Drabble:80
POV:Third Person

As Rose entered the gym, she saw Dimitri sitting on the mats, engrossed in one of his Westerns. Perfect, she thought, approaching him with a wicked grin. She'd been trying to one-up him for days, no-months now, and had yet to surprise him. But no matter, her perfect opportunity was here now, because for once she was early to practice and he had yet to see her sneaking up.

Still, Rose didn't want to leave anything to chance, so she moved stealthily, at a steady pace, her footsteps masked by the radio, which was playing some old 80s hit song (that Rose may or may not have heard and even enjoyed a bit, not that anyone needs to know) about how both pleasure and pain remain, and how meaningless and forgettable words were.

Anyways, so she sneaked up on him, step by step, even breathing lightly in rhythm with her footfalls till she was about a metre and a half away from him. And then, she stopped. And listened for any and all sounds coming from his direction. Unsurprisingly, there was none. Rose had only begun the practice of exuding control over her bodily noises, but her mentor was a master at that. Honestly, he could have been a hellion if he put his sneaking abilities to use, but Dimitri wouldn't.

Shaking off her reverie, she shifted all her weight onto the balls of her feet, a smile rivaling that of the Cheshire cat gracing her visage, and prepared to lunge at her mentor. Just as she'd begun to straighten up to jump at the broad expanse of his back (which honestly, his duster did nothing to hide), Dimitri spoke up.

"15 laps, Rose", he said simply as if they were continuing an ongoing conversation.

Rose straightened up and her jaw dropped. "I-you-but-how?", she stuttered inarticulately, knowing he'd know what she was asking.

Dimitri closed his book then, and turned towards her, an eyebrow raised in challenge. "15 laps, now", he stated again, gesturing with his hands towards the tracks outside.

Rose recovered by then and shaking her head, cleared out of the gym, scowling and muttering about how unfair everything was (and something about baby monkeys or so Dimitri thought he heard).

Dimitri waited till Rose started running before dropping the indifferent mask from his face and giving in to a self-congratulatory smirk. Honestly though she was getting better at moving noiselessly, he observed clinically. It wasn't any of her movements that alerted him to her presence, but the faint smell of her strawberry-lip-balm that he'd grown attuned to in the last few months (and found irresistible). It took him a half-second to guess that stealthiness plus Rose equates surprise attack on him, so he closed his eyes and tried to visualize her position. When she made her first mistake by taking in a sharp breath, he spoke up, foiling her plans.

Dimitri chuckled to himself over how utterly predictable his Roza was and his eyes followed her circuit around the tracks, watching as she still muttered under her breath, scowling as she ran.

Well, Dimitri thought as he stood up and stretched, the least he could do for her attempt was to run with her. And so he did just that.

Well, how was that? Review?

And any guesses as to what song has been hinted at here?

PS-Thank you Fiera Hathaway for review no.300!