Building the Tension | ✔ | 18+

Chapter 22 - Begin Again

Author's notes:

A bit more of Mead's original text in this chapter, toward the end. It comes from Chapter Three of Blood Promise. I'll try to limit it to direct quotes from characters.

-=o0&0o=-

The next morning at the track, Dimitri looked at me gravely when I approached. "What's wrong, Comrade?" I asked him when I arrived.

"Start running. We'll talk on the track."

"O ... kay ..." I said just before I turned to jog along.

Dimitri caught up to me very quickly. "Last night," he said, "Guardian Petrov did a check to see who was on shift. When she found Yuri there instead of me, there were some questions."

"Oh," I said.

"Yes. 'Oh.'" He was quiet for another half of a lap around the track. "She didn't find anything specific last night and I think I covered well enough, but she's going to be watching me much more closely now. Especially on Sundays when you're alone."

"Why then?" I asked.

"Remember in my apartment when I said that we'd attracted some attention?"

"Oh," I said again, "Alberta knows?  Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't tell you before because I didn't want you to worry. You have enough problems, Roza. Guardian Petrov has known that I have feelings for you since December. She didn't seem to have a problem with it as long as I was respectful and we didn't let it interfere with our responsibilities."

"So, no more shift swaps?"

"No more shift swaps," he frowned.

"What about kissing in the storage room?" I asked, brightening a little.

"I think that we can still do that, but we'll have to be cautious and keep it relatively quick," he replied, "On the bright side, I think that we can be together as soon as we get to Court when graduation is over. My biggest concerns with waiting the summer out were that your skill would be questioned, but at the rate you've been progressing the past few weeks, I suspect that your final trial score will be a new record. People could question my marks, but not the rest of the judges."

"A record? For St. Vladimir's?"

"I actually meant overall," he said.

"Isn't that your record?" I asked him. Over the past couple of weeks since the field experience had begun again and I'd gone for the extra training, I had heard a rumor that Dimitri held the record for the highest score of any novice at final trials.

"I didn't know you'd heard that. Final trial scores are supposed to be sealed," he said, putting on more guardian mask than I had seen in a private conversation with him in a long time.

"Not denying it, huh, Comrade? It is your record, isn't it?" I smirked at him and then said, "A couple of the others were talking about it."

"Even with that final trial score, I graduated with a Full Black Moon. That's rare, but I know I haven't been the only one. It wasn't until a few months after arriving at Court that I made it to Blast Master. You might be the first guardian to graduate from the academies with a Blast Master rating."

"I thought that they couldn't give a Blast Master rating to a novice - that you had to graduate first?"

"Just because they never have doesn't mean that they can't," he smiled.

"So, if my ranking's high enough, we could be together right away after graduation?" I asked.

"As long as your ranking is at least a New Black Moon, as soon as we get to Court."