A/N: Sorry for the late update aru! . YAY FOR SOAP OPERA STEREOTYPES!

Ivan turned with a start, his hands still gripping the gun loosely enough for it not to go off. Behind him, his father had turned pale; those once daunting eyes now wide with shock and terror. He begin to stumble closer, and he grabbed Ivan's wrist firmly.

"Ivan…" Mr. Braginski gasped, blood trickling out of his mouth. He then collapsed forward, Ivan narrowly avoiding him. There were two spots on his back where blood was seeping through the clothes. One was a small bullet hole, the other had Natalia's blade sticking out. Behind him, Natalia had her arm stretched out after throwing her knife, her face pale but not solemn. She was also confused as to where the bullet hole had come from, and she and Ivan turned to see who had done it. Standing at the doorway was the solitary figure of Alfred, gun in hand and wearing an uncharacteristically serious look on his face.

"I'm not late, am I?" Alfred said, lowering his gun. He walked over to Ivan and glared. "What the hell did you do to Yao, Ivan?"

"Alfred… why are you here?" Ivan asked, dropping his gun. It hit the concrete floor with a clatter and skidded over to where Yao sat, bloody and tied to the wall. Alfred finally saw him and gasped.

"You bastard! You were going to kill her!" Alfred ran up to Yao and untied him, too worried to even notice he was a boy.

"Let me take him to the hospital, da?" Ivan pushed Alfred out of the way and lifted Yao into his arm, gently cradling him so his injuries were cushioned against Ivan's baggy clothes.

"Hey! Talk to me, dick wad!" Alfred cursed. He was ready to strike Ivan when he felt an ice cold hand rest upon his arm.

"Big brother knows what he's doing." Natalia stated. "Just help him." Alfred knew that if Natalia wasn't attacking or threatening him, then this must be serious.

"Okay." He nodded and followed Ivan out of the basement as Natalia strayed behind. She knelt down beside Mr. Braginski's body and shut his eyes.

"I hope brother forgives me for murdering you, dear father." Natalia muttered. "But for you, it's far too late. I hope you enjoy yourself in hell." She heard a moan behind her and jumped, only to find it was Toris, still unconscious behind her. "I had forgotten about you." She stared at the anguish in his face and sighed. "I owe you an apology." She lifted the thin boy in her arms and smiled. She was stronger than people gave her credit for, and that was a trait she had always loved; because she knew that maybe someday it would help her gain her brother's attention. "It's never going to happen." She shook her head. "Not with Yao there." Without another word, she carried Toris to the guest room to rest.

The next couple of hours went by in a blur for Ivan. He remembered Yao getting pulled away on a stretcher to the emergency by a bunch of frantic-looking doctors, but he couldn't remember driving to the hospital. After going to multiple doctors and nurses, begging to see Yao, he eventually found himself forcibly cooped up in a waiting room alone with Alfred. They sat for a couple minutes in an awkward silence when Ivan finally couldn't take the strained silence anymore.

"Alfred… why did you come to my house?" Ivan asked.

"Yao told me to." Alfred put down the magazine he was carelessly flipping through and sighed. "Yao called me last night and told me where she… no wait, it's he, isn't it? Anyways, he told me where he was going and then said that if he didn't call back by eight o' clock, something had happened to him. It really freaked me out, and he never called… so I brought Arthur, Kiku, Francis and Matthew along. Since your house is friggin' huge, we all split up. I just happened to find you first."

"Oh… so where's everyone else?" Ivan questioned.

"Well, Matthew called and said that he and Francis are at your house. They called the police, and they'll probably be there soon. Arthur's at school with Kiku explaining what's up with all of our absences."

"Calling the police… I wonder how that will go over, da?" Ivan mumbled.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"My father is very… close to the police force. That's why he never got caught."

"Dude… what were you about to do when I showed up? Were you really gonna kill Yao?"

"You were going to find out sooner or later, da?" Ivan sighed. "My father was the head of a pretty big Russian mob and-"

"Is that like one of those bad-ass gangsters in movies?" Alfred interrupted.

"…I guess that's what you'd call it." I van replied, irritated. "Anyways, he wanted to make me become a proper heir to the family and… to do that I had to kill Yao. It's… complicated."

"Fine, you don't have to tell me everything. But you can at least tell me this: were you really gonna kill Yao?"

"Well… I was thinking about it. Yao looked like he was in so much pain, and I wanted to help him. I also knew that if I didn't kill him, father probably would take care of it anyways. But then father told me to "kill the only person in my way" the I could have a "happy" life. That's when I realized that the only reason I didn't have a happy life was because of me. I wasn't good enough for father's expectations, and that's why he beat me. It was because of how I acted that I had no friends and that everyone was afraid of me. Everything was… my fault, really."

"Dude… what are you saying?"

"I was… thinking of taking my own life. I've honestly been thinking about it for awhile now. But… I realized that if I gave up my own life, I would never get it back… and what would all of the pain and strife I've gone through come to? Yao helped me realize that some people can care about others without being obligated to. And I know that Katyusha and Natalia love me to death… I guess what I'm saying is that it's good to have a friend."

"Ivan, dude, I'm sorry…" He awkwardly placed his hand on the Russian's shoulder. "I didn't know… if I had, I wouldn't have been so-"

"It's fine. I'm used to being ostracized. It's okay." Alfred let go and stared at the ceiling quietly, attempting to think of something else to talk about.

"So… do you like Yao?" He finally asked.

"Of course, da. He's my friend!"

"No, do you like, like him?"

"Oh…" A slight tint of pink appeared on his usually pale cheeks. "Yes I do, even if he is a boy."

"Hmmm, okay. Just wonderin'."

"Are you two here for Mr. Wang?" A petite nurse walked in holding a clip board, her frizzy hair sliding out of her ponytail. The two nodded, so she continued with a heavy sigh. "You're lucky you brought him in when you did. He's lucky to be alive with all of that blood loss. We need time for the wound to heal, so he can't be active for awhile. He is now in a drug-induced coma, and probably won't be up for the next couple of days at the very least. However, his condition is very stable."

Ivan breathed out a sigh of relief; he had thought it would be so much worse than that. He had even feared that maybe Yao would die. Beside him, Alfred stood up and smiled.

"Sweet. Can we see him?" Alfred asked.

"Yes, but there's… it would be more convenient if you went one at a time… I don't want anything happening to him." She threw Ivan a suspicious look, which he ignored.

"That works." Alfred headed towards the door, a cocky grin on his face. "You go ahead, Ivan."

"Okay… but where are you going, Alfred?" Ivan asked, standing up.

"To have a talk with Natalia. I can't just leave a lady with all of the crime; that's not what a gentleman would do."

"Since when did you care about being a gentleman?" Ivan chuckled.

"Ever since I started dating Arthur…" Alfred blushed. "I meant to say hero!" He stormed out of the room. Without questioning Ivan about what they had been talking about, the nurse showed him to Yao's room.

Ivan entered the room quietly, without uttering a word to the nurse. She opened the door for him, then left with a nod. The room was almost identical to the infirmary at the school, only more complex. The walls were a pale blue with fake-looking rip-offs of fancy paintings spread about them. On the ceiling were annoyingly bright florescent lights that radiated onto Yao's face. Ivan switched off the lights and sighed.

"If they're going to make you sleep, they might as well make it a little more comfortable." Ivan muttered. Yao didn't respond; but he didn't expect him to. Yao lay asleep in the bed, his ebony hair tied back oddly to make room for the casts and bandages on his head. Both of his arms were on top of the sheets with IV's in them. There were various other tubes and wires that connected to his chest, connecting him to the steady beat of the heart monitor. Ivan silently stroked Yao's pale face, making sure to avoid the bruises his father had left on it. Ivan couldn't help but touch him; he was so cute.

"I'm so sorry, Yao-Yao." Ivan muttered. "I didn't want you to get hurt. Why… you didn't have to help me. And I don't expect you to forgive me after this. It was my carelessness that led to this, da." Yao winced beneath his touch. "Oh! Sorry. Did I touch your bruise?" Ivan pulled his hand away, and for the first time got a good look at it. A majority of the time he wore gloves, mostly to cover up some of the scars and missing nails he had gotten as punishment from time to time. "Huh… did they always look like that?" Ivan asked himself. His fingers were as white as paper, and thin as a skeleton's. The nails that had been pulled off on his index and middle finger were beginning to grow back, but they looked lumpy and disgusting. There was a solitary line on his palm from a cut he had gotten about a year ago which still hadn't gone away.

"At least I don't have to worry about getting any more scars." Ivan said. That's when a sudden thought hit him, and he beamed. "I don't have to worry about getting beaten! Or about being starved… I'm…" For the first time in what felt like an eternity, he felt light; as if a giant weight had been pulled off him. He stood up and giggled like a child, and, for the first time ever, didn't care who heard. He opened the window and stared outside. It was a snowy day, as usual; but for once, Ivan saw light in the snow instead of it's usual dreariness.

"I'm… free…"

A/N: Cheesy chapter is cheesy. Anyways, the reason this took so long to upload is this: 1, it's summer, and I've been partying; and 2, I changed so much of this chapter, it isn't funny. I noticed that a majority of the reviews said "OMG, He turned and shot his dad, right?" That was what was originally going to happen... but that's too obvious! I had to switch it up for you people! Yeah... anyways, thanks for the reviews and faves! Also, for the record, I made a vague allusion to higurashi no naku koro ni, because that is one of my favorite animes of all time! And I love LietxPoland, but BelarusXLiet is also incredibly cute. This story is actually getting close to its end... I hope you guys have enjoyed it so far though. ^_^