Following the announcement, entered a rather tall, surprisingly slim young man, with violently blue eyes and sandy brown hair.
"Good morning your Majesty, Guardian Hathaway." he said curtly, with a nod and an obvious English accent, yet not the kind you'd expect on an American sit-com. It was rougher than the posh speech you'd anticipate.
"Please," said Lissa, "We don't have to be formal here, we're all friends."
"It's Rose and Lissa." I interjected extending a hand and Lissa smiled back at my efforts to make my partner welcome, which appeared to take Guardian Cast entirely off guard.
"I see," he said, shaking my hand and mimicking wiping sweat from his brow, cracked a rather dazzling smile I must say, "Well, as long as we're all friends, my name is Johnny Cast."
He wasn't anything on Dimitri don't get me wrong, but he was certainly a fair bit of eye candy, 'So that's how they make them in England', I thought. But was he a Russian angel? I then asked myself. Most definitely not.
Speaking of which, we'd moved on to organising Lissa's schedule and putting most of her free time in between royal duties, down as when her and her boyfriend Christian Ozera would be spending time with each other. Dimitri was Christian's guardian and although I had not known Johnny long, apparently mine and Dimitri's relationship was well known and so he conceded a lot of these spaces to me, for which I was very grateful. I couldn't wait to see Dimitri this evening, waking up without him this morning had been a downer on my days start, but I suspect he'd been on duty, our shifts did change depending on where our charges were. But after a morning of plans and admin. The three of us stumbled upon delegated Christian time, and so Johnny went to go get some lunch and me and Lissa went on a hunt for our men.
In honesty they were never going to be difficult to find. They were in Christians apartment, though what gave it away was Dimitri opening the door before we'd reached close enough to knock, he gave me a a slight smile, those warm dark eyes soft and calm. "Good afternoon your Majesty, Roza..." He allowed us to pass the threshold to the sitting room, keeping eye contact with me till I had passed, checking the hallway and then closing the door.
"How many times Dimitri, it is Lissa. I will not answer you if you continually call me 'your Majesty', it's not my name." She laughed her jade eyes scanning the rooms for Christian.
"Forgive me... Lissa. I do not wish to appear disrespectful either way."
Dimitri said, not that Lissa cared for it, she had found her love in the next room and pounced on him giggling like a school girl. Her platinum hair draped over Christians dark eyes hiding them both as they shared a light kiss.
"She is still our Lissa," I said turning to Dimitri, "At least, away from everyone else." I added and he smiled.
"Of course, you are right. She still needs time to be herself."
I took a quick sneak peak at the happy couple who were both happily distracted, though Christian did break from Lissa to give me a hello, I waved back, smirked to myself and stole a quick kiss from Dimitri's lips. He looked a little stunned and then smiled. We followed the pair into the room they had gone through to, though just as I rounded the wall Lissa widened her eyes and indicated to a door Christian was opening and made a 'shoo' motion with her hand, I quickly swallowed a nod and pushed Dimitri back into the sitting room .
"I think they're well taken care of," I said, "might be a while." He registered my meaning, sitting down on one of the deep cushioned couches,
"Well, if Ozera's as good as he says." Dimitri coughed, flicking open a western and smirking broadly.
"That was a cheap joke comrade." I laughed, "I like it."
The two of us strolled through the apartment every now and again. Though we knew it was almost nigh-impossible for there to be a Strigoi attack. It didn't mean all the water had settled around Lissa's coronation. Many Moroi still had their doubts and doubts could fuel violence if put to it. We stayed on alert, but relaxed, we suspected Christian and Lissa would be together for a while, I went on a food run and brought back coffee and two plates of lasagna. And the two of us sat in each other's company just chatting about the day. Dimitri was very happy as Christians guardian, he enjoyed his dry sense of humour and sincerity. I talked about Johnny, my new partner in guarding Lissa from the worlds dangers, Dimitri prickled slightly at my description of him.
"Gorgeous smile, hmmm?" He said trying to sound as disinterested as possible.
"... Please, comrade," replied "I got a kick out of your teeth too didn't I," I nudged him, winking, Dimitri did not look all that impressed, referring back to the incidents in Russia, where Dimitri, who before Lissa saved him too, had been turned Strigoi and held me captive, drinking from me. Strigoi bites are much more potent than Moroi, and these had sent me to a different level of pleasure. But it was a sensitive subject, Dimitri had felt unfathomable guilt over this, despite being faultless. "Too soon?" I said, slight joking nervous laughter. Dimitri held my gaze, firm faced. And then within a second had flipped me on my side and hissing, pretended to bite me. Laughing we sat back up and heard Lissa leaving Christians bedroom.
"Rose, we're going to go to bed now, if you can contact Johnny, you and Dimitri's services are no longer required." She was all smiles, her hair slightly less poker straight than earlier.
"Anything you like Queenie." I winked and headed off. Although it was not entirely proper for Lissa to be staying in Christians rooms as Queen. It was the worst kept secret at court.
Johnny took charge of the watch and me and Dimitri headed back to my apartment, Dimitri had eyed Johhny heavily, before offering him a hand shake and first name terms for which, I could tell Cast was grateful.
As we reached my apartment I took out my card to get in and as I opened the door he swept me up in his arms and over the threshold, being careful not to smack my head. I laughed at this, Dimitri had definitely found a new lease of life and out let for carefree behaviour since we returned. Since everything about us had become normal. As he put me down I realised something was amiss in my room, the carpet was kicked up and a couple of books had fallen from the shelf near my door. I looked to Dimitri, whose face was unreadable and without thinking I charged in through my bedroom door expecting something a lot less pleasant than candles, lit, scattered across the room. No Strigoi in here I mused, but there was a basket on the bed. Looking at him over my shoulder, he was wearing a stupid grin and with a 'what the hell' expression on my face "You set that up on purpose," I exclaimed, eyeing him suspiciously, "Well played Belikov, but I knew there was nothing up, you didn't sell it with your face." I skipped over to the bed and jumped up, my hands on the basket, I popped the buckle. "Can't surprise Rose Hathaway that easily." I said, peering Inside was a packet of brownies, win, and an envelope. I opened it and turned to find him stood at the foot of the bed, right in front of me.
"Oh can't I?" He whispered.
I sat, stunned. "We're going back to Russia?"