not snowing, though,"

"It was in my dream. And it is now, but it's so warm that the snowfall is melted before leaving the sky,"

"The way you think, Ivan," I told him, "It's different from how...normal people think,"

"I know, Alfred," he still looked out through the transparent wall.

We went silent again, as the rain continued rambling about whatever rain does. Ivan opened his umbrella again and stepped out of the shelter.

"We killed enough time, let's take you home,"

"I don't get it," I looked at him, "There's no point of walking me home, I'm already soaked,"

"Isn't that what friends are for?" he gave me a confused look, pouting a little.

Friends? He considered me a friend?

I looked down at my fries, then back at him.

"Want one?"

"No thanks, I don't like fast food,"

"So you just stole my fries 'cause it's fun?"

"Basically. Come now, Matthew must be worried about you," he gestured for me to come with him.

I felt the corners of my mouth twitch upward for a second while I got up and followed my new friend. Together, we walked through the melted snowfall, slowly turning into a light drizzle. We took a turn at the row of identical houses, typically found in our suburbia. We stopped at my front porch by the red, blue, and white flower beds.

Without saying a word, Ivan turned around and headed back to the sidewalk.

"Wait, Ivan!" I called out.

He paused in the middle of a puddle and turned his head to look at me.

"Da?"

"Thanks," as much as I didn't want to, my body forced me to smile at him.

"It was nothing," he didn't continue walking. He just stood there and gazed at whatever was in front of him.

"And um- Ivan,"

"What is it?" this time, he looked up at the gray clouds.

"Wanna stay for a game of Command and Conquer for a while?"

He closed his umbrella,moved towards me, and said.

"Why not?"