I Never Told You I Love You - Complete

Chapter 88 - Recollections

Dimitri couldn't help himself. Sitting on the side of the gym he called Vika, Eddie, and Rose over.

"Viktoria," Dimitri said quietly in his smooth accented voice, "I want you to spend this session fighting left-handed." Vika looked confused but nodded, however, Eddie was the one wanting to know why.

"Firstly she's too right-hand dominant. It's a weakness in her technique. If she spends some time today using her left hand, her body will remember it, and she'll find herself using it more than usual later. Also, most of Vika's competitors are here checking out her style. If they think she's left-handed they'll plan their sparring strategy around that," Dimitri explained.

"You're pretty good at this," Eddie said admiringly.

"He should be. Dimka was unbeaten in the St. Basil's end of year tournament the year he graduated. He still tops the leaderboard," Vika announced loyally.

Rose gave Dimitri her biggest man-eater smile. "Told you my man's a badass," she gloated to Eddie.

Eddie and Vika started to spar while Dimitri called out instructions for Rose to do various stretches. After ten minutes stretching Rose came over looking pissed off. "Enough with the stretches, Comrade. You don't usually get me doing that many! What's with that?"

"Maybe I like the way you look in those workout skins," he mumbled, but not softly enough to avoid Christian overhearing them.

Christian chortled, causing a red flush to appear on Dimitri's neck. Rose laughed, too. Changing the subject before he got too embarrassed Rose asked, "So who's the Guardian on for today's fight?"

"Celeste volunteered. Said she needed something to take her mind off things."

"Damn. She's a tough fighter. Do you think Vika could take her down if she gets through to the final fight?"

"Probably not," Dimitri admitted, "but she should be able to last with her quite a while. Their styles are actually pretty similar, and they're both fast. It should be a good fight to watch, and she should score well."

Rose went to do some chin-ups and then muck around a bit on the balance beam.

"Is this the sort of thing you usually do in training?" Lissa asked, looking around in fascination at the various exercises and routines the Novices were doing.

"Yes, pretty much," Dimitri said looking around.

"Some of it's very intimate," Lissa observed, looking to where Vika had Eddie pinned on the gym mat. "Is that how you and Rose became attracted to each other?" she asked shyly.

Dimitri was surprised by the question. Lissa didn't usually ask him such personal things. He thought for a moment about the answer.

"It was part of it," Dimitri admitted. "Mostly it was all the time we spent alone together. The gym was almost always empty when Rose and I trained, particularly in the mornings. I found myself opening up to her without even realizing it because I was so comfortable in her presence. Rose came to understand me in ways no one else ever has," he concluded.

"She's different around you, too," Lissa replied. "Much more settled. I like seeing her like that."

"It's because she's happy," Christian observed. "So have you and Rose formally accepted the allocations?"

"Not yet. We wanted to make sure you were happy with the teaching aspect of the proposal," Dimitri said, snapping back into business mode. "And there's another thing I should mention." Dimitri's eyes flipped up to where Rose was shimming up the climbing ropes halfway down the gym. "Rose isn't the fondest of your Aunt. At one stage Tasha asked me to be her Guardian. It was just when Rose and I were starting to realize our feelings for each other, so she got a little jealous."