BATIM Oneshots

Lights Out

Requested by HippieMoonWitch

Disclaimer: I'll be following my Henry Stein Studios AU again so Joey's not here

[Romantic]
Sammy x Norman
Wally x Henry
Shawn x Grant

Trigger Warning:
Darkness
Trauma
Claustrophobia

—

Sammy is conducting in the band hall when the lights suddenly flicker. He visibly tenses, along with many of the others in the room, looking around. He sets his wand down, getting off his pedestal and going out into the hallway just outside the band hall where there's a window. As he leaves, lightning suddenly flashes outside the window, thunder roaring loudly as it nearly shakes the building. Suddenly, everything goes dark.

Sammy runs back into the band hall as people scream in surprise. He looks around worriedly, hardly able to see a think in the pitch black room. Suddenly, he feels a hand on his shoulder, making him flinch.

"Hey, Hey, settle down, it's just me..." Sammy turns to see Norman, his boyfriend, behind him, holding a flashlight in one hand. Sammy flinches again as a memory flashes into his head, a memory of the tall, loving, Southern man before him, except turned to a fearsome monster. Norman notices his hesitance, then slowly pulls him into his arms. "It's alright, Sam... just a power outage... nothin' is gonna happen, okay?"

Sammy hugs him lovingly, taking a gentle breath. "Y-You're right... lets try and find Mr. Connor..."

Norman nods in agreement. They get the band settled down, leaving Jack in charge, then head off into the hallway to try and find Thomas.

-.-

Wally whistles happily to himself as he unlocks his closet. He has to be careful cause he hates having to go in the tiny space. As he opens the door and goes inside, his keys in hand, suddenly thunder loudly crackles just outside a window close by. He practically screams as the lights flicker off, his keys being thrown up in the air and across the hallway from him. He stumbles back as he jumps from the sudden noise, collapsing into the closet as the door slams shut in front of him. The door automatically locks, leaving him stuck.

He groans in pain as he feels his ankle twist in a strange way when he falls. The wind is knocked out of him for a moment, but once he comes to his senses, he starts panicking. He desperately bangs on the door, screaming bloody murder as he starts to cry, painful flashbacks coming to him from his childhood. Memories of his dad hurting him and throwing him into their closet at home. He sobs and screams until his throat aches, continuing to desperately bang on the door.

-.-

Henry is sitting in his office looking over some storyboard frames Buddy had sent him, only for the lights to flicker off. Luckily for Mr. Stein, he had lit a candle just moments before. He rummages in his desk drawer and finds a lighter, pocketing it and grabbing the candle. He stands up and slowly makes his way out to go and check on his fellow workers.

-.-

Shawn notices the lights cut out and immediately grabs a flashlight from his desk drawer. He stands and leaves his office running down the hall.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," He runs up to his boyfriend's office, Grant Cohen's office, and quickly goes inside.

Sure enough, just as he'd feared, Grant is hiding under his desk. Grant trembles helplessly, muttering phrases to himself and trying not to cry. Shawn slowly goes over to him, moving the chair aside and crouching down next to the smaller man's trembling form. He keeps his flashlight on, shining it towards Grant.

"Hey, Hey, hey..." Shawn calmly speaks. "Grant, I'm here, it's okay... it's just a little power outage..."

Grant looks up at him, slowly crawling out from under the desk and into the Irishman's waiting arms. Shawn sets the flashlight upright on the ground, holding Grant close to him. He rubs his back gently. Grant had always hated the dark. It reminded him of a lot of things. The ink puddles, the cages hanging over the abyss in the old studio, the dreaded ink itself, the writings he'd scrawled all across his office walls so long ago. Grant mutters those old phrases, hyperventilating a little.

"...Th-the wasters, w-work hard work happy, t-taxes, taxes, taxes..." he whimpers quietly.

Shawn just holds him, stroking his hair. "Shh... Shh... you don't have to worry about that anymore... it's okay... it'll be okay..."

-.-

Henry eventually gets into the music department when he hears what sounds like quiet sniffling. He glances around the hall until he notices a familiar set of keys, picking them up. He looks around again.

"Wally? Wally Franks?" He calls out to the darkness.

That's when he hears the crying again, coming from a closet. Henry tenses, setting the candle onto the windowsill in the hall then rushing to the door. He fiddles with the keys until finally finding a match, quickly opening the door. His scared, sobbing, janitor boyfriend practically falls out of the closet, panting heavily. The animator quickly dips down, sitting on the floor and pulling him into his arms, gently rocking him as Wally continued to cry. Wally snuggled into Henry's chest, clinging to him and shaking, whimpering from his hurt ankle.

"Y-You s-saved m-me..." he mutters between sobs.

Henry nods. "Y-Yeah... just breath dear..." he slowly stands, still holding Wally. "You'll be safe now, I promise...." He grabs the candle and starts down the hall.

Henry, Wally, Norman, and Sammy all get to Thomas at the same time. Thomas is in the breaker room, fiddling with wires.

"Nothin's workin'... seems the lighting might've cut a power line outside..."

-.-

Everyone in the studio gathers up in the band hall. It's the biggest room in the building and it doesn't have any windows. The roads are flooded, leaving everyone stuck until further notice, and no power will be coming to the building until the storm blows over and the power company can fix the line. They can't work while the power is down, so they gather up what lights and such they can and all stuck together. The darkness usually gave people trauma, for one reason or another, so keeping everyone in a room would help to make sure nobody had an incident.

Sammy and Norman sit together in the projector's booth. It's technically still part of the room, except they're able to be more alone. Norman kept a blanket up there in case the studio ever had to pull an all nighter, which they luckily hadn't had to yet. Norman wraps this blanket around both him and Sammy as the music director snuggles with him, eventually falling asleep with his head in his lap.

Shawn and Grant kept their distance from the others by finding an unoccupied corner of the room. Shawn used his painter's smock as a makeshift coat for his little accountant, who'd calmed down much more thanks to Shawn's help. Shawn now held Grant in his lap, quietly singing Irish folk songs to him.

Henry got Allison to wrap up Wally's ankle, if only temporarily. Henry kept Wally in his arms, much to the smaller man's delight as he rested against his boyfriend's soft chest. Henry held a flashlight up towards the wall while Wally began making shadow puppets, him and Jack putting on a little show for the other workers.

All in all, everyone had seemed to relax despite the circumstances, and there wasn't a single incident the whole time they were stuck.