Thanks to all of you who reviewed my little chapter... I hope this one makes up for it :)

My alarm rang at 3:05pm and I flipped over and smacked the snooze button. I was so tired. More tired than when I fell asleep the night before. How is that possible?

5 minutes pass and my alarm goes off again. I moaned and hit snooze one more time. Maybe in 5 minutes I will be awake. Wrong.

Another 5 minutes passed and if I don't get up now I will be late to practice. Its 3:15 and practice starts at 3:30. Shower or no shower? I gave my armpit a sniff, and decided on a shower. So what if my hair is wet - I will just tie it back.

After the fastest shower in history - 10 minutes - I got dressed as fast as possible, but still managed to be 3 minutes late. Its 3:33 and I hope that Dimitri is late too. I was sort of right: Dimitri wasn't there yet, but I was still late because Alberta was there. I forgot she was supposed to supervise our trainings. And she looked TIRED.

My entrance seemed to jerk her out of a zombie sleep and she mumbled a quiet "Morning," to me. I walked over, feeling considerably more awake then her, and placed my bag on the ground next to her.

"Morning, do you know where Dimitri is? He's usually here way before me,"

"I don't know anything other than that you guys do this way too early."

"Well we used to meet at 4:30, but it was too short to actually get into any serious practice when classes started at 6 and we had to stop by 5 so we could change and have breakfast, so we started meeting earlier and earlier. Right now it's 3:30, but in a month it might be 3."

"3?! This is insane…" She was obviously not a morning person (or late afternoon person, depending on how you see it).

The gym doors opened and I heard Dimitri's voice and turned with a smile on my face. "Sorry I'm late, I kept hitting the snooze button and my bed felt too good to get out of it. I'm ready though. Rose, want to start our laps?" Dimitri said, half running in and giving Alberta a morning nod. Alberta returned the nod but didn't move from her position on the wall.

"You guys run this early?"

"Yea, it's a good warm up and increases our endurance. 15 laps, and then we spar," Dimitri answered her as we started our stretches. He seemed oddly awake and hyper especially when Alberta was so worn out and I was semi-tired. "You going to join us?"

"No thanks, I'll wait here for you after your laps. I just need a few more minutes to wake up and then I can join in on the spar," She said as she sank to the floor and pulled her knees up to her face. I think she was going to fall asleep.

"Let's go," Dimitri said, leading us outside.

As soon as the gym doors closed behind us, Dimitri turned around and pushed me up against the door. He gave me a look of pure mischief before he crushed his lips to mine. I eagerly returned the favor.

"Good morning sunshine. I've missed you… and I had a great dream last night - I never wanted it to end. Only when I realized I would be seeing the real you soon was I able to wake up," Dimitri pulled back, eyes still excited.

"Hold on there tiger, I'm looking forward to kicking Alberta's ass. We can do this later," I said, then quickly placed a peck on his lips and disentangled us.

Dimitri gave a little growl and followed me to the track, running his hand through my hair.

"Lets race," he suggested, and walked to stand at the starting mark.

"You'll win, but sure," I took up the challenge and stood next to him and took a deep breath.

"On your mark, get set,"

"GO!" I screamed, and took off like a rocket. I think I stunned Dimitri, he wasn't expecting me to take off like that, but in no time he matched my pace. I pushed myself harder, but he still managed to keep up with me. He never passed me though, and after 4 laps he decided to start a conversation.

"So when you said 'we can do this later,' when exactly were you referring to? I'm just curious, because I don't see how we can do anything unless you want to go somewhere. And you know that's not going to happen."

"I don't know 100% Dimitri. We will find something. Maybe we can hang out after dinner or something? You can tutor me and help me with homework," I suggested, playfully poking at him in the side.

"Hmm…" he said, then lapsed back into silence.

The last lap came up pretty quickly and I think Dimitri was distracted by whatever he was thinking about to notice. I picked up the pace only slightly, but he noticed that. He snapped out of it and matched my pace again.

"Think you can beat me?" he teased.

I didn't answer, but I kicked it up even higher and was going faster than I have ever tried to go before. My eyes were watering in the cold air, it was still early April, and the finish line was in sight. I didn't know if I was winning or not, but I felt so good crossing that line going at that speed. I was so tired from that exertion that I collapsed on the grass on the side of the track. 2 seconds later, Dimitri joined me.

"Where the hell did that come from?! How did you do that?" he seemed genuinely surprised. Did that mean I won?

"I don't… know… tired…" I huffed out between taking big gulps of air. "Win?"

"Yea you won! You left me behind in the dust for god's sake!" then he started laughing.

"What do I get for winning?" I was getting my head back. I was so excited for winning.

"You get to try again tomorrow, but be warned that it won't be so easy next time."

"Damn," then I laughed with him.

"Time for you to kick Alberta's ass?"

"Hells yeas!" I jumped up and skipped-ran to the gym. Kind of like I was dancing through flowers; I was really excited to show Alberta what I was worth. Dimitri was with me the whole way, not in any way skipping, and running a purely manly run, and came in with me into the gym.

Alberta was still where we had left her before, but this time she was obviously asleep.

"Poor Alberta. She was up for over 48 hours and then for her to wake up to do this… let's let her sleep a little longer. Why don't we start?" Dimitri asked, turning to me and motioning to move to the center of the gym to begin our sparring.

"Sure, if you can handle me," I teased a little, then led the way over, shaking my butt the way I know he likes it.

He laughed behind me and caught me up in his arms and ran us to the center. I laughed as he dropped me on the ground and warned, "Never turn your back on a threat."

"Thanks for the warning, I'll know for next time," and with that we started.

Since he had dropped me onto the ground I had a distinct starting disadvantage. I twisted my body and spun my leg at his shins, but he easily jumped over them and dodged my attack. I leapt up and sent punch after punch at him, but he either blocked it with his forearm, or simply dodged it with a sidestep.

His attacks weren't landing either though; every punch or sideswipe was avoided and every kick was deflected. After a few minutes of nothing happening, I decided to practice a new move: brute force.

I sent a kick at his chest and he spun around to avoid it, but using the momentum of my kick, I launched my whole body at his turned back. The collision knocked both of our breaths out as we landed with a thud on the floor mats. Dimitri's face was on the floor and I was literally lying on my stomach on his back.

"Pinned ya! Never turn your back on a threat!" I cheered, pulling his hair away from my face.

"Yeah yeah, congratulations. What would you do next?" He asked, turning his neck so at least he wasn't speaking into the floor.

"I would take my stake, and get your heart from the back," I explained, "It might be harder because of the shoulder blade, but if it were life or death, I could get through it."

"Good answer. Ready for round two?"

"You know I am!" I started to spring up, but I had only pushed my upper body off of him when he suddenly flipped over underneath me and knocked me to the side. My back collided with the floor and Dimitri's laughing face appeared above me.

"Don't lower your guard Roza!"

"But you said to start again! That was a cheap shot Dimi-"

I couldn't finish my sentence because Dimitri had lowered his lips to mine in the softest kiss. His hands came up and framed my face and my arms wrapped around his neck and pulled him closer. He had never kissed me like this, it was so slow and sweet and gentle that it tugged at a piece of my heart. Usually, he is torn up inside for acting on his feelings that it shows through the kiss, but this time, he seemed to know that everything was ok and it was a kiss of pure happiness.

"Ok, now I'm ready. Shall we?" Dimitri said after he pulled away and placed a kiss on my forehead.

I didn't answer, just looked at him. He stayed where he was too and gazed down at me. It was one of those Kodak moments: two people holding each other and looking at each other with love. Oblivious to the outside world. The only thing that mattered was the one in your arms. Dimitri snaked his arms around my back and gave me a gentle hug as I wrapped my arms around his waist.

"HEY! You guys aren't making this easy you know! What happened to the training?! GET OFF HER GUARDIAN BELIKOV!" Alberta screeched and raced over to us, practically pushing Dimitri over and taking him away from me.

"My apologies. Rose had won the first round and you may have the second one. Good luck to both of you," Dimitri said as he stood up and brushed himself off. He didn't meet Alberta's eyes and looked like a puppy that got in trouble with his owner. Why did he have to be so damn cute? I smiled over at him, but he was already walking over to the side to watch our spar.

"Get up Hathaway."

"Yes Mádame," I said in a bad French accent. I earned a smile from Dimitri, but nothing from Alberta. Ok, I was ready to get her. She had given me enough headaches over the years and I couldn't believe I was allowed to hit her now.

She made the first move, going straight for my stomach with a kick, but I stepped aside and spun down with my leg sticking out to try to knock her down from below. That didn't get her though; she's not the schools Head Guardian for nothing. In the same move that helped her dodge my kick, she hit me on the back of the head and made me see stars. Not allowing that to faze me, I looked past the pain and aimed a hit on the side of her face.

She obviously thought her hit had done me in, so she was not expecting such a quick return attack. I hit her right in the temple and she staggered back. Taking advantage of her stumble, I kicked her chest and sent her flying to the floor. I jumped on her, but she had managed to roll away the second before I landed. She was to my right now, and she looked fierce.

She threw her arm against my side and I hit the floor too. I sensed her next attack and just as she was about to land on me to deliver the 'stab attack,' I curled my legs up and pushed against her chest which caused her to fall back to the floor. My adrenaline was pulsing and my heart was beating so fast that I felt like I was in hyper drive. In the same second she hit the floor, I had jumped up and landed on her chest. I simply pointed to her heart.

"Dead."