Yeah! Fourteenth story in this fandom. I'm sad that there's not a lot ==; Oh well, I'm contributing. Since there are apparently no characters for the Bloodlines fandom, I'm gonna go and ask if they'll add some in...

My first story for Bloodlines (I haven't even written for Vampire Academy yet). I love Sydney; she's my favourite character, hence why Bloodlines is the book I like best so far. I can't wait for The Golden Lily to come out!

This has, like, two swear words in it. That's the only reason why this is rated K+ and not K.

Set directly after Bloodlines ends.

He had been holding onto sanity for such a long time now. It slipped from his grasp every now and then, made him babble like an idiot when it did, but he had always regained control. Always, his rationality had reeled him back, stopped him from doing things that he would regret.

But this time… seeing him. Seeing that son of a bitch Dimitri Belikov…

He froze.

When the guardian had stepped into the room, it was as if someone had sucked away all the air and left him with nothing to breathe with. His throat closed off, his eyes grew wide. His hands, hanging by his sides, clenched into hard fists.

His head buzzed, shoving memories of her into his brain, pushing all the ghosts of the kisses and hugs they had shared back into his mind…

He couldn't move.

Seeing Dimitri and Rose's embrace in that car park…

His heart crumbled.

And then, jolted back to the present, Belikov set his eyes on his face, and nodded at him. That one little gesture, though it was meant to be an acknowledgement, almost made Adrian see red. Then, Belikov glanced away, casting his gaze from him, looking as if he didn't even care that Adrian was hurting inside, even though it was all his fault. As if he didn't give a flying fuck about what had happened to the party-boy once he had gotten his woman back.

Something inside him snapped.

He didn't even know what he was doing. He had gone towards Belikov, his fist was raised and –

"Adrian!"

Only one voice could have stopped him.

"Stay out of this, Sage," he said in a low voice. It was filled with a hatred that scared even him. "This is none of your –"

"Please don't give me that." How could she sound so nonchalant? But then Adrian realised that she was quaking inside. He detected the tremor in her voice, the anxiety in her stare.

Belikov, for his part, hadn't even batted an eyelid. He had merely looked calm and collected, as if he had nothing to worry about. Suddenly, Adrian was aware of the audience he had. Abe looked as if he was enjoying this soap-opera drama thing, while Angeline was raising a dubious eyebrow. Sonya Karp, unlike the others, looked unhappy. She was probably reading his aura.

Growling angrily, Adrian turned abruptly on his heel and stalked out of the door, which he had wrestled open. He left the room, desperately needing to get out of the suffocating atmosphere, wanting to just disappear from the curious eyes.

He hoped no one would follow him.

Of course, someone did.

Sydney.

He ignored her. Instead, he had gone towards the side of the house… and then slammed his fist into the brick wall.

Adrian wanted to scream and yell and shout his lungs out. This had to be a joke… no one would be sadistic enough to send the man he hated most back into his life.

But the problem was… Adrian didn't hate Belikov. Much as he wanted to… he didn't. He couldn't even bring himself to hate Rose.

He could feel Sydney's presence behind him, and he waited almost impatiently for her to say something stupid like, "Are you alright?"

But to his surprise, she said nothing. Instead, she merely moved towards him, and after a second's hesitation, she put a gentle hand on his arm. Adrian leaned his forehead against the wall, unexpectedly feeling the urge to cry. But no tears came, and if they did, he certainly wouldn't have let them out.

Sydney's hand stayed there for a few minutes, until her repulsion of vampires took hold and she lifted it away. But she had done her job; Adrian had calmed down. He took a deep breath, and then turned to face her.

And said the stupidest thing ever.

"You're really attractive, you know," Adrian mumbled out. He watched as her eyes grew big, and he felt a random urge to snicker. But then, he was wondering why she looked shocked at all. He had just said the truth.

Her hair looked like spun gold, flowing just past her shoulders like a waterfall. Pale, unblemished skin. Eyes that were glinting in the sunlight like treasures in a chest. She almost looked like a goddess in his befuddled state of mind.

"U-um," she stuttered. He watched in strange, childish glee as her cheeks coloured. A flustered Sydney was cute. "I – I don't… do you want to go inside?"

She looked like she wanted to hit herself after she said that.

"Or not," Sydney amended. "I mean, you probably don't want to – you don't have to – but I –"

"Ah, shut up, Sage," Adrian sighed. "You're too damn beautiful for your own good. It's depressing, really. I mean, hasn't anyone ever told you that before? It's almost as if –"

"Adrian!"

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry," said Adrian, not sounding very sorry at all. Was spirit affecting him? Probably. "Shit… I need a drink."

"You will do no such thing," Sydney scolded, planting her hands on her hips. "Now hurry up, we have to go back."

"Hell no, I'm not staying in the same room with him," Adrian spat. His anger returned with all the force of a cyclone. His previous, light-hearted, I'm-going-a-wee-bit-crazy attitude was gone in an instant.

Sydney looked torn between sympathy and irritation.

Sympathy won.

"Alright, fine," she conceded with a sigh. "Stay out here, go somewhere, I don't really care. Just keep out of trouble."

"Wait, Sage, stay with me," Adrian said, his voice changing to something akin to a whine. "Come on, it's boring by myself."

"How can someone have mood swings so often?" Sydney groaned. She ran a hand through her hair. "No way, I have to go back."

"It won't kill you to skip a meeting," Adrian grumbled. Sydney looked at him in exasperation.

"See you later," she said.

"You two lovebirds done yet?" Abe asked immediately when Sydney returned. She could feel her cheeks going pink.

"We're not –" she said, but then gritted her teeth. Idiotic serpent was trying to drag her down to match his pace. "Yes, we're done," she said stiffly.

She kinda wished that she had accepted Adrian's offer to go off somewhere, especially now that there were a few pairs of amused eyes watching her intently. It was almost as if they were mentally planning on how to play matchmaker.

I was trying to go for Adrian's weird mood swings that occur every few minutes. And when he was all "You're too beautiful for your own good," and stuff, that was spirit making him babble. I know spirit normally affects the darker side of you (at least... I think so), but I think that this is plausible as well.

Reviews would be nice and are welcomed with open arms ;D