PSL 01

[dial6forhorror]

They had averted the apocalypse.

Or, really, they had averted this apocalypse, which was experienced by Five, and which the Commission had been determined to see happen at the hands of Vanya.

Allison had bundled Vanya up in a cloud of cashmere and chanel and whisked her off to LA, unwilling to remain away from her daughter and even less willing to leave Vanya in the hands of any of her 'emotionally constipated, idiot brothers'.

Luther had wanted to go with them, but Allison only let him come on the understanding that he couldn't live with her and Vanya yet. He had betrayed Vanya terribly and that would take time to heal.

With Luther, Allison and Vanya gone, about ninety percent of the horrendous tension left with them. Ben was dead and couldn't feel anything, but even he had felt the constant tension of walking on eggshells.

And it left the four of them in the house.

Sir was dead (still) and hadn't bothered with trying to haunt Klaus (yay), which meant that there was no real reason to avoid the old house, aside from years of trauma and nightmares, which had never been enough to stop any of them doing anything.

Klaus moved back into his room. Diego moved back into his. Five moved into another room, well away from everyone else because he was trying to learn to how to be a person but it was a long, slow process and he needed space and quiet more than the rest of them.

Ben... was still dead.

But since they were doing this thing, Ben decided to start where his nightmares were oriented.

The cellar. Not Vanya's basement, but the old, converted cellar, where it was always cool and damp and there was no possibility of bringing down a building if They got out.

Which was why, some half an hour later, there was the terrifying, inhuman shrieking of the Horror having been unleashed. And, even more strangely, it was a scream that echoed as ripples through the spirit plane, ghosts fleeing and energy twisting, centred back down on that cellar.

Comments

[substances]

Klaus can feel it and hear it, plain as day, the way Ben's voice hitches when he says 'my Ben' like that, and a second later the tentacles are squeezing around Klaus' body, holding him close while Ben presses his face into Klaus' collarbone. It's true, now that Klaus has actually thought about it - Ben is his, in a way. Ben had died, and he'd been dead now for almost as long as he'd been alive. The whole time he'd been dead, he'd belonged mostly to Klaus, Klaus had been the only one to see him, to talk to him, Klaus had been the one Ben nagged and teased and talked to and encouraged and protected.

Ben has been his for a long time now.

Closing his arms around Ben tighter, he pulls him in as Ben says how he's feeling, refills the hot water. He keeps sliding his fingers through Ben's hair, rubbing his shoulders, his eyes closed, and his chest still hitching with soft sobs.

"I'm fine, Ben, I just missed you. My Ben."

[dial6forhorror]

Ben has been Klaus' a lot longer than since his death. They had been bonded by having terrible powers that they didn't want, one tortured by a total inability to control it, the other by the knowledge that there was only control or mayhem and death for everything he loved. Then he had died and-

And Klaus was his everything. Still is. Maybe always will be. Ben knows he can't claim Klaus—Klaus belongs to no one but himself—but that's never overly worried him because he knows Klaus will always come back for him, because Klaus is all Ben has.

If he's crying, he's doing it silently and without noticing and the warmth of tears is easily lost to the heat of steam and water. It's far more important that Klaus is crying and hugging him like a teddy bear and wants him here. "I'm right here now," he promises. "I'm not leaving. I won't. You've got me."

[substances]

It really hits him then, hard and intense, how much he needs Ben in his life. The last decade or so while they've been together at all of Klaus' worst moments, he's relied on Ben in a way he doesn't really think of too often. When Ben says he's here now, that he's not leaving, that Klaus has him, he exhales shakily and nods, pressing his face into Ben's wet hair.

"Ben, are you okay?" he whispers, his voice soft, his hand moving against Ben's hair, down the back of his neck, across his shoulders. Tilting his head, he rests his cheek into Ben's hair and shifts a little, rocking just slightly.

"Do you...do you wanna come to my room? You can wear some of my clothes..."

[dial6forhorror]

"Have we ever been okay?" Ben isn't sure what okay would be like. He doesn't feel cold or like he's shaking apart. He feels a bit nauseous and light headed, but that's almost certainly the after effect of the shock, he remembers things like that from being alive. "I'm as okay as I'm going to be right now," he finally settles on. That seems honest without being worrying.

"Your room? Excuse you, our room. Half that room used to be mine." Yes, he would like to go to their room and put on clothes that aren't his black hoodie and jeans, that will smell like Klaus, or maybe like Diego is they end up having to steal something from him to fit Ben.

Finally, slowly, the desperate grip of the tentacles is loosening and relaxing.