Thank you for all of your amazazing reviews ;) This one here was written when I myself had been awake for just as long as our favourite couple. Enjoy!

Summary The only reason Hans decided not to go too was so he didn't get yelled at by an exhausted Rose.

POV Rose

26

I blinked wearily, paying an overwhelming amount of time concentrating on making sure my eyelids didn't stay closed for more than a few seconds. The burning, itching feeling behind my eyes makes me blink excessively.

I rub my temple in a lame attempt at soothing the ever present throb caused by no sleep and no food. "Dimitri…" I groaned, boring holes into one of the dhampir cars parked in front of us. He doesn't answer obviously, and his presence in the car (or lack thereof) is disconcerting. I hadn't had any sleep in the past day or two. It was not a nice feeling. And with Dimitri, who was equally tired, out getting us food, I had to concentrate especially hard not to collapse from exhaustion.

The car door opens, breaking the oppressive silence. A tall, Russian man slipped into the vehicle, brandishing a glorious familiar brown greasy bag with a familiar bright yellow symbol on the front. "Macdonalds," Dimitri smiles at me softly, running a hand through his hair.

I snatch the bag from him, immediately pulling out the first thing my hands come into contact with. A mcmuffin. Frantically I unwrap the food, throwing out a sarcastic comment when I hear Dimitri chuckle at my initiative. Taking a deep breath, I sink my teeth into the breakfast food, moaning at the glorious taste that exploded in my mouth thereafter.

I take my time to eat the food, not quite caring when Dimitri finishes his first and chooses to watch me eat afterwards. We both needed something to focus on if we wanted to stay awake. To be truthful, I couldn't give a rat's ass whether we fell asleep anymore.

Earlier on, so that we could take the rare opportunity we had, Dimitri and I had been forced to stay up all night so that we could adapt to the human's daytime schedule. And now, at twelve o'clock the night after our fabulous daytime date, we'd been called into work for a stake out. Which is the most bullshit excuse Hans could ever pull out of his ass. It was our day off. We were supposed to be asleep right now, on human's schedule, so that we would be in the right set of mind for whatever queenly activity Lissa wanted us doing the next morning.

Taking a long purposeful sip of my coke, I not-so-discreetly peer at Dimitri from the corner of my eye. He had bags under his eyes and looked exhausted. I couldn't blame him. We'd tried everything to keep awake. Even sex hadn't help, which, looking back on it now, probably wasn't the smartest way to get energised considering the amount of energy we spend on each other.

Dimitri gives a small tired smile at me and leans across the car console to place a chaste kiss on my forehead. Oh what I would do right now to be cuddling him in bed right now. He was the best pillow. I didn't even need a bed or a blanket or anything. Dimitri was like an all-in-one package deal.

As if noticing the way my eyelids drooped at my tantalising thoughts, Dimitri places a gentle kiss over each of my eyelids before cupping both sides of my cheeks and forcing me to look into his worn chocolate eyes. "Stay awake Roza." He mumbles.

I let out a loose breath, causing a few strands of Dimitri's hair to blow about his face. I reach out and gently rub a strand of the silky locks, wishing I could make my hair that soft. I would swear Dimitri is telepathic, the next words coming out of his mouth only surprising me slightly. "Your hair is so beautiful…"

His words are drowsy and I notice the way his eyelids flutter rapidly to keep himself awake. "Ya know comrade." I resist a yawn, "If we had to kill Strigoi right now, hell just driving home right now, that would kill us. A few winks never hurt anyone no?"

It's this point where the both of us know we have reached our maxed out point, because he gives me a nod. If we weren't about to collapse I know we would have thought sleeping on the job would be a completely idiotic move. But we would literally be useless if we had to fight Strigoi right now.

Screw that thought, if we had to fight Strigoi I knew our adrenaline would kick in. But there were countless guardians here who could do the job too. I would say they could do it just as well but frankly… Dimitri and I were the most skilled guardians there. Hans hadn't even deemed himself worthy to grace our stake out with his presence.

Because of course, as soon as the spot's open, the God and Goddess duo have to handle it, the exhausted guardians. Not the free man. Ugh. But the point was that if we got ambushed, neither of us would be expecting it. Everyone out there was relying on us yet with us as leaders for this mission, the whole team were practically like sitting ducks. We weren't on high alert, we didn't care that we weren't on high alert and really, I didn't know how Hans had become Head Guardian if he made rash decisions like this.

Scrunching up our rubbish and shoving it back into the bag, I clicked open the door. Dimitri's eyes flared open at the noise and he opened his side of the car and got out as well. As I strode towards where our second-in-commands where, who had twice as much experience as both Dimitri and I combined, I could feel him trailing close behind me like a shadow.

Reaching the van filled with high tech surveillance gear, the van we really should have been using ourselves rather than pawning off to our second-in commands, I harshly threw open the door, not quite caring when it risks me getting stabbed with a stake by one of the more hyped up guardians sitting in the back.

"Guardian Smith," I ground out, throwing a glare at the guardian whose stake I'd just dodged. From the low growling behind me, I could tell Dimitri was pretty pissed off at having to bring himself to move fast enough to dodge as well.

"Yes Guardian Hathaway?"

I let out an exaggerated sigh, "While I realise this is 'irresponsible' it was also irresponsible to put us on this mission. Guardian Belikov and I are about to drop dead on our feet. We have important guard duties with the queen and her consort in six hours and we haven't slept for almost twenty eight hours. I think it's not such a bad idea to hand this mission over to you, don't you think?"

"But what about Guardian Croft-"

"He can go shove a stake up his ass."

With that, I swivelled on my feet and grabbed Dimitri's hand, pulling him after me. He gladly complied. I hear chuckling from behind me and one of the less experienced guardians seemed to be protesting at my abrupt departure. "She can't just leave like that!"

Guardian Smith let out an especially loud laugh, "Boy, they are the most passionate guardians you will ever see. If they say they haven't had sleep in twenty eight hours, they haven't had sleep in twenty eight hours."

"Erm… but haven't you heard the rumours?"

"What rumours?"

"Ya know… Everyone knows Guardian Hathaway and Belikov are always trying to shirk their responsibilities so they can… spend intimate time together."

The van slowly fading into the background explodes with laughter. "Boy, it's not that hard to just look at them and tell they were going to drop dead any minute now. No more amounts of intimate time together were going to stop that."

I peek a glance at Dimitri when I hear this comment, barely supressing a grin. The blush on his face was imminent. Dimitri would be mortified that Guardian Smith, and he probably wasn't the only one, had figured out what we'd done to attempt to stay awake. I press a kiss to his cheek quickly, loving the rough stubble that pricked my lips. He probably wouldn't even have time to shave when we woke up.

Twenty minutes later you could find us fast asleep, Dimitri in his briefs and pj bottoms, and me in his shirt, wrapped in each other's arms. It was a blessing when Lissa decided to give us the day off that morning. Christian would tell me she'd done it because she'd walked in on our sleeping position and thought we looked too cute and peaceful to wake up. Thank god.