I do not own Hetalia okay? Now my updates on things will slow because of work and school but I wanted to give you guys another chapter before it got too busy and updates over the stories, I have slow. Anyway, enough of this A/N, on with the fic!
Alfred looked at the ceiling, wiping the sweat off his brow. "That was great." Alfred said looking at Ivan who nodded in satisfaction. "It has been just so long."
"Da" Ivan nodded as he rolled over and pulled Alfred closer to him with a 'uuummph.' "Ya lyublyu tebya" He whispered into Alfred's ear.
Alfred turned and kissed Ivan on the nose. "I love you too big guy. I like that we did this." He turned and looked out the window of their room. Snow was starting to fall. "Looks like there's going to be some fresh powder out there tomorrow."
"Looks like" Ivan said as he kissed Alfred.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Natalya sat beside Toris as he fulfilled his promise to take her to Moscow over the holiday season. She knew there would be more things getting ready for the new year than back home and there would be more Ded Moroz than Santa, even though she had to admit there was some similarity in their looks to Santa. Ded Moroz is not Santa…. She thought as she looked out the window as they approached the Russian border. It wasn't that far from where Toris's family lived and most of the drive would be through Belarus and Russia, but it was still a very long drive. She had told Toris she would handle most of it, as she did make the request, but he said he would. God, he's so insistent. I can handle myself. She thought as she stared at the grey and cold countryside. She hadn't been on many vacations after her Great Uncle died but she did remember many of the trips she took in high school as part of her ballet team heading to recitals and many of them were long and boring. However, it gave her time to think about what her family did mean and what she wanted to do. She looked at the ring that Toris gave her too. It had great meaning to him. It was understood that they were not engaged yet and she wasn't thinking of that until she graduated and got her BA at least, yet she was feeling conflicted. She did love Toris, but enough to get serious with? At this Toris pulled into a gas station and headed out. "Huuh?" Natalya asked as she was brought from her thoughts.
"I need to put some gas in the car." He spoke. "Are you okay?"
"Just thinking is all." Natalya said.
"Anything I should know?" Toris asked with genuine concern.
"Probably" Natalya said under her breath. "I'm going to get something to drink from inside. I will drive for this part of the trip."
"You sure?" Toris asked.
"I can drive most anything." Natalya replied. "You should have seen some of the cars my big sister taught me to drive on. Amazed big brother how well I could." Toris looked at her. "Oh, he was off at college around the time of my 16th birthday. Was the start of his third year and he had told me he had nearly gotten into a fight with his roommate."
"That must have made things rough." Toris said. "I'm lucky to get along with my roommate well. It's not like can pick them."
"I can say mine minds her place too. But I swear if you had told me then that that he would end up married to said roommate, I'd never have believed you." Natalya sighed. "How you got from hating someone to fucking them, I'll never know."
"Wait, you don't mean that your…." Toris began.
"Yes, big brother's husband was his roommate that year in college and they nearly beat each other up over who got to claim what bunk." Natalya said as Toris laughed. "What's so funny?"
"I would never have believed it if you hadn't told me." Toris said. "Then again some might not think you'd actually date me. As it was well known with my friends, I was terrified of you so much I couldn't speak to you."
"So how did you get the courage to even speak to me?" Natalya asked.
"A dare from one of my friends and a little liquid courage." Toris laughed. "Some vodka."
Natalya nodded as she focused on the road as they drove along. She had set the GPS on her phone to head into the hotel in Moscow that Toris had booked for their stay and tapped her fingers on the steering wheel as she dodged someone who was speeding past them in a car that looked as if it was from the Soviet era. "Slez' s dorogi, slepaya svin'ya! Vy upravlyayete mashinoy metallicheskoy smerti, vedete sebya kak vzroslyy, a ne p'yanyy rebenok!" She yelled as the car came to a stop in front of her.
"Uhhhhhh Nattie baby…. I don't think you should have said that." Toris gulped.
"Watch me." She said as she turned off the car and headed to the man who had stopped in front of her.
"You have a problem you Yankee bitch?" The gruff man said as he carried a tire iron in his arm. Toris reached around in the back of the car, seeing if he had something, he could use to help her, but Natalya stood at him with cold, unphased eyes.
"Izvinite menya?" Natalya said shocked. "Did you just call me 'Yankee bitch?'" She had paused, sure she had been shipped out of Russia when she was young, but did she really lose as much of her accent so that he couldn't tell. People still had a hard time understanding Ivan and Katyusha but her? Maybe my mother tongue isn't as thick as theirs because I came over when I was younger. Shaking the fear from her mind, she turned back to the man. "You must be drunk. You should not be driving. You could hurt someone."
"Like you princess?" The man scoffed as he came at her. Natalya pulled a knife from under her jacket and stabbed the man in the arm he was holding the tire iron with.
"Who is the princess now?" She spat as she headed back into the car. "You may want to get that looked at." With this, she turned the car back on and sped away from the man who was sulking with a wound to his shoulder and his pride. Toris looked at her in silence as they drove along towards Moscow. "What?" She asked breaking the silence.
"Well, where did you have the knife? I thought you couldn't take it through security?" Toris said panicking at the idea that Natalya had brought a weapon and possibly commit a crime across borders.
"Packed in the hold baggage. I couldn't take it with me on the carry on." Natalya said. "I also have my phone set as a dash camera. That way if he calls the police on us, I can prove he struck first and it was in self-defense. Worst case scenario, I can just call up the American Embassy and restart the Cold War over a drunkard attacking a little woman like me. I am aware of how I look. Most people would think I am weak, but I swore to never be so and that I could stand on my own. I am staying on campus and I do not need someone attacking me. Although I am not so sure about Russia's laws on the matter, it has been a while since I heard any of it. But I guess the citizenship I was forced should be good for something." Natalya mused.
"I was so worried for you." Toris said.
"You needn't be. I wouldn't be much of a woman if I could not stand up for myself and needed someone to protect me." Natalya noted as they drove into Moscow.
"Do you think we should tell your brother and sister about this?" Toris asked.
"No." Natalya said. "It would only worry them. I do not want to do that." And I would never hear the end of it from Katyusha about how Great Uncle wanted us in America for reasons like that when I learned how to defend myself so I wouldn't be attacked on an American college campus at night. I know he would have meant well but it is not his time anymore.
"Hey, look Vanya, they got a balcony!" Alfred said as they headed to the lodge restaurant for dinner that night.
"Two for the patio?" The hostess asked. She saw Ivan's face. "Don't worry sir, it is heated well so our guests can enjoy the night air and all the pleasure of the snowfall with their meals without getting intolerably cold."
"I like the sound of that." Alfred said, jumping up and down like an excited child.
"I guess that is where we should go." Ivan laughed. You are so excitable Fredka. He thought with a smile as the hostess sat them down. The patio was cooler than the rest of the restaurant but not by much more. Jackets were still needed to make sure you didn't freeze but the heaters kept it warm. The waitress came over and took their drink orders and Alfred looked out at the scenery.
"It's funny." Alfred smiled.
"What's funny?" Ivan asked.
"I should have brought my telescope. It's a full moon and clear as a bell. Couldn't ask for better winter stargazing." He smiled as he looked up at the sky. "Look, the big dipper. He then pointed to another star. "And the North star. It's on the Alaskan flag."
Ivan smiled and looked over at the same place. It was another interest they both had, stargazing and space. While neither of them was likely to be astronauts as many children dream, they had done a lot of work with aerospace projects and sometimes the company that either of them worked for would not disclose the client who asked for the project but that was understood at that point it was 'government work.' God, what Great Uncle would think on that one…. Ivan mused as they were given their drinks and placed their orders. At this Alfred spoke up, "I want to go out west with you one of these days and just stargaze out there."
"You have been out there already?" Ivan asked.
"When I was younger, we went on vacation to California. I mean we flew out, so no road trip fun." Alfred said. "Did you know my dad gets airsick and he and Papa cannot fly United Airlines?"
"Nyet." Ivan said. "Well, my dad and papa were banned from United Airlines for joining the-mile-high club. Loudly."
"While you two were on the flight?" Ivan asked surprised.
"Amazingly yes." Alfred laughed. "Mattie and I were like 12 and we were going to San Diego to Sea World and Knotts Berry Farm and all that jazz. Got to go whale watching too, but that's not the point. We had to book tickets on a different airline. And go out of Las Vegas's airport to do so. So, we spent a few extra days in Nevada. Wouldn't go to Rachel or Roswell…."
"Did your fathers get kicked out of anything in Las Vegas?" Ivan asked with a laugh.
"Dad for getting drunk at one of the casinos and saying Monaco's was better loudly. While my papa loved the sentiment, an ideal family vacation does not involve getting kicked out of places. Mattie and I spent a lot of the extra days at the pool of the hotel we stayed out before our flight." Alfred mused. "He's still got the freckles on his shoulders from the sunburn. I mean while there is plenty of family friendly things there we did get to see, it's not fun when your dad is sitting in the room going 'why won't the light shut up'?" Alfred sipped his coke. "It's funny, Mattie and I are near identical twins, but he bursts into fire in the sun and I get a sweet tan."
"I burst into fire in the sun." Ivan sighed.
"But I want to take you to the desert for the stargazing. You see one day we drove to the Grand Canyon, which isn't that far but a little bit of a drive, like 3 hours or so. That night we drove back, and I got to see just how it was out there. Beautiful despite the lectures my dad was giving me about being more careful and complaints he had about parking costs." He sipped his soda again. "If I oversaw that vacation, I wouldn't complain about that. You kind of expect things like that. And I wouldn't fly."
"I thought you liked planes." Ivan said.
"I do. I don't mind flying but for something like that, I want to road trip. See this huge wide nation. I always figured I'd take you in an RV and stop at every stupid landmark, every world's largest piece of junk and so on." Alfred had a dreamy look in his eyes. Ivan knew it was how he was when he was talking about a goal of his. "And we wouldn't have to stay in a hotel or if we wanted to keep on driving through the night one of us could sleep while the other drives. Just awesome."
"What if it wasn't just the two of us?" Ivan said, liking the image of a family vacation like that.
"What? Bring Mattie and Katy? They'd have a baby and that wouldn't be very good. I mean there'd be more people to drive if we had to be back in the area by a certain time." Alfred said.
"Nyet." Ivan said shaking his hands. "Not them."
"No! I am not taking my parents as both Papa and Dad would fight and whine and I'd leave them at a rest stop in West Virginia!" Alfred said.
"Not them either. And why a rest stop in West Virginia?" Ivan asked at the rather specific point he would ditch his fathers.
"Because I wanted to see some of the places from that Fallout 76 game. Apparently, West Virginia's tourism department is using the game to promote it and looked cool." Alfred said. "And we are NOT taking Natalya with us. I mean I like her boyfriend Toris, but I think one of us would get into a bloody fight before we left the state." Alfred said.
Ivan rolled his eyes. Sometimes his husband was just clueless when he was trying to drop a hint. He was used to it and it seemed to make the surprises better for Alfred anyway. "I was meaning with a child of our own."
"That means we'd have to adopt. Unless you're hiding something from me, and I know your body pretty well…." Alfred winked.
"Obviously." Ivan rolled his eyes. "But I have been thinking and I would like to have that dream. But instead of having a baby of our own, I want it to be an older child. Like 5 or so. I read that most children who are up for adoption who are older than toddlers do not get adopted because of that. I think that is unfair and ridiculous. They will still spend most of their lives with us." Ivan reasoned.
"And we'd miss out on potty training and diapers…." Alfred said.
"Is that so important to you?" Ivan asked.
"I honestly do not want to deal with that. I mean I would if I had to, but god." Alfred said. "I like the way you think though Vanya. I am just so glad you want to as well. You just have to promise you won't let us turn out like my parents." Alfred shuddered. "That was some of the most embarrassing things ever when Dad and Papa got out of hand."
"Trust me Fredka. I would never let that happen. And they can be very humiliating to be around." Ivan smiled as their food was placed in front of them.
"Good. I'm starved." Alfred said as he greedily dug into his meal.
The same night, Matthew was reading a book on what to expect when becoming a father while Katyusha was working on knitting a blanket for the baby. She had picked up a bunch of pink and white yarn so that by the time the baby was born the first thing they would have was a blanket she had made personally for them. She had loved to knit and knew that Ivan's favorite thing was things she had made for them and knew the baby would love it too. "OOOh!" She said.
"What?" Matthew asked.
"The baby is kicking." She smiled. "Feel."
"It is." Matthew said, feeling the kicks and never feeling prouder in his life.
Translation guide:
(Obtained Via google Translate
Ya lyublyu tebya-Russian-I love you
Slez' s dorogi, slepaya svin'ya! Vy upravlyayete mashinoy metallicheskoy smerti, vedete sebya kak vzroslyy, a ne p'yanyy rebenok.- Russian- Get off the fucking road you blind pig! You are driving a metal death machine, act like an adult not a drunken child.
Izvinite menya?-Russian- Excuse me?
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Otherrealmwriter
Aka
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