The Key to the Music Box

The Russian Ballet

"There was this boy... this boy who worked in the place..." Dimitri couldn't stop thinking about what Anaya- no Anastasia said. She was the Grand Duchess Anastasia. Anastasia is alive. He thought she was dead. The girl who he would see in the place tormenting her siblings with pranks, running up and down the halls, being picked up by her father to dance, and singing a song with her grandmother. He must tell her. He has to say to her, "I am the little boy who saved you and your grandmother that night. Here is the music box I swore to myself I'd give back to you someday."

Dimitri sighed. All the thoughts running through his head was starting to give him a headache. Anastasia came out of the house with a smile spread on her face. "Sophie is going to take us shopping in Paris for the Ballet! Can you believe it? Shopping in Paris." He held back from smiling. The excitement in her eyes made them sparkle. He wanted to waltz with her again, to feel her waist in his arms.

"I have never seen you so upbeat before. Please, tell me where the real Anaya is," Dimitri teased.

"Ha-ha," Anastasia said and rolled her eyes.

XXX

Dimitri held up the rose Anaya gave to him before setting it back down on the table. They were going to the Russian Ballet tonight. He could not help but feel the excitement in his stomach in see Anaya again. Dimitri hummed as he began getting ready. He was not use to feeling this way with a woman. He was not completely innocent, by all means, but he had never felt this way, so emotionally invested. The flings he had were that. Just flings. The girls never turned into anything special in the end. They did not give him the feeling of soaring like Anaya gave him.

Dimitri grabbed the top hat and his cloak, walking out of his temporary room. He had the music box from the past in his jacket pocket. If he gave it to Anastasia, would she gain her memory back? Dimitri clenched his jaw. He selfishly did not want her to remember. If she remembered, he would be a distant memory. He did not want that, yet he had to give her what she had been looking for her entire life. He could reunite her with her remaining family. That was what Anaya wanted at least, 'and what Anaya wants, I want,' Dimitri thought. He was already stepping out of the car to where they were seeing the ballet. He sat outside of the steps, waiting for the others to meet up before going inside. Vlad came up not too long. He immediately started pacing.

"I'm nervous," Vlad told Dimitri. "What if she does not pass the test?"

"We don't have anything to be nervous about," Dimitri replied. "She's the princess."

"I know! I know!" Vlad exclaimed and went to go sit by Dimitri.

Dimitri jumped up, "No, no. You don't know. I was the boy... In the palace. The one who opened the wall." He then leaned down to Vlad's ear and whispered "She's the real thing Vlad."

Vlad's face turned in to shock, and he shook his head. "That means our Anaya has found her family." He stood up next to Dimitri. "We have found the heir to the Russian throne. And you-?"

"Will walk out of her life forever," Dimitri interrupted him and started walking away.

"But-,"

"Princesses don't marry kitchen boys," Dimitri said. Sadness struck in him as he said this. However, he knew it was true.

"I know! But-," Vlad tried to explain.

"We're going to go through with this as if nothing has changed." It was the best. There was no point in getting his hopes up over the missing princess.