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Ben staggered up the lobby stairs, with Klaus following up from behind him. He was wonky to say the least. The bottle he had opened not too long ago was practically all gone, but he still tried so desperately to lick the remaining drops in the bottom. Unexpectedly, he collapsed forward onto the steps as he tried to make his way up. This wasn’t the first time. Heck, it wasn’t even his second in the past 3 minutes. Large giggles could be heard from the man on the floor before he turned to face Klaus standing behind him.
“You need help there, Benerino?” Klaus asked, still giggling at the man in front of him. His arms were filled with several bags of crisps, and he gripped onto multiple bottles between his fingers.
“Nah, nah nah na na na,” Ben flailed his hands about in his direction, as he tried to raise himself to his feet once again. He was a mess, but Klaus kind of liked that. He watched as Ben crawled slowly up the stairs, before crashing once more at the top. It was met with a loud round of chuckles as he just lay there.
Klaus couldn’t help but feel so grateful to be around him. Not once in the past week did he think he’d see him so cheerful and so excited to see what the night had in store for him. And, ever since he punched him in the face as soon as they met, Klaus feared that he’d never be able to see him eye to eye. But here they were, heavily drunk and having the time of their lives.
Once Klaus had reached the top of the steps, he dropped the tens of bags of crisps on top of Ben, who barely even flinched as he did so. He just kept laughing, and so was Klaus. He placed the bottles on the billiards board before he got himself up as well.
“So, what should we do?” Ben asked as he sat up in the pile of food. The bags surrounded him as he did so.
“I don’t know,” Klaus responded, “I thought you wanted to play scrabble?”
Ben waved his arms about, hitting the bags below him and accidentally popping some of them too. “No…” he whined, which was quickly followed by an unintentional burb, “that’s- that’s too many words.”
“Okay…” Klaus said as he raised his dangling legs up onto the table and crossed them. He reached for the fresh bottle of vodka. Without much of a strain, he twisted the lid off and took a large swig of it. His face barely changed as he did so. “Why don’t we just talk? Get to know each other? Bit of Truth or Dare?”
“I like talking,” Ben added. He tried to pick himself up, however, it didn’t take him very long for him to trip over his own feet, before grasping onto the corner of the pool table.
“What do you want to talk about?”
There was a pause. To Klaus, it didn’t seem as if Ben was really thinking about that question. He had just about managed to pull himself onto the table as he swung his legs over the side.
A question finally came to him. One he wanted to say so badly, yet at the same time, worried that it was at the wrong place at the wrong time. “Have you ever dated someone?” Klaus questioned. His voice seemed serious compared to the light-hearted tone of the room previously.
Ben gave off a laugh, but instead of being playful and cheery, it felt more forced and awkward. “Have you?”
“…Yeah. A few every now and then. None of them really that serious,” He mostly lied. It pained him as he finished that sentence to think back to Vietnam. Dave was his everything for so long, and he guessed he still loved him, but everything was wrong when they last met. He couldn’t share that bond he had with him originally, as if it never happened at all. Did it actually happen? “you?”
“Yeah, I’ve been partying on several nights. Me and Christopher used to go out every weekend,” He explained, but his voice got quieter as he continued, “it was usually him who got the girls. They all seemed to love him. I mean, I would have loved to have had a girlfriend and all that, but none of them exactly stood out to me.”
“So, you’ve never dated anyone?” Klaus wondered, although he was careful to choose his tone as he spoke.
“No, erm, there was this girl when I was a teenager. There was nothing official or anything, but it felt close,” a slight smile had formed on his face as he thought back, but it almost instantly faded. He paused for a moment as he questioned what he was about to say, but he suddenly spurted, “I miss her. I miss her a lot. Don’t get that wrong, but I don’t think we were ever in love love. Maybe I just… saw her as a friend.”
Their eyes met each other’s. Klaus gave an empathetic smile to him as he looked into his tired eyes. He could feel the guilt building up inside of him, feeling sorry for bringing down the mood.
“That doesn’t matter,” Klaus spoke as he filled the silence, “you’re only, what? 29? You still have time to date… if you’re into that stuff.” Klaus uncrossed his legs, as he moved closer to Ben. Their legs both swung off the table at the same time.
Ben glared at him, “what? The world ends tomorrow. And I’m sorry, but I’m-I’m not into Allison. And whatever his name is, erm, Diego can keep Lila.”
Klaus got even closer to him, to the point where his thighs were right up against Ben’s. He took a hold of his closest hand and intwined his fingers between them gently. “I was thinking more of a boyfriend,” Klaus said. His voice was light and sweet and afraid to make the wrong move. Tentatively, he briefly pecked the side of his cheek.
There was a pause. One that made Klaus’ heartbeat far quicker than he would have liked to admit. Ben’s face had turned a light shade of red as he tried to decide on what to do next.
“…If that’s okay with-“
Before Klaus could finish his sentence, Ben took a hold of his cheeks as he pulled him into a passionate kiss. Klaus joined in too, and before he realised it, Ben had laid him against the table. He climbed on top of him, as he started to kiss him once again with more flame than the first one. They kicked over the bottles at the end of the table as they did so, but none of them cared. All they could focus on was the comfort they found in one another.
…
“Klaus? Klaus?” Ben woke up with a startle. He could no longer feel Klaus’ touch next to him and for whatever reason, that scared him a lot. As he tried to think back to what happened the previous night, he realised that most of his memories were gone, much to his misery. His head killed as if someone had hit him over the head with a frying pan. “Klaus, where are you?”
“I’m here, I’m here,” Ben could hear a familiar voice below him and a wave of contentment had washed over him. He smiled because, for once, he felt safe. He felt good. He felt amazing! “Don’t panic. Nobody should panic.”