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Chapter Text

Ivan sat on the swings, kicking his legs idly as he watched his breath come out in white puffs. It was the middle of winter. The middle of winter and it was freezing. School hadn't actually started yet, but he had to get their early every day because Sestra had work and school and everything else and Little Sestra had to go with her or stay with Papa, which no one wanted.

Most mornings, he was alone until the teachers came, but this morning a little boy about his age hopped up onto the steps and settled himself down on the concrete porch. He wore a second hand pink winter jacket and had shoulder length blonde hair, rather greasy from not being washed. Having nothing else to do, Ivan left the swings and sat himself next to the other boy on the porch.

"Privet." he said. "Here. You look tired." Ivan added, handing the other boy a granola bar from his pocket. "Sestra says grains are good for you."

The significantly smaller boy took the granola bar carefully and then dug into it, practically wolfing it down. "I was..." he mumbled between bites. "...early today because... Mama went to the hospital..." he explained. "So I didn't get to eat breakfast."

Ivan nodded. "I understand. I'm always early because my big sister is so busy."

"Really? With what?"

"She works three jobs on three different shifts and then takes night school."

The blond boy nodded. "Why does she do that?"

"Dunno. She says it will pay off when she turns eighteen but I dunno why." Ivan was six, why should he know or care?

"It's boring here with no one around." the blond said, sighing once he'd finished his breakfast. "Do you know anything to do?"

"Well... no one is at my house. We could sneak out and go there for a while until Papa gets home. You don't want to be there when Papa gets home." Ivan said.

"So how long do we have?"

"About four hours?"

"Let's go!"

Ivan laughed and stood up, tightening the scarf around his neck, and then took the other boy's hand, hurrying through the playground to the woods behind. He led them down a deer trail that snaked through the trees until they exited in a run down cul de sac. ost of the houses looked old and worn down and most of the cars were gone or broken.

"Come on." Ivan said, hurrying across the street to a faded blue three story house at the far end of the road. He flipped over a rock outside and unlocked the door with the key hidden there and then pulled his new friend inside.

"So do you have any toys?" the blond asked, looking around when they got inside. The seats were old, torn, duct taped to reapir rips. There were a few bottles of vodka and beer by one of the arm chairs and the hardwood floors were stained with dirt and God knows what else.

"No."

"No toys?"

"No."

"What about video games?"

"Papa doesn't let me use the TV."

"Books?"

"No good ones."

The blond huffed and crossed his arms. "What do we do then?"

Ivan turned pink. He'd brought the other here in the hopes of making a friend and he seemed to be failing. Then an idea hit him.

"Let's go to the attic." he said. "If Papa comes home, he won't find us." he added.

"Perfect!"

Ivan took the boy's hand again and hurried up two flights of stairs and into one of the rooms on the top floor. He pulled a few boxes and chairs to the closet and stood atop the pile to open the attic door in the ceiling. Once he'd done that, he helped his friend inside and then crawled in. Ivan made sure to latch the attic door when he was inside.
The place was covered in dust and a dull white light streamed in through the circular window in the wall. There were boxes and crates piled against the walls, along with a few pieces of furniture here and there; a dresser, a wardrobe, a rocking chair.

"Wooow..." the blonde mumbled, pulling off his winter coat. "What's in the dresser?" he asked, excitedly hurrying over.

"I don't know. I only come to here to... hide." Ivan said, taking off his coat as well.

"Oh, wow!" the blond said, pulling a light blue child's dress from one of the drawers. "Can I put it on?" he asked, his eyes wide with need. Ivan nodded.

The blond child giggled and pulled off his pants and his shoes and then slipped on the dress, which fell to his knees and sagged a bit at the chest. He frowned and grabbed a slip from the drawers and stuffed it into the top of the dress to fill it out a bit.

While his friend searched for more things to wear, Ivan looked around for something to dress up in as well. He found a small tuxedo, made from cheap Halloween fabric, and ducked behind one of the boxes to change. Unlike the blond's dress, Ivan couldn't wear his tux over his clothes.

When he came back out, the other boy had dressed himself to perfection. White stockings, a blue sash around his waist, a boy in his hair, white gloves, pearls, and a pair of blue flats. Ivan smiled. "You look really pretty." he said.

The blonde jumped and then turned pink. "Thank you. You look handsome."

Ivan bowed in response. "So what now?" he asked, sitting on one of the boxes near the dresser.

"We could play house, or dress up in something else or..." the blond trailed off.

"Or what?"

"We could get married." he said.

"Why would we do that?" Ivan asked. "Isn't that a grown up thing? And you aren't dressed in white either." he pointed out.

"My mama got married in a pink dress." the boy countered.

Ivan frowned. "Well we need rings. And you need flowers."

The blond nodded and started digging through boxes, and Ivan quickly followed suit. He eventually found a pair of silver rings and a bouquet of false flowers pulled from a plastic vase.

"Here." he said, handing the blond his flowers.

"Aw, thank you!" he said, holding them in front of him. "Now we have to say our vows."

"What... what do vows sound like?"

"They're promises you make to each other before you get married."

Ivan nodded. "Okay, you go first."

His friend nodded and took one of the silver rings and slipped it over Ivan's thumb, since none of his other fingers would fit the ring.

"My name is Feliks and I promise to never forget you. I will... I will... uh... love you until the end of the world!" he said, laughing. "And even if we aren't friends anymore, I know we'll always be married and happy!"

Ivan giggled. "It's that easy?" he asked. Feliks nodded. With a deep breath, Ivan started saying his own vows.

"My name is Ivan and I promise to never let anything hurt you. I promise that you'll always be safe." he said. "That's it." he added, and then slipped the ring onto Feliks' thumb.

"So..." Feliks began. "Now we have to kiss."

"On the lips?" Ivan asked.

"Uh-huh. On the lips or we aren't really married."

Ivan huffed and then tucked his hands behind his back. He leaned over and placed a simple kiss on Feliks' puckered lips.

"Was that okay?" he asked, and then pulled back.

"Yup!" Feliks said.

The two continued to play around in the attic for a while, finding toys and dolls and playing games. Feliks never changed his clothes until they decided it was time to go.

"Can I keep the dress?" he begged. "Pleeease?"

Ivan laughed. "Da, you can keep the dress." he said. "It looks better on you anyway."

Feliks laughed excitedly and then hurried to his winter coat to shove the dress in his backpack. Ivan changed back into his regular clothes, but he left the tuxedo out in case he needed it again. They both kept the rings on their fingers.

"Can we do this again tomorrow?" Feliks asked.

"Da. We can do it every day." Ivan said.

"Yes!" Feliks exclaimed, and then kissed Ivan's cheek.

But they never did. After that day, Ivan's sister turned eighteen and she packed all of hers, Ivan's and their little sister's things and loaded the whole family into a cab, minus their father. They drove until they reached an airport and Ivan's sister paid for three tickets with a jar of change and one dollar bills. They flew and flew for what seemed like days and then landed in a new place. A new place called America.

It wasn't long before Ivan forgot all about Feliks.

Chapter Text

Feliks was awoken by the sound of a ruler slamming onto the top of his desk. He jolted up and wiped the slobber from his chin as quickly as he could and then hung his head.

"Sorry, Mrs. Jones." he mumbled after seeing the teacher's fuming expression.

"Feliks, we have gone over this time and time again: you are not to fall asleep in my English class!"

"I can speak English fine, the only reason I keep taking this class is because my dad makes me."

"No, the reason you're in the class is because you just moved to the US six months ago. Just like everybody else here. Understood?"

He understood. Hell, even if he didn't understand, he'd have to say he did. Even though he was fluent in English, Feliks' father had him take the class "just to be safe." But it wasn't safe. It never was.

Feliks had to drag himself through classes just to be rewarded with a beating at the end of the day from the other students. Then he would drag himself home to a lecture on how taking these classes would fix him and make him better.

They never did.

The bell over Mrs. Jones' door rang as it opened and the whole class looked up to see the principal in the doorway.

"Good morning, students. You have a new friend joining you today--"

"Cut the crap, lady, I'm not going to be anyone's friend." came a thick, Russian voice from behind the principal.

She looked offended, horrified, speechless, but let the boy in anyway and introduced him. "Students, this is Mister Ivan Braginsky. He just moved here from New York. He lived in Russia before that."

"Ja, you can tell by his stupid accent!" Gilbert cried from the back of the class. An eruption of laughter exploded across the classroom and Mrs. Jones had to slam her ruler on the desk to quiet them.

However, that wouldn't have been necessary. Once Ivan stepped into the classroom, everyone fell dead silent anyway.

He was terribly pale and his hair was so blonde it was almost white. His nose was a bit larger than it should have been, but from the ridge in the center, everyone knew it wasn't from genes. He was tall for a seventh grader, almost as tall as the principal, and under his tee shirt, you could see muscles moving with every twitch he made. He wore a shirt that had been torn with a razor in several places and jeans that were ripped from months of wear and tear.

The only thing that wasn't intimidating about him was the light pink, hand-knitted scarf around his neck. It contradicted the spiked bracelets and leather cobat boots, went against the dark circles under his eyes. But for Feliks, it confirmed everything.

"Mrs. Jones!" he called, raising his hand.

"Feliks?"

"There's an empty seat next to me. He can sit there."

There was a hush of laughter from the class and Gilbert muttered, "Fag..."

Another slam of the ruler and they quieted down.

"Mister Braginsky, have a seat where you'd like." Mrs. Jones said.

Ivan nodded and plopped down in the empty seat next to Feliks.

"Privyet." he said, flashing a cocky little smirk towards Feliks that made his heart stop.

Ivan was the first out of the classroom when the bell rang to change and Feliks hurried out after him. "Ivan! Ivan, wait up!"

Ivan stopped and turned, a curious look on his face. "You are... Feliks, right?"

"Yeah." he said, out of breath from pushing through the halls. "Yeah, it's Feliks. I-I-- I think I know you."

"Oh, do you now?" he asked, quickly turning to go on to his next class.

"Yes, I do! I think, back in Europe, we went to school together." he said. "I never really knew who you were until the day before you left-- Here, look."

Feliks tugged the silver ring from his finger (which fit now) and held it out to Ivan. "Don't you still have yours?"

"I honestly thought that was a promise ring your girlfriend gave you." Ivan said, laughing. "I don't know you, kid. Even if you know me, I don't remember, so how about we just start over, da?"

"Yeah. Yeah, sure."

Chapter Text

Ivan seemed to pass all of his classes with flying colors and Feliks still seemed to be lagging behind. They'd at least become friends in the last few weeks, but Feliks still couldn't shake the feeling that Ivan was that little boy from his childhood. But what in the world could make him forget all that?

"Guten tag, little Feliks." Gilbert sneered, shoving Feliks against the lockers to bring him out of his trance. "We haven't seen you for a while, have you been feeling alright?"

"I'm fine."

"It's because you're sucking that Russian boy's cock, ja?"

"What?! What the hell, Gilbert, just leave me alone, okay?"

Feliks tried to slide out from underneath Gilbert's grip, but he was yanked back by Francis. "Non, non, non, you aren't going anywhere, Feliks." he teased.

"What do you want, anyway? Homework answers? I can sneak into one of the classrooms and get the test answers for you if you want. I usually stay after school anyway."

"No, we don't want any of that." Gilbert said. "We're just here to make sure you und that Russian don't end up fucking in the halls. Understood?"

"We aren't togeth--"

"Is there a problem?"

Ivan loomed over the two boys and Feliks, an eerily friendly smile upon his face.

"Nein, we were just talking, isn't that right, Feliks?" Gilbert said, hooking an arm around Feliks' neck.

"R-right."

"Nyet, I think you are wrong." Ivan said, and then grabbed Gilbert's shirt. "You stay the hell away from him, do you understand me?"

Gilbert laughed. "You think that just because you are bigger than me means I'm gonna be scared of yo--"

Ivan shut him up with a hit to the nose.

Francis jumped back and immediately ran in the other direction, calling for a teacher.

"What did I say?" Ivan asked.

"I'll fucking fight you--"

Another punch. "What did I say?!"

"Ivan, stop!" Feliks begged.

Gilbert laughed through his bloody nose, thick streams of red dripping from his chin. Ivan tossed him against the lockers and began beating him relentlessly until his screams were echoing though the halls and everyone had frozen in place to watch. It took four teachers to pull Ivan off Gilbert.

Chapter Text

"You know, they sent Gilbert to the emergency room."

"Good. I hope he stays there."

"Why did you do it?"

Ivan looked up from his detention work. "Do what?"

"Protect me like that." Feliks said. "I mean... we aren't really close friends anyway. So why did you do beat him up like that?"

"I didn't want him to hurt you."

Feliks fell silent at that.

"So hey..." he mumbled after a moment or two of pencil scribblings. "Do you wanna hang out some time?"

Ivan nodded, smiling. "Yeah, sure. Your place or mine?"

"Yours. My dad would kill me."

Ivan nodded. "I can understand that. Wanna just go after this?" he asked, referring to the detention hours they had to make up.

Feliks nodded. "Sounds like a plan to me, Ivan." he said.

Once their three hours of detention was up, the two of them left and Ivan led them the opposite way to his home. Once they were off school grounds, he took Feliks' hand and started running down the sidewalk and through the traffic.

"What are you doing?! You'll get us killed!"

"I'm having fun, Feliks, live a little!"

Ivan laughed and tugged Feliks' hand a bit harder. Once they reached a small apartment complex, Ivan stopped running.

"Damn it. My sister isn't home yet. We'll have to take the fire escape." he said.

"I'm okay with that." Feliks said, smiling.

Ivan jumped on top of the dumpster and yanked the fire escape ladder down. He helped Feliks onto the bottom rungs and then the two of them began climbing. Ivan led them to the top window and forced open the entrance to let them inside.

The room smelled like cigarette smoke and frozen dinner. But the couch was comfy and the TV was decent.

"My room's back there." Ivan said. "I share it with my little sister and my big sister sleeps out here on the couch." he explained. "Wanna watch a movie?"

"Actually, would you mind if I got changed?" Feliks asked, tugging at his school bag.

"Bathroom is down the hall to your right." Ivan said, and then started digging through the TV cabinet to find a movie for them to watch.

Feliks followed Ivan's instructions to the bathroom and nervously pulled a light blue sundress from his bag. He usually wore one after school at his house when his father was still at work, but he was at Ivan's house. Maybe wearing it would jar his memory. Maybe...

"Hey, Feliks!" Ivan called when he heard Feliks leaving the bathroom. "Are you okay with slasher movies? I have all of the Texas Chainsaws--" He stopped mid-sentence when he saw Feliks. Not only did he look rather attractive in the dress, but Ivan suddenly realized why all the boys at school liked to bully Feliks.

"Please don't laugh."

"I won't you look very nice." Ivan said. "Do you always do this when you meet new people?"

"No, just people I like." Feliks said. "Thank you, by the way."

"Not a problem. Now, are you good with Texas Chainsaw or do you want to just watch TV?"