A/N: SPOILERS FOR SPIRIT BOUND. After reading the book, I just got an image of Dimitri and Rose kissing through the bars of the jail cell. Since my visual art skills pretty much fail, a fanfic will have to do. Also, Ty moyo solnyshko=you are my sun. Kind of obvious, but just in case.

Why couldn't they have stuck me in someone else's former jail cell? Dimitri's presence still lingered there. His sadness, his…defeat. I don't know what was worse, knowing that he was here or the amount of time I had to spend in my own head. Until my trial, I had all the time in the world. Time to think about what my fate would be, time to think about Lissa and Christian, time to think about Adrian. Worst of all, I had time to think about him.

Love fades, mine has. The hollow words echoed through my mind again. Maybe it was true, he wasn't lying. He just moved on after we saved him. Another image of him, standing up like the proud, confident mentor and guardian he once was, ready to take on the best of the best to keep me safe flickered in my mind. That image told me he lied about his love fading, but…

"God damn it, why can't this be easy?" I growled to myself. Not that the life of Rose Hathaway had ever really been easy. But couldn't it just be easy for this one…

"Roza?" Oh God, his voice, that nickname, why now? "Are you alright?"

"I don't want to see you right now," I lied, praying that Dimitri wouldn't be able to notice the forced tone and clenching of my heart. "Why do you get to visit me anyway? I didn't ask to see you. You had to request visitors, why don't I get that luxury?"

"Abe helped me. I just…wanted to make sure you were okay Rose."

"Why would you care? Love fades, mine has." A tremble in my voice destroyed the lie, making the truth obvious.

"Roza," he replied. After taking a closer look at him, even with the tears in my eyes that threatened to betray me, I could tell he still looked defeated, a child's broken toy that knew it wasn't going to be played with again. "Roza…"

"Why did you come here Dimitri? If all you're going to do is stand their and say my name, then just go." Living out their threat, a few tears began to roll down my face.

"Ty moyo solnyshko," he replied, his eyes trembling with tears. "You are my sun, Roza. I don't want to, I can't live without you."

My heart and dreams soared with his confession, but my bitterness outweighed even that. "Why tell me now, Dimitri? Why tell me that your love has faded then tell me this?"

"I didn't want to hurt you anymore. After all I did…"

"That wasn't you! I know you. All the shit you did as a Strigoi is nothing compared to what you've been putting me through now!" My hands wrapped around the bars that separated us, leaving our emotional faces only about half a foot apart.

"I'm sorry!" His voice rose to match my shouts, the guards near my cell ready to tear us apart. "I'm sorry," his voice softened. My guards relaxed a bit, but not much at all.

"You have to leave," one of them commanded, his voice icy and fierce.

"I love you Rose," he repeated before crashing his lips onto mine. This kiss was more passionate than any of the others that we ever had. Both of us filled it with desperation, longing and…a little bit of hope. The bars that separated us reminded me that I was still trapped here, stuck in this cage until my trial.

"Time to go," the same guard said gruffly while pulling Dimitri away from me.

"Ty moyo solnyshko, Dimka," I said, hoping my Russian wasn't too bad. Lying down on my thin mattress, I let the exhilaration of the kiss swirl in my head with my other thoughts, ecstatic that Dimitri lied to me.

The only thing to do now was pray that kiss wouldn't be our last.