"Rose?" Dimitri's voice floated through the air towards me, the one-worded question ringing in the silent room.

My eyes flashed to Tatiana, who shrugged and turned her attention to our guest. "Guardian Belikov," she said. "Please do sit."

I could tell Dimitri was a little surprised at hearing his old title said again, but he merely frowned and sat down on the couch beside me. Tatiana and I both noticed his choice since there were a couple of other options available still. He sat far enough away as to give me my personal space- if there ever was any between us- but close enough to look like he wasn't avoiding me. I wasn't sure if he was or not anymore.

"Hi," I told him blandly. He nodded back, the question held in his gaze. I ignored it and turned back to Tatiana, clapping my hands. "Well," I said. "This conversation is probably none of my business, so I'm going to go." I stood up and only got around the corner of the couch before Dimitri spoke up.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to," he said softly. But in the silent room it was loud and clear.

I turned back to face him. "It isn't whether I want to go or not, it's whether you want me to go or not."

The hesitation was clear in his face, so I smiled softly at him. "I'll go. Besides, I have a bit more packing to do anyway. You're still coming, right?"

His nod confirmed as much, so I nodded back more to myself than anyone else. "See you in a couple of hours, then." I didn't give himself the chance to speak up again and confuse himself even more. I waved over my shoulder, not looking back. "See you later, Tatiana."

"Say hello to Todd for me when you get there, will you?" she called back.

I grinned. "Sure thing. I'm sure he'll be pleased to know that you haven't forgotten about him."

I heard her scoff and begin to say something, but the closing door cut her off. Big doors had the habit of closing mysteriously behind me. It had been weird at first, but now I barely even noticed it anymore.

I walked down the stranded hallway alone, the echo of my shoes thudding on the ground created a steady pattern that I was quickly able to drone out. Returning to my little apartment, I did what I'd said I do and finished packing. Lissa called me when I was trying to fit a few more things into my last suitcase. I had the most since I was going to go back for longer than the others, and I carried all my valuables in it as well. The others were lucky enough to be able to leave theirs safely here, but I didn't get that luxury.

I pressed the green answer button on my phone and holding it to my ear. "Hey, Liss."

"Hey," she replied back. She sounded bored. "Christian's sleeping."

I laughed. "What, he didn't get enough sleep last night or something?"

I could hear her rolling her eyes at my implications. "He couldn't sleep last night, that's the problem."

"What's wrong with him? The Pepto finally get through him?"

She had a burst of laughter at my statement, but I was being serious. I told her as much.

She calmed down. "I don't know. Maybe. All I know is that he's going to be sleeping throughout the plane ride."

"Good for him. He won't die of boredom this way."

She rolled her eyes again. "Anyway, what I've been wanting to ask is, can I come over? I'm bored, and when I'm bored you know I do loud things. I don't want to wake him up."

I snorted. "Sure. I'm just finishing packing everything. We can watch a movie or something since we've got a couple of hours until we board."

"With popcorn?" I heard the hopefulness in her tone.

"Liss, you do not know me at all if there isn't popcorn with a movie." Then I cut the line and went to run through the shower quickly before she got here.

Thankfully I had a bathroom attached to my bedroom so I didn't have to walk far after grabbing the spare clothes I'd left out. Kicking the door shut behind me, I turned the knob of the shower on full blast and steaming water came pouring out instantaneously. I ran through cleaning all and any excess sweat or dirt of something might have found it way onto my body before washing my long dark brown hair. I was out ten minutes later to hear Lissa rummaging around downstairs in the kitchen and the microwave beeping loudly at her.

Giving her more time to set up, I brushed out my hair and toweled off before changing. The clothes were basic, pretty much consisting of a pair of brown leather pants that were stretchy and flexible but looked tight while being tucked into black combat boots. I also had a plain white V-neck t-shirt that had nothing special to it, but it did accent my curves and chest. I laced up my combat boots before walking out and trumping down the stairs loudly. Lissa was waiting for me, stuffing a large bowl of popcorn into my hands. She carried a smaller one of her own. I rolled my eyes at her but she ignored me and went to sit down on my couch in front of the plasma screen. It was a decent TV, the fact that I got pissed at it once and threw the remote at it subsiding. Now there was a large spiderweb-looking crack in the bottom right of the screen.

Lissa raised an eyebrow when she noticed it and looked over at me, but I merely shrugged. "Cable went out," was my explanation.

Nonetheless she left the subject alone and flicked through the channels before finding one she liked. Since she would never sit through the kind of movies I liked, I was always forced to sit through the movies she liked, which consised of sappy romances. Mostly I dozed or daydreamed during them, and this time was no different. I only stayed still because I got popcorn and sodas out of it, which I never seemed to have an excuse to eat by myself.

I got up to crab some sodas for us and she took hers without blinking, causing me to snort a laugh. She shot me a dirty look before resuming her undivided attention back to the screen.

When the movie had ten more minutes left to it I was out of popcorn and soda, so I decided to get up and do something. I was putting everything away when the phone rang and Lissa made no move to get it. "Hello?" I said into the receiver.

"Do I even need to ask if Lissa's over there?" Christian's voice spoke out over the phone and it sounded like he was stiffling a yawn.

"You are correct. She got bored."

He grunted. "I take it she made you watch some sappy romance? Nevermind. I already know the answer to that. How long until the plane takes off?" he asked instead.

I glanced at the clock ticking on the wall. "We have to be there in about twenty minutes."

"Then I'll see you then."

"Cool. Hey, Liss!" I called.

"Yeah?"

"Your boyfriend said you'd better get your ass back over there!"

"I did not!" Christian yelled uselessly. I just laughed and hung up on him.

This was going to be fun.