Russia x Reader ~Not Near, Not Far, Someday~

~Not Near, Not Far, Someday~

It was a glimmer of light that first caught his eye like a fierce star that had ignited its last dying light with a pure brilliance that pleaded for someone to look at it and remember it.

Ivan approached the light not with caution but curiosity. What mere object could create such a dazzling light in the middle of such a harsh winter where the sun shied away behind the unrelenting snow and ice? When the light faded, there stood a single girl with a hand held to the heavens, her head craned back like a graceful bird, her eyes never backing down her target with a cold, hard stare. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that she had something wedged between her index finger and her thumb: a glass marble. That such a tiny thing could cast such a wonderful light was beyond Ivan's comprehension. Some would have passed the phenomenon as optics where the light waves would travel and bend at different angles through the glass. Ivan would have call it magic.

"Hello?" he breathed, as it was cold outside so he could see his breath condense in midair against the flakes of falling crystals.

The girl, whose head was still angled up towards the clouds, blinked once and moved her eyes towards Ivan's voice. She lowered her head and her hand and gave Ivan her full attention.

"Yes?" she asked in a soft voice. Such a voice lacked the livelihood of surprise or curiosity, but Ivan would have welcomed such a monotonous voice with open ears.

"What are you looking at?" he asked with his arms behind his back like a curious child.

The girl blinked again and lowered her eyes to her marble.

"Something amazing," she answered. Deep within her flat notes, there lay a gateway ready to open up to a promising world full of imagination and sheer awe. If only Ivan was able to see it, too.

"What exactly is it?" he asked hoping to find out.

The girl paused for a moment. She didn't blink once, not even when a few small crystals fell on her eyelashes and tickled them with their icy touch.

"Something that you should find for yourself," she answered with words shrouded in mystery. "It's something that you are unable to see. It would take a long time for you to understand without the right knowledge."

Ivan frowned. That wasn't what he expected to hear. The girl looked no older than he did. Who was she to say what he was unable to do? Even so, she interested him. She was someone who looked like she would be able to understand him if she could understand something beyond his grasp. So he decided to open the door.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"___________," the girl answered.

"I'm Ivan," Ivan then responded with his own introduction despite the girl not asking. "Will you be my friend?"

The girl's lifeless eyes suddenly lit up like a fire had cast its light into her desolate, wintery world.

"Yes," she answered without pause. Not a single word more, not a single word less. It was all Ivan needed to hear to smile.

The girl had promised to be his friend, and in doing so, she would teach Ivan how to see the other world for himself.

"You don't need the marble to see it," she said. "It's something that you will be able to do in time."

Ivan didn't understand. "If I don't need the marble to see it, then why do you use it to see?"

___________ blinked. "It's because it's something that aids me," she answered. "I need it, not you."

Ivan still didn't understand. "I thought friends were supposed to share."

___________ smiled. "You are my friend, Ivan. Rather than sharing a marble, I am sharing this world with you."

"How can you be sharing the world if I can't see it?" Ivan asked.

"You will be able to see it," ____________ replied with confidence in her flat voice. "I know that for a fact."

"If you say so…" Ivan pouted like a child being denied sweets from his parents. ____________ rested her hand on his glove. Ivan found it strange that despite the cold temperature, she never seemed to wear anything on her hands.

"Even if you never see it, I'll still be your friend," ___________ said with a soft, reassuring smile.

Ivan smiled back. "Thank you, __________."

__________ took the glass marble in her free hand and held it to her eye. Ivan was hoping that he would be able to see what she was seeing, but all he could see was the distorted image of her eye from the other side of the glass.

Deep inside his heart, a dark desire began to take root. He was growing impatient. When would she really show him what she saw? Did she simply not trust him with her precious glass marble? Was she just playing with him to see if he was foolish enough to believe her? He thought ____________ was his friend. His unstable feelings began to cave inside of his mind growing more powerful with the coming of time. It was out of pure desire. Greed. If he couldn't see the world that lay beyond the glass, then no one should be able to.

-----

The particular day was silent, cold and soundless. The wind did not blow as hard as it used to, and the snow fell in hushed patterns along the bank of the ground. The air was frigid. Still. Poised as a sentient.

As predicted, ___________ was sitting where she was always sitting, her tracks no longer fresh from the hours she had been gazing into her glass marble. Ivan's insides began to grow hot and fiery. She was supposed to show him. She shouldn't have been having so much fun without him, her friend. Why should she, alone, possess the glass marble? He wanted to be able to see the other world, too.

Talking would have made no difference. Before he knew what had happened, Ivan found his hands wrapped tightly around ____________ frail neck, his grip clamping harder and harder around her flesh. He had gloves on, but if he took them off, he would have known that her blood was growing cold as the snow, her skin turning bluer.

There wasn't an ounce of shock or surprise visible on her otherwise emotionless face—only fear. She didn't even scream, but her eyes grew wider and wider as she felt the life slipping away from her breath. Her muscles began to convulse in an instinct of survival, trying to break free, but Ivan was far too strong for her to overpower. Her arms went limp, and the glass marble she had held fell to the snow-covered ground like a cold stone broken by gravity.

"Ivan…" she croaked. "Help…"

In an instance, the spell on him was broken. Realizing what he had done, Ivan released his grip on her neck and flung himself back like he had seen a ghost…but by then, it was far too late. ___________ was gone.

He didn't understand. Why, in the midst of her dying breath, would she call for his help? He was the one who had killed her, his friend. Did she recognize him? Was he that different that she couldn't believe it was him? Could she see that it was he who had taken her life away?

Ivan had no answers to these questions for ____________ had passed from this white world. With a heavy heart of guilt and sorrow, he took the marble from his friend's lifeless hand and held it to his eye.

A world built of crystal. At the right angle, the light passed through the glass and sent dancing rays on his eye to the point where it could have blinded him. Ivan removed the glass from his eye. Then, he looked through the glass again through his other eye. He could see it, the world that ___________ had talked about and promised to show him. She had become his friend because she wanted to be able to tell him how wonderful of a place it was—if only he could see it.

Ivan could see it now. Beyond the glass marble and his own eyes, the worlds were one and the same.