This is my first fanfic! Let me know what you guys think. Reviews would be greatly appreciated =)

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to the brilliant Richelle Mead.

Adrians's Room

I was on my way back from visiting Guardian Hathaway in her room with a few of the other guardians when I heard a voice I would recognize anywhere: the one that haunted my dreams, the voice my heightened senses knew to listen for and could never ignore or forget no matter how hard I tried. I was secretly pleased at the thought of having an excuse to see Rose after trying to avoid her as much as I could for our own good, but after remembering where I was I had to wonder why she would be in this branch of the resort since it was reserved mostly for other guests and not students. I knew it couldn't be Lissa since they were rooming together, and since I had no other ideas on who it could be I decided to investigate. Knowing Rose, she could be up to something and as her mentor it was my job to keep her out of trouble. At least, that's the excuse I kept telling myself as I began walking again.

I altered my original path and turned down a different hallway, walking closer to the area her voice had come from. I was about to round the corner that led to the connecting hallway where I was sure to find her, when I heard another familiar voice answering her; a familiar male voice that stopped me in my tracks. I was NOT happy about this, and if I was being honest with myself I was jealous too to discover that it was Adrian Ivashkov's suite Rose was visiting. I put those realizations aside as I peeked around the corner and saw Rose clutching a big box in her arms.

As I focused on the conversation I watched as she shoved the box into his arms, causing him to stumble back as she replied "Don't send me any more gifts."

I briefly wondered what was in the box and why he would be giving her gifts in the first place when he answered, "It isn't a gift, it's a public service. What woman doesn't own perfume?"

Well that answered one question at least, I thought.

"Don't do it again," she said firmly.

I was about to round the corner and reveal myself when I heard a third familiar voice say,

"Rose, is that you?"

Rose, sounding just as confused as I felt replied, "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" Lissa asked.

"Ladies, ladies," Adrian said teasingly. "No need to fight over me."

I rolled my eyes at this, but then I wondered if his statement could be true. Could they be fighting over him? From what I had seen, I knew Lissa's and Christian Ozera's relationship was pretty solid. You could plainly see how much they cared for each other, so I quickly dismissed the idea of something secretly going on between Lissa and Adrian. Rose and Adrian though? That was tougher to figure out. I had thought there was some flirting going on between her and Mason Ashford, one of the other students at the Academy, but I had dismissed it as nothing serious. Rose didn't seem too interested in the boy, though he seemed to be pretty infatuated with her. With Adrian though, it was obvious there was SOMETHING going on between them, if the box of perfume were any indicator. I was not happy with this notion, and decided it was time to step in.

As I approached, I could see Rose standing inside the doorway of Adrian's suite sending him a glare that could probably rival the sun.

"We're not, I just want to know what's going on here." she replied.

"Me too." I said as I came to a halt behind her, making her jump and spin quickly around to face me.

I couldn't distinguish the look on her face. Either she was surprised at my sudden appearance, feeling guilty that she was here and I had caught her or both. Whichever the answer I dismissed it and looked beyond her to Adrian, then to Lissa and took a few more steps until I was fully inside the room with them. I decided to just get right to the point.

"Male and female students aren't supposed to be in each other's rooms."

I could see a witty retort come to Rose's lips, but instead of voicing it, she turned to Adrian and said, "How do you keep doing this?"

"Do what?" he replied

"Keep making us look bad!"

Adrian chuckled and said "You guys are the ones who came here."

Though it looked as if that were the case I said, "You shouldn't have let them in," especially Rose I silently added. "I'm sure you know the rules at St. Vladimir's."

Adrian just shrugged, making it seem as if having two younger girls in his room wasn't a big deal. "Yeah, but I don't have to follow any school's stupid rules."

His easy dismissal angered me, and again his reply made me wonder if there really was something going on between him and Rose. It made me feel jealous all over again.

"Perhaps not," I replied coldly. "But I would have thought you'd still respect those rules."

Adrian rolled his eyes at this. Though it was disrespectful on his part, I still managed to keep control of my anger but his next words almost sent me reeling over the edge.

"I'm kind of surprised to find you lecturing about underage girls."

I clenched my fists as hard as I could to keep myself from knocking him out right then and there. It wasn't easy, and from the corner of my eye I knew Rose could see the battle I waged inside my head to keep it together.

Adrian continued, not realizing how close he had come to my fist meeting his face up close and personal.

"Besides, nothing sordid was going on. We were just hanging out."

At this I replied, "If you want to 'hang out' with younger girls, do it at one of the public areas." Where I can make sure nothing is going on between you and Rose I silently added.

With a bizarre laugh that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, he said, "Young girls? Young girls? Sure. Young and old at the same time. They've barely seen anything in life, yet they've already seen too much. One's marked with life, and one's marked with death…but they're the one's you're worried about? Worry about yourself, dhampir. Worry about you, and worry about me. We're the ones who are young."

After he finished his weird little speech, he walked towards the window pulling out his cigarettes on the way, and then turned back to us as if nothing unusual had happened. The girls and I just stared. I hadn't expected that randomness that popped out of his mouth. I had heard about his reputation, but I didn't remember anything about him being this much of a head case.

Adrian broke our silence by saying in his normal, sarcastic voice, "You ladies should probably go. He's right. I am a bad influence."

I turned and headed towards the door, noticing the girls exchange a look between them before quickly following me out into the hall and towards the lobby.

"That was…strange," I heard Rose say from behind me, voicing the same thing I had just been thinking. Strange also how she almost always managed to know exactly what I was thinking.

"Very," I replied, as I was going over the scenario again in my head. Tossing aside what had happened with Adrian, I remembered why I had been there in the first place and all of my jealously came rushing back to hit me like a powerful gust of wind in the middle of a Russian snowstorm.

As we reached the lobby I turned to the girls, who had already started back to their room, and called out to Rose. She wasn't getting out of trouble that easily. I barely noticed as Lissa continued on towards their shared room, followed by a group of Moroi rushing past with a bellhop following in their wake. Rose stopped across from me, a distracted look on her face. It annoyed me further to think Adrian Ivashkov had put that look there, so when I spoke my voice was clipped.

"That's Adrian Ivashkov."

Seemingly unconcerned with that fact she replied, "Yeah, I know."

"This is the second time I've seen you with him."

"Yeah," she said smoothly. "We hang out sometimes."

I arched an eyebrow, then angrily jerked my head in the direction of Adrian's room and said, "You hang out in his room a lot?" It was a question I was dreading the answer to.

Using a voice similar to the one I'd used with her earlier she replied, "What happens between him and me is none of your business." I knew what she was doing. She was throwing a similar reply to my question that was almost identical to the one I had given to her when she had asked about Tasha and me.

Luckily, I was able to get around this and justify my question by saying, "Actually, as long as you're at the academy, what you do is my business."

"Not my personal life. You don't have any say in that." She retorted.

Damn. She got me on that one, but I kept at it. "You're not an adult yet."

"I'm close enough. Besides, it's not like I'll magically become an adult on my eighteenth birthday."

"Clearly." She blushed at this, realizing what I was implying. I knew it was harsh, but if that's what it took to keep her away from him then so be it.

She started to say "That's not what I meant. I meant-" but I cut her off before she could get the rest out and said, "I know what you meant. And the technicalities don't matter right now. You're an Academy student. I'm your instructor. It's my job to help you and to keep you safe. Being in the bedroom of someone like him…well, that's not safe."

In more ways then I wanted to admit to her. I knew there was still that possibility that something was going on between Rose and Mason, but I had chosen this battle carefully and had decided Adrian Ivashkov was more of a threat, not to mention a bad influence. Either way, it was getting harder and harder to mask my jealousy not only from Rose but from myself as well.

She interrupted my thoughts by muttering, "I can handle Adrian Ivashkov. He's weird-really weird, apparently- but harmless."

"Speaking of personal lives…" she continued, "I suppose you were off visiting Tasha, huh?"

Though it was petty of her to ask, I knew her well enough to realize why she did. It shouldn't have been any of her business, and I didn't owe her an explanation but it popped out of my mouth unbidden.

"Actually, I was visiting your mother."

"You going to hook up with her too?"

I knew she only said it because she couldn't resist letting the opportunity pass, so I ignored her quip and just gave her a look.

I said, "No, we were looking over some new data about the Strigoi in the Drozdov attack."

Her face changed, and I could see that she was rethinking her pettiness from earlier in our argument, remembering the horrors the recent Strigoi attack had brought. Everything else was pushed aside in her mind as she focused on this.

"What'd you find out?" she asked quietly.

"We've managed to track some of the Strigoi," I said. "Or at least the humans with them. There were witnesses who lived nearby who spotted a few of the cars the group used. The plates were all from different states-the group appears to have split up, probably to make it harder for us. But one of the witnesses did catch one plate number. It's registered to an address in Spokane."

"Spokane?" she asked in astonishment. "Spokane, Washington? Who makes Spokane their hideout?"

A valid query, Spokane being such an insignificant area on the map considering, but that was probably the exact reason it had been chosen as a hideout.

"Strigoi, apparently," I replied impassively. "The address was fake, but other evidence shows they really are there. There's a kind of shopping plaza that has some underground tunnels. There've been Strigoi sightings around that area."

"Then…"She frowned. "Are you going to go after them? Is somebody going to? I mean, this is what Tasha's been saying all along…If we know where they are…"

She drifted off as I began shaking my head. "The guardians can't do anything without permission from higher up. That's not going to happen anytime soon."

She heaved a sigh. "Because the Moroi talk to much."

"They're being cautious," I replied.

I could see her getting worked up again, and I could tell that answer didn't satisfy her.

"Come on. Even you can't want to be careful on this one. You actually know where Strigoi are hiding out. Strigoi who massacred children. Don't you want to go after them when they don't expect it?"

If only things could be that simple. She reminded me of myself at her age, always wanting to jump in before I considered the consequences. I had learned my lesson on that account and I knew better now, but I still understood how she felt.

"It's not that easy," I explained. "We answer to the Guardian Council and the Moroi government. We can't just run off and act on impulse. And anyway, we don't know everything yet. You should never walk into any situation without knowing all the details."

"Zen life lessons again," She sighed, and ran a hand through her dark flowing hair, tucking some behind her ears. "Why'd you tell me this, anyway? This is guardian stuff. Not the kind of thing you let novices in on."

I considered my words carefully. Although Rose sometimes acted young and immature as only a teenager could, there was still that level of maturity I saw within her that surpassed those of her classmates. She understood the rigorousness of her path to become a Guardian, and took her training and duty more seriously then those twice her age. In order for her to break out of that immature mentality and become an adult, she needed to be treated like one. I also realized I hadn't helped with this much in the past couple of days by slighting her age. I felt my face soften as I came to this conclusion.

"I've said a few things…the other day and today…that I shouldn't have. Things that insulted your age. You're seventeen…but you're capable of handling and processing the same things those much older than you do."

"Really?" She replied in a lighter voice.

I nodded. "You're still really young in a lot of ways-and act young-but the only way to really change that is to treat you like an adult. I need to do that more. I know you'll take this information and understand how important it is and keep it to yourself."

I could tell she didn't like some of what I'd said, but I could also see her let it go as the rest of what I'd said sunk it. She seemed pleased by my complementing her, and probably would have said something about it but didn't get the chance.

"Dimka," Greeted Tasha Ozera as she approached us. "Hello, Rose." She said with a smile.

As soon as Tasha joined us, I could have sworn all the happiness and warmth that had been radiating from Rose just a moment before evaporated in the blink of an eye.

"Hey," She said flatly.

As Tasha placed a hand on my forearm and lightly slid her fingers up my bicep, I noticed Rose out of the corner of my eye giving Tasha's hand a vehement look that screamed "Don't touch him!"

"You've got that look," Tasha said, causing my attention to snap back to her and the fingers trailing slowly up to my shoulder.

For a second I thought she had been talking to Rose, but then I realized it was me the statement was directed at. A small smile began to take shape on my lips as I figured out what she probably meant, but I decided to humor her and play along.

"What look?"

"The look that says you're going to be on duty all day." She knew me too well, I thought.

"Really? I have a look like that?" I said, teasing her.

She nodded in assent. "When does your shift technically end?"

I grew sheepish as I admitted "An hour ago."

"You can't keep doing this," She groaned. "You need a break."

I could see her point, but I was used to it. I actually didn't mind. I was Lissa's guardian, and if keeping her safe meant not taking a break then I would do it. I chose to ignore the fact that it was more Rose I had been protecting and worrying about this time today when I had found the girls in Adrian's room. For the most part they were inseparable so I convinced myself to let this go, and only voiced part of this train of thought out loud.

I said, "Well…if you consider that I'm always Lissa's guardian…"

"For now," she said knowingly.

Uh oh. I wished she hadn't alluded to our earlier discussion in front of Rose. I was hoping Rose hadn't caught that but I didn't even have to turn around to know that she did. I didn't dare to look, but I could practically feel her eyes shooting daggers into my back.

I was able to maintain my easy smile as Tasha continued. "There's a pool tournament going on upstairs."

I hadn't played pool in a long time, and the tournament sounded like a lot of fun. Tasha and I could have done some damage, maybe even won some extra money from the bets I knew would be taking place.

"I can't," I said, still reminiscing about my carefree days. "Even though I haven't played in a long time…"

"Come on, then," she begged. "Just one round! We could take them all."

We used to be a pretty good team when we had paired up together, I remembered. I knew though that I wouldn't be able to have any real fun with everything else that had been going on lately.

"I can't," I repeated regretfully. "Not with everything going on."

She sobered a little at that, knowing how much the attacks had affected me and the other guardians. "No. I suppose not." Turning to Rose, she said teasingly, "I hope you realize what a hard-core role model you have here. He's never off duty."

"Well," Rose said, in a voice that was almost the exact tone Tasha had used earlier, "for now, at least."

Tasha looked puzzled at that, thankfully not realizing that Rose had been mocking her. I knew exactly what Rose was doing though and I shot her a look that told her so. She was definitely not helping herself out here.

In case she hadn't figured that out yet I said, "We're finished here, Rose. Remember what I said."

"Yeah," she said in a hard voice, turning away. "Definitely." And with that she headed in the direction of her room, turning a corner and disappearing from view.

Pushing Rose out of my mind wasn't easy after that, but Tasha was there to distract me.

I turned back to see a questioning look on her face but before she could ask what that was all about, I said quickly, "You know what? Maybe I will play one round with you."

Her face immediately brightened with anticipation, and she turned me towards the elevators saying, "Great! This should be interesting…"