Never Too Late: A VA Fanfiction

Chapter Twelve

RPOV:

Everything seemed to freeze as my mother walked into the gym. What was she doing here? The three of us watched silently as she made her way over to us. Janine looked at me, her guardian mask seeming a bit out of whack, not completely there.

“Rose...” She said hesitantly, looking at me hopefully.

I wiped all emotion off my face, something I had gotten surprisingly good at. “Hello Guardian Hathaway,” I replied coldly, then turned away to look at Dimitri.

“So Comrade, what are we doing today?” I asked cheerfully, although my mood had dropped through the floor, and was now burning in hell.

Dimitri gave me a mildly guilty look. “Um, well, I decided to cancel the lesson when Ivan arrived. I figured that well, I kind of wanted to talk to him a bit, since this will probably be the last time we see each other for a while, and he came just as I got here, and you were ten minutes late, so I had no way of telling you the lesson was canceled....” He trailed off, looking nervous.

I swallowed. “Well, how about that move you promised to show me last night?” I asked, giving him a look that said do it or else I will murder you personally in your sleep....I will find a way. His responding look was slightly frightened; it seemed that he understood and believed what I was trying to say.

“Um, okay, so if you were to stand like this...” Dimitri came over and stood close to me as usual as he showed me the move.

“Guardian Belikov, would it not be more prudent for you to actually let her try the move on you, as opposed to the dummy? That way you can truly see and experience whether she did it right or not,” Janine interrupted. I had almost succeeded in forgetting she was there as I tried to focus on the new move. Her voice shattered all those pretty dreams. I watched sadly as they flew away...

Dimitri's jaw clenched as he looked at me quizzically. Doesn't she know? I answered his unspoken question with a slight shake of my head. His eyes flared with anger.

“Well, Guardian Hathaway, I would, but Rose isn't comfortable around men as of yet.” he replied in a calm voice.

Janine looked shocked. “What? What do you mean?” she asked sharply.

I snorted with disdain. “Well, you see mother dearest, he not only got me pregnant, he also left a parting gift of a phobia of men, because of which no man can be closer than 5 feet to me, the exception being Dimitri, of course.”

You could hear a pin drop. I was breathing hard as I looked at her. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ivan look surprised, but not shocked, which led me to believe that Dimitri had told him at least something about my situation, if not of my phobia. Janine simply looked bamboozled. She probably would have been less astonished if I had shot her, a scenario that appeared highly appealing at the moment.

“I-what?” Janine was speechless. Any other time, that would have made me do a victory dance, but right now, I wanted to be anywhere but here.

I swallowed, then turned back to Dimitri, begging with my eyes. “So how about that move?”

He looked at me for several moments, then nodded tersely. “Go on.”

I showed him, and he watched, correcting me when need be. This continued on like any other lesson, except for the audience we had. Ivan eventually loosened up slightly, and made jokes and teased the two of us, allowing things to go back to something resembling normal. At the end of the lesson, we weren't even trying to work; the three of us were sprawled out on the floor, the guys just a few feet away from me, talking, joking and laughing. My mother stood by the wall, forgotten.