Rose was used to getting by with just a few meager possessions. It was something she’d been doing all her life, despite being friends with a Moroi princess who had always been generous with her money. Lissa was still on an allowance and there were limits to even her crazy spending.
Lissa. A sharp pang went through Rose as she thought about her best friend. Between being stuck here, so far from home that she could barely sense the bond that tethered them and remembering how she’d been about to leave her... Rose shook her head, clearing away the dark thoughts that threatened to creep in. Thinking about home was pointless when it was obvious right now that it was a place she couldn’t reach.
Shifting the bag that held everything she’d acquired in this world - a few changes of clothing, her school books, the nazar pendant her mother had given her for Christmas a few months ago - Rose made her way into the building that would now be her home. It had to be an improvement over the shelters, but it wasn’t going to make her like this situation any better.
Dimitri had been in the area for two weeks and in that time he had learned, well, very little about the how he’d gotten there and why. So he had explored the city and attempted to make sense of it. His contacts were non-existent, the schools weren’t there (or at least the two he’d tried to reach weren’t) and he hadn’t spotted a single Moroi in all that time. What was a Dhampir to do?
He had healed up on his own, thank God, thanks to his knowledge of how to patch himself up and his general genetic-disposition toward being more hardy. Dimitri still couldn’t quite believe that he was alive. It was like he had been snatched from one important moment and thrown into some other world--and it had saved him.
And now they were being given places to stay and he was supposed to be moving in where they could keep an eye on him. That rankled but he was also not like his wild girl; he could handle following the rules and settling in somewhere they wanted everyone corralled. And it was as though his thoughts conjured her out of thin air. Surely it wasn’t Rose. It couldn’t be.
Dimitri lengthened his already long strides and made his way into the building quickly. “Roza?” he asked as he approached from behind. And then he made the mistake of glancing backward as he double-checked his surroundings almost in disbelief that she could be right in front of him.
Dimitri was quiet enough in his movements that Rose almost didn’t notice his approach until she heard his voice. There was a whiff of a familiar scent and then the nickname only he had ever called her. Only he would. But Dimitri was strigoi now. As much as she hadn’t wanted to believe Mason’s final message to her, she couldn’t doubt it.
And she couldn’t hesitate now. Well, maybe she did for a fraction of a section, but she had the luck that he had glanced back and that was her window. So quickly that it was almost imperceptible, Rose reached for the silver stake she always carried with her, despite not having seen a single strigoi in almost two months. Until now, she told herself sternly, remembering every lesson Dimitri had ever taught her. Knowing her punches had always been weaker, Rose kicked out with her foot, the stake firmly in hand. “You’re not him,” she practically growled, just as much for her own sake as his.
Just because he'd glanced back did not mean his guard was down. He shifted his weight as he turned, striking down to knock her kick aside while his attention focused on her stake. That was not a practice stake; she'd not had a practice stake when the Strigoi had attacked the school so it didn't necessarily surprise him but it was still concerning. "Rose--" he said and blocked a follow-up attack, quietly proud of how quickly she'd turned one form into the other, "stop!" The disadvantage was his: he didn't want to hurt her but she wanted to hurt him. Under any other circumstances, he would have been pleased by that.
When Dimitri had first turned around to block her, she’d been focused on the attack. It was enough that she hadn’t noticed the tanned skin or the brown eyes she so loved. Part of it might have been that she almost didn’t want to look. She didn’t want to see him in the strigoi he was now.
That one word gave her pause. “Stop-“ it was the sort of command she couldn’t have ignored as a novice. Technically, that was still what she was, even if it didn’t amount to anything here, but she’d been trained her whole life to obey that kind of command from a superior, from a teacher or from her mentor.
She looked up. It was then that she let herself really take in his appearance. His skin was tanned, not white. There was no red in his eyes. This was no strigoi.
Still, she kept her guard up. “Dimitri?” she said in a very small voice, making his name a question.
He had her attention. Dimitri's hands went up to show he was unarmed--not that it meant much, considering who he was. But something had her spooked and he could only guess at several scenarios. He telegraphed his movement and kept it slow, reaching out to grasp her by the wrist that held the stake and pushing downward to make her lower it. Dimitri held her gaze the entire time. "While I am pleased by your reaction time, that wasn't meant to be a test," he said. "I am surprised to see you here. Almost as much as I am surprised to be here."
Dimitri was calm and he hadn't yet released his hold on her wrist. It was loose enough that she could break his hold, sure, but that wasn't the point. "Are you alright?" Worry crossed his expression; he couldn't help it.
An honest answer probably would have been that she didn’t know. A part of Rose thought maybe she had just finally lost her mind, because this was Dimitri exactly as she remembered him. His expressions, his warmth, him. Everything she knew, that she had ever been taught, said he couldn’t really be here, but he didn’t look like the ghosts that had been plaguing her since the beginning of the field experience, either.
As wild and imaginative as she could be, Rose was a skeptic at her core. She’d had some of those long held beliefs shattered recently: bad things only happened in the dark, strigoi worked alone, Arthur Schoenberg was unkillabe, but even after all of that, even after coming here and finally accepting the reality that it wasn’t home, Rose still couldn’t help holding to what she knew, what was possible and what wasn’t.
Wordlessly, she nodded her head, knowing he probably wouldn’t believe her and turned the stake in her hand so that it was resting against Dimitri’s palm, her hand still grasped firmly around the other end. It was a final test – if he was strigoi and then somehow masking his true self, the stake would still burn his flesh. The skeptic in Rose had to be sure and she was ready to take the weapon back if she needed to.
Dimitri's gaze flicked down when she positioned the stake and something clicked. He shifted his hold on her and grasped the silver weapon more firmly, looking her in the eye. "Not Strigoi," he whispered. "I was brought here. Before." Before they'd been able to truly take him. Before he could have been either killed or as-well-as killed.
Rose held her breath, watching for some sign that would give her conclusive proof. When he didn’t even flinch, she let out her breath. How could she still have her doubts about time travel when she was here? When all the media proclaimed the date as 2023 and not 2011? The timing of this damn thing was miraculous, but Rose had told Dimitri once that she didn’t believe in miracles and it was true. What she had to believe was the evidence of her own senses.
“No, you’re not,” she conceded, releasing her grip on the stake (though she definitely wasn’t letting him keep it) and not even noticing that she’d been gripping the pointed end so hard it had left a small cut on her hand.
It was automatic for Dimitri to take the weapon from her and slip it into hiding on his person. He would give it back once he was sure she was calm and okay; she'd earned the right to carry it, as far as he was concerned. It was still very recent in his mind, watching her fight Strigoi and protecting the school. "Roza," he murmured, somehow managing to sound chiding as he brought the cut hand up to inspect. It would heal fine and he didn't have anything on him just then to cover the small wound. "You shouldn't have hesitated," he went on, voice still low though he brought her hand up to kiss her knuckles because he could. "If you thought I was Strigoi, you should have kept going until I forced you to stop." There was a small smile that appeared. "And you shouldn't grip the pointy-end so hard," he added with a teasing tone.
“It’s been a few weeks for me”, Rose said after giving him a look at the teasing. “Mason told me you were–” she couldn’t make herself say the words. “I think I knew the moment I really saw you that you weren’t, but I couldn’t let myself really believe it.”
“You missed my birthday, by the way, so I hope you’re prepared to shower me in make-up presents.” It was her turn to tease him now. In truth, the fact that he was here, alive, was all the gift she could have wanted.
Dimitri bent smoothly to pick up the bag she'd dropped in favor of attacking him without the extra weight. Another point he approved. "I arrived two weeks ago. I was trying to see if I could make any of this make sense. It doesn't, by the way, even by our recent standards." Her bag was shouldered effortlessly and he guided her by the elbow. "My apartment is apparently this way. There's a first aid kit under the sink."
"I am sorry I missed your birthday," he added and somehow actually meant it. She could joke about him needing to make it up to her all she wanted; there was a truth behind it. Her birthday meant a little less awkwardness around her age and it meant graduation really was right around the corner. They had only begun to talk about how to actually have a relationship when things had crumbled. "Stairs," Dimitri said and ushered her into the stairwell. "What have you found out while here?"
For Rose, her birthday had meant something different. It was the day she could legally drop out of St. Vladimir’s. It was the day she’d been waiting for so she could leave the safety of her school and hunt down her former lover. She’d been halfway to the school office to do just that when something had brought her here. Despite her teasing, when her birthday had arrived a couple of months ago, presents and parties had been the last thing on her mind and the future they’d talked about had been gone. Would things be different here, she wondered? Or would they go back to playing the roles of mentor and student?
“I’ve been here a little less than two months,” she offered. “There are a handful of others in this situation, displaced through time and space. As near as I can tell, they started showing up about 6 months ago, but I’m not sure anyone knows much about what caused it.”
“Most of our places don’t exist here,” she continued. “St. Vlad’s, Court. Siberia exists. I found Novosibirsk, but all my searching for a dhampir village turned up nothing. And I mean not a single one anywhere on the planet.” She paused, grinning impishly before adding, “My history teacher is pretty cool. You’ll like him.”
He couldn't smile, even as she grinned that impish grin of hers that was usually infectious. "I was having trouble finding the schools," he admitted. "But why were you looking in Siberia and Novosibirsk?" he asked as he found the apartment he'd been assigned to. It was quick work to get them both inside. He paused and leveled a look at her; had she gone looking for Baia in particular? Dimitri's frown deepened as he pulled out the first aid kit and opened it up on the kitchen counter. "Our timing is off," he commented, more to himself than Rose. "If people are coming from time and space, that leaves a lot of openings for trouble."
Dimitri turned back around with some ointment and a pad of gauze, rather than a simple plaster, since it would hold better with properly-made fists. “Here,” he said, quietly, and took her hand gently while he tended to such a small wound that it likely didn’t need the level of care he was giving it. But, in truth, it was helping him. Rose was there and she was safe. “You were saying that you saw Mason again. That he told you, what, that I was Strigoi?” Dimitri asked and lifted his gaze from his work to look at Rose’s face to watch her expression.
She did her best to ignore the thrill that went through her just as that simple, gentle touch as he bandaged the cut on her hand. It was such a familiar thing, something they’d done so many times before, but it was a sensation she’d thought she’d never feel again. This was something she needed just as much.
“I was looking for you,” Rose admitted after an uncharacteristic silence. She nodded her confirmation of what Mason had told her. “After you–” Again, she couldn’t make herself say the words “–I stepped outside the wards, just enough to be able to see him. He was able to communicate with me enough to give me a sense of what had happened to you before he was gone for good. He found peace after that.” The memory brought a smile to her face, the knowledge that Mason truly was at peace now.
“After I was old enough to leave school–” the unspoken without parental permission was a given, considering the complicated relationship she had with Janine Hathaway. “– I had planned to make my way to Russia, to Siberia, to hunt you down and free you.” Rose wished desperately that she had mastered that cool show no emotion thing he had, because she was sure her emotions were written all over her face.
His fingers were quick and sure and the cut was secured within record time. But he didn't let go of her hand because she was still speaking. No, Dimitri folded her hand carefully into both of his and brought it up to kiss it again.
"I'm sorry," Dimitri said. "I never wanted you to leave school before graduation. Not to go after me." It was strange; he both couldn't imagine it happening and yet he could because he remembered too vividly what should have been his last moments. He would have prayed for death, would have fought to the death. What he didn't want was to become their worst enemy. That Rose seemed to know more than he did (and wasn't that frustrating) was only proof of something that had not yet happened to him. It could have been straight out of a book. Not a out of his favored genre, of course, but it still felt too unreal. A slow smile appeared. "Russia is very large, Rose. How did you plan on finding me, assuming I even left the country in the first place?" The amusement wasn't meant to be patronizing because it was pure Dimitri in tactician mode. He wanted to know how her deductive reasoning skills worked out. More, he wanted to erase those emotions he saw on her face. The pain that she shouldn't have had to feel, the things she had seen before she should have had to. Rose Hathaway had never been the average novice, of course.
“You would have done it for me,” Rose said stubbornly. She didn’t know what she was going to do next. She knew full well that hunting for him wasn’t going to be easy and neither was releasing him from that unholy state, but she’d made him a silent promise and she’d been determined to keep it. For once, she’d chosen something over duty. She’d chosen him, as hard as it was going to be to go through with it.
“Mason pointed me in that direction,” she offered. “From there, I planned to investigate, look for signs of strigoi and just keep hunting until I found you.” It wasn’t exactly a strong plan and she knew it, but it was what she had. It was what she knew she had to do.
At least until she’d ended up here, derailing her plans until she could get back home.
He watched her, dark eyes assessing. He would have done the same but he was already a full-fledged guardian. “And who was left to guard Lissa?” Dimitri asked gently. Rose’s conviction to stay near the Dragomir princess and her insistence that she’d guarded the Moroi during their two year absence, well, had been admirable and why Dimitri had stuck his neck out for her in the first place. He hadn’t anticipated being assigned as a personal tutor and mentor but he had accepted nonetheless. His brow knit in a frown. “What about your bond?”
Dimitri released his hold on her in favor of turning back to the first aid kit and packing it away. The entire thing bothered him. While he was glad to see Rose, she should have been back at St Vladimir and completing her education. She should be near her graduation and looking toward her promise mark. It troubled him. No, he realized, he felt guilty.
Rose didn’t want to talk about Lissa. She didn’t want to talk about her own guilt or think about the probably suicidal mission she’d been about to embark on in their old world. She didn’t want to think about the way her soul had shattered when she’d watched Dimitri’s last moments as a dhampir, helpless to stop it, helpless to save him.
She shrugged at his question and tried to change the subject. “What you would be asking, Comrade,” she said, “is what the hell we’re going to do now that we’re stuck here.”
"I am taking this day by day," he replied. "You weren't the only one doing some research and we truly are in a place not our own," Dimitri went on, turning back around and leaning against the counter. He ticked off items on his fingers. "We can't find the academies or the Court. There hasn't been any sign of Moroi, Strigoi, or Dhampir until I came across you. Maybe they aren't a worry here. We have no one in any real sort of power to talk to, by my understanding." He tapped a fourth finger. "But you and I are here." He wiggled his thumb a little. "And you should finish school."
Rose rolled her eyes at him. “I am finishing school, Comrade,” she told him. She hadn’t been sure what the point was, at first, but it was something to do here in this world where what had always been her purpose in life didn’t exist and it was definitely easier to make a living in this world with a diploma. So, when the school year had started back up here last month, she’d started with it. It was weird not having any combat classes. “My history teacher is actually one of us, I think. From some other place, I mean.”
“The history teacher you think is cool and you think I’ll like him?” Dimitri asked, looking amused. He was glad she had either chosen to return to school or had been forced into it by the circumstances; he hoped she had chosen it. It complicated their relationship again, of course, but he could handle that. “I’ll have to meet him,” he said. Said by anyone else, there might have been a hint of jealousy. Said by Dimitri Belikov, it was genuine curiosity. Any teacher who would make Rose pay attention in a class that wasn’t just about fighting had to be a good teacher. And that made him want to meet the person.
Dimitri hesitated and glanced away. Talking about Rose being back in high school was bringing back the realization that their relationship was highly inappropriate. And it couldn’t continue. Not like this. “What other classes are you taking? I hope you’re keeping up with something physical. Have you found a place to train?” he settled on, looking back at her.
“The usual stuff.” Rose shrugged. Human high school classes weren’t that interesting if you asked her. “Economics, Statistics, Sociology, English.” She made a face that was partly feigned. Some of the classes weren’t actually that bad, even if it still felt weird not having any of the combat or guardian classes she was used to.
She wanted to ask about them, but a part of her was afraid of the answer. Maybe he’d changed his mind. Maybe now that they were here in a world where neither of them had a duty to any moroi, he still had a reason not to be with her. It wasn’t something she was ready to find out, yet, so she played along with the small talk, dancing around the thing they should really be discussing.
“Do I look rusty to you?” she asked, really wishing she could do that cool eyebrow thing he did, but still managing to make the question sound like a challenge. “I got a job working the front desk at a gym. Free membership is one of the perks.”
He nodded in approval as she listed the classes she was taking. The usual stuff. Normal, human classes. Dimitri eyed her when she asked if she looked rusty but chose to not comment; he didn’t need to start a verbal fight after their short-lived physical one. Amusement appeared. “Free membership? I hope you’re running laps. The hills around San Francisco are great.” How he managed to keep a straight face was anyone’s guess.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Dimitri said quietly. “It was hard, not knowing if you’d gotten out.”
Rose groaned at the mention of running. “I have a feeling you’re going to show me exactly how many ‘great’ hills there are around here,” she said, making air quotes around the word great as she said it.
His quieter words sobered her a little and she nodded, reaching for his hand. “I’m really glad you’re here,” she admitted. Now that he was, there was a part of her that almost hoped they could stay here forever. Or at least for a long while.
"I think of five off the top of my head already," Dimitri promised her. He bent smoothly and retrieved the bag he'd carried for her. "Let's go find your apartment and I'll leave you to get settled," he offered. Say you want to know where someone lived so you could keep an eye on them without actually saying you wanted to know where they lived so you could keep an eye on them. "Lead the way."