It took me a few minutes to get into my role after Ivan agreed to let me open my presents. I needed to be sweet, obedient, and manipulative, even if it meant having to get close and personal. Hugs? I could pretend he was family. Kisses? I could pretend he was a girl whom I found relatively attractive… Anything more than that? Cuddling is the farthest I was willing to go.

After all of that mind mojo, I took to opening the wrapping paper in the most appropriate manner for birthdays- ripping them open and greedily tearing out their bowls for my own enjoyment. Admits the new pair of pajamas, bottles of cologne, various hair products, and videogames, Ivan had a 'special' present that he insisted on holding onto until it was the last present left. When that time finally came he held the box a little tighter in his hands.

"I think you will like this a lot." He said, gently handing the package over to me, placing the box gently into my lap. "It's very important that you are careful with this."

I took the package and turn it over in my hand, wondering if the object inside was made of glass. The package was heavy enough.

"Well, okay…" I removed the tape and the plain white paper. The box inside was made of leather and had a rough texture. The box itself was clasped shut with a gold lock, and taped on top was the key. Ivan stiffened, but his eyes and smile were filled with what I assumed to be excitement.

I opened the lid and was a little weirded out.

"A revolver? You got me a revolver for my birthday?"

"Do… Do you not like it?"

"No… I love it…" It really was a nice gun. It had a long silver barrel, and the gun gleamed like it had just been polished. "I just… Don't understand why you would trust me with a gun. What If I decide to shoot you?" I looked up at him completely shocked by the display of trust.

"Ah. I suppose its only natural for you to be confused." He took the gun out of the box before I could.

"If you shoot me and I live, I will shoot you. If you do kill me, my men will kill you. In the end I trust that you won't do any of that, but I'm more concerned with you hurting yourself… I figured it would be a great present for you considering the way you talk about farms and America… It's not really a necessity at the moment, but there are a few advantages of knowing how to use one."

I reached out and took my gun from Ivan, trying my best not to think of his men shooting me down.

"Well, Ivan boss, show's how much you know about me! I have won so many awards for my sharp shooting skills. Really, I am a cowboy and all. I can handle a gun, a horse, and a lasso! It might be worth mentioning that I won't try to kill you because I like being alive and not being in pain, but if you need me to shoot a whole bunch of bottles in five seconds, I'm your guy!"

"Oh, you can use a gun? I'm a little disappointed. I wanted to teach you."

"Oh, Im sure you can teach me something else… Like how to wrestle a bear! That seems fun! Or you can teach me… Oh I don't know… How to bench press the right of my entire family? Geze… I can teach you! How about that?"

"What can you teach me?"

"Can you ride a horse? Or maybe I can teach you how to hog-tie a goat! Maybe how to brand a cow? If it's really gonna be sunny for sixty something days I think we should spend the whole time outside! Or something like that. I feel so cramped, and I want to shoot at things now… Not you of course." I moved closer to him and nuzzled his chest like a cat. "Besides, I like you well enough. Also killing people just isn't my thing… Even if they kidnap me." I started to pout and gave him the stank eye, my mood suddenly turning south.

Ivan scooped me up and pulled me into his lap, turning me a little so that I lie in his arms looking up at him. He smiled downed at me and stroked my hair, but it was rough and not entirely pleasant.

"Is that why you have been such an angry boy? You think I kidnapped you? Well... I guess I did, but not from your family." He pulled me a bit closer to his chest, smiling down at me as he leaned over and put the gun back in its box. "I do all these nice things for you and you still act like a little brat. "

"I'm not a brat! You're just a giant dick, and what do you mean you didn't kidnap me from my family!? Who else did?! I mean, obviously you're a shady guy, and you do shady guy things! Kidnapping is a shady guy thing! So, obviously you did it! And then there's that whole part about you not telling me anything, and you're kinda scary, and keep secrets and stuff! Obviously you're a giant dickhead and you took my family away from me and now I have to spend my time with you!" I pushed Ivan away, and moved to crawl away, but he caught me and pulled me close to him again. His hands gripped my arms tightly, and he pushed my head into the crook of his neck, where his soft scarf smothered me. I pushed up, the pleasant smell of sandalwood and chamomile irritating me, and tried to ignore the strength of his fingers as they kept me in place.

"Let me explain!" He shouted, forcing my head back into the crook of his neck. "Let me explain!"

"Explain what?!" I screamed before pushing my head further into his neck myself and trying to bite him through his scarf.

"Stop that!" He yelled, pulling my head away by the hair. I reached up and tried to claw his face, but he quickly threw me off his lap and pinned me to the ground. He wrapped his hands around my wrists and threw his leg over my thighs. He pressed his weight down hard, and no matter how I tried to wiggle, buck or push against him, he wouldn't move.

"Get off me! Get off of me!" I screamed, trying to push him away, but only succeeded in forcing him to dig his fingers further into my skin.

"It's not what it seems! Let me explain!" He yelled back, putting even more of his weight on me as I tried to force him off again.

"No! I don't want to hear your excuses!"

"Calm down! I just want you to understand!" He said, trying to calm him himself down too. "I just want you to understand!" He repeated again, his voice losing it's angry edge and softening into a shallow plea.

"I don't want to understand!" I said, the anger in my voice falling away as tears threatened to spill out my eyes. "I'm sick of this! I'm sick of all of this! I just want to go home and see my family and friends again!" I tried to cover my face, but Ivan's hand held me down a while longer. Once I started to cry his weight lifted a little, before he finally pulled off me. I turned on my side and shoved the 'presents' Ivan used to bribe me away angrily before covering my face with my hands.

I felt so ashamed. I cried more in the last few days, in front of the man who kidnapped me, than I had ever cried before. Given the circumstances it was expected, but that didn't lessen the shame I felt. Heroes beat the bad guy and push their way out of a bad situation, I was just trying to seduce my captor into letting me go. Really, I felt pretty shitty.

I curled in on myself and tried not to sob too loudly. I heard Ivan stand up a moment, before he was sitting down next to me again and draping his long brown coat over me. It was warm, and smelled like his chamomile aftershave and sandalwood. I tried hard not to find comfort in it, I really did, but the warmth… The warm pulled me in, almost in the same way Ivan pulled me into his lap a moment later.

"Really," He said gently, stroking my hair. "There's so much you need to know… I didn't take you from your family… It's a little complicated to explain, but… To put it very simply, I took you from the people that took you first. So… Technically I kidnapped you from kidnappers…"

At that moment it was all a little hard to process, but soon the 'fact' made its way through my brain. "If that's the case they why wont you let me go home!?" I sobbed into his lap, contemplating whether to not it was a good idea to bite him.

"It's far more complicated than that, Fredka. If you go home you will just be taken again." He said, stroking my hair and rubbing gentle circles on the small of my back through his coat.

"Then I'll go into witness protection and change my name to Roberto Sanchez and dye my hair black!"

"Shh, Alfred, calm down. It's not that easy. They will find you and they will take you again. You are safe here, your family is safe with you here. Right now it's dangerous for you to go home. It's dangerous for your family for you to go home… Just be content for now… Be content to stay here with me… I'll take care of everything. I promise. Trust me."

His words were soothing, but they didn't cover the fact that I simply didn't want to.

I'm slightly sorry. Slightly. Please leave a comment and a review. I read every one of them. Whenever I get in a slump I read them again. Tell me what you thing, even if this chapter if hella short.