You know that expression that says "boring someone to tears"? Well, if we applied that I would be crying my heart out. Moroi Court had its perks, like the amazing windows in the housing building, the restaurant wing, the spa and leisure wing – which I admit I only used once or twice but it was heaven – but the regular Royal meetings blew everything away from my mind. The most boring and tiring gatherings I have ever experienced – even comparing to history of Moroi culture back at the academy, because then at least I was sitting down. These… things … were the worst, probably just because of the awful combination that they implied. We – guardians – would have to stay up against a wall, pretending a Strigoi attack was imminent – although it was very very unlikely that would happen – staring at the walls, ceiling, we reach a point where we make up things to look at, and culminating all of the above was the fact that we – or at least me – couldn't understand a single thing about Moroi legislation and burocracy.
So there we were. At the same-old amazingly boring royal meeting room – it's every single detail already carved painfully into my mind – after a tiring week of guardian work, university – the December preparation for the exam season was the worst - field trips and 4 late nights at the gym every week. I was, as you say, totally burned out. And as if that wasn't enough punishment we had the once-a-month-routine of 4 hour-drive back to Court and went directly to the stupid meeting, making this an all-nighter for me – Lissa had slept on the car. Thank god for Christmas holidays, which meant our stay wouldn't be of the usual 2 days but 3 blissful weeks. Nevertheless my physical and psychological exhaustion my work wouldn't be impaired – or at least I was making my best be effort for it not to be.
When you are tired you're mind often goes for the weirdest and most unusual thoughts…well…I'm no exception. My stare jumped from the spider on one the windows across the room to the guardians bellow making me remember that one of the discussing topics that Lissa had mentioned was change of the uniform. She had told me a week or so ago that one of the members of court had pitched the idea of changing the design of the royal court guardians – which I clearly remembered thinking it was an unnecessary and high-maintenance decision. My brain in all its splendour started to think about the wedding, and what were we going to wear – great association of ideas I know. Guardians – especially royal guardians – were known to use their uniforms for special occasions, almost like army officers and such. And although I didn't dislike the black and white clothes itself I started to picture me and Dimitri on the beautiful amazing Russian church with our black and white uniforms – I was so discussed by the simple mental image of it that it startled me from the mental haze I was in.
"Do you think we have to get married in our guardian uniforms?" I whispered to Dimitri who was a meter away from me. I had clearly woke him up from a haze as well – although his was probably more work focused than mine – the randomness of the question and the fact that we had had barely no time to talk since me and Lissa had arrived probably also didn't help. He looked at me like I was an alien.
"What?" he responded in a very low voice. He looked away for a second almost trying to remember my question – or maybe just trying to make sense of it – and asked again with a defeated and confused look "What?"
"Well, you know guardians use their uniform for everything official and important, it's almost like they don't have any more clothes for heaven's sake…" I gave to small side steps reducing the distance between us "Anyway, I was thinking if we had to get married in it as well, and since they are changing the design we could pitch in a few ideas…well at least make it a little more…celebratory…you know what I mean?"
I could see in Dimitri's expression that he was tempted to answer no he just remained silent while looking at me straight in the eyes in a disbelieving way. Maybe I was an alien…a really tired alien.
"Because…" I continued since I had no response from him "it's now like I care a lot about fashion as that stuff, that's more Lissa's department, but I want to look hot in my wedding, and…" I looked down at my attire "I'm sorry but you can't look hot in these things…"
Dimitri smiled and looked back to the wall opposite to us. "You look amazing in anything Rose…but no, we don't have to get married in our guardian uniforms" I saw that he held back a smile as he went in guardian mode, again. I can say that I tried to be focused…it didn't go very well…
The meeting lasted two more painfully boring hours. It reached a point at the end where I had to resort the extreme measures, so I was basically undressing Dimitri with my eyes – while trying not to make it too obvious because he was standing right next to me. At least that made me stay awake until it ended. As it did I basically pushed Lissa out of there, reaching her office as fast as we could – since, and to my dismay, she still had to organize a few papers before going to bed.
"I still think there's something wrong with it… maybe you should wait a little more before you show it to the council" Lissa shot me a sharp look from her desk, where she was looking for some papers "…just saying…" I laid back again in the leather couch.
"Rose you are starting to worry me, what's the matter?" she came closer and sat next to me, which was strange since she had a ton of things to do. Oh gosh now I had her worried, what's wrong with me?
"Nothing…I'm just tired, and you know me, my brain goes all stupid when I'm tired…" She didn't seem very convinced but it was the best I could do, my body was going into automatic shutdown.
I know that the whole thing was a bit uncharacteristic of me. But the fatigue got hold of all of my will to think rationally. And for me to be tired is saying a lot, we Dhampirs have better stamina and resilience than normal humans do, but all of the past month had taken a toll on me, and surprisingly, even to myself this wedding topic, deep down, me, Rose Hathaway, miss-i-don't-care-about-what-anybody-thinks, was afraid of letting everyone down, especially Dimitri, because I knew how much he wanted this. If I was going to do this wedding thing, I was going to do this properly and with a bang – as everything else I did. Even if it meant killing me in the process…well that is exaggerated, it takes more than that to kill me…but I can say that if a Strigoi attacked right now I would probably be done for.
"Are you ready Liss?" I asked, again, from the outside of the bathroom on her office his a desperate look on my face "You asked me to call for the car at an exceptionally early might I add, and now everyone is waiting for us! Well for you actually"
"Okay, I'm ready let's go…" she said promptly appearing from the bathroom and rushing to main door "Come on then!"
"Oh now you are rushing me…" I said trying my best to follow her fast pace "Where are we going exactly?"
"You'll see" she looked back in a flinch and I could distinguish a track of an excited smile, that smile of hers when she teased me about something.
"We arrived the day before yesterday, you make me wake up at 3 p.m! I'm not ready for surprises yet" I grunted as we got outside and the sun was still annoyingly shining. I noticed the 2 extra guardians entering the car "Why the extra guardians Lissa?" I yawned.
"Because you are getting the day off" she smiled widely opening the back door of the SUV to me.
"I am? Why? You know I bitch about waking up early but give me a few minutes and I'll be fine"
"No, you have been working a lot, both studying and well…everything else. You need an extra day off, and also I arranged a surprise so we are going dress shopping…for the wedding, because I can't hear you anymore with you're absolutely preposterous fashion ideas for the uniforms" she giggled slightly and closed the door leaving us in the darkened back seat.
"Auch, you don't have to insult my fashion sense, I was tired I wasn't in control of my own thoughts" I stuck out my tongue at her and squeezed her hand "I'm insulted though…" she sent me a curious questioning look "you added 2 more guardians…I thought I was worth at least 3, this can damage my reputation you know?" I shot a serious look at her to which she responded with a laugh and hit my arm with her closed fist.
We got to Pittsburgh in around 1 and a half hours – I swear these guys knew some short cuts or something – most of which we basically slept through. The sun was almost down when we got there but thankfully and Lissa assured me that the shops closed at 7:30 p.m. as we got out I couldn't help to realise we were the centre of attention apparently Lissa had made an appointment and she must have said that we were some kind of famous people – to which the 4 guys in black and white uniforms kind of unwantedly helped sell out – because there was people waiting with champagne and very irritatingly perky faces.
"Who is Rose?" a red haired asked with an overly excited tone for this hour of the day – okay I kind of forgot they didn't know we had just woken up – oohh this is going to be good….
I raised my arm just an inch which obviously didn't go unmissed by the woman who approached me very quickly in her surprisingly big high wheels. She unceremoniously took my arm and basically dragged across the shop – which was overwhelming how big it was. As I glanced quickly back at Lissa I saw that she was following me with the 4 guardians around her. Her face showed how amused she was, probably even more so after seeing the panicked look I had just sent her.
We reached a small alcove with chairs against the walls and a circular pedestal in the middle, facing a huge glass that occupied the entire back wall. There was a small door that I imagined lead to a room where people could change into the dresses since this bigger space was opened to corridor we came from. The overly-excited woman turned to us again and gestured so we would sit down, doing the same herself.
"So tell me more about yourself and you hubby!" I exchanged a partially scared partially what-the-hell-is-this look with Lissa and thought to myself how nice it would have been to share the bond with her right now. The woman went on like nothing was happening "How did you two meet? What do you do for a living? Where is the wedding?" Gosh was this a wedding dress fitting or a dam interrogation, who does this woman think she is? I looked at Lissa again she looked at me with the nicest and most warming smile, almost….argh…excited to hear my answer. She was always good with people, a lot better than me – although that was not hard – so she was actually enjoying this whole thing. Argh the woman started to look at me with a disappointed look, I really had to answer her….
"Well… we met…well…after I finished school…and…we are both….bodyguards…" okay don't blame me alright?! I was caught off guard…so my answers were pretty shitty "The wedding is going to be next August in Siberia – he is Russian" I added the last part quickly seeing the woman's chocked look. Well I guess most people that come dress shopping in Pittsburgh the farter they go to get married is Philadelphia or something…not Russia. When I finished she gave a squeal and asked me to accompany her the adjacent room where she gave me a pink robe and some slippers to put on while she fetch the dresses- I put on the robe deciding the slippers were just too much for me.
"You're maid of honour told me you hadn't shopped for any dresses yet so I'll bring you some different styles so you can see what you like the most" She said leaving the room, not giving me any time to answer, my though was that she really didn't care about my answer. She and Lissa had been talking and she probably had gathered from our early meeting that Lissa was far easier to talk to and to persuade than me. I'm gonna kill you Liss… I got out of the room in my fabulastic silk pink robe only to be blinded by a flash followed by a giggle.
"Lissa, why in the name of Vladimir are you taking pictures?!" I put my hands on my waist trying to look as pissed off as I truly was – a hard task when you are in a pink robe.
"Evidence. If I say to people you actually tried on wedding dresses nobody will believe me" She grinned. I heard a quiet laugh from the back of the room. I put on my game face and stomped to the 2 guardians that stood close to the hallway.
"If any of you says a word of what happens today to ANYONE, you are both dead, you are ALL dead" I spoke a little louder so the other 2 guardians in the end of the hallway could hear me as well "Not a word! Believe me!" I think the message got through since they showed now very serious and frightened looks. Thank god my reputation preceded me…
For my infortune and Lissa's amusement the red-haired apparently called Clara (I only now remembered reading her name-tag) re-appeared – well I think it was her, because the only thing we could see was white, since the amount of dresses she brought were completely concealing her beneath the fabric. There had to be about 6 dresses on her! Her back hunched forward in order to support the weight. She gave me a signal with her head so I got in to the changing room, I obliged, part of me feeling sorry for the poor woman. And then the real party started. I almost felt the need for one of those background soundtracks you find in really bad chick-flicks.
As I tried on the first dress I felt the urge to dig a whole on the ground right then and there and burry myself, with it on. I got out, first peaking slowly through the cracked door and then approaching the pedestal and stepping on to it. I shot Lissa a fiery angry don't-you-dare-make-a-sound look through the mirror and then, taking a deep breath I looked properly at myself. I looked like something between an exaggerated cartoon and a weird cake. The dress was very, VERY puffy, the bottom covered by several layers of tulle and had the top with a big draping that wrapped around the shoulders, all the fabric in satin, that overly shinned from the incandescent lights.
Lissa looked and me and smiled, almost a pity smile, dam…she knew this whole thing was rather painful for me, but even so she enjoyed it, she just couldn't help it. The woman started to explain the dress, something about princess style with embellished something…honestly I didn't really hear it, I was trying my best not to burst out laughing.
"I don't think it's you…" Lisa finally said with a compliant look.
"You think?!" I stated with a very ironic tone "I'm going to go and undress this and save us from further humiliation okay?" I got down from the pedestal at once and headed to the changing room not before sending a threatening look over to the guardians present.
The second dress was a little better – which actually isn't that hard considering the first one – it was tight fitted along the waist and thighs but then reaching the knees it...exploded… is the word better fitted. I got out with difficulty seen that the shape of it didn't allow much movement.
"Well… this one at least shows off my body…I'm not submersed in fabric anymore…" I thought out loud. Unfortunately Lissa heard me and as usual took too much of my words.
"You like it then?!" she said fast, with a wide smile on her face. I glanced over through the mirror to the guardians behind me whose eyes were too fixed on my, now very defined, body – we can say the guardian uniform doesn't put to evidence my curves.
"Yey yey yey….i never said like you did not hear me profess that word…." Her smile fell "I can't even move in this!" okay now she had an irritated look "I'm sorry Liss but if I'm gonna get married I am going to have to be able to dance to the awful 80's music Dimitri is bound to put during the reception" I turned to look at her while she raised her hands in a surrendering gesture. Thank god some of Dimitri's never-show-emotion-vibes were starting to rub off on me because I was able to – quite skilfully – hide the fact that his love for 80's songs was actually starting to grow on me. "OR…imagine there is a str….an attack…I can't go running around in this" I replaced my words remembering about Clara's presence next to us, who was apparently very surprised that there could be an attack at my wedding. Lissa's eyes opened widely and suddenly and with all her royalty grace she turned her gaze to the red-haired woman.
"There is going to be a few … influential people in her wedding" she paused "And you know bodyguards…always on duty…" she laughed softly and a bit forced, although the Clara didn't seem to notice "But…" she turned to me again "you shouldn't worry about that Rose… but okay… it has to be practical…you are right"
Clara nodded very attentive to what Lisa was saying and helped me step down and off we went to try another dress. I was starting to feel like a Barbie doll.
"Third is the charm" Clara said with a grin as she opened the door for me. I looked myself in the mirror, thinking hard, because I didn't like it…but I also didn't hate it. This dress although not as thigh as the last one it still showed some of my awesome curves, it was almost a straight line to the bottom and it had a little bit a trail, just a little. It had a reasonable amount of cleavage. I came to the conclusion that the only downer of it was the lace and the decoration. It was all covered in very detailed lace with tiny pearls – probably just a cheap knock off of pearls. The shape of the dress was nice but the accessories ruined it. Everyone was looking at me – specifically at my pensive look – and I was kind of dreading to admit that I actually liked…some of it.
"Well…" that was all I had to say. Dam it, Lisa knew me too well. To my words she immediately started to smile "Stop it Liss!" I hastened to say, giving her a disapproving look "I really like the shape of it… and the cleavage… But it has too much lace and pearls….just too many details"
Clara seemed to be getting more excited as well – which I didn't know if it was the fact that I actually liked something or Lissa was just compulsing her to it. We walked back to the little room and I turned to her so quickly – I can't help my guardian reflexes – that she jumped slightly in surprise.
"Also, don't you have something with colour in it, like red…or grey…or black" her face showed confusion and scorn "Just a little detail with a colour other than white…just a small part" I quickly added trying to reduce her resentment for my will to have black in my wedding dress.
"I'm going to look, give a minute I'll be right back" she gave me a forced smile and left. Gosh maybe I was actually going to need Lisa's compulsion or else the woman would hate me by the end of our visit. I peeked out through the half opened door and made sure Clara was nowhere to be found before I spoke.
"Lisa can you maybe use a little compulsion with her, I think she's starting to hate me…" Liss looked up at me from her phone where she seemed to be texting something rather fast.
"I shall not… maybe if you weren't so difficult she would like you better…" she gave me a half playful half disapproving look "Where did she go anyway?"
"I asked if she had anything in red…or black…"
"Rose, don't you dare!" I put on my puppy-eyed-look….it didn't work. Clara came back with a very serious look that kind of scared me. I followed her quickly, not wanting to get on her nerves – well any more than I had already did – and closed the door behind me. There were four little pins in the wall she hung on 3 of them the dresses she had just brought in. The first one was a full on red dress with a LOT of draping from head to toe. The second one was white with a wide black sash accentuating the waist, the shape was weird though, it was – as she described it – an "A" line, almost like a big triangle in the bottom, I didn't like it. The third one, and I hate to say it, and it will sound really cliché, but when I caught sight of it I liked every single thing about it. I pointed at it and put it on at once. I put on a smile – which much to her dismay inevitably made Clara smile as well, she didn't want to admit it at first, but it was my dress. I got out and turned to the mirror. I have to say it looked much better on me than it did on the hanger.
The dress was a simple, plain white flowy fabric, it hugged my body perfectly, flattering every curve of it, it was close tight and then half-way down my thighs it widened down, dropping in a slight trail around me. The top was a straight cut strapless it didn't show a lot of cleavage but it accentuated the chest in an amazing way because it had a kind of wrap around the chest and shoulders of dark grey lace, but it wasn't a detailed, exaggerated lace like before. This one was open and you could see perfectly the designs that complemented the simplicity of the rest of the dress.
After what must have been a couple of minutes of silence and suspense I glanced over at Lisa who watched me very attentive, if I didn't know any better I would say she was trying to read my mind to guess my reaction. I couldn't help it I started to laugh. I truly couldn't stop, they were soft low laughs but they didn't go unnoticed because soon Lissa and Clara showed the most blissful and mesmerized smiles I had ever seen and both guardians were, at a distance, looking – no – staring at me, probably in a mix between trying not to laugh as well, and taking out their phones and watching me having a crazy-person moment.
"I think this is the one" I turned and looked at Lissa.
"Really Rose? You look beautiful, truly" she got up and came closer, holding my hands at first and then, not being able to stop herself, hugged me. I can say that I'm not a girly girl that dreams about her wedding since she was 5 years old, although ever since I met Liss one thing I knew for sure is that I wanted her next to me all the way whatever happened. We gone through so much, and sometimes I actually thought we would strain apart, but thankfully we always were able to make peace and remain best-friends. And I may not admit it out loud but I was glad I was doing this. And I was glad she was by my side helping me. My strain of thoughts was broken when I felt something wet on my arm.
"Liss… are you crying?" I looked down at her – since I was on the little pedestal it was one of the rare times were I was actually taller than her – pulling away from our embrace slightly "ow Liss don't cry" I wiped a tear from her cheek "I promise I won't ruin the dress, and besides Russian vodka probably doesn't leave a stain" I smiled kindly at her like I was saying the most normal thing ever. She laughed and gave me a light punch in my arm.
Sifting sideways to look at Clara she finally said: "We'll take this one" her smile irradiated joy that could be seen from miles away, and then she put a pensive look again "Can you show us what shoes you have, and accessories for the hair?" My attention was shifted from the dress to Lissa with a surprised and scared look.
"What? Shoes?" I asked coming down from the pedestal holding the dress so I wouldn't trip.
"Well you don't expect me allowing you to go with combat boots to your own wedding are you?" She had a disapproving face and quickly followed Clara out. I caught hold of the end of the dress, pulling it up, holding it sideways with one of my hands and started to run after them, because suddenly they were nowhere to be seen. I swear I heard a laugh from the guardian, which I ignore but honestly couldn't hold it against them if I saw myself right now I would burst out laughing. Me, royal guardian Rose Hathaway fairly big reputation from killing and kicking ass was running crazily in a middle of a wedding shop with a wedding gown filled with blue pins on the back, pulled up to my thighs showing my black combat boots. Yeah…not something you see every day…
We arrived home at 6 a.m the next day. I don't know how she did it, but Lissa had apparently managed to book us a session at a 24h spa – although after looking at the people that worked there I had no doubt that they were Moroi so it explains the weird work schedule – so after massages with rocks and herbs and I don't know what else, I don't think I wanted to know in truth, we went back to Court. The dress stayed at the shop for some slight adjustments and they promised to ship it back to us when it was ready, more specifically to Lissa because she said, and I quote "It's bad luck for the groom to see the dress before the wedding…and we can't risk it"
So I arrived home with nothing but a shoe box, quite a disappointing sight after the day of trying out dresses we had just had. The Sun was already up and it filled our apartment with a warm light that quite contrasted the cold air outside. I was actually tired, which was weird considering we spent the last 4 hours in a spa, but what can I say, luxury treatment tires you if you are not used to it.
I put the shoe box on top of the coffee table as my attention was caught by the huge transparent bag laying perfectly on the length of the couch. It had a suit inside it. I came closer. It was a dark grey suit – actually now that I thought about it, it was the same grey from my dress – jacket and trousers, with a black shirt and white sash around the low waist. It was really nice. I though back to the compulsive texting Lissa had been doing during the day, she had probably been informing Dimitri on what we were choosing…well the colour pallet at least.
I smiled to myself, picturing Dimitri in the suit I walked to the kitchen rummaging the fridge for something to eat. I grabbed an apple and suddenly I felt something – someone – holding me from behind. The smell of his cologne filling me as he kissed my bare shoulder.
"Are you feeling better?" he asked, I could feel his smile widen against my skin.
"You were a part of this fantastic plot weren't you?" I put the apple on the counter and turned slowly to face him, giving him my I'm-not-happy-with-this look as best as I could, although I don't think he bought it.
"Well, in my defence Vasilisa was the mastermind…" he gave me one of those puppy looks than were so rare but made me go weak at the knees. I cupped his face with both my hands and bought my face closer, only a few inches separating our lips.
"You are forgiven…" he smiled…oh god how I could resist those smiles… "On one condition…" I shifted my face kissing the corner of his mouth, his cheek moving back to his earlobe, his neck. I loved teasing him, mostly because I knew it drove him crazy and that right now he was probably bursting from controlling himself not to hold me right then and there and kiss me….among other things… I came back to face him, looking him straight in those delicious chocolate brown eyes I smile provocatively "…You put on that suit and give me a trial run…"
Hello everybody, i wanna start by thanking everyone who followed and favorited and mostly reviews, you are amazing and make my days 200% better. I hope you like this one.
I have a feeling that this chapter is a little bigger than the previous ones, but i don't think you will mind ahah.
As usual the title of the next one is: Between Flowers and Snacks
Reviews – either of 1 word or 50 - are always a ray of sunshine in a cloudy day :)