A/N: My computer crashed for like the 100th time and so I got a new laptop! I'm still trying to figure my way around it, hahaha. Anyway, the update :3

"Are you Ivan Braginsky?"

The boy in front of him was Asian, with ponytailed dark hair that somehow the school had allowed. Ivan was instantly taken by his green t-shirt, which read, Hello Kitty is a Secret Dragon, with the image of a kitten-eyed dragon printed next to it. Ivan grinned a little.

"Yes, I am."

The boy looked Ivan up and down. "You're tall. I'm Yao."

"Is Yao a synonym for short?"

The boy narrowed his eyes. "Your English really does need help. Yao is my name."

Ivan felt like dying inside. "Oh…sorry."

The boy, Yao, smiled slightly. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have put it that way. Anyway, introductions? I'm from China, but we moved here because of my dad and his boring job. I'm in a grade above you. You're from Russia, right? Mr. Williams told me about you! He's nice, isn't he? By the way, I'm your assigned English tutor." And before Ivan could react to that, Yao leaned forward and conspiratorially whispered, "I used to suck, too."

Yao stayed close to him for the next ten minutes as he walked Ivan around the school, giving him an impromptu tour and gossiping away. "And those two, there – in the cafeteria? They're the Vargas twins. Feliciano is pretty friendly. Sorta dumb, but nice. Lovino is scary, but he knows a lot of really good bad words. So if you ever want someone to send a rude e-mail or text to someone, you should go to him. He always helps."

Raising both eyebrows, Ivan asked, "you've done that?"

His new friend nodded sagely. "Yeah, he's in my class, so it was easy. I wanted to write my younger brother Kiku a mean birthday card. Lovino helped loads. And if you wanna make friends with them, just get them some free tomatoes. And those guys –" gesturing to a trio of smirking boys, Yao grimaced, "they're in my class too. Antonio, Francis and Gilbert. They're just troublemakers. But they're friendly, I guess. I mean, they're awful but kinda nice, too, you know what I mean?"

Sure, but it wasn't like Ivan was going to rush up and talk to them. It was still all very overwhelming for him, and Yao was talking too quickly to keep up with everything he was saying. Still, it was nice to have someone be comfortable around him. At least he wasn't being bullied.

Once the classes resumed, the day went on uneventfully. Ivan didn't understand anything taught in History – there were too many large and bizarre words. He wrote them down to show Yao later: rewolusion, uniun, bostin. In English, Mr. Williams gave him a gentle smile and pulled him to the side.

"Are you doing okay, Ivan?"

In response, Ivan just nodded. It made his teacher frown just so slightly in concern and brush a persistent lock of his blonde hair out of his eyes. Straightening his glasses, he just sighed.

"You know you can talk to me any time if you need any help. Or you can go to Mr. Laurinaitis, he's the school counsellor. But don't be shy to ask for help, okay? Stop me any time in class if you have a question. Yeah?"

Ivan just nodded some more.

After school he went up to Yao with four pages full of questions and Yao took him to the library and issued a dictionary. "Go home and buy one of these. And keep it with you at all times. It helps, it really helps."

They worked together for an hour, perfecting pronunciation and understanding spelling. Only when they were walking out to the school yard, where Katyusha was waiting, Yao asked, "you're not really related to the Dutch royal family, are you?"

Ivan bit his bottom lip. "I mean…uh…no?" He tilted his head to the side and glanced towards Yao, trying to gauge just how disgusted his new friend was with him.

But Yao just laughed. "And I bet your dad doesn't advise the Russian government, either?"

"He owns a few bottle-making factories."

Covering his face, Yao kept snickering. Ivan felt his eyes burn, but he bit his bottom lip to avoid crying. Still snickering slightly, Yao managed to say, "that's much more believable than what I did. I told the whole class my dad was an elite trainer of Chinese dragons."

"What?"

Yao burst out laughing again. "But I was six years old when this happened so my classmates actually believed me."

And this time, Ivan laughed too.

A/N: I planned this whole thing out where he and Arthur and Alfred become friends and I wrote like 3 versions but they all suck, so I'm sorry.

Conclusion: everyone becomes friends in the end even though GB hasn't written it in the fic.

This is kinda a complete ending in itself though, right? Ugh, I hate myself right now… D: