Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy or anything surrounding it (but I do own this plot :D)
RPOV
I hadn't realised we had arrived back at the Inn, but, considering Kirova's house wasn't that far away, I really shouldn't have been surprised.
"I have to go do a…thing; I'll see you later, Rose." Lissa stumbled whilst smiling brighter than that big ball of gas we call the sun. She bit her lip and all but sprinted into the pub.
All the while, the amusement never left Dimitri's face.
"Okay, you can wipe that smirk of your face, mister," I said pointedly. "I don't know how much you heard of that but I can assure you – Lissa is a master at over-exaggeration."
"Of course," he said, adhering to my wishes and wiping his face of emotion, but it was clear he was still finding this very funny. I may have rolled my eyes, but was secretly glad he was okay, what with his best friend being comatose and his shooters still out there. "But I believe I promised you a date, so is it okay for me to be your 'Prince Charming' for one evening?" he asked struggling to keep his straight face.
I scowled. "You're not going to let this go, are you?" He stopped fighting his smile and it lit up his face beautifully. I sighed and stepped towards the car. Dimitri immediately stopped leaning on the passenger door and chivalrously opened it for me. I silently laughed before dumping myself onto the seat.
I spotted, in the backseat, a black duffle bag that looked very conspicuous. I frowned and turned to face the front of the car as Dimitri hopped in.
"So, have you heard from the hospital yet?" I asked as we drove away from the Inn.
"Yeah, they said he is on the way to a full recovery so should wake up anytime now." He responded, smiling a little.
"That's great!" I exclaimed. "I've missed our wonderful banter." I said flashing Dimitri a devious look.
He shook his head. "And I thought I was the one you liked." He said playing along.
I shrugged. "What can I say? You misread the signal." I raised my arms.
"Well, then," he paused to take his eyes off the road, "I'll just have to persuade you then…" he trailed off, winking.
My jaw fell. "Did you just make a sex joke?! Did you – the man who just opened a car door for me –make a sex joke?!" I was stunned.
"What can I say," he shrugged, mimicking me from earlier, "you bring out the worst in me."
"Oh don't pretend you don't love it." I said proudly. "Hey, comrade, do you have any music that is post 1986?" I asked while racking through the newly discovered CD collection in the glove box of his Jag. Dimitri thought for a minute before leaning over and pulling out an album: Take That – Everything Changes. I raised an eyebrow, or at least tried.
"1993." He said simply and I scowled.
"Very funny." He chuckled and I put the CD in anyway. I was ashamed to say I was starting to like them by Relight my Fire but I wasn't going to admit that to Dimitri. He seemed to know anyway and I could see the beginnings of a smug smile on his face. I glared at him playfully. "So…" Dimitri glanced over, still amused. "Do I get to know where we are going?" I flashed him my man-eater smile to boost my powers of persuasion.
Dimitri just laughed: a full, beautiful laugh that made my heart swell. "Not yet."
I huffed and crossed my arms. "You know, you could be abducting me for all I now." He shot me a chastising look before returning his gaze back to the road. I spun in my seat and looked at the bag that sat in the backseat. I had no idea what was in it and it was killing me. Where we were going, what we were doing, what was in the bag? All the secrecy with driving me mad and Dimitri could see it. The amusement never left his face and I decided I liked that; Dimitri was always so stoic, so to see him relaxed and happy was an undeniable privilege and made him look younger than his twenty four years.
"It's rude to stare, Roza." He said teasingly, not taking his eyes off the road. I blushed involuntarily and was only saved by my phone vibrating in my pocket. I didn't bother checking who it was, just answered it anyway.
"Call for Hathaway." I said and Dimitri gave me a funny look. I just stuck my tongue out at him which caused him to chuckle.
"Rose?" A voice replied timidly and my whole body froze. "Wait: don't hang up!" she called as if reading my mind. I was having a very good day – well, the first part could be disputed, but hey, I was trying to make a point – and now my mood was dwindling because of a maddeningly deceitful traitor…
Namely: my mother.
"What do you want?" I all but growled into the phone.
"Please, Rose; I just want to talk-"
"Talk!?" I yelled incredulous. Dimitri had long since lost interest in the road and was now looking at me with a very worried expression.
"Yes, Rose! Talk!" she was now yelling too. "I know you don't want to hear it but your father is here and he wants to help you – you cannot push him away."
She did not just try to dictate what I can and can't do. "I can do whatever the hell I please." I hissed. "He is not my father, he was not there." I had managed, somehow, to avoid my mother these past few weeks. My 'father' had the decency to stay away but I had a feeling he was lurking in the shadows somewhere, reading to pounce at any given moment.
Dimitri changed gear and began to drive a little faster – the quite growl of the Jaguar becoming louder as he did – but his attention remained solely on me. His presence calmed me a little but the torrent of anger and eighteen-year-old resentment was doing its very best to drown him out.
"It was for your safety!" my mother snapped, letting lose all the anger that had gotten her such a fierce reputation. "Do you know how many times I wished he could be there? How many times I needed him to be there? How many times I stayed up at night writing letters about how you had been so one day I could give them to him and he would be able to know his own daughter? Do you know how many fucking times I wanted us to be a family because he was the one who knew what to do and he would have been the one that gave you the childhood you deserved and not the shitty one you got with me!?" she was now hysterical. I had never seen my mother like this – she was always so strong, so sure of herself. I saw her as an aloof guardian that battled her way through danger without getting so much as a scratch. It was the one of the things I admired about her and now that was breaking down and I felt…
Guilty.
The anger had gone, disappeared, vanished, and all that was left in its place was guilt: soul-crushing, heart-breaking guilt.
"I'm sorry, Rose, I'll just go." Her voice was staccato as she hung up. I pulled my phone from my ear and let it drop from my weak grasp. I was in shock and was only brought back to this world by a pair of strong arms. Whatever he was murmuring into the locks of my hair was lost in translation, but I really did not care. I soothed me like warm milk before bed. I rested my head against his chest and heard the gentle thud of his heart.
"I'm sorry you had to hear that." I mumbled into his chest.
"You have nothing to be sorry for." He said switching back to English but his accent was strong and comforting.
I scoffed. "I ruined our date."
He pulled out of our embrace and looked me dead in the eye. "You could never ruin our date." I bit my lip and nodded solemnly. He offered a smile and brushed away a lingering tear. "What you could do with, however, is cheering up."
I chuckled. "I think I just need to cool down."
He grinned again. "You can do that, too." He nodded his head and I looked out the window of his beloved Jag. I burst out laughing when I read where we were.
"Ice-skating!?" I mused and he shrugged.
"I have to warn you, I am quite good." He said teasingly.
"Obviously," I said, "this is how you got to school every morning in the arctic wasteland you call home." I grinned and he rolled his eyes but I could see that he was glad that I was okay.
After I calmed myself enough to appear presentable, we hopped out the car to begin walking over to the ice-skating centre. I lunged for the bag in the back to find it filled with hats, scarves and gloves. I laughed and Dimitri went to buy our tickets.
We spent the next twenty minutes negotiating putting the skates on. This was more difficult than you would imagine, particularly for Dimitri because I had asked for a size too small on purpose to see if he would notice. He did and he got his revenge by 'helping' me tie my laces but I reality tying them both together so I fell flat on my face as soon as I stood up.
We, eventually might I just add, staggered over to the rink and I stepped cautiously onto the ice. I wasn't the most stable person on two legs and that was on friction-filled land. I shuddered to think how bad it would be on ice…
I had only been ice-skating once in my life before and that was for Lissa's sixth birthday party. To say it ended badly would be an understatement. I had not been a minute on the ice and I was flapping around all over the place. I managed to build up such a momentum that it thrust me into the middle of the rink, wherein, I crashed into a person and fell on my face. Despite the blood pouring out of my nose and onto the white ice, I was still skidding along the rink on my front and crashed into the wall on the other end, successfully knocking myself out.
To be fair, I was six. It can't be that hard now…
"Woah!" I said, skidding immediately and topping my weight backward so that I was going to fall on my ass. Just before I reached the surface, the same strong arms that had comforted me earlier stopped me from plummeting onto the ground.
"You okay?" He said, his voice rough with panic, and I nodded, reaching for the side of the rink. He slowly shifted us over to the barrier and I held on for dear life.
"Well this is fun." I said sarcastically as I clutched the side. He shook his head but was smiling. "I should have probably told you I can't ice-skate." I muttered ashamed.
"I'll teach you." He said and I looked up.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously." He nodded.
I chuckled. "Well, I wish you luck, comrade. Nobody has been able to teach me anything since fifth grade." I informed him to which he laughed.
"Come here." He held out his hand and I vigilantly released one of my own from the side, tightening the grip on the other. "Do you trust me?" he asked and I looked up at his beautiful face.
"With my life."
And I fully let go. I drifted into his arms and he swivelled me around so that my back was pressed to his torso.
"Okay then." He breathed and I bit my lip, ready to slip at any time. "Firstly you need to sort your feet out. Did you ever do ballet?"
I nearly fell over just at that comment. "Do I look like I have ever done ballet?"
He chuckled and the sound filled my body with the warmest feeling. "I suppose that was a silly question."
"Mhmm." I murmured.
"Okay then, different method, try to imagine you are penguin; put your heals together and turn out your toes." I did and I immediately began sliding forward.
"Urgh, Dimitri!" I screamed.
"Don't worry, I have got you." He assured me and I looked down to see that his hands were indeed round my waist, keeping me upright. "So as you can see, you naturally go forward if you stand like that."
I rolled my eyes. No flies on this Roman. I thought before another thought popped into my head. "Quick question, what did that have to do with ballet?" I asked him.
"Oh, that turn is what you would call First Position." He shrugged like it was the most normal thing for a twenty-four year-old man to say.
"Another quick question, why do you know that? Is there something you're not telling me, comrade?" I wiggled my eyebrows at him.
He just laughed. "Three sisters, remember?" Ah, fair dos. "Now if you go back to-"
"First Position." I interjected with my newly learnt ballet knowledge. I felt the rumble of his chuckle in his chest as it climbed through his body.
"Very good, Roza." He praised and I grinned self-satisfied. "Now what you have to do is push with one foot at a time, shifting your weight between your feet." I complied and began to move forward with him.
"Hey look at that, I am ice-ska-whaa!" I stumbled and Dimitri's grip tightened, keeping me on my feet.
"Careful, Roza." He said and I huffed. "Try again and keep a steady pace."
"How'd you expect me to manage that?" I asked looking over my shoulder at him. He paused for a moment but seemed to derive at a conclusion.
"You hear the music?" I nodded, they were currently playing Fireflies by Owl City – bit ironic considering this was an ice rink. "Well, they always play songs with a four-four time signature."
"Okay… I don't see how that helps." I stated and he smiled.
"Alright, watch." He gripped my waist again and began to push us forward. "Push-two-three-four, Push-two-three-four, Push-two-three-four…" he continued murmuring in my ear and I began to move my feet in synchronisation with him.
I smiled and could hear the smile in his voice as he continued to count for me. Pretty soon, we had gotten the hang of it and were gracefully gliding round the ice-rink. To be perfectly honest, I was enjoying the sensation of being entrapped in his arms more than the actual ice-skating but it was a good feeling to be able to slide along the slippery ice. Time became a blur and was quickly lost as we continued round in a circular motion. I didn't even realised our two hours were up until the fog-horn pounded through the rink.
I snapped out of the haze that had educed me and looked up at Dimitri. He gave me a small smile – a soft smile that I knew was only reserved for me – and ushered us over to the rink exit. I stumbled onto land and was quick to fall over on the change of friction. Dimitri was quick to catch and pull me back up but not without laughing at the same time.
"Hot chocolate?" he said and I grinned.
"You're the best, comrade, you know that?" I complemented, prying my feet from the skates.
"Is that only because I am feeding you?" He asked and I pretended to think.
He rolled his eyes. "Hey, you should know that the quickest way to a girl's heart is her stomach!" I exclaimed and a woman looked around at me like I had grown another head.
"Oh, Roza." Dimitri mused before going to collect our shoes. The woman watched him go with a look of desire written on her face as her eyes trailed their way down his body, undressing him greedily.
Not acceptable.
"Hey!" I snapped my fingers at her and her gaze came back to me. "Mine, back off." I growled and she walked away.
"That is not how we make friends, Rose." I jumped at Dimitri's voice before shrugging.
"She was checking out my man – I wasn't trying to make friends?" I said, taking my shoes back from him.
"Your man?" He raised an eyebrow and I cursed myself that I had said it aloud. Oh, well.
"Are you not my man?" I countered without missing a beat, but with my man-eater smile that I had a long-time figured out did wonders for seduction. Dimitri gulped and I grinned. Another victory to Rose Hathaway, I thought. "Well then, I was promised hot chocolate." I grinned up at him before walking past towards the café.
"What am I going to do with you?" he mumbled, falling in step with me.
I laughed. "Well, I can think of a couple of things…" I said winking.
This time, he did laughed and the sound did deep and dangerous things to my body. "Oh Roza…"