#flails around

142 || 152

They all come home at different times. It feels better to see it as a minor issue.

Ben comes home earliest, from his studio hours. Klaus works part-time, like Ben. Sometimes they hang out, on the rare times that both of them are at home, but it feels somewhat lonely without the others.

Diego works as a firefighter, so he's gone the most. He even has to leave at night sometimes, leaving his boyfriends behind.

Luther is more flexible compared to Diego. He volunteers at an animal shelter, which everyone always teases him for.

Their schedules arent exactly compatible, Luther, Klaus and Ben have more time together compared to Diego, who would be lucky to get to spend a day off without any stress about work. Of course, it affects everything about their relationship.

Things are already shaky as they are, with this apartment they've rented to live in, and even more importantly the fact that they're all in a relationship now. It all feels so distant and far away yet so compact and recent, how things changed and how they fell into place.

Diego is very, very thankful, for his boyfriends and his new life. He muses as he unlocks the door to their apartment, keychains rattling so loudly they echo off of the walls.

The house instantly calms him down, at least a bit. It's spacious, at least enough to house 4 adult men inside of it, and lovingly decorated by all of them. Things are still strewn about on the floor, there are still clothes and miscellaneous belongings packed away in bags and luggage, but it feels like everything is in its right place anyway.

He walks in, tossing his bag carelessly onto the floor and taking off his jackets. There is laughter coming from the frankly cramped living room as he steps through the corridors.

Luther is sat on the gaudy velvet couch, fingers tangled in Klaus’s hair, who is laying down on his lap, hands wildly gesturing as he talks. Ben sits on the floor, a notebook on the carpet and a pen in his hand, leaning against the couch's arm and listening to whatever Klaus is saying.

It's a perfect scene, and Diego almost doesn't want to walk in and interrupt, but inevitably does so as they all spot him in the doorway.

Klaus kisses him, gently, on the lips, Ben kisses him on the cheek, and Luther hugs him tightly. All of his stress melts away, even just for a moment.

Things fall into a domestic rhythm quickly, Diego joins in on their conversation, sat on one of the cushions on the ground. It's never content to stay in one place for too long, as it is when Klaus is leading a discussion, it derails and changes over and over until Luther is telling a story too, something about what happened in the shelter today, He talks about it as if the whole world depends on this one story. But just as quickly as he gets used to Luther's rhythm of storytelling, Ben is cutting through the discussion with a sarcastic retort, and he starts ranting about the government not funding animal shelters enough. He passionately complains and complains until he's run out of things to say.

The conversation loops back around again, Back to Klaus and Luther and Ben. And Diego can only make a couple comments here and there, so out of the loop that Ben, Luther and Klaus have understood on a completely wordless way.

There's a slight nagging thought at the back of his head, a sense of shame that he's missing out on all of their lives, not picking up on the meanings of their inside jokes, not getting to slow down and just exist around them.

It never solidifies into anything beyond a repressed anxiety, for Diego, something he can ignore and hope it will solve itself, as he does with most things.

His boyfriends are just as content to settle into the collective rhythm of conversation and light cuddling as he is, to relax together.

That is, until Klaus speaks, cutting through the comfortable silence that has filled the space all around them.

"Quit your job. Stay with us forever."

Klaus says, looking at Diego as he rests his head on Luther's huge lap. And Diego almost wants to say he will. To cut his losses and quit his job, stay with his boyfriends at home everyday.

It's a wonderful, comforting dream to have. Maybe one day they will have made enough money to at least sustain that for a month.

"Maybe." He says, fingers toying with the buttons on Luther’s shirt. He suddenly snaps back into reality as he verbalizes what he's thinking freely. "But that's crazy."

Klaus snorts, "You literally said "Maybe"."

"It is crazy," Ben says in a mocking tone, and Diego knows he's going to say something that will piss him off. "But a true man is willing to do anything for his dearest lovers."

Diego scoffs and rolls his eyes. He bites back a retort and instead feels oddly warm about how much more Klaus-like Ben has become ever since they've all gotten together, distantly wondering (and musing) about all the conversations and discussions between the two that he's missed while at work.

"Ben's right, you know. A True man will drop whatever gets in the way between his love immediately. For capitalism is the biggest enemy of connection."

He raises a fist dramatically at the end of his speech, before bringing it back down to play with Klaus’s hair.

"Hey! You Assholes are ganging up on me! All of you also have jobs!!"

Diego's voice rings loud in the quiet of their living room, genuine as much as it is satirical. How would they even make it work? Diego quits work and they, what? Leave him at home to be a househusband to come home to?

The thought is just a bit thrilling. Just a bit.

"Well, My job is pretty relaxed, So is Ben's, Luther practically has no job," Klaus speaks, before getting interrupted by a loud, very offended gasp and a light smack on the head from Luther, "Your job is like, a full time commitment. You put so much of yourself into it there's none left for you. Or us."

Diego's heart does hurt a bit at that. His job really is intense and eats up so much of his time, that he feels dead tired whenever he has time free. He doesn't hate his job, in fact it feels good in a way he has seldom experienced in his life, it fulfills a part of him that still wants to be a hero.

To feel needed, he presumes, and to be a part of an action.

He sighs, leaning his head on the couch cushion and trying to rub off the tiredness. "I'll look into it."

Ben snaps his head from where he's sitting, "Shit, Really?"

There's a sincerity in his voice that soothes the ache. Distantly, He thinks that he wants to be able to hear that more often, to be the reason that he hears Ben speak without trying so hard.

"Yeah, I'm not quitting this job but I'll talk to some people, about whether my hours can be shortened, or, whatever."

She walks with deliberate grace and confidence. The very notion of chasing small animals when she’s not hungry is beneath her, but she will not hesitate to remind a human that respect is in order:

Despite her pride, she will drink from the same watering hole as herbivores, and may even allow humans to approach her as she drinks, and will not threaten them as they share in the island’s lifegiving blessings.

Elegant, polite, she is a tenebrous avatar of the island’s mysterious beauty.

Now, we turn to the male of the species: