Diana could not keep her eyes away from Kate's moving figure, in fact, she feared that if she did look away that Kate would disappear, she tried to locate the soft baby features that she last saw Kate support, but she couldn't find any of them and it ached.

She noticed that a man dressed in gym clothes, that had also made a move to catch Kate earlier by the car, following them, and it set off alarm bells.

"Можете не следить за нами, товарищ. (You can stop following us, Comrade.)" Kate called out to Dimitri, who frowned at her back, a reaction that had Diana also frowning, but at his reaction. "Я не опоздаю на тренировку на рассвете. (I won't be late for training at dawn.)" Kate added, without looking over her shoulder.

For some reason, Dimitri didn't quite enjoy the fact that Kate was easily dismissing him as if he were just another Guardian and she a Moroi, it didn't sit well with him, and he silently claimed that it was because of the trust and companionship that they'd been building the past month and weeks.

Dimitri knew that Kate wanted a private moment to reunite with her aunt, and he knew that he should give them space, but at the same time, he couldn't help the feeling of overprotectiveness that suddenly took place in his chest, weighting him down like a couple of bricks.

"Не опаздывайте. (Do not be late.)" he decided to reply, stopping in his tracks and moving his eyes from Kate's figure to the taller woman next to her, only to find her looking over her shoulder back at him.

Diana looked at Dimitri, curiously, wondering what the connection between her niece and the Russian was, but it was clear, by the way that Kate spoke to him as if they were equals that their bond was not entirely of a student/teach nature, but rather one of colleagues, which intrigued Diana.

"Nothing's going on between Belikov and I." Kate told her aunt before the older Dhampir had the chance to question.

And just like that Diana was reminded about one of the things she hated the most about her niece. With a deep sigh, Diana returned her eyes to Kate's profile, catching a glimpse of the red hue in her forest eyes. For years after losing her best friend and the children she considered her niece and nephew, Diana poured over old manuscripts and tales, hiding away in old Monestaries and remote abandoned locations to try and find an explanation for what her best friend's children had been able to do.

"I thought your mother and I told you that it's not nice to read other people's minds." Diana told Kate, fighting back the urge to smile fondle and the 18-year-old girl.

"You did." Kate confirmed, her voice calm although slightly strained, "But it was a needed skill to survive." she added, avoiding looking at the face of the person she thought she'd lost 15 years prior.

Diana frowned once more, and for a moment she began to believe that she would be frowning a lot when it came to hearing how her niece survived all these years, alone and without her. There wasn't a shred of innocence in Kate's stance, nor her gaze, and that worried Diana, even if there had been nothing that she had been able to do.

"Did the Royal Court find you?" Diana asked the moment the two sat down.

"Sort of, the Guardian that was following us was ordered to find Lissa and bring her back, but seeing as Lissa was stayin with me I wasn't going to let her go without any fighting, so they had to bring me too." Kate explained, watching as Diana frowned. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything." Diana replied without missing a beat, "How you escaped, who raised you, how you ended up here and who is this Lissa girl."

"Well, I didn't really leave the area where we used to live, and it was by chase that I was found and taken into CPS here in America." Kate started, grabbing both of Diana's hands and holding them both, "I bounced from home to home, and successfully got emancipated 2 years ago, shortly after my 16th birthday, which was when I moved to Oregon and met Lissa."

Diana nodded slowly, trying to take in all of the informaton that was being given to her.

"Lissa, you might know as Princess Vasilisa Dragomir." She added, watching as a flicker of realization crossed her aunt's face. It was virtually imposible for anyone not to know who Vasilisa Dragomir was, be it from the tragic death of her family, or her running away from the Academy, or her recent return, everyone knew who Lissa was.

And more, they heard about the fantastically deadly Dhampir that returned with her.

"The mark is a Molnija then?" Diana questioned, knowing about the death at the gates of the Academy.

Kate shook her head and pulled away from her aunt to turn to the side and allow Diana to look at the mark herself, "A zvezda. The Strigoi at the gate wasn't the first one I killed over the years." Kate explained, feeling her aunt touch the star like mark on her nape.

"I should've looked for you harder...." Diana whispered, remourseful for something that was out of her control. Even if it didn't make her any less innocent of what happened that night.

"If you had, you could've gotten a worse burn than the one on your neck." Kate countered, turning back to her aunt with a soft look on her face.

A few moments of silence followed, peaceful, in which the two women were taking in the change in the other's features, before Diana questioned "Who knows?", the question, to those that didn't know what she was talking about was strange, but Kate understood it perfectly.

"Lissa knows just about everything, if not everything. We have this bond that my gift and her undeclared magic forged while we lived together. Belikov saw a bit of it after my birthday, but the other adults only know about the strange bond that Lissa and I share." Kate confessed calmly and without holding back, knowing that now that she had Diana back, there was no need to hold back or hide anything.

"Belikov... he's the one you were walking with right?" Diana questioned, her tone one that said she wanted to know more about the person.

"He was. The Headmistress decided that I needed extra training and appointed Belikov to do so at dusk and dawn, which we've been doing since I started the Academy." Kate replied calmly, "He's a good teacher, doesn't treat me like a child-"

"But you are." Diana interrupted, something about the way she spoke saying more than her body language did.

"I was a child when you last saw me, aunt Diana. Now, I'm a grown person who doesn't need coddling." Kate reminded with gentle tone, keeping her eyes on her aunt as if to remind Diana that she was not 3 years old anymore, but rather 18.

When Dimitri saw Kate again, he felt like he was seeing a completley different person that the one he'd been training thus far. Long was the closed off and rather reluctant Katherine Alastair, and in her presence was Katherine Mazur, a young adult that seemed to have regain her entire life back, who seemed to embody the sun when she smiled.

The discovery of who Kate's mother was, of who her family was, seemed to throw everyone for a dangerous loop, the Guardians that seemed weary of Kate, now felt as if their weariness was justified, and those that had had the misfortune of dealing with Kate's living family, felt as if the familial, and clearly generational, aggression was now understandable.

"Nice reunion?" Dimitri questioned Kate as he finished setting up the excercise. 

"Best one I could've asked for." Kate confessed, all but skipping closer to Dimitri, "You should be careful though, Aunt Diana doesn't seem fond of you, she kept narrowing her eyes whenever I mentioned you or the extra training sessions." Kate added as she came to a stop, watching as Dimitri barely reacted.

"She is entitled to such reactions." Dimitri replied curtly, making Kate nod slowly, feeling exactly the same thing that Dimitri had felt when she dismissed him earlier.

"We're okay right? I didn't mean to offend you earlier..." Kate questioned, her voice uncharacteristically soft, a stark reminder that Kate was not one of the fellow promised Guardians that Dimitri spent most of his time around, that Dimitri worked with daily.

Another reminder that Kate was just a Novice that knew too much of the world and understood him too well, and it cause Dimitri to frown. For some reason, he'd grown too used to Kate's presence, to her demeanour, to her way of fighting and thinking, he'd grown used to not seeing Kate as a student but as an equal.

And as Dimitri looked up and stared at Kate's suddenly fidgety figure, he felt his heart clench. It was a reaction he usually had when he saw how carefree his sisters were, a reaction that was usually reserved for his family, a reaction that he'd only had, outside of family, once before, with the non-royal Moroi he'd briefly hooked up in St. Basil's Academy.

And at that realization, denial filled him, and he quickly averted his eyes before replying in a gruff tone, "Everything's fine, it was a family reunion. No need for strangers there." 

Kate felt the tone of Dimitri's voice thickly, and she couldn't understand why, for some reason, it bothered her that he was suddenly pulling back when they'd been mostly open about themselves, with the exception of Kate's birthday, and the training session in which they both closed themselves off to the other, shortly after their sessions began.

Kate had to stop herself from approaching Dimitri and grabbing him just to know what was going on in his mind, she knew that she had no right to intrude on his privacy and his choices.

"I'll returning to my home for the next couple of weeks." Dimitri said suddenly, making Kate feel like she suddenly lost her footing, "One of my sisters is due to give birth." 

In theory, Dimitri knew that his explanation was believable, even more he knew that he was only half-lying to Kate. Although as he looked up at her, only to see Kate nodded professionally caused the same clenching sensation tighten his chest, and just that personal reaction told Dimitri that he was correct in leaving earlier than he'd planned.

"Am I to assume that Petrov is going to be training me in the meanwhile?" Kate questioned politely, snapping her body into a Guadian position, the Katherine Mazur disappear and Katherine Alastair return.

"Petrov or Spiridon, I don't know which one the Headmistress is appointing." Dimitri replied, moving away frmo the training dummy, and motioning to it as the order to train using the dummy.

Dimitri watched Kate carefully as she trained, watched as she kept herself closed off, not revealing her moving until much too late. He watched her analitically, and softly, knowing that he needed guidance from the only people he truly trusted and relied on, his grandmother, mother and sisters.

Because if there was something that Dimitri learned years ago, is that, feeling get you killed, from loyalty to love, and Dimitri refused to let feelings be his utter downfall.

Author's note:

-> Am I making Dimitri, uncharacteristically, pull an Edward Cullen? Yes I am, and I'm not sorry for it. I need angst and what better angst than introducing one character and have another be scolded like a child, even though their fears are valid?

--> And yes this does mean that we/you won't get the shopping and ball scene.