Help Me Forget || usuk

Welcome to Russia

Alfred knew exactly where he was. With Arthur hunched over his shoulder, he trudged through the forest he had ran through so many times. He was roughly 20 minutes outside St. Petersburg, Russia. As he made his way through the thick woods, Alfred recollected what had happened before he had woken up in the warehouse. 

Alfred had gone to the tea house to meet Arthur for a date and had been tricked into going to the kitchen freezer, where he was kidnapped by Ivan. The same thing must've happened to Arthur. Alfred scowled at the thought of it. Ivan was a dangerous man who Alfred had assumed was dead, but unfortunately, was alive and well.

Ivan was a man of influence and manipulation. He knew exactly how to play people and he was the puppeteer of nearly every person he met. At one point he had Alfred in the palm of his hand, but after one year of being manipulated and controlled, the American decided he was done. Alfred knew it was a dangerous game to play, but he didn't want the power-hungry Russian devouring any more of his precious time. 

Alfred shook the violet-eyed monster out of his mind as he heard Arthur stir in his arms. He wanted to get out of the forest as quickly as possible, but he also wanted to make sure Arthur was okay, so he stopped and propped the Brit up against a tree trunk so that he was sitting comfortably. Alfred watched as Arthur quietly muttered nonsense before slowly opening his eyes. As soon as the Brit made eye contact with Alfred his eyes-widened and he looked around frantically, speechless from utter confusion. 

"W-Where the hell are we? What happened? I was at the tea house and- and this lady told me to go into the freezer and then some man grabbed me and everything went black.." Arthur blurted, hyperventilating as he recalled what had happened. 

"Arthur, calm down. We were kidnapped. We are fine now but we need to get out of this forest as soon as possible. It's bugged, and if Ivan can hear us, he can track us. I understand you're probably confused but I don't have time to explain right now. We just need to run." Alfred stated, placing a hand on Arthur's shoulder in an attempt to soothe him. Arthur looked at him like he was crazy before taking a deep breath and standing up. 

"I have no idea what you're saying right now but I trust you. Let's go." Arthur spoke, eliciting a grin from Alfred. 

"This way!" Alfred called out before grabbing Arthur's wrist and running in the direction of the city. Alfred's hyperthymesia really came in handy when it came to escaping Ivan's ridiculous stunts. He knew exactly which way to run and approximately how long it would take to reach their destination. Fifteen minutes to the nearest road and an hour to the heart of the city. 

~

After fifteen minutes of nonstop running the two finally reached the road Alfred had familiarized himself with. If they hitched a ride from a stranger, they would be in the city in fifteen minutes. If not, Ivan could find them easily. 

"Arthur, we're on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. I'm going to hitch a ride and then we can make our way to the city. We can get help there." Alfred stated, looking up and down the street to look for cars. 

"St. Petersburg, Russia?!" Arthur questioned, a horrified expression on his face. 

"I'll explain later. Right now we just have to get to the airport." Alfred stated, leaving Arthur with his mouth dropped open in shock.

"What a great first trip to Russia! I was always hoping I would get kidnapped so that I could visit St. Petersburg! So fun!" Arthur sarcastically muttered under his breath. Alfred ignored him and waved his arms frantically at a car that was approaching them from the other side of the road. At the sight of the crazy-looking American, the person slowed down and rolled down their window. Arthur watched in bewilderment as Alfred started speaking Russian to the man in the car. He couldn't help but think it was pretty hot. 

It was roughly a minute of Alfred talking to the man in Russian before Alfred turned around and told Arthur to get in the car. Arthur hesitantly got into the car with the American and sat silently as Alfred continued talking to the man driving the car. Arthur just stared at the two, mesmerized at Alfred's Russian abilities. The Brit would've been absolutely dumbfounded if he hadn't remembered that Alfred had Hyperthymesia and could learn languages like no other. 

After fifteen minutes of looking out the window and listening to the Russian being spoken next to him, Arthur noticed they had reached the city. Looking out, he watched the water of the Neva river flowing through the city and suddenly calmed himself down. He was safe now, or so he thought. 

When the car finally stopped, Alfred said a few more words in Russian and gave the man some money for being so generous. Arthur said thank you and the man smiled as he watched the two get out of the car. 

"I didn't know you were fluent in Russian!" Arthur exclaimed as soon as they got out the car. 

"I'm fluent in a lot of things, but I'll explain that later. Right now we need to get out of Russia." Alfred spoke, biting his lip as he tried to figure out what to do. Arthur shrugged, a bit too overwhelmed with the whole situation to say anything. Arthur was in an unknown country, for an unknown reason, and all Alfred could say was "I'll explain later".

Nothing was making sense.

Thank you guys so much for responding so kindly to the Author's note I made earlier today! I've decided to continue and see where this goes because I feel like this could be pretty fun. Seriously thank you for all your comments they mean the world. Anyway, thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed. (all will be explained later)