Vampire Academy One-Shots

On the Defensive

Born from a Buzzfeed piece about girls protecting girls.

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RPOV

I grinned at Christian's expression as he downed his third shot of the night. We were out celebrating Mia's birthday since she was the last of us to turn twenty-one and be able to (legally) drink. It was the rare night that Lissa used her Queenly power to get out of Court. Of course, that came with its own stipulations. She'd wanted to go to a club, but the logistics behind that were too difficult, so we'd settled for something in between a club and a bar. And now, about half the group was drunk off their asses. Lissa had settled for getting mildly drunk, since she was still the Queen and had to act like it, but the rest of them (besides Dimitri and myself) gladly drank their hearts out on Lissa's tab. Dimitri and I had each had two drinks, since we were off duty but we refused anything more, even if there were twelve other guardians hanging around the bar in various disguises.

Still, my current state of almost entirely sober ensured I'd never forget watching Christian get drunk under the table by Mia, who was already on her fifth shot. I don't know where someone so small held all that liquor, but she held it almost as well as I used to be able to. Even Eddie had gotten drunk, although that had been completely Mia's fault. She'd accidentally switched her and Eddie's drink so he'd gotten the deceptively alcoholic drink and once Eddie got drunk, he liked to stay drunk.

Even without getting drunk, the night had been a lot of fun. Eddie and Mia had ended up doing karaoke to Kesha, even though it wasn't a karaoke bar and Christian had gotten through half the first song before passing out on the table, his hair falling into the puddle of spilled drink on the table. That had been the cue for Lissa to get him up and bring him home. It had taken some convincing, but eventually, they got Mia and Eddie to get in the car and head back as well.

Dimitri and I were about to head back when we thought better of it. This was one of our rare nights off, and we were outside of Court, we were going to make use of it. After a quick search on my phone, I found a twenty-four hour diner not far from here. Court food wasn't bad. In fact, most of it was amazing. But nothing could beat some one o'clock pancakes from an IHOP after a night of drunk friends.

"But we are not walking there, not in this weather," I said, giving him a stern look.

"I'll go warm up the car." Dimitri said, already pulling on his coat.

I grinned, "You wouldn't have to do it every time if you didn't wear such a warm coat everywhere."

"It's called being practical."

"Yeah, yeah. I know, I need a better coat. I'll do it eventually."

He gave an exasperated sigh but gave me a kiss and walked out of the bar to go get the car nice and warm. Normally, I wouldn't care and I'd just deal with the cold, but I'd been stuck on patrol duty all week because Lissa was planning something for me. The idea was exciting but it also meant I was spending large parts of my shifts out in the cold and I was getting sick of it. So I felt justified in asking for a warm car.

Not long after he left, a group of about six or seven girls stumbled in. They'd obviously been to a bar or two before this one, since they were all noticeably drunk. Two of them were just complimenting the others for everything under the sun ("Grace, you look absolutely amazing when your hair's a little messy!" "Oh my god Savannah, I still can't believe you don't even wear any makeup!" "I swear, Jessie, if I could have your ass, my life would be complete.") It was honestly one of the cutest things I'd seen all day. (Including Eddie's drunken fawning over Jill half an hour ago.)

We'd had to park a block away, since Lissa's little convoy had gotten the remaining close spots, so I figured Dimitri would be a minute. I ordered a water at the bar and sat, amusing myself by listening to the conversations the girls were having. It wasn't hard, they were easily the loudest ones there, and it was pretty busy at the moment. I'd gotten so distracted I didn't realize how much time had passed until suddenly I heard someone yell from behind me.

"Oh my god, Tess! What are you doing here?"

I turned to see who was yelling when I saw one of the drunk girls approaching me. As soon as she got close, she threw an arm over my shoulder.

"Why didn't you tell us you were going to be here, we would have waited to get so drunk!" She started leading me towards the other girls before she dropped her voice, "My name's Savannah, there's some creep by the door that's been watching you for the past fifteen minutes. We girls have to look out for each other."

I glanced towards the door as I was pulled into the group of girls and almost immediately started laughing.

"Oh my god, that dork. Thanks, Savannah, but actually that's my fiance."

All the girls at the table glanced at the door where Dimitri was standing, watching me with an amused expression on his face, no doubt enjoying watching me get dragged into this lively group.

"Oh, honey. You could do better than that." One girl said, lips pursed.

I glanced again, and I could see why they thought that what with his duster covering his entire body and the way his hat made his hair fall strangely around his face. Still, I laughed, "Don't worry, he's better looking than you think."

I waved him over, and after a skeptical look, he made his way over.

"These girls just rescued me from you, Comrade." I told him as I stood up. He raised his eyebrow, fully doubting this group of girls could save anyone at the moment. "They saw you doing your creepy 'I just enjoy watching you' thing and made sure I wasn't alone."

A look of understanding crossed his face. He was so used to knowing I could defend myself, he sometimes forgot what could happen to a girl stranded by herself. I glanced at the girls and could tell they still weren't convinced with him. So I pulled off his hat and ruffled his hair a little. That's when they got it.

"Damn, he's all yours but if he wasn't."

"Where can I find one like him?"

And my favorite, "Well, shit."

I laughed. "Really, thank you so much, though. You girls are amazing, you keep sticking together."

"How do you think I joined this group?" One of the girls laughed. Three others nodded in agreement as the first threw her arm over another one. This one seemed a little less drunk, I noticed.

"Every weekend, I get two or three friends and we bar hop. We don't drink most weekends, we just patrol to make sure no girl gets left with some creep." She explained. "We spend as much time as needed with them, then make sure they get home safely, even if we have to walk them home."

Damn. I was impressed. And I killed evil, undead vampires for a living. "That's amazing."

"Like Savannah said, we gotta stick together. But don't let us stop you from having fun with tall and handsome over there."

I laughed, and Dimitri and I said our goodbyes. As soon as we got in the car I started laughing again, "I swear, the first thing we do when we get back to Court is going to be getting you a hat that doesn't make you look like some creep."

Dimitri chuckled, "That's probably for the best."

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Girls protecting girls is my favorite thing. I mean, people protecting people, in general, is great, but girls protecting girls is always so pure, I love it. This isn't based on a personal story, thankfully I've never been in a situation where I've needed saving, but I like to hope that someone would step up if it did happen.

Be there for your fellow human, guys. If you see someone who is being followed, or pressured by someone else, step in. Bring them into your group. Pretend they're your best friend or your sibling. Especially if they seem to be alone.

~PH