Late update. Didn't have much time... Also, I failed science.

Italic = thoughts

Vampire Academy belongs to Richelle Mead.

Ch.10 RPOV

I woke up to a heavenly scent in my nose. Dimitri's scent.

There was something... someone... next to me, his body curled up against mine. His soft hair tickled my chin, and he even snuggled a little closer.

I stopped breathing for a second. What was I doing in Dimitri's bed? Why was he in bed, with me... in such a position?

An even better question: what happened?

I tried to sit up. My head swam, and I almost passed out again. My vision dotted with stars and black fog.

"Roza, don't move." He was awake after all. His hands reached to support me.

"What... What happened?" I asked groggily. The last thing I remember was him scooping me up into his arms, running to get me back to the palace after I'd shadow-traveled us to the stables and healed him... Oh right, I fainted.

"What time is it?" I panicked. His mouth opened, ready to answer, but I swore. "Screw that, what date is today?" He bit his lip, avoided my eyes.

"You were out for three days, Rose."

Three days. Impossible not for my father to notice. I almost keeled over in a dead faint.

"Damn!" he snarled. "I should never have told you that." His hands slowly wound down my body, smoothing my clothes. "Conserve your energy, Roza."

Damn, he had such wonderful hands... I bit my lip to stop from moaning out loud. He obviously didn't know what he was doing to me right now. I swear, no man could be this gorgeous any yet not know he was hot hot hot.

"Deep breaths, Roza. Take deep breaths." Did he have to roll his r's like that? Take deep breaths? No, that should be the last thing I did. Deep breaths would end up with his scent flooding my senses. Should I do it? My mind said no, the animalistic part of me rebelled against my mind, protesting that she wanted her man.

"Breathe, Roza. You need it." I finally did. His scent... I could faint from that alone. Those hands of his were massaging me, and any lesser woman would have collapsed already. However, Rose Hathaway was made of sterner stuff, and I only swooned a bit... Alright, a lot.

The alarm sounded.

Without missing a beat, he flicked his fingers at it. It flew across the room and hit the wall, shattering. "Oops." He frowned. "I must have been too annoyed at it."

"What was that alarm for?" I asked. I was seriously quite unhappy at the alarm. It'd ruined a moment.

"Breakfast."

My mind ordered me to spring up and run to breakfast. My body experienced excruciating pain when it tried to.

"Dimitri," I groaned.

"You shouldn't move, Roza." He pulled on his shoes. "I'll get you some breakfast."

Did I mention he was never going to get rid of me? I didn't love him yet, per se, but if he continued to walk this road, I would.

DPOV

I floated to the dining room on cloud nine. Waking up with Roza in my arms was already bliss. Then I had to calm her down, and to say I hadn't been taking advantage of running my hands along her body would be a lie. I'd enjoyed it... too much. Immediately I'd felt guilty. Mama had raised me to be better.

I'd already packed a small box of doughnuts for Roza before Vika sat down. What I hadn't expected was for Viktoria to open said box of doughnuts and take one out.

"Where's Rose?" Vika demanded, plopping down next to me, chewing on the doughnut meant for Roza.

"Manners, Vika," Mama chided from where she was sitting with Abe Mazur. They had a file on their table (why did every time I saw them together they had some kind of paperwork between them?) and she wrote something down before Mazur put the paper back into his bag.

"Those are for Roza, Vika." I chided her.

She pouted. "Where is she?"

"Sleeping," I deflected.

She crossed her arms. I quickly finished my fruit. "I want to see her." She said it so suddenly I almost choked.

I opened my mouth to disagree -

"Don't say anything, Dimka. The last time I saw her was when you carried her in, with her unconscious. I want to talk to her, Dimitri."

"About what?"

She flushed.

"I told you to be more subtle, Vika." Sonya sighed from behind her magazine.

"And I told you I should have done it," Karolina sighed from behind her cup of coffee, Paul next to her chomping on his toast.

"What are you guys talking about?" I asked, wondering.

They all three of them cast a look at Mama, and dragged me out to the gardens. I barely had time to grab Roza's box of doughnuts. Paul widened his eyes, begging for his mama to take him too, but Karo gave him a look that told him to finish his breakfast. We left him sulking and picking at his eggs.

"You know that Mama is arranging a marriage between you and Rose Hathaway with Abe Mazur?" Karo started.

"Behind your back?" Sonya added.

"It isn't behind his back if he knows, Sonya." Vika muttered.

They ignored her. They always did. Poor Vika - I'd always sympathized with her. When I was small, Sonya and Karolina always did that with me.

"For your information, all three of you, I do know." And I would have proposed to her, regardless of what our parents wanted, if I felt she returned my feelings and was ready, I added. They didn't need to know that, though.

Sonya groaned and facepalmed herself. "To think a brother of mine would turn out like this."

"Are you insulting my intelligence level?" I retorted.

"Enough, both of you," Karo bit out. "We're not here to talk about your intelligence level, Dimitri. We're here to talk about Rose Hathaway who may or may not have captured your heart."

"Don't bother objecting, big brother," Vika grumbled. "Bad enough that these two ignore me. Worse is that you don't know that you like a girl who clearly returns your feelings."

"And they want said girl as their sister by the end of this year." Sonya seconded, adding, "and personally, I couldn't care less, but Hathaway is way better than Natasha."

I raised my brows. "You really dislike her that much?"

Sonya shrugged. "She's persistent."

"She's so boring," Vika chimed.

"She's too... uptight," Karo wrinkled her nose.

I stared at them. "And I once thought you liked her."

I slipped through the door to my room, holding her box of doughnuts, hoping she was asleep.

Of course my luck wasn't up to the task.

"Why so late?"

She sat on the bed, leaning against the headboard, the blankets drawn up to her chin.

"You should rest."

"And miss out on eating my doughnuts? No, comrade, I don't think so." She eagerly snatched them from my hands, and I chuckled as she bit into the first one. She looked like a five-year-old licking at ice-cream... Better to never tell her that. I think she'd kill me on the spot.

"Maybe you should breathe," I told her as she inhaled five doughnuts in a row.

"After I finish this box," she told me, cramming another into her mouth.

I sighed and sat down. "I don't know how you can stand those unhealthy deep-fried food."

"Try one. You'll understand."

Oh well, if you want me too... I reached to take one from her box. She swatted my hand away. "Go and get one yourself. These are mine."

I shook my head bemusedly. Who knew?

I waited until she finished - she didn't seem to want to talk while she was eating. I figured she'd bite my face off if I interrupted her.

She licked the last of the chocolate icing from her fingers. Oh, how I wanted her to lick my fingers. I wouldn't stop her.

"I was thinking..." we both said at the same time.

I chuckled and gestured at her. "Ladies first."

She shot me a lopsided grin, and I tried to ignore the butterflies in my stomach. "You know, what with me being a dark and spirit user and you being a spirit and dark user, some might think we're true mates..."

"And?" I'd gathered as much from her conversation/sword match with Eddie.

"I was wondering about your opinion." She bit her lip.

"My opinion?" I didn't really have an opinion about this topic. A true mate bond wasn't of choice - most people died before finding theirs. If she was my mate, then I was considered the luckiest of the luckiest - about 1 per cent of the Moroi/dhampir world found their mates every year. Oksana and Mark were one of them.

Although a dhampir and Moroi being in a long-term relationship was scandalous, true mates were the exception. To be apart would slowly kill them. Society had no choice but to appreciate the bond most of them had not found yet.

As much as Moroi and dhampir being together was outrageous, dhampir and dhampir being together was even more so. If you weren't a royal, you devoted your lives to serving the higher classes - "they come first," the first saying they drilled into the heads of dhampir children. Even if you were a dhampir royal, the Moroi royalty held more power than you did. They never let us dhampir forget that we came from them, so they made us clean up after them. Dhampir royal households had only dhampir servants - Moroi royal households had both Moroi and dhampir servants. They claimed it was fair, but it was just another way of saying, dhampir, even royal dhampir, do not get the privilege of having Moroi look after them.

I chose my next words carefully. "I never really cared about what the press said about me. I only cared if my citizens approved. If you're my true mate, I'd love to have the entire world know."

A radiant smile spread along her beautiful face, and I'd do anything to keep her smiling at me like that. If she told me to jump off a cliff, I would.

"I'd never thought I'd meet my true mate," she mused. "I'd always associated it with my list of Top Ten Things That Will Never Happen To Me - seems appropriate, since my luck is..." She struggled to find a word, and I saw that she had thought of a word - only that it wasn't a word supposed to be spoken by royals.

"Just say it, Roza. You seem to like doing stuff that royals avoid."

"My luck is shit."

My lips twitched, I fought a smile. "Language, Roza."

"You told me to do that," she pouted.

Her tone is what brings me to what my sisters had asked of me just before I came in.

"Going back to what I wanted to talk to you about," I covered her with my blanket. Sick or not, I was still going to take care of her.

"Oh?" she arched a perfect eyebrow.

"Stop it, woman. You're being distracting."

She pressed her lips together. "Talk."

"Willyougoonadatewithme?" I blurted out.

She blinked. "Slower please?"

Inhale. Exhale. Don't forget how to breathe. Don't forget to breathe. "Will you go on a date with me?" I pronounced every syllable clearly.

"Relax, comrade. I'm not deaf. And... are you sure?"

I nodded, keeping my eyes on her face. She avoided looking at me, twisting my blanket between her fists. "Are you sure you want to incur my father's famous wrath?"

I raised a brow. "I think I already did by taking you to my room and taking care of you."

"I know, but..." She looked up and smiled. "I'll go, though you're going to be the one talking to my father."

"Consider it done."

Maybe I shouldn't have been so confident.

Good news... I'm back.

Bad news... end-of-term tests are two weeks away.

Good good news... after tests there'll be the winter holidays... which means more chapters!

Yeah, I failed science. (18 points out of 100) My chemistry levels are so low. (Please do not let my mother see this. She will kill me.)

If I'm lucky, I might be able to squeeze in Romitri's date in this week, but since my luck level is shit (pardon me and my language) I'm assuming I will be updating after exams.

Have a nice day, don't forget to review!