Incomplete (A VA Fanfic One-Shots & Shorts Collection)

Escaping

RPOV
Two days after the cabin, and attack, I woke up to find a letter had been slipped under my door.

Roza, my love,

Meet me in the gym at normal training time. I need to talk with the only woman I will ever love, you.

Love always,
Your comrade, your Dimitri. xoxo

I didn't need to be told to burn it, but I wasn't ready to just yet. I would after this conversation with my lover. So, after changing and pocketing the note I headed off to the gym.

I walked in and my man's head snapped up from his Western. His face was unreadable because all of the emotions that were normally locked up were showing. Love, heartache, worry, uncertainty, hope, discomfort just to name a few.
"Dimitri?" I walked over to him, removed the book from his hands and sat on his lap, his arms wrapping around my waist. "What's going on? I hate seeing you in pain." I laid my forehead on his.
"I can't do it Roza. I can't be your mentor, not after the cabin. The cover won't last for six months." Okay, I could understand that. I had wanted nothing more than to kiss him and drag him back to the cabin as soon as we got back behind the wards after the rescue last night, yesterday- whatever.
"What are we going to do?"
"I want to go home, to Baia. But I won't go without you. My home is wherever you are, my love. Please, please, please come home with me." The man never begged, neither did I. He really did want me to go because it was the safest option. "They won't judge, I promise. They might get a shock but they won't judge us."
"Dimitri?"
"Roza?"
"I love you. Of course, of course I'll go home with you. I don't want to be here without you." I closed the distance between our lips, pulling him in to a kiss that screamed 'I love you', and wou-
"Oh, finally you two! It's about time." Alberta interrupted us and the thought that that kiss would be a cover blower. To say we were shocked she knew would be a gross understatement. We turned to look at her with god-knows what expressions. We'd been caught. Whatever expressions we were wearing made her laugh. "Yes, you really were that obvious. You might as well have been all over each other. It was so obvious you were trying to hide it it was sticking out like a sore thumb. Never mind the way you worry so much about each other. How the Moroi and students (novices included) haven't seen it is beyond me."
I just groaned and collapsed onto Dimitri's collarbone. He turned to gaze at me while one of his hands ran through my hair and stroked my face. A soft kiss on my cheek had me looking back into his eyes. The chocolate brown ones saying 'time to go'. I nodded. It was time for us to get out of these walls. We turned back to find a highly entertained yet completely confused Alberta looking at us. "Alberta, we have a favour to ask," I gently started while Dimitri kissed my other cheek. "Comrade, that isn't helping me concentrate."
"Hmm?" He moaned against my cheek.
"Dimitri!" I swatted him playfully. "We aren't going to get anywhere if you keep that up. I'm not complaining about the contact, just timing. This woman needs to focus."
"But Roza," he whined.
"And I thought you were the private one," I sighed and shook my head.
"Totally adorable you two. Now, what do you need?" Alberta interrupted.
"Get us out of here. Permanently," I responded. Alberta was beyond shocked.
"Y-you, you want out? Of the Academy and mainstream society?"
"Yes. I can't and won't be her mentor. We won't last until grad. Then sneaking at Court for a month will be impossible. I can't have her if I stay but I can't leave half my soul behind."
"And there's no way in hell will I survive without him. He's the only thing keeping me sane. Either we both stay and struggle for the rest of our lives, or we both leave. My best friend is so self absorbed she can't see I'm hurting, she can't see the truth in my aura. She's trying to set me up with Adrian and thinking, and I quote "she'll come around, they're made for each other." I've got to not only live her perfect love life with her but also put up with her trying to control mine, and read her opinions and idea's she has of my, again I quote, "sadly non-existent love life and I can't believe she's still a virgin." I hate it. She still thinks I'm her best friend and sister even though she's actively trying to control every aspect of my life and not being there for me. She's left Dimitri with shouldering the effects of the pain she causes, and," I so didn't want to let him know just how much pain he'd put me in, "and the pain he caused. There's no point in staying, not when I've become less than a shadow of a guardian to her. It's pointless to stay."
"Oh Roza. I'm so-" I shut that up with a kiss.
"You were forgiven within seconds. I can't resent you. I can't hate you. Lissa, however. Her I can." And just to drive home my point I kissed him again. "I can only love you." Another kiss followed to show just how much I meant every word. "I thought the cabin prov-" now I got shut up with a kiss.
"Yes. It did."
"Guys! Overload. Cute, but overload. Does the world not exist?"
"No. It never does with him around." My lover simply paled. Aww. I was right. He was the private one.
"You two stay here while I sort out getting you out. I never thought I'd see the day when your generation's two most lethal guardians would run simply because they melt each other. The rest of them are going to have a field day hearing this. No one's won the pool- we didn't expect this, not with the way you fought for her to graduate Belikov."
"She's right though, it's pointless being a bound guardian if it's pulling them apart. If what she feels, hears and has to live makes her want to do the reverse of protecting Lissa. I don't doubt the situation would be different if the bond had been created after graduation. Never mind she's had too many kills since Christmas. The inside of the walls of the Academy are too harmful. First Dashkov, then Mason, now Lissa. And me in there somewhere. What will come next if we stay? Five months, she has five months and who knows what extra trauma. I'm not seeing her in pain and on the verge of insanity again. I fought to give her the best future possible, at the time it meant keeping her here and training her, now it means leaving."
"Understood. I'll lock the door on my way out." She left and once the door was locked we changed our positions so I was in between his legs.
"I bloody love you, you know that right?"
"Yes. I love you too." He shifted my hair and I, knowing what he wanted to do, removed my jacket. He pulled my shirt down so he could trail kisses.
"What was going through your head in Kirova's office that first night? What did you see in Portland? In the lounge? Over Christmas?"
"Hmm. In Portland? In Portland I saw a beautiful young woman who was willing to take 'they come first' to a whole new level."
"My neck?"
"Mainly. I was never disgusted by that. I was overawed by your dedication. I also never thought you had run simply for the sake of it. Someone who throws a book at their teacher in kindergarten to protect her new found friend does not take her on the run at fifteen after she just became the last of her line for the hell of it."
"Hmm. Understanding me before meeting me, huh." That caused him to chuckle while his lips were still against the back of my neck. The sensation caused me to shiver and moan. "Do you have no clue what you do to me man?"
"Speak for yourself woman." That made me sigh.
"I love that you know. That you see-and treat- me as a woman. I'm your woman, you hold all of me for a reason."
"Good god, I love you."
"Mmm. I love you more."
"I would say that's not possible but after the way I've treated you, yes, you do love me more. I do-"
"Don't finish that thought. If I remember rightly not too long ago a little birdie told me "neither of us is a saint". I've done my own share of hurting you too."
"If you're referring to Christmas and it's lead up that was your way of responding to my idiocy. I deserved it. You didn't. You needed someone who led by example. I didn't see that you had it twice as hard with Lissa and Christian. I didn't see just how alone you were. I didn't see that Lissa was doing the reverse of helping. I didn't see you putting her first in every possible sense. I didn't see anything outside the sphere that was you and I, that becoming an us was dangerous. I should have known better; I should have known we were already an us; I should have known you would get your way, I loved you too much to stay away. You had me from the second I laid eyes on you."
"Oh Dimitri. You do realise you had me from Portland despite being my opposition and the one responsible for dragging us back. I couldn't ignore your presence in Kirova's office." That got another chuckle out of him.
"I was at least ten feet away from you and you had your back to me. How on earth did you remember I was there?"
"How did I home in on you in Stan's class? How can I always find you? how can you always find me?" Another chuckle caused another shiver and I laid back into his chest.
"Universal forces. I have to admit, I spent more time watching you than I did my surroundings." Now I giggled.
"Aww. I was the danger."
"That's what I kept telling myself was why I was more focused on you. Didn't believe it for a second." He planted a kiss on my cheek. "What else was on that list? Something relating to a lounge, and my "big, bad male pride"?"
"Sorry about that." That got an outright laugh.
"Problem was, you were right. And that hurt more. Did I seriously have you on the verge of tears because I held that sort of power over you?"
"You saw?"
"Yes. Do you know how close to pulling you into my arms and pushing you back into your room I was when it came back to haunt you?"
"No clue. And the sight of you sorta made it worse in a way. The guilt I felt. I needed the reality check, but it hurt."
"Oh Roza. How do I still have you?"
"Because I love you. Because I need you. Because I was made for you. Because I'm addicted."
"You. Are. Beyond. Beautiful. And as for over Christmas? Well, the proverbial forbidden fruit. The one I wanted, the one I needed, the one who scared me. The. One. I. Loved. No matter what. You acted young and childish because I did. As I said before, you needed someone who led by example. I wasn't and you pushed me to open my eyes and realise it. When I did it was almost too late. Do you know how worried I was? How hard I fought to keep my composure because the other half of my heart had disappeared?"
"I saw the fight through Liss not too long after I'd left the bus stop."
"Why? Why didn't you tell her, or me?"
"Why do you think?" I sighed. "I'd gone to break his heart, I'd left you on the roof so you could have Tasha. His motive for leaving was personal. It had to be me who went and got them. She couldn't report what she didn't know. And she had no clue about our personal side. As I said to Alberta, she still couldn't believe I was a virgin."
"Your not now though," he whispered huskily in my ear. I twisted to face him.
"I was saving myself for you before I realised what was happening. It took an incident with Mase for me to realise it had to be you. I couldn't do it if it wasn't with you. That charm worked for a reason, it burned you into my brain as a note for later."
"Do you want to know what I saw whenever I saw Tasha? What I thought whenever she touched me?" Did I?
"Want to? No. Need to? Yes."
"You. It was you. I kept seeing you. I wanted you touching me the way she was. I wanted you to be Tasha's age," he sighed, "or even just eighteen almost nineteen. I had the same lesson to learn as you. That it had to be struggle street not easy street. That I had to let you be happy even if it meant sending you into Mason or even Adrain's arms."
"You realised moments before I did, didn't you?"
"Yes. It's why I flinched when you told me to take it, because I couldn't. I couldn't be petty. I couldn't have children with a woman I didn't love."
"But you can't have children with the woman you love."
"I don't care. Family isn't all about children-"
"It's about being with the one you love, children or not," I clicked.
"Exactly. It's why I won't go back to Baia without you." Another realisation hit me.
"Since Spokane, since the charm even, you haven't been homesick. I could tell you missed them, but I haven't seen that look in over a month."
"That was another thing that scared me about you, that being near you was like coming home," he laughed softly, "that was nothing compared to the cabin. That sense of oneness, completion, was so powerful." I sighed.
"You don't say. It was long overdue but we had to work to that point."
"Roza, long overdue is an understatement. It sho-"
"Don't say the charm should have taken full effect. Everything's happened for a reason. And neither of us would have been happy if our first was under a spell. If it had worked we'd be even more screwed."
"God woman, I love you. Does your logic have to work?" He leaned down and kissed me.
"Mmm. I love you too. And do-" I got cut off by a kiss and he laid me back on the floor.
"Oh Roza. How did I ever resist you?"
"I have no clue, Comrade. N-" again with the being shut up with a kiss. This time my leg got hitched around his waist.
"I love you, my Roza. Always."
"I love you too Dimitri." That did it. My top came off and his lips took possession of my body, making my breathing harder as my heart raced and my skin burned. As I'd discovered two nights ago, the where didn't matter. The who did. The gym disappeared as we repeated the cabin, our souls coming alive and the connection deepening in the processes.
"Oh my Roza. I love you, more than you know."
"Hmm. You keep me sane so I know you love me that much. I love you too. We're doing the right thing, leaving." I was certain of it. We had to come first, for once in our lives. "You come first, Dimitri, to me you will always come first." He always would, and had for a long while.
"You always have and always will come first to me, my Roza." His phone chose just then to ring. Ugh! He found it just before it rang out. After a quick conversation he hung up. "We're out. Five hours left my love. We've got to be marked before we go though."
"And that's right now?"
"Yes. Unfortunately we need to get dressed." It was bloody hard to get dressed without stopping to kiss. My heart was his, my heart, my soul, my body, all his.
We got to Alberta's office without raising suspicions. "Did you two, well you know, in the gym?"
"Do you really want to know Alberta?" I'm sure our faces or bodies were giving it away anyway. She simply laughed.
"Belikov took too long to answer his phone. Clothes must have gone flying. Finally."
"Not cool Alberta," I remarked.
"Let's get you two marked and out of here."
Five hours later we were out of the gates. And we'd never return. Lissa's chotki in Alberta's possession.
"Thank you Roza. Really my love."
"No, Dimitri. It's the other way around. You just gave up your career. Not just ruined it, completely sacrificed it."
"But y-"
"Gave up my future? When I have too much blood on my hands already? When I've lived more of a career in my last three years of school than some do their whole lives? Look at it this way, I'm retiring before I'm supposed to start because of, well, you know the rest."
"Oh my Roza. You have lived more of a career than most ever will. You've done your duty from kindergarten. I'm not taking your future am I? I'm giving you the freedom you need. You've been a guardian through school; when everyone else saw themselves as novices you saw yourself as a guardian."
"Exactly." That man, my man, knew how to read me and understood me so completely.
"God woman. Not even I made that distinction until I was about fifteen; you made it at five. You really have given your life up for Lissa haven't you?"
"Yes. I have. And she's forgotten it. She used to realise and acknowledge I still had a life and brain of my own. Not anymore. I'm alive because she healed me, but..."
"It was for her sake she brought you back. Am I right?"
"You've done it again Dimitri."
"Oh Roza."
"Oh, bloody hell! She's pulling me in." I got that out just before being pulled in.