Rusger Oneshots

Childhood: Soviet Union Edition

Russia's turn for one of these :D

I hope you enjoy reading!

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RSFSR stared at himself in the mirror, hands posed in front of himself and perched on the balls of his feet, head angled to one side. It stretched over the entire wall, one wall out of four in the studio room, polished silver glass, allowing him to see himself and everyone else in it.

The ballet instructor was walking between each boy and observing their posture, their stance and balance, thin glasses perched at the tip of his narrow nose.

His eyes were small behind the lenses, but that only sharpened his senses to the smallest mistakes any of them made. "Stephan. Keep your hands still."

He let out a soft exhale, hearing the boy two spaces behind him shuffle and fight to stand as still as possible. 14 boys, dressed in identical black and white, black long pants and white shirts tucked into their waistbands stood as tall as they could, trying their very best to impress the instructor.

The studio was silence except for the music playing from the gramophone at the girl's side, where they were stretching and doing pliés.

RSFSR's focus drifted away and he was looking into the mirror again. Bright purple eyes glimmered in the stark white lights, a child's wide eyes. He blinked quickly to get his attention back again, rapidly checking his posture. It was just like how the instructor taught them, everything was just right. Breath held and hands held still in a graceful, practiced ballet pose as the taller, narrow man walked in front of him, scrutinizing every angle.

"Down. 5 minute break." His voice finally broke through the silence amongst the boys, and they all dropped down, feet flat against the hardwood floor again with relief. It wasn't allowed to show on their faces though, that ease of being able to breath comfortably again. An unspoken rule of showing who was the toughest and who was the best dancer in the group.

"We've never stood for so long like that before, my legs hurt." Ukraine complained in a whiny whispered voice as he walked next to him. RSFSR smiled at the comment and reached down for his water bottle set against the wall of the room, hearing his brother slump quite Ungracefully and sit with his legs sprawled out in front of him.

"You look like a dead jellyfish." Armenia sniggered as he came by to drink some water too. Two purplish-pink irises glared furiously at him, causing Armenia to squeak and jump behind RSFSR, red hands grabbing on to the back of his white shirt.

"If you don't want Ukraine to be mad at you, don't talk to him like that-" RSFSR said before either of them had the chance to open their mouths and complain at him. So both of them just glared at each other again and stuck their tongues out before Armenia ran off to chat with their normally human groupmates.

Even though it was a break, many of the boys were still hard at work, practicing on the bar or stretching, all to impress the teacher and hope to bring attention to themselves as a better dancer in the group.

Ukraine continued sitting there slumped against the wall, stealing RSFSR's water bottle and taking slow sips out of it. He never really cared much for their lessons twice a week anyway, no matter how they tried to encourage him.

Azerbaijan and Tajikistan wandered by and sat down with them too, wiping away the sweat on their foreheads and chatting quietly among themselves.

In the mirror, he could see what a weird shock of colour they brought into the studio, otherwise bland with colour, light brown wood floors, light walls. Black and white for the boys and pink leotards for the girls. Blonds and brunettes mostly from the other children.