Thsc One-Shots

(Request) Crack The Mask

Request: Angst Dmitri; maybe something that involves why he runs the complex the way he does, or maybe something from his past before being the warden? Perhaps whatever it is, it triggers him and none of the employees know why.

Post Fleeing the Complex, Henry and Ellie team up but I did leave it ambiguous kinda what happened afterwards.

I don't write much for Dmitri or well, any of the characters in the wall so I was happy to finally be able to do so. This may have gone a little astray of what you may have requested but I hope this is good. As well, I'm a big fan of writing stuff where Dmitri is vulnerable.

***

Held up in his office, finally alone, Dmitri kept the door closed by pressing up against it as he took in long, dragged breaths. For once in his life, career path, both that led him to see many gnarly things, he was actually scared to death. It was stupid, humiliating, that he was feeling this way. 

Dmitri shouldn't be seen as weak around his men. He was a warden, after all, meant to be tough, no nonsense, serving with the Wall for over fifty years, everyone gripped in his tight iron fist, he's never supposed to have a bad day. Until recently, things went to shit, as the recent prison riot was anything to go by, and now he's in a frenzied panic. Many prisoners were able to slip through the flagrant cracks while others, his guards and him thankfully were recaptured in a short matter of time. 

"Hello?" Sat on the floor he heard the voice, crisp yet polite call out on the other side of the door. 

"I'm busy, Grigori" In a brittle tone Dmitri can't be bothered to keep a mask of indifference or brisk impatience. "Let me be" 

"They're worried about you. You know that, yes? I am too" Grigori cuts in. Despite what he was told to act in his youth, the threat to weep, loudly, like some snot-nosed child is becoming evident. He struggled, wiping his red rimmed eyes haphazardly to rid the pesky tears. 

"They shouldn't" He draws out unintentionally on some of the words, cheeks warming up at the embarrassment, hands covering his face. 

"We should. As a friend I've known you for decades. I understand what you're feeling. I've been there plenty of times and so has everyone else. But it's going to be fine" 

Unwilling to move from his spot on the cold floor, Dmitri breathes deep, shallow breaths, as he hardly believes the man for a second. 

"You're not alone" 

The warden cracks, casted his head into his hands, bites his lips, an attempt to muffle out the pathetic sounds. "I never had a massive failure like this in my entire career. Not when they came along" He dryly heaves, sobs are choked back. "They ruined me. Everything I have ever worked hard for. I had a reputable career and in a flash they dismantled it"  

"I know" In his teary haze Dmitri was still able to hear the shuffling from the other side of the door and the other man's sympathetic tutting afterwards, "Could I come in?" 

At first, Dmitri vehemently denied the idea of allowing anyone, including his best friend to enter the office, see how broken he is, and change their whole viewpoint on him. It will reveal his weaknesses to the open where in a lifetime he deliberately hid underneath the multiple secretive layers. Then he surmised it, deeper, this was Grigori after all, who he could trust with his life if needs be. 

"... Okay, y-yes…" He concedes, scoots from the door, hand on the wall so he can clumsily stand. In a particularly bad mood with temper flaring wildly, he hides within his office, where he throws an explosive fit, unable to keep his cool. For all he went through came a period of tense uncertainty, he is without control, in a vulnerable spot.