He was bored. It seemed like nothing ever happened at Saint Vlad's. Rose was still avoiding him and Lissa had been too busy to spend time discussing spirit with him. Belikov and Rose had apparently had some sort of disagreement, because the man was wandering around with his aura as dismally colored as a raincloud. The most interesting thing happening was the fact that every time Alberta saw him she gave him a saucy wink. Her actions were unfortunately witnessed by several students, who in turn began to spread a quite hilarious rumor. Apparently, now most of the student body believed Adrian and Alberta had some form of May-December romance going on.

He saw Rose hurrying across the quad and called out to her, hoping she might feel like being friendly for a change. Hope springs eternal, after all.

"Why so glum, little dhampir?"

"Adrian, you are the last person I want to see right now."

Ignoring her statement, he hurried to her side, pleased just to have the chance to be near her. Knowing how she felt about smoking he made a conscious effort to exhale quickly from the corner of his mouth, blowing in the opposite direction. Of course the wind picked that exact moment to shift, the breeze carrying the smoke directly in her face. She waved her arms dramatically, coughing as if she had contracted a bad case of tuberculosis. He fought not to role his eyes at her display, knowing it would only piss her off.

"Apparently," he said. "I've hardly seen you at all since we got back. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were avoiding me."

"I am avoiding you."

That hurt. What had he done that was so offensive? Sure he might come on a little strong, but what other choice did he have? He had to get her attention somehow. Negative attention was better than no attention, in his opinion. He exhaled loudly and raked a hand through his hair, deciding it was better to stick to his party boy image than to let her see how much her words pained him.

"Look, Rose. You don't have to keep up with the hard-to-get thing. You've already got me."

"I'm really not in the mood for your so-called charm today." She glared at him, and if looks could kill, he'd be six feet under in a matter of seconds.

"What happened, then? You're stomping through every puddle you can find and look like you're going to punch the first person you see."

Her lips twisted up in a taunting smirk. "Why are you hanging around, then? Aren't you worried about getting hit?"

"Aw, you'd never hurt me. My face is too pretty." Finally he got a smile from her. Alright, it was almost miniscule, but he'd take whatever he could get.

"Not pretty enough to make up for the gross, carcinogenic smoke blowing in my face. How can you do that? Smoking's not allowed on campus. Abby Badica got two weeks' detention when she got caught."

"I'm above the rules, Rose. I'm neither student nor staff, merely a free spirit wandering your fair school as I will."

He wondered what she would say if he confessed to her—she was his sole reason for sticking around backwoods Montana. He never would have imagined that he would do something like this—it was basically a self-imposed exile from everything he knew and enjoyed, just so he could catch a glimpse of her walking across campus of running around the track. His ridiculous crush on the girl standing beside him was disgusting, but he just couldn't get her out of his system.

"Maybe you should go do some wandering now." Rose said.

"You want to get rid of me, you tell me what's going on."

She frowned, her face scrunching up in a completely disgusted expression. "I got assigned to Christian for my field experience."

Holy shit. He could feel the laughter welling up inside himself, and fought his best to keep it locked inside. Pairing Rose and Christian together was on par with putting a surfer and a great white shark in a wave pool together—someone was definitely not going to make it out alive. He glanced at her face again, and then burst out laughing.

"Wow. Now I understand. In light of that, you actually seem remarkably calm."

"I was supposed to have Lissa," She growled. "I can't believe they did this to me."

"Why did they do it? Is there some chance you might not be with her when you graduate?" If that was the case, he'd move heaven and earth to get her assigned as his guardian. There was no way he would let another man near her. It was bad enough he had to share her with Belikov.

"No. They just all seem to think this is going to help me train better now. Dimitri and I will still be her real guardians later."

Oh yeah, that was so going to work out—not. Seriously, maybe he should have Alberta drop a few choice hints that one of them needed to be reassigned. Otherwise they' might just end up making out in a corner, completely oblivious to the fact a Strigoi was munching on Lissa. He gave Rose a sly glance. "Oh, I'm sure that'll be quite the hardship for you."

"Like I said, your commentary isn't appreciated today." Her jaw tensed, and he realized he'd better leave it alone unless he wanted to piss her off beyond belief.

"What's the problem? Christian'll be with Lissa all the time anyway."

He could tell she was considering what he'd said by the cute way she slightly tilted her head. How was it she never realized the simplest things? His mind started to feel fuzzy and he squeezed his eyes shut, praying to whatever deity might be listening. He didn't want to lose control, not now, in front of Rose. He'd been waiting for a chance to be near her. Surely, fate wouldn't be so cruel—he couldn't bear it if she witnessed him having a complete meltdown. He found himself wishing he'd imbibed more than the two measly drinks he'd slammed earlier in the day. When he opened his eyes, they immediately locked on the darkness that surrounded her. Fuck. Here we go. Next stop loony tunes land.

"Have I mentioned your aura to you?"

"I don't know. Yeah, once. You said it was dark or something. Why?"

"Hard to explain. Maybe it's nothing." He took a deep drag on his cigarette, hoping the strong taste of tobacco and cloves would flush the haze away. No such luck. "Auras are strange. They ebb and flow and change colors and brightness. Some are vivid, some are pale. Every once in a while, someone's will settle and burn with such a pure color that you can…" His head dropped back and his eyes locked on the stars above. The way they sparkled reminded him of the mischievous glint that Rose sometimes got in her eye. "You can instantly grasp what it means. It's like seeing into their soul."

"But you haven't figured mine out, huh?" She asked. "Or what any of these colors mean?"

He shrugged. "I'm figuring it out. You talk to enough people, get a feel for what they're like and then start to see the same kinds of people with the same kinds of colors…. After a while, the colors start to mean something."

"What's mine look like right now?"

He glanced over at her. It was too faint to see clearly. "Eh, I can't quite get a fix on it today."

"I knew it. You've been drinking."

"Just enough to chase the chill away. I can guess what your aura's like, though. It's usually like the others, sort of those swirling colors—it's just kind of edged in darkness. Like you've always got a shadow following you." His voice sounded… creepy. He bit his lip, concentrating on his breathing, trying to strengthen his mental shields. Trying to remain sane, for just a little longer.

"That's so cheerful," I said. "You ever think about motivational speaking?" She bumped her shoulder against his and just like that, the haze lifted. Only Rose could drive it away so easily, with the brush of her arm against him.

"Don't worry, little dhampir. You might be surrounded by clouds, but you'll always be like sunshine to me." And she was—she lit up the world, keeping his internal darkness at bay.

He ignored the way she rolled her eyes at what had been a totally heartfelt compliment. Dropping his cigarette, he carefully ground it out. He could feel his happy go lucky mask slipping. Her last comment had pushed him past his threshold for heartbreak.

"Gotta go. See you later." He bowed deeply, heading towards his suite. Why couldn't she see he was serious? That he really wanted to get to know her, her thoughts and feelings. Sure she had a great body and a beautiful face, but through his dream visions he'd caught faint glimpses of the wonderful, selfless woman that she hid deep inside herself. All he wanted was a fucking chance. It's not like Belikov and she were actually dating—they barely even spoke to each other.

"You just littered!" Her voice was indignant. For a moment he was tempted to ignore her, maybe then she'd feel the tiniest iota of the pain he felt every time she avoided him. In the end, he couldn't do it. He couldn't just walk away and leave her waiting for a response.

"Above the rules, Rose," he called back. "Above the rules."