Oh, look! An update! From Stan's POV, since I figured he would logically be the next one to figure out Rose and Dimitri's illict relationship — or, figure out there was something going on between them that wasn't exactly platonic.

DISCLAIMER: Vampire Academy and all of its books, characters, settings and plot lines belong to Richelle Mead, who I cannot thank enough for writing such a wonderful book series. This means that anything you don't recognized (plot lines, characters, settings, etc.) are my intellectual property. Please ask first if you want to translate or expand upon anything. Thanks!

"Comrade, I need food!"

The loud exclamation from outside the cafeteria drew the attention of more than half the student population – St. Vladimir's had morning stragglers just like every other boarding school – and all the guardians sitting at the table closest to the door jumped up with the stakes out at the first sound of a loud noise, muscles tensing and preparing for an attack. Stan Alto, who had just sat down to dig into his balanced breakfast of eggs and bacon with toast, jumped up with the rest of the guardians but immediately cursed when he realized what was going on seconds before the bane of his existence entered.

Honestly, in all the years Stan had been teaching no student had ever given him as much of a headache – or showed the same amount of potential – as Rose Hathaway. The near-perfect combination of her mother, the infamous and bad-ass extraordinaire Janine Hathaway, and her father, the scary (and almost as rich) as hell Abe Mazur, Rose knew how to push his buttons like no other and took an almost perverse (his words, ones which Alberta denied) in making him mad and challenging his authority in the Academy's halls.

In his defense, he pushed her so hard because he knew that with her talent, loyalty, drive, work ethic and sheer determination, she was going to be a legendary guardian one day. Unfortunately, Rose had only begun to tap her potential when she had disappeared with the last Dragomir princess. Even before then, right after the accident that had taken the lives of the three eldest Dragomirs, Stan could see she kept losing focus and slowly but surely her grades began to fall. She had been on a decline from which no amount of potential could save and when Belikov brought her back after almost two years of being gone, Stan honestly couldn't see how she was going to graduate at all.

It was as if the girl was born under a lucky star, which compelled Belikov to stand up for the girl and mention private tutoring sessions – a good idea which Kirova seemed to hate Belikov for even suggesting, because she put him in charge of these twice-a-day, seven-times-per-week 'tutoring sessions.'

'Tutoring sessions'… which had led to the sight before him.

Rose clung to Dimitri's back, arms circled about his neck and ankles, hooked together around his suspiciously bare stomach. Rose's long, wavy hair hung down her back and her face was flushed with exertion while occasionally giving a sharp gasp of pain – possibly from the mild sprain to her ankle, from what Stan could ascertain based on her wrapped, bare foot compared to the sneaker-clad foot –when she even slightly shifted on her mentor's back. Her usual workout outfit of a brightly colored sports bra, loose and aesthetically-ripped black tank top, and patterned spandex shorts contrasted that of her mentor's, who was wearing plain black sweatpants with black Nikes.

Where was his shirt? Seriously?

The mentor-mentee duo walked into the cafeteria without a care in the world for how others would perceive them. Alto — and the other guardians — were honestly shocked to see a bright smile on Dimitri's face as Rose griped about getting donuts before going to the school nurse's office as, since it looked like she was going to miss breakfast, she needed the sugary fuel for the rest of the day.

"Comrade," Rose begged, trying to adjust herself on Dimitri's back. "Seriously. Please. I NEED chocolate donuts to survive. Literally… I will die."

Dimitri, whose hair was out of its usual ponytail and shiny with sweat, was laughing a wide-mouthed, big-bellied laugh while piling fruits and other healthy breakfast food into a take-out box and completely ignoring the donuts Rose was eyeing with a predatory look and for which she was practically begging. Alto looked around the room at the reactions of the students, teachers and guardians — all of which mirrored each other in their shock.

No one had ever seen Dimitri so carefree, so relaxed while in public. Since his arrival, the young dhampir had been so serious and stoic. He kept to himself and did what he had to do with no visible emotion whatsoever. But since Rose's — reportedly, flying — entrance into his life, Dimitri's personality shifted a whole 180-degrees. He was more willing to smile, to joke around, and to even hang out with his fellow guardians.

Of course, Stan thought, it would be the hell-cat dhampir to bring him out of his shell. Why is anyone actually surprised? But, more importantly, why am I the only one seeing what's going on between them?

Stan, to Rose's eternal embarrassment, was not an idiot. Like Alberta Petrov, Stan Alto had practically helped raise that girl from the time her "mother" left her on the doorstep of St. Vladimir's Academy when she was just barely four years old. He watched her grow up, learn things, and — especially — discover boys. He knew, better than anyone in his opinion, what Rose looked like — how she acted —when she liked someone. And that's how Stan knew that Rose was half in-love with "her Russian god."

The infatuation, Stan figured, would have just blown over as nothing more than a passing crush on a hot older man with whom she spent almost all of her time. If only Dimitri hadn't started falling in love with her.

Stan thought Dimitri thought no one saw the looks he threw Rose when she wasn't looking. Stan thought Dimitri thought he controlled the level of lust in his tone when he reported on her weekly progress to him, Alberta and Kirova in Kirova's office. Stan thought Dimitri thought he was being sneaky — right here, in the cafeteria, in front of a whole room of witnesses — when he ran his free hand up Rose's thigh and down her leg to her wrapped ankle under the guise of readjusting her on his back and making sure she wasn't feeling any more pain than she should.

Stan looked at his fellow guardians watching the show, all of them displaying amusement on their faces.

Can they really NOT see?

It was so obvious to him — and not just because he could read people easily. He'd been watching them since the day he brought Rose and Vasilisa back to the Academy, and he was the only one who had loudly protested the arranged one-on-one mentorship between the two. But no one had listened, and now he would just have to watch how this entire thing played out. Hopefully, it would be their — gag — "happily ever after".

He should tell someone… Alberta, mainly. She would put a stop to this right away, he knew. But, as he watched them walk out of the cafeteria toward Olendzki's office, Stan knew it would do no good.

He would keep their secret because some part of him felt they really would be one of those couples that embodied the "death 'til we part" thing, but also because he knew that if Rose ever found out it was him who blew the whistle on the dhampir pair, she would make it her mission in life (until graduation) to make his life even more of a living hell than she already did.

As always, constructive criticism and no flames. Review!