Only Him

Chapter 4

Everything smelled like antiseptic, a smell that i'd come to hate over the years. Whatever I was laying on was theoretically soft but there was something sharp poking into my lower back. I recognized the feel of one of the infirmary cots.

I groaned.

"Roza," Dimitri's voice came from somewhere to my left. I felt warm fingers cover my own where they rested on my stomach. "Are you okay? Does something hurt?"

"I'm in the infirmary again," I groaned again. I cracked open my eyes and glared at the fluorescent light that flickered overhead. "I was doing so well too. It's been nearly two months since I was here!"

Dimitri's chuckle was half amusement, half relief.

"Yes. I'd prefer it if you beat that record next time."

I turned my head, careful to ease the stiff muscles in my neck. Dimitri was sitting on a small wooden chair beside my bed, tall frame somehow managing to look graceful as it was compressed. By the look of the stubble shadowing his chin he'd been here for a little while.

"I'm sorry I scared you, comrade."

He squeezed my hand briefly before leaning back in the chair once more. "I'm just glad you're alright."

"How's everyone else?" I asked, noting that the rest of the royal detail was absent from our surroundings.

"Fine. The rest of the guardians checked out with no major injuries and Lissa is catching up on sleep before the day starts."

I winced in sympathy. "I'm glad I won't have to deal with the fallout from the attack," I admitted. I liked my part in all of this. I handled the physical aspect, Lissa handled the political.

Dimitri nodded in agreement. "Your only job now is to rest. Get some more sleep, Rose."

"I don't want to," I whined. "At least, not here," I amended. "I want to go home and wash all this yuck off of me and then I want to climb into bed with you and stay there for a very long time." I gave him my best saucy look, probably not up to its usual caliber considering my current state of physical duress. Plus, the infirmary lights were not flattering for anyone.

"Rose," Dimitri said warningly, but a small smile was playing on the corner of his lips. Yes, he liked that idea very much, too. "You were injured very severely. You still need to recover."

"Oh come on!" I burst. "Lissa healed me." Obviously she had, there was no other explanation. I didn't know what 'injured very severely' constituted but whatever it had been it was over now. "I'm fine. Probably healthier now then I was yesterday and you weren't complaining then."

Nope, in fact, I remembered very clearly that he had been fully invested in yesterday's activities.

"We can discuss this in private," he said shortly, casting a cautious look around. Dimitri was by no means shy about our relationship; it was a well-known fact that we were pretty passionate if from nothing else then our personalities, but that didn't mean he broadcasted our personal lives everywhere. I could have argued the point that we were practically the only ones currently in the infirmary (aside from a patient on the far end of the room and a nurse walking into the back room) but he'd used the word 'private' and I hoped that would lead to my earlier suggestion.

"Okay," I agreed, "so lets go somewhere private."

Dimitri shook his head and stood up from his seat. He went off to find the doctor murmuring something unflattering in Russian.

The doctor came to evaluate me and twenty minutes later Dimitri and I were headed back towards the guardian apartments. When Lissa had first been crowned she'd offered us nicer accommodation within the townhouses that the royals stayed in, but we declined. We didn't need to be surrounded by the royals, many of who still looked down on us for our old student-mentor relationship, for the old accusation that I was the Queen-Killer, and Dimitri's status as ex-Strigoi. We were quite comfortable in our one bedroom apartment, surrounded by our colleagues.