AN: First and foremost MAJOR RUBY CIRCLE SPOILERS AHEAD. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. Now that I've got that out of the way, oh my god Ruby Circle! How amazing was it? I can't believe it's over for good, but lucky for me it gave me about a million ideas for fanfics, so I'll get to stay in this world for a while longer! And of course after that epilogue, this was the first thing that I just had to write. Enjoy!
He was asleep when she came in, and Rose smiled to herself as she gently pulled the door shut, turning the knob so as to avoid even the smallest sound. He needed the rest, and guardian instincts were not conducive to heavy sleeping.
Her eyesight was good enough that she could get ready for bed in the dark, so she didn't bother turning on a lamp. She kicked off her shoes as quietly as she could as she walked to the mirror in front over the dresser, already roughly yanking the pins out of her hair.
She smiled slightly as her hair came tumbling down over her shoulders, covering the marks on her neck that she'd once been so concerned about. Wear it up, Dimitri had advised, and she did. Her hair was just as long as it had always been, and she planned to keep it that way for the foreseeable future. Her head free of the uncomfortable bobby pins, Rose began to strip. She was exhausted.
There was a groan from the bed and Rose froze, hoping he wouldn't wake; he had to be up early the next morning.
"Roza?" His voice was muffled, half asleep, and Rose smiled slightly.
"Go back to sleep," she murmured, pulling on her over-sized sleep shirt and heading to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She left the guardian uniform where it lay, crumpled on top of the dresser. Dimitri would comment on it tomorrow, half amused and half exasperated, but she was too exhausted to deal with it at the moment.
Instead of rolling over and falling back asleep, the lamp on his bedside table flicked on. Rose sighed as he heavily pushed himself up to a sitting position.
"What time is it?" he asked, even as he picked up as his phone from the nightstand and checked it.
"You only have a few more hours to sleep," Rose said firmly. "Turn the lamp off, I don't need it."
"No, no," he said slowly, running a hand through his rumpled hair. "I wanted to talk to you."
"We'll talk tomorrow," she whispered, going to the bed. He shook his head and she smiled as she leaned across him to turn off his lamp.
"Wait." His hand clasped around her wrist, and she looked back at him. He was more awake now, and Rose let her hand relax; he took it in both of his, and, now that he was more awake, she could see that he really did have something on his mind.
"What is it?" He sighed, rubbing her hand absently.
"I was going to wait up for you, I didn't mean to fall asleep." Rose laughed.
"Well I'm glad you did—you do realize you have to be awake in like three hours, right? Can this wait? You need to sleep."
"I was thinking about Declan," he murmured. Rose exhaled and covered his hands with her free hand.
It had been almost a year and a half since Adrian and Sydney had revealed to them the truth about Declan's parentage, rocking their entire world—for starters, Rose had had to go on the pill.
She had practically zero experience with children, and it had not ever really occurred to her as something she wanted for herself—at least, not at the tender age of nineteen. She hadn't realized that Dimitri wanted kids until she'd seen his reaction to the news that it was a possibility for them.
"Sydney sent me a picture the other day," Rose said, faking oblivion to his real point. He smiled and shook his head, and Rose sighed. "I still can't believe it. I mean, it changes everything."
"Not everything," he countered. "But it certainly raises a possibility."
"Someday," Rose said pointedly. "Someday, it could be a possibility." Looking at his smile, she ducked her head a little, hair falling in her face. "A pretty incredible possibility," she conceded.
"Your birthday was a few weeks ago," Dimitri said suddenly. Rose raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah, it was," she agreed, confused. Dimitri smiled.
"I just wanted to remind you of that before I say this." He let go of her hands then and threw off the covers, clambering out of bed.
"What are you doing?" Rose crawled across the bed to sit where he had been lying, next to where he now stood.
Slowly, unbelievably, he dropped to one knee.
"No," she murmured, and he smiled.
"Roza," he began. "I love you. The day I met you, you lit up my world, and you have every day since then. You and I have been through so much together, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
"Oh my god," she whispered, in shock.
"Now, I know I said I'd wait until you turned twenty, and I feel I've shown admirable restraint in waiting three full weeks past that." Rose laughed, nodding.
"I forgot about that."
"I see. Well, I didn't. And I know that you're young, and that you don't want to be a parent yet—maybe ever—and that's okay. But I want for us to be a family. So," Dimitri paused, taking both of her hands in his again. Rose blinked, her throat tightening with unexpected emotion.
"Rosemarie Hathaway," he took a deep breath. "Will you marry me?" His hands tightened around hers, and Rose let out a sound that seemed a cross between a gasp and a laugh.
"Of course! God, of course."
He needed no more invitation than that. He leaned in, pressing his lips to hers, threading his fingers through her hair. He managed to stand—impressively gracefully—without pulling away, and Rose leaned back to lie on the bed, pulling him down on top of her.
"There's a ring, right?" she murmured, her lips against his, and he nodded without pulling away from her. He rolled over, holding her against him so that she was now on top of him.
"Do you want to see it?" he asked, and he smiled as she shook her head, pulling off the t-shirt she had put on in preparation for bed.
"It can wait." She bent down to kiss him again, but paused, her face hovering only inches above his. "We just got engaged," she whispered.
"We did." She smiled and then suddenly, reluctantly, pulled away from him.
"You have to be up in a couple of hours," she explained, sitting up and climbing off of him. He sighed, nodding—being too tired to be alert was too much of a risk in their line of work. Rose slid off the bed to pick her t-shirt off the floor.
Dimitri lay back against the pillows, wishing they could keep going, wishing that they could freeze time and just enjoy this moment forever.
But they had the rest of their lives for that.
