PLEASE NOTE: I do not give permission for any reproduction, re-imagination, or re-adaptation of this story in any way, shape, or form.
April 2nd, 1943; Friday (Paris, France)
The sun finally blessed Paris with its presence, its bright rays flooding through windows in Krista's recently gifted swanky Saint James suite. The sunlight warmed the room up to a temperature that felt slightly too warm to be comfortable, even in the early spring. She cracked opened the largest window in the room as well as the glass door that led to the balcony. It offered an obstructed view of Avenue Foch to the north, but not much else. What it lacked in views, it made up for in style and comfort.
She didn't have much money left, enough for maybe one more meal or a pack of smokes and some snacks if she was lucky. Her snarling stomach seemed to have made the decision for her, so when she set out for the day, she kept her eyes peeled for any shop that even remotely looked like they sold food.
She passed by many restaurants and cafés, but none of them appealed to her stomach's desires. She wasn't in the mood for pastries and coffee.
Her stomach growled fiercely when she finally closed in on a cozy restaurant with a beautiful view of the Arc de Triomphe to the southeast. The metal sign atop the door read 'Le Cristal'. It was small and quaint with the option of either indoor or outdoor seating, and it would be an ideal place to enjoy a cup of coffee as the brightening hours of morning poured into view in the east.
Don't know what to get? That's fine. Just ask for the chef's recommendation. And that was a pressed roast beef sandwich, and some house soup. Plain and simple.
It was pleasant to have a moment to share with no one but herself as it was the first time in quite a few days. She glanced around the restaurant at the books that lined the walls. She turned around in the booth she was seated comfortably in, her eyes falling on a battered and aged copy of Jane Eyre. She plucked it from the shelf and delved into it without hesitation.
After every paragraph or so, she'd stop to take a bite of her sandwich then continue to read. About ten pages or so in, the soup that had accompanied the sandwich had reached a consumable temperature and she took a spoonful of seasoned chicken and broth into her mouth. 'Damn, that's good', she thought to herself, taking another spoonful. She held the spoon in her mouth for a moment, almost as if she were trying to remove the entirety of the flavor that remained on it.
Fully engrossed in the novel, she hadn't realized that she'd been sitting there for nearly a half hour already. Krista flipped the book over to mark her spot, and jumped when she noticed that she had company sitting across from her. "Oh my god, Major, I'm so-," She began.
"Dieter," he said with a relaxed smile.
"Okay. Dieter, I'm so sorry I didn't notice you there... How do you keep running into me?" she asked with a quirked brow.
"I can't tell you that," he replied with a mysterious smirk.
She laughed softly albeit a bit nervously, and took another spoonful of her soup.
"How is it?" he asked curiously as he simply watched her.
"It's not bad,"she answered with a shrug, quickly wracking her brain for any form of conversational points she could bring up to make this meeting less awkward.
The conversation hadn't been awkward at all. Close to an hour and a half had past, and Krista still found herself sitting opposite the young major, sincerely enjoying his company. It was a nice change of pace to be able to have a friendly conversation with a man that didn't involve blatant flirting and talk about sexual prospects.
They closed the place down without even realizing what time it was. Air of the night was all around them once they were met with the outside world. They began a slow laid back walk to nowhere in particular, polite and friendly conversation continuing. Cautiously, she glanced around them every so often because her paranoia was getting the best of her. She had no idea who was watching them from a distance or listening to them from around the corner.
Hans had expressed his apparent distaste for the way Dieter seemed to act around her because he feared that Dieter had the potential to sway the mind of his beloved mistress.
Although not outwardly saying that he had an interest in her, Dieter seemed to be nonchalantly insinuating it. "You seem nervous," he pointed out, taking note of her erratic behavior.
"I'm fine. I just don't want Hans to find out that I'm with you," she told him honestly, nervously chewing at the inside of her lip. She didn't know him well enough to know how he'd react to his mistress being with another man. In her eyes though, she was still free to do what she pleased, and spend time with whoever she pleased, and Hans the same. They weren't tethered to each other in a formal relationship, but she still wanted to avoid possible repercussions.
"Why are you worried about that?" he asked curiously as he pulled out a crushed soft pack of cigarettes, promptly placing one between his lips and lighting it up.
She watched him as he did it then formulated a response. "I don't know, I just want him to upset him. Because I don't know how angry he would get... I don't know him that well yet."
He shook his head, taking a long drag from his lit cigarette. "I'm not worried about him." Hans was his superior, he should probably be worried about the consequences he could stumble into, but he was young and cocky.
"No?" she asked, amusement coloring the single word.
He shook his head again. "I suppose I should be, because he's... protective of you in an odd way."
Krista let her eyes fall to the ground, her cheeks tinting pink every so slightly. "I don't ask him to be... That's actually news to me..." she said softly, almost embarrassed.
Dieter said nothing, just shook his head. They approached an iron bench alongside the sidewalk, and she felt a strange sort of confliction inside of her. It was odd that she felt as if she were in the middle of a very strange love triangle. It was something she wasn't prepared for. "Would you like to sit?" He asked her, gesturing toward the bench.
She swallowed and nodded. "Sure." Once they were both seated, she plucked his cigarette from between his lips, and placed it between her own. Krista took a long drag from it before handing it back to him. He laughed at her action, his eyes trained on her every move.
The smoke from his cigarette drifted toward her with his next drag as a gentle breeze carried it. "I'd like to get to know you better," he stated point blank, turning to face her.
She had an inkling that that was coming, yet she had not prepared for it. "I wouldn't be so quick to say that. I'm not really the type you take home to mom."
"That makes no difference to me."
A gossamer breeze forced the loose strands of hair around her hair line to dance along her skin and she brushed them away. Krista looked over Dieter's shoulder when she saw someone walking off into the distance. "I gotta ask. Why didn't you kill me when you figured out I was American? You had the chance." After the words left her lips, she almost wished she hadn't asked, because she didn't know that she really wanted to hear the answer.
Dieter leaned back, lacing his fingers together behind his head. "Because I don't think that you're a threat."
That wasn't the answer she was expecting, but it was one of slight comfort. "I can assure you that I'm not."
"I believe you," Dieter replied before falling awkwardly silent again. "What do you see in him?"
Krista was taken slightly aback. She wished that their conversation didn't continually lead back to Hans, because that would be oh so refreshing. Dieter caught her off guard, and she didn't even quite know how to answer. "I... I don't know..."
"What do you mean? Is it money?" He asked, raising himself back up to a seated position.
"No," she said, feeling like she had to defend herself for no reason. "Not all women are after money."
"Is it sex?" He asked her bluntly.
The mood suddenly shifted and she could feel his piercing eyes boring through her. He'd see right through her if she attempted to lie her way out. Why call it anything other than it was? "I mean... the nature of our relationship-if you can even call it that-is mostly physical, yes."
Dieter shook his head sadly. "You seem like a nice enough girl." He shifted his position slightly before continuing. "Be careful when you become a man's doll. He'll just find another to buy."
"Would you care to elaborate?" she pushed.
The cigarette had burned out from neglect, and he flicked it somewhere off to the side out of sight. He paused for a moment before he began to speak, as if he were aligning his thoughts. "It may feel like he's on your side for now. The sex may be great, but he's just using you."
Krista didn't want to believe that Hans could be using her, because there was nothing to be using her for aside from physical relations. She had nothing of value to offer to him.
"I will warn you that if you give him a reason to turn you in, he won't hesitate. I don't want to see something like that happen to you."
She was touched. How sweet. "I appreciate that, Dieter."
"I'm serious. Just... be mindful of what you say around him and who you talk to."
She nodded in understanding. "Like you. I probably shouldn't be talking to you right now."
"Probably not, but here you are." She could have denied him her company a handful of hours ago, but she just... didn't want to.
Krista inhaled deeply before she opened her mouth to speak. "I want you to be fully transparent with me because I want to know what I'm getting myself into," she began. "Would he kill me?"
"He would never get his hands dirty. Quite frankly, I don't know that he would even have the guts to kill you." Dieter glanced down into her lap to see that her hands were clasped tightly together to still their shaking.
Krista sat for a moment, trying to let her brain catch up and absorb everything he had just told her. She certainly had a lot to unpack. Was that really going to be her fate? He'd use her until he was bored with her and move onto the next girl that crosses his path? Dieter obviously knew Landa's ways better than she did, so she had absolutely no reason to not believe him.
Knowing what she knew now, her view of Landa had certainly shifted, but she couldn't act like she knew what his motives were while she was in his company. "You're too pretty to be with him." He offered her a genuine smile, and she reciprocated it.
Now that she had been up close and personal with Dieter, she realized that he was more adorable than hot, and he had this sort of boyish charm to him that she found quite likeable. "I could treat you better than he can."
Krista hesitantly reached out and placed her cold Hans gingerly atop his. "You're so sweet, Dieter. I wouldn't deserve you."
"I can't agree." He turned his hands over so that their palms kissed, and her hands felt warm immediately.
Krista slid her hands back to her lap and dropped her head so he couldn't see the color that rose to her cheeks from something so innocent.
He lifted a hand to gently pull down the neckline of the blouse she was wearing and stopped once the still darkening bruise on her neck was exposed. She could feel his nimble fingertips brush over her collar bone, and it sent chills down her spine. "Do you let him do this to you?"
"Would you think I'm a whore if I say yes?" She shouldn't have been snarky, but she couldn't help it.
He stared at it for a moment longer before removing his fingers and adjusting her blouse back to its previous placement. "No, I just don't understand the enjoyment."
Damn this man was hard to read. Was he mad at her? Did he want her? Was he upset over her relationship with Landa? She couldn't tell. She did however feel a minute pang of guilt inside, and it was likely due to the fact that Dieter appeared to have a small crush on her, for lack of a better term. A mark on her skin from another man wasn't something she felt that she should be feeling guilty for. He was making such an honest and full hearted attempt to sway her away from Landa and she could respect that.
Dieter looked at his watch and sighed. "It's getting late. I should probably get you home. Unless... you'd like to join me instead?" he asked hopefully.
She followed suit after he stood up, and brushed off imaginary dirt from the skirt she was wearing after straightening it out. "As much as I'd like to, I can't."
Taking a chance, he took a step closer to her and cradled the back of her head with his hand and pressed his warm lips to hers. Regardless of how soft his lips felt against hers and how sweet they tasted, she pulled away and took a step back, placing a small amount of space between them. "Dieter, I can't do this." She said, her lips still tingling from the contact. She avoided his eyes and looked down.
"I promise you that Landa will never know." He tipped her chin up so that their eyes could meet.
Quickly, she found herself lost in beautiful icy blue, and she didn't want to look away. She wanted to believe him when he said that Hans would never know, but with his position so high in the SS, he could found out anything he wanted to about anything he wanted to. "I want to believe you. I really do."
He dropped his hand down to his side. "Do you love him?"
His words cut into her in a way they most definitely shouldn't have. They'd only had their fateful encounter about a month ago. That wasn't long enough to develop feelings. She didn't love Hans, and she very highly doubted that she ever would. She liked him, sure. But love? She'd learned her lesson about love and relationships years ago. "No."
Dieter nodded, and pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. She hated to see him feel rejected because that wasn't her intention, but it was what it was. "Well, I look forward to seeing you very soon. Think about me," he told her with a mischievous wink.
Without another word, he turned away from her, and began down the street.
Nervously, she began to make her way back to her hotel room and she suddenly wished that she had snagged a cigarette from Dieter before they had parted ways. Maybe it would have calmed her restless mind down. It seemed to her that every day she drifted further away from her goal to find her cousin, and with the precarious place she'd found herself all but trapped in, she wanted nothing more than to throw in the towel and go home and carry on life as usual. She was actually beginning to miss the day to day hustle and grind of a job to keep her mind and hands busy.
She had the mindset that finding Jonas would be an in and out of Paris ordeal, but now she realized just how mistaken she had been. Was she in over her head yet, though? Not quite, but she was teetering dangerously close to that point. However, if no more curveballs were thrown directly at her, she'd be able to pull through without a hitch. She now had to worry about being caught in between a colonel and a major, and the complexity of that hurt her brain.
Out of nowhere, Dieter Hellstrom had expressed his interest in her, after informing her of what her fate with Hans would likely be. She'd be used and dumped like a bottle of Mountain Dew that had been finished. She had agreed to be his mistress so she brought it upon herself, and she didn't really expect a different outcome. Hearing it from someone else somehow unsettled her.
For now though, she decided that the best course of action was to just ride it out and let whatever happen just... happen.