I wish I could claim to own Vampire Academy, but I can't, so I won't.
Adrian POV - Rose and Adrian's 5th Aniversary
"You did tell this artist guy that you were coming, right?" Guardian Gates asks me while we stand in the middle of an art gallery, waiting for the artist to meet me. His name is Bob Rutter and I saw some of his work at a showing of different artists that I took Rose to a couple years ago. He specializes in wood carvings. I noticed that Rose seemed to linger at quite a few of his pieces, so I had an idea to commision a sculpture for our fifth anniversary, which is today. The fifth anniversary gift is wood, you know. I haven't seen it yet, but I told him what I wanted, a representation of the two of us together. As I wander around the studio looking at his other pieces, I see carvings of fish, bears, and other animals and start to wonder if I made a mistake in using him. I hope he doesn't give me a couple wooden bunnies rubbing noses or I'll be pissed.
Finally, after ten minutes of walking around, he comes out of the back area, all dusty and dirty like he's been working, and greets me and my guardian. "Sorry to keep you waiting Mr. Ivashkov." he says as he extends his hand to me. Bob is human so I didn't use my title during our intitial introductions. "I've got it all finished for you. I hope you like it." he walks over to the counter as we follow to see a large cloth draped over what I assume is Rose's gift. "I think this is my favorite piece I've ever done." He pulls off the cloth and I gasp when I see it. It's so beautiful. It's a large piece of driftwood that has the image of two nude lovers laying down, kissing in an embrace. Her hair is flowing down and merges with the rest of the wood. It looks like just like Rose and I posed for this.
"It truely is a thing of beauty, Mr. Rutter. My wife will absolutely love it." I tell him, not able to take my eyes of the work of art. He puts it in a box and even gift wraps it for me. We say goodbye and jump in the car and race home. Rose is making dinner for me and she'll be pretty upset if I'm late.
We get back to Court with ten minutes to spare. I grab the box and quickly high tail it to our apartment and let myself in. I try to be quiet so I can hide the gift to surprise her after dinner. Thankfully, Rose seems busy in the kitchen and doesn't notice I've come home. I peek in the kitchen after I have her present hidden to see her cooking away looking sexy as ever. She's wearing a short red dress with red high heel shoes that make her legs look luscious, and an apron over her dress. Her hair is up in a messy bun showing off her lovely neck that is just begging me to come show it some love, so I do. I walk up behind her, wrap my arms around her waist and start planting kisses all along her neck and shoulder. I feel her melt into me as she moves her head to the side to give me more access. "I was getting worried you were going to ditch me tonight." she says a little breathless as I let my hands wonder down her hips and thighs.
"Nothing could keep me from spending this night with you." I tell her as I turn her around and kiss her soundly. She replies by putting her hands to the back of my head and pulling me down to deepen the kiss. Even after five years of marriage, Rose can still light me on fire with just one touch. All the love I feel for her comes washing over me like a tidal wave and I cling to her tighter just to keep from falling to the floor. How did I ever get so lucky as to get Rose to marry me?
After another five minutes of making out in the kitchen, Rose pushes me away and walks me to the dining room and sits me down. The table is made up with candles and the good china we got as a wedding gift from my parents. My dad still isn't thrilled about our marriage, but at least he's stopped calling her 'that Dhampir' and calls her by her given name instead. Rose brings out the food and I'm so hungry that when the aroma hits me, I automatically start drooling. "For your enjoyment, we have baby back ribs with baby peas and baby carrots. And for dessert, Baby Ruth candy bars." she smiles at me. What an odd combination. Whatever, it smells good. I fill my plate and start eating when the strangest thought crosses my mind.
"Rose, is there a reason all the food has 'baby' in it?" she nods her head excitedly with the biggest smile on her face.
"Adrian, we're going to have a baby. I'm two months pregnant." she squeels. Oh. My. God. I'm going to be a daddy. We've been trying to conceive for a few months now. I guess it worked. I look at Rose more carefully now to see if I can tell by looking at her. My eyes graze over her and stop at her stomach. I get up from my chair and kneel down in front of her and put my hands on her flat stomach. She isn't far enough along yet to notice my child growing inside her, but that doesn't stop me from kissing her belly all over.
"Hey there little one. It's your daddy. God, I love you so much already and I just found out about you." I rest my ear against her trying to hear anything while Rose runs her hands through my hair. I am officially the luckiest man in the world.
Rose POV - five years later
"Conner Ibrahim Ivashkov, get your butt down here this instant young man!" I shout for my oldest child. Demon would be a better description sometimes. He comes bounding down the stairs and stops at the bottom step and peers around the wall.
"Yes momma?" he asks so innocently. Conner is the spitting image of Adrian but has my attitude and wild side. God help us.
"Conner, why is your sister's face all different colors?" My two year old daughter Tatiana, who is my mini me with my brown hair and eyes, is smiling up at me proudly with red permanent marker on her lips and cheeks and blue and green on her eyelids. I know it permanent because the damn stuff won't wash off. She looks like a derranged clown.
"Tati said she wanted to look pretty like you but you said to never get into your make up. So we didn't. Are you mad momma?" He gives me that wounded puppy dog look and it's hard to stay mad at him. I look down at my rainbow colored daughter, smiling up at me like she's the most beautiful girl in the world, and sigh.
"Conner, you know that markers are only for paper. Go get the markers and bring them to me." I tell him. He scowls at me knowing he's not getting away unscathed and stomps back up stairs. Since we had him, we've moved into a nice four bedroom house on the other side of Court. Lissa and Christian and their twin six year old daughters live next door. They got married about a year after Adrian and I. Their daughters, Natasha Rose and Lily Rose Dragomir, are the spitting image of Lissa but with Christians blue eyes. Unfortunately they both have their dad's sarcastic nature.
Dimitri and Tasha also live by us. They've added a son to their family, Ivan, who's six and looks just like Tasha. He's very serious all the time and reminds me so much of Dimitri. Roza is ten now and is such a help with all the kids. Mia and Eddie were together for about six months before they decided they were better as friends. Mia is now married to Dr Brown and has a little girl Tatiana's age, Darla. They met when I was injured in a Strigoi attack. Mia came to visit me and when she saw my favorite doctor, she was hooked. Eddie is a confirmed bachalor, making the rounds with all the single guardians here at court. We used to give him a bad time about finding someone to settle down with, but he's happy so we've all backed off.
Conner brings me the markers and I send him to his time out chair while I put the markers up and out of reach. Suddenly, I feel a cramp in my lower abdomin and grab ahold of the counter and take deep breaths. I hate these Braxton Hicks contractions. I've been having them all morning. I walk to the fridge to start lunch for the kids when Tatiana comes dancing in.
"Momma, I'm a princess." she informs me. "And you a queen and daddy's a king."
"And what about Conner? What is he?" I ask like I always do. We've played this game many, many times.
"Conner's a troll." she smiles. That's a new one. Usually he's a dragon. I put the cheese on the counter and I'm hit with another cramp. Damn it! Next thing I know, I feel some pressure and then see water covering the floor beneath me.
"Oh shit!" This is it.
"Mommy, you spilled." my sweet girl tells me while pointing to my feet.
"Conner, can you come here, honey?" I yell. He comes walks in and stops in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Yeah?" he asks with such attitude I sometimes I wonder if I'm going to survive his teenage years, or actually if he'll survive.
"Honey, the baby has decided it wants to come out now. Can you run next door and get Uncle Christian to come over here please while I call your father?" I ask as calmly as I can. Poor Conner's eyes go wide as he sees the puddle underneath me before he sprints out the door. Lissa works with the queen getting groomed to take over one day while Christian stays home with the girls when not out on Strigoi raids.
I dial Adrian's number and try to breath through another contraction when he picks up. "Hello, Rose?" I can't say anything at the moment because the pain has gotten worse since my water broke. I see Tatiana looking at me so I hand her the phone to talk to her father.
"Hi Daddy. Mommy's leaking and Conner made me look like a princess." she tells him before I'm able to take the phone back.
"I'm in labor. Get your ass over here and get me to the hospital." I pant before hanging up. I want to go change out of my wet pants before we go, but my bedroom is upstairs and climbing steps is increasingly difficult since the baby's dropped lower. It takes me about a minute just to get up two steps. I look up the stair case and sigh. It's going to take forever. Then I have to get back down. I look over to my daughter for help. "Tati, honey, can you go upstairs and get mommy another pair of shorts and some underwear?" I ask desperately. She nods and heads to my room.
While I'm waiting for her, Christian and the three kids come running in. "Rose, Conner says the baby's coming. What do you want me to do?" he looks a little panicked.
"I called Adrian, so he should be here soon. Can you watch the kids for me?" I ask as I try to breath through another contraction. They're a lot closer together than they should be. This baby wants out now. I'm sitting down on the step with Christian hovering over me uselessly when Tatiana comes bounding down the steps with one of my sexy black panties I can't fit into right now and workout shorts.
"Here momma." she hands me the clothes and I see Christian smirk as he sees what she brought.
"Thanks baby." I tell her. She tried. About ten minutes and many contractions later, Adrian comes flying through the door like his ass is on fire.
"Rose!" he shouts before seeing me sitting right in front of him. "Come on." he says while he and Christian help me up to my feet. Conner brings me my overnight bag and follows us to the car. Adrian speeds through the streets to the hospital getting there in record time. We get a room and Adrian feeds me ice chips and holds my hand during contractions like he did with the other two. "You're doing great Rose." he repeats over and over. God, he's getting on my nerves.
"Adrian, I love you with all my heart, but if you don't shut the hell up I'm going to shove my fist down your throat." I warn him. Thankfully he listens and stops talking. A few minutes later my doctor comes in to check to see how far along I am.
"Alright Rose. It looks like this one is anxious to meet you. It's time to start pushing." she says.
"Already? Oh man." I'm already exhausted. Adrian helps me sit up a bit and holds one of my legs while a nurse has the other. I start pushing and about ten minutes later, I hear the wonderful sound of my baby crying. That's the most welcoming sound ever. The doctor places the baby on my stomach while Adrian cuts the cord. It's so unfair that I go through hell and his part is so easy. I look over my gooey baby and see that it's a little boy. A nurse takes him to get him cleaned up and measured while the doctor finishes getting me put back together again. Adrian is right next to my head as he holds my hand and strokes my hair, all while never taking his eyes off the baby.
"Rose," he whispers as he kisses me gently. "Thank you for giving me another son." I smile up at him. He looks so happy as he looks at me. "I'll give you a little time to recover before we start working on another daughter." he teases. My eyes go wide as I take in what he said. If he thinks I'm going through this again, he's got another thing coming.
"Yo doctor." I yell to across the room. My doctor looks over to us with a smile on her face. I point to Adrian. "Unzip it, grip it and snip it." I look over to a shocked Adrian. "I don't think I want to do this again. We have three now. A boy, a girl and an extra." I smile. He rolls his eyes at me and kisses my forehead.
A few hours later, all our friends and family come to see the new baby. After he was washed up, we could see that he has my mothers red hair. The first person I thought of was Mason, so we named him Mason Nathan Ivashkov. My father in law took his sweet time coming around, but after Conner was born, he fell in love with his grandson and finally accepted me into the family. Little Tatiana has him wrapped around her finger.
Lissa brought Conner and Tatiana to the hospital to meet their new brother. Of course they were fighting as they walked in, but as soon as they saw the baby, they ran over to see him. Adrian picked up Tati so she could see better and Conner climbed in and sat next to me. "Oh thank you momma. I didn't want another sister." he confesses. I laugh as I give him a kiss on his cheek as he looks at his brother in amazement. I don't have Mason long when Lissa gets ahold of him.
Adrian leans down and kisses me on the temple with Tati on his hip. "Happy tenth anniversary, Mrs Ivashkov." he says. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I kiss him back and hold his hand tight. It's been the most amazing ten years. And with all my friends and family around us, I can't wait to see what the next ten years bring.
The End
I would like to sincerely thank everyone who have read and reviewed my story. I had a blast writing it and hope you had fun reading it as well. I would love it if you could leave me one last review letting me know what your most memorable part of the story was. Thank you again for your support.