A/N: So I FINALLY wrote another one! I felt I had to because it turns out that 55 people have me on their author alert list (and I expect 50 reviews on this if thats the case! haha just kidding... sort of...) sooo YAY! It's a friggin' honor!

Also I am going to clear this up here. I didn't write anything about Tasha asking Dimitri to start a family with her... cuz she doesn't... I read the conversation between Rose and her mom VERY carefully and it says that it is OBVIOUS and that they might make an arrangement if he were her guardian... See? now do you understand why I didn't put it in there to begin with?

As always! The characters are Richelle's!

She hadn't said a word about the fight with her mother, and I didn't want to push it. As I sat back today and watched her practice, I felt myself growing worried about her state of mind. She wasn't focused at all. Sure she was nailing all the right blows, but she was using too much force and it was taking up too much of her energy. I didn't want to push her so I just continued to watch, hoping she would cool down a bit.

I had talked to Rose's mother earlier that day and she was rather upset about the whole thing.

"She had been pushing me rather hard and," Janine Hathaway shook her head, "I snapped. I hit her too hard."

"I'm sure she understands that it was just an accident." As I had said the words, even I didn't believe them. Rose wasn't the kind of girl to take that kind of thing as an accident, even if it was. No, she probably thought Janine had intended to hit her that hard, just to reinforce her feelings of resentment.

"She will not understand that, she will just complain that I did it on purpose to further my intentions at ruining her life." Janine was using a cold and careless tone but I could tell that her actions were eating her up inside.

"What did she say, anyway?"

Janine looked up at me and I could tell from the look in her eyes that she was done talking to me. Anything that had been discussed between the two was between them and I was not going to hear of it. "I have to get back. If you see Rose, tell her… tell her I'm sorry." She turned and walked down the hallway and I turned back toward the gym to get in some practice time of my own.

Now I found myself more and more curious about what had gone on between the two headstrong Hathaway women. Rose drove her silver stake in between the ribs of the dummy in front of her rather harshly and I knew I couldn't allow this much longer.

"Your hair's in the way," I said finally. "Not only are you blocking your peripheral vision, you're running the risk of letting your enemy get a handhold."

I could almost hear Rose's eyes roll. "If I'm actually in a fight, I'll wear it up." She let out an animalistic grunt as she drove the stake up between the ribs of yet another dummy. "I'm just wearing it down today, that's all."

"Rose," I said, sharply. She ignored me and began her attack on the next dummy. "Rose. Stop."

She backed away from the dummy looking down. She seemed to be trying to keep her distance from me as she backed into the wall.

"Look at me," I said.

"Dimitri-"

"Look at me."

She seemed to battle with the two sides of her head for a moment. The part of her that wanted to defy me just to save face. And the side that knew she couldn't disobey an order. The latter, won out and slowly, she raised her gaze to me, tilting her head slightly down so her hair still fell into her face. I stood up and moved across the room, stopping directly in front of her.

She avoided looking at me as I raised my hand to brush the hair away from her face. I wanted to touch her, to feel her hair between my fingers. But it wasn't for the most noble of reasons. I quickly thought of Tasha's offer. To be her guardian, and be taken away from this hell that I had sentenced myself to.

I let my hand drop as I thought of my alternatives. I could be done with this whole mess with one word. I could have so much. Tasha wanted a family. I knew that. She hadn't said anything to me about it but I knew she desired me, and I could learn to desire her as well. I didn't think I would ever want a woman as much as I wanted Rose, but I could get close to it with Tasha. She would have my children, when Rose couldn't. I was starting to tell myself that a family was more important than my own happiness.

Rose tilted her head back and looked me square in the eye. Most of the hair in front of her face fell away revealing the black eye. I instantly wanted to brush the remaining hair away from her face but stopped myself. I couldn't keep giving in to these urges to be closer to her. I had to be stronger than that.

"Does it hurt?" I asked, determined to keep my hands at my sides. I knew the answer because I had been on the receiving end of a few black eyes myself. They hurt like hell.

"No," she lied, and I wanted to touch her all over again. She could be nursing broken bones and still act like it was nothing more than a scratch.

"It doesn't look so bad," I said eyeing the purplish brown spot ringing around her eye and spreading slightly down the bridge of her nose. "It'll heal."

"I hate her." Her tone was dripping with disdain and I fought the urge to flinch. She was full of such passionate hate for her mother that it seemed to cloud everything else.

"No, you don't." I could see she was getting worked up, and I was trying to keep her calm.

"I do."

"You don't have time to hate anyone," I said, keeping my voice kind. "Not in our profession. You should make peace with her."

In that second she looked completely outraged. Like forgiving Janine would mean she'd won. "Make peace with her? After she gave me a black eye on purpose? Why am I the only one who sees how crazy that is?"

"She absolutely did not do it on purpose," I said. I knew that she was going to go to this place. "No matter how much you resent her, you have to believe that. She wouldn't do that, and anyway, I saw her later that day. She was worried about you."

Rose glared at an empty space across the gym. "Probably worried someone will bring her up on child abuse charges," she grumbled.

"Don't you think this is the time of year for forgiveness?" I asked, exhausting the last of my resources.

"This isn't a Christmas special!" she said with a loud sigh. "This is my life. In the real world, miracles and goodness just don't happen."

"In the real world, you can make your own miracles."

I knew she wouldn't like the statement but I didn't think it would drive her over the edge like it did. I could see something in her snap, and for a second I didn't even recognize her.

"Okay, can you just stop this for once?" she almost shouted, hands on her hips.

"Stop what?" I asked hiding my surprise.

"The whole profound Zen crap thing. You don't talk to me like a real person. Everything you say is just some wise, life-lesson nonsense. You really do sound like a Christmas special." Her voice was getting louder and louder as she continued. "I swear, sometimes it's just like you want to hear yourself talk! And I know you're not always this way. You were perfectly normal when you talked to Tasha," she shouted, the last word sounding far harsher than the rest of them. Although it could have just been my imagination. "But with me? You're just going through the motions. You don't care about me. You're just stuck in your stupid mentor role."

I was in shock. Each and every single one of those words was its own knife that seemed to plunge into my heart. "I don't care about you?"

"No." She sounded so sure, that it seemed to really hit home with me. And I felt myself growing angry. But her verbal assualt wasn't over. Then she began jabbing me in the chest with her index finger. "I'm just another student to you. You just go on and on with your stupid life lessons so that-"

I couldn't take it anymore. I reached out and grabbed her hand as she tried to jab her finger into me again and pinned it to the wall. I was so incredibly frustrated with her, almost angry that she thought this about me. She couldn't see how much I… loved her.

"Don't tell me what I feel," I said in a low voice.

She looked at me then, really looked at me. And I saw something come to her. Rose's whole expression changed like she had won some kind of game.

"That's it, isn't it?"

"What?" I was confused again.

"You're always fighting for control. You're the same as me." She seemed smug, though she wasn't smiling.

"No," I said, trying to keep my emotions in check. "I've learned my control."

She seemed to find a new sense of empowerment. "No," she said matter-of-factly. "You haven't. You put on a good face, and most of the time you do stay in control. But sometimes you can't. And sometimes…" she leaned forward, into me slightly, lowering her voice. "Sometimes you don't want to."

My stomach flipped and I found myself fighting for control yet again. She was so sexy standing here, angry and aggressive. "Rose.."

I wasn't prepared mentally for what happened next. Suddenly Rose was kissing me, and I was kissing her back. I stepped forward and closed the distance between us. I needed to be closer, and I pressed her up against the wall. With one hand still pinning hers to the wall, I snaked my hand behind her head to finally feel her hair. The kiss was filled with so much emotion, anger, passion, release. Both of us feeling the heat that never seemed to extinguish.

Her body responded to mine as she slowly moved against me. I suddenly jerked away, letting the fresh air wake up the more rational side of my mind. This was wrong. So wrong.

"Do not do that again," I said stiffly.

"Don't kiss me back then," Rose answered with an air of defiance.

I looked at her for a long time trying to sort through the hundreds of thoughts rushing through my head. "I don't give 'Zen lessons' to hear myself talk. I don't give them because you're another student. I'm doing this to teach you control."

"You're doing a great job," she said with a bitter edge.

I closed my eyes trying to sort through the anger and the pain inside, trying to find the answer. Then I saw her in the back of my mind.

Tasha.

She was my salvation from this. From Rose. And she was Rose's salvation too. It would put her back on track with her duties to Lissa. Would aid me in not being controlled by my irrational urges when I was with her.

I exhaled and muttered a quick curse in Russian, and left not even looking at Rose.

SHAM-ONN! You know what to do...!