Rose POV

I woke up, feeling more relaxed then I had the past two days. I felt Dimitri's body against mine, and smiled. As always, his presence was always so comforting to me. Then, I remembered the events from last night, and my heart almost broke. I had almost lost Dimitri. I could never ever lose Dimitri, because if I did, then I would just die right where I was.

I shifted to face my Russian god. He was smiling, and his eyes were already open. I was shocked, he was so quiet and he hadn't even moved. I touched the place where the bruise had been, but now only his creamy skin was visible.

"Good morning," He told me.

"Morning, Comrade," I answered automatically. What happened to doing your duty? I wondered. I also wondered if what I had heard last night was true, about him loving me. That couldn't be right. I must have already fallen asleep and dreamed that part. No matter what Dimitri would never tell me that. Even if it meant burning him in the pits of hell he would probably never say that. Duty always came first to him. Always and forever. Always and forever before me.

He laughed, I had heard a lot of his laughter, and decided that i wanted to hear more of it, so I wasn't bothered by the ringing of his laugh and the beat of my heart.

"Why do you always call me that?" He asked me, a small smile coming to play on his lips.

I shrugged, "Because I think of you as someone that's on my side, someone who'll always be there for me."

He nodded, his face thoughtful, "I will always be here for you, that's true. And I am your friend."

I laughed to myself. I thought of him more as a friend, much more than a simple friend. He was my love, my life, my everything.

He looked out the window and sighed, the happiness sucked from his face.

"What's wrong?" I asked, turning to look at the window too. The snow had stopped. Crap. That would mean that we could go back to the Academy. And that he would probably forget every precious moment we spent together and all the feelings he felt towards me, if there were any. But I knew that I would treasure these past few days in my heart as some of the best days of my life.

"We have to go back today, we don't have a good enough excuse not to," He told me, going into Guardian mode. His face was an impassible mask once more, and that trace of humor and passion and maybe even lovewas gone. There was just a blank expression that I knew too well.

"Yeah," I agreed and got out of bed.

Why did he have to change? Why can't he be like this all the time around me? I love him...but the question always was, (because he would never tell me) if he loved me as much as I love him. Probably not, considering the look on his face.

I grabbed my bag and put on a long sleevesweater and black jeans. It looked pretty cold outside, too cold for my usual sluttiness.

He looked at me, already dressed in his usual Guardian attire. Black.

"Ready?" He asked.

I nodded, grabbing my backpack as he opened the door for me and we headed out. I would miss this place, it was filled with so many good memories, even if they would be wiped away soon.

We walked to the check in desk and handed the lady the key and walked out the door, to see our blue Honda Pilot all fixed up and ready to go. I got in the passenger seat and Dimitri got in the drivers seat. I settled in for the long drive back to the Academy, feeling heart broken. I knew for sure that he would never bring up the nights we spent here to anyone, even me. He would never reminisce about all the stuff we did the first day and the last night. These would just be something that he would try and forget because he would be thinking that he wasn't doing his job right. That he was taking advantage of me when he really wasn't!

We got on the highway, and headed south towards the Academy. He didn't even bother to look at me, and he didn't turn on the radio either, so it was deathly quiet in the car. Much too quiet for my liking. But I knew that he was thinking about something because his mask would slip every few minutes, revealing shock, and love. I could only guess that the shock was from what we did, but i couldn't understand the love. It went against everything that I had thought, unless the love wasn't for me.

The mere thought made my heart crack. If he didn't love me, then who did he love?

We pulled up at the Academy, and he pulled to a stop. I got out of the car, slamming the door behind me and headed into the doors to be greeted by a bear hug.

"God Rose, we were so effing worried!" Mason cried.

I laughed and put my arms around his back, "You shouldn't be, you know I can take care of myself."

"Yeah, but in a freakin' storm?! With a jacked up arm?" He wondered out loud.

"Hey, my arm's all better," I told him, shaking it in his face. The scratches had faded away and a new layer of skin covered the faint scars on my arm.

"Rose!" Lissa sprinted towards me and wrapped me in a hug.

"Lissa, I missed you so much!" I told her, hugging her back.

"I missed you too, heck, everyone missed you! Especially Mason, as soon as he heard, he went nuts! He basically called every hotel in Montana to make sure you were ok, but he stopped at the 24Th one," Lissa laughed.

I looked at Mason, shocked, "Seriously? You shouldn't have worried so much about me though."

"You're worth it, Rose, hell, you're worth anything I can do for you," He told me, his eyes sparkling.

That's when I saw Dimitri glaring at me with my bag in his hand. I could see a tiny hint of hurt, that he couldn't give me a hug, or say anything like what Mason just said, but he brushed it away and his mask and walls were back on.

I walked towards him, taking my bag from him.

"Thank you, for keeping me safe," I whispered in his ear and gave him a hug.

Judging by his stiff posture, he hadn't expected that and only hugged me back after a few seconds I wrapped my arms around him.

"I promised, didn't I?" He asked. His lips sounded like they were in my hair.

My heart leaped upward, so he didn't forget! And he didn't want to!

But my hopes were shattered as his arms curled back to his sides and he walked away. I did the same and went back to my friends, whose mouths were open in shock.

"That was Guardian Belikov, you just hugged Guardian Belikov," Lissa stuttered.

I laughed, "Relax, it was a thank you hug. He helped me get my arm to work more," I laughed, thinking about how strange i worded my sentence.

Mason nodded, and Lissa just looked at me with a quizzical expression on her face.

"So, what do you guys wanna do?" I asked them.

"Well, I heard about the attack. They sent a whole team there to search for you guys, and when they came back empty handed all the guys were like horrified that you could be dead," Lissa said.

"Yeah, and then we heard from someone that you guys were OK, and so I stopped making calls," Mason added.

I laughed, and looked out one of the windows. The sun was just starting to rise, and I realized that classes had ened for them.

"We should go to sleep," I suggested, taking in their tired expressions.

"Yeah, well, see ya guys later," Lissa said and went up the stairs to her room.

Mason nodded, and to my suprise kissed me on the cheek, "Good night Rose."

I blushed, "Night," I squeaked.

I went up to my room, my head swimming in a billion thoughts. Mason and Dimitri stared in my roles that night.