Rose's POV

"Don't you guys have jobs to get back to in Russia?" I asked. Don't get me wrong, I love having Dimitri's family with us, but they've been sharing a two bedroom apartment with us for the last three months, and I wanted some… privacy. If you know what I mean.

Viktoria shook her head with a small smile, "Yeah, but we can just live off of you."

It was my turn to shake my head, laughing as I did so, "No way. I have to support all the dhampirs; you get no special treatment." Ever since I almost blew up in the courtroom two and a half months ago, the council meetings have been getting harder and more awkward. Not to mention I had more responsibility than ever. The dhampirs have been making a lot of noise to have better treatment ever since I became princess, so my hands have been full 24/7.

"At least my mom cooks for you. I don't think you'd survive off of Dimitri's sandwiches for much longer," Sonja piped in. We glanced over at Dimitri reading on the couch and the three of us fell into a fit of giggles. Dimitri tore his gaze from the book, seeming to realize that we were laughing at him, which made us laugh harder. He snapped the book shut, I could tell he was forcing himself not to smile as he went into the kitchen to get away from us.

Now Viktoria was snorting. I tried to remember what was so funny, but it didn't really matter. When I was with Viktoria and Sonja the simplest things made me laugh, their bright energies were intoxicating. It felt good to laugh this hard, so I gripped Sonja's arm and continued to laugh. Suddenly, for a moment, it didn't matter that the Belikovas were taking up all of my personal space, or that Tasha is still missing, or that I have no idea what I'm doing with my duty as princess. I was here with my family, isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about?

The morning of Thanksgiving I woke up to the smell of Olena's cooking, which is possibly the best way to wake up. Especially if I'm waking up next to Dimitri. "Good morning, beautiful," he whispered and kissed my forehead. I snuggled close into his arms.

"There you go with the morning crap again. Let me remind you, the sun went down hours ago." Being a half-vampire really sucked in the winter months, since I barely saw the sun at all.

Dimitri shrugged, "I'll still say it to you every day when we wake up. Good morning." And he kissed my forehead again, pulling me closer to him. His body provided warmth against the drafty air in the room, I almost didn't want to get out of bed, but Olena's food was too enticing.

It turns out that I should have stayed in bed. Olena waved a ladle at me, "Don't touch the food! It's for dinner tonight." I tried to hide a pout. I told myself I wouldn't grow accustomed to luxury, but Olena made breakfast every day. I settled for a bowl of cereal, though my stomach yearned for the aromas coming from the oven.

"So who did you invite to have dinner with us?" Olena asked. I paused with my spoon halfway to my mouth, "What?"

Olena gave me a look of disbelief, "You didn't invite people?"

"Uh. Not exactly." How was I supposed to know I was hosting Thanksgiving? "I'll ask my parents. Lissa will probably want to come and eat your food too, so Christian will be here. Oh, I can ask Sonya and Mikhail, and Maia and her dad, and I can invite Meredith and some other gua-"

"Okay, okay. Don't name everyone you know, just go call them right now." She took my half eaten bowl of cereal and pushed me out of the kitchen. As I made my way to the office phone I heard her shout from the kitchen, "Karolina, wake up your sisters and make them start cleaning this place! There's going to be a party!"

I started calling people, and surprisingly most of them didn't have better plans than to come eat food in my suite. Going out into the living room, my suite seemed all too small for the amount of people who were going to be here tonight. "How many?" Olena asked. I tallied numbers in my head, "Twenty-one, including us." She nodded and disappeared into the kitchen. Sonja and Karolina were rushing around the living room, picking up toddlers clothes and dishes left over from last night.

"We need to go buy a tree," Viktoria nudged me.

I raised my eyebrows, "I think you're confused. Today's Thanksgiving. Which I'm surprised you guys are celebrating anyway." Viktoria shrugged, "Mamma likes to celebrate holidays all around the world, not just the Russian ones. Every year after we finish eating dinner on Thanksgiving, we stay up and decorate the Christmas tree. Mamma will have a heart attack if she finds out you don't have a tree to put up."

I put my arms up in defense, "Where am I supposed to get a tree at court?" Viktoria leaned in with a mischievous glint in her eyes, "You're not. There's a tree farm about thirty miles away, though. I checked last night. And I already convinced Dimitri to take us."

Dimitri came out of the bedroom wearing a thick sweater, and carrying my winter coat, "Ready to go?" he asked. I stared at him in amazement, "Dimitri Belikov, how many rules are you breaking to get me out of court today?" Security is still tight around me. Dimitri took in a deep breath, "Many, but I don't want to face my mother's wrath if there's no tree. Let's go before she notices we have nothing in storage."

I bit my lip, but it did nothing to hide my huge smile as Dimitri held out my coat. Sonja gave us a small wave on our way out, "Have fun!"

The guards at the gate seemed to be in on this little rendezvous, Dimitri must have spoken to them last night. "Be careful guys," one of them said as he pounded his hand twice on the SUV.

The car ride was fun, simply because Viktoria was on my side for the music choices. "Sorry, comrade. Majority wins," I said gleefully as I pressed the seek button to find a pop station. Dimitri pursed his lips but didn't fight it.

I stared out the window and watched the blurry trees feathered in snow go by. "I hate this time of year, everything is slush, there's no real snow yet," Vika whined from the backseat.

An unfamiliar feeling of peace settled over me, thirty miles didn't seem long enough. I wanted this car ride to last a lifetime. For the next hour I could just pretend that I wasn't a princess, that I was just Rose. And being just Rose, with my oh so sexy Dimitri, was the best Thanksgiving I could ask for. Vika was cool, too.

All too soon, Dimitri pulled into the parking lot of the tree farm. All I could see in front of me was towering evergreens of white. Dimitri walked over to a miserable looking kiosk where a bearded man took his money. I gleefully skipped over to Dimitri and grabbed his hands, "It's like we're a good old boring human couple! Today's going to be great." Dimitri chuckled and removed his hand from mine so that he could wrap an arm around me.

We walked into the farm, Viktoria trailing behind us. I rested my head on Dimitri's shoulder as we walked forward. I felt like the scene before us belonged on a Christmas card. Even though it was Thanksgiving, I had carols playing in my head. We kept a slow pace, my eyes lazily gazing down the rows of trees. They all looked the same to me, but it was nice to see all the trees surrounding us like a wall of festivity.

"See anything you like?" Dimitri asked. I tilted my head up and grinned at him, "Yeah, I think I'll take the tall Russian one home with me." Dimitri rolled his eyes and chuckled, "Even if you didn't, I'd follow you. Which tree do you want?"

I shrugged, "Doesn't matter. They're all beautiful. Will any of these even fit in the suite?" Some of these trees had to be nearly twice as tall as Dimitri. Suddenly, there was a high pitched squeal behind us, we both turned to see Viktoria jumping and pointing. "This one! It's perfect! Dimka get this one!" We walked back over to Viktoria and examined the tree.

"I don't see how this one is any different than the other ones," I stated. Viktoria huffed, "Are you kidding me? Look how this one-"

"Vika it's fine. Is this one okay, Rose?" Dimitri asked. I shrugged, "Yeah, any one of these would be okay with me."

Viktoria shook her head angrily at me. Dimitri leaned in and whispered, "Just let it go, my sisters are weird like that." Then he turned and walked away.

I raised my eyebrows at his retreating figure. "I'm surprised he's leaving me alone," I muttered. Viktoria giggled, all anger forgotten, "It's because he wants me to talk to you. He asked me to see how you feel about marriage. He told me to keep it casual and not mention that he had anything to do with this." I froze, caught off guard by the sudden change in topic. "Well, I can see how good you are at keeping secrets."

Viktoria shrugged, "You would have put it together anyway. So? What about it? You and my brother, wouldn't it be perfect!" Viktoria practically squealed again, like I was some gorgeous tree.

"Uh, Vika, I don't really know how 'perfect' that would be. Marriage is… Big. Too big." Wow. Really sophisticated, Rose. I felt annoyed with myself for my lack of words. Of course I'd thought about it, in my daydreams, but I couldn't explain how I felt about it to someone else.

Viktoria looked at me as if I'd slapped her, "So, what? You don't want to marry him? Do you not love him enough?" Her tone was growing colder than the air outside. Where was Dimitri? I put my hands up in a defensive gesture. "I'm not saying that! I love Dimitri more than anything, but… I just…" Vika took a step forward, she jabbed a finger at me. I cut her off before she could yell at me, "Oh for crying out loud," I threw my hands up in annoyance, "I'm eighteen, Vika! I'm only eighteen years old. Can't this wait until I'm twenty, at the least? First the council wants me to have pop babies out, and now you want to strut me down an aisle! Give me a break."

Vika stared at me with her mouth hanging open. I stared back, my chest heaving up and down in frustration. Where the hell was Dimitri? Hopefully he hadn't heard my rant. "Fair enough," Viktoria whispered. "I guess I didn't really consider how you would feel about this, other than being hopelessly in love with my brother."

I let out a sigh of relief, "I do love him, hopelessly. I can't even tell you the things I've done just to be with him. It all leads back to him for me. I can't see myself with anyone else. I want to have a future with him, but I don't need a ring on my finger just yet."

Viktoria bit her lip and contemplated this. Then her face bloomed into a beautiful grin, "So, I'll tell Dimitri he's allowed to propose on your twenty-first birthday and no sooner." The two of us started giggling, and I could feel my face warm at the thought. "I'm engaged to be engaged," I murmured. Viktoria seemed to think this was incredibly funny and broke into full out laughter.

I smelled his aftershave before I saw him. "What's so funny?" Dimitri asked, glancing between the two of us, an axe in his left hand. "Nothing," I said too quickly, and Dimitri raised an eyebrow. "How come I didn't hear you walking up to us? Were you spying from the trees?" I joked, a hand on my hip. Dimitri gave me a small smile, "You wouldn't get it, it's a guardian thing."

"Hey!" I yelled and playfully punched his arm. "Make yourself useful and chop the tree down," I demanded before he could make more jokes at my expense.

It seems that when you invite the queen to dinner, you end up inviting twelve or so hungry guardians, too. Luckily, Olena cooked enough food for fifty people. I shuddered to think of the grocery bill I had to pay for this. Most of us sat at the long banquet style table, but there were more people than seats, so a lot of people ate standing up and walking around the suite.

The entire apartment was alive with human noise and the smell of pumpkin pies mixed with cooked ham. The table was never still, there was always a dish being passed or a knife scraping a plate. Someone, probably one of the guards, had found the alcohol and broken out the stash. Considering the fact that Dimitri didn't drink much, and I was underage, there wasn't a lot of alcohol to go around. At least, there shouldn't have been.

There were at least seven bottles of wine and different types of vodka on my counter. My suite had become a BYOB party. I couldn't find it in myself to be flustered or angry. Instead, I poured myself a drink (when my mom wasn't looking) and joined in the festivities.

I felt lighter, being with everyone tonight. It felt good to see them all smiling and laughing. It felt good to kiss Dimitri in front of all of them. Since Eddie, Jill and Adrian were in California, I found myself missing them. A period of silence went by when everyone at the table was stuffing their faces, and this gave me time to get lost in thoughts. There were a lot of people who should have been at the table with us tonight.

As dinner went on and Olena served desserts, the talk became less forced and there was a lot more laughing. Half of my guests were drinking heavily at this point, and Dimitri was throwing suspicious looks at my glass.

"I'm telling you! She can sing!" Lissa proclaimed. Maia and Christian made noises of disagreement. "No, it's true. I caught her singing in the communal showers back at St. Vlads. She got really awkward about it later. But you sound amazing, Rose." I snapped my head toward Meredith. I hadn't realized they were talking about me.

"Prove it," Christian said with an evil grin. Now the whole table and the others standing in the room were paying close attention. I shook my head, "No, you can go on with your lives believing I sound like a dying whale when I sing." They made sounds of protest, urging me to sing something.

I started to panic. I had never been uncomfortable being in front of people like this, but thinking that they would hear me sing… I wanted to crawl under a rock. I was pretty sure I hated Christian now.

"Just give her something strong to drink. She still sounds good drunk, she'll just be more willing to have an audience." This didn't come from Lissa, or Viktoria or Meredith. Or even Dimitri. This statement came from my very own father.

He handed me a cup, with something foul smelling coming out of it. "And how do you know what I sound like when I'm drunk?" I challenged. Abe smiled at me, "Ah, well I had the pleasure to meet my daughter in Russia, when she was attending a funeral. She was very drunk the first time I saw her and joined in on singing with the others around the bonfire, even though she didn't know any of the words."

I blushed at the memory. Dimitri stiffened next to me at the mention of his funeral. One of the guards standing up clapped me on the shoulder. "Drink up and give us a show, princess!" The guard said in a suggestive tone. Dimitri turned in his seat and glowered at the poor tipsy guard.

I giggled at Dimitri's reaction as I put the cup to my lips. I briefly wondered why I was doing this when I took in my first gulp.

I coughed and sputtered for show, so my parents wouldn't think I have a lot of drinking experience, making everyone laugh at me. I narrowed my eyes at them and, in a true Rose Hathaway fashion, took the rest of the drink down in one try. I tipped my head all the way back and gripped Dimitri's arm tightly to distract myself from the tightening in my throat. A strange warmth spread through me, going to my head.

Everyone in the room cheered when I slammed the cup down on the table. Even my mother seemed to be enjoying this, which should have been strange. But… nothing seemed strange at all anymore. Everything felt fine, even when Lissa pulled me out of my chair and pushed me up onto the breakfast bar so that I may sit higher than everyone else, like I was on a stage.

My head started to spin. Yes, I thought, I want to sing for them. All of them, not just the people in the room with me, but everyone else who wasn't celebrating with me today. My head was spinning faster and I'm pretty sure my head was moving in circles. I saw red hair and green eyes - the thought made me smile.

There were more cheers as Mikhail emerged with a guitar. Woah. He sat on the bar beside me and leaned in. "I know a lot of songs by heart, so just name one you like and hopefully I know it." I giggled at him. I could choose the song, that seemed very kind of him. I tried to think hard of a song that everyone would enjoy, but only one song came to mind. It wasn't a pleasant song, not the kind people enjoy at parties. Not the kind of thing to share with everyone at Thanksgiving, but I really wanted to sing just this one song.

"Do you like Paramore?" I asked. Some of the people standing around made excited sounds, thinking they were going to get an upbeat rock song.

Mikhail grinned and hoisted his guitar higher up, "I love them. Which song?"

I leaned in and whispered my song of choice to him. His grin faded to something more perplexed, "You sure?" he asked. I nodded.

I turned to my kitchen audience. "Sorry to depress you all. This is the song I listened to on repeat when Mason passed away. There were a lot of different things going on at that time, and this song made me feel connected to him. It helped a lot, so I'll share it with you." Even the people who didn't know Mason seemed to become more sombre.

"This song is called Misguided Ghosts." I nodded to Mikhail. He opened his mouth, "One, two, three, four…" and the guitar carried away his voice. I listened to the chords and closed my eyes, seeing red hair and those green eyes. And then I sang.

"I'm going away for a while

But I'll be back, don't try and follow me.

'Cause I'll return as soon as possible

You see I'm trying to find my place

But it might not be here where I feel safe.

We all learn to make mistakes

And run from them, from them

With no direction.

We'll run from them, from them

With no conviction.

'Cause I'm just one of those ghosts

Travelling endlessly.

Don't need no roads,

In fact they follow me.

And we'll just go in circles.

Well, now I'm told that this is life

And pain is just a simple compromise

So we can get what we want out of it.

Would someone care to classify

Our broken hearts and twisted minds

So I can find someone to rely on

And run to them, to them

Full speed ahead.

Oh, you are not useless.

We are just

Misguided ghosts,

Travelling endlessly

The ones we trusted the most

Pushed us far away

And there's no one road.

We should not be the same

But I'm just a ghost

And still they echo me.

They echo me in circles."

I opened my eyes. No one clapped at the end of the song. They all stared, most of them with tears in their eyes. Fear flooded through me, I had ruined Thanksgiving with my morbid song. Then my mother piped up, "That was beautiful, Rose."

Dimitri and Olena nodded their heads in agreement. Then it was silent again and no one moved. I started to feel incredibly awkward sitting on the counter.

Karolina broke the ice. "Thank you, Rose. Thanksgiving is supposed to be about being with friends and family, and we all know how much it hurts when you can't be with them. Thank you for singing for Mason."

Lissa pushed past Dimitri and wrapped her arms around me. "Happy Thanksgiving," she whispered.