A/N: This is my first RusAme fanfic, and I'm still trying to get a hang of things, so don't go too hard on me, okay? C: I'm hoping to update this at least once a week, but we'll see how school goes. Thanks for reading!

Ivan stuck another sunflower into the display before stepping back to admire his work. The large, bright flowers went well with the other displays in the front of the floral shop. Ivan cautiously picked the vase up and took it to the front display refrigerator, setting it down next to a dozen of roses, the flowers looking up as though to smile at all the passer-byers. As he began to lock the case back up once more, he heard Francis, his boss, yelling at him to give him an opinion.

Francis had hired Ivan earlier in the year, around March. Now, it was December—a time that hardly anyone wanted flowers—and business was slow. He mostly made flower displays to try to lure people in to buy the bouquets, or gave Francis ideas and opinions.

"Ah, there you are, mon cher. What do you think of this vase?" He had a magazine laying before him on a desk, a few things circled in vibrant red marker. The vase he pointed to was a deep blue, and had what looked like ferns gently carved into the sides. Ivan studied the picture a moment, then nodded slowly. "I think it looks great, Francis. And look at how cheap it is." He tilted his head in appreciation for the cute vase. His boss smiled and patted him on the back. "Oui, I agree. We have a delivery coming in tomorrow, but I wanted to look a bit more for some cute stuff." He smiled at his employee.

"Tomorrow? But tomorrow's Friday. Don't we normally get deliveries on Tuesday?" Ivan's eyebrows raised a little, as though to push his inquiry a bit. "Oui, but we have a bunch of flowers to arrange. Did I forget to tell you about the big party we're selling flowers to?" Francis blinked, putting a finger to his lips as he thought for a moment before dismissing it. "Oh well. Anyways, giant party tomorrow. They're asking us to go, as well, so that we can get 'proper recognition', as he said. It's a black tie, so make sure you've got something passade, cher." Francis expected them to arrange all those flowers in one day? "The same day as the delivery?" Francis nodded, looking at a thoughtful Ivan.

Ivan hadn't been to a large party like that in a long time. In fact, he'd never been to a black tie party. Did he even have a tuxedo? He looked to Francis a moment, debating whether to back out or not. Francis must have noticed his hesitation, and he began to smile. "My my, cher. Don't tell me you're thinking of backing out on your boss, now." His tone was playful, but Ivan couldn't help but wonder if he really could just duck out and not worry about it. "Come now, surely you can scrape a few things together. You're 25, after all. It'll be good for you." Francis tilted his head at Ivan, who scratched the back of his head and looked away. "Francis, you sound like some sort of a therapist, or something."

The statement caused Francis to laugh, turning to face his employee in his swivel chair, crossing his right leg over his left. "Come on. If you don't go, I'll cut the time out of your paycheck." Ivan didn't particularly care about his pay, but Francis was making it pretty obvious that he needed to go. After a moment, Ivan nodded and looked down, muttering. "Fine. I'll go." He hoped it'd be worth it. Francis nodded and chuckled. "Good. Now go home, it's past your shift." Looking over at the clock, Ivan noticed it was actually half an hour after his shift ended.

Ivan set the apron back behind the counter and waved his goodbye to Francis, stepping out into the cold December air. It swirled around him and blew his scarf about his body, tickling the parts of his neck that it moved against. It's times like these where Ivan wished he had a car. He hadn't ever gotten around to buying one. Why would he need one? He had two legs that worked marvelously; however, walking fifteen minutes in the freezing cold to get back to his apartment was a pain, indeed. The sky was grey and the air around him as he passed a bakery smelled of nothing but the snow that fell around him, clinging to his eyelashes and the fibers of his scarf.

Ivan stuck his hands in his pockets, finding a few coins as he finally reached the doors to the complex where he lived. He pulled the key card out of his pocket which had been among the coins and swiped it through the reader. The little LED light blinked red up at him. Sighing, Ivan swiped it again, with the fortune to have it turn green this time. He pulled the door open and headed upstairs to the third floor, using an actual key this time—which had also been in his pocket. He couldn't find it at first due to its similar cold feeling to the coins.

Once in his home, he locked the door behind him, slipping his coat off and putting it on the coat rack next to the door. He looked around a moment, taking in the familiar surroundings once more. He finally willed his feet to move forward once more, heading to his bedroom. He waded through dirty clothes around his closet, having trouble pulling the sliding door open. After a few strong tugs, he got the door open, and off its track. He sighed and laid it on the bed for a moment. It'd be easier to get into the actual closet this way. He reached up into the upper part of his closet, taking a black suitcase and pulling it down to him. He set it down on the ground and took the closet door, putting it back on its tracks.

He turned to the suitcase, unzipping it and looking at the disheveled contents a moment before pulling things out and laying them on the bed. After a few minutes of looking, he finally found the old tuxedo he had. He couldn't remember why he had it, but he'd brought it with him when he moved to America. He held up the old outfit, tilting his head at it as he wondered if it would still fit. He looked about the closet for a dress shirt and a tie. He managed to find a dress shirt, but came up empty handed when it came to the tie part. He shrugged it off, deciding to just get one from the store in the morning before work.

Feeling good about having something to wear to the party the next day, he decided to just go to bed. He crawled between his lush, white sheets, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath after he'd settled himself in, falling into a restful sleep.

-ooo-

Ivan walked into the floral shop, setting his bag from the store with his tie in it behind the counter. The store was oddly quiet; Francis usually hummed or whistled when no one was there. He looked around the store, not seeing his boss. He decided to look in the back. Ivan turned around and walked to the back of the store, opening the door and stepping inside. His eyebrows raised in surprise to see Francis asleep at the desk where he had been yesterday when he left. Ivan walked forward to take a closer look at Francis, who seemed to have been writing something when he fell asleep the day before.

Ivan looked at the paper, trying to decipher the cursive writing, but it was impossible. The ink had been smeared by Francis's drool. Ivan chuckled softly, deciding to leave his boss be. He instead turned around once more and walked out into the front of the store again, getting things ready for the day. He got out the vases and ribbon, placing everything on the arranging table, his back turned to the door as he got his supplies out. He smiled, enjoying his job and the quiet time he was getting.

However, that quite time was interrupted as the bell opened with the ringing of the bell that was placed on the wall above the door. Ivan turned to see a gorgeous blond walking through the door, his hair in disarray from the wind and snow, glasses fogging up from the sudden warmth. The man slid the glasses from his face, revealing bright blue, happy eyes. Ivan felt his heart falter a moment before it began its regular beating again; this wasn't the normal delivery man, was it? He walked to meet the blond, eyes looking him over. He wore a puffy black vest, a scarf wrapped around his neck. As Ivan got closer to him he could make out the slight scent of coffee and peppermint. He smiled at the man standing before him. "Hello, how can I help you, sir?" His voice was kind and friendly.

"Ah, I'm here to make a delivery to Mr…" He trailed off and looked at his clipboard. "Bonnie-foy?" For a moment his eyebrows knit together in confusing before returning to their normal position above his glasses. Ivan smiled more at the mispronunciation of Francis's last name. "Mr. Bonnefoy?" The blond nodded. "He is actually busy in the back right now. Is it alright if I just take the delivery this time?" He looked to the new delivery man. "Oh, you're his employee, I assume?" When Ivan nodded, the man held the clipboard out to him, along with a pen. Ivan signed his name and dated the paper, looking up to the smiling face in front of him.

"Sweet. Thanks, man. There's a lot of flowers out there, it'll take a while to get all of them in here." The blond looked back out to the truck. "Let me help, it will make it go faster." Ivan smiled again and walked to the door, opening it for the delivery man. Once they got to the truck, the man opened the back of the delivery truck. As they began taking bunches upon bunches of flowers from the truck, Ivan decided to make some small talk with his working partner.

"So what is your name? You are not the usual delivery man." Ivan snuck a glance at the blond out of the corner of his eye. The blond pulled the flowers from the truck with ease. "I'm Alfred F. Jones. I just got hired. Cool, huh?" Ivan nodded. "Very cool." He continued to take the flowers from the back. They were getting close to done. "How about you, big guy? What's your name?" Ivan snorted at the remark about his height. He was at least five inches taller than Alfred. "I am Ivan. It is nice to meet you, Alfred." With that, they smiled at each other and took the final bunches of flower inside.

They situated everything on the arrangement table somehow, finishing everything up. "Well, it was cool meeting you, Ivan. I'll catchya later, or something, kay?" Alfred picked up the clipboard from the front counter where he had left it when they had gone to the truck. Ivan nodded and waved to Alfred as he left the shop. He slumped back against the counter, dropping his head to look at the ground shaking his head. "What the fuck was that?" Ivan began to mutter to himself. He couldn't figure out what that feeling was that he had felt when the blond had walked in, but it sure had been a strong one.

He was brought back to reality by Francis shaking his shoulder, laughing some. "Eh, mon cher? Hohoho! I saw how you looked at him, Ivan!" He was already going off on some random tangent about—Alfred? How he had looked at Alfred? "What are you talking about, Francis?" Ivan looked at him, receiving a smile back. "Never mind. Let's just get these flowers ready, oui?" Ivan nodded, deciding it was better to just let it go.

-ooo-

Ivan raised his arms awkwardly. He'd forgotten how difficult moving in tuxedos was. Nonetheless, he walked from the bathroom of the floral shop to meet Francis, who looked completely comfortable and relaxed in his tux. Ivan sighed, looking to Francis. "Alright, can we go now?" He was anxious about this whole party thing. Francis picked up on his nervous aura and laughed. "Oui. You nervous, or something, mon cher?" Ivan shot him a look and Francis kicked the laughing down to just a mischievous smile. They walked to Francis's car, having already delivered the flowers to the party venue earlier. Ivan opened the door to his boss's sleek black car, sitting on the cold leather seat. Francis got in as well, putting the key in the ignition and driving them to the party.

It only took about ten minutes before they got to the venue, getting out of the car and walking inside. The room was filled with tons of people holding champagne and wine in long-stemmed glasses. Ivan looked about nervously, then tried to look at Francis, who was already gone from his side. Ivan sighed; of course this would happen to him. He spotted a free couch and headed towards it. He knew no one here, and he could tell it was going to be a miserable few hours.

Slumping into the couch, Ivan stretched and looked at his watch. It was only seven, and the party went until eleven. He fished the phone from his pocket, checking his email. He had hundreds from his younger sister Natalya. He sighed and deleted those. He opened an email from Francis from quite a while back that he hadn't seen before. He began to read it, laughing at something Francis had written. "What's so funny?" A familiar voice came from behind him. As he turned a bit to the side, Alfred sat down next to him on the couch, also dressed in his formal attire.

Ivan flushed and blinked. "A-ah, just an email from my boss. Making flower jokes." He laughed weakly, taking in the sight of his acquaintance. Alfred looked wonderful in his tuxedo, and Ivan had to tear his eyes away from his body as Alfred began to talk to him. "I didn't know you were gonna be here! I'm so glad I actually know someone here! These other guys are kinda creepy, huh? How old are you, anyways? I'm 23; obviously younger than all these old sophisticated dudes." Ivan couldn't help but laugh again. Alfred's logic was pretty great, he had to admit. "I am 25." Ivan smiled at Alfred. "Neato! We're about the same age. You play videogames?" Ivan tilted his head at the question. "Videogames? Like… Mario, and stuff?" He wasn't very tech savvy, so he tended to avoid those things. "Yeah!" Alfred was grinning like an idiot. "Uh, no, not really. I mean, I am not too good at them." Alfred shook his head. "Well, there are plenty of things to talk about then. I have to teach you all about video games, dude!" At this point, Ivan knew the rest of the evening wouldn't be as bad as he thought it would be.

Translations:

Mon cher – My friend

Passade – Fancy

Oui – Yes