Life is but a Dream; part 2

[trista_zevkia]

When Klink woke up in the hospital, it was the empty room that let him know he was awake. No flowers or get well cards littered the private room and he had laid there for two hours before a nurse came to check on him. Alone, forgotten and in pain, so it was life as normal. The doctors released him for full duty five days later. They didn’t say it, but he could see from their faces that they believed he was faking the continuing pain in his head. Klink had sighed and accepted their condemnation. He had stayed in the lonely room, recuperating and thinking about ways to die. His dreams and puffed up arrogance had deserted him, so he had only reality to spend time with.

A private from Stalag 13 had picked him up in the same car that had caused this mess, but Klink was too tired to ask how they had found it. They arrived in camp after evening roll call and Klink had made it to his quarters without seeing anybody. He changed clothes and carried a large glass of schnapps to bed with him. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he stared at the alcohol instead of drinking it. The room was silent, so Klink was visibly startled when a large hand took the glass from him. Heart pounding, Klink watched the glass lift up so Hogan could drink it. Wide-eyed and mouth open, Klink watched Hogan shiver a little from the burn of such a large glass.

“That’ll help me warm up, thanks.” Hogan kicked his shoes off as he sat next to Klink, who finally found his words.

“Hogan! Get back to your barracks this minute!”

“Normally I would, you know how I love following orders. But everybody would get in trouble if I was in my bunk come morning. How’s your head?”

“The headache won’t go away, but the doctors think I’m faking.” Klink reached up to rub at the spot that had impacted on the wood. It was a wound he couldn’t explain to the curious doctors, since he didn’t understand how he could hurt himself so bad while unconscious. “Wait! Why would there be trouble if you were in your bunk?”

Hogan didn’t answer right away, as he was changing position on the bed. Klink was still rubbing his head and only realized where Hogan was shifting to when he felt warmth surround him. Klink dropped his hands to the legs around him and turned wide eyes on the body behind him. Gentle hands turned his face back to the front and began massaging Klink’s head.

“Hogan, your hands are like ice!”

“Yeah, the cold might help your headache. If not, they’ll warm up shortly. I didn’t have my gloves on me when your replacement sent me to the cooler.”

“Why did he send you to the cooler?” Klink had a hard time forcing those words out, he was trying to decide if he was asleep or not. This felt real, but Hogan was touching him so it had to be a dream again.

“Because he could. That’s why I didn’t visit you in the hospital, so I hope you weren’t disappointed.” It didn’t even occur to Klink to doubt that Hogan could have come to see him in the hospital if he wanted. Klink was trying to decide if he should admit to wishing for death to ease his loneliness or pretend he had people lined up to see him. But he couldn’t think well enough to form even a partially coherent lie, he was mainly concerned with feeling Hogan wrapped around him.

“Hogan, is this a dream?”There was a long moment of silence as the massaging hands moved down to Klink’s neck.

“Life is but a dream, Wili, so you can call me Rob.”

“In dreams you are Rob, but I can’t imagine being Wili in this or any life.” Klink could hear his normal level of despair creeping into his voice. Even as it embarrassed him, Klink wished Rob would fix it.

“Wili, I don’t think you’re going to believe me, but what I am about to tell you is true. Even skilled people can get lonely.” Klink’s breath hitched at the words being whispered into his ear, but Rob kept talking. “I can talk people into doing almost anything, but the most seductive thing I ever heard came from you. You said that you saw my manipulations and still wanted me. Most people get close enough to see that part of me and leave, but you understand it’s part of me. I’ve searched my whole life for that kind of acceptance, and I can’t let you get away just because we are enemies.”

 “Beautiful words, my dream.” Wili sighed, and closed his eyes as he leaned into the strong torso behind him. Hands other than his own hugged Wilhelm for the first time in a long time and Wili smiled. “Your hands have warmed up.”

“So they have.” Replied a soft voice and then Hogan began to move. Klink had just started cursing himself for a fool for disturbing his dream when he realized Rob was taking off his clothes. Wili could only stare as a broad chest emerged from the uniform. As he took off his socks and pants, Rob started speaking. “I’ve often laughed at the old fashioned nightgown you wear, with the pointed little hat, but I finally understand its appeal.”

Wili had to swallow a couple of times before he could speak. “What appeal?”

Rob had his hands at the waistband of his underwear, so Wili’s wide eyes almost missed the mischievous look on Rob’s face. “Easy access.”

“Easy…” Wili was trying to ask what Rob was talking about accessing, but a naked, mostly hard Rob drained the blood from Wili’s brain. A large hand shoved Wili’s back onto the bed, while another pulled up the nightgown for access. Then Colonel Robert Hogan, enemy of the Fatherland, was kissing him and all was right with the universe. Rob stroked Wili’s erection and ignored his own, which stopped Wili’s brain from working. Nobody had ever been concerned with making Wili happy, not even during this intimate act. Rob trailed kisses down Wili’s jaw line to do something exotic to his throat and Wile moaned his pleasure. He wanted this to last forever, but his luck held and put a thought into his brain. This wasn’t sex, it was making love and Wili could only gasp as this knowledge put him over the edge.

“I guess you like that.” A husky voice murmured into Wili’s throat and caused his penis to twitch hopefully. Wili looked down and confirmed Rob was physically interested in him. Wili’s response was in a commanding voice that would have made the army proud if he had used it in other circumstances.

“Lay on your back.” Rob looked up at him in surprise, but grinned and did as he was told, for once. Wili turned perpendicular to Rob and positioned himself to taste the erection in front of him. Salty, but wonderfully responsive to the things Wili was doing with his tongue. As Wili slowly took more of the large cock in his mouth, Rob was too far gone to notice if Wili moistened his own fingers. When a wet finger slowly shoved its way into Rob, that he noticed and bucked wildly in response to. Wili’s normally klutzy hands had long, graceful fingers and the second finger touched a spot in Rob that had him biting his own hand to keep from yelling. A sweet eternity of probing and sucking before Wili buried his aristocratic nose in Rob’s pubic hair. Biting hard enough to draw blood, Rob found completion.

Rob could only lay on the bed and pant for several minutes. Wili was perfectly content to lay on Rob and watch him breathe, trailing fingers across that broad chest. In the dim light from the fire, Wili wondered at the fading bruises Rob had, but was unwilling to ask about them. When Rob shivered, it seemed to bring him around. Pulling Wili with him, Rob arranged them under the blankets, facing each other, arms and legs entwined. With a soft kiss on Wili’s forehead, Rob spoke before he could fall asleep.

“I think, Wili, we’ve finally found your talent.”

“I guess you liked that.” Wili allowed himself a smirk; it was really nice to be appreciated!

“Never had better.” Rob was mostly asleep, so Wili could accept the words as true. Wili watched Rob fall asleep, wonder, excitement and hope swirling in his mind and keeping him awake for a long time. With Hogan, the impossible was accomplished daily!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

When his alarm went off, Klink had been surprised to see he was alone. The scale of dried semen on his stomach glued his nightgown to his body and hurt to peel off. He was so angry at his dreams for getting his hopes up that he stomped about until roll call. He planned on using any excuse to order Hogan to the cooler, since the damn man was the cause of all his pain, but Hogan wasn’t there. A startled Shultz had to tell him Hogan was in solitary and a confused Klink had wondered how his imagination knew about that. Dismissing the prisoners, Klink had retreated to his office and found his replacement hadn’t submitted a single piece of paperwork the entire time he was gone.

It took an hour of searching to find the report that sentenced Hogan to thirty days of solitary for an attempted escape. The sentence started four days after the Kommandant’s meeting, but it took another twenty minutes to find the report on those four days. Another half hour passed before Klink could calm himself enough to call Shultz and have Hogan released from the cooler. From his window, Klink watched as excited prisoners ran to greet their leader and escort him to the barracks. Talking to the men that surrounded him, Hogan didn’t look in Klink’s direction. Klink stared after Hogan long after he was out of sight, trying to figure this out.

How much of his memories, since that damn meeting, had actually happened? Had Hogan been too busy to look at him or had he gotten what he wanted and was no longer interested in Wili? Or was last night another dream, vivid and bright but gone when the sun came? How would Hogan have even gotten out of the cooler to see him, and if he could do that, why did he go back? Klink sighed and rested his forehead against the window. He was Wilhelm Klink, and Hogan could get him to do whatever he wanted. Hogan ran this camp and only stayed to annoy the Germans. If he could accept being Hogan’s pet kraut, Klink wouldn’t have to worry so much.

Another sigh and Klink turned to sit at his desk, hiding behind the mounds of paper. The headache that Rob’s fingers had taken away came back at the sight of that tedious work. Pulling a small glass bottle out of his drawer, he allowed himself two of the rationed aspirin. Putting the pills in his mouth he reached for his water glass, only to find it empty. The water pitcher was also empty and a bitter taste was expanding in his mouth as the pills dissolved. Desperate, he almost ran to the decanter to pour two fingers of schnapps. That got rid of the taste, but before he could put the glass down the office door burst open. Klink turned and almost dropped the glass at what he saw.

“Not even after lunch and you are already drinking on the job!"

“My water was empty and the pills…”

“Bah! I do not want to hear your feeble excuses! Just know this will go in my report.”

“What report, Major Hochstetter?” Klink set the glass down, knowing the Gestapo wasn’t interested in the truth.

“I will ask the questions here, Klink! The doctors would not let me interrogate you before, but now that you are on full duty, you will explain this to me.”

“Explain what?” Confused, Klink made his way over to his desk. The paperwork would make a nice buffer between him and Hochstetter’s temper. If he was lucky, it might even absorb some of the noise the shouting Major made.

“Your injury and miraculous rescue.”

“All that was in the doctor’s report.”

“Bah! Cowering doctors who believe in mercy and compassion. You will tell me. How did you get injured?” Klink sighed and sat in his chair, hoping that answering the questions would get rid of the Major.

“I was at the monthly Kommandant meeting. On the way back, I got lost and had a flat tire. There was no spare, so I took a flashlight and walked back to the main road. When I heard voices, I thought I was saved and turned to signal to them.” Not exactly true, but Klink saw no need to tell the Gestapo he was looking around without considering it made him a target. “They shot at me, before asking questions, so I think they might have been Gestapo.” Hochstetter stiffened at that remark and Klink wondered what possessed him to say it. “I lost consciousness, had some strange dreams and woke up in the hospital. I don’t know how I hurt my forehead, it must have happened when I fell to the ground. I don’t know what else I can tell you, Major.”

“What you can tell me, Kommondant, is what you did to Hogan.” Klink really hated the way Hochstetter made his title so sarcastic and demeaning. “Why did he attempt to escape, successfully leave camp unnoticed only to let himself get captured when he drove you to the hospital in your staff car?”

“Americans are soft and cannot even leave an enemy to die in the road.” It was the official party line, so it should have served as an answer. But Hochstetter dismissed it with a wave of his hand.

“You told the doctors you had a flat tire and no spare. So where did Hogan get a tire to fix your car? Why did he drive you to the hospital instead of letting your staff call for a doctor? He could have left, but instead stayed around to make sure you were seen to. When the loyal hospital staff called my men, he did not resist arrest. The man never says anything useful but never shuts up, so why did he come quietly?”

“Major, I don’t know.” Klink tired not to shiver at the thought of Hogan being held by the Gestapo for four days. “I was unconscious and have never been able to understand the workings of Hogan’s mind. What would you have me tell you?”

“You will tell me when his thirty days of isolation are up. My men did not get sufficient answers out of him, so after the cooler freezes his brain, I will be taking custody of him, personally.” Klink resisted the urge to plant his aching head in his hands. No good deed goes unpunished, it seemed.

“Major, I released Hogan from solitary this morning.”

“You imbecile! I am going to break that man if I have to kill every prisoner in this stalag! Put him back this instant.” Klink was still wondering why he was standing on his feet when he heard his voice shouting at Hochstetter.

“That man is mine! The other prisoners are also under my protection from the likes of you! I cannot tell you why he saved my life, but the least I can do for him is to stop you from beating answers out of him. You decide you want any of my prisoners, you’d better have more authority than your condescending nature.”

Hochstetter was flabbergasted by Klink standing up to him. Klink was almost as shocked as Hochstetter. A hysterical part of Klink’s mind wondered if he had absorbed some of Hogan’s willpower when Rob came in his mouth last night. Or maybe, since he never considered himself worthy of fighting for, having someone worth protecting brought out a new side to Wilhelm Klink.

“Keep the others, just give me Hogan!” Hochstetter was trying to get back to the wimpy Klink he could bend to his will, but a distraction opened the door.

“Did somebody call my name?” Hogan entered the room, like he was oblivious to the tension and anger between the German officers. Hochstetter whirled on Hogan and shouted at him.

“Yes! Klink is releasing you into my custody. I am taking you to headquarters, so we can find out all about you.”

“Hochstetter! I am not giving you custody.” Klink knew to back off and let Hogan take care of the Major, but the new protective streak was strong.

“Hey guys, I don’t want you to spoil your friendship over little o’ me.”

“Friendship?” Hochstetter spat out the word, like he thought it would poison him. “I want to shoot Klink between the eyes!”

“Exactly.” Hogan’s reasonable tone was bliss after the emotional nature of the major. “Your enemies you would torture before killing.”

“And you are my enemy, Hogan!”

“Apparently not, or else you would have killed me when I was your guest a few days ago.”

“You are an enemy to the Third Reich and I will see you dead if it’s my last act in this life!”

“I bet it looks something like this.” Hogan cocked his head to the side, closed his eyes and let his tongue dangle out of his mouth. Klink swallowed a laugh, but couldn’t hide the smile. Hochstetter was not amused and stalked over to poke Hogan in the chest. Hogan flinched, like Hochstetter had gotten him in one of his healing bruises and Klink felt a new desire to kill the major. Shot him between the eyes and see how he liked it.

“You will tell me where you got a tire to fix the car. Then you will tell me why you saved Klink.”

“Well, it sounds silly when you say it out loud.”

“What?” Klink was glad Hochstetter had asked that question before he could. He trusted Hogan was smart enough to not mention whatever they might have been up to last night, though if it was a dream he wouldn’t know what not to say. Klink sighed and sat back down in his chair, still confused.

“I was afraid the Iron Colonel would come back from the dead to torment my men further.”

“Hogan!” Both Germans protested that statement, but Hogan only gave them an innocent shrug.

“As for the tire, it was just laying on the side of the road, twenty feet behind the Colonel’s car. I thought maybe it had fallen off of somebody else’s car, like yours Major. Have you seen your spare lately?”

Hochstetter looked between them for a long moment, before making a dismissive gesture with his hands. “Bah! I will get you both for this!”

Klink watched Hochstetter storm out of the office, but still jerked when the volatile major slammed the door behind him. Hogan took the time to walk over to Klink’s side of the desk and start riffling thru papers. Reflexively, Klink slapped his hand away from the papers, only to realize how much he wanted to touch the rest of Rob. There was so much he wanted to say, but Wili wasn’t even sure if last night had been real so he had to stick with reality.

“Hogan, you didn’t really steal Hochstetter’s tire, did you?”

“Why Colonel, do you think I’m capable of a thing like that?” Hogan said with a hurt expression, but he was grinning when he leaned down to kiss Wili. It was a short, silent kiss, as though Rob thought they might be overheard. Wili was still half hard when Rob pulled away. Hogan left the room, offering Klink a sloppy salute from the doorway before he closed it behind him. Klink could only speak to his empty office.

“Hogan, I think you’re capable of anything. Thank God.”