terriblymisguided | death is but the next great adventure

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plot: prince of darkness

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.

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"That's fine," one of the paramedics says, nodding at Obi-Wan. "You'll ride in the back with us."

Obi-Wan nods as well, but he's thinking of what Klaus has just said. That this isn't the first time, that Reginald had always claimed he hadn't realized his full potential. What he's thinking is too horrible to imagine, a father purposely putting his child in situations where they may die just to experiment with his abilities, but as soon as he thinks it, he can't get it out of his mind.

There are horrible people in the world. Across the galaxy. Reginald Hargreeves certainly doesn't have a monopoly on that.

Once they're loaded into the back, the ambulance heading off down the street, though without the sirens, as this no longer seems to be an emergency, Obi-Wan asks, "How do you feel?"

The paramedic in the back with them is helping Klaus with some oxygen, hooking the nose piece gently over his ears.

Being in the back of an ambulance isn't something that's new to Klaus. He goes about settling in and being hooked up to tubes with a familiar sort of ease, mostly because he's mentally checked out, too overwhelmed to do anything but stare unblinkingly ahead as he thinks.

He was in an ambulance the night his father died, flatlining on a gurney just like this one after taking too many pills. A close one, he'd thought, but maybe it wasn't. Maybe h had died and been reanimated just in time to learn about Reginald's own passing.

How many times, Dad? The question thunders around in his skull until Obi-Wan speaks and Klaus finally blinks, shifting his head a little to meet Obi-Wan's gaze.

"Like I just found out that my father repeatedly suffocated me to death in a box of ghosts," he says flatly, brows knitting together as his eyes well with unshed tears. "I saw me. I was only eight. He-- he killed me. He was taking notes."

"I'm sorry, my darling," Obi-Wan says, laying a hand overtop one of Klaus's. His opinions on Reginald are well known by now, Obi-Wan having never seen a reason not to make it perfectly clear, but he is still as Jedi, even if he might claim otherwise. A Jedi loves all, even his enemies, and while he will never understand Reginald Hargreeves or the way he treated his children, Obi-Wan must also accept him and his faults.

It's an easier thing to do when the man himself isn't here.

"He knew, but he never explained to you?" Obi-Wan asks, brow furrowing. "A better way to teach would be to make the student aware of the lesson, one would think."

"One would think," Klaus replies glumly, blowing out a breath and closing his eyes for a moment, composing himself a little before opening them again. He's not even surprised, really. They were always only experiments.

"I remember not being able to breathe, and I thought it was just from panicking," he says quietly, not quite meeting Obi-Wan's eyes. "I would wake up in a puddle of my own vomit and think I was weak. I always thought I was weak."

Before he can continue, one of the machines sounds an alarm and an EMT is leaning over him, cutting his shirt off of him, peeling it away from his blood-soaked torso.

"Okay, let's try to calm down. Take a deep breath," she says as she resets the alarm and rests a hand on Klaus's shoulder. She's a Darrow native, that much he can tell by the blank-eyed pleasant smile she gives him as she watches the wound in his chest knit itself back together.

"That's a neat trick!" She says as she cleans the wound with saline, catching the bloody runoff with a towel. "We're almost there, hun."

"As ever," Obi-Wan says, "your father was wrong."

It's fascinating to him how one man can make so many foolish mistakes and still have these children who are, in so many different ways, kind and caring and brilliant. Each of them has their own strengths, but there isn't a single Hargreeves in Darrow Obi-Wan doesn't admire for one reason or another. Their strength at coming through their upbringing with Reginald Hargreeves alone is exceptional, but doing so with such humour and kindness is an amazing thing.

"You're remarkable," he says to Klaus. "To have grown up with that man and to come out on the other side with such a big heart. You haven't let him take any of that from you yet, don't let him now. You've never been weak, Klaus, your father just never understood how to be an inspiration and a support. These are his failings, not yours."

Obi-Wan's words bring a fresh set of tears to his eyes and he squeezes them shut, nodding to himself as he reaches for Obi-Wan's hand. He wants so badly to believe what he says, and maybe he can because Obi-Wan is the one that's here. He's the one who cares, who supports him and roots for him, and Klaus would trust anything he says, so he must trust this, too.

"Okay," he says quietly, because Klaus has found himself at a loss for words. He stares at Obi-Wan so hard that he nearly forgets where they are until suddenly the ambulance stops and Klaus is being wheeled out. He twists and looks for Obi-Wan, reaching out for him with a panicked wince.

"We've got an adult male. Through and through shrapnel injury to the chest, but it looks like he has regenerative abilities," the EMT says as people in scrubs swarm the gurney and rush it into the hospital. "Vitals are stable. Heart rate is high."

"Obi?" Klaus calls out in a high voice, trying to turn and look for him only to have his shoulder pressed down to the gurney. "Obi!"

"

"Slow down," Obi-Wan commands with a wave of his hand. Immediately the bustling of the nurses slows, the EMTs slow, allowing Obi-Wan the space and time to step closer. He tries not to use the Force so boldly on the people of Darrow, but there are moments when he must.

Like this moment now. He can feel Klaus's anxiety and has no wish to leave him in such a state.

"I'm right here," he says, stepping near enough to be seen. "You're fine. I'm coming with you."

Obi-Wan takes advantage of this power so rarely that it still stuns Klaus a little to see it. With Allison, when they were kids, it was routine. She used it all the time to get whatever she wanted, and while they would sometimes whine about it being unfair, it never did any good. She was just using the gifts she'd been given, as their father used to say.

Not Obi-Wan. He only uses it when absolutely necessary, and Klaus is relieved to find that this falls into that category. Everyone pushing the gurney slows to a halt until Obi-Wan is suddenly there and Klaus can relax, nodding a bit as he slumps back against the gurney.

The doctors start moving again, taking over from the EMTs, and none of them say anything as Obi-Wan keeps pace with them, sticking where Klaus can see him. Once they're in a triage room, one of them yanks the curtain shut and goes about inspecting the rapidly closing hold in Klaus's chest, humming thoughtfully as she does.

"Well, looks like surgery won't be necessary," she says as she cleans the wound, looking reassuringly up at Klaus. "Have you always been able to heal like this?"

"No," Klaus starts to say, but then he remembers what he saw in that void-- him dying over and over again. "I mean, yeah. I've-- it's happened a lot. I just didn't know it at the time."

He shoots Obi-Wan a helpless look, lower lip quivering as a fresh set of tears spill out over his eyes. "I just want to go home."

"We will," Obi-Wan answers in a reassuring tone. There doesn't seem to be any reason the hospital would want to keep Klaus overnight, not when he seems to be perfectly healthy, apart from the wound healing on his chest.

"Can you roll onto your side?" the doctor asks. "I want to take a look at your back as well."

Obi-Wan smiles at Klaus and nods, then comes toward him so he can stand at one side of the gurney and hold his hand while he rolls in that direction. The doctor performs the same actions with his back, cleaning the remainder of the wound, then carefully applying a bandage Obi-Wan has to believe Klaus will no longer need by the time they're home.

"I want to check your vitals," she says, pulling out a penlight. "You seem to be in good health, but I don't want to send you home and have something happen overnight."

Klaus wants to protest, because with everything he just went through, he can't stand being touched by strangers, or being in this bright, loud place. He even opens his mouth to say no, but then looks up at Obi-Wan's face.

Obi-Wan asked him specifically to do this. He so rarely outright asks for anything, and he did just have to endure Klaus dying in his arms, however temporarily, so it's the least that Klaus could do. "Fine."

He endures the tests, lets the doctor shine lights in his eyes and press a cold stethoscope to next to the bandage on his chest. He does decline having any bloodwork done, not because he's afraid of needles (ha), but because he doesn't trust this place. He doesn't want any Darrow weirdos running tests on his blood. Maybe he's being paranoid, but he did just learn that his father murdered him in the name of science, so he isn't in a trusting mood.

"Your breathing is still a little labored, but your lung is rapidly repairing itself, so it should improve," the doctor tells him, and Klaus swallows hard and doesn't even really pay attention. Obi-Wan will be listening, and he'll relay anything important. She gives a rambling rundown of his vast injuries, and his expression gets more and more pinched.

"Am I free to go, doc?" He finally says in a tightly clipped voice, a vast deviation from his normal drawl.

"Thank you, doctor," Obi-Wan says when she nods at Klaus's question, making a few final notes in his file. He puts his hand on Klaus's arm to steady him, knowing the doctor is only helping, and then she looks up and smiles.

"You'll be fine, I believe," she tells Klaus. "But please come back if you notice any issues with your breathing, any chest pain. This isn't something we want to just overlook and pretend never happened."

"Thank you," Obi-Wan says again. "We will."

The doctor leaves the area where they've been placed and Obi-Wan looks at Klaus. "Here," he says, removing his robe so he can drape it over Klaus's shoulders. There's some blood on the sleeves, but he imagines it's better than nothing. "Let me order us a car."

Klaus focuses on the calming pressure of Obi-Wan's hand on his arm, taking a deep breath to try and steady his nerves. He wants to lash out, but he's come far enough to that it's just because he's uncomfortable and scared, and it won't be any good to push people away.

"Thanks," he murmurs as he slips his arms into Obi-Wan's robe. It's comfortable and soft, smelling like Obi-Wan in a way that calms Klaus, but there's that coppery smell of blood, too. It's all over him, all over the robe, all over Obi-Wan. It makes him want to throw up.

"Could you go ask someone if we could have some scrubs to go home in?" Klaus asks after a moment, looking up imploringly at Obi-Wan. And then, as if that's the only reason he's asking: "No one is going to let us in their car like this."

Obi-Wan nods and reaches up to gently cup the side of Klaus's head. He presses a kiss to his hair, then heads for the split in the curtain to find a nurse.

It only takes him a few moments and he returns with a set of what appears to be hospital grade pajamas for them both. They're rather generic looking, but they're soft and clean, having both just come out of some plastic.

"Here," he says, handing Klaus one of the pairs. "We can get changed here, no one will bother us. And they gave us a bag, too, for anything we want to take with us."

Obi-Wan leaves, and it's the first time since it happened that Klaus has been alone. He takes a deep, deep breath and lets it out on a shuddering exhale that still has a bit of a wheeze to it, and then presses his hands to his face.

And then he laughs, dark and unhappy, because there's another thing to add to the list of firsts that he doesn't remember. When was the first time he died? Was it there in that crypt and the hands of his father? Or was there some terrible misstep in his youth that led to Reginald discovering what he could do? How calculated was the risk when his father suffocated him to death? Did he even care?

When Obi-Wan slips back through the curtain, Klaus jerks his head up and quickly wipes at the corner of his eye as he slides off of the gurney. He wobbles unsteadily and grabs the bed to steady himself before reaching out to take the scrubs. After setting them on the bed, he shrugs out of Obi-Wan's robe and turns to the sink in the corner, running the water hot as he hunches over it to try and scrub the blood off of his hands.

"My clothes are trashed, aside from my boots," Klaus says as he watches the water run in pink swirls down the drain. "But getting blood out of our uniforms was one of our lessons as a kid, so I should be able to save your robe."

Obi-Wan looks at the robe with a frown, then begins to pull off his shirt so he can change. "That's the least of my concerns, Klaus," he answers. "Clothing can be replaced."

If the blood comes out, wonderful. But if it doesn't, he also won't care, because what matters is that Klaus is here. Alive. The realization hits Obi-Wan all over again and he pauses in the midst of pulling down the scrubs shirt, shocked by the blow he feels even now.

Straightening the shirt into place, he crosses to where Klaus is standing at the sink and wraps his arms around him from behind. With his eyes closed, Obi-Wan presses his cheek to Klaus's shoulder, holding him, feeling his warmth, listening to his breath.

When Obi-Wan suddenly grabs him from behind, Klaus has to bite his lip hard to keep from bursting into tears. He lets Obi hold him as he turns off the sink and dries his hands, and then twists around to give him a hug. He holds Obi-Wan's face against his chest, cheek resting just above the bandage, over his heart.

"I'm okay," he breathes out against the top of Obi-Wan's head, clutching at him tightly. Klaus went through the trauma of dying, but Obi-Wan went through trauma, too. It being temporary doesn't make it less real, and he hates that he was the cause of any pain for this wonderful man.

"I'm not going anywhere," Klaus assures him, squeezing him tightly and kissing his temple. "You're stuck with me, sweetheart. No refunds or exchanges."

“You are,” Obi-Wan agrees. In this position, his face pressed against Klaus’s chest, he can both hear and feel the beating of his heart. It’s reassuring, soothing in how steady it is, how solid.

This ability is a new discovery, one that they both will have to examine in their own ways, one Obi-Wan can’t pretend to understand. But it means Klaus is still here and for that he is eternally grateful.

“I’m just reminding myself of the fact,” he says when he pulls back and offers Klaus a gentle smile. He places his hand just above the bandage, over Klaus’s heart. “Let’s go home now.”

There are a lot of things to think about, tons to process and try and understand, but for now he can just focus on this. He's here and in the arms of the man he loves. They're both going to go home together, and the rest can be dealt with later.

"Let's go home," he agrees, pulling back and giving Obi-Wan a brief kiss before letting go. He undresses entirely and stuffs his ruined clothing into the trash bin, keeping only his socks and boots. There is dried blood crusting all over his skin, and Obi-Wan's too, and he can't wait to get home and take a long soak in the tub.

For now, he pulls on his scrubs as Obi-Wan puts his robe into the bag to take home. He says it doesn't matter, and while Klaus knows that it doesn't in the grand scheme of things, he still wants to try and fix it.

It's only when Klaus pulls his boots back on that he notices the hospital bracelet around his wrist. He didn't even notice it being put on him, and it makes him think of all the times he'd woken up in hospitals before after overdoses or accidents. All those near-death experiences, and Klaus still never figured it out.

After signing a discharge paper, Klaus and Obi-Wan leave the hospital looking like the final girls at the end of a horror movie-- bloody and traumatized and holding hands, but very much alive.

"Fuck, I feel hungover," he says as they walk out into the hot sunshine, and he lifts his hand to shade his eyes. "Celestial comedown is a bitch."

While Obi-Wan feels a little guilty laughing, he can't help himself. As ever, Klaus has such a way with words that he admires, and he squeezes Klaus's hand gently.

"Well, I'm just glad you're here to experience the celestial comedown," he answers. The car he's ordered is already waiting for them and Obi-Wan smiles as they get in, but he requests a quiet ride, and the driver, wanting a good rating, seems more than happy to oblige.

"Close your eyes," he says once they're in the car and on the move. "Just rest."

Obi-Wan laughs like it's startled out of him and Klaus cracks a smile because he loves that sound so dearly, and he's happy to hear it after the day they've had. It lets him know that things will be okay.

They climb into the car and Klaus isn't surprised that driver easily agrees to stay quiet. If he picks people up from the hospital on any regular sort of basis, he's probably used to people not being very chatty.

He wants to get home so badly, wants to soak in the tub and sink into bed for about a week, but for now he leans against Obi-Wan's side and nods at his gentle instruction, closing his eyes and taking a slow, deep breath.

They get home before too long and Obi-Wan helps Klaus from the car, though he knows Klaus is capable. He must be exhausted, Obi-Wan thinks, because he is, too, not a feeling he's often had in Darrow. The way he feels now, it reminds him a little of the war, how they'd all felt coming back to the ship, finally being able to sit down after hours of battle.

They get cleaned up mostly in silence, taking time, making sure the water is warm, comfortable. Obi-Wan gets the cleanest, fluffiest towels from the closet. Then he puts them both to bed. There is no reading for him tonight, just the dark, the quiet, and Klaus breathing beside him.

Klaus, alive, here with him.

By the time that they're clean and dry and Klaus has been utterly spoiled by Obi-Wan's amazing bedside manner, they crawl into bed and Klaus almost immediately falls asleep. Passes out from exhaustion, more like it. According to his body, the trauma and the unanswerable questions and the what now can all wait until later.

He sleeps, and then he dreams. In his dream, he's eight years old again, screaming with his cheek pressed to the freezing cold cement floor of an old crypt. The oxygen in the room is gone and he feels sick, and then he is sick all over that cold floor. He's begging for help with whatever air he has left and just before everything goes black, he hears the faint ticking of a stopwatch, and the scratching of a pen.

Klaus wakes up with a gasp, eyes snapping open to find that he's back home, tucked away safely in Obi-Wan's bed. Still, his heart is racing and sweat beads at his temple, and he turns to the side to curl himself around Obi-Wan's back, cheek pressed to warm, smooth skin.

When Obi-Wan wakes, it's much slower, to the press of Klaus against his back. His eyes open, he listens to Klaus, the pitch of his breathing, feels the quick thump of his heart against his spine, and he doesn't think it's a stretch to assume Klaus has had a nightmare. Perhaps about what happened today, perhaps about the way his father treated him, the things done to him against his will, without his consent.

Whatever the dream, Obi-Wan doesn't think the details matter, only how they've left Klaus feeling.

Obi-Wan lifts his arm and reaches for Klaus's hand, bringing him closer, pressing Klaus's palm against his chest so he can feel his heart beating slower and steady.

"I'm right here," he says in a soft, sleepy voice. "You're right here."

Obi-Wan's smooth voice sooths him a little, drags him out of the past and into the current moment, and Klaus takes a deep breath. Another deep breath, and he lifts his head to hook his chin over Obi-Wan's shoulder, holding him tight and focusing on the beat of his heart, breathing at the same pace as him until the panic begins to recede.

"I'm right here," he echoes, sliding his hand back and forth across Obi-Wan's chest and turning his head to nose behind his ear, inhaling the warm, clean scent of him. Obi-Wan makes him feel better, just like he always feels better, and Klaus finds himself tugging at Obi-Wan's shoulder, rolling him onto his back so he can slowly climb on top of him.

"You're right here," he breathes out quietly, reaching up to cup Obi-Wan's face in both hands and rest their foreheads together. "Thank God."

When Klaus rolls him, Obi-Wan goes easily, knowing Klaus is in need of comfort in this moment, more than willing to give it. When Klaus climbs on top of him, he simply wraps his arms around him, hands slowly smoothing up and down his back, their foreheads pressed together.

"I wouldn't be anywhere else," he promises, his eyes closed, hands still moving.

While seeing Klaus die had been difficult, an experience he would very much like not to repeat ever again, he can't imagine what Klaus has been through. The violence of it, of course, but also the pain and trauma of realizing what his father had done so many times.

death is but the next great adventure

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