6

Life at court felt free. I had only been there for four hours but I could already taste the freedom. We had been assigned rooms in guest housing, where we had no curfew and no opposite sex rules. There was also no Moroi/dhampir discrimination on room assignments which meant that Lissa and I had, miraculously, ended up three rooms apart.

Lissa and I had decided to ditch our friends and spend the day together. Eddie and Christian had gone to find Mia so we used our freedom to talk and explore our new home. Lissa had made an arrangement with Queen Tatiana that she would go to LehighUniversity so we would only be spending the summer here before heading there together, with me hopefully as her guardian. Even so, I wanted to explore Court and get the best out of our summer as few adults.

"Can you believe that soon it's just going to be me, you and Dimitri? We can do whatever we want!" Lissa was excited about the prospects of living at Court. I hadn't yet mentioned that Dimitri was going to be reassigned, for some reason I hadn't been able to find the words to tell her that because of me she was having an amazing, god-like guardian taken away from her, probably to be replaced by a newly graduated guardian.

"Uh, about that, Lissa…"

"What? Aren't you excited that you get to spend your time with us professionally and in your free time? I mean it allows you guys to be together without totally revealing it at first. You could say that you fell in love at work."

"Dimitri won't be guarding you." I blurted out.

"Why not?" Lissa face fell. "Doesn't he like me?"

It was typical of Lissa to think that it was about her, after all she was used to guardians taking the stance of they come first, but on this occasion it wasn't about her; Dimitri had put me first. Dimitri, perfect guardian that he was, had put me ahead of a Moroi.

"That's not it, Lissa." I paused. "Dimitri knew that if we were both guarding you then, if it came to it, we would try to save each other instead of you."

"Okay," she said quietly. "That's okay, I'm sure there will be someone else. Maybe I could get Eddie."

"Yeah, that would be fun." I grinned, that would be fun.

"So, how are you guys going to reveal it? There's probably going to be some pretty pissed off people."

"I don't really know," I replied honestly. "I don't exactly want to announce it to everyone, that would be pretty awkward, but I'm sick of sneaking around."

"So don't tell anyone, just do it. Kiss him in front of everyone, if they do like it-"

"They can deal with it." I finished for her.

"Exactly. Maybe then I can finally see you happy."

"What do you mean?" I asked, slightly shocked. "I am happy."

"Last few weeks you haven't been. I might not be able to sense your emotions through the bond, but I'm still your best friend. You've been moping since the attack, you hardly ever hang out and when you do your mind is somewhere else."

"I'm sorry, Liss." I knew that she had noticed something but to be honest I hadn't really been that bothered. "I just…"

"I get it, I do, and I'm glad that it can stop now; I can have my best friend back." She ginned. "Do you want to get a manicure, we could find Ambrose?"

I nodded and linked our arms together before we set off to find the dhampir. This was my chance to have fun with Lissa before hanging out became my job. As of next week, I would have to keep my eyes open at all times, searching for any potential threats.

"Hey, Comrade," I said as I approached Dimitri in a small café. He was sitting at a small table drinking hot chocolate and reading one of his western novels.

"Roza," he smiled, putting the book aside. "Have you had a good afternoon?"

"Yeah, do you remember Ambrose? Well we saw him and we got our nails done." I flashed my nails in front of my face and Dimitri chuckled. "Have you been here all afternoon with the cowboys?"

"No, I talked to Hans about getting reassigned." Dimitri said, the stoic look had returned to his face. This was serious. "He wanted to know why."

"Did you tell him about us?" I didn't want the Head of Guardians to know about our relationship before my friends but, thankfully, Dimitri shook his head.

"I told him that I had personal issues that would restrain me from doing the best job for Lissa and that I thought I would be better suited to someone else."

"So, what did he say?" I asked, excitedly.

"That I had been assigned to Lissa because I was a good guardian and Lissa needed all of the protection she get. Hans also told me that I shouldn't let personal matters get in the way of my work. Basically, they won't reassign me."

"But that's bullshit! What are we going to do now?"

"I'm kidding, Rose." Dimitri grinned. "I find out my new assignment with you and the other graduates."

"That wasn't fair, Comrade, in fact, that was just plain mean!"

"It was worth it for the look on your face. Come here." He moved his chair back so that I could sit on his knee. I did so and he kissed me. It wasn't anything special, it was just a kiss, but he had kissed me in public. It felt strange not to be hiding it and looking over my shoulder to make sure that no one had seen, but it also felt good.

Dimitri ordered me a hot chocolate as well as another for himself and we sat in the café talking. It was nice to sit with him openly and just talk. We were no longer student and teacher, we were finally equal.

It wasn't until much later that I heard from Lissa through the bond. She wanted to know if I was planning on joining everyone to go out for dinner. I would be able to spend all summer with my friends, Dimitri and I had a lot of time to make up for so I thought about telling Lissa that I would see her tomorrow when Dimitri noticed my distraction.

"Is everything okay? Is it Lissa?" He asked, his guardian face replacing the soft one that he had worn all afternoon.

"She's fine, she just wondered if I was joining them for dinner."

"Do you want to go?"

"I would rather stay here with you,"

"You shouldn't abandon your friends." Then I thought of the perfect solution.

"You know, you could always come with us?"

"Are you sure you want me there? I'm guessing that they don't know about us."

"It doesn't matter, they'll have to find out sooner or later and I want you to come."

Dimitri agreed, if a little reluctantly, and I slipped into Lissa's head to find out where they were going.

"What do you guys fancy? Chinese, Italian?" Christian asked, taking Lissa's hand in his. Great, they were still being cute.

"I say Italian." Adrian said, for once sounding completely sober.

Everyone agreed and they picked a restaurant. I was about to leave Lissa head when I heard my name mentioned.

"Where's Rose?" It was a girlish, high pitched voice; Mia.

"Uh," Lissa hesitated, she didn't want to tell our friends for me but she didn't want to lie to them. She knew that I didn't want to hide it but that didn't mean I wanted her to blurt it out. "She's with Dimitri, I think they're meeting us at the restaurant."

"Wait, they? You mean Rose and Guardian Belikov?" Eddie demanded sounding more than a little confused.

"Yes, is that a problem?" Lissa replied civilly.

"Uh, I'm just surprised. Doesn't he have friends of his own to hang out with? I mean, I know that he was Rose's mentor but even so, can't he let go of her?" Lissa was starting to get bugged by his questions and I prayed that she wouldn't out me when I wasn't even there. My friends could work it out for themselves when I got there. Please don't tell, Lissa! Not for the first time, I wished that the bond wasn't one way, I wished that she could hear me too. Luckily, she didn't explain.

"Ask them."

"You coming?" I asked Dimitri with a smile.

"Are you sure that your friends won't mind? I don't want to impose."

"Oh get over it, Comrade, you're coming and that's final."

I took his hand in mine and we walked towards the restaurant the group had selected. I liked that soon my friends were going to know about my relationship. I looked forward to being able to talk about Dimitri openly, instead of having to hide and pretend that I wasn't interested in any guys. When we saw my friends, I felt Dimitri tighten his grip on my hand and realised why he had been so reluctant to come; he was nervous.

"Are you nervous about this, Comrade?" I stopped, pulling him close to me.

"No," he lied obviously which made me laugh. "These are your friends, the people who mean the most to you. I was their teacher and now I'm coming into their group, how do you think that's going to make them feel?"

"If they're not all idiots then it won't make them feel anything, except maybe happiness for me." I reached up and pressed my lips firmly against his for a second. "Now, stop worrying."

I turned back to my friends only to see all but Lissa and Adrian staring at us open mouthed.

"Rose, what the hell?" Eddie yelled angrily as we approached.

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