Rose's final trials at St Vlad's in a Dimitri Never Turned AU

"Are you meditating?"

Rose, leant against the wall of the barracks, forced her fingers to stop drumming against the fresh wood and cracked open an eye to find Dimitri standing, arms folded and imposing, before her. She opened the other eye and grinned at him, allowing her gaze to drift over him for one, long, delicious second to distract herself from the other students and instructors milling around.

"Struggling not to fall asleep," she lied just to make him frown.

She was rewarded with a crease forming between his eyebrows and he shook his head, even as some of tension in his shoulders eased at her joking tone. "Rose," he said, moving closer, and it wasn't quite a chastisement but there was something warning in his tone. "You need to take this seriously."

Rose rolled her eyes half-heartedly but her smile widened. "Please," she scoffed. "You and I both know I could do this blindfolded. Hell, maybe I will." She threw him a suggestive look despite their audience and practically purred, "And maybe I'll let you take it off for me later."

His eyes darkened at the implication of her words, at the thought of the celebration they could have later, just the two of them, for the trials that were closer to a graduation for her than any ceremony would be. Then he shook his head, muttering something in Russian that sounded like a plea for patience.

Dimitri's arrival had been a welcome distraction but even he couldn't stop her wince when a loud cheer, followed by a low groan, rose up from the crowd looking down on the arena just on the other side of the barracks. She gritted her teeth and forced herself not to twist around and look, not join those crowding the doorway to see what their classmate had done to trigger that reaction. Rose focused her gaze straight ahead and tried to summon a sense of calm back to her.

Dimitri, careful eyes not missing a detail, eyed her with renewed concern. "Rose," he said, too purposefully for her to ignore. "You're going to be fine."

"Of course, I am," she said, but the bravado from moments ago was gone from her voice.

Dimitri glanced around at the others sharing the space, before sliding an arm around her shoulders and nudging her in the opposite direction of the arena until they were alone outside.

"Talk to me, Rose," he said quietly, as she leant against the wall and ducked her head. He put one hand on the wall beside her head, wishing she would meet his eye but she remained steadfastly staring at the ground.

"What if I screw up?"

The words were barely more than a whisper, but they clanged through Dimitri so that he couldn't help but bring up his other hand to trace it down the side of her face, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"Why would you think you're going to screw up? You're so talented-"

A frustrated sigh escaped Rose and she leaned away from him, folding her arms with a scowl. But he instinctively knew that it wasn't him she was angry with.

"Yeah, I'm talented, that's what everyone always says, but what good is talent if I can't use it at the right time?"

"You're talented," Dimitri said again, as if she hadn't interrupted. "But more than that you've put in the hard work, Rose. You've studied, and you've trained, and I know you're going to do well."

Her mouth twisted but there was a shrewd kind of hope shining in her eyes as she finally looked up to meet his gaze. "You believe in me?"

"Of course I do."

Rose pressed her lips together and glanced away but this time Dimitri thought it was a different emotion she was suppressing this time. "No one's ever said that to me before," she admitted, wrinkling her nose at her own vulnerability.

Before Dimitri could respond she looked back at him and reached up to slide a hand behind his neck as she rose up on her toes. It was instinct to wrap an arm around her waist as she leaned in to press a sweet, unusually chaste, kiss to his lips.

"Okay," she breathed once they separated only far enough for her to lean her forehead gently against his. "Let's do it."

"You can do this," he said firmly and she nodded.

She wasn't at her usual level of Rose bravado but there was something more sure and settled in her as her eyes fluttered open and she nodded again, lowering back down but not looking away from him.

"I can do this."

Oh my goodness, sorry this took me so long to write/update I had no idea what to write for so long. I just had no inspo. Then Meg from the discord server (queenlissa on tumblr) gave me this idea so massive shout out to her! I hope you liked it :D