I'm really happy to read all your reviews! Dream Walker's Obsession, I'm a little curious what Rose was thinking at the time as well. I've considered doing some one-shots from a different POV once I've finished the story, and that's definitely a scene I would consider doing.

A day later than planned, but here's the next chapter. Note to self: Don't let your boyfriend take apart the computer to upgrade it before you double-checked if he's really got all the parts. Anyway, we were still missing some of Rose's friends, so guess who Dimitri is gonna run into ;)

Chapter 12

DPOV

I wake up feeling like I've been hit by a truck. After I left the gym yesterday I went back to my room and stayed there, not even leaving it to get food. I ran through everything that happened yesterday over and over again in my mind, and every time I felt worse. The image of Roza's tears is burned into my memory. She rarely cries, and knowing I'm the reason she did yesterday hurts. Eventually I tried to focus on the smile she gave me before running and I finally fell asleep.
Apart from the emotional distress, there's also quite a bit of physical pain. Rose really is one hell of a fighter, I haven't had this many bruises since I graduated. I prefer not to think too much about the most painful injury she gave me, but walking is quite uncomfortable. Thankfully we're guarding the gates today so hopefully nobody will notice.

I'm a little slower than normal getting ready and once again Eddie is already waiting for me when I get outside.
"Good morning Dimitri." He's in an excellent mood, I guess he enjoyed his day off. I briefly wonder if he still got to spend it with Mia.
"Hey."
Eddie looks me up and down, raising his eyebrow.
"Bad day today? You're not looking too well."
"It's nothing, don't worry about it." I'm not about to tell him Rose kicked my ass yesterday. He would probably enjoy that, and I wouldn't hear the end of it all day.
"If you say so."
"Let's just get going, or we'll be late."
"Ah yes, I should be off. You're not joining me today though, that's why I was waiting for you here. You're to report to Hans as soon as possible."
"Do you know why?"
He shrugs. "No idea, so you best go and find out. I'll see you later."
"Thanks Eddie."

When I enter headquarters I catch sight of Roza. She's sitting at her desk as usual, sorting through a stack of papers. She looks around as soon as the door closes behind me. There's no way she could've heard that from where she's sitting, she must have sensed my presence somehow. She glares at me before returning to work and I feel my shoulders slump. She has every right to be angry at me, but I still had some hope she got the worst of it out yesterday. It's going to be a lot harder to talk to her like this. I'll have to worry about that later though, Hans is standing at the door to his office and beckons to me when he sees me.

He closes the door behind us and we both sit down.
"I have to say Belikov, I'm very pleased with the reports I've been receiving from Guardian Castile. You're never late, you listen to any order he gives you, you're respectful to him and the other guardians, and you pay attention to any detail, no matter what job you've been assigned. Basically you've got a perfect record ever since you've been partnered with him."
"Thank you sir, I'm glad to hear Guardian Castile is satisfied with my work. I realize not many people would want to work with me and I appreciate his efforts. He's been nothing but helpful."
"Good to know. I'm sure you'll be pleased to know he recommended you should be reinstated as a guardian and assigned a charge."

That's a surprise. We have been getting along better lately, and professionally I never gave Eddie any reason to doubt me, but I didn't expect him to support me like this.
"In his opinion, it's a waste to have you following him around when a skilled fighter like yourself can be of more use protecting a Moroi. I'm inclined to agree with him. As of today, you are officially a guardian again."
Wow, I definitely didn't see that coming. It was great to hear Eddie has faith in me, but I didn't expect Hans and the guardian council to go along. "That's great to hear, thank you."
"You're welcome. I'm sure you'll understand not everybody is convinced this is a good idea yet, so you're on probation for the next month, after which we'll evaluate. If you do well, you will be be assigned a charge then. I've had two requests for you so it shouldn't be too much of an issue."
"I understand. Might I ask who requested me?"
"I've had a request to assign you to Princess Dragomir. The second request is from Tasha Ozera."

I consider this information. Chances of me being assigned to the Princess seem slim to none. but it's definitely the assignment I'd go for.
It's good to know Tasha is finally going to get a guardian, but I would much prefer it not to be me. I still remember the offer she made me last year. She's a good friend, but that's it, and I would prefer not to be put in a position where she might hope for more. Also, she doesn't normally live at Court, which would make it impossible for me to see Roza.

"During your probation you're to be stationed at Court. For now I've assigned you to Princess Dragomir, you will protect her when she is here. She already has other guardians, they will protect her while she is at LeHigh. If you do well, I will try my best to get you assigned to her permanently. I know you were her guardian before and due to your restoration you're probably more dedicated to her than any other guardian out there."
I'm astonished, it seems today is my lucky day. "Thank you Guardian Kroft, this is much more than I expected."
"No problem Belikov. I firmly believe you're back to who you were, and I will support you in any way I can. Please remember it's not just up to me though."
I nod at him, grateful for his trust.
"Excellent, we're done here then. You start guarding the Princess tomorrow, but make sure you go see her somewhere in the afternoon to go over all the details. She's supposed to return somewhere around two o'clock."

At a quarter to two I make my way to Royal housing and the Princess' apartment. I knock at the door when I get there, knowing she probably won't be here yet but just making sure. To my surprise someone opens the door.
It's not the Princess or one of her guardians though. Instead, I'm faced by none other than Christian Ozera.

"Ah if it isn't Lissa's favourite Russian. Come on in."
He doesn't wait for my answer and disappears back into the apartment. I follow him just in time to see him drop down on the couch and continue the videogame he was apparently playing.
"Princess Vasilisa isn't here yet?"
"No they're running a little late, she'll probably be here in half an hour or so."
I nod and move to stand at the wall, not wanting to get in his way.
"Just sit down will you? Since I'm not going to be assigned a guardian anyway, I'd prefer not to get used to some creep acting invisible while hugging a wall."

For the next fifteen minutes Christian ignores me and I watch him play Grand Theft Auto. He seems to be enjoying himself, but finally he turns it off and starts talking to me.
"So, why are you here?"
"I've been assigned to guard the Princess while she's at Court, starting tomorrow. I came by to confer with her guardians, and to thank the Princess for getting me assigned to her."
Christian snorts. "Really Belikov, does stupidity run in your family or is it a personal trait?"
I know he isn't big on social skills, but that's rude even by his standards. Before I can answer a voice sounds from the doorway. "Christian!"
He looks up, a smile on his face. "Hey Liss, glad you're back."
"Hello Princess."
She smiles gently at me. "Hello Dimitri, it's nice to see you. And Christian, you should apologize for what you just said."
"Like hell I will."
"Christian.."
"No Liss, forget it. He now wants to thank you for his assignment as well. Which would be the decent thing to do, if you, you know, were actually the one who organized it."

Christian crosses his arms over his chest and sends me a dirty look. It doesn't bother me, I'm too busy dissecting his words. Vasilisa isn't the one who got me assigned as her guardian? Who else could have done it? Nobody else I know has that kind of influence, Christian must be mistaken.
Vasilisa looks between the two of us and sighs, seeming resigned. She turns around and asks the guardians who followed her to leave the room, leaving just the three of us.
"Christian, sit down. Dimitri, would you like something to drink?"
"No thank you Princess."
"Like I've told you before, please call me Lissa," she says gently. "We're friends after all."
Christian mutters under his breath. "Speak for yourself."
Vasilisa rolls her eyes at him and sits down opposite me.
"It really is nice to see you again Dimitri, it's been a while. How have you been?"
"I'm good. I just came by to thank you. I never expected to be a guardian again, let alone have a high-profile charge like yourself. It can't have been an easy thing to achieve."

The Princess shifts uncomfortably, not quite meeting my eye.
"Hmm yes, well I'm sure it wasn't."
I'm confused by her answer, shouldn't she of all people know how she managed it? "What do you mean?"
Christian snorts again. "I'm going with personal trait. I don't believe anyone else can be this stupid."
Vasilisa silences him with a look and then smiles at me. "Would you excuse us for a second? We'll be right back."
I nod at her, still distracted by her earlier reply. She drags Christian out of the room, but not before he glares at me again.

I don't mean to eavesdrop, but apparently they didn't go far and while I can't hear Vasilisa, Christian isn't making an effort to keep his voice down.
"Seriously, how can you stand this Liss? The whole eternal gratitude thing got old months ago, and you know it's hurt Rose's feelings. I love you and you're amazing, but I'm not going to sit here and listen to this jackass groveling at your feet, going on and on about how much he owes you. You should tell him the truth, at least about his assignment."
I'm guessing the Princess answers him, because I don't hear anything for a bit. Then Christian talks again.
"And I'm asking you to ignore that. Look at how she's been. If things were the other way around, do you think she would've allowed me to follow her around like a puppy without any regard to you? Do you think she would've taken credit for everything you did?"
Again I can't hear Vasilisa's answer. It's clear to me Christian is talking about Roza, and he's right. If things had been the other way around, she would've set him straight in no time. I wonder why the Princess didn't tell me exactly what happened earlier. As far as I remember, she once told me Roza did a lot, but that's it. She never mentioned it again afterwards, and never corrected me when I said she saved me.
"What she wanted was to have Dimitri back. Tell him Liss, or I will."
This time the Princess doesn't lower her voice as much as she did earlier and I can hear her answer. "Fine!"

They both come back soon after. Vasilisa sits down again but Christian leans against the wall as far away from me as possible. I wonder if it's to keep his annoyance in check, or because he really can't stand to be near me. From what I just heard, he's not exactly my biggest fan.
When Vasilisa starts talking I turn to her.
"Dimitri, I'm not the one who requested you. The queen thought it would be better if we waited a few months, give everyone time to see you're no danger to us and let them move on to the next bit of news. Then she would talk to Guardian Croft to see if there was a way to reinstate you. I thought her plan made sense and thus didn't push the issue."
It's a reasonable approach, I would've agreed to it as well. But if Vasilisa didn't do this, how did it happen?
"Then, do you know how I got reinstated and assigned to you? I never expected anything more than patrols with my history, and even that seemed unlikely until very recently."

Christian snorts and both Vasilisa and I look in his direction.
"How do you think genius?"
Vasilisa scolds him. "Chris..."
He ignores her completely, clearly out of patience. "Rose kept pestering Hans until he agreed."
"It wasn't pestering. She just talked to him about it from time to time, trying to make him understand her point of view."
He rolls his eyes at that. "That's kind of the definition of pestering Liss. Hans just gave in because he got annoyed with the daily interruptions. I mean, you know he didn't do it because he actually likes Rose."
"Yes well.. He thinks she has authority issues."
"I wonder where he got that idea..." I actually chuckle at that and for the first time since I came here, Christian looks at me approvingly. He reminds me so much of Roza sometimes. I realize I've missed the sarcastic comments I used to hear several times a day. And of course, he's got a point. I remember the way Rose responded to her teachers, and to me at first as well. Let's just say following orders without complaint wasn't high on her list of priorities back then either.
"Will you just let me tell the story please Christian? You're not helping."
"Fine, carry on and I'll just stand here, acting like a guardian. Seen and not heard, or not seen, whatever."
Vasilisa rolls her eyes at him. "Thank you."

She turns back to me. "Hans might not like Rose, but he was impressed by the way she fought and followed orders on the rescue mission. She told him you were the one who taught her, that you're even better and that it'd be a waste to lose an excellent guardian when guardian numbers are already low. It took her a while, but eventually he agreed, and he came up with the idea of asking for a volunteer to work with you."
She sighs. "That's when the next problem came up. While most guardians believe you're dhampir again, none of them was willing to work with you. And Hans wouldn't reinstate you without that. Eventually Rose convinced Eddie that it would be beneficial for him as well. If he hadn't agreed, she planned on asking her mother."
I'm stunned. As far as I know, Rose has never asked her mother for help. Not that Janine has been around enough to give Rose the opportunity, but even if she had I'm sure it wouldn't have happened.
"Eddie wasn't too happy about the whole thing. But you did everything you were told to and thus his reports were all positive. Hans had enough to convince the guardian council to put you back on active duty, they just didn't know where to put you."

"When Rose found out, she suggested you'd be assigned to me. Most were reluctant but considering the restoration and the way I supported you after, plus the devotion you showed towards me, Hans thought it was a good idea, as long as I agreed to it. Of course, before he had the chance to ask me, Rose had already come to see me. She explained the situation and asked me to say yes. I would have anyway, but I did tell her I was worried it might affect her chances of becoming my guardian again. She said there was no chance of that anyway with her bad record, and that she'd feel better if she knew I was well protected. In her opinion, the only one as capable of protecting me as she is, is you. You're the only person she trusted to keep me safe. She also said that after the support I showed you before, it'd look bad if I didn't want you as my guardian. It would look like I didn't trust you, and if I didn't, why would anyone else? So when Hans called me, I did as she asked."

Christian mumbles just loud enough for us to hear, "Well played Rosie."
Vasilisa sends him an annoyed look, but I've got to agree with him. Even if Vasilisa had wanted to decline, there's no way she could have done it after those arguements. Rose knows how to play on her weaknesses.
After everything I've found out lately, I guess it isn't too surprising to hear to what lengths Roza went for me this time. Sadly, she's right about her chances of being Vasilisa's guardian, but then again, I didn't think I had a chance either. If at some point in the future she is considered for the position, I'll step down to make room for her. Roza's done more than enough for me, I don't want to take her place. Until then, I'll do my very best to keep Lissa safe for her, it's the least I can do.

We're all quiet for a while. I'm pulled out of my thoughts when Christian addresses Vasilisa in a gentle voice. "You should tell him the rest as well Liss."
She smiles sadly. "Yes you're right."
After taking a deep breath, she starts talking again. "Dimitri, you should know how your restoration really came about . While I was the one who wielded the stake, Rose is really the one who made it happen. Without her, I wouldn't have known how to do it, and you wouldn't be sitting here today."
"I know."
Both her and Christian seem surprised by this. Christian is the first to find his voice.
"How did you find out?"
"Over the past couple of months several people came to talk to me and told me about all the things Rose did to get me back."
I adress my next question to Vasilisa. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

She looks down, not wanting to face me.
"I wanted to but... I tried once, just after you were restored, but you were so broken at the time. Just the mention of Rose's name would upset you, and telling you how everything went down would mention both Rose and your Strigoi past an awful lot. I thought I would give you a while to recover, to come to terms with everything. When you were a bit more like your old self I would tell you. Christian told me it was a bad idea to wait, but I just couldn't cause you any more stress at the time."
Lissa was just trying to look out for me, I can't blame her for that. I've been better for quite a while now though.
"Why didn't you tell me later?"
I have to strain to hear her soft answer. "Because by then Rose had asked me never to tell you. She didn't want you to know."
"I.. She what?" I'm dumbfounded. Rose tried to tell me herself back when I was still in prison. What changed?

"I was going to tell you but then the queen was murdered and Rose had disappeared. When she came back she was different, very different. It wasn't until that point that I realized she wasn't okay after everything that happened. I mean, it's not really surprising or anything, but Rose has always been so strong."
Lissa still isn't meeting my gaze and she looks ashamed. "I should have seen it sooner, but I was so busy helping you that I didn't even notice Rose was having a hard time. I told her to give you time and space, but I never considered how difficult that'd be for her. How much it hurt her when you pushed her away after everything she went through to save you. And rather than being there for her, being the best friend I'm supposed to be, I was checking up on you."

I feel guilty as well. I felt connected to Lissa after she restored me, she was the only person I felt safe with. I never considered how it would affect Rose that I was constantly requesting her best friend's attention though. I was in a bad place, but that doesn't excuse what I did. Yes I needed someone to be there for me, but I wasn't the only one.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have put you in that situation."
Lissa shakes her head. "It's not your fault Dimitri. I made that choice. Of course, the silly part is that Rose won't even blame me for it. She might've been upset at the time, but she didn't want me to leave you to fend for yourself either."

She sighs. "Anyway, you've seen her, you know how she's been. The only real reaction I got out of her in the past months, was when I told her you were doing better and I was going to tell you everything." Vasilisa stares off in the distance while she recounts the episode. "She begged me not to tell you. I asked her why but she wouldn't say, she just kept repeating that you didn't need to know. In the end I promised not to tell you, just to get her to calm down."
"Why wouldn't she want me to know?"
"I honestly don't know."

That's when Christian speaks up, sounding exasperated "Seriously? It's obvious isn't it?"
I glance up at him and he's looking at me and Lissa like he's seeing us for the first time. Then he sighs dramatically and starts talking to me slowly, like he's explaining something to a toddler. "She did all that stuff because she loved you. She didn't want a thank you. She wanted your love, not your gratitude."
Then he rolls his eyes, adds in his normal voice: "Idiot", and walks out of the room, leaving Lissa and myself behind in stunned silence.