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Klaus is lying on the couch in the living room, and is very much not asleep.He hasn’t been able to sleep right since he got clean—well, started getting clean. Except for when he suddenly crashes in the middle of the day for like five hours, which is fucking with his internal clock. Not that his internal clock wasn’t already broken, but it wasn’t as noticeable when he could drink himself to sleep. Now he’s just jittery as fuck. Being back in the mansion is like being in rehab, isolated from his usual haunts. At least he’s not actually locked in. At least he can always find something to do.Or someone to fuck with. Someone who’s not Ben, because being stuck with his sulky teenage brother for twelve years hasn’t done their relationship any favors. Someone like Five, who just teleported into the living room, where Klaus has been “moping,” or so Ben says. Klaus perks up, which only goes to show how desperate he is for company. (Wanting to hang out with any of his brothers or sisters only goes to show how desperate he is for company, to be honest.)Ben is a wet blanket, but so is Five. Five is a soaking blanket, and the blanket is soaked in blood, specifically.Still, Five is dressed to go out—well, he’s not in pajamas, at least—and clearly getting ready to leave the house, and Klaus is kind of really curious about all that jazz.“What, not planning to teleport over?” he asks as if he even knows where Five’s off to, and Five jumps about a mile, swinging around to stare at Klaus. By the time he does, any surprise on his face has been replaced with vague irritation. Klaus laughs, delighted at the reaction. “Woah there, buddy, glad to see you too.”Five lets out an annoyed huff and says, “I assumed that no one would be down here to bother me.”Klaus spreads his arms out and grins. “Don’t you know by now that I’m always going to be here to bother you?”“I should,” Five mutters under his breath, turning away, and Klaus grabs the fluffy pink coat he’s been using as a half-blanket while languishing on the couch and bounds over to stand next to him. “And what are you doing?” Five asks, unamused.It’s okay. Klaus is amused enough for both of them. “Oh, just trying to replace my deep desire for restricted substances with the company of my dearest siblings,” he says, hitting Five with his best puppy dog eyes. He’s pretty sure that any of the others would at least show a teeny bit of sympathy in response to his statement, but Five doesn’t even look at him, and definitely doesn’t grudgingly offer to, okay, fine, let Klaus go along with him in a tortured attempt to reconnect and heal and whatever. Then again, that’s really the goal of his other siblings, isn’t it? The healing, reconnecting bit. Klaus is pretty sure that the only reason Five’s even still with all of them is because he’s (not really) thirteen and thus can’t get his own place. The plus side of Five clearly not giving a damn about Klaus’ presence is that he doesn’t seem to register that Klaus is still walking with him until they’re at the outskirts of the neighborhood and Klaus asks, “Where are you going?”Five gives him a disgusted look. “Why are you still here? I assumed you were going to break off and go buy drugs.”“Hey,” Klaus says, a touch hurt, though it is an idea.“No,” Ben says, and Klaus rolls his eyes. “Definitely not the plan,” he informs both Five and Ben. “I just want to know where you’re going! Must be important if you’re out in the middle of the night like this.”“It is important,” Five mutters. “I’m going somewhere important.”“Where?” Klaus asks, and even he’s annoyed at himself by this point, but he seriously wants to know. Five is silent. “Okay, fine,” Klaus says, shrugging. “It’ll be a surprise for me, I love surprises.”They duck into a spacious little park that Klaus has never seen before, which is a surprise, given that it’s so close to the Academy and he’s been to a lot of parks in this city. It’s near an actual playground, though, so maybe that’s why...not that Klaus hasn’t done unmentionable things under the shadows of monkey bars before. Yeah, it’s gotta be new. Klaus is starting to get a little irritated, too impatient for this shit. Too sober. They’ve been walking for an hour now, and he…well, he could actually split off and just head home, but he’s kind of married to figuring out what the fuck is going on at this point, and there’s a large part of him that’s worried that he really might go looking for his dealer (or any dealer, or possibly a few granules of cocaine on the ground) if he’s on his own. “Fiiiive,” he whines, “seriously, where are we going?”“We’re not going anywhere!” Five snaps, though he’s not looking at Klaus, and he doesn’t stop walking, just slows down a little. There are some street lamps here and there, and Five looks washed out in the light. “There’s absolutely no reason for you to be here and I want you to leave me alone,” Five spits out, still not looking at Klaus. “Is that really so hard to understand? This is important. I’m trying to stop the damn apocalypse, I don’t need your distractions.”“Wait, what?” Ben asks from Klaus’s side, and Klaus stops walking so abruptly that Ben stumbles and goes right through him.Ben makes an affronted sound, but how else is Klaus supposed to communicate surprise if not through an extra-dramatic pause? Also, it wasn’t really on purpose, Five legitimately surprised him that much. This is the reason he wishes he was still using. Things were so much easier that way. Less dead people, but also far, far less concern over the living. Certainly less un-staged emotional reactions. Five’s continued walking with purpose, having apparently not spared a second thought for Klaus, and Klaus jogs a few steps to catch up. “Oookay, what are you talking about?”Five lets out a huff. “What do you mean, what am I talking about? I thought it was rather obvious.”“Well, I’m sorry I’m not quite at your surely all-encompassing level of knowledge,” Klaus says, “but how about you humor me?”“You should know by now,” Five says through gritted teeth. “I am trying to stop the apocalypse.”He speeds up, nearly out of the park and the neighborhood, and Klaus finally just grabs him, fisting his hand in the shoulder of Five’s blue wool coat. Five practically flails out of Klaus’ grasp, and finally, finally turns to face him, baring his teeth. Klaus feels a little nauseous. Oh, fuck, that manic glint in Five’s eye is more than he signed up for. “What is your problem?” Five hisses. “If you’re not going to help me, leave me the fuck alone!”“Five, where are you even going?” Klaus asks yet again, and Five rolls his eyes.“Somewhere. Important.”“No,” Klaus responds, because he’s super over just nodding along to Five’s nonsense. “No, Five, will you…ugh!” Klaus is putting the pieces together. The reason Five won’t tell him where he’s headed. The reason he didn’t just teleport. The reason Klaus should walk away from this whole unfolding situation, blissfully ignorant of his brother’s potential issues. The reason Klaus doesn't do that and says, instead, “Tell me where you’re going! Now!”(He’s impressed with the way his voice comes out. Why, he sounds like an adult!) Five grinds his teeth and clenches his fists and looks this close to actually murdering Klaus, but Klaus isn’t afraid, partly because he has no self-preservation—which he’s realizing is definitely a plus when dealing with Five and actually most of his siblings—and partly because he’s just getting so fucking freaked out. (And a little because his curiosity, now decidedly morbid, is still killing him, but that’s neither here nor there.)Five lets out a shaky breath, and then he swallows. “Somewhere important,” he says again, but his tone of voice is different. Instead of self-righteous frustration, it’s just frustration. “Oh my God,” Klaus says, and he lets out a laugh because he’s apparently such an asshole that that’s the first thing his body does in response to this. “You have no idea where you’re going, do you?”Five’s jaw is trembling, but still he soldiers on. “It’s not like that, I just don’t know yet. I’ll know when I get there. It’s important. The information is in my head, maybe they’ve figured out how to put it in there, it’s just incomplete. But I know it’ll help me stop the apocalypse.”Klaus is speechless and staring. Ben hasn’t been speaking, but Klaus is pretty sure that if he had been, he’d be speechless too. Five is staring back at Klaus, the tremor in his jaw slowly creeping down his entire body. That’s some tinfoil hat bullshit you’re giving me, buddy, Klaus comes life-threateningly close to saying, but he’s able to choke out a slightly more neutral phrase. “There’s no apocalypse.”Five lets out a strangled sound and then rolls his eyes so hard that he practically rolls his entire head. “I don’t have time to be told I’m crazy,” he says, turning neatly on his heel, and Klaus grabs his arm too hard. Five teleports away, and for a moment Klaus is completely and totally terrified that he’s gone to some random place in the city and Klaus is gonna have to go home and lie about not knowing where Five is and hope that he isn’t out murdering someone while having what’s obviously some kind of crisis. He nearly passes out with relief when he realizes that Five’s just teleported a few feet away to avoid Klaus’s touch. “No, Five,” Klaus says too loudly, though if most people he knows are to be believed, he says most things too loudly, so he’s probably yelling at this point. “I’m not saying you’re crazy!” Even though you are, what the actual fuck. “I know the apocalypse was a thing! I just mean there’s no apocalypse now. We stopped it, remember? You stopped it. It happened for you, and you came here to make sure it wouldn't happen? It didn't happen! It worked! You saved all our lives! It’s over! It's been over for like a week!” Klaus waits a beat, and then says, for emphasis, “Yay!”It comes out more weak than celebratory, and Ben mutters, “Oh my God.”Five gives Klaus one of the most baffled looks he has ever seen. “What?”“Don’t you remember? Harold Jenkins was the cause of the apocalypse. Vanya ended up killing him with the powers we didn't know about? The world is safe?” Klaus’ heart clenches. Fuck, he doesn’t have the constitution to deal with this. “Don’t you remember?” Please, please…The deep confusion on Five’s face smooths out into a quieter disorientation, and he says, “That sounds insane.”“It was totally insane,” Klaus responds in eager agreement. “But it happened! I swear.”“No, I remember, of course I remember what happened,” Five says, which seems pretty sudden to Klaus. He wonders if Five’s just trying to save face. “You were doing a pretty good job of hiding that like a minute ago,” Klaus points out, and Five shoots him the evil eye.“I remember that it was a dream,” Five snaps, and Klaus mutters Jeeeesus Christ under his breath. “I know a dream when I have one.”Klaus shares a disbelieving look with Ben. “Uh, I hate to break it to you, buddy, but...no. That wasn’t a dream.” He wracks his brain to think of what might've gone so wrong in Five's head in the past few hours, and then snaps his fingers. This has happened to him once or twice or countless times—waking up from a nightmare not knowing where he is, what’s happening, convinced that what he dreamt is still true and that every good thing he’s ever experienced was the dream after all. It’s never happened to him for literal hours on end, but he guesses he’s just been lucky. “You know what I think? I think you did have a dream, Five, but it wasn’t that the world was saved. It was that it wasn’t. You just got mixed up!”It’s not a good explanation, high-pitched and semi-frantic and severely overusing the word was, but Klaus hopes that Five’s genius brain can parse it. Five’s eyes flit from one side to the other, as if he’s reading. He’s starting to look a little green around the edges, exhausted. Small. He scoffs, but it’s half-hearted, uncomfortable. Klaus is pretty sure reality’s dawning on him, and neither of them know if that’s good or bad. “Why should I believe you?” Five asks. “You’re dead.”“Excuse me?” both Klaus and Ben say at the same time, and Klaus gives Ben a quick look to make sure he hasn’t, what, accidentally summoned him in his semi-corporeal form. Nope. Klaus looks down at himself. “Wait, are you talking about me?” he asks. He does feel colder than usual. He raises a hand to his face and pokes at his cheek. He feels alive, even though he doesn’t actually know what it feels like to be a ghost. He gives Ben a panicked look, and Ben shakes his head. “You’re definitely not dead.”“I’m not dead,” Klaus informs Five, feeling a little silly about having been so genuinely worried. “You scared me for a second there.” You’re still scaring me. “You’re not real,” Five tells him, impatient, and Klaus wants to strangle him just a tiny bit.
Stick to one story, asshole!
“No, yeah, I’m calling bullshit on that. I’m definitely real,” Klaus says even as he pinches his wrist hard. He’s ninety nine percent sure he’s real, but this actually kinda does feel like a nightmare, now that Five sorta mentioned it, like any second now he’s going to realize that, surprise, none of this is actually happening at all. Like any second now he’s going to wake up and think, shit, that was a fucked up dream. “You can’t be real,” Five says, breath picking up a little. “Or it means that I’m…confused.”“Hey, we all get confused sometimes,” Klaus says hastily, breezing past the fact that he’s only ever seen people this confused when they’re actively tripping. “It happens! It’s normal, you’re normal sometimes, right?”“But I was sure,” Five says. “I was.” His eyes light up briefly with what Klaus is almost sure must be a horrible thought. “Maybe parts of my mind were time traveling.”“Maybe they were, a little,” Klaus agrees. “But not literally! Just, believe me when I say I’ve gotten that feeling before. Totally normal.”“You’re not normal, you’re fucked up,” Ben mutters, and Klaus hisses at him. “I’m still getting acclimated,” Five says, his voice suddenly falling back into its usual matter-of-factness. “To all of this.”“To being back home,” Klaus says, both jarred and relieved by the change in Five’s demeanor. “Hey, me too! Y’know, things are changing, we’re all growing up. It’s not like this ever has to happen again.”“Of course it’ll never happen again,” Five says with some bite.“I believe you,” Klaus responds.“I’m fine,” Five says. “I am. I’m moving forward. It’s over.” He says it like he’s reciting a mantra, but at least he sounds convinced, and the words are rational.Klaus says, again, “I believe you.”And he does, he really, really does, because that’s much easier than considering that he’s ever going to have to go through something like this again. “Let’s go home,” he says, and for the first time he actually feels like he’s talking about a home, even if it’s the mansion.At least they know where they are when they’re there. At least they’re all together, which feels weirdly comforting after they saved the world, their very first bonding experience in years. At least the apocalypse is over. At least Ben seems happier than he has in a while. At least Klaus has a roof over his head, which he’s selfish enough to admit is still the main draw of the whole situation. At least his little older brother’s not actually as fucked up as he seemed a few minutes ago, though Klaus really wonders if this sudden turn in Five’s behavior, from “apocalyptic mission” to “acceptance of apocalypse aversion and general return to self-possessed grumpy old man-child”, isn’t actually fucked up too. Five gives Klaus a searching, wary look. “You don’t think I’m crazy,” he says, and he says it like a statement, but Klaus knows it’s a question.“Of course not,” Klaus says, because he’s a good liar when push comes to shove. Five nods. “Good. Let’s go back.” He pauses for a beat, and then he says, “Home.”Klaus grins, relieved. It’s over. He still feels like he’s been held under freezing water for hours, but it’s over. “Don’t tell any of the others,” Five says when they’re halfway back to the mansion. It’s a warning, and Klaus laughs.“Tell them about what?”The sun is rising by the time Klaus and Five finally get…home, and Klaus isn’t at all glad that he tagged along with Five on his errand, but he is glad that he was able to get Five home, and, hey, he didn’t end up going to see his dealer after all, and now he’s just so goddamn tired that he’s not even thinking about using. Or, actually, he is, but less than usual, at least, since he's wrapped up in this whole mess.When Five disappears in a flash of blue light, Klaus is afraid again, for just a moment. He hasn’t been afraid for another person as much since…well, since Dave. Giving up his usual leisurely pace, he sprints up the stairs, hoping that Five’s somewhere that actually makes sense. Klaus stops at the door of Five’s room, and takes a deep, centering breath as he cracks it open a little and sticks his head inside.His knees weaken with relief—and exhaustion, probably more exhaustion than anything at this point—when he sees Five on his bed. He’s dead asleep, curled up on top of the covers, and still in his clothes, shoes and all. Sorry, his uniform. Klaus really needs to get him to buy some new fucking clothes. Klaus nearly leaves the room, but then he finds himself hesitating as he starts closing the door, because Ben’s still inside, staring at Five with a funny look on his face. Worry, maybe, but with less annoyance sprinkled in than when he levels that look at Klaus, the asshole. Klaus steps back inside. He opts out of covering Five up with the actual comforter, too afraid he’ll wake him when he’s sure he’ll be much better once he gets some sleep, will be completely fine, in fact, but he carefully slips Five’s shoes off of his feet and places them on the floor, and then grabs the blanket that’s still neatly folded up on the chest at the end of Five’s bed.It’s a throw blanket with fishies embroidered on it, Klaus notes, and he wants to cry. Instead he just gingerly sets it over Five’s body—he looks so little when he sleeps—and speed walks out of the room, closing the door behind him as noiselessly as possible and drifting back to his room, stripping himself of his clothes and letting them pool on the ground before he flops onto his bed, staring at the ceiling. Ben sits at the foot of his bed.Klaus informs him, “I can hear you frowning.”“Were you telling the truth when you said you wouldn’t tell anyone?” Ben asks without preamble.“Of course. I’m not a liar.”Ben snorts, because Klaus is lying. Klaus sighs. “Well, I'm being serious now. Of course I’m not going to tell them. What would that do? He just had a moment, we all have moments. It’s over now, no one needs to know.”“Is it over, though?” Ben asks. So practical, so paranoid. “Shut up,” Klaus mutters. “There’s no need to brood. Nothing like that is ever going to happen again.”“What if something worse happens?”Klaus scoffs. “Oh, please. If that wasn’t rock bottom, I don’t know what is.”Ben is quiet, and usually Klaus would be thrilled by that, but under the circumstances the silence just feels oppressive. “He’s fine,” Klaus insists. “Just forget about it. That's what I'm going to do, and so will he.”It’s over.