The Maestro | RusAme |

Thirteen

Ivan came back from the school after spending the day teaching with Roderich.

He felt like he was doing something productive and wanted to continue playing, rather than doing the house work while Yan worked. He stuck some leftovers in the microwave and had a small meal before going into his room and practicing a set of pieces.

For hours, playing the same small measures over, and over, and over, slower then faster, hundreds of times before it was perfect every time he played it. Next measure. Again, and again, and again. Need the metronome, you're speeding. Slow it down again, fix the intonation.

Ivan was a nitpicky person overall, so this was what he liked to do. Never got old. But when he realized Yan was going to be home soon, he decided to put the violin down and start cleaning mercilessly.

Time sure flies by, practicing for a few hours. But when he saw it was ten till eight, he knew he needed to get some housework done and make a meal for his darling Yan.

He was vacuuming, mopping, starting the laundry, and then cooking.

As he was making a mess in their kitchen, Yan walks in the front door silently and made her way to the dining room where she set down her bag and sat down where she had left her laptop that morning and continued to answer emails.

He greeted her in a soft, unintrusive voice.

"Not even a hello?" Ivan sets a plate in front of her and he sits across from her at the table sets down a mug with tea (and probably vodka).

"Sorry, I have twenty-three more emails to respond to... I've been swamped." She stares at the screen and signs into her email.

Yan can't see the exasperated look on Ivan's face as he hangs his head in one hand and looks at his drink that is in the other. "I understand, you're busy and it's been difficult at work."

He said nothing else as he watched her sit there for another ten minutes, responding to her emails and only taking four bites of her meal. He got up, and went to leave for the shower, but not before Yan could ask him a favor.

"Could you clean the bathroom, and get milk and toilet paper while I'm at the office tomorrow?"

He answered with a docile "Yes," and left the room.

He griped and grumbled under his breath when he was far away enough that Yan wouldn't hear, and put his mug on the nightstand before heading for the bathroom. He didn't know that he felt bad for her anymore. He had stuff to do himself (sometimes), it's not like she couldn't take some time off and spend time with him, or do some house work. She wasn't even trying to work her way up the workplace ladder. It was almost as if she wanted to be away from her house for as long as possible.

These thoughts ran through Ivan's head, and made him wonder if he was really happy. It seemed, yes, he found his purpose (playing violin), but he felt so empty in his own living space. But what could he do? He found himself asking the same question again, but decided to give it a rest for now and get some shut eye. He stepped from the shower and reached for the medicine cabinet, took his medicine, and stopped to look at it for a brief second before putting it back.

He walked out in his towel over to the laundry room to grab clean clothes since he just did the laundry, and got in a night shirt before laying down in their room. As soon as his head touched the pillow, he fell asleep and had no idea if Yan even joined him to go to bed.

-∆-

In the evening, Gilbert approached Amelia in their room to check on her, since she hadn't been out of there since she came back from the school.

She was a sobbing heap on the bed

"Frau?" Gilbert gently set his hand on her shoulder blade, but Amelia didn't react. She continued facing the wall and didn't say anything to Gilbert, so he began pestering her to talk out of love and concern.

"Frau please tell me what's wrong. Please." He rocked her by the shoulder a few times, but she brushed his hand away.

She sighed. "I'm so terrible at handling my feelings, I'm sorry." She wiped away a few tears from her eyes and cheeks, and sat up.

Gilbert let her lean her head on his shoulder. "It's fine, just tell me what's wrong."

"I wish I didn't leave Ivan."

He was surprised she was so transparent, after all the denying. "I figured... You know, maybe something will happen in your favor and you'll end up seeing him again?"

She shook her head. "That's the thing, Gil, I see him wherever I go." She said frustratedly. "At the concert with Roderich, the supermarket, he was even at school today!"

Gilbert sighed, and provided her with his "awesome" words of wisdom (Btw really sorry for the awful joke, thought I needed to remind you all that this is a Hetalia fic).

"Frau, what you need to do is make his jealous. Find a way to get him back. You know, I got some inside information from an acquaintance."

Amelia rolled her eyes. "Yeah, go on..."

"Apparently," he smirked, "Ivan's got some girlfriend troubles... Maybe you or me or my informant could try to speed up the process..."

She gasped at the devious notion, and scorned Gilbert with half-hearted discontentment.

"You're a sly fox, Gilbert. We're not doing anything like that. We're adults! This isn't highschool anymore."

"You're right," he laughed maniacally, "I won't be doing anything. You can find a way to get him to break up with this girl, and lure him back in, now that you've started picking up the pieces." He crossed his arms in triumph, confident Amelia would listen, seeing how desperate she was.

She sighed, "Fine... I'll see what I can do."