~ Chapter 21 ~

Dimitri banged on his door, with all his might. That might be an exaggeration, but it was louder than it should have been this early in the morning

"Кто может стучать в дверь с таким нетерпением?" A voice asked from inside the house. Dimitri chuckled.

I looked at him curiously. Somehow, I had imagined this trip taking place in English. I realized that Dimitri's family probably primarily spoke Russian. I wasn't sure if a language barrier was a good thing or a bad thing. "It means 'who could be banging on the door so impatiently?'. Our flight was early, so my mom wasn't expecting us for another couple of hours. That and you drive like a maniac," he told me.

"I do not," I scoffed. I mean I did, but I wasn't about to admit that.

Right then the door opened. A middle-aged woman that looked just like Dimitri stood there holding a dish towel. I was shocked by the resemblance. She had the same tanned skin, the same endless brown eyes, the same soft expression when she was affectionate. "Dimka?" She asked as if uncertain. Then she threw her arms around him. "Oh Dimka! You're here!" I didn't understand the rest, because she started rapidly speaking in Russian. Dimitri responded in equally fast Russian and I had a feeling that even if I was fluent, they would have been talking too quickly for me to understand them.

I was content to sit on the sidelines and watch their reunion, but Dimitri's mother had other plans. When she pulled apart from Dimitri, she hit him with her dish towel.

"Ow! What was that for?" Dimitri cried. I had to stifle a giggle. Seeing Dimitri cower under his mother was refreshing.

"For forgetting your manners and not introducing me to our guest," she said pointing her finger at me.

"You were hugging me," Dimitri pointed out. His mother raised her towel as if she were going to hit him again and Dimitri raised his hands in surrender. "Mom, this is Rose. Rose this is my mom."

"I'm Olena Belikov," she said, pulling me into a hug.

It caught me off guard and it took me a minute to tell her who I was. With the exception of Dimitri and Lissa, hugging wasn't a normal thing for me. "I'm Rose Hathaway," I said grinning at her.

"You're Rose Hathaway?" She asked her smile turning to a shocked expression.

"Um… Yeah," I said confused by her reaction. I was very confident I had never seen her before, so the fact that she recognized my name surprised me.

She turned on Dimitri and hit him with her towel. "IN ALL OF YOUR LETTERS, YOU FAILED TO TELL ME THAT THE ROSE YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH IS THE ROSE THAT SAVED THE QUEEN'S LIFE AND SLAUGHTERED TEN STRIGOI BY HERSELF? YOU NEVER EVEN TOLD ME SHE'S KILLED A SINGLE STRIGOI!" Olena yelled at him. Then she yelled something in Russian and from Dimitri's expression I had a feeling she may have grounded him or something. She glanced back in the house, listening to see if she woke anyone up. I stared at her, grateful that her attention was on Dimitri or I might have gotten hit with the dish towel for rudely gaping at her. I had never imagined that my achievements had made their way to Russia.

Dimitri looked at her confused. "I never said I was in love with her." I felt my heart drop. Was he going to deny it? Seeing my face, he continued. "In my letters," he explained.

I took a deep breath as a sigh of relief. I felt silly for having doubted it, but my nerves were so on edge at the prospect of meeting Dimitri's family. "You didn't need to. Before you started talking about her your letters were always. 'How are you? How's Paul? How's the family? School is fine. Guardians are fine.' You said a little bit about guardian life. Then Rose comes along and it becomes. 'I have this new student Rose. She's a tough one. I've never seen a novice with such a sense of duty. I'm worried about what this stress will do to Rose. My heart is breaking for Rose. Some guys need to keep their hands off Rose, they need to respect her personal space.' It was kind of obvious Dimka. You wouldn't talk about her so much if you weren't crazy about her." Olena explained.

"You talked about me a lot?" I asked him, blushing a little.

"Every now and then," he said, turning bright red.

"Every now and then? Don't lie Dimka. Rose, I'll have to show you one of his letters. The first time we got one about you, I had to read it to the whole family because it was the most animated his letters had ever been," Olena told me.

"Are we just going to stand out here in the cold?" Dimitri asked Olena, obviously trying to change the subject.

Olena smiled at her son, the kind of smile mothers only had for their children. "Of course not. Come in, come in. Everyone should be waking up soon and I'm about to start making breakfast. Are you hungry? I could make you a little something to eat now," she offered as she led us to a living room. "I know you had a long drive."

"That won't be necessary," I said politely. She seemed pretty big on manners and I hoped being on my best behavior would keep me on her good side. "We can wait for breakfast."

Olena smiled at me. "Now I'm sure you want to get settled in. I don't know how comfortable you are sharing a bed. If you're not, Rose I could put you with Viktoria. I'm sure she'd love to have you," Olena offered. I was confused. Even if she didn't know that Dimitri and I were living together now, why would she think we were uncomfortable staying in the same bed. I mean, we were engaged.

"It's okay. I'm sure Rose doesn't have a problem sleeping in the same room as her fiancé," he said nonchalantly like it was no big deal, but I could see the happiness in his eyes. He took every opportunity he could to call me his fiancé.

Olena's mouth dropped. "ENGAGED?" She shrieked. Suddenly it clicked that Dimitri had never told her. That despite the fact he had sent her a letter after we got engaged telling her we would be delaying our travels, he had failed to mention that he had proposed to me. "YOU'VE BEEN HOME ALMOST FIFTEEN MINUTES AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME YOU WERE ENGAGED?"

Dimitri grinned at her. "I was just waiting for the right time," he told her. Olena hit him with her towel several times then gave me a big hug.

"Welcome to the family," she said warmly. I could see in her eyes that she meant it. "And you better stop keeping secrets from me!" Olena warned him.

"No more secrets, I promise," Dimitri said. I highly doubted that. We worked in a line of work that Dimitri probably wouldn't want his mom to know the specific details about. Like exactly how often we found ourselves in dangerous and life threatening situations.

Olena showed us to the room that we were staying in. Dimitri wasted no time in telling me this was his childhood room and painted a picture of what he used to do in here. There were some girly items in the room and he explained that Viktoria had lived here until recently, but upon us visiting, she was staying in the spare bedroom so Dimitri and I could have the big bed. We unpacked then went back down to the living room. Pretty soon, we heard shuffling as someone made their way down the stairs.

A girl that was probably only a few years younger than me was dragging her feet down the stairs. She did not look awake until she saw Dimitri. Then she made sure the whole house was awake.

"DIMKA!" She shouted and jumped at him for a hug. "Oh my God! You're here! You finally came to visit us!" She said. Her arms were still firmly wrapped around him.

When they broke apart, both of them had smiles on their faces. "Quick, before mom can come beat me up again, this is Rose. Rose this is Viktoria. My youngest sister," he introduced us.

"And his favorite sister," she said. The resemblance between them is uncanny. Viktoria was Dimitri in female form. "It's nice to meet you Rose." She walked over to me and gave me a hug. I was beginning to realize that Dimitri had an extremely touchy feely family.

By then, both of Dimitri's other sisters were walking down the stairs. One of them was very pregnant, her hands massaging her swollen stomach. She looked like she was due several weeks ago. The other was holding a baby girl in her arms. The baby was probably close to a year old. When they saw Dimitri, I ran over to the one holding the baby and took the baby from her just in time. Both of the sisters ran over to Dimitri and practically tackled him. At first, I held the baby uncomfortably – there weren't many babysitting opportunities at the Academy. But when she leaned her little head on my shoulder, I melted. When they had finished greeting him and hugging him, Dimitri turned towards me. "Sonya, Karolina, this is Rose. Rose these are my older sisters," he said motioning towards me. I stood there holding the baby, grinning at them. Karolina seemed surprised to see she wasn't holding the baby anymore.

Sonya gave me a dark look and stalked into the kitchen. I saw Dimitri stiffen. I knew it was inevitable. Not all of them could like me. Karolina came over to me and took the baby away. "Thank you for holding her. It's a pleasure to meet you," she said smiling at me. I smiled back at her. Three out of four don't hate me. There were worst odds.

I smiled at Dimitri and took his hand as we walked towards the kitchen. "I'm sorry about Sonya," he said to me. "It's partly her pregnancy. She's always been pretty emotional and her hormones are amplified right now.

"Don't worry about it Comrade. Not everyone in your family can like me," I told him gently. In reality, I was a little upset, but I didn't want him to see that. So I put a fake smile on my face and we walked into the kitchen.