𝐈 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐈 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 ▸ After Spokane Rose is perilously close to breaking. Discovered in her bed, Dimitri is forced to leave the Academy. Let down by almost everyone she knows and cares for, pulled between duty and love...
Dimitri returned to their room after speaking with Pavel feeling much better.
"That was helpful, thanks, milaya," Dimitri said, looking fondly to where Rose sat in their suite touching up the polish on her toenails. "Pavel raised a few things I hadn't thought of and gave me some hints on how to manage particular problems. He's also offered to be a mentor of sorts. He said if I run into any problems I'm welcome to talk them through with him."
"That's kind of him," Rose said. "So you're going to do it?"
"I'd like to, milaya. Croft was right. Career-wise it's a good move for me. It also puts us in a good position for me to get a regular hours, well-paid job at Court in the future. That could be helpful if at some stage in the future you might want to take a year or two off." Dimitri didn't go into further details, but Rose knew he was thinking about how they'd manage if they decided to start a family. "But we do need to sort out how you'd feel about taking orders from me," he quickly concluded, not wanting to pressure Rose on the children front.
"It's like I said to Croft. I'm more likely to obey you than anyone else. I know you don't make decisions I don't like just for the sake of it."
"So you won't be childish and sulk and carry on if I make a decision you don't like?"
"Well... I'm not sure I can promise that" Rose replied with a smirk. "I'm sure you'll end up sleeping on the sofa at least a few times," she giggled.
Dimitri rolled his eyes, knowing she spoke the truth. "So any ideas of who else could be on the team?"
"I did, actually. What about Eddie? He knows about Spirit and the darkness already, he's a good fighter, he gets along well with Lissa and Christian, and I think he'd enjoy an allocation where he can experience off-ward guarding and being mentored up a bit."
"Yes. He'd crossed my mind. I'd already penciled him in as a possibility."
"What about Viktoria?" Rose asked.
"I'd also thought about her, but I'm not convinced it's a good idea," Dimitri mused. "She and Eddie have only been going out for ten minutes, I'm not sure they're ready to be suddenly living and working together. And then there's the fact she's my sister. Guarding out of wards is more dangerous than something like a Court position so it could be increasing the level of danger she would be in. Also, she'll be eighteen by the time she graduates. I'm not sure it's fair that she has to live with her big brother and follow my orders. She deserves the chance to be an adult and stand on her own two feet. But then there's the fact that if she's allocated with us, we can keep an eye on her, and at least we know she won't be in a situation where she'll be taken advantage of or treated like cannon fodder."
"Well maybe think about that for a while then? We should talk to Lissa about it. Firstly check how she feels about you taking on that role, then see if she has any ideas about allocations. She and Christian knew we were only considering their offer – they must have had some backups in mind?"
"That's true," Dimitri said thoughtfully.
"How do you feel about tomorrow? What time is the court-martial?"
"We all need to be there at 10 pm. They'll call us in individually to give evidence. I'm hoping it will be fairly straightforward."
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