"Go away."

I had thought my grief for Dimitri had faded, at least long enough to get a shower and brush my hair. A part of me knew that I would never get over Dimitri - I was cursed to always love someone who didn't feel the same.

"Rose. You have to eat." His voice was thick with emotion - painfully obvious that someone had sent him here. Someone had demanded that he come and force me to eat something. There was only one person in the world that Dimitri felt that obligated to.

Vasilisa Dragomir.

"Leave me alone..." I clutched my hand to my heart, trying to make it back to the bed before I hit the floor. Silent tears began to fall down my cheeks and I gasped in a breath, pleading that my sobs wouldn't betray me. I didn't quite make it to the bed, sliding down into the floor just beside it with my knees held tight to my chest. It felt like my insides were going to burst through if I didn't wrap my arms around myself. "Please..."

I buried my head into my knees - allowing my hair to fall down into my face so my hearing wasn't the best but it seemed like my company had given up - rather quickly. Dimitri was probably half way back to Lissa by now - assuring her that he had done everything he could.

I was thankful for the silence my body had allowed while Dimitri had been outside my room but it was becoming too much to keep inside now and the sobs finally began - causing my body to shake as I cried into my knees. The grief had taken me over once again so I didn't realize that the door knob had twisted violently and splintered the wood until someone was inside the room - warm hands jerking me to my feet by my wrists. I refused to look at him - keeping my eyes closed and my face towards the ground.

"Roza."

There was something almost dangerous in Dimitri's voice - maybe he was trying to scare me, to assure me that I was terrified of him because of the things he had done to me while I was his captive. Unfortunately for him, I wasn't. He wasn't the same as when we were in Russia. Unfortunately for me, he didn't seem to realize that. I could feel his sweet, warm breath on my face as he spoke - he was standing close, his voice low and demanding.

"You have to eat. This is childlike behavior - you're acting like a careless teenager." My eyes opened slowly - blurry with tears. I wanted to tell him that I was a carless teenager but luckily at the last minute I realized that probably wouldn't make our situation better. Our eyes finally met and that caused him to back off to put some space between us. "Well you're acting like, like a complete asshole!" My choice of comebacks had startled him enough to allow me some leverage and I shoved him backwards.

"What are you doing, Dimitri? You tell me to stay away from you and then you come to harass me? I know your only here because Lissa told you to come. This is worse than any torture you could have caused me in Russia. I would rather you tie me up and set me on fire then do this to me!"

I was changing my middle name to mellow-dramatic. Hello, I'm Rosemarie Mellow-Dramatic Hathaway. Nice to meet you.

Dimitri's guard was down - apparently he had thought of tying me up and burning me alive once upon a time. It didn't matter. Not to me at least. "I don't want to hurt you, Roza..." His voice was quiet now, barely reaching me from the space I had put between us. "I don't know if I can't, not, hurt you." Double negatives were a wonderful thing. "Dimitri..."

I tried to move towards him but he backed away just as quickly. "I did everything I could to bring you back to me." I whispered softly, never letting our eyes fall from one another.

"The only thing I have ever wanted is you. What am I supposed to do now?"

He finally looked away, not sure how to answer - not sure if he could live without me either. When his dark eyes found my own he could only stare - there were no words of comfort to offer me. "If you don't love me anymore I can deal with that but please..." My words were breaking with emotion. "...please don't shut me out of your life? I've waited so long to be a part of you again... it's all I could think about after you..." He looked away. "..were gone."

At first I didn't think he was going to answer me - possibly just stand there in front of me for the rest of his life, and I was okay with that too. Then he did something that surprised the hell out of us both. He moved forward, closing the space between us and placed his warm hands on either side of my face. For a split second I thought he might snap my neck but instead he leaned in closer and placed his equally warm lips against my temple. "I'm sorry for hurting you, Roza." He whispered against my ear, causing a shiver of hope to run down my spine. We stayed that way for a long moment - not moving, afraid that the slightest twitch would break us apart. His lips found my temple again and I sighed before he pulled away from me.

"You have to eat."

He was beginning to sound like a broken record. I didn't give a damn about food right now - Dimitri was the only thing I needed. "Will you join me at one of the Court diners?" The look on my face must have been priceless because his next words scared the hell out of me. "I would understand, of course, if you didn't..."

"I will!"

My words came out a little too eager for my liking but Dimitri forced a smile. "Give me a few minutes to freshen up and I'll meet you in the lobby?" He nodded and gave a slight bow before removing himself from my bedroom. It might not be the raw passion that we had before he was taken from the Academy but it seemed like Dimitri was offering me his friendship and at this point I would take anything I could get.