AN: I'm going to preface this story by saying that it's the companion to two pieces I wrote pre-Indigo Spell which feature two conversations mentioned here, though you'll get the gist without having read them. Dimitri mentions a conversation he's had with Adrian, which was the first story I wrote, called The Impossible Girl Phenomenon, while Rose talks about a phone call from Sydney, which was my second story, Stop Thinking.Anyway a couple of people said in reviews that they'd like to see Rose and Dimitri have a conversation about Sydney and Adrian, and I agreed, but didn't know how to write it until I read their very brief cameo in Indigo Spell.That said, this will contain minor spoilers from Indigo Spell. Also, if you enjoy this I encourage you to go check out the two companion pieces on my profile. Sorry this note is so long, but enjoy! :)

"That was beautiful," Rose said as she swung open the door to their hotel room, adjacent to Lissa and Christian's. Dimitri stepped in and made sure the door shared with the royal couple's room was unlocked, while Rose immediately made for the bed and pulled off her heels, tossing the pretty silver shoes carelessly on the ground below her.

Dimitri knocked on the shared door and Lissa opened, wearing a t-shirt left over from one of the human high schools she and Rose had attended while they'd been on the run and pajama pants with frogs on them. She looked markedly different from the beautiful young queen who'd been at Sonya and Mikhail's wedding earlier that evening.

"Hi," she said, smiling. "Don't worry, we'll leave it unlocked."

"Make sure you leave your other door unlocked, too," Dimitri reminded her. "You have another pair of guardians on your right, and three in the room across the hall."

"We know," Christian called from inside their room. He walked up behind Lissa. He was still in his tux, but his jacket was gone, his sleeves were rolled up, and he had his tie balled up in his fist. He glanced at Rose, sprawled barefoot on the bed in her bridesmaid dress, and smirked. "Tired?"

"Shut up," she said, which, since that was the best come-back she could come up with, was a resounding yes.

"Oh, we'll let you two get some sleep, then," Lissa said hurriedly before Christian could say anything more. "We'll see you tomorrow?"

"Of course. Goodnight, Lissa," Dimitri said. He turned to Christian and nodded. "Christian." Lissa swung the door shut, and Dimitri, still in uniform, sprawled sideways on the bed next to Rose.

"Yes, it was beautiful," he said, as if the last few minutes with Lissa and Christian hadn't happened. Rose turned her head to look at his face, and he did the same to look at her. "Someday that'll be us exchanging vows."

Rose made a noise somewhere between a cough and a laugh.

"Comrade," she said, "I graduated high school six months ago."

"Well," he said, as if he were making a very big concession, "it doesn't have to be right away."

"Wait until there's a two in front of my age instead of a one; then we'll talk," she said, grinning.

"We'll see," he said vaguely. "I mean we're both legal adults; stranger things have happened." Rose's eyebrows crinkled together.

"Yes," she said thoughtfully, "I suppose they have." Dimitri waited patiently a moment for her to share her thoughts, and was, of course, rewarded. "I've seen Adrian do some pretty wacky stuff," she said slowly, "but that was out there even for him."

Dimitri smiled slightly as he remembered how Adrian had towered over Sydney on the dance floor, and how he'd twirled the most no-nonsense girl Dimitri had ever met like she was a princess.

"I don't know that I'd agree with that," Dimitri said mildly, earning raised eyebrows from Rose.

"When I first met Sydney in Russia, she couldn't sleep because I was in the same room with her," Rose said. "I know he's a flirt, but that was just cruel."

"Well," Dimitri said carefully, "she didn't look particularly uncomfortable to me." Rose looked thoughtful for a moment.

"She didn't look like she thought he was an evil, unholy creature of the night," she conceded. "But still, what was he thinking?"

"I think he was thinking—" Dimitri caught himself.

"Thinking what?"

Dimitri hesitated. "It's really not my place," he said.

"Oh come on!" Rose exclaimed. "You can't leave me with that! What do you know?"

"Well... he and I spoke recently." Rose rolled her eyes, and he continued before she could make some "oh, really?" sarcastic remark. "He's entirely over you. Completely. He might still be angry or hurt, but he doesn't want you anymore."

He watched Rose's eyes widen in shock, and then narrow.

"Wait," she said, "you guys talked about me?" Her eyebrows crinkled again and she shook her head. "What does this have to do with him and Sydney?"

"I've spent a lot of time with them recently," Dimitri said slowly. "Watched them interact... I think if you had seen him around her, it would be very obvious to you, too, that he was not just trying to flirt with or torment her tonight."

Rose's jaw dropped.

"Oh my god," she whispered. Dimitri nodded. "But she's... she's human." Dimitri nodded again. "He sure does know how to pick 'em," Rose murmured, and Dimitri once again nodded his agreement. "Do you think she knows?" Rose asked, but she immediately answered her own question. "Of course not. Even he wouldn't ever tell a human that he was in love with her... especially an Alchemist."

"I'm not entirely sure what she knows," Dimitri said.

"Do you think Adrian knows about the guy she's in love with?" Rose asked anxiously.

Dimitri stilled. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

"A few weeks ago," Rose began, "I got a very strange phone call from her. She... well, she was really vague, but I finally got out of her that dating is banned when she's on a job for the Alchemists and there's this guy she's trying not to have feelings for." She smiled slightly. "She wanted my advice because, well, I do have some experience in that department."

"I don't think that thing about her not being allowed to date is necessarily correct," Dimitri said carefully. "I'm pretty sure she had a boyfriend at the high school, though I never got the sense that they were even very close, let alone in love."

"That's not what she told me. She sounded like she was crazy about this guy, and he was crazy for her, but their relationship was breaking some Alchemist code or... something..." Rose trailed off as an idea—a crazy idea—came to her. "Oh my god," she whispered. "You don't think...?"

"She spends a lot of time with him," Dimitri said quietly. "Adrian told me he felt lucky to see her as much as he did because of the way she feels about us, but it's pretty clear to me that she spends more time with him than she needs to."

"And we thought we had obstacles," murmured Rose. Suddenly she jerked her head up. "Wait! Oh my god! When she called, she told me that this guy—Adrian, I guess, wow—had kissed her and told her he loved her. And that she'd kissed him back."

Dimitri looked stunned. "Really? That... is interesting."

"I take it he didn't tell you that part?"

"No, he... I don't think it had happened when we spoke," said Dimitri thoughtfully. "I have to say, I find that... surprising."

"What, that he'd tell her he loved her, or that she'd let him kiss her?"

"Honestly, both." Rose stared at him; he seemed way too calm about the whole thing.

"Don't you think it's kind of... gross?" she asked quietly. "I mean, I'm all for scandalous 'beat-the-odds' romance, but... she's a human." Dimitri sighed and tried to explain.

"I keep forgetting you haven't ever really seen them together," he said. "When Sonya asked if we could take some of Sydney's blood for the experiments... "

"What does that have to do with anything?" Rose asked, frowning, when Dimitri didn't finish the thought.

"Sydney's more comfortable around us than she was this summer, but she nearly had a panic attack when Sonya asked for blood, and it only got worse when she said no and Sonya—and, I regret to say, I, as well—kept asking... but you should have seen Adrian."

"What do you mean? What did he do?" Rose asked.

"Well, he was less angry when he found out about you and me." He paused to let her think about that, and then continued. "He was furious, Roza. I've never seen him like that."

"Furious? Because you asked Sydney for some of her blood?"

"Furious because we were terrifying her, asking her to go against everything she believes and everything the people she trusts have been telling her for her entire life. We were pressuring her—I would be furious, too, if someone tried to do that to you."

There were several moments of silence, and then finally Rose spoke again.

"Why would you ask her to do that if you knew how much it would scare her?" Dimitri made a sound that was almost like a laugh.

"Well I didn't know it then!" He put his hand on Rose's shoulder. "No, I didn't know it then. I've had a lot of time to think about it since it happened, think about why each of them reacted the way they did."

"And?" Rose asked quietly.

"Adrian knew. He knew, without her having to say, exactly why she was upset and, well, he made us stop."

"They're just like us," Rose whispered.

"Yes," Dimitri said. "He understands her. And I'd be willing to bet that she understands him more than she'd probably like to admit."

"But how is anything ever going to work between them?" Rose asked. "I mean, unless they decide to run off and take up with the Keepers..." Dimitri chuckled.

"I don't know that I see that in either or their near futures," he said, still chuckling, but then he sobered. "It might not work between them at all, Roza. You're very liberal, very unwilling to be defined by societal traditions, and even you thought it was gross. And I doubt Sydney's Alchemists will be so understanding."

"She told me she was punished for helping me last summer," Rose said. "And Adrian..."

"We hurt Adrian badly," Dimitri said quietly. "But I don't think beyond repair."

"But this will," Rose said sadly. "I'm not in love with him, but that doesn't mean I don't love him—and I don't see any way it can possibly work out between him and Sydney."

"I know that. I understand that. But we worked out, didn't we?"

Rose smiled sadly. "Yeah, but all we had was a seven year age gap, a student-teacher relationship, and the potential life or death of the last Dragomir princess between us." Dimitri chuckled.

"Oh, that's it, is it?" Rose laughed a real laugh and nodded. "Well then they should be okay," he said, putting a finger under her chin. "After all, they only have a three year age gap."

"I'm serious," she said. "What's going to happen to them?"

"Time will tell, I suppose. And we'll do what we can for them."

"Of course we will," she said, straightening. "I just don't know if there is anything we can do. They're probably going to end up breaking more rules than we did." Dimitri smiled.

"Roza," he whispered. "Since when does Adrian Ivashkov follow anyone's rules?" Rose smiled slightly, and Dimitri chuckled. "They'll be fine. If we made, they'll make it."

AN: I certainly had a lot of fun writing this, though I will admit that when I started, I thought it was going to be a cute, funny conversation and it took a darker turn. I hope it lived up to the expectations of the people who were requesting this, though, and once again, if you haven't read them, you should go check out The Impossible Girl Phenomenon (Adrian and Dimitri's conversation) and Stop Thinking (Sydney's phone call to Rose).