The Little Russian Mermaid Ch1

Chapter 1

Ivan sighed, "Another cold day, its sad да?" He looked up at the shining surface, "I wonder how warm it is up there"

"B-but, my Prince," he stuttered "Y-you know you a-are forbidden to go up there"

"Silly Toris" giggled Ivan "Who said I'm going up there?" Ivan's smile grew, making the Lithuanian servant tremble "Y-you're r-right! W-who would want to g-go up t-there? O-only idiots would want to g-go up there!" Toris laughed lightheartedly only for it to die slowly as her heard a faint "kolkolkol" from Ivan

"Ah, I'm sorry Prince Ivan, b-but-"Toris was cut off by the bells low chime and he sighed thankfully "We're going to be late for your rehearsal my Lord, please let's go before the priest gets angry"

"Да" Ivan and his servant swam quickly towards their frozen castle. It's been frozen ever since Ivan can remember, and the water always below freezing. Ivan hated it, ever since he was little he always wanted warmth, a place where he can grow his undersea flowers and play with his sisters. His sisters. 'Katyusha' he thought, how he missed her, ever since her Husband forbid her come visit him, he's been lonely. Sure he had Natalia with him, but she's scary (Like, Stephen Kings 'It' scary.)

The two Royals kept swimming until they reached the front gates of the Castle. The guard immediately noticed Ivan and his scarf he received from his big sister, the last thing she ever gave to him before she left. The Guard opened the gate to let them through, Ivan smiled as he quickly swam passed him. "Prince Ivan, please!" begged Toris "Slow down!"

"Нет!"(no) sang Ivan, he giggled and took a swift turn towards the ballroom, thus losing the Lithuanian. Ivan slowed to a stop and sighed "Finally, I'm alone". He took his time, he's been in the ballroom before, it's his 'secret' get away next to the coral reef (which we'll see later in the chapter) he mused again and again at the pictures of flowers hung up high in the ballroom. They've never had a ball, so Ivan never learned how to dance, although Toris did teach him, with Raivis as the female counter part of course.

But Ivan wanted a real ball, with people, their smiling faces and nice music. His sisters beside him and the Baltic are at his side. Ivan imagined how the music would play in his mind and slowly started to dance along to it. Doing his own little solo dance, he flicked his fin up and sped his arms out and started to hum a Russian tone that he heard some peasants sing during the annual festivals.

He began to dance his peasant folk dance, occasionally spinning, swimming up and down; He smiled. Not his usual I-will-beat-you-with-a-lead-pipe- smile, but a genuine smile, a real smile. His smile and his dance died when he heard "Marry me" echo in the ballroom. Ivan froze with terror "Silly брат," (brother) she cooed "You realize that you cannot dance this peasant dance in our own ballroom, Так?" (yes)

"Da, I realize that сестра" he subtly searched for an exit or anything to get his sister away from him; he soon felt two arms wrap around his waist "Why don't you dance with me брат?"

"Нет, I've got to go look for Toris, да?" he took her arms and released them from his waist

He heard Natalia growl "Why do you like him, brother?!"

"He is my servant, dear sister"

"Няма, you are mine, you hear me brother!?" (no) She yelled "Mine and mine alone!" she swam away, Ivan can only pray for the Lithuanians safety, although Toris did not mind it when Natalia paid attention to him

Ivan quickly swam out towards the coral reef; his reef- that's not frozen. He tightened the scarf around his neck and swam as quickly as he could towards his secret reef.

*~*~*Hetalia*~*~*

"T-Toris, where is the p-prince?" asked Raivis

Toris sighed at the short Latvian Archduke "He swam off somewhere, I don't know where"

"B-but his r-rehearsal is in 5 minutes!"

"I don't understand why you care, Raivis" asked Eduard

"I-I c-can't h-help it!" cried the Latvian "H-his h-hairiness h-has got t-to me!"

"LATVIA!" cried Eduard

Raivis fainted and floated up to the ceiling, Eduard sighed and grabbed the Latvians tail and dragged him down towards the sea floor and held Raivis from under Eduard's arm. "I wonder what made him faint so quickly?" asked the Estonian

"I don't kno-…" Toris was cut off by a knife to the throat, Eduard swallowed a lump in his throat "I-I can see why" he quickly swam off leaving Toris behind with Natalia

"Hey, Natalia" he smiled cheerfully; unaware of the danger he is in "How is my princess today?"

Natalia's grip on the blade tightened

*~*~*Hetalia*~*~*

Ivan smiled at the warmth and examined his reef. It had various colors of sea anemone, coral and little fish swimming about. He swam past them, liking how they were so used to seeing him here that they didn't scatter away. He found this a month after his 'Father' first came to visit, when he swam off after so much wrong had happened when his father came to visit. He kept swimming at a quick speed, hoping to get away from the questions that bombarded his head. He did not stop until he hit a warm wall about 15 miles away from his castle.

He discovered that there was an open lava flow just 5 miles away from this coral reef (he found this out by exploring the area of course). Ivan liked this new sensation, at first he never knew what it was until he asked Katyusha, she told him "It's called warmth, Vanya"

He also discovered that it was close to the surface. But he never actually swam up to the surface. Not once, in fear that he would somehow get caught, and would have to endure colder winters under the sea.

Ivan stopped swimming, his smile grew wider at the sight of the giant underwater Sunflower flowing before him. He thought it was the most beautiful thing in this coral reef; so he took care of it, since he found it 4 years ago by accidentally falling on top of it- how did he fall? Well, I'll leave that up to your imagination.

Ivan swam closer to the undersea flower and touched it lightly with his gloved hand. He realized he still had his long coat on and it was starting to get stuffy. He took off his long coat and his gloves and placed them on a rock, loving the warmth caress his pale scared skin, he was tempted to take off his scarf, but couldn't. Besides the sunflower, it's his most valued possession.

Ivan took one last loving look at his large sunflower and began swimming around checking if anything had showed up on the coral Reef- That's another thing he loved about his secret reef. It's that many things from the surface show up almost every day when he comes to check on his sunflower.

One time he found a vase and didn't realize that you could hold flowers inside it until one morning he found flowers inside in his bedroom. Another item he found that he kept secret was a painting of bright yellow flowers sitting outside on top a porch looking out to what it looks like the ocean and a small town. Ivan could tell that this painting is a glimpse of the human world above. And the flowers must be what his flower could look like if it were grown on the surface.

"Oh what fun things will I find today, da?" sang Ivan cheerfully with his eyes closed. Before he could open them to see where he was going, he bumped into something; something hard.

"говно" (shit) he hissed rubbing his nose hoping that it won't get bigger than it already is, he saw a fickle of blood float up and fading away in front of his eyes.

His anger faded away as he examined what he had bumped into. Ivan's mouth hung stupidly at the beautiful sculpture that lay crooked before him. A valiant Asian looking… man? Yes man…stood proud and tall with a bow and arrow ready to shoot up and hit his enemy with a determined smile on his face, his clothes seemed exotic; something he has never seen before. It was elegant, feminine but it had that pride of a man with a dragon engraved in the front.

Ivan swam close to the marble statue, he noticed that his eyes were a different shape than he was accustomed to; it was thinner than his but not all too thin. Ivan's eyes then moved to his hair, it was long and in a pony tail, gracefully hung down over his left shoulder. Ivan didn't know if this is a life sized sculpture of this valiant human, but from what Ivan can tell he was very tall compared to the archer.

Ivan knew that the sculpture had to be moved. So he grabbed the waist of the tiny man and lifted it up. He then carried it off and onto a patch of sand and placed it gently on top. Ivan was hovering above the sculpture when he noticed a plaque underneath the man's foot.  He swam down to get a good look at it, his eyebrows furrowed when he could not make out the strange language the plague was written in.

Ivan looked up again at the sculptures face. He felt his chest tighten at the sight of this young man- in a good way, not in the "I'm-having-a-heart-attack" kind of way…I think. Ivan carried on admiring the sculpture not noticing that the afternoon had turned into dusk until he heard the distant clock tower bell ring in his ears ("who on earth would gaze at a statue for that long?" You ask? Well, this is a fan fic, deal with it!)

Ivan looked up and noticed the full moon shinning bright above the water. Somehow it shone more beautifully on this night. His eyes then trailed down to the sculpture, he wanted to bring it back to the castle, but his Father was returning the next day for more torment-I mean, for Ivan's rehearsal and coronation.

The latter swam towards where he placed his long coat and gloves but stopped when a large shadow over came him and faint popping noises echoed above. Ivan looked up; the smile on his face grew as he saw a ship sail past over head. He'd seen them before back in the castle but never in his secret reef and with its shallowness; you could see that the ship was big, but not big enough to scrape the reef with its keel.

Ivan was hypnotized by the sparkling colors that were flying off of the ship above. He never saw such a thing before in his life. He unconsciously swam up towards the surface. The popping noises getting louder and louder the closer he got. Ivan's curiosity was arguing with his fear of getting caught, but of course, his curiosity won and he stuck his head out of the water.

His eyes widened at the sight of a boat sailing under the moon, the loud popping became loud bangs and the colors were more vibrant. "What could this be da?" giggled Ivan; he swam quickly towards the boat occasionally doing a butterfly stroke to gain speed. He soon arrived at the edge of the boat, ignoring everything else that might've fascinated him more (I mean, seriously!) He heard music from on top. Joyous music from instruments he had never heard before. This intrigued him more, he grabbed a hold of the wood of the boat and pulled himself up "kolkolkol, I like challenges da?" he giggled.

He found himself an opening and a little ledge that he can sit upon and watch the humans. He hid himself from the sailors; he moved his head to get a better view at the humans. "They're dancing," Ivan noted "it looks fun da? Dancing with, uh, legs? Da, legs" Ivan liked the beat of the music and began tapping his index finger against the wood and lightly bouncing his head from side to side.

"Nyaru"

Ivan flinched at the sudden sound, he looked to his left nothing, he looked to his right nothing "nyaru" Ivan looked up and blinked. He was nose to nose with a black cat with a lock of hair hanging off his left shoulder, it blinked its amber eyes at the merman "uh, Privet" he whispered

The cat began to hiss and claw at the merman, Ivan tried to stop it by making hushing noises. The cat soon lost its balance and let out a loud "Nyaru" as it fell. Ivan caught the cat with ease, but he did not expect it to grab on to his arm with claws (it hurts, trust me) the shock of the cat's claws digging into Ivan's skin cause him to lose his balance. With his free arm he reached out and grabbed the ledge he was just sitting on. As he dangled, he looked down at the cat hooked (literally) on his arm; the latter was pale white instead of coal black.

"Hang on little тварь" (creature) He whispered, his grip on the ledge tightened and he pulled himself up with ease. He flopped onto his bottom and sighed, bringing the cat up to eye level. The cat was emitting a chattering noise from its mouth, like the kind of noise Raivis makes when Ivan is in the room. Ivan gently stroked the cats fur, as if he was stroking his underwater sunflower "Hush little тварь, its okay now da?" the cat seemed to relax at after each stroke; soon the chattering noise was replaced with a low rumble from the cats throat. Ivan took it as a good thing, soon the cat release its claws from Ivan's skin and began licking at it. Ivan winced at the jester, but the cat was just trying to heal up the wound and wipe away the blood.

"Спасибo" (Thank you) smiled Ivan, then the cat rubbed its back against Ivan's broad, heavily toned chest (Just a little fan service for yah) then hopped up into the opening and began licking its fur. Ivan never seen an animal quite like it, but he knew that he would go to the library right away after all this is finished.

"毛!" (Mao)

Ivan cringed and pressed his back against the wood, 'A human?!' he thought 'so close,' Ivan inched his way towards the opening, and saw two feet stood in front of the cat and two hands come down to pick it up "在那里，您是孩子！我一直在寻找你aru" (There you are boy! I was looking for you aru)

Ivan pressed closer against the wood to get a better look at the human with the strange tongue. Ivan's mouth gapped into a silent gasp at the sight before him. "He must be the man of the sculpture" he whispered, 'Same smile, long hair, feminine body and the eyes' the eyes were exotic to the merman, amber, the same color as the cat that he just rescued. Ivan's chest tightened, his heart was beating rapidly, his lungs didn't seem to get enough air. 'What's happening?' wondered Ivan, as a hand lifted up and was placed onto his chest in hopes that it would calm his rapidly beating heart.

"Aniki~!!"