After the Mares and having so many days of being entirely unable to sleep, when Faith finally can again she's savoring that shit. So when the light peaks into the window Faith growls at it- a low rumbling sound, "Nghh.."
Turning around, she burrows her face into the owner of the bed's chest to fight off waking. This kind of thing is easier now. Spending the night is very much unlike Faith. She hadn't used to stay long after they screwed, afraid of what staying might mean. But Klaus made it easy, somehow.
Faith is an increasingly familiar face in his social circle. She was fun in a way some people couldn't dream of, and honestly? Being a woman that actually held his attention in a not-strictly-platonic way is an impressive feat all of its own accord. He'll sleep with anyone; but it is actually rare those of the female persuasion can keep his interest, he leans much more heavily into male company. But Faith is different. And they had A Moment during the nightmares. She's shifted from just a plaything to someone important to him; someone he feels safe with, and that's such a rare thing, too. He can't let that go.
Never an early riser, Klaus elicits a whine at the scraps of light filtering through the window; he really should get blackout curtains, this is bullshit. The sound turns into something far more comfortable, and soft, and content, when Faith curls in against him. He doesn't need words to let her know he agrees, that he could stay here for hours or all day if they either one decided that was the best course of action for the day.
Still. He is awake, however much he may hate that fact and ignoring that he could absolutely sink so, so easily back into the quiet dark of unconsciousness if he allowed himself to. He doesn't ignore the urge to press a kiss softly against her forehead in the first, hazy morning moments they're soaking in.
Faith isn't entirely sure how she ended up here either. It's all very unlikely. She's never really been one to let herself get close to anyone she sleeps with man or woman. Meaningless is safer. The nightmares changed that for them, despite initial intentions. This is certainly not what she'd had in mind after the night they met in the club. She's no idea what this is and she's going to put a name on it, other that he means something to her.
Her eyes are shut tight, letting out a soft sigh when lips touch her forehead. Faith does drift off again, perhaps it's only a few more minutes or an hour but the second time she wakes getting back to sleep alludes her entirely. She'll just have to settle for lazily touching the body next to her, a hand going to Klaus' shoulder first, dragging her finger slowly up and down his arm.
Faith falling back to sleep made it easy for Klaus to let himself sink back into it, as well. Warm and safe and comfortable, curled up in bed with this woman that is suddenly so important in ways he isn't sure he could even put words to. So he won't bother trying. Meaningless is safer, but Klaus has never been good at making safe decisions.
Her fingers skate over a tattoo, a skull and the words 173rd airborne brigade above a banner reading SKY SOLDIERS. Things most of his family still doesn't even know, because who has time to explain anything about that time you traveled back to the middle of the Vietnam war and fought on the front lines when you're all so busy trying to stop an Apocalypse now, anyway?
"That tickles," he mumbles softly, a smirk touching his lips.
She finds herself absently tracing the eyes of the skull, then the hole where the nose would be. Faith's got a tattoo on her arm too, just some stupid tribal one on her right bicep she'd gotten as a teenager. You know, to show how badass she is. Or something.
Faith chuckles quietly, "Sorry." She doesn't sound all that sorry and more like she's contemplating tickling him more, "What's Sky Soldiers?"
"...Oh," he hadn't even thought about her noticing it. No one else noticed. He was gone, and he came back with so many new tattoos, a set of dog tags and none of them had bothered to notice. Except Five. But Five always noticed things and that barely counted. "um... an Army thing. I was..." he absently reaches up to play with the tags, sliding them slowly back and forth on the chain, now that she's brought the whole thing back to the front-focus of his attention. He forgets to finish the rest of that thought.
His chest feels tight and he swears it's suddenly twenty degrees hotter than it was two minutes ago; the room feels too small and he can feel the familiar squirming, tingly sensation spread across his whole body. It's not her fault, she didn't know, and it was a simple and innocent question, but God, he hasn't allowed himself to think about it since he got here. Vietnam. The rain of bullets everywhere they went. Dave.
Despite all the tell-tale signs of an anxiety attack that he can so easily recognize in himself by now, he's still outwardly calm, except the hitch in his breath when he tries to take a slow, deep one in. "S-sorry, uhm- it- it's... just-- not something I talk about a lot. Partly...because it sounds insane?" He laughs, a soft, shaky, huff of a sound. "I fought in Vietnam..." Because time travel was not an impossibility, in his world.
Faith's hand stills on his arm, moving to lay it flat on his chest. Maybe he's doing an admirable job of seeming calm, the way he's talking makes her suddenly awake, the fog of morning leaving her entirely.
Propping herself up on an elbow, Faith can hide the concern in her eyes. She's not sure how much she should press him. There are things she's not told him about her past, painful memories. He knows some of it, but there are still things she's keeping close to her chest. Not necessarily because she wants to keep them secret from him, but because speaking about them hurts. She's already poured so much of herself out onto the floor in front of him.
"I didn't realize you were from so long ago." She says, quiet. War is hard. She might not be a soldier for the government, but she knew battle. Loss. Bloodshed. She's a soldier of a different sort.
He pauses in his fidgeting with the dogtags hanging from his neck and lets go, moving his hand to the one of hers pressed against his chest, resting his on top of hers. Just a small, simple reminder of her realness right now, in this moment.
The curl of his lips is slow and careful, sadder than a real smile ought to look, never traveling high enough to reach his eyes, and he shakes his head at her wrong, but reasonable, assumption. "I'm not... It was 2019 when I left... it's-- complicated, but time travel happened? I was there for ten months. Right on the front lines." His voice is softer talking about this than it ever is any other time he speaks; like if he speaks about it quietly, it might hurt less to do so in the first place.
"Shit." Faith didn't expect to be having such a heavy conversation on a lazy morning in Klaus' bed, but that seems to be what's happening. He'd been there for her when she needed it though, so she's not about to bail now.
She leans up to kiss him, considering, "That must have been hard. Do you... want to tell me more about it?" If he didn't want to, that was fine too, she's not going to force the issue.
Klaus didn't expect it either, but... conversations have a way of doing that around him. Almost like he can't help himself. Everything's either a joke or something dark, and it's so rare there is much of an in-between. He hates Faith has to deal with it at all; she deserves something better than the twisted, mangled mess of him.
He doesn't hesitate in responding to that kiss, though, soft and gentle in ways they were not at all with each other the previous night. "I dunno... there's not a lot to tell-- I mean... it was a war. People died. Some of them because of me. And it was awful, being me, seeing the dead, smack in the middle of a warzone." Sometimes he's not sure how he got through it. But those dogtags on his neck are the how, aren't they? Or at least, they used to belong to him, anyway.
"I met this guy while I was there and... completely fell in love with him. I... I didn't think I could, really... love someone? Not like we were taught how as kids..." He's touched briefly here and there with Faith about how distant and cold his father was, so that's probably not much of a surprise. "Dave was different... he was amazing..." The small, smile resting on his face turns so sad suddenly, and when he blinks, a few tears roll down his cheeks. "and then he was dead."
It's a name he hasn't spoken once since he got here. Hasn't had much of a reason to. No one paid any attention before. To the tags. To the tattoos. There had never been a reason to explain. And it was easier to keep the feelings about Dave and the war locked away and hidden, somewhere that he hoped he'd never find again; or at the very least, somewhere no one else could find them.
But Faith was different, too. He isn't sure he'd say he loves her. Not the same way he did Dave. But... it's something important, the thing he shares with her. And he just hopes Hell doesn't take it, take her, away, either.
Faith listens to him talk, not interrupting just reaching her hands out to touch him, a comforting anchor to keep him grounded while he keeps talking. Faith's never really known love. Not really. There's the sort of love you have as a naive young teenager that perhaps she would have claimed was love at the time, but that hadn't been real. Just one more disappointment to add to a growing list.
Truthfully, Faith closed herself off from hoping for such things. Like Klaus had used to think and it's a mentality that Faith's still not left. Companionship is something she's more ready for, she thinks. It's not easy either, but its something she thinks she's the capacity for and the ability to accept. It's fear that keeps her from pursuing more. Fear of losing, as Klaus had lost. She's also aware that she's hardly the only person to share his bed, just as he's not the only one who shares hers. There's more to feelings than sex, of course. Still. Maybe she feels for him more strongly than anyone else in a long time and he's closer to her than anyone here-- but love? She's not sure. All she knows is that she hates to see him hurting and would fight Lucifer one on one to protect him.
She's lost her mother. Her watcher. Her childhood. Any semblance of her innocence. One more loss might be too much to bear.
"I'm sorry, Klaus..." Faith pulls him into a hug, not really having words enough to express how she felt and how much it pained her to see him in pain like this. The words she does choose feel stupid and hardly enough but it's all she's got.
[Action -morning, around the week of Sept 6th]
Date: 2020-09-11 03:13 pm (UTC)Turning around, she burrows her face into the owner of the bed's chest to fight off waking. This kind of thing is easier now. Spending the night is very much unlike Faith. She hadn't used to stay long after they screwed, afraid of what staying might mean. But Klaus made it easy, somehow.
guess i DIDN'T respond 😆
Date: 2020-09-19 08:56 pm (UTC)Never an early riser, Klaus elicits a whine at the scraps of light filtering through the window; he really should get blackout curtains, this is bullshit. The sound turns into something far more comfortable, and soft, and content, when Faith curls in against him. He doesn't need words to let her know he agrees, that he could stay here for hours or all day if they either one decided that was the best course of action for the day.
Still. He is awake, however much he may hate that fact and ignoring that he could absolutely sink so, so easily back into the quiet dark of unconsciousness if he allowed himself to. He doesn't ignore the urge to press a kiss softly against her forehead in the first, hazy morning moments they're soaking in.
it happens!
Date: 2020-09-20 01:01 am (UTC)Her eyes are shut tight, letting out a soft sigh when lips touch her forehead. Faith does drift off again, perhaps it's only a few more minutes or an hour but the second time she wakes getting back to sleep alludes her entirely. She'll just have to settle for lazily touching the body next to her, a hand going to Klaus' shoulder first, dragging her finger slowly up and down his arm.
Re: it happens!
Date: 2020-09-20 02:57 am (UTC)Her fingers skate over a tattoo, a skull and the words 173rd airborne brigade above a banner reading SKY SOLDIERS. Things most of his family still doesn't even know, because who has time to explain anything about that time you traveled back to the middle of the Vietnam war and fought on the front lines when you're all so busy trying to stop an Apocalypse now, anyway?
"That tickles," he mumbles softly, a smirk touching his lips.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-20 04:34 am (UTC)Faith chuckles quietly, "Sorry." She doesn't sound all that sorry and more like she's contemplating tickling him more, "What's Sky Soldiers?"
no subject
Date: 2020-09-20 05:01 am (UTC)His chest feels tight and he swears it's suddenly twenty degrees hotter than it was two minutes ago; the room feels too small and he can feel the familiar squirming, tingly sensation spread across his whole body. It's not her fault, she didn't know, and it was a simple and innocent question, but God, he hasn't allowed himself to think about it since he got here. Vietnam. The rain of bullets everywhere they went. Dave.
Despite all the tell-tale signs of an anxiety attack that he can so easily recognize in himself by now, he's still outwardly calm, except the hitch in his breath when he tries to take a slow, deep one in. "S-sorry, uhm- it- it's... just-- not something I talk about a lot. Partly...because it sounds insane?" He laughs, a soft, shaky, huff of a sound. "I fought in Vietnam..." Because time travel was not an impossibility, in his world.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-20 02:49 pm (UTC)Propping herself up on an elbow, Faith can hide the concern in her eyes. She's not sure how much she should press him. There are things she's not told him about her past, painful memories. He knows some of it, but there are still things she's keeping close to her chest. Not necessarily because she wants to keep them secret from him, but because speaking about them hurts. She's already poured so much of herself out onto the floor in front of him.
"I didn't realize you were from so long ago." She says, quiet. War is hard. She might not be a soldier for the government, but she knew battle. Loss. Bloodshed. She's a soldier of a different sort.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-20 10:41 pm (UTC)The curl of his lips is slow and careful, sadder than a real smile ought to look, never traveling high enough to reach his eyes, and he shakes his head at her wrong, but reasonable, assumption. "I'm not... It was 2019 when I left... it's-- complicated, but time travel happened? I was there for ten months. Right on the front lines." His voice is softer talking about this than it ever is any other time he speaks; like if he speaks about it quietly, it might hurt less to do so in the first place.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-22 02:02 am (UTC)She leans up to kiss him, considering, "That must have been hard. Do you... want to tell me more about it?" If he didn't want to, that was fine too, she's not going to force the issue.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-24 02:18 am (UTC)He doesn't hesitate in responding to that kiss, though, soft and gentle in ways they were not at all with each other the previous night. "I dunno... there's not a lot to tell-- I mean... it was a war. People died. Some of them because of me. And it was awful, being me, seeing the dead, smack in the middle of a warzone." Sometimes he's not sure how he got through it. But those dogtags on his neck are the how, aren't they? Or at least, they used to belong to him, anyway.
"I met this guy while I was there and... completely fell in love with him. I... I didn't think I could, really... love someone? Not like we were taught how as kids..." He's touched briefly here and there with Faith about how distant and cold his father was, so that's probably not much of a surprise. "Dave was different... he was amazing..." The small, smile resting on his face turns so sad suddenly, and when he blinks, a few tears roll down his cheeks. "and then he was dead."
It's a name he hasn't spoken once since he got here. Hasn't had much of a reason to. No one paid any attention before. To the tags. To the tattoos. There had never been a reason to explain. And it was easier to keep the feelings about Dave and the war locked away and hidden, somewhere that he hoped he'd never find again; or at the very least, somewhere no one else could find them.
But Faith was different, too.
He isn't sure he'd say he loves her. Not the same way he did Dave.
But... it's something important, the thing he shares with her. And he just hopes Hell doesn't take it, take her, away, either.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-25 02:52 am (UTC)Truthfully, Faith closed herself off from hoping for such things. Like Klaus had used to think and it's a mentality that Faith's still not left. Companionship is something she's more ready for, she thinks. It's not easy either, but its something she thinks she's the capacity for and the ability to accept. It's fear that keeps her from pursuing more. Fear of losing, as Klaus had lost. She's also aware that she's hardly the only person to share his bed, just as he's not the only one who shares hers. There's more to feelings than sex, of course. Still. Maybe she feels for him more strongly than anyone else in a long time and he's closer to her than anyone here-- but love? She's not sure. All she knows is that she hates to see him hurting and would fight Lucifer one on one to protect him.
She's lost her mother. Her watcher. Her childhood. Any semblance of her innocence. One more loss might be too much to bear.
"I'm sorry, Klaus..." Faith pulls him into a hug, not really having words enough to express how she felt and how much it pained her to see him in pain like this. The words she does choose feel stupid and hardly enough but it's all she's got.