Ex's to Lovers

Chapter 36

In Which Ivan's Revenge Includes Meeting the Family

Alfred should have been more worried about Ivan's revenge. He wasn't. Gilbert warned him to be careful, he didn't know what Ivan might do. Alfred snorted. The best Ivan could do was annoy Alfred, and Alfred had confidence he could out-annoy Ivan any day. After all, he'd been annoying since birth according to his brothers. And since Alfred didn't fear Ivan, the consequences of his actions, or even God, apparently, Alfred went quite happily along with his day. Maybe that's why he was so blindsided by Ivan's revenge later.

It had started with his brother Mathew awkwardly asking Alfred to go to Ivan's with him, though Mathew wouldn't explain why. No matter how hard Alfred bugged. Since Alfred was a smart and kind older brother, he immediately determined that Mathew wanted to see his crush but was too nervous to go alone, so naturally his kind older brother agreed to accompany his Twin. Alfred hadn't expected the betrayal.

"Mattie?"

Mathew looked anywhere and everywhere but Alfred's face.

"Sorry Al... They said they just wanted to talk!"

The "they" in question was both Ivan's younger sister, Natalya, and Ivan's older sister, Katyusha, both of which were giving off an intimidating aura that Alfred was used to from Natalya, but was somehow scarier still from Katyusha. Katyusha smiled at Alfred in a way that made Alfred's gut squirm and his instincts shout "run!". Unfortunately, Mathew was blocking his escape route, so he had no choice but to comply when Katyusha gave the command request.

"Let's talk, da?"

Alfred turned to Mathew for help, but Mathew had already slipped secretly out the door when Alfred wasn't looking.

"Mattie?" 

Alfred was horrified. How could his brother abandon him like this? Especially after Alfred came all this way just to support Mathew? Alfred didn't have long to wallow in his betrayal, as Natalya hooked an arm through his and dragged him into the dining room after Katyusha. And that's how Alfred found himself being interrogated by Ivan's two, very scary, sisters.

"What are your intentions with my brother?"

Katyusha got straight to the point, slamming her hands down on the table, and Alfred flinched. Intentions? What intentions? It wasn't like he had some grand plan for bugging Ivan, his only "intentions" was to mildly annoy Ivan consistently, but Alfred had the feeling that he probably shouldn't say that. Alfred didn't know what to say, opening and closing his mouth like a fish. He might have said something very, very, dumb, as usual, if Natalya hadn't intervened.

"Sister! You're scaring him!"

Natalya admonished, in an act that was so kind and unNatalya-ish that it scared Alfred more that Katyusha ever had. When she fixed Alfred with a sharp look and a smile that was obviously meant to mimic Ivan's, but didn't mask her predatory look, Alfred almost peed himself.

"What she means is are you serious about my big brother? Or are you just playing with him?"

At this point, Alfred finally clued into what was going on, though he was still confused why he was the one being interrogated, especially since part of his choice to accompany Mathew was to grill Katyusha much like Ivan's sisters were doing to him, since he'd failed to do that yesterday. Alfred opened his mouth to say something (probably about how it was Ivan who was playing with him, since Alfred was 100‰ certain that Ivan had planned this somehow) but Katyusha spoke first, her words freezing Alfred to the bone.