Work Text
Klaus grimaced at the scrape of forks on plates and glasses on the table. It was one in a long line of awkward 'family breakfasts' and man did he wish he could leave, but he also didn't want to be the cause of another almost-apocalypse because he gave up on 'let's-fix-our-family-by-attempting-to-all-be-together-in-the-same-room-for-longer-than-ten-minutes' time. (Was that too soon? Probably. He didn't care.)(What he wouldn't give for a smoke right now. Or teleporting abilities. Literally any excuse to leave the table would do the trick.)Luther cleared his throat from the head of the table. Klaus didn't bother raising his eyes from his plate. "Anyone seen Five?"Klaus wrinkled his nose and cast a glance around. Everyone was here, miraculously, but Five and his self-important chatter were mysteriously lacking. Huh. He didn't know whether to count that as a blessing or a curse."Maybe he's...sleeping in?" Even Diego didn't sound convinced. "Pfft, Five? I'd say the only time he'd sleep in is the end of the world, but I'm pretty sure he'd be too busy trying to stop it." Klaus pushed his eggs around with his fork. The heavens had opened up and dropped this wonderfully convenient excuse to leave the table right in his lap, and who was he to deny to sweet allure of Fate? "I'll go check on him."Diego grunted in his direction. No one else said anything. Ah, yes. Sibling bonding time is going wonderfully.***Klaus leaned on the door-frame, rapping the slightly-cracked-open door with his knuckles. "Yoo hoo, Five! Time to get up!" He sing-songed. A noise that sounded suspiciously like a groan came from the depths of Five's bedroom. He hoped it was Five, and that his lil' bro hadn't been struck by the fancy to kidnap some time-travelling-master-assassin and torture them within an inch of their life, because that's definitely what it sounded like. "I have coffee?"Another groan, then Five's voice, barely audible and very painful-sounding. "Try again.""I....will leave you alone and let you rot in your room by yourself until you waste away because you don't like accepting help?""Mm. Bingo. Please shut up.""Sorry, buddy, no can do. If I have to suffer through those breakfasts, then so do you." He drummed on the door with his fingers before gently pushing it open. "Wakey wakey eggs 'n bakey!"The subsequent groan sounded more fueled by annoyance than misery, which hey! Points for being a distraction for his brother in his time of need. He absently considered his good deed done for the day...that was, until Five sat up in bed."You-" Klaus twirled his finger before stabbing it in Five's direction. "-look horrible." And he really did. He looked like he'd picked a fight with his pillow and lost. His hair was a mess, his shirt clung to his skin with sweat, and his breath came out in little whistle-y wheezes. "Thanks, I appreciate it. Now can I go back to sleep?" Five's voice took on a whiny tone towards the end of the sentence. It was adorable. Klaus barely - barely - resisted the urge to tell him so. The thing was, he really did like all his limbs intact. Maybe it would be best to let him sleep it off, after all, but the room held that dark, stuffy feeling that came with being sick and lying in bed all day. Maybe he should crack open a window? But then, would it get too cold? How cold was too cold?? Why did he have so many questions???Five snorted out a laugh. It sounded disgusting. "I can hear you thinking all the way over here. I'll be fine. Please go away before I make you.""Hmph, fine. But this isn't the end of this!" Klaus whirled out of the room. "I'll be back!" he called behind him. Just before he rounded the corner to go seek out someone better versed in dealing with sick brothers (the one time he needed Ben and the ghost was absent like any positive role models in their formative years), he heard a quiet sigh and a muttered, sarcastic 'I'm counting on it'.***Ben, like the kind, amazing, wonderful, beautiful soul he was, knew where all the unexpired cold meds were in the house. The magic of being dead, he supposed, slamming the bathroom cabinet door closed with a satisfying smack. Time to get this party started!Balancing the meds and a full mug of carefully-prepared tea (because Allison was also a kind, amazing, wonderful, beautiful soul but she still had trouble breathing sometimes so she couldn't risk getting sick with whatever crud Five had managed to catch and, as such, felt extremely guilty for not being able to help) was child's play in that a child could probably do it just fine, except this was Klaus and he had never really caught on to the 'hand-eye coordination' thing. The tangled skein of yarn kicked under his bed was a sad testament to that fact.When he finally managed to get back to Five's room, he was met by the sound of soft, congested snores. He dumped everything on Five's desk before setting the mug down on the bedside table. Klaus made quick work of opening the curtains just slightly, letting a shaft of warm mid-morning sunlight stream in. Tasks done, he finally turned to the boy of the hour, Sleeping Beauty himself. He shook Five's shoulder gently. "Hey, c'mon. Allison made you tea. You gotta drink it so I can show my face downstairs without her getting on my case about not making you drink it all."As to be expected, Five opened his eyes for the sole reason of pinning Klaus with his most aggressive death stare, eyes bloodshot and murderous. "Aw, don't look at me like that! I don't even have to be up here helping you in the first place, y'know."The way Five's glare softened before his eyes filled with tears, however, was not to be expected. Klaus cursed quietly, panicking. "No, wait- I didn't mean it like that- please don't cry oh crap- Allison's gonna kill me-" Unsure of what else to do and mostly definitely caught like a deer in the headlights, he patted Five's messy hair as comfortingly as possible, his other hand hovering around Five's face. "I'm not going anywhere, okay? This is fine, you're fine, we're fine, everything's fine-"Before Klaus could really register the movement, Five flipped to his other side, back facing Klaus, and pulled the covers over his head. "...Five?""Clearly you're too stupid to understand the most basic of requests, so I'll say it again. Go. Away."Klaus bit his lip anxiously (How to fix this?? What was he even trying to fix??), looking up from Five to find Ben appearing as baffled as Klaus felt. "It's fine to cry, you know, it's-"Five ripped the blanket back down so his face was visible, eyes alight with fury. "No, it's not fine! How many years did I spend trying to save the world and murdering people and I'm still weak." He spat. "You don't get it. You all just prance around like you don't even care if the world's ending or not or if we all die or not. Do you-" His voice broke. "Do you know what kept me going?"It was one of the very rare times in his life where Klaus was speechless. Ugh, he hated that feeling. He scrambled for words. "Uh, was it-""It was seeing all of you again. It was being your brother." Five fell back onto his pillow. "I wanted you guys to be...proud of me. For saving us. For surviving. I wanted things to go back to how they were." His voice trembled. "Now I just feel like a burden.""Hey, Five..." The pair of sad hazel eyes that turned on him were heartbreaking. "Aw, c'mere. You aren't a burden. If anything, I'm the burden. But nobody thinks that because deep down we all still love each other and we're all stupid people who can't talk to each other." He pulled Five up the bed, tucking the blanket around him and tugging him into the tightest, warmest hug he could summon up. He was sure the tea was going cold. Eh. He could re-microwave it later. Five, meanwhile, was doing his best to fully hide his face into Klaus's shoulder and sob his heart out, head tucked under Klaus's chin. Hey, he couldn't judge. Sometimes you just need a good cry, and if anyone needed some quality crying time it was definitely Five. "Yeah, s'okay, just let it out. There you go." It took several long minutes for Five to calm down, tears reduced to an even-more-snotty nose and red-rimmed eyes.He sniffed pathetically. "Head hurts.""Yeah, I know.""Life sucks.""You're so right.""I should've just let the apocalypse happen.""Well, I- I don't know about that one, I-""I wish I had a drink.""Ohh-kay, time for self-pity is now over! As the legal adult in this situation I'm not supposed to let you say things like that!""I'm 58."Klaus squinted in his direction. "13, 58, whatever. How much of that did you actually spend growing up?""I...""Exactly.""....""....""You're annoying and I hate you.""Love you too, little bro."