The next morning, regardless of how shitty I felt, I was up and at em' before my alarm clock went off. I wasn't taking any chances this time. I was afraid that one wrong move and Dimitri would call of my trip this weekend. I couldn't take that. I needed to see Lissa, and soon. If this weekend was as soon as I could get to her, then so be it. I'd work with it, but regardless, I wasn't taking any chances on screwing it up. When I walked out the door, Dimitri was already out there waiting for me.

"You're early."

"I know." I said, simply. I was tired as hell, and it was obvious he could see it. He looked a little tired himself, not that I planned on mentioning it.

"You should make a habit out of this." He told me. I wouldn't count on that.

"I'll see what I can do." I told him. He nodded.

"That's all I ask." He said. He motioned to the track.

"You ready?"

"As ready as it's gonna get." I said, walking over to the fence. He looked at me, and shook his head.

"Alright, look… I'll make it a little more interesting. I'll race you, and if you beat me… You only have to run the mile, and you're done." I looked at him, and chuckled.

"You're serious?"

"Extremely serious." He answered.

"If I lose –which I won't- what do I have to do then?" I asked.

"Run it as many times as you can, like yesterday." He said. I nodded. I was Rose Hathaway, and I didn't back down from a challenge. Regardless, I doubted he ran as fast as me anyway. "You look scared."

"Me? Rose Hathaway? Scared? I think not, Comrade." We both lined up on the fence.

"I'll let you count off." He told me. I nodded.

"Alright… On your mark… Get set…. Go." We both took off from the fence, running around the track. I stayed on the inside, hoping it would give me the advantage of not having to make such a wide turn. The fence was in sight, so I pushed myself to run faster. I didn't turn to see where he was, nor did I care. He wasn't in front of me, which meant I had a good chance of winning. When I reached the fence, I realized that we'd made it at the exact same time. I hit the fence pretty hard. I was pretty sure I'd have a bruise across my stomach.

"It was a draw." He stated.

"I know… so what…. does that mean?" I asked him, breathless. He looked like it hadn't even fazed him.

"I'll let you off. Just run the mile, and we'll call it a day." He said, normally. I was still having trouble catching my breath to talk.

"How… the hell… are you not… out of breath?" I asked. He gave me that half-smile. I wondered if I'd ever get a full smile out of him.

"I told you that you have to get used to running."

"You ran so much… that it just doesn't…. affect you anymore?" I asked, still working on catching my breath.

"Pretty much. When I was in school in Siberia, that's what they-." I cut him off, not sure I'd heard him right.

"Siberia?"

"Yeah? I'm Russian." He said. I rolled my eyes.

"Because I didn't... know that, genius. Isn't Siberia like… really cold? Like, Arctic waste land cold?" I asked. He chuckled and shook his head.

"Siberia is nothing like the pictures you see of it in magazines, and books." He told me.

"So, in Siberia, they made you run… a lot?"

"Yes, and I continued to do that after I left school, so I wouldn't lose all the progress I'd made." He explained. "Regardless of how horrible running is, and how sore you feel after you do it a lot, it's good practice, and it's good for your heart."

"I know that much. I still don't understand why I have to keep running though."

"Listen to you… you sound like you're dying of emphysema. It's obvious that you're not used to it yet. If you were, you wouldn't be so out of breath. There's no telling how long of a distance you'll have to run to get out of a situation. You've got to be ready for whatever life throws at you." He explained to me.

"I am." I told him. He shook his head.

"No… you're not. If you were… you would be able to breathe just as I am now."

"Shut up." I snapped at him, finally able to speak normally. He rolled his eyes.

"Just run your mile, and you'll be done." He said, pointing. I nodded, and took off running. I was ready to get this over. My legs were already yelling profanities at me, as I pushed them to carry me around the track once, then a second time. By the time I got to my third lap, I thought I was going to die. If my lungs weren't threatening to collapse yesterday, they were today. I slowed down to a walk, making it back to the fence. It was then that my knees gave, and I hit the ground. Dimitri was by my side immediately.

"I'm fine. I'm just dying of lack of oxygen." I said, pushing myself up off the ground. He helped me back over to the sidewalk, and sat me down.

"I'll go get you a bottle of water." He told me, walking to the back door and inside. I put my head between my knees, breathing in through my mouth, and out through my nose. When he came back, he handed me the bottle, which I opened and drank greedily from, not helping my not being able to breathe. When the bottle was empty, I threw it on the ground.

"You're trying to… kill me, aren't you?" I demanded.

"If I wanted you dead, Hathaway… You would be." He stated simply. I was starting to realize that Dimitri had a really dry sense of humor. It was different.

"I'm sure… your… right." I stammered. He chuckled.

"I'll let you off on the last lap."

"Thank you so much." I said, sarcastically, looking up at him. Like I could run another lap without going into cardiac arrest. It took me a few minutes before I was able to breathe normally again.

"I tried to tell you."

"I know." I muttered.

"You should work on your listening skills." He said. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I'm definitely here to learn how to kill things, not learn how to listen. I did that in kindergarten." I told him.

"It's quite obvious that you failed that portion of kindergarten."

"Oh, look… you made a joke. Are you okay? Do you need to lie down?" I asked, being a smart ass.

"I think if anyone needs to lie down… it's you." He told me. I sighed.

"Am I done for today?"

"Yes, you're done." He said. I stood up, and groaned, stumbling forward. He caught me, before I would have hit the ground. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine." I told him, pushing myself out of his arms, to stand.

"Alright."

"Are we meeting out here again tomorrow?" I asked, praying he would say no.

"I think we'll do this one more day… just to be safe." He told me. I started to complain, but then remembered I couldn't screw up my chances for this weekend. Instead, I sighed and nodded.

"Alright." I muttered, before walking away. When I got inside, I could still hear everyone else in the gym. I looked at the time to see I'd gotten off a little early. I went upstairs and showered, because after running, I smelled horrible. I then came back downstairs, and grabbed a bottle of water, and headed into the gym. All the other guardians were teaching their novices how to fight, and I was stuck out on the track running. I hated that everyone else was going to be ahead of me. I knew for a fact I could still kick all of their asses, but on the training level, they were ahead. I hated that. Eddie was letting Steven take a break, since he was sprawled out across the mat. He walked over to me.

"What are you doing in here, where's Dimitri?"

"I killed him. He's outside on the track, rotting."

"Alright, smart ass." He snapped at me. It was quite obvious to me that Eddie didn't particularly care for me.

"Dimitri let me go early."

"That's kind of him. Normally, his novices are training way past what we're doing in here." He told me. I shook my head.

"We'll seeing as he made me run so much I almost went into cardiac arrest, he had no choice but to let me go early." I explained. He obviously found humor in this, because he chuckled.

"That sounds like him." He told me. "Well, I have a novice to whip into shape. You'll have to excuse me." He walked back over to Steven and told him to get up. I placed myself on the bench, bringing my knees up and wrapping my arms around them, getting comfortable. I watched each novice as they trained with their mentor. I found Landon working with his guardian. As I sat back, and watched, I noticed that he was actually a really decent fighter, which surprised me. He seemed sort of shy when I'd talked to him yesterday, although it's normally the quiet ones you have to look out for. I saw Dimitri walk in, and expected him to come over and tell me to go back to my room because it wasn't fair that I was done, and they weren't, but he didn't. He stood by the door and watched as they all trained. I was extremely intrigued by all of them. They all had their own technique to what they were doing, some more than others. The girls were a little flustered, but then again… I knew they would be from the moment I stepped onto that bus. Regardless, they were trying. I watched for the longest time, before finally they released all of them. Landon walked over to me.

"Hey… what were you doing in here?"

"Guardian Belikov let me off early, because I almost died out there on the track." I told him.

"He has you running?" He asked me. I nodded.

"Some part of his major plan. I don't know, but he needs to get on with it, because I'm ready to fight. I came here to learn how to kill shit. I know how to run." I told him. He smiled and motioned to the mat.

"You wanna-." He trailed off. I gave him a look.

"You sure about this? I don't want to hurt your feelings if you lose."

"I'm sure I won't mind so much… Losing to you won't be so bad." He said. He was attempting to flirt, which I found kind of cute. I got up, and walked out to the mat with him following me. He smirked.

"Give it your all." He said.

"Don't have to tell me twice." I crouched into my defensive stance, and so did he. We circled once, and he moved in for the attack. He threw a punch which I deflected, but when I made the move to deflect, he landed a kick to my lower leg. I was super tired, and my legs were killing me, so I probably should have taken that into consideration, but I wasn't going to back down from a fight. I went on the offensive, throwing a few kicks and punches. I landed a punch to his chest, and a kick to one of his knee's, causing him to stumble. I tried to take him to the ground, but he guessed my move and feigned me out. I saw someone standing in the door way, but I didn't pay them any mind. I had a fight to win, and I didn't have time to focus on anything else. He threw a kick, and caught me in the stomach really hard. It made me gag, but my adrenaline was pumping now, and I barely felt it. Tomorrow I'd have a bruise from that and running into the fence. I think he realized how hard he kicked me, because he slacked off a little bit, which made me sort of angry. I wasn't a porcelain doll that you had to be gentle with. I could take a beating just like the rest of them could, and I'd still get up swinging. I kicked his leg hard, causing him to fall to his knees. I pushed him backwards, trying to 'stake' him, but he pulled my legs out from under me, much like Eddie had done on introduction day. I wasn't letting it happen a second time. I protected my chest, making sure he had no open spot, and within a second, I shifted my weight, rolling us over and pulling me on top of him. It caught him off guard, so when I placed my hands over his chest, he was still processing that I'd managed to roll the two of us, and win. Both of us were breathing hard, but I had the biggest smile plastered to my face. I stood up, my legs a little wobbly. I offered him a hand, and helped him up.

"You're an amazing fighter, Rose."

"Thanks. You're not so bad yourself. I thought you had me for a second there." I told him. He chuckled, smiling at me.

"So did I." I told him. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, I was starting to feel the effects of that kick to the stomach. I placed my hand over my stomach, causing him to frown.

"I kicked you a lot harder than I thought I did, are you okay?" I lifted my shirt to reveal the red mark on my stomach. A wrinkle formed on his forehead, which made me chuckle.

"I'll be fine. I've had worse." I assured him. "All of it probably isn't from you anyway, I ran into a fence earlier… long story."

"Well, I'm sorry, regardless." He said. I smiled.

"I'll live." I promised. It was then I noticed a bruise forming on his arm. I raised an eyebrow.

"Did I do that?"

"No… I ran into a door the other night coming to the kitchen, and well… that's the result." He told me. I chuckled.

"The doors are always going to be in the same place." I teased.

"I know that now." I turned back to the door where I'd noticed someone standing earlier, but they were gone now.

"Guardian Belikov was there."

"Was he?" I asked. He nodded.

"He was watching."

"Good, maybe he'll realize after seeing that, that I am ready for combat." I said, shaking my head. "I wonder if these people will actually ever teach me anything."

"Maybe he has a motive to what he's teaching you. You never know." He said.

"I wish he'd get on with it then. I'm running again tomorrow." I told him. He laughed.

"Have fun with that." He said.

"Yeah, shut up." I teased. We walked back into the main room.

"That was fun. After I train a little bit more, and start combat, we should do it again." He told me. I nodded.

"So you can redeem yourself?" I asked him.

"That's exactly why." He said, smiling. He was quite adorable, and it was hard not to notice.

"I don't blame you. After that ass-kicking, you need to redeem yourself."

"I know. Well, I'm going to go shower. I'll talk to you later." He said, before walking down the hall. I nodded and went into the kitchen and grabbed something to eat. As I started upstairs, the two girls who's names I couldn't remember came down.

"Oh… Hi, Rose." The blonde one said.

"Hi." I said, as I walked past them. It was obvious they were trying to be friendly, but they'd also been egging on Glenn's jokes a few days ago, and I'd rather not get involved with them. I walked upstairs, and laid down in bed, surprised at how decent of a day I'd actually had, considering everything. I heard my phone beep, and got up to find I had a voicemail from Lissa. I decided I wouldn't listen to it, because if I did, I knew I'd want to call her, and if I called her, I knew this weekend wouldn't be a surprise, because I wouldn't be able to keep my mouth shut. I slid into her head, and found her laying in her bed, looking at the scars on her arm, and the fresh cut she'd created last night. If I could reach through the bond and slap her, I would. I wondered if she felt my presence through the bond, because she quickly rolled her sleeve back down over the cuts. I needed to get to her, and soon. I couldn't have her losing it on me again, while I was this far away. I was ready to get back to her, ready for this weekend more than words could describe. I didn't know how I'd ever repay Dimitri for what he was doing for me. I guess just not annoying his as much, and doing what he asks of me would suffice as payment enough since he has to put up with me for three months. It was the best I could do, so it would have to work. Regardless, I slipped out of Lissa's head, and curled up in my bed.