AN: Hello Loves! Thank you so much for being patient with me. I am so happy to finally have time to work on this again. I got a new job and moved recently so life has been crazy. I know there hasn't been much movement on the plot recently, but that will change soon I promise. Please favorite and review!
As I expected, telling Dimitri that one of his oldest friends who was still living was trying to black mail us was not a fun conversation. He believed me, but I could tell that he was devastated.
"How could she do this to us?" Dimitri stared blankly down at his lap. The cafeteria had cleared out and I knew that I was missing half of Christian's first class, but Dimitri would just have to excuse me. This was important.
"I wish I knew, Comrade. I wish I knew."
"She and Ivan were my two closest friends after I came to the US with Ivan. I didn't have my family with me, so they were all I had. Then after Ivan died, all I had was Tasha."
Dimitri's eyes appeared glassy and my heart broke for him. As mad as I was at Tasha for how awful she had made my life these past few weeks with the blackmailing and all my classmates calling me a whore at every turn, I was more mad at her for hurting Dimitri. He had dealt with enough pain already, more anyone should have to deal with in a lifetime. For causing him more, I would never forgive her, even if she was Christian's aunt.
"Dimitri, for what it's worth... I think she did this because she loves you so much."
"How on Earth could this have been out of love?" Dimitri practically growled.
I swallowed. I could tell Dimitri was passing the sad stage and entering into viciously angry, so I tried to get my explanation out as quickly as possible.
"Well if she really wanted to end our relationship she could have taken her suspicions to Kirova, but she knew that doing so would ruin your life. Instead she just wanted to scare us into breaking up. She wanted us broken up, but you unharmed, because she loves you and thinks that with me out of the way she can be with you. Obviously she didn't ever intend for you to find out."
"I can't believe her. When we called things off after you all were kidnapped, I was very clear with her that I had no feelings for her more than friendship." Dimitri gripped his glass tightly and grabbed his tray.
"I need some time, Roza." His voice was tight and he wouldn't look at me when he stood from the table.
"Wait, Dimitri. Can't we talk about it? I want to be there for you!" I called after him as he was already walking away. He didn't hear me and my last thought when he walked out of the cafeteria doors, duster billowing behind him, was that I was going to get marked tardy for Christian's lesson because Dimitri left before writing me a pass.
As I slipped into Christian's math class, my stomach was in knots. I hardly even cared that I was told off by his instructor who promised me he was going to write me up.
I had hardly seen Dimitri lose control, but when he did, it usually wasn't pretty. This seemed like one of those times, but I couldn't exactly miss a whole day of field experience to go looking for him. As hard as it was, I knew that I had to try and put Dimitri from my mind and focus on not letting my Moroi get killed by a fake strigoi, but in between glances out the window for black dressed figures and scanning the quad for threats, I kept an eye out for a 6'7" figure walking around campus.
Christian was also understandably quiet for the day and I wasn't sure what I could say to help him. Lissa was opting to just hold his hand and let him process. Like Dimitri, Christian went through more than his fair share of pain in his life and it made me livid that Tasha would do something like this to Christian, her only family. She had to have known that messing with his friends would also hurt him. The only thing I did know, was that whatever we were going to do to Tasha we had to run it by Christian first. As mad as he was at her right now, she was still also his only family.
My stomach was still in knots when I got to my evening training. I was concerned about what mood Dimitri would be in, but what I found in the training room, made me even more worried. Dimitri wasn't even there. I waited around for about 20 minutes, but he never showed nor did he send a substitute. Dropping the weights I had been half heartedly lifting on the ground, I decided I wasn't going to bed tonight until I found Dimitri and demanded he talked to me. I didn't care if he didn't want to talk to me, Rose Hathaway was not known for her sensitivity.
I marched myself directly to the staff dormitories, not caring who saw me on the way in. Unfortunately, the first person I saw was Alberta.
"Roseā¦" She looked me up and down and took in the displeased look on my face. "I'm almost afraid to ask you why you are in the staff wing."
I put my hands on my hips and squared off with her. "Guardian Petrov, let me make one thing clear. Nothing you say is going to stop me from getting up to Dimitri's room. I'm getting up there even if I have to fight you so you might as well step aside."
Alberta's eyes flashed angrily. "Miss Hathaway, tell me you did not just threaten to assault a staff member so you could go see your boyfriend." She stepped further into my path and I sighed in frustration. The quickest way to de-escalate this was probably to cooperate with her. The quicker she let me by, the quicker I would get up to Dimitri.
"I'm going to be straight with you, Alberta." I dropped her title to try and appeal to her as my friend. "I had to give Dimitri some really bad news this morning that probably hurt him a lot. He wasn't in a good place when he walked off, I haven't seen him all day, and he just blew off our training session so I am really worried about him."
"He blew off your training session?" Alberta raised her eyebrows.
"Yes! No message, no substitute, no nothing! I waited for 20 minutes!" I threw my hands up. "You've got to let me up to check on him."
Alberta pursed her lips, clearly struggling between sharing my concern for Dimitri and the impropriety of letting one half of an illicit student-teacher relationship up into the other halfs room. With a sigh, she nodded at me.
"Follow me, I'll walk you up."
I pumped my first in the air. "Thank you!"
We walked in silence up the stairs and when we got to Dimitri's door, Alberta stepped aside and let me knock. We heard some banging from behind the door and a crash. Alberta and I made worried eye contact and she began to pull out her key. Before she could get it in the door, It swung open to reveal a Dimitri I had never seen before.
His eyes were bloodshot, his hair was a mess, and he was clutching a bottle of vodka in his hand. When his eyes finally focused on me, a grin split his face.
"Roza! You're here."
I looked at him incredulously. "Dimitri, are you drunk?!"
AN: Let me tell you... I am going to have so much fun writing drunk Dimitri. If there is anything funny you want him to say or do, please write it in a review. Also please review anyways so I know what you all are thinking. Thank you!
