[TTW; Dimitri x Charlotte] Broken Legs beats Broken Hearts

Charlotte ran to the bathroom again, she couldn't stand another second of being in the same room as Odette. Every time she looked at her face, she would imagine how those beautiful soft cheeks had felt Dimitri's caring palms upon them. How her silky hair had run between Dimitri's fingers a thousand times before. How those beautifully red lips had...
She just couldn't take it anymore.
In the bathroom there was nothing to do to distract her mind. Nothing at all. Charlotte was starting to hate this villain just as much as the other prisoners hated him. She had always believed she could be considered lucky as he never put her in a situation where she got physically hurt. Now she realized where she had thought wrong. The villain was more clever than that. His methods of torture burned way deeper than any physical pain ever could.
The pain in her chest had been building its way up since the moment Dimitri had rejected her. It was growing more and more painful by the second, and she just couldn't take it any more. At the moment, she was even hurting too bad to cry.
All she could do to ease the pain was let out a deafening scream of pain.

Dimitri wandered back and forth through the room. His roommate was.. unresponsive to say the least, although the effects of the sleeping gas varied from person to person. He could hardly complain, really, since the idea of actually trying to act interested whilst holding a conversation with a stranger didn't at all appealing right now.
Sitting in the bathroom he did what he usually did to past time... ran the taps, washed his hands.. or his face.. Anything really to spend his days rather than sitting in silence. He was mid running a bath when he heard the scream from one of the walls. Rushing out to the room, he went in the direction of where he was sure it had come from.
Tempted, he considered ignoring it. Maybe it was the Villain, or another game? Something he should know better than to get involved with.. However, even if he was acting like he didn't care, he knew that he wouldn't feel right if he just ignored something like this. He could help, potentially, and it was better than turning a blind eye.
He banged against the wall, loudly and firmly so the person would hear. 'Is everything alright in there?..' He hit the wall a couple more times. 'Hello!?'

She stopped mid-scream as she could hear the clear, loud voice from the other room. There was no way she could ever mistake it for being anyone but Dimitri. Her Dimitri.
Scratch that, he wasn't hers. He never had been...
She let new tears stream down her face as she listened to his voice. The one she had missed so dearly.
She leaned her back against the bathroom wall.
She didn't want to talk to him, even for a second. She knew talking to him would result in even more pain than she was already in. Every single time she talked to him she ended up getting her heart broken even more. She just couldn't deal with it anymore, so she sat in silence.
However, knowing she was this close to him felt good in a way... re-assuringly...
You need to stop being such a masochist, she thought to herself.

The scream stopped suddenly. He didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing. It reminded him of when he had heard the tape in the garden.. a cut off scream could mean many things, especially in a place like this. It came to his attention that in reality he hadn't heard of much death or torture recently. After he had last seen the Villain he seemed pretty stressed, but he assumed that meant he would have taken it out on someone, not just himself by locking him in the room. Maybe now he was up to something? Of course all these thoughts running through his head were highly unlikely, but by now he grew fearful of every insignificant detail.
If the Villain was in there then he knew shouting out to whoever was behind the wall probably wouldn't be such a good idea. But regardless he needed to make sure.
'You still alive?' he joked, although you could tell he was nervous from the tone in his voice. He was sitting pressed against the wall in case he heard anything. Just some kind of movement would be enough of an indication that he should stop worrying.

She knew he was worried, and even though she really did not want to hear him utter any more hurtful words, she knew she couldn't let him be like this.
"I'm fine," she said flatly, just loud enough for him to hear her.
"You can stop worrying."
In reality, she wasn't fine. She wasn't fine at all. She was the opposite.
In all honesty, she wished that the scream had been that of physical torture. Because physical pain faded. The wounds turned to scars, and the scars healed. Her heart would never heal like a physical wound.

Once he heard who it was he felt stupid for even bothering to help, knowing that in reality all he had done was make things worse. He wanted to pry into why she was screaming, although it was plainly obvious the most likely scenario was something to do with him.
'Well... I'm glad to hear..' he said gently. She didn't sound in too much pain, which was the best he could ask for right now. He prepared to turn away from the wall, and back to the bath he was running. He couldn't stand talking to her now, yet at the same time he missed her voice. Still he knew his silence was for the best.. if he spoke all he would do was say the wrong things and she would end up shouting at him again.

His words were sharp enough to kill her. She knew this from experience, and he had been close to killing her on several occasions. Still, the deafening silence was, if possible, a worse torture.
As she sat against the cold wall she desperatly listened for him. For anything. A sound of movement, a whisper, anything. Most of all, she listened to hear more of his voice.
She shuffled on the floor, making her face the wall, as if she could imagine Dimitri's beautiful face on the other side of it.
Putting a hand on the cold stone wall made her remember how much she had honestly missed Dimitri. Missed his voice, his face, his gentle kiss, missed all about him.
"D-Dimitri..?" she asked hesitantly, breaking the silence. His words were painful, but the silence was worse she decided.

'Yes?' he said, turning back prehaps too quickly and eagerly. He silently scowlded himself for how he must have sounded. She still sounded so broken herself, which was heartbreaking in itself to hear, but he knew now how naieve of him it was to assume that she would have taken his rejection kindly.
He sat back down, knowing that in reality his bath was only there to keep his mind off her and his conversation. It was better if they talked, as long as it didn't end in shouting. He could always walk away if they did, and try to forget what ever she said. He was still trying to get past what she had before on the phone.... her thoughts always seemed to affect him worse than his own.

She hadn't thought once she called his name. She wasn't even sure what she would say to him now that he replied. Everything that had been on her mind as she called his name was for him to reply, however short and quiet. She just wanted to hear his voice.
The silence resounded as she thought of what to say next. There was really nothing to say. All there was to say had been said a million times already. If she were to say anything it had to be what she had been thinking all this time apart from him.
The only thing that resounded in her head every single time she thought of his name or his face.
"I love you," she said eventually, however low and childish it sounded.
She didn't expect to hear it back, that was not why she said it. She just wanted him to know. If anything happened, to any of them, she wanted him to know that. She wanted him to really know how much she loved him.

He couldn't help but smile just a fraction when she said it. And when he did he grew evermore frustrated at himself. There was no denying he had certainly felt awful since their last conversation... by comparison this sounded much more familar to him, as she had said it countless times before. It was bittersweet though, as the more she did the more pointless his effort became... it was frustrating to say the least.
'I don't see why...' he mumbled, his tone making it impossible for her to even recognise the smile that was on his face only moments beforehand.

She couldn't help but laugh, though her laugh was bitter she could not deny the fact that it was slightly genuine as well. His words hurt, just like she thought it would, but it was still worth it if she could break the silence.
"Honestly, me neither," she said, still laughing.
She quickly calmed down however, afraid he wouldn't realize the importance of her words.
"But I do..." she said softly.

He was suprised to hear her laugh.. it was nice to hear for a change from her crying he had heard recently.
'But you can't' he muttered, 'If you do you make all of this pointless..'
He was trying his hardest to make things work for her and her safety, and she was still going to ruin it by being stupid. Worst still it made everything he had put himself through in the process worthless too.. as if all this effort was useless.

She had been right. His words, however little they made sense to her, hurt. And they hurt a lot.
"Well, I'm sorry my feelings don't come with a switch," she said a bit harsher than she had meant, but it was true. How could he expect her to all of a sudden stop loving him when she had loved him as long as she could remember?

'I know..' he said more softly. The harsh tone of her words cut her words cut him more than she probably realised, so he was desperate to try and tone down the conversation. 'Its just .. I really wish you could. And I'm hoping you are starting to realise how much of a jerk I am anyways, which should probably do the trick.' He realised he had snapped again. It was easy to get irritated when they talked.
In reality though he knew he had little ground to stand on... whatever he was thinking didn't make sense and deep down he knew it. People paired off in here all the time... and yes, Jane had died, but that was through no fault of his own and certainly not because they had been involved. In reality if the Villain used anyone he had met in here the chances were he would do his bidding. Pushing people away wouldn't stop that... it just wasn't in his personality to let someone die, even a stranger.
'I.. I don't know what I'm doing really' he said hesistantly. 'I've said this all before though..' he quickly added to cover his moment of doubt.

She couldn't stay mad at him for long. This was the very same reason she had chosen to hang up the phone when they last talked. Because she knew if they talked for much longer, Charlotte would come around and it would only hurt. As long as she could stay mad she could push all her other feelings away.
"I'm sorry..." she said softly.
"I wish I could stop, I do..." She spoke so softly, so quietly, almost as if she was talking to herself and not Dimitri.
"But I can't. So please don't ask me to..."

'I'm not asking you to.. I know I can't. Its just what I'm hoping will happen if I leave you alone...' He realised he was sounding stupid now.. stupid and inconsiderate. 'I don't want you to be hurt.. I really don't. And, you know, not loving me would kind of solve that.. Its just easier said than done, and so far I'm not succeeding am I? Its just.. before we were in here I had no idea. Don't ask me how, I'm sure you made it blindingly obvious. And now I do know... I've tired to ignore it, but that didn't work, so this is me dealing with it..'

She had absolutely no clue what he was talking about, and the more he said, the more confused she got.
She understood enough to realize that him not wanting to be with her, was because of her feelings towards him. He couldn't deal with her feelings, and by telling him how she felt.. she had driven him away. It wasn't his fault he didn't feel the same, it was her fault he didn't want to be with her.
"Sorry.." she said kind of awkwardly.
"I'll leave you alone then..."

'No... thats not what I meant..' he said, really not wanting to go back to sitting in silence. 'I don't want you to leave..' he said quietly. He needed to talk with someone... not just someone. He needed to talk to her, even if it involved them arguing, or if he just upset her again.
'I know I don't really make much sense anymore.. I just don't know what to say.. Everything was so clear before..' he rambled.
All that was certain in his mind was he didn't want to hurt her. 'But I really don't want to go back to silence... I'm hardly very forgiving on myself.. And I think I'll go mad if I have to sit with my thoughts much longer' he pleaded. 'Why don't we forget all this for now.. I mean I know its a big thing to forget.. but just for a moment.. and just, I don't know, talk.'

She didn't understand much of what he said, but she figured it was just an awkward attempt at getting the conversation over on something different, and somehow try to muster an excuse for why he didn't love her back.
"Sure," she said and sighed, though she couldn't help but smile at his awkwardness. Just like the Dimitri she knew and loved.
"What do you want to talk about?"

'I really don't know' he said, smiling at how ridiculous he sounded. 'I'm just.. you always used to be good at this kind of thing' he said, reffering back to times when she had just sat and talked with him in his flat. In all honesty he was most likely drunk for almost all of those conversations, but back then whatever she had said had helped him get his mind off things so he hoped it could do the same now.

She couldn't help but laugh. She had always been horrible at that sort of thing. She guessed he had never really noticed, as he was always drunk. If he had been sober, there was no chance he had still felt that way about it.
"I never used to be good at this sort of thing Dimitri," she said and giggled.
"I always just said whatever came to mind, which for the most part was horribly awkward and stupid," she said, still smiling of amusement.

'Maybe I like horribly awkward and stupid' he teased, although he knew it was probably true. 'You know you can't do a worse job than I did... Chauffeurs are meant to be very good at small talk, but all I did was sit and ask about the weather then sit in awkward silence' he smiled.

"Chauffeurs are also meant to be good drivers," she laughed remembering his horrible driving. She couldn't complain though, he always got his customers to their location in plenty of time, and they were never hurt more than being a little shaky while stepping out of the car.

'Theres nothing wrong with being a little fast!' he laughed, remembering his frustration at the traffic and speed limits. He had never really drove around much before that job, and driving was so much more annoying than he had imagined.
'You know those customers really didn't help.. they needed a little bit of shock to put some emotion on their faces..' he trailed off. She knew he never liked the rich and famous she was brought up with, but being rude to them probably wouldn't help him right now.

"If you want to know a little secret," she giggled.
"I think they deserved it. Just don't tell my daddy I said that," she said and laughed.
She honestly did. She had never liked those fake people. Would it kill them to smile?
However, if she ever uttered a bad word to her dad, the speech he would give her would never seem to stop.

'You are full of suprises' he smiled. 'And I had always thought you loved the glitz and glamour!' He guessed that was because she was normally always dressed up, it just seemed like something she enjoyed. Why else would she wear it if not for that reason?
Looking back he could remember she never did stay long to the parties. She was always more than willing to leave and pick him up, and then stay to make sure he was ok. But he had thought that was because she was worried..
'You know your Daddy probably would never speak to me again if we got out of here' he said, grimly thinking back to the day he had disappeared. 'I assume after he fired me and I disappeared he wasn't too eager to go looking for me?' he said with a sigh.

She thought about his words for a while, and decided to say something she never before even dreamed of saying. Something that would never even occur to her if she had still been outside. She guessed this place did things to her.
"Who cares what daddy thinks?" she asked seriously.
No matter how much she loved the guy, he'd been pushing her around her whole life, never letting her do what she wanted. Not even dress the way she wanted. She was an adult woman now, wasn't it time for her to decide for herself?

He almost wanted to laugh, but he recognised how important this was for her.
Charlotte and her father had always seemed close in his eyes... it was something he hadn't really understood and probably what made him so easily dismiss her as an irritable Daddy's girl. He had always been so used to parents being who people avoided, or didn't get along with.. Odette's father was hardly a role model, neither were his who he had not spoken to for the past 5, coming up 6, years. Yet Charlotte was always with her father- they lived together, ate together, went to countless events together. She was like his show trophy- he forever needed to show her off. And, if he didn't make it obvious enough, he couldn't stand him. He was his boss, and had been for over a year now, yet this didn't make him like him anymore. He saw him as fake and obnoxious, and therefore it came at great relief to know that Charlotte didn't adore him as much as he had imagined.
'You know I would never have imagined you saying that' he said, with a smile.

"You know," she laughed. "Neither would I."
It was true, but it was about time she did say it.
All Charlotte had wanted growing up was to please her dad, to earn his affection. Still, he had always treated her as a... thing, not as a daughter... she was just his prized posession, and nothing else. It pained her to think about it, but it was the hard truth she had to accept at some point.

'Why put up with it all then?' he asked finally. He didn't really know why, if she didn't care, that she would choose to want to live like that and follow his instructions up until now. He supposed that he had always found it easy to say no to his parents, so it was kind of strange to see her not doing to same thing for so long.

"I don't know.." she said truthfully.
"I just wanted him to love me I guess, but it was never enough for him.."
It had always bugged her how he was always so happy and cheerful in public, while in reality, when no one could see him, he was strict and cold. She realized how stupid she must sound to Dimitri, but she really had no better reason for why she had just gone with it.

'You can't win love..' he said bitterly. 'And you certainly can't make your parent's love you....'
It was something he had learnt from an early age. He learnt never to bother to try again. It was probably why he never went home again, no matter how tough it got.
'But I don't think its that your Father didn't love you... Just his ego was probably far too big to show it.'

Thinking he might have loved her after all made her the tiniest bit happier, though she didn't want to let her hopes get too high.
"Thank you," she smiled, before she remember she was the one who was really supposed to make him feel better at the moment. Not the other way around.
"So who's your roommate?" she asked curiously, to change the subject.

'Uhh some asleep red-head... I haven't met her before and I've been here forever, so I'm guessing shes new, but I don't know.' He looked over at her once more. 'What about you?'

"Oh, uhmm..." she wasn't sure what to say. Should she really tell him she was with Odette? Wouldn't that make everything just a billion times before?
"Just some ehh..." she could feel her words come out hesitating and awkward, which made her mad at herself. No way Dimitri wouldn't notice that.
"Just some blonde.." she said, avoiding the question.

He knew from her reaction that it was most likely Odette, but he knew if he pryed then it would probably cause Charlotte to get upset, and they were doing ok relatively- at least he thought so.
'Uhm... ok..' he said, 'but you are both safe, right?'

It was obvious he knew who she was talking about, but she couldn't tell if that was a good or bad thing.
He was asking about her to make sure she was ok. It was so typical him. She had always been the one he constantly worried about. She had always been the one he cared about, and Charlotte was just... invicible.
"Yeah, she's ok," she answered him with a sigh.

'I was asking about you too' he said, sensing her annoyance.
'So.. it must be, what, December, if not 2012 now?' he said, trying to think back to when he was last given a calender in October. 'Makes me 24 now..' he said smiling. It was obvious he wasn't good at small talk, but he wanted to change the subject. 'And I will probably be 25 before I even get a chance to get out of here..' he sighed. 'You know 10 years ago I really didn't imagine I'd be here now..'

"I'm ok," she said, lying. She was far from ok.
"Happy late birthday," she laughed, trying to ignore the rest he had said. She didn't want to think about stuff like that right now, she was depressed enough already.

'Hmmm' he said. 'I don't really care about birthdays though.. just a date. So its not excatly a change not celebrating. Must have pasted by without me even noticing..'
He realised this conversation was becoming far too depressing, but he didn't excatly know what to say to cheer it up.

"Well," she said, smiling bitterly to herself. However much it hurt, she meant her words.
"I think your birth is more than just worth celebrating..." she said softly.

He was quite for a bit, suprised by her words.
'Thanks, I guess' he said quietly, not sure how to take them.
Although he disagreed with her, he felt it wasn't the place to argue for the sake of it.

She could hear the doubt in his voice, and she wished more than anything that she could be there with him and hug him, though she was unsure if he even wanted that. Probably not.
"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself Dimmy," she said softly.
"Everyone's made mistakes..."
She didn't even know where she was going with this, but she felt like she had to tell him something.
"But I never thought you were a bad person.. I still don't."

'But its easy to be hard on myself' he said lightly, although in reality he was being far more serious than he sounded. 'You of all people should know I'm not..' he continued. He had done nothing but bad things to her, and he was sure if she wasn't so blinded by her feelings she would have realised this. 'You've treated me kindly all this time, and when did I ever repay you with the same? If thats not a bad person I don't know what is...'

"Oh, stop it," she said laughing, though a bit annoyed.
"I never gave you anything. All I did was throw money at you," she said a bit disappointed in herself. She had always wanted to help him in every way possible, but being so isolated all the time she had no idea how to help him, and ended up doing the only thing she knew how; give him money.
"And you give me everything I need just by being here..." she muttered to herself. She didn't mean for Dimitri to hear it as it was far too cheesy and stupid, though she realized after it was said, he could probably have heard her.

'You did more than throw money at me... you picked me up, you got me a house and a job.. I mean, without you I'd be just another homeless drunk on the street, probably dead in a gutter way before this guy managed to get to me' he said. 'You talked with me, like you are doing now, would listen to my pointless drunken rambles, or sit with me when I started crying. And sure- I'll be honest I don't remember half of them, but I always knew you were there... Me on the other hand, I didn't even acknowledge you. I kept drinking, and putting you through the same thing over and over. I wasn't even there, I was always leaving at the worse times only to crawl back in the same sorry state...'
He stopped for a moment to think..
'Its just,' he sighed, 'don't say I did everything because I know I didn't.'

"Even so," she said with a sigh.
"There's nothing I would rather spend my time and money on..."
She said it so softly, but she meant it more than anything. The time she had spent with Dimitri she had always been happier than ever before. It was enough just to be close to him, smell his scent, hear his voice, and occasionally touch his skin...
But how could she ever explain to him how much those small things mattered to her?

He leant back against the wall. 'You're an idiot, you know that?' he said with a smile.
'If we get out of here though I do promise you won't have to spend your money on me any more.. I'll actually try and pay my own way... when I can work out excatly how...' He laughed realising how hopeless he was. 'On second thoughts I may need to keep the flat a little while longer- but no drunk 3am calls this time round!'

"Really? I've heard otherwise," she laughed, thinking of Shang calling her a genius, but realizing Dimitri's description was probably the most accurate.
"Aawwwww... you're not gonna let me spoil you again?" she asked, sounding exaggeratingly disappointed.
"But then what am I gonna do all day?"

'You can come and laugh at me try and hold a job for more than 5 seconds.... I'm sure you will have plenty of time on your hands if you ever get round to not listening to Daddy' he smiled. He let his mind fantasize about a possible future, if not only for her sake. 'Or we can get you out of the city.. for a change..'