Ivan was still surprised by the way Alfred's face lit up whenever he entered a room. Antonio and Lovino looked over at him as he entered the room, albeit a little nervous to do something like this. But, whatever, he had to just take a deep breath and do this.

"Hey, did those idiots finally come to their senses and rehire you?" Alfred asked.

"Not exactly," Ivan said, looking at Antonio and Lovino. Did they know about this deal? Surely if they didn't know now, they would know soon. "Have you two heard about their plan?"

"Uh…a little bit?" Antonio shrugged. "I mean, it was mostly that once you finally got around to coming here that he would…uh…"

"I think it's fucking stupid," Lovino grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. "Letting someone like him loose? Again?"

"What?" Alfred asked, standing up. "Are you serious?"

"At least I'm not the one babysitting him." Lovino smirked at Ivan, who glared half-heartedly at him. Admittedly, Ivan was scared to be alone with Alfred, but at the same time he felt at ease around him. It was such a strange relationship, but Ivan was about to be forced to test the bounds of it.

"What are you even going to do after he's gone?" Ivan asked curiously. Naturally, the guards wouldn't have any job after he was gone.

"Is no one gonna talk to me about this because I'm honestly pretty damn curious," Alfred piped up, but Ivan held up his hand to tell him to wait a moment. Alfred huffed, but did so anyway.

"Well, they're paying us to keep up the usual appearances," Antonio mused. "We're coming in here, we look like we're doing the usual job. Until something else happens, that's all we can do, keep the panic level low."

"Any explanation would be welcome," Alfred said and Ivan rolled his eyes.

"In any case, you two can leave, I can handle him," Ivan said, although hesitantly. Could he really handle Alfred? Sure, last time had been fine, but Alfred had a goal in mind. He had a place to go and things to do. Now he didn't have a goal, he would just be…around.

"If you say so," Lovino said, quickly skirting out of the room. Antonio patted his shoulder, giving him a pitying look, before leaving as well.

"Dude," Alfred said bluntly. "Explanation, please."

"It looks like the Board agrees with you," Ivan said, raising his hand and forcing the magic wall to fall. "There's nothing you can do trapped in here. At least this way you can get out peacefully and without causing panic."

"Seriously?" Alfred beamed, already rushing to Ivan's side. They'd apparently given up on restraints altogether, but Ivan knew why, so he couldn't fault them on that.

"We are still counting on you to take care of Gilbert," Ivan said. "No one else can do that. That's the only reason they're letting you loose."

"Yeah." Alfred rolled his eyes. "I'm sure everyone's just waiting for me to do it so they can freeze me again."

"You can't exactly fault them on that," Ivan said carefully.

"Maybe," Alfred shrugged. "In any case, not all 50 are in the city yet, so I'm safe until them!"

"How can you tell?" Ivan asked. He looked at the door out of the cell. As far as he knew, he could just…walk out. No one knew what Alfred looked like, save for a select few, all of whom knew that Alfred was cleared to leave. It was just really strange to think that Ivan was about to leave the Detainment Center with the worst criminal in history…

"I just can," Alfred chimed, walking towards the door. "Now let's go! There's so much I wanna see!"

"What makes you think I'm taking you sight-seeing?" Ivan raised a brow, but followed him out the door anyway. Alfred immediately ran for the windows lining the walls to stare longingly at the city. Now that they weren't pressed for time, he could do whatever he wanted. His finger tapped the glass as he stared for a few minutes in silence.

"You know," Alfred said, "when I, uh, went into your memories to learn about stuff, I didn't really look very far. I mean, I know basic history, plus a little because you're such a good student, and I was able to figure out how people talked, but I didn't look far enough. I didn't know about half of this technology stuff and it's just really weird to think that…entire species died out when I was gone…"

"You sound like it's your fault," Ivan said.

"Well, I can tell you that if I was in charge, that wouldn't have happened," Alfred said spitefully, but he still didn't tear his eyes away from the city. "If I was in charge, a lot of things wouldn't have happened."

"Are you suggesting that you could have stopped wars single-handedly?" Ivan asked. Alfred stayed quiet. "You may have been the most feared dictator in history, but I can tell you that the world has never gotten along well. There's always going to be something to fight about."

"Well, any fighting in a dictatorship is well-contained," Alfred said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "It doesn't amount to anything. Give it a strong leader, and it won't fall."

"I mean no offense, but you don't seem like the kind of person to be that kind of dictator," Ivan said steadily. He was pressing buttons, he knew, but he was curious. Alfred intended to be the world's dictator, but as far as Ivan had seen, Alfred was a child with ideals about the world.

"There's a lot of me you haven't seen," Alfred said, glancing at him now. His gaze was steady, almost dangerous, but he was still keeping the conversation light. "You haven't really seen me fight, you haven't seen me lead people. Hell, all you've seen from me is some kid that's just really good at Dark Magic. That's not all there is to me. There's a reason I turned to Dark Magic. It's not the reason I became The Dictator, I used it so I could become The Dictator."

Ivan paused for a moment. It was common knowledge that Dark Magic made people go near insane. It was thought that The Dictator had used Dark Magic and then went on his rampage. But Alfred said that he wanted to control the world before he even had Dark Magic…

"Like I said before," Alfred said, "Dark Magic doesn't make you do anything you wouldn't already have wanted to do." He turned towards the elevator and Ivan didn't follow him, only staring. Alfred stopped, turning back to him with a bright smile. "Now come on, I wanna see what it's like to ride on a bus!"

It took a lot of convincing to get Alfred to just come to Ivan's apartment instead of…touring the entire city, which he somehow thought was possible to do by the time night fell. All considering, once Ivan started talking about the place he lived, Alfred's interest did pique. But this only lead to, the second Ivan's door opened, Alfred running around in an attempt to see everything that he could. Ivan watched in mild amusement as Alfred started fiddling with his microwave, figuring out what the buttons did.

"So does a lot of this run off of magic?" Alfred asked curiously.

Ivan shrugged. "Most of the power is run by magic, since that's the most efficient way to do it. But all appliances can be operated by people without magic. Using magic just makes it easier." He demonstrated by waving his hand and turning on the stove, which made Alfred jump in surprise.

"Whoa," Alfred mused, taking a new interest in the stove and the oven, fiddling with anything he could get his hands on. Before long, he moved onto the fridge, marveling at the fact that it was actually cold on the inside. Ivan forgot pretty easily just how old Alfred was, and the fact that all of this was new to him. Sure, he could adapt easily when he wanted to, but there were times, it seemed, where he just wanted to act like a child discovering the world again.

"And the lights overhead, you can control them, too?" Alfred asked. "They're not just fire, right?"

"No." Ivan shook his head with a small chuckle. He demonstrated again with a wave of his hand, flickering the lights on and off. "We haven't used fire for light in hundreds of years."

"Really?" Alfred asked with wide eyes. "That's so cool!" He bounded out of the kitchen and towards the bathroom, where the door hung open. Ivan turned on the light for him while Alfred dove first for the toilet, examining it curiously. "There was one in the cell and I always wondered how it worked," he mused. He flicked the lever and it flushed, but naturally since nothing was inside, nothing happened. "Does it only work with something inside?"

"So that we don't waste water," Ivan explained. Alfred nodded before going to the sink, messing with the hot and cold water.

"Can you control the heat with magic, too?" Alfred asked curiously. Ivan demonstrated again, turning the water over Alfred's hand from hot to cold.

"And what the hell is this?" Alfred gasped, running over to the shower without even turning off the faucet. Ivan chuckled, turning it off for him.

"The shower," Ivan said. "You haven't had a proper once since coming here, have you?"

"I mean, of course I bathed myself on a daily basis before all this happened," Alfred shrugged. "I had to look like a leader, but no, I never had anything like this." He started fiddling with the shower head.

"You should take one," Ivan offered. "A shower, I mean. I can offer you some of my clothes to change into, since yours are dirty. We can get more later." It was very strange to think that he was making plans for the future with The Dictator, but he tried not to dwell on that thought for very long.

"What do I do?" Alfred asked curiously.

"It works like the sink, but it comes out of the shower head," Ivan explained, fairly amused by Alfred's expression of awe. "You should wash your hair, too. I have shampoo you can use. And soap."

"Whoa," Alfred said, looking at all of the stuff Alfred had in the shower, which admittedly wasn't a lot. "Dude, not even the castles I took over had shit like this. This is fancy."

"I'm…" Ivan said, shuffling towards the door, "going to make dinner. I'll get you a change of clothes and a towel first."

"Thanks." Alfred smiled innocently and Ivan darted out of the room and into his own room. He paused for a moment as he looked through his clothes for something hopefully small enough for Alfred to wear. Not only had he allowed his thoughts to, briefly, wander to Alfred, naked, in the shower, but he also felt his heart skip a beat at the sight of that smile. He shook his head. This was just that stupid kiss when they first met talking. That meant nothing. Ivan shouldn't even have any kind of feelings for someone like The Dictator anyway.

When Ivan returned with a meager pile of clothes still probably too big for Alfred, he stopped cold when he saw Alfred had already taken off his shirt. His back was turned to Ivan as he checked the temperature of the water, but that certainly didn't stop Ivan from staring. He couldn't help it, honestly. Alfred had obviously made sure he was built well for a fight. His back and arms were muscular, far more muscular than any of his previous clothes had led Ivan to believe. Curiously, there wasn't a trace of even one scar. There was no blemish of any kind on Alfred's skin, not even a freckle.

Alfred finally took in his presence and, unfortunately, turned around. Needless to say, the front was far more impressive than the back. For just a brief moment, an image came to his mind of tracing those clearly well-defined abs, running his hands over Alfred's well-sculpted, smooth, blemish-free chest. Maybe even nibbling at-

"Like what you see?" Alfred smirked teasingly and Ivan felt a blush rise to his cheeks.

"Here," Ivan said hurriedly, giving Alfred the clothes and quickly pulling a towel from a cabinet. He turned on his heel to leave.

"Seriously, thanks," Alfred offered. "Not a lot of people are this nice to me, not even back then."

Ivan nodded, shutting the door behind him. He let out a long breath as he leaned against the door, listening to Alfred as he got into the shower. He buried his face in his hands, but when he closed his eyes, only the image of Alfred's bare chest or maybe his back came to mind and Ivan groaned. Now was really not the time. Besides, Alfred had quite obviously shown that he had zero interest in Ivan at all, past teasing that was…

Ivan's thoughts traced back to what Alfred had said. Not even back then…When Alfred acted as general, controlling a vast military in an attempt to control the world, people must have viewed him with fear or only blind respect. How often did someone do something for him merely out of kindness?

Ivan slowly stood up, still feeling a light blush dusting his face, but went into the kitchen regardless. Nothing much had changed in the few days he was gone. The milk had gone bad…

Ivan decided on just a simple meal of pasta. Honestly the best he could come up with. He would have to go shopping soon, which would be absolutely amazing for Alfred. While Ivan watched the water boil, he briefly thought about how surreal it was that he was actually keeping The Dictator as a house guest, but he was trying not to think about things too hard recently.

They would have to stay on alert for any sign that Gilbert was nearby. Considering how much Alfred knew about the outside world that he shouldn't, Gilbert probably knew a lot as well. Most likely something to do with Dark Magic. Regardless, Gilbert might be able to tell where Alfred is, which would be a problem…

Ivan jumped as he felt his phone buzz in his pocket and pulled it out. It was Feliks, gushing about how excited he was for the Freedom Parade, which was, in fact, three days from now. He was making plans over a group text. Ivan watched as the conversation filtered between his friends for a while. He was required to keep an eye on Alfred, which meant bringing him with him everywhere he went.

Before he could stop himself, he typed a simple question and hit send.

Is it alright if I bring another friend?

Feliks responded almost immediately.

duh is it your boifriend

Ivan glared at the screen for a while before responding that, yes, it was Alfred, but no, he wasn't his boyfriend. Natalia was the only one that seemed concerned, but Ivan could easily talk with her about it. He let out a small sigh, thinking about the next few days. As long as nothing out of the ordinary happened, Alfred would follow him as his schedule got back to normal. Ivan would go back to school tomorrow, the day before the weekend, which would be awkward, but they could deal with it. Then they would have Saturday together, where Ivan didn't plan on doing anything. And then Freedom Day…Ivan still wasn't sure how Alfred would react to something like that.

"Dude, don't you think it's dangerous for the water to boil over like that," Alfred's voice said suddenly and Ivan jumped. The water was boiling over and he quickly went to stir it, turning down the temperature. He quickly tested a noodle and sighed with relief. He hadn't ruined anything. "You're spacing out a lot, that a usual thing for you?"

"Recently," Ivan said, turning back to Alfred, who smiled at him with wet hair. Ivan's clothes were a little too big on him, which resulted in the neck line allowing Ivan to sneak a peek at his chest. Ivan turned on his heel to focus on the pasta again.

"Okay, so that shower thing is fucking awesome," Alfred chimed. "I mean, it fucking rains on you, but at whatever temperature you want it to! And I've been so used to using cold water! Hot water showers are officially my favorite thing about this time period!"

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself," Ivan said.

"And that food smells good," Alfred hummed. "I mean, they've been giving me these shit meals at the Center and I've gotten tired of it. Hell, hunted rabbit meat cooked on a fire tastes better than that. But this looks good…"

"Well, thank you," Ivan said. "I'm afraid I'm not the best cook, but-"

"Hey, good food is good food, I'm not complaining about who made it." Alfred smiled at him and Ivan turned to focus on the food once again. "So…what's the plan? For the future, anyway? I'm kind of just waiting around until Gilbert shows himself, since I'm apparently not allowed to use Dark Magic or whatever. That promise I'm still keeping, at least until I fight him…"

"Well, tomorrow I'm going back to school," Ivan said, idly working on the pasta. Draining it, making sure the sauce was still okay… "You'll have to come with me."

"Sounds like fun," Alfred smiled.

"And you'll be coming with me to be with my friends on Sunday," Ivan said carefully, keeping the exact details of the day a secret. For now. He would tell Alfred eventually…

"Cool," Alfred nodded. "I can't wait to see your other friends."

"Just look out for Natalia," Ivan said and Alfred raised a brow. "My sister. She can be…protective…"

"Uh, hu," Alfred nodded slowly. "Anything else I should know?"

"No, not really," Ivan shook his head. "After dinner, I'll be doing some homework that my professors have sent me, you'll have to entertain yourself."

"Not a problem!" Alfred chimed.

The homework sent to him was more than Ivan anticipated it would be. Even late at night, he hadn't managed to finish everything. He groaned, rubbing at his eyes as he shut the computer screen for the day. He did all he could do, he could apologize to his professors later. He glanced over to the couch, where Alfred had fallen asleep watching television a while ago. He'd been so enamored with the drawn people in the box that Ivan trusted him to be on his own. He was snoring quietly and Ivan smiled. He still looked like a kid when he was sleep.

Ivan quickly got out a blanket and laid it over Alfred's sleeping form. A small part of Ivan was extremely tempted to just lean down and place a quick kiss to his forehead, but Ivan stopped himself. This close to his face, however, Ivan was able to take in a lot of details about Alfred's face. There were no scars, no freckles, nothing other than perfectly smooth skin, which was pretty odd. Sure, he had his immortality, which kept him from getting hurt, but what about before then? His blonde eyelashes rested peacefully as he breathed in and out and he just looked so…pretty…

Ivan stood up and quickly darted to his own room. Well, pretty was a good thought to end the night on. Better than other nights Ivan had to endure. And considering Alfred was sleeping in his apartment now, Ivan was very glad that he didn't have…other thoughts to worry about.

God, Ivan is so cheesy I'm going to barf! Just stare at his chest, why don't you? Go ahead, think about kissing him while he's sleeping, that's not cliché at all! Losers…But I still love them. Anyway, new plot points, yay! Coming up soon are some scenes that I've had planned for a long time. A lot of this story is planned for a long time, but whatever.

I'll see you next time!