Okay, so I decided to write another chapter for this fic...Another song, another chapter. There might be more...not sure...
The song is Till You Love Me by Reba McEntire. Basically the first chapter was White Flag, Rose was going to suffer in silence while she still loved Dimitri. Now she had decided she would step up her game a little till Dimitri returns her love.
No Beta and I own nothing...
Till You Love Me
I watched from the shadow of an ancient oak tree as Dimitri picked up the precious flower that I had left on the top of a tree stump that I knew he would come to. It was the same scene that played out every night around this time; I would leave a single red rose on the forest stoop where he would come to think every night.
The first night he had been surprised and obviously thought the rose was left by some other observer. But as the days had continued, the intent and purpose of the gift had become clear. He had been coming out to the mellow clearing every night for the past month at the same time just before sunrise and while he thought he had escaped the fast paced life of the Moroi court without notice I had picked up on his disappearance upon the first detour from his daily rituals.
I sent you roses, I warned you I would
Do all that I could to show you the way that I feel
Please, don't say I'm wasting my time
I've got nothin' but time so I'll do all that I can to catch
That ghost of a chance
The catalyst for his journey was me of course. I had once again confronted him about no longer loving me. I had asked him how his love could fade when mine had only grown stronger with distance. We had kept way from each other for months after he had told me that his love had faded and while he could pretend he wasn't affected by seeing me daily across the hustle and bustle of the world we lived in, I couldn't and had finally broke in a true Rose fashion.
We were in a meeting with the liaison between the Moroi Royal Court and Lissa about her role in the moroi government when I had snapped. Seeing him from across the room every single day was wearing my defenses then and something about the way his eye caught mine for a miniscule second when another guardian had smiled at me at sent me over the edge. I hadn't even known who the guardian was but the flash of something in Dimitri's eyes that I had seen, even if only for a moment, had been my downfall and my lifeline at the same time.
In that brief glimpse into the person he used to be before he had been turned Strigoi, I saw my old Dimitri again: my mentor, my friend, and my lover. The person that I had known at one point in time that I would spend the rest of my life with instead of the hollow shell he had masqueraded as since his return to his dhampir self.
That brief peep into his soul had spoken directly to mine and I knew that if I didn't call him on what I had seen at that very moment, I would lose him forever. He had been so guarded, so cautious about never displaying his feelings that this uncharacteristic peek into his feelings had set me in motion before I had time to ponder what exactly I was doing. Throwing caution to the wind as I was known for, I had walked up to him and stood tall. "I'm still in love with you and I know you love me too," had been my instant response over the parliamentary procedure that had been going on around us.
Guardians were meant to been seen and not heard so that fact that I was practically yelling into the enormous room at another guardian no less about matters of the heart was a shock. I hadn't realized it at the time but the floor had just been cleared and they were calling for a judge, a Paula something or another as I wasn't sure since I hadn't been paying attention to the proceedings, to the front to speak about the action the council was wanting to take in regards to the new laws that had been passed the previous week. The floor had quieted to allow the judge to speak when I yelled out my declaration leaving a stunned moroi and dhampir population to turn and stare at me.
My eyes were trained upon Dimitri's but he seemed to be in as much shock at my words as everyone else in the room was. He was so in shock that he didn't object when I grabbed his arm, pulling him out of the room and away from the judging eyes of our leaders.
Once in the hallway, he stared at me with a blank expression. His eyes and face wasn't guarded or covered in his guardian mask as it usually was but was so void of emotion that I still couldn't read what he was feeling. For a moment the world stood still between the two of us as our eyes met. What could have been seconds or hours later, his face betrayed his thoughts and a look of pain spread into his normally beautiful and stoic features.
"I thought you were over this Rose." Dimitri's voice was steady but weak, an imitation of the strong form it usually held.
"No, I am not over this. I will never be over this Dimitri. I am in love with you, always have been and always will be." The power in my voice surprised me as I poured my heart out to him.
He flinched and then quietly responded, "I told you how I felt. Nothing has changed, nothing is going to change." With those words said he abruptly turned and walked away, leaving me staring at the space he had previously occupied. I had thought that I had gotten though to him. Obviously I was wrong.
I knew he loved me too though; it was just lost in everything else he was going through at the time. "I'm not giving up Dimitri, you will love me again!" I had yelled after his retreating form as he once again walked out of my life.
That night I had dreamed about him. I dreamed about my Dimitri, the one I had caught a brief glance of. I knew he was still in there and as I awoke the next morning, I knew that my dreams of what our life could be had given me a new resolve in my determination to get him back. We would be together again, I was sure of it.
The sunlight, the moonlight
Are beyond my control
And there are stars in the heavens
That I'll never hold
But if dreams give you power
Then I'm strong enough to offer my heart
And never give up till you love me
Till you love me
Two days later I once again noticed that he had disappeared just after Lissa and Christian had retired for the night. Two days in a row he hadn't gone to the gym for his normal workout routine that he had always been a slave to.
The next night I had followed him. I was pretty sure he hadn't known that I was following him as he went to a spot just inside of the forest that lined the edges of the place we called home. This place seemed to bring him peace as he looked into the trees that surrounded court. Night after night was the same routine. He would go to this clearing and just sit there with a look of serenity gracing his normally blank expression. Sometimes though, I was positive that a tortured look flashed across his face but it would be gone rather quickly. I knew he came out here to think and make peace with his demons. It was a place of solitude that I almost felt guilty about intruding on. It was as if I was a voyeur, watching him work through his emotions in his head but I didn't care. This time alone seemed to help him.
I looked in your eyes, so bright and so blue
And that's when I knew that you could be mine
If good things come to those who will wait
Well, I guess I can wait if that's what I have to do
Oh, it's worth it for you
After a few days of watching his new routine, I decided to change things up a bit. I left a single red rose laying on the stoop he usually perched upon. It was a reminder that I was there for him should he need me and a reminder that I still loved him and wasn't giving up. They say that good things come to those who wait and he was definatley a good thing. He was worth all the time in the world.
He had come to expect the delicate flower and would usually smell it briefly before setting it aside. He would always take it with him though, never leaving it behind. Maybe it was his way of being close to me and maybe it was just a reaction to a gift, I wasn't sure which. What I was sure of was that I would continue to do this until he broke. I would give him subtle reminders of our love in any way I could. I wouldn't push the subject just yet though, I didn't want to send him running for the hills and undo any progress we might have made.
The sunlight, the moonlight
Are beyond my control
And there are stars in the heavens
That I'll never hold
But if dreams give you power
Then I'm strong enough to offer my heart
And never give up till you love me
Till you love me
I had once believed that I could leave him to his own devices and suffer in silence. I thought that I could mask my love for him while never truly giving up on it. I had known that I would always love him but I thought it was useless.
As the days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months, I was glad I had decided to be bolder in my approach, no matter how subtle it seemed to everyone around me. My thoughts, hopes, and dreams of the future were all it took to give me strength. He would be mine again; after all, I would always be his.
Oh the sunlight, the moonlight
Are beyond my control
And there are stars in the heavens
That I'll never hold
But if dreams give you power
Then I'm strong enough to offer my heart
Oh and never give up till you love me
Till you love me
Til you love me
So as I sat in the shadows of that oak that had become a companion to me for the countless nights I had visited it. I knew I was doing the right thing. I knew he would eventually see that I was not going to give up. While others might have thought me foolish, there was no way I could turn from our love. I knew that someday, he would love me again in the open, instead of just hiding it away and whether it was next week, next month, or next year, I was prepared to wait.
So? Did you like it? When I find a song that that goes after this I will write a final chapter. Any suggestions, let me know. Thanks! Please review and read my other stories if you haven't!