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Honestly, it hadn’t exactly occurred to Klaus that he’d never actually told his siblings that he’d died, met God, and come back to life — and even if it had, he probably would have dismissed the thought, because why would anyone care about that? — until Allison was asking how they’d found out about Dad killing himself in the first place, and Luther was saying that Pogo had confirmed it after Klaus had spoken to Dad.Honestly, Klaus was kind of surprised that the big guy even remembered that part of the story, but maybe that was a bit harsh. Ever since they'd managed to avert the Apocalypse by very smartly letting Vanya out of the cage that Luther had locked her in, he actually seemed like he was trying.Diego turned to him, looking impressed. “You summoned Dad?”Klaus frowned. He was lounged on the sofa, wedged between Vanya and Allison, and it was warm, and cosy, and he didn’t really feel like talking about Dad of all people right now. Or, like, ever really. They could go on pretending that Reginald Hargreeves had never existed and he’d be perfectly happy.Still though, his siblings were all watching him expectantly, and Klaus bit back a sigh. He was pretty sure they wouldn’t be letting this go, and maintaining a snarky attitude, while simultaneously trying to cut yourself off from the very drugs you’d been relying on since you were a kid, was considerably difficult.“Not exactly,” he said, shrugging lightly. “It’s more like…he came to me. In his barber shop from hell.” His siblings stared at him blankly. “You know,” Klaus said, a thought occurring to him, “Dad would make a great Sweeney Todd, don’t you think? And that little girl would make an excellent pie lady, if we’re really doing this.”Oh yeah, he could totally turn Heaven into his own little stage play. Maybe all these stupid ghosts would be less annoying if they had some actual entertainment once in a while. He’d be sure to run that by God the next time he died.“Klaus,” Ben said, sounding exasperated. Klaus stuck his tongue out at him.Luther frowned. “Do you ever take anything seriously?”Klaus narrowed his eyes, and was pleased to see that Ben looked decidedly unpleased as he stared at Number One.“Hey, screw you, Luther,” he shot back. “I’m totally serious right now. There’s no joke about dying and meeting God!”Diego apparently disagreed, if his loud snort was anything to go by.“What, I did! Come on Luther, back me up here! It was at the rave, remember?”Luther flushed, probably at the mention of the rave. God, he had one little crazy night, got mistaken for a furry, lost his virginity, and suddenly he’s acting like his life was actually interesting enough to start hiding things.“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”“When I died.”Everyone looked bewildered, except for Ben of course. His brother looked surprisingly angry, his eyes narrowed dangerously in Luther’s direction.“Oh come on,” Klaus said, because honestly, this was getting annoying. Obviously no one gave a shit that he’d apparently come back from the dead, but could they please just accept it so he could move on?He turned his attention back to Luther. Considering that he was the only living witness to the whole thing, Klaus really needed him to back him up here (fat chance, considering how most of their life had gone, but Luther was supposed to be trying, right?).“You were busy being a furry,” Klaus said slowly, barely resisting the urge to roll his eyes when Luther’s faced turned red, “I tackled that guy, he threw my to the floor, my head cracked open, I died.” Luther was staring at him, eyes wide and bewildered, and it occurred to Klaus — oh Jesus, really? — “You don’t remember any of this, do you?”Luther continued to stare at him blankly. Beside him, Diego paled. “You…are you serious right now?”“Yes!” Klaus threw his hands in the air, narrowly missing Vanya. “Has this seriously never come up in conversation?!”“You died?” Diego spluttered. He turned to Luther, eyes wide. “He died?!”“No!” Luther cried. “I…I don’t know!”“You cracked your head open?” Allison was staring at him in alarm. “Are you okay?”Klaus blinked. “Uh, yeah? Look, the little-girl-God sent me back, and I’m totally fine now.”Ben crossed his arms in front of him, scowling. “It’s not ‘totally fine.’ They need to know.”Five frowned at him. “Little what?”“Oh, you’d love her, Five,” Klaus told him. “Both of you, old coots in the bodies of children.”“Klaus, be perfectly honest with me right now,” Diego said, cutting off whatever insult Five had been about to throw at him, “because I’m freaking out a bit right now. Did you or did you not die?”“I just said that!” Seriously, were these people deaf? Also he could not understand why everyone suddenly looked so worried and grim. Weren’t they just treating him like he was some kind of idiot a few minutes ago?“Shit, he’s telling the truth,” Five said, and crap, was that concern in his eyes? Like, actual concern?“Ben, something very strange is going on,” Klaus murmured.Ben rolled his eyes. “No, they’re finally realising that they can’t just ignore everything that happens to you. About time too.” At some point, Ben had shuffled closer to him, and was watching the group with intent eyes.“And you said Luther was there?” Diego pressed. “And what, he just left you there?”“I…guess? But don’t be too hard on the big guy, he was really high, and about to get his cherry popped — ”He glanced at Luther, expecting to see him annoyed and all red-faced again, but the big guy seems torn between staring at Klaus in horror, and looking like an overgrown puppy that someone had just kicked in the ass. Aw geez.A second later Diego had whirled around, punching Luther square in the jaw. “What the fuck, you asshole?!”Klaus stared, bewildered.“Diego!” Allison yelled.Diego whirled on her, glaring. “No! Our brother died! And what, that asshole just left him there? Didn’t even think to bring it up?!”“Wow,” Klaus murmured, “He’s…really mad.”“Of course he is!” Vanya said, her voice shaking. Klaus shot a concerned glance at his sister, because it hadn’t been long since the whole apocalypse ordeal, and she was still fragile, and he’d promised himself that he’d do a better job of protecting her. And Vanya, geez, she looked like she was on the brink of tears. “Klaus, you died.”“Yeah, but I came back! Ben tell them — oh, wait.”He really needed to get a handle on the whole making-ghosts-corporeal thing. Manifesting Ben more often could be really useful, especially in situations like this (sure, Ben liked to snark at him more often that not, but Klaus was pretty sure his brother would be on his side this time).He sighed. “Look, yeah, I died, but it’s fine! Look, it’s not even the first time, right?”
“WHAT?!”
“Klaus, what do you mean?!” Vanya demanded.Klaus shrugged. “I’ve ODed before. It’s — oh come on guys, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. I’m the one that can see the dead, remember, so — ”“Maybe you should stop talking,” Ben suggested, although his voice was surprisingly gentle.“Maybe you should be on my side for once, Ben,” Klaus shot back, more for something to say than anything. This was starting to feel more than a little awkward.Shit, his family were still staring at him, all looking wide-eyed, and teary, and just fucking sad, and now he was starting to feel guilty.“If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t meet God those other times.”“Klaus…I’m sorry.”Klaus blinked in surprise at Luther, and then shrugged. “Hey, don’t sweat it big guy.”Diego’s eye twitched as he glared at Luther. Klaus was starting to feel slightly concerned.Luther shook his head. “No, it was wrong of me. I shouldn’t have — I didn’t — I messed up, big time.”Diego snorted. “You think?” He turned to Klaus, the anger on his face fading into something soft and vulnerable, and God, Klaus wasn’t sure he’d ever seen his brother look at him that way, not since they were kids at least. “Fuck man, I had no idea — look, you don’t brush that stuff off, okay? You were hurt, you d-d-died, and that matters.”And hell, what was he supposed to say to that? Klaus could only sit still, staring at his brother with wide eyes,“You…you know that right?” Diego shifted slightly. “That it matters?”“That you matter,” Ben said softly.A moment of silence passed, and Klaus could only watch his siblings, feeling more than a little bewildered. They all looked so upset, and he just couldn’t process it. Sure, they’d made progress since the whole apocalypse mess, but that didn’t mean that years of nothing would suddenly vanish, and they’d become the superpowered Brady Bunch or something. He’d been kidnapped, tortured, time-traveled and come back as a grief-struck Vietnam Vet probably suffering from PTSD, and no one had noticed.Why the hell would they all start caring now?“You matter to us,” Vanya said, her voice quiet but strong. Klaus averted his gaze, could feel something warm welling up in his eyes, which was just ridiculous because this whole situation was ridiculous.“Of course you do,” Five said, and if that didn’t prove that something insane was happening, then Klaus wouldn’t know what would. He shot a glance at Ben to see if he looked surprised, but Ben was simply watching the events with a knowing look in his eyes.Well. Not everyone could have ghostly wisdom or whatever the hell it was, thank you very much Ben.Klaus turned back to Five, forcing a smirk onto his face. If it felt a bit wobbly, well, he wasn’t going to dwell on that for too long. “Aww, really, Five’s going soft too?”Five rolled his eyes. “Shut up. Look — I came back for all of you. For my family. Which you are a part of, Klaus.” He watched Klaus for a moment, and Klaus could feel his smirk fading, could feel his composure rapidly dwindling. “And — it was wrong of me to ignore you when you returned after time travelling. It was wrong that I didn’t do more when I found out that Cha Cha and Hazel had tortured you to get to me.”“WHAT?!” Luther, Allison and Vanya all yelled in sync. Diego hunched over slightly, his fists clenching at his sides.“Oh yeah, they didn’t know about that either,” Klaus mused. Seeing their expressions of shock, the way Allison’s hands pressed to her mouth, the way Vanya paled, the way Luther was doing a very good impression of a gold fish, he quickly added, “To be fair, Diego knew. And Ben, obviously — he got a front row seat.”“Klaus — ” Luther choked.“We love you,” Vanya said, interrupting whatever Luther had been about to say. Which probably would have been a bunch of awkward ramblings, and Klaus would much rather hear what she had to say anyway, even if it was still a bit perplexing.Everyone nodded, seemingly in agreement, and Klaus’s head spun.“Oh,” he said. He loved them too, obviously, and maybe he knew that they cared about him on some level, but years of abandonment reared their ugly head, and he wasn’t sure what to say or do.Luckily Vanya had apparently been practicing getting in touch with her emotions over the past few weeks, because a moment later he had an arm full of little-sister.Apparently Vanya could give really good hugs. And what was Klaus supposed to do except wrap his arms around her and pull her close? There was a soft rusting from behind him, and then Allison had joined in the hug, and he felt warm, and content, and he could see his hands glowing blue from the corner of his eyes, and then Ben was corporeal, his arms wrapped tightly around them.Diego walked over, not even hesitating before joining in, and then Luther, albeit in his usual slightly awkward manner, and even Five — oh, Klaus was definitely bringing that up later, when the moment had passed, and he didn’t feel like crying from way too many emotions hitting him all at once — and this was nice, this was so nice, why didn’t anyone ever suggest hugging it out before?“Leave him like that again and I will beat your ass, you giant ape,” Diego hissed at Luther.“I can’t believe you didn’t tell us he was tortured,” Luther said back.Klaus decided to intervene, because as nice as it was that they were both apparently sticking up for him, they were ruining the moment, dammit.“Someone should go get Mom,” he suggested. “She should be a part of this too.” He heard Diego hum in approval. “And Pogo too. Mom and Pogo should definitely be a part of this.”“Later,” Vanya said, snuggling closer.“Oh no, this is a one time thing,” Five said. “I am not doing this ever again.”“Oh, quiet you. If you’re nice about it, I’ll even let you bring along your mannequin bride.”“Klaus, I swear to God — ”This was nice. It made him feel warm, and tingly, and safe, in a way he’d never imagined his siblings could make him feel. And maybe this didn’t have to be a one-time thing. Maybe they really were changing for the better.