terriblymisguided: (wtf)
terriblymisguided ([personal profile] terriblymisguided) wrote2022-06-27 02:02 pm

death is but the next great adventure

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.
lazyandincompetent: (007)

[personal profile] lazyandincompetent 2022-07-01 12:34 am (UTC)(link)
"What the fuck did I do?" he asks. "What the fuck did you do? You were all dead and shit and now you're copying my powers!"

He doesn't care. His words say he cares, but his tone doesn't say anything even close to that, and neither do his arms when he seizes Klaus again and pulls him into a crushing hug. There's blood everywhere, but whatever, it's hardly the first time Nathan will go home covered in blood.

"I thought you were dead for good, you prick!" he nearly shouts into Klaus's ear.
lazyandincompetent: (012)

[personal profile] lazyandincompetent 2022-07-05 03:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Nathan is all bloody when he pulls back, but it's not the first time and he doesn't really care. He's not even wearing a good shirt today, he can just toss it if it stains.

He'll be proud enough just to tell Abby it isn't his blood this time around.

"So now we're twins and we can see ghosts and we're both immortal? I'm pretty sure you're me from the future." Nathan just doesn't see any other option. Klaus just changed his name obviously.
lazyandincompetent: (012)

[personal profile] lazyandincompetent 2022-07-11 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Nathan's eyes narrow a little, because even though it was his idea, he doesn't think he wants to just be another version of someone who already exists here.

"1989," he says slowly and carefully, as if he's being tested somehow. As if he might say the wrong thing and spontaneously implode because two versions of the same person can't just exist in the same space and time. It's not possible.

Nathan doesn't know how he knows this, only that he does.
lazyandincompetent: (014)

[personal profile] lazyandincompetent 2022-07-15 06:55 pm (UTC)(link)
"Noooo," Nathan says, drawing out the word. "Why is my name different then? Why do I float? Holy shit, maybe I just don't know how to float yet."

He's not sure why this is so weird to him. They look exactly the same, but being the same is something else entirely and he doesn't like that. He wants to be his own person.

"So we celebrate together in March now? I don't want t'share my birthday and my face!"
lazyandincompetent: (014)

[personal profile] lazyandincompetent 2022-07-27 04:34 pm (UTC)(link)
"Gross, you taste like blood," Nathan protests, although he gets to his feet at the same time and holds out his hands, like his skinny ass is going to be of any help if Klaus's slightly more muscular ass goes toppling over.

"Which brother? Why? The big one? Or the tiny one? Or the teenaged one? There's one like that, right?"

Honestly, Nathan has never bothered to keep track.