Chapter Three

"B-But, you are my fiancé." Matthew stammered, blushing deep red and staring holes into the hard wood floor.

"No, you aren't. I don't even know you." Ivan told him, feeling a pang of disgust at the weak, shy male. He watched a new wave of sadness settle on his face.

"I'm M-Matthew B-Bonnefoy, Alfred's little b-brother." He stuttered again, much more quiet than before, almost as if he was whispering.

"I didn't know Alfred had a brother, I've never met you before. I am not engaged." The Russian stood up and went to leave.

"Please, don't leave. We are engaged, Papa can tell you." Matthew pleaded, following him into the foyer.

He turned around so fast that Matthew ran into his chest, causing a new slight wave of fear to run through the younger. Ivan glared down at him. "You are a hopeless, worthless, deluded boy. You are not my fiancé, I do not have one. I don't even know who you are." He spat at him, making him cower away from him.

That was the moment that Francis ran downstairs, hoping he got to Ivan before Matthew did. He got to the foyer in time to see his son looking ready to cry while shaking in fear before what he heard Ivan say registered in his mind.

"What are you doing to my son?" Francis asked, glaring daggers at the Russian guest.

"My deepest apologies, Mr. Bonnefoy, but your 'son' seems to have convinced himself that he is my fiancé." Ivan told him, looking disgusted at Matthew before turning away.

"That's because he is. Your parents agreed to the proposal and sent you here so I would have to tell you and not them." The man was finished with the way the Russian disrespected his son and himself, due to the simple idea of marrying Matthew.

"Not likely. They aren't so spineless to send me here to have somebody else tell me rather than do it themselves."

"Not impossible, because that's what happened. So why don't you sit down in that room over there and get to know the fiancé you don't deserve." Francis felt more and more protective of his sweet youngest son as each moment passed, hoping this would be a dream and Matthew wasn't really about to cry. It rarely happened, but when he was that sad, he managed to make everybody around him sad as well.

"If you'll excuse me, Mr. Bonnefoy, I will do no such thing. I refuse to be engaged to that weak, simpering fool. He is not worth my time or my attention." Ivan replied coldly before leaving the mansion. Francis shifted his gaze to where his son's eyes were filled with tears threatening to fall.

"Matthew…" Francis trailed off, walking closer to him. When he got to be a couple of feet away from him, Matthew turned and ran outside, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Matthew stopped running when he got to the large area he devoted to the sunflowers he grew himself. He found out Ivan loved sunflowers and wanted to surprise him with them. He hid in the middle of them so if anybody started looking, they wouldn't see him. He curled in a ball and sobbed into his knees, the words Ivan said played over and over in his mind.

Francis retreated back to his study where he found Arthur sitting in his favorite sofa by the unlit fireplace. "You saw everything, didn't you?" He asked, sitting next to his husband and wrapping an arm around him.

"Didn't see most of it, but I heard every word. Then I saw Matthew running outside and hiding in the sunflowers he grew for that monster of a human. I can't believe it had to be the Braginski family. This entire situation is bloody ridiculous." Arthur grew angrier and angrier at the Russian that was meant to be his son-in-law.

Francis sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I can understand him not wanting to be in an arranged marriage, but he didn't have to be so brutal with Matthew. I could see Matthew's heart break when he said those words; he was hoping so much that the rumors wouldn't be true."

"He's a spoiled child. He doesn't understand that this is his family's last chance, since their surrogate family died out with his grandparents."

Matthew stayed in the middle of the sunflowers, crying as quietly as he could until he heard his dog sniffing towards him. Kumajirou whined when he found his owner and pawed at his shoes. He looked back at the way he came and whined again. Matthew sighed and stood up before stretching his sore arms and legs. He was shocked to find he didn't notice it getting dark outside. He found his way out of the sunflowers carefully, without crushing any of the flowers.

"Why are you so careful with those bloody flowers after what he said to you? You have every right to just smash all of them." His father's voice startled him out of his focus on inspecting the flowers for damage.

"I know it isn't likely, but maybe he'll decide to be nice to me soon."

Ello. Sorry about any unnecessary wait, I've just had some stress from work overflow into the rest of the week. That and I have a bad habit of coming up with more story ideas than I have time to actually write right now. I hope you enjoy the chapter :)

Warning: I'm not going to be able to update until possibly the 20th.

Song of the Chapter: Rag and Bone by The White Stripes