DPOV
"Hello?" A little four year old girl, with a slight Russian accent, answered Rose's Court apartment's front door.
"Hi, I'm Dimitri Bel-"
"Mom! He's here!" She cut me off squealing excitedly and ran from my sight. Okay. That was weird.
"Aleksandra Vasya Reah, what have I told you about squealing in the house?" I heard Rose playfully reprimand from inside.
"Sorry Mom, it's just that he's at the door." Aleksandra responded to her... Wait, what! Rose was a mom? At twenty-two? Surely not. Surely I'd heard wrong.
"I can't hide you any longer can I, Alsa?" Rose gave a resigned sigh.
"Nope!" Alsa answered, popping the 'p'.
"Come on then baby girl."
"Yay!"
I was greeted again seconds later. This time Rose had her daughter (ugh! That was still un-believable) on her hip. "Hey Dimitri. Come on in." She stepped back from the door and motioned me through. Shutting the door behind me, she asked, "Why are you here? And without Tasha?"
"Mommy!" Alsa demanded Rose's attention.
"Yes, Alsa?"
"Hand me over!" The little girl threw Rose's attitude back in her face and it caused Rose to break into a laughing fit.
"Fine," she pecked her daughter's cheek before focusing her attention back on me, "take the miracle-mini-me would you?" She laughingly demanded and handed her daughter over to me. I let my confusion and puzzlement show as I grabbed the child and perched her on my hip.
"Rose? What's going on?"
"A lot. Come to the kitchen. I know it's lunch but how about a plate of blini? And a loaf of black bread is about to come out of the oven." She led me through to the kitchen. So that was what I could smell. Hang on, what?! God. This visit was getting stranger by the minute.
"How'd you know about my black bread and blini addictions? Let alone how to make them."
"Babushka." Alsa answered from my hip. "Oh! And, can I have some too, Mama?!"
"What's the magic word?" Rose asked her daughter as she pulled the bread out.
"Please." Alsa begged in Russian.
"Of course, baby." Rose responded, in Russian to my amazement. What was going on?
"Rose?" I was getting tired of the twists and turns already. And she had to be getting sick of hearing her name repeated as a question time-and-again.
"Alsa? Do you want to tell him where you were born? Where Mama's been the past four-ish years?"
"Yes! I miss Baia, Mama."
I gasped at the mention of my hometown. It had been easily six years since I last went home. There was no point without Rose. Rose's daughter was Russian? She'd given birth in Russia? In Baia?
"Paul and Zoya. And Agnya. Why'd we leave?" Alsa added.
Paul was my nephew and Zoya and Agnya were my nieces, what did they have to do with anything? I didn't get time to ponder thanks to Rose's response.
"Because Aunty Liss needed me. And it's safer to go to Alder than St Basil's or St Vladimir's."
"But Mama. Alder is Uncle Ad's old school."
"And has no Hathaway or Belikov ties, and is more prestigious. We've been through this Alsa." By the end the little girl on my hip was deflated. She knew this speech. One thing had me intrigued.
"What does Belikov ties have to do with her Academy choice?"
"It has everything to do with it, Dimitri. Everything. Her safety mainly."
"I get every child is precious Rose, but why do I get the feeling you're sheltering Alsa?"
"Because I am. Because I have to. She shouldn't exist Dimitri."
Was she saying she regretted having her daughter? Was she saying her daughter came from an interaction that shouldn't have happened?
Rose continued, "I don't regret having her, or the events surrounding her conception. It's just that she's supposed to be impossible."
"Spit it out Mom." The girl on my hip death glared her own mother.
"You want to know why Belikov ties have everything to do with her school choice? Here it is: she's ours. She's Aleksandra Vasya Reah Hathaway Belikov Dragomir."
"What?" I just barely managed to choke out in utter disbelief.
"Her parents are Hathaway and Belikov, but her Dragomir genes are too strong. As are mine. I'm Lissa's sister, Lady Dragomir. I turned down being Princess, but won't have a choice when Lissa's announced as Tatiana's heir. It's why I'm back."
"How?" I couldn't get out anything else, I was totally stunned.
"The crash and every other healing changed enough of my DNA and essence. I'm more Moroi than dhampir." She chuckled at the thought of what she was about to say, "I got to stay with Lissa. I'm not a Dragomir guardian, I am a Dragomir."
"Why haven't I heard?"
With the Dragomir's being a dying line and Tasha's political side, and Christian having married Liss, why hadn't I heard?
"Because Christian marrying Lissa also made her eligible for her Council spot."
"Ah. That quorum complication."
"Yes. That. It was caused quite the argument regarding my royal status."
"So. Lady Rose Dragomir huh? And my daughter is Lady Alsa Dragomir?"
"Basically. And you know how I feel about titles Dimitri- royal especially. Here," she grabbed a plate of blini and black bread, "sit," she placed the plates of food on the kitchen table, gesturing for me to sit before she did, "and you can let her go now."
"Mm. I don't want to. She's my precious daughter. The one I never knew I had." I sat my little girl on my knee as I ate.
"Love you, Daddy."
God, that was unreal. I was a dad, I shared a child with Rose, and she was royal. I was going to need time to adjust to that.
"Love you too baby girl."
"Why are you here Dimitri? What's with the surprise visit?"
"I heard you had permanently moved back to Court so I asked for reassignment. That's why there's no Tasha."
"Why? And surely my movements aren't made that public."
"I've been keeping an eye out ever since I left. I was surprised when you were allowed to disappear straight after your marking," I chuckled softly, "I know now. How you kept all this hidden is as miraculous as this one here." I tapped my daughter's nose and she giggled.
"Hmm. I am surprised it worked. Now, it's not freaky at all that you've been trying to find me when you're the one who walked."
"Roza," I sighed. "After the cabin I became too much of a distraction-"
"You were a distraction from the moment we met in Portland. I still would have graduated, we would still have Alsa and I'd still be bound to become the next Dragomir Princess. I needed your support through those final four months. As it was I buried my head into just dealing with what I was handed. She would have blown our cover sky-high if you'd stayed but I refused to crack on her parentage and when I turned out to be royalty they couldn't push the subject."