Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy or anything surrounding it (but I do own this plot :D)
DPOV
When I pulled up to my apartment block, Rose's eyes widened further still. Ordinarily, I would have felt unbelievably smug when a girl gawked at my possessions but when it was Rose, I, in all honesty, felt a little ashamed. She was struggling to keep her job existent and here I was living the 'high life'.
"You live here?" she asked gently as though sensing my shame. I nodded guiltily and she smiled warmly, placing her hand on mine so I would look towards her. "It's awesome." She grinned. I offered her a small smile.
"Will you two love-birds hurry up; I am cold!" Ivan called from outside and I blushed furiously, realising I was leaning towards her. Rose pulled away and bit her lip nervously, her cheeks reddening. I quickly turned off the engine and hopped out the car, glaring at Ivan as I stepped out. He frowned but upon realising, he mouthed a remorseful apology.
"Oh, it is cold." Rose yelped as she jumped out of the car and I realised she was only in a black, short-sleeved shirt and a pair of black jeans – the compulsory waitress uniform for the Shadow Kiss Inn. I shrugged off my duster and offered it to her. She was about to reject but I was having none of it. "Thank you." She said as she wrapped the long coat around her. I smiled slightly as the sight of Rose in my duster was quite comical – it was way too big for her but she seemed content in wrapping it around her like a blanket. I walked over to buzz into the apartment building with Ivan grinning knowingly behind me.
Reaching my front door, I suddenly felt very nervous, but I quickly shut it down when Ivan announced that he wanted a beer. I opened the door and he rushed into the kitchen without any form of politeness.
"Sorry about him." I apologised to Rose who was just watching with amusement.
"Nah, don't worry; I have one too." She winked before walking in. As it turned out, Ivan was right; shocking, I know, but Aleksei was nowhere to be seen for which I was most grateful. I did not want to have him anywhere near Rose. The thought balled my hands into fists and I had to calm myself before settling myself down onto the sofa.
"You can sit down, Rose." Ivan jested, coming in with four bottles of beer. Rose looked a little flustered before stepping out of my duster and sitting down on the sofa next me. Ivan plonked himself in the armchair and grinned at the two of us, tossing two beers to me.
"Four?" I enquired offering Rose one.
"I am envisaging that this one won't last long." He said gesturing to the one he had already started. I rolled my eyes and Rose chuckled. "So, how's life treating you Rose?" he asked and her face darkened.
"I may need another one of these." She gestured to the beer in her hand and I offered her mine.
"That bad huh?" Ivan said empathetically.
"You have no idea." She said taking a glug. "Hey, did you know I met my father today comrade?" she said and I looked at her sympathetically. Ah. She had told me that she had never met this man, I had told her that sometimes it is better that you never do, that way they can't hurt you, but evidently fate had other plans.
"I'm sorry, that must have been hard." I tried to comfort her with my words but I was only too quick to realise that words would not fix this.
Rose nodded anyway. "Yeah, my mom walked in with this man and was like, "hey Rose, this is the man I slept with to make you and then he disappeared from everyone's life, but that is okay because he wants to help now"." she mocked getting a little more eccentric as she spat out each word sourly, "and what kind of a name is Ibrahim Mazur!?"
What! I did a double take as Ivan sprayed beer all over my carpet.
"I'm sorry!?" Ivan choked as I was paralysed in shock.
"Wha-is that bad?" she said looking a little alarmed, "Dimitri, do you know him? Who is he?"
I was still in a fluctuating state of horror but Ivan had gotten over it and had progressed onto laughing manically. "Oh that is brilliant!" he chuckled and I snapped out of my shock long enough to glare at him. "Zmey Jr. Zmeyette even!" he jested and Rose looked even more distressed.
"Dimitri…" she queried knowing she was going to get nowhere with a hysterical Ivan.
I cleared my throat. "Uh, Ibrahim – Abe – Mazur is also known as 'Zmey' which is the Russian word for serpent. He is one of the most notorious…" I tried to find a better word but I found that the English language struggled to define what Ibrahim Mazur was. I sighed before continuing, "For a lack of a better word, mobsters in the world." I saw her jaw drop so proceeded very, very timidly. "Despite being what most people would describe as a 'normal' guy – as in not royalty," there was nothing normal about this man. I had come to realise that very quickly and even Ivan, with his 'couldn't care less' attitude had kept a safe distance from Zmey. "He is possibly the most powerful and most feared man that walks this earth. What he wants, he gets." I finally concluded, daring to glance at the gift from God that currently sat next to me.
"How do you know him?" she interjected softly. Damn, why did she have to be so caring?
I sighed. "He went to school with my mama and – though my father does not know it – he was the one who protected her against him once I beat him out." I had confined in Rose the story about my father after she had told me about hers. It was another thing we seemed to 'bond' over, as my elder sister Karolina used to put it; then again, Karo thought any conversation was a 'bonding session'. Thinking about my family brought back the horrid memories of my father. Rose had been so understanding when I had told her but was horrified to discover that this demon I called father had been sleeping on my couch throughout my pitch situation.
"Wait; is this the same Abe that helped you with your pitch?" Rose furrowed her eyebrows and narrowed her eyes as the question escaped her lips. I could only nod my response. "Oh my God." She ran her hands through her beautiful brown hair and the recent memory of how they felt against my hands returned and pushed away the feelings of my father. Cut it out Belikov!
"Shit." Ivan suddenly exclaimed looking at his watch. "Oh no, I had to be somewhere twenty minutes ago." He groaned and sighed out the chair."Sorry lads, Ivan is leaving very quickly. See you D, nice meeting you Rose." He said before running out the door. I frowned after him before shaking my head incredulously. This was not the first time he had done something like that.
There was a slight awkwardness in the air after he had so dramatically left. I turned to see Rose with her head buried in her knees. Working on purely instinct, I gently placed my hand on her back and she looked up at me with her astounding eyes.
"Friendly hug?" I suggested and she smiled a little before snuggling into my arms. I revelled at how her entire being felt against me. Crap. There was no way these feelings were going away any time soon. I groaned inwardly but when she pulled back slightly, disappointment ruptured through my body.
"I have something for you." She said and I frowned a little. Her 'man-eater', as she fondly titled it, smile came over her face before she dug into her pocket to reveal a small circular object. She fiddled with it for a while before pinning to my t-shirt. I looked down and tried to read it which turned out to be a more difficult task than I thought. I looked back at her who was now holding back a laugh. "I told you I'd get you a badge, Officially Most Loyal Customer!" She grinned and I burst out laughing.
"I'll wear it with pride." I chuckled and she continued to grin mischievously.
"You better, comrade." She poked my chest with her finger in a threatening manner. "You better." A comfortable silence fell between us in which I noticed she was still on my lap. She too appeared to clock this but made no effort to move off me. "Hey Dimitri, I don't really want to go back to work, and if I go home my mother will easily find me with this Zmey, so… do you want to grab some lunch with me?" She asked and I could sense the under-layer of nervousness.
I smiled softly at her and answered. "I would love to, Roza." Her face lit up before a question formed in her eyes.
"Dimitri?"
"Mmmm."
"What's 'Roza'?"
I blushed deeply upon the realisation that I had said it aloud. "It's, uh, your name in Russian…" I said timidly looking back up at her.
Her smile returned and lit her face like the sun in the sky. "I love it." She hopped of my lap and pulled me to my feet, or at least tried to. It ended up her tugging with all her might but me remaining very much stationary on the couch. Seeing my entertained face, she scowled and crossed her arms over her chest, telling me to get up on my own. I laughed as she ran to the door with me on her tail.
We sprinted through the complex of apartments, trying to outrun each other and scrambling round corners, before reaching the elevator. "Hey comrade?" Rose said, a little out of breath. I raised and eyebrow and she continued with a devious smirk. "Wanna race down the stairs?"
"We are on the 16th floor." I pointed out but to no avail.
"On your marks…get set…go!" she yelled and bolted into a rapid decent down the stairs. I laughed and followed her, catching up with her quickly due to my longer legs. "No fair!" she cried as I jumped past her. I glanced back to see her frowning a little before an evil thought crossed her mind. Without warning, she launched onto my back and I stumbled to keep upright.
"Rose!" I involuntarily yelped but I really couldn't stop laughing.
"Come on comrade, we've get fourteen more floors to get down!" she said wrapping her legs round my waist and her arms around my chest. I kept running down, enjoying way too much the feeling of her body against mine; she was like the piece that was missing, that fitted so perfectly into place. Everything about her thrilled me: the way her breath tickled my neck; the way her laugh filled my entire being; the way her hands rested gently on my chest, keeping her latched onto my body.
I jumped round the corner on the sixth floor and arrived at a sudden halt as Mark was walking up with a shopping bag.
"Hello, Dimitri." He said amused, glancing over my shoulder to see a giggling Rose.
"Hey, Mark, sorry about that." I apologised and he waved it off still smiling at the both of us. I guess the sight of a 6"7" man giving a 5"6" girl a piggyback was definitely something to be entertained by.
"Nah, you guys keep having fun – don't let us oldies hold you back." He grinned and continued his escapade up the stairs. Rose offered him a small wave and as soon as her hand left my chest I sprang forward causing her to grip onto me more.
"Dimitri!" she yelled and I laughed. We reached the bottom on the stairs and collapsed onto the ground in laughter, causing some people in the lobby to shoot us some odd looks. Screw them.
"That was so much fun!" Rose laughed, regaining control over her breathing.
"Yeah it was." I agreed and she smiled and sat up.
"Ready for round two…" she said wriggling her eyebrows.
I laughed before sitting up myself. "Only if you carry me this time." I teased.
"Not a chance, comrade." She said jumping to her feet. I pushed myself up to a standing position and swiped my card through the doors to let us out. Rose all but dragged me to my Jag and slid into the passenger seat. Once we both were settled in the car, I put the key into the ignition and heard the beautiful rev of the engine starting up. "So…" Rose's equally beautiful voice added to the music of my car like a harmonic symphony. "Where do you want to go…?"