Forever and Always

24

"Nevada!" California screeched, and Ivan wondered for a second if election season was always this loud, "Did you ever learn to count? For the love of all things holy hurry the fuck up!"

"I did learn to count!" the state exclaimed, "We just have one ballot counter!"

"Why do you only have one ballot counter?!"

Those two continued yapping for the next hour, although they did not know they would at the moment. Washington was staring at his computer intensely, before looking over to Alaska.

"Honey!" he called, and she looked over, "You can't be fucking doing this."

"Oh God, what am I doing?" Alaska asked.

"Waiting a week to count ballots! That's not what we do here and you know that," he replied, smacking her on the shoulder as she walked over to see what he was looking at.

Texas was in the corner manifesting a Blue Texas, something everyone else seemed to also want, but Ivan still did not understand why states had to be colored.

Alfred walked in with a bottle of vodka, "Who the fuck's winning?"

"Trump!"

He took a massive gulp of the bottle before walking over to Ivan, who was giving a weird look. Ivan had just been here to make sure people didn't fight, not to care about who won or lost, even though he probably should because climate change was going to kill him very fast and America was the number one pollutant.

"Michigan," Wisconsin yelled, and the respective state looked over, "first some fascists try to kidnap your governor, and now you're a red state?"

"Um..." Michigan mumbled something, before looking over at the date. America had made them wait til November 4th to see what was going on, and now all of them were scrambling to keep up.

"You don't deserve clean water," Wisconsin hissed, and Michigan jumped up to fight. Alfred took a very quick swig of his alcohol before standing.

"If you two fight you don't get to see the poll results anymore, you know how the election runs!"

Michigan still looked ready to fight, and everyone understood why while silently agreeing with Wisconsin.

"Pennsylvania if you vote red a second time in a row you're not a northeast state anymore!" York yelled, dancing around the albino.

"What?"

"Correct," Vermont said, copying York in his little dance around Pennsylvania.

"Huh, Mississippi's actually pretty even," Alabama said, and Mississippi smiled.

"And, I'm changing my flag too! No more Confederate bullshit," she laughed, "I have no idea why it took so long."

"What do you think I'll be?"

"Red. No doubt."

"Do you have any hope for me?" Alabama asked.

"No."

Georgia was crying in a heap besides Mississippi for the exact reason- she was pretty even, yet it seemed that only the Trump votes were being counted, and she felt as though she couldn't win.

Arkansas, Nebraska, and Louisiana joined in with the Blue Texas chanting, that was starting to become very, very loud. Oklahoma was swirling around on the top of a tornado, and Wyoming was on the couch reading a book about gay cowboys and pretending the election had no effect on him.

The Dakota's were fighting about who was the better Dakota, and the election seemed to be a driving factor in their argument.

The next day was even worse.

Michigan was now blue, so Wisconsin was apologizing, and Pennsylvania was starting to look more and more blue- Georgia, however, was staying pretty even, switching blue and red a couple of times. Nevada still didn't, in fact, know how to count.

"Utah, can you stop being Mormon for a moment and gain some fucking empathy?" Colorado said, "Only one of the four corners that's red!"

"What?" Utah replied, "No I'm not, Arizona and Sunshine!"

"Nope!" Sunshine flashed the peace sign at him, "The Mexicans came through."

"Finally, some Latinx that aren't on fucking boats," Florida added to the conversation.

"Georgia's fucking blue!" Georgia shouted the next day, pounding her fists in the air, "Biden's won!"

Cheers rang throughout the group.

"No he hasn't," Michigan said, and many people looked at her strangely, "He's suing me for a recount."

"Me too," Pennsylvania added.

"Meaning that until they're recounted, there's no winner."

Many of the states seemed to sigh and/or, go back into mental shutdown. Alfred was the one to speak.

"Don't wait until December 14th. You know the drill."

"What happens on December 14th?" Ivan whispered to him, wrapping an arm over his shoulders.

"The president will be able to declare true Martial Law," Alfred glanced at him.

"Like the Philippines?"

"Probably worse."

"Papa," Alaska said, and Ivan looked up at her, "Putin's stepping down."

He blinked very hard for a moment, "What?"

"Putin's stepping down. He won't be the leader anymore."

"Uh..." Ivan stared, open mouthed, for a second, "that's fucking wonderful."

Alfred smiled, kissing his cheek, "'Europe's last dictator' is stepping down? That seems to be quite odd, with Trump also leaving. You sure he didn't go to Epstein Island? That's the only cover I can think of..."

"He didn't go to the Island," Ivan rolled his eyes, "or at least I don't think he did."

Alfred gave a slight giggle.

The next days were pretty quiet. Everyone just wanted the results while the votes were counted. Nobody seemed to care much for this nonsense- as more states had to do a recount as well. Trump supporters were calling for the votes to stop being counted- to bring an end to democracy.

America looked over his states, at the empty liquor bottles that rested on the couch from the while it had taken.

"The Press has called it!" California yelled, her fist up in the air, "Biden has won!"

There were cheers, clapping- even some crying. The entire house seemed to be ready to celebrate- who wanted to miss out!

"We won," Alfred said, and Ivan ruffled his hair. Akilina pulled on his jacket sleeve, and he looked down at her, smiling, "My little baby, we won!"

Klemintina joined her mother in the hug he gave him. It was so tight it made their faces red and their lungs hurt, but they understood it was because he was happy and tried to hug him back with the same vigor.

"Damn right, we did," Ivan smiled, looking down at his husband and children before getting on his knees and joining the hug.