As the morning progressed, Lukas grew more and more concerned about his newest student. The boy had yet to move from his seat since Lovino left, not ever noticing when someone tried to talk to him, though few children had even tried.
When the time came for outdoor play time, all of the class ran outside, save two: Leo and another shy student, Ivan. Having given up on trying to get Ivan to go outside long ago, he instead went to talk to Leo.
"Leo? Why are you still in here?" Lukas asked, sitting down next to the silent boy.
He did not receive any response.
"Leo? Are you alright?"
The boy just continued to stare blankly down at the table.
Seeing that Leo wasn't going to talk to him, he decided to see if the boy would talk to one of his classmates. Walking over to Ivan, Lukas crouched down next to him.
"Hey, Ivan, how are you doing?"
The boy eyed Lukas warily; usually the teacher would just leave him alone with his reading or coloring.
"What do you want?" he asked, sounding cautious.
Lukas sighed. "Can you go see if Leo wants to play with you? It's his first day today, and he hasn't talked to anyone yet." And it would be nice to see you have a friend.
The boy continued to stare at Lukas for a moment, then at the lone boy at the table.
"Having a friend would be nice. Big Sister would be happy if I had a friend," he said finally, picking up one of his pictures as he left his corner for the first time that day.
Lukas stayed back as he watched Ivan go up to Leo. Ivan tried talking to the smaller boy, but Leo didn't seem to notice. After a couple minutes, Ivan sat down across from Leo and slid his picture in front of Leo, who finally looked up, confused.
"For you," Ivan said simply, pushing the paper closer.
Leo took the paper, which had a crayon drawing of a sunflower on it.
"Thank you. It's pretty," Leo said shyly, speaking for the first time since entering the classroom.
"I'm happy you like it. You draw with me?" Ivan asked, looking hopeful.
"Okay."
Ivan stood up again, offering his hand to Leo. Leo hesitantly took it, following as Ivan led him back to his corner. The Russian showed Leo all his pictures, his secret crayon collection, and his favorite books, all of which were hidden in various areas of his corner. Leo hung onto his new friend's every word, looking happy that he had someone to talk to.
The two continued playing quietly in their corner, not noticing when the rest of the class returned inside. Feliciano smiled when he saw the pair, happy that his brother had made a new friend. He felt bad that he hadn't invited Leo to play with him and his friends, but he figured it was okay now that he was talking to Ivan, even if Ivan was a little scary. He happily returned to playing with Feliks, forgetting almost immediately what had made him happy in the first place.
AN: I'm sorry, this is another short-ish chapter. One of these days, I will figure out how to write longer chapters, I promise.
Anyhow, is anyone interested in beta-reading a oneshot I am working on? I really need someone who will critique how it is written rather than the content. It's a sad-ish story, I think, if that has any impact on whether or not you would want to help. If you are interested, please send me a message!
Please let me know what you think of this chapter!
