Reading VA: Reading Vampire Academy (A VA fanfic)

Eleven

DPOV
For lunch, we made a massive serving of Cottage Pie, of course we used chopped meat instead of mince. With a side serving of vegetables. It served as the meal... and leftovers... Which was lucky since most of the pasta bake leftovers had been eaten.

"Who's reading the following chapter of Rose's life?" Adrian asked in a smart-ass way.
"It is my turn," said Babushka in her spooky voice.

Oh god. This was either going to go down really well and in silence. Or it was going to go down miserably and with lots of commentary.

Adrian handed the book over to Yeva. Who opened immediately to the required page. Then started reading as a tense quiet filled the air. She'd already scared everyone silly. But I had to wonder if that would last depending on the content of the chapter. ""You need something to wear?" Lissa asked.
""Hmm?"
"I glanced over at her. We were waiting for Mr. Nagy's Slavic art class to start, and I was preoccupied with listening to Mia adamantly deny the claims about her parents to one of her friends."

A look shot between the ex-enemies. That look said all was forgiven. And that Mia was now proud of and content with her parentage.

"... I dug through my bag, messily looking for my lip gloss. I made a face when I found it. It was almost empty; I didn't know where I was going to score some more." Yeva continued.

My Roza looked meaningfully at me. She brought us into a quick kiss. I had kept her in supply. And I always would. As nice as that gloss tasted on her lips, her natural taste was much more addictive and attractive.

"We had an assembly tonight. It was November 1, All Saints' Day-which also meant we'd been back almost a month now." Everyone was still listening respectfully to the scary older Russian woman... who happened to be my grandmother. "A royal group was visiting the school, including Queen Tatiana herself. Honestly, that wasn't what excited me. She'd visited the Academy before. It was pretty common and a lot less cool than it sounded. Besides, after living among humans and elected leaders," uh oh. This was a controversial opinion coming up. One I shared with her. "I didn't think much of stiff royals. Still, I'd gotten permission to go because everyone else would be there."
"Not really. I begged for you to get a break, and a fair go," I whispered in my Roza's ear.
Yeva kept reading. "A little freedom was definitely worth the pain of sitting through a few boring speeches.
"I didn't stay to chat with Lissa after school like I usually did."

I knew where this was heading. This was the training I'd held her pinned for far too long afterwards. Well, not long enough in personal terms but far too long in professional terms.

"When I arrived at the gym, I noticed he was wearing a T-shirt and loose running pants, as opposed to his usual jeans. It was a good look for him. Really good. Stop looking, I immediately told myself."

Yeva paused. Laughter and snickers filled the air. Comments were made. And Rose refused to look guilty or apologise. Quite the opposite. My Roza wore a proud and shameless grin. I was hers and she was mine... And she knew it! God. I loved the woman.

Babushka restarted and everyone quieted. Still scared. And rightly so. She covered how that training ended. Then came that moment of guilty pleasure. "He walked off ahead of me. Studying him carefully, I realised I couldn't let the opportunity go by."

Everyone was hooked. Completely intrigued. Wondering how this would play out.

"I leapt at his back, positioning myself exactly the way he'd taught me. I had the element of surprise." You would have, I mentally corrected in amusement at the memory. "Everything was perfect, and he wouldn't even see me coming." I would have sensed it, even without the battle cry.
"Before I could make contact, he spun around at ridiculously high speed. In one deft motion, he grabbed me like I weighed nothing and threw me to the ground, pinning me there." And I should have picked us straight up if we'd been any normal student-teacher pair.
"I groaned. "I didn't do anything wrong!"
"His eyes looked levelly into mine as he held my wrists, but he didn't look as serious as he had during the lesson. He seemed to find this funny." She had been amusing and adorable. ""The battle cry sort of gave you away. Try not to yell next time."
""Would it have made a difference if I'd been quiet?"
"He thought about it. "No. Probably not.""
"Definitely not," I suggestively corrected in her ear.
"I sighed loudly, still in too much of a good mood to really let this disappointment get me down. There were some advantages to having a kick-ass mentor-one who also happened to have a foot of height on me and outweighed me considerably."

Again with the height. God, she's gorgeous. Everyone was intently listening to her thoughts that had occurred in that moment. I was glad and felt honoured and privileged to actually know what had gone on in her head at that point in time.

"And that wasn't even considering his strength. He wasn't bulky, but his body had a lot of hard, lean muscle. If I could ever beat him, I could beat anyone."

Yeva let Rose pipe in. "It turned out to be rather accurate!" cheered Roza. That sparked commentary and conversation.

Which was soon snuffed out when Babushka started reading again. "All of a sudden, it occurred to me that he was still holding me down. The skin on his fingers was warm as he clutched my wrists. His face hovered inches from my own, and his legs and torso were actually pressing against mine. Some of his long brown hair hung around his face, and he appeared to be noticing me too, almost like he had that night in the lounge. And oh God, did he smell good. Breathing became difficult for me, and it had nothing to do with the workout or my lungs being crushed."

Alberta looked highly amused and entertained by this moment. Rose's thoughts and description of it. As well as by the fact it had even happened. She wasn't alone. Many others shared her reaction. Janine was the only one who wasn't, but that wasn't to say she didn't find it slightly entertaining. Zoya and Paul were the only ones who didn't understand what was going on. They looked completely lost. Understandably.

"I would have given anything to read his mind right then. Ever since that night in the lounge, I'd noticed him watching me with this same, studious expression."

Damn! Hadn't expected that she'd caught me out that often. Didn't surprise me now, though.

"He never actually did it during trainings themselves- those were business. But before and after, he would sometimes lighten up just a little, and I'd see him look at me in a way that was almost admiring. And sometimes, if I was really, really lucky, he'd smile at me. A real smile, too-not the dry one that accompanied the sarcasm we tossed around so often. I didn't want to admit it to anyone-not to Lissa, not even to myself- but some days, I lived for those smiles. They lit up his face. "Gorgeous" no longer adequately described him."

That elicited laughter. As well as accompanying chatter. I knew what was going to happen next.

"Hoping to appear calm, I tried to think of something professional and guardian-related to say. Instead, I said, "So um... you got any other moves to show me?""

"Certainly," I growled lustfully in her ear. She shivered.

"His lips twitched, and for a moment, I thought I was going to get one of those smiles. My heart leapt. Then, with visible effort, he pushed the smile back and once more became my tough-love mentor. He shifted off me, leaned back on his heels, and rose. "Come on. We should go.""

The intense silence wrapped around the group. Yeva's voice took on an even more eery quality.

Babushka kept reading uninterrupted. Covering Rose's reaction, the banquet and Tatiana's slamming of Lissa. Looks were shared throughout the process, especially while Yeva read Lissa and Roza's argument thing in the garden. And again when Mia was brought into the situation. When book me interrupted my grandmother let laughter and conversation break out. It didn't last long though. Yeva then read the interaction with Christian as we exited to return Rose to her dorm.

"When we'd gone a little ways, I stole a glance behind me and saw Christian standing just outside the garden. He'd stopped walking and now stood starring down the path that led to Lissa in the courtyard. Shadows covered his face as he thought, and then, after a few moments, he turned around and headed back towards the Moroi dorms."

Yeva finished. Only for Christian and Rose to start snapping at each other. They kept it lighthearted and friendly, not revealing a thing. Focusing on reflecting about it and their stupidity. Didn't take long for Liss to step in. Asking about refreshments distracted everyone.

Temporarily. While Liss and Rose were in the kitchen I was interrogated. Not terribly surprised about that. I answered truthfully. But I couldn't tell them everything because a number of questions required spoiler answers.