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Summary Rose would kill him if she found out what he'd been contemplating.
POV Third
53
Dimitri stares into the mirror in contemplation, one long, tapered finger lightly touching the tips of his long hair, loose from its usual pony tail.
A bittersweet smile stared at him in the mirror, his lips contorted in remembrance of the reason he had long hair to begin with. A quick glance to the scissors by his side made him question whether he should finally cut it short after all these years.
A dark, rough chuckle rumbled through his throat as one particular memory of his childhood assaulted him.
Dimitri was stretching in his backyard, Karolina beside him doing the same thing. Sonya was off playing with her dolls, not caring to practice the previous semester's regime like her siblings were. It was a cheerful day nonetheless, and Dimitri found his childish face beaming because his big sister was going to help him train.
He was young, only seven perhaps, and his body, already growing taller than his peers, was awkward, still getting used to his ever-changing build. And while his family could easily tell he would become the strongest of them all, that didn't mean he didn't need some help every now and then.
Their mother was inside, Babushka making her rest even though Olena argued she was only in her second trimester. She seemed oddly keyed up, even more so than her pregnancy seemed to make her, like something important was going to happen.
Nonetheless, Dimitri eagerly faced his sister, ready for a spar.
Dimitri remembered the fight very vaguely, only really remembering how physical it was. Karolina had started learning harder techniques in school, and the age gap between them was becoming obvious at that point. He was beaten, hard.
With no parents supervising, Karolina didn't recognise her little brother's scrapes and bruises that needed to be treated and instead went around the side of the house to get a drink from the tap, at least knowing their mother wouldn't want them tracking dirt inside to get a drink.
It was then, while Dimitri was the only one in the yard, on the floor and biting his lip to prevent tears, with numerous scrapes, that his father appeared.
Once again, he didn't recall much of the details. What he did remember though, was the large, cruel smile blooming over his father's face, the cold as ice eyes and the mocking laugh. He'd said something cruel about his mother that made young Dimitri flinch.
And then the monster was lifting his son up by the collar of his shirt, a fairly plain, now dirty, one that had a small print of a dinosaur in the corner. "Boy," he'd spat, looking his son in the eyes, "Don't be such a sissy."
Then he'd dropped him and Dimitri had let out a cry as his backside sharply hit the ground. Next the Moroi had grabbed onto the small pony tail at the base of his neck, pulling the elastic out and grabbing a chunk of the healthy brunette tresses.
"What do you call this eh?" he'd snarled, breath stinking of liquor, "What man can protect anyone with long hair!? What kind of guardian?! You'll wind up dead! You think your mother, your sisters will be safe if your girly locks are in the way!? Huh?!"
Dimitri's wide, childish eyes had blinked severely, his father still pulling roughly at his hair, and had remembered his mother vaguely mentioning his need of a haircut and suddenly was repulsed by the idea, even as his father gave him another disgusted snarl and stormed off into the house, so inebriated he didn't hear the young Dhampir whisper, "I like it like this."
Dimitri blinks his eyes, before breaking eye contact with his side in the mirror and rubbed a hand over his stubbled chin. He could only imagine how Rose wold have reacted had she been there too.
Eyeing the scissors lying next to him on the counter, Dimitri remembered later on that day, when his babushka had wanted to drag him to the barbers, and he'd refused, stating he'd prove that monster wrong, that he would be the best guardian with long hair ever.
Dimitri smiled bitterly at his reflection again, dimly registering the opening and closing of a door and the enthusiastic voice of his girlfriend as she called out a cheery hello.
Not long after Rose had located him in the bathroom and jumped on his back, nuzzling her nose into his neck. In the mirror, he curiously examined the sight of their long hair splayed across each other. "Mmh," Rose sighed heavenly, rising her eyes to stare lovingly at his hair as she gently played with it, "I love your hair."
Dimitri's eyes flashed over to the scissors laying harmlessly on the counter before chuckling and bringing his arms up to hold on to Rose's arms wrapped tightly around his neck. He tousled her hair, ignoring the annoyed yip she let out as he thought of how disappointed he would be if she ever cut her hair.
No, he thought with a smile, he could go on with proving his father he was one of the best guardians with long hair. Knowing Rose she'd hack hers right off along with him if he ever did such a dastardly deed.
