Archive of Our Own

It was Ben’s idea, the trip to the beach.

Of course, none of the others had the heart to disagree. For all they called him cowardly, Klaus, at least had the backbone to tell Ben to fuck off to his face. Let it be known that Number Four never shied away from telling and pissing people off in the same breath, screw the consequence.

Even the mausoleum time-outs hadn’t scared him off of running his mouth after Five had left. Someone had to fill the spot of Dad’s resident hellraiser, yeah? It was Klaus’ way of honoring Five’s memory back then. Not like anybody else could have told Daddy-o that he won the shittiest Father of the Year award when Diego couldn’t get the words out past his stuttering.

The point is: Klaus doesn’t bite his tongue, no matter how much trouble his big mouth got him into—it got him out of plenty of tough spots too, and he could’ve told Ben no. If he wanted to, that is. Which he didn’t.

Not only did Ben need him to go to the beach with the rest of their siblings—Klaus being his battery for the physical plane and all, or rather his underpaid enabler as he jokingly told the his siblings over setting Ben a new curfew for bedtime, but after all the shit his brother had seen, gotten him through, he deserved a little treat.

To the beach it was. Not like he had much of a choice.

Group pressure was a thing he would apparently buckle under. When the group were his puppy-eyed siblings trying to threaten him with the promise of a good tan and the bait of free rides and food.

How could Klaus possibly say no to that? Fun times were a rarity without the drugs and after the shit year he had, he deserved a little treat as well. Hell, he got the privilege to choose a movie next movie-night and he’s a man on a mission to get Five to watch every single Disney movie in existence.

The way his face twisted in disgust every time a theme song came on was too good to pass up on. Not to mention all of them got a little teary-eyed last time they watched the Lilo and Stich movie. Getting beat up with a pillow for comparing Five to the blue-furred monster made the headache worth it.

He needed a new tan anyway. His skin got paler without the Vietnam sun glaring down at him and there were only so many ghost jokes about his appearance he could take.

“Alright, then, kiddies,” Klaus claps his hands, gaining the attention of his siblings, who start to unpack their things. The three-hour drive to a deserted part of a beach where they wouldn’t get stared at for being the eccentric bunch of social misfits they were, had everybody on their last wits end. Time to loosen a bit of tension. “Remember, don’t be so rough with Benny-boy. He’s on his home turf here and if you piss him off, he’s not gonna feel bad about attempting to drown you. Trust me, I’d know.”

None of them look vaguely surprised about Ben’s little habit of trying to knock him off surfaces whenever the urge overcomes him. He gets a few skeptic eyebrows though and that just won’t do.

Closing his eyes as Luther sets up the parasol for Vanya and Five to huddle under, the only other two in fear of getting a sun burn that would hurt like a bitch with their pale skin tones, Klaus balls his hands into fists and tries to coax Ben’s soul into the physical world.

It’s a bit of a tug war. Breathing none-existent air into Ben’s dead lungs. His palms grow cooler like he dips them into icy water while his face scrunches up, imaging Ben’s face and clothes down to the smallest details in his mind.

Starting the connection was harder for him to maintain than the steady flow of energy forming in the pit of his stomach where he imaged the Horror to be.

C’mon, Ben, he grits his teeth, kicking off his sandals to sink his bare toes into the hot sand. Don’t be such a stubborn bitch.

Something in his stomach uncurls, muscles relaxing with the next breath he blows out like a sigh and when he cracks his eyes open, Ben stands next to him like he’s been summoned by his thoughts, the rest of their siblings staring at their no longer invisible brother, wearing matching faces of joy and wonder in their eyes, seemingly holding their collective breathes.

Klaus dusts his hands off, the usual un-earthy blue fading to a faint glow underneath his skin and wrinkles his nose.

“This is so painfully awkward,” he groans underneath his breath, adjusting his sunglasses. It’s not even the first time they’ve seen Ben since the theater and here they are acting like it’s been years. Not even Ben had been this socially inept when Klaus lurched upright from the sticky floor of the club, coming back to life in front of his eyes. Barely wasted a second before he started nagging.

Klaus shakes his head. “No people skills at all. How can we be related?”

Diego twitches, becoming unfrozen to shoot him a frown. “We’re adopted.”

“Eh, semantics,” Klaus dismisses the words with a dainty wave of his hand, stepping forward to peel Ben’s jacket off his shoulders. “Get this thing off already. Just looking at you gives me a heatstroke.”

Ben rolls his eyes, letting himself be manhandled out his jacket before stepping forward for a good old-fashioned reunion. Turning around, Klaus sets out his beach towel while they hug it out, throwing Ben’s jacket to the side.

“It’s good to see you, Ben,” Vanya pulls away from their hug, settling down besides Five, both of them wearing shorts and a shirt as they huddle underneath the sun umbrella to hide from the sun like vampires. Nobody points out that they’d seen Ben at breakfast this morning.

Ben beams at her, taking his shoes off.

“Alright, who’s up for a round of shoulder war?” Diego asks, looking around.

Vanya shakes her head, applying sunscreen to her skin while Five scoffs and turns away.

Luther turns towards Allison, who crosses her arms in front of her chest, sitting down on her towel, hair done up in a bun, magazine in hand, sunglasses perched onto her nose. Her pad and pen lie within easy reach, her voice still tender to use for long periods of time.

Diego pulls his shirt off, waving Vanya’s offering for sunscreen away and turns to Klaus with an expectant look on his face.

“What? No,” Klaus sits down cross-legged next to Allison. “Nu huh. I’m gonna end up swallowing tons of dirty sea water. My plans for today involve getting a beautiful tan with Ally here, so go look for someone else to drown, capeesh?”

“Oh, don’t be such a baby,” Diego says, unamused. “You can get on my shoulders and try to knock down Ben. How about that?”

Ben straightens from folding up his pants. “No way. Klaus is going to cheat if he’s up against me.”

“The word you’re looking for is adapt, brother dear.”

Luther shifts on his feet, upper body on full display. “Then, it’s Diego and me against you guys.”

An eyebrow raises on Five’s pallid forehead. “You think Klaus can lift Ben?”

Allison snorts behind the cover of her magazine, shoulders shaking. Even Vanya can’t hide her disbelieving smile.

“Good point,” Diego agrees, ignoring the way Klaus flips him off and flops down onto his towel, clad in his Hawaiian shirt, making no move to get up. “Wouldn’t be a fair match anyway. Guess, we’re stuck with swimming.”

“No, we’ll play.” Ben crouches, poking his brother in the side. “C’mon, Klaus, get up.”

“Don’t wanna.”

“How about we make a bet?”

Klaus sits up, swatting Ben’s hand away. Pulling down the sunglasses on his nose, he stares up, gesturing for Ben to go on. The others watch, interested.

“We win and Diego and Luther will have to buy you dinner of your choice,” Ben proposes, ignoring Diego’s splutter of protest. Klaus hums under his breath, weighting the possibility of winning himself a free meal.

On one hand, gaining the upper hand against Diego’s strength would be difficult. With Luther’s super strength grip to keep hold of him, shoving him off is near impossible.

Diego snorts, smirking. “You know what? Sure. We’re not gonna demand anything from you, because you’re not going to win. Not with Noodle arms going up against me.”

Forget reasoning. Diego’s going down.

“Oh, it’s on,” Klaus lurches to his feet, throwing his sunglasses into Allison’s lap. “Prepare to take me to the fanciest restaurant in town, bitches.” He makes quick work of his button up, throwing it behind him before he drags Ben off by his wrist into the sea.

Luther and Diego share an amused glance, following them into the water.

“I’m betting twenty dollars on Ben and Klaus,” Five says, leaning back to watch.

Allison puts down her magazine, reaching for her notepad. Deal. It reads.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea, Five?” Vanya asks, smearing sunscreen onto his arms when he’s distracted with reading Allison’s writing. She glances off into the direction, seeing Luther lift Diego into the air and Ben doing the same with Klaus. They look a little unsteady to her.

“Absolutely,” Five narrows his eyes, but doesn’t tell her off. A smirk is tugging up his lips. “Diego might be stronger physically speaking, but Klaus fights dirty.”

Allison taps her notepad, holding it up. Luther won’t let him fall.

“We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?” Five cuts in, inclining his head towards the water. Vanya pauses in rubbing in the sunscreen onto his arm to hear Luther count down to one.

There’s the distant sound of shrieking. She sees Ben stumble once, remaining on his feet as Diego pushes Klaus, who flails. Two minutes into the fight, she hears Diego howling, one of Klaus’ hands jabbing him in the side of his ribs. Number Four splashes water into Number Two’s eyes as Ben lunges forward, Luther taking a step back at the aggressive approach and Klaus shouts something that causes Luther to stumble, jerking backwards as if slapped and he uses the advantage to knock Diego off his shoulders.

Vanya’s mouth drops open, hearing her brother whoop, hands raised into the air just as Diego breaks the surface, coughing.

“What did I tell you?” Five looks smug in the face of Allison’s glower. “Looks like they’re doing a best out of three. Stupid of Klaus, since Diego’s pissed now and Luther knows what to expect, but that’s nothing new.”

Allison crosses her arms, raising an eyebrow.

“You’ll still owe me twenty bucks,” Five assures her, unbothered as they watch Diego get back up onto Luther’s shoulders. Allison scoffs, shaking her head.

The next round goes to Luther and Diego.

Vanya isn’t sure what happens. In one moment, they’re locked in a game of tug war above the water, the next she can see Diego go rigid. He says something too quiet for her to hear and whatever it is what he’s said, it gets Klaus to lurch away from him and Ben’s grip to loosen and her brother goes toppling over into the water without so much as a push, flipping from Ben’s shoulders.

She’s about to get up to check on them when Klaus comes up spluttering, splashing water into Diego’s direction before he climbs onto Ben’s shoulder in record time.

The final round is quick, few words exchanged beforehand and it’s a close call on Luther and Diego’s side for the win. Five sits up a little straighter when Diego gets Klaus into a headlock, payback for the grab from Klaus at Diego’s hair minutes earlier, until there’s a lewd moan following a shout of “Harder Daddy!” from her brother. She can feel her cheeks heat up and hears Allison make a choking noise of shock. They watch Diego reel backwards together with Luther only to get a sharp elbow into the ribs that knocks him off into the sea.

Klaus cheers, laughing and Five relaxes, shooting Allison a grin full of teeth.

Her sister covers her eyes with her hand, mindful of her sunglasses. She digs through her purse, throwing the twenty towards Five without looking and groans, startling at the shriek.

Vanya turns in time to see Ben grinning; no doubt having shoved their brother off his shoulders. He didn’t flicker out of visibility once and she feels her chest warm with pride at that.

She tells Klaus as much when he comes trudging out of water, hissing like a cat, and flipping Ben off when he shouts after him to not forget to put on some sunscreen.

He pauses, blinks, curls dripping wet into his eyes and lays down onto his stomach, flicking some water onto Allison, who swats him on the arm.

“At least someone appreciates the effort I put in to keep his ass visible,” he sniffs, reaching for his sunglasses. “Little shit dunked me after I won that round square and fair.”

Five throws the sunscreen tube at him. “And without any shame or dignity.”

“All’s fair in war and love,” Klaus says, about to toss the tube back into Five’s face that flickers with an emotion none of them are quick enough to identify, but Allison grabs it out of his hands, gesturing for him to sit up.

She shoves her pad into his face, mouth set into a stern line.

Klaus groans and sits up.

Allison is quick to apply a heavy coat onto his back and shoulders, messaging the skin a bit. Satisfied with her work, she taps onto his arm, and he turns around.

She reaches out to smear the cream onto his chest, but freezes.

“Allison?” Klaus asks, gaining the attention of Five, who’s scribbling equations into the sand with his finger and Vanya, who has her nose stuck in a book. “Come now, no need to be shy! I know my body’s gorgeous to ogle, but just this once, you’ve got the privileges to touch, so go wild.” He wiggles his eyebrows, leaning forward to wink over the rim of his sunglasses.

Allison reaches forward, her sticky fingers brushing over his chest. A noise erupts from her throat that sounds painful to his ears and out of the corner of his eyes, he sees Vanya drop her book, her hands flying up to cover her mouth.

“What?” Klaus looks down towards his chest and then to Five. “Did I already get sun-burnt?” He moves to remove his glasses to check.

Five’s eyes remain glued to his chest, face blank.

Weird. There’s no sunburn in sight.

Allison wipes her fingers on her towel, ignoring how the sunscreen smears across the fabric to reach for her pad. Her knuckles are white from the force of her grip and Klaus frowns in concern.

“Klaus,” Vanya says, moving out of the shade to sit down beside Allison. Her eyes are wide, resembling the deer in front of the headlights look she got when she first caught him drinking Dad’s whiskey in his room. “What happened?”

“I dunno.” He shrugs, gesturing towards Allison. “Maybe she saw a bug?”

For all her badass fighting, Number Three truly was a girl at heart. Cockroaches and insects always got her to flinch away from them with disgust etched onto her face. It made teasing her with eating worms and ladybugs as a child fun.

Allison scowls, paper wrinkling under her grasp and apparently gives up as she crumbles it into a ball, tearing it out and throws it away, breathing heavily out of her nose.

“Klaus…” Vanya chokes out, eyes suspiciously shiny. “…your chest.”

Klaus tilts his head to the side. “What?”

“The scars,” Five says, taking pity on him and solving the mystery. “Dumbass,” he adds a beat too late.

“Oh,” he says, glancing down at the faint pale lines carved onto his skin. Allison lays a hand onto his upper arm, rubbing soothing circles with her thumb, prompting him to glance up. “What about them?”

His sisters flinch at his causal tone, sharing a disbelieving glance. There’s something in their eyes that sets him on edge.  The way they look at him with pity written over their faces.

Their faux sympathy is a year too late to be real. He runs around half-naked in the house all the time and they only notice now?

Klaus calls bullshit.

Crossing his arms above his chest, he clears his throat. “My eyes are up here, y’know.”

Allison draws her hand away from his arm, shoulders hunching upwards at getting caught staring. Vanya looks away, fiddling with the end of her shorts, her chin resting on her chest.

“How did you…,” Vanya swallows thickly, risking a tentative glance into his direction. He meets her stare head on, daring her to speak her mind when she trails off, thinking of a better question to ask. “…Who…Who was it that hurt you?”

For a moment, she appears to hang onto his words, waiting with bated breath for an answer. Her eyes grow lighter, a gleam of her power shining through like all she needs is a name to go and squish the culprit underneath her shoe like the ants she used to cry over.

“Oh, you know—” Klaus leans back, putting his sunglasses back on as he lazily flops onto his back, stretching out across his towel with his arms behind his head. “—Just Five’s friends from work that followed him home.”

Vanya’s lips part but no sound makes it out. Closing his eyes to soak up the sun, there’s a beat of silence before Vanya gathers her thoughts to choke out a “What?”

Did the wind pick up or was that just his imagination running wild?

“Ex-friends, I guess,” Klaus corrects absent-mindedly. “Since Five doesn’t have friends anymore. To be honest I never thought he would have any to begin with, so kudos to you, mi hermano.” He lifts a hand in a mock salute.

The whip-fast reprimand from Five doesn’t come.

Instead, Vanya sucks in a shuddering breath. “But…but you were out that day, weren’t you?”

“Yeah, with them,” Klaus can’t help the bitterness from seeping into his tone. “Got a free ride in the trunk of their car and everything. We had a roaring good time together. Just me, tied to a chair and them beating the shit out of me with Benny-boy and the ghosts keeping me company for a day or two.”

Five cuts in, voice odd to his ears. “The ghosts?”

Klaus nods, rolling over onto his stomach to avoid the feel of eyes on his skin. He’s never felt ashamed of how he looked before, accessory scars or not, but having them scrutinize him makes him want to button up again.

“It was a real party,” Klaus says, “Even held a real Séance. Those guys had a lot of baggage and I’m not talking about the briefcase I stole. Man were those guys pissed. There was this guy that got run over, forward reverse times two that wouldn’t shut up about his wife. At least, she got away. But the thing is that ghosts have no respect for personal space or boundaries, so I had to deal with all their bitching on top of the bitching of the angry lady and the meathead guy. Biggest headache of the century.”

“Hazel and Cha-Cha are no amateurs,” Five says over the gentle rush of the sea and the faint sound of their brothers splashing around. “No matter how unprofessional they may act. They know their stuff.”

“Meh,” Klaus waves him off. “Their torture etiquette could use some work.”

There’s a strangled noise coming from his right, the gentle grip of a hand resting on his shoulder, tugging, and attempting to roll him over. He shrugs the hand off, a little more aggressively than he’d wanted to.

“Can’t I get my very healthy dose of Vitamin D in peace?”

The tugging stops, though the hand remains. There’s the rustling of fabric catching his attention and he opens his eyes to see Vanya get up and hurrying away towards the car, Five at her heels, for once walking instead of teleporting.

“Was it something I said?” Klaus peers up at Allison, bewildered.

She hesitates before shaking her head, eyes hidden behind her sunglasses. Giving her the benefit of doubt, he sighs, too comfortable in the toasty heat of the sun to bother getting up when Five’s already doing the job of looking after their sister.

He drifts off to Allison’s hand running through his hair, humming under his breath. Vanya and Five come back about twenty minutes later, each of them carrying a bottle of water in their hands. Either the sun is playing tricks on his mind or Vanya has been crying judging from her red-rimmed eyes she attempts to hide behind her book.

The rest of the afternoon goes by quickly.

Whatever weird tension seems to have taken hold of his siblings affects him too and after another hour and a half, Ben fades out of existence. They pack up and pile into the car, the ride silent for the most part except for the argument over who gets to drive back and where they sit.

Klaus is the first to jump out of the car, the remaining sand and saltwater left on his skin itching like crazy. Dinner isn’t for another hour, so he’s free to do what he wants as long as that doesn’t involve drugs.

Soaking in a bubble bath seems like a good way to pass the time until the food is ready.

It was a trap.

Accusing them of ambushing him as soon as dinner was finished when all they’d done during the meal was to play nice made him sound like an asshole, so a trap it was.

Ben had known and kept quiet, otherwise he wouldn’t give him the look to stay put when Allison hooks her arm through his to march him towards the couch in the living room.

“I wasn’t aware we had serious family business to discuss today.”

Five appears in the armchair across from them, a cup of coffee in his hands.

“The meeting was on short notice.”

Klaus hums under his breath, watching the rest of his siblings settle down around the room. The seat to his left remained unoccupied with Ben sitting there. Luther sits down on the other armchair while Diego takes the arm rest of their couch on Ben’s side and Vanya the one next to Allison.

“Alright, I’ll bite. What are we talking about today?”

It’s Luther, who answers, tone somber. “You.”

“Me?” Klaus points to himself, throwing an arm over the back of the couch. He gets a few nods and his leg begins to bounce as he leans back to stare at the ceiling with a dramatic groan. “Fine, fine. If you insist on another intervention, who am I to stop you? My name’s Klaus and I’m an ex-alcoholic—”

“Not that kind of meeting,” Diego says, exasperated just as Luther interrupts with “This isn’t an intervention about drugs.”

Klaus blinks in surprise, sitting up a little straighter. “It’s not?”

“You’re sober,” Five says, pursing his lips. “Right?”

Klaus hurriedly nods his head.

“That makes a drug intervention pointless.”

“If this is about the fire last week—”

Diego’s head snaps up and he points an accusing finger at him, almost leaning through Ben in the process. “I knew it was you, not Ben! He wouldn’t forget that he’s solid and can’t walk through your desk—”

“Okay, first of all, he totally would.” Klaus says, loudly, knowing the only way to get a word in was to drown out all the other noise. Diego’s mouth snaps shut as he glowers and Klaus rolls his eyes. “Secondly, he deserves his share of blame. It’s his job to wake me up when my favorite carpet burns down, not let my candles run a wildfire.”

“You hated that thing,” Ben says, giving him a look, arms crossed above his chest. “Not that it was much of a carpet anyway. With the burn holes from your blunts and cigarettes it looked more a like swiss cheese than a furniture accessory.”

“I could’ve died.”

Ben lifts an eyebrow, talking over him like Klaus hadn’t made a valid argument against his lacking supervision. “You sleep like the dead. Vanya could’ve blown up the moon and you wouldn’t have noticed.”

“Well, neither would have you!” Klaus huffs out. “I could’ve choked to death on all that smoke.”

“You would’ve liked that, wouldn’t you?”

“Fuck you.” Klaus retracts his arm away to lean towards Allison, who lets him use her as a head rest with her shoulder. “Don’t use my near-death experience to kink shame me—"

“Okay!” Luther claps his hands together, squirming uncomfortably in his seat. “Let’s get back on topic, guys. We can talk about getting fire alarms later.”

Diego slowly lowers his arm, mumbling, “Or never.” He throws a side-eyed glance into Klaus’ direction and gets a kiss blown his way. He mimics catching the kiss before wiping his hand down on the side of his couch. In turn, Klaus sticks his tongue out.

Five clears his throat and they both look away from each other.

There’s an awkward pause where his siblings share a glance Klaus isn’t privy to and he’s about to ask what gossip they’re keeping from him when Vanya beats him to it, catching his gaze with her own.

“Klaus,” she says, cautiously and it’s a sign he isn’t going to like what she’s about to say. Nobody ever speaks to him gently aside from breaking bad news or they’re afraid whatever they’re going to say might shake his hold on his sobriety. “You remember how we said we wouldn’t keep secrets from each other anymore?”

Klaus’ eyes instantly glide to Ben.

“I didn’t snitch on you!” His brother immediately holds up his hands, eyes wide to appear more genuine. It’s a tactic Klaus is familiar with as the inventor and he makes a disbelieving noise close to a hum that lets Ben know the jury’s still out on deeming him blameless.

The question was: Which secret did Ben, the residential gossip ghost, spill?

He needs an answer before he can do damage control and a bit of groveling, though so far, none of his siblings look angry with his secrecy. Best to keep it that way.

“Yeah,” he says, causally like he isn’t trying to set Ben on fire with his glare. “I remember. Contrarily to what you all think, my memory isn’t that shitty. We held a group therapy session that day with Five acting like a lawyer about to pull up a contract. Felt like I was going to jail again.”

“Again!?”

Five waves off Luther’s question with a wave of his hand, leaning forward slightly. “And do you remember signing it?”

Klaus nods. Everybody had. Even Ben when Klaus finally learnt how to manifest him long enough, he could hold a pen and write his name under the sheet of paper. He kept cracking jokes about autographs, nudging Vanya in the side to get her to smile.

“Then, why the fuck didn’t you say something about the torture?” Diego bursts out, leaping to his feet, jaw clenched so hard they could see a vein pulsing along his neck. “About being kidnapped? That shit doesn’t just go away if you drink hard enough, Klaus!”

Good news: Ben was innocent. Bad news: Klaus was pissed.

Taking his eyes off Ben to angrily squint at Diego, there’s a heat boiling underneath his skin he hadn’t felt since his time coming off that bus. Alone, with blood on his hands, grieving for someone he still couldn’t conjure. Blood that nobody noticed. Just like how nobody noticed he was missing in the first place.

He wasn’t one for holding grudges, but this one? The grudge they constantly added fuel to the fire since the age of eight?

Klaus wasn’t about to roll over and take the blame for that one.

“I told you, asshole, when you went on your revenge bender, that the two you were after, tortured me!” Better to have a second witness, he steamrolls on, jerking a thumb towards the chair across from him, “And Five! I told him his friends took me when they shot up the house the moment I got back.”

Diego falters at that, mouth opening and closing as his brows furrowed and Klaus can see the cogs turning in his head. While he tries to remember their little moment in the car, all eyes fall on Five and his brother holds his cup of coffee a little higher, seeking cover from the accusing stares.

“You didn’t say anything about torture,” Five is quick to defend himself, eyeing him over the rim of his cup. “I thought you escaped early after they took you hostage and you got your injuries on your little field trip.”

Vanya frowns. “What trip?”

“They’re your old work buddies!” Klaus sits up straighter, detangling himself from Allison’s side to grip onto the couch cushion. “What did you think they’d do to me when they couldn’t get ahold of you? Invite me to join their tea party? It’s not like you gave a shit either way.”

Five’s eyes turn cold. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Klaus bares his teeth in a smile. “You heard me, Mr. I needed the briefcase.”

The coffee is sat down on the table with a loud clang of wood meeting porcelain. “Come to think of it, you didn’t tell me when to you went either.” Five says, coolly, lacing his fingers together and he leans forwards, elbows braced on his knees. “Or where.”

“Why ask now when it didn’t matter then?” Klaus challenges, jerking away from Allison’s attempt to lay a hand on his arm.

“I asked you before.” Five narrows his eyes, daring him to disagree. “You wouldn’t tell me.”

“You also called me a moron,” Klaus retorts, sharply. “Don’t give yourself too much credit. Asking is a generous word for the interrogation you wasted two seconds of giving me. And the tongue-lashing that followed when I told you that I destroyed your little toy.”

“I told you, I needed it for—”

“Well, I needed a bit of compassion, but that’s too much to ask for in this shithouse!” Klaus stands up, ignoring Allison’s attempt to latch onto his hand to pull him back down and Ben’s soft reprimand to calm down. “Maybe I should’ve gone to Vanya, Christ knows she’s the only one out of us that had a kind word to spare when she noticed someone was feeling shitty. Too bad my memory took me to the Academy instead of her cozy little apartment.”

“Klaus,” Vanya says, a wobbling sound that betrays how close to crying she is and it dampens his temper for a breath. He hadn’t meant to make her sad.

Using the short moment of silence, Diego speaks up. “I remember.” His early anger is gone, wiped off his face. “You were drinking, trying to do drugs in my car, which is a dealbreaker for me, you know and then you said something about losing someone and…and you were acting so weird, Klaus, picking fights in a vet bar, staying silent during the ride. Then you drop this bombshell on me and when I saw that guy—”

“Hazel,” Klaus corrects numbly, missing the way Five’s face twisted when his hands came up to reach for his dog tags.

“—all I could think of was Eudora,” Diego’s breath hitches, jaw twitching. “You said you knew them. That they took you out of the house.” He waits, seemingly for Klaus’ nod before he moves on, shrugging helplessly. “No offense, but how was I supposed to believe you got the drop on two assassins that nearly took us down?”

For once, Number One and Two seem to agree. “That does seem unlikely.” Luther glances him up and down. “Combat wasn’t your strong point back in the days.”

Cute of Luther to word that like Klaus had any strong points to begin with. Aside from sneaking out to get high.

“So, you think I lied, no surprise there.” Klaus shakes his head, letting out a long sigh. “Now you found out it’s true. How am I the bad guy in this?” He throws his hands in the air.

“What?” Vanya asks, blinking up at him from behind Allison. Her face softens a little. “No, no, you’ve gotten it wrong. We’re not angry with you—”

Diego quietly grumbles under his breath, “I was.”

“—we’re not.” She insists, throwing Diego a disapproving scowl. She drops it the moment she turns back to look at him, all warm-eyed and guilty. “But we need to talk about this if we want to help you. Trauma, especially that kind of trauma, doesn’t stop hurting you just because you want it to.”

She sounds like one of the rehab therapists. Though, she’s more genuine with her words and when she gestures for him to sit back down, Klaus can’t find it in himself to refuse. Allison gives him a smile, latching onto his arm and mumbling a quiet, raspy “Thank you.” Into his ear.

Klaus gives her hand a squeeze, feeling a bit bad about ignoring her.

“Alright, oh wise one,” he drawls out, angling his body towards Vanya, head falling back to the couch cushion to peer up at her. “I don’t get what difference it makes, but just for you, I’m willing to give family therapy a try.”

Vanya, bless her big heart, conjures up a small smile for him. “We could start with you telling us how long you were missing.”

“Almost a year with time travel, about a day and a half with Tweedledee and Tweedledumb.”

Luther’s eyes almost bulge out of his head. “Time-travel!?”

“A goddamn year?” Diego follows, just as loud.

“Later,” Five snaps, looking a little wide-eyed himself. “A day and a half?” He echoes and Klaus bobs his head, hearing him curse quietly. “Shit.”

Allison’s grip turns a little tighter and when he looks at her, she looks crushed.

All of them look a little guilty. Some more so than others.

It doesn’t make him feel better like Klaus had thought it should.

“It wasn’t actually that bad,” he finds himself saying, shrinking back at the incredulous frowns thrown his way. Forcing a smile onto his face, he holds up his palms. “What? It wasn’t!”

“You were tortured, Klaus,” Luther says slowly as if he’s speaking to a child. A traumatized child instead of a dimwitted one, so he doesn’t come off as patronizing as he could. Klaus gives him points for trying and if weren’t for the distraught twist to his lips, he’d bristle. “For hours.”

“I know, Luther, I was there. So was Ben.”

That gets him six flinches. Even Ben grimaces, tugging at the strings off his hood, no doubt remembering the kind words he’s spoken in that closet.

“I’m just saying it’s okay. If you’re not okay after that.” Luther swallows thickly, fiddling with his hands in his lap. “Nobody expects you to be okay and…and I’m glad that you got away. That you came back.”

On your own, the sentiment lingers, unspoken in the air. There’s a little pride shining through Luther’s eyes when they look at him beneath all that heavy guilt, and that doesn’t sweeten the bitterness churning in Klaus’ chest at having to get himself out exactly, but it’s easier to sit up with his chin held tall as if to say “Yeah, I made it out alive, no thanks to you. That was all me.”

Allison presses a kiss to his cheek, tugging a curl behind his ear. “Me too,” she croaks out.

Maybe it’s because he’s never been on the receiving end of such pride before that his first instinctual reaction is to brush it off like anything else.

“But I’m okay, though,” He can see it in their faces that they don’t believe him. Ben’s dubious frown is just plain rude. He’s coping loads of better with the torture weekend than with the lifetime in Vietnam.

“Seriously, guys, their methods sucked. And not even in the good way if you know what I mean,” he grins, watching Diego wrinkle his nose and Luther cringe. Ben slaps a hand over his eyes, groaning lowly, a quiet “Be serious, Klaus, this isn’t a joke.” And he takes that as a challenge to prove him wrong.

Looking backwards, the torture actually wasn’t that bad. Not after the war.

“No, no, hear me out.” And they do, Klaus reels a little, seeing them snap to attention at an instant as if they were twelve again and their Dad had told them to listen closely because of a mission briefing or something. “It wasn’t too different from training. A little slap here and there. Getting cut up when the cigarette burns didn’t work out, a shame for the wasted cigarettes, really. They tried to waterboard me, which was nice because my throat was parched. Their strangulation didn’t work out in their favor either. Got me a little too excited.” A wolfish grin spreads across his face when he turns to look around the room.

No one is smiling with him.  They stare at him, silently, faces drawn with horror except for Five, who glares down at his shoes, fingers clasped and white-knuckled. Tears are streaming down Vanya and Allison’s faces and Diego seems to fight against his own, fists clenched tightly by his sides.

Chuckling to himself, a forced sound empty of mirth, Klaus leans back, crossing one leg over the other.

“Their motivation dwindled down after the first ten hours until they barely put in the effort. Really makes a guy wonder how these two ended up with such a job.”

He pauses, waiting for Five to jump in with a quip of his own, always the little know it all, but the silence drags on long enough he can feel it become awkward.

“I mean, they couldn’t stand being a room with me for longer than half an hour near the end. Almost felt bad for them. Until the ghosties showed up and I was reminded that torture meant no drugs. Boy was that a ride. I actually got them to flee to the bathroom in fright cause Hazel, the little softie, spared a few relatives of his victims that he shouldn’t have.”

That little detail got Five out of his stupor. “Hazel always held a bit of a soft spot,” he admits, eyes flickering upwards. “Guess Cha-Cha didn’t like that revelation, huh?”

“Not at all,” Klaus happily informs him. “Chewed him out in the bathroom.”

“That was smart, pitting them against each other.”

“That credit sadly goes to Casper.”

Five’s shoulders seem to ease a little, losing their tension. “Good thing that you had him with you then.”

“Benny-boy is travel-sized.” Klaus pats mimics petting Ben’s knee to their eyes. “Stuck with me through the whole thing, offering commentary. Got me into trouble for laughing once.”

“That was all you. I didn’t do shit.”

“Ohh, he’s blushing now!” Klaus croons, jumping when Ben stuck his hand through his chest. “Hey! No touching when you’re as cold as a popsicle. We made a deal, didn’t we? You get all the hugs you want when you’re solid, which you are not.” He waggles a finger in front of Ben’s face.

“I can do it.” Vanya says, rising from her seat and wiping her hands on her pullover.

“Can do what?” She couldn’t be talking about making Ben visible, could she?

“Give you a hug,” she explains, shifting her weight from foot to foot, arms held open slightly. “Since Ben can’t right now…” she trails off, shrinking into herself when Klaus makes no move to get up. Her shoulders hunch upwards. “…you don’t have to, if you don’t want to. I just thought—”

“Oh, that wasn’t—”

Ben swats him in the back of his head, gesturing towards Vanya. “Just go and hug her, dumbass.”

Vanya sniffles, wiping at her eyes.

“Oh, come here, Vanny,” Klaus stands, meeting her halfway as he slams into him with surprising force for her tiny frame, wrapping her arms around him, fingers twisting into the back of his vest. “You’re like a teddy bear. Small and cute and impossible not to hug close.”

“I’m sorry,” she says, his shirt becoming damp. “I’m sorry I didn’t know—that I didn’t check to see if you were still in the house. To say goodbye at least before I went home,” She gasps out between wet hitches of breath, squeezing him. “I’m sorry you had to go through that and I wasn’t there.”

“Woah, hey now! You had no way of knowing I didn’t fuck off to get high this time.” Klaus buries his face into her hair, rubbing her back. “I get that, okay? Not like I have the best reputation in noticing shit either. I didn’t even notice the shooting happening until that guy bitch-slapped my headphones straight outta my ears!”

“Jesus, how loud is your music?” Luther asks, equal parts incredulous and concerned. “And how do you not have ear damage yet?”

A second pair of arms wrap around Vanya and him, Allison’s perfume surrounding them. Sweet and florally, smelling of home to his nose.

Klaus wraps an arm around Allison’s waist, lifting his head to press a quick kiss to her forehead. Her mascara is running down her face and she cups his cheek, brushing a thumb across his cheekbone.

“I’m fine,” he repeats himself in the hopes it’ll stick and turn her frown upside down. “The worst thing was the closet they stuck me into when they fucked off to who knows where. Honestly, you don’t shove people who are blatantly out of that back into it. What a dick move.”

Vanya lets out an unladylike snort, while Allison cracks a watery smile.

“What assholes,” Diego’s voice comes up before the air is crushed out of Klaus’ lungs and he can hear Luther come closer, wood creaking underneath his weight, to wrap his arms around them. There’s no humor in his words, knowing his brother didn’t do well with tight spaces after Klaus let it slip one time in a drunken stupor while he crashed on his couch and Diego jokingly threatened to stick him into a closet to sleep there when Klaus annoyed him too much.

“I’m still sorry,” Vanya sniffles, sobs slowly coming to a stop. Klaus refrains from pointing out she always is, keeping his mouth shut out of tact. “You must’ve been so afraid…waiting for someone to show up and get you out of there.” She pulls back slightly, looking up at him with puffy, red-rimmed eyes.

“Of course not,” Klaus says like he’s stating a fact. “I knew nobody was coming for me.”

Vanya flinches back like he’s sucker-punched her in the chest. Allison follows her example, stumbling backwards into Luther who steadies her.

“Ben thought you would,” A little startled by the reaction and the sudden way the group hug broke apart, Klaus seeks out a familiar face. Ben looks pained, downright miserable as he sinks down into his seat, hood pulled up.  “But I knew better.”

There’s a pair of hands forcefully tugging him around before he can finish the second part of his sentence fully. Then rough palms cup his cheeks and Diego’s face is towering over him taking up his line of sight.

This close, he can see the tears swimming in those baby browns that his brother stubbornly refuses to let fall.

“I did come for you,” Diego says, lowly, sounding choked. “Too late I know and I—I’m sorry for that, okay? I should’ve been there sooner, but I wasn’t. I should’ve listened to what you told me, asked about what you meant before running off, but I need you to know that if I had known, I wouldn’t have wasted any time rescuing you.”

His cheeks are hurting from Diego’s tight grip. Klaus can’t bring himself to speak up about the pain when there’s a warmth blooming deep in his chest like a flower turning towards the sun. Diego’s looking at him, the intense scrutiny lenses back over his eyes. They’re the same glasses his brother used to see through to tell if Klaus was sober or high, if he just came back from special training or just from sneaking out and getting drunk in the middle of the night.

“You k–know that, r–right?”

Hands coming up to wrap around Diego’s wrist, Klaus gently squeezes them. “Yeah,” he says, blinking rapidly to get his eyes to dry. “I know. You always loved playing my white knight in the shining black leather armor.”

“I wouldn’t have to, if you didn’t get your ass into trouble so often.” Diego relaxes, the fragile, soft gleam in his eyes fading back into stern hardness. His hands slide from Klaus’ face down to grip onto his shoulders. “Wait, that day back in the car…”

“Is this meeting over now?” Not liking where this is going, Klaus tries to pry Diego’s fingers off his shoulders. “We had our mushy heart to heart and a hug. Best to end it now and leave it on a good note than to let it go to shit.”

“I told you to stay in the damned car!” Diego scowls, shaking him lightly. “I told you to stay put and you what? Decided it was a good idea to come after me and the two whack jobs that tortured you?”

“I saved your life,” Klaus says, smugly. “Because I knew leaving you alone with psycho one and two, who had guns, mind you, would lead to you getting your reckless head shot off.”

“First, I got nicked in the shoulder, not shot.” Diego holds up a threatening finger. “Second, you were so wasted you nearly tripped down the stairs. What the hell would your drunken ass have done against two highly skilled assassins?”

“Get off your high horse, brother dear, I did what the lookout was supposed to do, didn’t I? I pulled you out of the line of fire.” Klaus slaps the finger away, knocking Diego’s remaining hand off his shoulder. “You were the one who let me drive an ice cream truck while tripping balls, so don’t go pointing fingers at my heroic behavior to distract from your own bad choices of judgment.”

“I needed to have my hands free to throw my knives!”

“Excuses, excuses!” Klaus sing-songs, dodging the half-hearted punch to the shoulder, slipping out under Diego’s raised arm in one smooth movement. “Admit it, you just wanted to get chauffeured around by yours truly. And you loved it because my driving was just that good.”

Diego scoffs, “I was fearing for my life. You drive like a lunatic.”

“Ben had the time of his life!”

“Of course, he did. It’s not like he had to fear dying via violent car crash.” The moment the words leave Diego’s mouth, a look of mortification crawls over his face. His cheeks flush when Allison smacks him on the shoulder and Vanya whisper-shouts a scandalized “Diego!”. His brother looks ready to melt into the floor.

Ben, for his part, doesn’t bat an eye. “He did scream like he was fearing for his life. Made it all funnier.”

“Ben says you were screaming like a sissy,” Klaus paraphrases, watching Diego’s face twists between relief and offended. “And that my driving was perfectly acceptable for the third try. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I was busy knitting myself a scarf.”

“Third try?” Vanya mumbles, eyebrows raised.

“There’s no way he said that,” Diego grumbles.

“Hold on,” Luther calls after him and Klaus quickens his stride, using the momentum to skip. “You still haven’t told us about the time you time-traveled—Klaus? Klaus, get back here!”

Pretending not to have heard Luther, Klaus bolts up the stairs.

“Here.” Five slams down a plate in front of Klaus. “Take it and eat it.”

“Why?” Klaus pokes the donut laying on the plate, full of rainbow sprinkles. “Did you poison it?”

“What? No.” Five glowers at him, confused. He flicks him on the forehead, causing Klaus to yelp, and takes a seat on the opposite chair. “Do you want it or not?”

“What’s gotten your panties into a twist this fine evening?” Klaus rubs at the tender spot, pulling the plate out of Five’s reach. “Ran out of coffee? You know that shit isn’t good for you in large doses.”

“That’s rich coming from you,” Five snarks, blinking out of sight only to reappear with a cup of coffee in his hands. “There, happy?” He takes an aggressive sip as if to prove a point, though Klaus has no idea what he’s trying to accomplish.

Getting him a sweet late-night snack without reason? That doesn’t seem like a Five type of thing to do.

“Ecstatic,” Klaus deadpans, gently ripping off a piece of donut annnnd nope. Nothing gooey comes spilling out that could be classified as a prank or poison. Just a plain old boring donut. From Five. The guy that hates anything sweet that isn’t a peanut butter marshmallow sandwich.

“What’s this for, exactly?” He tilts his head. “Do you want a favor from me or something?”

“You’re built like a twig,” Five says bluntly. “With as much meat on your bones as a skeleton.”

Klaus hums in amusement, cocking a brow. “And you care about my figure now, because?”

“Because,” Five grits out through clenched teeth, pointedly staring down into his cup of coffee like he suspects someone might’ve spit into it. “Children take comfort in food and after the shit you’ve had to deal with due to my involvement with the Commission, a treat was deserved.”

Holy shit.

“Awww, you do love me!” Klaus coos at getting an apology from Five, who hisses at him. Clasping his hands in front of his chest, he pretends to swoon. “Now that you mention it, you still owe me twenty bucks!”

“Eat your damned donut,” Five spits out like there isn’t a smile threatening to break out. “Before I shove it down your stupid throat.”

Giving a mock salute, Klaus does as he’s told. It’s only after the last bite is swallowed that Five disappears in a flare of blue light, leaving him sitting at the kitchen table with Ben, sharing a bemused glance.

“That was weird, right?”

“Totally.” Ben agrees. “But it’s Five. So, it’s best not to ask too many questions.”

Klaus snorts. “Yeah, I don’t wanna end up burying another body in the backyard.”

“Did you do it?” Diego asks, when Five appears in the middle of the room.

Smoothing down his jacket, Five jams his hands into his pocket and rolls his eyes. “Of course, I did.”

“And he didn’t spit it out or anything?” Luther asks. “He ate it all, right?”

“No, you morons. I saw him eat every bite without noticing anything was amiss.”

Vanya wrings her hands. “And it’s going to work?”

“Yes,” Five lets out a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I slipped the ingestible tracker into his food, so the next time he disappears for more than a day without checking in with us, we’ll find him.”

Allison gives him a thumbs up.

“Now that’s done and over with, will you let me get back to my equations in peace?”