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Klaus has always been the most approachable, but also the hardest to talk to. It isn’t any easier now that she can’t speak.“Hi!” Klaus greets, he’s enthusiastic as always but she can also see the sweat on his forehead and the way his hands tremble, withdrawal symptoms must be hitting him.Hi. She holds up, before quickly adding a line. Hi! It’s only polite to match his enthusiasm, and the smile she gets in return is dazzling.“So, what’s up? What can I do you for? How’s it hanging?” Klaus rambles, jittery as ever, before his eyes focus on something she can’t see. “I am not talking too much.” He huffs, and she feels a silent laugh bubble up in her chest as she scribbles her reply. “I am filling the space while she writes, that is not rude.” She smiles at him, offering a thumbs up for reassurance. “See, she agrees with me.” Klaus sticks his tongue out at whoever was questioning him.Nothing’s up, just wanted to talk to you. Who’s that? She holds up her notepad, and Klaus bounces on his heels while reading it, beaming at her. “Well, actually both Ben and Dave are here.” He informs her, leaning in as if sharing a secret. “They both like to scold me too, it’s like I have my very own angels on my shoulder.” Which, is really sweet of him to say. “What nags.” He adds, and that sounds more like Klaus.Who’s Dave? Allison offers. Klaus freezes for a moment, glancing across the room.“Well it’s not exactly the easiest thing to explain.” Klaus shoots across the room, before abruptly looking back at her. She gives him a patient smile and gestures to her seat hoping to convey that she has time to spare. “Okay, so you know how I got kidnapped, right?” He asks, and no she absolutely did not, she can feel her eyebrows raised as she shakes her head absolutely incredulous.“Oh, well yeah, I got kidnapped and tortured by those assholes who shot up the house? They had me for how many days Ben?” He looks over at Ben. “Almost Two days, yeah.” She grabs her pad, scribbling out a quick apology.Sorry I didn’t know. She shows him, and she means it, but he just shrugs.“Don’t worry I never expected any of you to look for me anyways.” He says, as if that makes it better instead of a thousand times worse. She grabs her pen and taps it against the board.Sorry Sorry Sorry She, needs him to know that it is a big deal, and the she cares about him. Klaus looks beside her again.“Ben says, that I should say you’re forgiven, but I’m not really sure what you’re apologizing for.” He shrugs, and then claps his hands. “Moving on,” She wants to say more, wants to explain why she’s sorry, but he doesn’t give her the chance. “When I got away from them, I found a briefcase, looked fancy you know?” She nods. “I was gonna pawn it for drug money. but when I opened it something weird happened.” His eyes dart over to the side, where she’s pretty sure Dave is sitting. “It’s called building tension sheesh.”What happened? She scribbles, Klaus loves a captive audience and while she can’t vocally follow along, she can at least nod and do this when he gets distracted.“Well, I woke up in the middle of the Vietnam war.” He says, which was not at all where she had expected this story to go. “I got stuck in a uniform, handed a gun, and put on the frontlines.” He sends a soft smile towards what has to be Dave. “But Dave was there. He helped me through it. I could have come back anytime but I stayed there for almost a year- physically I’m the oldest now by the way- But then Dave died.”I’m sorry. She writes, because even though he can see the dead that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still miss them. That doesn’t mean they aren’t dead.“It’s okay. I just need to work on manifesting ghosts so we can have fun.” He grins at Dave, and there’s a softness to his tone even when making such a gross comment. “I came back right after that. I have a tattoo, and I have his dog tags, and now I have his ghost.” He smiles, a sad smile.Once you can manifest him, I’d love to meet him. She says, and she means it, she wants to meet the man who makes her brother smile like this.“Hi.” A voice greets, and suddenly there’s a man standing in the space where Klaus had been looking. Klaus looks slightly strained, and Dave walks over, holding out a hand to her. “I’m Dave, it’s nice to meet you.” She shakes his hand, and then there’s nothing there, and her skin feels ice cold.“I did, didn’t I?” Klaus says, smiling at nothing.That was amazing Klaus. She writes. He must have been practicing, his hands are shaking even more now, and she takes a worried step forward.“I just really wanted you to meet him.” He says, and his words slur slightly, she has only a moment to react before he’s tipping over backwards. She manages to grab onto his shirt, but does little more than slow his fall, stumbling from the effort and hitting her knees next to him while shooting him her best what the fuck look. “Hoo boy, that really wipes me out.” He mumbles. She can picture Dave and Ben with matching concerned expressions beside her.When did you last eat? She shoves the notepad in his face, and get’s a shrug in return. Kitchen Now. She writes. He smiles at her, but let’s her drag him to the kitchen as soon as he can stand. It’s a step in the right direction which is all she can ask for.She set’s his plate down in front of him with a glass of orange juice and a note. Don’t scare me like that again. She get’s a toothy grin in response.“No promises.”
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She wants to talk to Vanya next, wants to stop the painfully apologetic looks, but Luther is like a shadow constantly positioning himself between them and Allison finds that he’s the last person she wants to talk to in this house. She’ll have to eventually, there’s too many things left unsaid between them, but lately trying to talk to Luther feels like slamming her head into a brick wall.“Hi Allison.” Five greets, waving tiredly at her. She waves back.HELLO HOW YOU? She signs, surprisingly enough it wasn’t just Vanya who was willing to learn sign with her, it seems all her siblings want to do better.“I’m good.” Five answers, keeping one eye on her as they root around for the marshmallows. They don’t look good, the dark circles under their eyes speak volumes. She raises an eyebrow at them, letting her face do the speaking for her. “What? I’m fine.” She wants to accuse Five of lying, but doesn’t know all the words to say what she wants.TIRED She signs instead, glaring at them to ensure they understand that it is an accusation. They wave a hand dismissively in her direction, but they’re also listing slightly to the side and their eyes are barely open.“I’ve been sleeping just fine, thank you very much.” Five says, and she knows their 58 but they still look 13 and she’s a mom, she wants to take care of them. She restrains herself, shrugging as if she doesn’t care, but not hiding her concerned expression. They’ll explain themselves, all she has to do is wait.WHAT? Five signs, mouth busy with a spoonful of peanut butter. She doesn’t sign anything back, waiting. “I haven’t been sleeping well, okay? Not a big deal.” They grumble.WHY? She signs, and it’s not sufficient, she wants to ask if their okay, if she can do anything, but for now she signs why. Her notepad sits on the table beside her ready to be used if needed, but the whole family is working on talking like this.“It’s too comfortable.” Five admits, and that’s not what she had been expecting. They stop to make their sandwich, giving her a moment to digest that before continuing. She’s not sure what to think. “I didn’t have a bed for a long time, it’s hard sleeping in one.” It’s weird, in a lot of ways the apocalypse aged Five, but in a lot of ways it kept them exactly the same. The trauma of a 58-year-old in the body of a 13-year-old with the social skills of a walnut as Klaus put it.IDEA Allison signs, and then pauses. She doesn’t know the sign for sleeping bag. Doesn’t know the sign for bag at all. WAIT she settles on, and then heads off to find their old camping gear, leaving a mildly confused Five to fall asleep at the kitchen table.HELLO Klaus greets, even though she can hear he enjoys signing with her, seems to take a lot of pride in doing it correctly, and it makes her happy. She beams back at him. WHERE GO YOU? He asks, rushing to keep pace with her as she heads down the hallway.SEARCH she signs, and then pauses still lacking the word for sleeping bag, she can do this on her own though. TALK-YOU LATER Klaus nods agreeably.ILY Klaus has grown very fond of the shorthand I love you sign, and tends to use it as often as possible, she signs it right back and heads to the upstairs linen closet. Unsurprisingly the sleeping bags are still exactly as they were when she left tucked away on the top shelf to be used when Reginald Hargreeves wanted them to practice survival skills.She grabs the sleeping bag and rushes back to the kitchen.“I’m awake!” Five says, nearly falling out of their chair. She can’t help the laugh that bubbles in her chest, silently escaping her lips. “Shut up.” She holds out her prize.YOU CAN SLEEP, she wants to say on the floor but isn’t sure how so she just gestures to it in explanation. He considers it for a moment, and she decides that she needs to explain herself, grabbing up the notepad. You sleep in this until you get used to it, better than the floor, then try and shift into sleeping on the bed.“That’s not actually a bad idea.” Five says, and she would be insulted except they are always like this, even the apocalypse didn’t fix that. She rolls her eyes at them, and points at herself.ME SMART she signs pointedly. fs-luther DUMB, she adds, getting an incredulous snort from Five. It’s not exactly true, but he does have less social skills that Five does, and Five spent decades with only a mannequin to talk to.“Well, out of all of you idiots you are definitely the must functional.” Five admits, and it’s as close to a compliment as they’re likely to get.THANKS Allison smiles at him, and despite herself she means it. NOW GO SLEEP She demands, gesturing towards the staircase.“Fine.” Five agrees, mostly because their eyes keep shutting without their permission.DUMB Allison signs to herself as Five leaves. There’s no way they saw it, the door was already closing behind them.“I’m not dumb!” Five called back, and maybe it’s silly but it makes her happy that he knows her well enough to expect that.