Thanks for the reviews, everyone! Some people seem mad, so I just wanna say this:

Like many fic writers, I'm just here for fun. I'm not trying to write perfect stories - I reserve that kind of anxiety for original works - so obviously there are going to be some problems. It's just fun! It's free! Enjoy it!

Rose was right, she had gotten way more kick-ass. In their first spar it took her seconds to knock the wind out of him. She was faster than she used to be, and she'd picked up a few tricks since the last time they'd fought.

Dimitri had made a decent comeback, though – there were some things that were the same, like how she dropped her hands before a left kick, and how distracted she became when she was having too much fun.

"Court life really has made you soft," she jibed, delighted when another solid punch was barely deflected. She was winning, and she knew it.

Dimitri was focused, his eyes sharply following every new movement, relearning everything about the way that her body moved. He wasn't going to let her win.

She was gearing up for another kick – he could see it coming. There it was. An opening. He took it.

One swift jab to her face – it didn't land, but he could see the flash of surprise cross her face as she dodged, thrown off balance. Her footwork was good, but not good enough to stand up to the force of his body slamming against hers, taking her to the mat easily.

A curse rushed out of her with her breath as her feet were swept out from underneath her, and the crushing weight of him pinned her down. She struggled for a few seconds, but whatever opportunities she had for escape were quickly eliminated, until she was panting, staring begrudgingly up at that gorgeous face, with that victorious smile taunting her.

"Okay," Rose said sharply, exasperated. "I yield."

"It wasn't easy," he offered as a condolence, unable to smother the elated grin still pulling at his lips.

A bark of laughter was all she could manage, out of breath and struggling to catch it with him pressed against her. "Any feedback on how to make it harder next time?"

"Don't talk so much," he advised. "And watch your hands."

She glanced up at where he had her pinned, his long fingers wrapped around her wrist and holding it to the mat. "I'll work on it."

He laughed, still high on the win. "Rose Hathaway will work on not talking so much?" he teased. "Seems unlikely."

Her stomach swooped at the sound of his laugh. It wasn't as familiar as his cologne, or his half suppressed smiles, but she remembered it more keenly, spent more time committing it to memory. It was a nice laugh.

He'd been holding her down for too long, right? He should have let her go and she should have her breath back by now.

But he hadn't, and she didn't.

His hands were warm, and his face was so close to hers that there was no where else to look. Dark brown eyes framed with long, thick lashes. Perfectly arched dark brows that rose quizzically under her scrutiny. But he was watching her too.

"Give me another chance and I'll be the one on top," she quipped, breaking the tension.

He laughed again – how many times was that now? She hadn't known he could even be like this, so relaxed. It made her think back on their time at the Academy in a different light.

"Alright, one more time," he agreed.

It was late on a Friday night – not that Fridays meant much to a Guardian – and Rose had paperwork. A mountain of the stuff. Technically she was still waiting on her formal assignment as Lissa's Guardian, which made her a bit of a drifter. She'd been roped into a few court jobs, like patrols and standard guard duties, and so far she'd managed to dodge the paperwork involved. Until Hans found out.

She sighed heavily, one hand winding into her hair in frustration while she thumbed through the stack of papers in her in-tray.

"Overwhelmed?"

Rose glanced up with a grin already breaking over her tired face. Dimitri, like a angel from starbucks, stood before her with a coffee cup in each hand, haloed by the fluorescent lights of the office.

"I brought you a hot chocolate," he continued, holding out one of the styrofoam cups.

"You're my hero," she told him, taking the hot chocolate reverently, "but I probably could have used a coffee."

"You drink coffee now?" he asked, perching on the edge of her desk. He was still in uniform, and she smiled at the thought of him coming straight to her after getting off shift.

"Mochas only."

"Mocha's are terrible," he scoffed, "and they're not real coffee."

"That's why I like them," she answered, leaning back in the office chair and stretching languidly.

There was nobody else here at this time of night. If you had paperwork to do, you usually tried to do it during the day, or outside of the typical nine to five most Guardians just did it back in their rooms. Rose had tried that, and found herself constantly distracted by literally anything other than her work. Dimitri was a far more pleasant distraction.

"Are you here for your own reasons, or just to bring me hot chocolates?" she asked.

"That depends on how far through your work you are," he mused. "I don't want to get in the way." He eyed the half completed form in front of her.

"It's fine, I have tomorrow off, so I can always come back to it."

Dimitri smiled into his coffee. "Hans would be pleased."

"I assume that's sarcasm?"

He lifted an eyebrow suggestively. "Could be."

She sighed and poked the paper morosely. "Nobody ever told me that there would be so many reports."

He laughed quietly. "Beg to differ. I think you just slept through all of those classes."

"I never saw you filling out stupid patrol forms," she accused.

"I did them when I was supposed to," he observed drily. "How far back do you have to go?" He snagged the paper easily and scanned the sheet for a date, his eyes widening when he found it. "Two weeks ago? How are you supposed to remember anything from a patrol you did two weeks ago?"

"That's exactly what I said!" she cried, vindicated.

The look he shot her signaled that he hadn't meant to encourage her as much as chastise her. "Rose, you can't just do the fun bits-"

"The fun bits being when I put myself between a Moroi and a bloodthirsty monster?"

"-you have to do all of it. Paperwork included," he finished tersely.

"I don't need a lecture," she grumbled. "I get it, I should have done it the night of the patrol."

His expression softened. "I'm not trying to lecture you," he said apologetically. He dropped the paper to the desk and put a hand over hers, stopping her from tapping her biro on the desk impatiently. "Can I help?"

"Why would you want to help?" Her eyebrows knitted together in a picture of bemusement, as though she couldn't fathom ever volunteering her time to help someone with paperwork.

He grinned at her confusion. "Because we're friends."

Friends.

That wasn't a term she'd expected to be applying to herself and Dimitri, but there it was. They were friends. She supposed they did do friend things, like meet up after work for a drink, or in the morning for a quick one-on-one match in the gym.

Or bring each other hot chocolates and offer to help with paperwork.

Her hand tingled under his, and her abdomen tightened uncomfortably, like she was at the first dip of a roller coaster.

"You don't have to," she said quietly.

"I'd like to." He was watching her with that same intense gaze from the first night they'd reacquainted, and she felt the heavy beat of her heart in her throat.

That look didn't say 'I'd like to help you with paperwork', but she was fighting with the other possibilities. He'd left, after all. But he's still here. Could have gotten any assignment he wanted, but he's still just hanging around Court. What's that about?

"I'd could use the company," she admitted.

Dimitri grinned, obviously pleased. "Great. First of all, just write N/A in all of these." He came to stand beside her, dragging a finger down most of the first page.

She laughed incredulously. "Can I do that?"

"If you can be two weeks late, you can skip the stupid bits," he replied. She glanced sideways at him, leaning over her chair with strands of chestnut hair falling in his eyes.

"I don't think that's allowed."

He shrugged. "Then Hans should have pulled you up on it earlier. So long as you get it done." He shot her a mischievous glance. "Besides, I don't want to be here all night either."

She returned his stare for a moment too long, reveling for the second time in as many weeks in this new side of Dimitri - the informal, unprofessional side of him. A moment that was just long enough for her to become aware of how close they were, and how he'd casually thrown one arm over the back of her chair.

"What?" he asked, turning his face to hers.

"I can't believe your such a rebel," she teased. "Just going around encouraging people to write N/A on official reports."

He took the pen from her hand, and her fingers tingled with warmth where he'd touched. "Well, you can't play by all the rules."

She watched him, almost in awe, as he ran the pen down the sheet, stopping at the questions he deemed important and quizzing her on the state of wards and fences, and anything unusual she'd noticed out on the grounds.

He eventually pulled over a chair when the enormity of their task made itself apparent, but he stayed close, their faces within inches of each other, their arms brushing.

Like all of their time since reuniting at court, he laughed more than she could ever remember, smiled more easily, touched her more often.

Just a nudge with his elbow when she made a sarcastic comment or the light pressure of his leg against hers set her mind racing with inappropriate thoughts.

Thoughts so inappropriate Rose was sure they shouldn't be doing anything like touching, especially in a public place.

"I feel like I didn't know you before," she commented as they signed off the last form. One knee was up at her chest, the other curled under her, and she swiveled back and forth in her office chair lazily.

Dimitri smiled, leaning back to observe her. He crossed his arms of his chest, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean you were never like this. Back at the Academy."

"I haven't changed," he said with a shrug, but his piercing gaze was anything but nonchalant. "What do you think is different about me?"

She smiled resting her chin on her knees and gazing back at him mischievously. "I couldn't imagine you telling me to fudge reports back then. Or doing this with me."

"Helping you?" he asked. "I always helped you."

"Yeah, but not like this. Not like we were friends. You were so..."

"Professional?" His light tone had a sharp, defensive edge, and Rose paused.

Drinking him in like she had when she'd first saw him, she considered their history. He'd left the Academy at the beginning of her field practice their goodbyes had been short and heated, but before that she might have considered them close. Was that why he had taken offense? That she had claimed not to know him? In her defense, he'd never been anything like this. He'd never relaxed around her.

Professional?

"I suppose that's a word for it," she answered curtly.

Dimitri drummed his fingers on the arm of his office chair and watched her closely. "You know it had to be like that."

"Yep." She didn't hold that against him. In fact, as she'd realised the first night she'd seen him again, she didn't hold much against him. But remembering was like rubbing salt in old wounds, and anger stirred in her chest.

He rubbed his jaw absently. "You have to know that I didn't want to leave."

"Doesn't matter, because you did leave."

"I had to."

Rose snorted and planted her feet on the floor. "Yeah, I remember."

Had to leave before things got 'complicated'. That was the word he'd used to describe her. Complicated. It still stung.

"I could have used a friend then," she continued, fixing the reports with a moody glare. "You know there was so much shit happening, and I needed someone to talk to."

Dimitri had the good grace to bow his head. "I know. I heard about what happened with Lissa and the Mana."

"Not just that," she said sharply, turning that glare on him. "Not just stuff about Lissa, and Moroi, and this stupid job." What about me?

The tension in his body held him rigidly in his seat. Rose sighed, rubbing her eyes angrily.

"I just wanted to talk to you," she admitted softly. "Every day. You didn't have to leave - I knew that it was professional, it wasn't like I was going to do anything."

"I wasn't worried about you doing something." His voice was so quiet she barely caught the inflection.

"What?"

Dimitri shook his head and looked at her forlornly. "I didn't want to hurt you. I didn't want either of us to get hurt."

She shrugged, that old anger seeping away. "Didn't really work out."

He inclined his head in acknowledgement, locks of dark hair falling into his eyes. "No, it really didn't. I'm sorry about that."

Rose straightened the paperwork absently. "I'm sorry I yelled at you back then. That wasn't the last thing I wanted to say to you."

"'Fuck you'?" he quoted her, the corner of his lips quirking up.

She laughed to disguise her embarrassment. She'd shouted it so loudly at his retreating figure, she could still hear it echoing around St Vlads gym. "Yeah, that. I didn't have any right to be mad at you making decisions about your career."

"If that decision had only been about my career, I would agree." His captured her with a meaningful look as she finished arranging the pile neatly in her out going tray. What did he expect her to decipher from those looks? Rose chewed on her lip as the obvious answer danced just out of reach.

"Do you want me to be mad about it?" she asked teasingly. The way he watched her made her heart skip.

He smiled and reached out to take her hand in his. "No. I don't want it to hurt you and I don't want you to be mad. I just want us to be like this."

Rose asked herself what he could mean by that. What was 'like this'? Friends?

His calloused fingers moved over hers pleasantly. Invitingly warm and familiar. Secure. It didn't matter what 'this' was right now, only that it felt real and powerful, only that his hands back on her skin felt like a miracle.

"I like being with you like this," she told him softly.

"I like it too." His quiet voice rich with emotion as he gazed at her longingly.

His eyes rested on her lips for one strangled heart beat.

Surging desire heated her skin and flipped her stomach. Dark, serious eyes traced the curve of her lips as he leaned in - what could a woman do against a look like that?

"Still, pretty stupid of you to think that you could ever get away from me." What the fuck Rose.

Dimitri froze, startled, and let loose an exhale that wasn't quite a snort of laughter.

Rose's cheeks flushed and her eyes widened. Why was she cursed with a mouth that didn't run its smart-ass comments through her brain first? She bit the inside of her cheek. Even though he seemed amused, the joke sounded borderline psychotic.

"I've definitely learned my lesson," Dimitri answered with a smile, squeezing her fingers lightly.

"Yeah?" she challenged, trying to cover her embarrassment with bravado. "What lesson is that?"

He rested his forehead against hers and Rose closed her eyes, sinking into the deep timbre of his voice. "That I just can't stay away from you, Roza."