Dropping the pistol, Matthew quickly kneeled down beside where Ivan had fallen.

"Ivan!" he cried, tears already streaming down his cheeks. "Y-you have to stay with me!" He gently held onto him, placing one hand gently on his cheek to make him face him.

"M-matvey?" he whispered.

He smiled through his tears. "Yes! Yes, I'm here!"

Gilbert came up to them then. "We need to get him out of here. Right now!"

Between the two of them, they managed to get Ivan back to his mansion. They placed him on a table and Gil did his best to try and pull out the bullet and wrap him up so he could heal.

All the while, Matthew watched, helping out when Gilbert asked him to. As he continued to work, Gil realized that there was something about Ivan's 'wife' that was extremely familiar to him. He just couldn't figure out why.

After wrapping up all of the wounds, Gilbert left to his own home. "Let me know…. What happens…" Matthew nodded and shut the door behind him.

With the help of some of the other people living in the house, they got Ivan up to the room Matthew was staying in and laid him in the bed. When the others left, Matt got into the bed as well and curled into Ivan's side.

"Matvey?" Ivan asked, having woken up.

"Yes, Ivan?" He asked, looking up at him.

"What are you doing here? I thought for sure you were going to leave."

"I can't leave you. Especially not like this."

"Why not? Don't you want to be with your family?"

"I-I can't because… I…"

Ivan waited for him to finish, but he didn't. The words were stuck in his throat.

"You what?"

"I love you…." And he knew as soon as he said it, that it was true.

The mafia boss was silent for a long time.

"I-Ivan?"

"How?" he whispered.

"How?" the Canadian was confused.

"How? How could you love a monster like me?"

"You're not a monster…"

He laughed. "Yes I am. You don't know what I do. You don't know how I torture people, kill them even, for my own personal pleasure. I am a monster. And I always will be."

"No…" Matthew whispered.

"No?"

"No, you won't always be this monster you are now."

"You don't know me, little Matthew. I crave it. I crave seeing the blood and gore. I enjoy seeing them suffer."

"You say that… but then why am I not covered with cuts and bruises? You haven't laid a finger on me in all of the time I've been here."

"I've wanted to."

"But you haven't. You haven't done anything to me. That's how I know. I know that, somewhere, perhaps deep down inside, but somewhere you're not really who you seem to be. And that's how I love you."

"You shouldn't. You should scram right now and never look back."

"I can't do that."

"Well then, I guess I should tell you that I'm stuck on you too."

Matthew's face lit up at this. "Really?"

Ivan nods. "There's just something about you that makes it so I can't harm you. You're too sweet and innocent. I'm not going to change that." As soon as he said that, he leaned down and softly placed his lips against Matthew's.

To say that he was kind of shocked by this is an understatement. But that didn't stop him from kissing the Russian back, and as passionately as he could. It was obvious that he really loved this man.

Suddenly though, they could hear loud pounding on the front door.

Reluctantly, Ivan pulled away. "I hate to ask this, but can you go get the door, Matvey? I'm kind of stuck at the moment."

Matt giggled. "Of course I can, you just stay here and focus on healing."

When Matthew did open the door, Gilbert was standing on the other side.

"Matthew!" He shouted in glee as he crushed him in a giant hug. "I knew it was you! What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm.. staying here for awhile..."

"A while? You mean he kidnapped you?! I'm going to kill him!" he said as he started to enter the house.

"Gilbert, NO! You can't do that!"

"Why the hell not?!"

"Because I..."

"You what?"

"I love him..."

"You what?!"

"I love him!"

"You couldn't possibly love a monster like that!"

"But I do! And I won't let you kill him!"

"So what, you're going to stay here for the rest of your life?"

"I don't know..."

"What about your brother? What about me?!"

"I don't know!"

With those last words tears started to stream from Matthew's eyes.

"Fine. Stay. But don't expect me to just let you stay willingly." He stormed off angrily after that.

Slowly, Matthew made his way back up to the bed he was sharing with Ivan and curled up into Ivan's side.

"What's wrong, Matvey?"

"Nothing" he whispered.

"Matvey, are you crying."

"No" he sobbed.

"Yes you are. What's wrong? Who was at the door?"

"G-gilbert..."

"Oh..."

"C-can I just go to sleep?"

"Yes... Go to sleep, I'll see you tomorrow."

Very peacefully Matthew fell asleep in Ivan's arms.

~~~~ *RusCan!* ~~~~

A/N: Hey guys! So sorry for the huge wait, but what can I say? I'm very busy! In fact, I'm going to be even busier starting Wednesday. From my job, to my senior year, to all my extra curricular activities, I'm afraid you may not get an update for another few months.

However, If any of you live in Utah, I will be hosting a Hetalia World Conference panel at Banzai 2012, so look for me there! I shall be Canada! (Of course!)

And I'm looking for more RP partners! If you're interested, please PM me!

That's it for now, I'll update again as soon as I can, but I can't guarantee anything.

~Canada-Matthew