Heyyy! Just wanted to say that even though not much happens in this chapter, I felt the need of writing some fluff and tease between Dimitri and Rose. And I think I'll do that with the next chapter too. These guys need a break after all they've been through, don't they?

HonestPassiom13, uh, Ivan and Lissa, that's a story for later :) you will find out what happened, but I need to figure it out first how to properly include that in my story. And ofc that Dimitri won't leave Rose and leave

selairalynn, nope, no double crossing. Just too much caring

Tika86, yeah, I kinda wanted to change Janine and make her relation with Rose warmer and funnier. Not only Abe should be the cool parent

, they won't have any breaks this chapter either. Wait till the end

GojGoj, there is definitely a lot of skipping action when it comes to uni, and even though I enjoy it now, I hope I won't regret it later. Well, yeah, they thought that Rose was dead. But stil, they know that Dimitri isn't. And nah, it wasn't the purse. It was the silly llama :)

And dear Guest, I'm glad to hear that. I hope I'll keep you hanging till the end of the story

Stay safe and healthy, guys. Love you lots :)


Do friends do this?

RPOV

Oh, I think it would have been better if I didn't wake up. I try to move a little, but my whole body feels sore in so many ways. And this time it's not a delicious soreness. It's just painful.

Pushing myself a little, I open my eyes, unglue my cheek off a leathery material and I get up to my butt on this-

Train seat?

I am on a train? And we're moving?

I look out the window close to me and, it's night?

How long have I been out?

And how the hell did I get here?

Last time I was awake…

Come on, Rose, think! Remember!

What was I doing? What was happening? Where was I?

Dimitri! The factory! The men coming.

And oh, that little bastard drugging me!

Where is he now?

I turn in my seat, scan my surroundings, and I see just the person I was looking for, on the seat next to me. I look further around me and I don't see many people too close around us.

Perfect. They won't hear or see me when I smack the shit out of him!

But the more I look at him, sleeping so peacefully, I can't find it in myself to hit him. Don't get me wrong, I still want to do it, for the shit he has done. But I decide not to pour my anger on him. For now. I won't punch him for now. I can wait. He probably didn't have much time to sleep either. He looks so tired and this rest will do him good. Only God knows what he went through as we were apart because he didn't tell me anything about it and I didn't get the chance to ask more.

I wait for five minutes.

Then another five.

And I get bored to death.

So I guess I could go back to sleep as I wait for him to wake up, couldn't I? Lissa told me I'd need the rest anyway.

And yes, I am still keeping up to my anger, but there's no other thing better as a pillow than Dimitri, not in the entire universe. So I lay my head back on his shoulder, the warmness that I left behind on the leather of his duster still being there.

As soon as I find a good position on him, he turns his head and rests his lips on my forehead, then his palm comes over my thigh, soothing me.

Can you believe he is so sweet even when he's half asleep?

Oh, Dimitri. I love you so, so much, but you drive me insane just as badly.


He is awake. I can feel him moving under me, trying to lift me off him as carefully as possible.

Oh, he is awake!

Good. I can kick his ass now.

And I'll even spare him of his task of trying to move me. I'll move by myself. With my fist into his face.

I lift off him and I meet his eyes. He dares to smile at me. He smiles!

But I am so mad! I remember what the hell he did and I can't contain my anger.

I fist my good palm and pound it into his chest as hard as I can, and I guess it hurt me more than it hurt him, but to hell with it. I do it again.

His palm wraps on my fist when I go for the third punch, and he immobilizes it.

"Hey, steady. It's okay. It's me."

"I know it's you. Why the hell do you think I'm doing this? And no, it's not okay. Not at all."

I pull away from him, and when he opens his mouth, I don't let him speak.

"It's not okay, Dimitri! Why the fuck did you do that? Why the hell did you do that to me?"

"You looked like you were going to faint."

Well, I was. I was feeling sick as hell after climbing all those stairs. But that is so not the point.

I hit him again, only to release some more anger.

"Don't you do that again! Ever again!" I hiss at him. I might be mad, but not the whole train needs to know it.

"Rose…"

"No. I am pissed off at you! So, so mad. You didn't have any right to decide that."

"That was the only way I could get you out of there."

"How? Carrying me around limp? How was that helpful?!"

"Calm down, please."

"Don't you tell me to calm down!" I almost yell at him. I need to temper my voice, otherwise, some of the people that already turned their heads towards us might come to scold me or get us off the train. "You drugged me. How did that help you?" I whisper to him through gritted teeth.

"You wouldn't like to know that."

"Oh, I bet I wouldn't. But do tell me. I want to know what happened." I want to know how hard he deserves to be punched next.

He sighs and tries to get a hold of my hand, but I pull it out of his reach.

"First you tell me, then I decide if you're ever allowed to touch me." of course I am going to let him touch me. But he needs to suffer a little for the shit he has done.

"I hid you."

"You what?! So let me get this straight. You mean that after you drugged me, you've left me there unconscious? You left me there with all those people going around that place? With them coming for us? How could you?"

"I did it for your good."

"My good? My good? Do you even hear yourself? What if someone would have found me? I would have been as good as dead. I couldn't have defended myself. I was out."

"They wouldn't have found you. I took care of that."

"Yeah, because you hid me." God only knows how, but I don't want to know. I won't ask him this, as I am sure it will only make me angrier with him.

"Exactly. And after I took care of them, I came back for you. I did it to keep you safe. You wouldn't have been capable-"

I get up, making him stop. I don't want to hear more of this.

"Nice. Wow. Wow, Dimitri. Thanks. Thanks a lot. I wouldn't have been capable, huh? That... didn't hurt at all, just so you know."

I walk past his seat and get on the little aisle, but of course, I am not allowed to go cry in peace. He gets a hold of my hand and prevents me from walking away.

"Rose, don't be like this, please. I didn't want to mean it like that, I swear."

"But you did. You said it clear enough. I am useless to you. I am just a complication. You're right. I shouldn't have come along. I should have gone with Ivan. Spare you of some inconveniences."

"Roza…"

"Don't. Please. Let me go, Dimitri. I need a minute," I tell him fast, before I break in tears.

"Rose…"

"Please."

He lets go of my hand, and thankfully, he doesn't try to come after me.

Ignoring the killing pain in my hip, I rush out of the wagon we're into and get out on the little hallway here, where it is so much colder than it is inside the place I left, but oh, this coldness comes as a blessing.

He leaves me alone for two minutes. Just two minutes pass until I hear that door open again and his steps coming towards me. But hey, I only asked for one, didn't I? He offered me two minutes of peace.

I feel him when he stops behind me, his heat radiating through my blouse, but I don't turn around.

His palm comes to rest on my upper arm, and I want to pull away, but hell, I don't have where to go. I have picked the farthest spot on the hallway, and I don't have where else to go, unless I plan on breaking this window in front of me and jump.

I can't do anything either when he moves his hand further down, entangling his fingers with mine.

"Just let me be, Dimitri. Go away. I don't want to talk to you now."

"No. I am not leaving. Not this time. Not any other time." he turns me around and if he hoped I would look into his eyes, I can't do it. "Be mad at me. I deserve it. But I won't leave you alone."

I don't know what else to do or to say, so I take comfort into this silence around us, into him caressing my skin.

"Can I just… talk to you for a minute?"

"About what? I have nothing more to say to you."

"Yeah, well, I have a lot to say to you, so if you would please listen to me, I would appreciate it." I nod, still looking down. "And could you please look at me?"

This time, I shake my head no. And not because I don't want to, but because as I have been sitting here and thought more about it, I may have exaggerated with my reaction. He might be right after all.

His hand moving up, he wipes the tears on my cheek.

"Please, love? Just for a second."

Tilting my head, I meet his eyes and he smiles weakly.

"You were right about that earlier thing. And I am sorry. I shouldn't have seen you as anything less than my equal."

"Well, not your equal because I can't compare to all the stuff you do. But all I want is for you not to see me as someone who sets you back, that's all. I came with you because I wanted to help somehow too."

"Help too?" I nod. "Then why did you come mostly for, if helping is just another reason?"

"You know why."

He smiles a little wider. "Tell me anyway."

"You've still got that cockiness, comrade. Don't forget that I am still upset with you."

He gets dead serious in less than a second.

"You're right. But I just wanted to hear it."

"Fine, if you want to hear it, then here it is. It's because I wanted to be with... Close to you. But not like an annoyance or a problem or whatever."

"You could never be that."

"Obviously I am."

He is caressing my cheek again.

"Roza…" He sighs. "Look…" He is moving his jaw left and right as he's looking for his words, and it seems it's quite hard for him to do this. "I hate myself for hurting you like this. I am so sorry for what I said earlier. I was wrong and I didn't mean it to come out like that. I don't see you as a liability and I am glad you're here, with me. But I just… I am used to working alone, I've done it for so many years. I've been alone for so many years and you being with me all the time… I like it a lot, I really do, but it's something new for me too. So, os new. And I have never…" he stops and sighs again. "Honestly, Roza. I am sorry for being a bastard. I didn't mean to hurt you with what I've done and said. At the time, back at the factory, all I was thinking of was keeping you safe."

I turn to face him and pass my hand through his hair, my lips turning into a silly smile as I rest my palm on his cheek. He just said something to me. Like, something about the way he feels, something heartfelt, even if it's not much. He did it and I know so damn well that he doesn't do this too often. And doing it now, it means a lot to me.

He turns his head and kisses the inside of my palm.

"I'm sorry."

"But I don't know, maybe I still could have helped you…"

He lifts an eyebrow. "Love, you're hurt. You're bruised, everywhere."

"Fine, you're right I couldn't have helped you. But I would have stayed put." it's still annoying that he had to resort to drugging me.

He throws me a look full of uncertainty.

"What?"

"How many times have you done what you have been told? Did you stay put earlier today? Did you go away when I told you? Shall I answer those questions?"

Oh, it's annoying too when he's so right about things.

"Fine. I wouldn't have stayed put. I would have wanted to help you. But I am still mad that you did that. I don't like it when you do that."

He puts an arm around my shoulders and pulls me closer.

"I know. And I wouldn't have done it if I had another choice. But do you think you can forgive me for that sometime later at least?"

Seeing how sorry he is, I can't say no to him.

I lean over and kiss him, taking him by surprise. I see how his eyes widen as our lips touch.

"Was that a yes?" he asks me after I pull away.

I chuckle. "Do you need to hear it again?"

"Mhm, please."

And this time, he leans closer for another kiss.


Ten minutes later, we're still on that hallway, his arms are still around me, keeping me warm, his head resting on top of mine and his lips kissing me from time to time.

"Where are we going now?"

"Somewhere where I hope it's safe enough, and far from anyone else."

"So, we're running away?"

"Not really. We're… let's call it retreating. We're retreating for now. We wait."

"Wait for what?"

"For something to happen, so that I'll be able to make things right."

"About him?" I don't even want to pronounce his name, but Dimitri knows so well who I am talking about.

"Yes. But…"

"But what?"

"I think you'd want to know something else before you keep to your decision about coming with me."

"What? In fact, I don't care. I will still come."

He laughs a little. "I didn't even think you'd have a different answer. But let me tell you either way."

"Fine."

"There is a bounty on our heads."

I pull away and turn to face him. He's kidding me, right?

"It is?"

"Well, mostly on mine, but as you're with me…"

"Why?"

"Where do I start? I disobeyed everyone, I annoyed Haynes, I killed Tasha's little minions and that didn't piss off only her, but her other friends too. There might be people thinking I have the flash, or that you do, as they're not aware yet of Hayne's actions. And oh, let's not forget, I already had a lot of people that didn't like me much before this. Any of them could have started this hunt."

"Oh, wow, so there's a pretty long list of people after you, huh?"

"Kind of."

"It seems that you're not so likeable, comrade."

He squints his eyes at me a little. "You can say that."

"Oh, don't you worry. I like you." I kiss his cheek. "Now tell me. How much do you worth? I hope it's a big sum, or else, I'll be disappointed."

He frowns deeply. "This is not fun, Rose. You shouldn't take it this lightly."

"No, you shouldn't take it so seriously. I don't care about that damned bounty and neither should you. For what it matters, we were in danger long before this bounty. A lot of people wanted our asses long before today. But we'll be fine, I am sure of it, comrade. We're on a train, on our way to nowhere. Who could find us here?" this time, he is the amused one. "What?"

"You trust too much the people and things around you."

"What do you mean by that?"

"People are not as good as you think. And even if we're going to some far away place, it's so easy to find someone if you know where and how to look for them."

"Yeah, maybe. But you're better than them. Smarter too."

He laughs once more. "Again, you think too much of me, love."

"I doubt it." I rest my cheek on his shoulder and kiss his neck. "And now, you worry too much, comrade. I am sure no one is going to find us on this train. We're in the middle of nowhere. Look outside. We're into a damned field, so far from my home. Who would think to look for us here?"

Running his hands through my hair, he stops when he reaches the nape on my neck, and starts swirling his fingers on my skin.

"Oh, Roza, I hope you're right," he sighs.

"Don't you worry. I am right, at least at times, and this time, I am sure I am."

And of course, I just had to do a stupid thing to ruin this moment.

As I hold tighter onto him, I move in such a way that my hip meets the end of his belt. Did I mention it has some metal on it? And did I mention it is my bad hip?

Because of the pain I feel, I let out a little whine.

"It still hurts?"

"Just a little."

"About that. I think it's time to take a look at it."

"It's not that bad, you kno-"

"No. Lissa told me to keep an eye on it, and I'll be damned if I don't. I don't want it to get worse, infected or whatever."

Having no way out of this, I let him guide me back to our places, from where he takes a pouch, then he proceeds to take me towards the bathroom, heading in the opposite direction from where we came.

All the way we're inside the compartment, trying to get him out of his fatidic mood, I keep on teasing him about how much the bounty on his head would be, and we chuckle a lot.

But as we're on our way, I see some people eyeing us, and I find them eyeing us quite suspiciously. Maybe we disturbed them with our chuckling? I mean, it's night and maybe we're disturbing their sleep.

When we get to the bathroom's door, I get it why they were looking at us like that, so I stop, even though he told me to get inside.

"Comrade, people will think we're going to…" I bet that our laughter got misinterpreted. Maybe we got too playful.

Looking behind us, I see that some nosy woman is still looking our way, her eyes squinted in discontentment.

"Let them think that. I don't give a damn."

"But-"

"If you and I would have sex in here, they would definitely be aware of it."

Hearing him say this, and oh, he didn't bother to whisper, he said it loud and clear, that woman heard it too, I see it on her surprised, now quite disgusted face.

And like being given the command, my cheeks turn red.

"Comrade!" I hiss at him. "I can't believe you said that, and so loud. That woman heard you."

He only smiles, knowing it too. "So what? Let them think whatever they want. Now, get inside and let me take a look at you." I still don't move, just to defy him a little. He only smiles wider. "I promise I'll behave, love. I'll be gentle," he says, again, not bothering to say it quietly.

My eyes widen and my jaw drops.

"You're unbelievable!"

I swear that one day I'll die from hearing the words getting out of his mouth,

I turn around and go inside the little bathroom, and he follows.

I prop myself onto a little counter present here and watch him with my hands crossed over my chest.

Smiling, he comes closer to me, and tries to kiss me, but I pull my face away.

"Oh, come on, love. You know she deserved it. I said it especially for her to hear it. And have you seen the face she made?"

I can't be upset. I wasn't, I was just trying to play a little. So I start laughing and kiss him.

"You're something else, Dimitri. You're so shameless."

"Oh, don't pretend that you don't like it," he says, his lips over mine, and after he kisses me, he grits his teeth on my bottom lip.

"And so modest too, comrade."

He smiles, then, as he kisses me again, he slips his tongue past my lips and kisses me passionately, like trying to start something, something like he already mentioned in the hallway. And hell, if he mentioned it already…

But he pulls away and smiling at me, he walks his thumb across my lip.

"Now, let's do what we came here for in the first place, shall we?"

Him crouching in front of me, I lift the hem of my blouse and let him play the role of my personal nurse, taking care of changing my bandage.

Unsticking the tape off my skin was easy. But when it came to pulling the gauze off my lesion, this is where things get complicated.

I yelp and wrap my fingers tightly on his shoulder as Dimitri starts swearing in his so expressive language.

"It's stuck to it."

"Yeah… I, oh, I felt that."

"Sorry, love. I didn't know. I'll try this."

Taking a new piece of gauze and putting it under the running water, he brings it over my bandage and continues to wet it until the wounded flesh softens.

When the bandage is loose enough, in one swift movement, he takes the bandage off, making me start crying as I pull away from him, hopping on the counter.

"It hurts like hell," I whine.

He takes a hold of my hands and stars soothing them.

"Shh, I know, I know it hurts, love, I know, but I had to do it one way or another."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Just keep going. Be done with it."

I have to get off the counter so that I would give him more access to my hip, and he proceeds to clean it, moving slowly and so gently, frowning each time he touches my skin.

"You're doing great, just don't look here. Don't focus on this. I'll be done faster than you think."

Oh, he's so sweet.

Doing as he advised me, I look out the little window here, and shit, the more I look at the moving lights outside (when did we reach a town?), the dizzier I feel.

"Dimitri?"

"Huh?" he is so focused on his little task that he doesn't even look at me.

"I think I need to sit down."

Hearing this, his head snaps up.

"What? Why?"

"I think I'm gonna faint. I feel like it."

"No, love, you won't. Look at me. You'll be fine. It will be fine. Hang in there a second longer," he says as he hurries to put away all the little props he used and gets up, his palms coming over my shoulders and keeping me steady. "Come on, hop up. Sit."

He helps me get back up on the counter and closing my eyes, I rest my forehead on his shoulder.

"I fucking hate this."

"It will pass," he says, his hands soothing my back. "It will be alright."

"Yeah, just because you're here."

We spend some more minutes like this, minutes that give me the time to get a hold of myself.

Before pulling away, he kisses the top of my head.

"Can I?"

"Yeah, sure."

He doesn't let me get back to my feet, he just tells me to tilt backward, then he gets back to treating me. And again, I wince at his first touch with the disinfectant soaked gauze, even though I tried to suppress it.

"Shh, love. I know it hurts, I know. And I'm sorry. Tell me if it gets unbearable and I'll stop."

"Don't stop. Just go."

"Okay."

He stops for a second and watches my hip prolongedly and intensely, like I don't know, he'd try to heal it only with his gaze.

"Dimitri, what are you doing there?"

"I'm looking for the signs."

"What signs?"

"There's no infection, the redness is still here, but I guess it's normal after what I've done to your skin. Let's see what else. Oh! The swelling seems to have subsided, there's no puss, and, do you feel any exaggerate warmth here? Does it feel different from the rest of your body?"

Hearing him, I can't help it but smile. He sounded like a doctor, so serious and technical.

"What? Why you're smiling? I'm being serious."

"I see. You're dead serious." and seeing that he keeps on a straight face, I only smile wider. "You've learnt your lesson so well, comrade. I bet you could go help Lissa any time now."

"Oh, shush. Now tell me. Does anything feel abnormal?"

"You really don't have to make such a fuss about it, comrade. I feel fine. It feels fine."

"Don't you play the brave with me."

I chuckle. "Like you did with me when you got shot?"

"Yeah, kind of," he says, and out of the pouch, he gets a shot, similar to the one Lissa gave me, the only difference being that this one has a blue liquid.

"Dimitri... what's that?"

"A thing Lissa gave me."

"I don't want other shots. I only agreed to one. That one."

"It will help with the pain. Trust me, I used it too, countless times. And it will help with the healing too."

"Do I really have to?"

"Please?"

"Fine. Do it." what would be the point in resisting. He would convince me anyway.

I let him do whatever he wants, and finally, he finishes with it all.

After that, I pull him to me, parting my legs so that he could come closer to me in between my thighs, and I rest my forehead on his.

"How you're feeling?"

"I think I'm good. It wasn't that bad after the shot. The pain, I mean."

"You're sure? You're as white as chalk and you seem so tired."

"Nah, I am good, don't worry."

"You know what, love?"

"What?"

"I get it now why you were freaking out when you were getting that bullet out of me."

I laugh. "You're kidding. Oh, no. This doesn't even compare to that, comrade. I was close to dying next to you in that bathroom. And you in here? You didn't panic even for a second now. You didn't even flinch. You can control your shit way better than I do."

He brings my hand up. "What about this? Does it feel better? Any hurting?" and he places a little kiss over the cast on my fingers.

It looked so cute! It was just like my mother used to do when I was little and I have stupidly hurt myself.

"You know, comrade, yeah, it still hurts," I whine and I make sure he gets it that I am playful because I smile like an idiot.

He smiles. "Let me kiss it away better, then."

He kisses my hand again, and not only once, and not only on my cast. He does the same to the tips of my other fingers, and then to my wrist, getting my hand in such a position that I can caress his cheek with my thumb.

"Where else hurts, love?

"Now? Nowhere."

His fingers brush on my jaw, just over my bruise.

"Oh, Roza. If I could, I would kiss away all of your scars and bruises and-" he sighs. "I'm s-"

I put my palm over his mouth. "Don't do that. Stop doing that. It's not on you."

Pulling him closer to me, I kiss him before he gets to protest again.

But pulling away, he has the same conceited face.

"Dimitri, I swear to God that if you don't stop with that, I'll kick your ass."

Lifting an eyebrow, he smiles. "Will you?"

"What? You don't think I can?"

"Oh, no. That's not the problem. The problem is that you can."

"Good. And know that I will."

"Not a doubt here, love."

I punch him lightly before I kiss him once again.

"Shall we get back?"

"What? You're thinking that our little observer might start believing I'm tiring you out in here?" well, yeah, maybe. It's already been fifteen minutes. "Do you think she'll come to rescue you? Shall we give her something to make it worth her fuss?"

My eyes widen as he smiles, so, so proud of my reaction.

"Comrade…" I blush once more. "You really can't stop, huh?"

"When I see you react like that? Never. But let's go, before she decides to actually come for us, when I'll see myself obliged to-"

I put my palm over his mouth. "I don't know what you wanted to say, but don't."

"Why not? I-"

"Comrade, behave for five minutes."

"What's in it for me if I do it?"

"What about a kiss?"

"One?"

"Two?" he shakes his head no. "Three?" he scrunches his nose displeased and I get laughing. "Four. That's my final offer."

"Then we're not getting out of here."

"Fine, fine. What about five?"

"What about ten?"

"Ten? And why would I agree to ten?" not that I wouldn't enjoy the idea.

"Because you have no way out until you agree?"

I get laughing again. "So that's how you're going to play it?"

"It's working?"

Yeah, flawlessly. "Fine, fine. So be it. Ten kisses it is," I agree with him before he decides to change his mind and ask for more. But again, I wouldn't mind kissing him. I'd do it a million times.

"Whenever I ask," he adds another condition.

And even though I have the feeling this thing might come to backfire on me sometime later, I agree with this too.

"Now, let's go." When I want to hop off the counter, he doesn't let me, he doesn't move away from between my thighs. "What now?"

"What about one now?"

"You know, you should be careful about how you're spending them."

"Oh, trust me, I will. But with the other nine left."

DPOV

One kiss cashed, we finally leave the bathroom and head back to our places, yes, that woman still eyeing us suspiciously, and yes, Rose still blushing as she looks at her, even though she knows so well what happened in there.

Sitting down, Rose starts looking out the window, like trying to distinguish the town we reached.

"Roza?"

"Huh?" turning in her seat and looking at me, she smiles. "Don't you tell me you're going to ask me for another one."

Not that this idea didn't pass through my mind, but I think I'll keep those kisses for other, more important occasions.

"No, love. That's not it."

"Then?"

"What else did he do to you?"

"Huh? What you're talking about?" I don't know if she didn't get it or she's trying to avoid the subject, but damn it, we didn't have much time to talk about the time we've been apart and what happened then.

"Haynes. What else did he do to you?" I have a feeling that he didn't resume to hurting her only physically.

"Haven't you seen? Haven't you heard it when I told Lissa? That's what he did." I feel the hurting in her voice as she probably remembers it all, but this wasn't my intention.

"I did, love. I've seen and heard it all." I've memorized it all too. "But what about what I haven't seen?"

She frowns deeply and again, I don't know if it's because she thinks I'm crazy for asking this or it's because she's about to lie to me and she's thinking of a believable lie.

"He didn't… No. He didn't do anything else. He didn't say anything either. Nope. He didn't. Not that I would remember much of it anyway, but from what I remember, no, he didn't do anything else."

Seeing the way she continues to say deny this, I don't want to push her to tell me more. I am sure she will share it with me when she'll feel ready. I just take her hand in mine and smile understandingly.

She smiles too and goes back to watching the lights outside that shift fast as the train passes through this town. But we still have some hours to go, some more towns to pass, so she will get bored of this quite fast, I guess. As she always does.

Her eyes are still wandering out the window, but her mind is somewhere else. Her fingers are mindlessly playing along mine, and for whatever reason I don't know, she keeps on sighing.

But at one moment, turning her head some more away from me, she sobs lightly and brings her other hand up fast, trying to suppress it.

"Roza? What happened?"

"Nothing," she manages to say before her voice breaks.

Yeah, nothing. She's crying and it's obviously nothing.

She doesn't resist when I turn her, but when she looks at me, she starts crying for good, and trying to keep it silent, she hides her face into my chest. Putting my arms around her for comforting her, I start soothing her back.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

Sobbing a couple of times, she shakes her head and doesn't say anything. I feel her hot tears piercing through my T-shirt and wetting my skin, and I know I can't leave things like this.

"Does anything feel bad? Love, come on, tell me something. What happened? Why are you crying?"

"He killed Mase," she cries. "He- he- oh, he-" but she doesn't continue as hard sobs shake her body.

I hold her tighter and rest my lips on her forehead.

"I am sorry, Rose." I don't know what else to say. I don't know what I could do to make it better, to take her pain away.

"It's not fair. He was my only friend and he took him away from me. And it's all my fault."

"No, love. Don't say that. It's not-"

"It is. He is dead because of me."

"No, don't torture yourself with that."

"I am, Dimitri. Because…"

And hearing the whole story, through her sobs and tears, I make my mind. I will kill him, I swear I will. The first time I lay my eyes on him, I will kill him and it will hurt him so, so badly. I don't care about what anybody wants from him or how many other people want to get their hands on him. I am the one who's going to find him, and I am going to make him suffer as much as he did to her. No. So much more.

We sit in silence for some minutes after she has stopped crying, her head resting on my shoulder and her fingers drawing the edges of the droplet spots she left on me.

"Comrade?"

"Yes?"

"Tell me something."

"Something like what?"

"Anything you want. Just talk to me. I'm tired of so much silence. This train is so silent."

With this, I see my chance to make her think about something else. Maybe even make her smile a little.

"So, your mother likes me?"

"You heard that…"

I chuckle, hearing her little consternation. "I did, love."

"And... did you hear it all?"

"Maybe."

"Oh… I can't believe you heard my mother and I talk about you in that way."

Oh, yeah, I did hear them talk about me in that way. And I loved all the things she said about me.

"So, do you think I am a gentleman?"

She nods, her head only nestling some more into the crook of my neck after this. Oh, someone is going to blush soon.

"That I am rough around the edges?"

"Well, you must admit that at first, you were quite …"

"Brutish?"

She pulls away from me and frowns a little. "No." but we both know I was a bastard at the beginning. "I don't think that anymore." she smiles. "I have come to see you're quite sweet, in fact, even if you insist on keeping to that bad-boyishness or whatever."

I smile too. "Is that so?" she nods. "And…" oh, I need to say this too, I swear I do. I lean in closer to her so that I could whisper to her as I walk my fingers up and down on her outer thigh. "You think I am hot as fuck?"

She gasps lightly and pulls away from me, a shocked expression on her face and her cheeks already burning.

"You heard that too. Of course you did. You heard everything."

Seeing her reaction, I can't help myself not to say this too. At least she's now smiling. Who knows, maybe I'll get a laughter from her.

"Am I your cutie?"

She squints her eyes at me, but her lips are still turned into a smile, and she's doing a bad job at containing it.

"You're so shameless! You eavesdropped to all our conversation!" she scolds me whispered. "We were not talking that loud. How come you heard it all? You have crazy spy hearing?"

"Maybe I do. And maybe I eavesdropped too."

"Oh, there's no maybe to it, Mister. You did it. And it was a private conversation."

She does her best to wipe the amusement and embarrassment off her face and turns in her seat with her back to me and her hands crossed, for a better dramatic effect.

"Come on." I get a hold of her, my arm around her shoulders and I ruffle her hair a little as I turn her to face me again. "You don't have to get shy about it. I admit it, I was curious about what you think of me."

"I am not getting shy. Not at all."

"Oh, really?" so what was she blushing for?

Tilting her head, she looks me straight in the eyes. "Yes. I have no reason to be shy. Because I didn't say anything that I didn't mean. You're all the things I said. And more."

I don't know if she should think so much about me, but seeing the way she looks at me, I want so much to be the man she sees in me. I want to offer it all to her.

As I bend and kiss her, she cuddles into my embrace.

"One more thing, love."

"What?"

I rest my lips on her forehead and I smile before I speak. After all, it's good to know that I am not the only one teased about increasing the number of members in my family.

"I guess we could grant your mother's wish too."

RPOV

"Dimitri…" I groan and blush even harder than before, having to bury my face in his chest to hide. I forgot I talked about that too with my mother.

He laughs and kisses my forehead again. "Oh, Roza," he sighs. "What am I gonna do about you, huh?"

"I guess you'll have to get used to it, as you've been advised."

But wait a second. Wait, wait, waaaait. Did he just mention that…

I snap my head up and look at him, frowning and maybe even making a face, but oh, I am very confused.

He said those words, didn't he? I mean, he didn't say those exact words that my mother said, but he implied it, I am not only misinterpreting it, right?

"What, love?" he asks me smiling.

"Nothing, I just…"

No, I don't think I got it wrong. I got it so damned right. He was obvious about it, he said it clearly, like he always does. No runarounds.

I smile wider than him and my chest fills with such warmth at his sight.

"Nothing, comrade. Nothing. Everything is fine."

I lay my cheek on his shoulder and sigh happily, that silly smile not leaving my face for minutes.

He wants to have babies with me. Wow.

I'd make him a thousand babies if he wants to.


Some minutes later, minutes in which my mind has wandered to that world where we are married and we're having a lot of kids and we're so, so happy together even when we got to ninety years old, I find out that I still don't know a thing.

I already started thinking about marriage and a happy home and the names of our kids, but I still haven't set some things straight. After all, if someone would ask me, I wouldn't be able to explain to them exactly the relation between us.

I walk my fingers up and down his forearm, considering if I should ask him or not. I mean, what if, after all, I am understanding it all wrong? Or what if I am understanding less than he tried to say?

"Hey, comrade? Can I ask you something?"

I lift off him and turn myself on a side, facing him.

He does the same. "Sure. Go ahead."

"What… what are we?"

He frowns. "What do you mean?"

"This. Us. This us thing. I mean… I don't know how else to put it. But… what is this thing between us? What are we?"

"Where does this question come from?"

Well, ever since my mother mentioned that he would be my boyfriend, I couldn't stop thinking about it, and now that we had that little conversation about babies, I had to ask. I need to be sure.

"I don't know, Dimitri," I sigh, starting to think I've already messed things up. "Don't get me wrong. I was just wondering because, as you know, all we do is run for our lives, then we do stuff and… I mean… I don't know. I mean, oh, damn it, I am a little confused. Are we friends?" I decide to start with safe territory.

He laughs a little, and bending over the seat's arm, he takes my hand in his, and entangling our fingers, he brings it up to his mouth and kisses it.

"We're not just friends and you know it."

He bends even closer to me, his lips brushing over mine as he continues to speak.

"Do friends do this?"

With that, he proceeds to kiss me, slowly and prolongedly, his tongue gently playing with mine as his fingers run through my hair and I lose myself completely into him. I love it how he makes me feel with each kiss, with each touch. If I needed any confirmation, here it is. I don't feel only friendly feelings towards him. I fucking love him.

When we pull apart, I chuckle as he looks at me with an eyebrow lifted, still wanting an answer to his question.

"No, I guess they don't. Friends don't do this."

"And friends don't do the other things we've done either, right?"

They definitely don't. Only thinking about all the stuff we've done together in that bed, my whole body gets tingly and heated, especially my cheeks.

I need to gulp before I speak. "Right. But... friends with benefits do."

"True that. But is that what you think we are?" hearing the little disappointment in his voice, that's a good thing, isn't it?

"I don't know what we are. Therefore I am asking."

I want him to say it. I would say it, I would name this thing we have, but I'm still a little afraid I'll mess up something.

"I don't know either, love. I don't know how to name it. I don't have a definition for it. I just know that we're not friends, we're definitely not friends with benefits, and I like it a lot that way. I like what we are, even if I don't know how to name it."

I smile and walk my fingers across his arm. "Me too. I like it too." I love it. "But then, does this mean that we are something more than friends?"

"Something more like what?"

Oh, I'll have to say it. Fine. I will, I'll say it with the risk of asking too much.

"Like... something romantic?"

"And why wouldn't we be?"

"Dunno. You and I-"

He raises an eyebrow, then squints his eyes at me, like I've insulted him somehow. Oh, I hope I didn't. I didn't mean to.

"Wait. Let me get this right. You're saying I can't be romantic? Is that it?"

"No, of course not. You were, are each time we kiss and… No. You're sweet. But I was just saying that we don't get to do other things other than running from one place to another and do some other things... But we haven't... you know... did basic romantic stuff?" not that what him and I have could be categorized as basic.

"And don't you like the other things we did?"

"Hey. I didn't say I don't." besides the physical stuff, I've always enjoyed what we've done together, in the little moments of normality we had.

"Okay. Here. I promise you one thing. After everything ends and I know everything is good and you're safe, I will take you out on the greatest date you have ever been to."

I chuckle. This is not what I was intended to get from him. I only wanted an answer. But his promise can be qualified as an answer. I mean, if he will take me out on a date, then we are romantically involved. It makes sense, right?

"What's so funny? You don't think I can do that?"

"No, no, no. I did not mean that. I really think you can and you just promised it to me so…" I smile just at the thought of him and I having a basic date on a normal, danger-free night, at a fancy restaurant or whatever. "I just can't wait, comrade."

He smiles too. "Then it's set."

"Yeah, it's set. But…"

"What happened?"

"I thought I wasn't your type."

He smiles. "I said that, didn't I?"

He looks at me, his face turning sad for a second, probably remembering too our fight at the mall from, how much time passed since then? A few days? Wow. Look at how far we've gotten in just some days. I can't even believe that I used to hate him.

"But I was wrong." taking my hand in his, he puts it on his cheek and walks the tip of his nose across my wrist. "Because you are, Roza. You are."

"Who would have thought? You are wrong at times, comrade."

He laughs. "I sure do, love."

I lay back on his shoulder, a great happiness still flowing through me. We're going on a date. And we're romantically involved. What more could I wish?

"So, love, do we really have to name it? This thing we have?"

"No, we don't." I already know what I wanted to know and it doesn't need to be named.

"What if we simply are? What if we just are something? Something... more, even romantic."

I smile. "Yeah. I like that. We're something." something that's only ours.


We go in silence some more and not having anything to do, the boredom catches with me, the tiredness too, and I fell asleep for a little.

Getting up now, I watch the clock and see it's already 3am The train has done some stops, but we didn't get off at either. I wonder how much we still need to go.

And oh, I forgot to mention, Dimitri's missing. Not really missing, we're on this train after all, but he is not here now. Should I-

No, I don't have to go search for him. Here he is, coming back into our wagon. And he… please someone tell me he is carrying some food in that little brown bag because I'm starving in this second.

Coming closer and sitting, I see that my prayers were listened to. He opens the bag and hands me a fancy looking sandwich, and most importantly, a little plastic disposable bowl with profiteroles and a lot of chocolate covering the little puffy balls. Oh, I so love him. He knows so well what I love.

"This is kinda late, comrade," I can't help it but to tease him.

"What? Why didn't you tell me that you were hungry for longer? I would-"

"I wasn't hungry until I saw you coming with these. I was just talking about you bringing me food."

"I'm not following."

"You know, I got upset with you a while ago."

He chuckles. "Oh. Yeah, but you see? It seems that I can work it out with you without bringing you food."

"Hey, I've never said I minded you bringing me a peace offer, especially food."

"Of course not, but I think it's better without."

"Why? You're afraid I might get fat?"

"Not that. But considering how many times I have upset you, well, let's say that I started to get concerned about your sugar level."

"Oh, you're such a healthie."

"That is not even a word."

"Oh, shush." I punch his upper arm a little. "You know what I meant."

With that, I stop talking and start munching on the goodies he brought me.

As I am halfway through my dessert, I don't know the reason why, but I find myself speaking shit.

"Comrade? Do you really want to go on a date with me?"

He turns in his seat and looks at me amused.

"So much time has passed ever since we talked about that and now you're asking me this?"

"Well, I needed a little bit of time to process it."

I needed a lot of time to process a lot of things that he told me lately. And I still haven't made sense of his words about my mother, if he really meant them or if he was just trying to get me to blush harder.

He laughs a little, shaking his head. "Yes, Roza. I want to go on a date with you. Do you?"

"I would love to."

"Good. Then it's set, again. I'll take you on a date. A proper one."

"Only one?"

"No, of course not. That will only be our first one," he promises.

"Great. Because you know what? We are three dates behind, comrade," I joke.

"Huh? Three dates behind for what?"

"You know… the three dates rule…"

"What rule?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just a silly thing."

"Like?" oh, shit. I have gotten myself into trouble. Now I have to explain it to him. Me and my smartassness always getting me in situations like these.

"That um… you know… it's said that after three dates… you know… people do what we've already done… like physically?"

"You mean sex."

Hearing him being so explicit and straightforward about this, my cheeks start burning hot.

"Comrade…" I scold him as I look around the train to see if his words have somehow attracted some discontented glances towards us. "Can you be a little less vocal please?"

"Oh, love." he leans in closer and whispers so lightly in my ear, teasing me, as his fingers do the same, playing along my knee and threatening to climb onto my inner thigh. "But you know I like it vocal."

I pull away from him, my jaw dropped to the floor when I see him so, let's say shameless, in plain view.

"You are irrecuperable, comrade. There are so many people here."

"So?"

"So? So? They might hear us."

He laughs and kisses my forehead.

"You started this, love. If you provoke me, you know I won't say no."

"Fine, fine, then I promise I'll stop provoking you."

"Oh, please don't."

"Why? Just so you can say some kinky stuff again and make me blush?"

"Exactly, love."

And again, for the thousandth time ever since I woke up, I yawn.

"Comrade, do you mind if I go to sleep a little more?" I am still missing my energy reserves.

"Not at all. Please do rest as much as you want. You need it. And after we get there, I am putting you to bed and you're not allowed to leave it."

Ugh, I know I promised not to provoke him, but I have just the chance to do it and I am not going to miss it.

"Hm, that sounds tempting, comrade."

He growls lightly. "Roza, stop that."

"Stop what?" I play the innocent. "And why?"

"I wouldn't want to hurt you."

"Hurt me? What are you talking about?"

"You keep on telling me all this stuff and not that I wouldn't like for you to be like this, to tell me this, but it's not really the good time to do so."

"I really don't get it. Did I do something wrong?"

"No, no, love." he sighs and putting an arm around me, he pulls me closer. "It's just that it is all making me want to take you to the bathroom and do to you all that stuff we've talked about. And I am afraid that if we get too far with this, I'll hurt you if I don't keep my hands off."

Now I get it. Not only the sex is off the table, so it's our silly teasing. I didn't know it has such an effect on him. He is always so composed, but hearing his affected tone, I guess he has his limits too.

I embrace him too. "Don't you worry about that. I'll stop. And you know? You could never hurt me." he has always been so careful and sweet. If we would do something, I know he'd be like that this time too.

"Only for now," he feels the need to add. "On a normal day, I'd love to hear you talk like that."

"You would?"

"Oh, you have no idea how much."

I giggle. "I'll keep that in mind, then."


DPOV

The train has reached another stop. And it would have been a stop just like the other previous ones. Except for the fact that now I see something that seems off.

But maybe I am just paranoid. Or am I?

Along with the people that have gotten on the train now, there are some of them that seem more, let's say, aware of their surroundings. Meaning, they look all over, scanning all the seats in the wagon close to ours.

Which is not a good thing at all.

Could they only be looking for someone else?

But, fuck! I thought I was careful! I avoided everything that could have given us away. But still, if these men are looking for us, all I did, it wasn't enough. Damn you, Big Brother. I'm sure someone tracked us through cameras.

The only good thing that happens is that there are only three of them, or at least these are the only ones that I see, so this means that it won't take me much to take care of them if they pose any threat.

And to my short relief, they didn't enter our wagon, they chose the other direction, which buys me some time.

But I need to take care of this. I need to be the one finding them, not the other way around. Or at least, I need to make sure we're not in danger.

And I need to take the risk of leaving Rose here. But of course, not defenseless and not sleeping.

Moving under her slowly, I try to wake her up, which she eventually does.

"What's the matter? Did we get there?"

"No. And there's nothing going on, love." I hope it isn't. "I just wanted to go to the bathroom."

"Oh," she smiles. "And I was holding you here. Go ahead, go." she lifts off me.

Before I go, I need to make sure of something.

"Love, do you remember where the gun is, don't you?"

Rolling her eyes a little, she shakes her head. "For the thousandth time today, I know where it is. And yes, I can reach it fast. But then again, stop being so paranoid. We're far away, no one knows we're here." Oh, how I wish this was true. "Plus, you won't be gone for long. I can manage five minutes by myself, trust me." and I hope that she won't have to deal with any of the men that got on the train. I hope I'll deal with them first if it's the case.

And maybe, after all, I am indeed just paranoid. Maybe I am so used to everybody being on my tracks lately, that I forgot how it is not to be followed. This is the reason I didn't tell her what I suspected. I need to be sure before I worry her with this too.

So, with that being said, I get up and head out the wagon, following the steps of those three men.

Entering there, I see them three still looking through the seats. And hearing the door close behind me, one of them turns his head and looks at me.

Oh, I know this person. 9-2-5, I guess? блондин. Young, ambitious, eager to get rich. The worst combination for me now.


RPOV

He is not coming back and it's been what? Ten minutes?

Oh, damn you, Dimitri! I know I shouldn't worry, but hell, his paranoia starts to get to me.

No, he is fine. And I am too. I am just thinking crazy stuff. We're on a train, God knows how far from home. We are safe.

Until I find out we're not.

A hysterical woman comes in here and starts telling us that there are some people fighting out there and that they have knives and that everything is crazy and that they're killing each other and she's asking for someone to do something.

Hearing her, I can't believe it. No, it can't be.

I get up and head towards where she came from.

Getting inside the next wagon, I see no track of Dimitri. In fact, everything seems alright. Of course, if you ignore the people starting to fidget.

So where's the action? And where could he have gone?

Heading further through the wagon, pushing my way through the freaked out people, out of nowhere, a man grabs me and tries to make me shut up as I wanted to yelp in pain from his jerking.

What the hell?! Where did he come from?

My body simply reacts, despite hurting everywhere. The wonders a surge of adrenaline does, right?

I am no professional fighter, I am moving rather sloppy, but the things Dimitri has taught me are helping me buy myself some time before this guy decides to, I don't know, get out some knife and slash my neck.

So I turn on him, as he's still holding me.

I don't think he expected someone my size to put up so much of a fight, but I will be damned if I let him knock me out or whatever he wants to do to me.

In my fidgeting, I managed to get a kick to his stomach, just as Dimitri has taught me, and just as I have received so many times now. I might say that he would be really proud of me for what I've done. I managed a great punch.

He grunts at the impact and lets go of me. The motion sent him backwards and to my complete luck, he stumbled onto something. Great!

In a second, I jump on him and kick him off his balance completely, before he manages to get to a straight position and we both end up on the ground, me being the one with the upper hand, thank God.

I don't wait for too long to act. I grab him by the collar of his coat and slam his head on the ground three times, hard enough I hope to knock him out, but not that hard either, not wanting to crack his head and kill him.

Okay, he's not moving anymore. This was oddly easy. But who cares? I am good. For now, at least.

So, if I had to deal with this guy, this only means that Dimitri is somewhere around the train, fighting someone too.

But where? And how many of them are there? And why? It seems that, after all, Dimitri was right, and I was wrong to think we're safe here. But how the hell did they find us?

I'll care about this later. I need to get further. I need to find him.

Finally being able to move without someone trying to stop me, I open the door and when I want to get inside, I find myself having to stop and take a step back, stopping right in front of the little bathroom we visited earlier the night.

The man smiles at me and I see the blade of a knife shining in his hand.

How many of them are here? This is my second one. Is the whole train filled with them?

I am so close to being fucked if I don't do something about this fast.

But he starts heading towards me! And he was already close!

I have so little time on my hands and so little space for action that I start believing that this will be the end for me.

I look around me, my eyes land on the disinfectant bottle sitting on the sink into the bathroom. Yeah, this might burn.

I move as fast as I can, and as I am dodging the guy's attempt to get a hold of me, I grab the bottle and start spraying it into his eyes. In a matter of seconds, the guy starts screaming. Good.

I dodge the blade he tried to hurt me with and I take a shot to his knee, hard, and I swear I hear a snap and realize I might have broken it, but all I want is to get out of there. I'd do anything to get away. My action only makes him scream louder and he bends down and drops the knife as he tries to mend the pain in his knee without being able to see it.

Good for me. Before I get past him, I bend and get the knife, then I start running away before he decides to come after me.

But this resistant bastard does just that.

Before I manage to get to the next wagon, I feel a hand on my shoulder, pulling me back.

Oh, I forgot Dimitri's rule. I turned my back on him as he was still conscious.

But I have something that he lost. Maybe he wants it back.

And even though I've never even dreamt of doing such a thing, I don't hesitate at all to plant the knife into his thigh, damaging his good leg now.

But can you believe it? The guy doesn't give up. He is still standing, and he tries to get a hold of me. Good thing I can dodge him easily.

Annoyed by his perseverance, I hit him with my foot, exactly into the knife, pushing it deeper into his flesh. This makes him scream loud in pain as he stumbles to his knees.

Good. This gives me the chance to use on him another thing that Dimitri has taught me. I put my palms on the sides of his head and kick him with my knee into his nose, finally managing to make him stop resisting.

He crumbles to the floor and so, I can get moving again.

The people that have remained around here are scared, but they say nothing as I push them out of my way, heading towards another exit. I think they're a little afraid of me now, seeing what I've done.

I believe this was the wagon they met, as I see a lot of destroyed things. There was surely a fight here. So I need to get further.

"Don't go there," a woman says, her hand getting a hold of mine.

"Let go of me, Lady. I am going there and don't you dare stop me."

Seeing that I pose a threat to her, she lets go of me, lifting her hands defensively.

"Okay, if you are crazy enough to do it, go out there."

But before leaving, I ask her something.

"Where are they? Have you seen them?"

"I don't know. They just fought in here, all four of them. Two of them left, one got his neck snapped," she shows me a guy lying on the seats close to me, a guy that I didn't observe until now, and that thankfully, isn't Dimitri. "And the one that remained alive, he went out on that door you're about to use."

Well, at least I know I'm heading in the right direction. And I know that there are two more possible threats around here.

Opening another door, it takes me outside, between wagons. I see a ladder close to the door. And I know I must make a decision. Go up, or get further?

Despite being afraid of climbing up on this train as it is moving, my intuition tells me to do it, and I decide to listen to it.

Getting on top of the train, I see I've made a good choice. The man lying dead at about three feet in front of me is enough of a proof.

Looking past him, quite far in front of me, I something, in fact someone, moving in the distance.

I start walking towards that spot, and I need to move slow and be careful where I step as the train is moving pretty fast, making the wind blow faster than it really is, and I need to find my balance unless I want to end up flying off here and die.

I am advancing slow, but steady, and when I get closer, I see there are two persons, fighting on the ground.

Oh, please, please, please someone tell me that the one that's on top is Dimitri.

I pick up my pace, the risk of falling still present in my mind, but I need to see. I need to know if he's safe.

To my disappointment, getting close enough, I see that Dimitri is the one not having the advantage in this situation. Of course, unless he decides to dye his hair blonde and to cut it in the past fifteen minutes.

The Dimitri I know is the one pinned down and fuck it, he is being choked.

I forget about my own safety and jumping on the back of Dimitri's opponent, I wrap an arm around his neck and I put my other's palm over his face, obstructing his vision.

To my relief, his hands let go of Dimitri's neck, but hell, they get a hold of mine. Too good that I'm stubborn. I hold him tighter and pat my palm along his face, trying to stick my fingers into his eyes.

"Rose, don't." I hear Dimitri say as he is catching his breath. "Go! Let go of him and go. Run!"

But even if I wanted to, it's too late to listen to his advice.

The man gets a good grip of my hands and it doesn't take him much effort to get me off him and to push me towards the edge of the train.

And I fall.

I slip and I end up starting to fall off the train.

But maybe God loves me today because he sends my way a little handle that first hits my knee, but hey, at least I got announced of its presence there.

Before I end up somewhere under the train and cut in two, I get a hold of that handle, unfortunately with my bad hand.

This means that my life depends on three of my fingers. And I wrap these three fingers so tightly around the metal handle that they start hurting. But to hell if I am letting go. I won't die. I refuse to.

Getting a hold of my shit, I try not to panic.

I can do this. I know I can. I have to. And fast.

DPOV

He pushed Rose off the train.

He pushed Rose off the train!

No. This cannot be.

This anger I feel gives me a surge of energy, and despite the fact that I feel dizzy and that my liver hurts so badly, I push him off me and turn us around, getting on top of him.

And I start throwing punches at his face, trying to knock him out.

But in my anger, I didn't consider one thing. That his hands weren't up, trying to cover his face.

Instead, one of them took another hit at my liver. And it being already hit, this other punch does some more damage, robbing me from my breath and I start seeing black spots in front of my eyes.

But I can't afford to faint. Not now. Rose needs me. Unless…

In the time I was trying to regain control over my limbs, blondie here regained control over the situation and turning me on my back once more, when he presses the back of his palm onto my shoulder, this is what makes me react. The pain I resent seems unbearable now and all I manage to do is to attempt to hit him once again.

"Someone seems to be getting old, huh?" he gets cocky and presses his knee onto my side, again, aiming for my liver and damn it, succeeding.

"Do you have any idea how long I waited for this?"

He presses harder with his knee.

Fuck! I can't. I can't react. My body isn't listening. I can't do anything.

"I waited for the day you'd stray. And now the old man has given me the perfect chance to pay you back."

"You're… still…"

Enjoying to see me like this, he presses onto my bad shoulder too, but I do my best to not let out any sound of pain. I will not give him this satisfaction.

"Still… upset about… that?"

"Upset?! You made me look like a fool in that mission!"

"You… were a fool… long before…"

"Yeah? I was the fool? Then how come you were so stupid to take the train? And let me tell you one more thing."

He doesn't seem willing to kill me already. It seems we have a talker here. But what is the use of that if I can't do anything in the meantime?

I wish so badly to move, to fight back, but he has me pinned down and at each move, the pain I feel makes even harder to try to move again.

RPOV

Dragging my body up on the horizontal surface of the train comes as a blissful rest. It took me a lot to do it, but I am here now, getting up on my fours.

He didn't even bother to look to see if I was dead. Bad move. You never turn your back on someone until you're sure it is not a threat to you anymore.

But now, how can I take advantage of this and help Dimitri?

If I'd jump on him again, he would make sure that this time I die.

But shit! Neither Dimitri, neither I don't have much time. I don't know what they did as I was struggling to climb back on the train, but this motherfucker got back to trying to strangle Dimitri. Is this his way of killing? He seems to like approaching it.

But one good thing comes out of it.

As Dimitri still fights back, his foot hits something. Something very helpful for me and him, pushing it my way.

I crawl towards it, ignoring all the signals that my body transmits to me concerning a soon possibility of fainting. I am drained of energy, but I won't stop.

Getting a hold of the cold metal, after I check it and see that I have only one chance of getting this right, I start getting up to my feet.

When I do so, behind the blonde guy, Dimitri sees me and his eyes widen.

No. This can't be. We haven't gotten this far only to have gotten this far.

He is on top of Dimitri and it is a matter of choice. His life is on the line. It's either him, or Dimitri, the person I love so much.

I know what I have to do. I've known for a while.

Getting a good grip on the handle, it's time to use this gun.

I remember everything Dimitri taught me.

I pin my feet on the wobbly metal under me.

I put my hands around the gun, trying not to squeeze it too hard, but I am so afraid that I don't follow this indication and I am not even able to feel my fingers from the grip I have on the gun.

I put my index on the trigger.

I take in a deep breath.

Don't close your eyes, Rose, don't close them. You need to see your target clearly.

I can't let Dimitri die.

And oh, even if they're moving, I take my chances and pull the trigger.

DPOV

I hear the gunshot first, then I feel its outcome.

It's all over my face and chest, thick and hot. Blood.

Blondie's head got blown away by the bullet and in the next second, his body goes limp over mine, the grip on my neck loosening enough to allow me again to breathe.

Rose. Rose is alive. And she shot him. She saved me.

Gaining my strengths, I push his body off me and greedily take fast breaths in, fighting my nausea.

Getting up to my butt, my eyes land on Rose.

She is sitting there, gun in her hand, looking at her hands, shaking from every joint.

"Oh my God. What have I done? Oh, no, what have I done? I've killed him!"

Getting up to my feet, I do my best to rush towards her.

I can only imagine what she is feeling. My first killing wasn't easy either. It wasn't at all. I was trained for that, but not even the best training couldn't prepare me for seeing a man dying of my hands.

"What have I done?!"

She begins to cry and getting close enough to her, I try to take the gun away from her hands.

"Get the hell away from me!" she points it at me and I raise my palms.

"Hey, Rose, it's me. It's me, Dimitri. I'm not going to do anything to you, alright? You're safe now."

She looks at me confused, and it takes her a little while to recognize me. When she does, she points the gun down and I dare take some steps even closer.

"Dimitri, I… you… I had to."

"I know, I know, love. But why don't you give that to me now, will you?"

I point to the gun and she looks her hands, and like getting scared of it, she lets go of it. It's fine either way, as long as she doesn't see it anymore. But she's still staring at her hands.

"What have I done? Dimitri, what I have done?" she keeps on asking me this as she starts shaking again.

"Roza." I get a hold of her hands, bringing her attention back to me. "It is alright. It will be alright. Everything will be, I promise."

She comes closer to me too, dissolving the remaining distance between us and rounds her arms on me and holds me tight, her cheek glued to mine.

"God… you… you were right... they were… they found us… and I- I killed him, Dimitri. I killed him. I couldn't… I had to."

Holding her tightly onto my chest, I soothe her hair and I move her slowly from left to right, trying to temper her sobs.

"Shh, it's alright. I know, love. God, I know. But…" how I hate myself for what I have to say next. "Love, we have to move. There might be more of them coming. They might be around the train and we need to get away from here."

"Why?" she sobs into the crook of my neck.

"We can't stay here. We're in danger. And we're close to reaching another town. Who knows, if they found us, there could be some more people coming for us."

"But how did they find us?"

"They have always been resourceful. This time, they just used the cameras. He did, anyway. Those were everywhere in town. And he saw the train we got onto. He didn't see us get off it. So, he knew where we'd be, which station to get on the train. And if he did, so could someone else. That's why we need to go now."

She takes in the information and lifting off me, she takes a hold of herself, nodding and wiping her tears away, leaving behind smudges of blood that she probably took from my neck and cheek. But even though, the tears still fall, leaving behind clean trails through the blood.

It must be so hard for her, all of this. All I want to do is to soothe her, to hold her and tell her it will all be alright, but we can't afford to do that now. I can't do it, knowing that she is still in danger.

"What… what do we do?"

"We'll need to jump off the train."

On a normal day, she would to argue me. But not now. She just nods.

"From up here?" is her only question.

"No. We'll descend and we'll jump from there."

I take her hand in mine and we head towards the ladder that will take us down.

I get down first and help her do the same.

I briefly tell her what she should do so that she won't get much damage to any parts of the body, and all she wants to know in return is if she could hold my hand, asking me that with a trembling voice that she tries very hard to hide.

I bring her closer to me and kiss her forehead.

Pulling away, I take her hand in mine and we jump.

Hitting the wet earth on this field comes as a little cushion to the impact. It didn't hurt as much as I expected, but it still did.

Opening my eyes, I still feel her hand holding mine, so, so tightly. And I am glad that we didn't get pulled apart and that I managed to land in such a way that she would be on top of me.

"You're alright, love?" I get her hair out of her face and look for any trace of a wound.

"Yeah, I am. What about you? Did I hit you? I-"

"Don't you worry about that."

We both get up and for one more second, I allow myself to think with my heart before I let my brain take over.

I embrace her once again and hold her tight for a little while.

"I'm sorry, Roza. For everything." for what already happened and for what will happen next.

As we make our way towards the city nearby, walking through the wet earth that's slowing us down and through the coldness of this December early morning, she is far gone in her mind, and even though all I want to do is to stop and hold her and soother her, I know I cannot, not now, and it is eating me alive. I need to make sure she's safe first.

In about ten minutes, ten long, painful minutes, we get to the suburbs. But not the fancy, rich ones. Which might be good. Around these areas, people don't tend to ask too many questions if you have the right amounts of money. Good thing I still have my wallet on me.

Still holding hands, in this unbearable silence, we walk these streets until I see a building that looks like and I hope is a motel.

To my luck, I even find someone to greet us at the front table.

I get ourselves a room and I dare ask for some extra blankets and towels, of course, for the right amount of money.

Getting inside the room, I still can't let go of my practical thoughts. I need to get her out of these wet, dirty clothes. She is freezing and shivering all over. Then, I'll take care of the other things.

I guide her towards the bathroom, and again, too lost into her thoughts, she doesn't say or ask anything.

"Roza?" I cup her cheeks and make her look at me.

"Huh?" she seems to acknowledge my presence just now.

"I'll undress you, okay? Is that okay?"

"Where are we?"

"We're… oh, love." I take her in my embrace and give in to my heart for a little as I hold her. "I took you somewhere safe." at least no one will know we're here for the next hours. "And now I am going to get you clean and warm, okay?"

"Yeah, okay, do whatever you want," she says and I swear to God that she sounds like she'd be high on some drug and her mind wandering to far places.

After I help her undress, I throw my clothes too over the pile of her clothes and turning on the water in the shower, I guide her in there.

She stares at nothing in particular as I wash the blood off her skin and mine, and I don't stop until I feel her ceasing to shiver and the water going down the drain gets clean and foamy.

We get out and wipe ourselves, this thing being something that she wanted to do by herself, but again, in complete silence.

Having no other clean clothes, I use the extra blankets I asked for to get us covered and to keep us warm.

Getting back into the room, she goes and sits down on the bed, her eyes staring at the ground as I impatiently start walking in front of her.

What should I do now? What should I say? How can I make it better? How can I make things right?

Now that I can finally deal with this, I have no idea how.

After another minute of fidgeting, I stop and crouch in front of her.

I take her hands in mine and as she looks at me, the tiniest smile appears on her lips at my sight.

"Roza, I want to tell you something."

"About?"

"About the man you… about him. He… he wasn't a good man. He was-"

"And this is supposed to make me feel better? The fact that he wasn't good is supposed to make me feel good about the fact that I killed him, Dimitri? What if he was so bad? He is- was a human being. He deserved to be punished, not murdered. By me! I killed him." and with these words, she breaks in tears again. "I killed him. I'm a murderer."

I try to wipe away her tears and tell her it will all be fine, that it doesn't matter, and so many other things, but nothing works. Nothing of what I do or say makes her stop hurting.

"Roza, I don't know what to do to make you feel better. I wish you didn't have to use that gun. I wish you would have let me there. I wish you wouldn't have had to do it. I'm so sorry. What can I do? Please, Rose, tell me. Please. Anything you say, I'll do it. What can I do to take this pain away?"

"Hold me and don't let go of me."

"Sure. I'll… I'll hold you." forever. I will hold her for as long as she needs it.

Getting in bed next to her, I move really slow and gentle because hell, I feel that if I move too fast, I'll break her in a million pieces that I'll have no idea how to put back together.

Spreading my arms, I wait for her to cuddle into me so that I wouldn't make a wrong move.

Letting go of her blanket, she puts her arms around my torso, bringing her warm, damp flesh over mine, then, with a small sigh, she rests her head on my shoulder. I lay us down and put the blankets on us, to keep us warm.

I don't say anything more, I just soothe her back and wait. I wait for her to stop crying, I wait for her to speak. We have to talk about this. We can't leave things like this, I know it so damn well.

Outside, the sun is already starting to rise and small, faint, orange dashes of light play one her puffy features. I'm glad that at least we got here before the sunrise. It's easier to hide into darkness.

Some minutes later, this silence gets too much for me. I can feel her pain radiate through her body onto mine and it's breaking my heart. She has been through so much. She shouldn't endure this burden too.

Walking my lips along her forehead for two kisses, I get her attention.

"I am sorry you had to do that. But I thank you, Roza. You saved my life."

"Tell me something."

"What?"

"Just something. It doesn't have to be important. I don't know, anything you want. Tell me your favorite song or anything like that, something you like. Something you love. Tell me your pet's name if you ever had one when you were little. A book you liked when you were fifteen or your favorite ice cream flavor. I need to know something like that. Just give me a part of you. Anything. Tell me a single word about you. About what makes you, you. Human. Just let me know that there is more to you than all of this, this thing that you do. More than all this death. Let me know that you are still a someone on your own, not just someone that they turned you into. That you are still human. Tell me anything. Just tell me something about you. It doesn't have to be something big. You know all these things about me. And I don't have a single clue about you. I know close to nothing about you. I began to fall in love with a complete stranger."

Her words take me by surprise and I need to pull my face a little away from hers so that I could watch her better.

"I am in love with a stranger. With you, Dimitri."