It started out as a mere... fascination, of sorts.

Ivan liked to watch you. There was something about you that was so different from him, and he liked to observe it. It was the way everything you did came so naturally — whether it was those adorable giggles when you were joking around with your friends, the soft smiles you showed when you were feeding stray animals on your way home, those childish pouts you made when you got a worse than expected grade, or even those pearly, thick tears that fell down your cheeks when he took his teasing a bit too far. He enjoyed watching it all.

But he realized rather quickly that this fascination was getting out of hand. Your giggles no longer just helped him study how to emote — now they were something that warmed his heart. Your tears were no longer a measure of how far he could push before you reached your limit — they were a dagger that lodged itself deep in his chest. He was getting smitten; smitten with you for everything he wasn't, smitten with you for everything you had that he lacked: your sincerity, your emotionality, your… humanity.

Now he was aching to win your attention — your heart, through his less than conventional methods.

"Come home with me today," Ivan said casually, his eyes not even meeting yours as he motioned for you to follow him. He noticed your quizzical expression — he also liked this one, by the way — and lack of movement, and paused. "Come. I prepared a movie for us, and bought ice cream."

It seemed he was inviting you for a casual hangout, which was fine. The two of you were on friendly terms, more or less, since he had stopped being mean to you for no reason (to your knowledge — the truth is, he did it to provoke you for attention).

"I'll let you play with my cat…?" he added, his eyes flicking towards yours as a faint hint of pleading trickled into his voice. "I adopted him recently. He bites, though."