Little Paper Hearts

Summary: 1-shot in 2 chapters. Romantic Romitri Valentine's Day fluff. Post-Ruby Circle (before Epilogue). Rose finds Dimitri up practicing fighting moves in the middle of the night before Valentine's Day. 1st chapter (can be stand-alone) rated T, 2nd chapter rated M with mature sexual content.

Author's Notes:

Richelle Mead owns Vampire Academy

There is mature sexual content in chapter 2, but the story will still feel complete if you only read chapter 1.

Thanks to TheTrebledMom for beta-reading this story.

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I was laying in bed sleeping when the sound hit me: a loud crash from our kitchen. It was pitch black in the middle of the night. Because of Lissa and Christian's college classes, we were on a human time-table right now, but we were living at Court. I looked over at the space beside me. The glow of the alarm clock said 3:38 A.M. Dimitri and I had gone to sleep side-by-side in our shared apartment, but he wasn't in our room now.

Ever since Lissa and I lost the bond, I was always just a bit anxious whenever I had nights off like tonight, even though we were all at Court. Even though I was pretty sure that there were no longer internal threats at Court, all of the things that had happened with Jill, Adrian, and Sydney last year only contributed to my fear.

Since Lissa had been put in charge, she did so much to bring us into the twenty-first century. I reached for my cell phone and checked to see if there were any Strigoi warnings. Every Court guardian now had a smartphone - thank you, Lissa - and there was an app that we could use when we were at Court to alert everyone with our GPS coordinates if Strigoi were present. But there was no alert now.

Lissa had also managed to make things much more comfortable for the life of a full-time guardian at Court. There wasn't much that could be done for life at Lehigh when we were on-campus, but here, she'd given us some of the best luxuries. Dimitri and I shared a large furnished apartment to ourselves, complete with air conditioning and washer/dryer hookups. In our bedroom, Dimitri and I shared a California king sized bed, which - let's face it - a guy of 6'7" really needs.

Another crash from the kitchen made me jump out of bed, grabbing my stake and tucking my phone in the waistband of my pajamas. I left my shoes off, knowing my socks - though they would be slippery on the kitchen and entryway tile floor - would be quieter if I was approaching an intruder, and padded down the stairs towards the kitchen.

When I got to the kitchen, what I saw almost made me laugh out loud, but I caught myself just in time. Dimitri would hate it if he saw me laughing at him about this. There he was, with his back to me, his hair down, wearing pajama pants with no shirt, holding out a banana and pivoting around, kicking, punching, and thrusting the banana like it was a silver stake. I stowed my stake in the waist of my pajamas, next to my phone.

Suddenly, Dimitri spun around and thrust the banana in my direction. When he saw me, Dimitri let out a startled grunt, and I could no longer stifle my laugh.

"Is that a banana, Comrade, or are you just happy to see me?" I asked.

Dimitri put the banana back in the fruit bowl he always kept on the counter and turned his wide eyes on me. "Roza, what are you doing up?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I think I should probably ask you the same question."

"I asked you first."

I sighed. "Fine," I said, "I heard some crashes in the kitchen and I came down to see what it was. Your turn."

"I can't tell you," he said, his eyes shifting slightly.

"I thought we agreed a long time ago that we were equals, Comrade," I told him, placing a hand on his upper arm, "That means that we talk to each other and don't keep secrets."

"It's not about keeping secrets," he said, perhaps a bit more firmly than was necessary.

"Then what is it about?" I asked, curiously.

Dimitri closed his eyes in deep thought, then opened them and met my eyes with his warm chocolate gaze looking hopefully cautious. "This is our first Valentine's Day as a couple where we'll actually be together. Since we both had to work in different places last year, I was planning something special. Something … outside."

"Outside? You mean not at Court?"

"Yes."

Outside. We were going away from Court, far from our responsibilities and worries or the judgment of others, just the two of us. It sounded like heaven. I couldn't help the smile that lit my face, but when Dimitri saw it, he scowled at me. "What's wrong with that, Comrade?" I asked him.

"You were there when the doctor confirmed what Adrian and Sydney told us, Roza. You know it's possible for us to have a child someday. And you were there when the doctor said that the reason we hadn't already conceived was because of the stress in our lifestyles."

I looked in his eyes and let my thumb gently stroke at his bicep. "Dimitri, what's this all about? We both agreed that we weren't ready to have a child yet, anyways. There'll be plenty of time for that later. That's why I got the birth control shots."

"Roza, we've gotten a combined eight more molnija and two more zvezda in just this year alone. What if our lives are always this stressful? What if we're always fighting Strigoi for our whole lives?"

I couldn't help but notice the worry creeping into his face as I met his eyes again. "Comrade, those marks are probably at least twenty less Strigoi in the world than there were before we fought them this year. Dimi-" I began, but Dimitri cut in with, "What if I can't protect you? I wasn't good enough to fight off a Strigoi once before. It could happen again."

My mouth hung open for a moment. Even after the caves, I still found myself thinking of Dimitri as a god sometimes, but he knew that I wasn't helpless. "Then, I'll protect myself," I told him, "Or I'll protect you." Dimitri looked like he was going to object, so I spoke before he could. "Comrade, that's what people do when they love each other. They fight for one another. Like I love you. And you know how hard I'll fight for you."

Dimitri's eyes softened as he considered what I had said. He put his arms around me and pulled me close, one hand in my hair and the other on the small of my back. "YA tozhe tebya lyublyu, Roza," he told me, looking into my eyes. Even though I'd been learning the language, my Russian was still not great, but I knew 'I love you, too' when I heard Dimitri say it.

"So stop worrying, Comrade," I told him, as I let my arms circle his neck, smiling at him, "If you count all of the Strigoi I staked that I haven't been marked for, I've got more than you. I'm the queen's guardian. I've got this."

Dimitri's lips were so close to mine that I could feel his breath on my face, but we stayed there, just holding each other. "Roza, I want tomorrow night," he stopped and glanced at the clock, then corrected himself, saying, "I mean tonight, to be perfect. For you."

I nearly scoffed. "Dimitri, it's just Valentine's Day," I told him, "I've had nineteen of them before."

"But it didn't mean anything before now," he said, brushing a stray hair back from my cheek.

"What do you mean?"

"Roza, have you ever had a Valentine's Day in a relationship before? With someone you cared about, I mean." He eyed me levelly.

"Not unless you count the Valentine's Day I spent in the St. Vladimir's gym training with you, Comrade," I told him with a laugh.

"And neither have I," he replied, giving me a gentle peck on the tip of my nose.
I felt the need to defend my past Valentine's Days. They might not have been romantic, but they were good memories that I enjoyed. "But I've still had a lot of great Valentine's Days over the years. Cutting out homemade Valentines made of little paper hearts and giving them to all of my friends and classmates. I usually had to give some to the kids I couldn't stand, too, but I would give them the fucked-up hearts that came out all cock-eyed and make the nicer ones for my friends. Lissa always used to get tons of candy in the mail from her parents that she would share with me. We'd sit in her dorm room at night and watch cheesy romantic comedy movies and eat microwave popcorn and the candy they sent. I even got to have a sleepover in her room for Valentine's Day a couple of those years. One year, Lissa made me let her do my makeup and I looked a little like a clown."

"Roza, that's not the way things were for me. You know I've been with other women before, but I've never loved anyone like you. And I didn't want to spend Valentine's Day with anyone before you. I know that when we were in Baia, you told me that you didn't want to get married until you've got a two in your age - and even if it's not what I want, I accept that, Roza - but I want you to know that you are 'it' for me, Roza. There'll never be anyone else," Dimitri cupped my cheek with his hand and stared into my eyes, his face so vulnerable and full of emotion.

He continued, saying, "At St. Basil's, Valentine's Day was not something you even celebrated as a young kid. Valentine's Day there is all about being with and celebrating the one person you're in love with. For me, it's about being with you."

Before either of us could say another word, our lips met in a sweet, tender kiss. My body melted into his as our mouths came together. When his lips slowly parted, so did my own, helpless not to allow him entry. Dimitri's tongue flicked gently against mine as he held me close. I let my fingers run through his hair, which was hanging loose.

Valentine's day might never be only about being with Dimitri for me, but he was playing a bigger part in it with each passing day we spent together, loving each other. Just being here with him in his arms, I knew that wherever he was would always be the only place I could call home. With Dimitri, there was no need for either of us to be the perfect fighter, as long as we were together. I would trust him and he would trust me and we would always, always fight for each other.

Given what I knew of so many young dhampir mothers who never got to have a career and got carelessly labeled as 'blood whore', the countless stories of young guardians who'd died in their first encounters with Strigoi, or the few guardians I knew of who chose to leave guarding so that they could be with another dhampir, I couldn't relent on my choice to wait to get married. I knew in my heart and my head that it was the smart thing to do. There was no rush. There was time to acclimate to life as an adult guardian first before I had to adjust to being responsible to and for someone else, too. I was not going to be one of those guardians who died young, so I had time to just be 'me' before becoming 'Mrs. someone else'. And I had no doubt in my mind that Dimitri would be there waiting for me when the time was right and I was ready.

Still, I couldn't say it out loud because I knew how he would take it, but he was the only one I wanted, the only one I loved. When that day came to become 'Mrs. someone else', I had no doubt that I would be Rose Belikova (or maybe I'd hyphenate). Dimitri was the only man for me. He was all I would ever want.

As we broke the kiss, I told him, "Comrade, it's late. Let's worry about tomorrow when it's tomorrow and get some sleep now. I'll still be here in the morning. Okay?"

"Okay, Roza," Dimitri told me. I took his hand and led him back up the stairs to bed.

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Author's Notes:

Well, public opinion on Facebook won out yet again and I decided to do the Valentine's one-shot. If you have strong opinions about what I'm writing (or not writing), then Facebook, comments/reviews, and direct messages are all places where you can go to voice that stuff. If you look out there, I put a preview for this chapter out on my Facebook page (page on profile - click on my name up there at the top of the page), too. I put previews for almost every chapter out there.

If you only want to read the rated-T stuff, stop here. Next chapter is going to be pretty M-rated towards the end and I feel like the first chapter could be a T-rated fluffy stand-alone. I'll try to have part two up before Valentine's Day (U.S. time) is over.

Progress on Playing Adult has been slow because of this story and because I'm still recovering from my pneumonia, but I haven't forgotten about it and I sent chapter 25 to my beta readers. I may still post a preview of it on Facebook, for those who are interested. I'm also working a little on the next chapter of Hot for Teacher, too, so you can look forward to that.