Natalia messily gathered her skirt in front of her, as her stockinged legs carried themselves full speed down the corridors of the Belorussian embassy of Moscow.

Why had she started running?

She didn't exactly see Russia. In fact, it would have been rather unusual for the tall, violet-eyed man to be visiting her nation's embassy. It was a long-standing, silently conceded fact that countries went to Russia for an audience - never the other way around. Still, Natalia could have sworn she felt his cool breath whistling on the back of her neck...and that was enough. Enough to send the smaller nation running in an exercise of sheer panic.

Fueled by a burst of paranoid reflex, she spun about quickly, but saw nothing other than the curious stares of the ambassadors as she ran by. She just couldn't shake the ominous feeling that choked the air, suffocating her in a blanket of nervous energy.

She ran faster.

After what seemed like an eternity, she quickly retreated into a small, isolated office; a room infrequently used by her country's ambassador's for politically sensitive calls. With trembling hands, she locked the door and took several steps away. Her eyes remained transfixed on the doorknob, as if anticipating the inevitable shaking of the knob - the turning...

"Privyet, my dearest Natalia."

A voice manifested behind her, and the smaller country whipped around with an audible gasp. Natalia's hands flew up to cover a mixed expression of shock and fear. "I-Ivan! How d-did you—?"

"You did not expect a simple lock and key to keep me out, da?" He smiled calmly as he smoothed out the wrinkles of his long sleeved coat.

"Oh! I-I wasn't keeping you out...I was...just...ah..." Belarus's eyes darted searchingly around the room until they fixated on a lone telephone sitting quaintly atop a nearby mahogany desk. Speedily, she plucked the phone off the receiver, holding it to her ear in an exaggerated fashion. "I-I was making diplomatic calls for my boss, the door was only for privacy of course." She inwardly winced as she caught Russia's searching gaze.

"Calls to whom?" Ivan spoke evenly as his hands brushed over Belarus's white-knuckled grip on the receiver. Wordlessly, he relinquished it from her grasp and slammed the phone back into the cradle with more force than necessary.

Belarus's terrified gaze found themselves caught and held by Ivan's dangerous violet ones as he waited expectantly for an answer.

"I was making calls to...to ah..."

"America?" Ivan intoned dangerously.

"NO!" she blurted quickly. "I-I mean, n-no of course not! I actually meant to call...to call you!"

"Me?" Ivan repeated questioningly.

"Y-yes! My boss wanted to w-work out the problem of payment for the gas lines that we have so discourteously left unpaid to your house―" Belarus shifted nervously in place, as her fingers wound themselves tightly at the folds of her dress.

Russia stared at her. The agonizing silence that followed stretched and filled the gap uncomfortably between them. Russia shifted, the clink of his boots echoed in the room as he took slow, deliberate steps towards her.

Belarus resisted the near impossible urge to wipe the small beads of sweat that had accumulated across her brow, however her hands remained locked, tightly clinging at the front of her dress. Russia's face continued to be unreadable, as he gazed intently at her. Slowly, a small smile spread across his lips, and he clapped his hands together amicably.

"Ah! How kind of you, dearest Natalia! I was hoping to speak to you on that small piece of business, how fortunate that we are here in person to discuss it!"

The explanation worked?

Belarus let out a relieved rush of breath and offered a shaky smile. "I'm...I'm glad as well."

Ivan's smile remained fixed, as he moved to rest a gloved hand at the curve of Natalia's back. Belarus visibly stiffened at the close proximity as he ran his hand gently up and down her spine, relishing the feel of her inaudible shivers. Moving upwards, his hand twined a small section of her platinum blond hair before releasing it, opting to settle his fingertips at her waist.

"My dearest Natalia..."

Her panic rose high in her chest as she felt herself being pulled closer to him. Belarus attempted to lock herself firmly in place, but Russia simply dragged her towards him as if she weighed nothing at all. Ivan gazed intently at her, completely undaunted by her hesitation. "Why, you don't have to worry about repayment." He smiled, the small crinkle around his eyes left him looking incredibly innocent, like that of a child.

"I...I don't?" Natalia questioned weakly. Belarus' pale eyes quickly dropped, unable to keep her eyes on those imposing violet ones. Instead, she found herself fixated on Ivan's fingertips, as they gripped her firmly at the waist.

"Of course not. It would not be an appropriate way to start our union." Ivan spoke matter-of-factly.

Belarus's head snapped up quickly. "Ne razumeyu―! A u-union? I-I haven't heard anything about—"

"Hush." Russia quieted her with a tip of a long finger pressed against her lips. "Yes. Our union."

Deciding that he liked the feel of Belarus's pillowed pink lips, he allowed his fingertips to wander slowly across them. Belarus held her breath as she felt the glove tipped fingers brush over her lips. The movement was agonizingly slow, back and forth...parting them slightly with his thumb pushing down against her bottom lip. Belarus stood still, holding her breath until her lungs screamed with a fiery need for air. Russia only smiled.

"You have taunted me for too long, cradled against me, flaunting that futile, hollow independence that is begging to be taken." With surprising speed, he pulled her flush against his chest, as Belarus let out a startled cry. Her hands flew up against his chest in an attempt to put space between them.

"W-Wait, I-Ivan—!"

"Quiet."

His forefingers gripped her chin firmly, forcing her eyes to him. "I have you now, and you will join under my house." He shook her chin firmly in place, as if creating an invisible tether on Belarus, shackling her gaze to him. Slowly, he released her chin, and Belarus unwillingly maintained her eye contact with the larger nation. Her pale blue eyes betrayed her, as they trembled with the look of a frightened lamb.

It was an exhilarating feeling, to exercise such complete control over this tiny, helpless, beautiful nation.

Ivan gently stroked Natalia's cheek, his fingers working to brush back the stray hair that had billowed against her face.

"You are lovely," he whispered, "To be one with Russia is not so bad..." Ivan leaned forward, his lips brushing softly against Natalia's ears, "Ya obeschayu...I will have you scream my name the moment you become one with me."

Belarus shivered, her throat catching as she made a small sound of protest as Ivan smoothed his lips across her cheek.

Unexpectedly, the phone on the desk began to ring in a startling, high-pitched toll. Ivan regarded the interruption coldly, and stared at the phone with distaste. His eyes narrowed as he waited for the phone to cease its noisy assault.

After several long moments, Russia frowned. It simply wouldn't stop ringing.

Allowing his quickly mounting annoyance to get the better of him, Ivan looked to Natalia briefly before relinquishing his grasp. He took two long strides to the phone and picked up the receiver with a frown.

"Da? This is Russia, and it better be―"

"Vitayu, you've reached the nation of Belarus. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you soon―"

Ivan furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, slowly taking note that the voice was that of Natalia. He turned towards Belarus, only to find the door of the office swung partially ajar. Natalia's distant figure could be seen running down the hall, as she pocketed a small cellular phone into a fold of her dress.

Ivan gently set the receiver back into place and smiled.

She always was a clever one.

Russia moved to the door and watched her retreating figure, as his eyes took on a predatory spark of amusement.

It was not a complete loss. After all - the chase was simply part of the fun.

A/N: Belarus is on the run! I'm actually not too sure how many chapters this will end up being, but I think it'll wrap up rather quickly. When he sets his mind to it, Russia inevitably gets what he wants― ho ho ho~

I hope you'll forgive my downplay of their sibling relationship - I'm not really big on the uh...romantic family relationships *cough*incest*cough*. I much prefer relationships to be strictly out of the family - something along the lines of USxUK, where they're family in a comfortable/familiar sense, but not related. So here, you'll find that I'm treating Russia and Belarus as geographically and culturally close neighbors XD

Reviews are my fuel! I'd love to hear what people think of this take on Russia and Belarus's "unique" relationship :P

Update: Received a lovely piece of fanart from Audrey0 at DeviantArt based on the story! Check it out on her page!