Disclaimer: This fanfic is based on the song Never Say Never by the Fray, I do not own the song nor do I own the Vampire Academy series.
Some things we don't talk about
Rather do without
And just hold the smile
Falling in and out of love
Ashamed and proud of
Together all the while
You can never say never
While we don't know when
But time and time again
Younger now than we were before
~Never Say Never, The Fray
He knew it was stupid and pointless. His attraction to her was unprecedented and he almost wished that he hadn't been assigned to retrieve her charge. Then they wouldn't have ever met, and he wouldn't be in such an awkward position. After all, he couldn't miss what he didn't know about, right? However, there was no point in wishing it hadn't happened, because it certainly did and there was no going back.
He didn't realize that his attraction to her was more than just simply that. It went deeper than that and was more complicated than just a simple crush. He'd grown an attachment to her—a need to see her every single day and to touch her…but he restrained himself, as always.
He'd always heard that love chooses unsuspecting victims. That love struck when you weren't looking for it. He hadn't believed this until he felt it for himself. One second he was standing proud and tall, an accomplished warrior of his kind. The next, he was exceedingly ready to bend over backward to please her.
He, of course, had to have fallen in love with such a difficult girl. She was eccentric and danger-prone. Every turn he made, she was doing something senseless and hazardous to her health. She was strong and stubborn, which meant that he always failed to knock some sense into her thick head. Only the bare minimum got through and was remembered, which only made his job of keeping up with her harder.
He didn't understand how she found herself in the situations she always walked into. There was one that especially unnerved him and had nearly frightened him to death. He'd felt horrible when he was forced to lie to her, to tell her that he wasn't interested in her at all. The light that always shone in her eyes had gone out. The one last hope she'd been holding on to had failed her. So, with his heart aching, he'd gone to Victor's cell to relieve one of the Guardians from duty when he saw that both of them had been injured and unconscious. Of course, she had to find herself in the same room with a Strigoi. "Hey Comrade," she'd said, using the ridiculous nickname that he loved, "You were right about the Strigoi."
He was truly terrified as he desperately forced himself to keep talking to her, to keep her from falling asleep and drifting away from him. Those few moments had been the worst and also the most enlightening. He'd told her something that he hadn't been entirely ready to accept: he would throw himself in front of a Strigoi for her, to keep her safe.
He would be her self-proclaimed guardian for as long as he would love her.