Chapter Text
Klaus's POV
A flash of blue light filled the room.
"Shit!" Klaus closed his eyes and jumped back from where he had been sitting on his floor. When he opened them again he was met with the sight of an absolutely drenched Five Hargreeves himself standing shakily in front of him. "What the fuck, Five?" He wiped one hand down his face and placed the other on his chest to feel his racing heart.
He looked up to Five again and sighed "Why are you- Five?" Getting a better look at his brother, he noticed the paleness of his skin and the distant look in his eyes, looking right through him. "Five, you okay buddy?" He hoped the nickname would provoke some sort of rise out of the old man but still there was no reaction, only a slow blink.
With his arm tucked tightly against his torso, Klaus hoped it wasn't broken, Five began to sway on his feet and his head tipped forward slightly. Klaus quickly stood up "Fivey? Kiddo?" He held his arms out and gently brushed against the boy's skin, almost recoiling at the cold of it, it was a good thing he didn't because barely seconds after touching his arm, Five listed bonelessly sideways into him. He scrambled to make sure his brother didn't hurt himself tumbling to the ground and ended up being dragged down with him.
Seriously freaking out now, Klaus laid him down and began tapping his cheek. He noted Five's blue tinged lips and how the ghostliness of his skin brought out the dark purple smudges under his eyes, the kid really needed to sleep more. "Come on kiddo, wake up for me." He checked his pulse and found it slower than it should be but very much there. His breaths came out wheezy and choked but at least he was breathing.
He nearly jumped out of his skin when something moved under Five's blazer that now clung tightly to his skin with icy water. He would have just left it, his priority being trying to wake up his brother, had the shifting lump not then let out a soft "Woof!"
He tentatively pulled the navy fabric open and was met with an equally drenched and freezing puppy jumping at him. He nearly fell backwards as it started licking his face "Awww, hello little fella." He picked it up off his chest and placed it in his lap. Right, his brother.
But when he looked up to check on him he saw Five's bright, albeit glossy and tired, eyes staring back at him.
"He was in the lake at the park, I couldn't just leave him." His teeth were chattering and he seemed to be struggling to keep his eyes open, but he was awake now and shivering was a good sign.
"You're such an idiot," but Klaus couldn't help the fond smile making it's way on his face. As far as he knew, Diego was the only other person home currently and he was baking with Grace in the kitchen. "You stay right here, I'm gonna get help."
"Not exactly going anywhere in this state, am I?" Five retorted back but his tone had none of it's usual bite to it.
Klaus shook his head and opened the door. "I don't know, never can trust you with sitting still when needed to." With that he slipped through the door and quickened his pace. Despite his calm demeanour he was still freaking out inside, his brother had just teleported into his room completely soaked and hypothermic and promptly collapsed on him. Sure he seemed to be talking fine and was shivering but he hadn't been when he came in, how long must he have been in the water for?
Taking the stairs two at a time, Klaus bolted to the kitchen and barely skidded to a stop to not crash right into Grace holding a tray of uncooked cookie dough. He barely spared a glance at Diego stood at the sink washing up a bowl to check he was there, "Upstairs, my room now, it's Five."
And he was already off, bounding up the stairs once more. "And bring blankets, anything to warm him up!" All his words came out breathy and forced, goddamn Five being the only sibling able to teleport. Instead of going back to his room, he went straight to Five's to grab dry clothes and blankets.
Caring little for the mess he made, he ripped the duvet off of the bed and tucked the pillow under his arm. Running to the closet and throwing it open he found only multiple sets of academy uniform and pajamas, the only non uniformed thing in there was a t-shirt that had clearly been stolen from Luther's room looking at the size of it. A shopping trip was definitely a must, if anything he was surprised Allison hadn't already dragged the kid on one.
He didn't bother to close the closet doors, just running from the room back to his, just in time to see Diego and Grace running up the stairs with blankets and hot water bottles, Grace also had a steaming mug of something in her hand. Poor Five would hope for coffee but it was probably some tea concoction to warm him through and prevent sickness. "What the fuck is actually going on?" Diego asked as the three of them headed to Klaus's room.
"Five may or may not have jumped into a freezing lake in the middle of winter and we very much need to buy him some warmer clothes."
Diego stopped in his tracks and stared at him as if he had grown two heads, knowing the family and their daily dances with the extraordinary he very much could have, "Five jumped into a fucking lake?"
"Yes that's what I just said now come on!" He grabbed Diego's arm and dragged him along until he was sure they were all hurrying again, Klaus did not have time or the patience to explain why their child brother decided the middle of winter was an excellent time for a swim.
Once they made it back to Klaus's room they found Five still laying exactly where he had left him, but his eyes were closed again and the puppy was nowhere to be seen. Klaus didn't worry about that for now, dropping to his knees and slapping the boy's face like he had the first time he passed out. Trust Five to take 'Don't go anywhere' to heart.
Once again he didn't wake up, his head simply lolling to the side. He didn't look much better, his lips weren't blue anymore but he still had no colour to him, his normally rosy cheeks were still deathly pale.
"Shit, Five." Diego whispered from beside him, he hadn't even noticed the man dropping to his knees on the other side of Five, "Mom can you run a bath? Make sure it's not too hot."
"Of course." Grace crouched and gently placed the blankets and hot water bottles down next to Diego before spinning on her heel out of the room. A few seconds later you could hear the taps flowing and the pipes groaning from the nearest bathroom.
Klaus put his things down too and walked to his closet to search for some warm clothes, seeing as Five's were a fail. He plucked out an oversized red hoodie and grey sweatpants; he knew Five prefers to wear layers, something to do with them making him feel safer after the apocalypse, and so grabbed a long sleeved t-shirt as well.
Diego had him out of his blazer, jumper, tie and shirt and was in the process of placing a hot water bottle under each armpit. At some point he had lifted the boy up and onto a laid out blanket and likely planned to wrap him up in it when he was done.
Five began to stir and let out a strained groan, he quickly stiffened when he felt Diego's hands on him and struck out without even opening his eyes. Diego jolted back and cupped his noise "Jesus, Five! I'm helping you."
"Diego?" His eyes flickered open as he shuffled back in momentary fear, he shifted his elbows under him, barely holding up his weight. "How long was I out?" His arms began to tremble so he allowed himself to lay down again now that he was aware of his surroundings.
"Hello, I'm here too asshole." Klaus lowered himself to the ground and pulled the now crinkled blanket straight again, then wrapped one side around Five's torso, tucking it in and repeating the process with the other side. "No idea how long, you were out before we got back."
Five wrestled his arms out of the blanket burrito and kicked out with his legs, refusing to be tucked in like a child. "Where's Mr. Pennycrumb?" Shuffling backwards more, he managed to scoot towards Klaus's bed and propped himself up on it.
"You gave it a name?"
"Gave what a name?" Diego was now more confused than he had been at the original news that Five had jumped into a frozen lake.
Grace chose the perfect moment then to pop around the corner, "Oh good, you're awake. I've prepared a nice warm bath for you, come now." She stepped forward and took both of Five's hands, hauling him up before he could even protest. "You two can wait here, I can manage."
Five was seemed indefinitely weaker than he wanted to let on; he gave no sign of argument against Grace, rather choosing to lean most of his weight on her, though possibly unwillingly from the way his knees trembled and threatened to give out.
Once the worse for wear brother was out of the room, Diego turned to Klaus with a determined expression. "Explain, now. Out with it."
"And now we have a puppy."
The rest of the five siblings', all crowded together on one couch, stares switched back and forth from Five huddled in an armchair, wrapped in many blankets with a puppy on his lap; to Klaus stood behind the chair looking quite proud of himself.
"Why didn't you just call the police?" Allison asked, being the first to come to her senses.
"As I've said multiple times now, I had no idea how long the puppy had been in the water for, it was better to just save it rather than waste time getting help." Five sighed and massaged his head, they had gone over this multiple times and for some reason his idiotic siblings just could not understand it.
"So what you're saying is, you didn't think?" Allison said, a small smile tugging at her lips.
"Fuck off, Allison." Five spat back, he was really growing sick of his siblings making fun of him.
"It was pretty brave what you did, Five." Vanya, seated on the couch arm next to Allison, complimented, seemingly the only sibling who had any sense to attempt to save his dignity.
Luther scoffed, "Brave? Stupid more like, he could have drowned." He was sat on the other side of Allison, in the middle of the couch, there was a little space between him and Diego that they were all convinced Ben was sitting in. Klaus didn't have the heart to force Ben to sit between the fighting brothers nor did he have the heart to tell them otherwise.
"He has a name and is right in front of you. I knew what I was doing."
Klaus snorted and leant on the back of the armchair to ruffle Five's damp hair into messy spikes while he was out of murdering range, "Please. Why can't you just admit you saw a cute puppy and didn't think, just accept that you're a giant sap for puppies. We all are!"
Five nearly grabbed Klaus's wrist out of retaliation, but with his movements still being sluggish he barely scratched his finger. "Just leave me alone, I'm tired and I have a headache," he gritted out, he would try anything if it got his siblings to shut up.
His fingers twitched as if he wanted to curl them into a fist, but he chose instead to gently stroke Mr. Pennycrumb's fluffed up head. After he had warmed up enough in the bath and gotten changed into Klaus's clothes, the two of them had elected to give Mr. Pennycrumb a bath too, though Klaus did most of the work as Five nearly fell asleep with his head heading towards the bath water.
The puppy hadn't needed the bath for warmth as much as Five, seeing as they found him curled up in one of Klaus's spare blankets, under his bed next to his radiator, but the mud drying in it's fur gave them the other reason to bathe him.
"Wow, did anyone catch that on video? Five Hargreeves admitting to being tired and in pain?" Diego teased, earning himself a death glare from the child himself. "I'm shocked, truly, I must be dreaming."
Five refrained from shoving a vulgar gesture in Diego's face. If he wasn't pinned down by a puppy currently he would teleport over there simply to punch his brother. Of course, that was definitely the reason, definitely not because he was exhausted and wasn't even sure if he could spatial jump two feet.
Allison stood up from in between her siblings and walked over to sit on the arm of Five's armchair, who begrudgingly let her despite wanting so desperately to shove her off. "Is no one going to talk about how cute it is that Five, our murderous, assassin, baby brother saved a puppy?"
And there were the offending words. Everyone, even Vanya, started calling Five cute and and commenting on how they never saw that coming.
It went back and forth for several minutes, all the while Five just wanted to sink into the armchair and never return. That was, until..
Achoo!
All eyes were on Five once more and he could see the exact moment they all processed what had just happened.
"Awwwww."