So here's a little story of mine that is an alternate ending to Anastasia, if you may call it that! The chapters won't be long and not many. But that does not mean you should not review! By all means, DO! Not listening to your thoughts makes writing pointless!

Summary: While Dimitri is still in Paris packing his belongings, the Empress tells Anya that he did not take the reward. So she decides to face him and learn the truth. He, however, chooses to not admit it and make her angry at him. He wanted her to move on because he thought she was too good for him to have her and that she did not deserve him. He returns in St. Petersburg and lives there while she stays in Paris with her grandmother.

The story starts two months later when Dimitri receives an invitation from the Royal family to attend a ball held in the Catherine Palace in honour of their return in Russia. Thinking that Anya won't be there, he is persuaded to go. However, things turn out a little differently than he had expected them to. A certain Princess is attending the ball too, unaware of his presence as well but what could possibly go wrong? Surely there is no evil sorcerer after her seeking his revenge! Is he?...

I hope the story is appealing to you! I will upload chapter 2 soon like...today! I have written most of the story so the updates won't be delayed. But please review! I want to have received at most 4 or 5 reviews by the time chappie 2 is up! Unless you don't like the story...

P.S. According to Google Translation, title means 'At the beginning with you' in Russian. Don't blame me if it actually doesn't! I do not speak Russian XD oh! And I also had to come up with a surname for Dimitri, ok?

Anyway, enjoy!

December, 1st 1926

Dear Mr. Aleksandrov,

It would be an honour to Her Imperial Majesty, the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna
if you attended the ball hosted at the renovated Catherine Palace
held in Her Majesty's honorable return in St. Petersburg at December 10th.

Signed,

The Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna

Dimitri crumpled the piece of paper in his fist in nuisance and brought the fist on his forehead. He was absolutely out of his mind, there is no doubting that. How could he have let himself be so easily convinced? He shouldn't have. He had agreed into doing the stupidest thing he had ever done. Well, nothing could overcome his stupid con to get money from the Empress by training a girl to be Anastasia so that was the second most stupid thing he had ever done. All hopes he had of beginning anew and forgetting the past would shatter the moment he stepped in the royal territory of the Palace. They had already started cracking the moment he read the invitation, anyway. And yet he was still going. How moronic can a man get, really?

"Don't you worry, boy!" Vlad had said. "She won't be there and, besides, it is a ball maske! No one will recognize you but me!"the kind man had offered him a wide, toothy smile and Pooka had swung mercilessly his tail and licked his hands. He still couldn't quite get how Anya had parted with her beloved dog but he didn't want to think of it. He didn't want to think of her in no way. So he had just rolled his eyes at his old friend's persistence and denied once more. And he just had to ask it as a favour for the sake of their reunion as Vlad would soon leave. Usually that would have been called blackmailing had he not wanted to spoil his little time with his old, truest friend. So he had just accepted.

The young man huffed annoyed with himself as he stared in his small apartment's only mirror. He lived in a small place, it's true, but it was all he could afford. His job in the fishfactory was not profitable but he had sworn to never steal or try to earn money in some unholy way. For the sake of Anya and the pain he had caused her.

And here he was, thinking of her again. That blasted woman would just pop in his head out of nowhere and torture his mind and heart cruelly. It was his fault, really. It was his fault he had spent two bloody months in St. Petersburg, away from her, trying so hard to forget her and the incredible adventure they had found themselves involved in. But it was just so hard. Every little thing, usually the simplest of things, would remind him of her and that's because she was a simple girl, a simply beautiful girl. Maybe if he had told her the truth, if he had not left, things might have been different. But they weren't and he couldn't turn back time.

"My business here is done, and there is nothing more to say on the matter."He had firmly said getting lost in those pools of mirth and ocean blue of hers. He was not lying, and if she had thought he was, then he had been doing it for her own good.

"But Grandmamma said that you didn-" she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose in exhaustion. He couldn't blame her. She had to put up with him and his stubbornness. A real wonder and achievement she had not slapped him again."Why are you doing this? Why are you lying? I think that I deserve the truth after everything we've been through."

Her voice was low and calm but he could already hear the bitter fury raising in her, claiming every bit of her. "I'm not lying. My business here is done. I brought you to your home and I have made sure of your safety. Now I must go back to Russia and move on with my life as you shall with yours. Besides, you're a Princess. I'm a kitchen boy. I don't belong here."

With a frown darkening her beautiful features she grunted and stood up, walking aimlessly towards the edge of the red carpeted stairwell. "I hate how you cannot be a grown man for just a moment and not a baby! If you don't belong here then why didn't you take the money? I know you didn't! Why?"

Dimitri looked at the fancy, marbled floor beneath his feet, pursing his lips as he scanned his brain for an answer that would not give him away. He strongly believed what he had just told her and she would not change his mind. "I forgot to say my goodbyes." He mastered after a moment, changing the subject completely and ignoring her question, and looked up at her, trying his hardest to seem sincere and convincing. But obviously he failed for she walked before him, her delicate stature more noble and imposing than ever before and looked upon him disappointedly.

"For a man who claims he has changed a lot, you are the exact same conman I met in the Catherine Palace. Full of lies and hot air." She said looking absolutely menacing, like the Anya he met before she became the Grand Duchess. And how he loved that Anya. He loved each side of hers, actually. But behind the menace in her voice and eyes, the hurt and pain she felt had not escaped his notice. He knew her too well now, she could not hide from him, not anymore. "I can't believe that I actually considered of goin- no, forget it! I have my family now, my past and you are obviously not willing of having me come with you."

He still remembered how hard those words had hit him before she collected her shining tiara from the small coffee table and extended a formal hand to him. They said a cold goodbye before she turned her back on him and walked proudly away, like the Princess she was. But she did not put the tiara back on. Instead he saw her lowering her head a little and bringing a hand to her face when she thought he couldn't see her anymore. He had made the Grand Duchess Anastasia cry. He had made the woman he loved cry. That's why he chose not to run after her and pull her in his arms like he had wanted to do for quite some time. Instead he collected his belongings and headed back to the train station. At 8 o'clock in the morning he was crossing Russia's borders with Poland.

"Unbelievable!" Vladimir's cheerful voice filled the room with bright joy and also shook Dimitri off his ponderings. He had allowed him to have a key of his own of his apartment so he wasn't really surprised to see him. "You have almost turned into a decent looking man! However did you achieve that?"

The young man chuckled with a roll of his eyes and threw his black mask on his friend who was laughing wholeheartedly. He heard Vlad scolding him for not having it on yet but he only dismissed him with a wave of his hand and walked to his extremely narrow balcony, watching the people rushing to the Palace to have a sneak upon the noblemen and royals who would fill the great city that very night. "I'm not sure if I-"

"Not another word from you! A promise is a promise. You are coming even if I have to drag you all the way to the Palace myself!" the man husked and dragged him back in by the elbow. Dimitri rolled his eyes in defeat and chuckled. He had missed such moments of relaxation and familiarity with his friend. They had become an every-day routine for him and it was still hard for him to adjust in the new life's routine.

He was taken by surprise as Vladimir covered abruptly his eyes with his black mask, putting on him quite awkwardly and slantwise so that it was actually getting in his left eye.

"Do you want me to be a blind man by the time we get there?" he complained as he hissed under his breath by the tingling feeling in his eye that made a few salty drops escape. "Let me do or you'll take my eye off!"

"Sorry, boy, I'm just excited we'll go together, like the old times!" he apologized and Dimitri couldn't not purse his lips in agreement and even nostalgia. "Sophie and the Empress have even missed you too! They would have been really disappointed not to see you."

"Uh… 13!" Dimitri exclaimed in genuine happiness after a moment of pensiveness. "Oh, and in case you're wondering, that's the exact number of the times you have said that to me!"

Vladimir roared in laughter and patted him on the back with his wide palm, making him actually stumble a little. "Same, old Dimitri! Well, a bit changed but in a good way." The man swallowed back the rest of his sentence so not to cause Dimitri's alarm and vexation. But Anastasia would have certainly been proud of him if she had met him.

"Yeah, yeah… shouldn't we be off by now?" the man dismissed again by changing the subject, as he finally fixed the mask on his face. Vlad nodded violently with a bright smile before exiting the flat with Dimitri's elbow in his huge palm. Dimitri raised a questioning brow to his direction. Something was putting him in such a fine mood, something he wouldn't tell him. But Dimitri was a bright man, he would instantly know what that was when the time came. For the time all he did was have some patience.

Was it good? Uninteresting? Boring? Oh, come on! I know you are smart enough to take the hint I'm throwing right in your face! :P If you do review, tell me if Dimitri seemed OOC or not because I have an uncertainty complex...!