Hey there, hope you enjoy this update! (I wrote it half a year ago.)
Natalia was a very beautiful woman. Her skin was the colour of fresh, untainted snow, and her pale blonde, shoulder-length locks glowed with Slavic pride.
She took the hearts of many. Men from every corner of the continent had knelt in front of her, bearing gifts in vain attempts to woo her. If she was having a good day, they would be lucky enough to have been sent back with a few broken bones. If she wasn't, she'd call her brother Ivan, who would be more than happy to tear out their throats with his bare hands.
Some wondered whether she had a heart at all. Her frigid gaze was petrifying, and her razor-thin smile could crack a mirror.
But, they were wrong. Natalia Arlovskaya had a heart, she just loved her brother with all of it.
Over the years, Natalia watched Ivan grow from a boy to a man. A strong man, the strongest of them all. She had watched him as he spread his wings like a hawk from one sea to another, and mercilessly slew anyone who stood in his path. His stance was as firm as a mountain, his flag billowing in the winds, unwavered by those western demons that often overstayed their welcome.
All would bow down to Ivan and kiss his feet, or feel his icy wrath. Indeed, that was the only way. It was either they starved, or she and her big brother would starve. Natalia could not bear to have her and Ivan left alone and hungry again, shivering in the cold like two rabbits.
Father had left him, and so did Yekaterina, but Natalia vowed she never would. She promised she would stay by Ivan's side until the end of time. Yes, that way, both of them would be happy.
The door clicked open, and Natalia immediately shot her head that way, grabbing her dagger by her bed stand.
A head poked through the door.
"Um... Sis'?"
"Brother!" Natalia's grimace immediately softened upon seeing her dear brother. She dropped the dagger onto the floor with a clang, slid off her bed, and ran to meet him halfway.
"Where have you been?" She asked. But, before Ivan had the chance to answer, she draped an arm over his shoulder, tipped his chin, and whispered seductively into his ear, "I've been waiting for you to come back to lavish me, Vanya..."
As she leaned over to kiss his cheek, his body became as stiff as a washing board. She figured the reason must be due to all the stress he'd had to suffer for the few months. Natalia made a mental note to make arrangements to give him shoulder massages, or at least make Toris put more vodka into his coffee. Yes, that would loosen him up quite well...
"Um, Bela..." Ivan squeaked, a fat bead of sweat rolling down his temple. "You mind letting go of me now?"
"No!" She shrieked so loudly that the windows rattled a little. She hugged him even tighter to her body so that they almost became one.
"Um, okay..." Ivan whimpered defeatedly, "How about now?"
"No."
"...Now?"
Natalia hissed, and let him go.
She had witnessed the extent of his anger, and the ambit of his wrath upon anyone who irked him the slightest. When luring Vanya into her arms, she had learned to use tenderness as opposed to blades and nails.
Ivan huffed and puffed, and finally caught his breath. "Um, Bela?"
"Yes, brother?"
"I came to tell you that I'm leaving, and won't be back for a while. I have left Mrs. Nabakov the recipes for your weekly meal plans, and ordered in a new group of maids to you wouldn't get lonely. Uh, one of them even knows how to sew. You know how much I have wanted you to take up that new hobby... Instead of throwing scary knives at the wall in your spare time... So, um..." He giggled nervously, "You should be happy, da?"
And not come look for me? He added in his head.
Natalia raised a dangerous eyebrow. "Where are you going this time, brother?!" She demanded furiously.
Ivan swore he could see his own name carved into her serpentine fangs.
"Well," he poked his fingers and looked down, "I am just going to visit Yao, to see how he is doing," he said, though he probably shouldn't have.
...Yao... That name sounded familiar, but Natalia somehow couldn't put a face to it. She wondered what kind of a mother possessed by a demon would name her child such a strange name, and how Ivan would have come to know someone like that.
Then came her epiphany- Yao was that crossdresser she had met when in China that one time, the one who taught her how to groom her hair and gave her a ribbon.
Belarus frowned a little. He was very beautiful, and unfortunately, he didn't live within knife's range.
Come to think of it, Ivan left home very often nowadays. Surely, he didn't travel all the way across the continent just to visit that one person?
Nevertheless, Natalia deemed it unwise to make unnecessary enemies, and began a well-versed reply to her brother's comment. "Oh I see. Well, I do hope you enjoy yourself." She put on her most dazzling smile. She placed a hand upon his broad chest, and said, "At least the empire in China doesn't have to live in constant fear of the Decemberists..."
It only took a millisecond for Ivan's face to fall.
"Those what?!" he roared like a beast, making Natalia retreat her hands immediately. She fell back onto the bed against his towering form.
Natalia smirked inwardly. Now, she had finally persuaded him to stay.
"D-Decemberists," she repeated, but could not help but stutter a bit, "I overheard a reliable source telling that they are planning a revolt."
Immediately, she felt a thick, rough hand pick her up by the neck, and not wasting a second, her pretty head crashed into the headboard. "From whom?" Her brother demanded, his voice deep and rumbling.
She had seen this all before. There was not a drop of fear in Natalia's eyes, nor was there a sliver of doubt in Ivan's that he would strangle her if she didn't heed to his demand. "That man who cleans our floors, the one with the large nose. He is a spy for them, and I followed him to one of his meetings when I went to the market today..."
Ivan, satisfied, released his claws from his sister's neck, leaving her gasping for breath. He turned his back, and took a deep breath. A bird chirped from outside the window, and the splashing sounds of the front yard fountains trickled into the deathly silent room.
A few silent seconds later, Ivan looked at Natalia and said, in a restrained, albeit gentle tone, "I'll be leaving soon, Bela. If you want to live, then you wouldn't follow me, nor take a single step outside of the Palace... Understand?"
Reluctantly, she nodded, disappointed that she had failed. As much as she wanted to follow him to China, she knew that if he found out, she would be dead within minutes.
She admitted loss this time. But, Natalia knew she had forever to make her brother hers.
Ivan smiled. He liked it when people obeyed.
"Okay! I'll see you soon, and I'll bring you back a gift this time!" He sang cheerfully, kissed Natalia on the head, and hopped up from the bed. Giggling, he waved goodbye to her, and skipped out the room, making the contents of her jewelry box shiver from the little earthquake his feet concocted.
It was the same routine over and over again, every day at the same time and place for the past hundred years. Every single morning, everyone in the royal court would come and meet in the front hall to tithe the emperor with flattery, blow up his ego to unnecessary proportions, and maybe talk about a few national issues, if time permitted.
Yao was deeply skeptical about whether it was necessary to hold such an opulent gala every single day, as if the old, wrinkly man sitting next to him, his boss, was some deity to be worshipped. Everyone bowed to him as he sat on his throne, and anyone who didn't held the threat of being beheaded in an instant.
Well, Yao figured that if everyone around him declared that he was going to live for ten thousand years, he probably would come to believe it. Besides, if every aspect of his life was enshrouded by jade and gold, and and florid smiles of his concubines, even the most bitter cynics would be seduced into believing this ridiculous claim about his longevity.
And, never would Yao expect that one of Ivan's unexpected visits would be his saviour from eye-gouging, hair-pulling boredom.
"Yao!" Yelled a voice from down the hall, thickly accented with Russian.
Yao sighed. He thought that maybe next time, Ivan could make a slightly more humble entrance.
The second Ivan stumbled through the open gates, a wave of soldiers threw themselves on him in an attempt to capture the intruder, which he shrugged off like a case of fleas. He frolicked past armada of government officials all staring wide-eyed at this sight to behold- a large foreign man wearing an intimidating army jacket, with a chubby face and a disproportionate nose running at breakneck speed, while rudely calling out the personal, forbidden name of the second most important person in the whole kingdom without being struck by lightning.
Despite the whispers between everyone in the room, Yao decided to look on the bright side. At least he was going to have the rest of today off.
"Yao!" Ivan said again, calling out the name of his love, who stood up before the other could bury his face into his lap, like he did multiple times before.
Instead, Ivan ran up the steps and gave Yao a huge bear hug, much to the shock of everyone in the room, and the utter resentment of the emperor, enraged that his daily moment of glory had been snuffed out.
Yao had been too used to Ivan popping up at the most random, inappropriate times to be mad at the man. Every single boss Yao had had for the past few centuries all learned to be acquainted with, and accustomed to Ivan's visits.
But, it was Ivan's debut in front of this particular emperor. Not that Yao was worried anymore. His boss can't do anything to harm Ivan, for they cannot afford to have a pointless war waged against them by their northern neighbors. But, he wasn't about to take any chances.
"Let's go..." Yao mouthed to Ivan, tilting his head slightly over to the red-faced emperor, to whom he would have a lot of explaining to do tomorrow.
"Okay!" Ivan squealed. Grabbing his hands, he lead them down the hall and outside, as everyone's heads followed them out the door, with their mouths agape but silent.
"Such insolence!" Said the chancellor, bristling with insult, "Your majesty, he-"
The emperor took a deep, shuddering breath, and sat back down. To lose his temper in front of dozens of his officials was not first on his list of priorities.
After a while, Yao finally stopped protesting Ivan carrying him like a bride out of the palace, onto the streets, and to the countryside.
"Ivan Braginsky."
"Da?"
"Put me down. Now."
"Da!"
Ivan's stone-like arms lowered Yao slowly and gently onto the grass, sticking his tongue out to the corner of his mouth in undivided focus, as to not shatter the other man's porcelain frame.
"Thank you very much." Yao said curtly. Not particularly glad that he had been laid onto a field of dandelions, he sat up, pouting, and brushed away some fluff on his dress.
Reaching over and peeling off the bug that got stuck between the shoulder tassells on Ivan's coat, Yao began to half-heartedly scold him. "Ivan... It was very rude for you to have interrupted my boss like that, and it wasn't nice!" He said, giving his nose a little poke. "How do you think I am going to explain this to him tomorrow?"
"Um..." Ivan dropped his mouth open and looked up, actually thinking of an answer, despite the rhetorical nature of Yao's previous question. "I suppose you can tell him that I am your boyfriend! That would work well..." He smiled innocently, tilting his head at an odd angle.
"I can think of a thousand reasons why saying that is a bad idea."
"Why, because you want me to be your husband instead?" He suggested hopefully.
"No!" Yao squeaked, quickly looking away. The nerve of this child!
"Ivan... Let me ask you something..." Yao said, a few moments later, after his cheeks cooled down a bit.
"Yes?"
"Why do you come visit me all the time, even when I never visit you?"
Ivan sighed, and brought Yao closer to him. Yao quickly looked around, making sure that no one else was nearby, and leaned his head into Ivan's chest. He admired how shiny his buttons were.
"Because I love you..." Ivan replied, with same air as how he would comment the weather outside.
Yao's heart did a happy hop from hearing that. As much as he wanted to pry Ivan's arms apart from his shoulders, he couldn't bring himself to. Instead, he pressed on, "And what else?"
Ivan sighed again. "Well, I suppose it's because life at home really sucks." He said said wistfully, playing with Yao's hair, slowly and accidentally untangling his elegant updo. "No matter how hard I try, I can never please my boss, nor the people who live in my country. My boss is so mean to me, and my people hate what I have done for them. They all want to rebel, and kill my boss and I, no matter how nice we try to be to them..."
He rolled up his pants, revealing a large gash across the inside of his left thigh. "See? It still hurts and bleeds all the time!" Ivan said, despite that it had stopped throbbing days ago.
Yao, who had enough medical experience to tell in an instant that he was lying, decided to play along. "Aww, you poor poor thing!" Yao cooed. Ivan nodded, having failed to smell his sarcasm.
"The rebels did this to me..."
"Aw, that must be horrible!" Yao said in a faked motherly tone, while trying to stifle laughter, "Does it hurt right now, sweetheart?"
"Yes! Very much!" He replied earnestly, his eyes all wide and watery, " Yao," he whined, shaking the smaller man's shoulders, "will you kiss it better?"
"Um, no..." Yao said, a little too quickly, swiftly turning his torso away from Ivan's adorable, yet spine-tingling smile.
"Please?" Ivan begged, taking Yao into his arms again and nuzzling him, despite his protesting, "I won't ask for anything else..."
Yao huffed in defeat. "Fine," he said. Tucking a long strand of his hair behind his ear, Yao bent down to brush his lips lightly against Ivan's already healed scar. "Happy now?" he asked, though he knew that probably wouldn't be enough for him.
Looking up at his smirk, Yao's fears were confirmed.
He leaned over and smooched, tapping the side of his lip. "And here too..."
"No!"
"Why not?"
Yao looked around, trying to think of a witty excuse. "Um, because I don't think you deserve it today..."
Ivan's smile turned upside down. "Why?" He whined. Yao wasn't sure whether he was genuinely hurt, or faking it.
Yao crossed his arms, and glared. "Because you were a bad, bad boy, having crashed my boss's morning court! And now, I'm going to have a fun time explaining to him why I'm friends with a big scary monster like you!" He said jokingly, pouting and sticking out his tongue.
Ivan froze, as bright violet eyes narrowed in utter shock.
"...O-Oh." He managed to utter. He turned away from Yao silently and drooped his head, staring down at his feet. Well, at least his boots were shiny.
"... Ivan, are you alright?"
Yao knew he must have pinched a nerve, and cursed his own sharp tongue.
Ivan didn't answer, and instead stood up. Yao tugged at his sleeve. "Oh come on, I didn't mean what I said!" He giggled nervously. "You know that, right?"
He began to sadly limp away, without even looking back at Yao, who followed behind. "Are you mad at me?" He asked Ivan.
"No, not really," was his mumbling response. "I just feel a little sick. A cold, I think." He sniffled and wiped his nose. "Uh, I'll come back some other day, Yao. Just don't follow me. Sorry..."
He didn't even say goodbye before leaving Yao alone under the sun, standing in a field of dandelions, frustrated, perhaps at himself.
Ivan wondered, was he really a bad person?
He was very nice to Bela, or as nice as he could be to her. He gave her a place to live, protected her from the bad guys, and kept her company for as long as she wanted. Yes, he would get angry at his sister, but it was only because sometimes, she was very hard to deal with. When she was around, Ivan sometimes felt legitimately concerned for his safety (and virginity). But, even though he knew he could just snap her in half, he didn't, because he was a nice person!
Also, he wasn't too bad to the three colourful little friends he had recently made, Toris, Eduard, and Raivis. He always fed them at least once a day, unless if he forgot of course. He kept them safe in his home, and let them out for a breather once a week. Ivan did this only so they wouldn't run away and get caught by the wild beasts in his backyard. Siberia was no place for little guys like those three.
That was what friends did, right?
If only Yao could see just how much of a good boy he had been. Maybe then, he wouldn't call him a "monster".
With that thought, Ivan stepped onto the scaffold that was conveniently located at St. Petersburg's town square, where everyone liked to gather for warmth on a dreary January morning. His hulk-like feet thumped across the path that had been cleared for him, and upon the creaking, splintery wooden steps. The crowd fell silent, either in fear of the man standing before them, or pay their respects to Russia.
The general bowed meekly upon seeing him, and quickly gestured for executioner to withhold his efforts. A priest, of course, was also at the scene. He made the sign of the cross, and maintained his mannered silence.
"Mr. Russia, this..."
Russia walked past the general, and turned his gaze to the men crouching under the three loops of rope. Despite that they had just seen him, they kept their reticence and continued to look down at the filthy, blood-stained floor.
No matter, Ivan came here to play Jesus Christ. He walked over to the man on the left, and decided that he liked him. Therefore, he was going to die last.
Ivan turned to the general, and told him to release the criminal.
"But, s-sir... He is with the rebels, and we cannot afford to-"
Russia grinned sweetly, bending down in front of the shorter, middle-aged man. "You are really brave, little guy." He patted him on head, like father to son, "Standing up to me like that... Maybe I'll kill you next?"
The general, as cruel and corrupted as he was during his day job, shrieked and fell to his knees. "No! No, I-I'm sorry, sir..." He shuffled closer, and hugged Russia's legs. "Please have mercy!"
"Okay, if you say so!" Russia gave him a light kick, and he fell back in an almost-somersault. Everyone on the crowd laughed. Ivan giggled along with everyone else, clapping his hands.
Ivan dragged the prisoner down the scaffold by a chain around his neck, and as he did, the crowd cheered and hooted at his heroism.
He took the prisoner out to the streets, people avoiding them as they walked by. The man kept a safe distance from Ivan, and stayed completely silent unless to give short, clipped answers to Ivan's light-hearted attempts at conversation.
They stopped at an abandoned alley way. It was dank, smelly, and let in enough light for the prisoner to see a pair of violet orbs that flashed every few seconds.
Suddenly, under the violet orbs opened cracked open a line of sharp, pearly white teeth, as a wave of maniacal giggles squirmed into his ears.
"I heard you Decemberists were causing some trouble in the town square today. That does not make me very happy."
The man shook his head and chuckled. It was quite funny, and terribly ironic, that him, of all people, had brought this up. A man with gold and diamonds decorating his chest, and wearing boots made from the skin torn right from slaves' backs.
"You may have won this time," he growled under his breath, with a kind of menace that even surprised himself, "But the workers will rise again. Just you wait!"
He figured if he was going to die soon, he might as well as say his last words like they were etched in stone.
Ivan's face, in turn, stayed as pleasant and serene as it had ever been. It frightened the man more than if Ivan had unleashed his infernal rage upon him like the beast he knew he was.
"I think it would be good if you were more quiet, little man." Ivan doted, batting his eyelashes endearingly, "I'm having a lot of fun right now, and I don't want to kill you so soon..."
He winced from his touch, his eyes widening in fear, or perhaps, disgust. "You nobles can't leave us in the cold forever..." He continued, desperately trying to maintain the integrity of his voice, "And you can kill me, a worthless little spy, but don't expect us to just be your slaves for all eternity!"
Suddenly, he felt a fist crash into the side of his face, as he fell backwards from the blow, hitting his skull against the brick wall.
"Haha! I warned you to be quiet!" Ivan said, sticking out his tongue and wagging his head.
The man recovered as quickly as he could, his head thumping in fiery-hot pain. He spat a couple of his teeth into the dirt along with some blood. He looked up and dared to utter, while panting haggardly, "Is that the best you can do?"
Ivan, who was busy licking his knuckles clean of blood, looked up, and blinked. "Um, probably not..." He mumbled, shrugging, "To be honest, you're the favourite person I have played with in a while."
And, Ivan wasn't lying at all, because lying was bad. When he delivered that first blow to his head, something in him just... snapped, like a cane, or someone's spine. Blood was pounding in his ear, and he could no longer restrain the gleeful giggles bubbling out of his mouth.
The last time he felt this excited about anything was when he kissed Yao for the first time, hundreds of years ago.
The voices in his head were screaming at him, "More more more more! We want more blood!" And Ivan saw no reason why their cries should go unheard. It was not like they were asking him to sit down and do math homework or anything.
The man, who was not a bit disheartened, continued furthermore, "This land, this cold, wretched place we live in, is what hell really is!" He shook his head, and smiled bitterly, "And you sir, do you know what you are? You're the devil himself!"
Ivan frowned at the insult. Humph, if this guy didn't want to play with him, he didn't have to be so mean...
"All you nobles do is use our efforts to build your palaces and churches, and toss us away like filth after you're done!" He coughed and spat on the ground, "Anyone who disregards justice like this, anyone who treats humankind like livestock, are the real scum of the earth!"
"You're a monster, Mr. Russia." The man uttered, finally.
"Silence!" Ivan roared. The man laid on the ground on which he had been cast, too weary, too apathetic, to move a muscle. The lion had finally broken out of his cage, so to speak.
"You're wrong, wrong!" Ivan hollered at the top of his lungs,shaking his head furiously. "I'm not like that! There is no way I'm like that!" He kicked the man's stomach over and over again until his ribs broke and his vomit turned bloody.
No! Yao would never think that of him! Yao loved Ivan as much as he love him back, and Bela, and everyone in his house, loved him too! They were all his friends, and they were all going to be warm and happy together! This stupid guy is wrong!
Seconds turned to minutes, and soon enough, who was once Ivan's servant and a spy for the Decemberists, had been reduced to an unrecognizable pile of bones and flesh. He continued to maul at him, tearing from limb to limb, ripping him into bits.
After his rage had been spent, and he ran out of strength, Ivan ran out onto the street without looking back at what a pile of great work he had done. That afternoon, the citizens of St. Petersburg caught the rather peculiar sight of a young man running home, crying like a child, whose jacket, cape, and pants were all covered in fresh blood.
TBC
Notes:
- The Decemberists were founded in the early 1800's by a group of Russian imperial guards who wanted to overthrow the current Tsarist system, abolish serfdom, and promote equality before the law. They revolted on Dec. 26, 1825, after the death of Tsar Alexander I, but unfortunately, their efforts were stopped by the loyal troops, having been outnumbered three to one.
In January 1826, the last of the Decemberist leaders were caught and sent to St. Petersburg and hung publically. It was the last public trial in Russian imperial history.