Although he normally wears the scarf given to him by his sister, Ivan collects scarves and wears them occasionally. Therefore, every Christmas Alfred gives Ivan the tackiest scarf he can find as a gag gift. Ivan keeps them. He has been caught wearing them before.

Alfred pretends he doesnt like it when Ivan calls him “Lapushka” but really, Its all he wishes he would call him.

Russia and America love each other, but they are just to blind to see it. They think the reason that they play S&M games is because they hate each other.

Both America and Russia crave affection, especially from each other.

Evolution of their Relationship (Expanded Edition)

Ivan and Alfred were good friends at first. Alfred looked up to him a little when he was younger, since Ivan was so much older and taller and such. He also thought it was impressive and really cool how he had fought his way to independence from bigger nations, much like Alfred wanted to do to gain his independence. And then Ivan was so huge, he had so much land. Alfred started out as a small strip of land on the east coast, but he gained more and more through hard work and fighting his way. When the civil war came around, Ivan was one of the only countries who helped Alfred and supported the Union. All the other European nations supported the South because of the cotton industry. Even though Ivan couldn’t actually help him with forces or arms, it meant a lot to Alfred that he would go against the rest of the European nations and support the Union like that. It showed independence and resolve to stand by a decision, both of which Alfred admires greatly. Things were good and they were friends for a while. 

But then Ivan’s revolution came and Alfred watched as his friend tried to help better his people and listened to the politicians who claimed to have his best interests at heart. It broke Alfred’s heart to see Ivan trying so hard to help his people, when he knew the path would just lead to destruction and more pain for him and his people. But Ivan seemed so enthusiastic and was so sure it would help his people, that Alfred didn’t have the heart to tell him any different, hoping Ivan would realize it on his own soon enough.

But Alfred just watched as his once strong and admired friend grew tired, weak, and irritable. He watched and saw how the policies stretched his resources thin and the purges in his government made his moods volatile. He tried to stay by him, staying on the same side as him during the World Wars. 

But his bosses and Ivan’s bosses got on worse and worse terms. And thanks to the red scare, Alfred had people screaming at him constantly that Ivan was bad and evil. He didn’t want to believe it, but it was hard to ignore his whole government. So he became bitter and angry at Ivan for not listening to him sooner and for not getting out while he had the chance. Alfred had tried to tell him to stay away from communism, but Ivan was just so damn naive about the whole thing.

If anything, Alfred was more mad at himself for not stopping him when he could have. But in his bitterness, he started lashing out at his friend, which Ivan took to mean that he had bought into the ‘commies are evil’ agenda. Everything became a contest between them, and they were constantly fighting and insulting each other. Ivan was angry because he thought Alfred blamed him, and Alfred was mad because he thought Ivan blamed him.

Once the USSR was disbanded, they both felt very lonely. There was no excuse to shout at each other or be around each other any more. Ivan realized that he actually missed fighting with Alfred, and he couldn’t pinpoint why. Then he remembered how they used to be friends. For a while, he pondered over why they had grown apart and realized he didn’t really miss the fighting, he just missed Alfred in general. Alfred had always looked up to him and he finally realized Alfred’s anger for what it was; bitter regret over not helping him before it was too late. And Ivan had the same bitter regret for not listening to Alfred earlier. This brought him to the realization that he loved the American. Luckily for him, Alfred felt exactly the same way about all of it.

(Original Shorter Post)

Russia is very enamored of nature and natural beauty. This is part of the reason he was so interested in America back when they first met. When the Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich went to America and hunted buffalo with Custer, Russia followed along, but he spent most of the trip staring at unfamiliar flowers and trees. This wasn’t his first introduction to the sunflower, but it’s where he became so interested in it.