There was a blinding light that caused Alfred to shield his eyes. He then slowly opened them to see that he was in a large, vast desert; his only company being a lone cactus.
"Oh God…" He whispered, falling to his knees, "Forever alone…" He was about to pass out when a deep voice, thick with an unfamiliar accent spoke,
"Oh, shut up!"
"Huh?" Alfred groaned, looking around for the source of the voice,
"You are not alone."
"What?" Alfred blinked as he saw a man walk by, a trail of ice and wind following him. Alfred took in everything as he passed by: his more-than-impressive height, his cream-colored hair, his lavender eyes, pale skin, brown over-coat, and the scarf that was tied around his neck.
"You are just having some idiotic dream." The figure spoke again as he left, Alfred immediately feeling relieved from the heat but he had to ask,
"Does that mean we can make out?"
"Whoa!" Alfred shouted as he shot up from bed. Kiku rose from his side of the bed and asked,
"What is it Alfred-san?"
"Just had this totally weird dream, man…" The blonde replied, rubbing his eyes. Suddenly,
"Whoa!" A young, Vietnamese girl yawned as she shot up from Kiku's side of the bed.
"What is it Cuc-chan?" Kiku asked, Cuc replying,
"Can we skip the fucking dream-time? So not interested…"
"But there was this man…" Alfred whispered, Kiku blinking,
"A man?"
"Was this a Toris-related dream?" Cuc sighed, Kiku immediately whispering,
"Forbidden topic…"
"No…" Alfred shook his head, getting up from the bed, "It was someone new."
"Yay for that." Cuc huffed as she went back to bed. But Kiku merely brought out his phone and after checking his e-mail, asked,
"Speaking of new, weren't you supposed to take your fake college girlfriend to the library half an hour ago?" Alfred yawned, scratching under his arms as he walked to the door,
"What are you talking about, it's like 6 AM." However, when he opened the door the blazing sun of the 12 o'clock sun glared into his eyes.
"This is so fucking weird…" Alfred whispered as he was holding the books that Marjane wanted to check out. She laughed as she picked out two more books,
"What's weird?"
"Being here reminds me of grade-school." The blonde American explained. Marjane nodded,
"Wow, that must seem like a long time ago for you, huh?"
"Yeah," Alfred turned around, "Can we talk about something…" He stopped mid-thought, however, when he saw the scene at the information desk.
It was the man from his dream, only it wasn't his dream. He stood, even taller than Alfred remembered him reading out an order slip and setting a vase of flowers on the reception-counter. Alfred found himself entranced as the man turned his way, pinning him down with a powerful, yet indifferent gaze of those strong, lavender eyes.
Marjane blinked as she saw Alfred standing there, dumbstruck.
But Alfred was shock still, his heart thumping in the rhythm of a familiar song until –
"ALFRED!" The blonde jerked away as Arthur screamed in his ear. He found himself back in Arthur's condo, the band practicing a new song. The Englishman sighed, "You were mumbling the entire song, you git."
"Sorry," The young blonde shook his head, Han Soo smirking,
"Is your girlfriend distracting you?"
"What girlfriend?" Alfred blinked, kicking himself when he saw Marjane and Miguel sitting on the couch, the Iranian meeping,
"I'll be quiet." Arthur could only shake his head before stating,
"Let's do it again people!"
"I'm sorry," Alfred shook his head, "What are we doing?"
"I've told you a million times today, Alfred!" Arthur groaned as he, Alfred, Yong Soo, and Miguel walked down the streets of New York that night, "We're going to your brother's party!"
"Party?" Alfred blinked, Yong Soo rolling his eyes,
"Matthew's party, retard."
"But Francis is going to be there!" Alfred groaned to Arthur, "I thought you two broke up!" Arthur blushed a bit before he replied,
"We did. But there might be label representatives there and we need all the publicity we can get for the band." Yong Soo collapsed onto the side-walk, coming back up as Han Soo and sighing,
"At least this'll give us something to bitch and moan about."
"No… This is going to suck!" Alfred whined.
Inside the party, amongst all the people drinking, eating, laughing, and dancing to the music, Alfred stood in the middle with Miguel; a can of cola in his hand. "Man this sucks!"
"Sucks." Miguel nodded. After a moment, Alfred groaned,
"I'm gonna go pee out of boredom." After the blonde had left, Miguel hummed,
"I have to pee."
Alfred walked through all the people in the house, slowly moving up the stairs where a stuffy Austrian guy was talking, "So I told him that he has a good sound that he should market it to deaf people." The small group laughed and tittered at his joke, imitating the Fops of old, before the brunette turned towards Alfred and called over, "Alfred, you've gotten out of your dropout slump and come to mingle with us intelligent folk. Good for you, what's that you're drinking?"
"Just some Coke, nothing much."
"What?" The Austrian blinked before smirking, "I seem to remember you getting drunk on sour blue raspberry blow-pop infused Budweisers and –"
"Hey Roderich," Alfred sighed, interrupting the stuffy Austrian, "You know everyone right?" Roderich hummed, taking a sip of his beer,
"I don't mean to brag or an—Yes." Alfred nodded before holding up a crappily drawn picture of his dream man and asking,
"Do you know a guy with a big nose like this?" Roderich took one glance at the photo and nodded,
"That's Ivan Braginski. He's actually supposed to be here tonight -"
"What?" Alfred gasped, Roderich nodding,
"Yes, what do you have the hots for him or something because I have to warn you, he's a bit rough around the ed—"
Alfred had already rushed off before Roderich could even finish his sentence.
The blonde carefully walked through the large group of people inside the large apartment, laughter and drinks being shared freely. He passed Francis trying to smooth-talk Arthur and he barely missed Kiku getting some new girl's phone-number. Blue eyes whipped from left to right, left to right, desperately trying to lock onto their target.
Then…
There he was. He was sitting at a secluded table with a bottle of vodka in one hand and a drinking glass in the other. Ivan pressed the glass to his lips, Alfred's breathing picking up as he downed the powerful drink without so much of a wince.
The Coke can fell to the floor, forgotten.
This one man…
"Hey," Alfred put on his brightest, cutest smile as he sat next to the cream-haired man. "Did you know… That Superman didn't originally have Kryptonite for a weakness? In the earliest comics and animations, Superman could actually be slowed down by fog or smoke. They of course had to change it because, well, what kind of superhero gets taken down by clouds of smoke, am I right?" Ivan only glared at Alfred, the look just screaming 'please, go away'. "Um…"
"…"
"Uh…"
"…"
"Okay, I'll just leave you alone forever now." Alfred meeped, quickly walking away like a dog with its tail between its legs.
"Dude!" Alfred screamed, grabbing Miguel by his shoulder.
"What is it?"
"He's totally real!" Alfred swooned, his Mexican friend shaking his head,
"Que?", just for the blonde to sigh,
"Ivan Braginski…"
"Dude!" Alfred shouted, rushing over to where Roderich stood waiting for food. The Austrian smirked,
"Someone seems excited about something? Did you finally figure out how to tie your shoes?" Alfred frowned, checking his shoelaces,
"Shut up. But tell me," He looked Roderich straight in the eye, "What do you know about Ivan Braginski?"
"All I know," Roderich hummed, "Is that he's Russian."
"So that's why he has that big, sexy nose…" Alfred gave a dreamy sigh. Then he got back into business, "What else?" The brunette quickly picked up a sandwich and a bag of chips before replying,
"If you want to know more, you should talk to my girlfriend Elizaveta and her friend Belle."
Alfred rushed upstairs to do just that, finding a Hungarian woman sitting and drinking with a woman from Belgium. "Lady-Dudes!" He called out as he made it over, "What do you know about Ivan Braginski?" Elizaveta smiled and answered, all sorts of naughty thoughts going through her head,
"I heard he has a boyfriend." Belle nodded,
"Yeah, somewhere back in Canada!" Alfred flinched, giving a nervous chuckle,
"Yeah, yeah… What else?"
Alfred then began to go from lead to lead, different people telling him different things about the mysterious Russian man. "I heard that he kicks all sorts of ass."
"He's on an entirely different level!"
"I heard he's part of the Russian mafia…"
"Everywhere he goes, he has men and women dying at his feet!"
"He's got some serious battle-scars man…"
"What about Ivan Braginski?" Matthew gritted out as Alfred asked him about the mysterious man. Alfred was, unfortunately, extremely oblivious to the pure anger that was being radiated from his twin as Alfred beamed,
"You know him? Tell me, now!" Matthew growled again, sounding a bit animalistic, before he stated,
"He just moved out here from Russia, got a job running a family-owned Flower shop…" Alfred sighed,
"Does he really?" Just then, Francis and Arthur crashed onto a nearby couch while I the middle of a very heated make-out session. They parted lips when Arthur pushed Francis away, asking,
"Didn't he just break up with someone?" Matthew growled again. "They had a huge fight or – Francis, get off! – Or something?"
"Did they really?" The glass in Matthew's hand shattered, the young blonde gritting out,
"Yes… But I didn't want Alfred to know that, Dad!"
"Yeah," Alfred talked, completely ignoring the hostility, "I just don't know what it is about that guy –"
"ALFRED!" Matthew roared, the room going dark, "I FORBID YOU FROM HITTING ON IVAN BRAGINSKI! Even if you haven't had a real relationship in God knows how long…"
"Hey, now wait just a moment!" Arthur called out, still trying to push Francis away, "Alfred's mourning period is officially over! He's dating a nice, college-freshman girl." Francis chuckled,
"Dating a freshman is a mourning period, mon amour.", before sealing their lips in another kiss. Alfred raised an eyebrow, asking,
"I thought you two were broken up?" Matthew walked over, obstructing his brother's view of their parents before he sternly spoke,
"I don't want you getting involved with a man like Ivan, Alfred! You know that you never handle disasters well when it comes to relationships…"
"Come on, man!" Alfred laughed, "That's not true!"
"That time with Matthias?"
"Drunken fling…"
"That time with Kiku?"
"Huge misunderstanding…"
"That time you dumped Yong Soo?" Matthew smiled, Alfred scoffing,
"Whatever, me and Yong Soo are perfectly fine now, right Yong Soo?" They both looked over to see the Korean male's face stuck between a smile and a grimace. "See, we're fine."
"Whatever…" Matthew shook his head, smiling, "Besides, Ivan's out of your league. I should know with all the times he mentions the name M-Candy over and over…"
"Yeah, I just can't…" Alfred sighed, "Get him out of my head and –"
"FORGET IT ALFRED!" Matthew roared, the lights in the condo going completely out.
A/N: I'll probably update this story in intervals of three. Anyway, thoughts? Critiques? Some sort of feedback that would make writing this worth it? Please feel free to leave a review. Please. Just click the button at the bottom. I know you're thinking of ignoring me, but come on... It'll only take a few moments of your precious time...
-Tyranno's girl.