"Where were you guys?" Reine frowns when Ciana and I return to the cabins, "Dimitri said you left this morning and now it's dusk. We were getting worried."

"We..." I say as Ciana and I glance between each other while Reine, Dimitri, and Mikasa all look at us with interested expressions, "lost track of time..."

Dimitri narrows his eyes suspiciously and Ciana sighs.

"We really didn't mean to worry you," Ciana starts, "we met some people in the cafe and we just kept talking to them."

"For eight hours?" Reine raises her eyebrows.

"Reine," Mikasa smiles softly and places a hand on her shoulder, "don't worry about it."

Mikasa looks knowingly at us and I suppress the urge to smile because of course she'd know. After all, she keeps track of time-- quite literally. Either way, I'm thankful that she's covering for us.

Reine hesitates for a few moments before she sighs and reluctantly agrees.

"Alright," Reine says, her eyes holding uncertainty, "if you say so. I'm gonna go take a quick shower because I just finished training about a half hour ago. I'll be back in a bit."

With that, Reine leaves the cabin and Dimitri stands up as well, sighing as he stretches his arms above his head.

"Hey, Ciana, how about we go do our nails in your cabin?" Mikasa smiles and Ciana furrows her eyebrows.

"Sure, but I'm pretty ti--" Ciana starts as Mikasa walks over to us and guides Ciana out of the cabin.

As the two of them are leaving, Mikasa throws a glance over her shoulder at me and Dimitri and I get the feeling that she wants the two of us to talk. Mikasa slides the cabin door shut and I awkwardly clear my throat while Dimitri stands silently across from me.

"You getting the same impression from that I was?" Dimitri raises a brow and crosses his arms.

"That Mikasa wants us to bond? Yeah..." I trail off as Dimitri sighs and sits back down.

"Whatever..." Dimitri mutters and turns his gaze to the window, watching as a small town blurs by.

"Look," I start, which makes Dimitri glance at me out of the corner of his eye, one of his eyebrows raising in the process, "I know you're not fond of me, and I'm fine with that. I don't really care what you think of me, but I know we used to be friends. And I know you think I'm going to just leave Reine again, even though it wasn't my fault the first time. But...I'm older now, Dimitri. I promise I won't leave her unless I'm six feet under. And...to be honest, I don't blame you for being mad at me."

"You...don't?" Dimitri turns to fully face me, surprise written on his face as his demeanor relaxes.

"No," I sigh and take a seat across from him, "I'm mad at myself that I wasn't able to stop it from happening, and I know you've both lost a lot of people in your lives. So, I don't blame you for being mad when I could've done something, could've tried a little harder to stay."

"It wasn't entirely your fault," Dimitri sighs and glances off to the side, "I know I shouldn't blame you for it. You were only a kid. I just...I don't want to see Reine get hurt. She told me that you're officially dating and I guess there's not much I can do about that. You're not a bad guy, believe me, I'm just overly protective of my sister. She's..."

"...The only one you have left," I finish quietly and Dimitri's breath hitches.

"Yeah..." Dimitri trails off and goes back to looking out the window, his jaw set firmly.

"So..." I start, "are we cool?"

"Yeah..." Dimitri laughs slightly, his lips twitching in an amused manner as he side-eyes me, "I guess so."

"IS THAT THE SOUND OF FRIENDSHIP I HEAR?!" Mikasa shouts from the other cabin and the two of us jolt in surprise.

Dimitri and I glance at each other before we rush out of our cabin and into the other one, sliding the door open to reveal Mikasa leaning against the wall with her hand cupped to her ear and Ciana sitting next to her doing the same thing with magazines, nail polish bottles, and bags of chips littered across the floor. The two of them look at us guiltily and Ciana laughs awkwardly while Mikasa smiles sheepishly.

"Were you two spying on us?" Dimitri raises his eyebrows.

"No?" Mikasa waves off the accusation questioningly and the two of us sigh.

"They were," Ayette says boredly from one of the booths as she lies there reading a magazine.

"We couldn't help it," Ciana shrugs, "it was mainly Mikasa's idea, but I couldn't ignore the juicy gossip."

"Where's Nathan?" I ask, finally noticing that he's nowhere to be seen in the cabin.

As if on queue, Nathan's voice trails down the hallway and Dimitri and I lean out of the doorway to watch as Nathan quickly follows after Blondie, who's holding an espresso in her right hand and walking quickly in an attempt to avoid him.

"Look, all I'm saying is that you're extremely mysterious," Nathan says and Blondie wears an awkwardly amused expression as her eyes land on me.

"Blondie," I raise my eyebrows, "I didn't expect to see you again."

"Blondie's back?" Ciana calls out from inside the room and runs over to the doorway before she holds on to the frame and leans around, her eyes landing on Blondie and she grins.

"Well, I never got the chance to have my espresso," Blondie grins and narrowly dodges Nathan by moving to the side, who continues walking down the hallway so quickly he nearly trips, "and I have to pack my things."

"Dude, you actually got her name?!" Nathan's eyes widen as he skids to a halt, "we've been rooming with her this entire time and got nada."

"Who's this?" Dimitri asks, glancing between me and Blondie.

"I'm Blondie Llevar," Blondie says with a smile and shakes Dimitri's hand, "I've been rooming with Ciana, Ayette, and Nathan. I was supposed to leave earlier today, but I forgot I had to take care of some things. I talked to Ciana and Gabriel earlier in the cafe. I tend to keep to myself and I haven't been in the cabin much, so I didn't really get the chance to socialize much."

"What's going on here?" Reine asks as she comes back from the showers, slowing to a halt in the hallway as she rubs a white towel over her head and glances between Dimitri, Ciana, Blondie, Nathan, and me.

"Just some friendly bonding," Ciana smiles and Reine arches a brow, "your brother and Gabriel--"

Dimitri cuts Ciana off by placing a hand over her mouth and smiling awkwardly at Reine.

"Don't worry about it," Dimitri assures Reine and Ciana glares at Dimitri.

"In any case," Reine starts, "tomorrow's our last day on the train, so we should get enough rest to ensure that we aren't tired for our travels."

"Reine's right," Dimitri nods, "let's go back to our cabins."

"It was nice seeing you again," I say to Blondie, who smiles in return before she enters her cabin with Ciana and Nathan.

The rest of us head back to our cabin for the night, including Mikasa, who runs back with an armful of nail polish materials so that she can finish in our cabin before she goes to sleep. Hopefully tomorrow isn't full of as much excitement as today was, but excitement never seems to end with our group.