Ivan felt very nervous.
He had promised Kat to tell Natalya about his plans to run for student council president, and he said that he would make sure Natalya didn't do anything too rash.
The problem was that Ivan really didn't think that was a promise he could keep.
Natalya was Natalya. She was stubborn and independent, regardless of how many times she professed her lover for him and that they should get married. She did him no harm, since she would usually do anything Ivan asked her to do and she would never raise a finger against him, but…
That didn't change how terrifying she was.
Not that Ivan had much to say about that. He knew that he had a temper that sometimes just, well, slipped a tad bit at some points and that his reputation preceded him, which earned him varying degrees of wariness wherever he went, but he never tried to intimidate the object of his affections. Which was exactly what Natalya did, if even a little unintentionally.
Oh well. She would find out sometime eventually, and he had to keep his promise with Kat. He might as well get it done and over with…
What if she became angry?
Ivan felt a little uneasy at the thought gnawing at the back of his mind. His motivations for running in the elections were none too pure, and he doubted that Natalya would keep a calm façade up when she found out what his end goal was.
Of course, he could just not tell her…?
But she would find out when he won, da? Things would not be pretty when she did.
Consequences, consequences.
"I mean, like, he's totally a jerk, for real. Don't you think so, Tori?"
He had been passing by the student lounge when he heard an overzealous voice from the inside of it, catching his attention in the otherwise silent hallway. It took a few sparse moments for him to place a name to the voice—Felicyta Lucasiewicz—and an extra few seconds for him to realize who the Pole had just addressed.
Toria! His dear, lovely Toria. She was here? Ivan wasted no time in opening the door to the lounge wide open and walking in.
Three sets of eyes stared at him in obvious surprise, and then something quite similar to discomfort. That didn't matter, however, because pretty, pretty Toria sat in her chair looking at him with green, very pretty eyes.
"Toria! I am surprised to see you here. I haven't seen you for so long; where were you? If I didn't know any better, I would have thought you were avoiding me, da?"
Purely delighted to see her, Ivan excitedly approached the Lithuanian, but soon a figure stood between him and his Toria, blocking off his clear view of her and making him frown.
"What are you doing, Alyssa? I can't see Toria very well."
The American did not budge, even though he was sending her one of those smiles he tended to use when someone was in the way of him getting what he wanted. Such a pity that this particular girl never seemed to act the way he wanted her to.
"Back off, commie." Tch, Alyssa Jones was stubborn.
"I have already said this countless times—but your grease-filled brain cells of yours simply do not hold the ability to remember anything of true value does it—but just because I am from Russian descent does not mean I am communist." Ivan inserted some more force into his smile.
"What the hell are you doing on American soil anyways? I swear you're here on a spy mission to blow the White House up. I'll report you to the authorities, creep."
"Sadly, you do not remember the geography of your own pitifully beloved home country, because Washington DC is not in this state. You are not fully American either, da?"
By this point, Toria seemed to be tugging on Alyssa's shirt or something, because she turned her head around and asked "What?" to her. Oh, how Ivan wanted to see Toria as well!
"Aly, it's, uh, it's okay. I can talk to him."
"Wha-? No way, he's evil, and heroes deal with the evil guy."
"No, really…I'm sure Ivan doesn't want to…hurt me, right?"
He could not see Toria, what with Alyssa still standing in front of her, but he was sure that Toria wanted to talk to him. She surely must feel the same way about him as he felt about her.
"Yes, I do not wish to hurt Toria. I only want to talk with her." Ivan abruptly injected into the ongoing conversation, and Alyssa turned back to regard him with suspicious eyes. Why was she so adamant that he was such an unpleasant person? They had even been allies once, and now she treated him like a monster. Such manners!
"Okay." She reluctantly stepped to the side, allowing Ivan to have full view of Toria, with her Polish friend's arms around her neck, sitting to face him.
He would really like to make the Pole step away as well, because he didn't like having people being so intimate with his Toria, but Toria was good friends with Felicyta. She would not be happy if Ivan made her friend go away too. He didn't want Toria to be unhappy.
"Uh, so…What did you want to talk about, Ivan?" Toria seemed a little nervous to ask.
Right, he had wanted to tell her something.
He was not sure of how well this plan was going to work, because unlike his usual plans, this one had been planned a little hastily and maybe even a bit clumsily hatched and improvised upon. He had overheard segments of a conversation today, a conversation Gilbert had been participating in, and he had learned some interesting things from them. Gilbert was always such a one for scheming, wasn't he?
Now, if only Ivan could tweak some of Gilbert's plans to fit his own~
"Ivan?"
Oh dear, he must have spaced out again. He did that too much, especially when he started to think about Gilbert and the day he broke his arm…No, Ivan, focus!
"Sorry, I was thinking of something, humorous, for a minute….kolkolkol…."
Alyssa attempted to step back between them, looking a little alarmed. The other two girls also seemed a bit fearful of his demeanor, and Ivan realized that he should stop this other habit as well, the one where he started to laugh a little…emotionally.
"No, it was a harmless, thought. Please let me finish." Ivan smiled again at Alyssa, silently willing her to not step back in.
Besides, thinking about breaking someone's bones was harmless, da?
"Uh, sure…" The American glanced back to make sure this was okay, and Toria nodded slowly. Felicyta tightened her grip around the seated member in the classroom.
"Toria," Oh, now that he was going to say it, he felt very embarrassed, "I like you very much, and I would really be happy to spend some more time with you. Like the old days, da?"
Toria seemed to pale at the statement.
"Ah, well, I want to wage a bet with you." Okay, that sounded a little unorganized.
"A bet?"
"Yes!" Maybe he said that a little too quickly or loudly, judging by how she flinched a little. He calmed himself.
"I will run for student council president." Good, he sounded much calmer.
Alyssa's mouth hung open. "What?"
He ignored her. "And if I win, I would like you to become my girlfriend."
Toria and Felicyta both reacted with sharp intakes of breath. Realizing his mistake, Ivan backpedaled quickly. "No, not girlfriend. I mean, a good friend."
Felicyta was the one who responded first. "What do you mean by, like, good friend?"
Oops, he had not thought that through. He blurted out the first thought that came to his head: "Spend time with me regularly."
He did not have the chance to hear Toria's response.
"No way in hell. You too? Gilbert, then Mathias, and now you? What's with these lunatics who are trying to take over our school? It's illegal for commie bastards to run in the elections, you Russian creep!"
Alyssa's outburst really hurt his ears.
"It seems your idiocy has ruled you again, but I am not communist. And you are also running for the position." Ivan pointed out.
"That's because I'm the hero trying to save the school from you alien commies, Nazis, Vikings, whatever. I'm so not letting you take over this school, Braginsky."
Ivan allowed himself to smirk.
"Try me, Alyssa Jones."
Eduard Laurinaitis had no choice about going through the pain he had to go through in his life, so he usually did a good job of pretending it didn't hurt. Even if his arm hurt like hell because of the burns he had etched into his skin at the moment. The nurse was sympathetic, but her unhesitant manner inn wrapping his arm tightly in gauze really cancelled out any gratitude he could feel for her.
"Nasty, man. Sorry you had to get hurt like that da ze." Im Yong Soo commented on the injury. Eduard gave him a half-hearted glare.
"I'll be fine, but the lab report won't be. Now I'll have to collect the data all over again." And it's all your fault, he wanted to add in spitefully, but he refrained from bitching at Yong Soo and sighed instead.
He had never been good at standing up for himself, even in cases where he rightfully should, thanks to those years of horror in the Braginsky household. Plus, Yong Soo was, well, a nice person. Even if he seemed to have ADHD sometimes and had a weird tendency to grope other people. He was the kind of guy that made you feel bad for snapping at him, what with his puppy eyes and drooping curl (sometimes he could swear he saw facial expressions in that damn curl).
Besides, Eduard had a feeling that his irritation with the Korean might be a little biased.
"There you go, all patched up!" The nurse smiled and stood up. "I should get back now."
"Thank you." Eduard felt himself be picked up and set on his feet. Yong Soo grinned at him.
"Say hi to Lovino and Feli for me, Mrs. Vargas!" Yong Soo cheerily called. The Korean glanced over at Eduard with a pointed look.
"You should still get a checkup at the hospital da ze."
Eduard frowned. "I need to collect the data by today to finish the report."
"I can do it for you!"
"No."
"Why not? I'm good at these things da ze. And it's my fault that you got hurt."
"You can pay my hospital bills, if you feel so guilty about it."
Eduard pulled his arms away from the Korean's grasp and walked back to his station. He could spot some burn marks on the desk and floor, but the glass fragments and liquid chemicals had been all cleaned away neatly. Yong Soo had done a good job in a short amount of time.
"The teacher will probably understand if you show him the burn marks."
Eduard decided to admit defeat. "Fine."
He had to go finish compiling the data for the season's stats anyway. He had to get it done before the team party. Tina had definitely lied to him when she said being hockey team manger would be easy.
The door behind Yong Soo opened to reveal a panting Matthew.
"Yong Soo, Eduard! Are you hurt?"
Matthew stepped in, his eyes scanning the two for injuries. Yong Soo scratched the back of his neck and pointed at Eduard. "Only him. I got him injured by accident."
The Canadian was at Eduard's side in an instant. "Are you okay?"
He felt very uncomfortable with all this attention on him. It wasn't like he hadn't been through worse things.
"I'll be fine. It's just some minor burns."
"I was just at the nurse's office, and so were Lovino, Feliciana, Mia, and Kaya…They were all talking about something, and then Mrs. Vargas came in. She said that you two were over here and that there was an explosion, so I just ran over…"
Yong Soo laughed. "No worries, Mattie. I'm fine, and our manager over here will be fine soon enough!"
Eduard sighed as he pushed his laptop into his backpack. Good thing he could use all of his fingers, or else he would have had a hard time squishing it into the already full bag.
Matthew's phone started to ring.
"Huh, oh, hey Aly…Wait, what's wrong?"
Eduard's ears perked up.
"I can't hear you when you're talking like…Oh hey, Toria. Can you tell me where you are? I'll go pick Aly up…Yeah…Oh, Eduard's here too...Okay, is everything all right? …Huh? Oh, yeah, be right there."
Matthew slipped his phone into his pocket and sighed. "Okay, let's move it to the student lounge."
Eduard silently cheered at the prospective of going to meet Alyssa, and with a good reason as well. It was hard to actually be in the same room as her, since he was a freshman and she was a sophomore. The only other times he really got the chance to talk to her alone was during those hockey games, when she came over to cheer for Matthew and Yong Soo.
Eduard was hopelessly in love with Alyssa, and there was no denying it.
He'd had a crush on her ever since she had taken him and his family, Toria and Raivis, out of the Braginsky household, never to come back. She had just taken their hands and marched out, determined and powerful and beautiful.
She was strong. He'd seen her punch a guy so hard that the poor man had sprawled to the ground a good ten feet away. She had watched Ivan break Gilbert Beillschmidt's bones and stopped him from nearly maiming the German for life. She had known how terrifying Ivan could be, but she had still stood up to him and protected them even though she was scared of Ivan.
He never forgot how her hands, trembling and shaking but ever so warm, took them out of that nightmare they had lived in for over two years.
"Hey, Aly! You alive da ze?"
Yong Soo flung the door to the student lounge open, only to be nearly flung out as a blur of gold catapulted into his arms and caused him to stagger backward, choking for air. Eduard felt a twinge of jealousy as he watched Alyssa nuzzle into Yong Soo's chest and mutter incoherent sentences.
"What happened?"
Ever the sensible one, Matthew looked for reason in the other two girls. Feliks rolled her eyes.
"Ivan Braginsky is running for student council president, and he wants to date Tori if he gets the position." Was that a hint of a snarl in her voice? "Oh, like he wishes."
Any questions to the Pole's unusual subtle ferocity are erased when Alyssa cried out, her voice muffled by the shirt Yong Soo is wearing, "the commie bastard challenged me! The creep was screaming at me to bring it on, the son of a bitch."
Matthew was chewing on his lip. Nobody noticed except for Eduard.
"Now, now. Language, Aly. Language." Yong Soo rubbed his friend's back soothingly, and Eduard felt another pang of jealousy. "I know, Ivan is freaky da ze. He must have scared you a lot."
"I'm a hero," Eduard could hear the sniffles. Damn his hormones for thinking that even those sounds were cute. "And heroes are not scared of evil commies."
"Yes, but you're a special kind of hero, Aly. It's okay to be scared da ze." Yong Soo had wrapped his arms around her, rocking her to calm her down.
Eduard wondered why Matthew stood there, not doing anything. Matthew was usually supportive of his sister and would have definitely said something to comfort her, but all he did was stare wide-eyed at the floor. Yong Soo was shooting Matthew a look, which probably meant what the hell are you doing and not saying anything. Eduard would have said the same thing out loud, but his sister's voice stopped him.
"Eduard, you're hurt!"
Toria walked up to him and gingerly lifted his arm to gauge the damage. Not really possible with all the bandages, but she tried.
"Oh, there was an accident in the lab…"
Eduard trailed off to watch Alyssa finally untangle herself from Yong Soo wiping her eyes and telling him that she was okay. Feliks, who was not very familiar with Yong Soo or Matthew, had retreated behind the door in a weak attempt at concealing herself. Toria looked at his arm, worried and probably trying to determine how much money the treatment would cost.
He wished he could protect them. He wished they could rely on him. He wished he could gain Alyssa's trust. He wished Toria was not so worried all the time.
He needed to prove himself.
Eduard watched Matthew finally go hug his sister, uneasy smile lodged in place and murmuring words of encouragement.
"Speaking of Ivan, did you talk to him about the post-season party?" Yong Soo turned to Matthew, who let go of his sister with a pensive expression on his face.
"Hm? Ah, that. Actually I talked to Katyusha, so she'll tell him to call me."
"Oh good, ask him to give me back my USB, will ya? I swear he's going to steal it one day da ze."
Alyssa giggled, good mood back and at ease. "Your pathetic excuse of a piece of technology? Nobody wants that. What did you have on it anyways, porn?"
"Hey! It's just a little old and the plastic melted a bit, but it works fine! And there's no porn da ze. Kiku deleted all of it."
Matthew choked on air. "What?"
"Just kidding da ze."
Alyssa rolled her eyes. "About the fact that there ever was porn, or that Kiku deleted it?"
As Eduard listened to the conversation, his mind started to formulate a plan.
Ludwig needed a plan.
His idiot of a brother was, possibly for the first time in his life, taking a very logical method of driving Ludwig crazy.
Sadly, Gilbert and logic did not get along well.
Gilbert had laughed when Francis came with the news about Alyssa joining the candidate list for student council president. The move had been either predictable or nothing worrisome to Gilbert. Ludwig put his money on the latter.
What did prove to be worrisome, however, was the news that Mathias Christensen and Ivan Braginsky had also joined the proverbial race. Ludwig had been given the information from Berwald after school, where they had both coincidentally happened to be walking their dogs. When Ludwig went home and told Gilbert about the update, the result had not been very pretty.
Now, Ludwig just wished he had never told his brother in the first place. Gilbert had alerted Antonio and Francis to an emergency meeting, and now it seemed like both of them would be over for dinner. Mutti and Vati did not seem to mind about the sudden addition of extra company; they were both enthralled to see Gilbert and Ludwig socializing with others. Especially after those chaotic middle school years…
Those middle school years were coming back to bite him in the ass. Mathias and Ivan. Mathias and Ivan. And do not forget Alyssa Jones. Gott, luck was not on his side these days.
He had to stop Gilbert. Or else something awful was going to happen. Ivan had very nearly killed Gilbert two years ago, and this time he might succeed at doing so. Mathias was quite justified if he wanted to maim Gilbert and Ludwig permanently, and it wasn't like Ludwig didn't know how vicious the Dane could be.
Damn his puberty.
And damn his brother as well. Ludwig loved Gilbert, he was his only brother after all, but that didn't change the fact that Gilbert was an idiot. An idiot who sent his brother out to buy ingredients for a ridiculously populated dinner.
Ludwig looked down into the shopping cart and counted the amount of sausages he had put in. It wouldn't hurt to put a few more in, right?
Okay, maybe some more.
Yes, one more should be enough.
Maybe…
"Ludwig?"
Ludwig switched his focus from looking intently at the sausage in his hand to looking at the person who addressed him.
"Hello, Arthur."
"Hello to you as well, and…" Arthur peered into Ludwig's cart, "bloody hell, are you trying to make a statue out of those?"
Ludwig had the decency to blush and attempt to tug his cart away from the Brit's criticizing eyes. He only succeeded in ramming a wheel into his own foot. He hissed in pain as Arthur looked at him with pitying eyes.
"What are you doing here anyway?" Ludwig shot at Arthur, hoping to divert the attention away from his awkward stunt.
"Getting food. What else would I do in a supermarket?" Arthur gestured to the shopping basket he held in his hand, which contained some butter, eggs, and something Ludwig did not really want to identify.
He asked the horrifying question in his mind. "Are you cooking?"
Not quite catching the look of disgust on Ludwig's face, Arthur snorted. "Of course I am, you git. And I know better than to swallow thirty sausages for dinner."
Ludwig would not stand to be insulted by Arthur in the subject of cooking. Never.
But his confidence waned when he looked at his cart and looked at the abundant number of the slabs of pork in there, and Ludwig decided that Arthur had a point. A small one, but a point nevertheless.
He changed topics. "Your family must be happy that you do the cooking."
Vati would occasionally suggest for Ludwig or Gilbert to take up a lesson or two on the subject of culinary arts (which was why they both ended up in Home Economics together, curse his fate). Mutti, though a generous and kind mother, often sent various hints at Gilbert and Ludwig to please learn to cook and eat properly, something other than wurst, though the hints had recently changed into ones that pertained more to Feli than food now…
Arthur frowned. "Not actually, because she won't be back for dinner. Neither will be Peter, since he's sleeping over at Berwald's again."
Ludwig raised an eyebrow at the statement. "What about your father?"
"I don't have one."
Shit. Ludwig mentally kicked himself for his thickness.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know."
Arthur just shrugged it off. "I'm used to it."
Now they both just stood there awkwardly, not saying anything or moving at all. Ludwig mentally took stock of the money he had been given to buy the ingredients and how much more food they would need. This was not what he had planned, but, oh well.
"Would you like to have dinner with us?"
Arthur stared at him.
"I mean," Ludwig struggled to keep his composure in check, "Francis and Antonio are eating with our family, so it won't really matter if we have an extra person."
Feliciana must be rubbing off on him. That must be it. There was no way he had just invited Arthur Kirkland to dinner.
"No need to pity me." Arthur defended himself, gripping his basket a tad too tightly.
It was not pity. It was just something Feli had told him a long time ago, when she had found Ludwig beaten and tattered on the street and brought him to her home.
Nobody likes to eat alone.
Ludwig casually walked to Arthur and snatched the basket from the shorter boy's reach. Good thing that he had a physical advantage over the other boy, or else Arthur's glare would have reduced him to a crumbling pile of ash or something pathetic along those lines.
"Come have dinner with us. I would like you to."
Arthur flushed, a blush fighting its way over his cheeks and reaching his ears. He shoved his hands down his jean pockets and grumbled something that sounded like an okay.
After the shopping was done, Ludwig and Arthur both held a large bag of purchased ingredients and trudged towards the home.
By the time they were there, Francis and Antonio were both aiding Gilbert in some sort of video game in the living room while Mutti greeted them and ushered them in. She was delighted to meet a new friend (Arthur had managed to resist snorting at the term, while Gilbert poorly concealed a gagging sound at the idea of it).
Mutti made quick assessment of the ingredients ("I told you to stop buying so much wurst!") and set off to work. Ludwig joined the others in the living room as Arthur just stood there, unsure of where to sit.
"Resident Evil 4, I see." Arthur mused. "You really haven't grown up, wanker."
"Shut up, Artie."
"Arthur, why don't you sit by me?" Francis slyly extended an invitation to sit on the bare floor next to him. Arthur quirked an eyebrow.
"I'd rather go die," he remarked dryly.
Ludwig silently agreed.
"Hola, Arthur! You could sit here if you want."
Arthur accepted the suggestion ("Mon cher, how could you cheat on me like this?" "Can it, frog.") and sat down, his eyes following the movements on the screen. Ludwig hoped that nobody brought up the incident when Arthur had practically demolished Antonio's gang—the Armada, or whatever name it was—several years ago. It was the one thing that really could start a fight between the two.
"Now then," Gilbert finally saved the game and turned the TV monitor off to face the others, "we should start our awesome meeting!"
Damn, he had really been hoping Gilbert would forget about that.
"And West brought along Artie too. Sweet!" His brother rubbed his hands in a conniving manner that made Ludwig want to run to his room and lock the door. He sincerely regretted agreeing to this stupid plan.
Of course, Ludwig only said he would do it because Feliciana had just looked at him pleadingly, eyes wide and hands clasped together and…
That Italian was going to be the death of him.
"So, we first have to make sure everyone sees the campaigns and all…Everyone! We gotta catch their eye, you know. Other than posters and all that bullshit, any ideas?"
Antonio piped up, "We could give everyone tomatoes! Then they'd remember you, right?"
"That sounds awesome! Actually, we should give out beer too!"
Where would they get enough tomatoes to give to the entire school? And they were underage; how would they get the alcohol?
Francis grinned. "If attention is what we need, we could always dress up a little…deliciously."
Ludwig did not miss the wink Francis sent Arthur.
His only hope was Arthur. Gilbert never listened to Ludwig, so Arthur was his best bet at creating a sense of sanity in here. Ludwig looked at Arthur with a rather strained look.
"How about we hang the frog upside down? It will certainly be eye-catching." Arthur sent a murderous glare at Francis, to the despair of Ludwig. Of course Arthur was not one to maintain sanity around Francis.
"Wait, how about Kiku and Feli advertise you during lunch time? They're cute, so people will notice!" Antonio clapped his hands together.
Arthur sent Antonio a look that had even Ludwig shiver under the intensity of it.
"You try to leave Kiku out of this," Arthur hissed.
Antonio shrunk behind Gilbert and nodded wildly. Ludwig wished Arthur could just turn that glare on Gilbert and make the entire fiasco come to an end.
"Aw, come on, Artie. She's the one who agreed to help me out, isn't she?" Gilbert grinned.
Right, Gilbert never listened to anyone.
Arthur sighed. "Fine. You need a plan? I'll give you a plan."
Then, seemingly whipping out a blank notebook and a pencil from out of nowhere, Arthur started to write down tactics for the upcoming campaign war. Ludwig groaned and gave up, toppling over to the side and burying his face into a nearby cushion.
This was all because Arthur always complied to Kiku's wishes. What happened to the Arthur Kirkland who whipped everyone's asses and sent many hoodlums crawling back home, begging for mercy?
(But Ludwig and Gilbert were the ones who had broken Arthur.)
Feeling a wave of guilt come wash over him, Ludwig buried his face deeper into the cushion.
It was not like he had much to say about Arthur's submissiveness now.
Ludwig knew that he would end up accompanying his wild, idiotic brother throughout the entire time, and not only because of Feli.
It was because part of him wanted to see his brother truly happy again.
/ This one took so long to come out. And I don't have much of an excuse for that. I'm sorry to anyone who waited for me!
Wow, Eduard came out so much differently from what I was going to do. And I was going to write way more about Antonio, but Ludwig talked a lot more about Arthur instead...Oh dear, where is Spamano?
Yes, Aly was there when Ivan beat up Gilbert, and she stopped Ivan because she thought he was going to kill the poor dude. That was when Aly started to really get freaked out by Ivan. It's sorta an analogy to WW2, where Aly and Ivan are the Allies while Gilbert and Ludwig are the Axis. A lot of their backstreet history coincides with events from the actual nation history (such as Russia taking Finland-Ivan kidnapping Tina). I'll write that someday...
A lot of people are asking to see RussAme, and while I think they'd be cute, their current state makes it a little iffy. Ivan likes Toria, and Alyssa freaks out around him (but she never shows it to him). I'm not making any promises about future pairings, so just keep on watching and see where things head. Don't flame me if things don't turn out the way you want them to.
Forgive me for any typos. I'm so tired right now...