Hot and Cold

Memories Past

Ivan was the first of the two to awaken once again, rubbing the grogginess from his dark violet eyes away with a hand. When his vision cleared, he could see the sleeping Canadian across from him and smiled warmly. He leaned over and planted a soft kiss upon her forehead and quietly got out of the bed to find his clothes, tugging them back on upon the finding of them. Madeline was still without hers, but she was covered by the comforter and he wasn't going to wake her for it. Humming quietly to himself, Ivan headed into the kitchen and poked around in the fridge, pulling out a few things and setting them aside on the counter. When finished, the Russian straightened and started to look for a pan, but wasn't familiar with the layout of the kitchen so it took him a few minutes to find one. Once he did, Ivan heard shuffling and turned around. Maddie was coming out of the room, still looking sleepy and dressed in her pajamas once again. Upon seeing Ivan, she smiled a little bit. "Ah, you should let me cook.." The Canadian commented after seeing the things laid out neatly on the countertop. Ivan shook his head with a chuckle. "Nyet, you go and sit. I will take care of it, da?" He said with a wide smile. She laughed a little bit. "If you want. Just making sure, eh." Maddie responded, walking into the small kitchen anyways and leaning against the counter. Ivan came over and gave her a quick peck on the lips, then proceeded to go back to his cooking. Madeline gained a thoughtful look whilst his back was turned to her. She was thinking about earlier, which made her cheeks darken of course. However, this caused thoughts of her previous lover to resurface. Abel..

Well, he had stayed in the town where they had lived as children and was still residing there to her knowledge. When she had moved back to Paris with Francis, they had kept in touch to the point where they would Skype call each other every day, sometimes a few times a day and were in a happy long-distance relationship. But then, as both of their lives had progressed, the calls had gotten less and less frequent. It was only until one day that the now rare calls she had received was answered. Maddie was so happy to see Abel again, and this made him feel discouraged of what he was calling to tell her. It turns out that he wanted to end the relationship. A long distance thing like this couldn't work for him anymore, and he had started seeing this other girl - Mamiko Honda, Madeline believed it was. Another Nation, Japan. She had ended the call after a few more sentences exchanged with him, then had locked herself in her room and cried for the rest of her day. She didn't get it. Even far away, she had loved Abel, but she guessed that it wasn't enough for him and tried to keep from beating herself up over it. However, this is what led to her harming herself. Francis was the one who had caught her, convinced her to stop. For that, she owed him her happiness and well being. Her communication with Abel had ceased after he had broken it off.

Madeline snapped out of her depressing thoughts a few seconds later, staring at the back of Ivan's head, his ashen blonde hair. She sighed softly, causing him to turn his head a little bit and flash her a smile when he realized she was looking at him, then continued cooking while humming gently to himself. Madeline had always felt something towards Ivan, but what it was she didn't realize until the last few months spent with him. Granted, she was always intimidated, afraid of him. As their friendship grew, her fears faded and were replaced with trust and friendly love. She wished that she had known sooner how Ivan's feelings towards her had fledged into full on love, and maybe this whole situation could have been avoided. And sure, there had been a few others in her life (and Ivan's, she was sure) that held the title of endearment to her heart; Gilbert, Carlos, even Dmitri at one point, but the relationships had never worked out for very long. Madeline had always blamed herself, but she just.. well, never really felt to them what they had towards her. Ivan and Abel were always different. Sure she had been unsure and wary of Ivan after what he'd pulled a while back, and Abel had treated her better at the time. She just wasn't the one for Abel she supposed. Maybe he's happier with Mamiko, maybe she was the one intended for him and not her.

"Maddie?" Ivan spoke curiously, turning off the stove and looking to her when noticing her nostalgic expression. She glanced up at his voice. "Hm.. ?"

"Are you alright? You seem a bit sad." The Russian said brushing his hands off on his pajama pants while asking. "Oh, yeah. I'm fine, just thinking about a few things." Maddie waved his concern off with a smile and shake of her head. He shrugged, flipping the last of the pancakes he had been frying onto a plate stacked with others. "If you say so, sunflower. Breakfast is ready, though.~" He said cheerily, setting the hot pan onto one of the back burners on the stove and carrying the plate of warm pancakes, along with a bottle of syrup, to the table and sitting both down gently. Maddie nodded, heading to the table and taking a seat. Ivan seated himself across from her at the small table and fixed his plate, drizzling syrup over the pancakes afterwards. She did the same and started to eat. "Ah, these are really good, Vanya." Madeline said with a smile, enjoying the rich taste of the syrup combined with the sweet, small cakes. Ivan chuckled. "Spasibo. These are much like blinis, of which I would make at my own house. It wasn't hard to figure out something slightly different." He replied happily, and the two continued eating.

After breakfast, Ivan and Maddie sat on the couch and started watching a movie. Madeline didn't know what it was, as Ivan had put it on, but she dozed off about halfway into it after nodding off a few times. Ivan chuckled softly, pulling the sleeping Canadian into his lap and relaxing into a laying position with her on top of himself, refocusing his attention on the movie as he gently started to stroke her soft hair. Maddie smiled in her sleep, cuddling against Ivan's chest before going still again.