A/N: This is a combination of two plot bunnies that were floating around in my head. My writer's block has seemingly dropped and these oneshots are pouring out of me, so I'm rolling with hit. I'm thinking of doing a multi-chapter fic, maybe over my spring break.

Also, I'm getting far far too excited for the VA movie.

Also also, go Eagles.

Timeline: Early January, during NFL playoffs. Two and a half months before Rose's 19 birthday, almost a year after the events of Shadow Kiss.

Christian and Rose interacting is one of my favorite things to write, because they literally just goad each other on.

"God dammit!" Lissa looked up from her paperwork and I looked up from my phone, from where I had just texted Dimitri, ask Christian swore loudly and stood up from his chair.

"What happened?" Lissa asked.

"You know yelling at the TV isn't going to change anything, right?" I told him. We were curled up in the living room in Lissa's quarters at Court, and Christian had a football game on TV that he deemed "the most important game of the year."

"He dropped the pass! How in the hell did he drop the pass?" Christian wailed, lacing his fingers through his hair. "Liss, do you see this bullshit?"

"Hmm," she responded, her head already back in her work.

"Since when are you a football fan?" I asked.

"Since he became obsessed with Fantasy Football when he was a broody loner during freshman and sophomore year," Lissa answered. I snorted, and Christian merely shrugged and turned his attention back to the game.

"I never understood why it was called 'football,' and soccer soccer." I turned to look up at my boyfriend, who bent down over the back of the coach to kiss me softly on the lips. We were technically on the clock for Lissa and Christian, but with Lissa's rooms locked and guardians lining the hallway, we could be a bit more relaxed when the four of us were alone.

If you could just ignore the giant silver stake tucked next to me on the couch, and in the belt loop of Dimitri's pants.

"It's because us Americans just bastardize everything," I replied. Dimitri came around the couch, placing a six pack of Stella on the coffee table before settling down next to me, slinging an arm around my shoulders. "Oo goody, you got the goods."

Christian took a bottle, looking a Lissa who, with a roll of he eyes, broke open the cap.

"Thanks, babe," he said with a wink. "Want one?"

Lissa nodded, and my jaw fell open.

"I need it," she explained, waving the papers in her lap before taking the bottle from Christian. "Sometimes I loathe matters of state."

I grimaced and leaned over Dimitri's lap to the coffee table to grab myself a drink, feeling his hand wind around my waist to keep me from falling off the edge of the couch. "I get to kick things and poke them with a pointy stick. I prefer my job." I settled back into Dimitri's side, kissing his cheek. "Thanks for the booze."

Dimitri shook his head. "We never speak of this."

"Hey, it's not my fault you're the only one of us who's legal," I pointed out, though I knew he was referring less to the underage drinking and more to the "I'm buying alcohol for the queen and her guardian while we're working" thing. "That's a matter of state you should fix, Lissa, the drinking age around here. Why do follow the national law? We should follow the traditions of our ancestors and drink whenever we damn well want to."

"Yes, Rose, I'll get right on that," Lissa said dryly as Christian let out a loud whoop of joy.

"Up by a touchdown at the half!" he exclaimed before falling back next to Lissa on the love-seat adjacent to the couch. "And yea, thanks for the beer. You win the best guardian of the year award."

I took a sip- gotta love a good lager- and said, "See, dating older has its perks."

Lissa laughed and winked at me- she knew there were many perks to dating older. Namely, his sexual experience. Dimitri looked between the two of us, confused.

"Even without the bond, you two manage to have telepathic conversations," he mused. "And I feel like most of them have to do with Christian and I."

"Accurate," I said. "But all good things. Mostly."

"I should hope so," Dimitri murmured near my ear, pressing a kiss to my temple. I turned my head to capture his lips with mine, kissing him sweetly for a few moments before Christian not-so-subtly coughed, "Get a room."

I pulled away to flip him off as Lissa elbowed him in the ribs.

"I spent months watching you and Liss do more than I cared to see, Sparky, you don't get to talk," I reminded. "This time last year was like soft core porn when I accidentally slipped into the bond."

"I certainly don't miss that," Lissa said. "For your sake, or mine. It was a bit disconcerting, especially because you were...feeling everything through my perspective..."

Christian choked on a sip of his beer and Dimitri looked at me.

"You what?" Christian gasped out. I looked sheepishly at Dimitri as I said, "Yeah...did I never mention that detail? Kind of tried to bury it deep within my subconscious actually. For good reason."

"That's...a lot," Christian said. He turned to Lissa. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"It doesn't exactly come up in normal conversation!" she defended. "And Rose never intended for it to happen, she was usually good at blocking it out. Just when she was sleeping."

"One minute I was pleasantly dreaming about Dimitri and than the whole thing turned into a night mare when he morphed into Sparky," I said without thinking, and than promptly clamped a hand over my mouth. Why oh why had God neglected to include a filter when he blessed me with great hair and good boobs.

"You were dreaming about me?" Dimitri asked quietly, so that Lissa and Christian could barely hear. He had a self-satisfied smirk on his face. "Even before..?"

"Oh, Comrade, months before," I told him. "Especially after the lust charm incident. Knowing what you looked like naked really added to things."

Dimitri growled lowly and I felt his hand tighten around my waist.

"Still working, Comrade," I reminded with a smile, brushing the hair out of his eyes. He closed them for a moment, gathering himself, and muttered, "ебать." Fuck.

"Uh oh, he's cursing in Russian, what did you do Rose," Christian teased. I looked up, resting my head on Dimitri's shoulder, and stuck my tongue at him. Lissa, meanwhile, was beaming at the pair of us. She loved that we were finally together and functioning after all that had happened.

"Is it weird, dating someone so much younger?" Christian asked Dimitri. "I mean, it doesn't really matter, we're all eighteen, she's legal, but is the age difference..." I let out a loud guffaw when Christian mentioned my being legal and he looked at me quizzically for a few seconds before the lightbulb went off.

"Wait, you mean you guys..at school..when she.." He looked down at Lissa, who shrugged, having known all of this. "Holy shit."

"You sound like Abe," I told him. "It was really fun when we had the "Did you sleep with my underage daughter while you were her teacher" conversation with him too."

"Damn, man," Christian whistled. "Good for you."

Dimitri had been noticeably silent during the exchange: when the conversation had happened with my parents, he looked like a 16 year old on his first date, and now, he just looked extraordinarily uncomfortable. His stoic, controlled, professional demeanor while working translated to his personal life as well- he liked to keep his private life, especially his sex life, just that. Private.

Lissa hit his chest. "You make it sound like she was a conquest," she scolded. "As if you had so much experience with that during high school."

I started laughing hysterically and even Dimitri broke into a genuine smile. Christian blushed, but much like me, rolled with the punches. He and I were eerily alike sometimes- its what made our repartee with each other so entertaining.

"Well I made up for my lack of experience rather well," he said, stretching an arm behind Lissa to pull her to his chest. "You were there the first time, Rose, you can vouch for me."

"I can vouch that Lissa is extremely patient and loves you very much," I shot back with a sweet smile and Dimitri actually laughed at that one. I watched as Lissa ran a hand through his hair and brought his face down to kiss him to sooth is wounded ego, I imagined.

"But wait," Christian said, coming back to his previous revelation. "You've still only every slept with one person, too. And you were what, Dimitri, twenty-four? Rose was seventeen."

"And I came into the relationship with vast experience in all other ares," I quipped.

"Which we don't talk about, or I'd probably have to kill half of your graduating class," Dimitri reminded, "seeing as Jesse Zeklos is still high on my hit list. Plus," he continued, turning to Christian and pulling me closer to his side, "much as Rose is a prodigy as a guardian, needless to say she was a prodigy in other areas as well."

This time it was my turn to blush bright red while Lissa's jaw fell open in exclamatory surprise, Dimitri shocking us all with what for him was a lewd comment. Clearly it was a sign he was growing very comfortable around Lissa and Christian, a sign I was rubbing off on him, or a sign of the impending apocalypse.

"Well, than!" I said. "All tonight needs is a round of never have I ever with some Russian lighter fluid that doubles as vodka and the story of Dimitri's first time and tonight'll be a party!"

"I'll hold you to that," Christian pointed at Dimitri, "but it'll have to wait. The game's back on."

Don't ask me where this came from. My brain scares me sometimes. All I can say is that I believe that Dimitri, for all his stoicism, would begin to feel comfortable and loosen up around people he feels close to.

xx Bells