Chapter Text
"Don't look at me!!" Dimitri shrieked, his voice dull and husky. He ripped his arms out of Claude's grasp with ease and backed up, pointing the knife away from his eye and right out at his lover. His throat surrendered a few more desperate sobs, and he turned his head down to break their tragic gaze. His blood pooled on the yellow carpet. "Please...I-I'm dangerous. I don't want to hurt you, Claude. Please...I apologize, but...stay out of my way!!"
In a flash, Dimitri punched the living goddess out of Claude's desk, shaking the whole thing enough to loosen some of the drawer handles. This was no time for niceties. "I'll kill you...I swear, I'll kill you if you try to stop me...I'll...I-I'll..."
Dimitri pointed his weapon at the door, his swollen lips turning upwards in a sinister smile. "Kill every last one of them."
Claude felt his entire body run cold, hands coming to clutch his stomach. He could feel blood now, actual blood, dropping slowly out of a cut on his arm. It didn’t matter to him, not when Dimitri stared down at him like that, knife in hand. And for a second they weren’t in their room anymore, they were in Gronder Field, fire around them, screams of battle weighing heavy in the air.
And again Claude found himself unable to move, unable to speak. He was scared, and that feeling didn’t come easy, not anymore. He wanted to reassure Dimitri, tell him everything was alright, to drop the knife, call for help even. But...he also wanted Dimitri to leave.
“Dimitri...calm down, please. We need to get Manuela-- please don’t point the dagger at me, Dimitri!”
Dimitri grinned and let out a pained laugh, then suddenly he collapsed on the floor in a pool of his blood. He tossed the dagger aside and covered his face with his hands, his sobs and screams growing louder as his body cried in agony. The three ghosts of his past had appeared again, screaming at him and stabbing his back, his neck, his arms, everything. He was going to die here. He was going to bleed out and die a slow, painful death. He would never get to see his goal through. He would never get to be crowned king.
He would never get to see Claude's smiling face again.
"Stop it," Dimitri whispered, his hands flying up to cover his ears and grip his hair. "Stop it!" He repeated, louder this time. He couldn't move. His mouth filled with blood, but he didn't taste a thing.
"Stop it, stop it, stop it! Stop it!!" He screamed over and over. That was all he said as he thrashed his head back and forth, pulling at his hair and sobbing as he curled himself into a tight ball. This is what he went through...every single night.
"Get out of my head!!"
Claude felt sick.
He felt dizzy, like the room around him was beginning to turn, and he had a hard time focusing on Dimitri. His issues had to wait, they had to because he needed to tend to Dimitri first. One messed up nightmare and his pile of fears needed to wait because there were much more important things to deal with right now.
He took a hasty step, afraid to get too close to his boyfriend. No matter how much he willed himself to, his legs wouldn’t carry him the whole way, and in a desperate last attempt, he sidestepped to the door and threw it open, yelling for Manuela or Hanneman in hopes that they would hear down the hall.
The next few moments were a blur.
Dimitri heard Claude scream something, though it was too quiet under the screams of those who died for him. The next thing he knew, he was hoisted up by the help of four hands, somehow made it to the second floor, and finally to the infirmary. He remembered staring blankly at the ceiling while a familiar woman checked everything, and he remembered her shooing a mysterious man out of the doorway. The man looked worried, and he refused to leave right away. He might have even been crying, but Dimitri couldn't tell through the bloody, watery mixture that continued to stream from his eyes.
Finally -- finally -- sleeping pills kicked in. The last thing Dimitri heard before losing consciousness for the rest of the night was seven simple words.
"I love you, Dimitri. I'm so sorry."