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FOR weeks, Klaus stared at Rzej who remained unmoving on the bed. He stayed there even when the birds chirped a morning song or the sun set and rose. His hands always claimed underneath his chin as he stared at Rzej. He'd made sure his mate was comfortable on the bed, in his most comfortable clothes.
Rowena strolled into the shared bedroom with William by her side. "You should rest," She whispered, watching Klaus's eyes close, before he snapped it open again. "Sleep."
William sat next to Klaus on the bed, and pulled out his comic book to read. Everyday after training in the dark universe, his mother brought him to the bedroom to give Rzej company. He would read pages and pages of the Verosian comics.
"I'm fine." Klaus yawned, leaning forward to ruffle Williams hair. "How was your training today?"
"People are mean, but I made a new friend. Her name is Narelle. She's pretty cool. She's the only one who speaks to me." William pulled out his phone, "She took plenty of selfies on my phone." He scrolled through various pictures before handing the phone to Klaus. Rowena perched behind Klaus, her hands on the chair he sat.
When they stared at the picture of Narelle, their breath became caught in spiders web. That rose gold eyes with black around the iris. That golden hair that glowed with or without the sun and the curled tip. That square face with strong angular jaw that Klaus was so sure were made of steel.
That face— Rzej's face.
"I'm beginning to wonder if your father has many children we don't know of." Klaus shook the feeling off with a sheer. He glanced at Rzej when a thought entered his mind. That girl also looks more similar to someone he did not want to think on.
It couldn't be— it couldn't be the reason why.
Whirling fan made a loud scratching noise when it rotated towards the bed and another away from Rzej. "I have some homework." William took back his phone. He kissed his mother and Klaus on the cheeks before leaving.
Rowena took the moment to sit on the bed facing Klaus. "I know that look." She crooned.
"I can't be too sure. It can't be a coincidence." Klaus bit his lips furling those thoughts well out the window. It wouldn't help Rzej in this stage.
"What?"
The hybrid gazed to Rzej whose eyes twitched. Then he moved, so fast, Rowena didn't have time to blink as Klaus kneeled on the floor. "Jedzej?" He ran his fingers through the shining golden hair of his mate, listening and watching every strained breath. Every rise of the chest, every whimper Rzej exerted.
"Klaus?" Rowena placed her hands on his shoulder. "Lets go get dinner," She suggested. Klaus shook his head. "Let's go have dinner." She repeated.
He shook his head again, biting his bottom lips. "How could you be so calm?" He glanced at her, a flash of hotness rippling his jaw, sucking on his bone like a marrow. "You love him, don't you?"
An irrefutable ache pounded deep into Rowena's heart. "I love both of you, but none of that matters."
"You don't act like it. You don't act like you love me." Klaus rasped to Rowena. "You are dead and you are cold," He sobbed. "You are cold."
Water blurred Rowena's eyes. Then she whispered. "That's not true."
"Yes, it is. It is. I love you— I loved you. You were my first love and you were cold to me," Klaus scoffed, shaking. "You still are that cold slayer who took what she wanted and when she got so bored. . .She left you withered and broken while waiting for someone else to pick up the pieces."
A raging storm whirled in Rowena's eyes. She stood from the bed, walking away from Klaus only to stop by the door. "I left because I had responsibilities," She snarled, turning back to him. When he opened his mouth, she held up a finger, silencing him. "I wanted to take you with me, but they wouldn't allow me. They said you were a distraction I needed to cut off. That if I lost you, I would go berserk and destroy everything in my path," Rowena's eyes softened at the hesitation on Klaus's face. As though he realised something profoundly deep. "Slayer Region didn't care if I wanted to be loved. They only cared about making me a monster."
Klaus's lips parted, then his brows furrowed like a morning storm. "I. . . I didn't know." He stammered, glancing at her with his head tilted down at his fidgeting fingers. "You never came back, I was surprised to see you married to Jedrzej the next time we met."
Rowena lifted a perfect brow, chuckling even when her throat burned. "We were mutually beneficial for a time."
"Is that why you moved out of the bedroom?" Klaus wiped his tears. There was only so many people he could unleash the perfect storm upon. So many people he cold cry in secret to. Rzej and Rowena were those people.
The slayer smiled with weak eyes, a smile that almost didn't reach the perfect crystal blue of her eyes. Rowena wondered if he knew why she gave them that distant.
"No," She shook her head, glancing at Rzej who stirred, his eyes blinking underneath the lids. "Look," She muttered, casting Klaus's attention back to Rzej. Rzej's left fingers twitched, moving to his face. Then a groan that had Rowena falling to her knees, sobbing. "Oh, thank you, Numens."
"Jedrzej," Klaus was quick to the bed. He poured Rzej a glass of water that had been perched on the table beside the large queen bed. "Here," he helped Rzej sit, leaning him against the tall golden headboard. "Drink slow."
Rowena stalked to the bed, helping Klaus hold Rzej. "You're okay." She kissed his head, hugging him.
Eveything was blurry to Rzej. He tried to remember the first thing he saw. Which was Rowena falling to her knees, crying. It was slow at first. concentrating on what he heard was relative. So he listened. From the sounds of the rain pattering outside, to the birds crying or conversing. All it earned was loudness. it didn't help the three heartbeats he heard, one more louder than his own.
Rzej glanced at Klaus, mumbling, inching his hands closer and closer as a loud honk snapped his mind back. "Niklaus," Rzej smiled, then with a tilt of his head, he glanced at Rowena. The world stopped in the moment as the breeze forced the window open, blowing rainy air to her. Her golden blonde hair blew in the wind, engulfing every secrets of her face.
"Ena," He smiled. "My love." He held Klaus hand, then Rowena's. "Thank you for not giving up on me." His chest rose, then down and down until he closed his eyes again. "I love you both."
"Rzej," Rowena held his cheeks. "I love you too." Tears pooled in her eyes again as her heart thundered and thundered and thundered. As though someone removed her limps, her heart, her soul, her lungs and took everything that mattered to her and shoved it inside a box, telling her to never open it.
"We'll fight," Klaus clenched his hands around Rzej's and placed his mates hand on his stomach. "For the future."
Rowena nodded, as if she already knew. "For the future." She hugged Klaus tighter than the thread of life holding her hostage.
----
WEEKS LATER
Chase Winthrop watched Gisela order movers around for the better part of the morning. Often lingering around her until she scoffed at the sight of him. "How's your brother? I heard he had an accident."
She shrugged, placing the purple folder down. "Learning how to be mobile," Gisela reached the stand-in table at the bar of the nightclub. "Why are you here today? It's your day off."
The grunts of Rzej leaning on a golden cane as he waltz into the nightclub sauntered Chase's attention to him.
"Brother, you're meant to be resting." Gisela glared at Klaus and Rowena who followed more than close for Rzej's liking.
"Oh, I've rested for weeks. I think seeing how my club is running would do well," Rzej leaned his left leg on the cane. His hands gripped on the derby where a golden cheetah's head crafted by a Cyrsaean blacksmith. Klaus had wonderfully told the blacksmith how specific his mate wanted the cane. He glanced around his co-owned club, making a face. "It could be better."
"It's nice to see you on and about, sir." Chase walked across the bar towards Rzej.
The seraph ignored his presence and hummed. "The club has been successful. Gisela and Miss Lowe have everything on lockdown." Chase's green eyes glinted when the lights flashed brighter.
The technicians have been fixing the music room for hours now. There was a little testing, testing going on. It was almost endless.
"They've been wonderful, yes." Klaus walked to Rzej, standing behind him.
"I can see," Rzej limped to the bar, gritting his teeth at every showing pain that ruined him time and time again. "I have somewhere to be. It seems A.C.E is indeed in good hands." He smiled at his sister.
----
"Where are you going?" Rowena and Klaus halted cars and trucks as Rzej tried to cross the street, rather impatiently. While the snow was yet to stop, the ground were still slippery. Enough for Rowena to almost slip but Klaus held her before a mishap.
"I told you, I have a Grimm to kill." Rzej held his up his left palms. Golden energy caressed his hands, conjuring everything other than his mates to freeze. "I need to collect information." He grunted, clenching his right fist at the searing hot pain tightening around his bone.
When they crossed the road, Klaus dragged Rzej to a bench before a corner shop when he too felt that searing hot pain. "I need you to sit for a second," He gave Rowena a look and she nodded, walking into the corner shop. "I need you to take the medicine your doctor prescribed."
Klaus pulled a pack of tablets from his jacket pocket. Just incase, he said. This was certainly the case. "I never should have suggested. . . this is all my fault. He could have paralyzed you."
Rzej leaned against the derby of his cane, humming at the cool breeze caressing his face, like a hand guiding him. "I didn't want to hurt you," His eyes glanced down to the hybrids stomach. "He knew that."
"Oh," Klaus popped open two pills as Rowena came out of the store with a bottle of water. "Take your medicine."
After he'd taken the medicine, Klaus could only find peace in a millisecond to sit by his side. "What's the lead?" Rowena took back the empty bottle. "Klaus and I will run it by. I assume he's more persuaded and hormonal."
"With the bloody morning sickness, I'm bound to." Klaus grumbled.
"So, you're keeping it?" Rzej looked at Klaus, then Rowena. "Did you know?"
Rowena clicked her tongue as the stifling madness resumed when Rzej flickered his wrist. "You both hump like unfixed dogs in the wild. I knew it was bound to happen."
"I'll keep it." Klaus blushed at Rowena's words. He leaned against the bench, finding the courage to rest his hands under his brown jacket. "You should have closed your ears." He retorted to Rowena.
"Oh, JEDRZEJ MORE. MORE. I NEED YOU DEEPER. HARDER. FUCK ME HARDER." Rowena mocked, making a face she's noted Klaus made during intercourse.
The hybrid glared at her when they got weird looks from passersby. "I hate you for that."
A snickering laugh hollered off Rzej. For the first time in twelve weeks, he laughed. Twelves weeks of being drained by a demon hybrid with a broken spine. It took so long for his powers to recharge from all the sleeping. With a celestial doctor in hand, triggering his powers helped the process more. Healing his injuring to an extent. Twelve weeks of total darkness before they found him again.
So they watched as he leaned back, laughing and laughing and laughing until it turned to tears. Rowena and Klaus wasted no time hugging Rzej. "It's okay," Klaus rubbed down Rzej's neck. "We're never leaving you again."
Word were numb against Rzej's mouths as he cried until there was no more tears and his mates hugs were too numbing. "It's all my fault." Rzej shook his head. "I killed her. . . I killed her. I killed her." He cried louder, covering his face. The sky change colours to a stormy gray, conjuring thunder rumbling down. It struck one person, then a molten of raw screams echoing.
"Jedrzej," Klaus and Rowena shared a look. He nodded at her to help Rzej back to the penthouse.
She summoned a maelstrom of spinning energies of purple, black, and gold. Klaus stepped into maelstrom as he emerged into the living room along with Rzej. The building rumbled at Rzej's screams. It shook harder when he fell to his knees.
"Whats going on?" William ran down the stairs. The sight of his crying father halted him. "Dad," He ran to Rzej, hugging his father. The seraph hugged his son, muttering an apology.
"I'M SORRY. I'M SORRY. I'M SORRY. I'M SORRY," Rzej's voice broke.
"Rzej," Rowena knelt behind him. She placed her hands on his shoulder to steady him. Something was wrong. Something happened that day. there was something more than Rzej's injury. "What are you talking about?"
The golden tile warmed Klaus's knees when he joined Rowena by perching on Rzej's left side. The warmth could never cool the rage in his heart. It boiled until there was a white round ball of fire waiting to be unleashed. That would not be good for anyone.
Snaps of thunder rolling with Lethal poison lashed down on earth. The sky turned even darker. Then the rain. Oh the rains heavy.
William remained hugging his father, like a sense of how much his father needed him in the moment. "It's okay, dad." He closed his eyes, kissing his father's cheeks. He began a story Rzej would always recite from the moment he came into this world.
"Once upon a time in an ageless universe, there lived a young seraph who wanted to see the world. So he ventured out and he met an incredible angel. the seraph didn't know it yet, but that angel would one day be his heart, then his destruction in a never ending war. The seraph soon realised that fate had guided their hands towards a painful end. One where promise would be broken but the seraph would fix it all. He didn't know what he had to fix yet, but he did. He fixed it. He saved them all. With one word. One word was all it took to save them all. . ."
The tears stopped. Like the river of the underworld icing. "William," Rzej whispered, pulling away. "You are right, the seraph knows how to save everyone."
"What the hell is going on out there?" Astra yelled out, storming into the living room.
Rowena nodded to William to leave, which he reluctantly did. Then Rzej said to Klaus. "Call your family, and all your allies, your enemies. Call everyone." He picked his cane, and walked away, wiping the golden tears slithering down his cheeks.
"JEDRZEJ," Klaus stood. "Will you explain?"
"Not yet. I can't yet." Rzej grunted. "Astra, Ena, find Carla. Find all my siblings. Tell them it's time to come home."
"Fine." Astra grumbled, boredly picking her nails. "You woke me with your whining."
"I'm sorry." Rzej stopped by the door. He glanced at his mates and sighed. "I have a Grimm to find."
—-
Hello my loves. It's been a minute. How are you enjoying this rewrite?