Male!Cruella De Vil X Male!Child!Reader ~ Running

Chapter 8

You woke up the next morning to the sound of the door to your rented room closing, and you looked up to see Curt stood just inside, paused with his hand on the wood having just closed it, deep in thought. He didn't seem to notice that you were awake as he let out a long sigh and moved to sit heavily on the chair in the corner of the room, burying his head in his hands.

"Curt? You questioned nervously, sitting up in the bed, and he jerked in surprise at your voice, sitting up quickly. "What's wrong?"

"Ah, nothing." He said too quickly, getting to his feet and offering you a large smile that seemed too fake to put your mind at ease. "I've fed Domino. You go and get dressed, and I'll bring you up something to eat."

There was anxiety heavy in your chest as you watched him leave, and you slipped out of the bed to take the clothes he had got for you yesterday, moving into the bathroom to pull them on. When you were done you brushed your teeth with the inn's brush that you had been using so far, and returned into the bedroom to wait for him to come back.

...What if he didn't come back? If he just left you here to wait for him forever? If he...? Your eyes fell on his bag, near the door as always, and you breathed a sigh of relief. He wouldn't leave that, at least.

Curt eventually returned after a little while, and handed you a plate containing a couple of waffles and egg. You ate in silence, eyes fixed on your companion. He had returned to the seat in the corner and wasn't looking at you, but he seemed to start at every sound of cars outside, every sound of footsteps in the hallway outside. It always turned out to be nothing, though, and he would allow himself to relax again. He looked as if he hadn't slept for several hours, and kept checking his watch. The only sounds coming from his part of the room were frequent sighs.

"What's going on?" You asked him finally in a small voice, and he raised his head to look at you, surprised.

"Nothing." He said again, his answer immediate.

"But it isn't nothing." You responded cautiously.

"I just..." Curt swallowed, looking down at his fiddling fingers on his lap, and as he continued speaking he refused to meet your eye. "It's not always going to be like this, you know." You remained silent, because he hadn't finished, and you were unsure how to respond in any event. "Always running, we'll never be able to find a home, never settle down. As soon as you get older you'll be considered a criminal just for helping me escape. And you'll never be able to marry, or start a family, or have any of that ... stuff." He spoke quickly, as if he had been dreading saying all of this for a long time and now that all of it was coming out he just wanted to have it all said and be done with it as soon as possible. "As long as you choose to stay on the run with me, you can never have a normal life. Or, any life at all, really. I chose to do what I did. I accept that that's my life now. But none of it was your fault, and you shouldn't have to suffer for it."

"But ... I'm happy with you." You told him in a voice even tinier than the one you had used before. Because you were pretty sure you knew where this was going, and you wanted this conversation to go anywhere but there.

"But it won't always be like that." Curt repeated. "The police will catch up. It will get harder. And a life on the run is no life for an innocent child caught in the crossfire."

"But what if I choose it too?" You asked him stubbornly.

"_____." His voice was firm but you had a protest already present on your lips. Both of you were cut off by the sound of a firm knock on the door, and you jumped in surprise. Curt hesitated for a few moments before getting to his feet and moving to answer it. With his tall frame in the way you couldn't see who it was, but Curt spoke to the stranger as if he knew them, then retreated, refusing to even look in your direction as he pulled away from the door.

Your jaw dropped in horror as you saw Arthur stood in the doorway. He saw you in the same moment you saw him, and as your face twisted in pain, his lit up in relief.

"_____!" He strode into the room and dropped onto the bed beside you, attempting to pull you into his arms, only for you to pull away, trying to scoot further back on the bed but only meeting the headboard.

"No!" You said immediately, tears pricking at your eyes and falling to your cheeks before you could fight them back. "No, you can't take me away!"

Arthur paused where he was as he looked you over and assessed how best to deal with the situation, biting his lip as he tried to come up with the right words.

"_____, I'm sorry. I know that you're happier here, but Mr. De Vil is right – there's no chance of having a life with him." He finally told you, his voice soft. You shook your head, mentally trying to drown out his words, and he took your hand, his voice firm. "You have to come home, _____."

He rubbed your back in soothing motions as you sobbed. If Curt was nearby he said and did nothing, and for the moment you didn't particularly care. For the moment you hated him with every fibre of your being for abandoning you just as everybody else had, and you didn't know why you were fighting to stay with him other than that for the past few days it was all you had ever wanted.

Your sobs were eventually choked into near silence as you tried to regain control of your body, and Arthur squeezed your shoulder comfortingly.

"Domino's already in the car." He told you quietly. You nodded, and stood, and he got to his feet as well, wrapping an arm around your shoulders to gently guide you from the room. You noticed Curt in the corner of the room by his chair, and you thought he looked pained. But you refused to look at him, to give him any trace of forgiveness, as you allowed Arthur to take you away.

"Are one of the others here?" You asked in the lift. "To take him?" Arthur hesitated, the thumb that had been rubbing circles on your shoulder stopping, and you looked up at him in watery question.

"No, it's just me." He told you finally. "In exchange for your safe return we arranged for the charges against him to be dropped. He's free now."

You dropped your head and silence was your only answer, and he squeezed your shoulder as the lift stopped, leading you outside to his car, Domino already in the back seat.

"How did he know to call you?" You asked him as he opened the passenger door for you. You paused before getting in, wanting to hear the answer.

"You had a scrap of paper with my number on it in the pocket of your jeans." The Brit responded. "He used that."

As you sat in the car and Arthur shut the door behind you, you felt betrayed and hurt and angry and all the things you had resolved you wouldn't allow another human being to make you feel after your mother had abandoned you. You rubbed your eyes as Domino, lying across the whole back seat of the car (Arthur's personal car, and he was dressed in casual clothing as well – he wasn't working today), shifted to rest his jaw on your shoulder. You ignored Arthur as he got in the car beside you, glancing past him to see that Curt was stood outside the door to the inn, watching, and it was definitely a despairing expression on his face. But he did this to himself, you thought, turning away. You hated him, and he deserved every bad thing that came his way.

As the car made its way away from the inn, and the tiny seaside town you had come to love, you only wished that you could have meant it.