Shattered Souls Make Good Pets

3

Alfred hummed to himself as he shut the car door, Rulyn issuing a goodbye before saying she was gonna 'test her French' and she drove off.

Why was it so hot in Paris what the fuck.

Didn't help he was wearing long sleeves, but then again he always was. He should be used to this, but he supposed nobody was used to global warming yet.

He almost forgot that most buildings in Europe didn't have air conditioning.

This was not very fun.

Wandering through the halls, he looked around for the meeting place, feeling his phone buzz as he saw the caller and smiled.

"I see you~"

"Baby this isn't fun, where are you?" Alfred said, turning around, he couldn't see anyone, but the cameras.

"Are you in the security room?"

"How'd you know?"

"How did you get in there?" Alfred countered, finding a map and running towards where the security office was.

"Nobody's here, the door was open," Ivan replied, laughing as Alfred found him, hanging up without saying anything else and putting his phone in his pocket. He heard Ivan curse before he slipped into the room, hiding in the shadows of the room while Ivan went to look at the computer screens, trying to figure out where he was before getting really confused.

Alfred walked up behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder as Ivan jumped for the sun.

"Alfred what the fuck?!" Ivan exclaimed, hugging him and resting his chin on his head as Alfred laughed, wrapping his arms around his neck and holding him close.

"I missed you," Alfred said, nuzzling into his scarf.

They had time- a good twenty minutes before the meeting would start.

"I missed you too, zaichik, (bunny)" Ivan replied, relaxing for the first time in almost a month. It was June 16th for goodness sakes! He'd hardly been able to relax, he remembered his coworkers calling him panicky and sighed. They were right, he'd gotten so used to being around Alfred for a month it was hard to change his ways.

"What'd you get up too?" Alfred asked as he let go, sitting on the ground as Alfred crawled over to sit beside him, the Russian wrapping his arm around his waist and pulling him closer.

"Paperwork, so much paperwork. Not to mention my boss, he isn't the... accepting type, but at least he wouldn't hurt me,"

"You talk about humans like they're lesser beings yet you're always think they're gonna hurt you," Alfred replied, "sounds like someone's in denial about their fears~"

"Alfred," Ivan growled, kissing him on the forehead, "we do not talk about the things I'm afraid of, because half of them are losing you."

"You have a toxic masculinity issue, but thanks."

"What did you do?" Ivan changed the subject as Alfred shook his head.

"I went and hung out with Rulyn! And guess what, we named one of the animals after one of your cities!"

"Aw," Ivan replied, "which city?"

"Chita, because the one time I went to that city everyone was really nice, and Snow Leopard we named it after is really nice," Alfred said as Ivan smiled, kissing him on the hair.

"Does really nice mean not biting the handlers or actively looking for cuddles?"

"Both!"

"I always had this strange feeling you could actually talk to animals, what do your people call it? Animal whispering?"