Incomplete (A VA Fanfic One-Shots & Shorts Collection)

The Consequential Early Proposal

RPOV
This could not be happening! It was all I thought as I read the note, time and again. They knew. The damn Strigoi knew! They knew Dimitri and I were planning to try to have a baby of our own even though I hadn't been immunised yet—we wanted to see if the immunisation was essential. So now they were after us, after me, Dimitri, my parents, and my friends. Lissa hadn't been on the throne two years, and Jill had only been safe for a tiny collection of months. They couldn't be under this much threat. And why today? Of all days? Why did they have to pick this date? Because they were twisted and evil undead creatures of the night, that's why.

"Dimitri, do we have to go out tonight?" I asked from the front hallway back to the lounge and tucked the note in my jeans' back pocket as I got home from my short shift today... human day ward shift that is. For once, Croft was cooperating and giving us shifts that worked with date plans—I.E. giving Dimitri a couple of days off and me short ward or desk shifts on those same days so we could flip our sleep schedule... again. Lissa being a day student at Lehigh instead of residing in a dorm or share house made flipping our sleep schedules an ever-present bitch.
"Roza, I've never once heard you complain so much about me taking you on a date. What's up with this one?" he called back as I retreated to our lounge and his side.
"You know what's up," I retorted.
He shook his head as I plopped down beside his reading form. "Roza, I thought I'd fixed the birthday issue," he chuckled, but there was no trace of humour or amusement.
"You didn't take me out of the wards last year," I said. "And I think I know what's coming with this date." He'd dropped the proposal pushing these past six months, which made me all the more suspicious he was planning something. Early at that.
Our Head Guardian being so uncharacteristically accomodating regarding our time off and shifts only added to my suspicion—Dimitri would seek out Croft's permission as well as Abe's and Lissa's, so it only made sense Croft was in on the plans.
"Oh? Are you a mind reader now?" he laughed again, but this time with warmth and humour.
"I've always been your personal mind reader. So, can we stay in instead tonight?"
Dimitri shook his head. "This is one time I'm not yielding to your demands, Miss Hathaway."
"It's Guardian, Mr Belikov." I slapped his knee before standing to go get dressed for tonight.
"That stung, Rose," he shouted.
"Payback's a bitch," I retorted. "And don't forget—"
"For me you risked never having the title in the first place, I know," he completed as he followed me into our bedroom. "I was supposed to be the reason you received it, yet I'm the reason you risked everything to save my soul, especially the one thing you deserve most."
"I don't regret it, Dimitri." Even with this new threat, I thought as I wrapped my arms around his neck.
"I'm so lucky to have found you, Roza." He smiled and his hands fell to cradle my ass. I was glad I'd hid the note already. "So lucky to have your love in my life."
"Don't go all proposal-speech-y on me," I warned. "It's still two weeks before I'm twenty." I knew he had to be counting down the seconds, because quite frankly, I was too, knowing he wouldn't be able to stand waiting any longer than the exact second I turned twenty.
Dimitri's playful pout proved as much. "I wouldn't dare ask you again until I knew it was a yes."
I shook my head. He was going to ask me tonight, I could feel it, and I knew my answer would take him off-guard. Because it had never been a no, but simply a no for now. How Dimitri hadn't yet picked up on the slight discrepancy I'd never know.

The restaurant he took me to was posh, elegant, and exactly the type of place I knew he'd take me to in order to propose. I was still on edge however, no matter how calm I appeared... and somehow I was even fooling Dimitri. But then again, he was very probably hiding a little freakout of his own. I just couldn't relax, especially knowing I could no longer sense them, sense their danger.

"Roza," Dimitri lightly covered my left hand with his right and I jumped in my seat.
"Hmm, Comrade?" I asked, still feeling spacey and jumpy. Though I knew what was coming, I knew he'd reached out to my left hand on purpose. It was happening and I just couldn't get a grip of myself.
"Roza, sweetheart," Dimitri was seriously worried about me if he was following my Russian name with a typical English term of endearment. Or two. "Honey, are you sure you're fine?" The underlying worry behind his words enhanced the accent that laced them.
I met his eyes. "Perfect," I smiled my maneater smile.
Dimitri's chuckle and head shake told me he didn't buy it. Of course he damn-well wouldn't buy it, he knew me better than I knew myself. And I nearly never used my flirtatious smile on him, since I almost never felt the need to. Still, his own plans would not be thwarted tonight as he inched closer to the edge of the chair. Did he really think I wouldn't register that when I knew he'd pick one of our anniversaries if not my birthday to propose?
"Rosemarie Hathaway," and so it began, my full name rolled off his tongue like the most holy of words he'd e'er dare speak, grabbing my full attention as the weight of this moment truly began to dawn on me. I suddenly realised this moment wouldn't only change my life, but his also. His outlook on our future was going to change depending on my decision tonight, and the words he used would forever burn bright in my memory. "I have loved you from the moment I met you. From the second I heard your voice, I knew I'd found an angel, my own, personal guardian angel. I took you on as my student what feels both like yesterday and a century of yesterdays ago, because I wanted you to have the best possible future. Little did I know, that future would include you gifting me your heart, your soul, your everything on this night two years ago."
What did I say? One of our anniversaries. I smiled and a little teary giggle caught in my throat as Dimitri dropped to one knee.
"I know you wanted me to wait until you were twenty," he teased and that teary giggle escaped again as I nodded, "but I couldn't wait a second longer; just as I couldn't contain my love for you back then I can't contain it again now. Roza, we've been through hell and back to be together, to stay together, to stay alive.
"When I found you two—nearly three—years ago, I found half of my soul, and every time I look at you I'm reminded of who I am, who I fight to be, and why I fight to be the person I want to be. When I loved you on this night two years ago, I knew I had found my new home. They say home is where the heart is, and you, Rose Hathaway, built the home for my heart simply by existing. Your strength, resilience, determination and love never cease to catch me off-guard with their purity and depth. Everyday, your breathing chases away my nightmares, and I love you all the more because of it.
"So, Rosemarie Hathaway, I promise with all I have in me to spend the rest of our lives loving you and protecting you, to spend eternity becoming a better man for you. Marry me, Roza?" He placed a tiny velvet ring box in the palm of my left hand and popped it open.
"Yes," I whispered, terrified to break the spell he'd cast around us and throughout the now silent restaurant. I looked him dead in the eyes and smiled. "It was never a no, so absolutely yes."
He slid the ring onto my finger with a giant grin. I immediately recognised the hum of magic coming from the silver band that was sporting a small red ruby encased by tiny diamonds. I shot a look at him. His grin turned into a smirk. "I promised didn't I?"
"Of course you did," I laughed before kissing him.