THREE MONTHS LATER

I had heard the album, been to the rehearsals, and even now, on the opening night of Dimitri's world tour and I was still stunned. The background visuals he came up with this time around were amazing. He really put a lot of thought into them.

He talked me into being in a few, much to my disgruntled restraint. Tasha laughed quietly as she watched the two of us bicker, and watching Dimitri pinch his nose as he realized just how stubborn I could be was almost comical. But eventually, I said I would do it. The first one was just the two of us dancing, which he wanted to use for the song he wrote about me. The others were staged shots for Eat Your Young. They were more planned out, me laying on a couch in not quite lingerie, but pretty and comfortable underwear with him leaning over me. When I saw the whole clip with the music, it was amazing. It was mostly just the two of us mouthing the words to each other, him in just his jeans.

But standing here on the wings while the opening act cleared the stage, I could understand why Tasha said that I might feel nervous. I was nervous for Dimitri. The stadium was packed and wiped my palms over my jeans. I think it was the largest performance I had seen.

I flinched when a hand brushed the back of my arm. I looked up and smiled at Dimitri.

"Knock 'em dead," I said. Dimitri nodded and took a slow breath, wrapping an arm around my waist. I leaned into his head and stretched up, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. Dimitri rested his forehead against mine for a second before walking onto the stage, and even with the headphones I had on, I could feel the pressure of the crowd screaming in excitement.

As I watched the concert, I couldn't help but smile. It was different being on the wings, I could see everything and the crowd. It was crazy.

"I wonder how nuts they would go to hear a collab," I said to Tasha through my headset. She looked at me with a smile.

"We could make it happen. I mean, who would be here to stop us?"

I snorted a laugh. "We hadn't practiced anything?"

"But you have," she corrected, "Shallows."

I shook my head. "We only worked on that as a joke," I said, "Just to try it out."

"But it sounded amazing. The crowd already knows the song, and they'd go crazy!" Tasha exclaimed through her earpiece. There was an intermittence in the show, designed for Dimitri to have an opportunity to use the bathroom and wardrobe change.

"Rose had a brilliant idea!" Tasha said when we stepped back into the changing room. Dimitri nodded as he stripped his shirt off and changed it to another.

"What's that?"

"A collab at the end of you and her singing Shallows."

"That was actually your idea," I pointed out quietly. Dimitri looked at me and smirked.

"You don't have earpieces, but I'm sure someone around here has earplugs," he said as he raised his arms to have his sound pack reattached.

"You aren't serious?!" I exclaimed, feeling myself blanch at the idea.

Dimitri asked for us to have a moment and shut the door. He put his hands on my shoulders and smiled.

"I think that you would do amazing," he soothed.

"I've never sung live before aside from karaoke," I swallowed.

"Just pretend that you're singing to me like you do at my place," he said.

"I don't think I'm good enough for this," I whispered but he pulled me closer, wrapping his arms around my waist. I looked up at him and he pressed a quick, reassuring kiss to my lips.

"You won't know unless you try," he said whispered, "If you really don't want to, I won't force you."

I blew out a breath from between my lips. "Are you sure I'd sound okay?"

Dimitri nodded and looked up when Tasha opened the door, tapping her wrist.

"Yes."

"Fine," I whispered and he nodded, slipping out the door to head back on stage. I felt like I was going to puke as soon as he walked back on stage, and Tasha rubbed a hand over my back.

"You're going to do fine. Dex? Can you go over some warm-ups with Rose before we hit the encore?" Tasha asked a man who was lingering nearby. He nodded and gestured for me to follow him. He first had me drink some water before going through the exercises with me. They were similar to the one Dimitri did, and I was a little confused about why we were doing it. I always heard Dimitri go through some before he went on stage, but I always thought it was habit.

"It's to make sure you don't hurt yourself," Dex said when I asked, "We need to make sure your vocal cords are warm and stretched. You don't want to go on stage and sing live for the first time without doing them. And before you go in for that high note, take a nice sharp intake of air. It'll raise your soft palate, the soft part by your uvula and help you achieve those notes."

I nodded and ran my hand through my hair anxiously, jumping when Maria wrapped her hand around my wrist. I looked at her a little bewildered and she laughed before pulling me to a chair.

"I'm just going to touch some of this up," she said pulling a few things out of her bag for my make-up. I nodded and closed my eyes, trying to psyche myself up and calm myself down at the same time. Once Maria was done she nodded to herself.

"Do I look okay?" I asked, gesturing to my clothes. Dimitri's wardrobe on stage was always a little different than his usual wardrobe. Maria pursed her lips, holding up a finger and slipping into another room. She was supposed to fly into Ireland with us, but she got held back in security and then had to catch another plane. It appeared she came straight here, not the hotel first.

She came back a few minutes later and set a couple of shirts down on the table and shut the door.

"They're mine, but they might fit," she said as I picked them up. A few were no's because I wasn't crazy about crop tops, but the third one was nice. It was a tank top that had writing on it, a Harry Potter quote of all things and it was roughly cut into a V-neck with thick laces crisscrossing through the gap. It was nice, and loose enough to accommodate my bigger chest. I pulled my T-shirt off and put that one on, looking down at myself and then at Maria.

"Yes?"

"Yes!" she said and then opened the door to go search for earplugs.

I blew a breath from between my lips as I watched the rest of the show, my arms wrapped around my waist as I waited. I was starting to feel anxious as the show neared the end. It was going to be the last show of the night. I could tell the show was coming to an end when Dimitri stepped off the stage one more time, taking a quick break between the end of the show and the encore.

I handed him another water bottle we kept in a cooler and he took a long drink of it.

"If you really don't want to do this, you don't have to," he said after his drink, brushing my chin with his knuckles.

"I'm more worried about sounding like crap," I said over the sound of the screaming crowd.

"You sound amazing," he promised and took another sip of his water. "We'll share a mic, make it more intimate. Just watch my cues."

I nodded and let out a deep breath. "I just hope I don't get booed," I chuckled.

"You won't he," he laughed before he went back on stage. I rolled my shoulders back and waited patiently through the two songs he had picked for his encore before he picked up his guitar and stood at the mic.

"I have a surprise guest for you all tonight," he said and I felt the pressure in my ears from the earplugs.

"Now, this was a spur-of-a-moment idea that my girlfriend had," he started and the crowd got louder, making him smile. "But, you have to promise to be nice, or I'm going to end up sleeping on the couch tonight," he continued with a laugh before strumming the intro of the song.

He started the first verse before walking out on stage, smiling at him and then the crowd before us, hearing the roar over the earplugs as I got closer to Dimitri. As I approached he kissed my cheek and stepped to the side so I could stand in front of the mic, gripping the stand lightly between my fingers as I licked my lips.

I started to sing my verse and glanced at him nervously, seeing him smile at me as I sang, feeling the pressure building against the earplugs. I started to feel a little better when he stood beside me, singing the chorus with me before he stepped back.

My eyes widened. I thought we both would have sung the scales, but he shook his head and nodded at me encouragingly and I sang them, closing my eyes for a moment to ground myself. I could still hear the music, but it was muddled, I just had to follow the feeling of the vibrations from the music.

Dimitri seemed impressed as I hit the chorus for the last time, smiling to myself as he played the chords on his guitar. When I sang the last note I let out a sigh of relief as I stepped back from the mic, smiling at Dimitri nervously as he came over, kissing me quickly and moving his guitar out of the way to hug me.

"Good night!" he said into the mic before we left the stage, gripping my hand as we left. I let out a deep breath and braced myself against my knees once we were off stang, the anxiety of performing becoming almost too much to comprehend.

"I can't believe I just did that," I said in disbelief, looking up at Tasha and Dimitri.

"You killed it!" Maria exclaimed as she approached.

I shook my head as I breathed, standing up and giving Dimitri a celebratory hug.

"You did amazing," I praised but when I pulled back, Dimitri smiled at me.

"You did amazing," he praised, kissing my head.

Despite the cool and damp weather, I was loving Ireland and Scotland. I loved the sights, and we had taken a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher, which was wet, to say the least. It rained the whole way up there, but the minute we got to the cliffs, the rain ceased and the sky cleared up and we could see everything perfectly.

We did a lot of hiking in Ireland, and at night, we went to pubs for traditional food and beer. I loved the traditional breakfast, and I died for the stew we had one night. Once we got to Scotland, Edinburgh was lively even with the snow.

Dimitri spent a lot of time taking pictures, and it made me smile to see him relax a little. The tour was more work than I thought, and even I was doing more work than I thought. Well, more physical work. Everyone pitched in with the stage crew, and even a few times I'd overdone it.

But here, in Scotland, we were relaxing before heading to England and then Europe.

"I figured the snow would be gone now," I said quietly.

"It's only March, Roza. They have longer winters," Dimitri mused quietly, lifting the camera up quietly. I glanced at him as the flash went off, the light momentarily blinding me.

"Thanks for the warning," I chuckled I said as I blinked. Dimitri smirked at me as he pulled the memory card out of the camera and put it into his laptop. I smirked at him and rubbed my socked feet together, lifting my mug and taking a sip as I looked outside at the falling snow.

We were renting a stone cottage in the city, and it gave me a homey feel every time I walked inside. It was almost as if it was ripped from the pages of a storybook. The fireplace crackled quietly and the windows were slightly fogged around the edges.

"Can I post this?"

I looked away from the falling snow and squinted at Dimitri's computer. There were two pictures up side by side. One was of me sitting curled up on the couch, the quilt from Dimitri's bed around my legs, the steam wafting up from the mug as I looked out the window. I hadn't bothered doing anything with my hair as we weren't being seen outside much today, so it was wild and big. The second picture was when I looked up when the flash went off.

"Sure," I said with a smile, taking another sip of my coffee.

"Anything, in particular, you want to do for your birthday while we are here?"

I smiled at him and shrugged. "We don't need to do anything special," I said, "Just being here is enough of a celebration."

Dimitri smiled at me and pulled his hair from the hair tie, running his fingers through his hair.

"You're stubborn," he chuckled.

I winked and shrugged at him.

"Honestly, I'd be fine for just having a quiet dinner and then watching a movie here," I said softly, setting my mug down on the table. Dimitri stood up and came over to me, bracing himself with one arm on the back of the couch and the other on the arm that I leaned against.

"I can get behind that," he said with a smile. I grinned at him and he leaned down, pecking my lips gently. I smirked at him when he pulled away, but flinched when there was a flash outside the window. Dimitri looked up and then yanked the curtain closed.

"Pariahs," he muttered under his breath with a shake of his head. I rolled my eyes and stood up, kneeling on the couch and opened the curtain, flipping them off before pulling it shut.

"There, they can have a field day with that."

Dimitri snorted a laugh and got comfortable on the other end of the couch, rubbing the edge of the quit between his fingers.

"I should ask Mama for a spare one when we stop over," he said and I raised my brows.

"Oh? Why?"

"So you can have one to take with you," he chuckled, "I'm not giving this one up."

I rolled my eyes at him and wiggled my toes under his leg.

"Even with the socks, my feet are still freezing," I laughed. Dimitri chuckled and lifted my feet into his lap, wrapping the end of the quilt around my feet and rubbing the tops of them.

"Are you keeping the same setlist for tomorrow night?" I asked. Dimitri yawned but nodded.

"Yes. I probably won't change it up until we get to Russia," he said, "Mama will probably want us to stay at her house while we're there. Is that okay with you? We'll end up sharing my old room.

I shrugged. "It's fine with me. It's not like it's the first time we've slept in the same bed together," I said with a wiggle of my brows. Dimitri smirked at me and rubbed his hands over the tops of my feet again.

"What is Ivan and Tasha up to today?" I asked.

"They're on some sort of tour of all the Harry Potter filming spots. Tasha promised Lisa she would bring something back," he chuckled.

"I told Lissa I would too when we go to England," I laughed.

"She suckered both of you," Dimitri laughed, making me laugh too. I picked up the notepad on the table and looked at it.

"It's crazy to think that I get to see Paris for the first time in two weeks. And Germany, and Italy, and Greece," I sang happily. Dimitri grinned at me and leaned over me, kissing the tip of my nose.

"I can't wait to show my best friend all those places," Dimitri said softly. I smiled at him and looked back at my notepad. I liked him saying that way too much.

Tasha, Maria and I were using the last day in London to get some shopping done. For me, it was to get gifts for my friends, but I was also loving all the sweet shops we stopped in.

I was browsing through one of the stores when I felt a hesitant tap on my shoulder. I turned and smiled politely at the young girl that stood behind me, a grin on her lips.

"Hi?" I said with a slight chuckle.

"Can I get your autograph? I heard you singing with Dimitri Belikov two nights ago," she said excitedly. I nodded and looked in my bag for a pen or something, but a marker was held up by Tasha. I looked to see if I had paper, but the girl extended her phone case to me. I chuckled and signed the back of it. Once someone spotted me signing something, other people came up too.

I chuckled again as more people approached.

"I can't believe you're dating Dimitri Belikov!" one girl squealed.

I scoffed playfully. "Please. Dimitri Belikov is dating me," I laughed, a few others laughing too before Tasha was able to carrell me away from everyone.

"You did well. I half expected you to panic," Tasha chuckled as she wrapped her arms around me.

I blew out a breath and laughed. "I thought I was going to puke," I laughed, "There were so many people!"

You guys are getting two chapters today ;)

Enjoy!