Mary Jane

No copyright intended. All characters, plots, ideas of Vampire Academy belong to Richelle Mead.

Timeline: Sometime during VA.

Short, silly, smokey.

Mary Jane rarely made its way on to campus, but when one of the royals managed to sneak it back on, Rose knew who to play nice with to partake. The guardian in her was feeling extraordinarily guilty- slowing her reflexes, affecting her thought patterns, really more than anything being high was selfish because it took her focus away from Lissa but god she needed it; it had been the only thing that took the edge off the anxiety bleeding through bond in the months after the accident.

She never partook when they were living on the outside- she couldn't have any moment that would cause any part of her guard to slip. Now that they were begrudgingly back on campus, Lissa was safe, and Rose was sore, pissed, and feeling rebellious. Lissa could have her "sleepover" with Christian and Rose could have some peace.

Bless whichever royal had jumped on the human medical marijuana card train.

She inhaled, ashing off of the edge of the roof, the rising sun taking the edge off the cool of the morning. She needed to sleep, soon and deeply. Her muscles ached in places she didn't realize could ache, and knew the days of training with Mr. Hot Stuff Russian Cowboy would only get harder.

She inhaled again. A duster? Literally? God, her taste in men would send Freud into a tailspin. Perfect nice, handsome, age appropriate boys around her, and that was probably part of the problem- she viewed them as boys. Living on her own, protecting Lissa, had given her a sense of responsibility and of what the real world could bring that her classmates didn't seem to grasp yet. That naivete made Rose feel aged, and something about Dimitri' worldliness, experience…

She shook her head, let out a stream of smoke on a slow breath, leaning her head back and closing her eyes, willing her mind to slow and wander in preparation of sleep. Dimitri was becoming an increasingly prevalent fixture in her thoughts, and said thoughts were getting progressively dirtier and dirtier.

On second thought, maybe smoking was a bad idea. It always made her feel horny.

A cough behind her almost caused her to jump off the edge she was so precariously sitting on. She turned her head and felt her heart stop when she looked up into Dimitri's expressionless gaze. This was it. Her luck had run its course. He had put up with enough of her bullshit, had to come to defense after a series of rather colossal poor life choices, and this would be the final straw. Getting caught smoking on the roof- how stereotypically human of her. The telegram from her mother was going to be a treat.

"No defense?" His voice broke the silence of the morning.

She shrugged, brining the smoke to her lips, saying, "My nine lives have run out. I figure this truly fucks me. No more defense," before taking a deep hit.

What happened next stopped Rose's breath in her chest as her eyes bugged out of her head when Dimitri's hand brushed over her own, turning her wrist and bringing her hand up to his mouth so he too could inhale.

Speechless.

She didn't know if it was his touch, his proximity, or the fact that instead of marching her to the headmistress' office he had actually puppeteered her to take a hit of the smoke.

That didn't happen in real life.

But then again, nothing about her reality was supposed to exist.

"Didn't figure you for touching the hard stuff there, comrade," she managed to croak out, watching the smoke blow from his nostrils and he lowered himself to sit down next to her, laughing.

"I'd hardly call a plant the hard stuff," he replied. "May have been in Russia, may have been a dhampir, but there are certain universalities amongst boarding schools, no?"

She had to chuckle at that.

"Too many horomones in too close a proximity. I try to stay out away from the trivial high school stuff."

He snorted, and motioned down to her hand. "I think you're accurately portraying a stubborn, willful, angry seventeen year old right now."

She leaned back, surprised. "You hit it too, comrade, and as my elder mentor figure, you're setting a shit example."

She saw his scowl when she called him older, drawing in a final hit before putting it out next to her. His lack of response felt like judgement, and she suddenly felt small, embarrassed she was afraid she disappointed him.

"I wasn't going to. It's stupid. Someone brought it on campus after the weekend. I don't use it to party, but sometimes-"

"Roza, I haven't scolded you. I'm not judging. Our lives are not our own. While you have these moments of possible selfishness now, take them."

These words surprised her even more. She wasn't sure if it was the affects of the bud finally starting to hit her, but he seemed to lean into her, the silence after his statement thick with something primal and unspoken.

"I say that not as a teacher, trainer, mentor, elder- I say it as a peer, an equal. We give so much of ourselves, we have to justify our selfishness."

"I was smoking a drug there, remember," she said, trying to lighten his sudden seriousness. She was afraid if she didn't, she'd start to read too much into his words. "Grounds for explusion. Banishment. Jailtime. The works."

Dimitri looked down at her for a moment, before standing and offering a hand. He pulled her up, their bodies almost flush. She wanted so badly to lean into him, to say fuck it to propriety and the part of her that was daily working overtime to ignore whatever was growing between them.

With a smile and a whispered "Get some sleep, Roza," he turned and left the roof, not looking back as he disappeared through the doorway. Rose suddenly very much wanted a glass of water and something sweet, and to settle into bed and bask in whatever yummy memories this high wanted to bring to her.

Silly and short, just trying to keep writing. Prompt ideas accepted. Love reviews.

xx