Enjoy your last day of 2014 :)

"Merry Christmas Roza." This was by far the best Christmas ever!

RPOV

New Years sucks. Oh don't get me wrong. I'm not a grinch that hates the holidays. I mean you get the day off of work, get to eat all kinds of different junk food and more often than not get a bunch of presents from people that you only kind of know. So I was definitely a big fan of the holidays, it just happened to be this holiday that I hated. Or more accurately, this year. You see, even after five years of marriage and a few years of just being together before that, Dimitri and I had never quit gotten over wanting to be part of the cliched things that couples liked to do. You'd never guess it but Dimitri is really just a big kid at heart, so even after all of these years the reason that I now suddenly hated the New Years was simply this.

Dimitri and I wouldn't be able to kiss at midnight.

There! I said it! Call me crazy but I wanted to do the cliched kissing at midnight! I just think that it sets off a very positive start to the year, and after all of the crazy stuff that had happened to us over the years, a good start is something that we all need. But I wasn't the only one sulking over this. My best friend, sister, and occasional partner in crime Lissa was sitting right next to me bitching about the same thing. We had all planned to spend the New Years together like we did every year, but a few days ago Christian had gotten called away to some kind of conference about magic users that was held every year and this time around he had been selected. And believe me he wasn't any happier about it than we were.

Just because he was now the Queen's husband (yeah, that happened) and suddenly had people respect him, didn't change much, he still hated stuck up Royals as much as he had back at school. But it would make Lissa look bad if he declined so reluctantly he and Dimitri had gone off to the airport a few days ago and wouldn't make it back in time to spend New Years with us. So here Lissa and I were, siting in her room at five to midnight eating ice cream.

"This stinks," Lissa said as she ate another spoon full of cookies and creme ice cream. "I'm the queen, I should just be able to tell them that Christian had other important duty here and can't leave Court on such short notice."

"Sorry Liss, but I don't think that making boring and barely satisfactory love to you on New Years is exactly counted as an important task. Dimitri on the other hand, is highly capable of many things and is definitely needed in the bed roo...um Court room," I said with a huge smile that I wasn't even trying to hide. Liss burst out laughing.

"Oh and the dirty talk begins. So what was the best time that you and Dimitri did it?" Lissa asked with a cheeky smile.

"Well that would have to be after I told him I was pregnant with mini you and just after he proposed," I smiled at the memory, it had been like he was trying to prove to me how happy he could make me for the rest of my life if I just kept my word and said I do.

"Well from that smile it must have been good indeed," Lissa said and ate another spoon full of ice cream.

"Well I won't bother asking you about yours because Dimitri's worst would still rock your world better than anything that the Moroi touch can muster," I said and got an elbow to the ribs for it.

"I wish that you wouldn't give Christian such a hard time, I know that your biased on Dimitri and that nothing will ever compare to him, but Christian loves me," Lissa said all mopey from missing him. I would make fun of her if I wasn't in the same boat.

"That may be true Liss, but it's not the fact that he loves you, it's the fact that-"

"Guardian Hathaway," I heard a voice in my head say. But it wasn't one of those crazy voices that tells you to burn things (I would leave that to Christian). It was my head piece that I kept on in case of emergencies.

"What is it Hans?" I asked snapping back into guardian mode.

"We have a breech on the inside of the perimeter of the place. On the roof right on top of you. It's probably nothing, but what better time for an attack than with all of the celebrations going on," Hans said thinking from past experiences and not sounding happy. "And since you're the closest, I want you do do a quick perimeter check to make sure that the area is clear. Don't worry the Queen will be well protected I promise," Hans said quickly after he realized that he was asking me to leave my post.

Now protocol said just to sit tight and protect Lissa, as her near guard. But she was already well protected and I was getting an order from the Head Guardian, so that kind of made the choice for me.

"I'm on my way. I'll report in after five minutes, if not then send back up," I said and told Lissa what was happening.

"Don't worry Liss, I'm a professional, no Strigoi can beat me," I said with a cocky smile and got up to check out the roof.

I walked up the stairs and opened the door for the roof with caution. Just because I was well in the safety of the wards and surrounded by other guardians was no reason to let my guard down. I hit the lights that were put in place for just this situation and the roof was lit up. With stake in hand, I walked around the roof looking for anyone that might be hiding behind something- when suddenly I saw a tall, thin figure dressed in all black running across the roof.

Dam. I ran after the figure while I pressed the button on the head set. "This is Guardian Hathaway on the main roof, I'm in pursuit of a suspicious person running in all black with a mask on. Unsure if it's a Strigoi or not, requesting back up," I said quickly and waited for a response. But after a few seconds I still hadn't gotten one. Weird. Maybe the fireworks were messing up the communications? It didn't matter, I would go after this guy alone.

At this point, I didn't think that whoever it was was a Strigoi, unless he was leading me in to an ambush because he was much too slow. He had just reach the end of the roof and didn't have anywhere else to go when I caught up to him.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" I asked instead of just staking him. He was so close to the end of the roof and I didn't particularly want to go over the edge right now. Or ever.

"What not much of a talker?" I asked when he didn't say anything. Then suddenly I knew that there was someone else on the roof. Without looking, I did a spinning round house kick that was blocked mid swing by a guy that had to be either a Dhampir or a Strigoi because he was way too big to have been a Moroi. And why was everyone wearing masks all of a sudden? What did a Strigoi care if you saw their face? We were just going to kill you anyway.

Not forgetting the guy at my back, I turned my body so I could look at both of them out of the corner of my eye and raised up my stake. The big guy came at me and I blocked a punch then got in a hit with the butt of my stake. Then out of no where the other guy threw a fireball at me! I jumped out of the way and rolled along the roof to safety- for the moment.

"Where is that back up?" I shouted into my head piece as I got back up and looked at the little guy again. Ok fire. That meant either two things. Either this was a Moroi that was working with the Strigoi which was more than a little disturbing. Or the Strigoi had somehow found another way to get elemental powers back which was even worse.

But before I could find out the answer, the big guy came at me again trying to crush me in his big arms. I dodged him and went at his unprotected back but he saw that one coming and went for my unguarded ribs- but I saw that coming too. Damn this guy was good. He grabbed my hand and tried to twist me backwards, but I got out of it and turned it back on him. He used his strength to break the hold and tried to trip me with his long legs- but I jumped out of it and gave him a high kick that landed directly on his chest.

Having enough of playing with me he went for a full power punch that I dough anyone but me would have seen coming. Why does this guy's fighting style seem so familiar? Eventually his strength was too much and we were both on the floor grappling. He tried to use his size to pin me but I was so small and flexible that he couldn't hold onto me for long. I got the upper hand and was just about to stake him - and that was when I broke Dimitri's very first rule. The rule that I said that I would never break again after it landed me in a prison suite in Russia. I hesitated.

Because that's when I smelled it. Dimitri's aftershave.

No. No this couldn't be happening! You couldn't get turned twice! My heart was pounding like a drum but I had to know. I pulled off this guy's hood- and looked down in to the eyes of Dimitri. The same brown eyes that I loved. Not rimed with red.

He was smiling at me, one of his big full on smiles that I loved. And I couldn't see any fangs. But the look of love that was on his face was the best proof of all. Dimitri was still a Dhampir. Which means that he had a lot of explaining to do.

"What the hell Dimitri? I could have killed you!" I shouted and he just laughed.

"No doubt, but that's why I had Christian as back up," Dimitri said and I looked behind me to see that the first guy wearing the mask was in fact Christian.

"Some back up! I almost staked you! If it hadn't been for your after shave I would have!" I said getting up off of the ground.

"Well that and you knew my fighting style to well, I saw you tracking my moves and predicting what I would do next. I knew that you would figure it out," Dimitri said still wearing that stupid smile that I loved so much.

"What are you two even doing here anyway? I thought that you got called away, on that magic year thing," I said still angry that I almost staked my husband in the heart.

"It finished early, so we thought that we would come home and surprise you on New Year's Eve," Christian said shrugging his shoulders.

"Well it backfired!" I said and pressed the button on my head set. "False alarm, it was just Christian being an idiot. Not that any back up was sent in the first place," I said with attitude. If this had been a real threat they could have been over run by now.

"Hans was in on it to," Dimitri said from behind me. I turned around and looked him right in the eyes to see if he was telling the truth. He was.

"Why?" I asked still confused.

"As a reminder," Dimitri said as he came to stand closer to me. I noticed that Christian was walking back to the door, probably to go and see Lissa before midnight.

"One of our favorite memories was the field exam when you had to fight me like I was a Strigoi. I just wanted to do something special and recreate that memory," Dimitri said reaching out and putting his arms around my shoulders.

"So you went through all of this trouble because you were feeling nostalgic?" I asked. Thinking of it that way, it was actually kind of...sweet. And the fight really had been fun now that I think about it.

Dimitri nodded and put a hand on my waist.

"I just don't ever want us to forget what we shared back at the Academy and how we fell in love. So while not the safest idea, I think that this captured the moment perfectly," Dimitri said getting even closer.

"Are you mad at me?" he asked seriously. And he was right to, his plan could have seriously backfired! But part of the reason that we worked and fought so well together was because we could read each other so well. And he was counting on me figure it out before it was too late, he was putting his life in my hands. Which he did every time we went into a fight. So as messed up as this surprise had been, it actually had been sort of perfect for us.

"I'm not mad...well a little mad that you put yourself in harms way for all of this when all you really needed to do was show up in time to the kiss me at midnight."

Just then I heard someone announce that the countdown only had thirty seconds to go. Dimitri looked down at me with a smile.

"Well how about now?" he asked and we both laughed. Then we heard people counting loudly

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3..2...1... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dimitri leaned down and kissed me, and what a kiss it was.

"Happy new year Roza," Dimitri whispered across my lips.

"Happy new year Comrade." And then we went back to our room to complete the memory of the last time that Dimitri had dressed up in all black and acted like a Strigoi. And it was a very happy start to the new year indeed.

Please review and Happy New Years to you all:)