pjwalterman, I would not be able to live with myself if I made Ivan into a prick in any of my stories. I just cannot bring myself to do that

debpreato, nope, Rose didn't tell anyone about her past. But don't worry, I plan to turn that little confession into a nice bonding moment :)

And as always, thank you all for the kind words! It is always making me happy to see you like the stuff I write!

Lots of love people and see you in 2 weeks! :)

CHAPTER 4 - I cannot plot your murder while talking

Ivan's POV

I meet Dimitri for the second time tonight when he opens the door of his room. He's quite confused to see me carrying my pillow. Rose may have gotten attached to it, but I'm very picky with my pillows, so I didn't give it up.

"What are you doing back here?"

"I'm your new roommate. At least for tonight."

"Don't you have a room already? The one you walked into fifteen minutes ago?"

"Believe me, no one would want to spend the night there. Or another second, to be honest. It's a wonder I lasted those fifteen minutes."

"Why?"

"Rose, of course."

A smile forms at the corner of his lips, but he does his best to remain serious.

"Is it that bad?" he was the one who warned me about her, why is he amused?

"It is. And to be honest, I don't know if I can marry her. Not after what I've heard from her."

"What is that?"

"First of all, I'm almost sure she'll kill me in a week at the most!"

I give him this answer now, but I'll tell him the whole story after I've talked things over with my father. I need to know if things are as Rose says. If it is, I can't force her into this marriage. It wouldn't feel right. But at the same time, what choice do we have? I feel like there aren't many for us.

"Come on, she can't be that bad. Yes, she's pretty stubborn, but-"

"Then go sleep in there and tell me if you like the lamp she's going to smash against your head!"

"Is that so?" I see in his eyes that he's impressed by her behavior, but after what he told me, we should have expected it.

"Yes. So I'll keep my distance for a while," I say and walk past him into the room. At least until I can figure out what's going on.

He shuts the door, but remains there and crosses his arms.

"What did you do exactly?"

"Why do you assume it was something I did?"

"Maybe it was something you said then."

"Again, why do you assume it was my fault?"

"You're no saint either."

"I know. But this time I behaved. As much as my father's expectations of me allowed me to."

He sighs, knowing so well what that means. "Just tell me."

"Fine."

When I get to my room, it seems that I missed the chance to meet Rose when she was awake, because I find her asleep in my bed, curled up in a ball and clinging to my pillow. It's rather sweet compared to all the things I've heard about what to expect from her.

The only problem I see is that outfit of hers is rather… short. And it's chilly in here. I think it would be a good idea to at least put a blanket on her, right? It's a common sense gesture. She could catch somewhat of a cold if she'd spend the whole night like that.

But I'm not as stealthy as I thought I would be. Because she wakes up, and a second later, she jumps off the bed, gets a hold of the lamp on the nightstand and starts yelling at me. So there it was, what everyone was talking about.

"Stay away from me! If you ever pass past my personal space again, I am going to hurt you!"

"We're already at war, Princess?" I sincerely cannot stop myself from being amused. She's so fired up.

"Yes! We are! Personal war! And trust me, I can be worse than anyone you ever met. I'll be your worst enemy, Zeklos!"

I continue to smile as I look at her. She's quite little. Compared to me, I mean. Twenty centimeters or so. Not that that would determine anything in an eventual fight. She seems pretty determined and that could compensate a lot.

"Don't you dare laugh at me!"

Okay, I need to calm the spirits in here.

"I was not-"

"Yeah, and that dumb smile on your face meant nothing, huh? If you actually think I will not-"

"I believe you, okay?" I put my hands up, trying to show her I come in peace. "So, would you put that lamp down? I don't plan to get that close to you again, alright?" I even take a step back, to convince her.

It takes her a whole minute to believe me, but eventually, she puts the lamp back, even though when she sits back on the bed, she remains close to it, ready to get a hold of it again if necessary. I hope she won't feel that need again.

I know it's not nice of me to do such a thing, but that's a beautiful pair of legs and that nightie is hella short and… and she catches me staring. Squinting her eyes at me, she snatches the blanket I dropped when she lashed at me and puts it over her legs, then wraps the robe tighter around her middle.

I fucked up and I'm going to get my punishment for that, I feel it.

"I don't want to sleep in here with you. I want to go back to my room. Even if it's the annexes, I don't care."

"The annexes? You've been staying there?" With so many empty rooms in the house, dad kept her there?

"Why is that such a surprise to you?"

"The annexes are for…"

"Servants? Guardians? You can say those words, it won't hurt your royal mouth. It's not disgraceful to have a job."

"I'm sorry, I-"

"I didn't mind. It is way less crowded with people like your father and I was fine with that."

Okay, she doesn't like him. No surprise there, anyone hardly does. But what's her problem with me? She barely knows me and I am anticipating this to be a bumpy road ahead of us.

Rose's POV

Why is he still staring at me like that? Is he thinking about what he's going to do about it or he's having some other thoughts? If so, what are those thoughts?

I stare back at him and I find it fair to examine him too, considering he was so shamelessly doing it earlier.

The fact that he's good-looking will not change anything. Looks cannot compensate for a shitty character. He's a Zeklos after all and you know what they say, like father like son. I bet he thinks he can charm me with his ocean-blue eyes and that smug stupid smile plastered on his face. But instead of swooping me off my feet, that attitude of his tells me everything I need to know about him.

"Just so you know, I am not accepting this marriage. I refuse to marry you, just to make things clear between us."

He frowns. "Then why are you here?"

"You're fucking kidding me, aren't you?"

"No. Look, I understand this change might be hard on you, but-"

"Hard on me? How can you know that when you haven't been abandoned here and told that you're obliged to get married to a complete stranger? From the look on your face, it doesn't seem this scheme was a strange thing to you."

"It is. I didn't know you-"

"You weren't surprised at all to find me in your room. You even wanted to-"

"I didn't." and he expects me to believe he had such pure intentions?

"Come on. I was asleep and defenseless." The perfect victim.

"I wasn't!"

Thinking about it, I didn't see it and I didn't feel his hands on me, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He had, after all, that blanket in his hands.

"And look, our marriage wasn't something I didn't know of. But I didn't know you weren't aware of it. That you were forced into it. This alliance-"

"I am not buying that shit. You have so much to win out of this, but I don't. So it's really hard to believe-"

"You'd be queen," he says it like it would be the greatest privilege for me.

"I don't want to be a queen! When will everyone get that to their heads?"

It takes him a minute to process what I told him. If he's playing dumb I'm not buying it.

"Look, I…" another minute passes as he tries to come up with something, so I'm inclined to think it is going to be a lie. "We're on the same side here, okay?"

I laugh.

"If by on the same side you mean I have to give my life away just so that your dear father has a direct line to the throne, I don't think we're on the same page. You're doing it willingly. I don't think we could be on more opposite sides than we are now on."

He nods. "You're right about that. My father made this arrangement because he wants to have access to the throne. But your father agreed to it too, didn't he?"

"Yes, he did. Because he wants a piece of the throne too. But I am against him. On the other side, you are in the same boat as your father."

"I'm not." I roll my eyes. "We could end it, couldn't we?"

"End what?"

"All this. All this search for power. All this plotting. All the schemes."

Wow, such an I-want-to-change-the-world speech. Does he think it's going to impress me?

"Yeah, of course, we could. But what power would we have as long as they're still alive? Be real. We would only be puppets in our father's hands. They'd be the ones to talk the Council into everything they want and we'd be mere accessories. We'd be the ones to take the fall if it all goes south, I'm sure of that. We wouldn't be able to change shit. So no, thank you. I'll pass this marriage. Tonight too." He opens his mouth to say something, but I don't feel like being talked into any of it. "I want to go to my room now."

He ponders things for a second. "You can have this room for tonight. I will go away and tomorrow, we'll do a better arrangement."

"A better arrangement? What is that supposed to mean?"

"A room of your own." Oh, so he wasn't talking about more important stuff. Not a better arrangement for this alliance. Of course I am not getting anything more than close to nothing. "We'll come up with a believable reason for you not to be in here."

I laugh once more. "Because my utter refusal of you fucking me isn't acceptable enough? Would it harm your reputation?" He says nothing to deny it. "Good lord, that's actually true! You'd better leave before I pick this lamp again."

"You see… I kind of… you're supposed to become my wife."

"And?"

"And I… If you mentioned it, yes, I might have a reputation to maintain."

"You fucker! If you stay here long enough, everyone will think we fucked."

"Well, that's part of the reason you're here dressed like that, right?"

"If you lay a single-"

"I won't."

"I hate you!"

"You don't even know me."

"I've seen and heard plenty from you, Zeklos." It has only been some minutes and I don't want to find out more.

"Well, I don't know much about you."

"I bet you heard plenty. It's been two weeks since I am here and I know the walls have ears. Gossip travels fast and far."

"I don't like to listen to everything other people say." Damn, it's the third time I hear this today. Too bad that only one of the three who have told me that is agreeable enough. "So, would you mind sharing something about yourself as we have time to spare?"

"Sure. Do you want us to braid each other's hair too?"

"Nah, my hair is too short. But I could do it for you if you want." oh, that smile of his again.

"If you lay a finger on me I'll fucking kill you."

Ignoring me, he sits on the edge of the bed, at a reasonable distance from me, but still I hoped that the way I eyed him sent the message that he should fucking get back up, but he didn't understand it.

"I have nothing to tell you."

"Fine. Then I guess we can just… not talk. Let things be weird."

"Great."

About ten minutes pass and we spend each one of them doing a staring contest.

"How long do you plan to stay here? If you want people to think we're banging, you should have already left. Don't men like, finish in two minutes?"

He laughs. "I could show you if you're that curious."

"Or you could maybe drop dead. But unfortunately, none of us will get what we want tonight. So I think you should leave."

I even eye my best friend, the lamp, and he gets the message.

I wake up when someone's knocking at my door.

When I open it, it's Ivan I'm facing. This is not who I wanted to see first thing in the morning.

"What are you doing here?" He wants some more pretend sex? He realized we didn't make enough noise last night?

"I came to get changed. All my clean clothes are in here."

"So it means I can go to my room? Or did you already forget about that?"

Maybe he decided I'll continue to live here, with him? If so, he's going to have to sleep in the bathtub, I'm not having it any other way.

"I didn't forget. It will be all prepared until breakfast time is done. Did you like the room you previously used?" I nod. It was acceptable. "Then you will have that room and your things will be delivered there from the annexes."

"What reason did you come up with?"

"I don't think you want to know."

Why would I push it then? It will only increase my hostility toward him.

"I guess I'll wait outside for you to get changed."

"You could… get changed too. In here." When he sees the outrage on my face, he adds. "I'll lock myself in the bathroom, of course."

"I would appreciate that."

"Wow. Look at us. It's the first time we interacted nicely."

"Don't get your hopes up. It won't last for too long."

"Why? You plan to leave?"

"Of course I do."

"Dimitri mentioned something about that. And about your adventures these two past days." He smiles. "I'm not going to lie, that's impressive."

"Don't suck up to me. I'm still going to make your life hell until I manage to run away from here."

He smiles wider. "Good then. I'll look forward to it."

I doubt he's a masochist in that way. But I do plan to keep on to my promise.

"I'll go look for Lissa."

"No need for that. She is already outside with your stuff."

"Great." I head toward the door when he calls for me.

"Princess?"

"I'd prefer if you'd call me Rose."

He smiles in response. If he thinks this is any sign of closeness between us, he's wrong.

"Alright. Rose. You can do the same if you want to. That Zeklos thing is more like my father." Yeah, and he wouldn't like to be just like him, I'm sure.

"What did you want to say?"

"Would you join me for breakfast?"

Both of us have to eat after all. It's not like I would get some preferential treatment, someone made that very clear.

"I'll come. But I want to know, just for the sake of keeping up appearances, should I pretend I'm already in love with you? Should I praise your performances from last night too?"

I still don't understand why he's smiling because I'm not trying to be funny, I'm only trying to poke fun at him. But it's like he thinks I'm trying to be flirty. Which I very much am not.

"No pretending. Nor praising. Just some food. I would like to get to know you, honestly."

This proposition of his makes me take it back. Does he still think we'll bond? He really thought I was teasing him earlier?

"Too bad I am not hungry." But my stomach betrays me and growls at that very moment.

"I see."

"Wipe that smile off your face."

"Or what?"

He definitely thinks we're playing.

I roll my eyes at him, then turn my back to him. "I hope you'll be locked in the bathroom when I come back."

Lissa is long gone when Ivan gets out of the bathroom after he knocks on the door and makes sure I'm dressed.

I am dressed up, but as I am not ready to let Lissa do everything for me, I insisted I could do it all by myself and sent her away, and I find myself fighting with the zipper of this fucking dress I'm supposed to wear, because I'm a fucking princess and I shall not go around wearing those plebeian-looking clothes around this house. Those were the Lord's words, not mine.

"Is it alright if I help you with that?"

It's not like I have much of a choice, so I nod.

He comes closer to me and getting a hold of the zipper, he slides it up until it arrives at the back of my neck

"And you know, I'm very good at unzipping dresses too."

Oh, this man is a cocky menace!

"Careful, Zeklos. If you keep going on with such affirmations, I'll kill you one of these days."

On our way to the dining room, my faithful guardian joins us. Great! It's not like Ivan wasn't enough stress-inducing for me already.

"You're quiet this morning. You know, considering how many things you had to say last night," Ivan keeps on taunting me and oh, I'd love to smack him. And now, god knows what Belikov thinks we've done last night!

"Don't mistake my silence for weakness. I cannot plot your murder while talking," I continue my threat from earlier. I mean, the man is asking for it.

"See? I told you, Dimitri!" Ivan says and his interlocutor smiles, only so little.

So he can show other emotion than that boring bullshit he's been serving me with. I guess I'm just not the kind of person to get such a reaction from him.

But when he leaves Ivan and me alone, I wish he would have stayed. It was way better to hear them talk about little insignificant things than for Ivan's attention to be focused on me.

When the maids come with the food, I'm surprised to see laid on the table some of the stuff I'd usually eat at home. Ivan sees me eyeing them, and his excitement to see my reaction pisses me off tremendously. So I decide to ignore them. I barely eat anything. I just sip on some tea and look at nothing in particular. Truth is, even if I wanted to eat, I couldn't have put a single piece of food in my mouth.

Since I saw that Nevzine, I couldn't think of anything else but how much I miss home. Of how much I miss the simple thing of having breakfast with my folks. How can I eat anything when there's this pit in my stomach?

"You don't like anything on this table?" He sounds rather disappointed in me. I don't know what he expected me to do. Maybe to be all jolly and thank him?

"You thought you could win me over with some food?"

"No, I just… I just thought it would be nice for you to have some familiar stuff around. Dimitri thought… I mean… you don't like it?"

"How did you come to that conclusion?" My sarcasm is not welcomed, but I couldn't care less. "You know what would be nice?"

"What? I can arrange it, I'm sure."

"If rather than trying all this bullshit to make me feel at home, you would send me back there."

His excitement fades. "That… cannot happen."

"Of course it can't." I get up and put my napkin away. "I'm done with breakfast."

"But you barely ate anything."

"Yeah, I'm pondering my chances of starving to death rather than marrying you."

"Rose."

"What?"

"Stay a little longer. Let's talk." Just because he is keeping his voice calm, that doesn't mean I'm going to give in to anything he's after.

"About what? I already told you plenty of times I am not agreeing with this and earlier you made it clear enough that I have no other choice. So what is there to be talking about?"

I leave, but my luck makes it that Dimitri is there to accompany me as I walk away.

Great! I have the chance to give him a piece of my mind too.

"You know, comrade, you shouldn't worry about my well-being here."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You fucking know what I am talking about! This breakfast shit you two planned."

"We just thought that-"

I'm mad and I know it's not fair to let it all out on them, but they shouldn't have done this shit. It wasn't kind at all. It was like salt in the wound.

"Well, don't! Don't fucking think, okay? Just do your guarding shit and leave my well-being alone!"

If my morning could have gotten any worse, that just happens. Zeklos Senior comes from around the corner and he says plenty until he ends up facing me.

"Oh, you so suddenly learned English? Did you take some intensive courses in your husband's room last night?"

"He's not my husband and he'll never fucking be!"

Dimitri's POV

After Rose stormed out of that hallway, I was the one who received Anton's wrath. He scolded me for her behavior, but I didn't care much. It's nothing that I didn't hear already. Be better. Do better. And all that stuff. On the other hand, Ivan's scolding was tougher than mine. It hurt more to hear him being put down than to listen to what I've been told.

When I get into his room to see how he is, he's packing his bags.

"You're leaving already?"

"Yeah, dad said-" looking up at me, he smiles. "You brought me farewell flowers?"

"They're not from me. Rose left them in front of the door some seconds ago. I've just seen her head back to her room."

"Of course." He gets the note from between the flowers and after reading it, he laughs.

"What's so funny?"

He shows it to me. There is an 'I'm sorry' that's scribbled over with a pen, and then this: 'I don't think you should be the one to shower me with gifts. Not after last night, my love. I don't know if I could keep my mouth shut about those two fantastic minutes we spent together. You already charmed me for life. Yours always, Rose.'

I cannot believe he showed me that!

"I don't think I should have read that. You two-"

"No! No, no, no."

"No. It's none of my business and I surely don't want to know anything about your sex life." especially not with her.

"Dimitri, she's not serious. She's just messing with me. I sent these flowers to her room earlier, trying to apologize," he says showing me the scribble. "And she obviously doesn't want them. Not the flowers, nor the apologies. And you know we didn't do anything. We didn't even get the chance to talk much, remember? She's not willing to even listen to me now."

"Can you blame her?" After what he told me last night, I cannot blame her either for wanting so badly to run away.

"Of course not. But that doesn't mean I won't stop trying to connect with her. After all, we should find a way to make this work. Otherwise it will be some long reigning years, right?"

"It will." For both of us. A hundred years of Rose's grumpiness doesn't sound like a happy fate.

And it seems like trouble has already started. Or I guess it never ended. Not when it comes to her.

When I went looking for her, I didn't want to alarm anyone when I didn't find her in her room. But I guess I shouldn't have expected any less from her, considering how mad she was earlier this morning.

I don't bother to look inside the house for her, I go straight outside. God knows if she has found another hole in the wall.

It doesn't take me much to spot her. She is up in a tree, the tallest one around, probably searching for a way to get out. It was a smart choice to get rid of the dress, or else climbing into that tree would have been a struggle.

She sees me too, and patiently waits for me to approach the tree.

"It took you long enough to see I'm missing," she fakes disappointment.

"That's a mistake I don't plan to do again, rest assured."

"But where would be the fun in that?"

"Get down from there."

Couldn't she think of another way to look into the distance but this tree? It is old and hollow and a danger to everyone. It should have been cut a long time ago. Plus, the attic is high enough and for god's sake, it has windows! But considering her knowledge of this house, this tree is a good choice nonetheless. Not that she'll hear this from me.

My only problem with her plan is that she climbed to the top of the tree. A fall from there will hurt. I know from experience. Ivan and I tested all these trees when we were little and this one hurt the most.

"Why would I?"

"Because you're going to fall."

"Am not."

"Princess, please."

"Just for the sole reason of you calling me that, I am not getting down."

"Princess," I scold her.

"You meant to say Rose."

"I told you I cannot." I shouldn't. We're not even that close for me to call her that.

"And I told you, you can." I shake my head. It wouldn't be right. "I am not getting off this tree then. And I am not doing it until you start calling me Rose. We'll make that deal and I get down." I stare back at her, not ready to give in. "Suit yourself, comrade. I have enough food around to stay here for a couple of days. I can even sleep up here. Maybe I should have stolen Ivan's pillow, but I don't think it will be that bad."

She rests a hand against a branch nearby, and reaches for an apple.

"Get down. You'll get yourself hurt."

"The hell I am- Aah!"

The branch breaks and she falls. Just as I predicted.

I was already under the tree, I only need to take a step forward so that she would land in my arms. She does with a gasp, and curled up in a ball, I cuddle her against my chest.

Why do I have the idea that this is just the start of a lot of misadventures?

"I told you, Prince-"

"Please." This time she sounds pleading and seeing it in her eyes too, I find myself changing my wording instantly.

"Rose."

I put her down and she smiles at me.

"Thank you. For catching me too. So, after all, can we have that deal?"

I nod. "If that's what you want, alright." I mean, if she's willing to go to such lengths for it… "But I will do it only when no one else is around."

"It works for me."

"One more thing, though."

"What?"

"Maybe it should go both ways."

She smiles once more. "Fine… Dimitri."

She brings her hand up to arrange her bangs and I see blood dripping down toward her elbow.

She sees me eyeing her and she squints her eyes at me, threatening me not to say it. But I do say it. Because I was right.

"I told you you'll get yourself hurt. It could have been worse than that scratch."

"Well, this is why you're here, right? Good reflexes, comrade." She pats my chest and heads inside.

I follow her and after she gets the blood washed off her, she wants to go toward her room, but I have to stop her.

"You cannot do that now."

"And why is that?"

"You have some other things planned."

"I don't remember planning them."

"The Lord did."

Her expression darkens. Nothing unexpected.

"Then he should do them.

"Prin-" she eyes me. It will take me a while to get accustomed to it, but I think that if I do things her way, maybe she will be willing to say yes to this. "Sorry. Rose." What else can I tell her? She already knows how things are. "You see, this is not how it works. You cannot say no."

"I see. So, he says something, and everyone obeys." It has been working like this for me for a very long time. "And what am I supposed to do?"

"Get some new clothes."

"I do have clothes. A lot of them, in fact."

"But they're not… royal." when she'll go to the Court, she'll be expected to wear much more extravagant clothes than sweats and loose T-shirts.

"And?"

"You're a princess. And you're soon going to be the queen."

"I'm not quite following." She is playing the fool and I don't bother to get mad, I just explain.

"You have to follow tradition. Wear those kinds of clothes."

Even though I don't think they would do her much justice. The strictness of the patterns and shapes wouldn't match her fiery attitude. And the coldness of the Moroi colors surely won't match her tanned complexion. And that's a thing I shouldn't even have noticed or cared about.

"Tradition," she puffs. "Isn't it funny to you that we have been using so many new devices and all the possible advancements in technology on this earth, but when it comes to how we throw parties, how we rule, and how we treat people, we still go back to the old times? The way we treat this royal shit… all the rules and the etiquette and even the punishments…" she bites on her tongue. "Why would I dress as my great-great-grandmother did in the 1800s?"

"It's only a dress or two." after all, they only need to wear that traditional stuff on special, important occasions.

"Which is a dress too much, don't you think?"

"I am not the one to decide that." even though I know she's right, I cannot be heard saying things like these.

"Of course not. It's our beloved king who makes the rules. But… I'm supposed to just give up on everything I've been my whole life and just… be royal now?"

This doesn't make any sense. "But you've been royal your whole life."

"I didn't…" she shakes her head like she has said something she shouldn't have. "Yeah, you're right. I guess the fall from that tree shook me a little too much and I forgot that for a second." She puts on a fake smile. "But hey, look at the bright side. I get free clothes," she tries to make this sound better, but I don't think she's even believing herself. "Lead the way then, I'm going to make a big hole in someone's budget."

She thought we were getting out of the house, but when I tell her I'm taking her to meet the tailor, she's more than impressed. Of course, that comes after the disappointment of realizing she will not be getting the chance to leave the premise. Still, I don't understand her startlement. All royals get their clothes custom-made, why would she be so surprised by that?

After I've done my part, I want to leave. It will take a while and if she tries to flee, the tailor will let us know.

"Hey, you. Where do you think you're going?"

"I was-"

"No. You're supposed to be guarding me, right? What if, god forbid, I decide to jump out the window? Shouldn't you be here to stop me? What if I get fatally stabbed with a pin needle? Who will be there to give me first aid?"