Fireproof

They had been in this particular gay club for about 40 minutes before Dave cracked and immediately had to find the exit. Even with the slight alcohol buzz the flashing lights and pounding base sent anxiety through his veins. He stumbled out through the crowd and into the street immediately taking a deeply needed breath of fresh(er) air.

He stood there with his hands in his pockets for a while, taking deep breaths trying to stay in the moment. There was that iciness again, one moment he had been in the crowd enjoying the music and the next he thought he was going to die. Now that he was outside, he felt his veins freezing up again, a mixture of shame and self pity.

“David!”

He turned back to where his sister was shuffling through the crowd towards him. When he left she had been passionately dancing with a woman and now her hair was tousled and her lipstick was slightly smeared. He felt bad that she had stopped to come look for him.

“Dave - What’s going on? Are you good? I looked back and you were just gone.”

“Maybe I met some guy and we left for a little privacy.”

She raised an eyebrow, “Did you?”

He shook his head sheepishly, “No.” He sighed and squared his shoulders, “This has been great but I think I’m going to head home.”

She stared at him, “I’m not going to force you but- seriously, I’m worried about you. I’ve never seen you shut down like this.”

He didn’t say anything she groaned, “Look, what I’m saying is if something happened to you I’d kill you, okay? I mean it.”

He nodded, catching her meaning. He forced a reassuring smile and opened his arms, “I know you’d kill me.” She hugged him tightly and for a moment he felt like crying - he hated that she was so worried about him but at the moment he couldn’t say much to reassure her.

“Look, things are going to get better, I promise. I’m glad I came out tonight - I’ve got a good feeling about the future, okay?”

This seemed to make her feel better and she nodded, “Fine - But you better keep me updated.” She warned. “And don’t do anything stupid!”

She backed away to continue what she was doing in the club - she deserved it, she rarely took vacations and when she did she was often still taking care of other people.

Dave’s eyes scanned the area and he followed the scattered nightlife to a circular park area a block away. There were several good acts distributed around the area, dancers, performers, a few musicians all working for a few bucks through the Saturday night. Dave meandered through them, he was beginning to actually enjoy himself when an old woman in dirty clothes surrounded by a cloud of fetidness brushed against him.

She had been mumbling to herself as she made her rounds through the area and her head snapped towards Dave and she inspected him with wild, delirious eyes.

“I’m sorry, Ma’am--”

She hissed at him like an angry cobra and pointed a boney finger in his face, “Hell!” She warbled, “You’ll burn in hell! Flames will flay skin from bone and your flesh will rot in HELL!” She screamed at him and his nose was assaulted by the scent of decay and alcohol on her breath.

He stumbled away, desperate to get away from her screaming and her stench. “God, I hate the city…” He grumbled to himself and stepped backwards.

He felt his back collide with someone else - he was beginning to feel like he was in some sort of jumpscare house. He twisted around but rather than seeing another fiend he came face to face with stunning green eyes. The man he ran into was beautiful, that’s the only word that came to mind to describe him, maybe slightly taller than Dave with wavy dark hair, light facial hair and eyes that he struggled to look away from, highlighted by black liner and mascara. He was in a see through tank top, skin tight pants that left little to the imagination and gently heeled boots.

Dave loved the city.

The man smiled, “Don’t let Mildred scare you - I’ve been to hell and it’s not really all that bad.”

“I’m sorry?” He sputtered out.

Before he could respond the man tilted his head, he seemed to be staring right past him, “You doing okay, soldier?”

Dave glanced down, his dog tags were hidden under his shirt and he certainly didn’t know this man - he would have remembered him.

But before he had a chance to question the man continued as if reading his mind, “I’m very intuitive - about a of different things.” His eyes drifted down Dave’s body seductively.

Dave got the hint, berating himself for not immediately understanding that this stranger was working the street, and his heart fell a little in embarrassment. The stranger seemed to clock this instantly and placed a light touch on his arm, “No, but seriously - you seem a little lost, are you okay?”

Dave swallowed and attempted to blink the rest of the world back into focus but it didn’t work - he was pulled in by this man’s eyes and his easy going smile. “Uh- yeah, I’m good- I’ve just never been to this part of town before. “ He said with a soft inadvertent laugh. “Thanks.”

Was he just severely lonely or were they having a connection? Oh god, Nora was right - he was too cooped up. A He had no idea what the hell he was thinking- actually - he did - he was thinking about the fact that he didn’t want this man to go anywhere and maybe it was the buzz in his system but he held his hand out, “I’m Dave.” He breathed out.

The sex worker did the same and leaned forward, “Klaus. I could show you around if you want?”

Dave could feel all of his ancestors rolling in their graves.Who gives a shit, right? This is why he left in the first place - to be his own person. To meet new, beautiful people and to have new experiences. A confidence grew in his chest that he hadn’t felt in a long time- maybe the booze, maybe the intriguing spark in this stranger’s eyes. Either way, he offered his arm and Klaus took it, “I’d appreciate that.”

************************************************************************************

“Gotta love a good old fashioned gentleman.” Klaus said as Dave opened the hotel door for his companion and waited patiently.

Dave had been like that the whole way here as they chatted rates and rules - he was nervous and extremely vanilla about the whole thing. They went over safe words but Klaus doubted they would need them just based on how Dave vehemently denounced the possibility of slapping, choking or bondage. Klaus wasn’t complaining, it was cute, in fact he found himself legitimately enjoying their conversation as they made their way to the room. He genuinely liked a lot of his clients but he found himself drawn in by this soldier's accidental charm.

Klaus turned on a lamp and slid out of his light jacket, setting it down next to the bed - he turned and used a finger to encourage the other man closer. He obeyed and Klaus took his hands and led him to the bed. He pushed him gently back and straddled his lap, he leaned forward and traced his hands from his neck and down his chest.

“Is this your first time with a man?”

Dave nodded gingerly, “Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I- Yeah.” He admitted

A smile lit up Klaus’ face and he cupped Dave’s face, catching his eyes reassuringly, “I’m honored - I’ll take good care of you, okay? And don’t worry about what anybody says. This is beautiful.” He kissed his neck softly, “Special.” He kissed his lips, “Natural.”

Dave nodded, swallowing hard. His hands remained at his sides staring up at the man on top of him.

“You can touch, Dave.” Klaus said with a smirk.

Dave didn’t need to be told twice and his hands flew to Klaus’ waist, pushing up the shirt and tenderly moving his fingers up and down, exploring the other man’s skin. Klaus nodded encouragingly and kissed him again, he raked his fingers down Dave’s shoulders, not enough to leave a mark but enough to make him moan lightly in response.

Klaus led them - letting the other man explore his body as he got more comfortable with the feelings of their bodies pressing against each other. There was no need to rush, although, practically, Dave probably didn’t want to drop any more money than he had to on a prostitute so after a few minutes Klaus ground his ass down against his lap, creating some hotter friction.

Dave’s eyes closed and he groaned, Klaus did it again, letting the other man’s responses guide how hard he went down. He sped up the pace and kissed down the soldier’s neck, he could feel the other man’s erection and he brought his hands down to tug at his belt.

Dave let out an involuntary whine and suddenly he sat back - his face was flushed, he put his hands up, “I’m sorry - can we -? He stuttered out, a look of uneasiness flooding his eyes.

Klaus stopped and straightened his back, watching the other man closely, “Color?”

Dave took a deep breath, “Um - yellow?” Then he added quickly, “I am so sorry - I just-”

Klaus rolled off, falling softly to the mattress and settling on his side, “Hey,don’t apologize - This is your time. You want my mouth - you got it. You want my ear? You got that too.”

Klaus glanced around at the very telling group of spirits that had attached themselves to the man and followed him around screaming incessantly at him, although he couldn't hear them, Klaus had a feeling that brought people down having that around them whether they knew it or not. Several of them were speaking and it gave Klaus a well enough idea of how much Dave was trying to escape from, of the things he had seen.

Dave seemed to be shutting down, staring at the floor and specifically avoiding eye contact with the other man. One of the people he had killed circled around and screamed a death threat into Dave’s face - maybe he was thinking about him?

Klaus turned over in the bed until he was laying with his back to Dave, he casually curled his arm around the pillow and relaxed his shoulder. He let the silence fall through the room and he did his best to will the ghosts away.

It was several minutes later when he felt Dave shifting in the bed behind him, he felt him gingerly settle onto his side and move a little closer until Klaus could feel the warmth of his body against his spine. He felt him let out a shaky exhale.

“Dave?”

There was a pause.

“Yeah?”

“You can touch.”

Dave waited a moment before wrapping an arm around him and cuddling up closer against his back. Klaus intertwined their fingers and rubbed small circles against the back of his hand, he could feel the tension vibrating through his body and it took several more minutes before Dave seemed to melt and he pressed his face into Klaus’ neck.

A ghost moved close to them and growled something violently homophobic into Dave’s spirit deaf ears. Something clenched in Klaus’ chest and he tightened his grip on the soldier’s hand. Dave responded by pulling him closer to his chest and curling into him.

“There’s nothing wrong with you, Dave - and I’m very happy you’re here with me.”

Dave pressed his face deeper into Klaus’ neck and inhaled sharply.

Klaus closed his eyes and attempted to focus, he let himself drift through his memories. He pulled an image of Kenzie into the forefront of his mind -

It faded away and he was sitting on his knees in their tiny one bedroom apartment, he looked around and took in the sound of heavy rain being blown against the window.

Kenzie was in front of him, she had just started walking and still needed a lot of support or she would tumble forwards. She had one hand holding steady against his “GOOD BYE” palm and he remembered her looking up and giggling. He kissed his HELLO palm and blew it towards her with a loud “Muah” sound. “I love you, Kenzie!”

She copied him, kissing her palm and blowing him a kiss, “I love you, momma!” She yelled.

He exhaled and a rush of blue energy expanded throughout the hotel room and the ghosts following Dave began to dissolve away. They protested but soon their forms went silent and their bodies dispersed away into a harmless blue haze. After a moment they were finally alone- pressed against each other in the bed and Klaus felt Dave’s breathing steady and the tension in his body fall away.

Klaus didn’t mean to- in fact, he had never done this before, but after a little while he fell asleep. A deep slumber where he didn’t dream or wake up screaming even once. He woke up naturally, his mind taking a moment to figure out where he was or what he was doing then as it came back to him he sat up in a panic.

It was five in the morning, he had slept the entire night uninterrupted, he looked around and found that Dave must have either realized that he fell asleep or woke up later because he was asleep on the other side of the bed- he had placed two pillows between them like a barrier and covered Klaus in the blanket which might have been the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for him.

The ghosts were gone for good and the room was silent.

Klaus threw the blanket off of him and pulled his boots back on, he would be late getting home before Kenzie woke up and he still had to go by the pharmacy to pick up something for her itching scalp. He would have to steal it because since he was dumb enough to fall asleep he had only made an hour worth of money - the money Dave had already given him before their evening started.

He grabbed his jacket and glanced one last time at the soldier sleeping soundly in the bed - Klaus felt so safe with him, obviously since he had let all of his guards down and he was touched by how gentle and considerate he had been. He debated briefly on leaving his number but then his mind flashed back to Leon and he decided against it - maybe Dave would become a regular. He would like that.

Klaus left the room, as he got to the bottom of the stairs - kicking himself for fucking up so badly. He shoved his hands in his pockets and his fingers came in contact with something and he pulled out an entire night's worth of work in large bills. Dave must have put it there when he woke up.

“Oh…” Klaus whined and held the money against his chest before glancing back at the hotel room.

If the situation had been different Klaus would have gone back instead he shoved the money back into his pocket and hurried to the pharmacy - trying to get home before his daughter woke up.