Thanks for all the support and condolences you gave. It means a lot to me. :)

Here's the twelfth chapter for all of you! ;)

Credits go to the fabulous and gorgeous Richelle Mead. :)

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CHAPTER 12: RULE: VIOLATED

"Comrade…" I started; just as the same time he spoke up.

"Rose…"

We both looked at each other. I smiled at him; he half-smiled at me.

"You go first." I told him as he started the car's engine. He nodded.

"I just wanted to ask you a question." He said as he was backing up the car away from the parking lot.

"About what?" I inquired. Now what question would Dimitri want to suddenly ask and why only now?

"About what happened earlier back in the café." His guards were down, trust me. It was rare to hear Dimitri saying little phrases – at least the Dimitri before didn't do that a lot. Or wait, scratch it. He never did. He was blunt and straight to the point.

Discovering a new Dimitri might be a good thing, but, oh heck, I miss the man I loved. I love and always will love.

"Substantiate." Right. His idea was vague and very broad. Too shallow, in short.

"Before Tasha came," He said, looking straight. "You said you had special feelings for me."

It was obvious that he didn't want to say 'you said you're in love with me.' That kind of blew my hope away. The hope that even though 'Dimitri' may never come back, maybe this new man would learn to fall for me eventually. God knows how much I want him – no matter who or what he is. But, the former was a lot better.

"It wasn't a lie." I confessed.

"Do tell me the history." He sounded just like an ancient person coming from year nineteen-forgotten.

"I loved you. You loved me. But we never acted on our feelings." I was direct to the point. I figured there was no use of beating around the bush. Not at a time like this.

"How is that possible?" He asked as we took a turn.

"You said it isn't only because of the age difference and the entire teacher–student thing. It was because we will both become Lissa's Guardians and you needed to dedicate your life to her. Your exact words were: If I let myself love you, I won't throw myself in front of her. I'll throw myself in front of you." As I reminisced that moment, I smiled. God, how I miss the feeling of his arms around mine outside combat practices.

He again had that thoughtful look on his face. I must admit, a naïve Dimitri was adorable. Well, at least for me. He was probably thinking of something to say, so I let him be. It wasn't until the car came to a halt after a minute, because the stoplight turned from green to red, that I spoke.

"You look better with your guards down." I said, not daring to look at his eyes.

"Oh really?" When he said that, I couldn't help myself but to look at his gorgeous features.

Damn. He was doing that one–eyebrow raised thing again. An ability I wasn't gifted to do. But, I wish I could. I attempted to do it at one of our practices, before the attack, of course, but it only earned me a mixed smirking and grinning Dimitri. My muscles weren't too obedient – no matter how much I concentrated and tried my hardest.

"I really don't get how you do that whole eyebrow–raising thing." I said, changing the topic. "I mean, you tried me before, but you failed."

He gave one of those rare full smiles. Alright, that was it. I was ready to die even though he didn't remember exactly who I was.

"I failed or you failed?" He mocked as we drove again.

"Oh, shut up! If you tried teaching me harder, then maybe I would have succeeded." It was a 'fake' retorting act. I knew he knew it.

Well, I hope so.

"You have a short temper, Rose. I'm afraid your baby would get it from you." He said.

And there was that painful feeling again. Ouch. 'Your baby' coming from the lips of the baby's father is like being slowly stabbed.

"About that, Adrian is- - -" I decided to confess to him, but he stopped me.

"Your personal life is none of my business." He said, sight set straight on the road.

I snuggled closer to the door. I didn't know what to reply. Damn him. I was loathing Dimitri for cutting me off. He seriously didn't know what the hell timing is. I mean, I was about to explain about Adrian not being the father, but I stopped with 'Adrian is…" Damn.

"I'm a little disappointed in you, you know?" He spoke up after not getting any reply from me.

I averted my gaze from the road to him and gave him a quizzical look. "Is that so? How come you never showed it?"

"I have my self–control," was his simple answer.

"And what would be the reason for your disappointment?" I teased to lighten up the mood. Having a tense mood at that moment didn't seem to be too nice.

"You're eighteen and you got knocked up by a guy like Adrian Ivashkov." His answer somewhat made me think he was jealous. Tactlessness came over and I blurted out my thoughts.

"Are you jealous?"

"Do you think I should be?" Oh, here goes the answer a question with another question portion.

"Well, answer the question with a real answer and not another question. Are you or are you not?"

He grinned as he took a turn to go to a gasoline station. "What do you think?"

Before I could give out a reply, an employee who was obviously older than Dimitri, but shorter, came over to the car we were using. Somewhat, I felt as if using the term 'our' car sounded wrong. Technically and truly, it wasn't. Nope. Not even close.

"Full tank, please." Dimitri said as he handed the employee, whose nametag read 'Denis,' a credit card.

"I'd take that as a yes." I joked once Denis was out of sight.

"Wrong answer." He said just as he turned to face me. "I'm only disappointed because it's Adrian Ivashkov. I know you two are close and all that, but - - -" Wait, how the hell did he know?!

"How sure are you that the two of us are close?" I gave him a suspicious look.

He gave a half–smile again. "You asked me to guard Princess Dragomir earlier and when classes ended, he asked Lissa where you were and he said he wanted to hang out with you."

What the hell was wrong with Adrian? He knew I had an appointment with Dimitri and he wanted to 'hang out' with me. Oh, that big Moron is going to get it once I see his face in the Academy. But since I'm playing along with Dimitri's ridiculous thinking that Adrian's the father of our baby, then I needed to keep up this charade. Damn it.

"Oh, he texted me and I said I had something to do with you today. He was fine with it. Well, he's fine with anything I say because if he dares to object, he's going to be a blood pulp." I let out a smile of my own to Dimitri. "I don't play by the rules, Comrade. Never did."

"Well, that explains why you are always late and you dislike the whole formality thing I told you about when we started combat practices again." I didn't know what to say after that so I just shut my mouth. Pretty wise move, huh? Sarcasm – please do take note of that.

Denis came back after a minute and handed Dimitri his credit card. "Thank you sir and you are already good to go."

"Thank you" Dimitri politely replied as he pressed the black button beside him to bring his window up.

So we were back on the road and Dimitri broke the silence between us with a question.

"Are you and Lord Ivashkov a couple?"

I honestly didn't know how to actually respond to that, but I said something I hoped was believable. "Okay, first off, it's Adrian. Not Lord Ivashkov. A moron like him doesn't deserve to be treated like royalty even though he's one. Second, no, we're just good friends who aren't in good terms with each other."

Being Dimitri, I knew what his next question was and bingo. "Then how did you conceive your child?"

There it was again. Your child.

"It was a one night stand thing. It was just for fun and result was… unexpected." Somehow saying unwanted wouldn't sound too right. He may get the idea that I didn't want this baby that I am carrying now because, according to my ruse of a story, he or she was conceived by accident with 'Adrian.'

"Does he even know that you are carrying his child?"

"Nope and please do not tell him." I knew he was not the type of person to get involved with others' business.

He nodded his head and understandably, I knew he got a grip of what I was saying and the reason behind it – well, not the real reason since it's all a falsified story.

I decided to do something, hoping it would hit him like lightning and bring some memories back. "My heart is somewhere else."

Those were his exact words when he told me he had declined Tasha's offer days after the entire Spokane incident. I blame myself for Mason's death at that moment because I was the one who told him information and he died without knowing my true emotions for him. Speaking of Mason, shit, I wonder where he went now after he warned me about the forthcoming Strigoi attack back then. But, I would have to worry about that later; for now my concern was him. Dimitri.

The sly smile that played on his lips gave it away that he didn't remember those lines. "May I ask who?"

No beating around the bush, I promised myself that. "You."

There was a pregnant pause after that until it grew to be a silence. I didn't dare to speak since I didn't know what else to say after my second love confession.

We were in a deserted dark alley when he decided to stop the car suddenly just when I was dozing off to sleep.

"What the fuck?!" I shrieked accidentally.

"I'm sorry," He softly said before he outstretched his right arm towards me and said, "come here."

"What?" I could not believe what I was hearing.

"It's not like I could do this, or rather, we could do this back in the Academy, right?" Wow. That was all I could say."Plus, I'm not your mentor right now; I'm your equal. So you better give me a hug because you're not getting one once we're back at the Academy."

Well, his walls are slowly breaking down. Of course, how could I resist him? He was a god and being in his arms again is something I have been dying to do for the last two months, I think, of my wrecked life.

"A mentor and a student falling in love with each other; it's not allowed in the Academy. Do you know that?" He whispered to my left ear while I was still in his embrace. God, did he have to ruin the moment?

"Let's not talking about that right now, shall we? The moment's too good to be ruined – at least for me." My voice was small and gentle. Not typical me. But, oh, who cares?

We probably stayed like that for five minutes, just in each others' embrace with no one ruining the moment; no one words said; no problems brought up. It was only us. But Dimitri was the one who broke it off. He said we needed to get back at the Academy. I reluctantly nodded. At least he was slowly letting me in now and he wasn't the all–Guardian Dimitri back in the Academy. I was happy – even though it was just a simple embrace.

The car ride was silent and black… because I slept. Yes, I was a sleepyhead and you could blame the entire pregnancy thing for that.

"Rose, we're back. Wake up." I awoke to Dimitri's voice and his hand gently shaking my left arm.

I covered my mouth and let out a yawn.

"Let me walk you back to your room." Dimitri told me as he opened his car door.

I opened my car door too, walked out and gently shut the door. "What time is it, anyways?" I asked Dimitri.

"Half an hour before curfew." He said after he looked at his watch.

"Alright. Do walk me to my room. I might fall asleep halfway back there." My voice was sleepy, alright. I was only half–awake for crying out loud.

So, the walk back to my room was silent. But, goodbyes were necessary so we said our goodbyes. But that goodbye wasn't the ordinary 'good night, goodbye.'

"Don't forget our sessions tomorrow and don't forget to submit your essay to Guardian Alto." He said as he handed me a long brown envelope. The one that held the essay I wrote back in the café.

"Where are we meeting tomorrow? And I'm guessing it's after classes, right?" He nodded his head.

"We'll meet under the mango tree beside the cabin Natasha Ozera is staying at." I froze.

The mere mention of the cabin brought tingles all over my body. If you could remember, the place where Dimitri and I are scheduled to meet is the same place that I revealed to Lissa the real deal between me and Dimitri.

"Alright." I said, looking down.

"So, I better get going." He said as he attempted to take a step back, but I stopped him.

"Wait, I have a question." I wanted to hear it so badly.

"Proceed." He told me.

"May I know what is my Russian name?"

"Why do you want to know?" He asked me with his one–eyebrow raised thing again.

"Nothing. I was just wondering." I said, hoping he would buy it.

"Roza." God, it sounded like a prayer. I miss him saying that.

I smiled. "Thanks." I turned to unlock my door locked door, but I remembered I didn't bring my key. "Oh, and Dimitri,"

"Yes, Rose?" He asked me, turning back. He was about to leave again.

"I don't play by the rules, so…" I moved closer to him, tiptoed and gave him a peck on the lips. No one was in the hallways, so I could care less. I smiled. "I don't play by the rules. I violate them. Good night."

And I went inside my room which was, surprisingly, unlocked. Maybe I didn't lock it after all. Oh well. I leaned against my door, smiling like an idiot.

"Ahem," I heard someone say.

I looked over my mini–living room and there they sat with grins on their faces.

"Rose Hathaway, you have some explaining to do." Christian said, smirking.

Oh, screw it.

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Da-da-da-dum. LOL. ;))

I would like to tell you folks that ever since I wrote the first chapter, the flow of this story had already been decided. Meaning: everything is already planned out. What will happen in this and that chapter: it's all figured out. ;) But, recently, I've been getting a lot of ideas from you guys and I think I'm going to consider them. Erm, yeah. LOL. Enough with the blabber.

OH, and shout-out to my Twin, .edward. :) HAHA. I was chatting with her a lot while typing this chap. :p :))

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