Helloooo people! How are you all? Thanks again to everyone who's been reading and extra thanks to those writing reviews, it warms my heart :') Here we have the third instalment, and this one is majority Damon's P.O.V with some Belikov kids interactions (AND a famous quote from our beloved Dimitri is mentioned, so I hope that isn't copyright or anything? All credit goes to Richelle Mead, y'all know that!) :D

We're still a bit world-building and providing background info which will be important for much later, but the next few chapters coming will be more action-packed with our favourite Romitri couple, I promise!

Hope you enjoy ~

TW: there is mention of gun-use later in the chapter but no explicit descriptions.

Students and Teacher

Damon's P.O.V.

Sophia's Senior Year - October through to start of December

If September passed by quickly, October was a blur. True to my promises, I trained with Sophia and Chad separately. We increased Sophia's sessions to four times a week, Chad just once a week because he already had a mentor. I was just additional, unofficial extra coaching for him.

About two weeks after training Chad, another senior novice approached me for mentoring. Mason Ashford Junior. Another one of Sophia's friends. Was she putting me down as a fucking reference or something? Or was I really that good of a mentor?

Both Sophia and Chad had reported that they've already noticed a huge difference in their performance upon consistently using my mental health coaching tips. I started them both on breath work. It is the first thing I covered in my lessons with each of them. I handed them some info sheets on various breathing techniques and what each one is designed for so they could utilise it at the appropriate times. I also recommended that in their free time they listen to this podcast that provides professional guided breath work sessions to regulate the nervous system, release stored emotions and work through traumas. Breath work was one of the main tools that helped me work through some of the trauma I endured. It also regulated my nervous system tremendously.

The next thing I honed in on them was nutrition. I emphasised the importance of eating enough calories for athletic and growing dhampirs. Even though we could technically eat whatever and be fine as dhampirs because of the Moroi genes, nothing quite adds to your performance like a healthy diet and good protein intake. Soph didn't need much help in this category. She was already meticulous about her meals, something that her Dad drilled into her from a young age (despite her disgusting need for a smoke every now and again, she was pretty healthy).

The third thing I set them on the path to was cold water therapy. The two of them freaked out when I explained what it was but after some gentle coaxing and repeatedly saying to ease into it, they finally agreed they would give it a go. Just a few seconds of cold water at the end of each shower, breathe deeply and calmly, not rapidly and shallowly otherwise the benefits of the cold water don't work.

After a few short weeks of them improving their diet, implementing breath work and cold water therapy, they came bustling to me saying how much better they feel all round—physically and mentally—and that I was a "real mentor".

When Mason, or MJ as he insisted I call him, first approached me, he said it was the lifestyle tips he heard from Sophia and Chad that intrigued him. After his own little observations of his friends, he decided to ask me for some extra guidance too. In order to juggle three seperate students, I worked with Chad and MJ simultaneously once a week.

The three of us did plenty of drills where two of us would team up and try take the other down. It worked excellently and soon, my three mentees were always at the top of every single class.

The more the four of us worked with each other, the more I noticed the attitude of the staff and students begin to change around me. People grew more impressed with me. I could see it in the other guardians' eyes, small glints of approval. They became nicer, and I knew the opinions and hangups people hand on me for years were shifting. As if they finally realised I'm not the same junkie teenager, or irresponsible guardian who got arrested mere months after graduation.

And I had to thank Sophia for that.

She put me on the map.

If she'd never asked Alto for me that first day, none of this would be happening.

One day in October, the most bizarre thing occurred. I was working out in my free time, running through a practice drill on the quad when a figure with dark, thick brown hair dressed in all black with a black puffer jacket approached me slowly. I took note of her and continued with my obstacle course.

She patiently waited by the sidelines, leaning against a wooden pole, arms crossed. When I finished up a few seconds later, I walked over to her.

"What can I do for you, Miss Belikov?" I asked, unable to hide the small sneer in my lips at addressing her professionally. Her and I had never been on good terms and the impish side of me wanted to poke fun at her.

Unfortunately, she knew what I was doing and ignored it. "I came to find you," she began slowly, almost timidly, if I had to guess. She wrapped her arm around the pole like she was giving it a hug. "I…I wanted to ask if…well…if you would mentor me, too?"

I outright stared at her.

And then, I couldn't help it, I began laughing. "You? You want me to coach you? You hate me."

"I don't hate you that much anymore." She straightened up and let go of the wooden pole. "Besides, I've seen how you've trained Sophia, Chad and MJ. Those three, especially my sister, have always been exceptional but now…they're above and beyond! Everyone is talking about how much they've improved and how good of a mentor you must be."

I began walking back towards the dormitories. "Is that why you want me to train you? Because 'everyone else' suddenly has a different opinion about me and it's influencing you?"

"No!" she huffed and raced to catch up to my longer, faster stride. "Do I look like a crowd follower to you?" No, she didn't. In fact, the Belikov siblings were probably the least crowd-following people to ever exist.

"I want to become better. I have to be better," she stressed.

"Aren't you top of your class? And sophomores are too young to have one-on-ones just yet."

She rolled her eyes. "Well aware, Damon. Like I said before, I want to become better. I'm up against a lot here."

I paused, deciphering her words. "Are you talking about your parents?" Sophia always reiterated how much pressure she felt, being the first-born to two dhampir parents—and two guardian legends at that. I had a sneaky suspicion Nadya perhaps felt a similar way.

"And Sophia," added Nadya. "She killed two Strigoi on her own at sixteen! I'm nearly sixteen and I keep thinking there's no way I could do what she did."

"It's not a competition," I said gently.

"I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that I want to prove myself. Show that I'm just as good as Soph, and Mom and Dad."

I remained silent. Pondering over her words. Nadya wanted an edge over her preceding relatives. Was I the right person to provide her with what she needed?

"So…will you do it? Will you train me?" she pleaded. I analysed her dark eyes. There was hope in there. Hope and fierce determination. She wanted this. Oh, she wanted this badly.

I rubbed a palm over my face and exhaled a long breath. This could very well be a terrible idea.

"Okay, fine," I groaned. "I'll teach you."

She beamed. And I think that was truly the first time she was genuine towards me.

"But you have to listen to everything I say and no smart-ass remarks."

"Fine. I promise."

"And because I'm already taking care of three seniors, you are my last priority here. Sophia comes first because I'm her only mentor."

She nodded. "I understand. Thank you for doing this."

I never, ever thought of myself as a teacher but since I had four students of my own, I began liking my role as a mentor more and more. Granted, my four students were very dedicated and actually listened to my advice and methods, so it made my job ten times easier.

All the weeks in November consisted of weekly workout sessions with each student. Sophia was my star student, of course. She even put in extra time outside of our lessons, which was of no surprise to me. It seemed whenever she wasn't in class, and not with me, and not doing homework, she was either practicing new techniques, or weight training, or running.

Her, Chad and MJ would have their own little practice sessions on the quad before school. Sophia and Nadya would compete with each other, racing around the school oval's track. Sophia was working out and practicing so much, I suggested she implement weekly yoga or pilates to balance out all the highly intensive training.

One night, Sophia and I scheduled in an evening session. Nadya sat in on it, watching us and—

"Are you taking notes?" I asked in astonishment as she pulled out an A4 notebook and pen balancing them on her lap.

"Homework." She pointed with the pen in Sophia's direction. "Sophia's helping me."

Sophia turned to me. "She hates doing science homework and if she doesn't turn something in tomorrow, she gets detention." As if that explained it.

"And Miss Brain Box over here said you guys were doing a lighter session today. She can talk and work out at the same time, right?"

"As long as her training doesn't slack," I replied. I glanced at Sophia. "But why don't you just help her after our session anyway?"

"Hey! I have my own homework to do. Like she said, I can talk and work out at the same time," she answered confidently. "Plus, the gym relaxes her enough that she doesn't hate homework as bad in here."

Okay, well that was relatively odd. I never expected a training room or gym session to be relaxing for homework, rather, it'd be distracting. I shrugged anyway. "Suit yourselves."

Today, we were doing boxing with pad work. Nothing too strenuous or overexerting. Just a few different combinations to work on muscle memory, punching power, speed and reflexes. I strapped on black pads and Sophia put on boxing gloves.

We set to it for the hour and every now and again, Nadya would ask Sophia a question and scribble the answer down in her notebook. I was amazed at Sophia's precise answers. They were practically recitations straight from a textbook and as the lesson progressed, I silently wondered if the homework aspect here was more relaxing for Sophia than Nadya.

I didn't say a word and let the girls get on with it. About thirty minutes into our session, the door opened. In walked the youngest Belikov kid, Sacha. I was quite surprised to see him here, in fact. Sacha was barely thirteen so his primary residence was over in the middle school wing of campus. He had no reason to be wandering the high school and senior areas—unless it was something urgent.

Nadya and Sophia must've had the same trail of thoughts as I did because Sophia quickly flitted her eyes over to him, but she continued punching the pads. Meanwhile, Nadya snapped her notebook shut and jumped up. Her expression instantly turned to worry.

"Is everything okay? Is Mom and Dad—"

She didn't get to finish because he waved her off. "Everyone is fine. Calm down. I'm not here to see you two." He fixed his eyes on me. "I'm here to see you."

I gave him a polite nod. "Take a break, Soph," I said and gestured to the bench where her bag, water bottle and sister sat.

I got straight to the point with Sacha. "What do you need, Sacha?" I unstrapped the pads around my hands and grabbed my own drink bottle.

Sacha squared his shoulders and regarded me earnestly. "I want you to teach me too."

I flicked my eyes between the siblings. They seemed just as caught off guard by Sacha's request as I was. "Do the teachers around here suck or something?"

"No. We just want to learn more and you're obviously one of the best. Also, have you forgotten your aunt used to be the captain at this school?" No, I hadn't forgotten but rather, promptly ignored that important piece of information. I was like Sophia in that regard: never wanting to be consistently compared and aligned to our relatives. "I just found out your assignment here is only temporary until they find something more suitable for you. Better to take some lessons now before they ship you off somewhere else, right?"

I sighed. "Sacha, you're twelve. Why do you need a mentor right now?"

"I don't. I just kind of want to learn from you."

He meant well and this was a big compliment but it was completely unnecessary. I was ready to argue and decline when I was reminded of something. It was what I said to myself the first time Chad asked me. It all goes to serving a greater purpose.

I threw my hands up. "Well, I've already taken on two Belikovs, I suppose another won't hurt."

Sacha loudly banged his hands together once and curled them into fists. "Yes!" he hissed.

"But," I added, toning down his excitement. "You are seriously my last priority. I'm already maxing out all my so-called 'free time' with teaching everybody. So, if you want to learn, come along to one of my mentoring lessons and pick up what I teach."

Sacha shook his head in agreement. "I am perfectly okay with that. Thanks, Damon!"

He hung around for the rest of the session, observing his sister's moves with undivided attention.

"Thank you for allowing me to sit in. I actually learnt a couple things," he said at the end of the hour.

We put away our equipment and the four of us left the training room. On our way back to the dorms, the final bell sounded for the last call for supper.

"Anyone fancy a hot chocolate?" Sophia asked.

"You don't even need to ask, Milana," replied Nadya, tossing her hair over her shoulder. I recently learnt that anyone in Sophia's family only call her Milana when they're feeling a particularly fuzzy way towards her.

"I'll tag along," I said, eager for a warm drink myself. We pivoted to the cafeteria.

"You should let Sophia make it for you," suggested Nadya.

"She makes the best hot chocolates," insisted Sacha.

"Sold," I said. We reached the cafeteria. I held the door open and the three of them scuffled in. We grabbed a table and Sophia went over to where the hot water dispenser sat. I went with her. She grabbed four mugs and eight packets of hot chocolate.

"Doubling it is the secret," she told me, tearing open the packets and dumping two sachets in each mug.

"I think they love it because you make it for them," I said as we filled the mugs with hot water.

She peeked at me out the corner of her eye. She wore a small, amused smile. "It'll be the same reason why you love it too, then."

She grabbed four miniature servings of milk and splashed them into each mug. I grabbed a stirrer and mixed the hot chocolates. She glanced over to her siblings then flicked her eyes up back to me.

"They like you too," she said. "They hold nothing but respect for you. Same with Chad and MJ."

"Not sure about Nadya on that one."

"Marshmallows?" she asked, grabbing a handful from the container.

"Thanks," I said. She plopped two large marshmallows in each mug.

"Not true," she said, going back to Nadya. "She does respect you…and maybe begrudgingly likes you. She's stubborn."

I smirked a little at that. Soph grabbed a can of whipped cream from the table and shook it. "You want some?"

"Sure, thanks." She sprayed the cream in perfect swirls in each cup and topped them all off with a sprinkle of cocoa powder. We carried the mugs back to the table and Nadya adorned her older sister with a kiss on the cheek.

They were so sweet and caring with each other, it made my heart ache for my brother. They were lucky. So, so lucky to still have each other. And that's when it became apparent to me. I don't care if it kills me—I will train them to the best of my ability and push their limits so that they can remain alive and be with each other. With their parents.

Part of my job at the academy included monitoring classes as security from time to time. There was one particular subject that always piqued my interest but for obvious reasons could never attend back in my day as a novice. Moroi Combat and Magic Defensive Training. Compared to the rest of Moroi history and culture, this was a fairly new program in recent years. It was originally developed by Christian Ozera, the Queen's husband. He was practically the founder and instigator for Moroi fighting with magic and it had been proven useful in several occasions over the past twenty years or so. Dimitri Belikov and Rose Hathaway had largely assisted in the development of the program as well as a few other guardians for the combat side of things. Some experienced Moroi fighters, one for each element were co-creators for this program. Mia Rinaldi was one of them representing the water element. Her kids were enrolled at the academy too, but I didn't have much to do with them seeing as they were elementary school age.

The first time I sat in on this class was purely for monitoring purposes.

The second time I was in on this class, I was the substitute teacher.

This class had two teachers, one for the magic component, one for the combat component. The combat teacher had sudden leave for a family emergency and as we were a little short staffed, Alto had no choice but to substitute me in.

This group were a bunch of sophomores, one of the students was the Queen's first-born: Anastasia Rhea Ozera Dragomir. I'd seen her a few times hanging around Nadya, Sophia and another cousin of theirs, Aliya. I put aside the fact that I was technically teaching the Queen's daughter and treated her like any other student.

We started the lesson with a warm-up of running and stretches. Then we moved into partner work. They were continuing on from last lesson where a new combination had been introduced. Today, they were refining and practicing that combination. They were a resilient group, I must admit. It was kind of expected however, because this was an elective after all. Not a required subject.

I circled around the room, giving notes and tips, correcting form and giving some appraisal when it was deserved.

The Moroi teacher, Ms James, called a break and the students used this time to ask any questions whilst recharging. Most of the questions were related to the combination or simultaneous use of magic. Until one wasn't.

A student raised their hand and Ms James called on them. The student faced me, not the Moroi. "Is it true you learnt sharpshooting outside the Academy?"

I glared at the student. Where on earth did he hear that?

Ms James spoke before I formulated a response. "That's not—"

"My older cousin went to school here at the same time as you and she said you picked up other skills that the Academy didn't heavily focus on," the student explained.

The room had come to a standstill. Novices training to become a guardian were notorious for being super active, with a drive to practice and learn. It's part of why I had five students to mentor. The bulk of what novices learnt came from the school. Even if they asked a non-school guardian a clarifying question or a new move, it all essentially came from academy training.

But what this kid heard of me was not taught in any Moroi academies across the world. How to use a gun and gun safety was part of the curriculum but specific gun training and sharpshooting? No. That wasn't part of the curriculum. Stakes were a guardian's main weapon of choice. We hardly needed to use guns.

I cleared my throat. "Yes. I did learn how to become a sharpshooter outside the Academy." Some students exchanged raised eyebrows and glances with each other. It was completely uncommon what I just said.

"Where did you learn it?" the same student asked.

Home, was the first answer that flitted to my mind. Instead of showing my emotional connection to that land, I simply said, "Bulgaria."

"Why did you learn sharpshooting?" Another student asked.

I was saved from answering because Ms James addressed both the former and the latter. "Mr. Christaldi, Miss Rodriguez, that's enough questions for Guardian Petrov."

She moved on to the next student who had their hand raised and suddenly, I silently wished I did answer her question.

Sophia's P.O.V.

December

It was icy. Winter was definitely here, and fall was long, long gone. I rugged up with enough layers, a warm coat, scarf, beanie and stepped into the fresh air. Blasting wind caught me in the face. Tearing away from the warmth of indoors, I made a run for it to the training room. Damon and I had an early morning session before the school day begun and I used the distance from my building to the gym as a warm-up.

When I traipsed into our training room, Damon sat waiting for me, rugged up in multiple layers and winter gear too. The room wasn't setup for anything today.

After morning pleasantries, I straight away begun questioning him.

"What are we doing today? Are we not working in here? Oh no, you're not going to make us run around outside first, are you?"

He allowed himself a playful smirk. "Would you relax?" He stood up and opened the door, gesturing for me to follow him outside.

"We're going to practice somewhere a little different this morning."

"Oh. Why?"

He turned back around, eyes sweeping me. "You'll see."

Damon led me away from the high school campus—as a matter of fact, all campuses—and away from any school buildings and excitement. I was so puzzled as to where we were going and what the hell for.

Eventually, we made it to a clearing where there was a warehouse type of building.

"Wait, what are we doing here?" I asked.

I'd been here before. All students have. It was where we had our gun safety lessons and shooting practices. The warehouse was setup the same way it always was. One end was lined with several target practice posters. The other end was shooting stalls. There were several other shooting targets setup.

Damon turned to me. "I'm going to teach you how to become a sharpshooter."

Thank YOU so much for reading! Any theories on why Nadya initially hated Damon? Please let me know what you think. I love hearing your kind words and thoughts :)

Take care and see you in the next one! Xx