Rose's birthday part one!

Disclaimer: Yes, I do own Vampire Academy. Just like I own a purple unicorn, a time machine and a neverending box of donuts ;P

DPOV

"Roza. Roza, wake up."
She grumbled, and buried her face deeper into my chest. I stroked her hair and back, trying to wake her up gently.

"Roza, come on." I kissed the top of her head, before shaking her shoulder ignored me. Time for the foolproof plan.

"I have donuts."

She lifted her head and her eyes snapped open, searching wildly around the tent for any sign of the food.

She met my eyes and scowled. I grinned, which she didn't like.

She punched my arm, quite hard. "Dimitri! You can't just say things like that! It's mean!"

"But it works. You fall for it every time."
She crossed her arms over her chest, pouting. Though I would never say it to her for fear of getting my face kicked in, she looked absolutely adorable like that. I couldn't resist leaning down and kissing her on the nose. Her scowl softened, and I saw her fight to stay angry at me. There was no need to be, I wasn't really that mean, especially on her birthday.

I reached behind me and picked up a box of Krispy Kremes from where Eddie had put them earlier. Everyone else had been up, wrapping presents and sorting out other things for about an hour now. We'd let Roza sleep in.

Her face lit up with pure joy as she saw the box. I handed it to her and she pulled out a donut. Her stomach growled at the sight of it.
"My 2 favourite things in the world. Could there be a better sight to wake up to?" Roza winked at me, before eating the donut in 3 bites. I'd never seen anyone else eat like her.
"Mmm. You're the best, Comrade."

She ate 2 more, before offering me one.
I looked at it cautiously, unsure if it was a trick. She rarely gave away food. "Are you sure?" I asked.

"No, I'm going to offer it to you, wait until you take a bite and then make you spit it out." She said sarcastically. "Of course I'm sure, have a donut."

I took it and ate it, by the time I'd finished Rose had devoured 2 more.
Once she had brushed the sugar off her hands, she leaned over and kissed me. "Thank you, Dimitri."

I returned the kiss. She tasted of sugar and chocolate, and I wanted to forget about the people waiting for us outside and not leave the bed all day, but that wasn't an option. "Anything for my Roza."

I noticed how her eyes lit up when I called her 'mine'. I made a mental not to do that more often.
I wanted to say happy birthday, but wasn't sure how that would affect her mood. I decided to go for it anyway; it would be a lot worse once we got outside.

"Happy birthday-" Disappointment flashed in her eyes at the reminder. "-my sweet, sexy, beautiful Roza." She smiled again.

We got up and dressed, and 10 minutes later Roza stood in front of me, dressed in black skinny jeans, black tank top and red and black checked shirt tied above the waist. She looked incredibly hot in that, but I suddenly wanted to rip all those clothes off.

Roza seemed to know what I was thinking, as she walked over to me and took a handful of my shirt in her fists. She stood up on her toes, lips just brushing mine with the lightest touch, but still enough to send shivers down my spine. She felt this, and winked.

"Later." She promised, before kissing me anyway.
In a final push of my crumbling self control, I managed to actually leave all of her clothes on and get her out of the tent without being too late.

As we stepped out into the morning sun, we saw everyone already outside, on top of a blanket covering the empty fire pit was balanced a mound of presents, some wrappd considerably worse than others.

Roza froze when she saw the pile of presents in front of her, and the grins on the faces of her friends.

The party hats that Eddie, Adrian and Christian were wearing probably didn't help either.

"What..?" She turned to look at me, confused and little upset. I felt bad, but she needed this.
Roza turned to Lissa. "I thought we said..."

Lissa looked sheepish. "Sorry Rose. But you know I can't resist gift shopping. Anyway, this was all Dimitri's doing, not mine."

Roza turned back to me, searching my face for answers. I sighed, and reached up to brush a strand of hair out of her face. I left my hand resting on her cheek, and explained.

RPOV

"Look, Roza, I know that you didn't want to celebrate your birthday, and I completely understand your reasons. You know I usually do anything you ask, but this time, I couldn't. I refuse to let you miss another birthday because of me, and I know that if you didn't celebrate it this year, then it would just get worse every year. I know the memories of last year will never go away, but you can stop them from taking over, by doing something else to compensate for that. It's like what you said to me, about forgiving myself."

I understood that, I guess. "As you told me once before, the best way to move on from something is to live, and enjoy every second, focusing on the good things in life and taking them with the bad."

The one time I actually give good advice, it comes back to get me. What sort of karma is that?
"So, I'm sorry, but I promised I would spend the rest of my life making up for the pain I have caused you, and building new memories to replace the old. So please, trust me on this that I know you well enough to know that this is what you need, and try and enjoy it. At the end of the day, look at all the presents you get."

I couldn't stay mad at Dimitri when he used that kind of logic. And he was 100% right.

I flung my arms around his waist and leaned into him, feeling him relax in relief and put his arms around me in return. He was right, this was what I needed. I pulled away, standing on my toes to look him in the eye.

"Thank you, Dimitri." I said earnestly. "This is one of those times that you know me better than I know myself." I stretched up and kissed him quickly. "I love you."

He smiled, and stroked my cheek. I leaned into his hand. "I love you too, my sweet Roza." My heart jumped, just like it had earlier, when he called me 'his'. I was his, forever, just like he was mine.

Someone cleared their throat behind me, and I kissed the palm of Dimitri's hand before turning around.

Sydney spoke. "Are you ever going to open these presents? Listening to Adrian complain all night about wrapping them was bad, but it'll be even worse if you don't undo all of his hard work." She paused. "That, and his atrocious wrapping is giving me OCD. There's a huge bit of tape sticking out of here, and I'll open it myself in a minute."

My eyes widened. "No! I'll do it now." I grabbed Dimitri's hand and dragged him round to the spare seat in the circle. There was a balloon attached to the log with '9 today' written on it, a '1' had been added in biro.

"Classy." I said, before sitting on Dimitri, aka my favourite chair.
Adrian grinned proudly like a little kid showing off his artwork. The balloon was obviously his craftsmanship. I shook my head and rolled my eyes.

"Any volunteers to go first?" I asked, indicating the pile of presents. Lissa immediately jumped up.

"Ooh, me!" She shouted. I rolled my eyes.

"You don't even know what you're volunteering for. But since you put your hand up, you can be my present slave. Bring me one."

She pouted, as much as she ever could, and stood in front of the pile. Her face lit up as she saw a present wrapped in purple paper. Grabbing it, she skipped over to me, placing the box in my lap.

I grinned at her. "I'll recommend you to Santa this Christmas. You'll make a great elf."
I turned my attention to the box in my lap. I read the tag, unsurprised to find that it was from Lissa.

I ripped off the paper, took the lid off the box, and pushed away the tissue paper to reveal silky black fabric. I lifted it out of the box to find a really sexy black dress, and with a jolt I realised that it was almost a carbon copy of the dress from the night of the lust charm, that had been ruined in the attack with the psi-hounds.

I tried, and failed, to raise one eyebrow at her.
"How did you find this?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Not hard when you're Queen. You know how many dresses I have to get made and how many shops I go into, I was bound to come across one soon enough."

I turned to look at Dimitri, who had a far-off look in his eyes. He was remembering the night that I had worn a dress like this, and that he had taken it off me.

I left him in his reverie, and spoke to Lissa.
"Thanks, Liss. This is really great. I can't believe I almost went without presents today!"

She laughed. "Oh please. I would have forced that on you even if I had to hold you down and sit on you until you agreed. Or starved and became weak enough that I could force you."

I laughed, and she passed me the next present.
This was wrapped in dark blue paper, and I recognised Eddie's writing on the top. I opened it carefully; there seemed to be more than one thing in here.
It turned out to be a stack of 5 DVDs, some quite random, but that I loved all the same. Ice age 3, Norbit, Get Smart, Titanic and Run Fatboy Run. Random, but good.

"Hey, thanks Ed. I may just force you to watch Titanic with me again."

His eyes widened in horror. "No, please!"

Mia scrutinized him. "Not man enough to watch such a girly movie? Someone afraid to get in touch with their feminine side?"

I choked out a laugh. "Seriously? I think he's very in touch with his feminine side. If he was any closer to it, he would have no penis. When we watched it together a couple of years ago, Eddie cried his eyes out practically the whole way through. Even the happy bits."

Eddie defended himself. "Their love was doomed! You knew what was going to happen from the start, and seeing them so happy when it would all be taken away; it was sad!"

Mia blinked at his outburst. "O-kayyy." I said, placing the DVDs on a neat stack on the floor beside me, as Lissa passed me the next present.

This one was a huge squishy parcel from Mia, which was full of clothes, mostly designer. This was a good present, as I didn't have many nice clothes any more. I wore my Guardian uniform all day, and when I was off duty I just wore comfy stuff around the apartment, unless we were actually going out.

The next present that was passed to me was wrapped in gold paper, and was a long cylinder. It was from Sydney. I was curious to see what it was, so I ripped the paper off and popped the top on the long cardboard tube. I tipped it up, and a roll of paper fell out.

I glanced at Sydney with a questioning look, to see her smiling with one eyebrow raised. I opened the paper, and saw at the top right hand corner a golden lily symbol. With a jolt I realised that these were Alchemist records of some sort. I looked up from the paper.
"Naughty Sydney! The Alchemists wouldn't let you give this to me..."
She shrugged.
"I don't answer to them anymore. Anyway, it's about you, it's your right to know what's on it."
"I like this new Sage." I grinned. She returned it.
I read the words at the top of the first page;

Record #03749844
Rosemarie Alexis Hathaway Guardian Rose Hathaway

Charge: Queen Vasilisa Sabina Rhea Dragomir
DoB 03/08/1993 Trained St. Vladimir's Academy, Montana
Marks 1xZvezda, 22xMolnija Total Kills Unknown
Field exp. points: 94

Notes
Ran away from Academy aged 15, brought back by Guardian D. Belikov(G#03589764) aged 17
Previously 'shadow kissed', and shared psychic bond with V. Dragomir. (R#984569) Bond now broken.
Made first 2 kills aged 17 (Decapitation, with rusty sword), Spokane, Washington.
Left Academy age 18, returned 3 months later. Found in Russia by (A#4576)
Arrested for murder of Queen Tatiana Ivashkov, found innocent.
Escaped custody with Guardian D. Belikov (G#03589764), enlisted help of (A#4576)
Sustained near-fatal bullet wound in chest protecting Queen Dragomir, unofficial charge at time.
Daughter of Guardian (G#03974625) and Ibrahim Mazur (M#18372648)
Currently in relationship with Guardian D. Belikov (G#03589764)

Guardian skill rating: 10-very high

I finished reading.
"Whoa... I never knew I was so awesome!" I shouted.
Raised eyebrows all around.
"Well, okay, I did. But I didn't know that the Alchemists would see me the same way, or manage to make me look so epic on a formal document."

Christian sighed. "Well done Sydney, you had to go and give her something that would just inflate her already too big ego." He turned to me. "What exactly makes you sound so 'epic' anyway?"

I read out my list of 'achievements'.
Abe spoke first. "Rose, it's like hearing your school report containing all A*s. I couldn't be prouder."

My mom slapped his arm. Dimitri looked down at me.
"They have us in there?"

I grinned. "Well, we are quite the scandal, darling."

Sydney spoke up.
"Yeah, they love any bit of info they can get on people, and especially if things have drawn a lot of attention. When you two are in the spotlight, they wanted to be the ones in control, moving the light and switching it on and off. They see everything."

I scrunched my nose up. "Pervs, I seriously hope they didn't see everything."

Mia giggled, and Dimitri looked uncomfortable.
Sydney tried to move the conversation on.
"I put Dimitri's record in there too."

I reached back into the tube and pulled out another piece of paper.

Record #03589764
Dimitri Aleksandr Belikov Guardian Dimitri Belikov

Charge: Lord Christian A. Ozera
DoB 08/03/1987 Trained St. Basil's Academy, Siberia
Marks 18x Molnija, 1 zvezda Total Kills Unknown
Field exp. points: 92

Notes
First charge: Lord Ivan Zeklos, killed when off-duty.
First kill age 21 (Stake)
Returned R. Hathaway (#03749844) and (Princess) V. Dragomir(R#984569)
Assigned to (Princess) V. Dragomir(R#984569)
Mentored Guardian R. Hathaway (#03749844) at St. Vladimir's Academy, Montana.
MIA in attack at St. Vladimir's Academy, allegedly turned Strigoi.
Escaped custody with Guardian R. Hathaway (#03749844) enlisted help of A#4576
Currently in relationship with Guardian R. Hathaway (#03749844)

Guardian skill rating: 10- very high

I finished reading, and smirked, looking at Dimitri who was reading over my shoulder. I looked at my record again, and Lissa spoke.
"Rose, why do you look like you've just won something amazing without even joining the competition, or that Krispy Kreme is giving away free donuts for life?"

I grinned at her. "I've just been comparing Dimitri's and my records. My field experience mark was 2 points higher than his."

Eddie burst out laughing. "Dimitri, you are never going to hear the end of this."

Putting up his Guardian mask, and trying to regain his dignity, Dimitri gave his excuse.
"Well, she had a better teacher, obviously."

"True." I conceded. This brought a new round of laughter from my friends.

Dimitri's face softened, and he smiled.
"But I always said that you would be better than me. I knew from the moment you tried to defend Lissa from all of us that you would be great, and the more time I spent with you I realised that you would be one of the most Guardians the world has ever seen."

I couldn't think of a reply to that, so instead I kissed him quickly. I put the papers back in the tube, and motioned to Lissa to get me the next present.

"Thanks for that Sydney; it's always nice to have one's awesomeness re-affirmed by those who don't know you personally. They don't know that I would have kicked their asses if they had written any different."

"We wouldn't want you thinking less of yourself than you deserve now, would we? That would almost be modesty, and when Rose Hathaway shows anything like that, the world will end, so I was really just protecting the rest of us." She replied.

"When you're as badass as I am, there's no need for modesty. However good I think I am, I'll always be better. Therefore I will never know how good I truly am. It's a hard burden to bear, but someone has to do it."

Everyone either shook their head or rolled their eyes, and I turned my attention back to the small present in my lap. It was another from Eddie.
I ripped off the paper to find what looked like an ornate dagger handle. I flicked the button on the side, and out sprang a long silver blade, doubling the length of the weapon.

"Wow, Ed! This is great!" I shouted, running over and hugging him.

"Careful Rose, dagger in eye!" He warned. I moved back quickly.

"I can't believe you remembered! This is perfect!"

He smiled. "I'm glad. The blade is silver, so though it won't work like a stake, it'll still hurt like a bitch to a Strigoi."

I hugged him again, and turned to explain to the others.
"Years and years ago, we had this weapons workshop at school. There was this dagger I loved, and was really good with it. But it wasn't practical to carry around, as it was too big. So I said then that one day I would get one that the blade popped out of the handle, so I could carry it around. And this one even has the same pattern as that one."

I slashed the air with the dagger, before turning to Eddie, who winked in encouragement. Needing no further encouragement, I threw the dagger with perfect aim, and it thudded into the trunk of the pine tree that Christian was leaning up against, about an inch from the top of his head.

His eyes were wide, face paler than usual. "That was a good shot, Rose." He said, voice trembling.

"What are you talking about? I missed." I replied.

"Rose!" My mom shouted, but I waved her off.

"I'm not that much of a psycho. And yes, I was aiming for the tree. Give me some credit, mom. I can hit a target, especially when it's sitting still."

I collected the dagger from the tree, but couldn't resist feinting towards Christian quickly once, it was fun to see him cringe after all the inappropriate comments he had made about Dimitri and I the last couple of days.

I sat back down, and Lissa brought the next present over. It was wrapped in green paper, and I had a feeling it was from Adrian and with a quick glance over at him, I saw I was right.
The box was huge, and as I ripped the paper off of it, I saw something that made me cry out in excitement.

"I love having rich friends!" I shouted, running my hands over the new Xbox 360 in my lap. I had wanted one for ages, but couldn't be bothered to buy one myself.

Adrian laughed. "See, I told you when we met that being friends with me would have its benefits."

"Got that right, Ivashkov." I winked.

I heard a quiet growling sound, and turned to see Sydney giving me the evils. Adrian saw as well, and laughed.
"There's no need to be jealous, Syd. Rose told me exactly where I could stick that offer from the start.

She blushed, completely embarrassed. Adrian put his arm around her.
"Have to say babe, the jealous thing is very sexy on you, and the growl is a complete turn-on."

I decided to ease the tension that I was worried still hung between us.
"Eew! Adrian, that is the sort of thing that put me off you! Sydney, I don't know how you can stand it. Every time I'm near him, I feel that I need to bleach my brain to get rid of the feeling of dirtiness that infects it."

She smiled. "My mind was always so pure and clean, that it developed immunity to Adrian's dirtiness."

I smirked. "Maybe, but I think that secretly, you just love it."

"Yeah, especially when we're getting down and dirty." Adrian waggled his eyebrows, and she blushed again, causing the golden lily on her cheek to show up more, gold on red. That was like her and Adrian, pure gold, on lusty red, that contrasted but complimented each other so well.

I moved onto the next present; I didn't get the chance to say anything else to Adrian as his mouth was now firmly fused to Sydney's.
This was oddly shaped, with a cylindrical base and a blobby top. I carefully unwrapped it, and 2 books fell out the bottom. I picked them up, and saw 'Cooking for Dummies' and 'Baking for Dummies.' I gave Christian a withering look, and he grinned right back, gesturing to me to open the book. I saw a bookmark on one page, so I opened up to it. The title read; 'Cooking with Rosemary'. I groaned, suddenly getting an idea to what the rest of the present might be. Sure enough, I removed the remaining paper to find a small plant with long, thin, needle-like leaves, and a sharp smell.

Christian was laughing at the look on my face.
"I know how irritated you get when Lissa buys you rose stuff, so I decided to go one better. I thought, if you get that annoyed at references to a name you actually like, then how annoyed will you get when it's Rosemarie?"

I resisted the urge to jump on him and try out the quality of the silver dagger Eddie had given me, but instead plastered a smile over my face.
"Thanks for this, Chris. I really should learn how to cook, and where better place to start than the beginning? And you even gave me the first plant for my herb garden, how thoughtful. I knew you were a kind, caring person under all that sarcasm. I can't wait to try out my new stuff."

I dropped the act. "Before you gave me cooking stuff, which is basically like putting a match to gunpowder, and you know it, you should have remembered that we share a kitchen, dumbass."

Christian's eyes went wide. "Shit! Rose, forget it. Burn the books, just don't burn my kitchen down!"

Lissa looked like she was trying not to laugh, and I could feel the vibrations in Dimitri's chest.
"I think we can agree the whole 'cooking with Rosemary' thing was a mistake." I said, pointing to the heading in the book. "And so was screwing with her."

I threw the book at Christian's head, where it landed with a satisfying thud, He swore. "Fascist bastard." I said, and Lissa burst out laughing, in complete hysterics.

After she could breathe again, Christian passed her another present to give to me, also in red paper. "This is your real present, Rosie. Lissa said I should be nice to you, on your birthday and all."

I did my best shocked expression. "Lissa! You taught Christian manners! Seems like we have another thing to celebrate today."
She laughed.

I opened the next present, and was glad to see something relatively normal. Black Ops for my new Xbox.
"Thanks, Christian. I knew you weren't all bad." I said sincerely, and he nodded, still rubbing his forehead.

To be continued... ;)

Review and Dimitri will be your birthday present ;D