No More Luxury

Charlotte woke up with a horrible back pain. Never in her life had she slept on the floor.
The gass was making her head hurt and she was dizzy. She was too disoriented to realize where she was.
"Daddy... I think I'm getting sick..." she mumbled.

Dimitri must have fallen asleep.. Whether it was because they had been gased or because of his head he didn't know. But he was waking up, which was always good news. So the Villain hadn't quite managed to kill him yet..

'Daddy...'

He had heard that voice before... At least it reminded him of someone. Dimitri groaned, realising he was probably delusional and hearing voices again. Which meant his head wasn't getting any better. That or he was going mad...

Her headache probably wasn't that bad, but as she wasn't used to feeling this way, due to always being pampered with, it felt like a big rock fell on her head. She couldn't help but let out small shrieks of pain as she put her arms to her head to try to shield it at least a little bit.
"Daddy!" she cried.

There it was again... Wasn't he alone before?

Dimitri didn't want to open his eyes... The lights just hurt his head. Instead he stayed curled up under the blanket. He groaned slightly in pain, hoping that this would shut the noise up, regardless of whether it was coming from inside his head or not.

She started crying. It was what she usually did to get attention when her pleas didn't work. To be honest, it only hurt a tiny bit now, but in her head she kept telling herself the headache was unbearable until the point where she believed it.

Now he could hear crying... he was sure that wasn't just in his head. He rolled over, forcing his eyes open, to check if he was still alone.

'..Hello?' he said, before his eyes widened at who he saw. 'Charlotte?' he said in shock. 'So he got you too?'

She instantly stopped crying hearing a familiar voice, realizing she was not at home.
She opened her eyes wide and turned dead silent. Not a sound escaped her mouth.
Charlotte slowly looked over towards where the voice had came from.
"D-Dim...?" she asked hesitantly. Why was he here? Where was here?

He felt guilty when the first thought that ran through his head was that he really couldn't deal with her whining right now... But she was obviously in shock, so he tried to not to let that show.

'Hey..' he said weakly, trying to sit up. Keeping his head upright though made him dizzy.. He realised that looking like this probably would scare her even more. He must be thinner and paler than when she last met him, and there was dry blood from his head wound across his forehead and cheek, as well as the wounds on his arms that were clearly visible since he lost his shirt. The bandages would also cause concern... But then again she had seen him on his worst drunk days..

'Its a long story but you've been kidnapped.. by a man who we refer to as the Villain.. I've been here since February.. when your father fired me..?' He refused to call him 'Daddy'.. always had and always would.

She did absolutely nothing. Just stared at him in shock.
There were too many emotions running through her head, and it was impossible to settle on just one.
Therefor she shut out all of her emotions and simply just went into a state of shock.

'Char-.. Lottie...' She did always prefer when she called him that, as he recalled. In fact he distinctly remembered her insisting that he name her that. Not that it had stuck for very long. He looked at her.. 'Its freezing.. Come here..' He gestured to the blanket. 'I know its a shock.. I'll try to explain best I can.. Just not feeling too good as you can tell..'

19 year olds weren't meant to be good in situations like these.. that was expected. But pampered 19 year olds like Charlotte, well the very idea of sleeping on a floor would be difficult. He honestly struggled to see how she would cope.

She slowly crept into Dimitri's arms. She needed someone right now.
Her nickname had partly gotten her back to reality.
She had never really liked the nickname, but when Dimitri said it... it was different.
It made her feel as if they were close, even if they weren't.
She liked to imagine it anyway.

'Think of it this way.. at least you have your father looking for you! People like me go a bit unnoticed, but I'm sure he'll have the whole city looking for you in no time.' He wrapped the blanket around them, feeling alot warmer now..

It was weird how, even in this place, Dimitri's arms made her feel better.
The shock slowly melted away and was replaced by an icecold depression. Literarly.
A single tear fell on Dimitri's lap, even though she tried to hide it. She knew he didn't like her as a crybaby, so she had always tried to be brave in front of him. Though, that of course, failed every time she needed to be brave.
She felt so cold now that she started to get more aware. Where were they? A freezer?
The tear on Dimitri's lap slowly started to freeze, and Charlotte was shaking in his arms.

He wrapped his arms around her, trying to stop her shaking. Her own body heat was keeping him just as warm as he was her. 'Its just another game..' he said. 'It will end soon..' Dimitri kissed her forehead, as if she were a little girl he was looking after. In a way she was.. she acted like one at least.
'We aren't the only ones.. theres about 20 people in here at a time.. so you must have replaced..' Thumbelina.. he thought, but disgarded that thought. No point recalling that now, and breakng down. He had to be strong for someone, again. 'Guess what? I found her.. Odette..' His initial excitment went almost immeadiately as he remembered the situation they were in now.. But Charlotte knew how much finding her meant to him.

The slight happiness and comfort she had felt when he hugged her was quickly replaced by a cold chill as he mentioned Odette's name. So he had finally found her... gotten the girl he wanted...
She smiled a tiny bit, trying to be happy for him, but the pain of knowing he would never be hers was too much to keep the smile up for more than a second.

'..Shes a prostitute.. well was.. I don't know.. But she was brought here.. But the years have made things complicated..'

He winced as she leant against one of his wounds. But it was too cold to get anything. Water would just freeze. It was best to stay under here..

'So what have you done in the last few months? Wait, if you don't mind me asking what date was it the last time you remember? They all blur into one in here...' He tried to think when it was he was captured. February? 'I bet life has been alot easier without me there..' He remembered how he used to use her credit cards without question, and ask her to find him in the middle of the night in whatever bad neighbourhood he had collapsed in. Being in here reminded him how bad a person he really was.

She tried to drown out whatever he was saying when he talked about Odette. She knew it was childish, but she just didn't wanna hear it. She smiled at the memories of Dimitri though. Yes, it had been a lot easier.
"Not as fun though," she said, voice shaking from the cold, but still with a smile on her face.
She had thought he'd just disappeared again. That he had grown tired of her and wanted to move on.
She remembered the first few weeks after his disappearance. She had felt heartbroken and betrayed.
Though there was never anything between Dimitri and Charlotte she always liked to pretend.
She hugged him closer, snuggling up against his warm chest, trying to get every ounce of heat, but also just enjoying being in his arms.

'Don't worry.. I'm here..' he said, not making much sense but he was sure that as long as he kept talking it would keep her calm. Another person to protect, he thought to himself, but he would try to all the same. He guessed she was like a younger sister in a way, always there to help him out, although he realised the balance of give and take between them wasn't excatly even. Hopefully he could help her now, just as soon as the temperature warmed up.

He yawned, tired. Dizzy once more he shut his eyes, leaning against her as he tried to fall asleep.

It didn't make any sense to her. None of it did.
Why was she here? Why was he here?
Why had he left her without even a note?
It wasn't fair after everything she had done for him.
It wasn't fair, but she honestly didn't care.
He was here now, that was all that mattered.
As she noticed Dimitri trying to sleep, she did the same.
She shut her eyes but could not fall asleep. She was too upset, too shaken, too shocked, too happy to see him, but mostly just too cold.

[OOC: SORRY for being so unactive T-T I've had school and i've been so tired i've just slept after school x3 Also feeling kind of ill... but i'll respond now. The temperatures back to normal now??]

Dimitri stirred.. he must have been asleep for a while.. He opened his eyes, and felt his head ache as he started to move. He noticed it wasn't cold anymore.. in fact it felt boiling after what felt like a week of freezing. He pushed off the blanket and tried to get up.
'Charlotte!..' he said, nudging her awake. 'The temperature's back....' He started to crawl over to the water, which before had just froze and took a drink. Now he could look at his wounds, and clean it. He tried to turn around to see them. 'Could you help me?' he asked, looking her way. He wasn't sure how much she could help, but the bandages on his back needed to be removed and the wounds on his arm cleaned...

He hadn't had to nudge her, she was already awake. In fact, she hadn't gotten a minute of sleep the whole night.
With red eyes that came from both crying and lack of sleep she looked at him.
She wanted nothing more than to help him, but she wasn't quite sure how.
She had never dealt with a situation like this before.
"What do you want me to do?" she asked.

'Well see these bandages..' he said, gesturing to his chest. 'They've been on well over a month now.. and aside from scarring I think I'm pretty much healed.. Soo I need you to help me unwrap them..' He took a piece of the bandage and gave it to her.. 'I can't reach..'
Whilst she started that he took the bottle of water and poured the tiniest amount he could on the wounds on his arms. It stung a bit but he needed to get rid of any dirt in case he ended up with an infection.
'Sorry about this..' he said to her, knowing she probably wasn't used to doing anything like this.

She nodded as if she telling him it was ok.
She went up to him and slowly began to remove his bandages.
She felt as if she was doing it way too slow and carefully, but she was so afraid of hurting him.
"Is... is this good...?" she asked hesitantly.

'Yes.. thats fine..' he said encouragingly, smiling her way. He finished cleaning the wounds on his arms and turned to her. 'You are doing great..' he continued saying, knowing that she probably would need reassurance that what she was doing was right.

Removing them a bit faster now, she looked at him.
"I'm not hurting you am I...?"
She didn't know much about anything practical, but she knew enough to know that the bandages must have been there because of a serious injury. She was scared to death to rip open old wounds or hurt him more than he had already been hurt.

He shook his head although it did sting a bit.. 'Just take it easy, ok?' he said weakly.
'Its not too bad is it?..' he asked. It had been a few weeks, maybe over a month in fact, and his back didn't seem to hurt half as much. But then again without the bandages it was starting to hurt again..

She removed the last piece of bandages and took a look at his back.
Never had she seen a worse wound, but then again, she never saw any serious wounds.
It wasn't bleeding or anything, but the scars from where the whip had ripped his skin and flesh off were clear and dark, like a big tattoo of a claw mark all over his back.
"It's..." She couldn't even finish her sentence before she felt tears streaming from her face.

Her reaction wasn't a good sign, but he hoped that it was just the shock of it. 'Hmm.. I guess I'm not going to want to walk around topless from now on' he said, smiling, but it didn't cheer her up. That reminded him that he would need a shirt sooner or later, although at least it wasn't freezing anymore.
He moved over to hug her again, getting the feeling that Charlotte was going to need alot of these in here..

[OOC: Quick question, does Dim care about her, if only just a little, or would he be this compassionate to anyone? v.v]

She hugged him back, wiping away the tears that were fighting to get out.
"It's not that bad," she tried to say comforting, but her voice was shaking.
"If anything, it looks like a really cool tattoo," she said trying to smile, but failing.

[OOC: Of course he cares about her... x3 He just doesn't love her.. or is really aware of her feelings :3 But he cares for her like family or a close friend... ^^ No he wouldn't be this compassionate to everyone xDDD
Now we have changed rooms... DD: But i'll look forward to rp-ing with Charlotte more later <33]

[OOC: I'll just post this to make sense of it all xD]

Suddenly she felt dizzy and tired. She sank to her knees within a minute. Dimitri was still standing, but she could see him start to get unsteady on his feet as well.
"Dimitri... I'm... I'm so tired..." she whispered quietly before she closed her eyes and fell asleep on the cold floor.