Good law NaNo killed me. BUT I WON *is excited*
This seems like filler; I'm sorry. Its not. I just... I love Ivan. Please, tell me that you do, too? He's a good kid. He really is. Stupid and impulsive, but a good kid.
I know where this is going. I know what comes next. Now, just for time to write it.
Yao sometimes felt very lucky that he had family who went to the same school that he did. It meant free labor. He liked that.
"No, no, the tape is further to the right, aru!" he scolded his brother, Yong Soo. The freshman was poised precariously on a ladder, trying to take down the decorations from the Masquerade ball. Alfred and Arthur, who were supposed to be helping Yao do this, had put off clean-up duty for almost three weeks now. The teachers were getting annoyed, as was Yao. So he felt the need to step in.
"Why do you have to use transparent tape – even if it was invented in Korea!" Yong Soo complained. The kid was taking marketing and business classes for his elective, but was obviously a slow study. His default answer was that everything originated in Korea. He was right surprisingly often.
"I do not care where it was invented," Yao snapped at his brother. "It's just a little further over to the right!" The tape was holding up the metallic silver garlands that had decorated the ballroom during the masquerade. Yong Soo stretched towards it, but it was just out of his reach.
The smart thing for the boy to do would be to move the ladder. The easy thing to do was to lean forward just a hair further –
"Oww!" Yong Soo wailed, ending up on the floor and nursing a bump on his skull that was already beginning to show and purple. The ladder clattered to the ground beside him. "Yao-yao, you did that on purpose!"
"Did not, aru. You are just an idiot."
"I bet that I lost a million brain cells!"
"That implies that you had brain cells to loose!"
Yong Soo pouted, then abruptly stopped pouting. That wasn't a good sign.
"Hey, Yao~" he said with a saccharine smile. "I think I deserve a reward for helping you clean this up."
Yao eyed him warily. "What do you mean, aru? I already promised you snacks."
"But I want your boobs!" the younger boy cried, suddenly launching himself at the student council president. Yao let out a yell, barely dodging and taking off at a run.
"Yong Soo, I will not tolerate this – no! We still have to clean up! Stop fooling around and – put down those scissors; what are you -?"
Kiku, the other part of the forced labor camp, strode into the room, carrying trashbags for the decoration refuse. He looked at the cavorting pair, sighed, and sat to fill the plastic bags.
Yao continued to rant; being chased around the room was not good at all, for someone his age!
"Yong Soo, so help me, if you do not stop in five seconds – oof!"
Too busy yelling back at the boy to tell where he was going, Yao found himself stopped in his tracks by a collision with a very strong, very tall body. He looked up from where his nose was buried in tan-colored outer wear. Yong Soo had halted a few paced behind.
"Ah, Jao, just the person I was looking for," Ivan said pleasantly. The freshman backed away, fleeing to where Kiku was trying to inconspicuously hide himself behind a few full trash bags. Yao, on the other hand, was blushing and staring at Ivan with a half-hearted glare.
"You were looking for me?" he asked, trying to sound officious or knowledgeable or something other than surprised and out of breath.
"Da. I … would like to talk to you, if that is alright? I know that you are busy, but…"
"No, no. Sit down, aru." Yao pointed at the foot of the grand staircase (which was, subsequently, the furthest point in the room from his siblings). Yao looked suspiciously up at the other boy. "This isn't about Mr. Łukasiewicz again, is it? I don't know what got into him the other day, but he's trying to start a fight, I'm sending him to the principal's office so fast –"
"Nyet, no, Jao! He's right to be angry."
Yao's eyebrows furrowed. "You are joking. Why would he be angry at you? You are a nice person, I can tell, aru."
"No. No, Yao, I am not. Besides…" Ivan looked anywhere but the boy next to him. He glared once at the other boys in the room, making sure they were not listening. "It wasn't Feliks that I hurt, in any case. It was Toris."
Yao didn't know what to say, after that, so he didn't say anything; just waited.
"You know that Feliks and Toris are going out, da?"
"Well, of course, aru, the whole school knows! It's only been a few months but they're already indecent…" he huffed. "They think I don't notice that they sleep in the same bed, aru, but I do."
Yao could not help but notice the very slight frown that Ivan gave when he said that. The boy hid his face in his scarf, mumbling something that Yao could barely understand.
"Before that… Toris was going out with me, did you know that?"
"…ah… no…" Yao admitted, feeling his chest constrict a little.
Ivan didn't even seem to mind the sparse response – it just seemed as if he some wall had been broken inside him and words kept coming out.
"We were going out but every moment of every day, even when he was kissing me, he was thinking of someone else. He was thinking of Feliks. And he didn't know – Jao, he didn't even understand it himself, but I did. I saw it and because I loved him I wanted to keep him with me. Do you understand? I wanted him to stay near me forever, not with someone else!"
Yao put a slim hand on the bigger boy's arm. "That makes sense. That's what everyone wants."
"But no one should do what I have done…" murmured Ivan into his scarf. "I hurt him."
"Hurt Toris?"
Ivan hung his head "Yes. I made him sneak out at night and I made him do things he did not want to do. I hurt him and I told him it was because I loved him. It was the only thing I could think of doing to make him stay."
Yao frowned. "Ivan, aru…"
Ivan looked up suddenly. "I'm sorry. Maybe I shouldn't have told you this. Now you are upset."
Yao shook his head, biting his lip. "Why did you tell me, then? This sounds like an apology, aru. Its not something I should be hearing. Its something you need to tell… to tell…" He couldn't say Toris' name, for some reason.
"I know it is, but I just needed someone to order me to do it."
"I feel used, aru."
"You don't sound angry."
Yao really wasn't. "Just go. I want you to make things right, aru."
Ivan nodded, standing up. "Thank you. Thank you, Jao. You are a good friend. I … if it were some other time, Jao, maybe I would love you." He walked out of the room, then.
Yao was left behind on the step, watching him go.