I Think That I Love You

Vatrushka

Ivan was completely engrossed in his new book when Alfred barged into his apartment at four in the morning. He'd practically pounded his door to pieces before Ivan had let him in.

"Yo, Braginsky! Did you hear that Héderváry is assigning us new cases? That means we actually get to do something useful other then just sitting at our desks and looking at records older than you!" Alfred shouted loudly while still out of breath from the long climb to Ivan's top floor apartment. Ivan gave a resigned sigh as he watched Alfred get his crystalline floors dirty with his muddy shoes.

It had been a couple weeks since the hostage situation with the fake ambassador and the Captain had assigned them with a desk work for a while. They'd just gone to some fair last weekend to blow off steam.

"For the last time ,Alfred, I'm only 5 years older than you. No, I was reading instead of doing whatever you do at four in the morning. I'm bemused, though. I thought Captain Héderváry said she was keeping us on cold cases for the rest of the month?" Ivan asked as Alfred made his way inside.

"She was, but then Gilbert and Matthew wrapped up their investigation on that serial killer earlier than expected. They got some sort of unexpected tip, so they were able to catch him," Alfred informed Ivan as the later was cringing at the mud tracks Alfred was leaving.

"I think it was the neurotic guy obsessed with dismembering the victims or something. It was pretty gory, though. Glad we weren't put on it," Alfred added, still not noticing Ivan's glare at his dirty shoes.

"Yo, you got any of that vati-roush-ca, or whatever you call it? It was so good, dude," Alfred asked as he walked into the kitchen. He flipped the switch, and the light flickered on, darkness receding immediately. Ivan was silently flipping out behind Alfred. He had always been neurotic about cleanliness. Deep breaths Ivan, deep breaths. They're just floors, nothing you can't fix.

"It's vatrushka, Alfred, I've told you this about 20 times. But yes, I have some. I'll be sure to tell Katyusha that you like it at the next family gathering. Besides, how did you find out about the reassignment so fast? I get that you're a conscientious cop and all, but isn't four in the morning a bit too much, even for you?" Ivan asked Alfred as he went into his pantry and emerged with a couple of the Russian pastries. He tossed them to Alfred who caught them without casualties.

It was hard to concentrate on Alfred's many words when Ivan couldn't keep his eyes off, well, Alfred. Ivan did not know why he suddenly became obsessed with Alfred's dusty blonde cowlick and why he felt warm feelings when next to the man.

"Bro, you still there?" Alfred asked while waving a hand in front of Ivan's face. He'd already finished off most of the vatrushka and was on his last two.

"Uh, da, Alfred. I was just distracted, carry on," Ivan replied, snapping back to reality.

"Well, as I was saying, I know about the whole reassignment thing because of Matthew. You know how he's my brother, and we're roommates 'cause rent's cheaper and we know each other and all that. So he comes home at like three in the morning, and he smells horrible. He's jacked up on caffeine, and he just bursts into my room and screams, "We solved it, bro! We cracked the case!." He just managed to tell me that Héderváry reassigned us, and then he's literally dragged away by his partner, Gilbert. He pulls him away, shouting something about going to the bar to celebrate, and that was my night," Alfred ranted, pausing during intervals to scarf the food down.

"Well, you've informed me now, Alfred. I'll keep this in mind. You can head home now to try to get some sleep before we have to head to work," Ivan responded, frowning at all the crumbs Alfred made.

"Uh, about that... I kind of took the bus here, and there are no other ones running until seven in the morning?" Alfred sheepishly admitted. Ivan just gave another sigh.

"Fine, you can stay here until we leave in the morning. This is the third time this week, and it's only Thursday. Are you sure you're not doing this on purpose?" Ivan asked as he prepared to set up the couch again.

"Umm..." Alfred nervously mumbled. Ivan sighed once again and steeled himself for the next couple hours with Alfred.

Me desperately trying to keep the timeline on point and add romance to the story: hmmm what if I make Alfred almost break into Ivan's house? Yeah, cause that's what love interests  do.