~A/N~
Sorry for the super late update, I'm very sick and I tried to make this an extra long chapter! I hope you enjoy! Thank you to everyone's Reviews and Follows and Favourites! You are all so AWESOME! I would also like to give my special thanks to IWantsRussia for your enthusiasm! You are extremely awesome you've been so inspiring this entire time! I love you! MaskedRomeo and EqualDemise731, thank you for your recent reviews :) Thank you for all your support my beautifuls!
"Ivan, I've been looking for you. Where have you been?" Nene smiled as she walked towards him.
Ivan was snapped out of his train of thought (Of which consisted of Madeline and school...) and looked at the chestnut brunette. He had become rather upset with the whole Madeline staying with Lars crap, and that pissed him off. Why was it that Madeline couldn't leave Lars? Why couldn't she come to Ivan if she cared for him?
"Oh...Priviet Nene." Ivan held his usual child-like smile. "How are you?"
"I'm okay, but you ignored my question. Where have you been?" Nene was persistent.
"Ah ha" –A chuckle from his part –"well...I've been nowhere in general. Just roaming about the school; skipping class and all." He answered, with his usual thick Russian accent.
"Right... So, I've gotten you a little update on the little 'sunflower' of yours. She's a total floozy. I mean, you could totally see it in the way she-"
Ivan pinned Nene against the wall, his eyes sparked with anger as he held one of her hands above her. "No matter what you think of her, do not speak of her so ill. Do you understand?" He spat. His mind laced with anger, no one other than he could call her floozy or words of such.
A small thin hand flew across the air and made burning contact with Ivan's cheek. "Let me go, you son a bitch. And no matter what, don't you dare lay a hand on me again." Nene's eyes narrowed. She was not fond of this abuse, and even though she was afraid of the tall male, she wasn't going to show it.
Ivan blinked as he processed what had just occurred. "Da... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to –Forgive me." He mumbled as he let go of her hand.
"No problem. Just don't do it again, jerk." She twisted her lips into a frown to express her disappointment. "Anyways, that wasn't what I was here to say. I was here to ask a favour of you." She continued to walk.
Ivan followed behind her and mumbled a small 'Da?'
"Since I'm spying on this chick for you, you need to give me something in return, Da?" She teased.
"What are you implying?" Ivan narrowed his violet orbs on the hallway ahead of him.
"Easy. I just want you to watch my back." Uniform covered shoulders rose and fell.
"Why?" Ivan lifted a platinum blond eyebrow. He had noticed how quiet the red locker covered hallways were with no high school students flooding them.
"I have my reasons, and you have yours. We don't want to tell them, do we?" Nene caused her peach lips to form a smirk.
"I can tell you-"
"No! Don't! I don't want to know!" She wailed and covered her ears while reciting a little 'la la la la' rather loudly and closing her dark eyes shut.
Ivan laughed lightly at her childish appearance and pulled her hands away from her ears. "I see that you don't want to know, fine by me. I won't tell." He grinned as he came closer, making their noses skim.
Nene almost blushed but looked away in time. "Okay. Cool, now, if you're going to watch my back, you'll have to pay attention to what happens to me. And, on top of that, you have to take care of me. I get into quite a lot of trouble with that Alice chick and I don't like her."
Ivan nodded and closed his eyes a bit. What kind of trouble did Nene get into? It wasn't like she was anything like him. Oh my, Ivan was just getting into trouble all around. Whether he wanted to be juvenile or not, he always came in contact with trouble, and of course this annoyed him.
"What kind of trouble…?" He wandered.
"The kind of trouble that is… none of your business!" Nene exclaimed and skipped away. "See you around, loser." She sent a two-fingered salute his way.
Ivan nodded as he watched her leave, with a small smile perching upon his lips. He had recently met her and she seemed rather nice, not nice but nice. She was okay; she was fun and charismatic. He actually liked her personality quite a lot, despite the numerous times she bad-mouthed Madeline. He could get used to having her around, and she was only a year younger so she wouldn't become annoying.
Ivan then went back into deep thought of Madeline. It made him upset every time he thought of her, but if he shoved one of the many school students, he could feel just a tad bit better. Of which was totally fine with him, anything to get his mind off of her was perfect.
"Ivan…" Someone called his name.
Ivan grunted, for he didn't want to be interrupted, and looked back to see whom it was.
"Ivan, h-hello." The usual timid voice of Madeline hit him once more.
Ivan caught a quick glimpse of the shy girl and continued to walk, as if she had never said a thing.
"Ivan, I understand you're upset, and I'm sorry. I just –I don't know. I'm so sorry." She said as she caught up to him.
Ivan proceeded into keeping his mouth shut, even if in his mind he wanted to yell at her and express his disappointment, but also pin her against the locker doors and kiss her sweetly. He groaned and shot her his usual child-like gesture.
"Don't worry about it, Madeline." He grinned.
"Ivan… I'm very sorry."
"There is no need for you to apologize, it is okay Madeline, I understand." Never did his smile waver.
"It's just that Lars-"
"You don't need to explain, I understand." Ivan interrupted the whispering female. "If that is all, goodbye." He stated and began to walk away.
Ivan sighed heavily and ignored Madeline's calls. If he even looked her in the eye for one second, he was sure she would see how hurt he was inside, and so he just continued without even taking a glance back at her.
Upon arriving at home, Ivan filed into the kitchen and poured himself some American brand cereal, something along the lines of Trix or something of the sort. Either way, he walked to the dinning table and sat down.
"Little brother!" The familiar sweet voice of his sister called from the living room. "You're home so early." She ran to the kitchen past the many furniture pieces that they owned.
"Yeah, I skipped last period." Ivan answered once he saw the blonde at the dinning room doorway.
"You should really stop skipping… It's bad for your attendance and teachers will hate you." She nodded and sat beside him. "What class did you skip, you little?" Katerina wrinkled her nose in a jokingly matter and pinched his cheek.
"A stupid one." Ivan smiled.
Katerina laughed and watched her brother eat. "So how's the whole Madeline thing going?" She asked.
"Didn't I tell you? She's still with Lars… She doesn't like me…" He picked at his cereal.
"Right… Oh my, my little brother having girl problems, you know…I would have honestly never thought you would be going through these things… How you've grown." A soft smile conquered her cherry lips. "Anyways, Mister I'm-Super-Scary, our parents need to consult some matters with us tonight, so don't go getting lost now, got it brother?" She pinched his nose and left.
"Got it, sis! And thank you." Ivan watched her leave.
Focusing back on his cereal, he lost his appetite and stood, leaving the cereal on the table alone, and proceeded to his room. Finally arriving in his room, he quickly fell on the bed and rolled about. He noticed his hands were swollen, considering he had gotten into a fight with another juvenile delinquent and by 'mistake' gave him a couple of bruises. When he would arrive at school tomorrow, he would surely end up in detention, for another week or so.
"Achoo!" A soft sneeze came from his lips. Oh no… was he getting sick now? He didn't have time for this petty cold crap, there were more important things on his mind, and how did he even catch this cold? It wasn't even winter yet. He probably contracted it from the weird kid who sat next to him in class. He was always getting sick.
Ivan closed his violet eyes for a little while and smiled at the ceiling; well things couldn't really get worse, could they now? The girl he like did not agree to love him back, another girl badmouthed her, he got in a fight and finally acquired a cold. It was as if luck had drifted away from his grasp.
While deep in his thoughts he did not notice when he'd fallen asleep.
"Big brother…" A knock on the door awoke him.
Ivan grumbled and groaned a small 'Yes?'. He wasn't in the mood to stand and he was engulfed in the comfort of his warm soft bed.
"May I come in?" The voice asked.
"Da." Ivan covered his face with the pillow as his younger sister turned on the lights. He hadn't even noticed that it was dark outside in the first place.
"Big brother, may I ask of you something?" Through a little whole between the pillow and the bed, Ivan noticed his sister was playing with one of her knives.
Actually, the only person that Ivan was scared of in the entire world was… his little sister, Natalia. Not too long ago, Natalia had actually liked Ivan. Not like a sisterly love, but more than that. Of course Ivan did not agree with this, and for a long while, his sister was rather demanding, saying things like 'Let's get married big brother! I love you' or 'I'm the only one who deserves brother's love'. Although Ivan really cared for his sister he was not in the stage of incest. He cared for her in a family way of thought.
"Yes, Nata?" Ivan's voice was muffled by the pillow. He didn't think too much of the knife, she always played around with sharp objects and nowadays, since she had that Lithuanian boyfriend, she wasn't implying incest in any situation. For now, Ivan was able to relax.
"Lydia and Carl* are waiting for you downstairs. They want to speak to you about your absences. And Kat said something about them telling us something, they decided to put that off for now." Natalia announced, twirling the stainless knife between her fingers.
"Right. Okay. I'll be there in a second." Ivan yawned. He uncovered his face only to squint, for the light was too bright. And then stood with another sneeze.
"Are you getting sick, big brother?" Natalia's eyes widened a little bit, with concern.
"No worries, I'm just fine. It's probably an allergy." He shrugged.
"And what are you allergic to?" The blonde raised an eyebrow in disbelief of his lie.
"Too much dust?" Ivan bit his lip with a sly smile; he knew she saw through his lie.
"Then clean your room, you lazy ass." She playfully kicked his butt.
"Hey! Hey! Watch that little leg of yours, you never know when it might be broken." Ivan winked.
Natalia hit her brother upside the head and ran down the stairs yelling "Catch me if you can!" with Ivan following closely behind.
Once grabbing his sister's waist with a laugh and pulling her up into the air in the living room, his adoptive father cleared his throat.
"Ivan." Carl blinked.
"Carl." Ivan responded as his laugh died out and he let go of Natalia.
"I got a call at work, the Principal told me that this is the twentieth time you've skipped Math class. Together you've skipped thirty classes in the entire school year, and not only that, but you've also gotten into thirteen fights with other students, mind explaining yourself?" The brunet male raised an eyebrow.
"There's nothing to explain. Plus, I'm not up to talking about this. So I'll be-"
"Ivan! I am your father, you should at least show me some respect!" Carl growled.
"My father? You are not my father! And may I remind you that you only adopted me because Katerina begged you to bring me along? Otherwise you would have left me in that orphanage without my sisters. I didn't ask for your pity." Ivan hissed.
There was a long silence before Katerina stood and walked to her brother. "Ivan-"
"Kat, get out of this, I don't need any sympathy." Violet eyes narrowed on the beautiful girl. Ivan could see the hurt expression in her eyes and immediately regretted his actions.
"I know. I'm sorry Ivan. Forgive me." She began to cry and ran up the stairs only to cry in her room. Katerina had always been a sensitive girl. Crying here and there and sometimes for no reason at all. And other times she would be extremely happy and always encouraged Ivan to stand up when he was being bullied by those Nordic idiots.
"See what you did?" Lydia sneered.
Ivan narrowed his pupils on the horrid lady. She wasn't the original adoptive mother. The previous had died not too long ago, and Lydia took over the mother role. Ivan could tell she hated him, ever since they met when she started dating Carl. The tone and actions she used toward Ivan simply annoyed him, but he would always hold back from punching her–which almost happened once** –with his usual child-like smile which consisted of threat.
Ivan turned and ran up the stairs and knocked upon Katerina's door. With only sobbing as an answer, Ivan entered the room and sat beside the crying girl on the bed. "Kat, I'm sorry for saying that." Ivan mumbled as he looked at his sister.
"It's okay, but I'm not entirely crying because of that…" She admitted as she rolled over, sat up and cried into her knees.
Ivan put an arm around her and brought her close. "Then why else?" He whispered.
"I got accepted into St. Petersburg State University and Carl said that I can't go. But I really want to." She mumbled.
"You got accepted there? Why didn't you tell me before?" Ivan asked.
"Because I knew what you would say."
"Was it: 'Then screw Carl because I will take you and you will study while I work to help us economically while I also support Natalia as well, because we can't leave her here'?"
"Exactly." Katerina nodded.
"You know me too well." Ivan laughed and fell back onto the bed. "That's exactly what we're doing though."
Katerina kept quiet because she knew that once Ivan had made a decision for the greater good of the family, he would stick by the idea until the end. Ivan was a great family man and whether Katerina liked to acknowledge or not, he kept them more united than she did.
"Father would be very proud of you." Katerina smiled and wiped the remaining of her tears away.
"You mean the General?*** Hmm, maybe, or maybe not." Ivan shrugged.
Katerina nodded and stood from her bed then walked around the room. "Well we do have the money to go, since you inherited the money off father... But what are you going to tell everyone before you leave?" She spoke.
"I don't." Ivan answered and stood as well. "During the summer we'll go, then we get settled there and you can study while I find a job."
"You can't just find a job. You need to study as well." Katerina reasoned.
"Well… I'll study after you're done University and obtain a stable job, until then-"
"No Ivan. We'll just go as students. They'll give us everything we need to survive and we can earn a small part-time job and get money." She answered once interrupting Ivan.
"Oh Kat…You are very sweet. We'll try to do that." Ivan nodded.
With that, Ivan and his sisters were moving back to Russia, how long had it been since they were there? Maybe eight years now? Yeah, it was exactly that.
After leaving the comfort of his bed, Ivan continued to get ready for school. He needed to get there and not be late, because he had promised Katerina the night before, as they discussed the Russia issue, that he would not skip a single class and try not to get into trouble with other students.
Upon reaching school grounds, Ivan barged into the classroom and sat in his seat before anyone was even there to join him. He closed his eyes and rested his head on the grey table. Maybe he could take a nap for a minute or two, his head hurt and he felt extremely hot.
"I-Ivan…p-please d-don't..." Madeline cowered.
"I'm sorry, my little sunflower. This is how I must die." And with that a cold silver barrel pressed against his temple. And Bang!
Ivan gasped and shook awake. What was that? He looked around and noticed everyone staring at him. He looked at the clock and noticed it was a minute before class would officially start. He had fallen asleep for twenty minutes.
"What?" Ivan asked Alfred, as he was stared down with wide ocean blue eyes.
"You were mumbling something and then gasped…" The sandy blond blinked.
"What did I mumble?" Ivan questioned.
"'This is how I must die'." Alfred gulped. "Are you okay bro? You look real pale and it's scary…"
"Oh… Sorry to scare you all." Ivan smiled in a childish manner at the class and they all looked away in a second. "I'm only a tad bit sick, I had a small nightmare though…" He then turned to Alfred, who now sat next to him.
"Go see the school nurse, maybe she can give you some cold stuff to get you all better." Alfred stated.
After asking for the teacher's permission, Ivan did just that. Go visit the nurse, how bothersome could that be? On the upside, He's skipping class after all, right?
~FIN~
~This is the end of the entire story...Just kidding! Love you guys! There will surely be more ;) ~
~A/N~
*Adoptive Parents, no one really. Some random OCs
** More on that latter ;)
*** General/ Father= None other than General Winter! Why does Ivan refer to him as 'The General'? Well… They were army brats when they were babies and Ivan liked to show off to the other kids that his father was a General and so he loves to refer to him as such.