Requested by: samuelseabury

Slam. That was the sound of the main house door opening and shutting. A woman, of young age, pushed back the chair she was sitting in, to straighten up. She knew what was coming and it frightened her in the most unfortunate way.

It only took a few seconds for the person to intrude the study she occupied. With his hair a mess of a day's work, the man entered, grimacing to himself. He hadn't noticed her standing near the corner yet.

But as he circled the room, searching for something, her heart leaped. Gilbert, she silently thought. How she got to be with such a loving man, she'd never understand. And how that man turned to be such a nightmare would be even more of a mystery.

"What do you want?"

His sharp language to her was obvious that he knew she was watching. Even though he had seemed oblivious to her presence, his words convinced her otherwise. The woman cleared her throat to reply, only to be cut off.

"Gilbert, I-"

Within a second, he had jumped from one side of the room to the other. His arms pushed her back against a glass cabinet. She gasped for air, for some sort of sympathy, to receive nothing of the sort. He had a look in his eyes that was truly unforgiving.

"Don't even speak. My day has already been terribly enough, so I don't need you to make it any worse." He pressed a hand around her throat, forcing her to gasp and beg for air.

As she begged for relief, the woman didn't give up. She wasn't going to let him by as easily as he wished. "Y-you can't stop me." That was all she managed to say before he let go of her. She crumbled to the ground in front of him.

He sauntered away, in the direction of the papers he had been looking through. "What has gotten into you? Ever since last month, you've been unlike yourself. I-"

"I don't want to make things worse. Let's not talk about it, alright?" Lafayette picked up a stack of parchment before setting it down. It made a loud smacking noise against the wooden desk. The woman crouched back as if she had been shot in the heart.

She reached forward. "Everything I have ever done for you has gone to waste, hasn't it? I'm just nothing to you." Tears began to trickle down her cheeks. Lafayette noticed, growling under his breath. He despised how she begged for sympathy from him.

"You're using me! Why can't you just throw me out of your life already? I'm sure you've already been unfaithful behind my back, so what's the use in trying." She perched herself on the window sill, watching him with curiosity and a feeling of anguish.

Lafayette turned on his heel. "What did you say?" He had lost track of what he had been previously doing. She had certainly caught his attention, if that's what she wanted.

She shrunk back as he laid eyes on her. "You heard me. Don't act like none of it isn't the least bit true." Her stomach flipped at the sight of him walking closer to her. She blinked several times, praying it was a dream.

"You think I'm sleeping around with other woman, huh?" His hands clutched her waist suddenly and she let out a gasp. One hand reached up to clamp her mouth shut, while the other ventured lower than her waist. Tears stung her eyes as he kept a firm gaze on hers.

"You really believe that? Even if I am the worst thing in your life, I would never force my affections onto any other woman besides you, my dear." His tone was unlike before. It almost sounded soft and gentle again. But that was just another piece of bait.

Taking a deep breath against his palm, she wriggled and tried to break free. He realized what she was doing, so he threw her towards the glass cabinet behind her. She screamed as the pieces of sharp glass came raining down her. Hands shaking, she covered her face.

Lafayette watched her huddle in fear as it all came crashing down. The second the pieces had settled on the ground, he reached forward to help her from the mess the two of them had caused. She didn't look up at him.

You've done it now, he thought angrily to himself. He whispered to her, trying to soothe her and win her over. The woman only shook her head and shouted, "How could you?"

As if struck by her words, he stumbled backwards on his feet for a split second. He quickly regained himself. Lafayette knew how pathetic he just been to her, so he knew that he deserved that.

It was clear to say that he deserved all the glass shards in the world to come crashing down on him. He didn't know what had come over him, what had made him snap at her.

So he tried to redeem himself by sitting beside her in the glass pieces. Each of them sliced his legs and torso as he tried to get comfortable beside her. The woman only shuddered at his touch. She wasn't going to forgive him anytime soon in their future. And he was aware of that.

The two of them stayed like that until the next morning. Through the dark hours of the night, she sobbed, while he watched her with a look that was unreadable. There was a bruise visible on her neck, one that he had created. All he wanted to do was erase it away.

He wanted to erase their past. To relieve her of the pain she was experiencing. Maybe it would be the best for him to just leave her. But even as much as he knew it was the right thing to do, something was still holding him back.

And he wouldn't ever understand if that was his abusive or gentle side speaking.

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A/N: Thank you samuelseabury for the request! I might have made Lafayette more abusive than you intended, but I hope you liked how it turned out. I kept the woman without a name, which it gave it a deeper effect.