Building the Tension | ✔ | 18+

Chapter 12 - Building Block(age)s to Success

When I arrived at the track the next morning, Dimitri was there in the stands, reading his book and he had quickly barked out that he wanted me to do thirty laps. After I finished the running, I walked over to him. "Hey," I said, "I'm done now. Now what, Comrade?"

Dimitri got up, carrying his book with him, and started to exit the track area. "After you're done here, Guardian Bondar has agreed to help out with some of your training," he said, with his back to me, "He will be meeting you in the weight room for your lifting session this morning. He should be there now."

-=o0/&\0o=-

When I arrived in the weight room, I found Yuri there waiting for me. "Hey, Yur - I mean Guardian Bondar," I said to him, "I heard you're going to help train me. Where do you want me to start?"

"Rose, 'Yuri' is fine. You're close enough to graduation and we fought shoulder-to-shoulder in the caves on Sunday. And I know you've been pretty ... close ... with Dimitri," he said. The way he said it left me to believe he had an idea of what had happened. "He gave me all of the details of your previous training and left a pretty detailed schedule on what he'd planned to go over with you. Can you start out at the bench press?"

"Yeah," I nodded, as I headed over to load up the bar and get situated on the rack, "How many reps?"

As I positioned my hands on the bar, Yuri said, "Four sets of ten. Is it okay if we talk - well, mostly me talking and you listening - while you lift?"

"Okay," I said, as I lifted the bar.

"I don't know what's up with you and Dimitri as of last night," he began, getting in place to spot me, "but I have seen enough to know that there's something there. More than just mentoring. Hell, I told him last week, it's really no surprise considering how much time you spent together."

"What?!" I growled angrily, as I mentally counted out the first ten of my lifts and set the bar down, "And you thought you'd start trying to get me to fool around with you, now that he and I aren't on such great terms?"

"Not even close, little girl," he said, almost a little condescendingly, "I don't swing that way. Quite frankly, if I had to pick anyone around St. Vlad's that I'd want to be fooling around with, I'd be much more interested in the person who practically begged me to replace him this morning than a novice almost fifteen years younger than me that he's afraid to be alone with right now."

"Ooookay, then!" I said, stretching my arms as I prepared for my next set, "So, what did you want, then?"

"Something's up with you two," he said. "I don't know what it is, but the man is hurting. And I think you better fix it."

"Why me?" I asked.

He replied, "Because you broke it."

"Can I trust you? To keep things to yourself?"

"Yours wouldn't be the first guardian romance I've kept a secret," he offered.

"How much do you know?"

Yuri began, "He's been treating you differently than all of the other students on campus, for months now. Dimitri's whole personality has changed since he started training with you. When we were on the plane back from the Dashkov trial, I don't know if you even realized he was there, he was holding you and brushing your hair back. Thankfully, I think I was the only one there who saw him kiss your temple on the plane - and the only one at Spokane who spoke Russian well enough to understand what he was saying when he told you, 'Thank God you're alive. I thought I lost you,' when you were in shock after we found you. He might as well have just come out and said that he loved you."