Ugh, sorry it took a long time to update. Had a serious case of writer's block which finally cleared whilst I was out riding. Horses are a great cure for that :)

So you guys wanted some daddy Dimitri and longer chapters... well this has both :D

Disclaimer: Vampire Academy belongs to Richelle Mead.

When we landed at Court, I was the first one off the plane and onto the runway. I didn't want to spend any more time in there than I had to, even if it was on the ground.

Standing just to the side of the small control building was a welcoming party made up of all our parents, except Lissa.

"Anya!" Mom called, and came towards me. I was pulled into a huge hug.

"Hey, mom." I replied, hugging her back.

She pulled away, holding me at arm's length. "I missed you, baby. I'm so sorry we couldn't see you before. We tried, but-"

"Mom, it's okay." I knew she worried that by being a Guardian and sending me to the Academy, I would feel abandoned like she did. I didn't, and never had. When I was younger I wanted to spend more time with my family, but grew up understanding why I couldn't stay with them all the time. I never felt abandoned, because they would always call and keep up to date with what I was doing, and see me whenever they could. I knew their duty was to the Moroi, and thought they did a great job raising me as 2 Guardians. "You were doing your job."

Dad joined us then, and he lifted me up in a hug, like he had done since I was tiny. When he put me down, he looked at me sceptically. "You've got taller."

I straightened up, and though I still didn't reach his shoulder, I was definitely closer than I had been the last time I saw him. "I'll be as tall as mom soon."

"No you won't," she told me. "You're going to stay my little baby forever."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh dear, you're going to be a wreck tomorrow. Or are you going to re-use last year's cards and candles and pretend I'm 15 again?" I joked.

She looked thoughtful. "Not a bad idea, actually. It'd be cheaper that way. Or better yet, we can just pretend it isn't your birthday at all. Just like dad did this year."

I laughed as he glared at her. Dad's 40th birthday was during the summer holidays, and he'd been uncharacteristically grumpy about it. When mom was depressed when she turned 30, he'd been all 'age is just a number'. But turning 40 proved a little much for him. He said it was bad because 40 was when Guardians began to lose their value, which was bullshit. He was still one of the most badass Guardians around. He was a legend. It was made worse because we were in Russia at the time, and aunt Vika teased him constantly. It probably didn't help when his wife was still 33.

By now, most people were making their way off the runway. Christian's 4 kids were running circles around him, deliberately being annoying. When Lissa wasn't with him, he had a tendency to get really frustrated with his 'spawn', as he called them at times like these.

"Dad! Dad! Dad! Where's mom? Dad? Dad!"

Christian spun around, glaring at Summer. "She's in a meeting." He growled.

Summer was quiet for about 3 seconds, before Aiden shouted, "When will she be done?"

"In about an hour."

"That's too long." Ash complained.

"Why do you need to see her?"

"To ask a question." Sophia said.

"What question do you want to ask her?"

"What she's been doing today!" All the Dragomirs said.

Christian groaned and facepalmed. "You kids should be in a condom advert. You're the perfect example of why they should be used."

They all laughed. "I'm telling mom you said that." Aiden sniggered, just as mom reached over and slapped Christian on the arm. "Just because the screw-up fairy caused you to be born, doesn't mean your kids are such a disaster." She told him.

"Really? That's at least half a compliment." Christian said.

"Uh, no. I meant that they're part Lissa."

I glanced at dad, and he rolled his eyes. He was smiling though, and I knew he secretly enjoyed watching mom and Christian's arguments. Then again, everyone did. They were just ridiculous.

After dropping off all our cases back home, I decided to give Aleks the tour of Court. Though I wanted to spend some time alone with him, I asked if anyone else wanted to come along out of politeness. Of course, everyone said they wanted to come with us. I think they were trying to do some weird psycho-analysis on him to see if, now that he was away from St. Vlads and Hayden, he would be less of a dick.

It turned out he was.

Throughout the tour, Aleks was exactly like he had been when he first came to America- friendly, funny, and just a little bit cocky. He had a look of wonder on his face the entire time.
Mom had told me that since Lissa had been elected Queen, Court had grown a little. It was now just a bit bigger than the Academy. The small commercial centre had been split into a separate mall, business centre and food court. Mom joked that when Lissa knew she would be living here for the rest of her life, she had immediately sorted more shopping facilities. Nobody was complaining.

The last stop of our tour was the spa building, hidden away at the back of Court.

"Have you booked us in for makeovers or something?" Aleks asked dryly.

"Why, do you want one?" I said, raising an eyebrow. "Because we're actually here to speak to someone." I turned my attention from Aleks to the girl behind the counter. "Has Rhonda got a few minutes?"

She set about checking the schedule on the computer. I came here a lot, generally not for readings, but for advice.

"Rhonda is kind of like me." I told Aleks with a wink. I was speaking Russian now, since there were a couple of Moroi around, and I didn't want them listening in to our conversation.

He looked surprised. "She's a ved'ma?" I nodded. "Never expected for one to be working at Court."

Like everyone else in Baia, Aleks knew I had 'the gift', just not the ins and outs of how it had manifested in me. As Yeva had told me, it was considered impolite to ask a ved'ma , as it was called in Russian, too much about their gift.

"Yeah, it is pretty weird. She's Moroi; an air user. She isn't as powerful as Yeva," I didn't mention myself, "and works mostly through Tarot cards and horoscopes... the gift doesn't speak through her directly." Aleks nodded in understanding, just as the receptionist caught my attention.

"Sorry, but Rhonda is completely booked today. She has a 20-minute slot tomorrow, though. Would you like me to book you in?"

"Yeah, please." I smiled. "One 7-card reading for Aleksander Kozlovsky, booked under Anastasia Belikov."

Aleks shot me a look, whispering, "Don't make me do it alone!"

I rolled my eyes. "She may share the same gifts, but she's not as creepy as Yeva." He didn't look convinced. "Fine."
Raising my voice out of a whisper, I spoke to the receptionist. "Sorry, could I change that to two 4-card readings? One for me as well, please."

She smiled good-naturedly, but I could see she was a little bit irritated about having to change the booking. Clearly, I wasn't giving out the scary-witchy-vibe that Yeva or Rhonda had. I guess it would come with age. Then again, I would rather people be afraid of my badass Strigoi-saying skills than my (sadly nonexistent) ability to turn them into a toad. Man, that would be awesome.

"Anya?" Aleks asked.

"Sorry, spaced out. Thinking about toads and stuff, you know. We'll come back tomorrow. Right now I want to sit down and eat something. Cafe?"

Marina cut in. "Could we go home? I need a feeder."

"And I need to put these shopping bags away." Marina said, holding up 3 bags from various boutiques around Court. I really wasn't sure how she survived at the Academy. I had a suspicion that the reason she always had spare stationary to lend people was because she fuelled her craving to shop by purchasing erasers and pens from the small campus supply store.

Ash looked relieved that we were heading back to the palace. There was only so much time he could bear to spend in proximity to the other Royals around Court, and this tour had been just about enough for one day.

When we got back, Summer was making a ball of what looked like grass roll around on the floor, and her cat Ginger was trying to catch it.

"Hey, you should try that with Reka some time."

"I did. But he realised what I was doing, and licked my face to distract me, before destroying the ball. He's too clever."

"You're telling me," Ash huffed. "Last time we were here, I hid my sneakers on top of the wardrobe so he wouldn't be able to chew them. But he just slammed into it so one of the laces hung down, then pulled them down using that." He turned to Aleks. "Seriously, don't leave anything edible around your room, because the demon dog will eat it."

I rolled my eyes. "No he won't. He only steals your things because he doesn't like you. He'll be fine with Aleks." I could have rebuked Ash for talking bad about my baby like that, but I decided to cut him some slack since he was actually talking to Aleks civilly. My friends had been a little cold to him all day. It was understandable that they felt like that, and I was happy that they cared about me so much, but I'd prefer it if they just played nice with Aleks- for my sake. So far, only Mason and Sophia had been doing that.

"Really? Normally animals still don't like me much, even if you're around. They ignore me at best." Aleks reminded me.

"Not Reka. Believe me, once he gets used to you, there'll be nothing you can do to get rid of him."

Since Reka hadn't come running at the sound of his name, I guessed he was out in the gardens somewhere, terrorising squirrels or passing people. It was pretty funny to watch.

The bottom floor of the Lissa's palace was made up of business rooms, Guardians' stations and Lissa's meeting rooms.

We all headed up the wide staircase. Directly opposite was the single door that led into the huge living room. Through that, on one side was Lissa & Christian's wing, and our wing on the other.

I didn't mind these living arrangements. If you ignored the fact that you had to go through a shared kitchen/dining/living room to get to our wing, and that mom & dad's bedroom had a door that connected it to Lissa's, it was like having our own apartment.
We had a small kitchenette and lounge of our own, huge bathroom (which I pretty much had to myself, sing mom & dad had an en suite in their bedroom), and 2 bedrooms.

Plus, I got to live next door to my best friend. That was a bonus, even if it did mean her psycho brother was just as close.

The Royal wing was almost the same, except that everything was on a larger scale, and it had more bedrooms. These had been added later; a new corridor had been constructed to connect the string of 4 extra rooms on the other side of the house to Lissa and Christian's apartment, effectively creating a new sub-wing.
2 spare rooms had been left unconnected, one of which was to be Aleks' room. The other currently housed a pool table, foosball and pinball machine, all added by Christian. Lissa had insisted on adding a sofa bed, in case there were more spare rooms needed. Honestly though, guest housing was next door, and there were unused rooms next door that could be used as spare rooms if needed.

As I led Aleks into his room, I could see that Lissa had been busy. She loved redecorating the house, and looked for any chance to do a room makeover. She and Sophia should have gone into business as interior designers- that way, they could spend other peoples' money as well as their own.

"Whoa, nice room."

"Yeah." I agreed. Lissa had used a blue and gold colour scheme, with touches of sea green. She'd replaced the old 4-poster bed with a metal one, the gold posts twisting upwards like a candy cane, striped with blue. The design actually reminded me of the spiral patterns n some of the domes on Russian buildings. Knowing Lissa, it wasn't a coincidence.

Quiet descended on us, and I was suddenly aware that it was just me and him, alone in a bedroom, far away from everyone else. Obviously, we were alone a lot, and I'd been in his bedroom before. But since that kiss, that torturously amazing kiss, things were slightly different. I had to fill this silence somehow.

"So, you can get your stuff unpacked or whatever, then we can go and see everyone. Abe and Janine aren't coming until tomorrow, though."

"However will I hide the disappointment." Aleks joked, making me laugh.

"They're alright really. Plus they always give me awesome presents." I headed to the door, winking. "Yours had better be good!"

Half an hour later, I was sitting next to Sophia on the sofa in the huge shared living room, laughing as Reka followed Christian around the kitchen, begging for food. Christian tried to shoo him away, but eventually gave up. As soon as he turned his back, Reka stood up on his hind legs and rested his huge paws on the countertop. Christian spun around, but Reka had already dropped back onto all fours, and was trotting over to me, licking the evidence from his mouth.

"Anya! Can you try and keep that freaking dog out of my kitchen?" Christian shouted.

"Sorry, Uncle Chris." I said, looking up through my eyelashes. "It's just that he loves your cooking so much- we all do. It's just too good to resist."

Christian narrowed his eyes at me for a second, before sighing and turning away, letting it go. I grinned, knowing we'd gotten away with it. Christian had never been able stay annoyed at me, and I used my position as his goddaughter to my advantage. That, added to my puppy dog eyes (Reka's too) and a compliment to his cooking? Impossible for him to stay angry.

Just then, the door opened and Jet and Aleks came in, followed by Marina.
Reka dropped into a slight crouch as he sensed the 3 Dhampirs, relaxing when he recognised 2 of them. As Aleks came closer, however, his hackles rose. Reaching out to get a feel of his strange, animal emotions, I picked up on protectiveness and wariness.

"Reka," I soothed, stroking his raised fur, "this is Aleks, and he's a friend." I concentrated on projecting my feelings for Aleks into the space around me, imagining my emotions filling the air and displayed as colours, like an aura.
It was amazing what animals could pick up on from anyone, and my gift amplified this. Kinda like switching to a different frequency on a radio so the sound was clearer, I guess.

I felt Reka's emotions change as he picked up on my feelings towards Aleks. The protectiveness shifted to include Aleks as part of 'his pack'. His tail began to wag, and he walked to stand in front of Aleks, looking up at him.

"Hello boy." Aleks said, tentatively reaching out to pat Reka's head. Usually, Dhampirs weren't able to get close enough to touch animals. If Aleks had tried to get this near any other dog, without me around, he probably would have ended up getting bitten.

A smile grew on Aleks' face as he stroked Reka, and I heard someone else come into the room. I heard mom asking Christian when dinner would be ready. At the sound of 'dinner', Reka got more excited. He rose up onto his hind legs, resting his paws on Aleks' shoulders and giving his face a big doggie kiss.

Aleks was the first to laugh, and ruffled Reka's fur. "Hey, you are friendly, aren't you! Slobbery, too." He laughed again, and we all joined in.

"I told you he'd like you, Sasha." I giggled. "Talk about puppy love."

Reka gave Aleks' face one final lick before dropping back down and bounding over to the kitchen to steal some more food.

I caught mom's eye across the room, and she raised one eyebrow in that 'I know something's going on' way. I gave her an innocent smiled in return, and she narrowed her eyes for a second before letting it go, whatever 'it' was.

As the evening went on, I realised just how weird it was to have my friends, family and Aleks in the same room. Though I was having fun, I felt like I didn't really know what to say. On one hand, I was showing of just a little for my friends, whilst trying not to say anything that would piss my parents off. Then, I'd get caught up in mine and Aleks' little banter (with the tiniest part flirting), and feel embarrassed in front of everyone else, and cover it with a joke. Then, I'd have to be ready to snap a comeback at Ash or Christian.

I wasn't sure whether it was Aleks' unusual presence that had caused me to notice this split personality I had going on, or whether it was just that it was the first time all these different sides of me had been on alert at the same time. Either way, I was finding it kind of exhausting to keep up, and struggle with my inner conflict.

When I was with my friends normally, I always felt like I had to be the strong, sassy one. It wasn't like they were pressuring me to be that, or like I wouldn't fit in if I didn't, but that was just how it felt right. I'd hide any discomfort with a joke.

With Aleks, I always felt kind of self-conscious, like I didn't want to be anything less than perfect with him. But at the same time, I knew he accepted me for who I was inside, and no jokes would be able to hide problems anyway (unless it was about my true feelings for him; then he remained blissfully unaware).

So I guess it was the conflict of being caught between the ones who I tried to hide my inner self and emotions from, but not my material imperfections, and the one who knew me better than anyone else, but who I always feared I wasn't good enough for. All whilst trying to hide one set of insecurities from the others, and both from my parents (whilst one kept shooting me strange looks).

Well, that was enough to stress anyone out.

Hopefully, I'd wake up tomorrow morning and all my dysfunctions would have remained with 15-year-old me, and 16-year-old me would look back and laugh at the mess I'd turned myself into.

Yeah, I know it was unlikely. But either way, at least I was getting presents tomorrow.

In the next chapter, we get to see Rose give Anya some Mom Wisdom :3 Then after that, more cute daddy Dimitri when they give Anya her birthday presents.

P.S~ Anyone else getting their GCSE results tomorrow? :O Good luck everyone! :)

Please review, it'll make me update faster. Pinkie promise :)