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“Get up, we’re leaving.”
Now, if it wasn’t for the urgency lacing his brother’s tone, Klaus would have continued to pretend to be asleep. Despite being wide awake, because he’s never been one for sleeping, he doesn’t feel quite up to leaving the comfort of his bed, the morning light making it harder to view the ghosts and helping him feel just a tad more at peace. He kind of hopes Five will decide to give up and go get one of the others instead, but Klaus really should know better—when his brother has his mind set on something he’ll stubbornly work until he gets what he wants.
Also, this sounds kind of important, so he cracks one eye open to at least hear Five out.
“This early in the morning?” Klaus whines, draping his arms over his eyes to block out both the light and the expectant face of his brother.
“Klaus, it’s one in the afternoon,” Klaus can hear the eye roll in Five’s voice. “You’ve had plenty of time to lounge in bed so get up and get dressed. Don’t make me ask again.”
“You’re not really asking, though,” Klaus grumbles, hearing the telltale shwoop of Five teleporting away. He heaves himself up into a sitting position, rubbing his face with his hands. “Can you believe that guy?”
“I dunno, but if I were you, I’d get dressed,” Ben says from where he’s sitting in Klaus’ desk chair, book open in his hands. “He seems more tense than usual today.”
“Please, Benny, Five is always tensed up,” Klaus points out, getting to his feet and dragging his feet over to his wardrobe. “But I guess that’s what happens when you spend over four decades alone in an apocalypse.”
They had all held out hope that after April 1st came and went with no apocalypse, Five would be able to relax and lose some of the paranoia he fell out of the portal with. They weren’t completely disappointed—the scary, wild look in Five’s eyes had gone away after the first few days, replaced with calculating suspicion, which is probably the best they’re going to get for now. Five has expressed many times that the Commission could be after them, but after a few weeks after the not-apocalypse, it’s not looking likely that they’ll attack. Still, their brother is clearly on edge, and Klaus is doing his best to help ease his worries.
So that’s why he puts on his black laced up skinny jeans, a pink crop top that reads “Barbie Girl” and a pair of sneakers that are sitting next to his door—he tries to piss Five off as little as possible, not wanting to be on the other side of his anger.
“Alright, so where are we going short stack?” Klaus asks when he makes it to the bottom of the stairs, finding Five waiting by the door, tapping his foot on the ground impatiently—he’s in that same horrid uniform, his hands shoved in his pockets. “Oh, am I pretending to be your dear old dad again? That was so fun, remember how I—”
“I’ve detected some unusual activity coming from the other side of town,” Five cuts him off, already opening the door and walking out to the car. “I think it’s the Commission. I’m going to check it out.”
“Right…” Klaus slowly nods, taking it in as he follows Five to the car, getting into the passenger seat because honestly, Five is a way better driver than he is. “Okay, but if you’re the only one going to check it out, why the hell am I coming too?”
Five doesn’t answer for a minute, inserting the key into the ignition—his jaw is clenched tight.
“The others have decided they don’t want me going on missions like these alone,” Five finally grits out, and Klaus wonders where he was for that family meeting. Probably spaced out, as always, because family meetings are the pinnacle of boredom. “Just another instance of them treating me like a child instead of the capable adult I am.”
“They’re just worried about you, buddy,” Klaus says carefully because while he understands where their siblings are coming from, he also knows how Five feels about being treated the age he looks. Last week, when they went out to a restaurant for the first time as an actual family, the waitress brought Five a kids menu and he just about lost it. Luckily, Klaus was more than happy to trade with him—he feels like Kraft mac and cheese should be on every menu, but alas, he’ll have to stick with the kids' menu.
“I suppose,” Five doesn’t sound any less annoyed. “Anyways, you’re here so I can technically say I brought someone with me.”
Five pulls away from the Academy and onto the road, and Klaus wonders if his brother could benefit from sitting on a phone book—there’s no way he can properly see over the dashboard.
“You could’ve brought Diego or Luther,” Klaus points out. “Or like… anyone but me.”
“I’m aware,” Five nods, “but you were my best option because you’re the most likely to listen to me when I tell you to stay in the car and wait for me to do what I need to do.”
“So I’m essentially a babysitter?”
“More like an excuse to get the others off my back.”
His little older brother is a mystery to him. Five had always been adamant about keeping his cards close to his chest, not being one to share information unless absolutely necessary, but this Five is a completely different version of the one Klaus used to know. He may look the exact same, but his eyes have a hardened weariness in them, haunted by decades of suffering that he’ll likely never tell them about, at least not willingly. Klaus hopes they’ll get him to open up to them more, to trust them more, but Klaus knows better than anyone that trust is a hard thing to have in their family.
“You’re not planning on staying in the car, are you?” Ben questions from where he’s sitting in the backseat.
“You know me so well, dear brother,” Klaus grins, because he’ll be damned if he’s just going to wait in the car—if Diego couldn’t convince him to do so, Five won’t be able to either.
“What?” Five frowns confusedly, glancing away from the road ahead to look at him.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” Klaus waves him off, and settles for looking out the window for the rest of the ride.
Fifteen minutes later, Five parks the car down the street from a run-down, abandoned building.
“Stay here,” Five commands, pulling the keys out of the car. “I should be back in ten minutes.”
Five gets out of the car, moving to lock the doors behind him, but Klaus climbs out of the car before he can do so, stretching his limbs as if he’d been in the car for hours.
“Yeah, as fun as that sounds, I’m coming with,” Klaus gives an easy smile. “Just because I’m the most likely to listen to you doesn’t mean it’s a guarantee.”
“Klaus—” Five scowls, but then he gives a small, annoyed sigh. “ Fine , but stay close and do what I say or else. ”
“Eye, eye, Cap’n,” Klaus gives him a mock salute, not wanting to find out what “or else” means in this context, and he follows Five down the sidewalk that leads to the building, Ben right next to him.
They don’t get very far when Klaus sees what looks like a dart fly through Ben’s face, lodging itself right in Five’s neck.
“What the hell?” Ben turns around, probably trying to see where the dart came from, and Klaus hurries to catch up with Five, who is swaying on his feet.
“Fuck,” Five mumbles as he pulls the dart out of his neck, looking at it before eyes widening. “Klaus—Klaus, run— ” he stumbles, losing his balance, and Klaus catches him, watching as his brother gets less and less lucid by the second.
“Ben?” Klaus tears his eyes away from Five to look at Ben, who is still scanning the area.
“Shit, wait, over there—” Ben points to their right, and Klaus watches as a big man dressed in all black starts walking towards them. He has a dart gun in his hands.
“We finally caught the little rat,” the man sneers as he gets closer.
“Klaus, quick, manifest me!” Ben shouts urgently, but before Klaus can do so the man points his gun at Klaus, aims, and fires. Whatever is in the darts works extremely quickly, and Klaus watches in horror as Ben flickers in front of him before disappearing from his vision. He feels his mind slow down, his eyelids getting heavier and heavier, and he slumps to the ground with Five still in his arms.
Then, he slips into darkness.
When Klaus comes around, he’s greeted with one of the worst headaches he’s ever had and a stomach that’s flopping around very unpleasantly. He’s sitting in a chair, his wrists and legs tied to it with a thick rope which is rubbing into his skin. He must be on drugs because this is always how he feels when he’s coming down from a hit.
“This is the worst high I’ve ever ridden,” Klaus complains, his eyes still squeezed shut as he wills himself not to puke. “Shit, what did I take ?”
“You didn’t take anything, Klaus,” Five’s voice says, coming a few feet away from him. He sounds pissed—and maybe Klaus should be too, but he can’t currently muster up the emotional energy to care about anything other than his growing nausea. “We were drugged.”
“Oh,” is all Klaus can say without allowing his insides to be on his outsides.
“I don’t think these guys are with the Commission,” Five continues as Klaus swallows back the urge to throw up and force his eyes open. They’re in an empty room, with no furniture in sight besides the chairs they’re tied to, and the paint on the walls is peeling off in many spots. The door to the room isn’t even closed—it’s wide open. “These guys are sloppier. Very unprofessional.”
If the way Hazel and Cha Cha had kidnapped and tortured him was “professional” then Klaus certainly isn’t looking forward to what an unprofessional torture session is like. It sends a jolt of fear through him just thinking about it, but when he looks over at Five, he notices his brother doesn’t seem worried at all. Just annoyed and ticked off—it would figure that Five would see this as nothing more than an inconvenience.
Despite his brother’s pissed off yet seemingly unalarmed demeanor, Klaus is very eager to get out of here as soon as possible. He tugs on the ropes that are holding his wrists down, but all that does is dig the rope deeper into his skin. He stops tugging, stares at his hands for a moment before snapping his head off—which he finds is actually a bad idea, because his head starts spinning. The drugs their kidnappers used are strong, and that’s coming from someone who has taken almost every illegal substance under the sun.
“Ben?” Klaus calls out once the dizziness has faded, mindful to keep his voice down so he doesn’t attract any unwanted attention, and twists his head around to look for his deceased brother—but he’s nowhere to be found. “Shit, I can’t see Ben.”
“Maybe he’s just not here?” Five suggests, before shaking his head. “That’s not what’s important, anyways—we need to focus on getting untied.”
“Yeah, no shit,” Klaus rolls his eyes, “that’s kinda what I need Ben for, so I can make him corporal.”
“Oh,” Five at least has the decency to let a flash of embarrassment flash across his face, but it’s gone before Klaus can properly gloat about it—Five speeds through everything, even emotions, always going just a bit too fast for anyone else to keep up. “Are you sure you can’t see him or is he just not here?”
“If he left I’m gonna be pretty damn pissed,” Klaus says, but it’s a lie. The last thing Klaus would ever want to do is force his brother to be somewhere he doesn’t want to be. God knows Ben has seen some fucked up things from following Klaus around for the majority of his existence—the worst part of the Hazel and Cha Cha incident was feeling Ben’s sympathetic gaze watching him the entire time. “But no, he’s most likely still here—I’m just too drugged up to see him right now.”
Five nods in understanding and a comfortable silence fills the room as they wait for the drugs to wear off. Klaus closes his eyes, willing himself to sober up because he has a bad feeling growing in the pit of his stomach.
The silence is broken (of course, Klaus has never been allowed to keep good things) by the sound of heavy footsteps, and Klaus opens his eyes just in time to see a rather large man enter the room—he’s wearing tight blue jeans, a white shirt underneath a leather jacket, slicked-back hair and a cold sneer on his face. In his right hand is a sharp, shiny knife, pointed towards the ground. The man stops once he’s in front of them, his sharp gaze studying Five, who is scowling right back.
“Okay, who are you and who let you off the set of Fight Club?” Klaus can’t help but make the comparison, which results in their kidnapper’s eyes snap over to glare at him. Seriously, it’s like this guy walked straight in from the 1990s.
“Great, we just had to pick up the useless snark machine first,” the man gives an annoyed sigh, looking down at the knife in his hand, running one of his fingers along the silver blade.
“You know who we are,” Five interjects, and it’s a statement, not a question because Five rarely asks questions he doesn’t know the answer to.
“Of course I do,” the man chuckles humorlessly, turning away from Klaus to look at Five. “There are few who don’t know of the fearless Umbrella Academy. Of course, the hype has tapered away over time, but the point stands regardless.”
“So you’re aware of our capabilities,” Five’s voice is calm and level, but his eye is twitching, and Klaus doesn’t miss the way his nails are digging into the arms of his chair. Five’s words are more of a threat than anything. Klaus thinks this guy should feel lucky that Five is currently restrained.
“Oh, I am,” the man grins, “but I’m not worried.”
“I think you should be, though,” Five raises an eyebrow, but the man doesn’t seem particularly alarmed by this.
“Okay, why exactly are we here?” Klaus interrupts before the man can respond, mainly because he’s tired of listening to this standoff. “What do you want?”
“What do I want?” the man echoes slowly, not taking his eyes off of Five. “Hm, that is the million-dollar question, isn’t it?”
Klaus tips his head back and groans, because this guy is becoming excruciatingly hard to listen to.
“We’ve been looking for your family for weeks now,” the man doesn’t bother to answer his own question, instead diverting from the previous subject. “Ever since we heard Hargreeves kicked the bucket and his precious Academy was back in town. I guess we got lucky that you two came to us, huh?”
“Who the hell is “we”?” Five frowns, cocking his head ever so slightly to the left.
“ We are an organization that doesn't take kindly to your family’s existence.”
“So you’re an Umbrella Academy hate club,” Klaus deduces, and the man shrugs. “Dude, is this how you spend your free time? Also, was your last club president named Leonard Peabody by chance? I think you would’ve liked him if not—our sister killed him, though, so you won’t get to meet him.”
The man doesn’t answer, but turns around and walks over to Klaus until he’s standing right in front of his chair.
“You talk too much,” the man comments. He raises the knife to Klaus’ face, resting the blade gently against his cheek. Out of the corner of his eye, Klaus sees Five begin to struggle against his restraints, repeatedly tugging at his wrists trying to get them free.
“Yeah, that’s what they tell me,” Klaus grins despite the knife pressed against his face. This isn’t his first torture rodeo, after all. “Last week Ben and I decided to see how long I could talk without running out of things to say—I got to forty-three minutes.”
“Well isn’t that something?” the man sneers, crouching down so his face is just inches away from Klaus’. “I’d advise you to shut up, though, or else you may regret it.”
“Oh, people tell me to shut up all the time. It never works,” Klaus giggles.
The man puts pressure into the knife, and the blade digs into the skin of Klaus’ cheek. Klaus suppresses the urge to hiss in pain.
“I think it’s going to work this time,” the man says softly and drags the knife down Klaus’ cheek. Klaus can feel the blood drip down his face and onto his shirt—damnit, he’s going to have to throw this shirt out, isn’t he? That sucks because this shirt is one of his favorites.
Once the knife reaches Klaus’ jaw, he removes it altogether, standing up straight. Klaus knows he should probably stay quiet at this point, but he has a sassy quip right on his tongue and it’s begging to be said. Klaus has never been good about understanding limits.
“Are you into knife play?” Klaus wiggles his eyebrows, trying to ignore the pain in his face. “Because that was so kinky.”
The man’s face sours in disgust, recoiling at the words, and Klaus feels like he’s watching in slow motion as the man drops the knife, letting it clatter to the ground as he swings his fist—it connects against Klaus’ jaw so hard that the force tips the chair to the left, sending him crashing to the ground. Klaus’ vision goes white with pain when his head impacts the floor, his ears ringing loudly.
“Klaus?”
“Klaus!”
Klaus blinks his eyes open, the pain in his head suddenly having dulled into a persistent ache stabbing through his brain. There’s someone crouched in front of him, but the person is sideways—or maybe Klaus is the one who’s sideways—and once the blurriness goes away he realizes the person is Ben. Klaus has never been happier to see his dead brother, except maybe the first day he conjured him.
“Took you long ‘nough,” Klaus mutters, but there’s no weight to it—they both know it’s not Ben’s fault.
“Sorry about that,” Ben smiles sheepishly.
“Klaus?” Five’s voice floats from somewhere Klaus can’t see. “Are you awake now?”
“Hm? Yeah, I’m awake,” Klaus nods, even though Five can’t see him, but he instantly regrets it when the room begins to spin. “...uh, was I asleep?”
“You were knocked out for about an hour,” Five answers, his voice tight and furious, and Klaus blinks in surprise because it didn’t even feel like any time had passed.
“Damn,” Klaus mumbles.
Wait, where did their kidnapper go? It doesn’t sound like he’s in here anymore, even though the door is still wide open. He smiles faintly at the fact that this is the meeting spot for an Umbrella Academy hate club—who knew one of those actually exists? Klaus thinks it’s kind of cool, and if they hadn’t kidnapped him he might’ve thought about joining. He has a lot of free time these days now that he’s sober.
“Klaus!” Ben’s fingers are snapping in front of his face—he must’ve spaced out. “Hey, you need to make me corporal long enough so I can untie you guys.”
“Oh, yeah,” Klaus suddenly remembers the original game plan. He grips the arms of the chair and wills his power to flow through him, his hands glowing blue. Ben also begins to glow, and he quickly stands up and walks away, no longer in Klaus’ vision. Klaus closes his eyes as he focuses on keeping Ben corporal, struggling more than usual to keep the power going.
A hand taps against his cheek, and Klaus snaps his eyes open to see Five crouching in front of him, Ben standing behind him and no longer glowing.
“You really pissed that guy right off,” Five remarks as he pulls Klaus’ chair up onto its legs, bringing on a wave of dizziness. Five begins to untie Klaus’ restraints, and once his vision clears he notices his brother has a split lip and a bruise on his cheek.
“I think you did too,” Klaus says. The ropes holding his arms down fall away, and he rubs at his bruised wrists.
“Yeah,” Five nods, his jaw clenched. “C’mon, I’ll teleport us out of here.”
“Mkay,” Klaus allows Five to help him stand, leaning heavily onto his smallest brother. He’s been teleported before, but it’s been a while since he’s last experienced it, and when he suddenly finds himself standing outside the building they were kept in he’s unprepared for how jarring it feels. He groans, raising his hand to his spinning head as he stumbles, nausea back in full force. “Shit, that sucks .”
“Sorry about that,” Five says, and if Klaus was in a better state of mind he might’ve been stunned at the concept of Five actually apologizing for something.
Instead of beginning to walk back to the car, however, Five lowers Klaus to the ground so that he’s leaning against the brick wall.
“Uh, wha…?” Klaus frowns, Five letting go of him when he’s sure Klaus isn’t going to tip over and straightening up. “Why aren’t we leaving?”
“Wait here,” Five orders, shrugging off his jacket and setting it in Klaus’ lap. “I have to go take care of something inside. Don’t move until I come back, got it?”
“Um… got it,” Klaus nods hesitantly, but he’s confused. What is so important that it triumphs going home right away?
“Hey, I’m serious this time, Klaus,” Five tells him, pushing up the sleeves of his Academy uniform. Seriously, they need to find this kid better clothes.
“Yeah, yeah, okay,” Klaus raises his hands in surrender. Five nods, giving him one last lingering look that feels a lot like a warning before blinking away. Klaus turns to give Ben, who’s standing guard a few feet away from him a questioning look, but Ben just shrugs, seeming just as perplexed as Klaus is.
Five minutes pass with no sign of his brother.
“Uh, how long should we wait?” Klaus wonders. Sure, he knows Five told him to stay put, but what if he gets hurt in there? Even though he knows Five is more than capable of taking care of himself, Klaus can’t help but worry—he just got his brother back and he really doesn’t want to lose him a second time.
Ben seems to share this thought process. “I know he said not to move but… maybe we should go in and check in a few minutes.”
Klaus verbalizes his agreement, and once a few more minutes have come and gone, Klaus shakily gets to his feet, leaning against the wall as he’s hit with a spell of dizziness. Once it’s gone, Klaus walks to the front door of the building, having Ben phase through and make sure no one is on the other side before opening it and stepping through. The inside of the building is quiet, but Klaus can hear thuds coming just down a hallway to his right.
“Shit, we need to help him,” Klaus abruptly realizes, because he doesn’t know how many people are in the building but no matter it’s still Five against the rest of them. Ben nods in agreement, and they run down the hallway towards the room where the noise is coming, and Klaus works to make Ben corporal in case they need his help. They make it to the very end of the hall, ready to jump in and fight, but Klaus freezes before he can make it through the doorway, his eyes blown wide.
There’s no fight to be had because there’s nobody left to fight. The room is littered with bodies, the walls, floors, and furniture drenched with blood, and at the center of it all is Five, his back turned as he stands over a pleading man writhing on the ground in pain, a knife gripped in his tiny hand. Five sends the knife plunging into the man’s throat, cutting off the pleas, and twists the blade, sending blood spurting everywhere as he dies choking on his blood and bleeding out.
It’s the most gruesome scene Klaus has ever laid eyes on.
“Five?” Klaus breathes, his hands no longer glowing as Ben fades from corporeality, and Klaus wouldn’t be sure if Five even heard him if his brother didn’t go completely still.
Five turns around slowly, knife still in his hand, and he, like everything else in the room, is covered in blood. His eyes are the wildest Klaus has ever seen them, like a rabid tiger, and Klaus doesn’t feel like he’s looking at his brother, which he knows is illogical but still. Klaus gulps as those wild, raging eyes connect with his own, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable.
And the thing is, Klaus is aware that his brother has a high body count—the large amount of ghosts that follow him speaks for itself. He’s seen Five in battle, knows that his brother can hold his own, that he’s willing to get violent if he needs to, but this is a whole new level. Klaus has seen a lot of blood in his lifetime, a lot of killing from when they were kids going on missions, but… even those missions didn’t create near as much blood as there is covering the walls right now.
Nausea rises within him, and Klaus has to reach out and grab onto the doorway to steady himself.
“Um… “ Klaus tries to think of something to say, but he can’t stop glancing at the bodies strewn across the floor.
“Klaus, I told you to stay put,” Five growls, taking a step towards him, and Klaus doesn’t mean to back away because he’s not afraid of his brother, knows that no matter how angry Five gets he won’t hurt him, but then his mind flashes back to Luther holding him up by the throat and he’s not exactly sure anymore.
Five stops in his tracks when he sees Klaus take a shaky step back, glancing at the knife in his grip before letting go of it. The knife clatters to the ground, it’s silver blade stained red. He looks back to Klaus, neither brother making another move.
“Can… can w-we go home n-now?” Klaus stutters out, suddenly unable to look Five in the eyes, terrified that he’ll continue to see that same wildness from moments earlier.
“Yeah,” Five nods stiffly, taking another cautious step towards Klaus, and when Klaus doesn’t move he steps over a body and slowly walks over to the doorway. He tentatively reaches out for Klaus’ hand, and Klaus takes it in his own, cursing the fact that he can’t seem to get his hands to stop trembling. Then, in a flash of blue, they find themselves in the entrance room of the Academy.
“What about the car?” Klaus asks after the usual symptoms of spatial jumping have faded away—however, he still has the urge to throw up.
“I’ll go get it tomorrow,” Five answers, letting go of Klaus’ hand.
Klaus nods, glancing over at Ben, who’s looking between the two of them—for once, his deceased brother doesn’t seem to have anything to say.
“Okay, well, that was fun,” Klaus tries his best to put on a smile as he wraps his arms around his stomach, his nausea growing and his head still aching. “But I’m gonna go sleep for a few hundred hours, so… I’ll see you later, I guess?”
With that, Klaus starts to walk towards the stairs, his legs working entirely against him as he forces them to move. However, he doesn’t make it up one step before he gets hit with another wave of dizziness, and he stands on the first step, gripping the stair rail tightly as he closes his eyes, waiting for the spell to pass. When he opens his eyes thirty seconds later, Five is standing next to him.
“You have a head injury, Klaus,” Five points out as if that isn’t glaringly obvious. “If you don’t want me to call for Mom you’ll have to let me help you.”
Klaus almost actually does ask for their mother, wishing for the soothing comfort she would bring, but he decides against it, knowing that would make things even more awkward between himself and Five.
So he leans on Five as his brother slowly leads him up the stairs and into his room, and as soon as Klaus is in his room he rushes for the toilet, kneeling down and instantly throwing up everything that was in his stomach into the bowl. Five, who is usually very uncomfortable with showing actual affection, gives Klaus a couple of pats on the shoulder before blinking away.
Even though he’s currently gagging on bile, Klaus still feels like he can breathe easier now.
“That… that was something,” Ben’s voice comes from the doorway, and after Klaus is done puking his guts out he glances up to see Ben leaning in the doorway, watching him with sympathetic eyes.
“Yeah,” Klaus agrees quietly, not wanting to close his eyes because every time he does he sees nothing but red and a wild pair of eyes. He closes the lid of the toilet and rests his head on it, the cool porcelain taking a bit of an edge off his raging headache. He’ll stay here all night, he thinks.
It seems the universe has other plans for him, and in a flash of blue Five reappears in his bathroom—he’s changed into a clean uniform, and he’s washed most of the blood off of his face and hands, though he’s missed a few spots on his neck and wrists.
Klaus doesn’t point this out.
“Are you ready to move?” Five questions and Klaus shrugs, not really wanting to get up but sensing that Five is going to make him move anyways.
Five helps him to his bed, and Klaus leans back against the wall, drawing his knees up to his chest and putting his aching head in his hands. Five blinks away for a minute before coming back with the first aid kit in his hands, depositing it on the bed next to Klaus before disappearing yet again, returning with a wet washcloth. Without saying anything, Five begins cleaning the cut on Klaus’ cheek, his touch gentler than Klaus would have ever expected from his usually stoically inclined brother.
“This will need stitches,” Five frowns as he wipes away the blood right around the cut, and Klaus winces in pain.
“Just my luck,” Klaus gives a shaky grin, willing to try anything to break the intensity of the air between them.
It doesn’t work.
As Five stitches the cut together, Klaus sits there wishing any of their other siblings would walk in and help break the tension because Klaus is drowning in it. It’s weighing heavy over both of them and he wishes it would just go away. Five finishes with his cheek and begins putting supplies back into the kit.
Klaus opens his mouth, unable to take the silence any longer.
“Five, I—”
“Klaus, I told you to stay ,” Five cuts him off, glaring down at the first aid kit with so much intensity that Klaus thinks it might explode.
“I—I know,” Klaus nods, biting his bottom lip and staring down at his knees. “I should’ve listened to you, and I’m sorry. My bad.”
There’s another moment of silence before Five sighs, moving to sit on the edge of Klaus’ bed a foot away from Klaus’ legs, staring at the wall and putting his hands on his knees.
“I’ve… I’ve done horrible things,” Five says quietly, and Klaus raises his head to look at him. “Things that I am not proud of. I am a monster in every sense of the word.”
Klaus watches as Five runs a hand through his black hair that’s still tangled with dried blood.
“When I was in the apocalypse, alone with no one but Delores, the only thing keeping me going was getting back to my family. I was willing to do anything it took, to come back and save you all, and when the Handler approached me and offered me a job with the Commission I took it, didn’t even have to think about it,” Five takes a shaky breath, suddenly seeming very young and very small. “Every person I killed, every life I took, I pulled the trigger with ease—because it was what I had to do . I—I have a lot of blood on my hands, and sometimes I can’t wash it off.”
“I know,” Klaus says, and Five twists his head to look at him, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, so Klaus hurries to elaborate. “I see the ghosts—they follow you around. There’s a lot of them.”
“Oh,” Five nods, turning back to the wall. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s okay,” Klaus shrugs, “I’ve learned over the years how to tune them out.”
“The point is, no matter how I may… act, my family is the most important thing to me, and I will go to any lengths necessary to protect it,” Five continues. “Those people back there, they hurt you, and they could’ve gone after any of the others and that is simply unacceptable, so they had to die.”
Klaus swallows thickly as he once again pictures the blood-soaked room in his mind and Five sighs.
“I am not at all sorry for what I did,” Five says firmly, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them and twisting his body to face Klaus. “But I am sorry that you saw it.”
“It’s not a big deal,” Klaus lies because all he can hear is the pleas of the man Five was standing over, the sounds he made as he died with a knife twisted into his throat. “I’m used to it.”
Five just shakes his head, leaning down and rubbing his face with his hands.
“You were afraid of me,” Five whispers, and there’s so much pain in his voice that Klaus can’t help but be startled.
“No, buddy, I…” Klaus searches for words to say, but he comes up empty because the truth is he was afraid.
“Don’t even try to lie—you’re a horrible liar,” Five tells him, shooting him a knowing glance from behind his hands. “I saw the fear on your face—I’ve seen that look on so many people.”
“Five, I was just startled, okay?” Klaus tries to do some damage control, but he doesn’t think it’s working. “Really, it’s okay, bud. Don’t worry about it, it’s fine.”
“It’s not fine , Klaus!” Five snaps, raising his head and gripping his hair in his hands. “Don’t say that it is because it’s not! What good is it to be back with my family if they don’t know that I would never hurt them, no matter what?”
Five removes the hands, setting them down on the blanket.
“You… you know that, right?” Five clenches his jaw as if bracing for an answer he doesn’t want to hear. “That I would never hurt you. Ever .”
“Of course I do,” Klaus assures him as sincerely as possible. Five gives him a knowing look, and Klaus revises his statement. “I do now, at least. I promise. Five, you’re not a monster—Ben and I have seen monsters, and you’re not one of them.”
Five doesn’t seem convinced, so Klaus continues.
“You fought tooth and nail to save us—to save the world . You’re not a monster because you care. ”
Klaus reaches forward to give one of Five’s hands a pat, and his smallest brother manages a small smile to Klaus’ ultimate relief.
“But… we might think about getting you anger management lessons,” Klaus adds, and Ben nods in agreement from the bathroom door. “It could do you some good, bro.”
“Yeah,” Five agrees, and Klaus counts it as a win. “Maybe it could.”
Klaus reaches up to rub at his temple, another burst of pain pulsing through his head. Five slides off the bed, disappearing for a moment, and when he reappears a minute later he has a glass of water in his hand. Klaus takes it gratefully, relishing the cool taste of the liquid—it’s been a long day.
Setting the water on his nightstand, Klaus slides under the covers, not bothering to change his clothes—he’s way too tired and dizzy for that.
“Get some sleep,” Five orders, flipping on the fairy lights, which Klaus thinks is nice of him.
“Can I sleep past one tomorrow?” Klaus asks, a lazy grin spreading across his face.
“Sure,” Five says, his voice fond, and he reaches out to gently pat Klaus’ head a few times.
“Mhm,” Klaus responds, his eyelids slipping closed, but before he allows sleep to pull him in there’s one more thing he has to say, so he reopens them once more. “Hey, Five?”
“Hmm?"
“Thanks. You know, for caring so much.”
“Well someone has to,” Five shrugs. “Keeping you idiots alive is harder than it looks, you know. Now, go to sleep.”
Five blinks away, and Klaus is sure his brother has left for the night, but then Five jumps back into his room, now with a book in his hands. His brother settles down into the desk chair, cracking the book open and flipping through the pages until he lands on the page he was previously on. Klaus falls asleep knowing his brother a little better—the good and the bad.
Klaus thinks he’s better off because of it.