Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Academy.

Ch. 5 Shopping Expedition

On our third day at Tasha's, Lissa practically demanded to go to a mall for Christmas shopping.

"Let's go to the mall and buy presents!" she exclaimed.

"Are you fucking serious?" Christian groaned from where he sat playing video games with Adrian and Dash. "I don't want to go shopping!"

"I actually agree with Fire Boy," Adrian seconded as he leaned to the left with his controller.

"Anything is better than going shopping," Christian continued.

"Even a day at the spa?" Liam teased. I laughed and he gently stroked my cheek with his fingertips.

"Well…fine. Anything is better than shopping or a day at the spa," Christian amended.

Lissa looked like she wanted to spit fire. "CHRISTIAN, ARE YOU SAYING YOU DON'T WANT TO SPEND TIME WITH ME?"

"N-no, that's not what I meant!" Christian protested, dropping his controller and running over to Lissa.

Lissa turned away from him and crossed her arms. Her mood told me that she really was a bit mad that Christian didn't want to spend time with her and would do anything but shop. If it was up to her, she would spend most of the day shopping.

"Liss, I'll come with you and shop, okay?" Christian asked her in a soft voice. He softly kissed her on the mouth.

Although Lissa was still a teeny bit mad, she couldn't help but respond to his kiss. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him back, and I could tell she was trying to pull him on top of her.

"Lissa, EW!" I complained, blocking her mind from mine. "Could you at least save the rated R things for when you're alone?"

For the past two nights, sometimes I had to sleep in Eddie's room because Lissa and Christian wanted some…private time. In our room. Bleh. Luckily, there were twin beds in that room too, so I didn't have to sleep on the floor. As for Adrian, Liam, and Dash, Adrian slept in his own bed (in a room all to himself, that lucky asshole). Liam and Dash decided to wing it on an air mattress and one of the couches.

"Sorry," Lissa said, breaking away from Christian and blushing.

"When do you propose going?" Tasha asked, looking up from where she'd been flipping through a magazine.

"Today!" Lissa said happily.

Tasha looked up at the clock. "Well it is a little early in the evening-I mean morning…what about going after lunchtime?"

"The sooner the better," Dimitri said. I felt a pang in my chest when he spoke.

"Why, Guardian Belikov?" Dash asked as he turned to look in Dimitri's direction.

"When the sun goes down, it makes it easier for Strigoi to attack and take victims," Dimitri explained. "And also, I've heard news about a Strigoi attack not far from here."

The Moroi gasped. The rest of us guardians had heard about it, but we didn't tell them. "Was anyone killed?" Tasha asked, looking concerned.

"No, but it definitely raised the alarm," Liam put in. I snuggled closer to Liam, and he wrapped his arm around me and smiled down at me.

I couldn't tell him the real reason why I was flirting back with him so much, although he was probably smart enough to guess. I did manage to tell him that my ex-lover was here. He instantly figured out who it was, but was too courteous to say his real name. If he knew my real reasons, he was too much of a gentleman to say and just flirted with me.

Dimitri's eyes tightened when he saw me cuddling into Liam. "You…you're with Liam?"

I smiled coolly at him as Liam wrapped his arms around me tighter and stroked my cheek. Suddenly I had the perfect idea of what to say to him – it was basically repeating something he'd once said to me last winter at the ski resort. "What happens between me and Liam is none of your business, Guardian Belikov."

Dimitri had a poker face expression as he regarded us. "You were once my student, Guardian Hathaway, and of course some things are still my business."

"Yeah, well, I'm an adult now," I shot back. "And you haven't been my teacher for an extremely long time."

Dimitri opened his mouth to retort but Tasha stared him down from across the room. I've seen her stare at someone with those ice blue eyes, and it's beyond creepy. But it's an effective way of getting someone to shut up. "Enough, Dimka."

She turned back to Lissa and said, "Yes, let's go shopping after lunch. I'll cook." She got up and headed for the kitchen.

The guys (all except for Dimitri and Liam) continued playing video games. Mario Kart. This just goes to prove even guys who are supposed to be adults aren't that more mature than your average teenager guy.

When I looked up, Dimitri was sitting in an armchair, studiously reading one of those Western novels he adored reading so much. I couldn't help but feel my heart ache even more as I watched him.

He looked up at me, and our eyes met.

In that moment, there was no anger or jealousy between us. Just the two of us looking at each other, like when we'd first fallen in love with each other. It felt like the world had become still, and everything was perfect.

His eyes…they were dark endless pools of sadness. I wished I could go to him and comfort him, and make him stop looking so sad.

Someone coughed, and I was brought back to reality. I didn't love Dimitri anymore. Even if I still had feelings for him…it wouldn't be perfect.

"Yo, Communist Guy, why didn't you do something to deter Tasha from taking us all out for shopping?" Adrian asked from where he was sitting on the floor.

Dimitri glared at the back of his head. "First of all, Russia isn't communist anymore. Secondly, it's Guardian Belikov. And third, it's her choices, not mine. I'm just her guardian, not her boyfriend."

"You weren't her boyfriend? My bad, I thought that was why you decided to stop guarding Lissa," Adrian shot back.

The rest of us were staring in shock. I knew Dimitri wasn't dating Tasha, but for Adrian to be so blunt about it…that wasn't like him.

"My personal business is none of your business," Dimitri said crisply, his voice turning a bit cold.

I was a little surprised at how often Dimitri kept showing his emotions now. Back at the Academy, he rarely showed his emotions. Now it was my turn to feel jealous. What was it about Tasha that allowed him to let down his barriers and be so open about his emotions? He'd always been careful to keep control when he was around me.

After eating lunch, we headed off for the closest mall, which was about half an hour away.

"We need to get moving way before sunset," Liam warned as I got into the driver's seat. I was going to be the driver for once, so yay for me. Everyone was going in the van, so we needed to squash up to make room. Dimitri and Tasha were coming with us. Liam was sitting next to me, but Adrian, Lissa, and Christian needed to squash together in the middle to make room for Dimitri, Tasha, and Dash in the back.

"Everyone okay back there?" I shouted as I revved the engine and started to back up.

"I'm getting flattened in the middle, but besides that, everything's great!" Lissa grumbled.

"We're the ones squeezing to make room for you, Your Excellency," Adrian complained. Everyone (except for Liam) started squabbling and complaining, and from what I heard, started shoving and pushing each other.

"SHUT UP EVERYONE!" I yelled at the top of my lungs as I sped my way through a yellow light. Everyone instantaneously shut up at once.

"If you don't stop acting like a bunch of five years old, I'm turning the car around and going home," I continued.

"Please do," Christian muttered. I heard Lissa smack him, and he yelped. "Ow! Never mind, I take it back!"

We arrived at the mall, and I pulled up as close to Macy's as possible. We all filed out, and I checked my phone.

"Alright everyone. We only have about four hours at most to shop, so stick with each other and we'll meet back here."

I went off with Lissa and we headed off to Macy's. Since I was now a guardian, I got a paycheck every month and had plenty of money for my own uses. "So, what are you getting me?" I asked Lissa casually as we browsed through the shoes.

Lissa laughed, and scooped up her blond hair before letting it fall through her fingers. I noticed more than a few human guys checking us out, and one of them in particular was following my every move. "None of your business, even if you can read my mind."

"Okay, okay," I said. "But I can't just leave you alone since it's dangerous for you to be alone away from Court."

"Well, duh," Lissa said as she picked up a pair of red heels and examined their price tag. "I wonder if Tasha would like these."

"Why don't you get heels for Christian?" I teased.

"No way! He'd look bad in them," Lissa said, giggling as she put them back down. "Come on, let's move to a different shop."

We moved on to stores like Forever 21, Ann Taylor, Charlotte Russe. I got a cute white lacy blouse and some cute dark brown winter boots for her but lied and said it was for Jill. I also got myself some skinny jeans and a somewhat sexy black lacy tank top that hugged my curves very tightly.

"Dimitri would have a heart attack if he saw you," Lissa mused as we walked out of Charlotte Russe with my bags in hand. She was already carrying loads of bags herself, gifts for Christian, Adrian, and Dash.

I chose to ignore that statement. "Come on, let's go to Bath and Body Works. Maybe I could get perfume for you and Tasha."

"Go get some cologne for Liam," she teased as we walked in.

I tilted my head at her as she sprayed on Forever Sunshine. "You don't really think I like him, right?"

Lissa brought her wrist to her face and sniffed, but she wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Too strong. And no, of course not. But you keep flirting with him so much. What do you plan on next? Going on a date with Liam just to make him jealous?"

My lips curved up in a slow smile. "That's an excellent idea, Liss."

"Forget I said anything!" she exclaimed, moving down to another fragrance called Jasmine Vanilla.

I finally got Verbena Waters for Tasha, and Carried Away lotion, body wash, and shampoo for Lissa. We headed down the mall, and I passed a bookstore.

It occurred to me I could probably get Dimitri something from here. With a sigh, I heaved my way into the bookstore and Lissa followed me.

I asked for the location of the Western novels, and the clerk gave me a strange look but she led me over anyway. I browsed the shelves carefully for about fifteen minutes until I found what I was looking for. The Virginian: a horseman of the plains. My heart ached as I looked at it. I remembered teasing Dimitri once about how he'd read every single Western in the world, but he'd mentioned he'd never read that particular one.

I purchased that book after requesting a gift wrap and walked out.

"You know, you put a lot more consideration into his present than for anyone else," Lissa murmured as we continued walking around the mall and brought presents for the people we'd missed.

I sighed, but made no reply.

It proves you do care about him, she added a few minutes later as we re-entered Macy's. Don't deny it.

I couldn't make any replies, and I acted normal as we greeted everyone else at Macy's. I purposely didn't make eye contact with Dimitri, but I wondered what he'd gotten me, if he'd gotten me a present at all. Then I forced myself to stop thinking about it. The sun was still out, but it was low in the sky, bathing everything in a warm glow.

"That was just torture," Liam complained as he set down his bags with a huge sigh. He looked over at us and did a double take. "What did you do, buy out half the mall?"

"If only I had the money," I said, rolling my eyes.

"I'll get the van and drive it over," he said.

"It's right outside the entrance," I said, handing over the keys. He was probably trying to be chivalrous so we didn't have to walk so far.

He was back in about two minutes. "I don't think we're going to have room in the back…" he said, eyeing everyone's huge piles of bags.

"I don't want to be squashed again!" Adrian groaned as he put some of his bags in the back.

"Everyone get in, that's the maximum capacity of the trunk," Liam said, slamming it closed.

"Not again," Adrian sighed.

"I call the front!" I shouted, running into the shotgun seat with my bags.

"This is just great," Christian muttered. "It's going to be so much fun going home."

Sort of a filler chapter...don't worry I'll try to make the next chapter a little more interesting.