I'm back with another chapter! I know this story has been bouncing around but I know what path I want to get to with this story, I'm trying some stuff out.

Enjoy 3!

Rose's POV

Mason and I sit on both sides of the Murray's youngest daughter as we're driving back to their main house. The family asked us if we could accompany them to their summer home a couple of hours away, they wanted to have more security while off of their big estate. We agreed, thinking it would be a good thing to change things up and it was. Mason and I got some time off here and there for a hour or two to relax. I can't remember the first time I had been on any sort of vacation in my life.

"Guardian Hathaway?" I turn to see Mia looking up at me with her bright blue eyes.

"Yes Mia?"

"How come you were able to beat Guardian Williams easily? He's been mama's guardian for years and I've never seen anyone beat him. He's so strong." I laugh and look up to see Guardian Williams semi-glaring at us, I know he's amused by this but just hiding it.

"Well Mia, me beating Guardian Williams that time doesn't mean he's not strong. Sometimes one person will win some fights and other times someone else will win the fights. Do you want to know my secret?" She shakes her head 'yes' with a smile on her face and hugging her stuffed bunny close. "I'm smaller than him, so when he tries to grab me I can move out of his holds easily. I'm fast like your bunny."

"Like Mr. Twinkle?!" She says to me with enthusiasm.

"Yes just like Mr. Twinkle. Although, I think Mr. Twinkle is faster than me. He's the fastest thing I've ever seen!" She giggles in response, making me smile and laugh with her.

"He is really fast, no one can out fast him!"

"You're right about that Mia. Look, we're almost home!"

"Guardian Hathaway, why don't you live with us like our other guardians?" I pause for a second thinking about how I should answer her.

"Well Mia, Mason and I were never assigned to your family officially. We help train your guardians and like this past week, we'll be your extra guardians when your family goes on vacation."

"Why can't you be assigned to me?"

"When you're older and get your assignment you won't want me, I'll be old and wrinkly," I make a 'ew' face making her laugh, "plus you'll make so many friends at the Academy that are your own age. You won't want old me cramping your style."

She giggles again louder. I can see Mrs. Murray, who's seated behind us, look at us with a smile. I'm happy she likes me, for obvious reasons not many Moroi do. I guess people haven't forgotten about the whole 'running away with a princess for almost a year' thing. I then look over to Mason who has a big smile on his face and i send him one back.

After everyone was in the house safely and we were paid, Mason and I drove back to our house. It was right outside of the Murray's property, that way we were close but we owned our own property.

"So, if Mia is 6 and she'll be assigned when she's 18. That's 12 years, does that mean when we're 30 we'll be all old and wrinkly?"

"No Mason, I don't expect us to be all old and wrinkly at 31. Well, not me anyway. I think you might be wrinkling up already Grandpa."

"Haha, yes my youthful 19 year old self is wrinkling away. So glad you noticed. It was a good way though."

"Good way for what?"

"Explaining the situation to her. I could tell Mrs. Murray was tense when she asked. Don't worry Rose she doesn't know why we left, just that we left and Lisa hasn't visited you since we got here. Everyone knows you'd put yourself in front of a Strigoi for her. So she has to have enough common sense, plus being around you for almost a year, to know that you aren't mean spirited."

"Wow…..it's almost been a year since everything happened. They do say time flies."

"That they do Rose, that they do." He grabs my hand and starts rubbing his thumb over the top of my hand.

"Thanks."

"Welcome. I think you forget I know you better than you do sometimes."

"Oh really, you think so?"

"I know so. If I didn't how else would I be able to cook you the right breakfast without asking you. I always get it right."

"Okay, I have to agree with you on that."

"Did you just agree with me without me having to convince you? Wow, you going soft on me Rose?"

"Not a chance, but I want to keeping having my delicious breakfast cooked by you so why would I bother to disagree with you on it."

"Smart thought process. You might want to keep it."

I wake up with the sheets engulfing my naked body. It's strange that Mason hasn't woken me up yet. I look over to his side of the bed and it's empty, so I grab on of his shirts and a pair of my PJ shorts to make the journey downstairs. I look over to the kitchen island and see my breakfast, pancakes and bacon, with a note next to it.

Rose,

You looked so peaceful while you were sleeping I couldn't wake you up. Since you took many of the night shifts over the vacation I wanted you to sleep in. I'm at the Murrays helping their Guardians go over all of the security footage from when they were away and I knew you would dread every second of it. I'll be home by 4ish I'm assuming. It's your turn to cook dinner tonight, don't burn it. :)

From you loving Mason

I smile while reading the letter, isn't he sweet? I notice my breakfast is cold so I pop it in the oven for 10 minutes and grab something to drink from the fridge. When I turn around to get a glass I notice that the clock says it's noon. Strange, I never have slept in this late. All of those night watches must have tired me out more than I thought.

I have to admit that Mason makes the best breakfast I've ever had, the Academy has nothing close to his cooking. After I cleaned up and got dressed, I decide to go for a walk around the grounds. There's many trees to climb and I can work on my upper body. I climb a big sturdy tree and when I get to the top I can see our property and surprisingly a small dot of the Murray's house. Or may it's the grounds and keeping's house/ supply house? Oh well. The view is beautiful and I can only imagine what a sunset would look like from up here.

With all of the time that's passed, I've learned how to appreciate my surroundings some more. I'm not constantly looking out for Strigoi or other possible dangers, well besides looking out for them for me and Mason's sake. After a while I decide to get down and make my way back to the house. I feel my phone ringing and I see it's Mason.

"Hey Mason."

"Hey love, how's everything going?"

"Everything is going well, I took a walk through the forest area of our property. Climbed some trees, I found ways to occupy myself. How's going through footage? Is it as fun and exciting as I remember it to be?" I hear him chuckling through the phone.

"Yes, it's even more boring than it used to be. There's no one doing anything that's unusual on the footage, but we still have some more to go through. Have you started thinking about dinner yet?"

"No…..why?"

"Well, there's a chance someone wants to have dinner with us tonight."

"Who?"

"I don't know how you'll feel about this person…."

"Mason, who is it?!"

"It's Christian. He saw me in the hallway and wouldn't let me go until I agreed to have dinner with him."

"Does the fire crouch know I'm here?"

"I'm assuming he does, we did leave at the exact same time. He did ask if there would be another person joining us and I said there would be."

"Mason!"

"But I insisted he come over to our house, that way if you get mad we can ask him to leave. It is out house. I know you don't want to do this, but give him a chance for tonight. He wasn't the one who was mad at you."

"I don't like this at all Mason, is she there with him?"

"No, he said she's in court right now. I got the sense he wants to apologize to you Rose. I know he's not Lisa, but you guys did become good friends. You haven't have to be nice to him, just make him dinner. And no poisoning it."

"Me? Why would you think…"

"Rose, I'm partly joking. Only partly though."

"He doesn't even eat food! He drinks blood!"

"I know that Rose, he still wants to come over for a drink and while we eat dinner, it's for talking mainly. Try to be open to it, I know this is hard for you. I'll be there."

"And you always will be. Why do you have to be a dependable guy I can trust?" I heard him laughing over the phone again.

"I love you too Rose, I'll see you when I get home. Bye."

"Bye."

Jerk. I know I should of started to forgive everything that's happened, but I can't. As Mason said Christian wasn't mad at me at all and he didn't do anything, so I should me mad at him. And I'm not mad at him, per-say. I don't know, everything is always so complicated in our world.

I decided to make Mason and I some salmon, I usually have an easier time cooking it evenly when it's fish. I know I shouldn't act cruel towards Christian tonight, Mason did make it sound like Christian has no bad intentions for coming over. I've been hanging around Mason too much and have lost my stubbornness…and now I'll even admit that I have moments I can be stubborn. I decide to add some green beans that the Murray's grow in their garden. Their gardener taught me how to grow some vegetables, but with it getting colder I won't be harvesting anything anytime soon. I shake my head at how domestic I sound, but not living with people to do this kind of stuff for you has made me become more of a domestic kind of person. I don't go the whole 9 yards with wearing an apron singing songs and never complaining about it. Mason cooks more so I do more of the clothes related things. But I do want to get better at cooking, especially given the chance like today when Mason is called and I'm alone in the house.

When I pull out the wine and take my first sip from my glass I hear the front door open and the sound of Mason's boots stomping through the room.

"You know you might want to work on being more quiet and agile. I could hear you the second you got in."

"I wasn't focusing on being agile, I want to lay down and hold you in my arms."

"We have a guest tonight if you've forgotten. You tired from going through all of that video?"

"Eh, more mental. So much feed. How much of that have you had so far?"

"I've only had a small sip."

"Well, I'm gonna take that away from you now. We don't need to add anything like this into the mix. It won't go to waste, I'll drink the rest of this glass and put the bottle away. I was thinking about taking a shower, want to join me?"

"Are we going to have time?"

"Yeah, he'll be here in like 2 hours. So we can both get a good shower in and don't have to rush. Now, are you going to join me or not?"

"I'll race you." I run past him and hear him following me going up the stairs.

After I put on my jeans I walk downstairs to set up the table. I know I should set one up for Christian but I'm not sure what to set up for him. I know if he had been in contact the past 11 months I would only set up a big bowl or a gimmicky wine glass, but maybe I'll set something so he doesn't feel too left out. I pull out the salmon and green beans, setting them up on the table. Hopefully we'll eat them all so I don't have to go through the hustle of putting them back in the fridge. I never knew how much work it takes to cook, set up, clean u, and then put away the leftover food. Especially when there's have someone coming over that you're not very close with I feel like I have to make sure everything looks pretty and organized.

"We can start eating if you're hungry, from knowing Christian for as long as we do he won't be into the social structure that we have to wait for him. I gotta say, it looks good."

"Good to know my cooking won't kill you at first glance." I give him a smirk.

We're probably almost done with our meal when there's a knock on the door. Mason gets up to open the door and I'm assuming it's Christian. In the moment I'm annoyed that Mason took away my wine, but I wouldn't want to wake up with a hangover tomorrow morning. I can see Christian past Mason, even though Mason is 2 or so inches taller than Christian. I get up from my seat as they walk over, I decide to go for it and give Christian a hug. I can tell he's in shock they I even made any kind of non-violent contact.

I pull away asking, "What Christian, I don't get a hug?"

"I-I-I…ummm…I wasn't expecting it."

"I know, I don't know why I did it being honest."

"You guys want to sit?" Thank you Mason! I think to myself.

"Of course. I'm guessing I'm sitting down where there isn't food."

"No, I'm pretty sure you guys don't consume that kind of stuff." Mason joked, causing all of us to laugh, breaking the tension.

"So Christian, what were you doing at the Murray's house?"

"Um…..my guardian's brother is one of their guardians, so when I contacted the Murray's and they were more than happy to have my guardian and I come visit."

"Makes sense having a member of any royal family is special, especially up here. You don't see many royals around here." Mason said as if it was a matter of fact, which it basically is.

"Mason's right, you're the first royal we've seen since we got here. It's nothing like he Academy let alone court." I end with a laugh or two.

"It's so secluded, I've never been somewhere like her in my life."

"It's very calming, it was weird at first. You know, nothing crazy going on or crazy Moroi everywhere you turn. Once I got used to it, I started to love it."

"She was very restless for the first couple of months we were here, I swear she ran for hours on end. It's how we met the Murray's actually, we were on a run and saw their guardians."

"So do you guys work for them?"

"Not exactly, like you saw me today we'll help them out with footage work and stuff like that if they need us. We usually help train their guardians and keep them in shape. Rose and I were getting kinda antsy with not having a proper training room, so the timing worked out very well. So what have you been up to since we left?" I could tell Christian was a little uncomfortable with Mason's question because of the last part. I guess we're more okay with bringing up us leaving than everyone else.

"Well…after graduation Lisa and I moved into court. It's expected of her, being honest with you guys I don't really like court. If you thought high school was bad with gossip and prejudices, court of at lest triple that. You have the older ones who are stick stuck in the old ways of doing things and they're the ones in power and people still think I'm like my parents."

"I'm sorry to hear that Christian, the older people are assholes. They can be very selfish and stuck in their ways."

"You hit it right on the rise exactly Rose. In a weird way I'm happy our guardians are assigned to us or else I wouldn't have anyone. Or I wouldn't have anyone who's good and not desperate for work. Oh, sorry."

"It's fine, don't worry about it." Mason reassures him.

"I feel like I shouldn't ask but it's going to come up anyway, how's Lisa?" There was a long pause after I ask the question.

"She's okay. The more silly side of her presents itself less often as it used to. I can tell it's also from being at court, the Queen is constantly calling on her. I think she's starting to actually go mad."

"Like she wasn't going mad before?"

"Rose, I think it's more serious than her not having logic or common sense. Lisa says she mumbles to herself a lot and once Lisa saw her having a full blown conversation with someone who wasn't there."

"Wow, that's freakiville. They can't remove her until she's dead right?"

"Rose"

"Come on Mason, you can't tell me you aren't a little interested about knowing more about the crazy Queen?"

"I won't say I'm not, but I don't want to think about having an insane Queen on the throne just yet."

"To answer your question Rose, I think she has to die unless there's a political uprising or they poison her. They could also charge her a crime, but she hasn't done anything worth being imprisoned so far. Being crazy isn't a crime, hopefully she doesn't go crazy officially."

We then move on to talking about happier things and our times back in school. We didn't touch on those subjects for the rest of the night and when Christian left he retuned my hug. I get into bed and immediately cuddle up to Mason. After a while he let's out a big sigh.

"What's wrong? And you have to tell me."

"You don't that, if the expected is to happen, the Queen will go crazy, it'll affect us here?"

"I don't think so, we're so far from court and barely anyone knows we're here. If it makes you feel better, I have a feeling the Murray's would help us if anything comes up." I move up and kiss him on the cheek closest to me while rubbing the other cheek with my thumb. He looks at me and kisses me with so much love, which I return to him wholeheartedly.

2 chapter in one day! Next one will be coming within the next couple of days.

-Mo