Chapter 7

Place and Time: Tallinn, Estonia - Airport: 12:03pm

Sitting in a cafe, Nikolai was eating a quick meal before his flight. He was looking over at some documents of the building he had to go inside of. Clearly, it was a very tall and big building, hence the fact there were 5 pages of them.

"Why does this building have to be so big...?!" he said mumbling under his breath.

As he finished observing the papers, he put his things away and was off to his gate. While walking to his gate, a man bumped into him. They both fell and a few of Nikolai's papers flew off.

"O-oh...! I'm so sorry!" said the man, almost sobbing as he picked up his papers. His accent sounded as if he came from Ukraine.

"No... It's fine," he replied, picking up the papers as well.

When they both gathered all of the papers the man handed them to Nikolai, although he instantly drew his hand back as Nikolai went to retrieve it.

"Arlovskaya?" he said in a serious yet calm tone, "один кто является временно заменив Брагинский? (one who is temporarily replacing Braginsky?)

(AN: in google translate, it said that there was no "the" in Russian, I don't know why)

Nikolai was a bit surprised that this man knew who he was. Maybe he was another spy...?

"Da, Why ask?" he said, still holding out his hand and waiting for him to hand the papers over. "I'm in a bit of a hurry"

The man smiled. "Ludwig sent me to help you, Mr. Arlovskaya," he said and handed back the papers. "My name is Dmitri Braginski~"

The first question to pop in his head and to be asked was: "Why are you telling me this, in a formal way, when we are related!?"

Dmitri chuckled. "Well, it looked like you didn't recognize me, so I had to say my name~"

Nikolai sighed as he put back his papers securely in his bag. "Alright, alright... let's go, or we would miss our flight."

They both walked along the tile floor until they reached their gate. Passengers also in the same plane as them were doing something to pass the time of waiting. Both sat down and had a little chat.

"So, why would they send you here to help me?" Nikolai asked, crossing his arms, "I don't need help."

"Since Ludwig thought you weren't..." he paused to find the right word that wasn't rude, "...experienced enough."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever... there really is no point of saying no anyway."

Dmitri simply smiled. They sat there in silence until their plane arrived. "It's time for us to go." They silently stood up, handed their tickets, and went to the plane.

Time: 12:47pm

Meanwhile, Alfred was running to his gate. What made the matter worse were his missing glasses. He still couldn't see anything, so he ran into lots of things along the way. He noticed his gate number and three people were still in line. Hurrying, he got his ticket and handed it in. Out of breath, he slowly made his way to the plane and, of course, slammed into the wall one last time.

"I... seriously need my glasses..." he mumbled as he rubbed his forehead and went hunting for his seat.

Nikolai was just watching the passengers off finding their seats while Dmitri read a magazine that was in front of him. He noticed a blonde man, squinting as he looked back and forth.

"E-excuse me sir..." he started off as the blonde was close to him, "something wrong?"

"Oh!" Alfred replied, "Mind helping me find my seat?"

"...Sure."

Nikolai got up and helped the man look for his seat. They found his seat four rows behind Nikolai's row. Alfred thanked him and sat down, that's when Nikolai saw a good look at him and realized that something seemed... off.

"Can... you see anything?" he asked him, choosing his words carefully.

"Actually... no," Alfred replied with a faint smile and scratched the side of his head, "I, um... lost my glasses."

Those were the words Nikolai was waiting for.

"Ah, I see," Nikolai replied with a nervous smile, not that Alfred could really tell.

Nikolai quickly walked back to his seat and shook his brother quickly.

"Dmitri!" he whispered, and the Ukrainian man opened a sleepy eye.

"Hmmm...?" he said yawning.

"Just a few minutes ago, I was helping that blonde guy," he started off.

"Yeah?" replying not really interested. He took a sip from his water.

"Well that guy, was the one who fought brother!"

Dmitri was about to spit out his water but was able to swallow it down. "W-what!?"

The passengers around them were giving the brothers strange looks, so Nikolai told him to lower his voice.

"Why would he be here?" Dmitri asked, his voice lower this time. He coughed roughly due to the water he had to swallow.

"I think he is going to where we are headed..." He gave it a thought. "We need to stop him."

"How do you plan on doing that?"

By this point, Nikolai couldn't say anything to his older brother. "...Let me think of a plan."

Dmitri nodded and closed his eyes to rest again. Nikolai on the other hand, thought of a plan to prevent that man to get in their way. Then, the plane was off. It would be fine he thought, it was an 8 hour flight, he'd have enough time to think one over after a quick nap. Nikolai closed his eyes, and drifted off along with his slightly snoring brother who, unconsciously, hugged him.

4 hours later...

What a peaceful slumber... the warmth was welcoming him. The rays of the sun beating down on him, the warm breeze blowing calmly, the grass making a quiet rustling noise. It was a dream he always wanted and loved. Looking at the distance was a vast field of sunflowers. He walked towards it, his silky hair flying with the wind. Reaching the field, he kneels down and pulled out the flower with care. Smelling its sweet smell, he closed his eyes. He heard crunching noises nearby and opened his eyes quickly. Glancing around, he saw a figure standing a few feet in front of him. The image was blurry, making it hard for him to see who it was. The figure extended out his hand towards him. Maybe he wanted the sunflower...? Without hesitation, he walked three steps towards the hand and gave the flower to him. He saw the figure smile happily and started to dissolve. It dissolved completely and yellow petals flew past him, and it whispered something to him.

"Thank you for everything…"

Nikolai woke up by movements from his brother, who was shaking him roughly. He noticed a tray of food on his lap, which was really a bowl of soup with noodles in it.

"Time to eat!" Dmitri said happily towards his sleepy brother.

Nikolai looked at him coldly that he was woken up for this. Then again, he did feel hungry. Letting it slide, he started to eat.

"So, did you think of anything?" Dmitri asked, taking a bite of his meal, which was a dinner roll.

"...Nyet," he replied, taking a sip of the warm soup.

Dmitri chuckled. "I expected that!"

"Oh shut it, it's not like you came up with a plan all this time-"

Nikolai stopped and realized that Dmitri was smiling brightly. He did come up with a plan.

"Not to fear! Big brother is here~!"

Dmitri received a nice slap on the head from his younger brother. The Belarusian did not want to go with his brother's plan. The last time he came up with a plan, it ended up making them both stuck in a prison cell. Luckily their brother was around that area, so after a series of shouting and lots of gunshots, Ivan broke them out. They both received a long lecture from the Russian as a punishment.

"Trust me, it won't end up like before," the Ukrainian said smiling with confidence.

"Might as well..." Nikolai mumbled, "But I'm not bringing my hopes up..." He said it softly so he wouldn't hear.