The days – and nights – were starting to warm up thanks to the approaching summer, and looking outside the opened window at the sun peaking over the horizon I decided to ditch the leather jacket I usually carry around. Deciding the short sleeve back shirt would be sufficient.
"Liss, are you ready?" I put the jacket on the back of the chair near the entrance and sat down, crossing my legs impatiently. "I am I always waiting for you?" I said holding back a chuckle.
"Well I am the queen" she said coming out of her bedroom. I rolled my eyes "And it is kind of… you know… your job"
"I know" emphasising it like the obvious statement it was "Doesn't justify your inability to follow timetables, ones that aren't university stamped at least"
She sent me a sarcastic laugh and taped my leg "Come on then let's go!"
I got up lazily and followed next to her slowing my usual pace to match hers.
"Anyhow you should be excited, we haven't been shopping in ages!" she said grinning me merely. I sent her a are-you-kidding-me look which she promptly ignored.
"I love shopping when I actually get to try on clothes…you know really…shop" I put my arm around her and sighed Not today I though not today…
"I can try out somethings for you…"
"That wouldn't end well" I laughed softly thinking about the differences between both of our bodies. She was very thin, almost no curves what so ever, and a few inches taller than me. I, on the other hand, was almost the exact opposite, smaller but more muscular, curvy in the hips and chest. Enough said since the age of 13 that we hadn't been able to wear each other clothes. With is unfortunate, at least in situations like this.
The car ride was surprisingly fast, after all we had just travelled to the nearest town, but I had gotten used to the fact that everytime we got onto that car it was for the long sweet and sour drives back to Court. Sour because after a full week of guardian duty and training and university essays we were always too exhausted to do anything. Sweet because it meant 3 days of absolute bliss, with less security details and of course Dimitri waiting for me with his big, warm godly arms opened.
This, however, wasn't one of those weekends. We arrived at the mall at 9 a.m, half an hour before stores opened but it meant we had extra time for a delicious cup of coffee. We sat – very sleepily I may add – in one of the round café tables, me, Lissa, Jack and Logan. I took a sip of my coffee watching Lissa and tried, quite uselessly, to keep her eyes opened. I suddenly remembered Dimitri telling me to enjoy hot chocolate for as long as I could, once I started guardian duty I would become too dependent of coffee. As usual he was quite right, not that my love for sweet beverages had disappeared but the caffeine became sort of a necessity for trips like this or early shifts – or even economics' essays, although I don't think he was thinking about these when he gave me that advice. I smiled, longing for one of his doubled hot chocolate.
When Logan noticed the shop keepers starting to hustle around he gave me a nod, signalling me that we should start heading for the shop. He got there early so that we could avoid the chaos of the Saturday morning shoppers, easing the security procedures.
As we got in the employees looked curiously at us, probably thinking about who in the name of the lord would come so early to shop, or maybe just wondering about the scary big bulked man lurking around me and Lissa – I definitely had to suggest those two to blend in a little more, although it was hard to blend in in a women's clothes shop.
Lissa quickly starts to gather quite a collection of dresses to try out. I take some out of her hands – after all the woman in the changing rooms wouldn't let her enter with all of those – before the blink of an eye, she is out there getting more dresses.
"Yey Liss… how about you try these on first and then pick new ones. You aren't even looking at them properly!" I came closer to her and pusher her away from the hangers and in the direction of the changing rooms.
"Well you didn't specify a colour so you should see all of them and decide which you prefer"
So here I was sitting on one of those pink fluffy seats, sending plages to the God above for not letting me try out that amazing green cocktail dress. Lissa put it on, as always it looked beautiful, but it definitely had that type of cut suitable for someone with a little more curves. Which only pissed me off more.
"I'm not feeling this colour…" she said looking pensative at the mirror "I think it should be a pastel colour, it will look better with your dress" I nodded unconsciously, looking around at the entrance to check on Logan and Jack who gave me an assertive nod.
"You should have gone to a fashion course" she totally should have, truly. She had a very classy sense of style, formal, but really nice, mostly the one you see on high-end shops. Unfortunately – for both of us – she had god to management.
"I don't think that would help with running the Royal Court"
Which was true, it was hard to believe at first but being Queen of the Moroi didn't actually involve that much….well…Queening… but much more economic balances and fixing management problems, which was where the super boring classes came in. Hell when I am responsible for the Royal guard, maybe then they will finally be of use to me… who I am kidding I would never get a desk job. I would go absolutely crazy. And believe me I've been there and it's not something I want to repeat anytime soon. I need something that can release my accumulated adrenaline. Although even now that only happened really at the gym, because nobody had been attacking anybody lately.
My attention was turned once more to Lissa who came out wearing a long, almost Greek inspired, dress. The colour was somewhere between a light grey and light blue. It looked absolutely beautiful on her, but then again, most dressed did. I put both my thumbs up in approval.
"This is it. This is the one!"
My smile broke into suprisse. It was the third dress she had tried on.
"Already?" I asked half-jokingly "You have like a hundred dresses behind you, and you are choosing the third one?" she sent me an accusing look when I said a hundred.
"I don't need to try anymore, I know this is the one…"
I stared at her, disbelievingly.
"Now apart from healing and compulsing you can also see the future? It's like the holy trinity or something" I sent my arms forward in a sort of exaggerated bowing movement. She laughed and slapped my arm "Okay, okay, you are the boss… i just feel sorry for the poor dresses, ignored… despised…"
"You can try them on if you want" she said with an apologetic smile, knowing what my answer would be.
"You know I can't" she pulled the curtain, closing the small booth.
"Tell you what, since now you made me feel guilty about you not getting to try out any clothes we'll so window shop for a little while longer" I smiled as she peeked her head over the heavy fabric "I need to go get me some earrings to wear to the ceremony, and YOU need to buy the rings!" her tone rising as if she had forgotten about it until now. I know I had.
"Okay you win, but only if we stop by the cosmetic shop, you know what I like and I need some new eye shades" I grinned like a small kid asking for a sweet even know she couldn't see me. She gave me an excited uh-huh from the other side of the curtain.
After we – or rather she, because I there was no way I would spend that much on a dress that simple – paid for it, we headed out the door and into the now busy corridors. People had started to arrive as the morning progressed and the mall was now bustling with dozens of shoppers jumping from one store to another. I kind of missed behind around people, my job meant that I was constantly with Lissa, and I was pretty well known at Court so it meant that even when we weren't alone everybody knew me. At uni was the first place where I felt the freedom of behind completely unknown somewhere – no expectations, no pre-made standards – it also made me realise how much I missed being around strangers, behind in a place filled with faces I didn't know and that didn't know me, it was liberating. I absorbed the sensation once more. As we came to a halt as we passed the jewellers'. Lissa was almost jumping up and down when she entered the shop, followed by me and the other two guardians. She always loved buying jewellery, rings and necklaces and earrings and everything that came with it. Unlike me, I wasn't much for those things, I preferred a nice clothes, make up, I guess it came with a job. Being a guardian, and even when I was a novice, it meant that physical combat was a daily affair, jewellery would only get in the way, and I wouldn't risk the chance of anything slowing me down or even putting me in a disadvantage.
There was a bodyguard at the entrance of the shop and another one near the small door that lead to the back room – probably where they stored all the goodies. I saw the taser guns on their holster and started to wonder if Strigoi would get stunned by it. Lissa got down to business quickly before I realised she had started to talk to a middle-aged woman who stood behind the counter. They chatted enthusiastically when suddenly Lissa caught my arm and pulled me to her with a jolt.
"And… This is Rose, she is looking for wedding bands" she informed the woman with a huge grin.
"Congratulations!" the woman answered back with equal enthusiasm.
"I'm going to go over there and look at the earrings" Lissa said and then came closer to me and whispered "Behave okay?" turning promptly around over to the glass cabinet a few meters away, giving me no time to react because the woman stated talking right away.
"So what do you have in mind? Here are some examples…" She took out some velvet trays with several rings in them. My first impulse was to say aren't all wedding bands the same? But on same level they were and at the same time they weren't. They all looked the same at first, but the small details differentiated them. Ones seemed slightly twisted with small engravings, some were with round edges others were flat with straight corners. Some had names on the inside, other dates. I suddenly started to get a little overwhelmed. I looked down at my hand, imagining it with a wedding ring, I kind of couldn't. I got my mind fixed in seeing it holding a stake, then I got used to the idea of the over-the-top engagement ring, although it didn't wear it all the time, it would get in the way if there was a fight. But the wedding ring, it was small enough so I'd be wearing it all the time. Again it was weird since it was such a small, inconsequential thing, but I couldn't wrap my mind around it. I glanced again at the gold bands in the tray in an absorbed manner.
"Silver…" The woman looked curiously up at me "I want a wedding ring of silver" I smiled to myself, kind of surprised at my own poetic intentions. It was suitable since our whole life revolved around it in one way or another we would always be bound to it. Suddenly it was like the stake in my _ weighed down.
"Very well. Any engravings?" I looked at her with a blank expression… or what most people cal a stupid face. I had no idea. Me and Dimitri had never actually talked about this kind of things. I remembered that film we saw a few weeks ago where the woman bought the guy a watch with a quote engraved behind it. My mind went absolutely blank. I couldn't think of nay citation we both liked, or that had any special meaning to both of us. The woman was starting to look impatient by my lack of speech. I was probably looking dumb folded for a few minutes now. I had to say something.
"Hum….Ye…Yes…" Well done Rose, you never cease to amaze me. Should we get our names? I don't know! I have no freaking idea, gosh! Who the hell put me in charge of these things? "Maybe the date?" I finally said, in a sort of question mode but the woman assumed it as a statement.
"Good choice" she smiled politely, but I had to admit that her smile gave me some comfort in my decision "Let me check your size" she put a sample ring on my ringer that was too big, she then tried another one a little smaller. It fitted perfectly "Very well" she wrote down the number of it "And you're fiancé's size?"
I froze. Shit! You are in a roll today! I looked down at my hand, trying to visualise Dimitri's hand on mine. Something that happened very often, but I couldn't picture the difference between them, I knew his were bigger…but, how bigger?
Gosh this trip was slowly turning out to be a complete fiasco – taking out of the equation Lissa's dress, but quite honestly I hadn't interfered in that.
"Well maybe the size above mine? Make it two sizes…" better safe than sorry.
She looked at me suspiciously but wrote down the number anyway "Okay, since it's silver and we don't have any orders today just go and take a walk around and in an hour these will be ready… Ow and sign here, and put the date you want engraved… here" she pointed to an empty box in the small piece of paper. I sighed in relieve as I read the small print that said there was a 30 day exchange policy.
After that we walked around for a bit, then, realising we hadn't eaten in hours, decided to stop by the food court. I was craving myself some pancakes. Lissa, as usual went for the healthier option – yogurt with red berries – Jack and Logan went for the cliché, cheese sandwiches. The hour passed by quickly with food and some new make-up stock. People were starting to arrive for lunch, taking some minutes out of their busy schedule to do some window shopping, the mall was beginning to get a little too crowded for Lissa's taste – she didn't like big gatherings of people – so we went to pick up the small box with the rings and headed back to the car. Lissa slept the entire journey back I read a gossip magazine in order to stay awake, and in order to put away the nerves, it was June already, the date was getting closer. Don't get me wrong i could never have seconds thoughs about marrying my Russian God. I was however terribly afraid the whole thing would go terribly wrong... i don't know with my luck and if my wedding planning skills were an omen a dam blizzard in the middle of August would bring down the church. I tried to visualise my warm bed waiting for me back at the dorm...every would be okay...maybe...once i get some sleep.
I entered the gym to find it busy with guardians running around, or better, fighting around. It was 6 a.m and a lot of the court's guardians had gone off-shift, so as usual they took that free time to practice. I walked through the huge hall nodding along as some head turned towards me, bidding me good night and welcoming me back. I went straight to the heavy bag, wrapping up my hands carefully and attacking it as fearlessly as ever. I had in about 7 punches when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Naturally, since I'm in – as I like to refer to it – kill mode, I instinctively spun around ready to punch whoever was behind me. Thankfully the person in question knew me all-to-well and deviated from my blow as quickly as I had deferred it.
"I'm glad to see you too" He said, that hint of Russian accent dripping from his voice like honey to my ears. I must have shown a very apologetic expression because Dimitri started to grin playfully.
"I'm sorry Comrade, but you should know better than to sneak up on me" I approached him, putting my hands over his chest and getting on the tips of my toes, I kissed him softly on the lips.
"You know I love sneaking up on you" he kissed my forehead endearingly.
"Then you have to suffer the consequences" I laughed pushing away from him slightly. I have to admit I hadn't seen him for so long I didn't trust myself to be very near him – at least with all these people in the same room "Lissa told me Christian wasn't home yet, so I figured you hadn't finished for today…"
"He went back a few minutes ago. So I'm off-duty" he started down at me, his brown hair covering his face and shading from preying eyes the mischievous look he was giving me. That look dispensed any words, it spoke by itself.
"I am SO done for today" I smirked back at him. Picking up my bag – I had come straight to the gym after dropping off Lissa, so I was still carrying the bag around – and enlacing my fingers in his. We walked out of the gym rather quickly, as usual I couldn't help but notice some looks directed at us from the newest guardian at Court. The rest of them already knew us, but I figured the new ones might not be accustomed to 2 guardians showcasing affection between them. That, or they just had heard of our famous – or to some people infamous – reputation. We were half the way back to our house when I remembered something.
"I have a present for you!" I almost screamed. I dropped my bag on one of the benches on the hallway and rummaged the inside. For a moment there I started to panic I wasn't finding it – partially I blamed the mess of clothes I didn't had patience to fold neatly – but my fingers finally found the little black velvet box that had been in the bottom of the bag for the last 2 weeks. I pulled it out with enthusiasm and handed it over to him.
"Are you going to propose to me?" He arched his eyebrow. I hated when I did that, but at the same time I also loved it "You know I did that already…" he continued. He loved teasing me.
"Will you shut up and open it already" I said exasperated from the anticipation.
He smiled at it and opened the lid showing the two silver rings "Yours is the bigger one" I pointed anxiously "I chose silver…I thought…since we are always around silver stakes and all"
"When did you turn into such a poet?" he took the ring from the box and read the inscription on the inside, smiling fondly.
"Such a tone of surprise!" I smacked his shoulder to which he reacted like he was hurt. Gosh I missed him…Gosh I say this every time we are back together, I'm turning into one of those mushy, honey coated girlfriends. He handed the box back to me and slid the ring on his finger. It stopped half-way down. My face dropped.
"Fuck" I let out a little too loudly than I originally wanted. I held his hand on mine, pulling it closer to me, so I could see the ring properly. Why were his hands so big?! Like it was not normal!
"I think you got the size wrong…" he stated, almost sounding apologetic. He probably knew I was pissed about getting it wrong and didn't want to annoy me more. It didn't work.
"You think? Who order you to have huge giant hands?!" I released his hand in a gesture of forfeit. I also sounded a lot bitchier than I actually intended. He took the ring out and put it back in the box, closing it afterwards.
"Don't worry I'm sure they'll be able to widen it…" he put his arm around my shoulder, gently caressing my arm. We continued walking to our apartment, my discouragement obviously reflected in my pace, we were walking a lot slower than before.
"I know… but I'm still angry, I should have figured out it needed to be bigger…" I mumbled looking down at the marble floor.
"Well, think of it this way, it's good we realised it now, it would be worst if we only noticed it during the ceremony" I looked up at him with a frown.
"You are not helping…at all!"
"Come on…" he pulled away a stand of my hair, placing it behind my ear "I also have a present for you…"
I looked up at him only to find one of his looks that I was happy to know was only directed at me – his wayward, naughty, I'm-up-to-something-and-I-know-you-will-like-it smile – I smirked "You do? What is it?"
He got really close to my ear and whispered "You'll find out when we get to the apartment" his eyebrows doing that playful dance that teased me so. I held his hand in mine and without a moment's notice I started to run, pulling him behind me, as he laughed away. As we sprinted through the hallway like a couple of teenagers I thought that I had an idea of what "my present" was, and I wanted it, as soon and promptly as humanly possible.
Hello hello, i got a little too excited with some Vampire Academy edits and i only managed to finish this today. I hope you like it - and i hope you keep keeping up with the story, since the last chapter didn't have a lot of response...
(btw if you want to check out my edits my tumblr name is doubtthestarsarefire)
Poor Rose doesn't catch a break in this whole wedding plan thing ahah
Chapter 9 is called: The day before
I hope you all like this one. Please review, you know i love hearing from all of you :) ly