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

Chapter 10

"We've already spoken about it. I'm not sure it's the best idea, but it might be what he needs." You heard Arthur's voice as Mattie led you by the hand to the door of the apartment. You'd just returned home from your most recent therapy sessions, so you were tired. But also hungry, so that was good. You hoped. You paused with a hand on the door when you heard his voice, clearly on the phone, and Mattie frowned at you, ushering you in. Arthur glanced at you both briefly before turning away and fixing his gaze back on his desk in the corner which he was sitting at. "All right, I'll see what I can do. Thanks for calling." There was a response on the other end of the line, and then Arthur hung up. "How did the session go?" Arthur asked you, slipping an arm around Mattie's waist and giving him a gentle kiss in greeting as you scuffed the tip of your trainer against the carpet.

"Well, I think." You said quietly. "At least the doctor thinks so. I don't feel any different."

It was Friday night, at least. As the sessions had progressed you had recovered enough to go back to school, so now that the weekend was here you had the opportunity for a much needed break. The therapy sessions on top of your school work and your emotional turmoil as the icing on the cake left you exhausted.

"Well we're going out tomorrow." Arthur told you cheerfully, and you looked up to see that Mattie, whom he had been rubbing noses with as he'd said it, was now giving him a curiously questioning look. "Maybe a change of scenery will help."

"I guess." You agreed slowly. "I'm gonna go do my homework." As you left the room you heard the couple talking quietly. Ordinarily you would have assumed it was lovey-dovey stuff and strove to ignore it. You got the feeling it was something serious this time, but did your best to keep down the panic as you took your homework out of your bag. Not like you could ever sneak up on or eavesdrop on Mattie, anyway (secret agent, you were almost positive now).

Due to Arthur's terrible cooking skills there was pretty much only one real non-negotiable rule in the household: Mattie cooks. It was a rule that you were happy to live by. You'd tried Arthur's scones once and ... let's just say you were relieved to find that Mattie had moved in when you came to live with him. It was mostly silent as you ate your stack of pancakes. You'd been eating more and more over the months, and could feel that you were much stronger now than you had been when you had stopped eating. You were also eleven now. It was almost a whole year since you had gone off with Curt and been on the run. The therapy was going well, but you still hurt. You got distracted from it sometimes, but it was always there, in the pit of your stomach, an underlying thought at the back of your mind. There was no escaping the undeniable truth: no matter how many times you said you hated him, or said you never wanted to see him again, you missed Curt.

Arthur never brought up the subject of the ex-criminal's phone calls after that Sunday morning watching the news on the sofa. You didn't know if he still phoned every day asking after you. If he did or not, you weren't sure how to feel about either alternative.

You said good night to your guardians and retired to bed, curled up in the sheets with Domino by your side, resting his head on your waist on top of the blankets, and wondered as you had on so many nights before what your life would have been like if Curt had chosen differently that day.

*****

Mattie was silent as they were driving the next morning.

This in itself wasn't unusual – the man could be practically mute when he wanted to be. But usually Arthur would try to get him to open up and talk some on car journeys. And this was a looong car journey. You rested your head against the window and watched the passing countryside in silence, Domino lying on the seat next to you, and pretended you didn't notice that Arthur would occasionally take his boyfriend's hand after changing gear, as if to comfort him. The Canadian never responded past a light squeeze, and Arthur would return his hand to the wheel. It all felt like something was wrong. Were they breaking up? Were they breaking up because of you?! You didn't think you could bear it if they broke up, especially if it was because of you.

"Please don't break up!" You pleaded suddenly, and both men looked at you in surprise (Arthur through the rearview mirror).

"We're not ... breaking up, _____." Mattie assured you, confusion in his voice, and you breathed a small sigh of relief. Arthur turned his attention back to the road. Mattie awkwardly reached back to rest a comforting hand on your knee, and you held your own smaller hand over his, grateful in your unease for his comfort.

He didn't let go until the car was pulling in.

You weren't sure exactly where you were. Arthur had been going north, and you'd come into another city, but you weren't sure exactly which one it was. You were parked outside a fancy looking block of flats, by the look of it, and Mattie waited with you in the car while Arthur got out and went in. You could see him through the window, talking to a short dark haired man at a desk. He came back a few minutes later to get you both, and all three of you went in. You glanced at the man behind the desk as you passed as he stared back at you, what seemed to be an eternal glare on his face. Levi was his name, according to his nametag. You gave him a small wave as Arthur led you into the lift.

"What's going on?" You questioned of your guardians as the lift started moving, the air in the confined space tense. You stroked Domino's head in order to help calm yourself down. "Where are we? Why are we here?"

"We're here to see someone." Arthur told you quietly, exchanging a look with Mattie. "It's for you."

"Another doctor?" You queried.

"No." Mattie reassured you, resting his hand on your head and running it through your still short hair. "No, a friend."

The lift reached its destination and you could hear running footsteps in the hall on the other side as the doors opened, (a shock to you, because it's a well-known fact that rich people never run) and they opened to reveal a man on the other side, panting slightly to show that he was the person who had been running.

Your wide [e/c] eyes travelled slowly up over his tall frame to settle on painfully familiar icy blue eyes that were fixed on you in turn, and you could see pain and pleading and desperation within them.

"Curt?" You questioned, your voice small and a little hopeful as you mentally zoomed out to take in his whole face, still framed by the black and white hair you could recall so vividly. He nodded slowly and swallowed, and you could see tears pricking at his eyes.

"I'm sorry." Was all he could manage before you threw yourself at him, wrapping your arms around his waist and hugging him tightly just as you had on that one day on the bench a year ago, and unlike then he was hugging you back just as tightly, and you were pretty sure he was crying, but that was okay because you were too, and how could you possibly have said that you didn't miss him? That you didn't miss his eyes or his voice or his scent, or his ridiculously expensive fashion sense?

"I missed you." You mumbled into his stomach, only vaguely aware of Arthur and Mattie joining you out in the hallway, finally coming out of the lift.

"I missed you too, _____." Curt managed, running one of his hands through your hair as he held you close. The taller man looked up at your guardians questioningly. "Have you told him yet?"

"No, not yet." Mattie told him, and his voice somehow sounded sad and happy at the same time. You pulled away from Curt in order to look between the three adults questioningly, Domino taking his turn to bark happily at the former dog napper, who laughed and stroked him, scratching behind his ears.

"What's going on?" You questioned as you rubbed at your eyes to get rid of your tears, and it was Arthur who answered your question.

"We've been talking, and we thought..." He glanced between the other two men before offering you a smile. "we thought that now that Mr. De Vil is more able to offer a stable home for you, and since you've been missing him so badly, that you might like to come and move in with him."

"Really?" You asked them, joy building up in your chest as you looked between the three men in quick succession, excited at the thought. You settled your gaze on Curt. "I could come live with you?"

"It would be an official adoption." Mattie contributed as Curt nodded in answer to your question, his smile bright. You flung your arms around him again as he crouched down to hug you properly, lifting you from the ground and holding you tightly against his chest.

You could honestly swear that you had never been so happy.