Chapter Text
This is so bad, I am so sorry. I don’t own anything.
This is a part of mine & the wonderful, the amazing @thedragonemperess’s au. They are so supportive of my work & i one hundred percent don’t deserve their kindness.
50’s
The Hollywood Ghost Club was incredibly quiet in the beginning when Caleb and John first moved in, during the late 1940’s.
The building was stripped bare and practically falling apart in some places.
Fortunately, it wasn’t something they had to be too concerned about. There was a skeleton staff waiting for them and thankfully that included builders a recently deceased interior designer.
They could and did get started on building the place up from the moment they moved in.
Caleb was quite excited to move in.
Sure, he had loved the apartment he had shared with John and spent many happy years in and yes, he had gone to great measure to keep it to his exact standards, but the offer to run a lavish club for the dead was too good to refuse.
John was always skeptical about how they managed to acquire such a place and position, Caleb could tell.
His husband didn’t trust the man that pulled the strings and whilst Caleb was, at the very, very beginning, a little wary himself, he was quite quick to put those worries to bed.
Eventually coming to the realisation that the mysterious man was wise and incredibly generous, much like his offer.
Yes, the price was high, but Caleb always thought that it was worth it.
That it was better than losing John to the dark room, or returning there himself.
“How is this ours?” John had mused when they stepped into their penthouse suite for the first time.
Caleb was holding his favourite lamp and a bag filled with other things that he and John couldn’t bear to part with from their apartment in one hand and John’s hand in the other.
“It’s not that impressive, Jonathan.” Caleb had remarked, the room, whilst incredibly spacious, was bare at the time, gutted and in serious need of a makeover.
“Caleb, this room alone is bigger than our apartment.”
“Oh, most definitely, but it needs decorating before I can be satisfied with it, darling. It’s not exactly the cat’s meow.” Caleb had placed his stuff down, moving to examine the walls, whilst John went up a small set of steps to push open two large double doors to reveal a large bedroom.
“This place is amazing.” John had spoken in awe and smiled as the light from the long, but narrow glass window in the bedroom filled the room with a gentle glow.
“I thought we would keep the same colour scheme we had in our apartment.” Caleb had suggested.
“Am I allowed any input on that decision?” John had smirked and raised an eyebrow in response.
“Of course, this is your home too, doll.”
“So if I said that if I wanted to decorate the bedroom all by myself with no assistance from you...”
“Absolutely not!”
Laughing softly, John had returned to the top of the staircase, his hand hovering over the silver stair rail briefly as he’d tried to figure out how he was going to word the question he had wanted to ask.
“Caleb, seriously. How is this our place now?”
“I told you, our new big shot appeared at our apartment, informed me that we were making quite the statement in the afterlife what with how we were handling the living that would take up residence in our apartment and ruin my decor...”
“Okay, for one, most of that was all you, I never felt comfortable with how we were terrorising and sometimes even accidentally killing those people.” John retorted.
“Accidentally.” Caleb snorted.
It was never an accident on his part, those people irked him and some were nasty pieces of work that had it coming.
He would only ever haunt and terrorise those that didn’t appear a disgrace to humanity.
The rest, he wouldn’t be so merciful with.
“Two, that was what you told me yesterday when you were explaining this.” John continued.
“What? Is that not enough for you?” Caleb had frowned.
“This place is amazing, really, it is and I am looking forward to building up and running a club for lost souls with you. I’ve always wanted to do more and the thought of providing something to other people like us is great, but...”
“Why does there have to be a ‘but’? Can’t you just enjoy this, my love?” Caleb sighed.
“I want to, but as much as I appreciate this and am looking forward to the next chapter of our, afterlife, I guess. Why did we get this for free? Who was that guy who brought us here and offered us this place? It can’t seriously be because of what we were doing back at the apartment.” John had rested his hands on his hips, as he’d fixed Caleb with a skeptical look.
“I don’t know what to tell you, John. You must have lost track of time, we made quite a bit of noise back at the apartment. We were probably a threat to the natural order or something.”
“Then why not punish us for what we did? Why have we been rewarded?” John had pressed.
“Why ask? What we have here is quite frankly, magical. Enjoy it with me, don’t question it, doll.” Caleb had forced himself to shrug off John’s concerns.
Knowing that his partner would be opposed to the truth.
He was always painstakingly aware of that.
“Why did he give you powers? How did he do that?” John added.
“Oh come on, you enjoyed me flying us to the roof of the apartment last night.”
“I’m not saying that I didn’t. I’m just... I just don’t know what to make of this and I’m worried that...”
“Oh, honey, you don’t have to worry.” Caleb had crossed the room then to reach John’s side, resting his hands against his husband’s cheeks.
“Honestly, I don’t think there’s really much of anything that we have to ever worry about again.” He had pressed a quick, but loving kiss to John’s forehead in an attempt to quell his worries.
“This is our home now.”
Caleb adjusted to the change a lot faster than John did.
They both spent the early days fixing up the club and greeting the souls that started to appear quite soon after they’d added the finishing touches to the interior of the club.
John felt rather proud of himself when he was the one to decide on the name for their club, but it was always a concern him that he didn’t much contribute to The Hollywood Ghost Club.
Not like Caleb did.
It bothered him, Caleb was always quick to remind him that they co-owned the club and that he would always have a say in how it was run, but John wasn’t stupid.
He knew that the mysterious man that gave them this wonderful opportunity, preferred to collaborate with Caleb.
That Caleb was expected to hold the meetings with the higher management and that he wasn’t supposed to be a part of that.
It should have been a clear warning sign when Caleb told him that he didn’t need him at those meetings, that it was just admin.
Caleb lied to him easily and without him even noticing back then.
Over time, John felt unsure of his place.
There still wasn’t many ghosts coming to their club and Caleb was either occupied with interior designing or caught up in meetings.
They had spoken about it one day, when Caleb was framing his arguably surreal magazine covers that featured him when he was alive.
“Need a hand, handsome?” John had smiled as he’d approached his husband who had just teleported to another part of the stairs when he had noticed that the picture he was nailing down was at an odd angle.
“You’re the handsome one, my darling.” Caleb had remarked in response, cursing when he noticed another mistake in his work.
“Don’t go anywhere though, I want you to stay.” Caleb had turned his head briefly so that he could see his husband, who was shaking his head at the pictures.
“My god.” John had chuckled as he’d gone to Caleb’s side and wrapped his arms around him from behind.
Caleb had adjusted his grip on the frame so that he could give John’s hand a squeeze.
“Why are you doing this again?” John had enquired, smirking at the picture.
“I thought you agreed with me on this one, doll?”
“When you said you wanted to hang pictures on the wall of our establishment, I thought you meant abstract art, you know, like the ones we’ve already hung up?” John had pointed out.
“And they are fine and dandy, Jonathan, but these? Come on, they look great!” Caleb admired his and John’s handy-work.
“Why did you have to bring them in the first place, Caleb?” John questioned, as he stood up on tiptoes to kiss Caleb’s cheek.
“They are a part of our past, I couldn’t just leave them behind. Why, do you not think that I’m sexy all the time?” Caleb smirked, eying the magazine cover that was of, what he thought was a glorious picture of himself above the magazine title ‘Behind the scenes of Caleb’s Sexiest Role’.
“Shut up.” John chuckled.
He knew that if was alive then he would probably have been blushing.
“I don’t remember you complaining at the time.” Caleb retorted.
“You and I remember that time differently...” John started, but was cut off by Caleb who had turned around to kiss his husband.
With John being shorter, Caleb had very nearly knocked him down the stairs, but had caught him last minute.
They had continued to kiss after clearing the obstacle that was the steps and John leant against one of the walls.
“Careful.” Caleb had been the one to break the kiss, having not wanted John to disturb the work they’d done.
“You didn’t have to display them all.” John shook his head, whilst he had found an empty spot on the wall to lean against.
Caleb had stared into his husband’s electric blue eyes before pressing a kiss to his forehead.
“Of course we did. I’m incredibly proud of them, Jonathan.”
John laughed again and then he had looked away.
“What? You don’t really have a problem with this, do you?” Caleb had frowned.
“No, it’s not that. I was just thinking about how nice this is.” John had admitted.
“Then why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because this is the first time you and I have spent uninterrupted time in the day together since we got here, Caleb.” John had pointed out.
“We see each other every day.”
“But we don’t do this, we don’t put aside enough time to be with each other, you’re either in a meeting or spending the day making sure other people are doing their jobs.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it, I’ll always make time for you.” Caleb had assured his husband.
“I know you’re busy...”
“You are infinitely more important to me.” Caleb had silenced John with a kiss.
“I love you, Caleb.” John had murmured against his husband’s lips.
“I love you too. Now come on, it is time for you and I to dip the bill.” Caleb had grabbed his hand.
“Caleb, sweetheart it’s 1958 not 1928.” John had pointed out in response to Caleb’s use of 1920’s slang that he never really quit using.
Yet when Caleb had merely laughed at him, John had realised that Caleb probably wasn’t going to change his ways.
Despite the reassurance he had received from Caleb that day, John had continued to feel lost.
He wasn’t sure if his partner had even noticed though.
John started spending less time trying to make conversation with the few ghosts that were around in the club and more time in his and Caleb’s suite.
Sitting around on their comfy, purple velvet plush couch.
Eventually he just stopped getting out of bed all together.
However, Caleb had realised that John had become more and more withdrawn.
It became apparent to him when he kept coming back to their suite to find John still in bed, wrapped up in their duvet and blankets.
Convinced that his husband probably hadn’t moved since he’d left him in the morning, Caleb was certain that something was wrong and he intended to fix it.
Caleb had, what he believed to be, a grand idea.
A way to cheer his husband up.
Normally, he’d just go back to their suite, climb into bed with John and just hold him, asking him if he wanted to talk about anything.
John would just say that he was tired and nothing else.
Caleb never pushed, but he did plan on trying to help.
Once he’d set everything up, he’d gone to collect John from their apartment.
“I’m back!” He had called the second he’d stepped through the door.
Sure, he could have just materialised in their suite, but John was always incredibly pedantic about them using the door like normal people.
Their suite was lightly illuminated with a soft purple neon glow.
They had large neon signs fitted that they never turned off.
Neither of them were too fond of the dark.
John remembered dozing off once barely even a few days after escaping the dark room and waking in a panic.
Afraid that he was trapped in the dark room again and that Caleb was gone.
Fortunately, Caleb was resting next to him at the time and had quickly gone to comfort his husband upon seeing him so distressed.
They’d decided to always leave a light on then, it became an unspoken thing.
Wandering into their bedroom, Caleb had bent down on John’s side of the bed, where his husband lay, staring at the wall
from where he was once again, wrapped up in their duvet and blankets.
“Darling.” Caleb had started to stroke John’s cheek with his long fingers and rested his other hand on his shoulder.
John made a noise in response, but no words were formed.
Caleb sighed.
“Have you moved at all since I left?”
“What time is it?” John murmured then.
“Late, my working day is done, honey.”
“Then no. I didn’t realise that it had been that long.” John had replied quietly.
“Come on, doll. I want to show you something.” Caleb informed him as he continued to stroke his cheek.
“I’m not in the mood.” John murmured and disappeared further into their duvet.
“Yeah, that’s not good enough.”
“It’s good enough for me.” John had grumbled.
“Humour me, come on.” Caleb held out his hand.
“Caleb, I don’t want to.”
“I know you don’t, but I want to show you something. It’s important.” He ended up saying in an attempt to convince his husband to move.
“How important?”
“Very.”
“This better be important.” John had grumbled as Caleb was leading him to the roof of the club.
Again, he could’ve just taken them there instantly, but honestly, at the time, he thought that John could do with a walk, a gradual change of scenery instead of a sudden one.
“It is to me.” Caleb had replied as he’d brought John out onto the roof.
“Seriously?” John had immediately raised an eyebrow at his partner.
When he’d been dragged out onto the roof, the first thing he saw was a table and two chairs, both with cushions on them and there was an entire feast spread out across the table.
The feast had seemingly appeared to have been made up of several different courses to the point where food was basically on the very edge of the table.
There were also various ornate lanterns around the set up too and they were extremely beautiful.
“Okay. This, this is nice.” John had, had to admit to a smirking Caleb.
“But food? Caleb, we’re dead, we can’t eat.” He’d pointed out.
“Here we can.” Caleb replied and when John turned around, he saw that he was carrying a potted orchid.
The sight alone had made John start smiling again.
“Thank you, honey.” John accepted the plant.
“There’s more where that came from, if you’re interested. I know you used to love your horticulture.” Caleb pointed out and received another smile from John in response.
“You can grow them up here, if you want. You can have a greenhouse as long as it’s far away from the pool I’m planning on putting up here.” Caleb informed him.
“A pool? Caleb, why would you want a pool on the roof? I’d have though that a nice swing seat would look much better next to a greenhouse.” John had retorted.
“The greenhouse isn’t going to be near the pool, so it would be fine.”
“I’d prefer it if there was a swing seat up here.”
“John, honey, we can do whatever we want, if you’re that desperate, we can put the swing seat in the pool.” Caleb had suggested.
“We don’t need a pool, anyway, interior arguments aside. Did you cook this?” John had enquired a few moments later whilst he was admiring his plant.
“Oh god no.” Caleb had confirmed.
“Great.” John gave him a knowing look.
“My food was never that bad, Jonathan.”
“Says the man who gave himself food poisoning and who proceeded to take the whole ensemble down with him?” John chuckled as he reminded Caleb of that unfortunate incident.
“I still don’t know how you avoided that.”
“Because I knew what you were like in the kitchen.” John had retorted with another one of his dazzling smiles that Caleb had always adored.
Which is what lead to the conversation Caleb had wanted to start with his partner.
“Look, I’m sorry I haven’t been around as much. I know I’ve been here, there and everywhere since we got here.” Caleb had put his arms around John.
“And I completely understand why.” John had replied.
“All I want is to feel like I’m a part of this too, that I’m of some use to you.”
“What? Why on earth would you think that you weren’t?”
“You know why.” John gave him a look.
“Jonathan, this is our club, our business.” Caleb reminded him.
“And yet you are the one that goes to meetings all day with the ‘higher management’ and other ghosts without me.”
“I’m constantly swamped with admin, organising job applications, the fundamentals of design and meetings after meetings. Come on, darling, you don’t want to be a part of all of that, it’s boring! You’ve got a much better job, keeping an eye on things when I’m not here, actually getting to know the ghosts that are starting to visit us and you have an active role in designing this place. Your job is so much more enviable than mine.” Caleb had retorted.
“When we were alive, I was the writer. I wrote countless songs and scripts for the productions. Honestly, I’d probably do a better job of the admin. You were always more of a people person.” John had pointed out.
“We were both people persons, dear.” Caleb chuckled.
“True.” John nodded with a slight smile.
“Sometimes I miss that you know, the theatre. I did enjoy writing, I enjoyed watching you perform and now?” John shrugged.
“Is that why you’ve been locking yourself away, doll?” Caleb searched his husband’s magnetic blue eyes for the answer.
“We can get that back, you know.”
“How?”
“You can start writing again and I can start building an ensemble of our own. This is a club after all, we can perform in it if we want to and believe me, I want to do exactly that.” Caleb admitted.
“That would be nice.” John had replied.
“It would, wouldn’t it? I could even start performing my tricks again.”
“No!” John didn’t think that he meant to snap at Caleb then, but it was his automatic response.
“I’ll give that one a few years, okay?” Caleb pressed a kiss to John’s forehead.
“No.” John had whispered quietly.
He was and always would be firm about his stance on that certain aspect of entertainment, especially after what had happened when they were alive.
“We got all the time in the world to work out what we want to do in this place. We can start off small...”
“Caleb, honey, our performances were anything but small and you know it.” John couldn’t help but chuckle.
“And we can make them bigger, darling. Bigger and better, we’ll create a new ensemble of our own, we’ll be the highlight of the afterlife and ghosts will come from all corners of the earth to see what the fuss is all about.” Caleb proclaimed and whilst he laughed, John stood on tiptoes a little so that he could kiss him.
“Please don’t think that I don’t love this. I do, this place is great, I have you. We. I spent so much of my life hating myself for who I was and because I loved you. I never once thought that there would ever be a place like this for us.” John admitted as he had remained in Caleb’s embrace.
“Oh I know, you thought we were going to hell and I didn’t believe in afterlife.”
“Exactly.” John had nodded before he had given his partner another sweet kiss.
“I love you.” Caleb murmured against his lips.
“You are everything and more to me.” Caleb informed him between kisses.
“I love you too, Caleb.” John replied.
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, you know that right?”
“I know.” Caleb had smiled.
“Shall we eat?”
“Seeing as we, well I haven’t eaten since we died, this should be interesting.” John agreed and Caleb took his hand and started to lead him towards the table when John stopped him suddenly.
“What?”
John just smiled again and placed his other hand over Caleb’s.
“If this is for all eternity, do you think you’re still going to love me a hundred years from now?”
“Of course I am, honey. However, I’m still not convinced on your name for this place.” Caleb retorted.
“Not this again.” John couldn’t help but groan.
“I just don’t think that it will stick.”
“It will, please, just trust me on this one.” John had sighed, letting Caleb lead him to the table.
“I also think that we should definitely have a pool on this roof...”
“Caleb, no.”