Ex's to Lovers

Chapter 68

In Which Ivan is Jealous of himself, and Alfred Thinks it's Hilarious

By the time Alfred finally picked out a ring, he never wanted to see another ring again. Ever. Or Feliks for that matter. Feliks tended to forget exactly who the ring was for, and started trying on rings that he liked, which was also making the employees at the store very anxious to have two highschool boys manhandling their jewelry. If Alfred was more observant, he might have noticed the security guard lurking near the door of the shop, or the employees' relieved face when he not only picked on out, but also paid for it.

Since the ring had to be fitted first, Alfred left it with them and would pick it up at a later point. Besides, Alfred had remembered something he hadn't done. That is to say, he hadn't broken up with Ivan yet, so he couldn't ask Ivan out. Other people might have chosen to take advantage of the fake-fiancé position to try to win the other over before breaking up, especially if the other was someone who had a history of disliking them, but Alfred wasn't a normal person. He was a train on a one-way track and once he made a decision he would follow that track until he got his way or got into a train wreck.

A very small part of Alfred thought he should ask Natalya how to get Ivan to break up with him, since she was his sister. Two things stopped him from doing so. The First being that Toris and Natalya never came back, and the second was the fear for his mortal body combined with the fact he wasn't sure he could get past the words "break up" before Natalya strangled him. Which meant he was back to his usual tatics: annoying Ivan to break up with him.

Since Ivan was straight up refusing to let Alfred speak to him at all, Alfred had taken to writing notes and hiding them in Ivan's locker, books, jacket and so on. Currently he was on his 9th "please break up with me" note, which he was hiding in Ivan's shoes, having let himself into Ivan's house with the spare key. Without asking. It wasn't that he was breaking In, Alfred justified, since he knew Ivan was home and just refusing to answer the door, since Ivan had given him a death glower from his bedroom window before pulling the blind closed.

Then he helped himself to the juice in Ivan's fridge. Alfred was contemplating sticking a note in Ivan's fridge too when a hand grabbed his wrist. Alfred didn't need to look to see who it was.

"Yo." He greeted casually.

"Enough."

Ivan sounded tired, and a different emotion as well that Alfred thought sounded suspiciously close to sad, which was an emotion he still refused to believe Ivan had.

"I'm not stopping till you break up with me."

Alfred returned easily, a little proud that he'd managed to drive Ivan so far. Ivan's eyes were icy, which unfortunately had long lost its effect on Alfred.

"So you can go propose to that person you like?"

Alfred was surprised. Why did Ivan think he was about to propose?

"No?" 

"Don't lie to me! I know you bought a ring!" 

It wasn't all that strange that Ivan had found out about that, seeing as everyone in school knew, so Alfred didn't pay that fact much mind.

"How can I propose when I havent even asked him out?"

This statement did nothing to ease Ivan's anger.

"But the ring is for that person."

"Yes?"

Alfred winced as Ivan's grip tightened on his wrist.

"Ow! Hey, what the hell, that hurt!"

Obediently, Ivan let go, but his glare wasn't faltering. It was strange to see Ivan straight up glare, instead of beaming icily, and Alfred wondered why Ivan was so angry.

"This person, what do they have that I don't?"

Ivan demanded, and suddenly Alfred understood. It was because Ivan was naturally competitive that he didn't want to accept that Alfred might like someone else more. Having come to this conclusion, Alfred grinned.

"Nothing."

Since the person was Ivan, of course they were the same, but Alfred found the idea of Ivan competing against himself hilarious, and chose not to explain this. Ivan, on the other hand, looked devasted by the sudden smile on Alfred's face, and faltered back a step, his glare less sharp.

"Then why-?"

But Ivan didn't get to finish what his question was, interrupted by the sudden return of Natalya, who was seething mad.

"You-" she started towards Alfred then stopped suddenly, sensing the mood was off. Alfred took the chance to make a speedy escape.