Ex's to Lovers

Chapter 71

In Which Ivan Finds Out Gilbert's prank

Ivan smiled a smile that really didn't look nice at all as he picked up another note from one of what must have been a hundred balloons (It was in fact, exactly one hundred, since they'd blown up two packs of 50 balloons). He'd discovered that about half of the balloons had little notes Gilbert had written in them, saying pleasant things like "Take this, you jerk" and "I farted in your room" and "Your face is so ugly it makes me want to cry". This, as well as the meticulous handwriting instead of a messy scrawl, was how Ivan knew Gilbert wrote the notes, and not Alfred.

Gilbert was rude, but Alfred was more irritating, like a stone in his shoe he couldn't get rid of. Alfred knew just the right buttons. To press to drive Ivan crazy. If Alfred had written the notes, they would contain glitter, or have  Wierd curses like "I hope you stub your toe when you wake up" or say suspiciously well meaning things such as "Did you have a good sleep?" which would have Ivan scouring his bed to find out exactly what Alfred did to it this time, or, as Alfred's notes tended to say these days, "Please break up with me".

Ivan's beam faded into a frown at that thought, and he stabbed a larger balloon with his pin particularly violently. He reached for the paper and rubber that fell out to throw away (he'd given up on reading the notes when he realized it was just insults from Gilbert) when he stopped, knitting his brow. The piece fo paper that had fallen out wasn't a scrap like the rest, but a full leaf of paper, seemingly torn out of a notebook, folded many times into itself. Ivan hesitated.

On one hand, he was curious to see what it said. On the other hand, Ivan wasn't a masochist and didn't particularly enjoy reading constant barbed insults aimed at him solely because he existed. Finally, curiosity won out, and Ivan unfolded the paper with a tired suspicion. But then his eyes widened as he read it. 

It was still in Gilbert's meticulous handwriting, but for once, void of any insults or curses, and even more surprisingly, contained actual useful information that Ivan wanted desperately to know. As he read it, his beam returned full force, his lips twitching in irritation, but also another emotion. Ivan's lips curled as he finished the note, crunching it into a ball. So Alfred thought he could play Ivan like a fool? Well, two could play at that game, Ivan decided.

Ivan's beam began to turn sly and rather malicious. He pulled out the paper and re-read Gilbert's note, hungrily.

"Ivan, seriously, please break up with Alfred. He's got it in his head that he can't ask you out unless he breaks up first, and if you don't do something soon, I'm going to kill him. Gil."

Ivan's irritation was growing as he remembered how Alfred had said that he was interested in someone, so he wanted to break up. Yet Gilbert was saying that someone was Ivan, which meant that Alfred had been messing with Ivan the whole time. 

"I have been too nice."

Ivan growled the words to himself. He'd thought that their prank war was superficial, with clear boundaries. And leaving emotional manipulation out of it. But if Alfred was going to play him, Ivan was going to return the favor. 

Of course, It didn't cross his mind that Alfred had different reasons for keeping the reason for the break up hidden, but even if it had, Ivan still would have followed this plan. That was the relationship between him and Alfred, after all.