Ex's to Lovers

Chapter 61

In Which Ivan Does Not Break Up With Alfred

"Ivan!" 

Alfred greeted his rival/boyfriend/ex/crush/fiance as he often did; by smacking him upside the head. Since Ivan was eating soup at the time, and it splashed and hit his sweater, Ivan returned the greeting with a smile reminiscent of an angel of death, and cheerily flipped Alfred the bird. Seeing as this was pretty normal between the two, and Alfred had other concerns on his mind, he ignored this and continued his sentence, which was also pretty normal between the two of them.

Ivan, knowing that Alfred was not going to apologize, and probably thought it was funny, pushed the bowl away in case Alfred tried to do something worse, like dump it on Ivan, and gave Alfred his undivided attention. Alfred, happily receiving it, began to make his announcement. 

"Ivan, let's brea-" 

Ivan, getting the chills he usually got when Alfred was about to cause chaos, quickly lept up and clapped a hand over Alfred's mouth, beaming in a way that caused several freshmen nearby to freeze solid.Since Alfred was pretty much immune to Ivan's glares by now, that didn't stop Alfred from trying to pry Ivan's hand off his mouth, but Ivan's hissed threat did manage to make Alfred shut up long enough for Ivan to haul him away. 

"Alfred, let's talk somewhere else. Now."

He then proceeded to haul Alfred off by the arm before Alfred had a chance to protest. Dragging Alfred away was easy enough, since Alfred had decided to allow it, but the problem came with the words that Alfred declared as soon as Ivan let him go and uncovered his mouth.

"Ivan, let's break up!"

As expected, Alfred's words would have caused chaos, probably turning the school into another war zone. Since these words had been exchanged between the two of them before, Ivan wasn't really concerned. He responded to Alfred's demand simply.

"Nyet." 

Alfred was frustrated. He conveniently chose to forget how he had (accidentally) gotten them engaged after Ivan asked them to break up, and instead felt only what Alfred considered a righteous frustration. He responded somewhat petulantly.

"I'm being serious! Break up with me!"

Ivan remained unphased.

"Nyet. Or do you want to be buried by my sisters?"

Alfred felt an eyebrow twitch, and uncharacteristically tried to keep calm and appeal to Ivan.

"We could keep it secret from your sisters! They don't need to know, and I won't tell my family either, so!"

Ivan looked at Alfred with a look Alfred easily identified as irritation, having received that look many times since he met Ivan. Alfred didn't understand why Ivan was being so difficult about it. Ivan glowered at Alfred behind his icy beam, and asked a question in a dangerous tone.

"Are you asking because you have become interested in someone?"

Alfred was surprised that Ivan had guessed correctly, and since what Ivan said wasn't wrong, and because Alfred thought Ivan might agree easier if he said so, he agreed with a shamelessness that only he and Mattias had. 

" Yeah, so break up with me!"

Alfred flinched as Ivan's icy beam lowered to below freezing temperatures. He was even more bewildered when he recognized Ivan's expression as one he made when he was actually mad. Alfred didn't understand why Ivan would be mad at him, but Ivan's voice was steel as he responded.

"Alfred, I will never break up with you."

And then Ivan turned and stomped off without a word, leaving a bewildered Alfred in his wake.