Richelle Mead owns the VA and Bloodlines series.

This one shot is actually a companion to chapter 19 in Of Magic and Misery. If you read that story you'll want to check out that chapter first. If you don't read it then you can still read this one shot. It's about Rose apologizing to Adrian for everything that happened between them.

Review and let me know what you think!

I had to admit, I really wasn't expecting Rose Hathaway to drag me away from the dance floor tonight. It was Sonya and Mikhail's wedding and our whole group was attending. I'd been talking to Eddie while he watched Jill and Angeline dance with Sonya and her cousin.

Rose had smiled—although it looked almost painfully strained—and asked me to talk to her in private for a few minutes. As we walked outside into the frigid, winter air I kept thinking about how I might have felt if this were happening a few months ago. Before Sydney.

I probably would have ignored her and taken another sip of whatever the cocktail server had on her tray. Or maybe I would have blown up at her again, the way I'd done after Tasha had confessed to killing my aunt and Rose had finally recovered from a near fatal injury. A part of me had known how big of an asshole I'd been to her. I shouldn't have yelled at her like that, I'd never yelled at anyone like that before. Ever. But I'd felt so stupid after seeing her and Dimitri together. So used, so... unwanted. I'd taken it all out on her when I knew I was at least partially to blame. After all, I did know how she felt about Dimitri. It wasn't like that had been a surprise.

"So," I said once we were away from the comfort of the warm, glowing greenhouse. I pulled my suit jacket closed, trying to stay warm. "What do you want to talk about?"

Rose faltered for a second and I raised an eyebrow in astonishment. Rose Hathaway was nervous, because of me. "I was just talking to Sydney," she said finally.

And suddenly I was nervous.

Had she said something about me? About us? Was Rose about to grill me for dating a human? Was that what this was about?

"She sort of put me in my place," Rose went on. She laughed to herself. "Who would have guessed Sydney would be the one to do it?"

I smiled. "Anyone who's ever met Sydney," I told her, even though it had obviously been a rhetorical question.

She looked nervous again. "Yeah. Look, Adrian... I'm sorry. I'm sorry I hurt you."

She stuttered awkwardly over her apology and I felt kind of bad for her. I wasn't really that angry anymore and this was obviously taking a lot for her to say, so I decided to cut her a break.

"It's okay," I said. "I knew you were in love with Dimitri and I continued to ignore it long after I should have."

"I do love him," she said. "But that's not an excuse for what I did. I shouldn't have let things happen that way. I should have ended things with you before I let anything start with Dimitri. I'm sorry that I handled everything so badly."

I smiled a little. "You know, Rose, I was really mad for a long time. Playing the victim, as you said. But I'm not anymore. Don't beat yourself up too much about it. Honestly, I probably would have done the same thing if it had been... me. Let's just get over it already, okay? Friends?"

I held out a hand to her, accepting her apology, hoping she still thought of me as her friend. I'd missed her, I really had. I'd always liked Rose, aside from being attracted to her. I wasn't a hundred percent over what she'd done, but I was getting there. And, really, how could I stay angry with her when I would have done the same thing. When I told her that, I'd almost said if it were Sydney. I caught myself at the last second, but the intention was still there. I probably would have cheated on Rose with Sydney if we'd been in the same situation.

You know, if Sydney was that kind of girl.

"Friends," Rose smiled, taking my hand and shaking it. We grinned at each other, both happy we weren't fighting anymore. Standing there with her I realized how much I would hate it if we couldn't be friends again.

Rose looked uncomfortable for a moment, like she was debating her next words. But then she put on that guardian mask of her's and smirked.

"So, I'm going to have to start using my toes to count all of the times I caught you staring at Sydney tonight."

She'd said it lightly, but I knew she hadn't meant it that way. She was too damn observant for her own good. I went along with the light tone anyway.

"Well, have you seen her in that dress?" I joked. "I bet even you've checked her out a few times."

She smiled. "She does look good in that dress. Gold definitely suits her."

I couldn't help myself. I pictured the way Sydney looked tonight, all decked out in gold, her aura shimmering around her, looking as radiant as the sun, and smiled softly. "You have no idea how right you are."

"But she's human, Adrian," Rose said softly. "And an Alchemist. Don't you even care how wrong that is?"

"The past couple of months all I keep hearing about is how wrong everything is. Well, you know what?" I said, starting to feel angry. What right did Rose have to tell me right from wrong, anyway? "The most right I have ever felt in my whole life is when I'm with Sydney!"

"Adrian," Rose sighed. "She's not even close to your type. She wears pant suits with three inch heels. And the first time you saw her I believe you called her uptight. What could you possibly have in common with her?"

I remembered back to the first time I'd seen Sydney. It had been at Court while she was getting grilled for helping Rose. How things had changed since then.

"First of all, khakis with a blazer does not equal a pant suit. It's casual professional," I said deadpan, raising one finger in the air. "Besides, the heels are sexy. Kind of like a naughty librarian thing." I dropped my hand and looked at Rose seriously. "And secondly, I might have erred in my initial impression of her. I've had a lot of time to get to know her since then. And Sydney and I have everything in common. We're both lost in the worlds we were born into, desperately trying to figure out who we are and where we belong."

Rose looked like she wanted to roll her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but I kept going before she got a chance.

"And third," I continued, "how is a smart, funny, brave, attractive woman who likes architecture and cars and is the human equivalent of an encyclopedia not my type? At the risk of sounding incredibly cheesy here, to know Sydney is to love Sydney. And I know Sydney better than anyone."

"The point remains, Adrian," she said, not looking affected by my speech in the slightest. "She's human and you're Moroi. She's an Alchemist! How do you think this is going to play out for you?"

"You don't know the half of it, Little Damphir," I said, pulling my hands up to my mouth and blowing on them. It was really cold out here. How long was she planning on arguing with me for, anyway? "If the Alchemists find out about us they'll–"

"Us?" Rose demanded, cutting me off. She looked stunned. "This…this thing is mutual?"

"It is possible for a girl to actually like me, you know," I said, feeling slightly offended. But Rose wasn't listening to me. She was pacing back and forth, plodding a trench in the packed snow.

"How could this happen? It's ridiculous." She shook her head incredulously, her long, brown hair drifting over her shoulders. "Sydney knows better. She wouldn't. She's seen how the Keepers live. We agreed that it wasn't right."

"Sometimes love defies what's conventionally right or wrong and has to forge its own way," I said quietly. She still wasn't listening though.

"Are you sure she even knows about it?" she asked. "Sydney can be naive about things. Are you sure she doesn't just think you're friends?"

"She's not that naive," I said, feeling offended for Sydney. "But even if she were, I'm pretty sure even Sydney knows that sticking your tongue in someone's mouth crosses the line of mere friends."

She glanced up at me, her face twisted into an irritated expression I would have once found cute. "I'm going to talk to her," she said, turning and heading for the green house.

"No!" I said, moving to block her. "Rose, leave her alone. She doesn't need you berating her for the way she feels. She gets that enough from everyone else. You're supposed to be her friend."

"I am her friend," she argued, dodging me. "I'm your friend, too. And I'm only trying to save you both from the mistake you're making."

"Why is it a mistake?" I demanded, but she ignored me.

I grabbed her wrist and she spun around to face me. She looked pissed, and a pissed Rosemary Hathaway was something no one wanted to deal with, but I wasn't going to back down.

"Leave her alone," I said through a clenched jaw. "I don't want to have to compel you to forget everything I just told you, but so help me, Rose. I will."

She froze, her eyes narrowing. I was almost positive she was going to kick my ass and leave me broken and bleeding out here in the cold while she went inside and destroyed my relationship, but she didn't. Instead she shook off my hand and said, "You wouldn't."

I stood up straight, looking down at her. In the most deadly earnest tone I could manage I said, "I would. For her, I would do anything."

She looked unsure of me, like she was seeing me for the first time. I quirked my lips up into a smirk, hoping to ease the tension. "Even risk an epic ass kicking."

She weighed me with her gaze for another few moments before sighing. "I don't agree with this, and I think you're only setting yourself up for heartache, but you're serious about this, so I won't talk to her. Just yet."

"That's all I'm asking, Rose," I said. "Sleep on it. Talk to her about me all you want tomorrow, once you're not in a rush-in-and-think-later kind of mood. Sydney's having a hard enough time right now. Don't put your bigotry on her, too."

"Bigotry?" Rose demanded. She sounded mad, but I just raised an eyebrow at her. Bigotry was the exact definition of the reason she didn't want me and Sydney together, and from the way she bit her bottom lip she knew I was right. "Fine. I'll calm down and talk to her about it tomorrow."

I gave her a grateful smile. "Thank you."

Rose gave me one last look, a look that felt like she was trying to see directly into my thoughts. Finally the corner of her mouth turned up in the faintest trace of a smile. "She was right," she said. "You have changed."

Then, without another word, she walked back toward the warmth of the green house and the party.