"Anya!"

Anastasia slowly turned to the source of the noise and saw none other than Dimitri emerging from the secret passageway that servants used to get in and out of her room. Usually she'd be much more excited to see him, but not today. The only man that she wanted to see was the mysterious officer that kissed her at the ball.

"Hi…" she said vaguely, looking back into the mirror in front of her, still wondering if she'd ever see him again.

She didn't notice Dimitri standing behind her, with a grin so wide it looked like it would rip his face in half if he smiled any bigger. 'She still remembers me! Well…him. I hope she liked that kiss as much as I did…'

He cleared his throat and asked, "How was the ball last night? The servers were telling us that everyone seemed to be having a good time…especially you."

Dimitri smirked as he saw her face turn bright pink, knowing that he was the one that was causing her to blush like that. That he was the one she had been thinking about since the end of the ball. That he was the only one that danced with her.

"I guess you could say that…" she said cautiously, suddenly finding the hairbrush that was on the table in front of her incredibly fascinating.

He sauntered over to her and took the hairbrush off the table, breaking her concentration. "I heard that you danced with a certain officer for most of the night."

Anastasia's face turned an even more violent shade of pink and she began playing with her fingers, "Well of course I did, what else was I going to do all night? Just sit there and look pretty? I don't think so; and besides, I wouldn't have had to dance with him if you showed up like you should have." she snapped.

'Ouch…' Dimitri thought as he placed the brush back down on the table. "Look," he said, placing his index finger underneath her chin and tilting her head up so he could look into her eyes, "you know I would've loved to have been there with you, but you also know that everyone would either have had a heart attack or killed me if they saw me talking to you, let alone dance with you."

Anastasia's smoldering blue eyes softened as she realized that what he said was true. "Yea, I know…" she said as she got up from the stool and walked over to the window, staring absently at the view of the grounds.

Dimitri sucked in a breath, trying to calm his over-reactive heart, and continued in a girlish voice, "So who was this officer that stole your heart?" He could tell that she was rolling her eyes even though he could only see the back of her head.

"…I don't know…" she reluctantly replied, "I never got to see his face, he wouldn't let me take his mask off…"

"So what did he do?" Dimitri asked innocently, secretly relishing these few moments that he knew something she didn't.

'Oh boy…' Anastasia thought, 'should I even tell him? He might go on a mad rampage or something…' Her troubled thoughts were momentarily broken as she smiled, knowing and loving the fact that Dimitri was so protective of her. She had always thought of it as brotherly, but now, she wasn't sure if that was what she wanted it to be.

"He kissed me." she blurted out, scrunching her eyes shut, preparing herself for some yelling at the very least.

"Oh."

Her eyes snapped open and she whirled around, utterly shocked at Dimitri's calm response.

"What?"

He sighed and said with a shrug of his shoulders, "Hey, it was bound to happen someday."

Anastasia realized that she still had a dumbfounded expression plastered onto her face when she heard him chuckle so she quickly shook her head, trying to get her thoughts straight. "It doesn't matter," she said, waving her hand as if she were trying to fend off thoughts of her mystery man, "he's gone and I'll never see him again. Really Dimitri, it doesn't matter," she said in response to him raising an eyebrow and giving her a questioning look.

"Anya," he said as he walked over to her, "it obviously does matter to you if you've been thinking about him since last night and yes I could tell as soon as I walked into the room that something, well someone was on your mind." She had opened her mouth in an attempt to protest but he quickly cut her off.

"Now, let's try to figure out who this guy is…"

Anastasia sighed reluctantly, cuing him to go ahead with his "investigation."

"Did he smile like this?" Dimitri flashed a crooked smile, just like he did last night, and was overjoyed to see the shocked expression on her face as she nodded, her mouth slightly open.

"Alright, we've got one thing down, we just need a couple more clues…was his voice, like this?" he said, making his voice slightly deeper like he did the night before.

Her sparkling blue eyes got even wider as she furiously nodded once again, 'No, it can't be,' she thought as she watched him pace around the room, trying to think of another question to ask her, 'he said he'd be in the kitchens all night, there's no way he could've…oh who am I kidding, I would have recognized him, even with a mask on…wouldn't I?'

"Did he…" Dimitri began as he walked towards her, "dance with you like this?" He picked her up and spun like he did yesterday, and set her back down, enclosing her hand in his while he placed another one on her waist.

Anastasia thought that her heart was going to burst out of her chest as soon as he touched her; she felt the same electricity that coursed through her body when her mystery man held her, but it was nowhere as strong as the energy she felt when he kissed her.

"Yes!" she squeaked, hoping that his little question and answer session would end soon, but she couldn't help but think in the back of her mind that she didn't want him to stop.

The little voice's prayers were answered when Dimitri bent his head towards hers, their faces only centimeters apart and the distance becoming shorter and shorter each second. "Did he kiss you like this?" he asked in a husky voice, his eyes slightly closed before gently pressing his lips against hers.

Anastasia took in a sharp breath when she felt the same jolt from the night before spark from their lips and quickly spread through the rest of her body. Her arms seemed to have a mind of their own when they wrapped around Dimitri's neck, just like they had the night before.

"Yes," she sighed, looking at him through partially lidded eyes when they broke apart after what seemed to be hours.

He smiled the crooked smile that she had previously thought was her mystery man's and whispered in her ear, "Thought so." before he kissed her a second time.