Russia x Reader -- Found

(This is the fourth. Here is the first: Russia x Reader -- Kindness)

      (Name) had no idea what she was doing.

    It was just thirty seconds after her lunch break started, and normally she would be hounding down the tastiest deli this side of town or searching for a tiny café to nest in until duty called again, but today no such hunt was planned. Instead, (Name) was leaning noncommittally against the Emporium’s sturdy brick storefront, hands shoved deep in the pockets of her overcoat, looking more like the hunted than the hunter. People were staring so curiously at her, she must’ve looked like a stunned, lost rabbit. She wasn’t lost though. Only lost as to what to do. She glanced at the paint-chipped fire hydrant that sat by her feet. (Name) always processed things better when saying them out loud as if someone was listening, and the hydrant seemed affable enough, so maybe he could be her listener today. She took a breath and began to softly review the situation to the two of them.

    Ivan wanted to see her again. That hadn’t sunk in yet, which was part of the problem. His signature had indeed been scrawled at the bottom of that receipt, meaning that this morning when the Emporium had barely just opened, he had taken the trouble to come over before his work, find a book they had shelved together, and purchase it. (Name) often tried to stave off possible disappointment by saying that it didn’t mean anything at all. Honestly, who would leave a receipt as a clue? He hadn’t any guarantee she would’ve found it. He must’ve just wanted something to read. But after the events of last night? No, Ivan had risked a lot coming anywhere near this bookstore. He had definitely done this to tell her that he hadn’t been scared off. This discovery was barely fifteen minutes old, so she hadn’t quite convinced herself of all that yet. But now it had time to sink in. Yes, he didn’t regret meeting me, Mister Fire Hydrant!

    Of course, now that this confirmation was secured, (Name) had no freaking clue what to do next. She wanted to find Ivan, she knew that, but how to even begin to search for him? All of Oslo was a possibility! It was easy enough for Ivan to leave her a sign; he knew where she worked, after all. But (Name) hadn’t a single way to reply and assure him that she, too, wasn’t afraid. The only thing she knew of Ivan was that he was in the same sort of business has her housemates. She didn’t even know if by ‘business’ they meant ‘vocation’ or ‘corporation’! Come to think of it, her friends had never disclosed to her the exact location that they worked at. It was rare that they left the house for anything that could be called work, so the omittance of such a detail wasn’t entirely surprising, although they did travel frequently to pursue some mysterious dark magic of a business. She remembered Lukas informing her that, for some reason he would not specify, this week they would be someplace in the Sentrum Borough.

      Oh. Thank you, Mister Fire Hydrant.

    Assuming that, in this case, ‘business’ meant ‘corporation’ and not ‘vocation’, then it could be assured that Ivan would be somewhere in Sentrum, in the same building that her friends had hidden themselves away in. Or maybe (Name) was completely wrong, and he wasn’t there at all, but her capacity for error wasn’t what mattered. What mattered was that she got a move on her search, because her lunch break didn’t last forever. It was this driving factor that prodded her bid adieu to her neighbour the chipped-paint fire hydrant, and begin a steady trot down the walk. Hm, walking would get her nowhere with her time limit. She should catch a bus.

    It was about fifteen minutes before she hopped off the crimson-and-ebony bus with a hard start, sneakers slapping the gritty pavement. (Name) looked about her surroundings as if entering a new world. She didn’t visit this side of Oslo very often at all, not that it looked drastically different from any other part of the city, but she had touched down in the Bjørvika neighbourhood, where dozens of high-rising office buildings resided. In all honesty, she hadn’t the faintest clue as to what kind of work this ‘business’ dealt in, but she had seen Lukas’s desk when he had to stay up late at night, along with the stacks and safeboxes of documents that Emil and Mathias brought home from their travels. It seemed safe to assume that it was the sort of business that went on in office spaces, or at least would partake in meetings at such places. Starting in a white-collar rich place seemed logical. Besides, she had literally nothing else to go on, so might as well start there!

    For a few happy minutes she leisurely trekked down the sidewalks and crosswalks, falling into step with those milling around her, gazing curiously at her surroundings. The air was fresh today, crisp but not as chill as it had been, what with clear skies making way for a brilliant sun. Her eyes traced the skyline, marveling at the unique architecture. The buildings struck against the sky were only a few years old, and some Norwegians weren’t pleased that the construction project had gone through, but (Name) rather liked them. Most seemed to be built completely out of glass and mosaic, so that they reflected a kaleidoscope interpretation of the day. Clear days they blended into a turquoise sky, cloudy days they were monochrome masses, rainy days they wobbled and wept, and at sunset they were set completely ablaze.

    Through the pleasant buzz of jumbled musings, it suddenly struck her how futile her quest truly was. Even if (Name) knew which borough they were in, even if had an idea of what sort of area they might work in, there was no way to narrow her search down further from there. What was she going to do, waltz into the kiosk of each stately construct and inquire if a Lukas, Mathias, Emil or Ivan currently resided there? That seemed sort of sketchy. Well, it was sort of sketchy, and she didn’t want to draw much attention. Discretion was absolutely necessary; if Lukas and Mathias discovered that she was trying to find Ivan, she would be so dead!

    (Name’s) heart sank. So she really couldn’t do anything. A small voice in her cried out that surely she could achieve her goal, find what she wanted, and she wanted to believe it. Her determination always got her through things like this. How else did she learn so many languages! It took a lot of effort and plowing right through difficulties, but this situation wasn’t one that could be solved with simply hard work. It was so frustrating! She didn’t want Ivan to think that she had been scared off, especially after he took the risk of coming to the Emporium that morning! Dejectedly, she bought a sandwich off a street vendor. Her lunch break shouldn’t go completely to waste.

    (Name) used the time spent nibbling the cold deli sandwich to stroll up and down the streets, peering intensely at the concrete and brick walls as if they could confess to the secrets of the people they withheld. It was a fruitless endeavor, but she felt so restless giving up so early, she had to occupy herself with something. After pacing a single street several times, her sandwich had disappeared and she had little excuse to hang around any longer. With a sigh, she trudged back in the direction of the bus stop. To distract from her failure, she took the time to observe the diversity of the people around. People-watching was one of her favourite things to do. She was especially sure to keep her ears receptive of any strange speech patterns or out-of-place tongues. As a translator, she adored identifying and decoding dialects, accents, and languages foreign even to her, always keeping her ears open for something new to listen to. Of course, there really wasn’t much to hear here except for Norwegian, splattered with Danish accents and north-Germanic variations. That was alright. She still enjoyed the linguistic texture of a major city like this.

    Right as she stepped up to the bus stop a blip caught the edge of her auditory radar, a sound pattern unique from the rest of the crowd. She faltered, and instinctively backtracked several paces to put herself within range of the disturbance. Yes, just as she thought. Someone was speaking English. This was definitely nothing unusual, English being a sort of international language now, but she knew a borne English speaker from a Norwegian speaking English from a Dane speaking English from anyone speaking English, and this speaker… no, speakers were out of place. The accents tugging their vowels and sticking their consonants were not north-Germanic ones, and (Name) wasn’t about to leave without figuring out where they were from.

    (Name) couldn’t tell where exactly these people were walking, but she knew it was in the opposite direction of the bus stop, so she swiftly traveled that way in hopes of locating them.  Hmm, these accents were not unknown to her, but she didn’t hear them often. Not Romantic of origin, but not north-Germanic either. Actually, they weren’t Germanic at all. She almost pinpointed which individuals ahead of her were speaking…there were…three of them, conversing with each other, each with a unique accent. Okay, were they at least Indo-European in origin? Two of them were, yes, but the third…the third sounded almost like a Finn, but not quite. Estonian! He was from Estonia. Then it struck her that the other two, though different, were similar in their speech, so their tongues must be closely related. They were Slavic, she now realised. Balto-Slavic! They were Latvian and Lithuanian. She should’ve realised that sooner, she was quite skilled at those two tongues. With this mystery solved, (Name) felt a bit more at peace and quite a bit more accomplished, and began to regroup to the bus stop once again. Oslo was Norway’s capital, but she found it a mite strange that those three would be here, altogether and so obviously acquainted with one another. One usually found foreigners flocking to those of their own nationality, but those three were all from different countries, although neighbouring. It was sort of like how Emil, Lukas, and Mathias lived together even though they came from different nations, and how close friends they were with Mr. Oxenstierna and Mr. Vainamoinen…wait…

    (Name) stopped dead in her tracks. She looked back over her shoulder, eyes wide.

    She had no way of justifying her hunch at all, but this was something better explored and debunked than left unexplored with the possibility remaining. Once again, (Name) started back away from the bus stop, hurriedly pursuing the direction where the Baltic strangers had been heading, having to commit to a jog to catch back up. For five minutes, panic overtook her, fearing she had lost them. She had to find them! Taking a calming breath, she paused at the side of the walkway, closing her eyes and allowing her ears to open to all the sounds of the city, scanning for just a few particular speech patterns amidst the hubbub. It was only for a second, but an odd stretching of vowels caught her attention. On the other side of the street.

    There.

    As immediately as the crosswalk would allow her, she traveled to the other side of the street and listened again to detect which direction to go down. Right, go right. Okay, great. She only had to jog a few paces to get within a proper listening range. Here was the tricky part; she had to close enough to eavesdrop on them effectively without getting so close as to be noticeable or suspicious. A college career of playing Assassin’s Creed late into the night had prepared her for such this task of tailing a target unnoticed. She’d be damned if she failed.

    A few extra-long strides put her within eavesdropping distance. At first, (Name) had trouble establishing a steady, unassuming walking speed, and could only catch snatches of their conversation. After a few moments she got it down and carefully observed their backs. They were all three men, one with short-cut blond hair, another with longer, soft-looking brown locks, and the third was quite short, having to trot a few steps every once in a while to keep up. Each one appeared to be wearing a very nice business suit. They didn’t seem to be speaking of anything particularly interesting. Just normal work things. Sounds like they had just come out of a meeting and were discussing their coworkers’ attitudes and habits. Very normal stuff. (Name) was about to back off when something caught her ear.

    Lukas.

    Her heart leapt. They said Lukas! They had said that name! She was sure of it. Wasn’t she? Did she just imagine it? Immediately she sped back up, forcing all of her concentration fully on their conversation.

    “…Acting strangely? Really?”

    “Haven’t you noticed the Five today? They’ve been awful skittish this morning,” it was the brown-haired, Lithuanian one who spoke. “And Emil has been ignoring them much more intently than usual. I wonder if they had a fight recently. Eduard, do you know anything about it?”

    “Why are you asking me? I haven’t any idea!” the blond, Estonian one said indignantly.

    “But you’re always wanting to be a Nordic, maybe you would know all about them…” the smaller Latvian mumbled.

    The Estonian ignored the comment. “But shouldn’t that be normal? Emil is a growing boy, after all, and it’s bound to get tense in their house sometimes, those three living together. Plus that woman, whoever she is.”

    “I really wish we could meet her. I bet she’s real nice.”

    “Ah, but it’s against the rules enough that she’s living with them. You saw Ludwig’s fit. An exception shouldn’t be made for us. I do wish Lukas would be less catty about it though…”

    (Name) was practically shaking from nerves and exhilaration. They knew Lukas, they knew Emil! They must know Ivan as well! But who on earth were they, these people that knew even that a woman was living with the three Nordic men. Hey, wait, why did they know that? And what’s this about rules? Who’s Ludwig? So wrapped up in her excitement, (Name) just about walked straight into a street lamp, barely managing to catch herself against it. She looked about, bewildered. Where had the Baltic Trio gone? The three caught her eye as they disappeared into a building. In fact, it was one of the buildings that made up the skyline, made of impenetrable glass impossible to see in. Did they work here?

    Before she could do anything else she noted the street sign and address plate, then whipped out her pocket notebook and both down along with a quick sketch of the building for she knew that no matter how much she promised herself she would remember, she would forget. This was too important to risk that. Somewhere down the street a clock struck the hour. She froze. How long had she been out here…? Halfway to sprinting to the nearest bus stop, she resigned to hailing a taxi to avoid and extra thirty minutes over her shift time. Oh, man, Manny was going to kill her…

     

    Russia was sure that the Nordics were going to kill him. All through the morning meeting he could feel their eyes on him, glaring daggers and axes and worse. The three Vikings had regained their murderous passions from centuries ago, and Finland’s frightening strength that Russia knew all too well had returned.  Except Iceland’s gaze was missing. In the one glance he allowed himself over there, the boy appeared to be texting under the table, and his big brother was too preoccupied to chastise him for it. Strange, though. Wasn’t Iceland practically (Name’s) best friend? He wasn’t very worked up about last night at all. Wondering wouldn’t do anything about it though, so he had made an absurd effort to remain focused on the mind-numbing meeting.

    Finally, they broke for lunch. While nearly all the other nations took to the streets of Oslo to grab a bite to eat, Russia adjourned to the break room. No one else had even bothered to check in it, so he had an entire pile of stale bagels and crumbling muffins to himself to feast on. For some reason, he wasn’t quite hungry. He stared forlornly at the fresh, unread book. For some reason. At least he was alone now.

    The door eased open. Of course, he wasn’t quite that lucky. “Hello, Lukas. Mathias.”

    “What happened yesterday was inexcusable.”

     “Straight to the point. Okay, I can deal.” Russia nodded to himself thoughtfully, pressing a sequence on the coffee maker. He had no idea how to work that thing.

    “We set down rules. You broke them. You didn’t even have the decency to do it discreetly, you did it the day that the warnings were given!”

    Russia poured himself a mug. “Like how you were very discreet in your discontent this morning?”

    “We could’ve called you out,” Denmark growled. “The whole world would’ve known what you did.”

    “I don’t even know what I did.”

    “Shut up. You know what that would’ve done to you? But we didn’t, Russia.”

    “Ah, yes. How kind of you.”

    “Look,” Norway slammed his hands down on the table. A bagel rolled away. “We’ll be merciful as long as nothing like this happens ever again. I’ve told America to lay off, too.”

    “Yes, America. I am curious,” he turned to look at them, leaning against the counter casually. “Why did you bring him? You wanted no other to meet her, yes? I find it strange that you allow him to come along.”

    Norway’s jaw worked. “What we do is none of your business.”

    “And what I do is yours?” Russia knew he was on thin ice here. He didn’t want to sound threatening; he just wanted them to leave him alone. Why did they have to bother him so? It was an accident. It had been an accident! Well, this morning wasn’t an accident, he admitted to himself, nervously glancing at his book on the table.

     “It is if it interferes with us. Ignoring our warnings is rash, even for you!”

    “It was an accident, Norvegiya.” Russia replied tiredly, raising the beverage to his lips. The coffee/vodka ratio was a bit weak, but definitely better than nothing. “How else could I find her other by accident?”

    “You have ways, I’m sure.” Norway’s face was dark.

    “Ways I wouldn’t waste on one girl. Too much trouble. ”

    “Look, all that we’re saying is that as long as nothing like this happens ever again, we’ll forget about it!” Denmark roughly grabbed Russia by collar of his jacket. Russia looked bored. “Lukas and I spent a lot of time talking it over, and we’d figured we’d give you the chance to back off, although I’m not so sure now. But I know that you won’t get to make her another Lithuania.”

    Something snapped in Russia. He shoved the Dane off him with one arm. Denmark stumbled back to where Norway steadied him, their eyes glinting in a moment of fear. It was the fear that snapped Russia out of it. He sighed and passed a hand over his face. It had happened that easily? He must be really stressed. “Thank you for speaking to me. I am done with this conversation now. Good bye.” He got up to leave when Denmark’s eyes flashed suddenly. Russia followed his gaze. Derrmo, he had seen the book on the table. Was the Emporium’s sticker still on it?

     “What is that--”

     Russia immediately snatched it up and tucked it under his arm. He pushed past them, making his way from the break room quickly. “It’s a book. It’s where one keeps words. Germaniya will be furious if you’re late to your own meeting. Good bye.”

    That was quite close, Russia thought as the door swung shut behind me. He nearly lost it there, and they nearly saw that the book was from (Name’s) work! The latter was careless on his part, but the former…why would they mention that? Just why? He passed a hand over his face again. It didn’t help that he was constantly worrying about (Name). How was she? What was she thinking? He sighed. No use thinking about it now. It only made him more on edge. He needed more rest. Maybe he could leave early today…

     

    ~~~

    “You’re leaving already?!”

    (Name) glanced over her should as she secured the buttons of her heather grey overcoat. Cory was gaping at her, nervously checking his watch just to make sure he wasn’t going crazy. (Name) smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, I have things to do today.”

    “(Name), you came back from lunch forty-five minutes late! You would be lucky to get off the hook even if you worked two hours overtime today!”

    (Name) snorted. “For every one of my shifts since I’ve been hired, I’ve shown up early, did more than what people asked of me, and finished hours late. Manny can get over one day of minor attendance issues.

    “He’ll kill you, (Name). What were you doing, anyways?”

    “Top secret operations! Can’t disclose the details, national security and all that.” She laughed at Cory’s horrified expression. “But I do have big things to do! Tell the Man it couldn’t be helped.” She glanced at the wall clock for the umpteenth time. This morning’s ritual had been plagued by silent treatment, but Mathias, self-conscious for once, had tried to make some sort of conversation. He ended up talking to himself, but (Name) had noted that he had mentioned that they would be working late that day. This provided a pleasant window of opportunity for her do some sleuthing, but she still decided to leave twenty minutes early from work to be safe. “If I don’t get going, he’s not the only one who’s gonna blow a stack over this. Gotta go!”

    “(Name)--”

    “See ya, Cory!” She flashed him a coy smile, slipped from the break room, and made a mad dash for the entrance. She didn’t want Manny noticing her leave so early, otherwise he would lecture her angrily for half an hour at least. Although she’d be in trouble whether he caught her then or not. Tomorrow he was going to give her hell.

    Twenty-five minutes later, (Name’s) sneakers slapped the pavement of Sentrum as the crimson-and-ebony bus puttered away. It was the same spot she had touched down earlier that day, but it struck her suddenly that since she actually knew her destination this time, she should’ve hopped off at a nearer spot. Oh well. She doubted that it would’ve saved her much time in traffic this thick. And walking always helped her though process anyways. She needed a plan of attack.

    Wariness was key. Even if it ended up that Ivan didn’t work there, Lukas and Mathias still did, and she had to be careful that they didn’t find out what she was up to. Maybe she should even be cautious of Emil, as well. He had encouraged her to do something about this situation, but he didn’t approve of Ivan, he just agreed that the others were being jerks about the whole matter. Hm. Sometimes it was hard to tell how that boy felt.

    She couldn’t worry about that now, though. She needed to focus on her strategy. And (Name’s) strategy was…surprisingly unexciting. Since the entrance was guarded by security guards and you most likely needed ID, the only thing she could really do was stake it out and study the people exiting the building. She didn’t mind it at all since the city provided lots of details to distract her flighty mind while she waited, but she was a bit worried about just staying near the entrance. They’d definitely notice her if she was nearby, or if they looked out the window and saw her loitering below. Maybe if she watched from across the street, where the walk was especially congested. Sounds enough like a plan. But maybe she would walk around first, since she was so jittery for some reason. She had some time.

    As she strolled down the walk, (Name) struggled to maintain a reasonable speed. All of a sudden, she was very, extremely excited. She had found where Ivan worked! Well, possibly worked, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that she made progress after having nothing to go on, and the impact of her lucky success didn’t have time to sink in since she was so rushed. Now her heart sped up considerably at the prospect of meeting him again, letting him know that things were okay, that she wasn’t afraid of him. (Name) was practically skipping now, breaking into a trot occasionally, hurriedly brushing past pedestrians. She was much too excited. Her heart thumped in her chest, leaping up to her throat, and she became too excited to deal with saying hello to the strangers around her, to check the buzzing phone in her pocket, to watch where she was going--

    (Name) quickly turned the corner in her excitement and ran smack into some poor person. She reeled back a bit with the impact, blinking, and was about to apologise profusely, when her eyes focused on who she had collided with.

    It was Mathias. And Lukas was at his side.

     The three just stared at each other for a few bewildered moments. Thoughts ran disorganised in (Name’s) brain. Why were they here? Hey, she was right about where they worked! Oh wait, she’d have to explain to them why she was here. Uhh, she came to meet them after work? Wait, she wasn’t supposed to know where they worked. She was just walking through town after work? No, this place was way too far from her work to just be part of a stroll. Plus, there weren’t even any shops around. She didn’t have any business here. Yup, she was screwed.

     The two men recovered from the shock, and they did not look pleased. Mathias’s arms were crossed menacingly, and Lukas’s eyes had narrowed to dangerous slits. (Name) gulped and said the only thing she could think of to say.

    “…I thought you said you would be working late.”

    “We were let out early. A discussion item was rescheduled to tomorrow.”

    In her shock, she just blinked and looked all about, eventually looking across the street to see Emil shaking his head in disbelief. He held up his phone and pointed to it. Her pocket buzzed. Numbly, she drew her cellphone and unlocked it. There were two messages.

 

:::::17:54
:::::Contact: Emmy
:::::Text Message Start:

    Heads up heads up heads up heads up!!

:::::End Message.

    --

    :::::17:56
    :::::Contact: Emmy
    :::::Text Message Start:

    You are so busted.

    :::::End Message.

     

    (Name) looked back up, turning between Mathias and Lukas repeatedly before finally sighing and shoving her hands in her pockets. There was nothing she could say to really redeem herself here, so she might as well state what was on her mind. “Well, shit.” 

     

    Someone watched from high up in as the arguments broke out below. The Dane and the Norwegian became so intense in their speaking that eventually the Icelander sprinted across the street to stand up in defence for the young lady, bringing his Hong Konger friend along. The lady made no move to deflect the accusations. She just stood silently, perfectly content with what was happening. But none of that really mattered to the person watching. Only one thing stood out to him.

    Ivan’s hand shakily rose to his mouth as he choked back a sob.

    (Name) had come for him.

     

    ~~~

    Lithuania groaned at Germany’s announcement that they were now dismissed to lunch break. He massaged the back of his neck, trying to work out the painful knots. They never seemed to meet anywhere with good chairs. It always took a huge toll on his back and neck, which were tense from stress anyways. Was he the only one who suffered from this? Maybe he should propose that they could only meet in rooms that Sweden had furnished. Ikea had some really ergonomic stuff.

    “Hey, you ready to head out?”

    Lithuania looked to the side to see Estonia and Latvia, already in wait for him. He smiled. “Yeah.”

    He walked with his friends, stepping out of the modern high-riser after a long elevator ride, but he quickly began to trail behind. Lithuania was preoccupied. Not only that, but he was ironically preoccupied with others’ preoccupations. Taking on others’ burdens had always been a bad habit of his, but it’s not like he could help it all these years.

    Estonia and Latvia chatted unaware while Lithuania followed absentmindedly. The Nordics had definitely been out of sorts lately. The first day they seemed fine enough, asides from the whole commotion over how they had broken the rules. The second day they were certainly agitated, but they did good jobs of making it seem like nothing was amiss. But this morning, they were practically seething. Emil was even more standoffish than usual, making a point to text above the table, which irked his brother even more. Lithuania had thought it was just a fight, but Norway never brought domestic matters to meetings. So why was he so irritated?

    He had also noticed a great aggravation aimed towards Mr. Russia, sensed through passive-aggressive gestures and glances. He had always been good at picking up on these things (unfortunately). Anyone being mad at Mr. Russia wasn’t much of surprise, as he often earned the anger for good reason, but there had been nothing in the news, and no other nation was annoyed. Just the Nordics. And Mr. Russia seemed aware of it, looking exceptionally worn and tired this week. Lithuania felt a pang in his chest, and chastised himself for such sympathy. Every told him not to worry himself with any of Mr. Russia’s matters anymore, that he was free from the oppression, and he was free, he knew that.  But Lithuania had never been free from worry, his or anyone else’s, and Mr. Russia was deeply troubled. He wished he could mention this to his dear friends, but with Estonia so protective and Poland so needy, he couldn’t ever mention his name around them without an outburst. He appreciate their concern, and Russia was indeed dangerous still. But Mr. Russia, as a person, was—

    Lithuania was jolted from his anxiety when he ran into Estonia’s back. Blinking in confusion, he saw his two comrades stuck in place in the middle of the sidewalk. He opened his mouth to inquire why they had halted, but the reason was made apparent as his eyes made their way to the path in front of them.

    A young woman stood in front of them, hands shoved deep in her grey overcoat, feet planted in a wide stance. Determination burned bright in her eyes, sweeping across all three of them. Before any of them could ask what was the matter, she drew a deep breath and opened her mouth.

    “My name is (Name)(Surname). I need to talk to you.”