Never Too Late: A VA Fanfiction

Chapter Thirty

Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy.

DPOV:

I held my son as Rose got ready for the Moroi graduation. She’d gone through her trials and graduated with flying colors. Two months after Ivan had been born, I still couldn’t believe I had a son.

Ivan was amazing. Yes, he woke me up every night; in fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I had a full night's sleep, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. At two months old, he was sitting up on his own already. He was growing so fast I was afraid to close my eyes for the fear that when I open them, he’ll be all grown up.

Everyone loved Ivan. Rose’s mom had come down a week early with her charge, bringing a surprise guest: Abe Mazur, Rose’s father. When she first saw Ivan, Janine had instantly become a doting grandmother, a very startling change.

Rose had been so happy to finally meet Abe, she’d teared up. Of course, she denied it, but I could see how much it meant to her. Though we didn’t tell them we were together, Abe had pulled me aside and threatened me within an inch of my life. Needless to say, I was terrified of him now. I knew perfectly well what he was capable of; after all, he was the one to make sure my father never came back.

The last couple of months had been difficult for Rose, her attention divided between her schooling, fighting, and son, but I couldn’t be more proud of her for everything she had accomplished. Since there was no one to watch Ivan while she was in class, at least no one she trusted, she took him with her to her lessons, keeping him in a front carrier or in a stroller by her desk. The novices saw Ivan as one of them as a result of this, and helped Rose any way they could. The Moroi generally avoided her, but the non-royals often stopped by her desk, or by where she would sit, in the rare moments of peace, on the grass by the edge of the woods, just to say hi and ask about Ivan.

It was truly amazing what a baby could do to a person.

Rose sighed, breaking into my thoughts. She was staring at her reflection, her face serious and drawn.

“What’s wrong, love?” Even though she had Ivan, Alberta allowed us to stay in the same room at Rose’s request. She claimed it would be easier to juggle everything with an extra hand to care for Ivan and Alberta readily agreed.

I stood up and carefully shifted Ivan to one arm, wrapping the other one around her. The full length mirror standing against the wall was a recent addition, courtesy of Lissa. I looked at our reflection, feeling a slight shock. Rose was so much shorter than me, but almost just as built. Her slim figure was back to the way it was before Ivan was born, after hours of physical exercise. Yet through it all, she managed to keep a feminine look about her, a motherly essence in a way. All in all, she was breathtaking.

“Dimitri, what are we going to do?” she asked, her voice small.

I kissed the top of her head and she leaned into me. “What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, we’re going to have to find some way to tell Lissa,” she pointed out. “All she’s been talking about lately is the apartment we’ll be moving into together away from any adults. Our friendship is just back to the way it was. How will I break to her the fact that not only am I in love with my mentor, but I’m also moving in with him? And money. Where will we be living? You can’t support all three of us on your salary alone, and I won’t have a job for a few weeks. I really don’t want to take anything from Lissa, it just feels wrong.” Rose looked ready to cry.

It had been easy to live off of what I earned while living at the Academy. After all, we didn’t have to worry about anything such as housing, heat, electricity or food. Now that we wouldn’t be living at the Academy about a week from now, we had to start thinking about these things.