This is a present for my friend martytries on tumblr! I hope you like it and I hope I did your comic justice! I took a couple liberties ah xux;;

small warning: there's some mentions of violent bullying but nothing is too explicit!

Skull throbbing from a fierce migraine, Alfred sat on the stair steps in the park, the rushing water of the fountain doing little for his aching and heavy head. He scrubbed uselessly at his eyes, his lingering tears smearing the cruel slurs marked up on his cheeks. He was almost glad they had taken his glasses, so at least then he wouldn't really be able to see the full extent of the damage they had caused.

[~]

"So, uhm… will you be my Valentine?" Alfred asked in a shyly proud manner, sheepishly offering up the bouquet of roses to the other teen, visibly shocking them. They had been friends for almost a year now, and Alfred realized rather quickly that he was absolutely smitten by his friend. He couldn't stop himself from swooning and sighing and clinging like a lovesick puppy for his friend, and so when February came, he knew he should at least attempt to take their friendship to the next level...

"What the fuck? You're a fag?" his friend spat right in his face, their group of other lazing teens perking and looking towards the scene. Alfred wavered somewhat, slowly withdrawing his hand and his offering of love with a stung wince. His friend scoffed with disgust, snarling at Alfred. "This better be some kind of a joke, Al."

"Wh-what? But… I… I just thought, you know, since we're so close and we're… I like you," Alfred confessed, sticking to his guns despite the cold rejection. Maybe if they just talked about it, maybe if he just pushed a little harder…

"Guys, get a load of this freak! Alfred's a total fag!" his crush hollered at their friends, the whole group snickering as they stood up and turned on Alfred, fanning out in a circle as they prowled closer, penning Alfred in. The blond teen hunched his shoulders somewhat, and when the first punch came, he dropped his roses and lost all hope.

[~]

He hugged himself tightly, struggling not to shiver and tremble as the cold stone step chilled him through to the bone. Maybe he should just give up altogether… He knew of at least maybe three girls who would give most anything to go out on a date with him, so maybe he ought to just go into hiding and give up on ever truly being happy. What was the point? Every time he even tried to come out, not even including things like confessions, all he got was rejection after rejection and…

He was just so tired, tired of trying, tired of getting beaten, tired of being ostracized.

Eventually he managed to stop sulking, eyes dried up as he slowly got to his feet. What was he going to tell his father this time? Fell down the stairs like a clutz? Tried to defend some other unfortunate soul? But still…

He touched his cheek hesitantly, remembering the group's taunting laughter as they dragged the market over his cheek like a knife through his skin, marring him with the scarring slur that would hurt worse than any of his other physical injuries. How could he possibly explain that away?

He sighed, hunching in on himself again as he slowly started to move towards home…

"Hey!" a deep voice called out to him, making Alfred wince before whirling around to face the approaching threat, the blurry image of the other teen rushing towards him only making his panic rise faster. Alfred stumbled back, almost tripping on jello legs that refused to carry his weight. The teen approaching him seemed to be alone, dressed almost completely in black save for a whitish thing wrapped around his neck. The fact that Alfred couldn't even see his new attacker made everything all the more humiliating, his head throbbing as he tried to make sense of himself and his surroundings.

The teens hand clamped down on his shoulder to steady him, and reached out with the other hand to hold up an object of sorts that seemed to glint in the sunlight. A knife?! Alfred trembled, figuring the teen was going to shank him and leave him to bleed out on the ground like a dirty fag. "P-please don't hurt me!" Alfred begged, holding his hands up to more or less protect his torso as much as possible.

"Well, of course I won't hurt you," the teen scoffed, and Alfred felt hands cup his face and slide the object up onto the bridge of his nose. Alfred winced and held his breath, but when the teen was good on his words, he shakily exhaled and slowly opened his eyes. His lenses were cracked but he could still see at least a little bit through them with only mild distortions.

His aide was pale and tall, his neck swathed in a pinkish white scarf that bunched in coils on his shoulders, a little skull pin keeping it securely wrapped in place. Aside from that he wore nothing but black, and his pants had criss-crossing belts and zippers in otherwise random locations. His boots were hidden beneath his pants, but from the steel tipped toes, Alfred could tell they were probably very badass and punkish. The teen smirked at him, before extending a hand to Alfred, the black leather fingerless gloves looking nice against his pale skin. "I am Ivan. Are you hurt anywhere else? Do you need medical attention?"

"U-uh, no, no, I'm okay," Alfred answered on reflex, eyes wide behind his broken glasses as he stared at his savior, Ivan just waiting for him before Alfred remembered himself. With a gasp, he quickly grabbed Ivan's hand and gave it a firm shake, blushing hotly from the shame. Oh god, Ivan probably saw everything they had written across his face… What a nightmare!

"That is good," Ivan nodded, retrieving his hand and letting it drop back to his side. He stared at Alfred for a long moment until the injured teen grimaced slightly, wincing away as if intimidated. Granted, this was pretty intimidating considering how much taller Ivan was than him and the nature of his black and punk appearance.

"Uhm… yeah, thanks for my glasses," Alfred tried to fill the awkward silence, pushing them up his nose again when the misshapen bridge made them slide down a ways. Ivan snorted somewhat before shaking his head, grabbing Alfred's hand before tugging on it roughly.

"Come," he ordered, and Alfred was honestly a little too surprised to do anything but follow, letting Ivan drag him to the small and smelly public bathrooms. He forced Alfred to stand by the sink, keeping him turned away from the mirror so he wouldn't have to see his degraded reflection. What a nice guy, Alfred caught himself thinking as Ivan wet a paper towel. Alfred shut his eyes and let Ivan work, clenching his jaw as the other teen roughly scrubbed the words off of his face, able to get most of the ink off after a good ten minutes of scrubbing.

Skin red and raw, with tears threatening to spill from his water line, Alfred eventually worked up a smile, slipping his ruined glasses back on his face. "Thanks so much, I… You really didn't have to do that," he apologized and thanked Ivan at the same time, lowering his head humbly in a display of both shame and gratitude. Ivan just smiled at him before taking hold of his hand again.

"Whoever hurt you, I don't ever want you to see them again," Ivan scolded sternly, as if somehow he would personally make sure that Alfred did as he ordered. Blushing a little bit, Alfred didn't quite know what to say in response as Ivan dragged him out of the bathroom and towards the main roads. "You go to my school, I've seen you on the morning announcements. Football, right?"

"Ah, what? Er, yeah-" Alfred replied dumbly, because everything about Ivan was just so baffling and strange and he wasn't sure if he should be put off by Ivan's stalker-ish comment or not. He was nice but something about him was just a little bit unsettling for Alfred. "I mean, they were my friends but I guess they aren't anymore…"

"That's good. What's your prescription?" Ivan asked as he hustled Alfred across the street, pushing him towards a convenience store. Alfred didn't really know what to say or do, just dumbly accepting the whirlwind of movement and emotions as Ivan dragged him around. It honestly was rather surreal, like Alfred was just watching as Ivan tugged him this way and that, buying him a pair of temporary glasses and even a bag of doritos and a soda, chattering at him as Alfred tuned out and could only stare.

Normally he was the one that had to be constantly trying to talk, his jittery nerves not able to handle silent spells, but Ivan had just shocked him to his core. The punkish teen was stern and domineering, not allowing Alfred to get a complaint in edgewise as he was taken around town and treated to an afternoon of care and doting. Ivan even managed to get his address out from him and went as far as walking him home just to make sure he got there safely.

"Paka!" he called out with a wave and a Russian salute before walking down the street, leaving Alfred stunned and blushing on the doorstep as his hero for the day walked off.

His heart throbbed in his chest as he slowly opened the door, barely able to process everything that had happened, going over everything a thousand times in his head. He savored every moment and was honestly starting to get a little happy at having been rejected, if it meant Ivan had come along to help cheer him up without even having to be asked.

Not to mention Ivan was hot as fuck.

TN: "paka" is an informal Russian way of saying bye!