Don't own VA, Mead does =p .

First fanfic for VA so we'll see how it goes. I'm open to suggestions and/or help, so far my basic idea so far is the main character hooking up with her friend's guardian. Also looking at adding in some kind of use for the main character as a forensic specialist or something, and I'll have some kind of big Strigori attack in here. Maybe take a stab at seeing whether my character can help out with Rose and the treason case?

Dear, Dangerous Dauskva

It had been a long time since I'd been back at St. Vladimir's Academy, and it hadn't changed a bit. The old stone facade was the same, and a wave of nostalgia washed over me. I'd been driving almost all day in a rented truck, and my back ached. I'd eagerly accepted my cousin's invitation to drop by and visit her for the day before continuing my move to court. I felt a twinge of nervousness. I hadn't been to court since shortly after my graduation from St. Vladimir's, when I spent the summer with my best friend Lorrie before I headed off to college. Lorrie is a member of a Russian royal family, the youngest daughter of the Alekseev's. Her family had decided to send her to the US for her education, and to expand the family's social circle. We ended up meeting the very first day, and despite a bit of a language barrier we managed to be fast friends.

"Hey!" I heard someone call. I turned to see my cousin, looking perhaps a few inches taller since I last saw her.

"Maddy! Great to see you! How were classes?" I asked, and gave her a big hug. Her dark hair made my nose itch as she gave me a big bear hug back.

"Fine, they felt really long! I kept looking at my watch to see when you would arrive." She smiled. She had indeed grown taller; the top of her head reached my eyes. She had to be about 5'5'' now.

"You look so grown up! It's got to be at least 2 years since I last saw you." I mentioned, taking in the changes to her. She was 15 now, and her curves had filled out a bit more since I last saw her, not that Moroi had much in the way of curves to begin with. Her hair was down to her shoulders, and her face had lost some of that baby-fat look.

"I guess it has been 2 years" she mused, "You look great too by the way." I flashed her a grin, thinking about how I looked 2 years ago. I had dyed my hair bleach blonde from my strawberry blonde natural colour, and I'd filled in a bit of muscle from my workouts. I'd also had to apply fake tanner so that I wouldn't appear too pale. I gave Maddy a bit of a shrug.

"You spend enough time with humans and you begin to pick up more of their fashion and stereotypes." She nodded thoughtfully and grabbed my hand.

"Come on, I'll take you to my dorm and we can chat for awhile before dinner." We headed to her dorm, which wasn't far from my old one, and looked very much the same.

"So what have you been doing? Why are you moving to court?" Maddy asked me, cleaning off a pile of clothes from her bed. Typical teenager mess.

"Well I just finished college, and I have my bachelors in what is basically forensic science. But I'm mainly moving to court because Lorrie invited me and offered to help me find a job." I said. Maddy nodded, her gaze suddenly turning eager.

"Did you hear that Lorrie has a new guardian? Her parents dent him over fresh from Russia."

"Why from Russia? We have great guardians here, and frankly Lorrie is at court, she's possibly the safest she can be." I wondered. Though I supposed that sending a private guardian is a good show of power by the Alekseev's, one that would definitely be noticed by the court here. Maddy shrugged at me.

"I don't know. All I've heard is that he is really super hot! I'm beginning to think I should move to Russia, if the guys all look like Guardian Belikov or Guardian Dauskva." Maddy said, and pretended to swoon. I laughed softly.

"I'm sure he looks just as good as some Americans. I wonder why Lorrie didn't mention she got a new guardian, and why did she get a new guardian?"

"The gossip I heard is that some of the other royals are getting more and more worried about Strigori attacks, so the lesser royals and foreign ones are losing guardians to the higher up royals. But let's not talk about that, I'm sure you will find out way more when you are at court, right now I just want to find out how you are doing!" smiled Maddy. I laughed.

"Fair enough, ask me anything." I said, and got ready for a barrage of questions.

The next morning (vampire morning) I hopped back in my rented truck. Maddy had kept me awake much longer than I could have wished, but I had enjoyed all her questions, and managed to ask her a few myself. A guardian got into the passenger's seat, and I nodded briefly. The guardian supposedly was here to help with directions and because they needed to be at court anyways, but I really thought that their appearance was more to make sure I wasn't a security threat. I had seen her looking at the boxes in the back of the truck with an eye that seemed more than an interested glance. I was pretty sure that when we got to court, I would be politely requested to open all the boxes so some guardian could take a peek. The guardian with me now was named Mel, and by the look of her I assumed that she had more of a desk job than a defence one. She offered to drive part of the way and I politely accepted, but for now I was driving. I had a long time to think anyways, so by the time I'd been driving almost all night I barely realized what time it was until the sun peaked up from behind a hill. So Mel took over and I slept. Somehow we were at court when I woke up.

I couldn't help but let my jaw drop. The old buildings always brought me a sense of awe. We were at one of the guardian posts outside of the houses made for long term residents of the court. I yawned, stretching my arms and watched as Mel approached me.

"If you permit it, we would like to take a quick look inside some of your boxes. It's just a security measure for the safety of our residents and for yourself." Mel asked. I nodded, obviously I'd expected something like this.

"Go ahead. I don't have many things, I just moved out of residence so this is all I have. You don't mind if I just call my friend while you do your search?" I asked. Mel nodded, returning to a group of guardians who were awaiting her go ahead. When Mel nodded to them, they began to unpack the truck, opening a few boxes and just taking a quick look through. I wasn't at all worried about anything they would find; it was their job, they were only concerned for our safety. I pulled out my cellphone and quickly dialled Lorrie.

"Hello?" I heard her ask.

"Hey Lor, I'm just at the guardian post outside of the houses. They are just doing a quick security check and then I should be there."

"Stay there! Vid and I will go meet you." She exclaimed. I heard some rustling around in the background, it sounded like Lorrie putting on a jacket.

"Who is Vid?" I asked.

"Oh, my new guardian. Dad sent him over when my last guardian got reassigned. Supposidly I'm getting another guard soon, Dad's just finding out whether he has to supply one or find an arrangement here. I'll tell you all about it in a bit ok? We'll be there in five minutes."

"Ok" I chuckled a bit. Lorrie sounded really excited, I knew I was excited to see her. We hung up and I stood off to the side of the road and watched the four guardians riffle through my stuff. Mel indicated to me that they were almost done, I was serious when I'd said that I had few boxes. Lorrie had said that her house was fully furnished, and that whatever I needed we could get from the shops here at court. I heard a girlish shriek and Lorrie came running down the road. We clasped each other in a big hug before taking a step back and getting a good look at each other. I hadn't seen her for two years and she looked very much the same. Her short black hair had grown out halfway down her back, but otherwise she remained the same slim fashionable Lorrie that I'd grown up with. My eyes focused to a few feet behind her, and my jaw dropped for the second time. A six foot tall man stood casually watching us. His slightly wavy dark brown hair brushed just above his eyes. His nicely sculpted jaw line was covered in stubble, and as I moved my eyes lower I could see a muscled body beneath his guardians outfit. Lorrie saw my gaze and turned, waving the man forward.

"Vicky, this is Guardian Vidanric Dauskva. He's been my loyal guardian for a few months now." He man held out his hand and I shook it. Electricity shot up my arm and down my spine. I thought I saw his brow raise slightly before the guardian mask slipped back over.

"Hello Guardian Dauskva. I'm Viktoria Carter." I said quickly. He nodded,

"Ms. Alekseev has mentioned a lot about you Ms. Carter. It is a pleasure to meet you." He said. His voice sounded like butter, even with his thick Russian accent.

"Well, I suppose you can't help but hear all the endless chatter I've been having with Beth this week." Lorrie laughed, nodding towards Vidanric. He grinned politely, then, looking past us, nodded as Mel approached. She nodded back, and I noticed an appreciative eye looking him up and down.

"We are finished with our protocol. The truck is loaded back up. I assume that once you have finished unloading that it will be delivered back here and returned to the rental company?" she asked. I nodded back,

"Yes, I expect that we should be done unloading within a few hours."

"A guardian will pick up your truck and turn it in then. Just call us up when you are finished." Mel replied. She made a quick bow and returned to the guardian post.

"Can we all fit in the truck? Or shall we give you the directions?" Lorrie asked me. I looked thoughtful a moment.

"We might all be able to fit in the truck. How far do we have to go?"

"Only five minutes."

"Then I'm sure we can all fit, but perhaps not all have a seatbelt." She nodded and we went over to the truck, I hopped in the driver's seat, and Lorrie squished in between me and Vidanric. We were the only car on the small road. It was unusual to see any vehicle larger than a golf cart around the courts. The whole court felt more like a really expensive spa more than a tiny city. Lorrie directed me to her house, a quaint two story tan building with a small garden of rhododendrons and a little plot of grass.

"Your house looks beautiful Lor." I exclaimed. She smiled back at me,

"Wait till you see inside!" We all hopped out of the truck, and we each grabbed a box. I couldn't help but notice that Vidanric easily carried two boxes up to the front door. Lorrie unlocked the beautiful dark wood door and we went inside to a spacious foyer. I barely choked back a laugh. The entire house appeared to be filled with Ikea furniture. Lorrie was a fashionable person, but she also didn't like spending too much money.

"You know you like it." Lorrie said, as we headed up some stairs and to the end of the hall.

"This will be your room here." She said. The room was fairly spacious. A double bed sat in the middle of the back wall. I had an adjoining bathroom with a beautiful sink and tub with a detachable shower head. One side of the room was covered in shelves, and had a big desk.

"This is perfect! But I should have expected this, you do know me really well." I told Lorrie, and dropped my box. She grinned back at me.

"Thought so. I hope we have enough room for all your books."

"I'm sure there is. I can't wait to get all unpacked." It took us a very short amount of time to unload all the boxes. Having two other people really helped, especially because Vidanric could carry more than one box. Once the truck was empty, Lorrie phoned the guard post, and a guardian came to pick up the truck, as Lorrie and I started to unpack the boxes.

"Vid, you can have some time off, we'll just be here unpacking." Lorrie offered.

"As you wish Ms. Alekseev. I will be in the house if you need me." He bowed, and excused himself. I sat on the ground in front of one of my boxes, as Lorrie sat next to me I remarked,
"It must be nice to live at court. Both as a Moroi and as a guardian. The security is always pretty tight. The Moroi must feel more relaxed, and the guardians must feel like they have more of a life."

"Yeah, I agree. I feel really safe here, and I don't feel as bad having a guardian around. I couldn't imagine having to watch someone do all sorts of boring day to day stuff and not being able to do anything myself." Lorrie nodded. I handed her a box marked clothes.

"You can hang up these. I know you are dying to look at my wardrobe anyways."

"Ha, you better hope that I don't just throw it all out. I bet you desperately need a fashion update." She laughed.