#klaus answer.

A KNIFE CALLED GRIEF

You have left your house, you have left those people behind, but what are you going to do about the memories which have taken root in you? You can run but not without them. You want someone to sit with you on this cool marble floor while the sun burns everything. You want them to cut your rotten heart and theirs too. You want to sit with it in front of you, let them see you with all your flaws, which haven’t been your fault but you have been made to believe so, and you want them to love you anyways. Because you know you’d do that for them.

woman reported dead in the downtown area. authorities believe she was involved in the local underground--

no man had ever made it across the metropolitan faster in history, nor had anyone picked a lock with such grace and speed that the time between him kneeling at the window leading onto the fire escape and standing in her living room in utter darkness. there's rustling, a soft glow under the door he knows leads to her bathroom, and yet there's no relief.

not until she steps out, clicking the light off in the bathroom and leaving them in absolute darkness, her eyes fixated on him as a semi-familiar black figure in the night, barely illuminated by city lights outside peeking in through that still open window, is there any relaxation to the tension that's been twisting his veins and squeezing his heart for nearly forty minutes straight.

his focus is on her, but there's a certain level of disbelief in his features -- blank, a swallow roughly working its way down his throat, rarely blinking. "du lebst--" he whispers, mother tongue dripping from nervous teeth as he continues to linger for a moment.

eventually, he steps forward, seemingly ignorant of anything she might have said in that gap of time between her seeing him and the motion. naturally, she takes a step back as he approaches, only putting her spine against the nearest wall in the process. "du lebst." he says it a little louder this time, slowly bringing his arms up after letting the picking kit drop to the floor with a clatter.

palms are on the wall at either side of her soon enough, his visage contorted in its blankness with grief he has not spoken of in over a decade, risen to the surface as he seems to still be processing the truth behind his own words -- to be accepting that she is still alive.

ROMANCE IS (NOT) DEAD -> KLAUS.

one of the most difficult to love and be loved by as a whole, primarily because of the trauma held at the death of his wife and daughter and the fact that he's been alone entirely for the over-a-decade since, internalizing all of the pain and guilt associated with their deaths. however, once he finds something in someone that he loves, he attaches himself to it.

typically extremely slow to admissions or acting on what he might feel.

physically incapable of having a high libido due to the permanent damage to nerve endings across his body and self-induced erectile dysfunction, but will give to his partner as they need.

sadomasochist to the extreme, so potential partners need to be on at least a similar level of receiving pain themselves, and allow him to act upon himself as necessary.

fine with being part of a polycule if all parties are trusted, otherwise he will remove himself entirely from all parties involved. the need for trust extends to monogamous relationships as well, and encompasses ill-intentioned or mocking comments about his physical appearance or capabilities.

"Y'know, I do still expect ya t'ask me fer her hand when ya decide t'propose." He breaks the silence with a joke that doesn't feel like one on account of his own lack of laughter. Still, there is a small twinkle to his eye and a twitch of the face from beneath hus bushy beard despite the apprehension in his soul.

there is silence for so long, but there's no discomfort in it, at least on klaus' part. no, he's expected this, at least in some capacity, from anyone that cares about the woman that's captivated him so. it's what he would do, too, if lore were still alive and someone sought to love her in a fashion that he could assure would be healthy. but then the other man speaks, and there's an assumption that klaus just cannot allow to remain.

"i love violet with everything i have available in me," he begins, his head tipped a little lower as if this is some great shame he carries, heavy on his shoulders and weighing him down towards not the ground, but the center of the earth. "and for that love, i will never lie, nor propagate false expectations."

klaus breathes heavier now, almost stuttering through it, and looks up to the other man from under the brim of the hat that's kept him shielded enough to come see him.

"many factors are present that... i will never be able to marry violet." shall he divulge the laundry list? yes, it seems appropriate to tell a man whose daughter one is in a relationship like he is why there can never be wedding bells, a white dress, a bouquet thrown to friends.

"beyond that i am an international fugitive that cannot go through legal channels to engage in marriage, i have made a vow. many years ago, i was married to the only woman i thought would ever love me. we had a daughter that would be an adult by now, perhaps finding her own love in someone else and choosing if she wishes to marry. they were slaughtered when i became a fugitive, and i swore on both their deaths, that i would never marry again, nor try to be a father to anyone else."

his gaze has settled back on the floor by now, natural hand at his side flexing in and out of a nervous fist.

CHARACTER HEADCANON GENERATOR

Rules: Mark if the HC is wrong or right.

nala, leonard, butcher, klaus and xephyr.

tagged by: @rasskaz4ik for nala & leonard, and stolen for the others! tagging: @wihlted, @awkwardcourage, @garglemyballsack, @thcbvtcher / @starliqqht, @etharest && you !! tag me so i can see it.

NALA.

she is an introvert. ✘ she is awful with technology and don't know how to use a smart phone. ✘ she is constantly singing for no reason. ✘ she listens to 80s music. ✔ she is not good with social cues. ✔ explanation: she's not introverted, she's just better than all of the people around her and refuses to lower herself to interacting with them. she is a tech wiz and picked up the technology of starfleet within days despite the 300 year gap between it and what she had last utilized. she never sings; it is a waste of valuable time, air and energy and you're not worthy of hearing it. she loves classical by modern standards when she's officially enlisted in starfleet, favoring the beastie boys, queen, cyndi lauper, ac/dc and guns 'n' roses. she doesn't have time or enough care to figure out if you're sad because you're frowning or distant; tell her or fuck off.

LEONARD.

he gets ready for christmas way to early. ✘ he stole a lollipop at the checkout when he was 5 and he still feels guilty about it. ✔ he is not allowed to drink energy drinks. ✔ he likes to sing at four in the morning. his neighbors hate him. ✘ he had an emo phase. ✘ explanation: he actually doesn't celebrate christmas for a very long time because it's a sore spot after his divorce from angelina, though he will get gifts for his mama and serena, and after ellie mae is born he starts to decorate with more emphasis after lizzy comes to live with them. he didn't even realize it was stealing until he was in the truck with his dad eating it and mark asked where'd you get that champ and leonard suddenly felt so bad even though later on maggie told him that his dad actually paid for it. less that he's not allowed, he just won't because they're really bad for the health of humans and he prefers coffee anyway. even if he does sing, that early even, it's never that loud because it would be a lullaby for ellie mae or something soft for serena only for whoever it is aimed at, very quiet and private. that man has been y'all'd to death; he didn't wrassle gators for you to assume he would let his hair get in the way or his phat ass would fit in skinnies.

BUTCHER.

he shops exclusively at hot topic. ✘ he sings in the shower. ✘ he can't sit in a chair properly. ✔ he has punched a hole in the wall. ✔ if he was presented with an intergalactic portal, he would enter it without question. ✔ explanation: he looks like it, if we were talking about older hot topic but we're not; he looks like he's from the porno version of the matrix, get it right, GOD, IDIOTS!!! he dies in the shower occasionally, but he doesn't really sing often enough for it to be definitive, though he has caught himself being n*sync pilled by nelly a time or two after she was taken by vought. he manspreads, one leg up with knee towards his chest, criss cross applesauce, you name it; never correct, always radiating phat dick energy. this one's a given, on purpose and on accident and while fistfighting god (homelander) or his daughter. hell yeah he's going through that, his first wife came out of one so there's probably all kinds of cool shit in there!

KLAUS.

he has punched a hole in the wall. ✔ he killed princess diana. ✘ he likes board games, but no one else wants to play with him. ✔ he has one, very simple word that he cannot figure out how to pronounce. ✔ he got hit by a bus once. ✔ explanation: purposely and in the midst of a fight several times but it was more 'damn i need to check if this arm works and can go through brick'. baby no. it's not that no one wants to play with him, it's that he cannot bring himself to play games again because he used to play with lore every tuesday and friday all night long, and it just brings up too many painful memories and flashbacks. you leave that man and his heavy german accent alone. is this really surprising, or that he survived and just kinda got up and kept running from the dynacorp cops.

XEPHYR.

@purgirltory sent : [44.] Violet lazily traces bite marks she left on Klaus

there is something soothing about having a presence beside him after so many years of running. of being absolutely, completely, wholly alone with his thoughts every single night so that all that could drown him enough to sleep would be to stare at the ceiling in whatever bed was home for the night, but wouldn't be the next. there's a splendor that's nigh impossible to describe that takes the form of the girl tucked so tight into his side, drawing shapes he barely feels outside of the sting of when she grazes divots in crimson, that he still does not truly believe he is worthy of possessing.

but here he lays, after a session of something that feels so much greater than what a normal human would think of when the word intimacy is used. rarely do they ever have blatant intercourse, more oft tormenting one another's sadomasochism in the form of things like the teeth marks she so lovingly doodles over with her fingertips on his chest where the skin is already red and ragged, destroyed by the chemical peeling that had taken away the ghost of the limb wrapped around her body to keep her there, lest she float away into the oblivion that is the reality he is certain he will wake to in the morning.

she says something, soft and barely audible for someone that isn't mostly deaf, and he only knows it because he feels the rumble of her body, her chest vibrating against his mostly dead side that lights up solely for her. he feels nothing, unless it is some microcosmic attachment to violet.

@purgirltory sent : Is that all you've got? -> Klaus

there is no real thought in him when she says it. it is all gut reactions, instincts, and what he would have done in a real fight or flight scenario. left, polycarbonate arm swings after her smaller fist makes contact with his natural bicep hard enough for him to feel through all the fried nerve endings, and before he has much of a chance to consciously react -

metal fist connects with and cracks her jaw in several fracture chains.

brain follows shortly after the sound resonates in mostly deaf ears.

@purgirltory sent : Violet, nudging her head under Klaus' arm — "I'd never leave you alone, by the way. Ever. Yer so stuck with me."

she is suddenly under his arm, and even though he couldn't feel her until his arm moves, he knows she is there. it is not scent or audio that alerts him, but her presence in general. he exists, she exists, and it is like a trigger being activated when she is close enough - a magnet being intrinsically pulled to look violet's way.

klaus welcomes the presence, lifting his arm for her more and folding its flesh, bone and long sleeve of dark blue fabric and overlaid tee-shirt around her shoulders.