*extremely short update*

. . .

Filler: From the Fields

"Toris, you shouldn't stay inside, da? You need more light—look how pale you are!" Russia was literally dragging Lithuania out the front door.

"Eh!?" What had gotten into Ivan these days? Yesterday, he was all gloom and doom, and now… God, he didn't even know what was going on. "B-but the paperwork…!"

Russia laughed genuinely, and Lithuania couldn't help but smile along with him. "Don't worry, Toris~ It'll just be for today."

Toris gave in, sighing, but he still had that amused expression on his face. "Oh, all right. What are you planning?" He looked at him in mock suspicion and Russia only smiled that the small childish smile down at him.

Earlier, Lithuania knew there was something going on when Russia approached him with nothing but his trademark scarf, khaki casual pants, and a solid-black short-sleeved dress shirt. He wasn't exactly at the top of his health yet, but he seemed to be really enthusiastic about something—that was a first and he figured he shouldn't press his luck.

"You'll see. Isn't the weather nice, Lithuania?" He looked up and Toris followed his gaze.

The sky was clear—no clouds blocked out any of its bright-blue brilliance.

"… Yeah. It rained a couple days ago; it's funny how you can still sort of smell it."

The two were on the streets now. It must've been a funny sight for a grown man to be leading another grown man behind him by the hand. A few pedestrians gave them funny looks and Lithuania resisted the urge to stop and explain.

Lithuania wasn't sure where they were at the moment, but it seemed to be somewhere in Russia. The lettering on the signs was in Cyrillic with the occasional Russian word spelled with Romanic lettering. Inside, he was pleased to see that Ivan's people were doing better.

Ivan made a sudden turn, still dragging him along. Lithuania avoided tripping over the curb from the change of direction. "Will you tell me now?" He tried hopefully.

Russia shook his head. "Net, you'll see!"

"We could've taken the car, you know," Toris almost laughed. Ivan shook his head again.

"It's better to walk."

Several minutes passed and the buildings of the unknown city disappeared. They were in a rural area, Lithuania figured.

"Close your eyes," Ivan instructed. Toris complied, shutting his eyes tight.

"Come on, Liet!" Poland whined shoving his palms against Lithuania's face. "Close them! Close them!"

"F-fine… I think you're gonna poke my eyes out, Feliks." He guessed he was sticking his tongue out at him but of course he didn't see Poland's actual expression since his eyes were closed.

The blond led him through patches of untamed grass and bushes of unknown plants. Thorns snagged against his clothes but Poland didn't really give him a chance to free himself properly as he dragged him on.

Then they stopped. "Shhh…" Feliks warned. Then in a hushed whisper, "You can open your eyes now, Liet."

Bushes and shrubs and trees sheltered the two of them. Ahead of them in a clearing were two deer— a mother doe and her fawn. She took no notice to the two children watching her as she liked away at her own child's brown hide.

"Isn't this totally cool?" Poland asked, clearly excited about the scene.

"Y-yeah," Lithuania replied. He had to admit, the animals were fascinating to him.

"They remind me of you~!"

Toris flushed. "W-what? How—?" Poland tugged gently at his hair. "It's the same color, see?"

They fell silent when the doe stood up facing in their general direction. The fawn ran up a few steps towards them and the mother made no move to stop it.

"Talk to it," Poland urged. Lithuania looked at him, baffled.

"What? I can't talk to deer!" He protested.

"You can talk to birds," he pointed out.

Lithuania blinked. "No I can't! What makes you think that?"

"Every morning they fly to you and you like, feed them and everything—"

"—that's because I'm feeding them, Poland—"

"—and they listen to you when you talk in that funny language."

Lithuania was about to lecture him about his "funny language" but he was too busy wondering what had gotten into Feliks to convince him that he talked to birds. Okay, maybe he did, but who said they actually understood him? He thought they were just there for the bread. Maybe the tiny animals would walk up to Poland too if he'd stop grabbing at them at every opportunity he got.

This was getting silly but Feliks didn't seem to be letting up anytime soon.

He sighed. "Hello," he said nervously to the young deer. "Uh, I'm Toris and this is Feliks." It stared at him with those large black eyes before trotting back to its mother. They gave them one last look before walking away in the opposite direction. He swore Poland was going to make fun of him for this later.

"We're here, you can open them."

Lithuania noticed it was quiet except for the gentle wind rustling the wildlife. Tentatively, he opened his eyes and took a moment to adjust to the light.

It was beautiful.

Before him was an endless stretch of golden yellow accompanied by specks of black. Gray mountains were visible on the far horizon with their snow-capped peaks. The sun was behind them, casting lanky shadows over the sunflowers.

They were standing on a short ledge, overlooking the golden fields. Russia hopped down, sending flower petals into the air. He offered a hand and Lithuania wasted no time in accepting it.

He pulled him down before he was ready, though. "Ah- Ivan!" He cried out in shock as he landed on the larger man who caught him with his other arm, but they both tumbled onto the soft loam anyway.

Toris rolled off of him to check if he was all right, but Ivan was only laughing softly, his cheeks brightening with color.

"I used to take my sisters here too. It was a long time ago since my summers have been cold for the past years. The flowers never grew this tall," Russia explained. It didn't take more than a moment for Toris to understand what he was talking about. Ivan continued, "The sunflowers get taller near the center," he pointed his finger in the opposite direction from the ledge even though they couldn't see them—they were still lying with their backs to the ground.

Looking up at the towering flower heads felt overwhelming—it was no wonder Ivan found joy in something so simple.

"It's amazing, Ivan."

He smiled and Toris wanted the world to stop for that one smile. "They have flowers in Lithuania too, da?"

"Yeah, I'll show you them sometime," when this is all over.

"That'd be nice…"

Toris nodded and turned his face towards the sky, indulging in the pure bliss. He didn't even notice his own fingers intertwine with Ivan's.

There they were, in his sanctuary, lying in the fields away from the rest of the world.

Maybe for just for today, Lithuania didn't have to worry about his problems. Maybe just for today, everything was perfect.

And maybe just for today, Ivan was the sunflower and he was the sun.

-x-X-x-

Eh, bad news everyone. I'm on a ginormous writing block and… ugh. I started on the fifth chapter (the one that relates the plotline) but I am… disgusted with it x-X So I dumped it. It just feels extremely dull to me.

Anyways, I didn't want to go through a week without any activity, so here's a filler. It's the same setting as the main story but it has no relation to the plot so what happened here probably won't be mentioned again in the future.

Next chapter will relate to the plot, but rather than progressing the storyline, it'll be strengthening the back story… so yes, Chapter 5 will have a lot of Ivan XD

Unless I get out of my block. Ideas and suggestion are so very welcome ;-;

I apologize for getting your hopes up about this. Ahh –headwall-
(I'm on an art block as well, lucky me. )