A/N: YOU… you know, I was gonna have this whole bit where I did my usual crazy "I got no sleep" thing, and don't get me wrong when I wrote this I was tired, but not from lack of sleep. I got the flu this week. Sooo… -_- my flu shot didn't work this year. Damn it. I can't go to work due to coughing, so here's another chapter. Imma…Imma try and get some sleep now. Hopefully by the time I write this chapter, (which usually takes a few days), i'll feel better.
_IVAN'SPOV_
Ivan was warm. That was his first thought as his tired brain started to stir out of his sleep. He slowly held onto this information as the morning fog in his brain slowly started to melt away. That was strange. Usually in winter he always had a little bit of chill clinging onto his body. It was rare that he felt warm like this, but it wasn't an unwelcome feeling. He sat there for a few more moments, lightly dozing as he enjoyed the warmth. After a few minutes he had almost fallen back asleep again, but something didn't seem right. Frowning slightly, he wondered what was wrong. It didn't seem like he was in trouble, and he didn't think he was forgetting anything…
Tiredly, he forced one of his eyes open to look at his surroundings. He was a little confused to see that he was not in his bed, but lying on the couch in Alfred's living room. It took him a moment to remember that he and Alfred had been watching a late night documentary about space, and that he must have fallen asleep before the program had finished. The TV was still on, but the volume had been muted. He glanced out the nearby window and saw that the sun hadn't even risen yet, but the sky was becoming lighter. It must be around 6am or so he mused. Deciding that he didn't feel like getting up just yet, he closed his eye and just as he was about to catch a few more minutes of sleep, he felt something shift into his side.
Opening his eyes properly, he looked over in confusion to his left, and before he could stop himself he let out a small laugh at what he saw. Alfred was completely wrapped up in a blanket next to him. He had curled up on Ivan and had completely zonked out. His face was partially buried in Ivans blanket, and his hands were loseley holding onto Ivans shirt. Leaning over to get a better look at the younger nation, Ivan couldn't help but feel some fondness for the other nation as he saw that Alfred seemed to look relaxed. In fact, Ivan swore he could see a faint smile on his face. So he even smiled in his sleep. That was just like Alfred.
Shaking his head fondly, Ivan let his head fall back onto the arm rest, closing his eyes again. Well, that explained why he was so warm. It seemed, much to his ever growing amusement, that Alfred liked to cuddle in his sleep. Oh, the black mail potential he could get from this. He briefly considered poking Alfred awake to tease him about it, but he decided against it. It would be a little cruel to wake Alfred up when he finally seemed to be getting some decent sleep, and Ivan honestly liked the extra body heat next to him.
He opened his eyes again, studying the younger nation for a moment. For some reason he was reminded of the first few days of their living arrangement when Alfred had fallen asleep on the couch after staying up all night. Back then Alfred had been so much more guarded, even when he had slept. He couldn't help but marvel at the fact that they had gotten to the point where Alfred had finally let his guard down around him. Something in his heart seemed to warm at the thought, and Ivan felt his expression soften as he watched Alfred sleep. He really did look happy. With a small smile of his own, Ivan closed his eyes again, content to go back to dozing. He could sleep in a little longer.
Ivan would have been happy to spend the rest of the day this way, not disturbing the fragile peace that had formed in the apartment, but alas, time would never stop for him, no matter how much he wished it would. That became evident about an hour later when Hero strolled into the room. Hero, noticing that his bowl had yet to be filled, started to meow loudly. This not only caused Ivan to stir from his doze, but Ivan felt Alfred start to stir as well.
At first, Alfred seemed to be fighting the urge to wake up, a small frown forming on his face as he tried to ignore Hero, but after a solid minute of consent meowing, Alfred finally gave up. With an annoyed hum, Alfred finally opened up a tired eye and glared at Hero, who happily purred at his owner.
"No, it's too early, and you're too fat. Go back to sleep." With that, Alfred closed his eye again and pulled his blanket over his head.
Ivan couldn't help but silently laugh at that. While he had gotten used to Alfred calling Hero a little fatty, hearing Alfred just casually insult the cat was something he hadn't been expecting. Alfred, not happy about Ivan shaking with laughter under him, started to gently wack at Ivan's arm.
"Bruh, stop. I'm trying to sleep." Alfred whined. "You're shaking the couch."
"I am sorry. I was not expecting you to be so mean to your cat. Usually you are nicer to him." Ivan pointed out.
"It's too early, and I'm too comfy to move." Alfred said with a yawn, dropping his head back down on Ivan's chest. "I don't wanna do anything yet."
"Hmm, and here I thought that you would rather cuddle Hero over me. I must say, I am flattered that you changed your mind." Ivan teased, poking the side of Alfred's head playfully.
"That was before I found out that you were warmer than him." Alfred admitted with a casual shrug.
"Oh, so you do not mind my hugs anymore?" Ivan asked with a chuckle. While he had only asked the question to tease Alfred, he was surprised when Alfred just cuddled up closer to him with a smirk.
"Nope. In fact, I kinda like them now. They're really comfy. Congrats, you've finally worn me down. I guess holding me hostage earlier actually worked. Who knew?" Alfred shot the taller nation a bright smile, and Ivan felt his heart do a weird stutter. That…had not been what he had been expecting.
"So…you do not mind if I do this?" Ivan asked, and before Alfred could figure out what he meant, he had wrapped the younger nation up in a giant bear hug, gently wrapping up the younger nation in his arms, blanket and all.
Alfred didn't even fight it. Instead, he let out a muffled laugh as he was slightly squashed into Ivans body. "Yes, I don't mind it." Alfred confirmed. "Gotta admit though, I'm kinda getting overheated now." Alfred gently tapped on Ivan's arms. "Let me go now."
"No." Ivan said cheerfully.
"Ivan." Alfred said with a huff, tapping on Ivan's arms a little faster. "Come on, let me go."
"Nope." Ivan said happily.
Alfred started to pout up at the older nation now. "Hey, just because I'm cool with your hugs now doesn't mean you can keep me hostage anymore. It's not like you're not going to get more hugs from me now."
"I know."
"So…"
"I do not feel like letting you go."
"But I'm hot." Alfred whined, pushing lightly on Ivans arms.
"Maybe you should have thought about that before you tried to steal my body heat, Da?" Ivan hummed.
Alfred paused for a moment, before he looked up at Ivan with a suspicious squint. Ivan just happily smiled back at him. He had to admit, Alfred didn't look particularly scary with his crooked glasses and bed head. It was rather cute to be honest.
"Ivan…" Alfred started to ask slowly, still giving him a suspicious look, "If you know that i won't fight your hugs anymore, and you know i'm open to giving hugs now, why are you holding me hostage? And don't tell me it's because of me stealing your body heat, because I know you don't care about that."
Ivan's smile just widened at the question. While it was true that he had just wanted to tease the other nation, he did actually want to talk to Alfred about something. So while he didn't intend to bring up this topic just yet, he decided that bringing it up now wasn't a bad idea.
"Well…I do have a small request to ask you." Ivan admitted slowly.
That piqued Alfred's interest. Alfred stopped moving and shot the other nation a questioning look. "What about?"
"Ah, it is a little silly." Ivan admitted, his face turning a little pink. "But it is about how we keep getting interrupted by the other nations. It is just…" Ivan mulled over his words for a moment. "Anytime that we are having fun, or going out it seems like we are always interrupted by the others."
"Yeah, I've noticed that too." Alfred agreed with a small frown. "It's kinda odd. I mean, I know that the others like to hang out after meetings and stuff, but we are running into the others a lot more than usual."
"Exactly. I was wondering, if we get interrupted like that again, perhaps we could simply tell the other nation to fuck off?" Ivan asked hopefully.
Alfred burst out into laughter at that. Ivan couldn't help but laugh a little too.
"Wait, really? That's all you wanted?" Alfred asked, grinning up at Ivan again. "And here I thought you were going to bring up something more serious. Sure, we can do that, but I have a few conditions to add."
"Sure." Ivan agreed.
"First of all, if Mattie wants to talk to us I think that can be allowed. Same for Ukraine." Alfred said, holding up one of his fingers.
"I suppose that is fine." Ivan agreed slowly. While he was fine with his sister, a part of him hoped he would not meet Alfred's twin again for some time. Something about the other nation seemed to make him a little nervous.
"Second, if we spot France we must hunt him down and kick his ass." Alfred said, holding up a second finger.
"Of course."
"And finally, please let me go. I wasn't lying when I said I was overheating here." Alfred said with a slight grimace.
"Ah, my apologies." Ivan said, quickly letting go of Alfred, who promptly threw off his blanket and flopped onto the other side of the couch with a relieved sigh.
"Better?" Ivan asked in amusement.
"Much better." Alfred confirmed. As soon as he was settled, Alfred turned back to look at Ivan with a curious expression. "So, what made you want to bring this up in the first place? I didn't think you were bothered by the interruptions."
"Not at first, but after Japan showed up last time, I have found that my patience for such things has decreased." Ivan admitted, which was partially true. He chose not to mention Canada's little visit. "Not to mention that i would like us to have a full day to ourselves for once."
"Ah, I should have seen that coming." Alfred sighed. "I know it's a long shot, but would it be too much for the two of you to get along better in the future? It would be nice if my friends got along."
"I do not think that will be possible until he apologizes to me as well." Ivan said with a huff. "He did not bother to even try and admit that he wronged me last time. Even then," Ivan added, shooting Alfred an apologetic look, "I find it unlikely that we will ever be friendly with each other. We never were on good terms."
"That's what I thought." Alfred admitted with a sigh. "In that case, don't worry about it. Last time I talked to Japan he wasn't exactly jumping with joy when I mentioned you either."
"Oh?" Ivan asked curiously. "What did you two talk about?"
"I mentioned that you were the one to tell me about his crush, and he was super pissed at you for spilling the beans." Alfred said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
A little piece of Ivan felt a wave of satisfaction at Alfred's words. Ivan recognized that he was being a little petty, but honestly he couldn't bring himself to care. He still wasn't pleased with Japan's behavior, even if Alfred had already decided to move on from it. So knowing that he had managed to get under Japan's skin made him feel a little smug.
"Ah, I see. I cannot say that I feel regretful for doing so." Ivan admitted with a smirk.
"There you go with that smug look again." Alfred said with a playful roll of his eyes.
"Nonsense." Ivan replied, his smirk only getting larger.
"Whatever." Alfred said with a shake of head. At this point, Hero, tired of being ignored, jumped up onto Alfred and started meowing loudly again. Alfred gave Hero an unimpressed look, but after Hero rubbed his face against Alfreds chin, Alfred gave in. Picking up Hero, he finally got up and shuffled to the kitchen with a yawn. "I guess we should get moving then."
"I suppose." Ivan agreed reluctantly, missing the warmth that had been there a few seconds ago.
_BELARUSPOV_
Belarus sat at her office, tapping a pen on the desk as she watched the clock tick the seconds away. She was the first to admit that she did not do well with waiting. Usually when she had a problem, she would try and solve it as soon as possible, but seeing as the current circumstances were preventing her from acting, she found herself with too much time and no solutions. Sighing, she stopped tapping the pen and leaned back in her chair, frowning up at the ceiling with a thoughtful frown.
Ever since her last phone call with Lebedev, she had been in a rather difficult situation. First, she no longer had eyes on her brother, which always made her nervous. Of course, him rooming with that damned American didn't help things. Second, she was rather lost on how she was going to sneak in her weapons into the Christmas party. It wasn't like she couldn't improvise, but she found that she was much more comfortable when she could have a weapon of her own choice on her person.
Of course, that was hardly a unique problem for her. Other nations were known to carry weapons during meetings. While they weren't brought out as often as they used to be, everyone knew that they were present in almost all national interactions. Belarus always had at least two small knives on her, her brother usually had a pipe on him, she was pretty sure some of the other european nations carried some sort of weapon, (England was fond of carrying a cane at times), and she had even seen some of the South American nations carrying everything from chains to guns. She frowned as she tried to remember the last time she had seen America with his gun, but he always concealed it so it was hard to tell when he was armed or not. It was an annoyingly effective way to keep people guessing.
Not that it usually mattered with the Christmas party, as after one particular Christmas party during the cold war, America had declared his parties as weapons free. Of course, the other nations had tried to get around this rule, but America had a nasty habit of always finding out who had brought them and then confiscating the banned materials. She wasn't sure how he always knew, but it had been effective enough for most of the other nations to stop bringing them, and declaring the party neutral ground. Which would usually be fine, but seeing as she had some…personal business with America….
With an annoyed huff, she folded her arms and continued to stare up at the ceiling with a scowl. Of course, not only would America be expecting her to bring a weapon, so would her sister and brother. So short of making due with a butter knife, (which wouldn't even be worth the effort), she seemed to be out of options.
With another huff, she pushed herself away from her desk, (speaking of which, she needed to get that fixed), and just as she was standing up to make a cup of tea the phone on her desk started to ring. Belarus paused for a moment, frowning at the phone in confusion. As far as she was aware, her boss had given her vacation until the new year, and she wasn't expecting anyone to contact her. It wouldn't be her sister or brother either, as they had her cell number. Deciding to ignore it for now, she walked out of the room and went to set up her tea kettle. If it was important the caller would leave a message.
Of course, after the fourth time the person had tried to call her, she found that her patience was rapidly leaving her. After the fifth time the phone started to ring, she slammed down her tea cup and stormed back into her office and snatched the phone up.
"What could be so important that you must call this many times?" She snapped into the phone.
"Well," came the equally annoyed voice of Lebedev, "I think you taking one of my men is more than enough of a reason for me to call."
Belarus paused for a brief second before letting out a sharp laugh. "I still fail to see how that was so important that you could not have just left a message."
"Is this a joke to you?!" Lebedev hissed angrily.
"A little." Belarus said cooly, slowly relaxing and sitting down slowly in her desk chair. "But what does one little pawn matter?"
"Pawn?! That man was one of my best!"
"He could not have been that good if he was captured." Belarus said in a bored tone.
"This might not seem important to you, but I happen to actually care about the lives of my men. So cut the shit lady." Lebedev growled into the phone.
Belarus felt one of her eyebrows shoot up at that. Well, well. Looks like the puppet did have a spine. She was surprised.
"Now, now." She said in the same bored tone. "Let us not get heated here. Remember, this is still partially your fault for not following my instructions after I told you to stop your investigations. If you had just done what I said, it would not have come down to this." She took the silence on the other end of the phone as confirmation of her accusation. Narrowing her eyes, she continued. "So, pray tell, if you knew that you were in the wrong, why not just do as you are told and stop the investigation already?"
"Look, this time we'll stop the investigation." Lebedev said reluctantly after a brief pause. "However, I need to know. Is he alive?"
"Your little rat?" Belarus asked with a smirk. "I wouldn't say that he's dead. After all, he proved to be much more useful than you ever were. He did tell me what was going on after all. Why? Did you want him back?" She asked casually.
"If possible." Lebedev admitted.
"Of course, anything is possible. But as you know, I don't do anything without a price." Belarus said with a triumphant gleam in her eyes.
Lebedev didn't reply right away, but Belarus could almost hear the tiny cogs in his head spinning as he tried to find a way out of the situation he was in.
"If," Belarus added after the silence went on a little too long, "You could actually do two favors for me, I will return your man and I might be willing to overlook you ignoring my instructions this once. That is not a bad deal, now is it?" She asked sweetly, her fingers slowly drumming on her desk in front of her.
Another pause. Then, with a heavy sigh Lebedev caved. "Fine, what do you want?"
The smile Belarus wore could only be called devilish. "First, I will be sending you a package. You are not allowed to open it. Keep a hold of it till I arrive in the states in about a week."
"That's it?" Lebedev asked warily.
"Ah, ah, ah." Belarus said, wagging her finger at the phone with a smirk. "I haven't told you the second part of the favor yet."
"And that would be?"
"The second part of the favor will be coming with the package. I'll place an envelope in one of the flaps. Read it, and follow it to the letter. I know you have friends in high places, so this task will not be hard for you. Just remember," She added darkly, "that you can always get your man back, but whether he arrives home in a box or in one piece is up to you."
"...Understood."
"Good." Belarus said sweetly. "I'm glad we could get that sorted out. I will contact you when I leave on the plane. Do not fail me again." With a final smirk, she slammed the phone down. She sat there, a triumphant look on her face. Then, she started to laugh. It was a cold, cruel laugh and it echoed off the empty walls in the room.
"What a moron." She cackled, standing up and practically waltzing to her kitchen. She honestly didn't know what had happened to the fools pawn, but she wasn't one to let go of a golden opportunity when it fell into her lap. She couldn't care less about what happened to the man's pawn, but his disappearance had just opened up several doors for her. It had also allowed her to stop that damned mafia from screwing up anymore, much to her relief.
Continuing to laugh, she looked down into her teacup and saw her reflection wickedly smiling back at her. Finally, it looked like things were getting back on track.
_ALFRED'SPOV_
Christmas present. Christmas present. Christmas present. The phrase kept repeating in Alfred's head as he scanned his living room to find some sort of solution to his problem. With the Christmas party just a week away, Alfred was kinda at a loss on what he could get Ivan. While he had asked Ivan a few times about getting him something, the older nation had just shrugged his shoulders and said anything would do, much to his annoyance. At this point, he was sure that if he gave Ivan a damn pair of socks he would be okay with it. Not that Alfred would do that, but if he didn't get any real ideas soon that might just happen. Letting out a defeated sigh, Alfred paced his living room, scanning the books on his book shelf to try and see if he could think of something.
He kept thinking about what Ivan had told him a week ago. His preferred presents usually had to do with a connected meaning between him and the gift giver. The problem with that, of course, is that he and Ivan had a sub par relationship until recently, so there wasn't much in the personal department that would work. Like, if he gave Ivan from the cold war he might get slapped. To be fair, he would do the same. Ivan also wasn't the biggest fan of the world wars, (Those were bad times for him), and Alfred wasn't sure if he still had anything from when Ivan was part of imperial Russia.
Pausing for a moment, Alfred realized that Ivan had gone through a lot of shit, so anything history related might be a no-no. Well, shit. That really didn't leave much room for options then. Groaning, he gently, but dramatically smacked his head against his bookshelf. He didn't expect it to help him solve his problems, and he certainly didn't expect the sharp pain of something hard falling onto his head. Letting out a hiss of pain, Alfred grabbed the bump on his head as something clattered onto the floor next to him. He glared down at the floor to see what hit him, and to his confusion he saw one of his picture frames on the floor. Frowning, he bent over and picked it up, flipping it over to see which picture it held, only to see that it was blank. That was weird, he was sure that this picture frame wasn't on the edge of the shelf before.
Glancing at the shelf that it fell from, he wondered if he had moved it recently. But that wouldn't make any sense, seeing as he hadn't even touched the damn thing since he moved here. Maybe Ivan had been looking at it? Just as he finished that thought, he had a brief recollection of Ivan asking him about the frame a few weeks ago. Alfred had blown him off at the time, not really wanting to answer him. He couldn't help but feel a little bad about that now. It had been a perfectly reasonable question at the time. Well, it wasn't like it was a huge secret or anything. He'd kept this frame around because he really liked it, but he'd actually never gotten around to putting something into it.
It was a nice frame. It had a small silver border with a small gray pattern on it. He couldn't even remember where he had gotten it. Shrugging, he placed it back on the shelf. Maybe he'll find a use for it eventually. Now…what the hell was he going to do about Ivan's present?!
At that moment Ivan walked by with a load of laundry. Spotting the younger nation fretting around the shelf, he raised an eyebrow, but decided to keep walking. If Alfred was on one of his random thought trains, he didn't need to be dragged into it. Just before he did though, he pulled a small disposable camera out of his pocket and quickly tapping Alfred on the shoulder, he gave the camera to him.
"This was in one of your coat pockets." Ivan explained when Alfred gave him a confused look in response. With that, Ivan hurried off.
Frowning, Alfred looked at the camera before he remembered it was the one he had taken on the trip to the statue of liberty. He was just about to throw it on the shelf, before he paused. Wasn't there a funny picture of him and Ivan on this camera? Suddenly, his brain seemed to be working at full speed as he quickly looked down at the camera and back up at the picture frame a few times, before his face broke out into a grin and he started to giggle. Oh, now that might just work.
Ivan eyed Alfred's sudden change of behavior with suspicion from across the room. He had no idea what on earth the other nation was thinking about, but hearing Alfred giggle like he had just discovered a brand new military plane to play with, (he should know, he had heard that giggle a few times before in the past), made him nervous. Whenever he had seen Alfred like this, chaos was soon to follow.
"Alfred…are you okay?" Ivan asked slowly. He was a little alarmed when Alfred quickly turned around and grinned at him with a kind of manic gleam in eyes.
"Oh, I'm more than okay." Alfred said cheerfully. "I just figured out a problem that's been bugging me for a few weeks now."
"And that would be?" Ivan asked cautiously, but Alfred just giggled excitedly again and ran out of the room and to his bedroom. A second later Alfred ran back out of his room with his keys and his coat and with a laugh, he ran out the front door, slamming it behind him.
Ivan wasn't sure if he should be worried about Alfred not bringing his gloves with him, or the fact that he might have just lost his mind. He thought about it for a moment, then with a shrug he continued to fold his laundry. Welp, that wasn't his problem.
A/N: Ah, finally. The romance begins. Take your bets now everyone, it won't be too long till we reach the end of this story. I can see it, the finish line. Oooh, look at that, Belarus is almost ready to join the main plot. *Puts on 3D glasses and pulls out popcorn* Good, I love horror stories.
Also, I'm still a little sick, but I'm a lot better now! I can actually taste food again. T-T Small blessings people. Also, sorry if this chapter is a little short. It's just a set up chapter for the future, so it might not seem very exciting. Anyways, France is coming back soon to get his face pun- I mean… start his redemption arc. Yeah. :3 See you guys next time.
Oh yeah, and Canada's bet. We'll soon see what that was.