Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy or anything surrounding it (but I do own this plot :D)
RPOV
Christmas Eve came a lot quicker than everyone had imagined. Especially, if you were someone like me, and left presents to the last possible minute. I won't lie, watching the clock, awaiting my lunch break, so I could run off and manically buy all my Christmas gifts within the hour and a half did not make me feel particularly fantastic. Ordinarily, we only got a half hour lunch break but I managed to guilt Stan into extending mine, on the terms that I got him a gift too. Thankfully though, the Inn wasn't too busy – I had a strong suspicion that everyone else was also running about in a Christmas gift buying frenzy – and we were closing early today anyway.
Odd, you may think, what with the financial crisis, but we were down a chef. Christian had left early this morning to go to the cookery competition and fight for the $5,000 and when I say early, I mean the thing started at 7...in the morning. In all honesty, I felt bad for the guy, but I wasn't about to publicise this feeling – if I did, I would never hear the end of it from everyone I knew, most of all, Christian.
"Did someone call a waiter?" I blinked out of my haze at the sound of the singing lunatic waltzing over to where I was leaning against the wall, awaiting any new customers entering my sector. I rolled my eyes and shook my head as the aforementioned lunatic adjusted his apron before stopping in front of me. We were going to start advertising and interviewing for new staff members after Christmas but Sydney had come through in asking Adrian if he wanted to start working at the Inn, since he is basically here all the time. He agreed and was, as usual, making a massive deal out of it.
"You are way too over-excited about working here." I stated and he grinned.
"On the contrary, Little Disaster, I am having lots of fun." He said, "Here, 'my name is Adrian and I will be your loyal squire, serving up plates of delicious food and witty repartee'." He mused and I couldn't help it, I laughed.
"Charming the customers into ordering, need I remind you: you have a girlfriend." I said pointedly.
He just grinned again. "That I do, Little D. That I do indeed."
"Oh, boy." I groaned, catching onto his not-so-subtle, suggestive tone. "Is that why you two have been staring at each other all morning, all lovey-dovey?" I asked and he laughed.
"Hey," He said, defensively raising his arms, "I never kiss and tell."
"Adrian, you always kiss and tell," I stated, "In fact, it is the one thing I can count on you doing."
"Rose," he said, putting his hand over his heart, "I am hurt you think so low of me." I rolled my eyes again before seeing the clock strike one.
"Oh, that's my cue to leave." I said, yanking off my apron and thrusting it in Adrian's amused face.
"Christmas presents again?" he asked and I gave him a glare.
"Hey, we can't all be as organised as Lissa," who had her gifts done and wrapped with a bow before the 25th of October.
He chuckled. "Just try not to get us the same thing as last year. As funny as it was, I don't fancy another load of IOUs." He grinned deviously and narrowed my eyes further.
"Watch it mister, or I'll get you a vasectomy." I threatened before darting out the door, leaving a laughing Adrian behind.
Just under an hour and half later, mission accomplished.
I walked back into the Inn, a slight swagger in my step, as I carried four bags of Christmas goodies – all purchased within my limited budget – with seven minutes to spare. Approaching the bar, I dumped the bags on the counter where an amused Sydney smiled.
"Christmas presents?" she guessed and I shrugged. She shook her head slightly before continuing. "I wouldn't bother putting them away." She said as I made to put the bags under the counter. "We're closing in half an hour and pretty much empty anyway." She explained and I took the time to glance around the Inn. True enough, there was literally no-one here.
Well, there was one person.
"Mom?" I said and she glanced up from her notebook and phone.
"Hello, Rose." She replied, smiling softly but the pain resided in her eyes. There was a long, hesitant pause before she spoke again: two words she rarely used, "I'm sorry."
"What for?" The question slipped out before I could stop it.
She seemed momentarily caught off guard – hell, even I was surprised. "Ev-everything." She stuttered.
I swallowed steadily, allowing myself a little time to formulate my thoughts properly before going to sit down opposite her and telling her something that was always lacking in our relationship: the truth. "I should be the one apologising. I should never have snapped at you like that."
"No, you had every right to." She said, pushing her precious notebook away. "I kept your father from you: you had every right to be angry at me."
"Perhaps," I conceded, "but I should at least have given you the time to explain. I didn't – I just snapped, instead. But I understand now – I understand why you had to keep him from me." She smiled as she fought off her watering eyes. "And let's be honest, Abe is kinda weird." I said and her smile grew. "I mean, why does he wear those ridiculous scarves?" I asked and we both laughed.
"He thinks it makes him more memorable." She explained.
I scoffed. "I think he's just trying to be cool."
She laughed again before resting back into the soft smile – not something I usually saw on my mother. "I hear you two are getting along." She said.
"Mmmm," I mused, "he's 'okay' I guess. I mean, he did get me to the hospital but doesn't really win points on the 'setting a good example' board."
"Yes, he mentioned that." My mother muttered in a monotone, her face sobering a little before she brushed it aside. "He also mentioned a boyfriend?" she said it like a question.
I rolled my eyes and leaned towards the table. "Yes, I have a boyfriend and no, you can't lecture me on it." I said pointedly and she rolled her eyes.
"Abe told me you told him the same thing." She said and I shrugged. "Well, I am assured he is a decent man which I suppose is a good thing."
I raised my eyebrows. "But I take it you're still not too pleased…"
"No," she said both bluntly and honestly, "but I take it there is nothing I can do about it…"
"No." I responded in the same way.
She sighed and leaned back a little. "Rose, what you said before – about wanting to start talking again. I realise I have no right asking this of you, or if you wanted to anymore, but-"
"I'd love to." I interrupted and she clamped her mouth shut, as though fearing that anything she might say may dissuade me. "I still mean what I said before. I have just been a little pissed these last few weeks." I could see her scowl at my language choice but she let it slide. "But, maybe we can just forget that those weeks ever happened and start over?" I asked and she smiled again.
"I would like that very much."
And just like that, I spent some good honest time with my mother. Sure, there were a few awkward moments as conversation struggled to leave the launch pad, but it was better than nothing. Whether I had initially liked it or not, my father had been brought back into my life and this was the first opportunity that we could be a proper family. Though be it, a moderately dysfunctional family with some underlying resentment and a bloody mob-boss, but a family all the same. I didn't really know how well it would work at the time, whether it would bite me in the face, but wasn't Christmas supposed to be a time for forgiveness? Jesus seemed pretty good at it and whilst I may have not been remotely religious, He wasn't exactly the worst role model in the world.
He was certainly better than Abe…
I sat just talking with my mom until her office actually got pretty demanding about having her back – trust only my mother to be still working on Christmas Eve. She bid me farewell after we arranged to meet up after the big day since she would, naturally, still be working on Christmas Day. I agreed whole-heartedly but delayed her exit by going to fish out her recently bought gift. I always never knew quite what to get my mom, but I knew that she loved to learn new things and so when I saw Gaelic for Beginners, I thought of no-one but her.
As it turned out, she liked it and laughed humorously. "Thank you, Rose, this is wonderful."
I merely shrugged, "Meh, I try." She informed me Abe was holding my gift hostage (which didn't surprise me in the slightest. Nor did her choice of nouns) and that I would have to wait until tomorrow to see it. She left shortly after and I returned to the bar and found Mason and Eddie.
"Bravo, Hathaway." Mason grinned and I rolled my eyes.
"Shut up." I retorted which only made him laugh. "You two coming over to Lissa's tomorrow?" Christmas for us was always spent the same way: the whole gang piling into Lissa's apartment and following 'The Schedule' to a tee. We had done this for the past five years, but I had always spent Christmas with Lissa so it wasn't too new.
"Sure are – we are on nibble duty." Mason replied, plonking his elbow on Eddie's shoulder. As you can probably imagine, Lissa always assigned everyone to a specific job. Well, everyone except me. I wasn't to be trusted after the decoration 'incident', but we shall be moving swiftly on from that.
"Why aren't you on the playlist duty?" I asked as Mason and Eddie had been responsible for the music since we started.
"Adrian said he had some cool system delivered and Lissa gave the all clear." Eddie explained dumping a wet cloth onto the counter.
"Huh," I frowned and before shaking it out, "Hey, do you know when Christian's cookery competition ends?"
Eddie frowned as Mason's grin grew. "It already did."
"What!?" I exclaimed and both boys laughed.
"Yeah, Liss came in with good old, Christo, to deliver the good news whilst you were out last minute present shopping," Eddie said.
"Again." Mason added.
I scowled before doing a double take, "Wait did you say good news."
"Mhmm." Eddie hummed.
"We are five thousand bucks better off." Mason said and my jaw dropped.
"He won!?" As you can see, that was the thing that surprised me most.
"Yup."Mason confirmed, popping the 'p'.
"Where are they now?" I may not have had the most civil of relationships with Christian but even I could put my pride aside and go congratulate him. That and I had nothing else to do this evening anyways and I most certainly did not want to spend it wrapping presents.
Both boys chuckled slyly and I narrowed my eyes. "What…?" I said slowly.
"Well…" Eddie trailed off.
"We suggested going out to celebrate but they said they were going to be…" Mason paused, tapping his chin as he tried to think of the right word.
"Busy…" Eddie finished.
"Urgh." I shuddered and gathered up my stuff. "Right, won't be going there then." I said and Mason and Eddie laughed again. "See you tomorrow guys." I called back upon reaching the door. The waved in response and I stepped out onto the pavement, immediately being hit with the icy breeze of the December wind. No snow yet, but I had a ten buck bet with Adrian that it would be a white Christmas so I was holding out for a miracle.
I arrived home pretty quickly and was even quicker to dump the presents onto my couch. Glancing around my apartment, I began to look for something to do. Upon finding nothing, I sighed, pulled out the wrapping paper and started wrapping. I got bored within about five minutes and ended up just emptying all the gifts onto my floor and sitting in the middle of them. Just like his gorgeous eyes, I found Dimitri's present in an instant. Picking it up, I smiled and decided that I would give his present early. I wrapped it up as best I could – which is difficult when you are in a rush – and ran out of the apartment, grabbing my coat and keys on my exit.
I hopped into my second-hand Honda Civic and drove down to Dimitri's apartment. I considered calling ahead, but I thought I would surprise him. The notion that he might still be at work dawned upon me but then I realised that it literally was only my mother who worked on Christmas Eve.
I entered the building and went to the elevator. I saw the stairs that spiralled round the metallic structure and I smiled as I remembered when Dimitri had given me a 'lift' down them. Shaking my head slightly, I entered the elevator and went up 16 floors.
I knew Ivan wouldn't be there. After Abe's early Christmas 'present', I had immediately called Dimitri who had then informed me that he already knew. Apparently I was not the only one shocked to discover that Abe Mazur knew my number. Anyway, this meant that Sonya reopened Ivan's apartment and he was allowed to go home, but was still on bed rest. I had visited and couple of times and knew that he was not enjoying be demobilised in the slightest, but he had little choice with Dr. Dimitri shoving him back every time he tried escape.
I laughed again at the memory of Ivan's pouting face and I knocked gently on Dimitri's apartment door. On hearing no reply, I tried the handle and the door opened effortlessly. I stepped in and closed the door behind me before my ears latched onto a particular sound.
A melody.
More specifically, the melody of my childhood.
We all have one: that one song that you absolutely loved as a kid and could not stop dancing around your bedroom to. For Lissa and me, that was A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton. Whenever we heard that brisk piano opening, we would be on our feet in seconds.
That same pattern of notes echoed through the apartments and filled my mind with recollections of a long lost childhood.
I bit my lip and followed the sound to see Dimitri, my beautiful Dimitri, sitting by a large, black, grand piano and unwittingly delving into my past.
"Having fun, comrade?" I asked mimicking my tone from the last time I had caught him on the piano.
However, unlike the last time, he did not fumble to his feet. Instead, he continued to play, but I could feel him smiling. I silently laughed before wandering into the room and placing myself next to him. His hands continued to effortlessly sculpt music out of nothing but his head turned to face me and his eyes met mine.
"Well, isn't this familiar?" I said and he shook his head amusedly and stopped playing. I was a little disappointed at the loss of the tune but was very quickly satisfied by his lips. They were as soft and as warm as I always remember and I sank into his embrace almost immediately. I could feel his tongue trace my bottom lip and I opened my mouth willingly to let him deepen the kiss. Which he did. Brilliantly. An involuntary moan rumbled in my throat and I felt him smile against my lips before pulling back.
"Very familiar." He grinned and I chuckled.
"Easy cowboy," I warned playfully and he raised an eyebrow. I narrowed my eyes at him teasingly before turning back to the piano. "I didn't know Lissa had put that on there."
"She said it was 'essential' and 'must be learnt immediately'." He explained and I frowned.
"When did you speak to Lissa?" I asked curiously.
He smiled, "I didn't." He replied before leaning over to turn the music back to the front page where giant red letters read:
Essential. Must be learnt immediately. Lissa x
I burst out laughing as Dimitri turned back to the page he was on. "So, how well can you play it?" I queried and he smiled.
"How well can you sing?" He countered and I narrowed my eyes as I contemplated his ulterior motive.
"Okay, let's do this." I said eventually and he chuckled, turning the sheet music back to the beginning. And that is how we spent the next couple of hours: him discovering that I am a not too shabby singing (well, he said that I was incredible but that was just Dimitri all over) and me telling the story of how Lissa and I spent three hours jumping up and down to this song whilst the rest of Lissa's family tried to remain asleep.
"Pardon my asking, but every time you talk about Lissa's family, you refer to them in the past tense. Why is that?" Dimitri asked curiously but politely as we both lay, side by side, on the floor gazing up at the ceiling. A position we had somehow managed to get ourselves in part way through the conversation: I couldn't tell you how.
I let out a shaky sigh before answering. "Lissa lost her family to a car accident."
Dimitri's head jolted to face me. "Oh, I am so sorry. I didn't mean-"
I turned my head to face him. "I know. It was hard on her, but it was actually Christian who helped her the most. I think that was when she first realised she loved him." I mused and Dimitri remained quiet. I sighed before my hand brushed against my coat pocket and I remembered why I came here. "Hey, comrade?"
"Mmmm?"
"I got you a Christmas present…" I said trailing off.
He laughed beautifully. "Well, that's good because I got you one too."
"Really?" I asked sitting up quickly.
"Really." He confirmed joining me. As if reading my mind, he smiled before standing up. "Would you like it now?"
I grinned. "You're the best, you know that." He rolled his eyes before helping off the floor and leading me through to his bedroom. My heartbeat elevated – and not at the prospect of the gift. I quickly shut it down and sat down on his bed as he wandered over to a drawer and pulled out a perfectly wrapped box, complete with a red ribbon. I eyed it eagerly and my heart started beating faster again but this time with excitement over the present like I was a six year old.
Noticing my change in mood, Dimitri laughed and sat down next to me. "For you." He said handing me the box.
I took a lot of restraint to stop myself tearing at the package, "Are you sure?" I asked anxiously, my fingers twitching to discover what was underneath.
He smiled again. "Of course." And with that, I began ripping away Dimitri's hard work. He could see his smile grow and his gaze to change to a somewhat weird entertainment but I was much too occupied to care. My violent removal of paper left a rectangular velvet box in its wake. I glanced up to Dimitri and then back down to the box. Opening it slowly, I gasped at what was uncovered.
Normally, I hated rose stuff, but this was something else. A stunning gold and diamond rose pendent hung flawlessly on a delicate gold chain; the dim evening light of the setting sun glistening and refracting against it creating tiny rainbows of colour in my eyes.
Said eyes were widened to the point of human capacity. I glanced back up a Dimitri in utter shock and his smile vanished.
"You don't like it…" he said worriedly.
"Wha-no, I love it. God, Dimitri. It is beautiful – it is more than beautiful, it is stunning." I responded without hesitation and a sheepish smile replaced his concern. "How much did this cost?" I asked, still mesmerised by its utter elegance.
I could feel Dimitri scoot closer to me and tilt my chin up to meet his eyes. "Not too much, but I would give anything to see you happy." He stated simply.
I smiled whole-heartedly, but I could not pass up the opportunity. "Well, aren't you just the cutest."I patted his cheek as he glared at me playfully. "In all seriousness though, this is exquisite. Thank you so much, Dimitri."
"You are very welcome, Roza." He replied and I returned his smile.
"Put it on me?" And he did, taking the necklace in his hands I turned so my back was facing him. I mentally cursed myself for wearing my hair down, but Dimitri brought the necklace round my neck and took my long locks gently in his hand and brushed it ever so carefully over the chain and my shoulder. Every so often, one of his fingertips brushed against my skin and I felt a jolt of warmth shoot through my body in spite of it being December. He sealed the clasp and kissed the nape of my neck where it rested. He pulled back and I turned back around to face him.
"How do I look?" I asked, deciding to strike a pose.
He chuckled and sound ruptured through my body like the warmth from a steaming hot chocolate. "You look beautiful, Roza."
"You know, Comrade," I began, "what you have just done there is made my gift look like even more crap than before."
He laughed and shook his head. "I will love it all the same." He assured and I raised my eyebrows.
"Really, cause I kinda got it as a more humorous gift than a spectacular jewellery type of gift…" I said, biting my lip, a little ashamed if anything.
"Then I will treasure it forever." He stated and paused before pulling the gift out of my large coat pocket. As I handed it to him, my shoddy wrapping attempt became very apparent and I immediately felt even worse.
"You know, if you don't like it, I can always take it back and-"
"Rose." He interrupted gently and I closed my mouth. He gave me a reassuring smile before unwrapping the small square present and unveiling a CD. I grimaced even more and closed my eyes but when I peaked one open I saw Dimitri smiling fully. "Take That?" he said, amused, whilst raising the album up.
"It's their newest album – I was trying to update your music collection." I admitted solemnly, but, to my disbelief, he remained smiling beautifully and staring at me adoringly.
Without much of a warning, he put Take That down and captured my lips with his own in what was without doubt the most passionate kiss I had ever experienced in my life. I sank into it, but as quickly as it had come, it stopped. He pulled back and I blinked as my body mourned the sudden loss of contact. My fluttering eyelids slowed as I became completely lost in his eyes.
So much so that I nearly missed what he said next:
"Rose Hathaway, I am so in love with you."