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tap, tap, tap, tap
Klaus squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ignore the tapping and scratching on the wall behind him.
He was supposed to be concentrating.
Important meditation, focusing on the ties to a plane of...something something dead people blah blah blah. He kinda tuned out after being told to sit in the dusty attic in the middle of the night with his eyes closed, but Ben had told him it was a proper way to conduct a seance. If that meant he could see his long-dead boyfriend who he so desperately just wanted to talk to for a couple of minutes at the very least, then that's all that mattered.
But the damn tapping and scratching on the wall kept distracting him.
Was it really so much to ask for a little peace and quiet to conduct this probably pointless but hopefully beneficial ritual?
tap, tap
He took in a deep breath, opening his eyes. The sparsely-lit and cluttered room was unwelcoming at such a late hour. Klaus glanced back over his shoulder to see Ben quietly perched on the window sill, staring out into the night. His brother was either unaware or uncaring about Klaus' obvious misery as the harsh moonlight shone right through him and onto the floor of the attic.
Klaus glanced down at the watch he'd stolen from Allison's room earlier. It was too pretty to sell.
2:14AM glared back at him in tiny, glowing digital numbers.
tap, tap, skritch
tap
He sighed and shoved himself up to his knees, bare feet soon slapping the cold floor as he stood up. He grimaced and stepped closer to the wall until he landed on a soft rug instead. He stayed there, curling his toes and blinking wearily in the semi-dark.
Ben finally broke his gaze from the window to stare at his brother, raising an eyebrow like he expected Klaus to explain himself.
Why Ben would ever expect such a thing was beyond him.
Klaus waited, standing awkwardly in the middle of the attic, knowing it was coming. It had to be. It had to. Any second now…
tap, tap, tap, tap
tap, tap
"Yep, nope, I'm not doing this anymore!” Klaus practically declared, his voice bouncing off the walls. “Not with the world's most annoying noise-maker right there !”
He rushed over, running to pull open the attic door, and turned down the hall of the third floor of the massive mansion.
Ben followed after him, curious as ever.
Klaus stomped directly up to Five's bedroom door and pounded at it, rattling the wood enough to wake everyone in the house. He didn't even wait for a response before shouting,
"SOME OF US ARE CONDUCTING IMPORTANT BUSINESS AT THIS HOUR, SO STOP DOING WHATEVER THE FUCK IT IS YOU'RE DOING AND LET ME...I DON'T KNOW, FOCUS !!"
Ben rolled his eyes, unimpressed. But Klaus, ever undeterred, managed to look somehow both proud of himself and utterly exhausted after that. He mumbled something under his breath, peering down at the light streaming out from under the door. There was no movement, no rebuttal, no tapping to be had.
After a beat, Klaus strolled back towards the attic with a small grin of triumph.
Dramatically closing the door as Ben phased right through it, Klaus twirled around before plopping back down in the center of the attic room. Legs crossed, hands loose at his sides, Klaus smiled in relief, the burn of exhaustion in his eyes dissipating as he let them close. The blessed silence of the night had returned, which was everything he wanted.
Dark, quiet, no screaming ghosts--the ultimate package deal, really.
Ben's idea to reward himself for all of this by being able to conjure Dave was such a good one, he'd pat his brother on the back if he didn't already know it'd just go right through him.
Now the trick was just being able to concentrate long enough to let it happen. It wasn't exactly his strong suit, but being sober made him a new man...right?
He bit his lip, trying to focus as clearly as he could. He could do this.
Come on, big money! No whammies, no whammies, no whammies...
tap, tap
"You've gotta be shitting me."
Klaus hadn't bothered to open his eyes this time. The tapping seemed quieter but it was still on the fucking wall not far behind him.
Klaus didn't move from his spot on the floor, opting to just shout out,
"CAN'T YOU AT LEAST MOVE TO A DIFFERENT WALL, YOU TINYASS INGRATE?!"
It only took a second for silence to be back. Klaus held his breath.
Did it actually work? Oh, please let it have worked! He just wanted to not completely fail at the one thing he's supposed to be good at for once. Please, please...
tap, skritch, tap, tap, tap
Nope.
And was the noise louder?
"Now they're just doing it to piss me off…" Klaus sat up, running his hands down his face in frustration. He just wanted to see Dave. Why was such a simple request this difficult?
Ben shook his head from across the room.
"Five shouldn't even be awake right now," he informed him, like he was more worried about that older-than-they-looked brat's sleep schedule than Klaus' very important afterlife dating process here. Typical Ben, passive asshole of the year.
"In case you hadn't noticed, Ben , Five is the one keeping me up," Klaus remarked, brimming with spite. "The longer this takes, the less I'll get to sleep literally all day tomorrow. I'd appreciate a little compassion in the wake of my suffering here."
Ben only rolled his eyes at him. See? Asshole.
tap, tap, tap
Klaus uncrossed his legs and let himself fall back and sprawl out on the floor. He childishly covered his ears with his hands, trying to drown out the sound.
tap, tap
skritch
tap
It didn't work.
Sighing, he moved to scrape his hands down his face in frustration instead.
Usually it was the dead who made nuisances of themselves while Klaus tried and failed to ignore them.
But no, Five was very much alive, despite what Klaus' younger self thought for quite a few years. And they were also obnoxiously noisy, despite the hour of night where most sane people were sleeping and at least one very handsome and modest person was trying to conjure another very handsome and modest dude from the grave.
tap, tap
His brother was staring at him as he begrudgingly sat up again. Ben was expecting him to do something, whether that was accomplish what he'd set out to do tonight or somehow deal with Five, Klaus didn't know.
tap, tap, tap
But he despised this two-pronged attack.
"What have I done to deserve this?" He complained, motioning to the wall behind him. "I've been nothing if not an excellent, dare I say valiant brother, for years, and this is how I'm treated? On the day of my cat's quinceanera?"
Ben seemed to ignore him and his hilarious joke, instead getting up and walking right past him and through the wall.
tap, tap, skritch
Klaus started to grit his teeth when Ben called to him from the other room.
"Klaus, you need to come in here."
He wanted to do nothing of the sort.
tap, tap
Before he could even consider trying to knock against the wall in defiance, Ben phased back through it, sticking his head out to glare at his brother.
"Seriously. Something's wrong."
"I know ," Klaus replied, sulking. "I'm going to look terrible for my date if this keeps up."
He rubbed under his eyes, trying to look dejected.
Ben continued to glare. Apparently Klaus' jokes were not welcome anymore. Fine by him, he’d just save them all for Dave then.
Klaus groaned, exasperated and too tired to deal with all this.
"Fine," he stood up again, reluctant. "Fine, I'll save the day. Again. As always. Here I come! Number Four to the rescue...!"
He trailed off as he made his way back into the hallway and over to Five's door.
"I better get ghostly makeouts or something with Dave after this or I'm never helping anyone do anything ever again," he muttered and knocked on the door. Gentler this time, but not by much.
The room seemed to go quiet again, and Klaus leaned an ear to the door.
skritch, tap, tap, tap
Barely even stopped this time. Great.
He glanced down at the doorknob.
Well, he was probably dead anyway for yelling earlier...
Klaus opened the door and peeked inside. The lamp on the nightstand was on, covering the small, cramped room in a soft amber glow.
Five was sitting on the floor on the far end of the room, writing on the wall in what looked like chalk. Ben was knelt down next to them, looking concerned.
Klaus knocked weakly at the door again before walking in.
"Uhh, hey buddy…" he said, now glancing around the room to see a chair knocked over and books pulled from their shelves. Chalk writing that covered every inch of the wall spread across the floor in some places. The bed looked like it hadn't been slept in at all since Five had returned home nearly a week ago.
Klaus wasn't sure what to think of any of this. It occurred to him that he hadn't really talked to Five in almost two days, and he wondered how long it'd been since any of the others had spoken to Five, either.
He stepped closer to where his sibling sat.
The writing along the wall seemed to trail down in front of Five. As Klaus got closer, he saw the wall had been written over repeatedly with more and more writing haphazardly, all leading toward the large, scribbled mess of dusty white that culminated in front of his sibling.
Five's shoulders were shaking as they breathed and made a line with the chalk in their left hand. Klaus noticed they were sitting flatly on the floor, both legs tucked on either side of them like a child. It couldn't possibly be comfortable.
Klaus felt a chill as all the pieces slowly locked into place in his mind, and worry and guilt flooded in. Had something happened? Did he make things worse just now with all the yelling and knocking?
"Five?" He asked, his voice quiet and shaking, uncertain what to do here. Was Five ignoring him? Or were they having a meltdown and needed space? Should he get one of the others for this or would that make things worse?
tap, tap, tap
Klaus crept closer. The death sentence was already pending after coming in here. He might as well give this his best try, right?
Ben looked up at him, concern shining in his dead eyes.
"They're shaking," Ben told him, standing. "I don't know if it's a panic attack or what, but something is definitely going on."
Klaus nodded, planning out his next step carefully. He may have burned some bridges if Five was just ignoring him, but if not…
Ben stepped back and Klaus slid in to replace his spot, his knee popping unfairly loudly for his age as he knelt down to look his sibling in the eye.
Klaus blinked, nearly jolting back in surprise.
Five was crying. They didn't seem to be aware of it, either, judging by the faraway look on their face. They just wrote another line of what were probably numbers that couldn't be made out on top of the white mass of lines already written and scratched on the wall.
tap, tap, tap
Klaus bit his lip and turned back to Ben, eyes begging for help. What was he supposed to do?
Ben only shrugged, just as helpless.
"Uhhhh," Klaus started, hoping to at least distract Five for a moment. If there was one thing he was good at, it was pissing off his siblings.
"So... sleep, huh? You could probably use some of that. Right, shortstack?"
tap, skritch, tap, tap
That was normally the line that earned him a glare from his now-shortest sibling, but Five acted as if they hadn't heard him at all. That probably wasn't a good sign.
Klaus hesitated, but then reached a hand out.
Death wish it was, then.
He grabbed Five's wrist, stopping the incessant writing, knowing it would get their attention.
Everything that happened next seemed to occur in slow motion.
Five flinched so violently that Klaus clenched up and accidentally squeezed Five's wrist tighter, causing them to open their hand. The chalk clattered to the floor and broke into smaller pieces.
As Five attempted to sprawl away from him, Klaus let go of them, but they swung their arm back and smacked it against the wall, covering their hand in white chalk and producing a cloud of dust that flew into Klaus' eyes.
Klaus coughed and fell forward as he failed to catch himself, nearly plastering his face against the floor.
Five sputtered something unintelligible and then scrambled to their feet far too quickly, stumbling and knocking over the lamp on their nightstand. It shattered on the floor with a loud crash. The room drowned in darkness and Klaus reflexively covered his face as a piece of glass jabbed into the side of his hand. He started bleeding as he leaned across the mess on the floor in front of Five. He tried to look up through watery eyes and saw their sibling slowly sink back to the floor, knees dropping into the shards of glass littered about from the lamp.
"No, no, no, no, no …" Five trailed off quietly, looking down at their chalk-covered hand in what looked like terror.
Klaus struggled to sit up for a second and pulled the glass shard out of his hand. He bit his lip to keep from shouting out from the sharp pain.
"Hey, sorry--" he winced and scooted closer to his sibling. "Are you okay?"
Five was shaking even more noticeably than before, staring down at their hand like it was on fire and Klaus wasn't even there.
Ben was speechless behind him, so Klaus padded forward and, as gently as possible, placed his non-injured hand on Five's shoulder, trying to gain their attention again.
He didn't think it would work, but Five's head shot up and they locked eyes instantly. He could see the tears that had already dried on their face were being replaced with new ones.
"K-klaus? What…?" Their eyes scanned over him like they were expecting him to disappear any second. He tried not to dwell on what that meant.
Klaus winced through a smile and leaned in closer.
"Yep, it's me. Good ol' insufferable brother to the rescue."
He glanced down at the pieces of glass on the floor under Five's legs. There was no way they weren't covered in tiny cuts right now.
Klaus looked back up to see Five's eyes unfocused as they gazed down at their dust-covered hand again.
Klaus instinctively covered their hand with his free one and pulled it down and out of sight. Out of sight, out of mind, yeah?
"Nope, I want you to stay here with me right now, Five. Can you look at me?" He remarked, trying to catch Five's eye again.
It took an agonizingly slow moment, but his sibling did eventually look up. They seemed surprised (again) that he was there.
"Are…" Five reached up to touch Klaus' extended arm on their shoulder. "Are you real?"
"Real as fuck, yo," Klaus grinned, trying to be cool about this, mostly for his own sanity. "Keep talking to me, come on. Where are you right now?"
Five glanced past Klaus' head, peering at the wardrobe and open door behind him. Confusion clearly crossed their face.
"What-- " Their breathing hitched, and Klaus squeezed their hand, trying to reassure them.
"You're at home, Five," Klaus answered for them, loosening their grip on their sibling's shoulder. "You're in your room . It's a mess in here, by the way."
He heard Ben scoff at him for that, but Klaus ignored it.
"And you're okay."
He hoped that was comforting, which meant it probably wasn’t.
Five blinked rapidly as they stared at Klaus only inches away from them, trying to focus their eyes on him but failing as tears formed and fell down their face. The longer it went on, the more distressed Five looked and the more uneven their breathing became. They were shaking and sobbing, and Klaus felt useless.
He never so much as witnessed anyone look this broken before, but this was Five! Five, who never even cried when they were all children, playing rough and getting themselves hurt. Five was tough, tougher than Klaus had ever been. And if this was a panic attack, it wasn't like any panic attack he had ever gone through. At least, not that he could remember.
How was he supposed to help? To fix this?
He dragged over the hand resting on Five's shaking shoulder to help them wipe away the unending tears. Five whimpered and weakly pushed Klaus' hand away.
Klaus leaned back, dropping his hands to his sides.
"I've...never seen you like this," he told them truthfully. "I don't know what you need me to do."
Five struggled to slow their breathing. They choked on a sob and went silent for a moment before shuffling away. Klaus reluctantly let them go.
Five curled into themselves against the bed, and Klaus saw the blood trickling down from the glass stuck in their knees as they pulled them to their chest.
Five hid their face behind their knees, and Klaus bit his lip, worried. With no plan, Klaus was at a loss. He didn't know what caused this, how to make it stop, how to make Five feel any better.
He stared at the blood running into Five's socks.
That could be a start.
He stood and kicked away the glass shards on the ground before sliding down next to his sibling, eyeing the pieces stuck into their tiny knees.
"That looks like it hurts," Klaus stated almost absently, reaching out to graze the top of Five's knee. He didn't want to pull the glass out until Five was more aware of what was going on.
There wasn't a response, but Klaus wasn't really expecting one. Five was still shaking, but the crying had gotten quieter. Hopefully, that counted as progress.
He tapped at Five's knee, hoping it'd get their attention.
"My Big Bro senses are telling me to go find some bandages or something and pull that glass out for you," Klaus chuckled lightly, "but I also know you're technically the Big Bro now, and you'd probably kill me if I don't let you do it yourself. I guess I'll leave the decision up to you."
Five sniffled and shifted their head to barely look at him.
"What…" Five's voice sounded groggy as well as muffled as they spoke into their elbow. "What are you talking about?"
The genuine confusion caught Klaus off guard, so he tapped at Five's knee again.
"You've got a bunch of broken glass stickin' out your knees, Five. Can you seriously not feel that?"
Five lifted their head and looked at their knees, shifting them down until they noticed the blood.
"Oh."
Klaus felt sick.
" Oh? " He argued. "That's it? Do you have any idea how bad my hand hurts right now?! And that was just one little piece!"
He heard Ben start to say something, but Klaus cut him off by standing back up.
"I'm gonna go find the first aid kit and pretend I actually know how to use it, okay?" He told Five. If he couldn't be useful, he could at least pretend to be.
His sleeve snagged, and he looked down to see Five tugging on it.
"I… But you... H--" Five seemed small like this. Too small, and for all the wrong reasons.
Klaus gave them a couple seconds, but Five struggled to get any words out. Tears built up in their eyes quickly, before they snapped their mouth shut, dropping their hold on his sleeve and shoving their knees to their chest again.
"Hey, whoa, Five," Klaus knelt back down, facing them. "It's totally fine. The bathroom is just downstairs--"
"Please don't."
Klaus was pretty sure that was the first time he'd ever heard Five sound like an actual kid, including when the lot of them were all still children, living lesser horrors in their day-to-day lives.
It broke his heart. Five didn't deserve to be alone.
"I won't." He leaned in close, reaching out a hand hesitantly. "I'm not going anywhere. I'll stay right here."
He landed a hand on Five's knee again, and pulled it away to see it speckled with blood.
"I should still get this glass out, though…" he grimaced, knowing it wouldn't be fun.
Five sighed, and pulled their head up.
"Fine."
Klaus stared at them, surprised.
"You're… y-you, uhh, you want me to do it?" He stammered, incredulous.
Five didn't meet his eye, but nodded.
Okay, this had to be more progress, right?
He reached down and plucked the biggest piece of glass out. It came out half-covered in blood and Klaus scrunched his face in disgust.
He checked Five's expression to make sure they were alright, but it hadn't changed. They were staring at the far wall, like they didn't care about--let alone even feel --the pain that had to be there.
He didn't have the brains to actually figure out what that could mean, so he pinched the next piece out and brushed off another. Most of the glass didn't penetrate the skin, it seemed, and Klaus was thankful. The wet noise that came from pulling out another deeply wedged piece was a little too much for him to handle.
Five looked unaffected, though.
Grabbing the last one and shoving the gross pieces out of the way, Klaus couldn't help but ask,
"Did that seriously not hurt at all or are you just a stone-cold badass all of a sudden?"
Five turned to look at Klaus, and a small twitch in the corner of their mouth led him to believe they were about to say some signature snarky comment, like they always did.
But they just shrugged.
Five brushed their hand across their other knee, but frowned as they held it up, seeing the chalk dust now mixed with red blood. Their hand froze there, and Klaus watched as Five began to pale before his eyes.
Klaus grabbed their hand again, and stood, immediately pulling Five up to their feet. He wasn't thinking clearly about whether that was a good idea or not, but he knew was not letting everything he'd just done go to waste just like that.
"How about we go clean up in the bathroom? Okay? Alright, cool."
He didn't wait for a response, just turned away while keeping a grip on Five's hand. Five stumbled next to him as they slowly descended the stairs, but they followed along well enough until they reached the bathroom down the hall.
Klaus led them to the counter and had them lean against it as he opened the cabinet, searching for bandages and any kind of disinfectant. He wasn't an expert but there had to be something like that in there, right? He opened a couple drawers before he found what he was looking for.
"Well, they have little trains on them," he said, pulling the box of bandages out, "but they'll do the trick, right?"
Five stared at him with glazed-over eyes.
Klaus turned on the faucet, wetting a washcloth.
"You still with me, Five?" He asked, trying to hide his obvious concern.
Five blinked and nodded.
Klaus sighed in relief. Progress was slow but shining on him nonetheless tonight. He was going to take what he could get then.
He knelt down and pressed the washcloth to Five's knee. They still didn't react. He had to ask about how to do that trick someday because it was kind of intimidating, especially with his sibling looking just like a child. He wondered if Dave would be impressed by something like that but quickly remembered the task at hand, and dabbed at the trickling cuts with the washcloth.
He wiped up the blood, as well as the pesky chalk all over Five's hand, before dabbing some Neosporin on the cuts, hoping that would do something for them. He reached back up to the counter and opened the box of bandages.
Five ended up with four of them across their knees, and Klaus got just the measly one on his hand. But at least it was purple. He liked purple.
Reaching over to put the box away, he caught sight of himself in the mirror. He looked absolutely awful. His hair was sticking up in the back, and his eyeliner was smudged along the intense bags under his eyes. Ben hadn't even said anything! How dare he let anyone, especially Dave, see him like this?
He glanced over at Five and noticed they were much worse for wear than him. Their hair was matted on one side but sticking up on the other, their shirt and blazer messily ruffled like they hadn't changed out of them in a couple days, and the bags under their eyes were a dark brown and seemed to circle all the way around each eye like the world's saddest raccoon. Combine all that with the new flecks of chalk dust and blood, Five looked like they'd just stepped out of a disaster flick.
"Christ on a cracker," Klaus muttered, and then clammed up as Five turned to face him. "You, uhh, must be tired!” Klaus tried to be nonchalant, but it came out just as shaky as before.
Five definitely needed sleep. Ghost-date be damned, that needed to happen. The expression Ben was wearing as he sat on the tub next to them told him he wholeheartedly agreed. Klaus sighed, shaking his head with a resolved smile.
Checking that Five felt stable enough to walk this time, Klaus led them back up to their bedroom.
Upon stepping inside, he got right to work, kicking and scooting away glass, flipping on the desk lamp for some light, and pulling back bed covers. He beckoned Five to lie down while he carefully picked up the broken glass, but when nothing happened, he turned around to check on them.
"I don't-- I don't think I can, Klaus," Five told him, their voice quiet and strained. They held their elbow awkwardly, hovering in their own doorway. Klaus felt that protective instinct from earlier kick in. Five looking thirteen again was really messing with Klaus' sleep-addled mind, it seemed.
He sighed again; he'd been doing that a lot tonight. Klaus didn't want to fight them on this, he just wanted Five to sleep so that he could get back to whatever the hell he was doing--nah, they honestly needed to sleep, too. It's what they both deserved.
"You're gonna try anyway," he said with a smirk, "'cause otherwise, I'll knock you out myself."
He lazily put up two fists, making a show of his nonexistent fighting skills, knowing full-well his scrawny self looked ridiculous, but that was kind of the point.
Five just stared at him.
Klaus let his hands fall back down and tried again, gentler this time,
"I'll stay here with you, if that's what you want."
Watching carefully, he saw Five almost make a face, like they'd intended to look disgusted at such a suggestion but decided in the next second it'd be too much effort. They glanced at their bed and then back at Klaus.
"Fine."
Klaus felt his mouth fall open as he watched Five step past him and sit on the bed. Ben even looked shocked.
He was on a roll tonight, it seemed. Stopped the waterworks, cleaned up the bloody mess (he made a mental note to high-five himself later for that pun), and even got Five to do something without fuss. He deserved a trophy or something!
Five crawled under the covers and sighed softly before gazing up at their brother.
Klaus closed his jaw and tried for a sweet smile. Five just shook their head.
"Sorry for bothering you."
Damn. Klaus was still recovering from the last surprise, he didn't have any kind of response prepared for that.
Five ducked their head down.
"It's just…" Five breathed in, looking away again. "I don't know, it's been really quiet around here lately. I brought Delores back and then I ran out of coffee, and things just kept happening after that. There's more pressing matters, obviously, but when I'm on my own in here, it's… it can be difficult, I guess."
They glanced back up at Klaus, a look of distant resignation on their face.
"I know that doesn't make sense, but--"
"No, I get it," Klaus assured them. "Trust me."
Klaus knew that feeling pretty well, if he was honest, because even with any number of ghosts screaming and ranting at him from every direction, he still couldn't help that overwhelming loneliness that surrounded him. For so many years, he preferred to block it all out, the obnoxious dead most of all, but he always knew that wasn't a real answer. Even before all the mandatory therapy sessions and rehab visits, he knew drugs were a short-term solution, that they wouldn't solve anything.
He'd like to say love was the cure for loneliness, but even that proved to be temporary…
God, he missed Dave. He just wanted to see him again.
He choked out a sigh, beyond dejected.
Yes, he understood how Five felt very well.
He glanced back down at his sibling, and the sadness in Five's eyes was clearer than he'd ever seen. Klaus frowned as he realized it was more than that. It was pity. For him .
He was supposed to be helping, not sulking about his own problems! This wasn't about him, or Dave, this was supposed to be about Five!
He looked back and then walked across the room. Klaus righted the fallen fabric chair and pushed it up to the edge of the bed before plopping down on it with a weak grin. He could do this, he could keep Five’s loneliness at bay.
"I'll stay here tonight," he informed them, as if it wasn't already obvious. "Whether that's just to let you sleep or to make a bunch of noise by arguing with Ben about why he can seem to manifest shit like books but never cool stuff like a decent wardrobe. I mean, seriously, you can't see it but he just wears the same jacket all the time like an anime character, and if that's death, then I hope I'm secretly immortal, because no thank you!"
He looked up just in time to see Ben flip him off from the desk with his signature small smile.
"Well…" Five swallowed dryly, their voice only a whisper as they curled into the blankets willfully. "Thanks."
It was quiet, awkwardly so, as Klaus pretended not to watch Five sleepily stare at their ceiling.
It took a long time, the sky already beginning to lighten outside, before Five's eyes fluttered closed, their breathing slow and steady, and their expression calm for once.
Klaus finally let out a long breath in what had to be absolute relief.
He did it! Good bro--no, BEST bro of the year award, presented to Mr. Klaus Hargreeves for outstanding achievement in extenuating circumstances! Was that the right word?
He sleepily turned back to the desk, but Ben wasn't there anymore. Klaus blinked and checked the room. He found his less-alive sibling standing in front of the nightstand, the breaking blue dawn streaming through him from the window. Ben stared down at Five, watching in silence and contemplation.
"Did you hear that, Ben?" Klaus whispered, beaming. "Five actually thanked me~"
Ben turned to him and smiled back.
"Proud of yourself?" Ben teased.
Klaus nodded, and yawned as quietly as possible, stretching his arms above his head. His whole body fell lax as his hands drifted back down to his sides. He was going to be snoozing long into lunch hour tomorrow if he was lucky.
"You should sleep, Klaus," Ben remarked, serious but kind. "I think you've earned it."
Klaus grinned.
"I have, haven't I?"
He leaned forward, letting his head fall onto the edge of the small bed while he scooted the chair a hair closer. It was less than comfortable, but it was soft and welcoming, and his eyes were already closed.
No more tapping.
He could relax. He could sleep.
And so he did.