You Saved Me (Aph fanfic)

"Come on, son!" Ivan's father called.

Ivan looked up. It was snowing. He loved the snow. He loved the cold in general. He could always find relaxation and calmness in it. He reached his arm out, eagerly waiting for a snowflake to gently hand on his hand. One was headed its way toward the center of his palm. He smiled.

"Snap out of it!"

Ivan was pushed by his father behind a huge rock. His father leaned against it and pulled out a shotgun.

"You see that?" His father asked. Ivan squinted in the direction that his father's index finger was pointed.

He saw a rabbit.

A snow white rabbit.

"Now, I'm going to teach you how to shoot it."

Ivan gasped. His body was shaking as his father his father put his tiny hands along the trigger, telling him facts all at the same time.

"And... shoot."

Ivan didn't shoot. Instead, he started to tear up.

"...What are you waiting for?"

Silently crying, Ivan quietly said, "We can't kill it... It's a living animal."

"Then we won't have food for the family. Don't worry, you'll get over it."

"RUN AWAY!" Ivan screamed, trying to save the rabbit's life.

But it was too late. His father already took the initiative to shoot. The whiteness of it's fur and the snow turned crimson.

The rabbit was most definitely dead.

Ivan was flabbergasted. His father gave him an ashamed look, and tugged on his wrist, dragging him to the rabbit corpse."No... NO! I DON'T WANNA SEE IT!" He shrieked. He kicked, he slapped, he screamed, he cried, and his father had had enough of his shenanigans.

He slapped him, "Shut it."

Ivan stared at his father, still crying. He stayed silent the rest of the time, however.

The arrived at the corpse, "Pick it up." His father commanded.

"No."

"I said PICK IT UP."

Ivan sniffled and held the bunny, lightly kissing it on the forehead, hoping it would come back to life like in the fairy tales his mother read to him and his sisters before bed.

But it didn't work.

Of course it wouldn't.

His feelings weren't important.
-----
"Big brother's home!" Ivan's little sister, Natalia, yelled.

"We have dinner!" His father proudly announced, smiling.
-----
"What's wrong big brother?" Natalia asked.

Ivan rolled to the side of his bed, "Leave me alone..."

"Is it about the bunny?" She asked.

"Dad killed it. I tried to save it, but I couldn't." Tears were coming down his eyes.

Natalia thought for a second. Then, a light bulb went off in her head.

She scurried to her bedroom, pulled off the blanket on her bed, and ran back to Ivan's room. Without his noticing, Natalia covered her body in the blanket. She ran around and purposely slammed into the wall, landing on the floor. Sure she made a ruckus, but Ivan really didn't care.

She cried, "Ah! Ivan! Help me!"

Ivan ignored her.

Natalia wriggled around in her blanket, still yelling, "I need help! AAAA IVAN! I'M STUCK! I CAN'T GET OUT OF HERE! I'M AFRAID! IVAN HELP ME!"

Ivan glanced at his sister, and got up. He crawled to the 'living' blanket, and pulled it up. He saw Natalia, coiled under it, looking at him, removing her long, pale hair from her eyes. She squealed and attacked him in a hug, "You saved me! You saved me!"

She sat on his lap, "You may have not saved the bunny, but you saved me." And with that, Natalia smiled and smooched her brother's lips, "You're my hero..."

Ivan smiled back and kissed her forehead "And I always will..."

Natalia gave him the brightest smiled she possibly could.

The eldest of the three siblings, Yekaterina, walked in, "Mom said said supper is done."

Ivan looked down, "I don't want to eat."

Natalia glanced at him, then to her big sister, "I don't want to either."

Yekaterina shrugged it off and walked out to inform their parents on the answer as to why her brother and sister won't be eating supper tonight.
-----
"...I thought the boy would grow out of it, but he hasn't! He still insists on letting the animals stay alive! He rebels against me every time we go hunting! And today, he tried kicking me to resist going near that damn rabbit. That kid isn't like other boys his age, who adore going hunting. There has to be something wrong with him... That kid is something different..."

"So what if out son has a heart? What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing... It's just- why can't he be like other boys?"

That was the voices of Ivan's parents. He had been up all night overhearing their argument from down the hall about his 'unacceptable' or 'unnatural' behavior coming from his father, and normal from his mother. The insults his father indirectly said to him... He couldn't bear it. The covered his ears and cried.

"...Can't sleep?"

Ivan gasped and turned around. It was sleep-deprived Natalia, holding onto a stuffed bear.

"I heard Mommy and Daddy arguing," She said, yawning, "And I can't sleep. They're too loud. I don't know how big sister can sleep through that. I knew they were talking about you, so I decided to check on you."

"Dad is so mean..." Ivan sniffled, "He doesn't love me. I'm not like other boys."

"...And that's what makes you special." Natalia smiled, climbing on top of the bed and laying next to her brother, wanting to protect him. "...I'm sure Daddy loves you, even if he doesn't act like it. But if you really think he doesn't love you, I at least want you to know..." She leaned on him and kissed his temple, "...That I love you."

Ivan smiled as his sister cuddled next to him, "I know."