We're Gonna Do this the Hard Way

Preview

"Move," the guard snapped trying to get the American moving faster down the empty hall.
Alfred glared at him over his shoulder.
"Hey, it's not exactly easy trying to keep your head down and walk at the same time."
The guard rolled his eyes and gave his shoulder a hard shove forward.
Bad idea.
Alfred yelped in pain as his dislocated shoulder stung like he had been stabbed. He dropped the bloody tissue he was holding to catch himself before his face hit the concrete.
"Luci!" the other guard snapped at his auburn haired brother as he stooped down to hold the tissue to the prisoner's bleeding nose.
"Sorry," the disgruntled guard murmured before he more or less gently helped Alfred up and the rest of the way to the infirmary.

Twenty minutes later, Alfred's shoulder was back in its place, his nose had stopped bleeding and the pain medication kicked in.
The Doctor, a red haired ponytail wearing Austrian, had insisted that the guards being replaced after Alfred told him what had happened in the hallway.
He was beginning to doze off when the door to the infirmary was flung open and another patent walked in with his guard.
"I swear the dude didn't even realize you had hit him before he was out."
"Yes, well I wish his friend hadn't realized I had hit him at all. At least until you intervened."
The heavy New York accent alerted Alfred that the first voice was Al and the Russian accent of the second voice alongside the warm buzzing in his chest told him that the second voice was Ivan.
"Let me guess, you got in another fight."
Alfred's displeased voice shocked the pair out of their vivid recap.
Al was the first to recover, Ivan just close enough behind for their sentences to overlap.
"Oh, hey Alfred."
"What are you doing here?"
The American paused, debating his next course of action before kicking at the privacy curtains with his unchained foot to open them.
He was greeted with a concerned look from Al and an angry look from Ivan who was nursing a bloody nose and a large bruise on his head.
Al motioned for Ivan to sit on the bed to Alfred's left and after securing his leg cuff, walked into the back room to go find some ice.
The Russian fixed his gaze on Alfred as he waited for his answer.
The American shrugged.
"Someone pushed me into Beilshmidt and that dude has not been in a good mood since his little Italian boy toy got moved to section A. Not that I blame him, Luci seems to be particularly interested in tormenting the dude,"
Ivan's hands clenched into angry fists.
"So he broke your arm and your nose."
With a shake of his head and a raise of his arm in the sling, Alfred replied, "just a bloody nose and dislocated shoulder. Ludwig did my nose but the concrete did my shoulder."
With a roll of his eyes, Ivan grumbled, "Only you could dislocate your shoulder by falling from a standing position."
"Hey, what about you?"
Ivan raised his head to allow Alfred's eyes to meet his.
"I was defending you."
Alfred blinked in confusion.
"How? Section B and D don't interact all that much and unless the dude could punch through a fence, I think I'm safe.."
The Russian smirked.
"It wasn't a direct threat. One of the other prisoners decided because it was his last day, he could threaten me without consequences."
"I thought he was threatening me."
"Oh he was. He said, 'Once I get out, I'm going to find your soulmate and hurt them so badly they will wish they had never met you.' And obviously I could not let a treat like that stand."
Alfred was taken lightly aback before he frowned and grumbled, "I can take care of myself. It's not like we've formally documented that we found our soulmates yet anyway."
"Says the man who lost a fight to the floor. And I know that, I just didn't like the idea of someone thinking they could threaten us and get away with it."
Alfred smiled lightly.
It's wasn't often that they could show affection to each other.
"But do not worry, he will not bother you anymore."
Alfred's eyes widened as Ivan nodded to a drawn privacy curtain on Alfred's right.
Seeing his soulmate's reaction Ivan chuckled.
"Do not worry my friend.  I was joking."
Alfred sighed in relief.
"He should not have suffered more than a small concussion."
Alfred raised his eyebrow but nodded when he realized separating the two was the reason he was in this section's infirmary instead of his own.  
Alfred felt a shiver go down his back.
No matter how playful he was, the Russian inmate was extremely intimidating.
Truthfully, their first encounter was Ivan warning Alfred to stay out of his way when they were bunked together.
By knocking him unconscious.
It was only when Ivan was attempting to pick him up while he called to a guard for help that he realized both of their chests had began to glow.
Nearly three years had passed since then and the pair had failed to share so much as a kiss in fear that someone would find them out.
Shaking himself out of the memory, Ivan reached across the space between them.
Instead of reaching back, Alfred swung his legs over the side of the bed and pulled himself as close as the ankle cuff would let him.
Ivan chuckled at the defiant move as he mimicked Alfred's reach.
With both men off the beds, they could reach each other enough that their chests began to glow once again. Ivan smiled warmly at the sensation and Alfred looked like he was going to burst with joy.
Completely giving in, Alfred grabbed his soulmate in a tight hug, nuzzling his face into his partner's shoulder.
They had only been embracing for a moment when the backroom door swung open again, a triumphant Al leading a very annoyed Austrian Doctor behind him.
Alfred reacted first. He jerked back from Ivan's grip, subsequently ungracefully stumbling to the floor.
This movement caught Al's eye and relying on instinct, he pulled his gun and snapped, "back up," at Ivan who was still processing the situation. He never really forgave the Russian for hurting an inmate for no reason and he was prepared to stop him if he tried again.
From his place on the floor, Alfred raised his hand so he could be seen behind the bed.
"My fault, I slipped."
Al sighed and put away the gun.
"I have no idea how you pulled off grand theft auto, you can't even stand up without hurting yourself."
Alfred grumbled something inaudible as he braced himself to stand.
Another bad idea.
He gasped in pain as it felt like a knife was being driven into his shoulder.
The other three occupants of the room rushed to his aid.
Ivan shamefully backed up when he realized he couldn't reach.
Dr. Edelstein, with Al's help, pulled Alfred back onto the bed and laid him down.
While the doctor checked Alfred over to make sure he hadn't reinjured himself, Al handed Ivan the bag of ice.
"No more damage done," the doctor chirped as he allowed Alfred's arm to rest back into its sling.
"Great now-"
Al was cut off by his radio blaring something that might of sounded like Al's name.
The American sighed then grabbed the device off his belt. With a quick glare at both inmates and a nod at Dr. Edelstein, he walked over to the far side of the room.
It was awkward silence between the three men when the Doctor spoke up.
"I have a proposition for you two."
The pair blinked in confusion and exchanged a look.
"I just happened to notice when I was checking over Mr. Jones, a faint glowing. Care to explain?"
Neither man could look him in the eye.
He pulled out a clip board and made some markings.
"Well if you aren't going to respond, I'm going to continue.
You two are my most frequent patients, getting into fights constantly like this. It needs to stop.
I will keep your secret for the time being but you must keep out of fights as often as possible.
If I'm even partially sure one of you started a fight, I will immediately document my findings and most likely one of you will be moved to a separate prison. Understood?"
Both men nodded slowly.
"Good, now-"
Al stopped the statement.
"I've got to take Mr. Braginsky back to his cell. You wanted to keep Alfred overnight, right?"
The Doctor nodded.
Al wordlessly nodded back and replaced the handcuffs and unchained Ivan.
"See you around Alfred," Ivan said with a hitch in his voice.
Alfred smiled.
"As long as you don't knock me out again."
The pair nodded at each other eyes lingering longer than necessary
And Ivan was gone.