I was left feeling puzzled after my conversation with Rose, and kept turning over the idea that there had been rescue missions that I wasn't involved with. I decided that I should mention it to Alberta next time I saw her, but for now I was going to go straight to my room and sleep for as long as I could without interruption.

The weather was still warm, and I enjoyed my walk back to my room, but felt like I had been hit by a bus as soon as I got in. I debated setting an alarm for dinner, but decided that I wanted sleep more, and figured I would just have a huge breakfast when I woke up. I jumped in my shower, before brushing my teeth, throwing on a pair of boxers, and getting into bed.

I thought I would fall asleep immediately, but instead my mind was occupied by thoughts of a wild, dark haired girl. Rose puzzled me in many ways, her devotion, her raw potential, but most of all her attitude and personality. In the few times I had seen her with friends or other students, she had been outgoing and almost larger than life, drawing attention to herself and joking about things she shouldn't have been discussing, but with me she was different. It wasn't like she was scared or me or anything, she just seemed to portray a more relaxed, focused and settled personality, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. Sure, I got the usual Rose quips and jokes, but there was always something underneath that I couldn't quite pin down.

I fell asleep with my thoughts, and woke early since I had gone to sleep so early. I got up quickly, feeling an intense hunger from skipping dinner, and dressed in workout clothes so I would be able to train after my session with Rose. I headed to the canteen earlier than I knew they started serving, but one of the kitchen staff took pity and made me a large selection of breads with cheese and meats, which I quickly ate.

I looked at the clock on the wall, and saw that I still had half an hour before I was due to meet Rose, so I went to grab my book from my room before heading to the gym. I sat and started reading just like before yesterdays session, but to my pleasure I didn't have to go and search out Rose today, and she arrived only 5 minutes late.

"You were right" she moaned as she walked into the gym.

"Right about what?" I stood up, putting a mark at where I was in my book.

"Right that I feel 10 times worse, right that the only way I can prevent my ass getting kicked again is to do more today, right about a lot of things" she grumbled.

I felt pleased that my lecturing yesterday seemed to have had some sort of effect, and even more pleased that she was willing to push herself in training today despite how she felt. If she kept this up, I had no doubt she would have the best score out of all the novices in the trials.

I set her off with running laps, whilst I read, and once she had completed them, gave her strength reps to do. I knew it would hurt her muscles, and was proud when she didn't complain once whilst doing the drills.

"We're done for this morning" I told her.

"Ok" she nodded, and picked up her things and headed out.

I wanted to call after her, and tell her she had done a good job, but equally I didn't want to ruin the tough love conversation we had yesterday that seemed to have been a good thing, and so I let her walk out without another word.

I ran through my workout, doing my laps and strength training, as well as some sparring with another guardian who came in to train, before deciding that I would go and see I there was any breakfast left over, despite already eating this morning I was hungry already. I was in luck and there were just shutting up as I arrived, allowing me to get a cooked breakfast as long as I took the plate back to the guardian kitchen. I promised I would, and sat down to eat.

The next few days blurred together, and consisted of training with Rose, training myself, guarding, and sleeping. I was right to think that my new commitment of training Rose would eat into my personal time, and whilst I wasn't wanting to go out and socialise, I was finding myself increasingly tired at the end of a day because I was unable to sit and have an hour to myself to chill out. I was incredibly glad for Sunday, my only day off, to arrive.

I woke up late, allowing myself the day off training to let my muscles rest, and took a long shower before getting dressed ready for church. I wasn't necessarily hugely religious, sure I came from a religious family and attended church throughout my childhood, but it became a place of solace and quiet, a place for me to think about the horrible things I had done, and a place that allowed me to process these thoughts healthily. Pretty early on in my career I realised I needed to deal with the emotions that came with taking life, and church was a place where I could do this, and leave the thoughts there as I left.

I arrived early and took my seat at the back, settling into an almost meditative state as I waiting for the service to begin. I watched as people arrived, feeling a little shocked as I saw Rose walk in and sit with Vasilisa. I hadn't got the impression that she was religious, but then I presumed most people wouldn't guess that I attended church either.

The service began and I vaguely listened whilst thoughts were swirling in my head, but once communion was called, I noticed that Rose didn't go up. Perhaps I knew her better than I thought I had, and she slowly turned around, looking at me. I held her gaze for a moment, before staring ahead at nothing. I could feel her eyes on me still, but after a while the sensation went away and I released a breath that I didn't even know I was holding.

Once church had finished I was eager to leave, and so whilst I noticed Rose make a bee-line for the priest, I pushed my way through the various groups of students, heading via the guardian kitchen to grab a sandwich, before retreating to my room to speak to my family. The conversation was nice, I hadn't spoken to them for a while, and Sonya couldn't stop talking about this guy she was seeing, I just hoped he was good for her, but it was nice to see her happy. I called off the phone after almost an hour of being talked at, and decided to read before having another early night.

A massive thank you to the people who reviewed the last chapter, please leave a review for this one! It always makes me so happy to see them :) If anyone's wondering, we've just finished chapter 6 in the book, I've been getting through them because Dimitri doesn't do much with Rose at this point and the only other things I think he would be doing are training, guarding and patrolling! Let me know if you have any ideas about what else he would be doing though!