This was going to be longer, but I split it up because the next two chapters will be the most intense/drama filled. Enjoy!

Disclaimer- All characters belong to Richelle Mead.

I had the same nervous energy coursing through me as I made my to Dimitri's art class the following day. I noticed I had been feeling that way anytime I would see him.

I don't know what I expected from him when I came here. Maybe a few warm looks passed between us, ones we tried to avoid but seemed to be occurring more and more every time we were together. Or maybe I thought he would bring up our session from yesterday. Anything it was, I was looking forward to it.

I entered quietly, seeing him talking to the woman had been modeling for the week. He flashed me a quick, sweet look that had me feeling warm inside for the remainder of the class.

We had picked up a habit of waiting for everyone else to leave so we could walk to our cars together, but tonight I actually had to talk to him.

"You ready to head out?" he asked, slinging his bag over his shoulder.

"Yes, I just needed to tell you something really quick."

He nodded and joined me at my side, and the two of slowly made our way to the parking lot.

"So I just found out yesterday, but something has come up next Saturday. It's with my dad and I didn't have any excuse to give him since I'm mostly free during the weekend and it actually is important that I go out with him. I hate doing this since we just started, but I really won't be able to make it. And this will only be a one time thing! You don't have to worry about me cancelling every week," I rambled on apologetically and stopped only after noticing a small smile gracing Dimitri's face. "What?"

"You don't have to worry about cancelling. I understand you might have other plans come up, especially on a Saturday. It's no issue for me Rose."

I breathed a sigh of relief. Dimitri had changed so much since our first encounter, that I often forgot how much sweeter and softer he had become towards me.

"Plus if this can have you ramble on like an idiot then I know you wouldn't have wanted to cancel in the first place." I pushed his shoulder hard, causing him to stumble into the door of his car and eliciting a deep laugh from him.

It was the first time I had heard him truly laugh, and I loved the sound so much, I told myself I had to make him laugh more often.

He had opened the back door of his truck and put his bag in and then strode over just as I reached my front door. It had become a wordless habit of ours, Dimitri opening up my door for me before I even had the chance to touch the door handle.

"Oh before I forget! When are we going to start our art lessons?" I asked him, standing between him and the open door.

"Well we can do it here so you can use all the supplies you need. But I know you have a lot of homework this week so we can start only once you've finished all of that."

"How do you know I have that much homework?"

"Teachers talk," Dimitri said shrugging.

I grumbled in annoyance, but I knew keeping my grades up were more important. I wanted to better my art skills to improve my chances of getting into a good college, but none of that would matter if I had shitty grades in school.

"I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Definitely Roza."

Smiling, I turned and sat in my car, with Dimitri shutting the door behind me. He stood there and waited until I pulled out of the parking lot. Looking in my rearview mirror, I took one last look at Dimitri before turning down the street and making my way home.

XXXX

By Thursday's art class, I had been all caught up on my homework enough that I wanted to start my first one-on-one art session with Dimitri. As everyone packed up and left, I stayed in my seat.

"You want to start today?" He asked me.

"If you have time…" I trailed off. I didn't want to take up his time if he had something more important to do.

"I do Rose." Dimitri came with a blank sheet to put on my easel. "Anything specific you feel like you need some work on?"

"Yes, remember last week you had us draw the limbs individually? I want to practice more with that. I think it'll help me get better with drawing the whole body in perfect proportions."

"That's a good place to start Rose. How about we spend a few sessions on one specific part of the body, like hands or eyes. And from there, we'll work up to connecting them. So maybe in a few weeks, I'll have you drawing the chest and arms or everything below the waist. Once you take it step by step, it'll start to become so much easier."

I loved that idea. Not only did Dimitri's reasoning make sense for my art skills to improve in the long run, it also seemed like this tutoring session would last a lot longer that our Literature sessions. And that reason alone made me excited to spend the next upcoming weeks- even months- holed up in the art studio with Dimitri.

"What do you want to start with?"

"Um, I'll start with the hands. And then I'll move onto the harder stuff."

"I know there isn't a live model here, so I'm going to print out an enlarged picture for you to follow." Dimitri went to his laptop, finding an image for me, while I got my canvas ready.

"What will you be doing while I draw?"

"I have a lot of papers to grade and whenever you're done, we can call it a night."

Dimitri print out a large image of a hand, which was so detailed, I could see the lines on its knuckles. He put another canvas in front of me and to the side and hung the image to it, so I could look up at it while I drew.

"Can you see this easily, or should I move it closer?"

"That's perfect, thank you."

He smiled and wordlessly got to work on grading his assignments. I was very much an 'act first, think later' type of person, but I realized with art, it was impossible for me to rush into it. I took a few moments to examine the picture to get an idea on where to start when a clicking from Dimitri caught my attention. He was completely focused on grading so he hadn't noticed me staring at him. As usual, he was chewing on his bottom lip as he read the paper in front of him. He looked so handsome, I had a hard time tearing my eyes away from him. Lowering my eyes briefly from his face, I noticed him clicking his pen on and off as he read and I doubted he even realized he was doing it. I focused on that hand, large and tan with a few tiny cuts covering his knuckles. He had rolled his sleeves up during our actual art class so his muscular forearms were in full display. His arm all the way past his wrist were covered in dark hairs and it added to his manliness.

Without thinking twice about it, I raised my charcoal to the canvas and began sketching. I didn't look at the picture Dimitri had printed out for me; my entire focus was on his hand instead.

XXXX

"All done," I said a little over a half an hour later. I saw Dimitri scribbling on a paper before clicking his pen and setting it down.

"Perfect, so am I," he said. I thought I would be nervous about Dimitri seeing what I drew, but I wasn't. If anything, I wanted to see his reaction.

"Was it easy to follow the picture?" I didn't reply and waited him for him to come stand by me so he could see for himself. "Well was-" he cut himself off as he finally looked at the canvas. At first glance, it might seem like I had just tweaked some of the details of the picture Dimitri had printed out. But the difference was obvious to an artist. "That's not…." He trailed off; he was obviously surprised as he stared at the canvas.

He knew what I had used as inspiration, but I wanted him to be 100% sure. As he stood there staring, I wordlessly reached down and grabbed his left hand, the same one I had sketched. His head snapped in my direction as my thumb gently ran across the tiny scars on his knuckles.

"What do you think?"

"Huh?" he said as I continued to stroke his hand.

"Of the drawing," I clarified, nodding towards.

"Oh right, its good Rose. Very detailed and you got it done fast," he stuttered and I had to bite my lip from smiling.

I did a quick a sketch, but still tried to add as many details as I could; the veins that ran up his hand indicating his true strength, his long and thick fingers, the peppering of dark hair a little ways past his wrist, and the pen that he held loosely between his fingers. I kind of understood now why Dimitri wanted to draw me. I had only sketched his hand and I wanted to draw as much of him as he'd let me.

"Maybe next session, you can do something else with your hand so I can draw that," I suggested. Dimitri stared into eyes and nodded wordlessly. I gave his hand one last squeeze before reluctantly dropping it.

I wish I could draw more and spend some more time with him, but it was a school night and I didn't want my dad to worry.

He had been quieter than usual this week and I knew it had to do with my mom's upcoming birthday. We celebrated each birthday together and as a family for as long as I could remember. This would be the first time it'd just be my dad and I. And I knew if I thought about my mom's absence long enough, I'd become just as sad as my dad was.

XXXX

Saturday rolled on faster than I thought, as I got ready for lunch with my dad. Since I had a session with Deirdre right after, my dad and I decided it'd be smarter to just take two cars so I could go to my therapy session straight from there.

My dad picked a cute little Turkish restaurant a little ways from the house. There weren't many around and while the three of us enjoyed Turkish cuisine, only my mom knew how to properly cook it. Luckily we came after the lunch rush so there were only two other cars in the lot- a jeep and Honda.

We ordered our drinks and food almost immediately after sitting down and then got settled in.

"What's your costume for tonight? You said it's a group one with Lissa and her boyfriend." My dad asked once the waitress walked away.

"Yeah Lissa asked if we could include Christian in it and the only one I could think of was from the movie Mean Girls." I explained to him I wanted all three of us to wear matching Christmas skirts, red tank tops and Santa hats, but Christian still wasn't on board with the idea. It was either that or he wouldn't be included in the group.

"That's mean Kiz."

"Matching costumes are Lissa and I's thing from the time we were 6 years old. He should be happy I even agreed."

The waitress, a tall woman with pitch-black hair came back with our drinks and food. She kept her eyes on my dad, even while putting down my plate in front of me.

"So celebrating a special occasion?"

My dad and I looked at one another and quickly shook our heads. We were here for my mom, a pathetic way to keep part of our birthday celebration traditions alive. But neither of us were ready to actually talk about it or even explain it to this stranger.

God, I'm talking like my mom is dead or something.

"No, no just catching up with my daughter."

For the first time since we walked in, she finally looked at me though her eyes weren't as friendly as they were when looking at my dad.

"Daughter? Wow you look so young to be a dad."
I looked at her in question, finally realizing that she was hitting on him, with absolutely no regard to the fact that I was sitting right here with him. And he was realizing it, too. Maybe it was the tone of voice she said it in, or the way she kept her greedy eyes trained on him, but I noticed my dad begin to check her out, too.

"Call my name if you need anything," she said in sickly sweet voice, finally leaving us alone.

I took a big bite of the kabob in front of me and spoke with my mouth full. "Do you have any plans for tonight?"

I looked up when he didn't answer only to find him staring at the waitress who had walked away.

"Dad?" I said again, getting his attention.

"Did you say something Kiz?"

"Yes, but I guess it wasn't as important as that waitress's ass."

I don't know why I was so angry. I wanted my dad to move on from my mom, but I didn't think he would do it with the first woman who made a pass at him. On my mom's birthday no less.

"What is your problem?"

"My problem? I cancelled really important plans so we could spend mom's birthday together and you're more focused on that waitress than me."

"I am completely focused on you Rose," he argued though I wasn't convinced. He picked up his fork and began eating, too. "And by the way, what plans did you have? You only mentioned your therapy session and your party tonight."

I internally winced, cursing myself for even saying that. My dad had no idea I met with Dimitri on Saturdays so he could paint me, and I needed to keep it that way.

"Nothing, I just meant I could've spent this time doing some school work or going to the gym," I quickly recovered.

A few silent and awkward minutes passed between us, before he felt the need to clarify. " I wasn't checking her out."

I should have kept my mouth shut or just agreed with him, but maybe it was that waitresses unashamedly flirting with him or the fact that my dad was lying, but I couldn't let it go.

"Sure you weren't."

I saw my dad's hand tightly close around the fork in his hand before he not so gently put it back on the table. "You know what Kiz, so what if I was. Why would that bother you?"

"Are you serious? Why wouldn't it bother me? You're my dad and its moms bir-"

"Don't," he put his hand out and stopped me. "Just don't. She's not here right now, is she?" My dad hissed in anger and I jumped back in hurt. It was as if he had struck me; I had never heard my dad sound so angry. "She left us."

I felt a pain in the palm of my hands and noticed I was clenching my hands so tightly, my nails were making marks against my skin.

"Then why the fuck are we here Dad?"

I didn't wait for him to respond. I pushed my chair back and grabbed a hold of my coat.

"I'm going to Dierdre's. Don't expect me home tonight."

"Kiz-"

I didn't let him finish, and tried really hard not to look at him as I left. My dad took up the biggest space in my heart and if I saw the hurt expression that I was sure must be on his face, I wouldn't be able to handle it.