A/N: Now for the chapter you've all been waiting for . . . Chives? . . . CHIVES!

What? Oh! Sorry! *plays dramatic music*

Fantastic! Now go away and get me a soda!

-.- Yes ma'am . . .

~;~

"What's the matter Birdie? You haven't said a word for the past three days." I was sitting with Gilbert and Alfred outside in our usual spot under the tree, studying for a test in Agriculture while we were at lunch. "I haven't gotten a good night's rest for a while Gil," I lied as looking down at my study-sheet. Things have been a bit rough for me since that incident three days ago. Ivan hadn't spoken to me or even looked at me since then and it made me feel kind of bad. I already miss the Ivan I had to hold and comfort to 'make the monsters go away'. I was a bit curious about what he meant by that, but I didn't want to talk to him or even ask him about it, feeling as though I'm sticking my nose somewhere it shouldn't be.

It was a bit cool for the constant heat of summer and the fragrance of fall carried through the breeze as it swept by. Gilbert gave me a disbelieving look but dropped it and continued to study. Al looked like he wanted to say something but, shockingly, kept his mouth shut. It seems that he finally installed a "Shut up" filter in his head (about time). Silence hung over us like a looming storm cloud until it was shattered by a loud, bong-bong! I instantly knew who it was and was crushed in a bone shattering, not to mention terrifying, hug. "Hello Matvey! I'm so sorry that I was late, Professor Langwae had to speak to me after class," Katyusha cried as flinging down next to me on her stomach, bouncing back a bit on her chest.

"What did Professor Midget want?" Alfred asked, peering over the top of his glasses to look at her. "She just wanted to congratulate for scoring perfectly on our past quiz." Her voice seemed to have a bit of gloating in it, which she should since even I didn't score perfect on it. Half an hour passed and the bell rang, shrilling at us to get up and go to our next class. "Mattie! I forgot to tell you that tomorrow Iggo is coming to visit!" America said as I packed my stuff. "That's good I suppose," I murmured before heading off to Food. It's not that I'm not happy that Iggy is coming to visit it's just that it seems to be a bit of a bad time.

I have no idea why I feel so awful. I can barely sleep at night anymore, food is not of interest, and I didn't seek for someone to talk to. Perhaps the cause of my mood was Ivan? No, he couldn't be because he deserved to be yelled at. Whenever I think that, Ivan's helpless and terrified face flashes through my mind and I cringe at the thought that I yelled at him. Uhg, I'm being way too dramatic about this.

During Food and Agriculture, I had a bit of a hard time with paying attention for I kept on spacing out during class discussions. Ivan was the only thing on my mind. Did I have a crush on him? Oh God no . . . no, no, no, no, no, no! I do not have a crush on Ivan and even if I did it would not work out. Prussia and America hated his guts and they would try to kill him if they found out and get themselves killed in the process.

But I suppose I am slightly attracted to him. Wait, no! BAD CANADA! I slapped myself across the face and Professor Corn stopped abruptly in his lecture and gave me the weirdest look he could muster along with some other students. "U-Uh, I'm sorry Professor Corn, you can continue it was nothing," I flushed in embarrassment and threw my head down on my desk with a loud clunk! There were a few giggles before Professor Corn proceeded with his speech. Wonderful, the hillbilly teacher thinks I'm a freak now. The bell rang and I bellyached my way to the locker rooms for Tactics, by far my least favorite subject.

Today we are going to have to grapple our gym partners in front of everyone. This is going to be even more embarrassing than slapping myself across the face in Agriculture. I changed into a red T-shirt and black shorts and stood by Cuba. We stood there in an awkward silence for a while before the dark-skinned boy cleared his throat. "I heard what happened in Agriculture today, everyone thinks you're a freak now," He muttered a bit awkwardly, scuffing his heels into the grass. "It's not the first time I've been called that," I whispered more to myself than to the other who didn't seem to hear.

It was true though. I've been called a lot worse in high school, so I can take this. Russia stalked out of the locker room wearing a tight, sleeveless, navy blue shirt that stretched across his chest and clung to his muscly figure. My heart fluttered in my chest and felt like I couldn't breathe for a moment, a sudden feeling filling up my lungs. Blood crept to my cheeks and my body felt like it was on fire. Red-violet eyes suddenly locked with my indigo ones and I quickly looked away, shaking my head furiously from my stupor. Cuba gave me a teasing smirk and he prodded my arm playfully. "Ooo~ Mateo has a crush on Russia." He cooed. "I-I do not!" I retorted, flushing furiously. "Your face says other-wise Mateo amigo," Cuba pressed with a ridiculous look on his face.

Before I could say anything back, Professor Caliber, or what I like to call him, the Executioner barked at us that we were to do our daily stretches with our partners. Cuba flashed a smile at me and bade me good luck before going off to find his partner. Ivan suddenly appeared in front of me, making me jump in surprise. A small smile played at his lips and I had a thought of kissing them, but I mentally kicked myself. No, you no like Ivan. You no like Ivan! I chanted this in my head as we completed our stretches and the marathon run around the school. The Executioner led us all back inside and into the basketball court where there was a large white mat on the floor in the center.

It looked over stuffed, but suitable to fall on. Professor Caliber called off two names that I didn't quite catch and I looked around stupidly. I saw a fair blonde head make its way to the mat and I groaned a bit. At least the Executioner was merciful enough to let me go first. I shakily approached the mat, feeling as though my legs were about to give out. I gulped as I slipped off my shoes and stepped out into the mat to face Ivan. I tried my best to keep my gaze on his face or on the floor but his body kept on distracting me. His arms looked very strong and I longed to grip his broad shoulders while he –

OH GOD STOP IT MATTHEW!

I kicked myself and winced at the strange look that the Russian gave me. It was adorable how his eyebrows raised high up on his forehead and that strange look in his big violet eyes. I bit my tongue furiously and drilled my glowered at the mat we were standing on. I didn't hear Professor Caliber blow the whistle and I was suddenly tackled to the floor. I yelped and quickly rolled out of Ivan's arms and jumped onto his back, hoping that there was enough weight on me to wear him down. Unfortunately, I was wrong and Ivan easily flipped over onto his back, crushing me under his brutish weight. The wind was knocked from my lungs and I wormed myself out from under him and grabbed for a headlock but the blonde was too quick.

Swiftly, he grabbed me by the middle and threw me over his shoulder and onto the floor. I gasped again as I couldn't breathe and lay stunned on the ground. I snapped out of my stunned state when I felt a tug on my arm. I yanked my arm away and looped my arm around his neck and squeezed as hard as I could. Russia growled something under his breath and began to thrash around wildly until he felt my grip slip and he made a bold move of rolling forward, making my weight a disadvantage in the situation.

I snarled as I was again crushed underneath him and made to wriggle out again, but Russia pressed back harder, his weight stressing against my ribs and I could feel my guts squishing together. I bet you all enjoyed that mental image. Hissing in frustration, I weakly tapped the mat and Professor Caliber blew the whistle.

Ivan let me go and offered a hand to help me up. The chatter in the group immediately silenced and wide eyes watched in disbelief that Ivan offered help. I myself was shocked. He just kicked my ass at a grappling thing (which is no surprise) and now he is actually offering to help me? I did not see that coming. I predicted that he would have gloated or possibly killed me, but this? Holy crap, the world's going to end! Run for your lives! Smack! Shut up, you're acting like a school girl trying to talk to some guy she likes. Now grow some balls and take Ivan's damn hand and get up off your ass or you'll just look even more stupid.

Slowly, I clasped my hand in Russia's and he gently pulled me up to my feet. "U-Uh . . . Thanks," I stuttered like an idiot. God, do yourself a favor and shut your mouth Canada and a freaking grip. Russia smiled at me slightly and I felt my heart skip a beat. No! Stop it dammit! Heart! Do your freaking job right! I forced myself not to blush and scurried off to Cuba who stood there with his damn grin on his face. I fixed my look down at my shoes and pretended to be intently interested in them for the rest of class. My back ached and so did the rest of my body, but I tried my best not to show how much pain I was in.

As soon as the Executioner dismissed us, I dashed to the locker room and quickly changed before slipping out to leave but I was stopped by a large hand gripping my shoulder. I felt my body heat up again and my heart spaz out and I mentally cursed myself. I slowly turned to face Russia and he looked down at me with tender eyes. "Um . . . I'm sorry Matvey." I tilted my head up to look at him and gave him a wavering smile. "No, I'm sorry Ivan . . . for everything."

My heart stopped at that smile he gave me. I was frozen to my spot at how . . . nice it was on his face. The smile was short lived and he frowned a bit and it made me frown. "I was wondering Matvey . . . would you like to . . . I don't want this to sound awkward or uncomfortable or stupid but . . . ?"

". . ."

"Matvey, are you okay?"

My mind completely went blank.

Oh.

My.

Maple-hockey.

Come one man, pull yourself together and say yes! I don't know what to do! Ahg!

((We're sorry, but Rawr9 is experiencing some technical difficulties, you will only hear audio for a few moments while Matthew tries to sort this out because Rawr9 is too lazy to write out the whole internal war with himself and blah, blah, blah,))

"Oh Ivan~!"

"Matvey~!"

"Nng! Uhg,"

Smooch, smack, smack, kiss!

((APRIL FOOLS! Okay back to the story –no that was not part of the story-))

I shook my head furiously and looked up at Ivan who looked back at me hopefully. "I'd love to," I grinned up at him. "Wonderful! We'll leave at nine!" Ivan seemed to have relaxed greatly and was relieved that I accepted his request. I waved at him and scurried away up to our dorm. Words could not describe how excited and happy I was to go see a movie with the giant. I danced around the room and Kuma rose his head sleepily and watched me flail wildly around as I picked out some clean clothes. I selected my black Pac-man shirt with some dark blue jeans that I usually wore on occasions that demanded to wear something casual. I text messaged Al and Gil that I was going to be out tonight with a friend of mine. I didn't tell them with whom for I was afraid that they would prevent me from going out with Ivan. I then proceeded to fix my loop-de-loop curl. I combed my hair and placed an unnecessary amount of hairspray into my hair ((I hate it when people do that .)). There was enough hairspray in the room that if someone were to light a match in here, we would all die in the explosion ((I am very tempted to do this one day!)).

I finished fixing myself up and looked down at the time on my phone. 7:43. Dammit, I have to go work now. I whined as I pulled out the mountain of homework and began to work on it to pass the time. At one point I had to open the window so I could get the stench of hairspray out of the room and I then continued my work. Ivan came in around eight thirty-ish and said that we were leaving now. I smiled and quickly put my stuff away and joined Ivan in the doorway. "You look great," He said in a robotic tone as if he was nervous. "Thanks," I answered shyly as looking away while we walked down the hall.

We didn't talk much on our way to the parking garage, for both of us were both a bit nervous and shy around each other. We arrived at the third level of the garage and politely, he opened the door to his black convertible for me. I sat down in the leather seats quietly as Ivan eased down in the driver's side and made the roof pull back mechanically into the back of the vehicle. I bit my lip as I knew that my hard work of doing my hair would almost literally go out the window. The car purred to life and there was soft music coming out of the speakers. I gasped as I recognized the song and immediately cranked it up and Russia gave me a surprised look as he pulled out.

I didn't care much at the moment because I was singing along to the radio.

"I want you to love me~ like I'm a hot ride~!"

How I love the song Only Girl by Rihanna. Little did I know was that Ivan was intently listening to me sing while he drove down the crowded streets of the city. I enjoyed the feeling of the wind pressing against my face and running through my hair like feather-light fingers. I purred a bit as the song ended and eased back into my seat when the next song came on. I didn't care much for it so I turned it back down to its previous volume. "I like your voice Matvey, you're really good at singing," Ivan smiled at me warmly and I beamed back. I like this new Ivan.

We spent the rest of the ride in an awkward silence until Ivan finally parked in the local cinema. We walked to the doors and Ivan insisted on paying for the tickets and the popcorn. I disgruntledly placed my wallet back into the back of my jeans and we headed off to our movie. Ivan insisted that we sit in the front and I relunticly agreed. Again we sat in an uncomfortable silence with us picking at the popcorn here and there. The lights dimmed and the previews scrolled by and I looked at the man who sat next to me. His hair appeared to be a snowy silver in the weak light and I could just make out his profile in the dark. His eyes glanced at me and I quickly looked back up at the screen.

Perhaps I should have asked what movie Ivan had picked out because there was an unearthly screech and an ugly and distorted face popped up on the large screen which me about fling our popcorn into the air. Oh dear lord, I was stuck in a dark theater with a zombie movie going on. I instinctively clung to Ivan's arm as the film progressed and it became even more gory and disgusting, burying my screaming face into his scarf at some point in time. The film ended with everyone dying and I was dragged out of the theater.

"That was awesome but so gross on so many levels," I groaned as throwing our half-empty popcorn bag into the trash bins as we made our exit. "I suppose they could've dialed back on the blood a bit, but the gore was just right for me," Russia hummed contently as I continued to cling to his arm. "I had fun at least. Thanks for everything," I whispered as we stopped at his car in the parking lot.

The Russian giant looked down at me with tender eyes and I gazed back, diving deep into those red-violet pools. I was perfectly aware that we were slowly drawing closer together and I felt my heart pound in my ears. His lips were right there! Eagerly, I closed the distance between us and lightly pressed my lips against his.

A kiss wasn't anything like what I have read in books or on the internet (what? I like romance). Words couldn't describe the feeling that was welling up in my chest as Ivan gently kissed back. His lips were warm and smooth against mine and it felt really good. I would give anything to stay like this forever; kissing Ivan after watching a really gory zombie movie.

(Ivan)

Matthew was beautiful even if he wasn't even trying. He could take his breath away at the slightest touch and his heart felt as if it were about to burst. Matthew was his missing puzzle piece and he made him feel complete and almost sane. He was about the only sane thing in his life. Ivan, too, would give anything just to stay like this forever and until the end of time.

~;~

A/N: Here's the chapter! Sorry again if the "grappling" match was suckish. I really can't write action very well. But hope you all enjoyed and perhaps I'll have the next chapter up soon. Oh yeah, the hairspray thing was my sister's idea! XD Thank you sis!

REVIEW PLEASE!

c(^^c)