Chapter Text
Shivering Klaus ran down the ally, his skin bursting into goose bumps as the wind blew his tattered robe behind him. A sad and dirty mocking cape around his shoulders.
Fuck. A dead end. Glancing around, Klaus felt panic flare up in his throat. The lamplight across the street dimly lit behind him. But otherwise the street was empty of life.
Throwing himself behind a dumpster, Klaus huddled against the cold metal. He could almost fold over out of exhaustion. Something beneath the dumpster hissed and ran away. His chest screamed in pain as his heart beat against his ribs so painfully that he couldn’t help but wince.
Leaning his head against the wall beside him, he tried to calm his breathing. Heavy puffs of air pushing through his nose as his bare feet slipped on something that he doesn’t even want to imagine.
“Where did that bitch go!” A man’s voice yelled. Klaus slapped a hand over his mouth. Afraid his panting would give him away.
“I could swear he came this way. He left his stupid flip flops back on the corner.” The voice was soon joined by two more, agreeing with the statement. “Go check down that ally, if he is down there we will find him.”
Nausea swept through Klaus causing his head to spin as saliva flooded his mouth. His lungs wheezed painful gasps of air from between his fingers. Dimly he noted that they were shaking, withdrawals full force, angry and wrecking his body in anyway it could.
The sound of a foot kicking a garbage can startled Klaus. Grumbling about something about mud on his shoe, one of the men cursed.
“I swear, if we find this faggot I am going to absolutely destroy him. I ruined my fucking pants for this shit.”
“No kidding. I’m gonna take it out of his skin, thinking he could just not pay us after-“
”Is there a problem gentleman?” Klaus’ head perked up as a flashlight shone into the ally. An officer.
“No sir, we thought we heard something down here. Just checking it out!” One of the men replied before he shuffled back towards the entrance.
Klaus turned his head as much as he dared, the sliver between the wall and dumpster showing him the backs of three men.
“Why don’t I check it out, you guys can go on now.” The men glanced at each other, after a minute the leader nodded and brushed past the officer. His buddies trudging behind him.
There was a minute of silence as they receded down the street.
The light swung towards the back of the ally, skating over Klaus’ wide, staring eyes.
Throwing himself against the wall, he held his breath.
For the love or God, go away. Please, please, please.
“Is anyone down here?” Footsteps came closer to Klaus’ hiding spot.
Digging his fingers into his thighs, Klaus tried to ignore the pounding in his bones.
God, why was he so hot? Suddenly his head spun again. Lurching forward, Klaus vomited onto a pile of spilled garbage.
The smiling face on a Little Debbie wrapper stared back at him. Grimacing, he felt his body convulse again. His stomach finally having taken enough, betrayed him till he was left dry heaved on the filthy floor of an ally.
Retching a few more times, Klaus groaned. He was bent over on his hands and knees with a puddle of vomit below him on the ground.
His head hung towards his chest in misery. Saliva hung from a strand on his lip. Disgusting. He sniffled as a few stray years made their way down his cheeks.
“Hello? Sir, can you hear me?” Right. The officer.
Klaus pushed himself up, groaning at the pain that radiated through his palms. Sitting on his haunches, he balanced on his ankles. Swaying only slightly as he let his head fall backwards to rest against his shoulders. Breathing deeply, he tried to ignore the smell of vomit that clung in his nose.
“He is unresponsive, I’m not sure how to approach.” The officer was staring at Klaus, his head tilted to speak into a walkie-talkie that was strapped to his shoulder. The flashlight was partially forgotten, aimed at Klaus, sitting solidly on the center of his bare chest.
Lifting his hands, klaus examined the sidewalk burn on his palms. Beads of blood smeared across the Hello and Goodbye. I don’t remember falling earlier.
“Okay, buddy. We are gonna take you to my car okay. Are you okay to walk?” The officer pointed the light towards the ground as he approached. He crouched to look into Klaus’ eyes.
He was young, maybe early twenties. Big, worried eyes scanned Klaus’ body, probably looking for injuries. I was just chased down by three thugs.
Klaus chuckled bitterly. He used to look the same way, confused and worried. Afraid of fucking up a shit situation even more so than it was.
The officer raised an eyebrow, the confusion growing more evident at the dry chuckle.
“What’s up, Rookie,” Klaus slurred. Exhaustion weighed heavy at his eyes, while his tongue felt like it had grown two pounds heavier.
“Possibly inebriated. Patch, please pull around for me would ya? This isn’t gonna be easy to transport him.” A woman responded from the walkie-talkie and then he was back to staring. His blonde hair filled Klaus’ view.
“I knew a boy with blonde hair,” Klaus mumbled.
“Oh yeah? What was his name?” Relief flooded the officer’s voice, for some sort of response probably. Klaus was pretty out of it.
“I dunno,” Klaus bent his head to avoid eye contact as he picked at his palm, hissing when he pulled a small stone out of one of the crevices. “His head was blown off, he never had a name. He didn’t have a mouth, ya know. It was blown off.”
“Fuck. Okay, did those guys do that?” The officer pushed a hand through his hair, obviously feeling out of his league.
“Oh, no. This was-“ Klaus bit his lip. He couldn’t just tell him that it was a twelve year old kid who haunted him occasionally. He would definitely be thrown into the loony bin. “It was during the war.” Klaus glanced up at the man from below his eyelashes.
“Um,” the man shook his head. “Listen-“ He was cut off as two head lights turned down the ally, effectively blinding them both.
Klaus couldn’t turn his eyes away, they burned at the change in lighting. The officer held up a hand, blocking the light as he started to speak, glancing at Klaus he gave a reassuring smile.
”It’s my superior. She’ll know what to do, okay?” Klaus nodded.
The car door slammed as a women made her way to where Klaus was knelt.
“How are you doing?” She asked as she crouched to sit on her calves too. Her face was kind, warm skin and beautiful eyes watching his face. Klaus shrugged and turned to stare at the man again. It was easier. He didn’t have the same soft eyes as mom
God I miss mom.
It was over two years ago that Klaus left the academy, cussing his way out of the two iron gates. Reginald had brought up starting personal training again, like when Klaus was sixteen. Fuck that. He was almost nineteen, he could do whatever he wanted to do and so he left.
Everyone else had watched him leave, silent and unsure of how to say goodbye. Diego had started to follow him, but when Klaus looked at him, he stopped and turned his eyes to the floor.
Ben tried to convince Klaus to stay, drug addict and homeless wasn’t a good combination according to him.
Ben. It had been weeks since Klaus had seen Ben. Sobriety and drug dealers had taken up most of Klaus’ attention. It’s difficult to summon your dead brother while you barf your brains out and fall into cold fevers for days on end.
“We have to take him in, he is obviously on something.” Patch.
”I don’t think he is,” actually right. “He is hurting, Patch. Look at him, he is skin and bones held together with terror.” The pity in his voice made Klaus’ skin crawl.
“We have to take him somewhere, he has to have someone.” Patch cursed,
”You are just as bad as Diego, Mark.” Klaus’ head shot up so fast he was sure he had whiplash.
“Diego?” His whispered. Diego. He had talked about trying to join the police academy. Maybe he is here. Klaus looked wildly behind Patch, craning to see if anyone else stood beside the car.
“Calm down. We are right here.” Mark said, noting Klaus’ agitated stance.
“You said Diego,” Klaus lurched towards Patch. Grabbing her hands in his own. She withheld an obvious grimace.
“You know him?” She asked. Klaus nodded as fast as his sore body would let him.
“Broody? Tall, Hispanic, little thing on his head,” Klaus drug a finger across the side of his scalp in an imitation of Diego’s scar.
“How do you know him?” Wonder filled Mark’s voice.
Klaus’ eyes filled with tears and a sob pulled itself from his chest as he rubbed at his eyes. “He is my brother, I just need to go find him.”
The officers looked at each other in silence. A sobbing mad man between them.
“Please, please call him. I don’t have anyone else. I-I’ll do anything you want. Name it, just call Diego.” Klaus was shifting his gaze between them desperately.
“I’ll call him, okay? Don’t worry about it. You just breath for now, what’s your name?” Patch rested a hand on Klaus’ shoulder.
“It’s Klaus,” he mumbled. His body swaying, legs too tired to hold him up in a crouch anymore Klaus let himself crash onto his ass.
The cold finally registering, he tugged his robe tightly around himself. It didn’t offer much help, but it was comforting none the less.
Mark sat in silence with him as Patch argued on the phone beside the car. Klaus strained to hear what she was saying.
“-uck you. He is your brother?” Patch glanced over at Klaus. Obvious disbelief colouring her face.
“Adopted!” Klaus yelled, holding a peace sign up into the air. Patch smiled a little.
“I won’t take no as an option. I don’t care how heartless-“ Irritation radiated off her form.
Klaus turned to Mark,
”Diego rubs people the wrong way sometime. You know, Broody eyebrows and all.” Mark smiled,
“I wouldn’t know, I was his replacement after he got fired a few months ago.” Klaus’ eyes widened. His dream job fired him?
“But why? Diego only ever talked about it, he said he’d-“
”We are dropping you off at Diego’s.” Patch interrupted.
Klaus’ body ran cold. Fear settling in his stomach at the idea of facing his brother sober for the first time, in probably eight years.
“Actually, I’m okay,” He babbled, waving a hand. “Really, he doesn’t want to see me. I’ll just-“
”Klaus,” Patch snapped. His mouth shut with an audible plop. Green eyes staring in silence as she breathed to calm herself.
“Just get in the car, please. Diego is waiting for you.” Klaus nodded. Scrambling to stand up, he was led to the car. Mark opened the back door so Klaus could crawl in.
“We are about twenty minutes away, but we will get you there soon, okay?” Patch said, her eyes watching Klaus in the mirror as he crawled and laid down on the seats.
Klaus mumbled a response, but didn’t move from laying across the seats. His long legs pulled to his chest as he stared into the dark back.
Mark and Patch whispered in hushed tones in the front. But Klaus could hear snippets.
”Drug deal?” Klaus closed his eyes and sighed.
“Pretty mad about taking him. He’ll get over it.” It caused a sharp pain to fill Klaus’ chest. Of course Diego doesn’t want to take me in, it’s been two years since he’s seen me. I was a raging drug addict back then.
Sniffling miserably, Klaus tried to stay awake, but the lull of the car slowly pulled him into a deep sleep and Patch whispered about Diego to Mark.