Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The movie was unusual.

Well, that was kind of an understatement, but that was the only word they could think of to describe it.

But Klaus couldn’t focus on the storyline. Not because he was still trying to figure out why an English movie had English subtitles, though that was one of the things still playing on his mind.

The main reason he couldn’t focus was because it had been almost half an hour and Monty still hadn’t returned. Something happened to the movie about twenty-five minutes ago, not long after Monty left with the excuse that he needed to use the restroom; it replayed a part they had already seen a few moment before. The part Count Olaf had been stood up during.

Klaus wondered if Monty had done something. Count Olaf had made a snide-sounding comment to Monty about missing something, and Monty had seemed pretty desperate to get Count Olaf out of his way when the man claimed he needed to get more popcorn.

And then there was the spyglass. Why did Monty keep looking through it?

He had seen something flashing in the top right corner occasionally, which would be almost immediately followed by Monty lifting the spyglass to his eye, but he hadn’t looked at it quick enough to decipher what it was. When he first saw Monty take out the spyglass he had whispered to him: ‘not now’.

Monty was supposed to be teaching them something, something that was probably related to their parents and Count Olaf. The spyglass was probably something to do with that too, that’s why he couldn’t explain it yet, with Olaf sat right beside them next to Violet and Sunny.

By the time the movie finished Klaus had managed to ignore the villain sat beside his sisters enough to focus on the screen, but once the credits came up, he glanced to his side and his blood went cold when he noticed that Monty’s seat next to him was still empty.

“Monty never came back.” Violet pointed out, and Klaus could tell by the slight hint of panic in her voice that she was thinking the same thing as he was.

Something was wrong, Monty wouldn’t just leave them there. He had said he would be right back.

They got up and hurried out of the screen, looking around the theatre desperately as Olaf followed behind them at a leisurely pace. He didn’t look troubled, not that Klaus thought he would be concerned for Monty’s safety like they were, but he thought he would at least be interested to see if their guardian was around.

But then it hit Klaus why he wasn’t interested. He knew Monty wasn’t coming back. He did something to him, or at least had one of his troupe do something.

They searched the theatre, staying out of Olaf’s reach as they called out Monty’s name. Violet kept saying ‘Uncle Monty’, and as much as he cared about him, Klaus wasn’t entirely sure he was there yet. He was glad his sister trusted their guardian enough to call him that, but Klaus was a little more cautious. As Violet had said that morning, Monty had been a good guardian so far, but Klaus was determined to remain sceptical at least a little longer.

Monty didn’t seem to mind. He didn’t look hurt or annoyed when Klaus continuously called him by his first name minus the familial reference Violet had adopted recently. As he said when they first met, he understood why Klaus was sceptical and even said he admired it, being a scientist himself.

They didn’t find him.

He shared a glance with Violet before heading outside, praying that they would see Monty leaning against his orange truck waiting for them, but when they got outside there was no one around.

The truck was alone.

Like the children.

“What’s this? Your guardian has disappeared? Oh, dearie me, three helpless children all alone in the world, whatever shall we do?” Olaf was still speaking in that ridiculous accent he used for his Stephano character, and it was even more grating now than it had been before.

“Drive home, of course.” A familiar voice answered before Klaus could turn around and hit the evil man.

“Monty!”

They both rushed over to him, where it was safe, and away from Olaf.

Monty asked how the movie was as he places a hand on his shoulder and his other one on Violet’s. As he spoke, the hand on Violet’s shoulder moved to Sunny’s arm, a comforting touch. He had done it before, placed a casual hand on their shoulders as he spoke to them. The first time he did it, it made Klaus tense, memories of Olaf striking him flashing in his mind’s eye, but after that he quickly got used to the nonchalant touches. He knew now that Monty would never hit him or his sisters for any reason. Now, the touches were comforting, solidifying. Monty was here, he was safe, and so were they, with him.

They were reluctant to leave him alone with Olaf, especially since they weren’t entirely sure Monty knew who it was and what he was capable of. But he insisted he would be fine, and it was his job to protect them.

And his delight, he had said.

Klaus felt a swell of emotion at that as Monty pressed his car keys into Klaus’ hand. Not only was Monty willing to protect them, but he actually wanted to. Maybe Monty was deserving of being referred to as their Uncle, regardless of his rather tenuous familial link to them in terms of their family tree.

He followed Violet to the car, then unlocked it and got into the back. They watched through the back window as Olaf and Monty talked.

They didn’t know what they were saying, they were either talking too quietly or the windows of the truck were too thick, or both.

It happened so far.

Monty’s back was to them, like he was putting himself between Olaf and the truck containing the children.

They should have warned him.

They should have made sure Monty knew it was Olaf and that he could and would do terrible things, but more importantly they should have told him he had a knife.

Olaf took one big step forward and grabbed Monty’s shoulder with one hand. They couldn’t see his other hand, but they saw Monty’s hand come up to grab Olaf’s shoulder in return. He staggered back half a step and Olaf followed him, grinning over his shoulder at the Baudelaires as he crowded in close to Monty until they were practically pressed together.

They still weren’t entirely sure what happened, but they knew it was bad by the way Monty had bowed over slightly.

Olaf’s lips were moving, he was speaking into their guardian’s ear, and then he let go of Monty and stepped back as Monty fell to the ground without the support he had seemingly been clinging to Count Olaf to gain.

That’s when they saw the knife. It glinted in the light being casted from a streetlamp, but the glint wasn’t as bright as it should be. And it had a red tint to it.

It was covered in blood, Monty’s blood.

“No…” Klaus heard Violet breathe out the word beside him.

He was in shock, he knew that.

He couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, wasn’t even sure he was breathing.

All he could do was stare at their Uncle Monty on the ground. He was laying on his side, seemingly curled in on himself facing away from them. His shoulders were trembling slightly, but he was breathing, so Klaus knew he was alive but for how long depended on where Olaf stabbed him.

He tried to remember anything he had read that related to the time it would take for an average adult man to bleed out from a stab wound, and how to treat them without medical assistance.

Maybe if they could get to him then they could save him, they just needed to call for help and apply pressure to the wound to stop him bleeding out before the ambulance could get to them.

But Olaf was still there.

Klaus went to rip the door open, he wanted to run to Uncle Monty and help him, but Violet grabbed his arm and reached over to the driver’s side to lock that door, triggering the rest to lock along with it.

He wanted to argue, yell at her for just leaving Uncle Monty out there alone with Olaf. He was already hurt, if they didn’t help him then he would die, and Olaf was still right there. If he wanted to speed the process along then he could, and there was nothing they could do to stop him or help Uncle Monty while they were locked in his truck.

But he saw the tears in her eyes, felt the tight grip around his bicep shaking slightly. She was scared too, she wanted to do something to help Uncle Monty, but Klaus remembered the promise she made to their parents. She promised to keep Klaus and Sunny safe, and out there they wouldn’t be safe, not with Olaf, and not with Uncle Monty unable to protect them.

As much as she wanted to help Uncle Monty, she had to keep her siblings safe.

“Uncle Monty wouldn’t want us rushing out there to help him with Olaf right there. He would want us to stay in here where it’s safer.”

He noted that she said ‘safer’ and not ‘safe’. Olaf could still get to them if he tried, he could smash the window and drag them out, or get in the car, take the keys from Klaus and drive them far away, leaving Uncle Monty to die alone in the cold parking lot.

“We need to call for help.” Klaus stated and Violet nodded.

They saw Olaf step over Uncle Monty and walk lazily towards the truck, and that shocked them into action. Maybe they saw Uncle Monty’s hand – bloodstained hand – reaching out to Olaf’s leg in a weak attempt to stop him getting to the children, but Klaus couldn’t be sure.

They searched every nook and cranny of the interior of the truck. Violet checked the back, Klaus checked the front and Sunny crawled around the floor space in search of something to help, but they couldn’t find any kind of phone.

“If we had a road flare or something then we could shoot it out of the sun roof and attract attention from someone in the theatre.”

“I can’t find any road flares.” Klaus shook his head as he rifled through the glove compartments.

There were papers in there; the registration for the truck, the paper counterpart for Uncle Monty’s driver’s license, some letters and some papers from a notebook that had been ripped out with Monty’s handwriting scribbled on it, messier than Klaus had seen in his expedition journals that he had taken an interest in reading.

He didn’t bother reading what was on the papers, they wouldn’t help them right now.

“Are those important?” Violet asked as she looked over Klaus’ shoulder at the notes.

“I don’t know, why?”

“We could set fire to them and throw them outside? Maybe that’ll be enough to get someone’s attention?”

“Set fire to them with what? We don’t have a lighter or matches and I can’t see any in here. And who could we attract attention from? The parking lot is almost empty, the only other vehicles here are that van and a Cadillac.” He pointed them out as he spoke. “The movie we saw was the last thing showing tonight and we spent a while looking around for Monty before we came outside, everyone’s gone.”

Violet let out a frustrated huff, which quickly turned to a yelp as there was a thud against the window.

“Open the door!” Olaf shouted at them, and Klaus felt his heartrate triple as Violet snatched Sunny up from the floor to hold her close, and he moved into the back with his sisters again.

He was holding up the dagger so that they could see it, dripping with their Uncle’s blood. He tapped it against the window, then dragged it down the glass to make a horrid screeching sound.

They winced and moved away from the window, desperately looking around for something that could save them, get rid of Olaf, and save Uncle Monty’s life.

Klaus saw a light flashing out of the corner of his eye, but he couldn’t look away from Olaf’s taunting grin.

“Come on, Baudelaires, open the door.” He had dropped the accent, thank god, but now he was talking in a patronising sing-song voice that was almost as infuriating. “Or I’ll just smash in the window.”

Time was running out.

Count Olaf started counting down from five, and as he got closer to zero, they were no closer to thinking up a way out.

He didn’t get to zero. A booming voice interrupted him, though Klaus couldn’t hear the words and judging by the matching looks of confusion on his sisters’ faces they didn’t know what was being said either.

Count Olaf must have heard it clearly from the other side of the glass, because his head whipped round, and Klaus saw the edge of a scowl on what he could see of his face.

He walked away, back in the direction of where Uncle Monty was still lying on the floor and Klaus almost wished he’d come back over to them so that he would stay away from their Uncle. At least they had the glass windows between them and Olaf, it wasn’t much but it was something, Uncle Monty was completely exposed.

He didn’t get all the way to him though, four men poured out of one of the side exits to the theatre, all holding guns trained on Count Olaf.

The man froze and looked around, but they were already circling him. A fifth man came out then wearing a red blazer as opposed to the all-black everyone else was wearing, but he didn’t even look at Count Olaf and instead ran straight over to Uncle Monty a few feet in front of Count Olaf, dropping to his knees beside him.

Klaus let out a breath almost at the same time as Violet.

Count Olaf was being held at gunpoint, and someone was helping Uncle Monty. As long as they worked quickly, everything would be okay.

He couldn’t tell how long it had been since Uncle Monty was stabbed, it felt like it could have been anything between a minute ago or an hour ago. He didn’t know if they would be able to help him in time. He didn’t even know if Uncle Monty was still alive, Count Olaf was stood in the way. He could see Uncle Monty’s legs as the man beside him moved him onto his back, but he couldn’t see his chest or head.

He couldn’t see if he was still breathing.

But he could see that one thigh of his light beige trousers was soaked through with blood down to his knee.

People were yelling, and Count Olaf raised his arms. They yelled something else, and he dropped the knife and kicked it away from him. As some of the men started to walk forwards Count Olaf turned and bolted towards the main road, but he didn’t get very far.

Shots rang out, and Klaus quickly covered Sunny’s ears as Violet squeezed their baby sister closer to her.

Count Olaf went down and didn’t seem to be making any move to get up or continue his escape. The van that had been silent until now suddenly spluttered to life, but one of the armed men was close enough to it to rip the door open and drag whoever was inside out onto the pavement. It was one of the white-faced women in Count Olaf’s troupe, and a different armed man found the other twin in the back of the van. Whilst all this was going on, the man who had shot Count Olaf pinned him to the ground and secured handcuffs around his wrists before dragging him away, around the side of the theatre and out of sight. He had been shot in the shoulder, Klaus could see that now. He would live.

That probably wasn’t a good thing, and if Uncle Monty didn’t live then it would be a very unfair thing.

With Count Olaf captured and out of the way, Klaus squinted to try and see how Uncle Monty was doing. It seemed like Count Olaf had stabbed him in the stomach, the front of his brown coat stained almost black from just below his ribcage down. He wasn’t sure exactly where the stab wound was, but it was definitely somewhere on Uncle Monty’s torso, where the man kneeling beside him had his hands pressed, applying pressure.

It took a moment, but Klaus eventually recognised the man as the ticket seller who not only knew Uncle Monty by name, but who Uncle Monty had referred to as an old friend.

An ambulance was suddenly pulling up right beside him, and Klaus vaguely registered that he hadn’t even heard the sirens or seen the red and blue flashing lights that now seemed blinding until the vehicle had entered his field of vision. He was too focused on watching Uncle Monty’s chest and praying to see it move to show that he was breathing, but they were too far away. If he was breathing, it was weak, and Klaus couldn’t tell from this far away.

The ticket seller was speaking to the paramedics as they got Uncle Monty onto a gurney, then into the back of the ambulance. He was about to follow, but with one foot inside the ambulance he seemed to jolt and looked around almost frantically. His eyes eventually fell on the truck and he called something out to the ambulance crew before stepping off and running in the direction of the truck.

That seemed to shake them from whatever trance had taken them over. Violet moved first, unlocking the truck before practically sprinting out with Sunny held close to her chest, Klaus only a second behind her.

She tried to run straight to the ambulance, but the ticket seller put his arms out to stop her as the ambulance started to drive off, and Klaus had to stop himself from chasing after it.

“Is he alive? Will he be okay?” Violet asked, almost tripping over her words in urgency.

“He’s alive, and the paramedics are going to do all they can to keep him that way.” He assured them, then started speaking again but Klaus couldn’t hear his next words.

He was gesturing a lot, and all Klaus could focus on was the fact that his hands were slick with blood. He had to look away, but that didn’t do much good because his eyes immediately landed on the pool of blood on the floor where Uncle Monty had been lying. In the blood was Uncle Monty’s spyglass.

As the ticket seller kept speaking – probably explaining what would happen next – and Violet nodded along, close to tears, Klaus slowly walked over to the blood and crouched down to pick up the spyglass. It was heavy, one half of the brass metal was red and slick, and as he stared at it Klaus noticed it started to shake.

It took him a moment to realise it wasn’t the spyglass shaking but instead his own hand.

“Klaus…” He heard his sister speak beside him, but he didn’t look up from the heavy object in his hand.

It looked familiar, but Klaus couldn’t really form a coherent thought right now.

“Klaus, he’s going to take us to the hospital, so we can wait for news about Uncle Monty there…”

He wasn’t even sure who Violet was talking about. Who was taking them?

A glance up reminded him that the ticket seller was still stood with them, but his hands were more pink than red now. There was a handkerchief sticking out of his pocket that looked like it was supposed to be red, but Klaus was pretty sure it wasn’t. It had probably been white, but he used it to wipe away as much of Uncle Monty’s blood as he could, probably so they wouldn’t have to see it.

It was still staining his hands a little and the white cuffs of his shirt under the red blazer though.

He followed them back to the truck and got into the back as the ticket seller found the keys where Klaus had dropped them in the passenger seat while he searched the glove compartment.

The ride to the hospital was silent, and it felt like it took forever even though a glance at the dashboard clock said it had only been a few minutes. Klaus wasn’t entirely familiar with this area, but he was pretty sure the hospital was further away; the ticket seller was probably breaking some speed limits, and Klaus was grateful.

He almost started yelling when the nurse rolled her eyes at them. The ticket seller told her who they were there to see, and she said, ‘very funny’.

She thought it was a fake name, and Klaus had to force himself to be rational and not bite her head off as the ticket seller asked her to just look in the system. Violet’s hand wrapped around his wrist helped to ground him, but he could tell by the grip that tightened at the nurse’s comment that she was just as annoyed. The nurse had the decency to blush when a result came up, and she asked them to wait in the waiting room until a doctor could come and talk to them.

The police were already there, and they wanted statements from each of them, besides Sunny, who they assumed couldn’t possibly understand what had happened because of her age. She told them she saw everything and knew exactly what happened, but the fact that the police just smiled at her proved that they couldn’t have understood her if she told them anyway. Before they went to speak to them, the ticket seller told them to say Count Olaf ran away after the stabbing and not to mention the gunmen who had arrested him.

They didn’t understand why he wanted that, but he assured them that Count Olaf was more likely to stay imprisoned with these mystery men than they were with the proper authorities.

At this point, they were both too tired to argue or think about why that was the case or who these men were. But they had saved Uncle Monty, as had the ticket seller, so the children went along with it.

They told the police everything, from when they were placed with Count Olaf, to meeting Monty, to ‘Stephano’ showing up, and finally the confrontation in the parking lot. The only thing they didn’t mention was the gunmen. They said that after he stabbed Monty the ticket seller came out to go home, the door opening scared Count Olaf off, then the ticket seller ran to Monty and helped him as he called an ambulance.

The doctor took an hour to come talk to them but, again, it felt like so much longer. He said Monty’s name and Klaus gave himself a head-rush from standing up too fast, and from the rapid blinking he guessed Violet did the same.

They had had to rush Uncle Monty in for emergency surgery, and then give him a blood transfusion. He was unconscious, and it was unlikely that he would wake up tonight, so the doctor suggested the ticket seller take them home to get some rest. They wouldn’t be allowed to see him until he was stable anyway, and that could take a while for them to be sure.

The house keys were on the keyring with Uncle Monty’s car keys, he could have taken them home, but one look at their faces and he seemed to know he had already lost.

He still tried though.

“Monty won’t be happy if he finds out I let you spend the night in the hospital waiting for him to wake up,”

“I don’t care, we’re staying. We appreciate everything, but there’s no way you can make us leave here without Uncle Monty.” Violet stated it in a matter-of-fact fashion, and Klaus and Sunny both nodded in agreement.

He sighed, but he accepted defeat and nodded as he sat back down in his seat, settling in for a long wait. Klaus and Violet did the same.

Klaus absentmindedly told him that he could leave if he wanted, he didn’t have to wait with them, but the ticket seller insisted it was no problem and he wanted to stay, so they all fell back into silence together.

Violet had been clinging to Sunny throughout the whole ordeal, and without a word Klaus reached out to take her; Violet’s arms must be aching by now.

She tensed and tightened her grip on Sunny for a moment, but Sunny assured her it was okay, just Klaus, and she seemed to remember where she was as she looked around, then handed her sister over to her brother.

Sunny was looking around with a frown, and Klaus found himself wondering just how much of all of this she understood. She was a smart baby, she understood a lot. She understood what he meant when Mr Poe told them what happened to their parents. They didn’t need to explain death to her.

She knew that blood was a bad sign and it meant someone was hurt, the more blood the more they were hurt.

Did she understand how close their Uncle Monty had been to death? Did she understand what surgery and blood transfusions were?

Probably.

“Uncle Monty will be okay.” He spoke quietly, possibly hours later, judging by the change in people around them.

Violet had somehow managed to fall asleep, curled up in the seat to his left.

“I know,” Sunny’s babbling roughly translated to.

She was a brave kid, Klaus knew that. But even so, he would never stop being impressed by his baby sister, he was sure of that.

Sunny fell asleep with her head on his shoulder a little while later, and the ticket seller’s head was tilted back, mouth open as he slept too.

He shifted Sunny a little so that he could stand, then laid her on his chair, putting her far enough in the seat that she wouldn’t roll over and fall off.

Reaching into his pockets, he walked away from them and further down the corridor until he was stood in a darkened area.

Klaus took Uncle Monty’s spyglass out of his pocket and turned it over in his hands. The blood was dried now, seemingly staining it. He absentmindedly hoped it would clean off and still look the same as it had done before once all the blood was gone, so there wouldn’t be a permanent reminder of this night soaked into the metal.

It looked even more familiar up close, and as if on autopilot Klaus reached into his other pocket and pulled out the strange object he had found in their smoky library.

It was the same, and suddenly Klaus was wide awake.

It was the bottom half of a spyglass identical to Uncle Monty’s; it was the same size, the dials had the same symbols on them, it even weighed the same.

The dials were matched up in different ways though. Uncle Monty’s seemed to be focused on a light symbol, and Klaus remembered the flashing he had seen out of the corner of his eyes while Count Olaf tried to get into the truck.

Maybe it had been Morse code, Uncle Monty sending a distress signal to whoever the men who came to their aid were by using the spyglass as a flashlight.

Klaus pressed a button on the side in, and sure enough the end lit up, casting a silhouette of the eye on Count Olaf’s ankle onto the wall in front of him. The sight of something he had been so sure was a sign of villainy made him flinch slightly. He looked down and saw that there was a cover over it and flicked it open. The light was brighter now, a strong, solid beam. Someone stuck their head out of a nearby room and glared at him, so Klaus quickly clicked it off again. He apologised and hurried back to his sisters and the ticket seller, Uncle Monty’s spyglass and the piece he had found in the remains of their home in each hand.

The ticket seller was awake, and he glanced down at the objects in his hand before looking up at Klaus’ face again with a small smile.

He reached into his blazer and pulled out one identical to Uncle Monty’s.

“What does it mean?” Klaus asked quietly, careful not to wake up his sisters.

“All will be explained soon enough, Klaus Baudelaire. But tonight has been a long and emotionally harrowing night. One thing at a time. When Doctor Montgomery is healthy enough, he’ll teach you everything you need to know about that and everything that comes with it,” He pointed to the spyglass as he spoke, then pushed himself to stand. “I need to make some calls, and you should at least try to get some sleep.”

Klaus wanted to argue, he wanted to know what it all meant, what the eye was, what Uncle Monty and his parents had to do with it, how Count Olaf fit into it all, but he had to agree that it had been a long night. He didn’t realise until it was pointed out, but he really did need to get some sleep; he was exhausted.

He laid on the floor in front of Violet and Sunny’s chairs and closed his eyes, expecting to struggle to sleep. Fortunately, he fell asleep almost as soon as he had settled.

Chapter Text

Klaus awoke to Sunny reaching down from the chair to pat the hand he had resting on his chest, and the ticket seller shaking his shoulder. Violet was already awake, kneeling on the floor beside him with a smile on her lips. It seemed odd, seeing her smile at a time like this, but that must have meant that there was good news.

“Uncle Monty is stable. He’s not awake yet, but they said he could wake up any time between now and tomorrow.” She explained and stood to hold a hand out and help Klaus up.

“How long was I asleep?”

“About three hours.” The ticket seller informed him, then gestured for them to follow him.

They took the elevator up to Uncle Monty’s room. They were told it was on floor three, and floor three wasn’t the Intensive Care Unit. That was a good sign. He had a private room too, which meant none of them would be disturbed.

Violet got to the door to Uncle Monty’s room first, but she didn’t make a move to open the door and go inside.

Klaus wanted to push her out of the way and go inside, but he stopped himself and waited for her to speak to find out what had halted her movements.

“Maybe I should go in first, alone. So that I can warn you if he’s in a bad state,”

Klaus shook his head, as did Sunny.

“We can’t ask you to do that. We’ll go in together, all of us,” He proposed instead, but the ticket seller argued that he should go first, being the adult and all.

They eventually agreed that they would go in together after the ticket seller relented, and the children all took a deep breath as he opened the door and they all stepped inside.

The room was relatively dark inside. The lights seemed to be on a dimmer and it was turned about half way down, light enough for the doctors to come in and check on him or do what they needed to do, but low enough that Uncle Monty could rest peacefully. There were machines around him casting dull blue glows, and Klaus’ breath hitched when he saw how pale their Uncle was.

His brown skin looked almost beige, and his black hair served as a shocking contrast. This eyes were closed and shadowed, and he was wearing a cliché white hospital gown with blue spots on it, probably because the clothes he had been wearing were constricting so at least his waistcoat and shirt would have had to be cut off of him, so the doctors could get to the wound.

Also, they were covered in blood.

There were so many wires and tubes around him. An IV poured blood into Uncle Monty’s veins through his left hand, and a clear bag was attached to an IV injected in his right hand. Probably nutritional stuff to revitalise him. There was a clip on the tip of his left ring finger, and Klaus was pretty sure it was monitoring his heartrate.

They stared in silence for a moment, the beeping of the monitor indicating his pulse the only sound in the room before the ticket seller cleared his throat, then asked if they were okay.

Violet was crying. She wasn’t making noise but when Klaus managed to pull his eyes away from Uncle Monty, he saw fresh tear tracks down her cheeks. He wanted to help, but he felt the same way she did. He would be crying too if he wasn’t pretty sure he was still in shock.

Sunny took action first. She reached over to her, cooing quietly until Violet snapped out of it and took her from Klaus. She wrapped her arms around Violet’s neck and rested her head on her shoulder, and Violet managed to smile a little as she hugged Sunny back. Klaus reached out to rest a hand on Violet’s shoulder, the way Uncle Monty would have done if he could see how upset she was.

There were two chairs in the room, one on either side of the bed. The ticket seller insisted on remaining standing and told Violet and Klaus to take the chairs. As soon as she sat down, Violet reached out and took Uncle Monty’s left hand, careful not to disrupt to heartrate monitor on his finger or the needle in the back of his hand, holding Sunny on her lap with her other hand.

Klaus wanted to do the same, he wanted to take Uncle Monty’s other hand, even if it was just to assure himself that there was some warmth there, to assure himself that no matter how dead Uncle Monty looked right now, he was still definitely alive.

But he didn’t.

He wasn’t sure why, but instead he just stared at his hand for a moment, then shifted his eyes to stare at Uncle Monty’s chest, watching it rise and fall with each breath. Doctors and nurses came in and out to check on him and record his vitals, but none of them could tell them when Uncle Monty would wake up. They said he would wake naturally, and they would just have to wait.

The ticket seller also came in and out, claiming he had to make phone calls each time he left.

They didn’t care enough to be curious about who he was calling and why he had to make so many calls, they just kept watching Uncle Monty and praying that he woke up soon.

They sat in silence for a few hours before Violet gasped.

“Uncle Monty?” She practically whispered out as she sat forward, holding Sunny securely against her, who looked between Violet and Uncle Monty in confusion.

“What happened?” Klaus asked as he sat forward too, on full alert.

“He squeezed my hand a little. Uncle Monty? Please wake up?”

Klaus leant forward a little closer to him, watching for any changes. His eyes seemed to be flickering a little under his eyelids, but the movement was so miniscule that it could have just been Klaus’ wishful thinking.

The seconds seemed to tick by way too slowly, and eventually Klaus reached out in take his hand, almost in desperation. He couldn’t just sit there and wait, if there was even the slightest chance that the touch would help to prompt Uncle Monty into waking up, he had to try it.

Maybe it was correlation and not causation, but Klaus liked to think it helped. Uncle Monty’s eyes flickered open a few seconds after Klaus took his hand.

He seemed to be disoriented, and his brow furrowed in confusion as he stared up at the ceiling, his eyes moving only a little.

“Uncle Monty?” Klaus breathed out, and Uncle Monty’s attention eventually settled on him.

He smiled a little, and Klaus beamed back, squeezing his hand as Violet seemed to do the same to his other hand.

Uncle Monty turned to look at Violet, and Violet let out a choked-off sob as Uncle Monty squeezed both their hands again.

“What’s wrong?” Uncle Monty’s voice was quiet and a little rough from disuse, but Klaus could hear the concern and confusion in his words.

That almost made him laugh.

Almost.

“We were so worried about you…” Violet answered, and Uncle Monty looked between the two of them with a frown, seeming to not understand why they were worried.

He looked down at himself and seemed to remember what had happened. Uncle Monty groaned quietly and closed his eyes for a second, but he didn’t let go of their hands. The ticket seller came back in, and he smiled wide when Uncle Monty looked up at him.

“Doctor Montgomery, glad to see you awake.” He spoke quietly, but the joy was clear in his voice.

Despite to low volume, Uncle Monty cringed a little and closed his eyes again.

“Is there anything I can get you?”

“Water please?” Uncle Monty requested, barely above a whisper, and the ticket seller nodded as he left to get him what he asked for.

He returned barely a minute later, and that’s when Klaus realised that he was still holding his hand. He flushed as he quickly let go. Uncle Monty glanced over at him briefly, but he didn’t say or do anything about it, and instead used his now free hand to take the cup of water the ticket seller offered him. It had a straw in it, so he didn’t have to sit up too much to drink.

Which was good, because when he tried, he let out a choked off groan that prompted the ticket seller to rush forward. He placed a hand on Uncle Monty’s shoulder and gently coaxed him to lie down again.

Uncle Monty huffed, and Klaus wasn’t sure if it was from pain, relief from the pain, or annoyance at not being able to do as much as sit up. He knew their Uncle hated being unable to care for himself, it was clear from his expedition journals. Violet and Klaus had laughed over a passage in which Monty described when he broke his leg and his assistant Gustav had to force him to stay off of it for a while. Uncle Monty had explained in detail how much he hated every second of it, and even described one night when he had tried to go for a walk – without crutches – but Gustav had caught him in the act and threw Uncle Monty over his shoulder to drag him back to the hut they were staying in, somewhere in the Amazon.

As bad as a broken leg was, a stab wound was worse. He would definitely have to take it easy for a while, and since Gustav had resigned Violet and Klaus were up for taking on the role of making him rest.

Uncle Monty drank most of the water, then handed it back to the ticket seller, who placed it on the bedside table.

“Are you alright?” Uncle Monty asked as he looked between the children, and again Klaus almost laughed at how ridiculous it was for the one in the hospital bed to be asking them if they were okay.

“We’re fine, Uncle Monty.” Violet assured him and squeezed his hand again, then smiled as Uncle Monty squeezed it back.

A doctor came in then and asked Uncle Monty how he was feeling, as well as some orientation questions. He explained that the police wanted to speak to him and brought them in before asking if it was okay.

A flash of panic shot through Klaus, and his head shot up to meet eyes with Violet, who had the same jolting realisation he did. Uncle Monty didn’t know they had lied to the police about what happened, about the armed men and what happened to Count Olaf.

If he told the truth, their statements would come into question. Would they get into trouble? For obstructing justice or something?

The ticket seller didn’t look concerned, however.

They didn’t have time to tell Uncle Monty about their lie before the police came in, but it turned out they didn’t have to. Uncle Monty explained everything exactly how it really happened until he got to the part where he was stabbed. He told them he remembered hitting the floor, then his friend shouted something, and then seeing Count Olaf run away.

He didn’t mention Count Olaf going to the truck, the armed men, or Count Olaf being shot and dragged away by them. Maybe he genuinely only remembered the ticket seller shout, then Count Olaf attempting to run away before he was shot. Maybe he didn’t remember the gunmen; he had just been stabbed, after all.

After the police left, seemingly satisfied that all the stories matched up, the ticket seller handed Violet some money and asked her to take her siblings to the cafeteria to get something to eat. He explained that he needed to have a private conversation with Uncle Monty. Uncle Monty nodded a little in encouragement when they glanced at him for instruction, then Violet took the money and they left.

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Violet asked as she put Sunny down on the table to crawl around.

“The men with guns?” Sunny guessed as he chewed on some of the chocolate Violet had given her.

“Probably. Who do you think they were?” Klaus asked as he unwrapped his sandwich.

He wasn’t really hungry, and neither was Violet, but they both knew they had to eat. Uncle Monty would worry if they didn’t eat, and he had enough to worry about right now.

“I don’t know… At first, I thought maybe they were theatre security, but why would they have guns? And they looked like they were wearing tac gear...”

“Maybe it has something to do with this.” Klaus took Uncle Monty’s spyglass from his pocket and held it out for Violet to see.

“It’s… Uncle Monty’s, right? He was looking through it during the film.”

“Yeah but look...” Klaus turned the spyglass around to point it at her, so she could see the eye on the cover. “It’s the eye from Uncle Monty’s landscaping…”

“And Olaf’s tattoo…” Violet finished, and Klaus nodded as they looked at each other, each of their minds going into overdrive trying to figure out the connection.

“The ticket seller has one of these too. And so did our parents.” Klaus explained, referring to the spyglass.

At Violet’s confused expression, Klaus took the piece he found in their library out of his other pocket and held that and Monty’s spyglass side by side to show Violet the similarities. She took them both from him to look closer and turned them over in her hands. If she had a hand free, Klaus didn’t doubt that she would be reaching for her ribbon right now as she tried to figure out what this all meant.

“Did you see it in the movie too?” She asked, and Klaus frowned in confusion. “In the corner of the screen. It kept flashing up.”

That must have been what Klaus kept seeing. And when he saw it, Uncle Monty would look through the spyglass.

“Maybe that has something to do with the subtitles?” He didn’t know what, but there had to be a reason for them.

“We need to ask Uncle Monty about all this. He said he would give us answers, that there was a lot to learn but he couldn’t tell us with Count Olaf there. Maybe this is the kind of thing he was going to teach us.”

Violet gave Klaus the pieces back, but as she let go of Uncle Monty’s spyglass she cringed slightly as she spotted the blood dried on it for the first time.

“Maybe we should wash that before giving it back to Uncle Monty, I don’t think it’ll be pleasant for him to see it…” covered in his blood “…like that.”

After Violet and Klaus finished their sandwiches and the chocolate puddings they had gotten, and Sunny had finished her chocolate and her raw carrot, they decide it had been long enough and went back up to Uncle Monty’s hospital room.

On their way, Klaus took a detour to the bathroom to clean the blood off Uncle Monty’s spyglass in the sink. Thankfully, the blood came off without too much problem and he dried it before meeting his sisters outside to go see Uncle Monty again.

They knocked, and the ticket seller called out for them to come in.

Uncle Monty was propped up in bed so that he was more upright, and he was eating from a carton of jello that a doctor or nurse must have dropped by while the children were gone. They were chatting about an old movie none of the children had heard of, so their serious conversation that required privacy must have been finished.

Uncle Monty was cleared to leave the hospital the next day, but they insisted that he must take it easy. Lots of bedrest and minimal activity.

Uncle Monty agreed to it all, but after reading his expedition journals Klaus was pretty sure he was just saying yes so that he could go home. Klaus and Violet shared a look, and he knew they were both thinking the same thing. They would make sure that he followed the doctor’s orders as much as they could, as long as it meant Uncle Monty would get better sooner.

The ticket seller had taken the truck to go to Uncle Monty’s house and get him some clothes from his bedroom for him to wear to leave the hospital. He brought back a pair of sweatpants and a loose pyjama top that buttoned up because the clothes were loose and wouldn’t hurt, so that Uncle Monty wouldn’t have to lift his arms to get the shirt on.

He had to use a wheelchair to leave – which he complained about the entire time – and the ticket seller insisted on driving them home, then assured them that he would get a cab from Monty’s to his own home.

Uncle Monty attempted to hop out of the truck in his usual jolly manner, but then he almost collapsed from the pain radiating from his midsection.

Luckily Violet got out of the backseat at about the same time, and she rushed forward to catch him before he hit the floor, his arm around her shoulders and her arm around his back.

She managed to stop him just before his knees hit the gravel, and he used his arm around her and a hand on the door to the truck to pull himself back upright. He laughed it off, thanked Violet and assured everyone he was alright. Even so, the ticket seller insisted on coming in with them and he shadowed Monty until he was sat on one of the couches in the Reptile Room, then sat beside him as he called himself a cab.

Uncle Monty remaining seated lasted all of about two minutes before he insisted on getting up to cook for the children. Everyone urged him to sit back down; the ticket seller offered to stay and cook, but children assured him that Violet and Klaus could do it. They came to an agreement that Violet and Klaus could cook, and Uncle Monty could look after Sunny.

They could handle Sunny being in the kitchen with them, she was helpful, but looking after her would give Uncle Monty something to do that would make him feel less useless, so Sunny nodded conspiringly to Violet as she handed her over to their guardian. Sunny was willing to stay there and make Uncle Monty feel more useful if it meant that he wouldn’t risk hurting himself by getting up to do something like cooking.

Violet and Klaus didn’t know how to cook much, but they went through his cupboards and – to their delight – found everything they needed in order to make Pasta Puttenesca. It was something they remembered how to make from having to make it for Count Olaf and his troupe, and as they set about doing it both Klaus and Violet froze and looked up at each other at the same time.

“Do you think Count Olaf is still in custody?” Klaus asked quietly, turning to his older sister for reassurance.

This man had tried to marry a fourteen-year-old Violet, dangled their baby sister over a high drop, and then threatened to drop her even after they had complied with his scheme, struck Klaus, threatened them with a knife, then stabbed their – caring, loving – guardian with said knife and tried to kidnap them seconds after.

All either of them wanted was for Count Olaf to be gone from their lives, no longer something they had to worry about. But they had no way of knowing whether or not he was a threat anymore.

“Well… If he got out, we’d be notified, right? Especially after he attempted to murder Uncle Monty, and they know Count Olaf was here, so he knows where we live… Wouldn’t Uncle Monty have been told before he came home if there was a chance Count Olaf could show up here?”

That made sense. It sort of helped to ease Klaus’ worry. There were no messages left on Uncle Monty’s answering machine, no letters, nothing from anyone saying that Olaf could come after them. He clung to that thought as they continued cooking in silence.

They didn’t have to make their own pasta this time. Uncle Monty had plenty in the pantry, and he had enough ingredients that it took away a few steps from having to make the sauce from scratch.

They finished the food a lot sooner than they had last time they had made it, and it helped that Uncle Monty’s stove worked perfectly, and all of his dishes and equipment were already gleamingly clean without the children having to spend time scrubbing long-dried old food from them before they could use them. There was also a system to where everything was in the cupboards and drawers, so all they needed was common sense to find what they needed in there as opposed to the senseless mess Count Olaf’s kitchen had been.

Violet ladled the pasta into three bowls, and Klaus covered the pasta with the sauce before filling a separate bowl with cut up raw celery for Sunny.

By the time they brought the food back to the Reptile Room, the ticket seller was standing to leave after getting a phone call saying that his taxi was waiting for him outside.

Uncle Monty was about to stand up to walk him out, but when he shifted Sunny started fussing and was close to bursting into tears. That prompted Uncle Monty to return to his previous reclined position on the couch with Sunny laid against his chest, the infant careful to keep her legs away from where Uncle Monty had been stabbed. He apologised to the ticket seller, but he assured Uncle Monty that it was okay and winked to Sunny before he left.

He, Klaus and Violet knew it was an act, Sunny was only acting close to tears to make Uncle Monty stay where he was.

On his way out, the ticket seller passed Klaus and Violet, and whispered to them asking them to keep an eye on Monty. He shook Violet’s and Klaus’ hands on the way out, and Klaus spotted a piece of paper in Violet’s hand when he pulled away.

Violet just shoved it in her pocket for now and walked into the Reptile Room to give Monty and Sunny their food, then sat down with her own, with Klaus on the other couch also eating.

They ate in relative silence, Uncle Monty occasionally putting his own food aside to help Sunny with her’s.

A few hours later, Uncle Monty announced that it was their bedtime and picked Sunny up from where she was playing with the Incredibly Deadly Viper – which she had nicknamed Inky – on the floor.

They all went off to bed, and Uncle Monty announced that he was clearing out his study for Violet and Klaus to have a room each. One of them would stay in the room they were already in, and the other would move into the room Uncle Monty was clearing for them.

He explained that he would have done so sooner, but he only found out he should have the children a day or so before they arrived, so he hadn’t been able to. Sunny would stay with Violet, he explained, as long as that was okay with Violet. She assured him it was fine, and Klaus tried to keep his excitement about having his own room again to a minimum. The study was a little smaller than the room they were currently in, so they agreed that the girls would stay where they were since there was two of them and they could use more space, and Klaus would get the new room.

Before they went to bed, Uncle Monty showed him the room that would soon be his. It was still littered with scientific books and letters from the Herpetological Society, as well as a large desk and chair where Klaus’ bed would soon be, covered in scraps of paper and half-full notebooks. And there was a little reading alcove in front of the window, looking out at the vast green landscaping of Uncle Monty’s yard.

Uncle Monty explained that he only really used it in the middle of the night when he couldn’t turn the lights on in the Reptile Room without waking up the reptiles living there, but he had a desk in his bedroom he could work at, so it was no hassle to get rid of his study to give Klaus a room to himself.

Both Violet and Klaus wanted to help Uncle Monty to bed, to make sure he was okay, but he assured them he would be fine, and after saying goodnight he left and turned the light to their room off to go to his own.

They all sat in silence for a moment, listening to the sounds outside their room.

Uncle Monty went downstairs for a minute, and since they were listening very closely, they were able to hear the front door lock. A few moments later Uncle Monty came back upstairs. They heard the bathroom tap running for about as long as it took someone to brush their teeth, then a few doors open and shut, ending in Uncle Monty’s bedroom door closing.

Violet seemed satisfied with that and turned the lamp on her side of the room off as she moved to lie down with Sunny cuddled up with her. Klaus stayed up a little while longer, listening out for any type of movement, but after ten minutes of silence he was satisfied that Uncle Monty had indeed gone to sleep.

He turned his own lamp off and laid down to sleep.

Chapter Text

Over the next few weeks, Sunny seemed to have appointed herself as Uncle Monty’s guardian as opposed to the other way around.

Whenever he was moving around too much, she would start to get fussy until he picked her up and sat with her. He had tried just picking her up and continuing what he was doing with her on his hip, but she would just pretend to be more upset until he stopped moving.

It was working very well, and Uncle Monty was definitely on his way to a full recovery. He only winced when he stretched now, no longer having to force himself to cut off a cry of pain in the hopes that the children wouldn’t notice and worry about him. It didn’t work, they could tell Uncle Monty was still in pain and they were still worried, but they allowed him to believe that he was shielding them from his pain. They allowed him to believe that the children had put it all behind them and that they were in a relatively ordinary routine now.

Though, Uncle Monty did have to constantly assure them that Count Olaf wasn’t going to get to them again. He never told them specifically where he was or who the men who came to their aid were, but he never seemed annoyed when Klaus or Violet asked if there had been any change in the situation. Uncle Monty promised that he had it on very good authority that Count Olaf was still incarcerated, and he would get an update immediately if that were to change.

Even so, Klaus struggled to sleep some nights and he knew he wasn’t alone. Sometimes when he awoke in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, Violet was also sat up in her bed. They didn’t have to exchange words, they both knew what was dragging them out of their sleep. It was stupid, he knew Uncle Monty wouldn’t lie to them about something like this, something that caused them so much worry and stress. If Count Olaf got out, Uncle Monty would know, and he would tell the children.

He promised.

Nevertheless, Klaus felt his pulse heighten every time there was a knock at the door. Usually it was no one of much importance to the children; Uncle Monty’s friends coming by to check up on him and make sure he was doing okay – usually with Uncle Monty making quick introductions to the children, then them going to a separate room to talk – or the mailman when they received a package either too big to go through the mailbox and/or that needed a signature.

So when the doorbell rang one day, like every other time the bell rang, Klaus stopped what he was doing, tense, and saw Violet tense too where she was sat on the floor of the Reptile Room fiddling with the mechanics of a cage. They both shared an uneasy look that seemed to go completely unnoticed by their guardian.

Uncle Monty put Sunny down, much to her displeasure, and left the room to answer the door without hesitation as the children fell silent and listened.

He had closed the Reptile Room door behind him, and it was thick metal, so they couldn’t hear exactly what was being said. They heard Uncle Monty’s voice though, and he sounded excited as he talked to whoever was at the door. It was a man, but Klaus couldn’t quite place the voice, though it was somewhat familiar.

Violet looked just as confused as she scooped up Sunny and headed to the door, Klaus following close behind her. They listened at the door, but they still couldn’t make out any words, so Violet eventually pushed it open.

Uncle Monty’s hands were resting on the other man’s shoulders, and the man’s hands were on Uncle Monty’s hips, but they both quickly broke contact with each other when they heard the children’s footsteps.

The man had curly brown hair and blue eyes with stubble covering his sharp jawline. He was a little taller than Uncle Monty, he was slim, and he looked familiar, but Klaus couldn’t put a name to the face.

“Bambini, this is Gustav!” Uncle Monty introduced him, and Gustav smiled as he held his hand out to each of them in turn, even shaking Sunny’s little hand as Violet introduced them all.

“Oh, we’ve met. I admit it wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience and you had other things to worry about other than remembering faces, so I take no offence in that you don’t recognise me.” He explained after their introduction, then elaborated as they stared at him in confusion. “At the theatre. The Marvellous Marriage. I attended with Jacqueline to make sure you got away from Count Olaf safely, and were brought here.”

Yes, Klaus remembered him. He was the first one who told them about their actual closest living relative, Dr Montgomery. He looked different in the brown leather jacket, red shirt and tie than he did in the tux he wore to the play, but the face was definitely the same.

“Right, yes… But have we seen you somewhere else? You definitely look familiar, but I don’t think it’s the theatre I’m thinking of…” Violet struggled to explain, and Klaus watched him a little more carefully to try and figure out what she was thinking.

She was right, Klaus was sure they had seen him somewhere else, but he couldn’t pinpoint where either.

Gustav laughed slightly, then turned to grab Uncle Monty’s upper arms and pull him close – much to Uncle Monty’s surprise – before dramatically announcing; “Gerta! Don’t let them take the children!”

“Zombies in the Snow!” Klaus exclaimed.

“That’s right! You played Rolf!” Violet agreed with a smile, and Gustav let go of Uncle Monty to give a dramatic theatre bow in response.

“Not my finest work, but it was done with pretty short-notice.” He shrugged.

“It was… unusual.” Klaus repeated what he had told Uncle Monty that night, and Gustav let out another chuckle.

“Yes, I’ve heard that word used to describe my work many times.”

Uncle Monty led them back to the Reptile Room as he explained that he was the same Gustav who used to be his assistant, the words ‘used to’ accompanied by a mock glare sent in Gustav’s direction.

Once they were all seated, Gustav explained that he never actually resigned. The letter Uncle Monty had found was forged.

In actuality, the last night Uncle Monty had seen him, he went outside to make a call and had been shot by a poisonous dart. Luckily, he had managed not to fall into the reflective pond he was stood by and instead landed in the grass. It was one of Count Olaf’s troupe that had shot him, and the fact that he wasn’t moving made them assume he was dead without bothering to check.

He had been talking to Jacqueline, so when he suddenly stopped responding to her words, she sent a cab. Klaus and Violet didn’t understand why she would have sent a cab, but Gustav kept talking without pause so they didn’t have time to ask about that and let it slide for now, only briefly sharing a confused look before focusing on the story again.

They had figured out that Count Olaf had probably planned to have him killed so that he could take Gustav’s place as Uncle Monty’s assistant and get close to him and, as a result, the children. They obviously wanted to catch him, so they thought it best to let Olaf believe he had succeeded in his assassination attempt. That way, Count Olaf would come out of hiding and show up at Uncle Monty’s where they could catch him, and there would be no further attempts on Gustav’s life. They couldn’t kill him if they believed he was already dead, Gustav pointed out.

Gustav explained that they couldn’t have sent word to Monty about the plan before Olaf showed up because they assumed that he or his troupe would be watching the house and therefore would know they were on to him if Uncle Monty received a warning. They also didn’t want to just storm the house and arrest him the moment he showed up because of a few reasons. Firstly, the children were home alone when Count Olaf first showed up, without Uncle Monty to get them out of the way safely so that they wouldn’t get caught up in the crossfire or used as hostages by Count Olaf. Secondly, they didn’t know where his troupe would be and they wanted to get them all in one fell swoop so that the others wouldn’t find out about the arrests and flee. And Uncle Monty’s safety was a factor too.

So instead, they quickly made Zombies in the Snow with a message for Uncle Monty to take the children to Peru; he didn’t bother explaining why Peru and again, he didn’t pause long enough for the children to ask.

“Though I was worried Count Olaf would try to hurt you on the way to Peru where you wouldn’t be able to escape him given that you would be stuck on a boat with him, that’s why I put the secondary message in the movie to make sure you knew what was happening.” Gustav directed at Monty, and Uncle Monty frowned in confusion.

“Secondary message?”

“Well yes, there was the message about Peru – that was the main one – then the message about Olaf.”

They stared at each other in silence for a moment, Gustav expectantly and Uncle Monty in confusion.

“You… didn’t get the secondary message?”

“I wasn’t aware I needed to be on the lookout for one.” Uncle Monty shrugged, and Gustav rolled his eyes with a sigh.

“The second message was warning you that your new assistant was Count Olaf!”

“Well how was I supposed to know you had put two in there? There’s usually only one and if there’s more, you or Alfred usually let me know!”

“I told Alfred to tell you!”

“Well he didn’t!”

Gustav groaned again, and the children glanced at each other, trying to suppress an amused smile each. The adults clearly weren’t actually mad at each other, Gustav was just frustrated, and Uncle Monty seemed unphased by this in his usual ‘it’s been and gone, nothing we can do about it now’ attitude.

“Well, it doesn’t matter, I suppose. Everything worked out fine regardless; Count Olaf is in custody, you’re safe, the children are safe, I was finally released from witness protection and able to come home… Everything is fine, and no one got hurt, that’s the important thing.” Gustav conceded, and Uncle Monty’s eyes widened a little.

“Yes… No one got hurt.” He nodded, sending the children a look that practically pleaded ‘just go along with it’.

They weren’t entirely sure why he didn’t want Gustav to know he was stabbed, but they didn’t mention it regardless.

They ordered takeout that night to celebrate Gustav’s return, and watched movies together with hot chocolates and popcorn. Violet, Klaus and Sunny shared one of the couches in the living room, a three-seated one, whilst Uncle Monty and Gustav shared the two-seated one next to it. Gustav had his arm around Uncle Monty throughout most of the night, and half way through the first movie, Uncle Monty shifted so he was leaning more into Gustav’s side. Violet noticed it too, and she and Klaus shared a slightly confused glance before shrugging and turning back to the TV.

Uncle Monty had said Gustav had been his assistant and friend for many years, and they had lived together for most of those years. Uncle Monty was naturally physically affectionate with people he cared about, hence the common casual touches he doled out to the children so effortlessly, maybe Gustav was the same and after so many years in close proximity to each other they had fallen into the habit of nonchalant touches like this being commonplace between them.

He didn’t dwell on it, not even when Uncle Monty fell asleep with his head against Gustav’s shoulder, with Gustav’s fingers running up and down the length of his arm.

The children were allowed to stay up a little later than usual that night since Uncle Monty was asleep and couldn’t enforce their bedtime and Gustav assured them that they could stay up if they wanted to, but eventually they got too tired to focus on the movie and silently agreed it was time for bed.

Uncle Monty was yet to clear out the study for Klaus, they wouldn’t let him yet, given that he was still recovering, so he and his sisters were still sharing one room. He didn’t mind though, and he assured a very sleepy Uncle Monty of this as they all headed upstairs.

They changed for bed, and Uncle Monty came to say goodnight to them before retiring to his own room.

It was around midnight and the children fell asleep almost as soon as their heads hit their pillows, but it didn’t last long.

They were awoken an hour later by yelling coming from down the hall. It wasn’t Uncle Monty’s voice, though now they were awake they could hear Uncle Monty speaking more quietly than Gustav was.

“How could you not tell me this?!” Gustav yelled, and Violet and Klaus both turned their lamps on and shared a worried glance at the anger they heard in his voice, with Klaus putting on his glasses and blinking away sleep.

Gustav seemed nice, and he seemed to really care about their Uncle Monty but given how close they had come to losing him just a few weeks ago they had become very protective of their guardian, and they both stared anxiously at the door as they listened to the indignation in Gustav’s voice directed at him.

They didn’t know him well enough to know if he had a bad temper, and if so, what he would do if he lost it. They didn’t know if he would hurt Uncle Monty, and Klaus wanted to leave their bedroom and make sure that Gustav couldn’t do so by standing between them and telling him to back off.

But one glance at Violet and he knew she was aware of what he was thinking, and she shook her head to tell him not to.

“No, that’s not an excuse! The first thing I asked when you answered the door was ‘are you okay?’ and you lied to me!”

Well, it seemed Gustav found out about Uncle Monty’s injury. That helped to relax Klaus a little; if Gustav was this upset that Uncle Monty got hurt and didn’t tell him, he clearly cared enough not to cause Uncle Monty any more pain… right?

Still, he didn’t allow himself to relax too much. Just in case they needed to spring into action.

“You know that I didn’t mean just right now, I meant in general! And having a stab wound would definitely constitute as something you should mention when someone asks if you are okay!”

“Gustav, keep it down, you’ll wake the children.” Uncle Monty answered, a little louder than he had been talking so far, so they could hear him clearer, but still not as loud as Gustav was being, on the off chance that the children may have managed to sleep through the argument so far.

It went quiet after that, and Klaus sat forward in bed a little as he strained to hear more, to make sure everything was alright. They could hear a low murmur of them both still talking, Gustav’s voice still a little sharper, though he was calming down a little.

“Wait here.” Violet whispered to him and Sunny before getting out of bed.

She quietly put on her slippers, and Klaus moved to do the same. She shook her head and told him to wait again, but Klaus shook his head in return.

Violet knew there was no arguing with him, so she relented and led the way to the bedroom door and out into the hallway, closing the door so that Sunny could go back to sleep in her’s and Violet’s shared bed.

The house was dark, but Uncle Monty’s bedroom door was slightly ajar, and a strip of light was visible through the crack.

Klaus had planned to just look through the crack to see if they were still arguing but just being quieter about it or if they were done, but Violet knocked before he got close enough.

There was movement coming from inside the room, then the door opened a little wider and Uncle Monty smiled apologetically at them.

“Did we wake you? I’m sorry, children. We’ll be quieter from now on, I promise.” He assured them, but Klaus and Violet both shook their heads as Violet spoke.

“We don’t care that you guys woke us. We just wanted to make sure everything is alright.”

“Everything is fine, Gustav and I just need to talk about some things. Talk, not yell.” He directed the last bit over his shoulder, then Gustav appeared behind him and sent them a similar apologetic smile to the one Uncle Monty had given them.

“Yes, talk. I apologise for waking you, I sort of overreacted and lost my temper.”

“Sort of?” Uncle Monty quipped, and Gustav sent him a glare, but it lacked the heat they had heard in his voice just moments ago and quickly melted away to a smile, one that Uncle Monty mirrored before he turned the smile to the children and spoke again. “Go back to bed, dears. Everything is fine.”

Much more relaxed after his smile and reassuring words, Violet and Klaus both bid them goodnight again and went back to their room. It didn’t register in Klaus’ mind that both the adults were in their pyjamas and robes, and both sides of Uncle Monty’s bed were dishevelled until after he closed his eyes, so he didn’t have time to actually figure out what that meant before sleep overtook him.

He woke up the next morning to an empty room and sunlight streaming through the crack in their curtains.

Klaus had no problem sharing a bedroom with his sisters and would happily do so for the rest of his time living here if he needed to, but even so it was nice to wake up alone every once in a while.

He knew everything was okay, he could hear conversation and laughter flitting up the stairs from the dining room, so he used the alone time to just stretch out in bed and give himself the opportunity to properly wake up before he would be expected to join in conversations, enjoying the quiet and the small amount of daylight illuminating the room.

He really had intended to just relax and not think for a moment, but the sounds coming from downstairs eventually activated his mind and Klaus found himself smiling a ridiculously wide grin to the ceiling above him.

Of course, he still missed his parents. As Violet said, they always would.

But they were safe here, happy and cared for.

He could hear Violet’s laugh, and it felt like forever since he had heard it so carefree. He could hear Uncle Monty laugh too, and it wasn’t cut off by a gasp or wince of pain like it had been a few weeks ago. He even heard Sunny shrieking with joy.

The house was warm and so clearly full of love, as a home should be. Because that’s what this was; it wasn’t just a house anymore, like Klaus had been so determined to see it, so as not to face the soul-crushing betrayal and disappointment he had felt when they had been put with Count Olaf in what they thought would be the place they would grow up. He wanted to just see this place as a roof over their heads until they came of age and were able to legally leave, regardless of what their guardian was like. That way he wouldn’t be disappointed again. Of course, he hoped Dr Montgomery wouldn’t be as bad as Count Olaf, but as long as he didn’t try to marry one of his sisters and dangle the other from a great height, he would deal with it. He would have also preferred that he didn’t get back-handed, but he would settle for his sisters being safe.

He never had to worry about that with Uncle Monty, and despite his own insistence that this place would be nothing more than a house, their Uncle had provided not just a roof and beds but comfort, safety, and unconditional love.

He made it a home.

And right now, their home smelled like pancakes.

That was what eventually prompted Klaus to get out of bed, his heart full but his stomach empty.

He used the bathroom first, brushed his teeth and washed his face, put on his glasses, then followed the sounds of his family into the kitchen where his siblings were sat around the circular breakfast table with their Uncle. Gustav was stood at the stove cooking up stacks of pancakes for them all except Sunny, who had a bowl of dry cereal instead and was happily munching on the multi-coloured rings.

“… and of course, after all that, it didn’t even work!” Gustav finished whatever story he was telling, and the girls laughed as Uncle Monty rolled his eyes with a wide smile on his lips.

“In my defence! It was -- Oh! Good morning, Klaus!” Uncle Monty greeted him as Klaus took his seat between him and Violet.

“Morning,” Klaus smiled, and no sooner had he tucked his chair in than a plate of at least six pancakes landed in front of him. “Thank you.”

He smiled at Gustav as he reached over Violet to get the syrup then proceeded to drown them in it, throwing some pieces of fruit from a bowl in the centre of the table on top as an afterthought; cut up pieces of apples, oranges, peaches and strawberries, all of which were from Uncle Monty’s garden.

Gustav eventually joined them after making his own, sitting between Uncle Monty and Sunny.

“Continue, what’s your defence?” He prompted with a smirk, and Uncle Monty swallowed what he was chewing before immediately jumping back into his counterpoint.

“It was made out of old and broken parts! The rope was frayed and rotting, the metal was cracked and rusted; no one could have made that work!”

“I made one out of a pasta maker I fixed, a motor, a broken satellite antenna and bedsheets.” Violet argued, and Klaus clicked on to what they were talking about; making grappling hooks.

Uncle Monty and Gustav stared at her in shock for a moment, and Klaus couldn’t help but laugh at the smugness he could feel radiating off of his sister.

“Wait, are you serious?” Gustav asked, and looked between her and Klaus.

Klaus nodded as Violet told him that yes, she really did that.

Though Gustav still looked half way between sceptical and impressed, Uncle Monty was practically beaming with pride.

“Well then, in my defence, I’m not a genius. That’s why mine didn’t work.” He eventually admitted, and Violet’s cheeks turned a little pink at the compliment.

“Yeah, and how many more brain cells did you kill when the rope snapped, and you fell?” Gustav teased, and Uncle Monty rolled his eyes again.

“How high up were you when it snapped?” Klaus’ brow furrowed with concern, but Uncle Monty smiled with a shrug before answering, a way of assuring Klaus it wasn’t that bad.

“Only a couple of feet, no big deal. I’ve had worse falls.”

“Yes, like that time when you fell off of that cliff,” Gustav agreed, and before any of the children could ask what happened in astonishment, Uncle Monty spoke four words that made them all dissolve into laughter.

“Which time in particular?”

As far as the children were aware, it hadn’t needed to be discussed.

The moment Gustav showed up on their doorstep, he was Uncle Monty’s live-in assistant again. The forged letter or resignation was discarded (metaphorically – physically someone had come to collect it as evidence against Count Olaf as well as a copy Gustav had written in his own handwriting, so they could mark the differences between the two), and Gustav was now a permanent presence in the house.

That first day had been fine, the night had given them a little cause for worry but it had been quickly cleared up over the next few weeks.

After learning of Uncle Monty’s injury, he had become more doting and watched him like a hawk for any signs of pain or discomfort. He was definitely getting better, but he still needed to go for check-ups to make sure the stitches were okay, and he still had to take it easy.

Uncle Monty seemed to enjoy Gustav fetching him anything he wanted for about a day, but it quickly started to grate on his nerves and the children could tell. They were pretty sure Gustav could tell also, but he wasn’t showing any signs of toning it down any time soon.

He went as far as offering to carry Uncle Monty to bed one night and Klaus was genuinely concerned that Monty was going to damage his eyes with how hard he rolled them. Needless to say, Uncle Monty did not allow it.

They all fell into a routine as they got used to each other, and Klaus became more comfortable around Gustav as more time went by.

After another month, Gustav and Uncle Monty came to an agreement that they could clear out the study for Klaus together, as long as he allowed Gustav to do the bulk of it; especially the heavy lifting.

Klaus offered to help and was allowed to assist Gustav in getting the desk and chair out, but they didn’t want him to have to work too hard so most of the time he spent sat in the reading alcove with Uncle Monty eating grapes, playing with an old chess set they had found, and dictating to Gustav.

“Keep or trash?” Gustav called out as he held up a notebook for Uncle Monty to see.

He squinted a little to see the cover, then shook his head as he moved one of his Rooks forward. “Trash.”

Gustav tossed it into a black trash bag beside him, then held up another. “Keep or trash?”

“Keep.”

Klaus ducked as the notebook flew over his head for Uncle Monty to catch and add to the growing pile beside him, then moved his Bishop to take one of Uncle Monty’s pawns.

They kept going like that until all the notepads, journals, books and scraps of paper were separated into the pile or the bag, then Gustav took the bag out of the room to put on the desk left in the hallway for now.

Uncle Monty won their game, but Klaus wasn’t particularly surprised. He was rusty, and Uncle Monty had been playing a lot longer than him, since he was old enough to understand the game. He had more experience, and besides, it was pretty close all things considered. Klaus had managed to take over half of Uncle Monty’s pieces before Uncle Monty called out ‘checkmate’. Partly because at the beginning Uncle Monty had been going easy on him and was clearly going to let him win, but Klaus insisted that he actually try.

They heard a shrill laugh outside, and they both glanced out of the open window beside them, smiling when they saw Violet running away from Inky with Sunny in her arms. They knew it was nothing to worry about; besides Inky being completely harmless, they were also well aware of what was happening. Violet had managed to teach Inky how to play tag with them and Inky was clearly ‘it’.

She stopped when she glanced over her shoulder and didn’t see the snake, looking around quickly, but she didn’t see it in time before Inky came from behind a tree and butted his head against her leg. Sunny laughed again as Violet immediately started chasing Inky, struggling to keep up with his fast slithering.

Gustav came over to watch for a moment, a smile on his lips, before he went back to work clearing everything else out.

The room had gotten dusty over the months Uncle Monty hadn’t used it, hence why they needed to window open, so they weren’t sneezing constantly. But it was nicely lit and without the desk and piles of papers, it looked bigger than Klaus had originally thought.

There was a bookcase against the wall left-adjacent to the window, and Klaus asked Uncle Monty if he could keep it now that all of his books had been cleared off of it. He agreed and urged Klaus to make a list of the books he wanted. He didn’t have many of his own anymore, since nothing could have been salvaged from the fire, just a few Uncle Monty had given him from his own collection when Klaus had shown interest in them, but Uncle Monty promised he would buy any books he put on the list.

Klaus helped Gustav get the desk down the stairs, which had Uncle Monty practically pulling his hair out in worry. The only way he agreed to allow it was if Gustav was going down the stairs first, so if it slipped from their grip or they missed a step Klaus wouldn’t get hurt, and he could walk facing forward and see the steps in front of him.

Gustav had made some quip about Uncle Monty not caring if he got hurt, and Uncle Monty had only just started his rant about how Gustav was a grown adult and it was his own fault if he got hurt and he was more durable, and Klaus was a child, before Gustav stopped him.

“I know, I know. Klaus is the priority, I know. He’s my priority too, don’t worry, he’ll be fine.” He clasped Uncle Monty’s shoulder as he spoke his reassurance, then sent him downstairs first, and told him to get out of the way of the stairs in case something did go wrong, and they dropped the desk down the stairs.

Klaus tried to fight the smile off his face as he heard Gustav say that and saw the look of concern on Uncle Monty’s face.

Would he ever be over how much Uncle Monty – and now Gustav, too – cared about them?

No, he was pretty sure he would always get this tingling, oh so grateful feeling in his chest each time they made it so obvious.

“Think we should pretend to almost drop this thing and see how quick we can send Monty into cardiac arrest?” Gustav muttered conspiringly to Klaus before they picked it up, and Klaus laughed as Uncle Monty shouted ‘I heard that! Don’t you dare!’ up from the bottom of the staircase.

They made it to the bottom of the stairs with only one little stumble -- and without faking a problem. It was silently agreed between them that it would be too mean to do that to Uncle Monty. As soon as the desk was back on solid ground, Klaus was pulled into a hug by Uncle Monty, and he smiled as he hugged him back.

“I’m fine, Uncle Monty.” He assured him before they broke the hug and Uncle Monty took his hands to inspect his palms for injury. “It just slipped a little.”

He ran his thumbs over his palms and Klaus winced as he felt stings somewhere, but he couldn’t see any cuts or anything. Uncle Monty noticed the wince and lifted his hands a little more to look closer.

“I knew that thing was splintering.” He muttered to himself, and when Klaus looked back down too he noticed what Uncle Monty meant.

They were only small, but there were several splinters stuck in the skin of his palms where he had been holding underneath the top of the desk, when it had slipped and rubbed against his hands. He remembered his mother having to dig splinters out of his skin when he was younger, but his father never could because he didn’t have the nails his mother would use to do it.

Uncle Monty kept his nails short, so did Gustav. “Its fine, you don’t have to get them out.”

“We can’t just leave them in. Also that desk is old, and I’ve written many papers at it in the midst of fever dreams, it’s probably covered in flu viruses. Your hands will get infected.” Uncle Monty reasoned and gestured for Klaus to follow him back upstairs as Gustav went to take the trash bag of old notebooks and papers out.

They went to Uncle Monty’s bedroom, as Klaus absentmindedly picked at his palms.

He had been in Uncle Monty’s room before, a few times. He had included it in the tour he had given them after Mr Poe left them there, assuring them that they were welcome anywhere in the house, including that room – as long as they knocked first, of course. They had taken him up on that offer enough times for Klaus to feel comfortable hopping up to sit on his bed while Uncle Monty rifled through one of his drawers.

He came back with a sewing kit and took out a pair of tweezers and a needle to get the splinters out with. Klaus wasn’t exactly a huge fan of needles. He wasn’t scared, he knew Uncle Monty would make it as painless as possible, it just always made him a little nervous.

Uncle Monty took his hand to hold him still, but when he saw the needle again Klaus quickly yanked his hand out of his grip.

Okay, so he wasn’t a big fan of having sharp metal dug into his skin, big deal, who was?

Uncle Monty blinked in surprise but quickly registered what the problem was. “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. Just don’t think about it, I promise you’ll hardly feel it.”

Klaus was still a little hesitant, but he put his hand palm-up on top of Uncle Monty’s again eventually.

“It’ll help if you don’t watch,” Uncle Monty advised, and Klaus nodded as he looked around the room.

There were pictures covering one wall above the chest of drawers, like in the hallway. Some of Uncle Monty’s biological family; his parents, his sisters, some of his cousins. Friends too, including some of the Baudelaires’ parents. Then he noted a few other things.

There were two dressing gowns on the back of the door; Uncle Monty’s brown one with a red trim and red vines patterning it, and one of the same design, but grey instead of brown and blue instead of red. All of Uncle Monty’s shoes were under the dresser, where they usually were, but there were other pairs that looked too big for him there too. Gustav’s brown leather jacket was tossed over the back of the chair at the desk pushed against one wall facing out of the window.

The whole room looked slightly different to what Klaus had gotten used to seeing, and Klaus wasn’t sure how to ask what he was thinking.

He didn’t want to offend Uncle Monty if he was wrong, and he didn’t want to make it sound like Klaus wasn’t okay with it if it was what he was thinking.

“All done. I’ll be right back, wait here.” Uncle Monty spoke from where he was knelt in front of Klaus, and he looked down to see all the splinters were gone.

Uncle Monty was right, he hadn’t felt a thing. He got up and left the room, and Klaus looked around again.

Klaus wasn’t a naïve kid, he didn’t think so anyway. He was pretty sure he could guess why so much of Gustav’s stuff was in Uncle Monty’s bedroom, but what he didn’t understand was why the men hadn’t told him or his sisters what was going on between them – if his assumption was right, why would they feel the need to hide it?

It looked like Uncle Monty and Gustav were sharing this bedroom, but Klaus knew that there was another bedroom down the hall that Uncle Monty had for whoever his assistant was. Gustav, then Count Olaf, and now Gustav again.

Uncle Monty came back with a First Aid kit and knelt in front of him again before taking out anti-bacterial wipes.

“This bit might sting, but I’ll make it quick.” He promised before wiping Klaus’ hands with it to make sure none of the little cuts got infected.

Again, he was right, it did sting but it wasn’t too bad, and Uncle Monty did work quickly. None of them were bad enough to need band aids or anything like that, so after looking over his hands once more to be sure, Uncle Monty was satisfied that he was fine and smile up at him.

“Done.” He announced before discarding the wipes in the bin beside his bed, then pushed himself to stand up again.

“Wait.” Klaus requested, and Uncle Monty stopped and watched him expectantly. “Uhm… Thanks.”

Uncle Monty smiled again. “No problem.”

He must have assumed that was all Klaus wanted to say because he made a move again, but Klaus stopped him again by reaching out to catch his wrist.

“Is everything alright?” Uncle Monty asked with a concerned frown, and when Klaus opened and closed his mouth like a gaping fish, trying to think of how to phrase his question, Uncle Monty put the First Aid kit down and sat on the bed beside him to wait for Klaus to find the right words. “What’s wrong? You know you can tell me anything, right?”

Klaus saw his opening then and nodded quickly as he let go of his wrist.

“Yeah… Yeah, I know. And, you know you can tell me anything, right?”

Uncle Monty looked surprised at hearing it turned around, but he shrugged. “Some things I can’t, at least not yet.”

“I don’t mean the grown-up stuff you and Gustav sometimes talk in code about. I just mean… stuff about you. Not you in relation to whatever bigger picture you’re a part of. I mean just you. Or… just you and Gustav?”

He could feel Uncle Monty go rigid beside even though they weren’t touching; it was the way the air seemed to get a little too heavy, the atmosphere became a little too tense. Uncle Monty didn’t speak for a moment, but he was fiddling with a loose thread on the hem of his shirt. Klaus stayed quiet, giving Uncle Monty all the time that he needed to either gather his courage or find the words he was looking for, whatever he needed.

Klaus was pretty sure it was clear what he was referring to, and Uncle Monty’s reaction gave him a little more confidence in his assumption, but he wanted to wait for his guardian to actually say it before speaking his guess out loud.

After a few moments of silence, Klaus eventually glanced over at him. He could almost see the cogs turning in his head, frantically trying to figure out what to say. It was rare to see Uncle Monty speechless, he usually knew just what to say in any scenario, but it wasn’t as entertaining to see him flustered as Klaus would have originally thought.

Eventually, Uncle Monty spoke.

“What about me and Gustav?”

That wasn’t exactly what Klaus was expecting, and he realised that this may be a little more difficult than he had originally thought.

Instead of voicing his guess, he pointed out the things he had noticed. He mentioned Gustav’s jacket, robe and shoes in the bedroom. Uncle Monty remained silent, so Klaus went on. He told him about that first night when Uncle Monty and Gustav had been very close while watching movies, how he had fallen asleep on his shoulder, and later on when he saw both sides of the bed tousled like they had both been in it before the argument had started.

And, now that he was thinking about it, there were other things too. The way Uncle Monty’s hands had been on his shoulders and Gustav’s hands were on his waist, the shock on Uncle Monty’s face when Gustav had grabbed him to re-enact a scene from Zombies in the Snow. Klaus had originally assumed it was because he grabbed him, but now, with everything else he had noticed, maybe he was surprised he had pulled him that close in front of the children when Uncle Monty clearly planned on not telling them if something was happening between them. There were somewhat lingering touches throughout the days too, not the same kind of touches Uncle Monty used for the children. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was different about it, but there was definitely a difference between when he would place a hand on Violet’s back while he looked over her inventions and listened to her explain what she was working on, acting as a fresh pair of eyes to help her figure out a kink in her plan, and the way Gustav would hold the back of Uncle Monty’s neck while they were going through papers together.

Once he was done listing what he had noticed, they fell into silence again as Klaus waited for an answer.

“Excuse me.” Uncle Monty muttered and, before Klaus could react, he was out the door.

He waited for a while, thinking that maybe he needed to talk to Gustav then he would come back. But when he got up and went to the window, he saw Violet and Sunny still playing with Inky, this time with Gustav too. No Uncle Monty though.

Eventually he left the bedroom and closed it behind him, then started looking for Uncle Monty. The house wasn’t that big, it wasn’t too hard to find him. As he searched Klaus replayed the conversation in his head, trying to remember his exact tone while he spoke, his exact words, his body language, anything that could have indicated to Uncle Monty that he had a problem with whatever was happening between him and Gustav, anything that could have made Uncle Monty uncomfortable.

Klaus found him in the kitchen making lunch, but the expression on his face made it seem more like he was diffusing a bomb as opposed to making sandwiches.

“Uncle Monty?” He spoke quietly, like he was talking to a wounded animal he didn’t want to spook, and the way Uncle Monty froze made that feel even more accurate.

“I don’t care…” He tried, making sure only sincerity came through in his voice, keeping any uncertainty he felt out. He wasn’t unsure of his statement, he really didn’t mind what was happening, whatever that may be. He was unsure if he was making it better or worse, or if maybe Uncle Monty was mad at him for prying.

They stood in silence, Uncle Monty’s back to him and Klaus awkwardly wringing his hands in front of him, then Uncle Monty went back to making the sandwiches as if there had been no interruption.

“Don’t care about what?” He muttered, and Klaus moved closer when he heard no hostility in his voice.

“Whatever is happening or might happen with you and Gustav… It’s not going to change my opinion of either of you, and I’m sure Violet and Sunny would agree with me.”

“What do you think is happening?” Uncle Monty asked, and he finally stopped what he was doing to actually face Klaus.

He didn’t look annoyed or confrontational, he didn’t even look confused like the question would imply. He looked worried.

“I think…” Klaus sighed before deciding it would be best to just say it. “I think you’re together. Like, together together. And it’s okay if you are, like I said we’re not going to see either of you any differently. Nothing between us, or you and Violet, or you and Sunny is going to change. We love you, and we’re still going to love you just as much.”

It occurred to Klaus after he had said it that that was the first time he had told Uncle Monty he loved him, and maybe it should have been a little awkward saying it for the first time, but it didn’t feel awkward. It felt so natural, it was shocking that he had never said it before.

Uncle Monty’s face smoothed out as some of the worry bled out of his expression, but he still looked a little nervous.

“We’re… together, yes.” He eventually muttered, barely above a whisper.

“Are you embarrassed by him or something?” Klaus joked, trying to ease the tension, and it worked. Uncle Monty chuckled quietly and shook his head.

“I just… I haven’t had the best reception when telling some people about my sexuality before. My parents were fine with it, as was my sister, as is my other sister. Most of my friends didn’t care, but some did. None I was particularly close with though so no huge loss there. Some of my other family members don’t really speak to me anymore because of it…”

“Well… If they don’t want to know you because of something like that, they’re not worth having around. And they’re missing out, not you.” Klaus attempted to help him feel better, and Uncle Monty smiled.

“I don’t know why I was ever worried that you children wouldn’t be okay with it, given who raised you thus far.” His smile turned a touch sad, but Klaus decided that now wasn’t the time for sadness.

“The only problem I’m going to have with it is if he keeps eating all the fruit roll-ups,” He joked, and Uncle Monty laughed again.

“I’ll have a word with him about that.”

After lunch, Klaus went out to run around with the girls. Before he left, however, Uncle Monty quietly asked him not to mention what they had talked about to his sisters, he would tell them tonight, but he wanted to do it himself.

Klaus understood that and assured him that he wouldn’t say anything before Uncle Monty had the chance. At some point during their play he glanced through into the Reptile Room and saw Uncle Monty and Gustav talking. He was probably telling Gustav that Klaus knew, and that he was going to tell Violet and Sunny later. Gustav looked very happy about that as he pulled Uncle Monty in for a hug.

Klaus smiled a little at the sight, then quickly went back to the game they were playing before his sisters could notice anything and force him to explain what he was smiling about.

After dinner, Klaus went to shower. On his way out, he shot Uncle Monty a look that clearly meant ‘now’s your chance, tell them’, and Uncle Monty nodded a little in acknowledgement as he relented and allowed Gustav to handle the dishes.

He took a little longer than usual in the shower to give them plenty of time to talk; if how Uncle Monty coming out to Klaus had gone was any indication, there would be a lot of fumbling around before he actually got to the point.

About half an hour later he dried and dressed himself, then headed downstairs.

They weren’t in the kitchen anymore, and he heard the TV in the living room playing so he followed the sound and found them all in there watching some dumb comedy that Uncle Monty liked but Gustav constantly called ‘a disgrace to the art of film making’. The usual response when it was brought up was Uncle Monty stubbornly announcing: ‘I don’t care, I like it'.

Sunny and Violet were on the three-seated couch again, and Uncle Monty and Gustav were on the loveseat—aptly named right now, given the way Gustav’s arm was wrapped tight around his shoulders and Uncle Monty was practically burrowed against him with his head on Gustav’s chest.

Violet announced that it was her turn to shower now after running around with Sunny and Inky for the first half of the day, then with them and Klaus for the rest.

She smiled as she passed Klaus and kissed his cheek before whispering: “Uncle Monty told us about him and Gustav. And how much you helped him. Good job, Klaus.”

He smiled back and shrugged, trying not to look too bashful as she left, and he took her place with Sunny.

The movie really was terrible, but it was worth it to hear Uncle Monty laughing every time Gustav groaned at a particularly stupid moment.

Chapter Text

It took almost no adjustment period at all for Uncle Monty and Gustav to start acting like a couple around the children.

The morning after they announced their relationship, Uncle Monty was awake and making breakfast first and when Gustav came down to join them, he kissed Uncle Monty good morning instead of the casual hand on Uncle Monty’s shoulder that he usually gave him in greeting.

Instead of going to the assistant’s bedroom and waiting there until he was sure the children were in their beds, Gustav followed Uncle Monty into his – their – bedroom at the end of the day.

Instead of silencing Uncle Monty’s rants about how much being injured sucked with an affectionate eye-roll and a subject change, he silenced him with a sweet kiss.

It was nice, but their domestic bliss was eventually shattered with the arrival of a series of large packages a month or so later.

Since it arrived, Uncle Monty and Gustav had been holed up in Uncle Monty’s old study trying to put together Klaus’ new bedroom furniture. He had assured them that he didn’t need anything; the bookcase was fine, and he could take one of the night stands and beds from the room he shared with Violet into his new room, but they had insisted on getting him a new wardrobe, nightstands, and a chest of drawers. He, Sunny and Violet had been sharing a wardrobe and chest of drawers thus far, so it made sense that he would need new ones of those if he was to have his own room, but they had agreed to let him keep the bed and just move it.

The bed was still in their shared room for now, until the new room was ready, and Uncle Monty had made the mistake of listening to Gustav when he insisted that IKEA furniture wouldn’t be that hard for them to put together. After all, Gustav and Uncle Monty were both very clever people, how hard could it be? Violet and Klaus had offered to help, since she was mechanically-minded and Klaus was good at deciphering difficult texts, but they insisted they could do it themselves.

Now, the two children were stood outside the door with their ears practically pressed to the wood trying to figure out if it was one their usual kinds of argument, the ones with no real anger behind their words that were barely anything more than bickers, or if Gustav was one more insistence of ‘I can’t find that piece, you must be reading the instructions wrong’ away from sleeping in the assistant’s bedroom for real tonight.

The assistant’s room would soon be turned into Sunny’s room since it was the smallest and so was she, so she didn’t need as much space, and they wouldn’t be needing a room specifically for an assistant to sleep in – or, more accurately, pretend to sleep in – since Gustav and Uncle Monty had become more open about their relationship.

The furniture for her room would arrive sometime next week, and Klaus hoped they managed to figure out a system whilst putting his furniture together today before then, so they wouldn’t have to worry about them falling out over it again next week.

“I just read step six! We’re on step seven!”

“How could we be on step seven?! I don’t have the anchors in place to do that bit yet! You must have missed something out, we’re definitely on step six!”

“It’s right in front of me, I’m looking right at it, I know I haven’t missed anything!”

“Let me see!”

There was the distinct sound of a paper booklet being harshly thrown across the room then, and Violet and Klaus shared an uneasy glance during the silence, still trying to figure out if they were seriously upset with each other or not.

“You did miss a bit!”

“Which bit?!”

“This one!”

They heard Gustav stomp across the room to where Uncle Monty was probably sat in the reading alcove since he was banned from doing any of the physical work due to his injury, then there was a moment of silence before Uncle Monty shouted louder than previously.

“I read that bit out to you! You just didn’t listen!”

“You did not!”

“I did!”

“You didn’t!”

“I did!”

Sunny crawled over as they continued back and forth like that and listened for a moment before cooing something that meant “Babies” causing Klaus and Violet to chuckle as the latter picked her up.

“Fine, I’ll read it all out again! Allega la sezione tre a—”

“You know damn well I can’t understand Italian!”

“Well you didn’t listen when I said it in English!”

“You are petty!”

“Maybe we should make some tea and bring it to them to convince them to take a break, that might help them calm down a little.” Violet suggested, and Klaus nodded as they went downstairs to do just that.

They returned a few moments later, Violet carrying Sunny and Klaus carrying a tray with the tea and mugs on it. They didn’t bother bringing a sugar bowl or milk; Uncle Monty and Gustav both liked their tea bitter and sharp, which was an odd deviation from Uncle Monty’s usual love for anything sweet, but the children didn’t think it important enough to question why that was.

Violet knocked, cutting off Gustav’s rant about how Uncle Monty was reading too fast.

“Come in!” Uncle Monty called out, his voice a lot less cutting than it had been when he was talking over Gustav’s rant, blaming him for being too slow in following instructions to keep up.

They walked in and both grown-ups smiled at them. Uncle Monty thanked them as Klaus offered the tea before looking around.

The room was a mess. There were planks of wood, screws, bolts and bits of plastic Klaus wasn’t sure about the purpose of scattered all over. Uncle Monty was indeed in the alcove with one leg tucked under him and an instructions manual open on the wooden surface in front of him, and Gustav was knelt on the floor in the midst of the mess with his sleeved rolled up and a seemingly permanent scowl on his face.

He took the tea Violet offered in silence, then thanked her after Uncle Monty reprimanded him and told him not to take his frustration out on the children, especially since they had just essentially saved his life by interrupting Uncle Monty’s mental plan of where to dump his body, after he was done beating him to death with the sideboard of what will soon – hopefully, if they ever finished – be Klaus’ chest of drawers.

“Like you’d be able to even lift the sideboard with your injury.” Gustav muttered before taking a sip of the tea, to which Uncle Monty replied; “A decent amount of anger can give one strength they never knew they had.”

Violet, Klaus and Sunny joined them for tea, but they all sat in silence for way too long for it to be comfortable before Violet spoke.

“Do you want some help?” She asked quietly, and Uncle Monty and Gustav both said no at the same time before they fell into silence again.

They were both too proud to accept help, and the children knew that. Still, it didn’t hurt to ask.

By the time they had finished their tea, Gustav and Uncle Monty were no longer glaring at the air and seemed a little more relaxed, so when Uncle Monty – quietly, politely – asked Gustav if he would like to continue working, the children felt a little better leaving them alone again.

“Right now, you’re useless!”  Gustav’s voice cut through the quiet, startling Klaus and Violet, and causing Sunny to look up at the ceiling separating them from the room containing their guardians, from her place playing with blocks on the floor.

“You think I like not being able to help?!”

“You think I like not being able to understand your lightning-fast speech?!” Gustav countered, and the siblings all shared a glance, silently trying to decide if they should go up and convince them to take another break before things got more heated or leave them to it.

It had been about an hour, it wouldn’t be too out-of-place for them to come up and offer more tea.

They were both loudly talking over each other, so it was hard for the children to decipher what exactly each of them was saying, then everything suddenly went silent.

Again, they shared a concerned look as they tried to figure out what happened.

“Maybe Uncle Monty snapped and followed through with that plan to beat him with a piece of wood?” Klaus suggested, trying to make it sound like a joke, but they all knew Uncle Monty wouldn’t have actually done that. He was too kind-hearted for something so violent.

As much as they had grown to trust Gustav, they couldn’t be as sure about him in the short space of time that they had known him.

They heard the door open and close a little too hard, then their bedroom door open and close. It wasn’t quite slammed, but whoever closed it definitely used a little more force than was necessary.

Now they were worried.

This clearly wasn’t one of their usual bickers that were resolved with a sigh and a quick kiss, someone had said something genuinely harsh and not at all jokingly. Logically, they knew it was probably best to leave them alone for a little while; either to cool off or to work it out between them.

Violet voiced this, and Klaus wanted to agree, but the tension was too much. And he was worried.

He claimed he was going to the bathroom, but instead went to knock on what would soon be his own bedroom door. Gustav opened it, and he clearly wasn’t expecting Klaus there. That meant that it was Uncle Monty who went to their bedroom, and Gustav was probably expecting the knock to have been him coming back to talk things through, judging by how he deflated slightly when he realised it wasn’t Monty.

“Is everything okay?” Klaus asked, and Gustav sighed as he stepped back into the room, leaving the door open for Klaus to join him.

He walked in and closed the door behind him, looking around. They had made more progress since their tea break- a lot more progress. The chest of drawers was done, and they had started on the dresser.

“He suggested we stop after finishing the chest and start fresh another day, I probably should have listened. We were already frustrated, starting a new one so soon wasn’t my best idea.” Gustav explained as he wandered over to the alcove where Uncle Monty had been sitting and picked up the instructions.

“You’re not going to continue, are you?” Klaus asked in surprise as Gustav looked over the pages. “Listen, I don’t need all this stuff, and I don’t want it if it leads to you and Uncle Monty fighting…”

“Nah, I should probably stop… and go talk to him. Sorry you had to hear all the yelling.” Gustav relented, and Klaus shrugged.

“What happened? We couldn’t tell what you were saying because you were talking over each other, then you both just stopped...” He was a little nervous about asking. Gustav would be completely within his rights to snap at Klaus and point out that it was none of his business; it was between him and Uncle Monty.

He didn’t, however. Gustav just sighed – not in annoyance, at least not annoyance directed at Klaus – before speaking.

“I… said something stupid. And hurtful. I didn’t mean it, it was just…”

“The heat of the moment?” Klaus suggested, wandering over to the alcove, and Gustav nodded. “What did you say?”

“He wanted to help, but I didn’t want him to hurt himself.” Gustav sighed as he sat in the alcove beside Klaus. “I said that, as he is now, he’s pretty much useless. I know how much Monty hates being incapacitated, I shouldn’t have brought it up, and it escalated from there.”

That explained why the yelling suddenly picked back up, but it didn’t explain what had been the final straw that made Uncle Monty walk out. Luckily, Klaus didn’t have to specify exactly what he wanted to know; Gustav continued without prompt.

“I said it was his own fault he got stabbed and he shouldn’t have gotten off so easy,” Klaus’ head whipped around to glare at him, his mouth falling open in shock as Gustav held his hands up. “I meant that it could have been so much worse, he could have died. He ‘shouldn’t have’, as in the odds were against him.”

“But you know what that sounds like, right? It sounds like you’re saying he should have gotten hurt worse. Or killed. As in, you want him to have gotten hurt worse or killed.”

“Yeah, I realised that as soon as I said it.” Gustav sighed and buried his face in his hands, his elbows resting on his knees. “He stormed out before I could explain.”

“Understandably.” Klaus muttered, but he tried to keep the anger out of his voice.

Gustav hadn’t meant what it sounded like he meant, of course he would have been devastated if Uncle Monty had died, and Klaus tried not to judge him too harshly over a misunderstanding and a poor choice of words.

“It wasn’t his fault he got stabbed.” Again, he was trying so hard to keep any hostility out of his voice, but he needed to make sure Gustav understood.

He didn’t know how much of that night Uncle Monty had told Gustav, but Klaus was there, he saw it. Not just once, he had seen it dozens of times, in his dreams. Only in his dreams, the ticket seller and the gunmen didn’t show up, Olaf didn’t walk over to the truck after stabbing Uncle Monty just once, and an ambulance never showed.

“The only person whose fault it was, was Count Olaf.”

“He knew it was Count Olaf.” Gustav argued weakly. “He knew what Count Olaf was capable of and instead of calling for back-up, he confronted the psycho himself. Unarmed. Because he knew he was caught out, Olaf abandoned his plans and decided ‘screw it, just stab him now, take the kids and run’. Monty should have waited for backup, the only reason he didn’t was because he didn’t want you guys around Count Olaf even a second longer.”

“Okay, fine… Maybe he should have waited, but he was doing what he thought was right to protect us, and you made it sound like you’re disappointed he wasn’t killed doing so.” Klaus countered, and Gustav sighed again as he nodded.

“You know… I’m usually so great with language. I can write a script for a movie with dozens of secret…” He glanced at Klaus for a second, and Klaus couldn’t quite decipher his expression before it disappeared, and he continued. “…meanings sprinkled in with no effort at all, and still have the words make sense within the narrative of the film. I can write soliloquies and monologues for any character in any scenario in my sleep. But sometimes… especially with Monty… my brain just freezes and I can’t come up with the right words, and I end up saying the wrong thing. Especially in situations where emotions are running high.”

“I don’t think that’s uncommon. You care about him, and you almost lost him. You must have been worried when you found out, and when you worry about someone your brain isn’t really focusing on making it make sense or sound good, you just… say what you need to say in whatever way your brain automatically formulates the words. Especially if you’re in the middle of a heated argument and you’re both talking at once, you spit the words out as quick and simple as you can in an attempt to get your point across concisely and be heard.”

Gustav nodded a little as he worried his bottom lip between his teeth, thinking over what Klaus had said.

“You need to explain what you really meant… Don’t let him keep thinking that you think he should be dead. The longer you leave him thinking like that, the more it’ll hurt him.”

“Yeah… I’m going to pack this stuff up for today while I try to work out what to say, then I’ll go talk to him. Thanks, Klaus.” Gustav smiled a little and patted Klaus’ knee before using it to push himself to stand.

Klaus offered to help clean up, but Gustav admitted he would appreciate the time alone to plan his apology speech, so Klaus left.

On his way back the way he came, he ran into Violet who looked like she was seconds away from removing someone’s head from their neck, and he was pretty sure he knew who she had in mind.

Judging by the direction she was coming from, Klaus was pretty sure she had just come from Uncle Monty’s bedroom, so he could guess why she had murder on her mind. She hadn’t followed through with her idea to leave the adults to it either, she had gone to speak to Uncle Monty about what happened.

“Violet, wait.” He put his arms out to stop her getting to the room with Gustav in, blissfully ignorant to the storm he would be facing if the eldest Baudelaire was granted access.

“Did he tell you what he said?” She practically spat out, and Klaus figured she guessed where he had just come from too. But she only had Uncle Monty’s side of the story; not the actual intentions behind the words, but what Uncle Monty had thought Gustav meant.

“Yeah, but it was a misunderstanding. He didn’t mean it the way it came out.” He tried to reason, but Violet shook her head.

“What could he have possibly been trying to say to our Uncle that would come out as ‘you should be dead’ that wouldn’t be awful?”

Klaus tried to explain the miscommunication as best he could, and the more he talked the more tension drained out of Violet’s shoulders and the angry set of her jaw.

“Well… He needs to talk to Uncle Monty soon because he didn’t interpret it that way and he’s upset…” She sighed and crossed her arms. “I hate seeing him upset.”

“Gustav knows he’s upset. He’s just cleaning up, then he’s going to talk to him.”

“Okay… We should go downstairs… give them some privacy, I guess. I told Uncle Monty I wasn’t going to confront Gustav anyway.” Violet conceded, and Klaus nodded as he waited for Violet to make a move before following behind her.

Sunny was still playing with her blocks, but she looked up when they came in and babbled “Are they going to make up?”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine, Sunny. Want some help building a tower?” Violet offered, and Sunny nodded quickly as her sister sat on the floor across from her and put her hair up in her ribbon before she started picking out blocks of different colours.

Klaus took his place on the couch to continue reading, but he couldn’t really focus on the words while he was listening out for another argument to break out after hearing Uncle Monty and Gustav’s bedroom door open and close quietly.

They didn’t hear anything for a few hours, but eventually Uncle Monty and Gustav joined them downstairs, hand-in-hand and smiling.

Uncle Monty enthusiastically complimented Sunny’s tower before asking everyone what they wanted for dinner. After the children answered, Gustav asked Uncle Monty what he wanted and, when he looked at him in confusion, Gustav announced that he was cooking tonight.

Maybe Klaus just imagined that Uncle Monty went a little pale at the thought, because his expression didn’t give away any indication that the offer was a bad thing; he just told him what he wanted with a smile.

They kissed, then Gustav kissed the back of Uncle Monty’s hand causing him to roll his eyes affectionately, before they let go of each other’s hands and Gustav disappeared into the kitchen.

“I apologise in advance for what you’re about to suffer through.” Uncle Monty whispered conspiringly to the children as he sat next to Klaus’ legs on the couch, dropping a hand to his shin.

“What do you mean?” Violet asked as she cocked her head to the side a little in confusion.

“Gustav is a terrible cook. He can make pancakes very well, and he can toast bread, but that’s about it.”

Klaus thought back to all the time Gustav had been with them, and it only then occurred to him that he had only ever seen him cooking during breakfast. Other than that, Uncle Monty always cooked, and Gustav always washed the dishes.

“I’m only going to allow him to do it this once because he’s trying to make up for what he said during our fight earlier, so it won’t be something you’ll have to suffer through regularly, don’t worry.”

They laughed quietly so that Gustav wouldn’t hear from the adjoining room and ask what was so funny, then Uncle Monty joined Violet and Sunny playing on the floor while Klaus went back to reading.

Uncle Monty was right, the food was awful. Half of it was burnt yet somehow lukewarm instead of hot and it looked like it had been thrown at the plate from a distance.

They all tried to eat it, especially since Gustav was so excited about being able to do something for them, but after only a moment of quiet struggling, Uncle Monty put his fork down and shook his head quickly, snatching Violet’s and Klaus’ forks out of their hands either side of him.

“Nope, I can’t. I can’t eat it and I can’t let the children eat it. I’m sorry Gustav, but I’m not going to risk their health to ease your guilt about something I have already forgiven you for. I’m ordering takeout.”

Without waiting for a response, he got up and left the room to get the phone from the parlour.

The children sat with Gustav in silence for a moment, avoiding meeting his eyes, in case his feelings were hurt. Though they had to agree with Uncle Monty; the food was disgusting and probably a biohazard, there was no way they could finish it and even if they somehow managed it, it was likely to make them all ill.

They could hear Uncle Monty placing their usual order with the Chinese restaurant in town, and when asked for the name he said ‘Monty Sebald’. That made Gustav laugh, and the children all relaxed at the sound.

“He’s not mad anymore,” He muttered in relief between laughs. “If he was still mad he would have forced himself to eat all of what I made and used whatever illness he got because of it to make me feel worse. Yes, before you ask, he is that stubborn.”

The children laughed at that and started collecting the dishes to throw away the disaster Gustav had created, then helped clean the burnt-on food off of the stove. While they did so, Gustav explained that if Monty had given his real name, the place would have accused him of making it up as a prank call, so he used Gustav’s last name because it was easier to avoid the hassle than to explain that yes, his parents had a weird sense of humour and really did name him that.

The food arrived relatively quickly considering the long drive, and Uncle Monty dished it all up. Conversation came a lot easier after that, and when they watched TV before bed that night Uncle Monty and Gustav gathered on their usual couch, in their usual position wrapped around each other. The only difference was that this time, Gustav had a much larger smile on his face as he played with Uncle Monty’s curly hair.

The next day, after breakfast, Uncle Monty and Gustav agreed to try and get Klaus’ furniture put together, and Klaus and Violet shared a worried glance.

Before they could offer their assistance, in the hopes that they would be able to help to diffuse any tension that might arise before it became a full argument, Gustav asked them if they wanted to help.

They had gotten Klaus two new nightstands despite Klaus’ insistence that they didn’t have to, and Uncle Monty suggested making it a competition; Klaus and Violet vs. Uncle Monty and Gustav. Klaus laughed as Violet nodded enthusiastically.

“If we win can we put everything together ourselves, so we don’t have to worry about finding a murder scene when he come up to tell you guys to take a break?” Klaus joked, and Violet batted his arm as a way of telling him to shut up, but the adults laughed, so they clearly took no offence.

“Alright, deal.” Uncle Monty agreed, and reached out to shake Violet’s and Klaus’ hands.

They decided that Sunny could join them, in the corner away from both teams so she wouldn’t get hurt and could instead judge the competition, then she was given a small but very annoying bell. Gustav admitted that sometimes it was hard to tell just how frustrated they were without a third party to notice and call them out, so if anyone got too irate and it seemed like an argument was about to break out, she was instructed to ring the bell repeatedly, as loud as she could, until they stopped.

She took this role very seriously.

Both teams were given the box containing all of the pieces, a collection of all the tools they needed, and a copy of the instruction manual.

Given how long it took Uncle Monty and Gustav to finish the pieces they did yesterday and how much yelling was involved during it, Klaus and Violet were feeling pretty confident.

“What else do we get when we win?” Klaus asked as he knelt beside Violet with the instructions in hand – closed until they were told to start – while his sister tied back her hair.

“If you win, you kids can pick where we go on vacation in a few months,” Uncle Monty announced.

“We’re going on vacation?” Violet asked with a smile.

“As soon as Monty’s doctor says it’s okay,” Gustav nudged their Uncle as he spoke.

“I could go right now, that doctor is just claiming I’m not well enough so that I keep going to the check-ups and he can get more money off of me. And so that, if I do get injured, I can’t sue him.”

“Have you thought that maybe that’s because there’s a chance you could injure yourself worse and he doesn’t want to be held responsible for something that’s very likely?”

“This coming from the man who once referred to a stab wound he received as ‘barely a papercut’,”

“That wasn’t a stab that was a cut. Two very different things,”

“A deep cut, that may as well have been a stab,”

“It wasn’t as deep as you were stabbed, that’s my point.”

“We haven’t even started yet and they’re already bickering,” Violet whispered to Klaus with a little smirk, both of them already thinking about where they should ask to vacation.

Sunny rang her little bell loudly, and Uncle Monty and Gustav immediately stopped.

“That wasn’t an argument, that was just me caring about my boyfriend’s wellbeing and wanting him to take his doctor’s orders and continue to take it easy until told he can do otherwise.”

Uncle Monty just rolled his eyes in response instead of continuing to argue his point, but there was a small smile on his lips, and Sunny counted down from three for them to start their contest.

Klaus and Violet started by separating all of the pieces into size order and the bolts into the order of which it said in the manual that they would need them, then started with the steps.

Klaus read the first one out, then watched Violet complete it before moving on to the next one. They collaborated well together, but that was no surprise to them; after all the inventions they had worked together on in the past without a problem. The only difference between then and now was that there was an instruction manual, and that only made it easier.

Uncle Monty and Gustav were not doing as well, and now that they were in the same room as them, the children understood why.

Uncle Monty had a brilliant mind – so did Gustav, but in a different way – and he himself was able to read something over once and remember every word of it. Gustav did not have the same ability. Despite all the movies he directed, produced and starred in, he couldn’t remember large chunks of this kind of information when he had only heard it once.

Remembering lines were different to remembering instructions, he could remember them based on what kind of scene he was doing and how he knew it should be going. The fact that he wrote the scripts also helped.

He did not write these instructions, and they weren’t making as much sense to him as scenes did, so he couldn’t follow how quickly Uncle Monty read them out.

It almost escalated into an argument as Gustav yelled at him to slow down and Uncle Monty accused him of not listening to him, but Sunny rang the bell and they both stopped to take a few deep breaths.

“Listen, I have an idea,” Uncle Monty started, putting the manual down to focus on Gustav.

“We’re already falling behind, why are you stopping?” Gustav was getting stressed, and Uncle Monty moved from the alcove to kneel beside him.

“We have worked together for many years, and we never have issues like this while we’re doing anything work-related,”

“Yeah… What’s so different about this?”

“When we do research pieces, we work together. You’re only my assistant by job title, we split the work evenly.”

“This is splitting it evenly; I do the physical work, you do the reading. That’s what the children are doing.”

Said children tried not to focus on them, but they were smiling to each other a little as they kept working.

“They work best differently to us. I’m not going to injure myself moving panels of wood around.” Uncle Monty argued and Sunny held up the bell almost threateningly, but Gustav eventually agreed to let him help before she had to ring it.

They worked a lot better after that, with Uncle Monty only reading one instruction at a time then helping Gustav execute it. Seeing Uncle Monty picking up the right pieces and moving them where they needed to be helped Gustav see the connection between what was in front of them and what Uncle Monty read from the manual.

No more arguments broke out and the adults quickly caught up to Violet and Klaus. They had thought this would be easy, but they had also thought that the adults would be screaming at each other by now, so they had to focus a little more to stay in the lead.

Sunny squealed out to indicate that someone had won, and Klaus and Violet cheered as they high-fived while Gustav and Uncle Monty groaned beside them.

They were not too far behind, and they laughed as they congratulated the children, so at least there was no more tension in the air.

After they finished, and both teams had cleared up, they went back downstairs to have hot cocoa while the children discussed where they wanted to go on vacation.

“What was the Peru thing?” Klaus asked, remembering the message Uncle Monty had gotten from the movie the night Count Olaf had stabbed him.

“Oh, that was… It doesn’t matter, the reason they wanted you guys to go to Peru isn’t relevant anymore,” Gustav explained.

“Shame. Peru is a beautiful country.” Uncle Monty muttered as he put the mugs in front of the children.

“You’ve been?”

“Yes, many times. It’s full of both slithering and natural beauties; Colca Canyon, the Sacred Valley, Ballestas Islands, the Uros Islands, Horned Wood Lizards, White-Lipped Mud Turtles, Eyelash Vipers…”

“It sounds wonderful,” Violet smiled as she shared a look with Klaus.

He knew what she was trying to portray with that look, and he and Sunny both nodded in agreement.

“We’ve decided where we want to go on vacation.” Klaus announced, then he and Violet spoke at the same time; “Peru.”

Both adults seemed very happy about that, and while they finished their drinks the children asked them stories about when they had gone together, both for research and for leisure purposes.

Chapter Text

The next day, Uncle Monty and Gustav relented and allowed Violet and Klaus to put together the rest of the furniture for Klaus’ room.

They finished quickly, and when they went back downstairs to announce that, Uncle Monty handed Klaus a thin, rectangular stack of papers and told him to pick a colour or pattern for the walls of his bedroom.

The current wallpaper was a little worn; the room itself hadn’t been redecorated since Uncle Monty moved in over a decade ago, so Klaus sat in the Reptile Room with them and looked over the different swatches.

He would be reading in there a lot, and studying when they eventually started school in the fall, so he didn’t want to walls to be too dark, especially considering it wasn’t exactly a huge room. But he would obviously be sleeping there too so he didn’t want the walls too light either.

He picked a colour called Paradise Green 3 for the walls which was sort of teal, but closer to green than blue. It seemed relaxing but not too relaxing that he wouldn’t be able to study surrounded by it. And he just liked the colour; not everything had to have a logical reason behind it, as Uncle Monty sometimes had to remind him.

Once he had picked, he was given another stack of swatches, this time not just different colours but also in different fabrics so that he could pick a carpet. While he did that, Uncle Monty gave the paint colours to Violet so she could redecorate her room if she wanted to.

Klaus picked a fluffy carpet in a colour called ‘Elderflower Tea’, then handed the swatches to Violet so that she could pick a carpet to go in her room too. She picked Azure Sky 4, a light blue, for her walls and a ‘Snow Scene’ carpet, similar in fluffy texture to Klaus’, but lighter in colour.

Sunny picked out the colours for what would soon be her bedroom too. Fully embracing her name, she picked a bright yellow for her walls. Klaus had tried to reason with her that it may be hard to sleep with walls so bright, but she assured him it wouldn’t be a problem and refused to change her mind so Klaus relented. For the carpet, she picked a bright green shag. No one attempted to point out that it was a little bright for a bedroom this time.

“You know, when I was a child, I had a really bad habit of drawing all over the walls; specifically, the ones in my bedroom.” Uncle Monty told them as he let Inky out of his cage to play with Sunny. “It used to drive my mother insane but of course she didn’t want to restrict my creativity, so my father came up with a great solution. He had one of my walls painted with a special kind of paint that turned the whole wall into a giant chalkboard, so I could draw or write whatever I wanted on that wall and it could be easily erased so that I could start the process all over again.”

Violet’s eyes seemed to light up as she listened, clearly interested in the idea. “That sounds wonderful.”

“You think?” Uncle Monty asked with a smile. “If you want, we can do something like that to one of your walls? Either turn it into a chalkboard or a whiteboard. I think they sell adhesive whiteboard wallpaper if you would prefer that?”

Violet’s smile widened and she nodded quickly, making her long hair fall over shoulder from where it was pushed behind her ears. “I would love that! It would help me plan out my inventions, being able to write it all out, and erase and amend as I go along without it being messy with things scribbled out, and without wasting too much paper.”

“That’s what I was thinking. I’ll pick some up when we go get the other paints and the carpets.”

“Great, thank you!” Violet grinned as she went up to hug Uncle Monty before leaving the Reptile Room.

Klaus smiled as he watched her skip out, then went back to looking through Uncle Monty’s scientific library for the book about habitats he had been looking for in order to help his Uncle and Gustav chart out the possible location of some kind of lizard with an extra leg.

After dinner, Klaus played with Sunny for a while before he went to shower. It occurred to him as he passed their shared bedroom that he hadn’t seen Violet since dinner, so he made a quick stop at their bedroom to check on her.

The door was ajar, and Klaus poked his head in to see if she was in there. She was, stood in the middle of the room with her dark hair pulled back by her ribbon and her hands on her hips as she looked around the room with a critical eye. Klaus knew she wouldn’t realise he was there, not when she was this focused, lost in the mental images of the room around her as she redecorated in her mind. Klaus had no idea what she was seeing, where she was planning to put what, but he knew it would look great when it was done.

He smiled a little to himself when he saw the soft smile on his sister’s lips, then quietly ducked back out and headed to the bathroom for his shower.

Klaus woke up the next morning to the sound of Uncle Monty’s laugh downstairs. It sounded like he was in the parlour near the front door, and he and Violet shared a confused but amused look as they both got out of bed to investigate.

Sunny wasn’t in their bedroom, but there was no reason to worry. They had done, the first few times she had snuck out of their room without waking either of them, terrified that someone had managed to snatch her away in the middle of the night without alerting her siblings or guardian. But in actuality, Sunny usually just went down to play in the Reptile Room or went to wake Uncle Monty up either for food or company. Uncle Monty didn’t mind, and they were all used to it now.

True to habit, Sunny was indeed downstairs on Uncle Monty’s hip when her older siblings descended to join them. She was laughing too as she nibbled on her carrot, and they were both facing the open front door. Klaus and Violet were about to ask what was so funny, but then they heard muttered cursing coming from outside and looked out when they got either side of Uncle Monty.

Gustav was struggling with paint cans, rolls of wallpaper, carpet, and had some shopping bags hanging off of his arms. He seemed determined to get everything in the house with just one trip, but every time he straightened up to start walking, he would drop something and have to stop to pick it up. Klaus and Violet laughed too at the sight, and Uncle Monty registered that they were there then and greeted them.

“Why don’t you just bring some in, then go back for the rest?” Violet rationalised, but that just made Gustav bark out a bitter laugh.

“The coward’s way out? Never!” He punctuated his answer with what he probably assumed would be a victorious step closer to the house once he was sure he had everything, but then the crunching that the gravel of the driveway made when he dropped a paint tin was just loud enough to drown out his muttered swearing.

They all laughed again, and Uncle Monty offered to help for what must have not been the first time, but Gustav refused and told him that if he set foot outside the house he was going to wrap him in one of the carpets and carry him to the bedroom to rest.

“You need to hurry up and get better so that we can go to Peru.” Gustav pretended that was his only excuse for being so overprotective, but they all knew how much he really cared for Uncle Monty and didn’t want him hurt.

“Alright, fine. Watch your toes.” He warned as he turned to take Sunny to the kitchen in order to start making breakfast. Almost as soon as he had said it, Gustav dropped another paint tin directly on his foot and swore again as he jumped back… and dropped the rest of the things he was carrying.

Uncle Monty’s laughter could he heard from where he was already walking away, not needing to turn and see what happened to know why Gustav was making a racket.

Gustav stared at their purchases with a sigh, trying to mentally map out how to get it all to the house. Without a word, Klaus and Violet shared a look before going out to help him. He was clearly about to argue, but Violet pointed out that neither of them had been stabbed recently, and Gustav relented and allowed them to help.

They did manage to get everything to the house in one trip with Violet carrying her carpet and wallpaper stacked on top of each other in both arms in front of her and Klaus doing the same with his stuff. Gustav carried the paints and the other bags, then high-fived them both once everything had been dumped in the parlour.

By that point, they could smell breakfast coming from the kitchen and they all followed the smell with little smiles on their faces. It was oatmeal, which would usually be a boring dish, but there was syrup and brown sugar in each, with a bowl of fresh, cut up fruit on the table for them to pick from, and another bowl of chocolate chips.

For such a simple meal, it really was delicious, and Klaus complimented it, but it wasn’t Uncle Monty who thanked him. Sunny did.

He frowned in confusion and looked between her and Uncle Monty, then their guardian explained that Sunny made it. He very closely supervised, and he was the one using the stove to heat it, but everything not involving heat and danger was done by Sunny.

“That’s incredible, Sunny, great job!” Violet complimented her, and Sunny beamed with pride as she thanked her, then bit into an apple slice.

After breakfast, Uncle Monty invited them all upstairs to help them paint the walls of their new bedrooms.

They started in Violet’s room after everyone changed into clothes that they didn’t mind getting paint all over, and Gustav opened all the windows so that it wouldn’t stink of paint for too long and the fumes wouldn’t make them dizzy.

Gustav, Klaus and Violet moved all of the furniture out of the room one piece at a time while Uncle Monty laid down plastic sheets and set up the paint tins around the room so that they could do multiple walls at once.

Ripping off the wallpaper was more fun than Klaus had expected, especially considering that it was relatively old and therefore came away from the wall easily without having to be steamed off.

Violet was given one of the big paint rollers on a long stick so that she could do the tops of the walls after Gustav went around the room on a step ladder putting masking tape along where the ceiling met the walls. Klaus got a similar one in size, just without the long pole attached so that he could do the middle parts of the wall, and Sunny was given a smaller one to go along the bottom with. Uncle Monty and Gustav joked that they were both too old to be crawling around the skirting board, and the latter had banned Uncle Monty from working any higher than shoulder-height so that he wasn’t reaching up too much and straining his injury.

Uncle Monty had rolled his eyes again, but he didn’t argue with Gustav’s decision.

Once Violet had tied up her long hair to avoid getting paint in it, she and Klaus started on one of the biggest of the walls, the one to the right of the door. The opposite wall would be the one with the whiteboard adhesive paper Uncle Monty had gotten her on it. They both began on either end of the wall and met in the middle so that the bottom half of one side was done and the top half of the other side was painted, with the intention of crossing over each other to fill in the blank parts once they met in the middle.

Uncle Monty and Gustav worked on the wall with the door, also starting from each end to meet in the middle, while Sunny painted the bottom of the wall with the window.

They had music playing while they worked – some indie band that Gustav liked, and the Baudelaires were quickly growing to like too – but other than that they were relatively quiet while they focused. It was a nice, comfortable silence. It was broken, however, by Sunny’s laughter.

Her siblings glanced over, but they weren’t sure what she was laughing at, just that she was looking at Gustav who hadn’t seemed to have registered the disturbance.

They saw Uncle Monty trying to stifle his laughter too, then they saw the paint on Uncle Monty’s fingers and realised what was so funny. Uncle Monty had managed to draw a target on the back of Gustav’s tshirt without the other man noticing; he just continued whistling along to the music without a clue.

Violet and Klaus tried to stifle their own laughter when they realised, trying not to draw Gustav’s attention. Sunny held up her paint brush and looked to Uncle Monty for permission, and once he nodded quickly, she flicked the paint across the room at Gustav. It landed in the outside ring of the target, and Gustav still didn’t register anything. Klaus and Violet had been using rollers, but they put them both down and picked up two smaller paintbrushes, then dipped them in the light blue paint before flicking more at his back. Klaus got a little closer to the centre than Sunny had, but Violet managed to get some specks directly on the bullseye. She, Klaus, Sunny and Uncle Monty all cheered without thinking, and Gustav quickly whipped around to see what the sudden exclamations were about.

As he did, they all quickly looked away and snatched up their rollers to get back to work. Gustav looked around suspiciously, but they all refused to meet his eyes in case they gave anything away.

“What happened?”

No one answered, and after a moment, Gustav reluctantly went back to work.

It only took the children a moment to go back to their game, but Gustav kept side-eyeing Uncle Monty, so he kept working and trying to suppress a smirk to avoid giving them away.

Sunny managed to get a bullseye next, and Violet whispered a teasing joke about how Klaus might need his prescription checked. He mock glared at her as he tried again, but as he did Gustav turned around with the intention of asking Violet what she was whispering about.

The paint hit his chest and they all froze as he stared down at it. He looked more surprised than annoyed, and before Klaus could apologise, he found himself stumbling back a step from the unexpected nudge of Gustav’s paint roller swiping down his chest, leaving a streak of blue paint in its wake.

The tshirt he was wearing was one of the pyjama tops Uncle Monty had bought him when he took the children into town the day after they arrived. When he realised that they had no change of clothes and had been wearing the same things they dressed in to go to Briny Beach what seemed like a lifetime ago. It was just a plain black tshirt, so he wasn’t exactly attached to it. That’s why he had worn it, he didn’t mind if it was splattered with paint.

So after the initial surprise, he laughed and flicked more of the paint at Gustav. He probably did have to get his prescription checked after all because he completely missed and ended up hitting Uncle Monty instead.

“Hey! We were on the same team!” Uncle Monty pretended to be offended and picked up a paintbrush to retaliate, but Violet came to Klaus’ defence before he was able to and flicked more paint at their Uncle.

Soon enough, there were no teams, especially after Violet pointed out that Uncle Monty had started it by drawing on Gustav’s back and ruined the grown-ups’ alliance. It dissolved into a free for all.

Sunny had dipped her hands in paint and swiped at anyone who got close to her, Klaus had switched the paintbrush for his roller again and darted around the room to avoid other people’s whilst still being able to strike out to catch them, and Violet was by far the best equipped. Whereas Gustav had abandoned his tall roller in favour of a thick paintbrush for close-up attacks, she kept her long roller and attacked from a distance, ensuring that no one else got a change to get paint on her.

Uncle Monty, like Sunny, also had paint all over his hands, so he had managed to sneak up behind Violet while she was preoccupied with leaving a stripe across Klaus’ side, and left two stripes with his fingers on both her cheeks like warpaint. She yelped but laughed as she tried to turn quickly enough to catch Uncle Monty, but the roller was too big to allow for fast movements. And Uncle Monty was surprisingly quick, even with his injury. He managed to get all of them with the same technique and soon they all had the same warpaint-style swiped on their cheeks. Some had gotten on Klaus’ glasses, which was totally unfair because now his sight was compromised, but he still managed to catch Uncle Monty in a hug to transfer some of the paint covering Klaus to Uncle Monty’s clothes. Though the hug had been intended as a tactical move, Uncle Monty automatically wrapped an arm around Klaus’ shoulders with a laugh and Klaus didn’t bother trying to suppress a smile as he held on a little longer than was necessary to mess Uncle Monty’s clothes up.

Uncle Monty pushed him away suddenly when Violet’s roller came at them, but he wasn’t quite able to get himself out of the way before Violet painted half of his black hair a light blue.

She clearly hadn’t meant to get his hair and was about to apologise, but Uncle Monty laughed and waved her off. “It’s fine, it’ll come out.”

He tried to sneak around to get her back while Gustav tried to juggle avoiding Sunny’s blue hands coming for his legs and Violet’s roller, but Violet had her back to one wall besides the window so there was no way around her that she wouldn’t see coming.

She definitely had the upper hand, so Klaus went around swiping at the adults’ backs before ducking down, out of the way of the roller, to smear a streak across Sunny’s forehead. Sunny squealed and reached up to pat a handprint onto Klaus’ chest.

Since he was preoccupied with Sunny, he didn’t see exactly what happened. One moment they were all laughing, then he heard Uncle Monty gasp, and everyone stopped as Gustav bolted across the room to him and Violet’s roller clanged to the ground.

He looked up in time to see Uncle Monty leaning against the wall, doubled over slightly with a hand over his stomach and a grimace on his face before Gustav’s back blocked Klaus’ view. Violet rushed over too, quickly followed by Klaus scooping up Sunny to join them.

“I’m fine, I’m fine…” Uncle Monty tried to insist, but his voice sounded a little strained.

“Did I hit you in the stomach? I’m so sorry, I tried to avoid there, I swear.” Violet insisted, her eyes wide and apologetic as she watched Gustav take Uncle Monty’s arm.

“No, you didn’t, don’t worry… I just moved too fast… My fault…” Uncle Monty assured her as he tried to take deep breaths, but said breaths were a little stuttered.

“Come on, lets go lie down for a little while…” Gustav prompted, and for once Uncle Monty didn’t argue that he wasn’t that badly hurt.

He just nodded and allowed Gustav to lead him out of the room carefully. The children followed closely behind to their bedroom, sharing concerned glances. Gustav found an old bedsheet in the closet and put it over their bed so that Uncle Monty didn’t get blue paint all over everything, then helped him lie down.

Once he was laying down, Uncle Monty was able to breathe a little easier, and the children relaxed a little.

They decided to take a break from painting, claiming that they needed to regroup from their impromptu war before going back to actually taking it seriously. In reality, it was because they didn’t want to continue without Uncle Monty with them. It was a fun bonding activity, and they didn’t want Uncle Monty to miss out on finishing it with them; they would much prefer to do it all together as a family.

Klaus started slightly when he thought that. Of course, he thought of Uncle Monty as family by that point, but that was the first time he had considered their household as his main family unit.

There was that niggling little bit of sadness at the back of his mind again, the part that told him that this shouldn’t be his family unit. It should be him, his sisters, and his mother and father. But that sad part was starting to fade. It would probably always be there, as Violet had warned him, but it was starting to be drowned out a little by the love and gratitude he felt towards his new guardian. And Gustav.

Did he count as his guardian too, now that he and Uncle Monty were together?

He supposed that, technically, no. He was no relation to them and though they were living together he and Uncle Monty weren’t married so legal rights over the children in Uncle Monty’s care weren’t shared. But in an unofficial way, he kind of felt like Gustav was their guardian too. He clearly cared about them, and if something bad was going to happen to them and Uncle Monty wasn’t there to protect them, he was pretty sure Gustav would step up.

He hoped so.

But he also hoped that they were never in a situation wherein they would have to find out.

They had lunch and Gustav took some up to Uncle Monty while the children ate, then fed the reptiles their lunch too.

When Gustav returned to help them feed the many reptiles in the Reptile Room, he assured them that he checked on Uncle Monty’s injury and there was nothing to worry about. All the movement had aggravated it a little, but he hadn’t torn anything and within another hour or so he would be up and about again. He had wanted to come down with Gustav, but he made him stay in bed for a little longer. After the hour was up, then Gustav would allow him to get up.

As promised, an hour later Uncle Monty was up and he seemed just as well as he had been before he injured himself. Well, maybe he was moving around a little more carefully, but it wasn’t too much of a drastic difference.

After they were all sure Uncle Monty wasn’t about to collapse, they returned to painting Violet’s room and finished up the walls. Uncle Monty stuck down the bottom corners of the adhesive whiteboard while Gustav did the top ones, then handed Violet a whiteboard pen to try it out.

She walked over and lifted the pen, but she clearly wasn’t sure what to write. She eventually wrote out her name in big curvy letters. The lines were bold and clear, and very easy to read. It would be perfect for her to plan out her inventions on. She capped the pen and turned to face them again with a grin before she rushed over to hug Uncle Monty, stopping herself just before she reached him so she didn’t slam into him and hurt him more than he already had been today. Uncle Monty smiled as he hugged her back and pressed a kiss to the side of her head before leading them all out.

Gustav insisted on laying down the carpet, so the children helped Uncle Monty pack up all the paints and equipment that had been moved into the hall while he did that, then helped Gustav bring all the furniture back in.

The day was about half way done now, so they decided to call it a day on decorating for now after Klaus assured them that he didn’t mind. He was happy to spend another night – or several nights, if that’s how long it took – with his sisters.

Chapter Text

It was strange, waking up in that room the next day.

In the first few moments of consciousness, he had forgotten that they had re-decorated and he didn’t recognise his surroundings. If he had woken up a little faster, or if he hadn’t heard the dull hum of his family’s casual conversation drifting up from downstairs, he may have panicked.

Luckily, he remembered before he was alert enough to panic, and he glanced to his right, to where Violet’s bed was currently against the whiteboard wall. Her name was still written across it with a heart dotting the ‘i’ in Violet and a star dotting the ‘i’ in Baudelaire.

Violet wasn’t usually the type to indulge in pointless things like that unless she was in an exceptionally good mood, a mood in which she didn’t care about the practicality of things and just allowed herself to do things just because they looked or felt nice.

She was still asleep, but true to form, Sunny wasn’t in bed. Klaus was quiet as he collected his glasses and left the room, careful not to wake his sister on his way out. He followed the sounds of conversation to the Reptile Room, but he stopped short just outside the ajar door when he heard a familiar name that made his blood run cold.

“… Olaf’s cell. They don’t know what happened.” Gustav spoke, his voice dropping lower than it had been when Klaus awoke. Their conversation must have only just turned private.

“I thought they had cameras on him 24/7, how can they not know what happened?” Uncle Monty asked in return, and Klaus glanced inside just in time to see Gustav shrug with an annoyed sigh. “Do they have any idea where he is?”

Oh.

Oh no.

No, no, no.

Klaus felt a tight pain grip his chest, and his hand came up to press over his heart where it felt like a fist was squeezing.

Count Olaf got out.

“No, but they’re confident that they’ll find him soon.” Gustav answered, but he didn’t sound convinced by his own words.

“Yeah, sure they will.” Uncle Monty’s voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Neither of them thought that whoever ‘they’ are would find Count Olaf any time soon. Count Olaf was out there somewhere, and no one knew where, and it was unlikely that anyone would find him.

He could show up at any point, here. He knew where they lived. It wouldn’t be hard for him to find out that Uncle Monty survived Count Olaf’s attack, and that the children were still with him, here.

Klaus couldn’t breathe properly, and he squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to force his lungs to take in the necessary amount of oxygen.

“Klaus?” He heard his sister’s sleepy but concerned voice, but he couldn’t make himself respond or even open his eyes.

The only sound that escaped was a choked off sob as he thought about all the possible scenarios that could come from Count Olaf showing up here. Uncle Monty survived once, Count Olaf wouldn’t give him the chance to do so again. He would make sure Uncle Monty was dead before he went after the children. Gustav would try to stop him from hurting Uncle Monty, he would try to stop him getting to the children. Count Olaf would kill him too.

They were both going to die.

Klaus felt Violet’s hand on his shoulder as she called out his name again, and that snapped him into action.

No.

He couldn’t let Uncle Monty and Gustav die for them.

Klaus shrugged Violet’s hand off his shoulder like it had burnt him, then ran to the stairs. He barely registered her voice calling out to him again, or Uncle Monty’s asking her what was going on. He slammed the door to their bedroom and opened the wardrobe.

There was a part of him that debated leaving everything. It was all bought by Uncle Monty because he was their guardian, and he needed to provide for them while they were under his roof. But Klaus wasn’t going to be under his roof soon, he would have no right to any of the things Uncle Monty bought him.

But he needed clothes, and Uncle Monty would want him to keep it all, right? It seemed like a fair trade for Uncle Monty’s and Gustav’s lives, and his sisters’ safety.

Klaus made up his mind and ripped everything off the hangers before haphazardly throwing them into the suitcase Uncle Monty had bought him earlier in the week for their vacation. He didn’t let himself dwell on the fact that he had been so looking forward to going to Peru with them, and now there was no way it would happen. At least not with him accompanying them.

He didn’t have time to think about that. He had to pack and get out of there. He would have to leave behind his sisters, and that broke his heart just as much as the thought of leaving Uncle Monty and Gustav. But he had to. It was the only way to keep them safe.

Maybe if Count Olaf did show up here, he would see that Klaus wasn’t with them, maybe he’d hear one of them talk about how Klaus ran away. And Count Olaf would think it would be easier to find the runaway who would be all alone as opposed to trying to take the girls from their guardians.

He could use Klaus to get their fortune, Klaus didn’t care anymore. As long as his sisters and guardians were safe. Maybe when Violet came of age – before him – she would withdraw their entire fortune so by the time Klaus comes of age there will be nothing there for Count Olaf to take. Klaus honestly couldn’t care less about their fortune right now; if he could just hand it over to Count Olaf in exchange for their safety he would, but it would still be a nice way to stick it to Count Olaf if, after waiting years for Klaus to be old enough to get a hold of it, there was nothing left to take.

As long as Count Olaf wasn’t too impatient and didn’t decide to go after Violet to get it quicker.

Or unless Count Olaf decides it would be too much trouble searching for the runaway when he knew exactly where the other two were. Maybe Klaus should find Count Olaf first, offer himself in exchange for Count Olaf leaving his sisters and guardians alone.

There was just the issue of finding Olaf. He was a criminal, on the run, he surely wouldn’t be stupid enough to go home… would he?

Klaus would check there first.

“Klaus, what are you doing?” Violet’s voice cut through his panicked internal monologue.

At the sound of his sister’s voice, Klaus’ throat felt too tight to speak.

God, he was going to miss them all so much.

He thought back to just yesterday, the sounds of his sisters’ and their guardians’ laughter filling the room as they ran around throwing paint at each other, having fun.

There would be nothing fun with Count Olaf, just abuse and neglect. But Violet would still have fun, as would Sunny, and Uncle Monty, and Gustav.

They could all be happy and safe, together. As long as someone kept Count Olaf away from them. The police wouldn’t be able to, whoever had taken him in the parking lot of the movie theatre weren’t able to. But Klaus could.

“Klaus, stop!” Violet tried to take the armful of clothes out of his hands, but Klaus pulled them away to throw them into the suitcase after a brief struggle.

“I’m leaving.”

“What? Why? What happened?” She insisted, and her hurt expression made Klaus’ eyes well with tears.

He didn’t want to hurt her; he didn’t want anyone to hurt her. That’s why he had to go find Count Olaf and trade himself for their safety.

Telling her would just make her either try to stop him or want to go with him so that he didn’t have to do this alone. Klaus couldn’t let her do either of those, so he stayed silent and collected up the books Uncle Monty had given him; some bought, some from Uncle Monty’s own library. He briefly wondered if he would want them back, but again, they seemed like a fair price to pay for what Klaus was doing for them.

He would need as many books as he could take with him anyway; he would need the escapism. Maybe living with Count Olaf wouldn’t be so bad if he could lose himself in a book and forget his circumstances as often as possible.

“Klaus! Talk to me, please!” Violet insisted, and Klaus snapped.

The tears fell and his chest tightened as he forced himself to speak.

“Count Olaf is out! He escaped! And he’s going to find us; he knows where we live, and we already know he’s willing to kill Uncle Monty to get us! He’ll be willing to kill Gustav too! He’s never going to stop until he gets to us, and Uncle Monty and Gustav won’t let him as long as they’re alive! I’m going to find him and tell him I’ll stay with him until I come of age, then sign over my part of the fortune to him! As long as he leaves you and Sunny, and Uncle Monty and Gustav alone!”

Violet stared at him in shock. He wasn’t sure which part had shocked her most; finding out Count Olaf was out or finding out what Klaus was going to do about it. He supposed it was probably equal parts both.

She tried to talk him out of it, but he tuned her out as he continued packing.

Eventually she left the room, and Klaus deflated. She gave up on him. She was going to let him leave.

That’s what he had wanted, but there was still a part of him that was saddened by the fact that she was going to let go of him so easily.

He only paused for a moment though, before stubbornly wiping his tears away and continuing with to pack.

He struggled to close the zip; he tried to tell himself it was because he threw everything in and didn’t pack properly to save space, so he didn’t have to acknowledge the fact that it was really because Uncle Monty had bought him so many things in the relatively short time that they had been here. They came here with just the clothes on their backs – literally – and now he had too much to be able to leave with just one suitcase.

Tears of frustration clouded his vision as he shoved at the sweater sticking out and catching the zip. Just as he was about to rip it out and leave it, there was a light knock at the door.

It wasn’t Violet. She wouldn’t have knocked at a time like this, she would just burst in to try and stop him again. It wasn’t Sunny, the knock came from too high up on the door.

“Klaus? May I come in?” It was Uncle Monty.

Seeing him would hurt too much, knowing it would be the last time Klaus would see him for years. He doubted Count Olaf would allow him to visit his uncle and sisters. Maybe Klaus would be able to come back once he came of age, either to live here again or just to visit him and Sunny if Uncle Monty didn’t want him moving back in. He wouldn’t be Uncle Monty’s legal responsibility anymore, after all. Violet would have access to her share of the fortune, so she would have probably moved out and gotten a place of her own by the time Klaus was freed two years later.

It would hurt even more if Uncle Monty noticed the suitcase and tried to get him to stay. Refusing his sister’s pleas had been hard enough, he didn’t want to have to argue with Uncle Monty too.

He tried to steel himself to tell Uncle Monty to leave him alone, so he could pack and just sneak out without having to confront him and tell him what was happening. Violet would tell him when Uncle Monty realises that Klaus is gone, so he won’t have to worry that anything happened to him.

But Klaus couldn’t tell him to go away. He knew he shouldn’t see Uncle Monty, and he shouldn’t let Uncle Monty see what he was doing. He knew it would jeopardize his plan and hurt Uncle Monty in the process. But he was too selfish. He wanted to see him one last time.

If Uncle Monty tried to stop him, Klaus would just sneak out tonight when everyone was sleeping.

“Yeah…” He called out. He tried to keep his voice level, but it wavered regardless.

Uncle Monty opened the door and came inside, but he didn’t look surprised when he saw the fat suitcase partially closed on Klaus’ bed or the emptiness on Klaus’ side of the open closet.

He sat down on Klaus’ bed and pushed the suitcase back a little to allow space beside him, which he patted in an indication for Klaus to sit.

Klaus knew he shouldn’t. He would deflate and lose steam, and he wouldn’t be able to go through with his plan. But even as his mind told him to grab the suitcase and run, his body ignored it and sat beside his uncle. Immediately, Uncle Monty’s arm wrapped around his shoulders and Klaus leant into his side instinctively, his head falling onto Uncle Monty’s shoulder.

The tears were back again, this time accompanied by sobs that he had tried to keep suppressed to avoid alerting anyone to how upset he was. He covered his mouth to try and stifle them, but Uncle Monty took his wrist carefully and moved his hand away.

“It’s okay, cry all you want.” He assured him quietly, and Klaus took that advice wholeheartedly.

He wrapped his arms around Uncle Monty’s middle – careful of the repercussions from his last run-in with Count Olaf – and buried his face against his chest as he cried.

Uncle Monty made only one quick adjustment; he took Klaus’ glasses off of him and put them on the bed beside them, then wrapped his arms tight around Klaus as he let the boy cry it out.

Klaus wanted to explain, but every time he tried to speak more sobs choked him. Uncle Monty didn’t seem to be in a rush for an explanation, though. Violet had probably told him everything. One hand moved from his back to the back of his head, and Klaus’ arms tightened around him as Uncle Monty started playing with his hair.

Like his mother used to when he was upset.

He didn’t know if Uncle Monty knew that their mother did that when she was comforting somebody or if it was a coincidence, but either way Klaus welcomed the familiarity of it right now.

Eventually, Klaus settled down, but he didn’t pull away for a little while longer. If this was going to be the last time that he got to hug Uncle Monty for the next six years, he was going to make the most of it.

“You’re not going anywhere, Klaus.” Uncle Monty eventually muttered quietly, and Klaus wanted to cry again.

Just as he suspected, Uncle Monty wasn’t going to let him leave. He’d have to sneak out when they were asleep and hurt them all even more.

“I have to…” He mumbled against Uncle Monty’s shirt, then forced himself to pull back to look at him. He had to convince him to let Klaus go, for everyone’s benefit.

It would hurt less if Uncle Monty just agreed to let him leave, if they agreed that this was the best course of action. Uncle Monty wouldn’t be as upset when Klaus leaves if he just relented now. Klaus wouldn’t feel like he was betraying everything his guardian had done for him if he was allowed to leave as opposed to sneaking out and running away from the safe sanctuary that had been gifted to him.

Uncle Monty was wearing a pale green shirt, so the tears that Klaus had left there stood out very clearly. He was about to apologise, but Uncle Monty seemed to see it coming and just shook his head before focusing on the issue at hand.

“No, you don’t. I’m your guardian, Klaus, I’m here to keep you safe. It’s not your job to protect me, or Gustav, or your sisters. You’re twelve years old, you don’t have to take all of that onto your own shoulders.”

“Last time you tried to protect us you got stabbed.” Klaus realised that wasn’t the best thing he could say as soon as he said it. He saw Uncle Monty wince slightly, even as he tried to hide it. Great, now he was making Uncle Monty feel bad about getting stabbed. It sounded like Klaus was accusing him of not being capable of taking care of them.

“I just meant that… I don’t want anyone to get hurt. If Count Olaf has just one of us, he’ll leave the others, and you and Gustav alone.”

“Maybe.” Uncle Monty admitted with a shrug. “But how to do you think your sisters, and Gustav and I would feel knowing that our safety came at the expense of yours? Do you think we would be able to live peacefully knowing that you’re with that dreadful man being abused and neglected?”

Okay, so maybe Klaus hadn’t quite thought of it that way. He assumed that they would be sad for a little while, sure, but they would eventually get used to not having him there and forget about it. He hadn’t thought about how much it would hurt all of them.

“Imagine if it was Violet or Sunny who came up with this plan of yours.” Uncle Monty continued. “Would you be able to go about your day as normal knowing that one of your sisters were with him? Would you be able to just stay put and get on with your life without her?”

He remembered how Count Olaf leered at Violet and manhandled her at every opportunity, how he was constantly in her face and making threats as he attempted to marry her. He remembered how Count Olaf sneered at Sunny in irritation every time she spoke and looked at her like he was barely restraining himself from hurting her to shut her up, and how he had lifted Sunny up with one hand while he was drunk, almost dropping her in the process, with no regard for her safety.

“No.” He answered definitively.

“Exactly. None of us would be about to live happily without you here. If you left, you would be hurting us all more than protecting us.” Uncle Monty explained, and Klaus nodded a little as he started to understand. “Also, I would have to track you and Olaf down, fight Olaf, and drag you out of there, and that sounds like a lot of effort and a lot of very unnecessary work.”

Klaus managed to laugh at that as he wiped his eyes again, and Uncle Monty smiled as he squeezed his shoulder, one of his arms still wrapped around Klaus.

“You’re not going anywhere, Klaus. Don’t worry about Olaf, we have people dealing with that, capable people who are used to that kind of responsibility because it’s their jobs; who aren’t twelve-year-old boys.”

With a sigh, Klaus nodded a little and deflated against Uncle Monty’s side with a sniffle. Uncle Monty remained silent for a little while, rubbing Klaus’ upper arm in a comforting gesture.

“Are you sure everything’s going to be okay?” He whispered.

“Eventually. Maybe not right away, but one day everything will be okay. I promise.” Uncle Monty assured him and pressed a kiss to the top of him head.

Klaus relaxed a little more, thankful that Uncle Monty didn’t just promise him that everything was fine. It would have been a lie; Uncle Monty’s answer was more honest. Even if everything wasn’t okay now, it would be. Eventually.

He sighed a little and forced himself to pull back from Uncle Monty and sit up without the man’s support. He felt around for his glasses, unable to see them against the dark surface of his comforter. Before he could find them, Uncle Monty picked them up and cleaned the lenses on the hem of his shirt to wipe away the marks his tears had made, then held them out to Klaus.

He had to blink a few times after putting them on to clear his vision, his eyes a little irritated by the crying.

“Thank you, Uncle Monty.”

“Promise you’re not going anywhere?”

After only a brief second’s hesitation, Klaus nodded with a smile. “I promise.”

Uncle Monty held up his pinkie finger, and Klaus frowned slightly in confusion before he laughed and hooked his own with Uncle Monty’s to make it a pinkie promise.

Klaus apologised to Violet for worrying her and assured her that he wasn’t leaving, that Uncle Monty had talked him out of it, and she hugged him tight. He hugged back and rested his forehead against her shoulder with a sigh.

The day had only just started, and he was already exhausted.

Uncle Monty picked up on it and asked if he wanted to go for a nap after breakfast, and when Gustav asked why he was so tired Uncle Monty responded before Klaus could, telling him that he would explain later. Gustav still looked confused, but he didn’t miss the grateful smile Klaus shot Uncle Monty, so he dropped it for now.

Klaus did go for the nap; he was so exhausted that he fell asleep immediately with no time to think, and when Uncle Monty woke him up a few hours later so that he wouldn’t struggle to sleep that night, he felt much more relaxed.

The suitcase was back in the corner of the room where it had been before his attempt to leave, and his clothes and books were back in their designated places, where they belonged.

He was still worried that Count Olaf was out, but he allowed Uncle Monty to assure him that he and Gustav would protect them.

They started decorating Klaus’ room the next day, and yet again a paint fight broke out. This time Gustav initiated it, by ruffling Uncle Monty’s hair with a paint-soaked hand, claiming it was retaliation for the day before.

Klaus’ room was a little smaller, so it didn’t take as long to finish as Violet’s had done, but Klaus was a little reluctant to move into it that night. After the news that their past abuser was out there somewhere, he didn’t want to be too far from his sisters just yet.

Again, Uncle Monty seemed to pick up on his discomfort. He reasoned that Klaus should probably stay in the room with the girls for that night, since the room was smaller and the smell of fresh paint was more prominent in there, it could give him a headache. Best to let it air out for that night and move in the next day, or maybe later than that. Klaus was silently grateful for the offer and agreed with his decision to keep Klaus’ bed in the other room for now.

Gustav went to meet with a friend that afternoon.

Uncle Monty had been invited too, but he saw the worried look Violet and Klaus exchanged at the prospect of being left home alone given the information they had learnt that morning, and he declined. He told Gustav to go without him when Gustav offered to stay home too and told him to say hello to Jacqueline for him. The name sounded familiar to the children, but they couldn’t quite recall where they had heard of her. Gustav reluctantly agreed, and it was hard to miss the weight and insistency that he put behind the words when he told Uncle Monty to call him if he needed anything.

Violet found a stack of boardgames in a trunk in the corner of the living room and excitedly asked if anyone wanted to play, so they all gathered around the dining table as she, Klaus and Sunny picked which ones they wanted to play. There were a lot that they had never heard of, but some classics too. Including Trivial Pursuit, which was Klaus’ favourite.

After the stress of believing he was going to be going to live with an abusive villain, far away from his sisters and uncle, said relatives all agreed with a wordless look exchanged between them that Klaus’ pick should be the first one they play.

It was a family edition, and Sunny was very smart for a baby, but not so much in the realm of general knowledge and facts, so she got the kids’ questions that had still been in the plastic wrapping. It made sense given that Uncle Monty didn’t have any children of his own, but Klaus had only played this game at his parents’ house and at the homes of their other friends, ones that all had kids, so it had struck him as a little strange when he first noticed that the children’s questions were unused. Especially considering that it was a family edition. He found himself a little distracted wondering why Uncle Monty would have bought the family edition when he had no children, but then he thought about what he had said to them in the Reptile Room on their first day in his care. He had always wanted a family of his own, he had just always been too busy with his studies and his career to focus on things like that. He had probably bought it because he was intending to have children to play it with one day but, again, he had been too busy.

Klaus had been reluctant to do so at first, worried that it would dishonour his parents’ memories, but he was starting to think of himself and his siblings as Uncle Monty’s children now, and he found himself wondering how Uncle Monty felt about that. He clearly loved them, and he wanted them with him, but Klaus wondered if he wanted children of his own, with Gustav; just theirs, not their friends’ kids who were orphaned and ended up in their care. Ones they could raise from birth together and, if they went through a surrogate, who were biologically theirs.

He wondered if there was a part of either of them that was disappointed that they now had three children that they had no part in making or raising until very recently; two of which they didn’t even know until they had already been alive for over a decade each. Sunny was young enough that they would still get a lot of ‘firsts’ with her. Her first coherent words that didn’t need to be translated, her first steps, first day at school, first tooth loss, first birthday… Klaus and Violet were past all of those. Violet was a teenager, and Klaus would be too in a few months.

But then he remembered how Uncle Monty had stood between them and a psychopath, knowing full well that he could die but doing so regardless to protect them. He remembered how Uncle Monty had greeted them that first day with delicious cake and promises of a safe and loving home. How he had given Klaus full access to any of the books he owned and promised to get him any that Klaus wanted but Uncle Monty didn’t have; how he had thought to get Violet adhesive whiteboard wallpaper so that she could work on her inventions when he really didn’t have to; and how he had been teaching Sunny simple recipes and encouraging her budding interest in cooking.

Klaus watched as he lifted Sunny up to sit her in his lap and wrapped an arm around her so that she wouldn’t fall off, while he leant over to read the rules with Violet and placed a hand absentmindedly on Violet’s back. He nodded after Violet had read out a few bits to them to refresh their memories, then moved his hand off her to get the pieces out. Uncle Monty smiled at each of them as he handed out the pieces in the colours they requested, and Klaus smiled back, maybe a little too wide.

Uncle Monty didn’t look like he regretted anything about having them with him. Sure, he would have preferred that his friends and the children’s parents hadn’t died in a fire, but he had no hang-ups about taking in a fourteen-year-old, a twelve-year-old, and a baby in need of a home.

He was happy to have them.

Klaus won, though he was relatively sure Uncle Monty had gotten several questions wrong that he actually knew the answers too. He couldn’t be mad about Uncle Monty throwing the game and allowing him to win though; no one really cared who had won. It was just fun.

They played a game that they had never heard of next, when it was Sunny’s turn to choose, dictated by the fact that when they rolled the dice for it Sunny got a five and Violet got a two.

Uncle Monty explained the rules of King of Tokyo – after muttering something about how it should be called Ruler of Tokyo or something a little less male-centric than ‘king’, which made Violet smile a little – then let them all pick their characters. Sunny picked The King, a giant monkey character, because she liked its teeth. Violet picked Meka Dragon because she liked that it seemed to be a giant robot made of metal components. Klaus picked Kraken because he thought the tentacles on his face looked cool, and Uncle Monty picked Gigazaur because it was basically a giant reptile and that was very on-brand for him.

It was a strategic kind of game, and Sunny was very much in the mindset of just attacking anyone whenever she could, so soon enough Klaus regrettably killed her King. He apologised, but she wasn’t particularly sad about it; just let out a playful screech as she knocked her character cut-out down and focussed on Uncle Monty’s cards. She convinced him to let her help easily, and as a result of doing everything she told him to, Uncle Monty went from being in first place to being dead within three rounds. He sighed dramatically as he let Sunny knock down his character, then sat back bouncing Sunny on his knee to make her laugh as they watched Violet and Klaus battle it out for the win.

Violet won, of course.

When it was her turn to pick the game, she picked Mouse Trap and won that one too.

Just as they finished that game, Gustav came home. The sound of the door opening and closing immediately put the children on edge, but they relaxed again when they heard Gustav ask where they were. Uncle Monty called out that they were in the dining room and he came in with a smile.

“Hey!” He greeted them and slumped in a chair next to Uncle Monty.

They could smell the alcohol on him from across the table, and Uncle Monty chuckled as he checked his watch.

“Nine-thirty. My, you are getting old.”

Klaus and Violet both looked up at the clock in surprise, having not realised it had gotten that late already, and as if on cue Sunny yawned and rubbed her eyes.

Gustav laughed and leant over to kiss Uncle Monty, which he accepted with only a slight cringe.

“You smell like a liquor cabinet, go shower.” He insisted when he pulled back, a hand on Gustav’s chest to keep him back slightly, and Gustav smirked as he replied.

“Only if you join me.”

Everyone but Gustav cringed at that with a groan.

“There are children in the room!” Uncle Monty pointed out, and Gustav’s eyes widened as he looked around the room, and a blush coloured his cheeks.

“Oh shi—I mean, whoops! Sorry! Please forget you heard that and don’t call us out by name when you have to talk about this in therapy. Give us cool pseudonyms!”

Violet and Klaus laughed as they rolled their eyes, then laughed again when Sunny called out ‘accept the consequences of your ill-thought-out comments about our Uncle!”

Gustav was clearly way too drunk to understand her at this point, because he just smiled at her and nodded a little in reply before letting out a hiccup.

“Wait, ‘us’? I didn’t say anything, how am I traumatizing them?”

“Because you’re allowing the person who says traumatizing things to stay in their lives.” Gustav argued, and Uncle Monty rolled his eyes with a laugh, then handed Sunny to Violet so that he could go to the kitchen and bring Gustav a glass of water.

“Did you have fun?” Violet asked as she and Klaus packed away their finished game.

“Yeah, yeah! It was great, Jacqueline’s great. She’s so pretty and smart and funny, and we always have so much fun together.” He babbled, and Klaus’ smile faded at the way he talked about Jacqueline in such a breezy, love-sick voice.

They knew Gustav liked men, given that he was in a relationship with Uncle Monty, but he hadn’t thought about the fact that Gustav could like women too. He could be bisexual or pansexual, or something along those lines.

And he certainly hadn’t thought that he could like anyone in that way other than Uncle Monty, or else why would he be in a relationship with him? But the way he talked about Jacqueline sounded like he had a crush on her, and Klaus glanced at Violet to see that she had to same suspicious and slightly concerned expression.

He was debating whether they should say something to Uncle Monty about this when their uncle returned with the water, but then Gustav grabbed his arm after taking the glass and spoke before Klaus could make a decision.

“Have I ever told you how amazing Jacqueline is?”

Uncle Monty didn’t look concerned or angry, he just laughed as he sat next to Gustav.

“You don’t need to tell me how amazing Jacqueline is, Gustav, I know she’s amazing. She’s smart, funny, always fun to be around…”

“That’s what I said! I said she’s pretty too though.”

“She’s not pretty, Gustav.” Uncle Monty started, and Klaus felt Violet go just as tense beside him as he felt himself go. “She’s gorgeous. Have you seen her eyes? They’re like jewels. And her hair is always so shiny and soft.”

The children relaxed a little then, but they were still a little confused. But, again, they shared a look and this time Violet shrugged. Uncle Monty seemed to see no need for concern over how much Gustav liked her; he seemed to like her just as much.

The children said goodnight to their guardians before heading off to bed. After changing into pyjamas, brushing their teeth and washing their faces, they laid in their beds and listened as Uncle Monty tried to help Gustav to bed. Gustav was ranting about something or other, and Uncle Monty was agreeing absentmindedly as he tried to manoeuvre Gustav into their bedroom, muttering something about how Gustav could shower in the morning.

The house eventually went silent, and after half an hour Klaus quickly got out of bed and rushed downstairs. Violet had still been awake, so she quickly followed him.

“Did you think of the door too?” She whispered as they descended the stairs, and Klaus nodded quickly.

“Gustav was clearly very drunk, he might have forgotten to lock it behind him when he came home.”

Violet nodded to indicate that she had thought the same thing, but they had no reason to worry. The door was locked, and he had left his key in the hole so that the lock couldn’t be picked. The chain was on too, and all of the windows were closed and locked.

Everything was fine; Count Olaf wouldn’t be able to get in without breaking or smashing something, and that would wake their guardians up. Well, maybe not Gustav right away, given that he was drunk, but it would wake Uncle Monty up and he would make Gustav. They would protect them.

After checking everything, Violet prompted Klaus to come back to their bedroom to try and sleep.

After sharing a room with his sisters at Mr Poe’s, Count Olaf’s and Uncle Monty’s, Klaus had become pretty good at being able to guess by their breathing who was awake or asleep.

Sunny was asleep by eleven, and Violet eventually fell asleep around two in the morning. Klaus still couldn’t.

After his initial panic that morning, Klaus hadn’t really thought about it. With decorating his room, then playing boardgames, he hadn’t really had time to dwell on the information he had overheard that morning since Uncle Monty talked him out of leaving.

Until now.

Every sound he heard made his eyes shoot open and his entire body tense. In his mind, the sounds of owls hooting could have been members of the troupe alerting the rest that the coast was clear for them to break in; branches creaking could have been Count Olaf attempting to get through the door; the odd croak or squawk from the reptiles downstairs could have been them trying to warn someone that there was an intruder in the house.

Eventually he knew he had to do something if he wanted to get any sleep tonight; it wasn’t going to just happen.

Quietly, he left the room and went into the kitchen to warm up some milk, then took the glass with him to the Reptile Room. The entire thing was glass, if anyone was out there trying to get in Klaus would be able to see them and he could yell to wake everyone up or run upstairs to wake their guardians. The phone was just outside the Reptile Room in the parlour, he could call the police too before anyone got inside.

But it was a windy night, so the branches of trees and the leaves on the hedges moved, constantly drawing his eye and spiking his anxiety. Insects and small creatures scurried around too; there was always some kind of movement to look at. He finished his milk, but he didn’t get the usual sleepy feeling he got after it. He was still wide awake, and he remained that way as he watched the red and orange sunrise bathe the vast greenery of Uncle Monty’s estate.

The adults would be awake soon and Klaus didn’t want them to worry, so he quietly washed up his glass and put it away, then snuck back up to his room. He heard the shower start a little while later and closed his eyes when Violet started to stir, in order to fake sleep. She and Sunny left quietly once they were fully awake, and Klaus gave himself about twenty minutes before following, trying to suppress a yawn.

Neither of the adults were downstairs yet, so Violet made them all cereal for breakfast. She asked Sunny and Klaus how they slept, and Sunny told her about a dream she had where she bit her way through a cement wall to get to a pile of marshmallows. Both her siblings laughed as she told about her sleep-triumph, and she laughed too in delight at being able to get her siblings to laugh.

Violet told them about her dream in which she joined a team of female pirates and sailed the seas as their captain once their original captain disappeared. She told them that they were there too, but given that Klaus was a boy they had to vote whether or not to allow him on the crew. They eventually allowed him to join, but he was regulated to carrying Sunny around so that she could complete her duties of resizing the ropes with her teeth. They all laughed, and Klaus assured her that it would be an honour to provide that assistance on a pirate ship ran by Violet.

When it was Klaus’ turn, he told them he slept well but didn’t remember any of his dreams. He wasn’t entirely sure why he bothered lying, but he supposed it was best this way. He just didn’t want to worry anybody. It was just one night of no sleep; no big deal.

Uncle Monty eventually joined them and bid them good morning. He told them Gustav wouldn’t be joining them any time soon; he was very hungover, and the light hurt. Uncle Monty didn’t particularly seem sympathetic though. If anything, he found it funny how much Gustav was suffering. Even so, he was nice enough to bring Gustav more water, food, and some painkillers.

By the afternoon, Gustav was well enough to join them, though he did cringe a little when Sunny squealed in greeting as he entered the living room where they were all watching a mystery movie.

They had a relatively lazy day, which Klaus was quietly thankful for, given how tired he was. Violet sat on one end of the couch with her legs thrown over Klaus’ lap and Sunny laying on Violet’s chest. Uncle Monty and Gustav took their usual place on the two-seated couch, but this time instead of Uncle Monty curled up to Gustav, Gustav had his head in Uncle Monty’s lap, groaning occasionally in pain when there were loud noises or flashing lights.

Which made them all laugh a little.

Klaus really was enjoying the movie, but he couldn’t focus on the story for long, feeling his eyelids start to become too heavy. But a quick glance at the clock showed that it was getting relatively late, his belly was pleasantly full from dinner, and he was surrounded by his family. His guardians were just a few feet away and awake; there was no danger now, and if there was, they had people right there who could protect them. It was safe to fall asleep now.

It felt like he had only closed his eyes for a second, but when he opened them again the movie was over, and Uncle Monty was lightly shaking his shoulder.

“Bed time.” He told him quietly, and Klaus pushed his glasses up to rub his eyes as he got up to go to bed.

His bed was still in Violet’s room. She insisted she didn’t mind, and none of them felt the need to bring up why Klaus wanted to stay in there a little longer and why they were postponing doing Sunny’s room that day.

Uncle Monty claimed that it was because Gustav was hungover and unable to help, but they all knew that that was just an excuse.

They agreed to do it tomorrow, though Gustav warned that she may not be able to move into it right away, given that it was the smallest room and the smell of paint would be stronger than it was in Klaus’ new room. They also needed to get a crib for her since she had been sharing Violet’s bed so far.

She didn’t mind doing so; in fact, as Klaus watched his sisters cuddle up together under the covers before he took his glasses off, he was pretty sure they would both miss it a little when they had their own rooms, regardless of the information given to them that morning. Even if Count Olaf was still firmly out of the picture, Klaus was sure they would still be reluctant to separate.

Klaus shook his head a little at the thought, trying to forget about Count Olaf for now and just focus on how tired he was.

He really wanted to be able to sleep tonight.

Chapter Text

Klaus had high hopes for getting some sleep that night, given that he had been able to fall asleep easily on the couch. Maybe the previous night had just been a fluke, because the information about Count Olaf’s escape was just too fresh in his mind, and he had been relatively refreshed from his nap earlier in the day so he hadn’t been as tired.

But he was wrong.

As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was wide awake again.

He didn’t want to worry Violet, so he turned to face the wall so that she wouldn’t see that he was still awake. Soon enough, she and Sunny were asleep and Klaus was no closer to being in the same state as his sisters.

A few hours later he heard Uncle Monty and Gustav conversing as they went to bed, speaking quietly so as not to disturb the children they figured would all be asleep. They got ready for bed and their bedroom door closed quietly after a while, then the house was silent again.

Klaus gave it an hour or so, and when he still couldn’t sleep, he snuck back downstairs and tried the warm milk trick again.

Maybe sitting in the Reptile Room and watching out for movement hadn’t been the best idea; it had just unnecessarily spiked his anxiety with every innocent movement outside. Instead, he sat in the living room, leaving the light off in the hopes that the dark would lull him into a more tired state. He didn’t want to turn the TV on and alert anyone that he was awake, and it was too dark to read, so he just lied on the couch and stared up at the ceiling, trying to clear his mind. His plan was to get to the point of being tired, then sneak back upstairs and into bed before that feeling faded, so no one would know he had been out of bed.

But the more he tried to clear his mind, the more he thought. He remembered their time with Count Olaf, despite how many times he tried not to think about it, and came to a realisation that shocked him awake. He cursed himself for not thinking of it earlier, at a time when Uncle Monty and Gustav were awake and could answer his questions.

He forgot about Count Olaf’s troupe.

He knew that the white-faced twins had been arrested with Count Olaf in the parking lot of the movie theatre, but he didn’t know about the others. They could have been lurking around, watching them, this whole time. And now that their boss was free, they could be making plans.

Klaus sat up and put his nearly-empty glass down so that he could cover his face with his hands when he realised they were shaking. He tried to calm himself, but so many new variables had just come to mind, and he couldn’t.

He didn’t sleep that night either.

But he did get back into bed an hour or so before Uncle Monty woke up, so at least no one would notice and worry.

They decorated Sunny’s room that day, and it was so much fun that Klaus almost forgot how tired he was. All the physical activity and focus eventually wore him down though, but no one seemed to notice given that they were all quite tired too.

They decided to get takeout that night so that Uncle Monty wouldn’t have to cook, and he decided to go collect it instead of ordering it.

As he was getting ready to leave, he stopped and looked at Klaus for a moment.

“What? Do I still have paint on my face?” Klaus asked, lifting a hand to feel along his cheek where Violet had patted his face with a yellow hand. He thought he had gotten it all, but maybe not. He was pretty tired, after all.

“No, no, you’re fine… Would you like to come get the food with me?”

Violet and Sunny both exchanged a confused look, clearly trying to decipher why Uncle Monty had asked Klaus alone; he usually never singled them out when asking if they wanted to take part in anything, and certainly never without good reason. Klaus wasn’t sure why he asked only him either, but he was curious to find out, so he agreed.

Uncle Monty whispered something in Gustav’s ear on their way out, and Gustav glanced at Klaus before nodding and telling him to drive safe, as he always did.

The attention and the whispering was making him a little paranoid, but hopefully Uncle Monty would explain in the car.

There was a small, irrational, ridiculous, offensive part of his mind that flared up with worry, telling him that Uncle Monty was going to take him to Count Olaf. Maybe they had been in contact, and Uncle Monty had agreed to give Count Olaf one of them in exchange for him leaving the others alone, and since Klaus had been planning to do just that, Uncle Monty had decided to give him over.

He would have liked to have been told first, so that he could say goodbye to Gustav and his sisters.

But he tried to push that thought out of his mind as Uncle Monty opened the passenger side door for him and placed a leading hand on his back as Klaus got into the truck.

No, Uncle Monty loved all three of them, too much to just hand any of them over to that psychopath.

Uncle Monty got into the driver’s seat and put his seatbelt on, then waited for Klaus to do the same before even starting up the truck.

The drive started silent, but once they were on the road Uncle Monty cleared his throat before speaking.

“How are you feeling, Klaus?”

The question caught him a little off-guard, and Klaus glanced at the wing mirror to check his reflection for any signs that he wasn’t doing okay. His hair was a little messier than he usually allowed it to get, but when a streetlight illuminated his face, he saw what was probably worrying his Uncle. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his eyes were a little bloodshot too.

It was clear that he wasn’t getting enough sleep.

Even so, he just shrugged before answering. “I’m fine.”

Uncle Monty went quiet again for a moment, clearly contemplating his words before he tried again.

“Have you been sleeping alright?”

He debated lying. He didn’t want to worry anyone, but it was clear that he was already worrying Uncle Monty, so maybe there was no point in not just telling him what was bothering him. Maybe he could provide answers that could help ease Klaus’ mind too.

“Not really…” He answered with a sigh, and internally thanked Uncle Monty for remaining silent long enough for Klaus to formulate his next sentence in his mind. “I’m worried about Count Olaf.”

Klaus kept his eyes on the road ahead of him, but he noticed Uncle Monty nod a little in his peripheral vision, silently validating Klaus’ fears instead of claiming he had nothing to worry about. He stayed silent again, giving Klaus time to elaborate.

“I know you said you and Gustav will protect us, but I’m worried he’s going to show up at the house. And last night I thought of something else… What about his troupe? The twins were arrested with him, right? But what about the others? The hook-handed man, the bald man, the one whose gender I’m not sure about?”

He looked over at Uncle Monty as he spoke, and he seemed to know what he was talking about right up until he began describing the other members of the troupe.

“Is that how they introduced themselves?”

Klaus huffed out a laugh. “They didn’t introduce themselves, and we never heard Count Olaf refer to them by their names, so we just refer to them by characteristics that distinguished them from each other.”

Uncle Monty nodded a little at the explanation before addressing Klaus’ concerns.

“The one you refer to as the bald man was arrested by our associates that night at a truck stop about a mile away from the theatre. The non-binary henchperson wandered into a police station looking for said truck stop to meet the bald man at, the police recognised them as an associate of Olaf’s from the Marvellous Marriage incident and arrested them. The… what was it? Hook-handed man?”

Klaus nodded.

“He is… a little more complicated.”

“Complicated how?” Klaus frowned in confusion, and Uncle Monty seemed to struggle for a moment to come up with an explanation.

“He’s… out of the picture. You don’t have to worry about him.”

“What do you mean ‘out of the picture’? Has he been arrested?”

“No…”

“Then he’s still out there, and he can still show up and hurt us, or help Count Olaf do so.”

“No. He won’t.”

Uncle Monty sounded so sure, but the fact that he wouldn’t tell him why he was so sure was starting to frustrate Klaus.

“Why the secrets?” He snapped. “You won’t tell us who the men who arrested Count Olaf were, you won’t explain the spyglasses you and Gustav have and the significance of the symbol on Count Olaf’s ankle and in the design for your hedge labyrinth, you won’t tell us why there was a secret message in the movie we saw or why they wanted you to take us to Peru, or who they even are. You promised us answers, and you’ve given us nothing!”

Klaus regretted it as soon as he finished, specifically the wording. Of course Uncle Monty had given them more than ‘nothing’. He gave them a home, food, clothes, love, comfort and safety. He had just meant that he hadn’t given them any answers to the questions they had.

He wanted to apologise, especially when Uncle Monty flinched a little, but Uncle Monty held a hand up to stop him when he tried before dropping said hand back onto the steering wheel.

“I know I haven’t been very forthcoming with information about this topic, but… I can’t tell you everything right now. I am truly sorry, but you have to trust that I have your best interests in mind. You already have so much to worry about, the information you want to know would just add to that. I know you don’t think so, I know you think it would clarify things and ease your mind, but trust me, it won’t. Not yet.”

Klaus wanted to argue that it was his decision, he could handle it, and he would feel better if he had all the information. But Uncle Monty was a very smart man, and he seemed to be very good at deciphering what the children needed best. He had all the information, and if he thought that it would add to their stress, he was probably right.

“Can you promise that the Hook-Handed Man won’t be an issue? And that the rest of his troupe really are out of the way?”

Uncle Monty took one hand off the steering wheel and held his little finger out to Klaus, and Klaus stared in confusion for a moment, then chuckled as he linked his own little finger to it.

“I promise.” Uncle Monty smiled, then put his hand back on the steering wheel after they separated. “Just focus on getting some sleep. Everything else, keeping you and your sisters safe, keeping Olaf away from you all; that’s all things I can do. But I can’t get more sleep on your behalf. You have to take care of yourself in that sense; let that be your only concern.”

It was easier said than done, but Klaus nodded regardless before promising aloud to try.

Their usual takeout place was right next door to a convenience store, so Uncle Monty gave Klaus some money and sent him to the store to get them all some ice cream for dessert, and whatever else took Klaus’ fancy. He made sure Klaus was okay with it, given that he would be alone, and Klaus assured him that he would be fine. The store clerk was in plain view from all aisles and the store wasn’t very big; if Count Olaf showed up, Klaus could scream for the clerk’s help and get out of the store quickly. Uncle Monty would just be next door, too. Klaus could get to him quickly enough.

The clerk smiled at him when the bell announced his arrival and said a friendly hello to him in greeting, so Klaus felt confident that he would help him if he needed it as he greeted him in return. Uncle Monty had given him plenty of money and assured him he didn’t care about getting change, so Klaus took his time looking through the store. There was a small TV in the top corner of the store that the clerk was watching, and Klaus glanced up as he opened the freezer to get some ice cream.

It was the news, which Klaus usually avoided, but the sight of Mr Poe from the bank caught his attention. He was being investigated for child endangerment, for putting the Baudelaires with Count Olaf. A reporter mentioned the state of Count Olaf’s house, and questioned why he thought it was at all a suitable environment to leave three young children in, and Klaus couldn’t help but smile a little at the way Mr Poe spluttered out a cough before giving a vague and flustered answer about how he needed to get back to the bank. It was especially amusing how the reporter immediately followed that up by asking why Mr Poe saw getting to the bank on time as more important than the welfare of the three children.

The report went on to talk about how Count Olaf was still at large, but Klaus quickly pushed away the knot of worry, thinking about how Uncle Monty had promised to keep them safe.

He picked up a box of cookies, some hard candy for Sunny, and a box of brownies, as well as the ice cream, then headed to the counter. He was pretty sure Uncle Monty had given him enough to pay for it, but he quickly did the math in his head on his way to the counter just in case.

The clerk glanced between Klaus and the TV a few times as he rang up his purchases before speaking.

“I’m so sorry to bring this up, but are you that Baudelaire boy?”

Klaus tensed a little. He really didn’t want to talk about it, but he figured it was unavoidable. The story had been a shock piece, and it had spread quickly. The Daily Punctilio in particular had taken great interest in them, and seemed almost disappointed in their last piece as they stating that their series of unfortunate events seemed to have come to an end when they were placed with their Uncle, a seemingly good man (though strange, they had said, but Klaus couldn’t really argue with that).

“Yes. Klaus Baudelaire.” He introduced himself with a brief smile as he handed the money over.

“Last I heard you were living with some scientist, right? A distant uncle or something?”

“Yes, our Uncle Monty. He’s a herpetologist.”

“Herpetologist. That’s a word that means someone who studies snakes and reptiles, correct?” Klaus nodded, and the man smiled as he bagged the purchases. “Is he nice?”

“Yes.” Klaus answered immediately with a wide smile. “He’s very nice, and very loving. He takes good care of us. We’re okay now.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” The clerk sounded so sincere as he handed the bag to Klaus, like he had really worried about these three strangers he had never met, and hoped that the children would soon be in a good, safe place with someone who cared for them.

“Thank you.” Klaus told him, then they said their goodbyes and Klaus went next door to meet Uncle Monty in the takeout place.

He was sat on one of the benches near the window, absentmindedly reading a poster beside him for some band that was doing a concert close-by soon, when Klaus came over to sit next to him.

Uncle Monty turned to him and smiled, and Klaus smiling back as he handed over the little bit of change he got.

He watched Uncle Monty put it in his pocket without bothering to count it and see how much Klaus had spent, seemingly uninterested, and thought back to what he had said to the clerk.

“We’re okay now.”

It was a spur-the-moment thing; Klaus didn’t think about it and he was glad he didn’t because he probably would have talked himself out of it, labelled it as a weird thing to do out of the blue and something he would have to explain to avoid worrying Uncle Monty.

He didn’t think about it, and instead just dropped the bag between his legs and threw his arms around Uncle Monty’s shoulders. Uncle Monty’s arm immediately came up to wrap around his back out of instinct, and he thankfully didn’t question it right away; just allowed Klaus to hug him and hugged him back just as tight.

When Klaus eventually pulled away he wasn’t surprised to see that Uncle Monty looked a little concerned.

“What was that for? Not that I’m objecting…” Uncle Monty asked, and Klaus laughed as he sat back against the glass of the window behind them.

“We’re okay now,” Klaus responded.

Uncle Monty didn’t ask him to elaborate. Whether that’s because he understood what Klaus meant or because that’s when their order was called, Klaus wasn’t sure. But it was okay; Uncle Monty knew how much they appreciated him, he had to. That was all that mattered.

They drove home in comfortable silence, the radio playing something old but jolly that Uncle Monty tapped his finger against the steering wheel in time with, and Klaus tapped his foot to.

He felt a lot better after their talk, and he really hoped that meant he could sleep tonight.

Violet asked Klaus in private why Uncle Monty had asked him to come with him to get the food, and Klaus decided to just tell her the truth; the issues were probably behind him anyway.

“I haven’t been sleeping very well… Uncle Monty noticed and asked what was wrong.”

“What’s wrong?” Violet asked immediately, and Klaus shrugged.

“Just worried about Count Olaf… And his troupe. Uncle Monty cleared a few things up about them.”

Violet seemed very interested in that part, and Klaus felt a little bad for not thinking about how Violet may be worrying about these things too. She had promised their parents that she would take care of them, and there were people out there who wanted to hurt them. And she had no idea where those people were.

He explained where everyone was, and told her the cryptic explanation about the Hook-Handed Man that Uncle Monty had given him. Violet didn’t understand what Uncle Monty had meant by that either, but she agreed to trust him on his promise that he was out of the way.

Uncle Monty and Gustav were stood very close together having a private conversation on the other side of the room while Uncle Monty unloaded the food onto the table, and Klaus assumed that he was filling Gustav in on their conversation, on how he had eased Klaus’ mind, and that everything should be fine now.

They ate dinner and talked about much nicer things, and by the time Gustav was clearing everything up, the atmosphere was a lot lighter.

Until Gustav stopped mid-sentence and stared at Violet with wide eyes during dessert.

Klaus had started to get a little distracted during Gustav’s anecdote by his throat feeling a little rough. Maybe he just hadn’t drank enough water? He had been a little spacey lately, and he couldn’t remember the last time he drank water, so he figured he was maybe just a little dehydrated.

He coughed, and Violet scratched her face with a frown, seeming to not register that Gustav had stopped speaking.

Klaus glanced over at him in time to see him start slapping Uncle Monty’s arm repeatedly.

“Ow-- ow! What?” He asked in annoyance as he tried to move his arm away from Gustav’s attack, but then he followed Gustav’s line of sight and his eyes went wide too.

Klaus looked over at his sister and realised why they looked so concerned. Her face had broken out in hives, as had Sunny’s beside her, and Klaus realised then why his throat felt strange. It was even clearer what was wrong when he tried to speak but realised his tongue felt too big for his mouth.

He had been distracted when he picked up the ice cream; he had been watching the TV. He had been distracted when he put his groceries down and when the clerk rang them up and put them in the bag; he was answering the clerk’s question about how they were doing now. He had been aiming for the chocolate chip ice cream, but the peppermint had been right next to it and he must have picked up the wrong one while his eyes were on the TV.

Before Violet could answer, Uncle Monty pulled the tub of ice cream closer to him from where it had been pushed off to the side.

“The ice cream is peppermint.” He pointed out with a hint of panic in his voice, and Gustav just looked at him in confusion.

“We’re allergic to peppermint.” Violet explained as she moved her hand from her cheek to scratch at her neck.

Gustav shot up and snagged Sunny out of her chair at the same time as Uncle Monty got up and grabbed his car keys.

“It’th okay.” Klaus lisped, shaking his head as Uncle Monty gestured for them to follow him. “We’ll be fine.”

It didn’t really help ease their worry that his voice was getting a little difficult to understand, but luckily Violet took over.

“Sunny and I just need to take a baking soda bath for our hives, and her’s and Klaus’ tongues will return to normal soon.”

“Absolutely not, we’re going to the hospital.” Gustav insisted and ushered them to stand.

Violet and Klaus reluctantly got up as per instruction, though Violet still tried to insist that they didn’t need a hospital. The price for seeing a doctor alone was too much to justify the visit, given that they really would be completely fine soon enough. They weren’t on Uncle Monty’s health care plan yet, if he even had health care. It hadn’t come up, even after he was stabbed. None of them had thought to ask, it hadn’t exactly been at the forefront of anyone’s mind at the time. It wasn’t worth the amount of time they would have to spend at the hospital either.

Nothing they said deterred the adults though, and soon they piled into the truck; Sunny in Gustav’s lap in the passenger seat and Violet and Klaus in the back while Uncle Monty drove them to the closest hospital. A little too fast.

“I remember once when your mother had an allergic reaction. Her tongue swelled up, and she got hives all over her body and my father had to drive us to the emergency room. They had to give her antibiotics or something. Afterwards she insisted it wasn’t that bad, but I don’t know if the reactions are the same for you guys.” Uncle Monty explained in a rush, trying to make it seem like he wasn’t panicking when it was clear that he was.

It was kind of endearing, even if it was completely unnecessary.

“We’ve had allergic reactions to peppermint before. Really, we’ll be fine, a trip to the hospital isn’t necessary.”

“What if you die?!” Gustav shouted, making Uncle Monty yelp and almost swerve the truck in surprise.

“Gustav! They’re not going to die, Jesus.”

“They might! Remember when Frank ate that peanut because he was sick of not knowing what they tasted like even though he knew damn well he was allergic to them?!”

“Yes, I remember! His throat swelled up and he passed out within seconds and-- oh god, can you all breathe?!” He called out the last part to the backseat while he gestured to Gustav to check Sunny, and Klaus and Violet exchanged an amused little smile.

Uncle Monty was panicking a lot more now, and they really shouldn’t find it as amusing at they did. They should be telling them both to calm down, reassuring them that they were going to be just fine. But it was kind of nice to see how much they cared and worried about them. And getting a check-up at the hospital wasn’t exactly the worst thing in the world, they could handle it if it would ease Uncle Monty’s and Gustav’s minds.

“Sunny’s breathing fine, are you two breathing fine?” Gustav directed the first part to Uncle Monty and the second part at the other children, and they both assured him that they could breathe.

“Frank had to stay in hospital for three days.” Uncle Monty stated this fact as casually as he could, like it wasn’t a big deal, but his voice had raised at least an octave and Klaus could see his knuckles turning pale, then normal, then back to pale as he clenched and unclenched his fists on the steering wheel.

“Remember when—”

“If you mention what happened with R, I swear to God—”

“She—”

“I know.”

“And then she—”

“I know, Gustav! I remember!”

The children didn’t know who R was, or what she was allergic to, or what happened, but they could gather from context that it must have been pretty bad when she had a reaction. Violet again tried to assure them again that they had had reactions before and they weren’t that bad, but then they were parked in front of the hospital and Gustav was already practically jogging to the doors with Sunny in his arms while Uncle Monty pulled the seat forward so that Violet and Klaus could get out. He kept one hand on each of them as he led them inside, and to the receptionist.

They – or, really, Violet, given that no one could understand Klaus at this point – explained what reaction they were having and why, and the nurse instructed them to wait in the waiting room until a doctor could see them.

Neither Gustav nor Uncle Monty appreciated that answer. They looked at each other in silence, seeming to have an entire conversation with eye contact alone, then both turned back to the nurse and spoke. Uncle Monty was speaking a mile a minute about the dangers of untreated allergic reactions and the possibility that Klaus and Sunny’s tongues were going to swell up too much for them to breathe properly. At the same time, Gustav was citing laws, regulations and policies that stated that it was either illegal or at least against the rules not to treat them right away.

The nurse’s eyes widened as she looked between them, trying to keep up with what each of them were saying but unable to. She seemed to get the gist of it though, because once they both stopped talking – at the same time, which was both impressive and a little creepy – she picked up the phone and called a doctor to ask if she was free.

She was, and the nurse directed them to the right room. As soon as she said there was a doctor that could see them immediately, Uncle Monty and Gustav’s bodies immediately relaxed a little and they both gave her wide grateful smiles as they thanked her and led the children where they needed to go.

“How do you know thso mush about hothital polithies?” Klaus lisped to Gustav, and he shrugged.

“Monty’s been in and out of hospitals more times than I can count. We’ve been in a lot of rubbish ones, so I’ve educated myself on all that stuff to make sure I can pressure them into giving him good treatment with plenty of legitimate backing to my argument.”

The seemingly permanent look of concern on Uncle Monty’s face shifted a little then, into something a little more akin to flattery, before Sunny let out a little cough and the concerned look came back in full force as he took her from Gustav.

The doctor was called Dr King and she was very nice. She checked their airways, blood pressure, and inspected Violet’s and Sunny’s hives, then explained to them that she was going to put them on a course of antibiotics there in the hospital for a few hours, then she would check up on them and make sure everything was going well before discharging them. She understood Uncle Monty’s and Gustav’s concern, but didn’t let it sway her as she insisted that they will be just fine, and they did not need a doctor to keep them under constant surveillance. Their guardians were welcome to stay with them, and they would have a button they could press if they had any concerns and wanted to get someone’s attention, but she didn’t anticipate there being any problems.

Klaus had to look away when she put the needle in the back of his hand, but she was careful not to cause any pain for which he was grateful, and Uncle Monty’s hand was on his shoulder the whole time as a grounding comfort that stopped him from being too scared.

After making sure they were okay, Gustav took Uncle Monty’s keys and quickly went home to collect and bring back some things to keep the children occupied for the few hours they would need to be here.

Klaus and Violet both had beds in the same room, but when the doctor asked if they would like her to get a crib for Sunny, Uncle Monty assured her that it wasn’t necessary, he would just hold her. The beds weren’t really necessary either, but Klaus didn’t bother arguing that and just hopped up to lounge on the one closest to the door while Violet did the same on the other one. Uncle Monty sat in a chair between the two with Sunny held closely – protectively – to his chest with her head on his shoulder.

He apologised several times for not checking the ice cream flavour, or not registering what it was when he tasted it, but Violet assured him it was okay and Klaus insisted that he bore full responsibility. He was the one who picked it out, after all.

Then he explained why he hadn’t been paying attention and told them about the news report he had seen, ending the explanation by tentatively asking Uncle Monty if he had any new information about Count Olaf’s whereabouts. He regretfully informed them that he didn’t, and Violet and Klaus shared an uneasy look.

Uncle Monty noticed, but before he could reassure them that everything was going to be okay, for what must have been the hundredth time, Gustav came back in carrying books and board games. The tension faded as he pulled up another chair opposite Uncle Monty and put a table between them, then opened a pack of Uno cards. Some were a little damaged, and when Violet picked at the edge of one to assess the wear and tear, Uncle Monty claimed it was just from them being shuffled so many times.

“That’s a lie and you know it.” Gustav glared at him as he took the cards and began shuffling them, and Uncle Monty gasped dramatically in offence.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I have never told a lie in my entire life.”

“You literally just lied again.”

“How did they really get damaged?” Klaus asked, and both adults answered simultaneously.

“It was Gustav’s fault!”// “He’s a drama queen!”

The children laughed, and Gustav explained.

“I played a Draw 4, then he played a Draw 4, then I played another one so he had to pick up twelve and I got Uno, so he threw his cards at me!”

“That is not true, I did not throw them!”

“You threw them!”

“I put them down on the table a little too harshly and bent them.” Uncle Monty amended, directing the statement at the children, but Gustav scoffed and insisted he was lying again. “I am not that competitive!”

“You don’t like people knowing you’re competitive because you think it makes you seem childish – which you are – but yes, you are competitive!” Gustav insisted, then turned to the children. “You’ll see. It doesn’t come out a lot, but it does with Uno.”

“Throwing the cards at you after you made him pick up twelve is a completely justified response.” Sunny argued, and Uncle Monty laughed as Gustav frowned in confusion.

“What did she say?”

The children laughed.

“What did she say??”

Uncle Monty was competitive.

Not quite to the extent of throwing his cards across the room when he lost, but after seeing the glares he shot Violet whenever she made him pick up, it was easy to see how it could escalate to that.

He wasn’t actually mad, they knew that. Hence why Violet giggled every time he shot her an angry look. It was fun, and overall they played seven rounds. They had planned to play five, but by that point Violet had won two, Uncle Monty had won two, and Sunny won the last one, so they had to keep playing until they got an overall winner, Gustav insisted. Klaus won the sixth game after managing to catch on to Gustav’s techniques and figuring out a way to use it to his advantage, but Uncle Monty won the final game and was declared the overall champion. Which he seemed very happy about.

They played a few other games that Gustav had brought after that, until Dr King came back in and checked them over again. The adults didn’t look as worried this time, but Klaus did notice Uncle Monty fiddling with the dice more than he had been before she came in. Klaus' and Sunny's tongues had gone back down to their regular sizes, and her's and Violet's hives at cleared up, so the doctor assured them that they were fine, and that they were free to go after she took the IVs out.

By that point it was about two in the morning, so they were all tired as they left the hospital with Sunny on Uncle Monty’s hip, Gustav holding the hand not supporting her, and Violet and Klaus either side of them. Gustav still had the keys from when he had gone home to get the games, and he insisted on driving considering that he wasn’t as tired as Uncle Monty was. Uncle Monty tried to argue that he was fine to drive, but all Gustav had to do was point out that the children would be in the truck and Uncle Monty relented and allowed him to drive, for their safety more than his own.

Klaus tried to stay awake long enough to make it home and to his bed, but the truck was pleasantly warm and he was tired out from the allergic reaction as well as his lack of sleep in general as of late. The radio was turned down low, only just audible over the hum of the engine, it was dark out besides quick snippets of streetlights as they drove, and Uncle Monty and Gustav were chatting quietly in the front seats as if they had expected the children to fall asleep.

He supposed it wouldn’t hurt to get a little sleep in the back of the truck with his head against the cool glass of the window, then when Uncle Monty or Gustav woke him when they got home he could go up to bed and hopefully fall right back to sleep again and actually get a good night’s rest.

They didn’t wake him, however.

He didn’t remember them arriving home, but hours later he awoke tucked up in his bed. He was still wearing the clothes he had been wearing, except his belt, sweater, shoes and socks had been removed, and his glasses were folded up on the nightstand beside his bed, next to a glass of water.

Violet was in bed too, and judging by what he could see of her arm draped over the covers, she was still wearing the dress she had been wearing during the day, and her shoes were lined up beside Klaus’ next to the dresser, her cardigan draped over the dresser door. Sunny wasn’t there, but Klaus figured she would probably be in their guardians’ room.

Uncle Monty and Gustav must have carried them to bed and tucked them in rather than waking them. Klaus recalled their father doing the same thing when they were younger, and he felt a pang of what started out as sadness, but turned to appreciation and love.

It was six in the morning now, according to the clock beside him. He could justify getting up now, but he didn’t want to. He still felt tired, thankfully, so he laid back down and managed to quickly fall back to sleep.

Everything would be okay.

Uncle Monty and Gustav would protect them.