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[Lord of Mysteries] A Light in the Dark (1679words)
Title: A Light In the Dark
Fandom: Lord of Mysteries
Character/Pairing(s): Klein Moretti & Leonard Mitchell
Rating: G
Warning: none
Summary: Klein and Leonard patrolling the streets at night in volume 1, searching for some ghosts. (Written in 1 hour for Team Yin in the LotMBB server.)
The one thing about missions with Leonard or Captain Dunn, Klein thought as he shivered slightly in the nighttime fog, was that his teammates didn’t always remember that Klein would lag behind them. Even with Gawain’s daily training, he was slower than the other two who seemed to glide along the streets when out on patrol or on missions. Klein would stop and squint at corners, attempting to see in the darkness the same way that Leonard would, and fail to find anything.
“I don’t see why we couldn’t leave this to the police,” Klein grumbled as he rubbed at his arm, trying to gain some semblance of warmth underneath his formal suit. It wasn’t even that cold at night, but with the recent heat wave, he acclimated to the hot weather until the tepid nights felt freezing. It didn’t help that it had rained recently, and the fog was thick enough that he could not see to the next gas lamp.
Having spent the last two patrols (on the search through the poorer districts due to the recent higher than usual deaths) with Frye, Klein had forgotten to carry his own lantern. It was because the Corpse Collector always carried his own light, and did his best to walk at Klein’s pace.
Leonard, Klein groused, didn’t carry a light at all. And he would be twenty steps ahead of Klein before he realised his current teammate wasn’t next to him.
Klein was tired, he was damp from the summer heat during the day, and cold from this fog at night. His clothes weighed him down and his hair felt like it was sticking to his face, and all he wanted was for his shift to be over so he could go home and wash the day’s sweat away before collapsing into bed for perhaps a whole twelve hours.
He’d even forego dinner! He could always eat in the morning, but thinking about food now was just going to make him hungry…
“Reports of spectres out at night and monstrous howling?” Leonard responded to him, and Klein nearly jumped as he realised the other heard his quiet grouching. “Don’t you think that’s perfectly up our alley?”
He couldn’t even see the other through this fog! It was too dark! Way too dark to be safe outside! Why wouldn’t the government invest in more gas lamps for the public? How was he was supposed to see in these conditions?
He could only hear Leonard’s chuckle to his movement.
“Don’t tell me you’re scared of ghosts?”
“I’m not scared of them!” Klein snapped back, wishing he at least brought a lantern so he could raise it and look around. Instead, he gripped his cane harder and pointed in the direction he thought Leonard’s voice might be coming from. “I’m appropriately cautious.”
“Of course, of course,” Leonard soothed, “it’s good to be cautious. You’re still new to the Beyonder world, after all.”
Klein bristled. “The Captain says caution keeps us alive.”
“Oh, he’s right, but we’re different, aren’t we?”
…He couldn’t be starting that spiel about being the protagonist again, could he? Klein wished he could tell where Leonard was so he could jab him with his cane. Or if he were closer, ‘accidentally’ step on him.
Why were the Nighthawk coats black? They operated at night! Not all of them were of the Sleepless pathway, either, and—
…Alright, so Klein wasn’t sure if Corpse Collectors also had enhanced vision in the darkness. That was a possibility.
Well, he didn’t have any type of night vision!
From now on, he was definition carrying his own lantern while on patrols. He couldn’t rely on his partner to be as considerate as Frye. He’d just have to requisition one from Mrs. Orianna, but he was sure that he would be sympathetic to his reasoning.
(They were just… big and bulky, and he missed the convenience of flashlights and cellphones.)
“Where are you pointing?”
Leonard’s voice this time was right behind him, and Klein couldn’t hide his stiffening or the noise that he made in response— which was not in any way a scream, but more an angry hiss to warn anyone too close to him away.
This close, he could actually see the other man’s grin despite the thick fog when he whirled around.
“Sorry,” Leonard said, although he didn’t sound it. “I forgot you can’t see, so I went ahead to grab a lantern.”
“Where did you get that?” Klein asked as Leonard raised a small gas lamp in his hand. It was the middle of the night, and they were out in a scarcely walked back alley. There would be no stores, or anywhere where they could get such supplies.
Leonard waggled his fingers and smiled, “It’s a secret. But here.”
A brief moment later, there was a small flame light within the lantern, and it felt like a little bit of the tension within Klein’s chest relaxed. It wasn’t that he was afraid of the dark, per se; he just liked being able to see.
As the flame grew bright enough to illuminate— at least the other person, Leonard shoved the small lantern into Klein’s hands.
“For you,” he said, grin levelling out into a smile.
“…Thank you,” Klein responded somewhat reluctantly, perhaps still a bit miffed about having spent the past half hour attempting to catch up to Leonard’s long steps in the dark. He accepted the lantern, hands wrapping around the warm metal of the handle. He then glanced at Leonard, who was smiling down at him mysteriously. “What about you?”
Leonard pointed to his own eyes. “I see better without the light, anyway. Perks of the pathway!”
“Does that mean you spot ghosts easier, too?” Klein couldn’t help but mock a bit, and then deflated as he thought that saying more on that might be too mean. “…To find those supposed spectres, that is.”
“Of course.” The other Nighthawk patted his shoulder heavily, stepping close. “You can leave it to me!”
And then, quite contrary to how it was previously that night, the man stuck close to Klein after that instead of wandering twenty steps ahead and waiting for Klein to catch up. It was nice, but at the same time unnerving.
…Since when did Leonard realise not to leave him behind? No, wait, wasn’t he standing much too close? There was such a thing as personal space! Propriety! Why were they now walking nearly arm to arm, shoulders touching?
Klein couldn’t help but stare at him suspiciously.
“Leonard, do you—”
There was a sudden flash of light only a meter away from them, and then a loud yowl that made the both of them stiffen defensively.
Klein raised his lantern to see clearer, while Leonard stepped in front of him, an arm pushing him back and knees braced to leap into action.
In the alley atop a pile of rubble was a hissing black cat, a thin thing with its fur puffed up to look twice its size and back in a threatening arch. The glinting they had seen just a moment previous was the cat’s yellow eyes, pupils nearly overtaking the colour in the dark. It was small and slightly matted, looking more like a kitten than a full grown cat.
It hissed at them in warning.
Leonard relaxed as he realised there was no real danger, and then turned his head to joke to Klein, “That thing sounds like you!”
Klein very valiantly did not respond to the jibe.
“Stop scaring it,” he said instead, and deliberately turned the lantern back toward the street they were meant to patrol, “it’s obviously not a spectre—”
Before he could finish that sentence, the cat raised itself up to the tips of its claws and then hopped away backwards, still arched in that threatening posture.
Hop, hop, hop—
Both Klein and Leonard stared at the small creature in disbelief.
“…Do cats do that?” Leonard asked incredulously.
“I… think so?” Klein answered, although he wasn’t sure himself. He had seen enough online cat videos to know that cats could act very strangely, but he had never seen one hop backward like that, as stiff as a board the entire time. Was it actually possessed?
Leonard tilted his head as if listening to the night, and the nodded, “Alright, I think—”
He was interrupted by the most unearthly yowling and screeching, the sounds of multiple cats now fighting in the alleyway. The noises rose to the point where Klein took a cautious step backward, not wanting to be accidentally caught in a flurry of claws and teeth if the fight came barrowing out their direction.
The two of them froze as the noises continued, and then stopped… and then started up again.
It was nearly a solid minute before the sounds died off completely.
“I,” Klein hesitated, and then cleared his throat, “I think we found the supposed spectres? Or ghosts. Whatever it was that was reported. ‘Monstrous howling’ and all.”
“I’ll never be able to look at cats the same way again…” Leonard murmured, a hand to his mouth. “They sounded like demons…”
Klein raised the lantern to get a closer look at Leonard’s shocked expression, and they caught each other’s eye. As if on cue, both of them huffed out a nervous laugh, which quickly escalated to end up loud enough to double them over.
“…Okay, it was probably just cats,” Klein concluded, out of breath from laughing. The cold fog on his skin didn’t feel so cold anymore, and the dark didn’t feel as oppressive. His entire body was warm, and the bubble of light in the dark made him feel like he was safe within a shield.
Cats.
They had been looking for cats this entire time.
“Should we call it a night and report back?” Leonard asked, still grinning.
“…Yes, let’s head back.”
The two of them, shoulder to shoulder, stumbled back toward the Blackthorn Security Company in the dark, huffing with laughter with a lantern between the two of them to light the way.
Fandom: Lord of Mysteries
Character/Pairing(s): Klein Moretti & Leonard Mitchell
Rating: G
Warning: none
Summary: Klein and Leonard patrolling the streets at night in volume 1, searching for some ghosts. (Written in 1 hour for Team Yin in the LotMBB server.)
The one thing about missions with Leonard or Captain Dunn, Klein thought as he shivered slightly in the nighttime fog, was that his teammates didn’t always remember that Klein would lag behind them. Even with Gawain’s daily training, he was slower than the other two who seemed to glide along the streets when out on patrol or on missions. Klein would stop and squint at corners, attempting to see in the darkness the same way that Leonard would, and fail to find anything.
“I don’t see why we couldn’t leave this to the police,” Klein grumbled as he rubbed at his arm, trying to gain some semblance of warmth underneath his formal suit. It wasn’t even that cold at night, but with the recent heat wave, he acclimated to the hot weather until the tepid nights felt freezing. It didn’t help that it had rained recently, and the fog was thick enough that he could not see to the next gas lamp.
Having spent the last two patrols (on the search through the poorer districts due to the recent higher than usual deaths) with Frye, Klein had forgotten to carry his own lantern. It was because the Corpse Collector always carried his own light, and did his best to walk at Klein’s pace.
Leonard, Klein groused, didn’t carry a light at all. And he would be twenty steps ahead of Klein before he realised his current teammate wasn’t next to him.
Klein was tired, he was damp from the summer heat during the day, and cold from this fog at night. His clothes weighed him down and his hair felt like it was sticking to his face, and all he wanted was for his shift to be over so he could go home and wash the day’s sweat away before collapsing into bed for perhaps a whole twelve hours.
He’d even forego dinner! He could always eat in the morning, but thinking about food now was just going to make him hungry…
“Reports of spectres out at night and monstrous howling?” Leonard responded to him, and Klein nearly jumped as he realised the other heard his quiet grouching. “Don’t you think that’s perfectly up our alley?”
He couldn’t even see the other through this fog! It was too dark! Way too dark to be safe outside! Why wouldn’t the government invest in more gas lamps for the public? How was he was supposed to see in these conditions?
He could only hear Leonard’s chuckle to his movement.
“Don’t tell me you’re scared of ghosts?”
“I’m not scared of them!” Klein snapped back, wishing he at least brought a lantern so he could raise it and look around. Instead, he gripped his cane harder and pointed in the direction he thought Leonard’s voice might be coming from. “I’m appropriately cautious.”
“Of course, of course,” Leonard soothed, “it’s good to be cautious. You’re still new to the Beyonder world, after all.”
Klein bristled. “The Captain says caution keeps us alive.”
“Oh, he’s right, but we’re different, aren’t we?”
…He couldn’t be starting that spiel about being the protagonist again, could he? Klein wished he could tell where Leonard was so he could jab him with his cane. Or if he were closer, ‘accidentally’ step on him.
Why were the Nighthawk coats black? They operated at night! Not all of them were of the Sleepless pathway, either, and—
…Alright, so Klein wasn’t sure if Corpse Collectors also had enhanced vision in the darkness. That was a possibility.
Well, he didn’t have any type of night vision!
From now on, he was definition carrying his own lantern while on patrols. He couldn’t rely on his partner to be as considerate as Frye. He’d just have to requisition one from Mrs. Orianna, but he was sure that he would be sympathetic to his reasoning.
(They were just… big and bulky, and he missed the convenience of flashlights and cellphones.)
“Where are you pointing?”
Leonard’s voice this time was right behind him, and Klein couldn’t hide his stiffening or the noise that he made in response— which was not in any way a scream, but more an angry hiss to warn anyone too close to him away.
This close, he could actually see the other man’s grin despite the thick fog when he whirled around.
“Sorry,” Leonard said, although he didn’t sound it. “I forgot you can’t see, so I went ahead to grab a lantern.”
“Where did you get that?” Klein asked as Leonard raised a small gas lamp in his hand. It was the middle of the night, and they were out in a scarcely walked back alley. There would be no stores, or anywhere where they could get such supplies.
Leonard waggled his fingers and smiled, “It’s a secret. But here.”
A brief moment later, there was a small flame light within the lantern, and it felt like a little bit of the tension within Klein’s chest relaxed. It wasn’t that he was afraid of the dark, per se; he just liked being able to see.
As the flame grew bright enough to illuminate— at least the other person, Leonard shoved the small lantern into Klein’s hands.
“For you,” he said, grin levelling out into a smile.
“…Thank you,” Klein responded somewhat reluctantly, perhaps still a bit miffed about having spent the past half hour attempting to catch up to Leonard’s long steps in the dark. He accepted the lantern, hands wrapping around the warm metal of the handle. He then glanced at Leonard, who was smiling down at him mysteriously. “What about you?”
Leonard pointed to his own eyes. “I see better without the light, anyway. Perks of the pathway!”
“Does that mean you spot ghosts easier, too?” Klein couldn’t help but mock a bit, and then deflated as he thought that saying more on that might be too mean. “…To find those supposed spectres, that is.”
“Of course.” The other Nighthawk patted his shoulder heavily, stepping close. “You can leave it to me!”
And then, quite contrary to how it was previously that night, the man stuck close to Klein after that instead of wandering twenty steps ahead and waiting for Klein to catch up. It was nice, but at the same time unnerving.
…Since when did Leonard realise not to leave him behind? No, wait, wasn’t he standing much too close? There was such a thing as personal space! Propriety! Why were they now walking nearly arm to arm, shoulders touching?
Klein couldn’t help but stare at him suspiciously.
“Leonard, do you—”
There was a sudden flash of light only a meter away from them, and then a loud yowl that made the both of them stiffen defensively.
Klein raised his lantern to see clearer, while Leonard stepped in front of him, an arm pushing him back and knees braced to leap into action.
In the alley atop a pile of rubble was a hissing black cat, a thin thing with its fur puffed up to look twice its size and back in a threatening arch. The glinting they had seen just a moment previous was the cat’s yellow eyes, pupils nearly overtaking the colour in the dark. It was small and slightly matted, looking more like a kitten than a full grown cat.
It hissed at them in warning.
Leonard relaxed as he realised there was no real danger, and then turned his head to joke to Klein, “That thing sounds like you!”
Klein very valiantly did not respond to the jibe.
“Stop scaring it,” he said instead, and deliberately turned the lantern back toward the street they were meant to patrol, “it’s obviously not a spectre—”
Before he could finish that sentence, the cat raised itself up to the tips of its claws and then hopped away backwards, still arched in that threatening posture.
Hop, hop, hop—
Both Klein and Leonard stared at the small creature in disbelief.
“…Do cats do that?” Leonard asked incredulously.
“I… think so?” Klein answered, although he wasn’t sure himself. He had seen enough online cat videos to know that cats could act very strangely, but he had never seen one hop backward like that, as stiff as a board the entire time. Was it actually possessed?
Leonard tilted his head as if listening to the night, and the nodded, “Alright, I think—”
He was interrupted by the most unearthly yowling and screeching, the sounds of multiple cats now fighting in the alleyway. The noises rose to the point where Klein took a cautious step backward, not wanting to be accidentally caught in a flurry of claws and teeth if the fight came barrowing out their direction.
The two of them froze as the noises continued, and then stopped… and then started up again.
It was nearly a solid minute before the sounds died off completely.
“I,” Klein hesitated, and then cleared his throat, “I think we found the supposed spectres? Or ghosts. Whatever it was that was reported. ‘Monstrous howling’ and all.”
“I’ll never be able to look at cats the same way again…” Leonard murmured, a hand to his mouth. “They sounded like demons…”
Klein raised the lantern to get a closer look at Leonard’s shocked expression, and they caught each other’s eye. As if on cue, both of them huffed out a nervous laugh, which quickly escalated to end up loud enough to double them over.
“…Okay, it was probably just cats,” Klein concluded, out of breath from laughing. The cold fog on his skin didn’t feel so cold anymore, and the dark didn’t feel as oppressive. His entire body was warm, and the bubble of light in the dark made him feel like he was safe within a shield.
Cats.
They had been looking for cats this entire time.
“Should we call it a night and report back?” Leonard asked, still grinning.
“…Yes, let’s head back.”
The two of them, shoulder to shoulder, stumbled back toward the Blackthorn Security Company in the dark, huffing with laughter with a lantern between the two of them to light the way.