"It's not such a big deal, aru." The Chinese nation informed his nervous younger sister.
Taiwan was piling him with jackets, his coat, and mittens. Not to mention a layer of different colored scarves.

Mei closed her eyes, nervously tying the scarves to her older brother so that they wouldn't come off once he stepped outside.
"Promise you won't take these things off once I can't see you anymore?" She questioned her nervous tone, overly obvious.
Though China hadn't planned on it, he could see why his sister was worrying about it.
The bundle he now had on was a little much.

"I promise, Mei. Stop worrying, aru! It's stupid." He sighed, getting a little impatient with his timid younger sister.

"..O..okay." She sighed a little bowing her head quickly.

He ruffled her hair a little and she closed her eyes again, blushing shyly, slightly.
She was quite cute, and at the moment Yao was thankful he had such a sweet little sister, though she was a little over the top at times like this.

"I..I just don't want you to get cold, aniki…" She informed, hanging her head to avoid eye contact.

Yao kissed his sister lightly on the top of the head.
He almost missed her being a little kid.
The sweet little girl who brought him sunflowers, and giggled all the time.
Ever since the whole thing with Kiku started she'd become tense, constantly nervous, and it made Yao feel bad as if the whole thing was his fault.

He just wanted all his siblings to be happy.
That included Kiku.
He wished he could just give him what he wanted so that this whole thing could end, but just as China had to look out for his siblings, he had to look after his people as well, and that kept him from fulfilling his younger brother's wishes.

Im Yong Soo entered the room, and Yao looked at him, silently asking him to help him with their sister, who was still fussing over his scarves, and then adding a hat.

"Okay, Mei…" Wang Yao sighed.
"Go to Im Yong Soo, now.." He sighed, patting the small Asian nation on the head.
She turned reluctantly.

China turned to his brother.
He wasn't sure as to whether Kiku was going to involve the rest of his siblings.
He couldn't be all that heartless, could he?

He had to warn Im Yong Soo, though. Just in case.
He and Mei were staying back at his house to hold down the fort, while China went to meet up with Russia.

"Be careful, aru." Wang Yao informed his younger brother.
"And protect your sister if anything should happen."

South Korea nodded, smiling slightly, and placing a hand on Mei's head.
"Don't worry, Aniki!" He laughed.
"Protecting things originated in South Korea! So it's my specialty, da ze!"

Wang Yao chuckled slightly at this and waved to his two siblings going for the door.

Yao only planned to be gone for the day, but he needed them to be prepared in case Kiku held him back, or he got caught in the snow.
He was honestly praying that everything would go smoothly and he wouldn't have to worry about his two siblings.

But what about Vietnam? Or Hong Kong?
Would they be okay?

Kiku had been conveniently uninformative as to whether he was going to involve his other siblings in this stupid attack of his.
He gave a final wave to his siblings, before taking off.
All he could do was pray, right?

…

The ride to Ivan's homeland, hadn't been overly long.
He was thankful that they didn't leave very far apart, or else they would have to wait longer periods of time for their meetings.

He stepped into the snow, suddenly glad his sister had bundled him up as much as she had.
The wind struck him like a knife and forced him to shiver.

Ivan hadn't given him completely clear directions to his house, so he hoped he wouldn't be stuck out in this cold for too long.

Though it wasn't looking too promising.
He walked for nearly 20 minutes and saw nothing but the white.
White.
Everything was a blinding shade of white, it was only the Chinese man's colorful clothing that convinced him every so often that he hadn't been blinded by the color white.

The wind began to blow so hard that the freezing cold snow started flying towards him, stinging his eyes slightly.

He couldn't help but think of the first time he'd met Ivan.
The small Russian boy who'd just insisted on a game of hide and seek.
It had been a bad decision, but it was a game he was glad he had played anyway.

Though, Yao and Ivan hadn't been allowed to be close in relation, Wang Yao couldn't ever forget the time he'd spent with that small Russian child.

Over the time, he valued him nearly as much as his siblings.
He'd wanted him to live back in his homeland with him, but before he'd gotten a chance to convince him to stay, he was just… gone…

Yao's train of thought was interrupted when he hit something, and then toppled down into the freezing snow.

He'd had his eyes downcast, so that the wind wouldn't be able to blow snow into his eyes, and of course he managed to run into something.

"Oh~ Sunflower." That familiar accent, relieved Yao.
"I am hoping I did not startle you too much."

He kneeled down where Wang Yao had fallen, and even through the snow, blowing around the two of them, China managed to see that plastered on smile that the Russian almost always had on.

Those lilac colored eyes hadn't changed a bit. They even still had that childish tint to them.
Some things never changed…
But that smile, complimented by those childish eyes… it almost scared Yao for some reason.
Why was it scary to him?

"A-Aiyah, Ivan…" Yao coughed because of the cold.

"Y..you could have managed to give me better directions, aru.."

Ivan put on a childish pout that reminded him a lot of his siblings.

"I will do better next time for Sunflower, da?" He said, in a sweet tone.

"Yeah…I'd like that, aru."

Ivan extended his strong hand to Yao's smaller one, and Yao slowly took it. The Russian slowly pulled Yao to his feet, gently, as if he was afraid to break him.
The gentleness always caught Wang Yao off guard, considering the fact that he'd seen how rough he could be, like last week when he'd caught Kiku in the middle of hurting him.
The flashes of Ivan forcefully shoving him came to mind again, and for some reason it made him think. A lot.
Why was Ivan so gentle with him?

Was it because they were allies..?
Well.
Obviously.
But someone like Ivan.. making an effort to be gentle.
He'd never been gentle, even as a child.

He'd been rough with animals.
Though he'd never admit it if he asked him about it, Yao had witnessed the small child pulling the wings off of butterflies.

He'd tried to speak to a baby bird in nest.
He'd told it that it didn't need to be afraid of him, and when it recoiled and cowered in fear, Ivan had gotten angry with it, and threw twigs and rocks at it, removing it from the nest.

It confused Yao everytime he'd seen Ivan act up like that, because when he spoke to him, he'd been so sweet, so obedient, he clung to his hand, when stranger's came around, as if he was afraid of them when it was always coaxing animal's and such not to be afraid of him.
It made no sense.

He'd always looked at the animal's with this same childish smile, or attitude, the same one he was using on Yao currently.
If Yao suddenly decided to be afraid of Ivan… would he hurt him?

Yao, now officially over thinking things, let his mind drift back to the one time he'd caught the young Russian outside with the dead river fox.
It's entrails spread out of the ground It's blood soaking the grass.

Ivan had screamed, denied that he'd done anything to it.

And though Yao told him that he believed him.
He somehow didn't.

He still didn't.
That river fox had probably tried to run away. No doubt it had.
Which led him back to that same question again.
If he tried to run away, would Ivan grab him?
Slam him to the ground, and make him bleed out like he had with that animal so many years ago?

"Sunflower, you are wanting tea, da? It was feeling very cold out there." He called from the kitchen.

"Y…yes, aru!" Yao called after him, being yanked from his train of thought yet again.

He waited a moment, and then Ivan came back setting Yao's beverage at the table, and taking a seat beside him.
He smiled his childish smile at the smaller nation, and took a sip of his own drink.

Yao decided he didn't need to worry about what might happen to him if he ran away.
Because he saw what those small animal's had not been able to see.
Ivan had nothing scary about him, whatsoever.
While, he was disturbed, there was just something about him that needed to be fixed.

And Yao had decided that as long as Ivan was his ally, he was going to be the one to fix it.

A/N: Okay~!
I'm always sorry for the long time it always takes to update. eue
It's stupid because my only excuse for it is "I'm lazy" I'm not gonna say writers block, because that, to me is just another indirect way of telling people that I'm lazy, and I'm not one for beating around the bush. Anyway~ reviews would be appreciated, and thank you for all the favorites and follows! They mean a lot! I'll see you guys later when I update soon. If you have any questions, review, or just message me. Until then~