~Author's Note~

Hello everyone. It has been a while since I updated and I would really like to apologize for the real late updates. School had started about three weeks ago, so I've been worried about that, as well as there are some more problems within my family, and so I have been thinking too much about them, rather than making you all happy. I am sorry. I hope that my update is worth the wait. As well I would really like to thank all of you who are still following my story. I am very glad that you have enjoyed it thus far and I hope that you will keep enjoying it. Once again forgive me for the late update.

Sincerely,

Ms. AtomicBomb

Once Ivan arrived at home, he ran up to his room and locked himself inside; hoping to not be disturbed by his step mother (to put it in simple terms). He threw himself unto his bed and sighed deeply, he coughed a couple of times and sneezed a couple more. Okay, so if he really was going to this party thing, would that be a good time to tell Madeline and everyone else that he was going to go to Russia after finishing the eleventh grade here? Or should he tell them some other time? But when would it be a good time to tell them? Probably never again...

It was time to tell them, and on Saturday would be the perfect day, plus they only had a couple of months left of school before the end of the year, almost three, why not spill the beans?

Soon enough, after pondering about in his mind, he fell asleep, but this time around he did not have a single dream. Maybe he just didn't remember any but by the time he awoke the next morning, he had no dream in mind. Either way, he thought nothing of it and sat up, rubbed his eyes and yawned. Achoo! Yet another sneeze. God, he really hated this cold, it made him feel like a piece of dog crap that had been run over by a train, and he detested that feeling. Plus it make him look weak. Moving on, he got ready for school.

By Saturday morning, Ivan was feeling way better than he had in the entire week. But he was not able to sleep properly the night before and so standing up slowly, he went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. He was too pale for comfort and there were dark circles under his eyes. Maybe it was a good idea not to go to that party that Alfred was having tonight, he thought to himself, maybe. But he did need to tell them about the whole Russia ordeal and so going would be the best choice.

He got ready for the day, with a usual red T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans, and of course, the everyday scarf he owned. He headed downstairs and poured himself some cereal after he had greeted his little sister with a small smile and a short hug. He shoved his spoon into the cereal and then brought it up to his mouth, devouring the delicious substance.

"So have you decided if you want to go to Alfred's get together?" Katerina sat across from him.

"Good morning, sis." Ivan smiled sheepishly.

"Good morning... So have you decided?" She repeated, her blue eyes looking at him.

"I am going to go, but I wanted to know if you'd like to come along with me." He stated after filling his mouth with cereal once more.

"But I wasn't invited." She furrowed her eyebrows. "How can I possibly show up?"

"C'mon sis, everyone loves you. I don't think they'd mind if you showed up." Ivan smiled at his sister, whom looked up at him past her arms that were rested upon the wooden dinner table.

"If you say so..." She wandered.

"Plus, they dare not say anything to my face." The grin on his lips grew wider.

Katerina nodded and stood with a small sigh. She looked once more at her brother and began to walk out of the dinning room. "Oh..." -She stopped midway -"We will be leaving next month." She whispered sadly and left.

Ivan's orbs grew wide, He only had a month left? How was he to do anything? Damn... if only he had more time...

Finishing his cereal, he stood from the table and ran outside. Okay, first he needed to gather some supplies, e.i. Vodka (Alfred asked him to bring some drinks) and then he needed to go back home and get some stuff ready so he could be able to send it to Russia before they got there. It was going to be a long day ahead of him...

After arriving at the store, Ivan looked for a couple of Skyy and Smirnoff bottles (Some of his favourite Vodka brands) and then some beer. Of course he had brought Katerina along -since she was already old enough to purchase alcohol and he didn't need to pull out his fake I.D.

"You know, Ivan, you should not be drinking, you are under aged after all." Katerina stated.

"Since when did you start caring, sis?" Ivan chuckled.

"Since, we're going to be alone in Russia and I can't be having a drunk brother taking care of my little sister." She nagged, pulling the white car door open and shoving the alcohol in the backseat before getting in herself.

"I'm not the drunk kind, sis." Ivan replied.

"I know, but there are some nights that all you want to do is drink and I'm afraid to say that you may develop an addiction sooner or later."

"What are you, my mother?" Ivan hissed. He didn't really like to touch upon the subject of why, on certain nights, he drank.

"Ivan! I guess I am like your mother, like our mother, because we never had a proper one. Now, you will listen to me from now on. We'll be on our own soon and I'll be the one having custody over both you and Natalia. Please, Ivan, you have to respect me." Katerina calmly explained as she turned on the car and backed out of the parking space.

"I'm sorry Kat, but you have to understand that the only reason I drink-"

"Is because it makes you feel better, I know. But you have to be responsible."

"It's not even like I do it all the time."

"I know that you don't. And I know exactly when you do, but you've got to stop." Katerina sighed heavily.

"Kat, I know that you're concerned over me, but I'll be fine. And I promise I'll diminish my alcohol intake." Ivan spoke quietly.

"Thank you. And don't talk so formal, it makes me feel uncomfortable." She laughed, making Ivan join her.

Entering the house, Ivan dashed for his adoptive parents' room, where he went into the closet and looked for a box that his real adoptive mother said was kept at the right corner of the closet. He had never actually looked at what was inside it but today was the day of truth.

Slowly and carefully Ivan opened the large wooden box. He finally had seen what was in it -Letters. Many but many letters. they were all opened, for they were addressed to his adoptive mother, who had left long ago. But there were many that weren't opened, mostly the majority, and they looked rather new. Ivan took the box out of the closet and brought it to his room where he dumped the letters on the bed and sat to commence with the reading.

He picked an already opened one and looked at the date. Well... It had been written only months after they were adopted, so it did sound rather promising.

Sliding the white paper out of the envelope he began to read:

Hello My Children,

It has been quite a long time since I have written to you...

Ivan stopped reading and dropped the letter. He had to find the first one, because this was certainly not it. He began to scatter the letters looking for the most dated. Finally finding one only written after they had arrived at the Orphanage, he began.

Hello Dear Children,

I will be writing letters to you from now on. I know that you will be at least in your teens before you read this and you may or may not have some knowledge as to why I have left you. I am deeply sorry, but after your mother had passed away, I was not able to keep you all. And instead of splitting you all up, I decided to keep you all together. Forgive me for leaving you in an Orphanage. You know, I already miss you (And it's only been three days since I have given you up and I don't feel I can continue without you).

Either way, I will have to explain as to why I had to give you up. After your mother had died, in Child birth with Natalia, I had begun to drag around some sort of pressure that I was not able to rid myself of, and so taking care of three children was rather hard. Especially Ivan, you were a handful. You were always getting bullied and you would run home to hide behind Katerina or I. Then proudly pronounce that your father was a General. Oh dear, I miss you already.

Not being able to handle three growing children because I was in the military, Child Support had decided that it was best for you all to either go into an Orphanage, or I was only to take on of you. Of course that was not an option, because I loved you all and I could not possibly only keep one of you. And so hopefully I did you a favour and gave you all up, so that you would all be together, forever.

That will be all for now, if I feel I can write more freely on the subject, then I will do so in the following letters. I will write a letter twice a week, for I want you to know what I have been doing while you were away from me.

Sincerely your father,

The General.

Ivan looked down at the paper again and sighed. So what exactly had happened? He was told that they were in the Orphanage because their parents died. But now... now that he found out that the General was still alive... Was he still in Russia? Was he still writing to them?

Scattering the letters once more he looked for the most recent one. Finding it, he ripped it open, noticing the date of it being only two weeks ago.

Good day my lovely children,

I guess that your foster mother still hasn't showed you these letters because I haven't heard a word from both you and her. Moving on, this week I was able to get some time off and I decided to visit some of my friends, I had a good time and we were able to see some of their children. They asked me you were all doing and I felt upset because I am not even sure if you are alright. I hope you are.

It was a long day today, Some recruits were giving me sass, and so I made them go through Hell. Then I thought, would you all give me sass? I mean i would understand because, even if I wrote to you every week, I was never there for any of you. I was never there to protect you. And I am sorry. I promise that when I do get to see you, I'll make it all up. And every person who has ever hurt you, I will personally discipline.

I guess that is all for now, I was only able to write this on my lunch break, so I am sorry for the shortness. I hope to speak with all of you soon. I really miss you.

Sincerely your father,

The General.

Ivan went into a train of thought before he heard the front door open. He quickly shoved all the letters back in the box and threw the box into his closet quickly and ran into Katerina's room.

"Kat!" He ran to her and flopped on her bed.

Katerina raised an eyebrow and looked at Ivan. "What's wrong?" She tilted her head to the right.

"The General's alive. He's been writing letters to us ever since he put us in an Orphanage." He stood and whispered in her ear.

"The General is what?" She almost screamed.

"Shhh!" Ivan hushed. "Yes, he's alive. I think he still lives in Russia, so if he does, we can go live with him. I'm sure he will accept us. I've been reading only a few of the letters and it sound like he really misses us."

"We're not going to use him. He's our father!"

"No no no, I'm not saying that. What I'm trying to say is that He'll be happy to see us so it'd be great if he could take care of us. We'll pay him and it would all be okay." Ivan shrugged.

"Pay him? I don't think he'll accept the money and I see what you're trying to say... Then we should send him a letter..." Katerina reasoned.

"That is what I was thinking. We should do so and explain as to why we are going to Russia. And maybe he can help us out. I mean he is our father after all."

Katerina nodded and sighed. "Is he actually alive?" She looked up at Ivan, her eyes filled with tears.

"Do you want to see the letters?" Ivan asked.

"We should read them tomorrow with Natalia. It's best that way." She sighed and blinked away the tears that were about to fall.

Ivan sat on his bed reading more letters once he was sure his adoptive parents would not enter the room. And in the middle of one his phone rang, interrupting his thoughts.

"Priviet." Ivan answered the phone.

"Bro! You coming or what?" A loud obnoxious groan came from the other line.

"Oh right... Can Katerina tag along?" Ivan huffed as he remembered the American's party was tonight.

"Can Kat come? 'Course she can bro! The more the merrier!" The teenager cheered before hanging up, leaving Ivan by himself.

Ivan quickly changed and went to knock on Katerina's door. After she answered they both headed for the car and drove to the American's house.

"Bro! You came! I was starting to have my doubts." Alfred chipped as he let both of them in. "How are you Kat?" He immediately hit on Ivan's older sister, earning a glare from Ivan himself.

"I've been doing good, how about you Al?" Katerina smiled.

"Great! Thanks to you, I'm doing amazing." He winked.

"Thanks to me?" Katerina questioned as she tilted her head to the right.

Ivan hissed some curse words in Russian towards Alfred before punching his arm. "Watch it Al." He spat as they entered the basement. There was music playing on the speakers and the lights were on low and a whole table of drinks in the right corner.

Looking around, Ivan noticed who was at this 'get together'. Francis, and his girlfriend; Jeanne, Gilbert, Elizaveta, Antonio, Lovina and Alice. Maybe Madeline was upstairs and she would come down soon, because Ivan wanted Madeline to be the first to know that he was off to Russia.

"Bro, My sis is in her room. Up the stairs and second room to the right. Knock on her door." Alfred instructed.

Ivan looked at Alfred a little puzzled and the nodded, understanding that Alfred was helping him out and then proceeded to the second floor after waving his sister goodbye, and in return receiving a thumbs up from her part.

Reaching her bedroom door, he softly knocked upon it.

~Author's Note~

Sorry again for the tardiness of my work. I also feel this chapter was not worth it. Hopefully I did not make any mistakes... My friend was not able to edit it today and I really wanted to update this today. I really apologize for making this so late, and hopefully you enjoyed. I also believe that it will end pretty soon. Maybe a chapter or two left... And I hope to update by next week, hopefully if not, please forgive me. Thank you for reading.