I was reading Jodi Picoult books that are so angsty and I had to come write more happy, fluffy things and this turned into a half-and-half.
Matthew only got as far as the front door before collapsing on the floor. He knew he couldn't go any further, even though Ivan had told him to get out. He pulled his knees to his chest as his body was racked by silent sobs. He had never been scared of the tall, domineering nation until that point. His threatening figure and hurtful words were forever etched into Matthew's mind. He now understood why other nations were so frightened of the big man.
"Brother?" Canada heard a female voice in front of him. He froze, looking up, but he couldn't see anything past his tears. He reached a sleeve up, swiping away the wetness. He looked up to see a dark blue dress right in front of his face. Slowly, he followed it up to the girl's face that towered above his.
Belarus. "You're not my brother. Where is he?" she asked, a silver glint showing between the folds of her dress. Canada didn't answer, simply gazed at the knife, beginning to shake again, this time in fright rather than sobs.
"What have you done with my brother?" she asked more loudly this time. The knife began to move as she brought her hand up slightly in a threatening manner.
Matthew backed away, still on the ground. He kept moving until he hit the wall. Belarus followed him, trapping him where he was. "Have you hurt him? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" she screamed.
"I haven't done anything! Belarus! STOP! I haven't touched her brother!" he tried to push her away and run as she became more and more angry, but she caught his shirt as it flared out and pulled him back.
"You've taken him from me! I know you have!" Another yell pierced the air as Canada covered his head, cowering, unable to watch as Belarus threw back her arm to bring the knife down upon him.
But the blow never came, only a bellowing yell. "BELARUS! DO NOT TOUCH MATVIE!" Matthew turned to see Ivan holding Belarus' arm trapped against the wall. He wouldn't look at her, but kept his eyes solely on the knife that he was attempting to wrestle out of her grip.
She wriggled until she faced him. "Look at me, brother. Marry me!" she pleaded with the unmovable man as she tried to see into his eyes. Ivan shifted his gaze, refusing to look at her, but fighting with her none the less. Canada watched their struggle from the floor before he realized his awful position as the knife was dangling precariously overhead.
Ivan locked eyes with him over Belarus' shoulder. "Go, Matvie. Run." His command was not like his earlier 'get out;' it seemed to be a pleading, protective gesture. And it made Matthew want to go against it, but he listened, knowing that if he didn't, he might be at the wrong end of Russia's anger again. He quickly jolted up, running from the scene.
Ivan wrestled with Belarus as soon as he saw Matthew out of danger. He realized his mistake of avoiding her eyes as he couldn't predict her movements, then. She got a few slices across his arms before he finally struggled away the knife. For being his younger sister, she did have quite a bit of strength in her. Still, Ivan won, tossing the knife away down the hallway. "Go," he said quietly, looking down toward the floor. "I do not want to see you here again. You are not to harm my guests." And with that, he walked away, picking up the knife and slowly walking to his own sitting room.
At the moment in time that Ivan entered his sitting room, Canada, who had become dreadful lost, had rounded the corner leading to that such room and saw the tall man walk through the door. He took a deep breath, knowing that this was going to take a lot of courage, and marched down to the doorway, raising his hand to knock on the dark, solid wood.
"Go away…" a voice growled from within.
"Ivan, it's me, Matthew…" he whispered. "Can I please come in?"
Matthew waited for quite some time, and actually considered giving up the entire ordeal, before the door swung open a few inches, Ivan's face appearing in the crack. "What do you want?" Ivan asked, looking at the poor, nervous boy in front of him.
"I… I w-wanted to th-thank you… you know, for saving me back there," Canada whispered, looking away from those piercing violet eyes.
Ivan was silent for a moment before words spilled from his mouth that hadn't been uttered by him for quite some time. "You are quite welcome, Matvie."
Matthew's eyes suddenly darted back to Ivan's face in surprise at the sentence. "Ivan…" he began before he noticed a red streak on Ivan's cheek. "You're bleeding!"
Ivan brought his hand up to his face and saw the crimson liquid on the pads of his fingers. "Da, I am."
"Let me come in and clean you up at least…" the Canadian said, quickly walking closer to the other man, who swung open the door as to avoid being run into. Matthew quickly grabbed Ivan's hand and led him over to the lit fire where he could assess the damage. He shook his head at the multiple cuts on the body in front of him. "Where is your bathroom? I'm going to need to clean this all up."
After directions, Matthew quickly went to work gathering supplies and working to clean up Ivan's wounds. Matthew rolled his eyes at how often the older man winced. "Would you stop being such a baby? It's soap and water."
"You know," Ivan growled. "I wouldn't have had to actually deal with Belarus' knife-wielding if you hadn't tried to run out the front door."
Matthew stopped cleaning and looked up at Ivan. "And I wouldn't have run away to meet her except you got angry."
"Well I wouldn't have gotten angry if you hadn't been in my garden!"
"Well, you just need to learn to control your temper over silly little things like people wanting to see your beautiful flowers!" Canada snapped as he sealed the bandage over the last cut. "There. Now that wasn't so bad."
Ivan looked away, realizing that he was getting angry over silly little things. "I-I'm… sorry," Ivan muttered.
"Hm?" Canada looked up from where he was distractedly cleaning up his supplies.
"I shouldn't have gotten angry and… Iamsorry," Ivan strung together the last few words into one, but still, Canada heard him and smiled softly.
"You are forgiven." He walked for the door as he replied, only to be stopped by a question.
"W-Would you join me for breakfast?" Matthew turned to look at the man who had just saved his life, who was a wimp when it came to bandages, who had just apologized and asked him to breakfast and answered with a simple word.
"Yes."
