Hi guys! I ran out of ideas with my old fan fic, so I thought I'd start a new one c: Please read and review! This is set a few months after Last Sacrifice.

Disclaimer; All characters and the Vampire Academy story belongs to Richelle Mead.

'You really want to compromise with me on this?' I asked incredulously.

'Yes, if it means you will stop moaning,' she replied, smiling broadly at me with an exasperated look in her eye. Her blonde, wavy hair framed her face and fell across her shoulders in gleaming locks, twisting and turning across her chest. I laughed, shaking my head and tucking my own, dark brown hair behind my ears. That meant business.

'Okay. How about… all of the lessons that you want to do, but take out advanced math and replace it with self-defence 101?' I asked her, knowing that she'd refuse. Math had always been one of Lissa's favourite subjects, and she hated having to fight, even if it meant that she'd be hurt. However, her argument was that she'd never need to learn self-defence, because either I or another guardian would always be there with her, especially now that she was queen of the Moroi world.

That didn't stop me from trying to persuade her, however.

'In your dreams!' She laughed, sticking her pink tongue out at me when I groaned. 'What if I keep my schedule the same, but I'll see if I can make my day a bit shorter?' She suggested. I wasn't sure whether to accept. It was a good offer, but it still meant that I had to sit through hours of math, politics, and history.

'Tempting… tempting…' I pondered, closing my eyes and bringing my hand to my chin and stroking it. 'Shorter day, later wake up, and a later bed time – 11pm earliest! How does that sound?' I replied in a slow voice, knowing that I had her. She could never resist me, and I knew that she would always succumb to my requirements as long as they were relatively trivial. If they played a bigger factor than a school schedule? She would still listen to me eventually, but she'd be harder to convince. My best friend was harder than she looked.

'Ugh, Rose!' She moaned, tossing her head and throwing a pillow at me. I caught it and flung it right back, catching her right in the face. I jumped off the bed before she could throw it back, and opened the heavy doors. 'I'll catch you later, Queenie!' I shouted before prancing out of the room and shutting the door again, hearing the soft thud as the pillow hit the other side of the door. I grinned, and nodded at the two guardians stationed at her door. I knew they wouldn't have been able to hear our conversation, not that it was very interesting anyway. The doors were so thick, you couldn't hear anything from inside unless it was a shrill shriek. I knew that from personal experience.

I had been standing in the door frame on duty, watching the clock closely whilst scoping the corridor at the same time. All had been quiet from her bedroom, and I was almost ready to leave, when I heard Lissa's scream from inside the room. I barged in (we forbade her from locking any doors), hand on my stake, scanning the room quickly before groaning and covering my eyes. Let's just say I saw more of Lissa and Christian than I wanted to see that day.

But back to the present day. I was in a good mood, and all but skipped through the winding corridors of Lissa's apartment, exiting five minutes later and heading down to the guardian headquarters. As Lissa's head guardian, it was my duty to sort out everybody's shifts, although I usually just handed that duty to Hans. Wait, scratch that… ALWAYS gave that job to Hans.

Checking the board quickly, I discovered that I had no scheduled shift until Monday. Today was Wednesday. That was odd. Glancing around the bustling office, I spotted Hans in the corner, deep in conversation with Mikhail. I headed over there, not caring that I was disturbing anything. I was friends with both of them, and neither of them talked about anything deeply serious without me. Naturally.

They turned their heads as they heard me approaching, and they obviously realised what I was going to inquire about, because they both looked just shook their heads at me. 'Don't ask. Vasilisa's orders,' Hans told me, grabbing hold of my shoulders and pushing me back towards the exit door. I struggled against him, but Hans was a good 5 stone heavier than me, and I wasn't trying too hard. He pushed me out of the door and turned around again, and I knew better than to go back in. I wasn't going to get any information there.

You see, Hans had some worship thing going on with Lissa. I would say it was just because she was queen, but the way he looks at her is not the way a servant should look at their master. Especially not a master who has a long term, steady boyfriend. I headed back towards their apartment for the second time in half an hour, sighing before realising that I could just call her on my mobile.

I laughed at myself for not realising this sooner, and took my smartphone out of my pocket. Hitting the speed-dial, the phone rang a few times before a breathless voice answered the phone.

'Yes?' The male voice echoed through my ears, impatience ringing through his tone.

'Sparky, what the fuck are you doing answering Lissa's personal phone?' I asked him, a smile playing on my lips even though he couldn't see it. 'And why do you sound so flustered?' I asked him innocently, smirking fully now.

'Rose, go away. Lissa will speak to you about the shifts later,' he told be before hanging up on me, leaving me open mouthed. He hung up on me! I would have stormed around there that instant if it wasn't for my phone ringing in my hand. Figuring it was Lissa, I accepted the call without even looking at the caller ID.

'It didn't take you long to get frisky after I left, did it? A whole of fifteen minutes I was gone!' I exclaimed, heading down yet another corridor to my apartment. It was a wonder I didn't get lost every minute of the day. To be fair, I had no idea where 99% of the corridors in Court led, only the five that I really needed every day. I just didn't have time for exploring, especially with the hassle and stress of starting the semester at Leigh in less than three weeks.

'Rose?' A new, husky voice asked, and my heart soared. I reached my front door and flung it open, kicking it shut behind me and collapsing on my back on the king sized bed.

'Comrade!' I exclaimed, grinning at the ceiling.

'Roza. How are you?' He asked me, and I could hear his smile through the phone. He loved speaking to me just as much as I loved chatting to him. His new placement at Palm Springs was harder than we both had expected.

'I'm alright. Stressed out about Leigh, interrupting Christian and Lissa making new baby Dragomirs… same old same old. How about you? And Jill? And Sonya and Sydney and Adrian?' I asked him.

'I'm tired, we haven't found anything new and both Sonya and I are getting tired of being tested on now. I just want to see you again, and Sonya wants to see Mikhail. Adrian and Sydney are fine, I think. Adrian seems to be perking up a bit now, and Sydney has become more accepting of us. Secretly, I think she has a crush on Adrian, and vice versa,' he revealed to me, making my mouth open again.

This is what I lived for! Juicy gossip about two of my closest friends from my sexy, badass boyfriend. Well, closest friend might be an exaggeration in Adrian's case. We still hadn't spoken since he caught me with Dimitri on that night before we revealed ourselves and Tasha in front of Court, seven months ago.

Tasha. That was a name I hadn't heard for a while. She was shut in Tarasov over five months ago after pleading guilty in court. She was never going to be let out, and although I knew it hurt Christian, we had all accepted that it was the right decision to make. Only Fireboy visited Tasha before she was sent off, and returned an hour later with red eyes, kicking Dimitri and I out of the room so that he could 'speak' to Liss.

'That's… interesting. How are they both reacting to it?' I replied, sitting up and turning on the stove. I couldn't cook to save my life, but since I was living alone for the time being, I had to learn how to.

After exchanging more words with Dimitri, he had to leave to conduct more tests, so we had to sign off.

'Bye Comrade, I love you. Can't wait to see you soon,' I told him, stirring the lifeless spaghetti at the bottom of the pan.

'Bye, Rose, I love you too. See you in a few days,' he said before hanging up. I had been distracted trying to fix the spaghetti that had started to clump together, so I only realised what he said as I had sat down with the TV on.

See you in a few days.

I was seeing my Comrade in a few days.