That same night - the same night Dimitri had come back to me and our unborn baby - we stood under the shower in each other's arms until the water run cold and I began to shiver. Dimitri was back... But not completely. His body, beaten up, bruised and battered as it was, was there but his mind was not. He now seemed to have lost a lot of weight and, evidently, a part of the man he used to be. His body and his soul seemed to have shriveled up or been drained of fervour like a grape turned into a raisin and yet he was, still, a very large man. Now he was the complete opposite of the monster that nearly killed my bodyguards in an attempt to get to me.
He had undoubtedly been brought back to me a different man. I looked up at his tired, electric blue eyes - they were still so magnificent - and wondered what horrors they had seen before I reached behind him to close the taps and lead us out of the shower. I never ever thought a day like this would ever come. We went from being minutes away from being royalty to being fugitives on the run from Dimitri's brother. Now we were at the bottom of food chain. I was back to the bottom; pregnant, hormonal and currently towel drying the father of my child's beaten up body.
I began to cry. He hadn't said another word to me.
Dark brown met electric blue. Dimitri's lip quivered and his shaky hand held mine over his chest. Allowing myself to receive comfort from the calloused skin of his large palm, I leaned into him.
"What are we going to do?" I asked, trying to ignore the fact that my voice was breaking along with my heart as I spoke.
Dimitri, in turn, said absolutely nothing. There was my answer. There was absolutely nothing we could do or if there was something, neither one of us knew what it was.
Dimitri slowly sank to his knees despite the immense pain he was suffering and pressed his cold forehead to my now protruding belly. He grunted and hissed in pain but soldiered on because that's what he was. He was my soldier, he fought for me (as well as with me), he lay his own life on the line in an instant for me and now he had gone through lord knows what to make it back to me.
Dimitri's trembling hands held on to my hips a little too tightly as he whispered quietly to my bump. He was speaking that old language again and then he began to cry out loud suddenly. Terrified and taken by surprise, I immediately forgot about my own tears and dropped to my knees to cradle his head in the crook of my neck.
"Its okay, Dimitri..." I cooed. "I love you so much and everything will be okay. At least we're together now..."
Again, Dimitri only moaned in pain as a response. My throat tightened and tried my hardest to hold in my tears in order to seem like I suddenly had my shit together when in fact, seeing Dimitri loose his shit made me loose my shit times ten. This was a lot. Meeting Agnes and being told about the origins of Dimitri's curse, Dimitri coming back battered and dirty and, bizarrely enough, blonde haired - it was a lot. But I knew I had to suck it up and be strong.
"I love you more than anything." I repeated to him.

○●○●○

Five more days passed and Dimitri had not spoken a single word, had not looked me in the eyes, had barely drank any blood or even eaten much and had not done anything for himself. He was almost catatonic. He would not shower himself, feed himself or even go to the bathroom until he absolutely had to and most times I dragged him there myself. He would just sit there and hold it in with this pinched look on his face like he had just banged his toe against a piece of furniture until I forced him to go.
I looked at him as I gave him his shower on the sixth day. Still, his eyes would not meet mine anymore and this broke my heart. It seemed that the longer he stayed with us, the more he regressed.
"Say something." I begged him as I stood there, fully clothed and covered in soapy water because I was bathing a grown man. This was so hard. "Anything, please... this is hard for me too, you know?" I mumbled as I put the sponge away. After a long pause, Dimitri still hadn't moved or said anything.
Roughly grabbing the shower head and beginning to rinse him off, one could clearly see the frustration in the way I conducted myself. I just waved the thing around angrily while purposefully trying to get the spray of water to hurt his already healing cuts and bruises just for a reaction. I just wanted a reaction. Crying Dimitri was better than no reaction Dimitri by far because tears suggested pain and that was an indication of the presence of life. This Dimitri was not alive.
"Or don't. Its fine. I'll just keep doing all the talking then. I'll keep talking to myself because you clearly are not here with me. I don't know what you went through or where you were but now that you're here, we need you. I need you..." I paused, took three deep breaths, turned off the water and reached above for a towel to wrap around Dimitri. I tried my hardest to be much calmer. "I'm sorry, its just that I have been so alone and now that you're here and I'm still alone, I'm struggling a little too. Dimitri, we've been through so much already... Open yourself up and come back to me. I can't see myself being able to keep this up without you. I love you so much... Talk to me, Dimitri... Its okay, I'm here for you in every possible way I can manage." I begged, but Dimitri only begun to shed tears quietly. Now I felt awful; the last thing I wanted to do was make him cry.
Wrapping the towel around his waist, I reached for his hands and placed them on my baby bump.
"Feel this? Its proof of how much our love has endured. You cannot give up now, okay?" I reached up and wiped his tears with my fingers. "We need to shave this off..." I tried to smile as I referred to his overgrown facial hair as well as the brown and yellow chaos on his head in another failed attempt to get him to react to me differently.
Sighing, I let go of his hands and wrapped my own around him in a tight embrace. "We'll get through this..." I mumbled into the crook of his neck.
Dimitri then surprised me by wrapping his arms around me back. A tear escaped my eye and I placed a tender kiss on his skin.