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The funny thing was Klaus's bedroom shared a wall with Vanya's, well it used to anyway before he tore it down and claimed the space as his, so he'd always been privy to her sadness. He was an audience of one to the concerts of her tears nearly every night.
He never really thought about it. If anything, he was annoyed by it. What did she have to be upset about? He envied her. Number Seven who was ordinary. Number Seven who didn't have to train. Number Seven who got to hang around the house most days.
Still it was Vanya who had been Klaus's emergency contact all these years. Sure, he talked to and saw Diego more often. Luther was stuck at home then the moon. Allison was on the west coast. It was Vanya he knew he could count on to show up. Whether it was a call from a police station or ER or rehab, she always came through for him. Sad eyes, dull demeanor, but she never once admonished him. She'd sigh sadly and ask how he was holding up and always, always offered him her place to crash. Klaus took her up on it exactly three times.
Now as he thought back on it, it did cause him some guilt and regret.
As their siblings scrambled trying to find a solution the Vanya issue before the fated apocalypse was upon them again, Klaus sat on the stairs. They each had landed in different places; places their previous selves had been in the morning of March 31st. Time travel shit was genuinely too confusing for Klaus to wrap his drug damaged brain around. He could hear Luther and Allison arguing in the kitchen, with Diego and Five cutting in intermittently.
He knew Ben was with him, watching him with knowing eyes.
"We should go find her," he said like it was so simple.
Klaus looked up and glared a little. "I think Vanya can handle herself, as we just witnessed." At Ben's unimpressed look, he added, "How? Where?"
All of the sudden, Ben looked so old, so disillusioned. It was odd because he was dead already. How could a ghost become even more world weary?
"I think I know," was all Ben said.
That was too annoyingly cryptic for Klaus. "Benny boy, have you been spying on our sister?" he asked. Although Klaus knew that Ben did check in on their siblings from time to time.
Ben crossed his arms over chest. "She shouldn't be alone right now," he implored.
Surprisingly, Klaus bit his tongue from snapping because Vanya's desperate crying face suddenly appeared in his mind's eye. Vanya left alone in their father's basement torture chamber. Fuck, their family was so fucked up.
Klaus gave Ben an expectant look. "Alright, where we going?"
Ben almost smiled.
After asking where they were headed four times, Ben stopped bothering to reply to Klaus as he directed him. They turned a street corner and it became abundantly clear where they had been headed all along because there was Vanya wandering down the sidewalk in a daze. Ben rushed towards her and even though he knew Vanya couldn't hear or see him he impossibly tried to hug her.
Klaus approached his sister slowly as if she were a wounded animal about to be spooked. When he got close enough, he took in how pale she looked and the rapidly blossoming bruises on her face. Klaus would definitely be asking about those later.
"Vanya," he said softly, waving his 'Hello' hand in front of her. She looked up at him but her eyes weren't really seeing him. He knew that look.
"We should get her inside," Ben said.
Klaus sighed and nodded, tentatively reaching out a hand to put on Vanya's shoulder. She only flinched a little. Klaus suppressed a wounded noise.
"Okay, Van, let's head inside. I haven't seen your places in ages," Klaus rambled. As he moved towards her apartment building, he gently tugged Vanya along with him. She went silently. Unbeknownst to her, she bracketed by himself and ghostly Ben, a sort of Four and Six sandwich.
Wordlessly she handed Klaus her keys when they got to her apartment door. She was running on autopilot and Klaus stared after her as the three of them entered her place and Vanya planted herself on her couch.
Vanya was always the quiet one, the silent one, the forgotten one his mind supplied, but it was tugging at Klaus's heart the way she was acting now. Like a shell, like a ghost, like she was already erased from existence.
Klaus awkwardly draped a throw blanket over Vanya's shoulders. Ben rolled his eyes at the gesture but it wasn't like he was adding any tips on how to handle your sister who just ended the world but oh no actually she didn't because our brother time traveled us back so we could stop it. Klaus felt a headache coming on.
"Tea!" Klaus exclaimed, "Tea would be nice, right Vanya? You like tea. I always remember you having shitloads of tea whenever I crashed here." He was already entering the kitchen and put the kettle on. Rummaging through her cupboards until he found several different boxes of teabags, he grabbed the first one that said chamomile.
He presented Vanya with the steaming cup of tea as if it were an expensive gift. She held it in her hands uneasily.
She finally spoke and it nearly broke Klaus's heart, "Are you here to take me back?" He furrowed his brow and when he didn't respond she only continued, "Are you going to… end it?"
Ben gasped. Klaus's eyes snapped to him, unsure of what he just heard his sister say. She couldn't possibly mean… there was absolutely no way she meant that he was there to take her back to that hell house and kill her. It was absurd.
At least now as she spoke, he could hear some emotion in her voice. She wasn't completely numb, lost in her own mind, and Klaus was going to cling to that.
"Klaus, you can't let her think that. You need to fix this," Ben was urging, pleading.
Klaus tried to stomp the ache in his chest at her words. He sat down on her coffee table directly in front of Vanya and took back the cup of tea he just placed in her hands and set it down next to him. She was peering up at him, her eyes a little more focused now but she still looked very much the wilted flower. The bruises on her neck seemed darker, especially against her pale skin. Some tears filled his eyes. Vanya covered in bruises was a completely foreign visual to him and he hated seeing it.
He grabbed her hands and held them in his. "You know, after all these long years we've known each other, sister of mine, I don't think I've ever read your palm," he told her, forcing some cheer in his voice. He also smeared what he hoped was a reassuring smile on his face.
Vanya's expression barely changed, only a sliver of confusion appeared in her eyes.
"What are you doing?" Ben demanded.
Klaus shushed him. He had an idea, a stupidly hopeful one, but he needed to be gentle. Vanya was gentle and frightened and confused. He needed to keep her focused on him.
"You see," he started, tracing the patterns of lines on her right palm, "you have your life line, your head line, your heart line, and your fate line. Now there's lots of different meanings and interpretations about line length and line breaks especially about your life line." He paused to see if Vanya was following along. It appeared she was by the small tilt of her head so he continued, "But I can see clearly from the arch of yours here that you have longevity, there's a few breaks in the line but that only indicates some bumps along the way. With Reggie as our dear old dad that certainly makes sense."
Klaus traced her life line from the top of her hand down to where it ended by her wrist, "Your life line is mostly straight and sticks close to the side of your palm, this tends to mean a limited exploration of love and a very cautious nature." He smiled at her and her gaze was becoming just a bit more focused. "And here, your heart line arcs between your index finger and thumb which means you're patient and caring and well-intentioned," he spoke the last few words with his eyes locked on hers, silently begging Vanya to understand.
A quiet moment passed between them before a watery smile crossed her face.
"Oh, Klaus," Vanya breathed. She still looked defeated, crumpled in on herself even more than usual.
But it was as if the simple act of Klaus taking the time to calm her down and just speak to her that opened the floodgates for Vanya's heartbreaking thoughts, because now she was rambling the saddest things he could possibly hear. "Klaus, you have to know how sorry I am. You know... I'd n-never, ever hurt Allison on purpose. Or any of you! I love you. Please, please, please, you have to know that!" she cried, gripping his wrists tight enough to hurt.
It was almost painful to hear Vanya say she loved him because they never said that in their family and because he knew Vanya meant it. She loved all of them, so much. After hurting Allison, she got back to the mansion as fast as she could to apologize, to help, and Luther had just locked her up and then they all left her to rot in a cell in the basement. They abandoned her.
Klaus wanted to conjure their father up and scream at him. Because he turned them into emotionally stunted idiots who could only hurt each other. Because he locked two of his bought children in different horrifying cells to teach them a lesson.
Before Klaus could even reply, she barreled on, "You don't have to worry if you guys got rid of me. I wouldn't haunt you. I'd stay away."
Klaus felt his heart constrict at the meaning of her words. For some reason that hurt even worse, that Vanya, even dead, even as a ghost, would hide herself away, keep herself invisible as if she weren't ever worthy of the space she took up. It tore at his insides. Vanya dead was a somber thought but Vanya dead and not being able to connect with her was a terrifying one.
Ben made a pained noise that Klaus felt echo through his bones.
No, no, no! How could he, disaster extraordinaire, possibly fix this? His broken sister who had only ever wanted to be included and loved. How could he soothe these aches and tend to her wounded heart when his was just as torn up too?
Vanya cried, big hiccupping sobs, completely unaware of the fact that things around her were starting to tremble.
It was eerie and fascinating to know Vanya was causing it, that she even had powers at all.
Klaus didn't dare move, unsure of how to proceed if the movement Vanya was causing kicked up more. Slowly, the room stopped shaking as Vanya's cries got a little quieter. He wanted to say something but before he could she threw herself against his chest sobbing.
All Klaus could think was, could he have had this before? If after a night sleeping on Vanya's couch he decided to stay a while, like Ben always urged him to. Would he have sobered up earlier? Would he and Vanya have become close? Would the pure familial love he knows he has for her now have come through sooner? They were questions he wanted answers to but would just have to be content never knowing.
Tears were falling from his eyes as he wrapped his arms firmly around her. Ben was crying too, hovering beside them, desperation clear on his face.
"I love you, Vanya," Klaus whispered against the top of her head and she sobbed harder at his words, "You have to know that."
Klaus held Vanya as she cried her heart out. He stroked her hair, kissed her forehead, squeezed her tight into his chest. They must've sat there for hours, because the sun was setting by the time Vanya's sobs had ceased into soft sniffles.
He didn't know exactly how they were going to fix this, but Klaus was determined to not leave Vanya alone. He'd be a better brother. He'd return the care she so copiously offered him all those years ago. He was willing to fight the rest of their siblings over how Vanya wanted to handle her new powers, emboldened by the fact he already had an ally in Allison.
Klaus rubbed Vanya's back and listened to her breathe then pulled away so he could see her face. She looked a mess but she was alive and slightly okay, so he'd call it a win.
"So, sis, how do you feel about waffles?" he asked and Vanya's answering chuckle gave Klaus hope.