Chapter Six

Ivan had to stay with the Bonnefoy family for two weeks, recovering from the car accident. The opinion of those two weeks depended on who you asked. If you asked Matthew, it was one of the best periods of time in his life, as he was able to spend ample time with his hopefully future beloved. If you asked Ivan, he would have left as soon as he could.

For the first two days it was heavily snowing, forcing everybody to stay inside, even the gardeners. Ivan has the frame of mind to ask that his meals were sent to the guest room he was staying in. To his mild enjoyment, Francis, Arthur, and Alfred all kept away from the occupied room, not wanting to think about the angry and uncomfortable Russian.

The only person brave enough to even knock on Ivan's door was Matthew, looking like nothing could bring him down from the high of spending time with his fiancée. He attempted to persuade Francis and Arthur to let him eat with him in his room, but they wouldn't let him. All of his free time was spent with Ivan, to the Russian's dismay.

"Ivan, I have your breakfast. Papa said I could eat in here with you if you want me to." Matthew smiled, carrying the tray of Ivan's food into the bedroom, setting it down on the table in front of the window. On the tray was a plate of the usual toast and eggs for Ivan, joined by a plate of pancakes that the older man stared at, making Matthew blush bright red. "I was thinking that we could get to know each other better, and since the snow has partially melted, I wanted to show you something in the back field." He sat down at the table and took the plate of pancakes from the tray. Ivan's anger grew the longer that he was in the room, walking closer to the table, resulting in a warm smile from the happy male.

"You obviously weren't thinking. Why do you delude yourself into thinking I would willingly spend time with you?" Ivan snapped at him, causing the smile to slowly fade away. Matthew opened his mouth to respond. "If you didn't notice, that was a rhetorical question, meaning I didn't want to hear an answer in the form of your idiotically quiet voice. Do you really think I want to be nice to you? You are nothing to me but legality. I do not like you, and I never will, much less love you. I am only acting polite to honor my father's instructions to keep you happy, but I can't take being in the same room as you anymore."

Ivan was breathing heavily by the time his small monologue was over, it had aggravated the blisters and bruises on his chest. Matthew continued to stare up at him, not noticing the thin trails of tears staining his flushed cheeks. He stood up, shaking slightly, and removed Ivan's plate from the tray and put his back on it before picking it up.

"I-I'm s-s-sorry. I d-didn't-t know y-you felt th-that way." Matthew mentally scolded himself for his habit of stuttering when he was upset or embarrassed. He quickly walked to the door, nearly tripping over his own feet multiple times. Ivan stared off into space, only snapping out of it when he heard the door slam.

Father can't find out I fucked up. He thought, sitting down at the table. His parents were going to be endlessly furious if they found out. Ivan started to eat his breakfast alone, thinking of ways to fix the situation.

Matthew ran past confused and shocked servants, nearly throwing the tray and plate into the sink. He ignored his parents and brother and ran outside, forgetting that he was still in a t-shirt and pair of thin jeans. He quickly ran into the sunflower patch and sat down where he was hidden, curling up in a ball in the snow.

"He's supposed to be nice." He whimpered to himself, new tears overflowing his puffy eyes as he remembered the stories Francis would tell him as a kid, of having a fiancé who was sweet and kind and loved him more than anything. "I just want to be enough to make him happy."

"Why is Matthew running away from the guest wing?" Francis asked, handing his empty teacup to a passing servant.

"Hell if I bloody know. Ivan must have said something and it made him upset." Arthur shrugged and went back to the newspaper he was reading. His lack of response startled Francis, but he was hardly surprised. Arthur was known for picking favorites in everything he did, and his favorite son was always Alfred.

"Well, you enjoy your paper while I go talk to Ivan." Francis stood and walked slowly to the guest room he previously carefully avoided. The closer he got, the more he heard sounds of crashing and ripping. He opened the door to see Ivan throwing things around and ripping bed sheets in an angry haze.

"I hope you know that those items are not yours. I personally decorated these rooms and you will pay for the damages." His voice startled the Russian out of the haze, resulting in him turning around to face the head of the family. "I want to know what you said to him, and you will tell me." He went straight to the point, tired of Ivan's moodiness in the entire situation.

"I don't see how what I said is any of your business." Ivan sat down on his temporary bed.

"You are in my house, making my son cry every day. It is my business that he is stuck with a bratty, spoiled aristocrat like you because nobody notices him. The only thing that isn't my business is the fact that your family let your surrogate birth family dry up, leaving the heirs reliant on marriage." Francis nearly started shouting, and Ivan was letting him do it, taking everything that Francis said to him. "Don't just sit there, what the hell do you have to say for yourself?!"

"Don't be a fool; I don't care about your son in any way. He is just my fiancé, nothing more, and I have no intentions towards making our relationship anything having to do with emotion. The only thing I care about is continuing the Braginski line." Ivan stood and donned his coat. "If you'll excuse me, Matthew gave me the idea to explore the grounds." He walked out of his room, then out of the house.

Ivan wandered around the grounds for hours before it started to snow again. He decided to head back to the mansion, and on his way there he saw the very large patch of sunflowers.

A warm smile lit his face as he looked at the perfect specimens of his favorite flower. He moved to take a closer look, not hearing the quiet sniffling coming from the patch until he was almost touching one of the flowers. Ivan carefully walked into the patch, not crushing any of the flowers, until he got to the center, seeing something he wasn't expecting.

On the ground was Matthew, curled up in a ball, partially covered by snow, and completely unconscious. His cheeks were still stained by tears and his lips and fingers were blue. He was violently shivering in his sleep. "What are you doing outside without a coat?" Ivan asked, taking his coat off and wrapping him in it before picking him up bridal style.

He carefully carried Matthew inside and up to his room, laying him down in front of the lit fireplace. He grabbed a stack of blankets and a few pillows from the linen closet in his room and tucked him in. When the sleeping man started to stir, he quickly went to the kitchen to make him hot cocoa, trying to avoid the awkward situation upstairs in his temporary room.

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry! I've had a ton of homework and fundraising and work work, and I haven't had a chance to write much. But, I have a few things to tell you...

1. You can follow me on Tumblr now if you want, at loveless-muffin-party . tumblr . com, without the spaces. My blog is not completely Ruscan, but it shows many of the pairings I ship.

and lastly, 4. Since updates won't be happening as much, I will be taking requests for one- to three-shot fics, and you can send them to me if you want via review or PM. I will tell you if it is something I can't do or it is a pairing that I don't really ship.

Song of the chapter: Ringdingdong by SHINee