Reading VA: Reading Vampire Academy (A VA fanfic)

Fifteen

DPOV
"I am," Sonya spoke. Then took the book from our eldest sister when Karo handed it over. "Mason delivered.
"He found me the next day before school. He was carrying a box of books.
""I got them," he said. "Hurry and take them before you get in trouble for talking to me.""

Everyone was quiet. Exhausted from another long day of reading. But still interested nonetheless. Those who knew Mason were in a solemn and respectful silence. Coping with their loss in their own way- evident by the varying expressions- without saying anything that would be a spoiler. Although, his absence basically said what they didn't, couldn't and or wouldn't.

The silence remained while my sister kept reading. Rose's research over Vlad and Anna. His diary entries. What had scared her. What she'd kept from me, the exact knowledge and information that had frightened her when she and Lissa started heading that way.

I had to wonder how they were doing now. How my Roza was doing. I had started accepting the plausibility of the ghost vision when it had led to us to cleaning out the caves as much as possible. I now had to accept them and that Rose was so close to death that she also saw them.

Sonya covered Rose's discomfort with the 'shadow-kissed' term. How she'd first heard it from Sonya Karp. How Karp had urged her out of the Academy walls. "Her words were crazy. No one left the Academy. Yet as she held me there and stared into my eyes, I began to feel strange. A fuzzy feeling clouded my mind. What she said suddenly sounded very reasonable, like the most reasonable thing in the world. Yes. I needed to take Lissa away, take her-"

Everyone was still quiet. Still tired, ready for bed, but interested even if they knew the outcome.

"The guardians had later explained to me that she wasn't well and had been taken to a place where she could recover. She would be safe and cared for, they assured me. She would recover."

Lissa and Roza exchanged a knowing and mischievous look as something clearly shot through that bond. Spoilers. Clearly.

"Only she hadn't." Sonya continued on.

Next came a party Lissa had directed Mason to spring Rose for. My woman had gone. And done nothing irrational... Well, by a normal person's standards. By Roza standards and her resulting friends standards regarding her it was completely irrational, made no sense and was completely reckless.

""Why aren't you drinking?" Mason asked me a little while later, speaking quietly into my ear." The St Vladimir's group members gasped in astonishment before quieting for Sonya to continue.
"I glanced down at my cup, half surprised to see it full.
""I don't know. I guess I don't think guardians should drink around their charges." You sound like Dimka already!" Sonya's exclamation had the rest of us laughing.

"And you say I give zen life lessons!" I chuckled in my wonderful woman's ear in amusement and affection.
"Screw you!" she muttered playfully in return.

""She's not your charge yet! You aren't on duty. You won't be for a long time. Since when did you get so responsible?""
"The moment I met you!" softly exclaimed Roza who then turned and pecked my cheek.
"The moment she met you!" the rest of the group directed at me. The exclamation chorusing with my Roza's.

Sonya continued when the laughter lessened into nothing, silence embraced the room. "I didn't really think I was all that responsible."

"Yeah sure!" sung the younger in the room.

"But I was thinking about what Dimitri had said about balancing fun and obligation. It just seemed wrong to let myself go wild when Lissa was in such a vulnerable state lately. Wiggling out of my tight spot between her and Mason, I walked over and sat beside Natalie."

The mention of Natalie again elicited disgusted murmurs and under-breath comments. Myself included. As Strigoi, she'd nearly killed my Roza. I had only blamed myself for not having Roza's training regime as tough and accelerated as she'd regularly demanded from me. I couldn't help but feel I'd flung her defenceless and in-need-of-protecting being into the perfect set up because I'd denied and lied about my love of her. I couldn't help but think I was responsible for every Strigoi interaction she'd ever had so far in her life.

My sister kept reading. Through that party. And the dreaded room trashing incident where Rose took the fall for Lissa. Selfless. My Roza definitely was selfless even if she put on a selfish and bitchy façade. She never did anything with out good reason either. I loved her all the more for it. Rose was her own person, an individual who didn't let what others said get to her... Most of the time. She may be my woman, and I may want to protect her from everything, but she was her own extremely resilient person. Another thing which made me love her all the more. I was proud of the woman I loved, the one who used to be my student but had never managed a purely professional relationship with. I refused to apologise and feel guilty about that anymore. I was meant to be with her and she had needed me to guide her, teach her and love her. I had since committed far worse crimes against the world; I wasn't about to feel bad about finding my soulmate, the woman I was so perfectly in sync with and would always love to no end no matter what.

"Back in Lissa's room, with Xander's arm around me and her angry and upset eyes on us, I didn't know if she'd do anything drastic again. But the situation reminded me too much of that one from two years ago, and I knew I had to diffuse it."

Sonya kept reading and the room was silent, we were all ready to go to bed. Not that Roza and I would get much sleep again tonight. If she let me, that is. I would never push her out of her comfort zone, not after what the Strigoi me had done to her in Russia. She'd always been the one to call the shots even if she thought I ran the show. She would always be the one to veto anything I wanted to do with her.

"Across the room, Lissa met my eyes with relief. She smiled and gave me a small nod of thanks before she returned her attention to Aaron."

Sonya sighed, "that's all folks." Half the room laughed at her ending.
"Looney Tunes!" Roza explained with a giggle. That giggled and the accompanying smile made my heart melt. She was gorgeous, beautiful and stunning. Always had been and always would be. Even in a bitch fight and verbal argument.
"Let's go to bed, love," I suggested in her ear. My lover shivered, hastily said night from both of us and pulled me out of the room.

"I love you, Roza. So much," I mumbled across her lips after pressing her against the back of our locked bedroom door.
"I love you, Comrade. More than anything. Now," she shot me a cunning yet drop dead sexy and suggestive look.

That look spelled trouble. I was going to be in pain... a whole lot of pain. It just wasn't the type of pain I'd be in if we were in training. She was planning on teasing and punishing me as playfully and pleasurably as I was her. Oh, tonight was going to be fun.

"Shut up, love," I playfully teased before pulling her into a deep, passionate and loving kiss. The kiss that started the games that went on most of the night. I loved that woman and let her know I was all hers, that I'd always been hers.