Red Roses, Aster, and Peonies

5

Ivan hummed to himself, walking beside Alfred as they went through the halls. A few people still glared, but most of it had faded.

He had no idea where Alfred was bringing him.

"Mom!" a childish voice yelled from behind, both of them turning to see a little boy running up to them.

He had curly dark brown hair, and darker, Caribbean skin. He had large, green that faded to yellow eyes. He looked around five to seven.

At first he couldn't see any demon-like parts, then he saw the claws and the green-yellow swirls on his upper arms. The boy smiled lightly and exposed that he had three sets of canines, going out.

"Yes, Rico?" Alfred asked, running a hand through the boy's hair to try and fix it.

"Uh..." the boy stopped for a second, looking down before shooting up, "Guam talked! He said no!"

"Oh."

"And now Via and Mariana are taking him to Samuel because he feels sick!"

"Oh," Alfred replied, staring at the boy blankly, "don't make him speak again. It's probably a headache, but still go to Samuel, okay?"

"Yes mama!" Rico exclaimed, running off.

"Puerto Rico?" Ivan asked, looking at Alfred, who nodded.

"Ya," Alfred replied, grabbing his hand as he turned back around, "c'mon."

"Where are we going?"

"Somewhere," Alfred giggled, kissing his jawline and pulling him slightly to push him into moving, leading him to another room.

There were double doors to this room. It was important.

Alfred pushed the doors open, and Ivan's eyes went wide.

It was a library.

Large bookshelves went around the room, at every wall, a few even coming into rows along the back corner. There was a staircase up to a second level, which he could see that the walls along there were covered in the same bookshelves.

There were a few stacks of books around on desks, and blankets thrown around, and couches and love-seats and chairs and tables either in rows or just thrown around.

All the colors were warm- red carpets went around the edges, and the dark and orange of the flooring made the entire thing seem centered.

He noticed that all the bookshelves were engraved with vines and flowers, that somehow every one of the books matched the brown of the wood.

"This... is..."

"A mess? I know," Alfred sighed, "it wasn't like this before but the guards scattered books everywhere." he looked down, grabbing an empty beer bottle, "I think they drank in here too. It hasn't really been cleaned yet."

"No, beautiful," Ivan corrected, kissing him on the top of the head as he teleported the bottle somewhere- either that or disintegrated it- and walked over.

"Thanks," Alfred said softly, looking around, "grab whatever you want, just put it back."

Ivan nodded, his gaze shifting over an entire bookshelves of so many different types of bibles that it seemed unnatural. The only bible he really ever saw was the Orthodox one- that was the only one he'd read as well, and he'd never even thought there were this many.

"Oh, there's another area that we keep most of the bibles, those are just the ones of the main religions."

"How many religions are there, exactly?"