Warnings: Angst, ideologically sensitive material, violence, and... more warnings to come in the future.
~~~ Chapter 3 : Budding ~~~
It was just like any other day. The weather outside was slowly becoming chilly, once again. Ivan sat at his desk daydreaming, staring out the window with unfinished work on his polished table. Matryoshka dolls lined the window where he stared out from. The Russian decided to poke the smallest one with the back of his pen. It toppled over with a dull clunk. His mind wandered, once again, as he turned to gaze out the window, once more. Suddenly Ivan began to believe he was imagining things and rubbed his eyes. He blinked a million times more, but the figure heading to his house didn't disappear.
Ivan couldn't believe it. The American was walking to his house holding what seemed like a bouquet of sunflowers. He couldn't hold in his excitement and all but ran to the front door. When the knock came, he decided to wait a few seconds, to pretend that he didn't know who was behind the door. "Privet, Mr. Jones!" He smiled sweetly.
Alfred bashfully stood in the front of the Russian's door, extending his sunflower-filled arms to the amethyst-eyed man. "H-Hey, I'm really sorry about the other day. It was wrong of me to assume you were just trying to take advantage of me a-and I just believed anyone without getting the facts right." He watched the Russian's reaction, and was surprised to find Ivan frowning, seemingly not understanding what the American was talking about. However, Ivan's frown quickly transformed into a smile. In response, the American, too, found himself smiling. He wasn't happy that he was at the Russian's home at all. Alfred actually saw the move as a bit dangerous, but he took this as an opportunity to get close and find out things that the Russian could be planning. Alfred wanted to be prepared in case of an attack from the former communist, but even if that wasn't the case, having a strong ally wouldn't be bad either.
Ivan gladly took the sunflowers, beaming brightly at the person who had just given them to him. The sunflowers were as yellow as the sun, and their stalks were as green as a healthy prairie. Ivan lightly hugged them feeling the cold petals on his cheek, catching a whiff of their scent.
Alfred didn't understand how much the Russian loved sunflowers. Even before the American entered the Russian's house, he thought he smelled sunflowers. Then again, he had been carrying a fat nosegay of them. "Come in!" Ivan stepped aside to let the American through. Alfred observed the Russian's home; it seemed quite normal to him so far. Most of the paintings hung in the Russian's home incorporated sunflowers in some way. The American couldn't help but let his imagination go. He imagined pushing a painting aside and a trap door would suddenly open, or tipping a bust of one of Ivan's past leaders aside to reveal a door behind the bookshelves.
Ivan looked around to find a vase or something that would hold the sunflowers. "Toris!" He walked in the kitchen, abandoning his guest. "Is there a vase around here somewhere?" The Russian held the sunflowers in his arms as if it was a precious child. "I believe I saw one in the storage room, I'll go get it right now." The Lithuanian put down a plate that he was washing. "No need, Ivan will get it himself, da?" The Russian left the kitchen happily. The brown-haired man, finding Ivan's actions quite odd, shrugged it off and returned to his work.
When the Russian returned, he found Alfred pushing a painting from side to side. "What are you doing?" Ivan walked up behind the American, curiously watching him. Alfred yelped, and faced the Russian and stopping the painting from swaying. "I, uh, I just wanted to see the image in another… uh… Perspective! Yeah! It's a really nice p-painting of a sunflower!" The American quietly cursed at himself for getting distracted. The amethyst-eyed man just stared, thinking It must be an American thing. "Ivan is going to get a vase for the sunflowers. Would you like to accompany me?" "Sure!" The American replied, happily.
The American followed the Russian into an old storage room. Alfred saw this as an opportunity to weasel information from Ivan. The dirty blonde teen often asked Arthur about various things, when in his storage room, and the Englishman would often begin retelling stories of fantastic tales and fanciful stories. He assumed it would have the same effect on Ivan, instead causing the Russian to possibly let confidential information slip.
As they entered, it was dark and it smelled of dust. Ivan fumbled in the darkness until he found the light switch. "Ah, here it is!" The dark room was illuminated revealing many old boxes stacked on top each other. "Please, hold this for a moment, da?" The Russian handed the sunflowers to Alfred and began his search for a vase.
The American held the sunflowers in one hand. "Oh, lemme help!" As he began to dig through the boxes, the Russian didn't seem to mind Alfred rummaging through the artifacts. Alfred pulled out a heavy black coat with gold epaulets. It seemed to be in well-kept condition; Alfred assumed it was worn often. He dared to ask why it was in the box. "Hey, Ivan, what's this?" Alfred held it up high enough for Ivan to identify what it was. There was no reply for a few seconds. "That is my old uniform." The Russian replied not bothering to look back, once recognizing it. "Oh," came Alfred's simple retort.
There are many reasons why a nation might decide to change his uniform. It may be because its no longer practical, or a better one had been made. It could be that it was worn and old. It could also be that it was ruined and was no longer useful. Though, despite all these reasons, a uniform is just like any other object once given to a person. It can bring up memories, both good and bad. Alfred, knowing this by experience, returned the coat into the box the way he had found it. He didn't ask about the coat again, and continued to search through the many boxes.
As he searched, a colorful garment caught his eye. "What's this?" Alfred held up a red, long-sleeved shirt with black, yellow, and blue beautifully embroidered flowers artfully strewn across the fabric. "That is a kosovorotka!" The Russian turned to the American. "A whaty-what-now?" Alfred raised an eyebrow. "My traditional clothing!" The Russian smiled proudly. "Oh! It's really colourful!" Alfred complimented looking closely at the fine embroidery. "Spasibo!" Ivan couldn't help but giggle a bit from the compliment. "Come again?" Alfred helplessly stared at Ivan, needing a translation. "Thank you." Ivan gladly translated for the American. "Oh." The teen nodded, taking note of the word and its meaning. "Want to try it on?" Ivan beamed approaching Alfred. "Oh no! That's okay! Uh, let's find that vase, okay?" The American really didn't want to try it on; he wasn't really keen on wearing any clothing that the ex-communist owned. "Da!" Ivan quickly went back to searching.
The two didn't notice the time fly by, or the setting sun. It took longer than they both thought to find a single vase for the sunflowers. Alfred nearly squished the poor sunflowers as he went through the boxes pulling out random things that caught his eye. The teen was so focused in trying to remember all the Russian words he was learning that went with the things he would find in the dusty old boxes, he completely forgot he was there to get information out of Ivan.
"Um, Ivan?" Toris knocked on the door of the storage room. "Da?" The Russian breathlessly looked up, pausing his search. In Toris's hands was a tall glass vase. "I found one in one of the cupboards." The Lithuanian looked around the room, shocked to find the old traditional clothing lying on some of the open boxes. Alfred followed the brown-haired man's gaze around the room and began to laugh uneasily. "Sorry! I'll go n' fix that!" The Russian stopped his American guest. "Nyet, it is fine!" Alfred handed Toris the sunflowers. "I'll go put these somewhere." The Lithuanian left for the kitchen. Ivan began to clean up and close the old boxes. Despite being told not to, Alfred helped him clean up anyway.
Finally the storage room looked like the way it did when they went into it, but with much less dust. Ivan sneezed loudly rubbing his nose. "We should get out of here." Alfred laughed being caught off guard by the sneeze. "Da." The Russian couldn't agree more.
The American glanced out the window and noticed how dark it was outside. Alfred checked his wrist watch and was surprised at how late it was. "Oh, crap, I have to go!" The Russian appeared sad, hearing this. "Will you come over again?" Alfred's thoughts returned to how he hadn't gotten any sort of information, as of yet, and replied, "Of course!" Ivan escorted the American to the door and finally waved goodbye, smiling happily.
When Ivan closed the door, he saw the sunflowers on a table outside the kitchen door, resting in the tall vase filled to the top with water. The Russian found himself smiling, when it struck him. Why would Alfred bring him flowers just to apologize? He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the thoughts. The Lithuanian walked out of the kitchen to call the rest of the Baltics and the Russian for dinner. "Ivan, dinner is ready." The Russian slowly turned to Toris seemingly flushed with his hand over his mouth. Ivan, beaming once again, simply replied, "Da."