death is but the next great adventure

[terriblymisguided]

Klaus has a funny relationship with death. Mostly, he's a little surprised that after a childhood spent being a rather worthless superhero, followed by over a decade of addiction and one stupid decision after another, death hasn't come for him yet. It's sort of a miracle that he's even stayed alive this long, given the circumstances .

There have been close calls, of course. Perhaps none closer than that night with Luther where he struck his head against a cement floor and went to wherever that was where he spoke with that bitchy child and his bitchier father.

It had even gotten to the point where Klaus thought that maybe he'd end up cheating death entirely, but it seems that he was wrong about that. Death will come for him. He thinks maybe it's coming for him now.

Death is at the front of his mind, but that isn't surprising. What else is there to think about when you're bleeding out on the sidewalk?



It all happens very fast.

Klaus is walking along the street, sipping iced coffee and gesticulating wildly as he recounts an embellished story about a drag king he'd befriended in Amsterdam, when suddenly there's a wild cacophony of sound. A peaceful afternoon is disrupted when a car runs a red light and crashes into the side of another car, sending it spinning wildly into the front of a bakery just a few yards from where they're standing.

Glass and metal explode outward and litter the ground, which startles Klaus enough that he drops his iced coffee. The plastic breaks as it hits the pavement and the coffee spills, sending the liquid outward to follow the patterns of cracks and grooves in the sidewalk.

"That was a close one, huh?" Klaus says to the person next to him, but his voice sounds strange. His throat tickles and when he tries to clear it, the taste of copper fills his mouth and he coughs a little in surprise, blinking as blood trickles out from the corner of his mouth.

He hears a scream and coughs again, starting to shake as he tips his head down to look at his chest. There's so much blood there suddenly, pumping out of a hole in his chest and staining the thin pink tee that he's wearing. It spreads outwards like the coffee on the ground, growing and taking over whatever dry space it can reach.

Klaus reaches up to touch his trembling fingers to the edge of the jagged wound, coughing again as he slowly turns to look behind him. There's a piece of metal on the ground, rebar shrapnel, and it too is covered in crimson red. “Fuck.”

It's only once he realizes what's happened that it starts to hurt, and he feels like a child that's fallen down but doesn't start to cry until he spots the blood on his knee. It hurts so bad that Klaus can't breathe, or maybe that's because his lungs are filling up with blood.

He gives the person next to him a panicked look and then stumbles backwards, collapsing back onto the pavement and staring up at the sky. There's blood in his throat, pooling in his mouth until he chokes, and a part of him wants to laugh.

All those dangerous missions, all those years ruining himself with drugs. Multiple apocalypses. Frontline combat in Vietnam. All of that and this is how he's going to go-- random happenstance. A horrible accident. It'd be hilarious if it wasn't so fucking depressing.

"I'm sorry," he chokes out to the person kneeling at his side, because he loves them and he doesn't want them to have to deal with this. He doesn't want to leave them, but everything is getting dark and cold and he's being called away to somewhere else.

Death is pulling him away, sick of being cheated out of the chance to reap Klaus Hargreeves, and this time, he can't seem to fight it.

This time, he has to go, even though it's the most that he's ever wanted to stay.

Comments

[terriblymisguided]

The last thing that Klaus sees is Lan Wangji kneeling over him. Perhaps not the person that he expected to be there with him at the end, but at least it's a familiar face. Mostly familiar, anyway. He's never seen it looks quite so vibrant with emotion.

Klaus opens his mouth to try and speak, but there's too much blood. Whatever it was that did this must have blown through his lung, because it's all blood and no breath. He can't take in any air, and in the end he isn't sure what kills him in the end, the trauma or the choking.

He lifts his hand and puts it over Lan Wangji's on his chest, because Klaus knows that he's trying to save him, but it's too late. Klaus looks at him for another moment and then goes limp, hand falling to the pavement as his eyes point towards the sky, empty and unfocused.

[lan_wangji]

"Do not," Lan Wangji barks, face fierce with anger that Klaus would dare comfort him, would dare to let go, would dare die on this filthy street. He grabs the now limp hand that left a smear of blood on his chest and pushes it against the wound, both hands now covering Klaus and glowing bright as he pushes energy with his Core.

The murmurs of the crowd around him grow more agitated the longer this goes on, and the sirens of the car carrying healers is grating and late and useless.

A hand lands on his shoulder and he growls at them to leave, finally drawing Bichen with one hand as men in uniforms try and separate him from Klaus's body. He does not stop healing, will not stop. He refuses to accept any of this.

[terriblymisguided]

"Sir, we need to clear the scene," an EMT says, because Klaus is obviously dead. There's nothing more to be done. He's bled out and his heart is stopped, body still where he's sprawled out in his own blood.

But he isn't gone. He's going through something, figuring things out, and once he does, his eyes snap open and he sucks in a heaving breath, coughing as he turns onto his side and spits blood onto the pavement.

Everyone around him reacts in surprise, jumping backwards, and Klaus lets out a pitiful groan as he reaches up to put his hand over the gaping wound in his chest.

[lan_wangji]

Lan Wangji sends a wave of power out, knocking the onlookers and the healers off their feet when Klaus's body jerks, a warning to stay away as he drops back to his knees. He immediately presses his hand flat against Klaus's where he'd been torn open, pushing energy in again. He can feel the drain on his Core where there had been none, a sign that Klaus is somehow alive yet again instead of a fierce corpse as he'd momentarily feared. It makes no sense, his healing did not do this, could not do this. It would have cost him his Core and he'd felt nothing, just an empty shell accepting none of his magic.

"I am here," he murmurs, trying to hide the sight of Klaus, vulnerable and bloody with his voluminous robes. "Can you hear me?" He does not know what he needs, cannot tell so he simply threads his fingers through Klaus's, hand glowing blue as he tries to share his energy.

[terriblymisguided]

Everyone around him falls backwards, scrambling to get away, and Klaus blinks in confusion as he rolls onto his back to find Lan Wangji there, holding onto his hand. He nods at the question, still trying to process all that he's just seen.

"I came back," he says suddenly, holding onto Lan Wangji's with his own. Lan's glows blue and Klaus chuckles weakly as he sends out a small pulse of his own power, making his hand glow blue as well. All the energy seems to help steady him, and he takes a deep breath as he tries to sit up.

Every nerve ending in his chest seems to scream in protest and Klaus drops back to the street, panting as he rips his shirt open with his free hand. The wound in his chest seems to be slowly knitting itself back together and he looks up at Lan Wangji with wide eyes. "I-- I think that I'll always come back."

[lan_wangji]

Lan Wangji stares down at their joined hands for a moment, wanting to know more about the magic he's just felt but this is hardly the place or time. He lets out a long, shaky breath of relief to see Klaus clear eyed and speaking if still absolutely covered in blood.

The people are shrieking and scrambling around them, healers looking as confused as Lan Wangji feels and they must leave. He must hold himself together.

"Hold on to me, we will talk," he promises, scooping Klaus's gangly form up as it he weighed nothing. "How far is your home?" He does not think Klaus could stay on the sword if he were to fly him, having just risen from the dead.

[terriblymisguided]

Klaus isn't expecting to be swept up into Lan Wangji's arms like some damsel in distress, and he lets out a quiet yelp as he's held against the man's chest. His blood stains all that white fabric and Lan Wangji doesn't even seem to notice, which just goes to show what a huge deal all of this is.

"Have you really never been to my house?" Klaus asks, because it's easier to think about that then, well, everything else. He shakes his head a little and then takes a deep breath, wincing as it pulls at the gaping wound in his chest, the should be fatal wound, the one that is slowly starting to close up as he's carried down the street.

"It's not far. Turn left at the light," Klaus tells him, focusing on breathing and healing. Eventually they make it to Hargreeves House, and Klaus hopes desperately that no one else is home. He doesn't want them to see him like this, because then he'll have to explain it, which means that he'll have to really examine it, and that sounds awful.

"Here," he says, grunting as he reaches into his pocket for his keys, one silver and one brass, one for each of his homes. "It's this one."

[lan_wangji]

Lan Wangji does not bother waiting for the keys, lifting a hand as much as he can to push through a talisman to unlock the door for him. He should ward their house, he thinks, as he walks through and looks for the nearest soft surface.

He has willed himself steady and strong and held nearly perfectly together until he can be assured that Klaus is truly okay. Only his red eyes and white knuckled grip on Klaus's long limbs could give him away.

"Are you in pain?" he asks, voice hoarse as he looks around for their lounging room. "I can heal you more. I can fix it."

[terriblymisguided]

"Oh, well. That's reassuring," Klaus says as Lan Wangji magics their front door open. Who knows how many people in this city can do that? Why even lock the damn thing at all?

Not important. He's still being held by a man who, before today, would flinch away from nearly every casual, friendly touch that Klaus ever tried to give him. Special circumstances, he supposes.

"There's a hole in my chest, so yeah," Klaus replies to the question, but he shakes his head at the offer to heal him. Lan Wangji didn't bring him back from the dead Klaus did that all by himself, somehow, and he kind of wants to see how it plays out. "Just put me on the floor. I don't want to fuck up the couch."

[lan_wangji]

"The couch does not matter," Lan Wangji growls, although he carefully places Klaus down on the floor but immediately undoes his top robe, folding it and settling it underneath Klaus's head. The blood had been enough to soak through to his second layer and he feels the irrational desire to rid himself of it forever, rather than clean it.

"Let me ease your pain," he insists, eyes wide with worry as the stares down at Klau's pale face. There is blood on it, on his chest, all over and he does not understand what is happening. "Please."

[terriblymisguided]

"That couch is vintage," Klaus replies, groaning and hissing as he settles onto the floor. There's still a hole going all the way through him and really, he shouldn't be alive, but it feels as if he's healing from the inside out. His heart, and now his lungs, which is a relief. He feels a little less about to panic now that he can take in a full breath and swallow without tasting fresh blood.

He's about to decline Lan Wangji's offer but refrains when he sees the look on his face, obviously upset and wanting to help.

"You can take my pain," Klaus says raggedly, and then holds up one bloody hand to point at him. "Just my pain. Don't heal me, okay? I seem to be handling that part on my own and I want to ride it out."