I Will Be Your Knight

Chapter 20

The first thing you make Ivan do is take a shower and brush his teeth. The smell of vodka on him is starting to make you nauseous. While he's in the shower you begin to clean up a little in his room. You pick up the larger pieces of debris and pile it in a corner. Anything salvageable gets placed on a section of Ivan's bed that isn't torn up. Then you spot Ivan's faucet pipe. You have a little trouble working up the nerve to pick it up, but you brace yourself, and bend down.

The metal is cold and smooth in your hand. You expected some kind of aura or feeling to come off of it, but nothing happens. If anything, you feel a sense of sadness coming from the pipe. You look at it closely. The poor thing has as many scars as Ivan's heart must have. You lay the pipe on the bed carefully. Some people might think of it as a weapon of destruction, but you see it as a shield of a hurt child. Ivan lashes out to protect himself.

"подсолнечник (sunflower)," Ivan breathes in your ear.

You turn around quickly to face the violet eyed man. You hadn't heard him walk in, which is quite the feat since the floor has broken glass all over it. He hugs you tightly.

"Ivan," you whisper as you bury your head in his chest. "I missed you." That's when you notice he doesn't have a shirt on. "Ivan! Put some clothes on!"

He starts laughing, and laughing, and laughing. His 'kolkolkol' fills the room, but it's not terrifying like the last time you heard it. "After everything that happened, you're worried about what I'm wearing?" Ivan kisses you lovingly. "That's why I love you sunflower."

He leans his forehead against yours. His hair is wet and dripping all over the place, but you don't care. "C'mon, let's get you properly dressed. Then we can start cleaning up."

You go to Ivan's house everyday to help him clean up. Sometimes the Baltics are there too. They're so happy to see you and Ivan back together. With everyone's help, the house is cleaned in a week. Well, the dirt and debris is gone, but the broken furniture still needs to be replaced.

"I'll do all of that later," Ivan tells you when you finally finish cleaning. "I need to let General Winter know what's happened."

"Won't he be upset?" you ask concerned.

"No. This wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened," Ivan says with an embarrassed scratch to the back of his head.

"Oh," you say, unsure what else you should say. "Well, don't forget Gilbert is having a Halloween party in two weeks, and we need to work on our costumes."

"Alright (y/n)," Ivan says and places a kiss on your forehead. "You should get going now. You don't want to be late for your apprenticeship."

Things slowly fall back into place in your life. Everyone notices your sudden change in demeanor. They were all worried when you had stopped smiling all the time. You had explained to some of them what happened, but not others. You left out the part where you got hurt, though, because people might blow it out of proportion. 

"I'm glad you're okay now," Elizabeta had said. "It was no fun listening to Gilbert complain about how 'un-awesome' you were acting."

Both you and Ivan work on costumes for the next couple weeks. Actually, it's more like you work on it while Ivan nods disinterestedly. You do most of the work on it, and that means you can dress Ivan up as anything you want.

You arrive at Ivan's house before the party at Gilbert's. You let yourself in and walk to Ivan's room. He's sitting on his bed and taking notes from a business book. He doesn't even look up when you walk into his room. No one else just barges right in like you do. 

"I brought the costumes!" you announce excitedly.

"Hmm," Ivan grunts without looking up.

You drop the bags with the costumes next to the bed and place your hand over his book. "Come on Ivan! We gotta get ready for the party."