Christian invited Lissa to the cinema and they had dinner at a restaurant before going back home. Ozera would have sent Rose a text to tell her not to appear at Lissa's place because he wanted to be alone with his girlfriend, but he didn't because he assumed Hathaway would be staying at hers. He was wrong, and rolled his eyes at her when they got home to find her lying on the couch, wearing the clothes she had taken to change herself at St. Anna's and watching TV.

"Hey." She greeted them. "You are late"

"Don't you have a house, Rose?" Christian asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Oh, you wanted to be…alone." She smiled and Lissa looked at her shaking her head. "Fine, I'll go home." Standing up from the couch she kissed Lissa's cheek. "Call me." and turning to Christian again she smiled. "It's good that at least someone is having fun."

Her tone made Lissa frown but, as her friend left her boyfriend and her alone, she didn't think about it.

"She can be a pain in the ass." Christian pointed out, his hands moving to rest on Lissa's waist. "But I guess life wouldn't be the same without her around here."

His girlfriend laughed, her green eyes moving up to meet his iced blue ones, and her hand rising to cup his cheek.

"You two are really alike." She noted.

"The only thing we have in common is our love for you." He replied, before leaning forward and pressing his lips against hers.

There was not much talk after that. They walked to her room between touches and kisses, and by the time they reached the bed, Lissa's dress was gone, and Christian started kissing his way down her neck, smiling at the giggles that came out of her mouth.

As she walked down the street, Sydney almost dropped the box of cupcakes she was carrying on her left hand as she struggled to make sure her bag didn't fall from her opposite shoulder while holding a cup of coffee on her right hand. She had had to park her Beatle some blocks away, because it had been impossible for her to find any free place next to the Hathaway home, which angered her, because it was late at night –she had just closed the bar-, and she didn't like to wander the streets on her own at such hours.

She had to knock on Rose's door several times before her friend came to open, and when she did, Sydney rolled her eyes at the sight before her. Rose was wearing a combination of black sports-bra and leggings, and had her dark hair pulled up on a ponytail, sweat running down her face.

"It's three in the morning, Rose, are you really training?" She laughed as her friend let her into her house.

"Couldn't sleep." The brunette shook her shoulders as they walked into her living room, and quickly moved to turn off the music she had been listening to. "So, what brings you here?"

Handing her the box of cupcakes, Sydney gave her a smiled.

"I wanted to say thank you."

Rose took the box and her eyes opened widely when she saw the cupcakes that were inside it, each of them with a different kind of frosting.

"God, I adore you, Syd." She smiled, walking to the kitchen to put them on the fridge, determined to eat them for breakfast.

"I should get going." Her friend told her, talking a sip of the coffee she had on her hand.

Rose stopped her when she made to leave, concerned written on her face.

"You sure you don't want to stay? There's no one home and I have two spare rooms."

Sydney shook her head, but Rose hadn't expected any less. They had known each other for over a year, and even if there were many things that Rose didn't know about her –She had always been more open with Eddie –, she had learnt a while ago that she didn't like to rely on others or to look like she needed help, unless she really did.

"My car is down the street, don't worry. I'll be fine."

Rose didn't insist, walking her to the door and waving at her as her friend walked down the street before going back to the living room and turning the music on again. As she started doing push ups, she tried to convince herself once again that she was only worried of not being in shape because of her own ego and self-steam and because Mason had never before been able to kick her ass as he had the previous morning, but deep down she knew that what had hurt her most had been to hear that she was not fit for the job. Dimitri had all but challenged her to be better, and Hathaways never said no to a challenge. Plus, Rose thought, she was determined to kick his ass next time she fought him, even if it was only because of how he had reacted to her kiss. She knew of course that the situation was tricky, with him being the CEO of St. Anna and all that, but there was a part of her that didn't want to give a damn about that.

When she took a break to drink some water her clock told her it was already seven in the morning, and knowing that, high of caffeine as she was, there was no way she was going to sleep, she decided to take a shower. When she walked out of the bathroom after drying and combing her hair, she decided to drink one last cup of coffee and then threw on a clean pair of leggings and a white shirt before putting on her trainers, grabbing a jumper, and walking out of the house. She saw the sun coming out as she drove to St. Anna's.

"You are going to end up blind if you keep staring at that screen." His sister's voice reached him as she walked into his office and Dimitri moved his gaze away from his computer and to her.

He had been reading all the data the agency possessed about Rose Hathaway, still not understanding why a girl who had passed all of her tests with such remarkable marks would have dropped off so suddenly. He knew that the best way to learn would be to ask her, but couldn't bring himself to do so seeing how poorly he had been able to hold himself together the last time he had been alone with her. Had she never asked to be back at St. Anna, things may have gone different, even if he now knew that there was a relevant age gap between them that could have made things complicated, seeing as he was 27 and she was 20. But if she had never requested to go back to being a trainee, she would have remained being a beautiful girl he had once seen on a lift and with whom he'd had a great time at a bar, but now she was technically one of his employees, or at least she would be once she officially finished her studies, and he knew that he couldn't get close to her anymore.

"Well, someone has to work seeing that you won't." He smiled at Karolina, who rolled her eyes at him.

He was teasing her, of course, for he knew that his sister was only late because she had spent the night awake due to Zoya's cries. The two year old child was sick and had had a rough night.

"How's my niece?" Dimitri asked her.

"She was better when I left her with the babysitter and Paul had finally managed to sleep something, thank heaven. He kept asking for his dyadya to take him out, though."

Dimitri sighed, giving his sister a hard stare. He hated not to be able to spend as much time with his family as he wanted due to his work and more than once a day he regretted to have agreed to take the job.

"I will spend some time with him soon. I promise." He assured her and Karolina nodded, turning away to leave. When she reached the door, though, she turned around and asked. "By the way, would you care to explain what the pretty girl from The Golden Lily is doing in our gym?"

Not looking directly at her and making sure his voice didn't flinch or tremble he answered. "She is one of the trainees."

"Oh, Dimka." Karolina laughed but walked out of the room without adding anything else, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

One year ago

"You sure you are alright?" Rose asked Lissa as her best friend all but drowned a whole bottle of water.

They had been swimming in the outdoors pool of Victor Dashkov's manor, and while Rose had excelled at it, Lissa hadn't seemed to be doing well at all. It hadn't been long before she run into the house looking for some refreshment, and Rose had followed her, wanting to make sure she didn't faint, and not willing to stay alone outside with Natalie.

"Yeah." Lissa smiled, her face red due to the burning sun. "I hate getting tired so easily. And I'm never getting a tan."

Rose smiled kindly at her. Unlike Lissa, who sometimes reminded her of a vampire, she didn't need to get a tan. Her father, whomever he had been, had made sure to give her some genes that ensured her perfect dark hair, stunning brown eyes, and a skin that made her look like Princess Jasmine from Aladdin.

"You don't need a tan, Liss, you are perfect." Rose assured her and Lissa smiled but Natalie walked in before she could answer, drops of water falling down her body and to the floor, making little pools on it like Rose had. Not that they cared.

"Hey, Lissa." She smiled, her emerald eyes bright with emotion. "Dad's outside, he's asking for you."

Grabbing another bottle from the fridge, Lissa nodded.

"I'll go right now." She smiled brightly at her and turned to her best friend before following Natalie outside. "Would you mind going to look for Christian? I think he's hiding in his room."

"He better. Natalie's friends don't like him at all."

Lissa rolled her eyes.

"They don't like us either but the house is big, we don't need to talk to them."

"Fine. I'm on it." Hathaway raised her hands in surrender. "But if I find out that he's been watching Netflix while I was forced to endure Natalie talking about how her papa is going to buy her a thousand cats, I swear to God."

Her friend just laughed before exiting the house again and Rose sighed, walking further inside the manor and reaching the staircase. Natalie had arranged their room's to be on the same corridor as hers, one next to the other, on the third floor, and Rose cursed her in silence when she reached the top of the stairs, because she had spent enough time without exercising for a thing as simple as walking up the stairs to tire her. She was so focused on pushing her wet hair away from her face that she didn't see them approaching her until they spoke, and by that time they were close, too close.

"What a sight for sore eyes." Jessie Zeklos smirked at her, moving his hand through his dirty blonde hair.

"Hello, Rose." Greeted Ralf Sarcozy, Jesse's best friend and sidekick, standing right next to his friend. Blocking the corridor, Rose noticed.

She rolled her eyes at him, determined not to be startled by them.

"They are opening the door for the scum now, I see." She spat at them, dimly aware as their eyes moved through her body that she was still wearing nothing but her bikini.

"Bad form, Hathaway, that's no way for a lady to speak." Jesse complained, his eyes brightening, and Rose wondered how she had once found him attractive.

"Get the hell out of my way, Zeklos, or I show you both what this lady can do."

Jesse laughed and Rose moved to stand sideways, ready for any kind of attack, and Ralf raised an eyebrow at her. She was certain she could take them. She was certain she could have, at least, but it had been a long time since she had fought anyone. As she had imagined, they moved forward, and her fist collided with Ralf's throat, depriving him from oxygen and making him fall back. Jesse doubted.

"Did you not hear her?" Christian asked standing behind them, smiling at Rose from across the corridor. "Fuck off."

"You fuck off, Ozera. You think I'm afraid of you?" Jessie replied, and Ralf straightened himself, even if he said nothing, still not being able to breathe properly.

"I think if you don't leave now you will both lose something more than just your pride and the Dashkov's will have to call an ambulance to take you back home." Ozera shook his shoulders. "And once Rose is done breaking every bone in your body, we will both go have a few laughs about how you are nothing but scared little pigs who don't know how to treat a woman."

Surprised, Rose raised an eyebrow at him, half angry at him for praising her in front of others while he didn't in private and half thankful because she knew he meant every word he was saying. Christian just gave her a crocked smile.

"So, that's it." Jessie laughed, looking at Rose. "You are fucking him, whore? Does Lissa know?"

And Rose snapped. One moment she was standing at a safe distance from Jesse and the next was right in front of him, her knee easily finding its way between his legs, hitting hard and making him shrink and fall down. Before he reached the floor, though, Rose grabbed his hair and pushed him back, making him hit his head with the railing. Jesse groaned and protested and Ralf moved, as though he wanted to help him, but Christian pushed him away from Rose, and for a moment Rose's heart skipped, as she saw how Ralf hit the railing and struggled to hold onto it, aware of the empty space behind it. As Ralf steadied himself, Rose wondered if Christian knew that he had almost made a man fall from a third floor. A part of her also wondered if he cared, as she saw the burning rage inside her friend's iced blue eyes.

"Now." She told the two friends. "Are you gonna leave or should I make my statement even more clear?"

They left, not even looking at them twice, and running down the corridor as though the devil itself was after them. And Rose turned to Ozera again. He just shook his shoulders, like they hadn't just gotten into a fight.

"You are nice." She blurted out before she could stop herself, surprise decorating her features.

Christian laughed as they started walking down the staircase.

"I thought I was a pain in the ass." He replied and she nodded in agreement.

"Sadly for us both, I guess you are my pain in the ass for now."

Rose made a face at him, but deep down, they both knew that she was happy she had him on her corner, and that she would be at his if needed be. It was curious, Rose thought as they finally managed to get to the lowest floor and walked out to the garden, how Lissa had managed to unite them.

Rose felt like dying by the time she left St. Anna and promised herself that she would never ever go training after not getting enough, if any, sleep. Truth be told, she would have stayed longer, or would have waited for Mason or Eddie to arrive at least, even if she wasn't sure that her friends would be out of duty that day, if Karolina Belikova hadn't been lurking around. She hadn't noticed that Dimitri's sister was at the gym at first, not until she had heard some of the youngest trainees whispering as she walked around. It was no wonder why they were so struck by the Russian's presence, because even as she wore some loose sweatpants and a tank top, she looked stunning. Rose wondered how that was even possible. She also wondered how her braid managed to stay perfect and in place as she worked out. Rose had noticed she had been staring when Karolina turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow, and she had had to look away quickly. She could have sworn that she heard Dimitri's sister giggle, but then again, she couldn't be sure. The whole situation was enough to make her uncomfortable, especially since she didn't know if Karolina was looking at her because she remembered her from the Golden Lily or because Dimitri had told her about their kiss.

Get a grip, Rose. A voice screamed in the back of her mind and, as she turned her car to enter Lissa's street, she decided that she'd figure things out some other time. She parked in front of the house and walked out leaving her sport's bag inside the car.

"Hey, Liss." She greeted as soon as she walked into the house, closing the front door behind her.

As soon as she walked into the living room, though, she froze. Lissa was sitting on the couch, drinking from a cup of tea and laughing, her vaporous blue dress making her look like a golden mermaid, and next to her, Adrian Ivashkov turned to look at Rose as she stopped under the doorframe. His brown hair still looked unkept and his clothes still gave away his station, even if this time, instead of the long coat he had worn outside the Dashkov manor, he wore nothing but a dark pair of jeans and a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. Some of its buttons were unbuttoned, revealing the skin of his chest.

"Hello again, little warrior." He gave her a smile so bright it could have made the sun above feel self-conscious.

"You already know each other?" Lissa asked, looking from Adrian to Rose, her emerald eyes asking her friend a silent question and Rose nodded.

"Yeah, we met at Natalie's party." She nodded, finally taking her eyes from the smirking Ivashkov and to her best friend. "What the hell is he doing here anyway?"

One year ago

Rose didn't see Jesse or Ralf again until the day they left, almost a week after the incident with them. Lissa had been surprised to hear that they had gone after Rose when Christian and she had told her but, surprisingly because she was against any kind of violence, she was proud that they had defend themselves and one another.

The three of them were having lunch with Natalie and her father on the garden, under an awning to protect them from the sun, and Natalie was telling them about how she was going to start working at a fashion company that fall, just for fun of course because she didn't really need to work, but she wanted to learn everything she could about that world, when they heard the explosion, and turned in alarm, as a cloud of fire and smoke rose to the skies from the front side of the house.

"Dear lord!" Natalie exclaimed.

"What was that?" Lissa's hands found Christian's and he put his arms around her as all of them stood and all but run to see what had happened.

When they reached the front gate, they found that there was a car burning at the entrance, and not far away from it, Jesse, Ralf, and some of the members of the stuff, backed away from it quickly, horror painted on their faces.

"What happened?" Victor Dashkov demanded, and one of his guardians approached him so he could not walk closer to the burning car.

"We don't now, sir. It just exploded. If the boys had been anywhere closer to it…They weren't, thankfully."

As everyone started moving, trying to fix the mess, Natalie clang to Lissa, taking her from Christian and Rose eyed Ozera like he had just murdered her cat. A part of her was telling her that she was nuts for thinking that he had anything to do with it, but she knew better than not to trust her gut.

"Are you insane?" She whispered at him as they were taken inside the manor by some guardians.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." He just said and Rose punched his arm slightly. "Ouch. Okay. No, I'm not insane, I had it controlled so they wouldn't be inside of the car."

Her eyes opened widely in disbelieve upon hearing his confession. Because hitting a guy to protect his friends was one thing, and pissing off the posh girls from school to defend Lissa was another, but blowing a car near people who could have gotten hurt was crossing a line.

"How did you even do it?" She was still whispering, not wanting anyone to hear them.

"My aunt was in the army, remember? I know some things."

He was smiling. Smiling like it was nothing serious, like it couldn't have cost someone his life. And Rose wanted to believe that he had in truth known what he was doing at all times and that he knew they'd be no casualties, only wanting to give Jessie and Ralf a scare.

"I promise you, Rose, they are fine." Christian shook his shoulders. "They have no burn marks, right?"

Hathaway moved a hand through her hair, shaking her head.

"You are insane, Pyro, you really are."

He just laughed and Rose rolled her eyes at him, containing a smile.