It had been a few days since (F/N) had woken up in Ivan's house, and everyday since then had been better than the last. Despite the unsure feeling that still inverted in (F/N)'s mind, the time she spent with Ivan seemed to banish those thoughts into a small corner of her mind.

No matter where she and Ivan where, she could always feel someone watching her, and once or twice she'd caught Natalya, looking at them from around a corner, or wearing some kind of disguise. She already knew Natalya didn't like her, and was reminded whenever she felt her glaring at her, but she marked it down to her being a caring sister, and doing whatever she could to watch over her older brother, especially if he was hanging around a murderer.

Ivan's other, and older sister, Katyusha, was much more welcoming than Natalya, and instantly pitied (F/N) when she heard of her situation. She really was as kind as Ivan had described, but she did also seem to cry a lot like Ivan had said. (F/N) liked Ivan's sister, even if one of them seemed to hate her guts. She tried her best to see the best in everyone, but that often got her into more trouble than she deserved.

She'd also briefly spoken to all three of the Baltic men living in Ivan's house, including the man that has brought her some food when she woke up. They all seemed so scared, and trembled whenever Ivan was around, but other than that, they were fairly normal. They treated her just as well as anyone else in the house did.

Today, she was going out to do some shopping, and Ivan had offered to accompany her. Since he was giving her a roof to stay under and food to eat, she insisted that she did chores such as shopping and cleaning, even if Ivan protested to it. She was used to doing all the work after all this time, and she didn't want to seem ungrateful. Ivan had kept her at home for a while, but she insisted that she was well enough to move out of the house now. He agreed to let her, but only if he could go with her. She planned, once fully healed, to continue selling her sunflowers, but today she could just do some shopping. 

Shopping had always made her feel tense, and although this time she wasn't shopping for her partner, but for her and Ivan's family, she still felt the same tension that was making her jumpy. She always has to choose carefully, over wise her partner would get mad at her. If she chose the wrong brand of alcohol, he'd berate her, and if she didn't save enough money, he'd hit her. Shopping just brought back bad memories that she didn't want, and she hasn't even noticed that her hands were shaking as she held to brands of food.

"(F/N)? Are you okay, sunflower?" Ivan's voice shocked her out of her trance, and she gasped, dropping the produce to the floor. She furrowed her eyebrows, forcing a smile, and picking up the foods.

"S-Sorry, I got distracted..." She said, willing her shaking hands to stop their trembling, as she finally decided which food choice was cheaper. Ivan frowned at her, but didn't say anything. They continued their trip around town, but no matter what, (F/N) just couldn't get rid of the feeling that she was going to get punished if she made one wrong move. She knew it was an irrational thought—Ivan had been the kindest person she'd so far, and she knew he wouldn't lay a finger on her, but a part of her mind was saying that he would. She was beginning to become afraid, and that was the last thing she wanted to happen. She didn't want to act like the three Baltics did, trembling whenever she was around Ivan.

As they were walking back through town, (F/N) flinched when she felt something touch her hand. She almost dropped her shopping bags, but looking to the side, she just saw Ivan smiling at her. He was holding her hand, and it took her a while to register it properly.

"You're fine, (F/N)," he reassure her. "You don't need to be afraid, nothing's going to happen to you, sunflower." He squeezed her hand, and for a brief moment, (F/N) almost wanted to shrivel back in fear, remembering all the times she'd been hurt by someone she thought loved her, but somehow, the warmth of Ivan's hand and smile was so warm, that those thoughts only lasted a second before they disappeared. Somehow, all her deeply rooted fears were able to be put on hold, if only for a while.

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Your local trash is back! She's still trash though, so whatever.
I'm am very very sorry that I haven't been posting properly, ever since around mid to late December I was having problems with mental health, and it's hard to write when your brain's trying to fuck you over lol
Hopefully you'll all forgive me, I'm terrible I know -.-
I'm going to do some writing tonight, and hopefully finish a book soon enough so I can move onto other things! Thank you for reading, and if you read this (A/N) too, than thank you as well > <