A red faced Kate burst through the door of her dorm room, panting rapidly as she began to hurriedly walk to the fridge.

"Don't bother!" A voice piped up from the couch, causing Kate's head to whip round, trying to focus her blurry vision on her room-mate, "I have a water bottle here for you, thought you'd make it back soon."

Maddie extended her arm to Kate, who simply nodded to show her thanks as she collapsed down onto the couch, squeezing her eyes shut.

"But obviously I should've bought the entire store's supply of water because that's how much you look like you lost in sweat on that run." Maddie observed, eyes glancing up and down her best friend's practically limp body. Kate rolled her head slowly to glare at the blonde, prompting her to continue, "How far did you even run today?"

"Went to the running track. Didn't keep count of laps." Kate explained. She then loosened the black fabric iPhone holder on her arm and pressed the lock button, glaring at the screen as it lit up.

"What?" Maddie asked, moving closer to see the cause of confusion.

"According to the running app I use, I ran just over 8 kilometers?"

"Kate. You haven't even been gone an hour. And that's including the 10 minute journey to the gym." Maddie said, voice laced with concern.

The brunette exhaled loudly, shutting her eyes once more. "No wonder my body feels like it's been hit by a truck."

"Can I give my advice?" Maddie took the silence as a yes, "Maybe you should stop your work out at the point where you can no longer feel your legs. Just a thought."

Kate grumbled, "I know, Mads. It's just... When I'm running, I don't even notice how much time has passed until I stop, and that's when the exhaustion hits me. It's just like my brain goes blank, and I need that right now."

"Then watch mind-numbing TV like most of us do." Maddie said light-heartedly, motioning towards the episode of Toddlers and Tiaras that was donning the screen in front of them.

"Sitting on a couch gorging on popcorn at 10am won't get rid of my frustration." Kate explained as she leaned over Maddie's lap to grab one of the salted kernels, popping it into her mouth before taking another large swig of water.

"What 'frustration'? We just started college, we don't have any big exams for months. And it can't be about missing your parents of anything, you call them at 8pm on the dot every damn day."

Kate shrugged, grimacing slightly at the pain in her right shoulder, "I don't know, I've just been frustrated over the past week."

"Because of that Rick guy?" Maddie teased, shoving a handful of popcorn in her mouth.

"I don't wanna talk about it." Kate mumbled, casting her gaze to the muted TV showing an overly fake tanned woman with a pink, skimpy outfit on chasing a little girl down a corridor.

"Because it's about that Rick guy." The blonde persisted.

"Maddie, you're starting to sound like a broken record."

"Because it is about that Rick guy!" She repeated with an obvious tone. Kate groaned loudly, turning her attention back to her friend.

"It's not him! I'm not some girl that just shuts down and ignores everything else in her life because there's a guy that wants to stick his penis in her!"

Maddie sputtered, "Becks, I'm not saying that you are. I'm just saying he's left an impression on you."

She rolled her eyes, "Please. I haven't even given him a thought since that day with the phones."

"I can hear you say his name, y'know. The walls are thin."

Kate's jaw dropped, "I have not said his name. Not while I was asleep, or doing whatever else you're insinuating right now."

Maddie narrowed her eyes, before sighing dramatically. "Damn it, I thought that if you thought I knew something, you'd break."

The brunette scoffed as she reached for more food, "Yeah, making up false information always convinces a person with two lawyers for parents."

The other girl chuckled, "Fine, then maybe this will cheer you up." She leaned over to grab the paper pad by the phone and handed it to Kate. "Professor Kovalev called while you were gone, said that a student wanted you for your tutoring skills."

Kate hummed as she read the scribbled writing, "He mention a name?"

"You worried it's going to be another guy that wants you to teach him Russian dirty talk over the phone?" Maddie teased, raising her eyebrows.

"That guy still sends me emails."

"I thought that was the guy that wanted to hook up with that Romanian woman that he met at some club and he thought Romanian and Russian were the same thing?"

"Him too."

"Wow, you pick up all the charmers."

Kate huffed, "My parents encounter a couple of charmers too. It's a hereditary thing, I'm sure." She stretched her arms out above her, "Okay, I need to shower. I probably smell like the dead."

"Wasn't going to say anything, but yeah, kinda." Maddie admitted, causing Kate to poke her ribs in retaliation as she stood up.

"Здравствуйте Katherine." Professor Kovalev greeted as his student opened the door to his office.

"Доброе утро." She replied with a grin, as she walked around the desk to shake his hand.

He handed her a sheet of paper, "I asked the student what he was most interested to learn, what days he was free, convenient hours for him, etcetera. Thought it would eliminate you having to ask those questions for the first session and let you just get started with the tutoring, he seemed very eager to start."

"Thank you, Sir." Kate nodded, skim reading the item.

"He should arrive in a few minutes, I told him he could find you here. His name is-"

"Richard Castle?" Kate exclaimed loudly, glaring at her Professor.

"Whoa. You said my name and I appeared. I must be magic at more things that I thought." A voice gloated from the door. Kate snapped her head around to see her new student, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Why?" Kate asked simply as she sat down in a chair in the small empty room, slamming the textbooks she had brought down on the desk.

"I wanted some help with my Russian, of course." Rick replied smugly as he sat down next to her, folding his hands in his lap.

"And why do you need to know Russian?" Kate said exasperatedly, crossing her arms.

"I thought it would be helpful for my studies."

"You study American Literature."

He shrugged innocently, "Sometimes it has words in other languages."

"Google Translate too complex for your brain to handle?"

"It doesn't always work completely correctly."

"A dictionary?"

"Wouldn't tell me the proper pronunciation of the words."

"Why do you need the pronunciation if you're reading thewords?"

"Plays, presentations, authenticity-"

"Again, Google Translate could say the words."

"The Google Translate robot lady wouldn't sound hot while doing it." Rick leered, eyes raking down Kate's body.

She huffed loudly, "Fine. You want to learn Russian? Here's your first task, read the first 100 pages of Tolstoy's War and Peace before our next session."

"But that's… not what I had in mind when I paid for this."

"If we did do what you had in mind when you paid for this, I'm pretty sure this would be a completely different and not so school-friendly agreement." Kate said bluntly, causing Rick to smirk.

"Would you do that if I paid extra?"

"I may be a broke college student living on her own for the first time, but I would never be desperate enough to stoop that low."

Rick opened his mouth to retaliate, but was cut short when Kate placed a large book in his lap.

"Like I said, read 100 pages before our next session."

He began to protest before being cut off again, "Unless, you're not really serious about learning Russian and you're doing this for some other reason?" Kate stated, (daring) him.

Rick pursed his lips and nodded, "Same time next Monday?"

Who's got two thumbs and is actually continuing to write a multi chapter story instead of abandoning it?

This girl! ;D

Thanks for reading, leaving reviews, following, favouriting, just being the best ever in general. 3

Lou xo

Castle Tumblr; pulling-becketts-pigtails

AO3; pullingbeckettspigtails