The King was sick - dying - and there was nothing I could do. Nothing Dimitri could do. Nothing anyone could do.
Dimitri and I sat by the King as he lay in in his massive bed.
"Dimitrius, my son..." The king choked on his words before coughing violently. "You've... changed."
"I know, dad." Dimitri's words made the king smile painfully at us. "I watched fucking cartoons and went for strolls in the orchard because I know she loves that kind of stuff. Me, father... Can you believe it? She made me realise that I need to let more people in without even doing or saying much." Master laughed but he was anything but happy. "I can't see myself carrying on with life if I lose you."
The king laughed lightly at Dimitri before interjecting.
"Ahh, boy-" He coughed uncontrollably for a few seconds. "What's a little silver to the heart? You're not going soft are you?" He teased.
"Isn't that what you wanted? A more gentle, more emotional me?"
"What I wanted was my son to drop the tough guy act..." He paused to catch his breath. "I am proud."
Dimitri smiled, tears in his eyes as he held on to my hand for comfort. I just sat there and pretended to be wholly and completely invested in how small my chocolatey fingers looked when intertwined with his larger, paler ones.  I once brought my eyes to look at the King up close, it was not a pleasant sight. Sunken bloodshot eyes with piercing blue irises watched Dimitri in adoration while a pale, almost blue hand reached out towards me, shaking profusely as it did.
"Young girl... " The King inhaled sharply. "Thank you for keeping my son well. Please accept my humble gift to you." The king reached under the pillow next to him, his movements evidently laboured, before producing a piece of paper. "Your freedom." The king spoke as he offered me the piece of paper. I subconsciously let go of Dimitri's hand to take the paper. "All you have to do is sign..."
"Thank you." I whispered as I nodded my head vigorously, tears of joy streaming down my face. "This is unreal..."
   ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
"You cannot leave me!" Dimitri yelled as soon as he burst into our shared room. "Not ever!"
"Why are you shouting at me? You should be happy for me."
"Happy? Are you fucking mad!? How can I be happy when my father is dying and you're trying to leave me?!" Dear Lord...
"I'm sorry, you're right... But I need you to calm down."
"Fuck! Shit!"
"Dimitri! I've already signed so right now we're on equal sta-"
"You know what I need?" He snarled through clenched teeth. "You. I fucking need you to fucking stay. The first chance you get to leave me and you fucking do it just like that?"
"Dimitri-" I began to plead but he cut me off.
"You said I was all you had and you were all I had. We fucking had each other! What the fuck was that, huh? What was the use if you're leaving me now? You fucking lied through your teeth and now I see your true colours."
I had excused myself to read the contract and I signed it without any second thought. It said I would be given a small two bedroom apartment, a monthly allowance and a proper education, how could I refuse? And now here we were, fifteen minutes later.
"Master, I'm sorry-" Before I could even finish, Dimitri was walking towards me and throwing our bodies against the bed.
"Call me that one more fucking time and I swear..." He growled.
"You're scaring me." I whispered with my eyes screwed shut. I didn't like when he behaved like this.
"You're fucking scaring me too, you know." He rolled off me. "Christ." He hissed. I finally opened my eyes to look at him. Dark blood dripped from his eyes as he lay there motionless as if dumbstruck by my decision to sign the piece of paper.
"Dimitri," I sighed. "I'm not moving out, okay? I'm not going anywhere yet." His scarlet irises met mine.
"Yet." He scoffed.
"Sit up, you're messing up the bed." I mumbled as I got up to find a wash cloth. Unfortunately, Dimitri pulled me back down and I fell right on top of him. The worst part was that I ended up straddling him.
"Dimitri, now isn't the time, your eyes are bleeding again."
"Let them."
"I'm not sleeping in messy blankets."
He sat up and pulled me closer.
"Do you mean it?" He whispered against my lips, his warm breath gave me goosebumps.
"About leaving?"
"Mmmh." Dimitri nodded.
"I'm not going to leave you. Not now, not when you need someone to help you through this."
"You'll stay forever?"
"I can't live with you till I'm old and wrinkly and you know that. I need to see what's out there... Outside all my evil previous masters' basements, there's more to life than that wretched auction house and the confines of your house, as stylish as it may be." I whispered as I caressed his bottom lip with my thumb. He frowned and I could feel the twitch of his jaw muscles and the slight extension of his bottom lip. Dimitri's eyes were now completely red and his dark brown hair now brushed his forehead. With his brows knit together, Dimitri hugged my waist and buried his bloody face in the crook of my neck.
"The blood, Dimitri..." I complained because he was smearing it all over my neck by nuzzling me.
"Fuck the blood. Fuck everything else. Just you and me; no worrying about anything, just us."
"This is crazy..."
"Shhh... Come to bed with me. We'll figure it out tomorrow, right now I just want to fall asleep in the arms of my woman, is that too much to ask for?"
I blushed. "No... But you're a mess."
"Fuck it." He swore before basically dragging me to the head of the bed and laying us down so that my head was on top of his chest. "Goodnight." He kissed the top of my head.
"Goodnight." I whispered, utterly exhausted and still high on the fact that he called me his 'woman'.

Another small one. I'll fix it soon, I promise.
Spread love, thank you for reading.