Disclaimer: These characters belong to Richelle Mead. I'm just messing with them.

A/N: I know I usually don't do Vampire Academy stories, but I figured "hey, why not?" I happen to love these books and thought you guys would like this. This is my first VA one-shot, so go easy on me.

It's set AFTER Last Sacrifice (the last book in the series) so if you haven't read that yet, this might spoil things for you.

See you at the bottom.

Picture—you're the queen of everything

Far as the eye can see,

Under your command.

I will be your guardian

When all is crumbling,

I'll steady your hand.

-Fray, Never Say Never

I was never under any delusion that being a guardian would be easy.

There was never a point in my pre-guardian life that I deluded myself to believing that it would be all rainbows and butterflies, mythical creatures and lollipops.

No, being Rose Hathaway—daughter of hard-ass Guardian Janine Hathaway—I knew from the very beginning that I would have to fight every day of my life for another.

I'd have to risk my life a hundred times over—and a hundred times again—for the Moroi I ended up guarding.

What I never put into that equation was love.

I never, not even once, thought about what would happen if I fell in love with another guardian.

I never took into account how hard it would be to protect both Dimitri and Lissa at the same time.

Not that I really had to worry about it very often; most of the time Dimitri guarded Christian while I focused on Guarding Lissa—ahem, Queen Vasilisa.

Still, there were times when I worried about the safety of the two most important people in my life—the safety of my best friend and the safety of my one true love.

"Why are you frowning?" His soft, lightly accented and velvety voice brought me back to the present. We were lying on a large bed, buried under pillows and covers with our legs entwined together.

I hadn't even realized I'd begun to frown as I was contemplating things.

I smoothed his soft hair back from his face, stroking his jaw as I did. "Just thinking, I guess."

"Well," He paused, "Stop it. I want you to smile today."

I grinned and leaned over to give him a peck on the lips. "So every other day you want me to frown…?" I asked playfully.

He growled and rolled me over so he was on top of me. I felt every warm line of his body against my own and suddenly found myself incapable of speech. Or breathing for that matter.

"If I had it my way, you'd smile everyday for the rest of your life, Roza."

I giggled and nuzzled my nose into his neck, smelling his unique and wonderful masculine scent. "You're utterly absurd, my love." I said in a—very bad—impression of his Russian accent.

This got me a full-on grin. "You're a terrible impersonator, love."

"Mm, well maybe if you taught me how to swear in Russian—"

He interrupted me in exasperation. "Like you don't swear enough as it is!"

"Yeah, well, if I could swear in Russian, no one would know what I was saying."

"I would."

"So?"

"So? So you don't care if I think you're a swearing sailor?"

"You know, Comrade, I could always just type swear words into Google translate. Problem solved."

"Ahh," He sighed, lacing his fingers through my hair and leaning in close, so close his lips ghosted across mine, making me sigh in content. "But you wouldn't do it, my Roza."

"And why not?" I huffed.

"Because you really, really like bugging me about teaching you. If you didn't have any material to tease me, well, you wouldn't know what to do. It's one of the reasons I love you so much."

Before I could protest, his lips were hard on mine. Passionate, hungry. There was nothing in the world but him. Him, and his lips. And his body.

I never really got used to the feeling of his naked body against my own. It wasn't something that I would take for granted, not ever again. Not after everything that had happened between us.

I registered a groan of arousal—his or mine, I could no longer tell, and then I was consumed by him.

I felt him against me—there—and he took my face between his hands.

"I love you." He whispered hoarsely, "I'll always protect you." Dangerous words. He'd said them before, the very first time we'd had sex, words he shouldn't have said. But we never lied to each other. We couldn't walk around pretending that we wouldn't always protect the other.

"I love you too." I arched off the bed as he entered me upon hearing my words. "And I'll always keep you safe." I gasped, and those were the last coherent thoughts either of us had.

He was so passionate; so, so strong. His body moving over mine, his lips on my skin, his hands grasping, grabbing anywhere he could.

My hands rested on his shoulders or his lower back, occasionally digging into the skin. My lips were on his shoulder, and I felt small gasps of pleasure come out of my mouth as he moved with me, inside of me.

"Oh, God." I whimpered, bringing his mouth to my own. He happily obliged, fusing our mouths. It did little to hide the groans and moans we both kept releasing.

"Roza, oh Roza." He groaned against my lips.

And then I was falling, falling into something so complete and so consuming I was breathless. Every part of my body vibrated hard, tingling. I felt it from the tips of my toes all the way to my hairline.

I registered Dimitri above me, thrusting once, twice, then he tensed and stilled on top of me.

I waited for the stars to leave my vision and then I laughed, and I felt it vibrate from my body to his.

"What's funny?" He asked roughly while looking down at me, his accent stronger after what had just happened. He quirked an eyebrow in amusement.

I beamed up at him. "I don't know… I'm just—happy, I guess."

He laughed. "That's all I can ask for." He rolled over onto his back and I immediately missed his warmth on me. I snuggled into his side, our limbs tangling, getting as close as possible.

I was drifting away into an early morning slumber when I felt Dimitri reach for something on the bedside table. I rubbed my eyes confused.

"Comrade, what are you—"

"Shh." He said, almost sternly. It reminded me of when we were back and St. Vladimir's. He had that same stern look when he wanted me to listen, when he had some important thing to say.

"I'm only going to buy one of these." He stopped to smirk, and I couldn't see what he was holding because it was behind his back.

"I told you I didn't want any presents…"

"Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

I laughed, wrapping my arms around his neck. "What is it, Comrade?"

"As I was saying, I'm only going to buy one of these. I've been—debating when and how to do this but it never seems like the right time and…" He couldn't find the words. It was uncharacteristic of him.

"Spit it out."

He sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose and looking up at me through his impossibly long lashes.

I brushed a few strands of hair away from his face.

"Rosemarie Hathaway, I've never loved anyone—anything as much as I love you. I promise that I will love you forever. Longer than that. Will you please make me the happiest man in the world?"

I gasped. No, it couldn't be… "Dimitri, I…"

"Roza, will you marry me?"

It was then that he brought the little black velvet box right between us, a beautiful diamond ring nestled into it.

"Oh my god." I whispered, and he chuckled, wiping the tears from my eyes.

"What do you say?" He whispered, kissing away another stray tear.

"Yes." I whispered, barely audible.

"What?" He looked at me in wonder.

"Yes." I said, louder. I laughed aloud. "Yes! One hundred thousand times yes!"

He beamed, untucking the ring and placing it on my finger. He kissed in reverently, then pulled me into his arms and held me so tightly I thought I'd pop of happiness.

I kissed his cheek, his ear, his forehead, his neck, anything I could reach.

"I love you!" I gasped, unable to articulate how much. "More than anything." I looked down at the ring on my finger, its diamonds sparkling in the morning light shining through the window.

"I love you, too, my Roza." And that was all we said for a very long time after that.

Then a though occurred to me.

"I wish we could be together all the time." I whispered, swatting away the irrational tears that formed in my eyes.

"Oh, Roza." He pulled me into his arms, tight against his bare chest. The falling and rising of his breathing relaxed me slightly. "You know why we can't. But you'll always be mine. We'll always be together, even if we're not really with each other at all. I promise."

"I love you." I whispered, reveling in his warmth. I realized how often I'd been saying that and it made me smile even more. I couldn't be happier.

And I didn't want to think about bad things right now. I didn't want to think about him leaving, didn't want to think about how my life would never really be my own.

You'll always be living by someone else.

Never have your own life.

I shuddered, kissing Dimitri's neck lightly.

For now, this would have to be enough.

It had to be.

It would be.

They come first.

I was starting to think whoever came up with that saying really needed to be punched.

A/N Well, there it is.

Hope you all liked it!

Review if you want.

HAVE A HAPPY AND SAFE NEW YEAR!