Braginsky Apocalypse Home

Chapter 14

It has been an hour since Ivan had called the Kremlin to voice their decision. The man on the end sympathetically congratulated on making such a difficult choice so quickly. He also explained the full plan. It would take four hours for the bomb to be set up completely and an hour to reach its destination. They would recieve a notification when the bomb would be nearing the east coast. The man also said how much of an honor it was to work with the personifications. Ivan told him the same thing and they parted ways. The Russian then called off the gathering and the personifications were in their desegnated rooms of the house.

***

Ivan shuffled a stack of old photos. He spent about thirty seconds examining each one with a smile. The photos depicted him and his family throught the years, mainly Soviet times. There were photos that brought back happy memories, some, not so much. Ivan was currently looking at a family photo. He noticed how he was the only one smiling. The rest seemed upset, scared, and downright apathetic. The Russian turned the picture over to see the date. March 1955. The same year Stalin had died. It was a national tragedy at the time, and signified the end of an era. With a sad smile, Ivan moved onto the next photo. It was of him and Yao, when Stalin and Mao, Yao's leader at the time had a conference together. They were in a heated discussion, and didn't notice the picture being taken. Ivan chuckled as he remebered that there was even a song about the two communist countries' friendship. "Stalin and Mao- brothers for centuries". The blond turned to look at the other subject of the photo to see what he was doing now. Yao was laying on his back, blankly staring into the ceiling. He must've noticed Ivan staring at him, so he spoke up.

"Why didn't you listen?"

His voice made it seem like he was on the verge of tears, and, perhaps, he was. Ivan didn't mean to upset his partner, but he wholeheartedly believed that he had made the right decision for everyone.

"I did what was best." He stated. Yao spared a bitter glance for him before turning back to the wooden patterns of the ceiling.

"No, you didn't. You did what you thought was best. You just singlehandedly killed the entirerty of the Earth's population, Ivan." The male sighed in exhasperation before continuing, "I never thought that you were so selfish when I fell in love with you."

Ivan's eyes widened at the man's remark and he turned his whole body to face him, "What did you just say?"

Yao couldn't help but smile at the Russian's reaction, of defeat or victory, he didn't know, "That's right. I've questioned my feelings towards you since your communist era, but this war really finished it off. You actually thought that you could treat me like that and expect something else?"

"Treat you... like what?"

"Like we're married, you bastard. You always took care of things for me and told me things you haven't told anyone else. And when you kissed me, good god, what did you expect to come out of that?" Yao sat up on the bed and leaned his body against the back of the bed, covering most of his face with his hand, "And I thought you felt the same. I thought you thought of me as enough to change your mind and make the right decision, but you didn't. You might have killed the human race, but neither you nor I will never kill what I feel towards you, Ivan. Even if that's what's best."

Ivan was stiken with simple, raw shock at the other's words. Yao was right, Ivan really did treat him differently. From spilling out his heart to him to showing simple displays of affection. The Russian had never thought of it that way. His leaders had always told him that homosexuality means punishment, so he had never allowed him to think of it that way. To him, the kiss was a breaking point of mutual tension. But now that he had thought it out thoroughly, he might have fallen in love with Yao without even realizing it.