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Description
дружба /友好

Rating: T
Pairing: Somewhat Russia/China.
Genre: angst, drama, comedy
Warning: possible historical inaccuracy, some alcohol, war references
Length: 1,950 words (excluding footnotes)
_____________________________________________________________________

Ivan Braginsky's boots treaded through the Russian snow. The crunching of his boots, the howling wind…this was all that he knew of Russia this time of year. It was below freezing, below numbing, even, but Ivan trekked on, his usual smile underneath his scarf. As much as he loved the sunflowers and warmth of the south, he would always have a special spot for the snowy forests and plains of Russia. Of home.
Sure enough, his house appeared in the distance. Though still enormous, it was smaller than it had been for these past few years, and with less countries to occupy it. Lithuania, Georgia, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan…all of them were gone, as with the name the house used to hold: the Soviet Union.
And now, his house only held him, Ivan Braginsky.
He shut the door behind him, continuing to reflect on the past years. As he hung his heavy coat, memories of the space suits that he and Alfred's astronauts had worn in their space race came to mind. When he shuffled his boots off, he thought of Francis' elaborate ones, which traipsed gracefully to their many meetings after Ivan's house had gotten smaller. Lastly, the water pipe and sickle next to the fire reminded him of Arthur's awful accusation, mentioning something about a curtain that was iron and cold.1
Ivan chuckled to himself, a low kolkolkol that echoed throughout the empty house. If Arthur really wanted to know what cold was, he would just have to visit sometime. Or even feel the cold, iron sickle as Ivan beat it against him over and over again~
This thought kept him smiling again, and he plopped into a chair in front of the fireplace. "Don't you know you'll be one with me soon enough, Allies?" he asked aloud. He was ready to begin another evil chuckle when a thought occurred to him. The Allies…Alfred, Arthur, Francis…he had forgotten one of them.
Yao.
Though the embers of the fire burned with aureate vigor in front of him, the Russian suddenly felt cold. He reached across a neighboring table for a bottle of vodka. He took a hearty swig, following it with another and another, but the memories of the Chinese man continued to flow just as the vodka did from the bottle to his lips.
They had known eachother for centuries, dynasties. True, the tsars and emperors of their time had not taken kindly to eachother, and the religious and border wars drove them even farther apart. But it was Russia's civil war that began to draw them together, and for that Ivan was indebted to him.2 He helped Yao in his own civil war, and the two soon became allies against Kiku and his troops.3
Despite a few conflicts scattered in their history, if Ivan had to count how many treaties they'd signed, he'd run out of fingers. The words alliance, friendship, cooperation, and assistance were consistent in each one, along with the promise of trade and military help.
Fought together…suffered together…shared together. Perhaps it was due to their similar ideologies of sharing itself, Communism, and how they had been trying to spread it throughout the world. The world. He and Yao, in secrecy, had promised that they were going to rule it. To fix it after what the world had done to them in the Second World War.4
Then…
Yao split himself away from him.5 Not only in the split itself, but he fought over both the border and the communist states that they had attained, and he attacked Ivan's allies, the Vietnamese. He saw Ivan as a threat and went instead to negotiate with his old enemy, Alfred. Treaties were torn, victories were forgotten, conflicts continued…
The last time he'd seen his old friend was after his new house was built 6, where Yao had appeared briefly to sign a border agreement and trade negotiation.
The bottle was now empty, and a neighboring one just the same. But their purpose was fulfilled; Ivan, physically, was warm. But the coldness lingered inside of him, made him shut his violet eyes to try avoiding it.
He was alone.

The fire cracked and cackled in front of him, and the ticking of a large clock was his only reassurance that the time was going by, that he wasn't totally isolated and frozen apart from the world.
After several minutes and even hours passed, it came to be that another noise joined to surround Ivan: knocking on the door. Surely it was Natalia and her foreboding marriage proposals, so the Russian continued to ignore it.
The knocking shortly grew into pounding, but Ivan still didn't move. Why should he? Natalia was no match for the bolted-down door, after all.
The clock chimed then, telling him that he had left the visitor outside for a long (and surely excruciating) amount of time. He sighed. The pounding had become more urgent, and he was sure that he could hear a yelling voice outside. He was surprised that his sister even lasted that long in the Russian winter…finally, he rose from his chair and went to the door, opening it and preparing to-
"ARE YOU DEAF-ARU?!" a man said, interrupting Ivan's statement completely.
Ivan's mouth opened in shock at first, then closed into a wide grin. "Яо!" he said happily, pronouncing Yao's name in his own language. Sure enough, the Chinese man stood in the doorway, covered in layers of heavy clothing that boasted Oriental design. "What are you doing out here in the snow?"
Yao lacked the happy demeanor the Russian had. "W-Waiting for you to open the d-door! Aiyaa!! I wa-wa-was losing f-f-feeling in my arms to pound-aru!"
"Then won't you come in~?" Ivan asked, opening the door wide and gesturing Yao to enter. Yao hastily took the Russian's offer, grateful for the warmth of Ivan's home. "Aiyaa…" he muttered to himself, shaking as hard as he could to remove the many snowflakes his body had gathered.
"I'm sorry I left you out there for so long," Ivan said with a smile. "I thought it was Natalia…she's been trying to marry me and become one with Russia." Suddenly his eyes lit up. "Are you visiting to become one with me?"
"N-No-aru!" Yao was still in the process of removing snowflakes from his form. "It's something completely different…"
Ivan put a hand on Yao's shoulder to brush away a few drops of snow. "Then what are you here for~?"
Yao became flustered and brushed Ivan's hand away. "I…I have something for you to see." Ivan's purple aura clouded his face, leaving Yao to hastily add, "No-Nothing like that-aru!" To prove what he was saying, Yao hastily reached into his pack, bringing out a sheaf of papers. One packet for him, written with characters of the Chinese language, the other for Ivan in his native tongue.
Ivan's eyes widened with curiosity, and his hands eagerly reached for the text that Yao was holding. He read the following:

Народная Республика Китайи Российская Федерация (более известная как договаривающаяся сторона),7

"I-I know that my Russian isn't perfect-aru, it's been a long time since I've spoken it…so I also brought my version…so there wouldn't be any confusion at all-aru! …Since this was a huge point I wanted to…"
The Chinese man's voice eventually faded into the distance as Russia read more and more of the text.

Учитывая исторические традиции добрососедства идружба между народами Китая и России…8

His eye immediately gravitated to the word дружба. It was a word that he hadn't heard for decades, and was one that he would've never thought to hear again from Yao, much as he wanted to. He beamed, remembering all of the numerous treaties from before and all of the kind words they had inside. With shining eyes he looked back at Yao (who was still rambling incessantly about something) and said, "Яо?"
"I'm actually sort of embar- Aru?" Yao stopped talking once he heard Ivan's voice. "Is something wrong?"
"Do you know what this word means?" Ivan pointed to the Russian word дружба on the document. "Druzhba?"
"Of course I do." Yao pointed to the same word on his document, which was marked as友好. "Yǒuhǎo," he said.
"That is the Chinese word for druzhba?" Ivan smiled. He was sure of it. Yao had used the word many times in their previous documents. "For friendship?"
"是的." Yao said.
Yes.
"Yǒuhǎo means friendship." Finally, Ivan's old fried smiled, with the smallest hint of a blush on his cheeks. "This is a treaty about friendship."
Both men, despite the rigid and rampant weather outside, found themselves smiling at eachother and at the bond they shared. Ivan knew then that their bond was amaranthine; not war, nor border conflicts, nor anything else could drive them apart. He knew that Yao would never quite be able to forget what the Soviets had done, but he knew that Yao wouldn't forget about him either. Proof was everywhere; monuments commemorating their friendship were scattered in both countries, but if they wanted something a little closer, all they'd have to do was to approach the edge of their houses…only to find the other right next door.
"W-Well, go ahead and read the rest of it!" Yao said, getting flustered by Ivan's intense gaze. The Russian chuckled and continued.

When they had finished reading the treaty Ivan looked back at Yao, who clearly looked nervous. "Is it…is it all right-aru? Not too many mistakes-aru?"
Ivan's eyes were closed and the corners of his mouth were upturned. "Is Яо only here for me to sign the treaty?"
Yao thought. "Well…I'd like to stay, but my superior said I have many other issues to attend to at home-aru, so he told me to stay as long as you and your superior sign the treaty-aru."
"Then I'll just show this to my superior tomorrow, or maybe the day after because it's been snowing so much~"
Yao scoffed. "You're still such a child, 伊万9…" Then he couldn't help it, he grinned. "Just the way you've always been-aru." Ivan didn't say anything, just continued to smile at the Chinese man before him. It became awkward for Yao after a few minutes, so he asked, "Err…Ivan, can I make some tea-aru? I'm still a little cold…"
Finally Ivan spoke. "You should have vodka instead! It makes you very warm." Then the purple aura appeared again. "And if you drink enough then you'll stay at my house longer~"
"Aiyaa! Ivan!"

On July 16, 2001, the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, also known as the 2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship was signed by the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation.

Description
дружба /友好

Rating: T
Pairing: Somewhat Russia/China.
Genre: angst, drama, comedy
Warning: possible historical inaccuracy, some alcohol, war references
Length: 1,950 words (excluding footnotes)
_____________________________________________________________________

Ivan Braginsky's boots treaded through the Russian snow. The crunching of his boots, the howling wind…this was all that he knew of Russia this time of year. It was below freezing, below numbing, even, but Ivan trekked on, his usual smile underneath his scarf. As much as he loved the sunflowers and warmth of the south, he would always have a special spot for the snowy forests and plains of Russia. Of home.
Sure enough, his house appeared in the distance. Though still enormous, it was smaller than it had been for these past few years, and with less countries to occupy it. Lithuania, Georgia, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan…all of them were gone, as with the name the house used to hold: the Soviet Union.
And now, his house only held him, Ivan Braginsky.
He shut the door behind him, continuing to reflect on the past years. As he hung his heavy coat, memories of the space suits that he and Alfred's astronauts had worn in their space race came to mind. When he shuffled his boots off, he thought of Francis' elaborate ones, which traipsed gracefully to their many meetings after Ivan's house had gotten smaller. Lastly, the water pipe and sickle next to the fire reminded him of Arthur's awful accusation, mentioning something about a curtain that was iron and cold.1
Ivan chuckled to himself, a low kolkolkol that echoed throughout the empty house. If Arthur really wanted to know what cold was, he would just have to visit sometime. Or even feel the cold, iron sickle as Ivan beat it against him over and over again~
This thought kept him smiling again, and he plopped into a chair in front of the fireplace. "Don't you know you'll be one with me soon enough, Allies?" he asked aloud. He was ready to begin another evil chuckle when a thought occurred to him. The Allies…Alfred, Arthur, Francis…he had forgotten one of them.
Yao.
Though the embers of the fire burned with aureate vigor in front of him, the Russian suddenly felt cold. He reached across a neighboring table for a bottle of vodka. He took a hearty swig, following it with another and another, but the memories of the Chinese man continued to flow just as the vodka did from the bottle to his lips.
They had known eachother for centuries, dynasties. True, the tsars and emperors of their time had not taken kindly to eachother, and the religious and border wars drove them even farther apart. But it was Russia's civil war that began to draw them together, and for that Ivan was indebted to him.2 He helped Yao in his own civil war, and the two soon became allies against Kiku and his troops.3
Despite a few conflicts scattered in their history, if Ivan had to count how many treaties they'd signed, he'd run out of fingers. The words alliance, friendship, cooperation, and assistance were consistent in each one, along with the promise of trade and military help.
Fought together…suffered together…shared together. Perhaps it was due to their similar ideologies of sharing itself, Communism, and how they had been trying to spread it throughout the world. The world. He and Yao, in secrecy, had promised that they were going to rule it. To fix it after what the world had done to them in the Second World War.4
Then…
Yao split himself away from him.5 Not only in the split itself, but he fought over both the border and the communist states that they had attained, and he attacked Ivan's allies, the Vietnamese. He saw Ivan as a threat and went instead to negotiate with his old enemy, Alfred. Treaties were torn, victories were forgotten, conflicts continued…
The last time he'd seen his old friend was after his new house was built 6, where Yao had appeared briefly to sign a border agreement and trade negotiation.
The bottle was now empty, and a neighboring one just the same. But their purpose was fulfilled; Ivan, physically, was warm. But the coldness lingered inside of him, made him shut his violet eyes to try avoiding it.
He was alone.

The fire cracked and cackled in front of him, and the ticking of a large clock was his only reassurance that the time was going by, that he wasn't totally isolated and frozen apart from the world.
After several minutes and even hours passed, it came to be that another noise joined to surround Ivan: knocking on the door. Surely it was Natalia and her foreboding marriage proposals, so the Russian continued to ignore it.
The knocking shortly grew into pounding, but Ivan still didn't move. Why should he? Natalia was no match for the bolted-down door, after all.
The clock chimed then, telling him that he had left the visitor outside for a long (and surely excruciating) amount of time. He sighed. The pounding had become more urgent, and he was sure that he could hear a yelling voice outside. He was surprised that his sister even lasted that long in the Russian winter…finally, he rose from his chair and went to the door, opening it and preparing to-
"ARE YOU DEAF-ARU?!" a man said, interrupting Ivan's statement completely.
Ivan's mouth opened in shock at first, then closed into a wide grin. "Яо!" he said happily, pronouncing Yao's name in his own language. Sure enough, the Chinese man stood in the doorway, covered in layers of heavy clothing that boasted Oriental design. "What are you doing out here in the snow?"
Yao lacked the happy demeanor the Russian had. "W-Waiting for you to open the d-door! Aiyaa!! I wa-wa-was losing f-f-feeling in my arms to pound-aru!"
"Then won't you come in~?" Ivan asked, opening the door wide and gesturing Yao to enter. Yao hastily took the Russian's offer, grateful for the warmth of Ivan's home. "Aiyaa…" he muttered to himself, shaking as hard as he could to remove the many snowflakes his body had gathered.
"I'm sorry I left you out there for so long," Ivan said with a smile. "I thought it was Natalia…she's been trying to marry me and become one with Russia." Suddenly his eyes lit up. "Are you visiting to become one with me?"
"N-No-aru!" Yao was still in the process of removing snowflakes from his form. "It's something completely different…"
Ivan put a hand on Yao's shoulder to brush away a few drops of snow. "Then what are you here for~?"
Yao became flustered and brushed Ivan's hand away. "I…I have something for you to see." Ivan's purple aura clouded his face, leaving Yao to hastily add, "No-Nothing like that-aru!" To prove what he was saying, Yao hastily reached into his pack, bringing out a sheaf of papers. One packet for him, written with characters of the Chinese language, the other for Ivan in his native tongue.
Ivan's eyes widened with curiosity, and his hands eagerly reached for the text that Yao was holding. He read the following:

Народная Республика Китайи Российская Федерация (более известная как договаривающаяся сторона),7

"I-I know that my Russian isn't perfect-aru, it's been a long time since I've spoken it…so I also brought my version…so there wouldn't be any confusion at all-aru! …Since this was a huge point I wanted to…"
The Chinese man's voice eventually faded into the distance as Russia read more and more of the text.

Учитывая исторические традиции добрососедства идружба между народами Китая и России…8

His eye immediately gravitated to the word дружба. It was a word that he hadn't heard for decades, and was one that he would've never thought to hear again from Yao, much as he wanted to. He beamed, remembering all of the numerous treaties from before and all of the kind words they had inside. With shining eyes he looked back at Yao (who was still rambling incessantly about something) and said, "Яо?"
"I'm actually sort of embar- Aru?" Yao stopped talking once he heard Ivan's voice. "Is something wrong?"
"Do you know what this word means?" Ivan pointed to the Russian word дружба on the document. "Druzhba?"
"Of course I do." Yao pointed to the same word on his document, which was marked as友好. "Yǒuhǎo," he said.
"That is the Chinese word for druzhba?" Ivan smiled. He was sure of it. Yao had used the word many times in their previous documents. "For friendship?"
"是的." Yao said.
Yes.
"Yǒuhǎo means friendship." Finally, Ivan's old fried smiled, with the smallest hint of a blush on his cheeks. "This is a treaty about friendship."
Both men, despite the rigid and rampant weather outside, found themselves smiling at eachother and at the bond they shared. Ivan knew then that their bond was amaranthine; not war, nor border conflicts, nor anything else could drive them apart. He knew that Yao would never quite be able to forget what the Soviets had done, but he knew that Yao wouldn't forget about him either. Proof was everywhere; monuments commemorating their friendship were scattered in both countries, but if they wanted something a little closer, all they'd have to do was to approach the edge of their houses…only to find the other right next door.
"W-Well, go ahead and read the rest of it!" Yao said, getting flustered by Ivan's intense gaze. The Russian chuckled and continued.

When they had finished reading the treaty Ivan looked back at Yao, who clearly looked nervous. "Is it…is it all right-aru? Not too many mistakes-aru?"
Ivan's eyes were closed and the corners of his mouth were upturned. "Is Яо only here for me to sign the treaty?"
Yao thought. "Well…I'd like to stay, but my superior said I have many other issues to attend to at home-aru, so he told me to stay as long as you and your superior sign the treaty-aru."
"Then I'll just show this to my superior tomorrow, or maybe the day after because it's been snowing so much~"
Yao scoffed. "You're still such a child, 伊万9…" Then he couldn't help it, he grinned. "Just the way you've always been-aru." Ivan didn't say anything, just continued to smile at the Chinese man before him. It became awkward for Yao after a few minutes, so he asked, "Err…Ivan, can I make some tea-aru? I'm still a little cold…"
Finally Ivan spoke. "You should have vodka instead! It makes you very warm." Then the purple aura appeared again. "And if you drink enough then you'll stay at my house longer~"
"Aiyaa! Ivan!"

On July 16, 2001, the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, also known as the 2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship was signed by the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation.