"What was that?" Mason inquired, nudging Kate's side. Lissa was also undeniably curious as to what was the reaction of her best friend.

"Kirova banned me from any physical labor for two days, I may be above ignoring direct orders from her for the sake of being more than ready to graduate but they are her subjects, so to speak." Kate replied, once the Guardians were far away enough and wouldn't reprimand her for her words.

Lissa rose her brows at her best friend and with the feeling of the usage of the bond still present in her mind, she willed it forward and tried to questioned through it, although the sentence she wanted to say reached Kate in fragments 

"Your reaction- Belikov's face? "

Kate merely sighed deeply and rolled her shoulders in order to relax, attempting to ignore Lissa's not so subtle mental insinuations. Lissa's green eyes widened as Kate kept her face and by proxy her eyes away from her, naturally avoiding her.

"Well, I know, for absolutely once, that I'm going to die!" Mason chuckled, shrugging his shoulders, although his face allowed the other three to see that he was actually dreading the training session.

The mere thought of having a one-on-one training session with Dimitri made his body shake with nerves and his mind race with the many ways that he might die, the biggest one if from combustion from being in the same area as Guardian Belikov for too long.

"No, you won't." Lissa laughed, patting his shoulder in a semi-comforting way, annoyed that Kate was ignoring her, but not wanting Mason to belief he was to die at dawn.

She hadn't been as close to Mason as Rose had, but she had spent time with him every once in a while when Rose dragged her to parties. Kate hooked her arm through Mason's and allowed him to place his head on her shoulder, allowing him to mentally plan his funeral as they made their way to the Dhampir Quarters.

"You can't keep ignoring me forever Kate." Lissa whispered to her as thy walked to the Dhampir commons.

It was a last moment decision and it was one that was derived from the fact that they knew that no one would be able to fall asleep or want to be alone after what just happened and no one really wanted to be in the Moroi Quarters as the students who had seen the incident had all been Moroi.

"I can, at least until dawn." Kate replied, finally turning her head to her best friend and flashing her a pearly and kind smile, one that held love and kindness for her, but one that Lissa knew that Kate also used to hide things from her.

It was the smile that she used to reassure her that everything was okay, it was the Kate Alastair equivalent smile of Rose Hathaway's 'don't worry, I got this smile' and it was one that Lissa needed to stop falling for. It was one that Lissa was learning to stop falling for.

Both girls taking up most of the bed, getting under the covers, Mason laid across the foot of the bed facing the two of them while Christian sat at Kate's desk chair, with Oscar surprising everyone by jumping on his lap and just laying there. Although, it wasn't much of a surprise considering animals preferred Moroi to Dhampir, but still, a surprise considering Oscar didn't really like anyone but Kate and Lissa.

"You know." Mason started the moment they were all settled in comfortably, grabbing everyone's attention and making them turn to him, Christian only really listening to him as he kept his eyes on the cat that was on his lap, paying more attention to it than anything else really.

"The Academy's been more fun from the moment you two arrived. Don't get me wrong, it's bad what happened today, but, Kate for someone who wasn't trained from the moment you could walk you've been kicking our asses and that's been fun."

Kate rolled her eyes at him while Lissa smiled slightly looking up at the brunette from where she laid on her shoulder.

"Well, I can't say that our lives are much better than they were before to be honest. Yes, we have you guys in it and we are safe from the major dangers and all that, but I miss being able to go shopping for food and living a human life with Lissa." Kate countered with a smirk, holding Lissa close to her, laying her head on top of Lissa's head as she did.

"I miss waffles, pancakes and hot chocolate." Lissa confessed, thinking back to the time she spent out of the Academy with Kate, before laughing slightly, Kate laughing shortly after her as her train of thought popped into her mind through their bond as well as the Princess's choice of food and drink.

"What's so funny about waffles, pancakes and hot chocolate?" Christian questioned confused, genuinely wondering why they were laughing, finally looking up from Oscar, although he kept petting Oscar, who was now purring contently.

"The night that we were caught by Belikov, we went out and had pancakes, waffles and hot chocolate. Unfortunately when we came back, Kate noticed that we were being watched and when we attempted to run away, we were caught." Lissa explained, Kate nodding slightly at everything she said.

Mason and Christian looked at the two girls in slight shock and surprise but accepted it rather quickly disappeared.

"Are you two going to explain what is going on with you two? The reason why Kirova let you stay and get marked, when your human? Why you are so close to Lissa? How you know when she's in distress, so much faster that the Guardians?" Mason questioned, showing that he was not as oblivious as Moroi perceived Dhampir to be.

The girls shared a look, a worried and a silent one. Christian looked at Mason, wondering just how much he knew or had witnessed with Kate and if he could help him figure out more, before dragging his mismatched eyes to the seated girls.

"Not yet." Lissa answered, leaving Kate to lower her forest green eyes to her lap. "We are trying to understand it better ourselves, and while some people assume what it might be," her green eyes glancing at Christian, "It is not quite like that."

"You'll be the first to know when we are ready to tell someone." Kate offered, raising her eyes and looking at her Dhampir friend, offering him a kind smile, which Mason kindly returned.

Silence followed for a short while, a comfortable one as Kate and Mason ended up falling asleep leaving Lissa and Christian awake in the Dhampir's dorm with the task of waking them up before dawn. Lissa had moved away from Kate's shoulder to allow the brunette to be the one who slept on her this time around and giving Mason one of Kate's pillows so that he could sleep more comfortably.

"You should count yourself lucky Christian, Oscar doesn't really like many people besides Kate and I." Lissa told him in a low tone as to not wake up the sleeping Dhampirs, Christian looked at her, his mismatched eyes locking with her jade green ones momentarily before they turned to the cat and an honest smile grew on his lips.

"He must be a good judge of character then." he commented, looking back at Lissa, watching her nod in confirmation at him with a smile on her lips.

"No, trust me, Christian. I've been royally banned from any kitchen and from cooking anything, because when I don't burn the food, the food just turns out horrible, so much so that I don't even let Kate try it, or rather attempt to not let her try it, because it's so bad." Lissa confessed lowly as the dawn started to approach.

Christian looked at the blonde Princess in shock, absolutely astonished that the amazing Vasilisa Dragomir couldn't cook to save her life.

"I once nearly set our stove on fire when I was trying to boil water to make pasta, I'm not pleased to say that Kate nearly died that day from a heart attack but I am pleased to say that, thank god, I haven't specialized in an element yet." the blonde laughed honestly, in a way that Christian Ozera would confess seemed so free and honest, almost as if she wasn't a Moroi Princess at all, as if she was just a teenage girl who had been banned from kitchens.

Christian had already noticed the differences between Kate and Rose, the first and main one being that Kate socialized and joked around with him, but other than that, it was the fact that Lissa actually behaved like a proper teenager when in private and away from prying public eyes, or more at ease when just in the mere presence of Kate. Although, he could still see the side effects from lingering from Rose for so many years at the same time.

"Well, luckily for you, we Moroi don't require as much food as we do blood, so your cooking skills aren't as needed." Christian said after a few moments of silence, moments in which he was merely watching Lissa look out the window, watching how different she looked from two years prior, although he did catch her smiling and rolling her eyes at his comment.

He waited a few more moments before clearing his throat and telling her "We should probably wake them, the sun will be rising soon and they need to be in the gym at dawn."

This made Lissa nod and yawn slightly, seemingly feeling tired, she turned to Kate, shaking her gently and whispering something lowly to her while Christian carefully picked up a sleeping Oscar and held him against his chest as he got up and knelt down next to Mason, gently waking him up as well.

He had never woken up a Dhampir, but knowing that they were being trained to kill Strigoi and given the events of that night, he was being careful when waking up the redhaired boy, not wanting him to tackle him to the ground in a sleepy haze, something that thaankfully didn't happen as Mason woke up surprisingly quickly.

Although he did jump slightly when he saw the proximity between Christian and him when he opened his eyes, as any sane person would, he didn't question it but he was definitely alarmed by it, whispering simply "Never wake me up this close to my face again." which made Christian genuinely smile at him. Another thing that Christian noticed with Kate's presence in the school was that those that she befriended seemed to not really care about the social statuses and species of each student. 

Lissa was having a bit of a bigger fight getting Kate to wake up, the brunette girl turning away from the blonde princess and attempting to pull the covers over her head to shield herself.

"Katherine Alastair, you need to get up." Lissa told her in a motherly tone, one that she no doubt had used before.

When Kate didn't make any effort to move Lissa rolled her eyes and shook her best friend, roughly enough to make sure she actually woke up, but not actually shaking her roughly as if there was something wrong and she needed to get up urgently, at least not yet.

Kate uncovered her face to sleepily glare at the blonde princess, "I'm not like this when I wake you up." she muttered, groggily and annoyed.

"I don't need to be at the gym at dawn." the blonde princess gingerly replied, sassing her brunette best friend, knowing that she won the non-existing argument, or rather, that she won the argument that could've started before it even started.

The boys watched at Kate completely uncovered her body and grumbled under her breath about how she missed waking up at normal human hours. A concept that the two boys did not really understand as all they'd known was sleep during the day and live during the night, which in Christian's mind was slightly idiotic considering they were most in danger under the cover of night, but those were the old ways of the Moroi.

"Coffee. Coffee is how you should wake me up, especially at this unholy hour." Kate told the blonde princess as she got out of bed, stretching her arms above her head while Lisa slipped out of the bed calmly, rolling her eyes. Mason and Christian shared a look, it was clear that the two girls were so used to each other waking the other up that they made comments like these.

"You won't be alive for coffee if you get to the gym late." Lissa replied, slipping her shoes back on as she looked at the boys with a knowing look on her face, she knew that her words wouldn't only resonate within Kate but with Mason as well, who as soon as he heard those words looked at the Princess with big blue eyes.

Kate's head snapped towards her best friend quickly, it actually pained it, causing her to wince slightly, and before she could even say anything Mason beat her to it, turning his head to her and telling her in an assertive tone "Gym. Now."

He didn't want to die at the hands of the Russian God during training, but he most certainly didn't want to die at the hands of the Russian God for getting to the gym late. Kate could only nod at the red haired boy before he leaped forward, startling both Morois, before Kate did the same, only she leaped in Lissa's direction, planting a kiss on her cheek, before quickly doing the same with Christian, shocking him completely and running out the door as she attempted to put her trainers back on.

"Did she?" Christian asked slowly and carefully once the shock faded, turning his head back to the blonde, finding himself alone with her once more, more times than before she's fled the Academy.

"Kiss your cheek?" Lissa laughed, watching as he nodded, petting Oscar who was still in his arms, "Get used to it, she doesn't even know she does it half the time, but it means she's comfortable with you." Lissa confessed.

The run to the gym was nothing too much for the two, but making it in time before Dimitri and Alberta arrived would be an accomplishment for the ages.

Mason was unsurpring the fastest of the two, and having properly woken up before Kate.

"I need coffee to be functional!" Was the only thing that Kate kept saying all the way until the duo arrived at the gym, breaking through the double entrance doors just as the sun was starting to peek through the horizon of the trees.

Kate rubbed her eyes while Mason stretched, both of them still trying to wake up their systems completely so that they would be functional for their unholy training session. "I miss regular schooling hours. For a school that aims to train students to protect themselves and Moroi from nocturnal bloodsucking creatures, they should really have a day schedule not a night one." The brunette grumbled as she leaned forward and landed sideways on the hard gym matress covered floor.

Mason, who was used to this routine since he was a child, merely looked at his brunette friend, his blue eyes shinning with amusement. He knew that Kate and Lissa rarely talked about their lives before returning to the Academy, or being brought to the Academy for the first time in Kate's case, but he did find it amusing every time that they did let something slip.

"You can get coffee as soon as training is done." Mason soothed her, making no effort to approach her as he knew that if he lowered himself to the ground, he wouldn't be getting up.

A scoff escapped Kate's lips, despite not being soft and cozy as a matress was, she'd somehow managed to find a good position to lay down on her side. "You really think so? Cafeteria will be closed because it's daytime." She mocked, not really offensively, "God, I miss Starbucks and normal schedules."

A normal and happy laugh left Mason, he was truly amused by Kate and her love for sleep, something that seemed to battle her love for Lissa. "Out of all the things that we had imagined and thought about you Kate, being a sleepyhead and a coffee affecionatto did not make the top 50." he confessed, stretching his arms above his head, "Maybe the coffee but not the sleepyhead."

Kate cracked an eye open at his comment, narrowing it in Mason's direction and silently cursing him for being a morning person, or a night person, or whatever it was they were called when they had the horrible schedule. "Curse you and your ability to train the second you wake up." the brunette human cursed not so lowly, nor calmly as she forced herself up from the surprisingly position she was in.

Mason hadn't done anything to annoy her, other than stretch and get ready for the training session and that was exactly why Kate was in a bad mood. And Mason seemed to know that because he didn't take the human's words to heart, he merely chuckled at them.

"Curse me all you want, but whatever you do, don't curse Alberta, she'll kill you faster than you can say Strigoi." Mason mused, crossing his arms across his chest while looking at Kate's disheveled looks. It was clear that Kate needed certain ammount of sleep to function and Mason was truly amazed by her lack of function.

"And how will she do that? Will she snap my neck? Break my spine? Stab my heart? Seduce me with her superiour Dhampir skills?" Kate countered, scrunching her face as she desperately attempted to rub the forsakened sleep from her eyes.

Dimitri and Alberta walked towards the gym, passing the many outposts on their way. Some abandoned and some occupied. They'd checked the entire perimeter of the Academy, looking for how Elaine had infiltrated the campus and gotten ahold of her son, but they'd gotten nothing.

"It must be refreshing to have the Princess back on Campus, Alberta. Despite still not knowing how she escaped from us." Dimitri commented with his superior, peering to the dark-skinned woman beside him.

Alberta smiled honestly, clear devotion and maternal affection for the Dragomir Princess on her lips as she did so.

"It is, although I am incredibly surprised to see the Dhampir with her. Every human that I've met that hadn't been a feeder, has been so afraid of our culture and who we are that they run for the hills." Alberta sighs, a dejected tone taking over, "Or they grow obssessed with trying to expose our existence to other humans. So Alastair being raised by humans and not reacting just like them is utterly surprising."

Their pace is matched, despite Dimitri being nearly two whole feet taller than Alberta.

"Do you have any new information on if Alastair might be related to a known Dhampir, or if she is just a Dhampir wandering the world with no knowledge of who she is?" Alberta looked up at Dimitri, attempting to read his features.

Attempting to get the answer out of him without him actually saying it.

"We don't have any information if she is related to any Moroi or not, but after Alastair's marking ceremony, Spiridon and I trained." Dimitri started, and as he spoke Alberta frowned, she knew that Guardians trained alone or with each other whenever they had time, so she was confused as to why the Russian Guardian was telling her this.

"And during our training we also talked about Alastair, and Spiridon mention a Dhampir that went missing for 6 years." he continued, narrowing his eyes ahead.

Alberta was slow to understand what Dimitri was trying to tell her, but she did say "Dianna Owens, went missings 21 years ago, not even a week after her graduation. She returned 6 years later, lost her charge and refused to talk about that time."

Alberta had met Dianne in person, and in passing, but always only ever at work.

It was only after she finished saying the same thing that Spiridon had that she turned her head to Dimitri and questioned "You think that Dianna is Alastair's mother?"

Dimitri shook his head, "Alastair said she had an Aunt Dianna, and I do believe it is her. I have attempted to use my resourses to research any information about her background but everything is blocked." he explained.

"Dianna stopped being a Guardian after she returned, she is one of the many that can't handle the loss of their charge. She's currently in a Dhampir community in Portugal with Mason's mother, although Mason's mother is working in Portugal, her permenant residence is there." Alberta explained.

Dimitri nodded, a silent plan forming in his mind, a plan that Alberta seemed to understand in hers as well.

"I'll put in an request for Dianna Owens to visit the Academy as soon as possible to see if Alastair and her know each other." Alberta offered, smiling up ahead despite her smile being meant for Dimitri.

"Thank you Alberta." The taller Guardian replied as the gym came into their view.

"Don't thank me, Alastair should be the one thanking you for your effort in trying to know who she is and where she came from." Alberta countered in a kind tone.

The moment the gym doors opened, Mason snapped his whole body into a proper Dhampir Protection Stance, feet apart, same distance as his shoulders, hands locked behind his back, chin up and facing forward. Something Kate should've also done, something she would've done, were she properly awake and a night owl like everyone else at that Academy.

"Ponctuality, I do so love that in a Novice." Alberta teased the two Novices before her, despite the fact that Kate still had her back to her, "It means that they are eager to learn and eager to get hurt."

A small whimper left Mason as he heard Alberta's words, small and low enough that only Kate could hear it as she stood close to him. This reaction from him did wake her up slightly more, it told her that Dimitri was indeed in the room and that Mason was a mess of emotions in that moment.

"As stated earlier, Ashford's training will be with me. Alastair-" Dimitri began, his dark brown eyes watching as Kate turned around, her hands running through her hair and pulling it upwards and into a ponytail with ease.

"I train with Alberta, I know. I remember." the Alastair girl replied just as she finished tying her hair, giving Dimitri a short nod, just like she always did before they started a sparing session. It was a universal code that the person who did it was ready.

"Why don't you two gentlemen train inside, where less accidents can happen?" Alberta offered, looking at Mason, who in the first few ears of his official Novice training was known to be slightly clumsy, and known to get hurt training and while he has moved on from it, training outside was still a slight hazard for him.

Mason flushed red at the mention of having previously been hazard-prone but nodded at the orders.

Kate followed Alberta back out the gym doors while Dimitri shrugged his cowboy duster making the brunette girl smirk and wink as Mason before closing the door behind her.