AU For Frostbite. Just a cute little one-shot for the holiday!

It seemed silly that this was where I was spending my free time, but this was the only place I could be without being bombarded with questions about what my Christmas plans were.

I didn't have Christmas plans. I went to the dinner, did my meagre gift exchange with Lissa and then went back to my room and spent the remainder of my night skulking. I even watched a movie in the common room and pretended that I didn't have a wounded heart to mend. But now that the movie was over, I was here.

I laid back on the bench with a sigh. The gym smelled and felt damp, but it was still comforting to be here. I didn't need to hide anything in here. It was almost like my own little safe haven. The door to the gym opened and I figured if I stayed where I was they'd leave me alone.

"I didn't expect to find you in here."

I pressed my lips together and tried to suppress a sigh.

"I'm not breaking any rules by being in here," I called out, pulling my feet up to rest on the bench so my knees were bent.

"I never said you were," Dimitri said plainly, his boots clipping against the floor. I sighed quietly and folded my hands over my stomach.

"It was implied."

"No, it wasn't. I was simply stating a fact," Dimitri said when he came to a stop beside me, not looming over me, but it was hard for him not to loom with his height.

"And why are you in here when you have someone else to entertain? It's rude to leave your girlfriend hanging," I said a little bitterly.

Dimitri seemed taken aback and there was a flicker of guilt. That flicker made me feel even worse. I wanted to believe that Dimitri wasn't going to take Tasha's office, that deep down he wanted me despite his arguments. But that was all the admission I needed to be proven wrong. It was the nail in the coffin so to speak.

"Where did you hear anything about that?" Dimitri asked.

I snorted and crossed my arms roughly over my chest. "Well, it sure as fuck wasn't you. It was my mother of all people, so if she knows, she isn't the only one. I hope that she pays you well, I mean, perks and all," I said as I rolled off the bench, no longer finding the gym a space of solace.

It was better that I wasn't around him right now. I may have kissed him a few days ago, but now all I wanted to do was drive my knee into his stomach. I started to stalk past him but he sidestepped into my way, blocking me when I tried to go around. He did it again when I tried to go the other way, my hands coming out to my sides with a disgruntled huff.

"What?! What do you want? I would like to leave."

"Rose, I don't know where you got this idea-"

"Really? Did you think that it would be a hard concept for me to understand? I get that you think I'm a child, but I get why Tasha would want you to be her Guardian. She likes you; interested in you. And from what I've heard doesn't have any issue with Dhampir kids, so it looks like the perfect match. I'm not a complete idiot, Dimitri," I bit out, almost snarling his name as I deekied around him.

"I guess I should really take the last lesson we had to heart," I called over my shoulder, "I learned a lot!" I said as I pushed the door open roughly and let it swing shut behind me.

I wandered around the school a lot longer than I had anticipated. I was so stuck in my head and I hadn't realized that hours had gone by when a patrolling Guardian warned me of curfew. As I walked back to my dorm, my fowl mood had turned into sadness.

I wasn't proud that I snapped at Dimitri, in fact, I felt horrible about it. I hated fighting with him, unless it was on the mats, but now I felt bad. I was just hurt that I had to find all this out from someone else. I sighed quietly as I approached my door, pulling my keys out of my coat pocket.

"Merry fucking Christmas, Rose. You did a real number," I muttered to myself as I unlocked the door and swung it open, hitting the door against something. I wasn't paying attention and walked into the door as well, hitting my face off the door.

I hissed and clutched at my nose, feeling the hot trickle run down my lip. I moaned quietly and blinked the tears away when someone opened my door from the inside. I couldn't see who through the tears that blurred my eyes.

"Rose?"

I started to tip my head back but the stopped me, pinching my nose while having me tilt my head forward, all while leading me towards the bathroom. I didn't need to be able to see to know who it was, but what stunned me more was that he was in my room.

Once we were in the bathroom he set me on the counter effortlessly and grabbed a paper towel, handing it to me to catch the bleeding.

"My eye is going to look even worse now," I muttered and leaned over the sink to catch any additional fallout.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think I would catch the door," Dimitri said softly, rubbing the back of his neck. I squinted at him over the bundle of paper towels in my hand and took a second to look at him. He still was wearing the sweater he wore earlier, but he had taken his hair out of the ponytail and now it hung loosely around him.

"Why were you in my room?" I asked quietly. I wasn't being accusatory, but simply curious.

"I was dropping off your Christmas presents," Dimitri admitted. I raised my brows at him.

"Presents? As in plural? You didn't need to get me anything," I said sheepishly, looking at my toes. Dimitri made a quiet humming noise in his throat and tucked some hair that had fallen into my face back.

"You deserve them," Dimitri said quietly. I looked at him and smiled despite him not being able to see it behind the towel. After a few minutes, Dimitri took the paper away to inspect my nose, gently prodding the ridge of my nose to make sure it wasn't broken.

After he deemed my nose was okay, I slid off the counter and wet some clean paper towel and cleaned myself up, looking at him every so often in the mirror.

"When did you have time to buy me gifts anyways? I feel bad now because I didn't get you anything," I asked as I cleaned the blood away and checked myself over.

"When I took Tasha I picked up the last of my gifts," Dimitri said and I felt sour again. I nodded in the mirror and tossed the used towels into the garbage, facing him again.

"So…I was kind of an ass earlier," I admitted quietly, looking down at my feet again. I hated that this man could make me feel so submissive sometimes. Sometimes I felt like I could take on the whole world in his presence, but other times I felt like I needed to fold under the weight of his gaze.

"It's fine, Roza," he said softly and my stupid heart flipped at the sound of my nickname. I swallowed and looked up at him again, forcing a small smile. Dimitri smiled at me genuinely and gestured for me to follow him, leading me back to my dorm. When he stopped at the door, he looked almost giddy as he waited for me to open the door.

"I'm not going to get smacked in the face again, am I?" I asked sarcastically as I turned the knob. Dimitri shook his head and laughed while I pushed the door open. There was a soft glow in the corner of the room and I stopped just inside the door, my body relaxing at the sight.

"You had said that you've never decorated a Christmas tree before," Dimitri said softly as he shut the door behind me, "Even if it is a mini tree, I thought maybe you'd like it?"

I walked towards the corner of my room where my desk usually was, now pushed off to the side. The tree was only a few feet tall with warm lights on it. On my desk was a box of small ornaments in an array of colours, and two small gifts wrapped under the tree.

"Comrade," I whispered softly, turning to look at him. I didn't think he'd remember me saying that I had never decorated a tree. It wasn't something that happened here at the Academy, and the small gesture meant everything to me.

"Maybe if you aren't too angry, we can do it together?" Dimitri whispered, a soft look on his face. I nodded and he smirked, reaching for the box of ornaments and opening it, threading the hooks through the top and handing them to me.

I didn't want to admit just how excited I was about this, but I could tell from the smile on Dimitri's face and the crinkle in the corners of his eyes that he knew. And for a few minutes, I didn't think about Dimitri and Tasha, I just thought about this.

Once they were all on I stepped back and looked at my tree, smiling.

"I think it looks perfect."

"I agree," Dimitri said as he picked up the two small gifts from under the tree and handed them to me. I held the in my hands and looked up at him. I felt bad I didn't have anything for him, but I knew that money was tight because he sent it back home.

"I hope you didn't spend a lot on me," I said quietly.

"Just open them," Dimitri said with a smile. I bit my lip and opened the first one, taking out a pair of mittens. They were soft and light purple with little stars on them. I rubbed my fingers inside one of them and smirked.

"Trying to keep the hands young?" I joked, referring to the day he cleaned up my hands in the gym.

"Possibly, but you don't have any to begin with and it's cold out," Dimitri said. I set the mittens on my bed and opened the second one, doing a small happy dance to find two tubes of lip gloss inside the paper.

"This is too much, Dimitri," I said after thanking him, but he just shook his head.

"It's not enough. You deserve everything," he said softly and I bit my lip.

"I feel horrible now for being an ass earlier."

"I feel bad for being an ass earlier this week," Dimitri stated and I raised my brows.

"What do you mean?"

Dimitri stepped closer to me and took the gloss from my hands, setting them on the bed too. I blinked up at him and flinched a little when he cupped my cheeks with both hands.

"I was mad at myself and took it out on you, and I need to stop. I can't pretend that I don't care for you anymore, and I'm not going to punish either of us for that again," he said gently.

I gaped at him and shook my head. "But Tasha's offer. I mean, Guardians don't get opportunities to guard friends who would be willing to-"

"I already turned her down the other day," Dimitri cut in, "I can't do that when my heart belongs to someone else."

I blushed and smiled. "It does?"

Dimitri nodded softly and brushed his thumb over my cheekbone. "Yes. It has for a while now," he said as he leaned down and kissed me softly. I was stunned but didn't stop him, rising up on my toes and leaning into the kiss.

It was more on the shorter side, but I wasn't complaining. When we pulled back I could tell that my cheeks were flushed and I blushed harder when Dimitri kissed a flaming cheek.

"Merry Christmas, Roza," he whispered as he pulled me into his arms. I buried my face into his chest and smiled.

"Merry Christmas, Comrade."