Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Black had been extremely mixed as he had boarded the plane headed towards Hellsalem’s Lot. Leo and him video called often, having stayed in contact after he left. After all, they were both the closest to White. Her death affected both of them. They were siblings, and because he hadn’t fought against the King of Despair hard enough, she was dead. He could have prevented it, done something differently. Made sure she was safe beforehand, planned further ahead than the twisted, evil elder blood breed.

Everyone he knew had told him it wasn’t his fault that White died. Even if he could tell some people were only saying that, (of course they blamed him, he thought. They had a right to blame him, it was his fault after all-) he could tell most were honest when they told him it wasn’t his fault.

But then Leo had asked him if he wanted to come back to Hellsalem’s Lot, and that had planted the idea in his head. There was a piece of White still there, in the form of the boundary. White had loved that city, for all of the horror that the two of them had experienced in it. Leo loved the city too, for some reason. Somehow he could see past all the bad, fought the bad first hand as part of Libra, and Black was jealous of that. He wanted to see past all the bad and still love a city that had taken so much from him.

So he had boarded the plane and flown to Hellsalem’s Lot without telling Leo. He didn’t want to get the other’s hopes up, in case he chickened out last minute. He made plans to stay a week, maybe two tops. He even found a hotel that was out of the main city. Though he doubted it, he hoped the chaos would be less so outside of the city center.

But then he stepped off the plane and was immediately mugged of everything he had.

So he had walked around the city a bit aimlessly, eventually wandering into the diner he had visited only a few times, most of which had been with Leo. He wasn’t aiming to meet the other at all, but at least it was a place he knew. He hadn’t expected to start talking to Vivian though, and he definitely hadn’t expected to tell her that he would think about her offer when she had asked if he wanted to work there. He certainly hadn't’ expected to say yes. He was supposed to only be visiting for a while, why was he wasting that time at a nine to five job at a diner?

Maybe it was a bit of a distraction from the scenery around him, to find a place that withstood any disaster that was thrown it’s way. To be around people he knew, who knew him, but didn’t know that he had been possessed by an elder blood breed and destroyed over half the city.

It was a few days later that Leo came walking through the door to the diner with two people who Black now knew were his coworkers, too busy arguing with the white haired man to notice Black until he called out. “Hey Leo! What’s up?” He asked, smiling as bright as he could while he explained his situation. Leo didn’t seem surprised at all when he said he was mugged, a look on his face screaming that he had come to expect this nowadays. Black couldn’t help but laugh at that. Oh how Leo had truly become a resident of this city.

But then the building had been knocked into, and then Leo was picking him up bridal style, and then they were running.

It’s okay, White, he couldn’t help but think as he clasped the broken necklace in his hands. He’s okay.

_____

Both of them took the following day of work off, too busy trying to catch up with all that had happened. Leo animatedly explained everything that had happened in the months he was gone, while he simply smiled and nodded along, laughing at the ridiculous situations the other seemed to almost constantly find himself in. In return, Black told him about what life was like back home. He was doing better now, and had slowly started to fall back into what most would call a ‘regular life’. He lived in an apartment on the outskirts of the city, and often traveled into the city center on the weekends.

If he left out some of the struggles he faced, such as getting close to new people or not trusting himself enough to stay out in public long because what if something happened and he showed up again and took control, hurt someone-

Leo didn’t need to hear any of that.

“Hey, actually where are you staying now?” Leo asked just as they were about to go their separate ways. “I mean, you said you didn’t have a lot of money.”

“Oh!” Black said. “I’m just staying in a nearby hotel for now. It’s cheap because the building isn’t fully repaired from a giant beyondian crashing into it when he was apparently fighting some guys over money. Don’t worry though, it’s a good enough area. I’ll be okay!” He threw in a laugh at the end, though he could tell Leo didn’t necessarily love the answer.

“Okay,” Leo began. “I was just going to offer up my place if you wanted somewhere to stay. It’s a bit small, but the couch is good sized!”

“I- oh. I- uh, I don’t mean ‘oh’ in a bad way! I just didn’t expect you to offer something like that up!” He laughed nervously. “I mean, I don’t want to be a bother. I don’t really know how long I’m going to be here at this point. I was supposed to only stay two weeks tops, but it’s been three now!” He said.

“No, it’s fine, I swear,” Leo laughed back. “I’m gone most of the day at Libra or regular work anyhow, so we won’t get in the way of each other a lot. Even if it’s a few days, you could at least save some money in the long run if you’re not at a hotel all the time.”

Black nodded, thinking about it. It was true that he didn’t want to be a bother to Leo. He felt like he had already bothered him enough when the other had to save him from the blood breed that had possessed him. But if the other was offering, he was making a good point when he talked about saving money. Which was something that would be helpful, if Black wanted to properly get back up on his feet.

“Uh, yeah, sure! Thank you so much! I promise I won’t stay long, just until I have enough money to get back on my feet!”

Yes, he would only stay as long as was absolutely necessary.

_____

Once he moved into Leo’s apartment, he never really moved out. Even when he did get the money too.

Maybe it was because Leo kept insisting he stay as long as he wanted, even longer then he needed to if he wanted. Maybe it was because Leo was so kind and sweet, always listening to him whenever he was thinking too hard about the time he spent possessed by the King of Despair. Maybe it was because they had worked out a schedule around each other now, and how domestic it felt. Maybe it was because of how fun it was to listen to Leo talk about his day and to tell him about his own. Maybe it was because now, the two of them were looking at a two bedroom apartment since Black had accepted that he was going to be staying for a while longer and would prefer to not sleep on the couch anymore.

Maybe, just maybe, it was because he had developed a hopeless crush on Leo over the past few months.

He had been in Hellsalem’s Lot for five and a half months now, and had adjusted back to city life (the city life here was different from anywhere else) faster then he had ever thought. It was easy to talk to other people now, easier than it had been where he had lived at least. Here, he had done horrible things. There, no one knew his name. It didn’t make any sense.

But Vivian was nice, and Leo was, well, Leo. Of course he was nice. There were plenty of regular customers who he had befriended over the months. Leo’s two coworkers were nice enough. Well, the one named Zed was nice. Apparently Zapp was just like that though, according to both Leo and Zed. If he acted like an asshole to Black, it wasn't personal. That was just how he acted around everyone, stranger or not.

His two coworkers kept talking about bringing everyone in Libra to the diner so they could meet Black, though Black himself quickly turned it down. He couldn’t stand facing some of them, especially Leo’s main boss. The man (Klaus was his name?) had fought against him personally before Leo and White had arrived at the scene. He had thrown the man to the ground, tried to crush him with rocks and causing destruction around the two of them in an attempt to kill him. Even if Leo reassured him that the other man understood the situation and that he hadn’t tried to kill him in any way, it was Despair who had done that, he still couldn’t face the other man. Luckily, when he had told the ‘lunch trio’ as they were apparently called (he didn’t know why, and no one would tell him), they had understood and were nice enough about it. Even Zapp, who only grunted in reply but layed off the topic.

He had called back home and quit his job after he had been in Hellsalem’s Lot for almost two months. When his apartment lease had come near an end at the end of his fourth, he had simply not renewed it. Who knew how long he would be staying in Hellsalem’s Lot? He had slowly formed a life here, friends here. To go back to his old life just felt… Wrong, for some reason.

He visited the church and graveyard that White had frequented a lot, nowadays. Sometimes Leo and him would go together, sometimes they went on their own. Leo had a headstone made with her name on it in the months that Black had been gone. She had made a great sacrifice for this city that she had come to like, and maybe that was another reason Black felt so wrong with leaving it.

It was around month six that Leo started acting… Different around him. Not in a bad way, necessarily. He just seemed more nervous for some reason, and blushed when Black would give him various complements. Not to mention, when he came with Zapp and Zed one day on their lunch break, Leo’s two coworkers were whispering to the brown haired boy more than usual as soon as Black would leave them to do work elsewhere in the diner. Zapp snickered and looked at Leo smuggly when he came back over to deliver their food, Zed looking more controlled but at the same time eyeing Leo out of the corner of his eyes with a slight smile on his face.

All in all, Black was… Confused, to say the least. It had been just over half a year now since he first arrived in Hellsalem’s Lot. He couldn’t think of anything that had changed recently that would make Leo act this way, unless he did something and didn’t realize it? Maybe he would ask about it later on.

In the meantime though, they had finally sorted out an apartment almost exactly in the middle of both of their jobs, only a little closer to the diner then Libra and the pizza place Leo would do runs for. It was nice to have a bed again, no matter how thankful Black was for the small fold out couch that Leo had let him crash on for nearly half a year.

In the new apartment, they fell into a similar but new routen. They had a bigger kitchen now, and as a result, Black had more room to cook. It became commonplace for him to stop by the store after work now for ingredients for that night’s dinner, and it was something relaxing for him to do at the end of the day. There was finally enough room for Black to properly spread out, given that he had brought his things over to Hellsalem’s Lot after the lease on his previous apartment had ended.

Then month seven passed into month eight, and Black was starting to accept that he wouldn’t be leaving this city anytime soon. It wasn’t like he was planning to leave soon, he now had a place to fully live and call home, but for some reason it was an… Odd feeling acceptance. He had wanted to escape this place so bad after everything went down and White died. He had told himself at the time that he would never return, no matter what. Told himself that Hellsalem’s Lot was a place of bad memories and could never be anything else.

Yet here he was, over a year later, able to confidently say that he didn’t want to leave. Yes, this place still held dozens of bad memories. There were still cracks in the pavement from when Despair had shifted the street blocks around like they were a matching game. There was a small monument in one of the out-of-the-way parks of the city that held the names of the people who had died and the date the second collapse had happened. When people started talking about the two year anniversary (he hadn’t been in the city for the first) of that night, he would still pull away from the situation out of shame. He felt anxiety race through him when he heard about a blood breed being spotted in the city, and wondered if they were looking for him knowing they may be able to possess him. Or maybe they were here on a revenge mission, and would kill his friends before killing him too. Regardless of all of this, though, he had also found many positives in this city.

He had friends now, most of which he met at the diner either in the form of coworkers or regulars. He’d met Leo’s friends and two of his coworkers, and went to visit White at that graveyard and church often. He’d somehow managed to carve a life for himself in this city, and he was fine with that.

One thing though.

The crush he had formed on Leo months ago now had gotten worse. He’d come to accept it a long time ago, as well as the fact that Leo wasn’t going to ever think of him that way. And Leo was still acting weird, blushing still whenever Black would praise him. Leo’s coworkers would still sneer at the brown haired boy sometimes when they thought Black wasn’t paying any attention, and Black had learned to stop questioning it at this point. He wasn’t getting any less confused at this point.

The worst of the whole situation though had to be that now Vivian knew about his crush on Leo. It had slipped out one day, and now Black had to pray every time the woman would wink at him and walk over to Leo, saying something about Black and trying to imply that he was interested in Leo just to tease her coworker. It was painful, and if Black hadn’t grown so close to Vivian over the span of him working there he would have yelled at her for it long ago.

“I swear, he likes you too!” Vivian had said one day as the two moved around the diner, wrapping up for the night. “You need to just put yourself out there and let him know you like him back! I love Leo, but he can be a little dense sometimes. Just trust me!”

“Don’t torchure me!” Black had groaned back dramatically. Vivian only laughed at him, smiling knowingly.

“Just trust me, Black!”

_____

Black had officially been in the city for over a year now, a total of thirteen months. The second anniversary of the second great collapse had come and gone, and he had made it through that day locked inside refusing to see anyone. Leo had comforted him later that day when he came home from work, the two sitting and talking about White as well as anything that came to mind until the early hours of the morning.

It was the end of February, his fourteenth month in Hellsalem’s Lot, that his crush on Leo came to a boiling point. He may have been slightly tipsy at the time, Black would admit. He’d been talking about this and that when Leo had made a joke about him being pretty. Black had thought back to when Vivian said he should put himself out there and had taken her advice. It was incredibly straightford, and looking back on it Black was far more than a little embarrassed. However, when he kissed Leo and the other started kissing him back, he reminded himself to thank her tomorrow at work.

Chapter Text

Black had been at Hellsalem’s Lot for seventeen months now, and his life was completely different from where he had expected over a year ago now, before he even thought about returning to Hellsalem’s Lot. Him and Leo had gotten together at the end of his fourteen month, and the next thing either of them knew, the two had been dating for three months. At that point, not too many people knew. Vivian, of course, knew. She’d had the biggest, proudest smile on her face when Black told her about the kiss the night before. “It’s like I told you!” She’d exclaimed. “He liked you too, you just needed to put yourself out there! But hey, at least drunk you agreed with me!” 

Zapp and Zed also knew, but that one hadn’t been intentional. They’d seen him and Leo talking about a week after they got together, and apparently when Leo left with them to go back to work they (mostly Zapp) had forced it out of him. “Come on dude, just tell us! Something happened, I know it! The way you were talking to each other, looking so fondly into each other's ey-” Then, apparently, Leo had punched him into next week. Leo had confirmed it soon after, but both of his coworkers already knew, so it really wasn’t necessary. Black couldn’t help but laugh when he told him about it. 

Surprisingly enough, though (especially because Zapp was one of the people who knew), no one else at Libra knew about their relationship. Black guessed that was because ‘Zed was actually polite and respectful’ (Leo’s words, of course), and of course he imagined Leo had threatened to hurt Zapp if the white haired man made fun of him for it. 

It wasn’t like Leo had a problem with the rest of Libra knowing, exactly. Sure, he would be embarrassed at first and sure, everyone would tease him. He knew that without a doubt. But in the end, it had been Black who asked that he hold off on telling them. At least for now. He knew Leo loved his coworkers, no matter how much he bad talked some of them when he was annoyed. He loved them, and Black didn’t want to strain Leo’s relationship with them when they figured out who exactly he was dating. Because it didn’t matter how many times since he arrived that Leo had told him they didn’t blame him for anything, that they knew it wasn’t him in control that night, there was still a part of Black they believed otherwise. They knew of him surely, they probably knew that he and Leo were friends. Simply given how often ‘the lunch crew’ showed up at the diner, it was impossible that they hadn’t heard about him at some point. Especially if Zapp and Zed were teasing Leo about his crush. Maybe no one else at the organization recognized him because of his nickname, but they would surely remember him once they saw him. All he had to do was push up his hair and they would without a doubt recognize him as the person who they had fought the night of the second collapse. Even if it wasn’t really him at the time, it was his body after all. 

Leo, though he seemed slightly hesitant, had agreed. “If that’s what you want to do, I’m happy to go along with it.” Black had smiled back appreciatively. While he hadn’t told Leo about the thoughts bouncing through his head, the other must have figured it out at least somewhat. They had talked about Black’s hesitance to meet the rest of Libra a few times before, so Leo was at least aware of the self-doubt that he had towards the situation.

Black was slowly getting better at this point, over two years after the Second Great Collapse. While he still would feel flashes of doubt and panic whenever he forgot something, waking up in the middle of the night with memories of the past consuming him, the panic had slowly started to fade. The memory-filled nightmares were slowly spacing themselves further out. Guilt still hung heavily on him, and at this point he didn’t expect it to ever fade away fully. But it was better now. Better than it had been over a year ago, at least.

Looking back, Black could trace at least some of this improvement back to Leo; no matter how cheesy that sounded. The other had been there for him ever since he had arrived in Hellsalem’s Lot and became a constant that he eventually learned to lean on. While Black had still been adapting back to life in Hellsalem’s Lot, before he had found a place in the city, Leo had been someone he knew he could trust. 

The two of them shared a room now, Black’s own becoming more of a storage room then anything. It was nice. Since the two of them had been living together for quite a while now (would you count Black living on Leo’s couch for several months ‘living together’? He didn’t know, but he would count it for now), nothing much changed overall. They still had their set routines, such as Black waking up and making breakfast, then making dinner when he came home. How Leo would stop on his way home from work if nothing crazy had happened that day and do any shopping that they needed. On Sundays, they had spent the day together inside doing whatever they wanted before they were even aware of the other’s crush on them. The only difference to their whole routine now was how they would curl up together on the couch in the evening now. The subtle touches as they went about their day. The light kisses snuck into the middle of whatever they were doing at the time. 

The changes were small, but Black quickly realized he wouldn’t have it any other way. 

_____

Black had been in Hellsalem’s Lot for twenty two months now, and him and Leo had been dating for eight. Not much had changed between his seventeenth month and this, he was still working at the diner and Leo was still running around for Libra. It was a Tuesday night, and the two of them were curled up on the couch watching TV, Black resting his head in Leo’s lap. 

He’d been thinking about something recently. The last few months, Black had been focusing on trying to adjust and heal more from his time spent housing the King of Despair. After all, it had been nearly over two years now since the elder blood breed had vanished. He’d been possessed by Despair for three years, and with the time equaling out he felt a need to push himself further out of the comfort zone he’d been staying in up until now. Others said that he didn’t need to push himself if he didn’t want to, but something in Black nagged at him about it anyway. 

With this in mind, Black took a deep breath. Anxiety rested lightly over him, though he didn't know why. “Uh, hey, Leo?” He asked, moving so he could see the other as he looked up at him. 

“Yeah?” The brown haired boy asked, looking down at him curiously. “What’s up?” 

“I, uh, I’ve been thinking recently. And, well, I know you want me to meet your coworkers- other than Zapp and Zed, I mean! And I thought it was… Well… Time? For me to meet them?”

The other said nothing for a second, then spoke. “Of course! Only if you want to, though! I don’t want you to force yourself into anything because of me!”

Black smiled, chuckling softly as he rolled over to prop himself up. “I’m not forcing myself. I’m doing this because I think it’s about time. I’ve been here for so long at this point, and we’ve been dating for eight months. I feel like they deserve to at least meet me. Besides, I know how close you are to all of them. They’re important to you.”

“Oh, really? You want to meet them?” Even though Leo was trying to hide his excitement (probably to keep Black from feeling like he had to do this if he really didn’t want to) the smile on his face spoke loud enough. 

“Yes, I mean it,” Black replied with a laugh. “Whenever you want me to stop by, I can. It’s easy enough for me to take the day off too, if that’s what it takes. Hey! Maybe after you, Zapp and Zed all stop by the diner I could take my lunch break and come back to work with you guys? If that would be allowed, I mean. I know about the whole top-secret thing that Libra has going on.”

Leo nodded enthusiastically now, smile clearly showing on his face. “I can talk to them and sort something out! I feel like they should be okay with you coming to the agency, since you already know about us enough. I’ll ask though! Chances are they’ll want to meet you too, anyhow!”

Black smiled brighter now at the sight of the other and how excited he was. Even though Leo had never asked about it directly, he knew the other wanted him to meet the other people in his life for a while now. Who knew, maybe he would start reaching out to all of the other people in Leo’s life too, who he had heard all about. Mishella sounded nice enough, though he would keep that thought to himself for now. Meeting the rest of Libra was a big enough deal. Meeting the family (or at least the sister)? That would be massive. He knew how much Leo cared about her, he wrote letters so often and talked about her almost just as much. Black was pretty sure she knew of him. He just didn’t know how much she knew about it. Was she aware that he had indirectly been the one that caused the Second Great Collapse? That it was, in a way, something that he still blamed himself for?

Well, he would see how this meeting went with Libra, where people did know who he was and what he had done. Then he could think about meeting Mishella. 

_____

It was two weeks later that Leo came to Black saying that he had a date in mind for when he could meet up with the rest of Libra. They couldn’t meet up at the organization’s headquarters, since it was supposed to be a secret. Black was secretly relieved by this, knowing himself well enough to assume that while he trusted Leo’s coworkers, he wouldn’t be fully at ease there. He had attacked and nearly killed some of them, after all. He may have killed people that they knew. Who knew if someone was planning to at least threaten him? Not that Leo would let anything happen to him, obviously. But he didn’t want to pit Leo against his coworkers if something like that did happen. 

So, instead, the group was going to meet up at a restaurant situated near Libra’s headquarters. It was out of the way enough that there wouldn't be many other people nearby, but was still busy enough that there wouldn’t be too much attention (good or bad) drawn to them. When he told Vivian, she smiled excitedly. 

“Wow! I don’t know the details about where Leo or the rest of his friends work, but I know that everyone there is super close given how he talks about them. Having you meet everyone else finally is exciting, and it really shows how much he cares about you.”

“R-really? You think so?” Black had known that it was a big deal, that Leo wanted him to meet the rest of Libra. In a way, they were his substitute family here in Hellsalem’s Lot. But he hadn’t thought about it in that way; that Leo was also showing how much he cared about him. “I mean, I was going to meet the rest of them somehow, so this might just be one of those things where-”

“No, trust me! I was right last time!” Vivian exclaimed.”Besides, we both know Leo well. If he didn’t care about you as much as he does, do you think he would want you to meet them so bad?”

Black paused for a second, thinking it over in his head. Then, hesitantly, he spoke. “I guess not… They are all pretty close. He’s been telling me a lot about them for a long time, too.”

Vivian nodded. “See? You have nothing to worry about. Besides, we both already know Zapp and Zed! They’re nice enough, well Zed it. Zapp can be difficult sometimes, but both of them know you two are dating, right? They don’t seem to have any issue with it and like you a lot, so who’s to say everyone else won’t be like that? Leo hangs out with a good crowd from what I can tell, so everyone else is probably just as good as he makes them out to be. And you know he doesn’t pull punches. With Zapp, at least,” she had laughed. 

And so, after work on a Tuesday afternoon, Black waved goodbye to Vivian (who almost demanded that he tell her all about it) and walked towards the park where Leo would be so they could show up to the restaurant together. 

As he met up with Leo and the two walked closer to where the others were, saying that he wasn’t nervous would be the biggest lie he had told in the last year. “I know everyone will like you, you don’t have to worry about anything!” Leo had told him, though Black could tell he was a tiny bit nervous as well. After all, no matter how much he talked, neither of them knew how everyone would react for sure. 

_____

When they arrived, everyone was waiting outside. A blond haired woman with an eyepatch saw them first, turning and waving. “Leo! Leo’s boyfriend! Hey!” She called, catching everyone else’s attention as well. As they approached, she walked up to the two of them, smiling at Leo and sticking her hand out towards Black. “Hey there! Name’s K.K! Leo’s mentioned a lot about you, you know.”

“Uh- hey! My name’s Black, though you may already know that I guess.” He smiled back nervously, reaching out to shake her hand. The woman smiled, nodding determinedly. She opened her mouth to talk again, but was interrupted by the black haired man he was pretty sure was named Steven Starphase. 

“Hello there. Like K.K said, we’ve heard a lot about you. Black, I believe you said? That’s what Leo’s called you anyhow. Good to finally meet you!”

Black chuckled nervously, shaking the man’s hand as well. “Yep, that’s me I guess! I’ve heard about you, well all of you, a lot too. It’s nice to finally meet you all!” He smiled now, trying to hide how nervous and awkward he felt looking at everyone in the group. The black haired woman who he assumed was Chain was looking at him while also punching Zapp. Something that he would have been concerned over if Leo didn’t make it sound like this happened regularly. Zed was standing next to the two watching as Black greeted everyone. He smiled when he made eye contact with Black, who blushed and quickly looked away. 

Eventually, Chain stopped in her punching of Zapp and walked over to him, greeting him as well. “It’s good to finally meet you,” she said. “Leo talks about you a lot, though I guess the others have already said that. I assume that you’re looking after him well enough?” 

Black didn’t know how to respond for a second before chuckling and shrugging his shoulders. Did they not trust him to look after Leo? Did they think he wasn’t trustworthy or that he would leave Leo out to dry at the first sign of danger? “I-I try!” He said instead. “Mostly just making sure he’s okay after some hard missions that you guys do. Though honestly he’s probably done a lot more for me,” he said, a fond smile slightly taking over. “Giving me a place to stay when I moved back to this city and all.”

At this, Chain nodded. A small smile slipped onto her face as well. “Good,” she said. “He needs it. I know he can be self-sacrificing at times.” 

A small, but genuine, laugh left Black’s mouth at that. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. He can be. No offense to you, though, Leo!” He exclaimed when his boyfriend let out a jokingly offended ‘hey!’ at hearing his reply. “It’s just that, well, I mean, you can be. Sometimes.”

He talked to Chain for a while more, greeting Zapp and Zed. He already knew the two of them, which made things easier. It seemed like everyone else was nice too, and he was almost sure that the didn’t have much to worry about. Everyone smiled at him so easily, he could tell it was honest. Which meant that they either didn’t know what he had done or, hopefully at least, had forgiven him. Though he didn’t know how that second one would be possible. 

Speaking of forgiveness.

There was one more person from Libra that he hadn’t met yet. It was also the person he had feared meeting the most, despite everything that Leo had said. Klaus. Out of the members of Libra, Klaus had been the one that he fought against. He had hurt the other, tried to kill him , and who could forgive someone who tried to kill them?

Almost like his mind was being read, Klaus started walking towards him. Black couldn’t see any anger or distrust on his face, but that didn’t mean the man was about to be nice towards him. He didn’t have much of a reason too, after all. He couldn’t help but tense slightly as the other got closer, and he almost jumped when Leo reached out towards him and grabbed his hand for a moment, squeezing it reassuringly before letting go. Black had confessed to him about how nervous he was to meet Klaus in particular, after all. 

“Hello, Black. My name is Klaus, and I am the leader of Libra. It’s very nice to meet you. I can tell that Leo cares about you a lot, which makes me all the more happy to get to know you.” With that, the man stuck out his hand and gave what looked to be a genuine smile. Black slowly reached his hand up to shake the other’s, though at the last second he hesitated. 

“I- I’m so sorry. I don’t mean to cause a problem, but I just want to know. Why are you being so nice to me? I did horrible things, to you especially out of everyone here. I don’t want you to feel forced to be kind to me.” He said, voice shaking. Everyone was looking at him now, eyebrows raised. Should he have not said that? No, of course he shouldn’t have. But he needed to know, almost needed to hear that they hadn’t forgiven him for some reason. He didn’t want to keep telling himself that they were only faking their kindness, he needed to know if everyone was angry at him.

Klaus paused for a moment, hand still suspended in mid air. Then, slowly, he retracted it, a confused but serious look falling onto his face. “Are you referring to the Second Great Collapse from two years ago now? Why would I blame you for what happened?”

“Because I caused it. I hurt a lot of people, and fought against you especially. I don’t know how you could forgive me for any of that. How any of you could.” He added last minute, looking down at the ground.

“Son, I’m aware of what was going on. We all are. When Leo told us your name, Steven recognized it and looked at the reports from that night. You were possessed by an elder blood breed and had no control of the situation in any way. Nothing that happened is your fault in any way, and that’s why I can forgive you, though I never blamed you in the first place.” 

As he spoke, everyone else around them nodded along. Leo smiled nervously when Black looked at him, a smile on his face. Black nodded back hesitantly, though it clearly must have been obvious that he didn’t fully trust what Klaus was saying, because a second later the man named Steven Starphase jumped in. “Yeah, kid,” the man said, “you were in a bad situation. Reports said you had been dealing with that awful blood breed for three years. I couldn’t imagine.”

Black was utterly shocked. No matter how much his brain was screaming at him that they were lying, something deep down recognized that what they were saying was genuine. “I just- I feel like I could have done more to stop him. I’d been fighting Despair for three years and succeeded more or less, so I should have been able to prevent what he was planning to do-”

“You did all you could do. Sorry if I sound rude about it, but that’s just the truth, kid.” K.K said now. “No one here blames you for anything.”

Next to her, Chain voiced her agreement. Zed nodded, Zapp even muttering his support. “Me and Zed have known since almost day one. If I blamed you for any of that I would have jumped over the counter and kicked your ass day one.” The white haired man said.

Looking around, Black couldn’t help but stare in open shock. Zapp and Zed had always known? He had just assumed that they didn’t because they never brought it up or gave him weird looks. Just treated him the same way that they would anyone else.

“I-I just, I mean, I caused you guys so much trouble. I could have hurt, even killed- ” he started though Leo cut him off with a gentle squeeze of his shoulder as the brown haired boy stepped towards him comfortingly. 

“Hey,” the other said softly. “It’s okay.” Black nodded slowly, leaning into Leo as the other spoke those words.

He didn’t know what had changed at that moment, what suddenly clicked, but something deep in him snapped. Suddenly he found it easier to trust the people in front of him who were saying that they didn’t blame him for everything that had happened that horrid night. While he still didn’t fully believe that they held absolutely no grudges or anger towards him (and that part was simply him trying to reason with himself that these people shouldn’t have forgiven him yet, they shouldn’t-), he believed them when they at least said they didn’t blame him. 

“I- yeah, okay. I believe you all, thank you so much. I just always thought that you would feel at least something bad towards me. If nothing else, I certainly caused you a lot of paperwork.” He laughed nervously, trying to lighten the mood. “Anyhow, Klaus, I’m sorry that I thought that. Do you want to do introductions again?” He smiled nervously, looking up at the man towering before him. 

Klaus smiled down at him now, nodding. “I would like that very much. So, Black I believe you like to be called? Hello, my name is Klaus. I’m happy to finally meet you. How are you doing today?”

_____

The rest of the meeting flew by fast, albeit Black still feeling slightly awkward. But everyone at Libra was so nice and friendly, all eager to get to know him. They teased Leo, asking if he was any trouble for Black, and laughing back when he joked that the other wasn’t, but that the other getting hurt all the time had made him put an extra med kit or two in the bathroom. 

When him and Leo left, Black felt genuine happiness. Once again, he felt that Vivian was right, and knew that she would declare that fact pridefully when he told her about how everything had gone. That night, when him and Leo had arrived back home and settled in together on the couch, Black couldn’t but smile.

“I’m glad I met them. You were right, they’re all very nice. They don’t blame me either. You were right, and I guess I knew you were right, but it’s nice to have that confirmation. Today was great.”

Leo had turned and smiled at that happily. “I knew you would like them! And I’m glad you got to meet them as well. Today was perfect.” 

The two watched TV for a while more, simply enjoying each other's presence for a while more before both got up and got ready for bed, where they once again curled up together. “Goodnight, Black.” Leo yawned, already falling asleep. “Love you.”

Black froze for a second at the words, though the other was clearly too asleep to tell. Then, after a moment, Black relaxed again and curled up tighter against Leo.

“Night, Leo. I love you too.”