I'M SO BEHIND ON REVIEWS; I'M SO SORRY FOR THAT!! My life's a little crazy right now going back to school, so getting this chapter up is a miracle. Sorry if it's not up to par and if it's later than expected!!!
Summary changed. It needed a little change of its own.
Round of thanks to the guys who created music of any type. I've listened to so many different inspirations, if I listed them all, you'd get so bored. So the chapter it is!
DISCLAIMER: Richelle Mead owns the rocking VA series and its awesome characters.
I slept for 26 hours. And when I found this out after waking up, I was beyond ticked off.
Okay, so it was with myself for oversleeping ever so much and wasting a complete day. Natalya (who told me to start calling her "Nat" as the American nickname no one around here would call here) just laughed it of and showed me a picture on her cell phone she took right after I fell asleep - there was no way you couldn't say that I was so beyond dead on my feet, Pluto was my best friend. The miffed feeling faded to annoyance since the picture bordered stalking. But Nat had said that it made Dimitri laugh, so it wasn't too too bad.
And right before I knew it, a week had suddenly disappeared beneath me. Dimitri, though a lot more comfortable being in his own home and everything, still kept the stoic exterior up except for the rare few moments we found when it was just us. The Friday after we got there (so roughly, 7/8 days or so), however, Dimitri had a surprise or two hidden up his sleeve he was staying tight-lipped about.
It was right after breakfast, and although I was technically a guest, I was considered family the day after I recovered my extensive jetlag - which in turn meant that I was now forced to be added into the cycle of family chores, including dishes (no automatic dishwasher, everything has to be done by hand), laundry (again, no machines, and I felt like someone out of 1965, hanging the clothes on the line that was connected to another neighbor's house right next door), cooking (they did at least have a range), just the start. I got the oh-so-wonderful task of meal clean-up.
The fancy term for dishes.
Dimitri was practically bouncing, and dropped several bowls he was supposed to dry and not break - nothing broke, thankfully - and wouldn't tell me why he was acting the way he was acting.
"You might want to tell her, or else she might get jealous of Kozak," Nat said lazily, not bothering to really put any meaning in her words. We'd had some late night "girl nights" of sorts - Nat and I traded languages, so her English was improving quickly.
"Darya's not a problem," Dimitri snapped, slamming a bowl down.
"Whatever you say, brother dearest, just don't break that bowl. You know how Momma gets."
Dimitri childishly stuck his tongue out at her and set the bowl down roughly. "Don't listen to her," he advised, drying his own hands.
"Too bad I already do," I said, turning the water off. Dimitri sighed.
"That girl is evil, I tell you, evil." Dimitri spat the last word forcefully.
"To you, she's the evil older sister. To me, she's the best friend I wish I had," I said, and turned on my heel, walking out of the kitchen briskly.
"Look, how many times do I have to tell you Rose, it's partially your fault that Lissa's mad at you?" Dimitri asked, exasperated. I stopped on the stairs and turned around. It took all I had not to scream.
"But you could've said something while you were watching me crash and burn in not telling her," I shot back. Dimitri took a warning step up towards me.
"You didn't crash and burn as you claim, and you have always learned best by failing and learning from your mistakes. I pull you back when you're close to completely blowing up into a million pieces." I took three steps down.
"Why? Why not let me crash and burn anyway? You said so yourself, I learn better by messing up badly and then fixing things."
Dimitri swallowed and avoided my gaze, leaning on the banister.
"So you can't even tell me," I said coldly and turned back around to keep going upstairs.
"Rose," Dimitri said again, but I kept going. When I was just about at the top, Dimitri grabbed my arm and spun me around on the landing.
"I do it because I care about you," Dimitri said. I rolled my eyes.
"Like I haven't heard that before," I replied, not bothering to keep the venom out of my tone. Suddenly, Dimitri was on the landing with me, his lips heavy and fast against mine. Taken aback, I didn't do anything for a few seconds except pray that my brain would speed up the registering process. Eventually, it registered, and I was able to kiss back just as well. I heard someone walk past.
"I thought I heard yelling," Nat commented and moved on like we were nothing but a mere household broom or its equivalent. Dimitri had me pushed back, up and against the wall and broke away; he kept his face near mine, though.
"Shut up Talya, if you want to see tomorrow," Dimitri growled, turning his head a little.
Natalya spun around and crouched down on the stairs a little, so she could see us below the sloping roof. "Oh, I'm so scared," Nat mocked, shaking her hands rolling her eyes, laughing, and taking off for her room, not the least bit worried that Dimitri might actually come after her.
"Are you two always like that?" I asked, the question having burned inside for so long. Dimitri leaned his forehead against mine and sighed and laughed at the same time. He shook his head a little.
"Always have been, and most likely will be. She hasn't been the most helpful lately." He seemed to hesitate at my arched eyebrow. He pulled his head back, kissing my forehead in the same fluid motion. "I've had something that I've been working on lately that requires her help with her knowing you pretty well now; to say the least, she hasn't been cooperative or helpful. Well, in her own way. Most people would say that she is being helpful, but I've known her my entire life, so..." Dimitri trailed off, letting me finish his sentence for him.
Something about me. My mind spun at what it could be. It could've been anything in the world, but the vibe I was starting to feel told me to keep quiet and not ask questions. That seemed to be a popular saying around here.
"So anyway, you've always wanted to know what I was like growing up, right? That would be along the correct lines of your thinking, right?"
I swallowed, nodding. It was times like these that creeped me out, how much Dimitri could see into me. Dimitri leaned against the wall, his right hand and arm right next to my head, touching the wall.
"Well, something came up, so most of my old crew is in town today, and it might be the last time we're all a giant group for a while. Plus, I'd really like to see them," Dimitri added, sliding his left hand in his jeans pocket.
"So where would this meeting place be?" I asked, elated about the fact that I would finally know another piece to Dimitri's past. Dimitri smiled and kissed my forehead again.
"Thank you Roza; you have no idea how much this means to me. It's at a local hotel restaurant in Irkutsk. You won't get too bored, right?" Dimitri looked at me with concern.
"Chill, Comrade, these people were - are - friends with you. They have to be the slightest bit interesting to keep up with you," I said, punching him in the shoulder. He pushed off the wall, almost giving it a dent. He feigned hurt, holding his shoulder.
"That hurt, Rose," Dimitri said, trying to unsuccessfully hold back smile.
"Idiot," I muttered, and then looked up at him. "That so did not hurt."
"Yes it did. Very much, I might add," Dimitri said, grabbing my coat that I had thrown on the back of the couch last night. He lithely tossed it to me - with the arm that was supposedly hurt, no less. Dimitri seemed to realize this, and he faked a wince.
"Stop pretending, Dimitri, or the first thing out of my mouth will be how much of a wuss you are now compared to back then. You wouldn't want that, right?" I asked, pulling my hair out of the back of the coat. I ran my hand over it, ponytail-style to get rid of the static. Dimitri looked horror-stricken.
"You wouldn't," Dimitri whispered, slowly putting his own coat on.
"Try me. I don't give a second thought to hurting people at school and what the implications might be, what would hold me back right now? I'll shout it when we step out that door if I have to," I teased, pointing to the door. Dimitri looked like he might faint. "Fine, dude, I won't. I'll keep my pretty little mouth shut and only rave about how you've created a pretty good badass out of me, the pathetic little girl who ran away and had to quickly catch up on two and half years or education that I missed. Happy?"
Dimitri shook his head. "No need for dramatics; 'Laina, could you tell everyone else that Rose and I left?" Dimitri asked his younger sister, ushering me out the door. She apparently agreed, because as Dimitri was closing the door, she was shouting in Russian to the whole house.
"So how long should we be here?" I asked, as Dimitri threw the car into reverse.
"I don't know, a couple of hours? Besides, where are you going to go, back to the academy? I'd put my money on the fact that you'd rather that place be buried in hell than go back there at the end of this trip," Dimitri said, swerving to avoid a car. I felt like this was a movie, and Dimitri was so badass he didn't have to even keep his full attention on the road while he talked to me.
I shrugged. "There are a lot of places I'd rather be, you know like the beach or somewhere warm? Fifty is kind of cold for me."
"This is actually a heat wave," Dimitri admitted. I noticed his Russian accent was much more pronounced being in Russia again.
"Really? What's it normally?" I asked, actually curious.
"About ten degrees colder, if you're talking Fahrenheit, only four or so Celsius," Dimitri told me, parking in a parking lot in front of a three-story building. He shut the car off, but looked down at the keys instead of getting out. He looked up at me, face and eyes blank.
"Well here goes nothing," I joked, and got out of the car before the awkward moment could further continue.
I had no idea how true my words were.
Chapters 8/9 up this week.
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I need Russian male names! If you think hard about what I'm asking you for, you'll figure out what the next chapter is.
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Shout-outs:
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