Chapter Text
It starts with a sneeze.
Well, Klaus had been moping around the house for two days before said sneeze took place, seeming to make it his mission to torment his siblings with his dramatics. He sniffled and groaned in nasally tones, dragging his feet into the living room before chucking himself haphazardly onto either of the couches no matter if they were occupied or not. He complained about his head hurting until Five tried to smother him with a couch cushion and almost succeeded. He took every opportunity to splay himself dramatically against Diego or Luther, falling against their wider frames almost every time he saw them, not moving from his place against them until they physically made him. It was all unbelievably annoying.
Then the sneeze happened.
They’re all in the living room, taking part in a “family night” that Allison forced everybody to take part in via Luther’s assistance (which was pretty much just using his huge frame to block people from leaving). Family nights consist of a few different things, such as board games or watching movies on the tv they had installed. Tonight, it was the former. Allison, Vanya, Diego and Luther are sitting around the coffee table, a Monopoly board placed upon it. Well, Luther is sitting on one of the couches, his large frame unable to squeeze in with the other three who sit on the floor. Allison moves his character for him as his hands are too big and just displace everything else on the board when he tries himself. Five is sat beside the bigger man, notepad in his lap that he scribbles in, hunched over himself. He’s not taking part in the game but he’s not holed up in his room either so his siblings take it as a win.
Klaus, however, curls himself up in the corner of the other couch. He’s uncharacteristically quiet, especially in comparison to the past two days, only speaking to answer a question aimed at him. The others are, of course, concerned but he waves them off and they eventually go back to their game which is becoming more and more tense by the second. Diego does not seem to like the fact Vanya is better than him at Monopoly.
It’s then, during a lull in conversation, that a quiet “achoo” rings out and causes the room to descend into immediate chaos.
Books fling themselves off the shelves near the ends of the room, sailing through the air and hitting the walls opposite with a series of loud bangs. The lights above them explode and the small chandeliers come crashing to the floor, everyone in the room scrabbling for cover from the glass raining down - except for Klaus, the glass bouncing off of what seems to be an invisible barrier. There’s a series of smashes from the direction of the bar. Anything that isn’t nailed to the floor shakes and rattles but luckily doesn’t fall over.
Everything happens in the blink of an eye, over as fast as it started and Klaus sniffles from his place on the couch, looking paler and smaller than usual among the wreckage of the room. He glances to his siblings, who have taken cover in various places in the room, probably using the ghosts to his advantage to find their hiding spots - just like he used to when they played hide and seek as children. They’re all tense, wide eyes glancing between him and the mess he has made. He sniffles again.
“Sorry.” He says as they edge out from their cover and come closer to him, shoes crunching in glass. “Didn’... Didn’t mean t’ do tha’...”
“The hell was that all about?” Five asks and Klaus looks at him through heavy-lidded eyes, taking a second too long to register the words. The concern on his siblings’ faces increases.
“Think ‘m sick, sorry.”
Allison steps closer to him in an instant, sitting on the edge of the couch with only a little bit of caution. “It’s okay, Klaus.” She says as she raises a hand to his forehead.
“Yeah, man.” Diego pipes up, sending a pointed glare towards Five before he looks at Klaus, gaze as focused as it always is when something’s wrong with the fourth Hargreeves, like tunnel-vision. “You didn’t mean it.” It looks like the others are about to say their own pieces but Allison turns to them with wide, worried eyes.
“He’s burning up, like, really bad.”
“How? He was fine just before he sneezed.” Vanya says with a furrowed brow as Five jumps to the front of the group to replace Allison’s hand with his own. Klaus scrunches his eyes shut against the flash with a groan, Five muttering out a distracted apology. He only has his hand against the other’s forehead for a moment before he’s pulling back with a curse.
He looks at the others, “Get him to the infirmary and get Mom. He needs to be put under before he blows up the house.” Klaus lets out a whine from his place on the couch, sloppily shaking his head as though it were too heavy for his body and managing to only slightly grimace at the pain it causes his already aching head.
“Don’ give me drugs,” His tone is warning despite the slur of his voice, “Tha’s not… A good idea.”
Diego levels Five with another glare, too. “What the fuck, man? You want to drug him up because you’re scared of what might happen?”
“I don’t want this house coming down on our heads because of a sneeze , Diego! What happens next time, huh? You could barely hear this one, what if the next is louder? The ceiling could end up on top of us!”
“He’s our brother, he’s-he’s Klaus ! He’s not gonna hurt us -- Are you hearing yourself right now, old man?”
“Ah, yes, because I have such good reason to believe he’s incapable of hurting us after everything that’s happened! Vanya’s neck still has bruises from when he lashed out! Your ex ended up skewered on a piece of wood because he doesn’t have a good enough grip on his abilities yet!”
“That wasn’t his fault, you asshole!” Diego has gotten up in the smaller man’s space at this point, towering over him but Five meets his stare head on, as always. Luther places a hand on each guy’s shoulder to nudge them apart, firm enough to make them comply but soft enough that they don’t stagger, but their gazes don’t break. Allison has placed a hand on the armrest of the couch, so her arm crosses over Klaus’ body like a barricade while Vanya sits down next to her as she watches the argument unfold. At it being mentioned, a hand has come up to subconsciously cover the bruising of her neck and hasn’t fallen back to her lap yet. Klaus watches the argument through narrow eyes, obviously irritated but at the moment unable to make his mouth move.
“I know it wasn’t his fault!” Five sounds offended that Diego would believe he thought otherwise, “But that doesn’t diminish the risk of it happening again! He’s obviously got a fever and with how he’s acting right now he might have influenza, of all things! What happens if he hallucinates? If he thinks there’s a threat and he lets his power loose?” He gestures around the room, “If him sneezing does this much damage, how much do you wanna bet a coughing fit will do?”
Diego glowers, jaw working. “He doesn’t want the drugs, Five. You’re not forcing him to break his sobriety, I’ll put a knife in you before you get the chance.”
Five’s face twitches and he raises an eyebrow with a smirk, although it’s impossible to decipher what emotion is behind it. “Are your priorities really so skewed that you’d hurt me simply because I want to keep us all safe, Diego? You’d do that?”
“ To protect Klaus, yes! ” Diego’s answer is instantaneous, Five huffs a laugh through his nose and shakes his head to himself. The tension in the room rises but Diego doesn’t notice.
In his mind’s eye he thinks of Klaus lashing out at Vanya but being the first to follow her out when nobody else wanted to. He thinks of Lila bleeding beneath his hands after being tossed by Klaus and how he stammered out apologies then tried to see if he could summon her for him after. He thinks of Klaus, in the bathroom cutting his hair for him because he didn’t know how. He thinks of Mom, and how when they suspected something to be wrong they considered turning her off and tossing her out. He thinks of how he turned her off.
Klaus and Mom have always gone hand-in-hand in Diego’s heart, both sparking his protective streak without even trying, both often overlooked by everybody but him. He has failed them both many a time but he doesn’t intend on it happening ever again.
“I’d do it in a fucking heartbeat .” He emphasises the words by reaching a hand around Luther, who still stands in between them, to jab Five in the chest.
It’s Allison’s voice, irritated and dry, that stops Five from retorting and causes both their heads to turn. “Yeah, I don’t think any drugs or stabbing will be necessary.”
Klaus is slumped against her, face slack and body limp. Allison’s arm has moved from its position in front of him to wrap around bony shoulders to stop him from sliding down. Five and Diego swear at the same time in different tones - one of irritation and the other of concern. Allison doesn’t pay them any attention, obviously annoyed at them for their arguing, and instead directs her gaze towards Luther.
“Can you carry him up to his room, please?” Luther nods quickly and Allison turns to Vanya as he carefully scoops their unconscious brother into his arms. “Go get Mom, please, Vee. Tell her what’s happening and to come to Klaus’ room.” Vanya responds with her own nod and hurries off. It’s only when the other three are gone, that she looks at Diego and Five, levelling them both with a hard glare.
Diego hardly spares her a glance, instead looking up where Luther had vanished off to. “I should go up there.” He mutters but Allison’s voice is like a whip.
“No. You’re going to stay right here. Both of you. Mom will tell Vanya and Luther what we need to know in order to help, then they will tell us and we will calmly discuss what to do from there like adults. No more arguing about a brother who is right there in front of you and can hear every word you’re saying. ” Her final words are enough to even make Five shift, although he doesn’t look so much ashamed as he does annoyed. Diego visibly cringes and works his jaw. Allison quirks an eyebrow at them both before continuing. “We will ask Klaus whether he wants to be put under when he is lucid enough to make the decision for himself. We are not taking his right to choose away.”
Diego remembers Klaus in Elliot’s bedroom, telling him about Ben forcing his way in. Of how he was scared of Ben doing it in his sleep so he just agreed. How their brother had stripped Klaus of his choice in the matter and Klaus didn’t even think of it like that. He feels sick and can only nod quickly. He doesn’t want his brother to ever have his choice in anything taken away ever again.
Around ten minutes after Allison’s mini-lecture, Mom comes down the stairs and gives him an encouraging smile. Five had jumped out five minutes prior but Diego doesn’t move from the living room just yet. He has busied himself with cleaning up the mess still littering the floor, brushing off Allison’s attempts to help. He had been left alone quickly enough and he liked it, the quiet coupled with the methodical movements of cleaning up helping to calm down his frayed nerves from everything that had happened. Mom tries to offer her help but he brushes her off as gently as possible, she seems to understand and leaves after running a delicate hand through his hair that he leans into.
It’s twenty minutes after Mom’s appearance that Diego finds himself standing outside of Klaus’ room. It’s quiet, no movement being heard from within, he can’t even hear Klaus breathing . When he pushes the door open, he’s surprised to see two people, instead of one.
Five is sat on the floor next to the bed where Klaus lays, still sleeping, his back leant up against the side so he is facing the bookcase. He must have stolen one of the books from it, it doesn’t look like something he would normally read but he reads it nonetheless. He doesn’t look up as Diego leans against the doorframe, muscles bulging when he crosses his arms over his chest.
“Didn’t take you to be into the whole ‘supernatural’ genre.”
Five still doesn’t look up. “Figured it wouldn’t be a good time to brainstorm or plan anything right now, I’d rather not be distracted should Klaus wake up.”
Diego is about to open his mouth to respond but it seems Five may have to look into the possibility of ‘manifestation’ as a third ability because Klaus stirs only moments later and looks around the room blearily, his blinking slowed and eyes unfocused, not really taking anything in. Five looks up from his book for the first time since Diego has entered the room, turning himself so he’s instead upright on his knees and in Klaus’ frame of view, expression blank as his eyes roam over their brother’s face, no doubt trying to find a trace of lucidity. It’s easy to tell when he finds none, slumping a little bit against the bed but straightening again when Klaus’ eyes land on him and stay there.
“Go back to sleep, Klaus.” He says softly. Klaus blinks at him, a look in his eyes that neither of the men in the room can decipher.
“Ben?” A too-hot hand is placed on Five’s cheek, who looks stunned. “You’re back?”
Five’s throat works before he puts on a tight smile, reaching up to cover the hand with his own and gently place it back down on the bed. “Yeah. Go back to sleep, I’ll be here when you wake up, okay?”
“‘m sorry.” Klaus whimpers out but neither of the men there knows what he’s apologising for. He’s asleep again before either can ask.
Diego stares at both of his brothers, one sleeping and the other desperately trying to process what has just happened. He scoffs, “What was that you said about him hallucinating, again?” Five doesn’t answer, unmoving from his spot and unable to tear his gaze away from Klaus. Diego wants to say more but Five looks so torn he can’t make himself do so.
Five still hasn’t moved when he leaves.