Rose. She was smirking slightly, and once I'd pushed myself up and righted myself, I understood why.
Unlike the rest of the guardians, who were all wearing different types of sporting clothes, Rose was wearing the same clothes at Hans, the most noticeable of which was the leather jacket with the royal crest on. It became clear that Rose was the 'she' everyone had been talking about. She ran the training for court guardians. Which I suppose explained why everyone was so afraid.
Two things suddenly became very clear. The first was that Rose now owned me from 6-8am every morning, perhaps even longer. A very pissed off Rose, I would imagine, after Tasha's stunt at the Academy, and then the one I pulled - leaving her again. I was on thin ice at Court anyway; she could have me do whatever she wanted me to do, and I couldn't complain.
The second thing? Rose clearly knew this too. And was very pleased about it.
I laughed nervously, and ran a hand through my hair. She was still smirking, but it was a condescending smirk, as if she was waiting for me to stop being so childish.
"If you boys are done play wrestling, I suppose it would be apt if you did some real fighting for the rest of your allotted time. Hans, pair everyone up please?"
Hans started grabbing people by the shoulders and shoving them together roughly. The pairs of people just followed his shove without quarrel. When he got to me, Rose raised a hand, and he moved on immediately. I tried to hide the panic in my eyes as I stepped towards her. She was going to be my partner? She looked amused at my apparently obvious display of fear, however, showing my attempts at masking it had failed.
"Don't panic, Dimitri. I won't hurt you too bad." She smirked, her voice condescending and cold.
I smiled warily, avoiding her eyes. Once everyone was in pairs, Hans stepped back.
"Now," Rose said loudly, "I want you to do all your fighting without stakes today. Although you should always keep one on your person, if somehow you lose your stake in a fight you need to know how to deal without one."
"Number yourselves 1 and 2. Number 1, you're attacking, number 2, you're defending." She clapped her hands, and everyone sprung into action immediately.
She moved slowly until she was only a few inches from my face, and whispered harshly, "I'm number one."
I backed off, and nodded, dropping into a defensive stance. I was on high alert; I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of beating the crap out of me - knowing her, she'd enjoy it far too much. So when she swung a hand out to my head, I grabbed her wrist and pushed it away. When she swung her leg around I smacked it down with my palm, hard.
I tried not to think about how it was Rose, and pictured the burly man from earlier being the one who was attacking me. It made everything seem clearer; I wasn't fighting the girl of my dreams, I was fighting a 7ft tall asshole with a god complex.
She was fast - at least 3 moves a second I'd say - which made her pretty hard to keep track of. Still, I tried my best, and after a while it stopped being an exercise, and became an actual fight, a battle for superiority. I stopped just trying to defend, and started to fight back, until she and I were simply caught up in a brawl. I could no longer pretend she was the asshole from earlier; all her moves were familiar, and felt like Rose. I saw the other guards start to stop and gather round out of the corner of my eye, but could hardly spare any attention for them. As always, she commanded my whole attention.
She'd swing out a kick that was stronger than it needed to be for an exercise, and in truth, I was doing the same. It was as if we were trying to hurt each other as much as possible in the short time we were allowed together. Punch, kick, block, faster and harder, over, and over, and over.
It felt like a routine, like back in the old days, neither of us winning or losing. That is, until Rose snapped. She groaned loudly, almost like a snarl, and pulled a stake out of her leather jacket, obviously frustrated by the back and forth. Quicker than I would have thought possible, she had it pinned right above my heart. My hand flew out to catch it, and ended up folded over hers; if I hadn't moved fast enough, I don't know if she would have stabbed me or not..
The cool metal of the stake pressed against my chest seemed to freeze the moment in time. We were both breathing hard, and she was flushed in the face. I hadn't moved my hand yet, and truth be told, I didn't want to. My heart was beating fast, but I felt like that was the only part of me that was moving.
I really, really want to kiss her.
I can't tell you how long we stood there, inches apart and breathing hard. It wasn't until we noticed that all the other guards had stopped, and were stood in a circle watching us, that we stepped hastily apart.
"Get back to work!" Rose commanded loudly, before turning to me and gesturing towards Hans. "Work with him." She said breathily, her eyes avoiding me, before stalking away.
The rest of the training passed uneventfully, and then we were ushered up to shower. There was a lot of whispering between the other guardians - apparently, Rose never fought with the a guardian in training before. I received a few inquiries as to how I knew 'Guardian Hathaway', but no one was rude about it, and no one persisted when I gave them a short, nondescript answer. Except for the man from earlier.
"So that's why you got to skip induction training. Banging the teacher, are you? I'll let you in on a secret, Belikov, from the looks of her right hook, I don't think she's that into you." The man taunted with an ugly smirk as he packed his clothes into his locker.
I sighed, before closing my locker to head out the door. "Some of us don't need to sleep our way into the programme. Some of us are just that good." I spoke bluntly, but was careful not to taint my voice with the malice I felt. I didn't want to stoop to his level.
"I didn't sleep with Hathaway to get in here!" He said indignantly, slamming his locker door shut.
"Now, now, I did not say that, did I?" I said, speaking as though I was talking to a child in the middle of a tantrum.
I walked closer to him a little, under the pretense of picking up my bottle. In truth, I just wanted him to know I wasn't scared of him, not even a little.
"Besides," I said with a smirk up at him, before turning on my heel and walking out the room, "how unlikely does that sound?" I swung the door open and left, the rest of the guys laughing behind me.
On the walk out, I saw Rose standing on the edge of the field. Hans wasn't there anymore - in fact, there was no one around. I considered going over to speak to her, but upon a quick glance at my watch, I realised I was late to meet Tatiana for my assignments for the day. So I kept my head down, and my feet quick. Best not to tempt fate.
It was then that I remembered the second half of my deal. I had to train the newly inducted guardian recruits for Court. And I was to have a partner. I drew my eyes away and walked in the direction of Tatiana's chambers. Who the hell were they going to partner me with?
Upon arrival, I recognised some of the guards outside the door as some that were present during the training session. I thought briefly as to how they had got up here so quickly, and decided I should probably spend less time participating in locker room talk, and more time focussing on work, if I was to survive here.
The guards opened the doors for me, which was unexpected. Like I was a guest, not a disgraced guardian. Entering cautiously, I looked up at the orate ceiling and eyed the extravagant furniture, and was so entranced by them, I almost missed Tatiana, sat along the left side of the room.
"Hello Dimitri." She said pleasantly, and she and her assistant walked forward. I looked at the assistant, remembering her from my court hearing and seeing she still seemed shy and a little scared - the complete opposite to Tatiana. I began to wonder how on earth she survived such long periods by the Queen's side, but my train of thought was cut off by Tatiana's commanding voice.
"Fiona here will be your partner for training the new recruits." Tatiana said, seeming slightly smug. The pretty, timid girl nodded slightly, eyes flicking from Tatiana to myself in quick succession.
"What?" I stuttered, before I could stop myself. Neither the girl nor Tatiana looks perturbed by my response - maybe they too saw how ludicrous this sounds. The girl was small, and although not too skinny, hardly muscular. She looks like a good kick in the stomach would snap her in two, and frankly, I can't imagine her knowing all too much about fighting.
"You can fight?" I said, trying to mask my surprise with a genuine interest in her life. Maybe she'll think I'm being charming. She seemed to misinterpret this as some attempt at flirting - or maybe she's just so nervous about speaking to people - as she blushes a deep pink and her eyes flick nervously to Tatiana.
"A little." She said simply, before raising a surprisingly steady hand. "Hi," she says sweetly, "I'm Fiona."
Fiona was plain, but not bad looking. In fairness, my experience with girls was pretty much limited to Rose, and not everyone had such good genetics. I'd met Guardian Hathaway - I knew where Rose got her looks from.
"Dimitri." I said with a smile; the first smile that wasn't entirely fake in a few days. She seems sweet and kind, and almost like a china doll that could break any minute. She's the exact opposite of Rose.
Maybe that's what you need...
Dragging my thoughts away from the comparisons between Rose and Fiona, I turned back to Tatiana.
"When do we start?" I asked, all business now.
"Now, Belikov. The new recruits are waiting in the gym." Upon finishing the sentence, Tatiana turned with a flourish of robes, and headed towards the entrance to her quarters. "Look after him, Miss Magdalin."
Fiona blushed again, and lowered her gaze. She offered no reply, which made me laugh slightly.
"Come on." I offered politely after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence after the door slammed shut. "Lets go meet the newbies."
Fiona followed by my side all the way down to the gym, and offered light murmurs or nods of her head to all the none committal remarks I made about the castle and the staff. Although she didn't speak much, I found myself a little uneasy about her. It felt like the calm before the storm, somehow. As if at any moment, she was going to turn around and bite my head off. Maybe I've spent too much time with Rose... I thought. Realising how stupid it was to be so scared of such a small little creature, I held open the door to the gym for her and smiled, albeit awkwardly.
Following into after her, I saw a large groups of recruits, gathered at the back of the hall in a clump. A few are stretching, but most were gathered at the back and talking animatedly amongst themselves. I took a moment to stand there, in silence, and look them over a few times. Out of the group, most of the recruits look to be in decent shape, which is always good. In truth, I wasn't sure who we'd be working with, and it was a small relief to know I wouldn't not training people from scratch.
A few students looked my way, and hastily dropped what they were holding and smartened themselves up. Some were too lost in their conversations to notice. I just stood there, hands clasped tight behind my back, and watched as a ripple of realisation went through the crowd. Soon they were all stood facing me, in complete silence.
I raised my eyebrows, and made the sweep of my eyes over each recruit painfully obvious. A few stared back defiantly, others squirmed uncomfortably under my gaze. I'm certain I heard one boy actually whimper.
"The idea that most of you will become guardians is misconceived." I said, my voice loud in the quiet room, and - if I do say it myself - authoritative. "Some will switch to guard training, and there is no shame in that. Some will switch to surveillance or even.." I pause with a sniff, "Maintenance." A few of the larger boys scoffed at that, which earned them a hard glare.
"It's going to be hard. You're going to despise every inch of my being for the next six weeks, and I'm not going to care. This isn't the Academy. You're no longer competing with each other." I paused.
"You're fighting Strigoi."
There was a murmur through the crowd; some worried, some excited. I stood still until it had finished, and once there was silence again, a tall boy near the front raised a tentative hand. I nodded to let him know he has permission to speak.
"So, it's.. um, it's true?" He said, clearly a little nervous, but valiantly trying not to show it. His eyes were unsteady as they tried to meet mine, but I wondered if this was a reaction to the topic he was talking about, or me.
"Is what true?" I said, the authority in my voice replaced by genuine curiosity. I began to wonder if he was talking, as the other guardians had in the changing room, about my relationship with Rose...
"That there was a Strigoi attack on Court." He murmured, clearly a little shocked that I didn't know what he was talking about. Ahh...
My eyebrows rose and fell in realisation. I understood now. Clearly, Tatiana had made an attempt to cover up the attack, or at least change the story to one that would cause less panic. A poor attempt at that - clearly rumours were circulating; people knew about the attack anyway.
My silence had not gone un-noticed, and students were beginning to look uncomfortable, or worried. Before I had chance to speak, a small voice pipe up from behind me.
"Yes." Fiona said, a little high pitched and clearly uncomfortable being under the scrutiny of 20 or so gazes.
The murmur went through again, this time slightly louder. Fiona's gaze dropped to the floor as she spoke next.
"Yes, there was an attack." Her voice was calm, but looking at the floor and fiddling with her hands wasn't putting the students at ease.
I clapped my hands, the slapping noise reverberating around the gym. There was silence straight away, and nervous eyes flickered up to watch me.
"It's clear that none of you know exactly what happened that day. In truth, I'm not even certain myself. But it's imperative that you know at least the basics. You cannot defend people against what you don't understand."
I paused. Going through this was not something I had wanted to do, and even though I knew it was important, I didn't want to have to relive the memories.
"The Strigoi that attacked were newborns. Strigoi that have only recently turned. At that point, they don't understand their own strength, and it was clear that no one had bothered to teach them. Never the less, they were still overpowering us, due to their massive numbers, and the surprise of their attack. We weren't prepared.
"It was.. brutal. And we lost many lives. And it was clearly orchestrated by someone out to get the Queen and the Moroi."
I took another breath, knowing this was what would be most important.
"The only reason we survived as we did, was Moroi magic."
There was an small intake of breath from a few of the female guards, and many looked confused.
"But Moroi don't use their magic that way." The boy said, seeming baffled by the idea of Moroi fighting. In truth, I could see why. When being trained as a guardian, we are almost lead to believe Moroi are weak, and cannot defend themselves. Although not true, it's ingrained into our mind. We're taught to put them first over everything, even our own lives. The idea of Tasha fighting still seemed mad to me.
"Well, they did that day. The bravest Moroi I'd ever seen." I sighed again. Their faces were as conflicted as I felt. An advantage over the Strigoi was something we looked for everywhere, and now that we had one, we were supposed to let it sit there and do nothing?
"I'm telling you this because the Strigoi will come for them. Magic wielding Moroi were a danger to them originally, but now whoever started this knows they'll use it to fight against him, they are a bigger risk than ever."
"The Strigoi will come here, and they will try to murder or capture our Moroi. And they wont hesitate to kill you to do it." I paced over to a wooden crate, picked it up, and dropped it at the feet of the closest recruit. "Unless you defend yourself."
Kicking it open, there were stakes, lined up neatly in a row like toy soldiers. The recruit in front of me made a grab down, and soon, everyone followed. It wasn't clear whether they'd held one before or not until I saw a girl holding one the wrong way round. I sighed, and Fiona, following my gaze, giggled.
I had almost forgotten she was there throughout my speech. Watching her from the corner of my eye, I noticed how nervous the stakes seemed to make her. I could understand why, maybe. She probably hadn't been around them much, and I attributed her nerves to the possibility of an accident happening.
The rest of the session passed almost uneventfully. A young recruit almost stabbed himself in the eye with his own stake trying to be clever, and as the lesson went on, Fiona's nerves seemed to increase, to the point at which I was almost tempted to cut the lesson short. After I had dismissed the recruits, I went over to speak to her.
"Are you alright?" I asked, trying to sound concerned and not just simply curious. She had been facing away from me, and as she turned, I saw her try to calm her facial expression.
"Fine." She answered, her voice a little rough, but convincing.
"Are you sure?" I asked, taking a step forward. She was so small, so fragile. She reminded me of my sisters; not because they were weak or scared, but because in my eyes, both needed protecting for one reason or another. It was something I'd never really had to deal with with Rose.
Fiona nodded, and looked up at me. I became more aware of our proximity, wondering if it was her or I that was moving closer. I didn't have long to ponder it though, before the door of the gym swung open.
"Oh" said a voice from the door, "Sorry, forgot it was date night."
Rose.
I moved back from Fiona so fast that the poor girl looked terrified. "Rose." I greeted cooly, not daring myself to raise my eyes from Fiona's and look into hers.
"No, don't mind me." She said, faux cheerful as she walked further into the room and unceremoniously dumped her bag by the mat. Chancing a glance up, I saw her glaring daggers at a nervous looking Fiona. Rose's eyes trailed up and down Fiona, almost as if she was assessing her as a threat, and Fiona shifted uncomfortably under her gaze. I felt bad for the poor girl. Those who weren't used to dealing with Rose usually had a problem with that glare.
"We were just leaving." I said bluntly, drawing her attention away from the poor girl. Rose's eyes flickered to mine, the narrowing of her eyes barely relaxing before it was back in full force. Rose cocked an eyebrow, and nodded towards the door.
"Right you are, comrade." She said, her voice still with the same fake cheer. It made me uncomfortable to hear it, and I couldn't get out of the room faster.
Me and Fiona went our separate ways then, the atmosphere awkward as we departed. It didn't cross my mind until later that evening - in truth, nothing but Rose crossed my mind for a good few hours - that maybe Fiona was offended by how I'd almost shoved her out of the room as soon as Rose appeared. It had been for her own good, granted...
I fell into a less than easy sleep at around 11, and for some reason, couldn't shake the thoughts of Fiona and Rose. In the haze between sleeping and awake, I compared the two of them,thinking of all their pros and cons. By the next morning, I had a headache, bags under my eyes, and absolutely no idea what was going on in either of their heads. Or, in fact, my own.
I didn't make it down to breakfast - even though I desperately wanted to. Before I'd even fully descended the stairs, I was flung flush against the wall of the staircase.
"Rose, what the hell?" I breathed, the wind knocked out of me. I had a firm hold on her waist, and her hands were across my shoulders - the position was compromising, but she held the power here. I was trapped. Not that I was complaining, however.
"Calm yourself Comrade, I'm just here for a friendly chat." She spoke quietly, like a mother would to a petulant child. Her eyes sparkled with mischief, but underneath it, I saw something a little different.
"What is it, Rose?" I asked, my curiosity spiked. I tried to shift but she held me firm, before leaning in to whisper in my ear.
This was far past compromising. This was dangerous ground - the last time I was here, it didn't end well. I froze still, afraid to breath unless I did something I didn't want - or she didn't want. My hands on her hips gripped harder subconsciously, and I felt her breath hitch.
"Stay away from Fiona, Dimitri. She's trouble." Rose breathed, her words firm even without volume.
As she stepped away, it took me a while to process what she had said. "Wait, what?" I said, incredulous. "You can't weigh in on the women I do and do not speak to!" I pushed myself off the wall, and moved to follow her.
"I just get a bad feeling around her Dimitri." Rose said, as if it were the most logical thing in the world.
"God, you're being ridiculous, Roza. That girl's like a kitten, or a butterfly. She couldn't hurt anyone." I sighed, running a hand through my hair. A part of me wondered if Rose was jealous, or if she just wanted to make my life as miserable as possible.
"I'm not going to stay away from her just because you don't like her, Rose." I said defiantly. In truth, I hadn't actually planned on seeing Fiona more than I had to, with training and the like, but now I felt like proclaiming my undying love for her in the middle of the dining hall, if only to see Rose's reaction.
If she was jealous, it meant she cared.
"Dimitri.." Rose began, before pausing, rolling her eyes, and stopping herself. "You know what, fine. She'll bore you in a week, tops." She smiled an evil, smug smile, flipped her long hair over her shoulders, and continued down the stairs.
"I'll save you some pancakes, Comrade."
