Different future

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DPOV
It was the week after Roza's birthday and she hadn't turned up to training- either session. I went to check her dorm- it turned up empty. And I mean empty- no her and no sign she had ever been there, except the smell of her shampoo and perfume.
What the hell?! Why?! Why would she run?
I rang Alberta and got no answers to my questions. I tried to keep the panic and worry out of my voice. I knew she could survive on her own out there, I just didn't want her out there alone.

I called admin and learned she had officially dropped out. She was eighteen and equipped to survive out there alone but that didn't stop me from worrying. She had clearly kept something from me. I had promised her forever on her birthday yet she had left, taking the ring with her.

Okay- that meant something, clearly she intended to return to me. But when?

I refused to leave her room. I couldn't sort through the heartache, stress and worry, let alone begin to think rationally. I was a promised guardian so I didn't have the freedom to hunt her down, to just leave like she could. That was assuming she wanted to be hunted. What was so bad that she hadn't told me me? What had changed? And what the hell was she thinking?
My mind was on a never-ending loop of unanswered questions. The emotions were way too strong to overcome. This was my Roza and she was missing.

For a week I holed up in her room. Work meant nothing without her around, food seemed optional and sleep either evaded me or was full of Rose, I forced myself to shower but it didn't help.
Alberta eventually found me, the look on her face told me she'd known for a while and wasn't surprised by my breakdown.
"She really is your everything isn't she?" She asked as she walked in the door.

She'd summed it up in one sentence and the tears started falling again. I could hardly bring myself to nod.
Rose had shattered the stoic Guardian Belikov, she'd taught me to show my emotions- if only just around her. Now I couldn't put myself back together. I was lost without her.

"Do you want to go after her?"
"Yes, but I don't know if she wants me to find her. I found her before, I could do it again but if she doesn't want me to find her it'll make it worse." My voice was strained and my accent the thickest it had been in a while. "She's left for a reason and I know she intends to come back but have no idea when."
"How? How do you know she'll come back?"
"A present I gave her on her birthday hasn't been left behind. She's taken it as a reminder and promise to return." There's only one kind of gift that has that power, that significance- an engagement ring. Keeping it meant she was keeping her end of the promise of forever.
"You don't mean an engagement ring?"
"I mean exactly that."
"Dimitri. She's a child. A student- your student."

That pissed me off, I'd long since learnt calling her that hurt her. She was also more mentally mature than I was half the time.

"She's not a child. She may act childishly sometimes but she comprehends things I can't. She's more mature than anyone gives her credit for.
"As for my student, that's another thing entirely. I may have taught her all she knows but she's always been my equal, my guarding partner at the bare minimum.
"She forces me to be open and vulnerable- has done since the first training. She scares me. Now I'm scared for her. She's gone for a reason but that doesn't stop the pain."
She sighed. "You clearly need her, so what are you going to do?"
"I need to ring her, if only to ask her if she wants me to go to her."
"Do it."

She stepped out the door to give me some privacy and I pulled out my phone, found her number and rang.

"Comrade?"
"Roza." I was on the verge of tears just hearing her voice. "You are coming back aren't you?"
"Yes, eventually."
Eventually? That could be a day, a year or a decade. "Are you safe?"
"Yes. I'm missing you like hell though."
"Do you want me to come to you?"
"Want? Yes. Let you? No."
I knew this next argument was going to get me nowhere. "But milaya." I whined- I never did it and usually hated it when others did.
"No buts Dimitri. I promise I'll come back. The plan for now is a year give -or-take a month."
"Where are you?"
"Take a guess." Did she have to do that?
"Rose" I sighed. "Do you realise I've had a complete meltdown. I haven't left your dorm for a week. I can't live without you, my love."
"Oh Dimitri. I love you. I'm sorry. I have to do this."
"I love you too Roza. More than life itself."
"I love you more."
"Says the one who left."
"I'm protecting you. Though you probably just blew our cover sky high." She sighed.
"Where are you Roza?"
"Home. Your home."
"Baia? With Mama?"
"And Karo, Zoya and a very hormonal Sonya. Vika and Paul will be out for Easter soon."
"Sonya?"
"She's like five or six months pregnant."
"She didn't tell me that." I growled.
"Don't be mad at her. I get it. I'm already the only who gets along with her."
She understood why Sonya would hide a pregnancy from me?
"Roza? She's not the only one not telling me things."
"Dimitri" she sighed. "As I said, it's for your protection."
Okay, that was not all of it. I sighed. "That's not all Rose. What aren't you trusting me with?"
"Dimitri. You wouldn't believe me. You didn't with the ghosts, you won't with this. You work in a world of facts and the simplest solution, I need you to wait until there's enough evidence, enough proof."

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