Hardest of Hearts (VA fanfic) [Adopted from Fanfiction's Dareia]

FACING HER MOTHER AND... FATHER

James'sPOV
Guardian Hathaway had told me she was going to quote, unquote, 'deal with' me 'in the morning'. But morning had long-since passed, and I had no indication as to when I'd have to meet with her. Knowing Hathaway's methods of torture, she could very well be keeping me in suspense as a means to test me. remind me again, why did I have to feel so protective of Guardian Rose Hathaway's daughter, Sonja, and find her so... beautiful?

"What's up with your sister?" I demanded from Nikolai the second he walked into afternoon training.
"I think you mean: what's up with both of us?" His eyes shot over to Belikov's.
"It's not that bad, Nikolai."
"Not that BAD? Belikov, you abandoned her!"
Belikov's mask didn't falter under the pressure. "I didn't choose to leave. I explained this already."
"You chose to stay away."
"Because I wasn't allowed to come back unless she did."
"Nikolai Hathaway," I warned. His face was set in an expression Sonja and I had come to know and name his impulse face. "Don't. Sonja gets into enough trouble, don't join her in her next detention." Which I would likely get her out of with some extra task or something like that.

Over the last three months I'd really upped my defensiveness regarding her. She got in trouble; I did my darnedest to get her out of it. Someone spread nasty rumours about her; I had to resist the urge to punch the person starting or spreading them. She bat those eyelashes; I was absolutely helpless under them and putty in her hands. I'd only been her brother's mentor since they were twelve years old. Not at all freaky to be developing inappropriate feelings for her. And I was still hanging onto a knife edge waiting for her mother to call me in and speak to me. The older Hathaway scared me. She could have my title stripped and fired my ass in three seconds flat. She could take out a restraining order before I had the chance to blink. And god knew she could beat me to a pulp in a sparring match. So yeah, naturally she scared me.

But that didn't come close to the way Sonja terrified me. I could never lie around her. Her touch seemed to burn me right to my core and sparked an unspeakable passion in me. She understood me and called me out on my faults. She made me want to be a better person. And she goddamn understood what our jobs as guardians entailed. That, of everything, was what drew me to her most; that uncanny sense of complete understanding made her incredibly mature and made it incredibly difficult to remember she was barely sixteen, for crying out loud.

"She stole you!" Nikolai fumed.
I sighed and leaned against the wall opposite the one Belikov was sitting against with a book in hand. "NIko, let it go and start warm up."
He glared at me before walking outside to do laps.
"What was that about, Belikov?"
His eyes snapped up to mine with a dangerous fire burning in them. "Sonja doesn't agree with my methods-- or me. And as for what I saw last night..."
I resisted the urge to gulp. "Yes, Belikov?"
"Stay. Away. From. Her." The almost possessive edge scared me, but not enough that I wouldn't call him out on some rather vital points.
My vision narrowed. "Look who's talking. The pot seems to be calling the kettle black. If anyone should stay away from her, it's you."
"I'm her mentor, and I'm going nowhere."
My hands quaked with the almost uncontrollable desire to break his nose or jaw or something, anything. "You told their mother the same thing, didn't you? But look what happened, you left her and two kids behind. For what? What good did leaving do? To Hathaway? To them? What purposed did it serve except forever altering Guardian Rose Hathaway?"
"Be quiet!" Belikov snapped while he rose to his feet. If he was trying to be intimidating the two inch height difference didn't accumulate to much. "You don't know a thing."
"And you know nothing about either of your children. Or do you even realize they are! I've mentored Niko since they were twelve and was here when they were born. I've seen them grow and change and mature. And your sudden presence has disturbed all that. So, don't. Tell. Me. To. Stay. Away. From. Sonja. You hypocrite!"
"She's my student and my daughter, and you will stay away from her if you value your career."
I was going to dig my toes in here. Because surely couldn't be so idiot. "She's worth losing everything for. I would have believed you thought the same of their mother. But clearly not."
A noise at the door alerted us to someone's arrival. Their heady scent drove me wild and told me all I needed to know who it was. "Will you two stop arguing already!" Sonja snapped. "And Belikov, I think Mom and I can threaten him ourselves. So don't go pretending like you suddenly care. By the way, James, she wants to see you at home straight after training. And don't be late, or else she'll kick your ass."
"Sonja!" Belikov reprimanded.
I smiled and shook my head. "I'll be on time, whether or not he lets you go when he should. Any other messages from Hathaway Senior?"
Sonja smiled and batted her eyelashes and damn her for making me susceptible to her every whim. "None except for ignore him." She jabbed her thumb in Belikov's direction. "But apparently I got here too late."
"Exactly. So as a result, Sonja, you've got extra laps. So go!"
Reluctantly but with complete and unfaltering attitude, she swaggered from the supply room and joined her brother on the track.