Why not drop a new chapter out of the blue after 6ish years?
I'll leave the Authors Note for another day, for the meantime, I'm happy to be back, enjoy guys!
Gina xx
Once dinner arrangements had been made, Dimitri and I both changed into workout gear, and left our apartment once more, deciding to spend the few hours we had to kill in the Guardian gym.
It stood in an unassuming building not far from our headquarters, built in the same style as the other, mostly administrative buildings around it, blending in seamlessly. The bland entrance; which housed a reception desk, a small seating area and a very sad looking plant, was much the same as the rest of the Guardian buildings too; all practicality over style or comfort. The polar opposite to Lissa's official royal office I mused as we walked through the main doors.
Either side of the reception area were a set of grey doors. The doors to the left led to a small flight of stairs, which opened onto a viewing gallery that overlooked the interior of the gym. This part of the building was open to the public, and many came to watch the guardians' training. Royal Moroi would occasionally come to watch when they were shopping for a new GUardian, especially when the Guardians came straight from graduation. You would occasionally get groups of Moroi women come in just to watch the male guardians working out, giggling with each other and speaking in hushed tones. When I watched Dimitri train, I can't say I blamed them all that much.
Dimitri and I headed to the doors on the right, into the gym itself. We scanned out IDs on the panel on the wall and the doors clicked open; while there were many gyms in court, the training area in this one was reserved for the guardians. We passed the changing rooms and weights rooms and headed straight for the main training room. We had apparently both agreed, without actually having spoken, where we would be training.
Whereas the rest of the building we had passed through looked just like all of the office buildings surrounding it, reaching the main gym told a much different story. The majority of the training centre consisted of one large open room that took up most of the ground floor. Set out much like our combat classrooms had been back at the academy, there were practice mats and sparing areas along one wall, as well as a large cage that held practice dummies, balance blocks and an assortment of other equipment at the back of the room. Mirrors lined the full wall next to the training mats, making the already large room look even bigger.
The opposite side of the gym is where things got a lot cooler. A huge climbing wall filled two thirds of this wall. Half of the course was a dark blue surface, with brightly coloured hand and foot holes jutting from the face of it. The other half looked more like natural rock, and the places to grip and climb were much harder to spot. Climbing harnesses and ropes hung from the ceiling in front of it, though these were currently tidied against the wall on a hook. A pair of double doors in the far corner past the rock wall led to a small firing range. Guardians didn't tend to use guns, but would use them in exceptional circumstances; like say, if someone were accused of treason and was on the run through suburban Michigan. We were all trained with firearms and the range kept us sharp.
Beyond the doors to the firing range, stood what was essentially, an adult jungle gym. Bars to climb and stand on, uneven ground and large obsitles made for tight and awkward fighting quarters; which was exactly the point in it.
Next to the door that we had entered through, there was a storage cupboard with yet more equipment, a small first aid room, and a door that led to an outdoor practice area; which consisted of a large flat grass area, about half the size of a football field, with a running track around the outside of it.
Dimitri and I headed out there first, both preferring laps to running on a treadmill. We did our warm up laps in comfortable silence, Dimitri only slowing slightly so I could keep pace beside him with my much shorter legs.
We returned inside after our laps, heading to the closest sparing pat to stretch. There were plenty of people around us, since it was midday for us and plenty of Moroi still lingered in court with their Guardians following the coronation and subsequent offensive strike, and while there was a buzz of activity and conversation around us, we were still able to speak to one another without raising our voices above a hushed tone.
"Mia will be coming with Eddie for dinner." Dimitri said, matter of factly.
"Really, that will be nice, I haven't spent much time with her. You know, besides when she sneaks me extra fries." I said, genuinely excited to see my friend. Besides when we went to the coffee shop, I'd hardly seen her since my return to court. Dimitri gave a half smile at my fries comment when a thought occurred to me. "How did she know about our dinner plans though?"
"She was with Eddie when Lissa called him."
I raised my eyebrows, coming to a conclusion that Dimitri wasn't invested enough in my friends' love lives to have come to himself. "Interesting" I said slowly. Dimitri paused his stretching, turning his head to look me in the eye, making it clear that he had caught my meaning.
"What?" I asked, feigning innocence. Dimitri didn't buy it.
"Don't start playing cupid."
"I just want them to be happy, Dimitri. To have what we have. They both deserve it."
He gave me a small smile, tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear, otherwise not responding to what I had said. Instead, he inclined his head towards the middle of the mat, waiting for me to get into position opposite him. We fell into a fighting stance, and with an unspoken cue, we sprang into action.
We took turns striking out and avoiding attacks, dancing around each other within the boundary of the mat. We were both so in sync that we were able to anticipate each other's moves. We had long since stopped worrying about hurting each other, Dhampirs are tough and heal quickly, and we knew it was more harmful to hold back in the long run. I took a long time, but I eventually had an opening, I took it. Snaking my leg out, I hooked my foot behind Dimitri's knee, trying to knock him to the ground. He didn't fall, he was too good for that, but I managed to disrupt his balance just long enough to launch another attack, using my full weight to wrestle him to the ground. We grappled for position, each trying to keep the others' back to the mat.
I manage to wrestle him to the mat, hooking my legs over his to keep him from kicking out. As I brought my hand palm down onto the middle of his chest, signifying a staking and so ending the match, he twisted his body, knocking my arm to the side, making me miss my target. The movement also caused me to lose my grip on him for a fraction of a second, just long enough to allow him to swap our positions, so that he hovered over me, trying to restrain my wrist above my head with one hand, so that he could make his move to "stake" me.
He managed to get both of my hands out of action, and I knew that he was going to win this fight. So I decided the only thing to do was to fight dirty. I bit him. Hard.
A sharp intake of breath from Dimitri told me what I already knew. It had hurt. I'd chosen the soft skin on the inside of the forearm that held my hands over my head as my target; as it was close enough to my mouth that all I had to do was move my neck to the side. Dimitri flinched slightly, giving me the only chance I needed. I bucked my hips, taking advantage of the distraction and flipping us again. I also didn't hesitate in striking out my hand again, this time making contact with the centre of his chest.
Our fighting stilled, our eyes locked and our breathing began to slow. We were suspended in time, the whole universe constricting so that all that existed was Dimitri and me. It reminded me so starkly of the time we had battled during my trials, that it was almost like being back at the academy. I thought that the silence around us was just because we were so wrapped up in our little world, but as my mind came back to the present, I found that it really was silent around us. For a moment at least. Then, suddenly there were whistles and whoops around us. We straightened up, turning to see that everyone around us had stopped what they were doing to watch me and Dimitri fight. Even the onlookers from the balcony above were watching.
Our eyes met again briefly as we stood from the mat, as we did I tried to squash the sexual tension that was bubbling within me. While I wasn't shy in showing my affection towards Dimitri, I didn't think that a room full of our colleagues was the right place to throw myself at him, as much as I wanted to at that moment. I did notice however that some of my colleagues in the room weren't looking at me in a particularly professional way. Dimitri caught some of the looks that I was receiving, and slid an arm around my waist, leaning down to speak low in my ear, so only I heard. "You don't play fair."
I laughed a little breathlessly at his words, trying not to let on how much the proximity affected me. I knew that the arm he had wrapped around me was a possessive gesture, a challenge to every other person in the room to try and get near me. On any other man it would be somewhere between annoying and downright offensive, but with Dimitri I didn't mind it. In fact, I liked it. Glancing up to the balcony, I saw that a group of Moroi women I had often noticed in here, watching the training, were looking at Dimitri in very much the same way that others in the room were looking at me, and I left a jolt of possessiveness spike in myself. Taking Dimitri's lead, I turned my head to look him in the eyes, not moving my head back so that our faces were inched from each other.
"I never did, Comrade." I said, smiling sweetly at him. He gave me a fleeting smile at the familiar nickname, standing back up to his full height, effectively breaking the tension that had been building between us again, though his hand stayed where it was.
Between our laps and very public sparring match, we had burned through most of the time that we had to kill before dinner, so we headed back to the changing rooms to shower and change. As we were both permanent fixtures around court; at least, until Lissa went to college and christian did, well, whatever he was planning on doing, so we each had lockers in the changing rooms that were just ours, meaning that we could keep some changes of clothes, as well as a spare guardian uniform here at the gym. That really came in handy, saying as i was never one for a lot of forward planning. A fact that I was reminded of when I stepped out of the shower wrapped in a fluffy towel and realised I had no changes of underwear with me. Glancing back at the clothes I had just taken off, I wrinkled my nose at the thought of having to put them on again, andI decided it would be safer to brave the walk back to our apartment without. I grabbed a t-shirt and tracksuit pants from my locker and quickly changed, toweling off my hair and quickly brushing it though, pulling it into a high pony and heading out to meet Dimitri.
He was already waiting for me as I left the changing room, leaning against the wall not far from me. He had changed too, his hair loose, framing his face, curling slightly at the ends as it dried. He had a drawstring bag slung over his shoulder, and took it off as I approached, and held it open for me to put the clothes I had just taken off into it. His eyes swept over me, taking me in, the ghost of a smile spreading over his lips. "Forget something?" He asked, eyes traveling my body again. Damn.
I elbowed him and stared down the corridor, deciding not to confirm what the look on his face told me he already knew. He chuckled, falling into step beside me, but didn't say anything further. We walked out of the building in comfortable silence, easily ignoring the eyes that now followed us as we walked through the reception and out into the fresh night air. We were used to the looks by now, and were both in too good a mood to care about the watching eyes. As we left the gym and headed towards our apartment building we found the court surprisingly quiet. The night had turned cooler since we had first headed out, and the wind had picked up. I crossed my arms over my chest as a particularly cold wind blew over my skin, the thin cotton of my shirt doing little against the sudden cold. I saw Dimitri glance over at my movement, and that small knowing smile was back on his face. He glanced around us discreetly and, with no warning, pulled me into a small alley in between the two office buildings we were passing.
My yelp of surprise was cut off by his lips covering mine, smothering any questions that may have made it to my lips. He pulled back just as quickly, his body still crowding me as my back hit the cold stone of the side of the building. I looked round uneasily, sure someone would walk past the end of the alley. "Dimitri, we could get caught." I hissed. He didn't move away though. He ran his knuckles gently over my cheek, trailing down my neck and further still, to graze gently over my hardening nipples, affected by more than just the cold now. The contact made me shiver, breathing in sharply. Dimitri's smirk increased, bringing his lips back down to mine. "You don't play fair Roza." he murmured his earlier words against my lips, kissing me lightly. His hands found their way under my shirt, surprisingly warm in the cold night air. We deepened the kiss, Dimitri pulling me closer, one hand snaking around my back, fingers spaying out against my skin. His other hand stayed on my waist, keeping me in place against him.
"I didn't do it on purpose, I just forgot" I replied when Dimitri moved his lips to train down my neck. For some reason, it was important at that moment that he knew I wasn't intentionally trying to be a temptress and break his self control, although I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the effects. Dimitri seemed to put the pieces of what I had said together, and he pulled back slightly, far enough that he could look down at me. I watched as he looked down at my body again, bringing his eyes back to mine with a dangerous glint in his eyes. Without breaking my gaze, I felt the hand that rested on my hip work it was lower, going under the waistband of my pants and moving between my legs. When he found no barrier between his wandering fingers and my wet centre, he muttered a string of obscenities in Russian, moving his fingers in teasing circles as he watched my reaction. I bit my lip, trying not to make any noise. It didn't work.
When Dimitri's skilled fingers entered me, a low moan escaped my lips, my knees going weak. Dimitri's hand at my back kept me steady, and he swallowed my moan in an intense kiss.
And like that, the contact was gone. Dimitri had stepped back, leaving me panting, using the wall behind me as support. He watched me, eyes hooded and full of lust. His face hid none of his emotioned, like it usually did. It was clear to read the longing and love in his face, as well as what could only be described as smugness. Keeping his eyes locked with mine, he draught his fingers to his lips, sucking them into his mouth. Mine dropped open. It was so unexpected, so undeniably bold and erotic. Dimitri's self satisfaction grew at my astonishment, and he stepped toward me again. I hoped he would finish what he had started, cold alley or not. Instead, in a level voice he said, "Come on, we'll be late for dinner."
I stood staring at him, dumbfounded. Surely he didn't mean. "What? I have to go change."
"No time. Let's go." He said simply.
"You don't play fair." I retorted, making it clear that I knew exactly what game he was playing.
He simply chuckled, taking my hand. "I never did, Roza."
