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The sky had been falling. No, not the sky. As Leo started to come to, he realised it had been the roof, the whole building, coming down on top of them. Debris had bounced off Klaus's Cross Shield, until there was nowhere for it to bounce to and it seemed like they were going to be crushed, and then the floor had fallen out from under them, too, and that was the last thing he remembered.
There was a heavy weight on top of him, and it seemed as hard as concrete for a scary half-second, but it was warm and it was breathing--unsteadily, but breathing. "Klaus!" Klaus wasn't moving. That might actually be scarier than anything else so far. Very, very carefully, Leo inched out from under Klaus's body, trying not to jostle anything, always watching for that slow movement of Klaus's chest as he breathed. As long as Klaus kept breathing, Leo felt like he could hold it together.
He always knew Klaus was huge, but actually being pinned under him... it was kind of amazing how big he was. Pressed right up against him like this, Leo found it a little hard to grasp the idea that Klaus was a human like him, the difference between them was so great. Wriggling out from under Klaus's muscular form took more effort than Leo wanted to admit--maybe the problem was he was too scrawny, not that Klaus was too big--and he lost a shoe trying to pull his left foot free.
Klaus had to wake up soon, right? There was blood on the collar of his shirt, Leo could see now, and when he carefully felt around the area it seemed to be from a head wound. Crap. What if Klaus didn't wake up? Maybe for hours or even days?
No. Leo just had to keep going on the assumption that Klaus would wake up. Any other option would pretty quickly turn into screaming panic. Klaus was... well, obviously not invincible, but he was tough. Tougher than anyone. Definitely a lot tougher than Leo--all Leo could do was see really well.
On that note, Leo finally took a real look around at their situation. They'd fallen into some kind of basement, and half the building had fallen in after them. Leo wasn't sure if Klaus's Cross Shield had still been up at the time or if the debris was just balanced in a really lucky way, but they had several feet mostly clear around them, and enough head room for Leo to almost stand up straight. Klaus would have to crouch pretty awkwardly, though.
"Well, now what?" He was pretty sure only he and Klaus had been far enough into the building to get caught in the collapse--Steven and Gilbert should still be up there and okay, but his cell phone wasn't getting a signal down here, so he couldn't call them. They could wait to be rescued, but that seemed like a bad bet, even if it didn't rankle just on principle. There was a whole building collapsed up there. There'd been other people in it, in the apartments above the store they'd been raiding. Blasting straight through all the debris wasn't an option--even if they managed not to hit anyone with the blast, something could fall wrong and crush someone. Possibly them. Obviously wiser heads had prevailed up above, because it didn't seem like anyone had tried that yet. But did they even have enough air to wait for a more careful excavation?
A familiar little squeak drew Leo's attention, and he looked down to find a tiny monkey sitting by his knee. "Sonic! What are you doing in here?" The monkey had plenty of time to get clear, but here he was, inside with them. Leo carefully checked for injuries, but Sonic seemed perfectly fine. Sonic must have gotten clear after all, which meant there had to be a way in and out for him to be here now! "Can you show me how you got in?" Leo linked their eyes, but as Sonic made his way through the debris Leo's heart sank. The path was big enough for a monkey, maybe even big enough for Leo if some of the smaller chunks of concrete could be shifted without bringing the whole thing down, but there was no way Klaus was going to fit through some of those spaces.
"It's no good, Sonic, come back." Leo wasn't sure the monkey would come back--he had a much better sense of self-preservation than Leo ever did. But he did come back, and Leo kind of wanted to cry in relief. "Okay, okay. If there's one way out, maybe there's more."
Sonic was coming back from the third dead-end route when Klaus started to stir. He groaned a little, but didn't move much at first. Leo turned to check on him and had that dizzying experience of trying to look at something nearby while his vision was also linked with Sonic's. He had to sit down in a hurry, and it must have looked like he was collapsing or something because somehow Klaus was exploding into motion, nearly whacking his head again on the low ceiling. "Leonardo-kun!"
"Whoa, hey, I'm okay!" Leo disengaged from Sonic, and half-stood to show that he could. "I'm fine. See?" Fine enough that he felt a little guilty--he'd gotten away with just bruises and scratches because Klaus had put his body between the danger and Leo, he was sure of it.
Was Klaus fine? His eyes didn't seem to be focusing quite right as he looked around. He sat down heavily, back hunched even in a sitting position to keep his head clear of the ceiling. "I thought... I apologise, I'm not sure what I thought. How long have I been out?"
"I'm not sure." Leo looked at his cellphone and wondered if the clock was still accurate when there was no signal. Probably, right? "I've been awake for about fifteen minutes, so maybe a little longer than that?" Leo didn't think he'd been out very long himself, since his head barely even hurt.
Klaus looked up at the remains of the building above their heads. His eyes were already looking a little better, but Leo wondered how well he could see, in just the glow of Leo's phone screen and whatever ambient light was leaking in from outside. When did he forget what it was like to have normal eyes? "Can you see, is it light enough?"
"Well enough to get the general idea." He didn't suggest using his Blood Arts to force their way out, which was somehow disappointing even though Leo had already realised it was a bad idea. Some part of him had expected Klaus to fix everything; it was kind of embarrassing.
"Sonic found a few paths to the outside. They're too small to get through, but at least we won't run out of air." Leo didn't mention that a couple of the paths might be big enough for him to squeeze through--Klaus would definitely insist that he should go, and he didn't want his resolve tested. Klaus had protected him more times than he could count, the least he could do in return was keep looking for a way out they could both use.
"Thank you for your efforts, Sonic." Klaus's tone was solemn, totally serious as he thanked a monkey. It should have looked silly, but it didn't. Leo wasn't sure anything Klaus did could look silly. Sonic even stood a little straighter, which made Leo smile.
"Okay, let's keep looking."
Three more dead ends and Leo was starting to feel the strain. He could hide it for now, but it wouldn't be too much longer before his eyes started steaming and smoking and that was a little harder to keep under wraps. And then Sonic hopped down from the pile of concrete they'd been exploring, and there was just the faintest hollow metallic sound as his tiny body landed on the floor. "Wait, what was that?"
The floor there was mostly covered in small chunks of debris, but as Leo moved a few aside he found what looked like a trap door. A really, really old one. The whole thing looked rusty and like it hadn't been touched in decades, and maybe it just led to some kind of sub-basement storage room... but maybe not. He grabbed hold of the ring and pulled. And pulled. The door didn't budge even a little until one of Klaus's huge hands wrapped around both of his, and Klaus braced his foot against the floor to get as much leverage as he could without being able to stand. Leo could feel Klaus's muscles straining, just a little, and then there was a cracking noise and the trap door flew open suddenly. Leo almost didn't let go in time, but Klaus pulled him back before the door could hit him in the face.
It was all so sudden and dramatic that Leo just sat there for a moment, stunned, one of Klaus's arms wrapped around his middle. After a second his brain started to work again--as well as it ever did--and he noticed they'd fallen back so that Leo was practically sitting in Klaus's lap. He was really, super aware of the feel of thigh muscles under his ass, and the way his leg was kind of between Klaus's, and was that...? He was so glad Klaus didn't have the All-Seeing Eyes, at that moment, because he could feel his face going bright red as he tried to figure out a way to shift positions without drawing attention to the situation. Klaus solved the problem by pretty much just picking Leo up and setting him back on his feet. He probably hadn't even noticed, right? Why would he?
Leo cleared his throat awkwardly, and crouched down to look into the new hole in the floor. It wasn't pitch black down there, like he'd expected--it actually looked like whatever was down there was lit with lanterns. And now that he thought about it, in all of the noises he had heard when the trap door gave way, a rusty squeal hadn't been one of them. More like... yeah. When he looked closer, he could see the sheared-off remains of some kind of locking mechanism. No wonder it wouldn't open.
Rather than just climbing down into the unknown--and obviously well-used--hole in the ground, Leo braced his hands on the edge and leaned down so he could see what was down there. "Looks like tunnels, or something."
"Well. That explains a few things." Like how the shop had been getting the contraband goods in the first place. But that also meant the tunnels could lead somewhere they really didn't want to go.
Not that they had any other options.
Klaus insisted on going down first, but once they were down there Leo linked his vision with Sonic's again and let the monkey start exploring the tunnels. There were just too many branches to start wandering aimlessly. The short rest had helped his eyes a little, but by the time Sonic found a path that looked promising, he was getting those flickers and distortions that said he was pushing too hard. But he had to keep going!
And then Sonic's viewpoint showed him the bottom of a ladder. Leo tried to orient himself and thought maybe that ladder would take them up to the street only a few blocks from the collapsed building. Even if they came up into a smuggler's basement, they'd be close enough to call for help. It would do. He counted the turns in his head as Sonic came back, and then let go of his hold on Sonic's vision. "Got it."
Going more by memory than by sight, Leo thought he did a pretty good job of hiding how messed up his eyes were as he led the way to the ladder. Except, when they got there, Klaus refused to let him fumble his way up the ladder, and Leo had to go up clinging to Klaus's broad back like a koala, so maybe he wasn't hiding it very well at all.
The trap door at the top of the ladder was locked, but from this side there was just a simple lever to unlock it. Maybe they figured if anyone had gotten into these tunnels in the first place, they were supposed to be there. The trap door came out into another basement, this one stacked high with boxes of... something. Probably they'd have to look into the whole tunnel system sometime soon.
When Klaus stopped a few steps from the trap door, it took Leo a moment to realise he was supposed to get down from Klaus's back now. Now that they were almost out, it was like it was all hitting him at once and Leo was suddenly really tired, so his attempt to hop down turned into more of an awkward slide. He was really, weirdly aware of Klaus's muscles the whole time, especially when he put his hands out to steady himself and ended up touching Klaus's ass. What was with him today? He jerked his hands away and managed to stand on his own two feet. "Sorry."
Klaus just looked back and gave him a gentle smile, squeezing his shoulder reassuringly. "You did well to get us out without incident." Had he really not noticed? Or maybe it just didn't mean anything to him to have another guy touch his butt. Maybe it didn't mean anything to him to have Leo touching his butt. Leo wondered if maybe he did have more of a concussion than he thought, because he was kind of disappointed at that thought.
No one showed up to ask what they were doing here or how they got here, and the stairs out of the basement took them into an alley behind some kind of restaurant. It seemed like really terrible security for a smuggling ring. "What do they do if someone just wanders into this place?"
Looking back at the general area they'd come from, Klaus narrowed his eyes. The answer hit Leo just before Klaus confirmed, "I can't see the door from this side. I couldn't see the trap door in that basement, though I wondered at the time if it was just the lighting. We'll need your eyes to find these places again." It was all covered by illusions, and Leo hadn't even noticed.
That would have to wait for another day, because Leo was increasingly dead on his feet. He fell asleep on Klaus's shoulder as Gilbert drove them to the hospital, only dimly aware of Klaus's hand stroking his cheek. Later, he would convince himself he'd dreamed that part.
~~
Hanging upside down oh my god feet in the air, covered with some kind of weird slime, was not Leonardo Watch's idea of a good time. He could see the others way down below in the car, keeping pace with the flying monster thing that grabbed him, but obviously the monster could, too, because any time one of them started to do something it would waggle him around in midair like it was going to drop him. Now they mostly seemed to be waiting for the thing to either get tired or get where it was going and put Leo down.
Leo wasn't sure he wanted to find out where this monster was going. Maybe back to its nest to feed its young? That seemed like a thing a flying monster would do. He had no idea what was up with the slime it had covered him in, though. It wasn't burning like he figured digestive juices would. In fact, it was sweet-smelling and other than being just kind of gross and warm it didn't seem to be doing anything.
Actually, it was really warm, now. Not in a painful, burny way, but definitely warmer than it had been when he first got doused. Maybe it was supposed to keep the high altitude from freezing him? But they couldn't be that high up--he could still breathe okay. His skin was starting to tingle, too, which was kind of scary. Maybe it was caustic and just taking a long time to work? The problem with weird Alterworlder things was that it could be just about anything.
The tingling was really making the wind feel weird against his skin, even against the parts of him that were clothed--it was like he could feel the wind right through the thick fabric. Whatever it was, it was starting to feel like all his nerves were on overdrive. He tried scratching a spot on his arm to see if that helped, but it just made it way worse--the tingling turned into electricity up and down his nerves and all the blood rushed from his head to his dick, in defiance of common sense and also gravity.
He must have made a weird noise, because the monster looked down at him and licked its... lips? Leo wasn't sure it had lips, but it definitely had a tongue. Ish. It was long and thick and purple and kind of tentacle-y, but it was about where a tongue would be. Leo was really, really sure now that he didn't want to find out where the monster was taking him. Leo looked down at the car again. They were so far away, and the wind was so strong, even if he yelled something they probably wouldn't hear. But he trusted them. Klaus was down there. Klaus would back his play, even if it seemed crazy, right?
Leo kicked at the monster. It wasn't a very good kick, but it made the thing veer and dip, and scream at him angrily. It shook him hard, and down below he could see Klaus standing up on the back seat of the car while everyone else yelled things he couldn't hear. He kicked again, harder this time, aimed better. He hit something that squished, and then crunched, and suddenly he was free-falling. The monster dove and made another grab for him, but there was one of Klaus's Cross Shields between them, and the thing plowed right into it. On Leo's side, he hit the front of it and found it was angled so that he slid down it.
It was still a long way to the ground, but there was a second shield a little after the first one ended, angled a little flatter. The third one slowed him down even more, until he was going more like running speed than freight train speed. And there was Klaus, right in front of him, standing halfway up a fire escape with his feet braced for impact. Leo hit him hard, and Klaus didn't budge an inch, making just the tiniest 'oof' noise as he caught Leo against his chest.
Just for a second, all Leo felt was relief. He was safe. Klaus had come through, like he always did. And then he remembered the completely inappropriate erection that was now grinding against Klaus, and he almost wished Klaus had missed and let him splatter on the pavement. He wriggled a little, trying to get Klaus to put him down, but that was a huge mistake. Or the best thing that had ever happened to him--it was getting difficult to tell. "Sorrysorrysorry! I'm not... it's this stuff... can you..." Kill him dead right now?
Klaus's eyes widened just slightly, and he cleared his throat as he put Leo down delicately. "Ahem. Well, then we need to get this 'stuff' off you." He looked down at his own clothes, which were now liberally smeared with the slime, too, everywhere he'd touched Leo. Oh, crap.
Leo kind of tuned out for a bit after that. He remembered a phone call, and Klaus saying something that kept any of the others from climbing up after them, and he thought he remembered making some really embarrassing noises when Klaus picked him up again. He might have tried to say something about getting more of the slime on Klaus, but he wasn't sure it didn't just come out as some incoherent stuttering.
The next thing Leo was fully aware of was sitting on the floor of a bathroom he didn't recognise, fully clothed. Klaus was a few feet away, turning the knobs on the shower and testing the temperature of the water with each adjustment. Leo dimly noticed that Klaus's hands were shaking a little, his back a little too tense. When he had the water temperature where he wanted it, Klaus didn't turn towards Leo, only looked over his shoulder. "Getting clean should help." He didn't sound very convinced, and Leo could have sworn his face was a little flushed.
He hadn't gotten that much slime on Klaus, had he?
After a couple tries, Leo managed to get to his feet. His shoes had disappeared somewhere, but they were probably ruined anyway. He tried to look down to see if Klaus's shoes were still okay--he always had such nice shoes--but his gaze made it to the backs of Klaus's thighs and kind of stuck there. Even through the fabric of his trousers, Leo could see the definition in those muscles. So big.
"Leonardo-kun?" The worried note in Klaus's voice got Leo's attention, and he shook off the trance. His own clothes were starting to feel unpleasantly sticky, as the slime dried on him. Maybe a shower really would help.
"I'm okay." He really wasn't. "Are you... uh...?" Going to get in the shower with him? The shower was big enough to fit them both easily--it might even have been big enough to fit two of Klaus. It had at least four showerheads of various types.
Klaus made an uncomfortable little cough, his back still to Leo, then he shrugged stiffly. "The sooner we're clean the better."
Leo's dick somehow managed to get harder at the thought. He had to get this slime off now.
Cold water might have helped a little, but Leo really didn't like the idea of standing fully-clothed under an icy stream. Apparently neither did Klaus, because the water temperature he'd chosen was pleasantly hot. Cold water might not have dissolved the slime, anyway. Leo watched globs of the stuff going down the drain and wondered if it was going to fuck up the plumbing of... wherever they were.
Anything was better than thinking too much about the fact that Klaus was right there, behind him, probably all wet now, his clothes clinging to his shoulders, his arms, his legs, his...
The tile in this shower was really lovely. Leo stared at it determinedly. It was a nice shimmery kind of blue, really soothing. Looking closer, some of the tiles had little veins of green in them, just the colour of Klaus's eyes.
His clothes were as clean as they were going to get without a proper laundry cycle, and it wasn't helping. Maybe if he took them off his skin would get cleaner? Still stubbornly not thinking about Klaus, Leo squirmed out of his clothes and dropped them in the corner. The warm water hitting his skin set off a whole new round of fireworks in his head and nether parts, but Leo grit his teeth and soaped up every bit of his skin. Even there, even though touching himself was like some kind of torture.
Maybe if he just... real quick... maybe Klaus wouldn't notice?
Klaus made a frustrated kind of growly noise, and Leo's breath caught. Every little sound echoed in the shower. Of course Klaus would notice.
Would that be a bad thing?
It was a crazy thought. But Leo kept remembering the feel of Klaus's body pressing against him in the ruins of that building. It had been weeks ago but he still had... weird dreams, sometimes. What did Klaus look like under those pressed white shirts? Was... was everything about him outsized? Leo's fingers curled around his erection as he pictured it; it seemed like just a stroke or two would do it, but instead the pleasure just kept building and building without going anywhere.
Leo made a noise somewhere between a moan and a sob, then bit his lip to keep any more noises from coming out.
"Leonardo-kun?" There was a roughness in Klaus's usually-polished voice, something barely contained under the concern for Leo's welfare.
The temptation was too much. Leo turned his head, looking back over his shoulder at Klaus. Klaus was still mostly clothed--his waist coat had vanished somewhere, and his tie--but the way the white shirt had gone all transparent and clinging to his skin... Leo swallowed. He'd imagined it, kind of, but actually seeing it made his mind go completely blank for a second. Klaus was... a lot. Just. A lot.
He swayed on his feet, and Klaus closed the distance between them to wrap a hand around his arm and steady him, just like he would have any other day. Leo saw the moment it registered in Klaus's eyes what he'd done, and Klaus let go of him like he'd been burned.
It kind of hurt, a little. Leo hadn't meant to let it show, but the look on Klaus's face said that he had.
Wrapping his arms around himself, trying to hide his skinny frame, erection completely forgotten--not gone, but suddenly unimportant--Leo wondered if the floor could be convinced to open up and swallow him whole. Anything could happen in Hellsalem's Lot, right?
"I'm sorry." Klaus raked wet hair out of his eyes, looking down at Leo intently. Leo couldn't quite meet his eyes, not sure he wanted to see pity there. "I didn't intend... my control is very poor at the moment, Leonardo-kun. I can't imagine yours is any better. I didn't want anything to happen that you would regret."
"Me?" Huh? That was completely backwards, wasn't it? Klaus was a catch. Leo was... Leo. "Why would I regret it?"
Klaus blinked down at him a bit owlishly, and Leo wondered where his glasses had gone. "I wasn't under the impression that you usually had any inclinations in that direction, Leonardo-kun."
With the surge of embarrassment fading a bit, but nagging heat was starting to fuzz Leo's thoughts again, so it took him a second to follow that. "Oh." He hadn't really had a lot of time for crushes, much less relationships, since joining Libra. Pretty much the only one had been White, and he wasn't even sure that counted. "I guess I do." For at least a few weeks now, anyway. He wasn't going to tell Klaus that part.
"You're quite sure?"
Leo kind of wanted to laugh, because when he thought about it, Klaus was always a worrier. Why would now be different? "Yeah."
Klaus took his hand, then, and led him the few steps to the shower bench. Sitting with his legs spread, Klaus pulled Leo down to sit straddling one of his thighs. One arm around Leo's waist to steady him, Klaus wrapped the fingers of his other hand around Leo's erection. Leo's eyes widened at the sight of Klaus's hand just completely engulfing his cock. He knew enough to know that he wasn't unusually small in that way, but Klaus's hands made him look like he was. Maybe it was the leftover effects of the slime talking, but it was kind of weirdly hot. When Klaus started stroking, slow and gentle, it was like... like fire, and melting, but in a good way.
Suddenly Leo wanted very much to get Klaus's trousers undone, but his hands were shaking and clumsy. Biting his lip, he tried to focus on his hands instead of the amazing things going on between his legs, and finally he got that button at the top loose. The wet fabric was clinging to his hands, to Klaus's skin, but he worked trousers and underwear down enough to get his hands on Klaus's erection and it was... a lot. "Wow."
The low rumble of Klaus's laughter made Leo blush, and he hid his face against Klaus's chest. Klaus kissed the top of his head, and then his hand started moving faster on Leo's cock and all thoughts of embarrassment fled.
Both hands wrapped around Klaus's length, Leo tried to match his rhythm to Klaus's, but it was hard to focus. He didn't mean to, but he kept jerking his hips into Klaus's hand and making weird needy little noises. Sometimes his hands stopped moving altogether, until Klaus rocked against him and reminded him what he was doing. The first time Klaus made a noise, Leo paused for a second just to listen to it, and then he started trying to get another one out of him. By the time he came into Klaus's hand, Klaus was breathing harder than he ever did in a fight.
It took just a few more strokes to get Klaus to come, too, and the look on his face when he did made Leo's heart beat a little faster. Eyes half-closed, Klaus looked relaxed and unguarded in a way Leo hadn't ever seen him. He wanted to see it again.
Opening his eyes, like he felt Leo's attention on him, Klaus smiled and lifted one of Leo's hands to his lips, kissing the back of it. "You'll have to add 'clever hands' to your list of talents."
"Klaus!" Leo wasn't sure which was more embarrassing--that Klaus (his boss, the sensible part of his brain finally reminded him) was complimenting his handjob skills, or kissing his hand right after said handjob. Or at all. "We should... We should probably wash up." Again. At least they were in the right place for it.
"Mm." Klaus sat up straighter, and carefully lifted Leo off his leg. "We should. And then get you warmed up by the fire. Can't have you getting sick."
Leo wasn't sure why he was the one who needed warming up when Klaus was the one in wet clothes; wet, ruined clothes that probably cost more than Leo made in a year. But a fire sounded so nice and cozy that Leo was having a hard time disagreeing with the plan. Yeah: get clean, curl up by the fire, don't think about anything else for a while.
Tomorrow could be dealt with tomorrow.