Chapter Fourteen: Windows

Yong Soo ran into the house and shut the door behind him. He leaned against it and collapsed into a fit of giggles, sliding down into a sitting position and covering his mouth with his sleeves. The look on Ivan's face had been absolutely priceless!

A loud cough interrupted his thoughts and Yong Soo stopped giggling and looked up to see Yao and Kiku standing in front of him. Yao's arms were crossed over his chest and his brow was furrowed under the bandage around his forehead. Though Kiku's body language was far more neutral, the tight frown on his face and the coldness of his eyes told Yong Soo he was much angrier than he looked. Probably even more upset than Yao, who looked like he could explode at any moment.

Surprise splashed over Yong Soo's face when he saw his brothers waiting for him, but it quickly changed to a look of nervous guilt. "W-what's going on, Yao-hyung? Kiku-hyung?" He looked between them, his anxiety rising for every second that neither spoke.

Finally, Yao broke the silence, his voice low and tainted with anger. "What were you doing with Ivan, aru?"

Yong Soo's mouth dropped open and he sputtered. He looked to Kiku, his eyes begging for help, but his silent cries were answered only by Kiku clicking his tongue in disapproval. Seeing as he wasn't getting any help there, he looked down at the floor. "Well, I-, I mean, we... He-he took me out to get something to eat?"

Yao and Kiku stared at their little brother, shock and eventually horror painted on their faces. Neither could believe what he had just told them. He couldn't mean what they thought he meant, could he?

Realization dawned on Yao. "How did he force you to go? Wasn't anyone around? Did you call for help, aru?"

Kiku looked at his older brother, then back to his younger one. Of course. That made much more sense. He stepped forward and knelt beside Yong Soo. "Are you okay, Yong Soo? Did he hurt you?"

"What? No!" Yong Soo protested. "Ivan was really nice to me! I had a whole lot of fun." His voice grew softer, sadder. "He never told me to be quiet or to calm down. He never told me I was crazy or said I was lying. He... really seemed to like being around me."

Yao and Kiku stared at the unusually subdued Korean. They never knew how much he was affected by the words that they said. He had always just laughed them off before or, at most, pouted like a child. Yao couldn't believe that Yong Soo had been carrying this around with him all this time without saying anything. He frowned, the guilt gnawing at him.

Kiku, however, quickly got over his surprise and went back to being upset. "You're being foolish, Yong Soo. Ivan Braginski is a dangerous man. Just look at what he did to Yao-niisan."

"Ivan would never hurt me, da-ze! You don't know him like I do!" Yong Soo shouted, jumping to his feet, fists clenched tightly at his sides. He stomped his feet like a child throwing a temper tantrum.

Kiku rose to his feet as well, albeit in a much calmer manner. "You've only known him for a few days, Yong Soo." He shook his head. He couldn't believe how foolish his little brother was being. He sighed, anxiety building in his chest. He had to get Yong Soo to understand; he didn't want his silly brother to end up hurt like Yao. At that, a thought flashed through Kiku's mind. "He was the one who mistook you for Yao-niisan, wasn't he? Do you not remember how much he upset you?"

Yong Soo looked, stunned, at Kiku. He had forgotten that he had talked to him about that. In fact, he had honestly next to forgotten about the whole incident. He shook his head, trying to keep the memories from flooding back. "What does that have-"

"You're not allowed to see him again," Kiku interrupted sternly.

"What?" Yong Soo gaped for a minute, thinking that he must have heard him wrong. "No! You're not the boss of me, Kiku-hyung! You can't tell me what to do! Ivan's my friend and you can't stop me from seeing him!" His voice rose in volume until he was shouting as loudly as he could.

He pushed past Kiku, leaving his brothers stunned, and turned around at the mouth of the hallway. "You guys are so unfair!" He yelled at them, stomping his feet for good measure. He stormed down the hallway and went into his room, slamming the door and locking it behind him.

He ran to his bed and threw himself down on it. 'Stupid Yao-hyung... Stupid Kiku-hyung.' He couldn't believe what-what jerks they were being! Sure... Ivan had hurt Yao-hyung, but-but Yao had started it! And he and Yao weren't the same person; just because Ivan had hurt Yao didn't mean-

Yong Soo sighed loudly and flipped onto his back. He stared up at his ceiling, his eyes not even registering the myriad of Korean pop star posters covering the surface as he thought back to the party. Ivan's voice rang through his head, calling out Yao's name. While he didn't like to admit that Kiku was right, it did still hurt to think about.

"But it only happened that one time," Yong Soo muttered softly to himself. "He doesn't think of me as Yao-hyung anymore, right?"

A pounding at the door interrupted his troubling thoughts. "Yong Soo! Open the door, aru!" Yao called though the door. "We need to talk!"

"No!" Yong Soo shouted and threw a pillow at the door. "Go away!"

The knocking stopped and all went silent on both sides of the door. Not even Yong Soo could believe what he just said. He's never said anything like that to Yao before. His eldest brother had always meant the world to Yong Soo and he always clung to him, begging Yao to spend more time with him while the elder just got frustrated. Yong Soo had never, never-ever, wanted Yao to be around less, not even when he was upset. In fact, Yao's presence was usually enough to cheer him up, but apparently, that wasn't the case this time around.

A light went off in Yong Soo's head. He didn't want to be around Yao right now and he definitely didn't want to be around Kiku. He didn't want to be here at all. So why was he?

Strangely calm, Yong Soo pulled himself off his bed and walked over to his closet. Yao started knocking again and he and Kiku called to Yong Soo through the door. The Korean ignored them as he pulled out a duffel bag from his closet and began to stuff some clothes and other small items into it.

Still ignoring the calls of his brothers, Yong Soo slung the bag over his shoulder and walked over to his window. He stared at it for a moment; this window actually meant a lot to his and Ivan's relationship. If he hadn't stuck that silly note about Yao grounding him in the window, Ivan never would have come to talk to him. He never would have helped Yong to sneak out of that same window and he never would have come in through it later to apologize to Yong Soo. And Yong Soo wouldn't be sneaking out of it now.

"If I made a drama about us, it would be called 'Windows'," Yong Soo told the empty room. And as if his words broke a dam, Yong Soo's calm shattered suddenly and he sniffled and then let out a shuddering sob. He couldn't explain the unexpected onslaught of tears any more than he could stop them.

He stood staring through watery eyes at the window for a moment longer, then, hearing Yao threaten to break the door down, slid it open and tumbled out to the grass below.

-o-o-o-

Ivan smiled a real, genuine smile of real, genuine happiness as he sat at his desk and wrote Yong Soo's name over and over again in his notebook. "He is vonderful," he said, looking over at his roommate who was sitting on his bed reading a textbook with a highlighter in his hand.

"Hm?" Toris looked up from his book, then, seeing that Ivan was in the mood to talk, closed it and capped the highlighter. "Who is?"

"Yong Soo!" Ivan spun in his chair to face Toris, teetered off balance for a second and then continued passionately. "He is so sveet. And is alvays so happy!"

"Oh right, you told me about him." Toris replied, remembering their previous conversation. "So you two aren't fighting anymore?"

The smile left Ivan's face and Toris trembled, afraid that he said the wrong thing. The smile returned quickly though. True, he and Yong Soo had fought, but Yong Soo forgave him. And that was even better than if they hadn't fought at all! Because you only forgive people if you really like them.

"Не. Ve are not fighting. Ve vent on date!" Ivan said cheerfully.

"Y-you went on a date?" Toris couldn't deny that he was shocked. Who would want to go out with Ivan? No, he must be misunderstanding him again. It happened often enough, after all, usually with less than fun results for the Lithuanian.

"Да! Ve vent to arcade. Ve played many games and he von me tiger!" He pointed to the stuffed tiger proudly. Toris had wondered about the stuffed animal when Ivan came in with it, but had known better than to ask. He had also wondered when Ivan had pushed all the stuffed pandas he'd been collecting ever since he met Yao off the bed and replaced them with the single tiger. But, once again, he knew better than to ask, even when Ivan shoved the poor pandas into a bag and took them outside, never to be seen again.

"Oh, Tai yra malonu." Toris replied. "It's very cute."

"Да, just like Yong Soo!" Ivan smiled at the tiger and then turned back to his roommate. "After arcade, ve vent to dinner and I meet friends!"

"He...introduced you to his friends?" Toris's brow furrowed as he tried to decipher what Ivan was saying.

Ivan nodded. "Да. Vere friends from school. They vere vorking at restaurant." He paused, thinking for a moment. "Fel-a-chi-no and –Lo-vee-no." He stumbled over the strange foreign names, but nodded and smiled. He was proud that he remembered Yong Soo's friends' names. "After dinner, I valked him home and," Ivan looked down at his hands, a light blush spreading across his face. "-and he kissed me."

Toris was stunned. For one, he couldn't believe that a man in college could be so flustered by a simple kiss, but more than that he couldn't believe that he hadn't misunderstood the Russian; he had actually been on a date with this Yong Soo! "Th-that's great, Ivan," Toris said, shaking the shock from his mind and smiling. "I'm really happy for-"

A loud knocking interrupted him and both Toris and Ivan looked at the door. Toris quickly got up from his bed. "I-I'll get it," he said, crossing the small room to the door.

Ivan was a little upset that someone had interrupted his conversation with Toris, but he was in far too good of a mood to stay mad for long. Soon, he shrugged and turned back to his desk to continue writing Yong Soo's name in his notebook. Smiling, he added a little heart next to the newest addition.

"P-please, calm down," Toris said at the doorway. "Just tell me what's wrong and I'll get you some help."

Ivan looked up from his scribbling; whoever was on the other side of the door was crying and pretty loudly, too. He set his pen down and the desk and walked over to stand behind Toris.

Yong Soo stood with a tear-stained face and red, wet eyes on the other side of the entrance. With one hand he carried a medium-sized duffel bag that had a pants leg sticking out of the top and with the other hand he rubbed at his eyes. He saw Ivan walk up behind Toris and dropped his bag to the floor. He pushed past the flustered and confused Lithuanian and ran up to Ivan, throwing his arms around the taller man in a hug.

"Yao-hyu-hyung and Ki-ku-hyung were mean to me!" He sobbed out, burying his face in Ivan's chest.

Ivan looked down at the crying Korean, confused and surprised. Nevertheless, his arms quickly encircled him, almost instinctively trying to comfort the small boy.

Yong Soo pulled his face away from Ivan's shirt and looked up at him with watery eyes. "I-I ran away from home, but I didn't know where to go. Can I stay with you?" He pleaded.

Ivan nodded immediately. "Да, of course you can stay." He scooped the small, sniffling Asian in his arms and carefully carried him over to his bed. He climbed onto the too-small, twin-sized bed and, still carrying Yong Soo awkwardly, sat down and pulled Yong Soo into his lap.

Yong Soo sniffled and turned to cuddle into Ivan's chest again. Ivan began stroking his hair and cooing something in Russian in a comforting tone until Yong Soo calmed down and fell asleep, still nuzzling into Ivan's chest.

Toris watched the tender scene unfolding before him and his stomach twisted in anxiety. That boy couldn't be in college yet; he didn't look older than fifteen or sixteen! Not to mention he was Yao and Kiku's little brother. If Yao had wanted to fight Ivan before, how would he feel if he knew his run-away little brother was sleeping in Ivan's bed with him? Oh, this wasn't going to turn out well, and Toris just knew he was going to get caught in the crossfire.

He sighed and shook his head. Uneasiness still gnawing at his gut, Toris closed the door and walked over to his small desk. He opened the top drawer and fished around until he found and pulled out a small bottle. Stomach medicine, just what he was looking for. He took the cap off and was about to pour out the dosage when the couple on the bed caught his eye again. He paused for a spilt second and then drank straight from the bottle. He had a feeling he was going to need to stock up on this.

A/N: Bad, bad, Yao! And bad, bad, bad Kiku! And Yong Soo, you naughty pookie, running away from home is not the answer! Ivan... you can keep acting like a twelve-year-old girl with your notebook. It's adorable. C:

(Review please?)

Translations:

Да- Yes (Russian)

He- No (Russian)

Tai yra malonu – That's nice. (Lithuanian)