I do not own Anastasia or the characters. Just the plot of this story :D
"Good morning, sunshine!"
Dimitri grunted and placed his head underneath his pillow, blocking the intrusive sunrays out of his sight and showing clearly his sentiments to Vlad. Despite his sleepiness, however, he did notice something was different. Firstly, the pillow was just too… soft, as if it was made of silk and so were the sheets and blanket. Not to mention the mattress was actually comfortable and snuggly warm, inviting you to bury yourself in it and never want to get out. And then, there was that smell of cleanness and clearness, it was just too intense to ignore.
Slightly forcing his heavy eyelids open, he gazed through his half shut eyes the room around him, taking in his surroundings. The colours of bloodred and royal golden were dominating, surrounding him while the furnishing was both terribly unfamiliar and yet weirdly familiar. As if he had seen such expensive coffee table and chairs or fanciful carpets. He knew he had seen it somewhen, somewhere before, he just could not recall due to his sleepiness.
He sat up and buried his face in his palms, protecting it from the indiscreet sun rays. Suddenly it all came rushing back to him; the ball, the dance, the Princess, her disappearance. He had slept that night in the Palace, Vlad had invited him and despite his protests, the Empress kind of ordered him in her sweet, caring manner. It's not that he did not wish to spend a night in a palace with the hope that by the morning Anastasia would have returned, he just felt weird and awkward living in the place he had spent his three most well-remembered years of his juvenile life.
"You'd better have a good reason for this interruption. I was in the middle of a dream."
Vlad stood before him and with his elbow, he supported himself on the bed's post. The eyebrow of his arched in cleverness didn't escape the young man's attention and actually made him suspicious. "Oh, I'm well aware of the fact!" he said almost mysteriously. "Still having 'nightmares' about Anya calling us a baby, are we?"
Dimitri stared at him alarmed and looked away with dignity. "I have no idea what you mean."
The chubby man rolled his eyes. "Fine." And without a warning, he threw on Dimitri's face his cloths that a moment before were lying scattered up on the royal floor. "Get up and look decent. The Empress wants to show us something. And judging by her attitude, it's of grave importance, hence… be quick about it!"
"All right, all right! I'll be ready in a minute! Just keep your voice down, it's still morning!" Dimitri raised his hands in surrender as he got off bed, Vlad's loud voice banging like a bell in his head, causing his headache to increase.
Dimitri scanned the room for a clock but found none. Had he slept too much? Well, probably the effects of too much wine and sitting up late. He had never made more haste moves as he was dressing up in his entire life. The same cloths he had been wearing the night before, he noticed in disdain but instantly ignored it. In less than five minutes, he was standing at the hallway beside a very impressed Vlad.
"An outstanding record for your standards I must admit." The man observed funnily. Dimitri had never been one to be ready in time, always running late at least ten minutes. But this time he had outdone himself. "Look what love can do to man!" Dimitri's facial expression was priceless, making Vlad wish he carried a box camera on his personal. "Couldn't you at least tidy –just a bit- this mess of a hair of yours?"
"Don't you ever shut it?" Dimitri groaned in nuisance as he let the man lead him through the corridors to the Empress's study room. It's not like he did not remember the way; to the contrary, he felt as if it was just yesterday he had been wandering in those corridors, searching for an escape from the cook. The place was just as immense and majestic as he remembered it so clearly to be.
It wasn't long till they were standing in the Empress's private room, her and Sophie the only ones waiting for them, much to Dimitri's disappointment. But he overcame that bitter feeling upon facing the old woman's sad and concerned face. He could see she had been crying. Sophie, her faithful cousin, was by her side and patting her comfortingly on the shoulder, the same grave look darkening her face as well.
He bowed before expressing his perplexion and worries. "Your Majesty. Sophie. What is wrong?"
"She has not returned." Sophie spoke on the Empress's behalf, a sob nearly escaping her. The words felt like a dagger piercing the man's heart. "More like, she has left. She came back late at night and left this."
Dimitri accepted the piece of paper he was given and read it thirstily, reading carefully each word. With every syllable, he could practically imagine Anya writing it. However, there was something off about that letter. Each punctuation mark was a stab of the pen. He could tell she had been writing in haste by the upcurl of the letters and by how the periods had tails from where she was too rushed to lift the pen completely.
In that letter, she was apologizing to her grandmother for leaving like this but she had to think –though it was unclear what she wished to think-. She did not mention where her destination was and she was asking everyone not to try to follow her for she needed some time alone. Was this all a result of his presence? Was it his fault? He knew he should have never accepted the invite.
He read it over and over again, hoping to find something more, though he did not know what he was looking for. It was weird how the letter lacked of emotions, Anastasia was a woman who never hesitated to let the others know what she felt. But this time, it was just a plain letter in which she was informing of her wishes and actions. It was almost cold.
"What is strange, however," Sophie's voice made him look over the piece of paper and had him practically anxiously waiting for what she meant to say. "the maids report she didn't go at all in her room last night, and when they searched her closet, everything was intact. She has left with no cloths or even money."
"What? That's not possible.." Dimitri gazed back down at the letter pensively. "But the letter was there?"
"Actually, I found it here, on my desk." The Empress spoke for the first time, placing an open palm over her study so to indicate the exact place she had found it.
"Uh-huh.." the man murmured again, never taking his eyes off that paper. He brought it even closer to his face, noticing for the first time one thing so obvious and yet so well hidden. Some of the letters were more intensely written since she had pressed almost violently the quill on them and they were actually easily distinguished, such as the letter H in the word tHink. With no hesitation, he grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and wrote them down all one by one and double checked the letter until he had found them all.
"This is not making any sense but what if…" he kept on mumbling to himself, taking little notice to the three figures standing above his head and trying to figure out what he was trying to do. "They're in the wrong order…"
"Dimitri, look!" Vladimir practically exclaimed as he abruptly removed the pen off his hand and started writing down himself a single word. "PARIS! That's where she is! Now as for those…"
But Dimitri didn't stay any longer to try and figure out the remaining four letters. He rushed out of the door, searching himself for any spare money. He was glad Vladimir stopped him. before the man had a chance to tell him what he meant to, Dimitri had grabbed some money from Vlad's pockets and was descending in wide strides the stairs.
"Dimitri, you must hurry!"But he was able to hear the man's words before he finally exited the palace. "The other word is HELP!"
Okay fine! I admit it! I ran two dates late but you can forgive me, can you not? :) I'm not taking this too far, am I? I didn't want it to be a regular fluffy story of reunion! So I can only hope you actually like it since you don't have the decency to let me know if you do (hint hint!) Well, I do owe a big 'thanks' to Trashbugs since she's really supportive and kind! So thank you! :D