Chapter Text
Dave’s dreams are so often beautiful, soft, helpful. But sometimes they are dangerous and terrifying. Some nights he wakes up screaming with claws on his arms or a massive dog bite in his shoulder. Some nights he forgets to breathe, and Klaus has to shake him awake before it’s too late.
He doesn’t know what Dave’s nightmares are about. Dave knows his, of course he does. Klaus long stopped hiding things from him. But Dave refuses to say what his nightmares are. He thinks that if he speaks them, it’s more likely he’ll bring them back, and he can’t bring them back, he can’t let them hurt Klaus or their daughter, calmly sleeping in the perfect nursery he dreamed up for her.
Klaus thinks it’s a load of horse shit. Dave won’t hurt him. And he never does.
But you can’t always control your nightmares, and he can’t always control what he brings back.
Which is why Klaus wakes up to Dave’s screams one night, the red eyes of some vicious hellhound staring them down across the bed. Something about the dog terrifies Dave more than Klaus thinks it probably should, freezing him in place. Sure it’s got drool dripping onto their sheets, sure it’s got big teeth and a horrible snarl, but…
It kind of just looks like a big husky.
A big husky who’s about to tear out Dave’s throat.
“Dave!” He shoves his husband out of the way of the dog’s lunge and off the bed, feeling it’s teeth sinking into his shoulder. The sensation of sharp pain and hot blood on his back is far more familiar than it should be.
Dave chokes out a strangled scream, scrambling back against the closet doors. He’s not going to be of any help.
Dad’s training kicks in at seeing Ben running to the doorway, and Klaus elbows the dog in the throat, dislodging it from his shoulder.
“Ben! Two!” Somehow Ben understands him, years of being attached at the hip coming in handy.
“I’ve got her!” He runs back into the hallway to check if there’s more dogs, to make sure his niece is okay. Ben will keep Benji safe, Klaus knows it.
He’s a bit preoccupied with the dog turning back to Dave.
This might be the one and only time Klaus is glad for Reginald’s training on how to tackle and snap someone’s neck.
The dog falls lip on the bed, red eyes staring unblinking at Dave. He’s still frozen in place, probably will be until the dog is gone. Klaus recognizes the teeth now, the fur that sometimes shows up on the blankets after a nightmare. Whatever this dog is, whatever memories it brings up, it’s the cause of Dave’s nightmares.
He knew Dave was afraid of dogs.
Why did the bite and claw marks never clue him in that it was worse than he thought?
“She’s safe. That was the only one.” Ben shows back up in the doorway, letting Klaus finally breathe a sigh of relief. “Want me to…”
“Yea, thanks.” Klaus focuses his powers, the struggle he hasn’t felt in years reminding him that, oh, yea, he’s kind of bleeding. He’ll deal with that in a minute.
Once Ben’s hauled the dog out of their bedroom, Klaus kneels down in front of Dave, resting a hand on his cheek and brushing away the tears that have silently been falling. His other hand is trying to stop the bleeding. From the blinding pain every time he puts pressure on the bite, it might be a bit worse than anticipated. He just hopes he can keep Ben solid enough to get the dog in the dumpster.
“Dave. Davey, it’s okay. It was just a nightmare, it wasn-” He cuts off, looking back at the clawed up blankets, the trail of blood. He’d been about to tell Dave what he always tells him when he dreams of the mausoleum. It’s not real, you aren’t there, you never have to go back.
He’s starting to realize that maybe… maybe Dave’s powers aren’t as wonderful as he always thought. Because he can’t say that the dog wasn’t real. It was, it died a real death. It was here.
“You are safe now,” he says instead, sticking to the truth. “I won’t let your nightmares hurt you, even if you make them real. The dog’s gone now. You are awake now.”
“Klaus…” Dave lets out a sob, collapsing forward to hug his husband, only to jerk back when Klaus lets out a yelp. “Oh my god… oh my god you are hurt!”
“Just a little.” Klaus smiles. It feels weaker than he wanted it to be. He feels weaker than he wants to be.
“Shit. Shit, shit, shit, it hurt you. Oh god, I hurt you, oh god, Klaus,” Dave hauls him to his feet and into their bathroom, frantically pawing through the cabinet for the first aid kid. Klaus is only half listening, feeling a little bit like he used to when he took weed, before Dave dreamed him up the pills to control his powers.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so - so sorry, I - “
“Oh shuddup. I’m okay.” Klaus groans, resting his head on the sink while Dave stitches up his shoulder. Technically, Klaus should go to the hospital, and they all know it. But
hospitals are cesspools of ghosts, and as weak as he is right now, Klaus would never be able to send them all away. He probably couldn’t even at peak health.
After the panic attack to end all panic attacks when Dave brought him to one when he got beat up in a fight with some asshole creeping on Vanya, he knows better. Which is why Klaus and Ben taught him first aid, just in case he got hurt or wasn’t around to help someone else. They hoped it would never be needed, but it was a precaution that paid off, he supposes.
Eventually, Klaus is all bandaged up and sleeping on the couch, Dave cleaning up in the bedroom while their daughter miraculously sleeps through it all.
Boy is there going to be a talk in the morning though…