Hey there! Sorry for the wait, I've been sick and just had a dance performance (it was good but sucked because I felt like crap but whatever that's the dancer life I guess.) This chapter is a flashback where you see Alfred and Ivan meet for the first time, I know everyone would rather see Ivan and Arthur beat the living heck out of each other but I think we should see where Ivan's side of the story is coming from and you can see why Ivan loves Alfred too.
In the flashback, Alfred and Ivan are six years old.
"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. - Albert Schweitzer"
A small Russian boy sat on the ground picking flowers from the ground with a sad expression on his face.
He looked on longingly over near the school playground where groups of children were racing towards the top of the jungle gym or playing make believe games like pirates and princesses.
Ivan Braginski was a foreign transferred student from Russia, his parents had recently went through a hard divorce and so he moved here with his mother and two sisters to 'have a new life' as his mother liked to put it, America was the place for new beginnings and to find forgotten happiness but Ivan disagreed.
He missed his old home and his familiar surroundings, sure he liked the nice sunny weather and all the flowers that bloomed here but he felt lonely.
To be quite fair though, he'd always felt like this. His whole life people avoided the creepy child. He was taller and stronger than the other kids and they were afraid of him but it still hurt his feelings when kids ignored him in favor of other children to play with instead.
He just wished he could go back home to Russia, back where he was lonely but at least it was normal and not so scary.
Ivan felt his lavender colored eyes drip with a few stray tears that escaped without his permission, Ivan hated to cry, he thought it made him look like a wimp but he was just sick of being alone.
He gripped his hold on his tiny bouquet of pink and yellow flowers tightly almost crushing the petals in frustration over this whole situation.
Soon Ivan felt a presence and heard someone plop next to him on the grassy ground.
Ivan opened his eyes and saw a small boy staring at him with concern.
The boy who Ivan knew to be Alfred because of his popularity around the grade had sandy blond hair and a funny little cowlick that stood up childishly. He had freckles on his face and the bluest eyes Ivan ever saw. Ivan knew his mother would refer to Alfred as a 'All American boy'.
Ivan didn't know what that meant but he did think the smaller boy was cuter than any other Americans he'd met so far.
Alfred bit his lip and looked confused. "What's wrong, dude?" Alfred asked motioning towards Ivan's teared stained face.
Ivan furiously wiped at his face in embarrassment, now he knew the popular boy would make fun of him for being so weak.
Alfred instead surprised him by gently grabbing the other's hand and pulling it away.
"Don't hurt yourself, Arthur says that you'll just make your face itchy and red if you try to stop your crying like that."
Ivan blinked. "Who's Arthur?" He asked curiously.
Alfred smiled widely. "Arthur is my best friend! He's a in grade above me though so he's not here to play with me." Alfred responded pouting slightly.
Ivan felt a sense of jealously embed itself's into his core, of course the only nice boy who's talked to him yet already had a best friend.
Alfred still pouting seemed to have a idea as his face lit up into a bright smile.
"I know! You're Ivan right? Well you can my same grade best friend and Arthur can be my different grade best friend! You get it?" Alfred asked excitedly.
Ivan's eyes widened and he seemed lost.
"What? You already have a best friend though?" Ivan said in confusion.
Alfred just kept smiling. "Well, I can have two best friends now, the more friends the merrier my mommy says!" Alfred replied laughing making the Russian child feel a warmth growing in his heart at his kind words.
Ivan looked down shyly. "You really want to be best friends with me?" Ivan asked quietly not believing his own ears.
Alfred slugged a arm around Ivan's shoulder and nodded enthusiastically.
"Of course, I do, why wouldn't I?" Alfred asked tilting his head in confusion.
Ivan looked away but felt a sense of happiness overtake him as he felt Alfred's arm around his shoulder not used to the friendly gesture.
"Well, the other kids think I'm scary and-"
Alfred cut Ivan off with a sound of disbelief.
"Really?! That's not fair man, they can't think that about you, they don't even know you yet!" Alfred exclaimed obliviously unaware of Ivan's scary features like the other kids were.
Ivan nodded sadly.
Alfred looked annoyed but then took on a determined look on his face.
"Well from now on Ivan, don't worry, I'll be your friend and I'll keep you safe, I am the hero after all!" Alfred said bravely with a wide smile on his face.
Ivan felt his own mouth inch into a gentle smile of his own.
Alfred plopped on the ground onto his back looking up at the sky with a content expression on his face gently tugging on the silver haired child's sleeve to join him in his cloud watching.
Ivan and Alfred exchanged many stories that recess, Alfred talked the most telling Ivan all about his family, his twin brother who was now playing game of hide and go seek and was apparently winning and his other best friend, Arthur who Alfred said was a strict and uptight guy but was super nice and awesome.
Ivan told the excitable blonde about living in Russia and about his sisters and mother, he didn't talk much about his dad but Alfred despite his young age seemed to understand and didn't ask about it.
Ivan watched Alfred out of the corner of his eyes and saw Alfred animatedly speaking his big blue eyes sparking with so much life and warmth and it made Ivan feel this sense of happiness and he didn't feel lonely anymore.
Ivan wondered if this was what friendship felt like.
A much older, Ivan Braginski was snapped out of his memory and felt a football fly past his head like a strike of lightning. He raised a eyebrow and glanced over towards the American who chucked the ball towards him.
Alfred F. Jones, the same Alfred from his memory now ten years older was staring at him in amusement.
"Dude, you're supposed to catch it!" Alfred said laughing but not at the Russian, no, it was more friendly and made Ivan think of simpler times back where friendships weren't as difficult as they were now.
"I know, Fredka. I know." Ivan replied chuckling at his own foolishness.
Alfred and Ivan were the best of friends right before high school and then things got complicated. Ivan and Alfred had completely different class schedules for the first time ever and they started to drift apart.
Ivan didn't blame it on the sunshine blond though, he blamed it on the other less friendly blond Alfred was friends with.
Arthur Kirkland was Alfred's other best friend and Ivan knew from a young age that he disliked Arthur and found him to be annoying but over the years growing up, Ivan realized there was something more to Arthur's friendship with Alfred.
Ivan personally always thought Arthur acted a little too close and obsessive over Fredka. Arthur would practically growl every time Ivan just hugged Alfred goodbye. It was just strange and when Alfred and Ivan got separated through different classes, the British man practically snatched Alfred up and started filling their own outside of the school schedule with things such as going out to the movies or going to the arcade and whenever Ivan or Alfred wanted to hang out together Arthur just happened to be right there and would remind Alfred of their own date to go to. A word making Ivan's skin crawl in strange anger.
When Alfred wanted to invite Ivan along Arthur just tutted and said something about not having enough space in his mother's car to bring Ivan along or said something about it just being too late to invite someone else. Alfred would always smile apologetically and tell Ivan he'd hang out with him later.
But later never came.
Later was always reserved for Arthur.
Ivan hated Arthur for ruining his friendship with Alfred and as the years went by, Ivan realized his initial suspicion was correct as students around him gossiped about how scared they were of Arthur. Ivan had seen brave girls and even some boys try to get close to Alfred and even though Ivan felt a feeling of jealousy he never had to do anything about it because Arthur would already have beaten him to the punch and finished the job himself by making sure everyone knew not to touch his Alfred.
Ivan looked at Alfred's happy bright ocean blue eyes and felt a sense of longing, he's missed the sunny blond so much. He missed their friendship and how Alfred would talk his ear off with stories of crazy adventures he made up in his head.
How Alfred would hug him every time they saw each other for the first time that day and would hug him again as he left for his house after school.
Ivan just missed everything about Alfred and it wasn't helping as he started having more intense different feelings for his former best friend.
Ivan felt his soft violet eyes intensify and he took on the same determined look Alfred had ten years ago when he swore he'd protect him from bullies.
He was not going to sit around and let Arthur take away the only sunshine Ivan ever had in his life.
Ivan was going to get his sunflower back.
Short chapter but it's kinda just like a snippet to see why Ivan is so ready to fight for Alfred's love since we already know why Arthur is in love with the American, I thought it seemed fair to add a completely RusAme chapter but don't fret UKUS/USUK fangirls, the next chapter is coming tomorrow or sooner and we'll see some Arthur moments again~
I'm loving all the reviews and follows this story is getting, it really does help motivate me to write!
I got a review from a guest who asked if I could write a Pirates of the Caribbean inspired USUK fic and I totally would but I actually never seen Pirates of the Caribbean (a crime, I know) so I can't really help you there, I wish I could though, I'm sorry! I hope you find someone who can write that for you though. (:
I hope you all enjoy this chapter, be ready for the next chapter tomorrow~