After the Nightmare on the Tasha
by SimbiAni™

Summary: «ANASTASIA» What happ'd after Dimitri saved Anya from falling off the boat...? His thoughts & hers, while the sun rises... Is he- falling for her? Will she question him 'bout the music box? ©98. Plz read&review, thx!

(warning: this fic is already 7 years old... lmao once again, its OLD and not new!)

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He picked her up off the edge of the boat and jumped down. Anya was kicking and flailing her arms. Dimitri set her on her feet and grabbed her arms, trying to wake her.

"Anya, Anya! Anya, wake up! Wake up!"

Then she opened her eyes and gasped. She looked at the rain around her and saw that she had wandered outside the cabin. Suddenly, she was crying, afraid of what she'd seen in her dream. "The Romanov curse! The-" She tried to explain, but she couldn't really think straight.

"The Romanov what?" He asked her, confused. But he didn't think then to connect her dreaming of the curse to the real Anastasia actually having witnessed it.

"The Romanov curse!"

"What are you talking about?"

Anya shook her head. "I keep seeing faces, so many faces..." She really had no idea that the people she'd dreamed of were her real family. Then, she buried her face in his shirt, holding onto his waist. He seemed surprised, but complyed to comfort her.

"It was a nightmare..." He held her in his arms.

"Oh!" She thought of it like that, and cried some more.

"It's all right... you're safe now..." Dimitri hugged her and with a secure smile layed his cheek upon her hair. They stayed that way for a while. The rain slowed down, and she didn't cry any more. Then, the rain stopped. They drew apart, and Dimitri spoke to her. "We'd better get back downstairs... before you catch cold..."

Anya smiled, and holding hands, he led her back to their one room. Outside the door, she turned to him. "Umm... you know what? I'm just gonna change back into my dress, 'cuz... right now I'm soaking wet, and I don't think I could go back to sleep. The sun's coming up in a while, anyway."

Dimitri smiled and motioned toward the door. "What about-..."

"Well, Vlad's in a deep sleep; he wouldn't notice if I changed real quick..."

"Well, okay then, I'll wait right here."

They both smiled and Anya bent down to pick up Pooka, who was very happy to see his lovely Anya safe and sound once again, (and once again, all thanks to him, the silly Pooka!). Dimitri petted him, and this time, Pooka didn't growl.

"You know, when I said I was allergic to dogs, it was only an excuse to not have your mutt come along. But now I'm glad you insisted on it."

She looked up at him, smiling, and replied. "I know." She went into the room, calling: "I'll be out in 5 minutes or so."

Dimitri leaned against the side of the door. But then he decided to go back up on deck, because the sun was coming up, and he needed whatever warmth he could get to dry his only set of clothes. He sat on the bench Vlad had sat on while he and Anya had danced. Looking at the sun, he tried to think. How, what- What was this feeling? No... it couldn't be... Love? Yeah, right. But what about her? Did she feel it?

For some reason, he didn't want to think about that, so he thought back, back to the past... once, that ten years ago, he had lost the princess, the precious girl he'd started to love before, and he had vowed not to really care for anyone again, that is, until he found her. He knew she was alive, just out there somewhere. And now he was starting to really care for Anya, this orphan they'd picked up, who at first had seemed so tough, but was now, well, there was just something royal about her. Then again, what if she was the Princess? No... there was no way...

Tho, that would explain a lot. Like, how, out of all the many, many girls they'd interviewed, how was it that she was the only girl who looked like the Princess, acted almost like her, and remembered some things only the Princess would've known? And the way the two of them get along! All that criteria made for a sure bet to getting the ten million rubles, soon he and Vlad would be rich, and Anya would fit in perfectly at the Paris palace, posing as Anastasia. Would everything work out? Most definitely. Hopefully.

But what about-? No. He couldn't let his feelings get in the way. Not at all. "I just...gotta forget about it." Suddenly, a voice behind him arose, and Dimitri turned around.

"Umm... hey..." Anya had come up from downstairs, wearing her blue dress. The dawning sun made her seem to glow. "My blue ribbon was wet, too, so I put in a yellow one I had. Do you like it?" She pointed to it, then twirled around. She had also put her tights back on, along with her boots.

Dimitri stood up, almost at a loss for words. "Um... uh, yeah! You, you look... nice!"

Anya, smiling, bowed, and Dimtiri shrugged, deciding to play along, bowed, too. Anya held out her hand, he took it, and they danced to the unheard waltz like they had before.

Anya danced with him, feeling so good, so happy, he had rescued her. Oh, my, had she really almost jumped off into the deep, dark, cold ocean? Thank god, she had Pooka, her great watch-puppy. She had pretty much figured out it was Pooka who had woken up Dimitri and alerted him to her danger. And Dimitri had saved her... a feeling? What feeling? Oh, that feeling! Such she had only read about in the fairy tale books back in her orphanage's small library. That feeling? Between them? Could it be? Love? If so, did he feel it, too? Oh, that would be true love! Such a great feeling, indeed, and she had felt it ever since their first dance when she sensed something different about him. And she noticed, he's shy! How sweet. But her past... she still had to remember that...

Just then, their dance slowed down to a stop.

But instead of the awkward pause like last time, Dimitri avoided it by immediately leading her back to the bench to sit down. As she followed, she looked at the sky. The last stars were dimming out beneath the sunny clouds of the coming dawn. She sat down and pointed.

"That star. That star, for some reason, seems special to me. I kinda feel it's the one guiding me back." She looked to Dimitri for his opinion.

"That star? Don't they all just look the same? I mean, they're just white dots in the sky." He shrugged.

"Maybe to you, but they mean more to me than that. I just love staring up at them, finding shapes, kinda like looking at clouds, but at night. I probably woulda been watching them last night, if I hadn't been so caught up in my dream, uh, nightmare." Her voice quieted, as she fidgeted with her necklace.

"Yeah, um, do you remember it? What was it about?"

"Well, uh..." She hesitated to say, but Dimitri smiled comfortingly, and held her hand.

"It's okay, you can tell me..."

"Well, I don't really remember it, but... there were butterflies, it was springtime, a little boy, he led me to a small cliff, overlooking a lake, three girls, a little older than me, jumped into the water. Then the little boy jumped in, splashing the girls, and a man was down there, too. They laughed, I laughed. The man then encouraged me to jump in like they did. I was about to, but I heard a voice, you, I think, calling, 'no!', I started to turn around, then, the man turned into a very big demon..." Anya shivered.

"Go on..." He gently squeezed her hand to remind her it was okay.

"He grabbed my hand and arm and tried to pull me in! I screamed, you came and picked me up, I struggled, I felt like I was being pulled down, I didn't want that, and then... you woke me up." She looked at him, sighing in relief.

He was silent for a moment. "Wow."

"Oh, yeah, and the demon was shouting something about... um, the Romanov curse."

"Oh... the Romanov curse? Do you know anything about that?"

"Not that I can remember."

"Hmm..." Their thoughts turned to other things as he changed the subject. "Well, today's the day. You know, everything does point in the direction of you being the real Princess. What do you think?"

"As long as I find my real family and a home to call my own."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be successful on your journey."

She raised her eyebrows. "How can you be sure?"

He just smiled, and shrugged.

A moment slid by, and she rolled her eyes with boredom, then with renewed curiousity... "Um, just wondering, but... see, last night, while you were sleeping, Pooka got into your bag. He found a jewelry box... where did you get it?"

"Oh, uh, that. Well, uh, I've had it."

"Did someone give it to you?"

"No, actually, uh, a friend... lost it. It wasn't until we were apart that I, found it, so... I've kept it. It's kind of a good-luck... gift."

"Mmm... who was this friend?"

"Uh, somebody... hey, look, we're here! I'll go wake Vlad." Dimitri stood up quickly and went downstairs.

Anya smiled dreamily. "Today... is the day, I'll find out if I'm who they think I could be... If I'm not, my search will continue... if I am... wow." She looked at the city ahead, as they came into port.

"The boat is docking!" The captain called.

A few minutes later Dimitri and Vlad came up with their stuff, and Pooka followed.

"Ready to go?" Dimitri asked Anya with another smile.

She smiled back. "Sure!"

And they went to Sophie's house.

(continues as in the movie)

...

ANASTASiA™ is copyright of 20thC.Fox, etc. ˆ-ˆ

PS. Believe it or not, this is a work of fiction. All the incidents, names, and characters are imaginary.
Any resemblence to actual persons etc, living or dead, is completely coincidental. ˆ-˜
©98