Does Love Really Fade? {Vampire Academy}

The Alchemists

So I'm alive. Gonna be honest, the whole pandemic thing made it really hard for me to write with the same joy I used to and I never really recovered. Also, a bunch of other stuff that sucked happened. But recently I've been doing some writing for myself, which really helped me get a feel for it all again. I know it's been *checks watch* three years since I updated but coming back to this story felt right. I've missed these guys.

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I cheered as Jill succeeded in today's elemental training with Mia, who was beaming with satisfaction. They'd been working together since Jill had got here (nothing too offensive, wouldn't want the brand new Lady Dragomir stirring up trouble right away) and it was always nice to see Jill looking confident with herself, especially since nowadays she was spending a lot of time looking awkward and unsure around the scrutinizing glares of the entire vampire community.

Here, though, with just Mia, Lissa, myself, and the squadron of guardians following both Lissa and Jill, she was able to be herself for just a little while.

"Did you see that?" Jill grinned as she sat and took a long drink from her water bottle.

I nodded, "You've been killing it lately, all this extra practice with Mia is paying off, it seems. I'd invite you to go hunting with me but I think your guards would have something to say about that."

I winked at one of the closer guards as Jill laughed, "I think I'm a ways away from that, but it's nice to have somewhere to get it all out, you know?"

Lissa grimaced, "I wish I could say the whole royal thing gets easier, but if the last three years are any indication, I'm not sure it does."

"At least you're able to vote on the council now. Maybe it'll get easier now that they have to listen to you." Jill attempted a smile but it looked a little pained.

"And hey," I added, "You guys are having your first meeting since repealing the quorum law at the end of the week, right? Now that that's not hanging over your head you can stir up some real trouble."

Lissa laughed, but I knew that she had been thinking similarly. Even with a vote on the council, she hadn't been able to push as much as she wanted without running the risk of certain other council members using a repeal vote as leverage against her. Now, she had nothing holding her back, a thought that both excited and terrified her.

"And talk of forcing dhampir service seems to have stopped altogether, so you don't even have to focus on that!" Jill added, this time her smile seemed genuine. Her presence had caused such a stir that little else had been spoken about in the past two weeks. Even among the guardians, frequent gossiping was heard in the gyms, offices, and during shift changes.

She'd taken so much of the attention that Sonya had been able to sneak under the radar and was currently living with Mikhail, though she rarely left the house out of fear she'd be called out for it.

And then there was me. Four days later and nothing had been found regarding the break-in at my temporary housing. That meant that Lissa was still too worried about me to let me stay anywhere by myself. Normally I'd throw some reassurances her way and go back to my room, but she was already dealing with a brand new half-sister and actual rights on the council, so I figured pacifying her and couch surfing a little longer couldn't hurt. Still, I'd been reluctant to spend another night at Dimitri's after our conversation the other night so I'd been crashing on Mia's couch instead.

Noticing Lissa and Jill had fallen into a decent conversation with one of their safe topics, I wandered over to Mia, who was stretching in preparation for her hand-to-hand training that her dhampir partner was giving her.