Listen To The Music That Goes Along With This Chapter.

Vlad rearranged the oranges in the bowl for the fifteenth time in an hour.  His nerves were acting up, keeping him fidgety.  Dimitri should have been home two hours ago -- where was he?

He paced the worn carpeted floor, filling his mind with thoughts and excuses.  Take deep breaths and calm down.  He's twenty, and he can take care of himself.  He probably just started talking to friends on the way home.  Maybe he had become interested in a girl and stopped to flirt.  Whatever the reason, as much as Vlad tried to reassure himself, nothing could calm his heart from beating loudly in his ears.

The door opened, and Vlad rushed to Dimitri happily.  "I can't believe you stayed out so long!  You worried me to death, where were --"

"There's no time to talk!"  Dimitri ran to his bed and pulled out his suitcase quickly.  "Just pack!"

"Pack?"  Vlad looked at Dimitri in shock.  "Pack?  To go where?"

"Anywhere but here!"  Dimitri started shoveling his few possessions in, making sure to wrap the musicbox carefully in a shirt.  "We've been ratted out!"

Vlad raised in eyebrow in confusion.  "Ratted out?  What's that?"

"We were turned in."

He gasped. "Turned in?  By who?!"

"Remember Eelia?  He was caught trying to leave Moscow.  I knew he should have just straight left the country last year, not stopped in the Capitol!  I'm always right and no one EVER listens to me!!  Well, it's too late now, but the part that concerns us is that he gets less jail time if he tells his cohorts and WE happen to be those cohorts!"

Vlad sank to the edge of his bed.  "You mean...Eelia?  But...but he got us in the business and..."

"The Soviets don't care, Vlad, and neither does he!" Dimitri snapped.  "He's going to betray us.  Now get your things packed, we have to go!"

Vlad numbly stood and put his things in his suitcase.  He placed the papers with the truth about Lara and Mikhail under a layer of clothing, hidden from view.

"Where will we go?  We can't just leave our apartment!"  Dimitri didn't seemed nearly as worried as he himself did.  Figures.  Dimitri always had a back-up plan.  This one had probably been set years in advance!

"It doesn't matter where we go.  We just have to get out."

"Dimitri...come now, we can't leave our own apartment!  Surely we can plead innocent and no one else will tell."

Dimitri looked up at Vlad solemnly.  "You've been four years in this business and you still don't understand the way it works, do you?"

The elder man lowered his head slowly.  Dimitri was right, as usual.  "Perhaps we should leave town."

"We wouldn't get past the guards."  Dimitri was putting dry food in a bag now, determined to take as much as he could.  "We'll have to find a spot in town to hide out in until we can disappear."

"How could we even get out?"

Dimitri laughed. "I already have THAT planned out!"

Vlad smiled. "Tell!"

Dimitri shook his head.  "It has to do with a lost princess -- but I'll tell you later!  Pack!"

Vlad obediently continued.  He groped to find some kind of conversation to cover up the frightened silence.  "Do you think that this scheme of yours will lead us to many palaces? I do love palaces.  I've only been in one, and I always wanted to see more."

Silence.  Vlad looked over worriedly.  Had he said something wrong?

No, he had said something right.  Dimitri's eyes were twinkling with an idea.

"That's it!  Vlad, you're a genius!"

"I am?"

"We'll stay in the Catherine Palace!"

Vlad gasped.  "The Palace?  You can't be serious, Dimitri!  It's...why it's...it's a palace!"

Dimitri laughed. "What better place?  The Reds have long since forgotten it, and it's fully furnished!  Okay, the things are a bit broken and dusty I'm sure, but there's so many rooms that even if they did figure out we were there, I could hide us!"

Of course, Dimitri knew the servant's passages!

"What a brilliant idea!" Vlad patted Dimitri warmly on the back. "You amaze me sometimes, my boy."

Dimitri picked up his suitcase.  "Let's go before the night guards come out.  They're much stricter than the day ones."

As they started to leave the emptied apartment, Vlad turned around. This had become his home, no matter how shabby it was.  He knew every crack, every spider web by heart. He felt a few tears come to his eyes sadly.

So this was the business, eh?  He had a feeling that he and Dimitri would be moving from place to place often to escape being caught.  Even worse, they move but still land in jail. Vlad wanted a special area, a place to be with his nephew in peace, where he could tell him about his family and heritage so he knew the truth.  A place where he and Dimitri could rediscover themselves after so many years of being lost in such a corrupt profession.  A place where things went well, and he felt loved and could in return love.

He wanted a home.
~*~
"Any idea when we're actually going to STOP this endless walking, Dimitri?  Day? Hour?  Minute?  Second?"

Dimitri looked over at Anya as they walked along the dusty Latvian Road. "Maybe if Her Grace would shut her mouth, we'd be able to move faster."

Anya crossed her arms.  "Mr. Know-It-All strikes again!"

"What's going on NOW?" Vlad asked wearily.  Those two were up all the time, arguing and exchanging wits, trying to top the other for a place as the supreme leader of the group.

As much as he hated to admit it, it was rather cute.  Dimitri obviously was enjoying himself around the beautiful and witty Anya, and she like-wise was having fun.  Even he himself thought that it was adorable at times, so childlike yet with so much heart put into it.

"Is it just me, or is it REALLY hot out here?" Anya asked as she took off her fisherman's cap and straightened her mess of red hair under it.

"Oh, it's only, say, 90 degrees out here, and it's sweltering and we're all sweating.  That makes it you," Dimitri replied sarcastically.

She threw the cap at him and was surprised when he caught it quickly. He laughed and threw the hat up in the air, catching it again.

"Show off," she murmured.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing!"

Vlad rolled his eyes.  Like children on a playground!

Anya took off her coat and handed it to Dimitri.  "Hold this for a minute, all right?"  She stopped in the middle of the road and the two men paused.

"Why?"

"Just hold it!"  She unwrapped her scarf from around her neck, then fanned her neck with her hand.  "It's so hot out here!"

Dimitri anxiously moved from foot to foot.  "It's early Spring, what do you expect?"

She took her things back swiftly.  "Some relief!"

"Relief?  From what?"

"From you!"

"Stop it!" Vlad said quickly, getting between the two of them. Anya stuck her tongue out at Dimitri and he reached across to pull her hair but Vlad caught his arm.  "Act like a gentleman, Dimitri."

"I'm trying too!"

"No you aren't," Anya said smartly.  Dimitri narrowed his eyes and threw her scarf, all that was left in his hands, back at her.  She caught it and tucked it in her coat pocket.

Vlad cleared his throat.  "Does anyone mind if we stop for a bit?  I need a rest."

Dimitri, who was still pouting (something which Vlad was quite accustomed too, but Anya had yet to understand), didn't answer.  Vlad walked to a tree on the side of the road and sat down.  Taking off his hat, he wiped his forehead with his patched handkerchief.

Anya slumped beside him, and on the other side Dimitri leaned against the tree.  OH! The girl was so infuriating!  Always whining, always complaining!

Well, he told himself truthfully, she really wasn't ALWAYS whining and complaining. In fact, she was actually pretty quiet when times got tough.  When they lightened up the rations, she tightened up her belt.  So what was it about her that WAS so exasperating, so...almost...could it be...exciting?

"It's quite an extraordinary challenge," Vlad said, completing his thoughts.  Dimitri quickly looked over at him in shock.

"Excuse me?"

"Anya mentioned that it was a long walk and I said that yes, it's quite an extraordinary challenge."

Dimitri leaned back against the tree.  That just might be it.  She WAS a challenge, wasn't she?  Was that what was so different about her?

"Oh look!" Anya stood up and pointed through the trees.  "Look at the clouds!"

Dimitri walked beside her.  "What about them?"

"They're just so..."

"Distinct?"

Anya looked over softly.  "My thoughts exactly."

He walked forward a little and got a clearer shot of them.  "Hey, what's that one look like?"

She grinned. "Pooka!"

Pooka lifted his head from Vlad's lap, then laid it back down, seeing that it had nothing to do with crumbs or squirrels, his latest chasing passion.

"And the one beside it is a..." He judged it carefully.  "A bone!  Coincidence?"

"I think not!" Anya laughed.  He walked across the road to get a better view.

Anya watched him go.  Just a second ago he'd actually been NICE. She had to admit, he was a fun guy.  A little annoying, but scenes like the one earlier with the coats happened fewer and farther between now.  She dropped her stuff absently and ran down the road after him.

Catching up, she pinched his arm playfully.  "Wait up!"

"Ow!" he grabbed his arm protectively.  She laughed.  "Don't say it!" he warned teasingly. I don't want to hear it!"

She laughed.  "Men are such..."

"Don't say it!" he cried, placing his hand over her mouth.  She laughed.

"Mbabies!"

He grinned.  "I did NOT just hear that!"

She stepped back. "BABIES!"

He rolled his eyes and tweaked her ponytail, then continued walking. She straightened her hair and walked beside him.  "Where're you going too?"

"Just walking, I guess.  The snow's mostly melted, and I just thought I'd scout out ahead some."

"For what?" she grinned. "Big game hunting?  A spy?  A foreign animal ready to pounce on you?  You act like we're the middle of a Jungle Novel!"

 "You read too many books."

"So what if I do?  What ELSE do you suggest I should have done at the orphanage? Anyway, there weren't all that many books there, just some of those cheesy romances and a few by Dickens."

"Dickens?"

"Yeah, y'know...it was the best of times..."

"It was the worst of times," he filled in.

"I didn't see you as the reading type."

Dimitri smiled a little, remembering the French lesson he had learned that at, then later reading the book -- all before he had become a con-man.  Once he had joined the business, it was like he had taken a complete change from his personality.  He had stopped having time to read or anything else he used to do.  He realized with a pang that he missed it.

"Yeah, well I don't anymore, at least not often."

"I guess you wouldn't think of me as one either.  I mean, I read all those ones at the orphanage...romances, which I hated!  Those Dickens ones that were donated, and fairy tales about Pookas and Minions."

"Pookas and Minions?"

"Why else did you think I named him Pooka?" she asked with a grin. "Because it sounded cute?"

"Most girls tend to name for cuteness."

Anya skipped a little in the road.  "He's a cute puppy, but if I was going for cute I would have named him Button or something.  I can't imagine calling Pooka Button.  Here, Button!"

"C'mere, Button Boy!" Dimitri whistled and she laughed.

"See?  That's just not him."

"I guess so."  He shielded his eyes from the sun and looked on ahead.  "I don't see a town, do you?"

"Why do you need a town?"

He rolled his eyes.  "Well, a town means transportation.  Unless you just LIKE walking..."

She laughed.  "With you I do."

Dimitri tripped over a stone and fell against the roots of a tree, completely shocked by her sudden affection.  Dust billowed up, covering him in a thick coat of it.  Anya started to laugh as Dimitri sat up and rubbed his knee.

"OW!"

"Are you..." Laughs.  She tried again.  "Are you alri...I'm sorry..." Peals of laughter from Anya as Dimitri stood up, his face and hair full of dust. She sat down flat on the ground and held her stomach. "I'm...trying..." Giggles as she caught her breath.  "I'm trying to ask you..."  A few escaping laughs. "I'm trying to ask you if you're...all right!  THERE!" She giggled from her own inefficiency to talk because of her laughter.  Dimitri didn't find it as amusing.

"I'm FINE."  He dusted off his vest and shook his hair to let all the dust out.  Anya laughed harder as the dust fell down around her.  Dimitri rolled his eyes.  "Five more seconds of laughing and I'm going back to camp without you."

"All right, all right!"  She stood up, still giggling, and wiped off her back.  "I'm sorry, Dimitri, it's just that LOOK on your face..."

He blushed.  "Well, you're the one...nevermind!"

"I'm the one what?"  She hid a grin behind her hand and looked up at him as innocently as she could.

"What was with that 'With you I do' stuff?!"  He angrily looked at her and finished dusting off his pants.

"I'm SORRY, it's just that I do like walking with you. When you don't have that angry pout on your face like now, you're actually kind of funny!"

He wrinkled his nose.  "I'm not pouting."

 She rolled her eyes.  "I think you need a lesson in being a gentleman."

"Hey!  I'm...I mean I'm..."

He stopped because he realized that he didn't have anything else to say.  All words that he would have once let flow were caught in his throat.  Why couldn't he come back with something?!  Why was this woman -- no, this GIRL, so good at twisting his own tongue! He ran a hand through his hair.

"Is all the dust off of me?"
 
She mussed a little of his hair.  "Now it is."

"Good!"

"Well I'm glad!"  She grinned at his expression.  He was so adorable when he was tongue tied.  He pouted more.

"Well...I am too!"

"Good!  You stay glad!"

"I will!"  Once again he was on the lower end of the battle, mimicking instead of responding.  He groaned in frustration and stomped ahead.  Anya hid another smile and raced to catch up.

They walked quietly for a time.  Dimitri started to wish he'd brought his coat after all.  It was getting darker and colder.

"So where're we going?" Anya asked finally.  Dimitri shrugged.

"How am I supposed to know?"

"Well you're the one leading..."

"I'm not leading."

"Then what're you doing?  Because I'M certainly not the one who started off this way."

He stopped.  "Look, you want to go back, you go back!"

"And leave you out here to fend off wolves and other wild beasts? I wouldn't dare!"

He rolled his eyes and walked.  "You know, you really are annoying."

Anya blinked.  "I am?"

He looked over and realized that she hadn't taken it as light as he'd originally meant it.

"No, I didn't mean it like that."

"What DID you mean then?" she asked coldly.  He blushed.

"Not like you heard it." Dimitri gulped.  For some strange reason he was afraid of hurting her feelings.  "I mean, you're actually kind of nice in an...infuriating way."

"Gee, thanks, Dimitri."

He groaned.  "I didn't mean it that way either!"

"Then what way DID you mean it?!"

"Not like that!"

"You know what Dimitri?  Just don't talk to me!"

"Good!  I didn't want to talk to you anyway!"

"Good!"

"Great!"

"Perfect!"

Dimitri threw up his arms.  "Let's just go back and -- Anya, where are we?"

Anya gasped. "You mean you don't know?"

"This is Latvia.  I wasn't exactly raised here!"  Dimitri tugged at his vest nervously, strangely afraid of her thinking him stupid for not knowing where they were.  Well, it wasn't his fault, he reasoned.  He just went for a simple stroll in the woods.  She was the one who had thrown him off-guard by coming!

Anya rested her fingertips on her forehead.  "This is just great!  I'm lost in the middle of the woods with a smarty pants.  I don't suppose things could get any worse!"

Dimitri jumped, then rubbed the back of his neck.  Anya looked at him strangely as he put his finger towards her to show what had landed on him.

"Rain?"  Anya threw up her arms.  "Perfect!  They obviously CAN get worse!!"

"We'll just start walking back!" he said irritably.  "Before you know it, we'll be back with Vlad and taking shelter somewhere.  I'm sure the rain won't hit hard for at least another twenty minutes."

Within five they were both soaked.

"I thought you said the rain wouldn't start!" Anya yelled as she ran through the slippery fields, trying to pull her dripping hair out of her eyes.

"Just keep running!"

Together they ran every way in the forest, not able to vaguely guess where they were. Over mud puddles, water laden grass, and broken limbs that littered their path, they continued to trudge through, trying to find a way back to Vlad.

"Look!" Dimitri pointed ahead excitedly as a flash of lightening illuminated an old wooden shed.  It was standing with it's door open, like a kindly old lady, inviting them into her home for warmth.  They both pushed in, shoving each other harshly in the process.

"You're absolutely infuriating!" Anya drew her bangs out of her face.  "And not only that, your hair looks like it's permanently plastered to your head!"

"Oh, and yours doesn't?"  Dimitri pushed his wet hair back out of his eyes.  "Look at us! We're soaked!"

"And muddy," she chimed in.  "Not to mention lost, hungry, cold..."

"Don't panic.  We'll just wait until the rain stops and find our way back."

"Didn't you say something similar to that on the train?  And it EXPLODED?!"

Dimitri blushed, a furious red creeping across his olive cheeks.  "We'll be fine.  Trust me."

Anya huffed but concentrated her efforts on trying to situate herself on the dirt floor. Dimitri pulled his knees up to his chest.

"There must be a house near here somewhere.  It's a shed after all."

"An abandoned shed, Dimitri.  The owners have probably long since torn down the house and moved away."

He sighed, caught with her logic.

They sat for hours, making sparse conversation peppered with sarcastic remarks.  The rain kept pouring, pounding on the roof persistently, drumming into their head how lost and alone they really were.  Minutes upon minutes, the rain continued.  They both lost themselves in thought.

If he had been kinder to her, Dimitri realized, they might not have gotten lost.  For one of the first times in his life, he understood the law of cause and effect.  You hurt someone, you'll be hurt eventually.  And he had hurt so many, many people.  Guilt washed over him, a powerful yet awful feeling that he had tried to push away for years.  Why had it taken a little orphan for him to see that? She was so...and he was so...and together they were so...

Perfect.

He shook his head slowly.  Perfect?  No, not them.  She was just someone he would pass by in his life like everyone else.  In a few weeks he'd barely remember her.

His heart tugged.  Maybe he would remember her humor.  Yes, just her humor.  Maybe he'd also remember a little of her laugh, and some of that annoying way she could make him tongue-tied.  Most of all of her smile.  She had such a beautiful smile.

"You know," Anya said softly, shaking him from his thoughts, "if we're ever going to get anything accomplished, we're going to have to work together."

Dimitri sighed.  "I guess so.  Truce?"

Anya laughed a little.  "Only until it's sunny.  Then I'm going to be on you again."

He chuckled.  "At least I get a fair warning."

Anya smiled and leaned her side against him.  "You're really not that bad I guess.  For an overbearing, brash, control-freak."

"You're not too bad for an annoying, bratty, self-absor--"

"Don't even start!" She smoothed a little of his hair back gently. "My brave prince, your hair is still damp and sticking to you."

"My beautiful princess, you might as well admit that you nit-pick!"  They both laughed at that, and soon they were joking in friendly, teasing ways, flirting harmlessly with one another.  Dimitri liked it better than the yelling and frustrated sarcasm.  Now he felt like he could really be her friend -- with no strings attached.

The bonds of friendship began peacefully, drawn out of hardship, but made in love.
 

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