Ex's to Lovers

Chapter 31

In Which Ivan Finds Out
And Alfred Completely Misses The Point

"-And that's what he said." Alfred complained, resting his feet on the pillow. "As if we could ever be friends!"

Ivan was being incredibly gracious to the uninvited intruder who was treating Ivan's room like his own while simultaneously dissing him, and couldn't really be blamed for throwing his slipper at Alfred's face, even if it was a little too hard. 

"Do not put your feet on my pillow. Or rather, get out of my room!"

 The slipper missed, hitting the wall, and Ivan gritted his teeth as Alfred didn't even react. Alfred wasn't even listening, still rambling on to himself, oblivious to the irony of his current situation.

"You're like, my arch-nemesis or something! That's different than a friend! It's not like we're going to be buddy-buddy and go see the game together or something!"

Ivan, who was feeling just as bitter as anyone might when told the other party would never be friends with them (despite the mutual feeling), suddenly froze, thinking, then spoke slowly.

"You are saying...I am...special to you?"

Something about the phrasing was ticking Alfred off, but since that was technically what he was saying, he didn't argue, only grimaced at Ivan's ceiling. Oh, Alfred noted, there was a spot there. He wondered if Ivan ever stared at it and felt like it was slightly off, since the furniture had been moved. He decided to test it with what he attempted to make a casual question.

"So, Ivan, are you sleeping well lately?"

Instantly Ivan forgot his earlier thought and grew suspicious.

"Why?"

Alfred considered the best option to use as a response, then chose his favorite: an aggravating smile that made Ivan's own smile twitch. 

"No reason." 

Alfred lied, maiking it obvious that he lied, and Ivan narrowed his eyes. 

"You did something to my bed last time, didn't you?" 

Alfred's shit-eating grin grew wider.

"Why do you think I did something to the bed?"

He'd added emphasis to the word bed just for fun to stir up Ivan, and to his delight, it worked.

"I have already cleaned the mirror" Ivan warned, "it was like a toddler made that prank."

Ivan waited for the reaction out of Alfred, a shout or defense, but Alfred continued grinning his agravating grin. Feeling a bad sign of foreboding, ivan looked around the room to see what else Alfred had done to it. Nothing looked out of place. He turned to see the room more fully, and his slipper-less foot hit the desk chair, and he cursed as he stubbed his toe. Ivan glared at the chair like his stare alone could make it break apart to pieces. Why the hell did he keep stubbing his toe on it? And it wasn't just that, he'd been stubbing his toes and knocking his elbows on his dresser and a desk and a bunch of things lately. 

Ivan almost pushed the thought out of his head to continue searching for the prank, but then he caught sight of Alfred's face. The last time Ivan had seen such a victorious and condescending grin was when Ivan had discovered Alfred's prank of covering everything in Ivan's schoolbag with foil- in the middle of class. Ivan had a bad feeling about it as he turned to look at Alfred again. Alfred's grin would have widened, if at all possible, but since he was already smirking so widely, Alfred settled for a snarky comment. 

"What's wrong? Is something... Off?" 

Suddenly Ivan realized that the crack on his wall that used to Aling with his desk didnt quite align anymore, and the ceiling mark at the foot of his bed seemed a little over. 

Alfred snickered at Ivan's expression.