Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The second apocalypse was over! Viktor has integrated back into the family and transitioned, finally his real and true self; the Umbrella Academy was back in action, and everything was going swell!

If you don’t count the fact that Klaus was on his third relapse. He was really trying to stay sober but the ghosts always got the better of him. This time he’d lasted four months. He still saw no sign of Dave and the last straw was seeing one of their old nannies yelling at him to avenge her death, save her, kill Victor. The old woman was using his deadname too, the whore. 

They were always screaming for him to help them. Asking him to set them free, help them move on, blaming him for not being able to do anything, but this time was just so different he couldn’t help but give in. 

Which brings him to the scenario he was currently in. Walking back into their mansion of a house after being gone all night to see his siblings having yet another family meeting without him. He’s not offended; not anymore. It’s been happening for months, him walking into the room, sober or not, to see them all having a family meeting. Talking, laughing, or crying with each other. Sometimes they were just silent, just in each other’s presence. All without Klaus. 

Luther is the first to notice he’s there. The monkey man gives him a look of disappointment and annoyance as he sighs. 

“Really, Klaus? Again.” Everyone turns to him. They can see it, his dilated pupils and relaxed nature. What they can’t see is how much he really was trying, as evident by everyone talking over each other, chastising him and expressing their disappointment. 

“Come on Klaus.” Fair. 

“Are you serious?” Sadly, yes. 

“Four months down the drain.” Yep. 

“I knew it wouldn’t last long.” That one hurt. 

“Come on guys, I’m trying my best here!” Klaus attempted. 

“Yes and clearly your best isn’t good at all. Jesus, Klaus, when are you gonna take this seriously?” Luther complained. 

“What assholes.” Ben, from the corner of the room, commented. He nods in agreement. 

“You guys don’t know what it’s like! The ghosts-” Klaus tried, he was interrupted by Allison. 

“See, Klaus you’re always blaming the ghosts, blaming the drugs. Anyone but yourself as you constantly beg for attention. It’s getting old.” Klaus looks at all of his siblings and can’t help but feel frustrated. He’s angry that they can’t and never will understand, and he tells them that too. 

“You don’t know what it’s like! You can’t understand anything. My power, the ghosts. Why I do what I do. You’ll never get it. None of you.” Klaus sounds defeated as he slumps into a nearby chair. Allison looks at everyone else in the room before her eyes land back on her brothers and she speaks again. 

“Want to bet?” She starts, “I heard a rumor..” protest begins to arise from everyone in the room “..that everyone in this room had Klaus’s ability for 48 hours.” 

At first nothing seems to happen. There is silence from everyone in the room, until Klaus speaks up. 

“This is gonna suck for them.” He looks at Ben, who looks at the rest of his brothers and sister. 

“Agreed.” 

Everyone turned to look at their deceased brother in shock. Ben gave them a little wave and a smile. Klaus groaned. 

Chapter Text

“Ben!?” Diego breaks the silence. Everyone is in varying states of shock. Allison’s lips are parted, Luther and Diego’s eyes are wide. Viktor looks like he’s on the verge of tears, and Five just looks sad. Ben crosses his arms and leans against the wall. 

“You gonna say anything, Benny?” Klaus blinks slowly at his ghostly brother. Ben sighs. 

“I guess I’ll be Mr. Nice ghost.” Klaus laughs. 

“They’re gonna need one.” 

“Hey guys! How you been?” Ben pushes himself off the wall and walks up to his family. Viktor tries to touch him, give him a hug, anything. He fails, his hands going through Ben’s body. 

“Sorry, V. Still dead. But it really is good to actually talk to all of you guys.” The ghost gives them all a genuine warm smile. Allison almost bursts into tears. 

“It’s.. it’s been a long time, huh?” Diego takes in all of Ben’s features, “you grew.” 

“Yeah.. For you guys, yeah.” Ben replied, “I’ve been following Klaus around- watching you guys- since before the first apocalypse.” Allison smiled, her eyes wide with awe. 

“You’ve been watching out for us this whole time!?” Ben nodded. Since the minute he died, Ben had been watching over not only Klaus, but the rest of his siblings. It’s where he’d disappear whenever he wasn’t around Klaus. Watching Allison shooting her movies, Viktor teaching a little girl how to play the violin, Diego playing vigilante. He could never get to the moon though. Nor the future.  

Ben wanted to speak to his sister and brothers more, to catch up and talk to them like old times before he died. His wants meant nothing to the few ghosts that had finally appeared in the room. Once they saw that he was speaking to his living family, they started to screech and scream. 

All of the Hargreeves but Ben and Klaus covered their ears as a man with a gunshot wound between his glazed eyes screamed at Luther for help and revenge. Luther tried to swat the ghost away, which wasn’t very effective considering, ghost. 

“Monkey brain.” Ben comments. Klaus snorts at the comment as his eldest brother attempts to step back or get the ghost away from him.

Another ghost soon appears. There’s two knives shoved into her left eye, blood dripping from the socket and onto her clothes. She eyed Diego and started screaming at him. 

“ YOU KILLED ME!! YOU KILLED ME WHEN YOURE THE ONE WHO SHOULD BE DEAD!! IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!! ” Diego covered his ears and shook his head. 

“What’s happening!?” Viktor questions as more ghosts start to appear in front of him. All of them were dressed neatly. Long aprons wrapped around their dresses. They would have looked perfectly normal if it weren’t for their dislocated or twisted limbs and necks. 

“ YOU DESERVE TO DIE. WHY DID YOU KILL ME. HELP ME! ” They screamed. Others shrieked. Viktor covered his ears and dropped to his knees, closing his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see any of them. 

“Klaus how do you turn it off!!” Five shouted, flinching away one of Luther’s ghosts.

“That’s the thing, Fivey. You can’t.” Klaus shrugs nonchalantly. Clearly he was too used to the deafening shrieks cascading through the house.

All of them look at him, horrified. A deeper understanding of what it is he goes through dawning their thoughts.

“Hey I know, maybe we can go somewhere else. This place has a lot of deaths in its name. We could go to Griddy’s!” Ben suggested. Because that’s his role when it comes to Klaus and his powers. Being there for him, whether he wanted it or not. Distracting him from the other ghosts who scream at him constantly. Giving him someone to talk to when he was all alone. Being a friend. A brother. 

“Yeah. Yeah good idea. Let’s leave. Griddy’s or.. somewhere farther.” Allison said, rushing out the door. The rest quickly followed. Eager to leave the mansion. 

“You coming, Klaus?” Ben asks, looking over to the still relaxed figure. Klaus huffed and pushed himself off the chair. 

“I guess it couldn’t hurt. As long as I’m not paying.” 

“We both know Diego’s gonna be the one to pay. He always does.” 

“Don’t I know it.” The two walked out the door beside each other, meeting the others outside. Allison was flinching away from a ghost with blood dripping down their neck. Their voice was raspy as they tried to speak. 

“How come.. you get to-to live.. and I.. don’t.” The ghost leaned back so far that their head partly disconnected from their neck. The top of their head up lay up against their back as they started screaming. 

“To Griddy’s!” Klaus ushered them all away from the gruesome sight and towards the direction of their favorite nostalgia filled donut shop. 

Griddy’s was always a safe haven for Ben and Klaus.. all their siblings really. Just a small shop where no one knew who they were growing up or just didn’t care. It was just a donut shop. No murders to it’s name which meant no ghosts to follow them inside. On some occasions when Klaus was living on the streets, he’d visit Griddy’s just to have a nice place to sleep. 

The owner was always kind to him. Kinder than his siblings. He’d tell Klaus that it was okay to sleep inside as long as he left before they opened, to which Klaus abided by gratefully. 

Until recently where a dozen or so men all dressed in the same outfit wandered around gruesomely. Silently stalking around the tables and stools. 

“Jesus Christ. Who killed people here!? This was one of the only safe places, away from the ghosts.” Klaus stared inside. Fives face contorted into the tiniest look of guilt before it went back to normal. 

“Where else can we go?” He asked. Ben and Klaus looked at each other and began to contemplate. 

“Aside from a few actually quiet alleyways I don’t think there’s anywhere else.” Klaus shrugged. 

Ben snapped his fingers. 

“We’ll go to a Chuck E. Cheese.” He declared. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. 

“How many people do you think have died in a Chuck E Cheese!?” Ben explained. The others didn’t reply, thinking about the question. 

“I’d say at least eight people.” Diego proclaims  

“Twenty give or take.” Five adds  

“We all agree the mouse did it right?” Luther asks. A collection of nods and agreements. 

“If we were to go to this establishment,” Five started. “How would we get in? It’s for kids isn’t it? How are we going to explain six adults going in there?” 

“Correction. We have five adults and one child.” Diego looked at Five and smirked. Five scowled. 

-

Chuck E. Cheese, can you believe it!? Ben and his siblings were hanging out in a Chuck E. Cheese. Allison ordered a pizza for them all and they sat down to talk. No ghosts, aside from Ben, were around. Only hyperactive children and their exhausted or excited parents. 

Klaus wanted to have some fun and play, so he dragged a begrudging Five towards the arcade games. A perfect distraction for him so they could all talk about him and his powers. 

The conversation started with rough whisper yelling as they all cursed Allison for making them experience this hell followed by Allison’s profuse apologizing followed by them cursing themselves for all the years of belittling and bullying Klaus for his powers and the drugs. 

“We’re assholes.” Luther started. 

“He goes through this constantly. Every single minute of every single day.” Allison sighs. 

“Ben.. how does he do it?” Diego looks at their ghost sibling. Everyone else stares at him as well, wanting- needing answers. 

“He distracts himself. All the time. He plays that loud music so he doesn’t hear the shrieks. He annoys you- us so he can focus on someone else instead of the dead guy in the room with his brains blown out,” Ben has a far off look on his face, “and he does drugs so they go away.” They all looked down in shame. 

“We’ve been such assholes.” Luther repeats. He can’t seem to stop saying that and the others can’t stop the looks of shame, regret, and guilt from appearing on their faces. 

“During your funeral, he said you were there.” Allison said through teary eyes. Ben winced at the memory. They made it very clear to Klaus that they didn’t believe him. That they believed he was using their dead brother to seek attention at his own funeral. Their judgement was too clouded by their grief to even think twice about how Klaus would never lie about Ben. Ben and Klaus were just as close when they were both living as they were when one died. 

Everyone put their heads down on the table. Luther wistfully took a slice of pizza and took slow and even sadder bites. 

“Why are you guys crying?” A little girl walked up to the table and peeked at all the adults there, all except for Ben. Allison lifted her head and looked at the little girl, giving her a smile. 

“It’s okay, sweetie. We’re just having an adult talk. Where are your parents? You should go find them.” Her maternal voice comes out as she speaks to the child, who Ben now notices is grasping tightly onto a teddy bear. 

“I don’t know where they are. I can’t find them. Can you help me find them?” Allison nods. Ben thinks it’ll be good for her to distract herself. For all of them. It’s good that they’re realizing how shitty they’ve been and soon they’re all going to need to talk and apologize to Klaus about it. But for now Klaus seems to be enjoying the game of skee-ball with Five so Ben will try to cheer everyone else up and get them to enjoy themselves. 

Allison stands up and reaches for the little girl's hand. It passes through her. 

Oh shit. 

“Help me, Allison. Please help me find my parents. Help me, HELP ME!!” The little girl screams. Allison staggers back, physically distraught. Ben finally notices the little girl's feet. She’s not wearing shoes, that’s not exactly true. Her shoes have melted into her feet, which are red and covered in blisters. A huge chunk of skin on her left foot is gone. 

“It hurts, Allison! Help me!” Ben turns to Allison, who’s got tears falling down her face now. 

“Breathe, Ally!“ Ben speaks in a calm and relaxed tone, “ignore her and look at me. Everyone look at me.” Their deceased brother could see everyone on the verge of a breakdown at seeing Allison crying at the dead little girl in chuck e cheese. They were shocked to see it themselves, staring at the little girl. 

“Everyone look at me, okay.” Ben repeats calmly again. Everyone slowly tears their eyes off the girl and looks at Ben. 

“Take deep breaths with me, okay?” He breathes in and out slowly and waits for them to mimic him. They start too and the little girl screams louder. 

“Okay let’s leave. This wasn’t much of a good idea, come on guys,” Ben ushers them to sit up and go outside. All of them rush out of the building but Allison and Ben. Allison seems to be frozen in shock, with tears falling down her face. 

“Come on, Ally. Let’s get you out of here.” Ben tries to coax her into leaving but his attempts fall on deaf ears. 

“Ally..” he makes his way to touch her shoulder, knowing it may not succeed, yet it does. He grabs onto her shoulder and jolts her out of whatever trance she’s in. Before she can react he quickly glides his hand to hers and grasps onto it tightly. Ben takes his sister and runs out of the door. 

The rest of his siblings look shocked. Viktor speaks first. Then they all speak over each other. 

“Ben did you just-” 

“Ally are you okay?”

“Was it Allison!?” 

“I’m gonna go back in and get Klaus and Five. Take care of her for me, guys.” Ben runs back into the Chuck E. Cheese to see Klaus pulling thousands of tickets out of Five’s skee-ball machine. 

“We’re gonna get the best prizes with all these, Fivey.” 

“Like I said, buy whatever you want, but make sure you save a little something for me.” 

“It’s a deal.” 

“Hey guys!” Ben waves and the two of them turn around. Klaus waves at Ben and Five raises his eyebrow. 

“Is there a problem?” He speculates. 

“Turns out Chuck E. Cheese does have a death, maybe two, to it’s name.” Ben informs. Klaus gasps dramatically and whispers 'Scandal’ while Five proclaims that he’s not surprised.  

“We all decided to just leave early. Go back home and try to deal.” 

“Fine Benerino. Let me buy something with these tickets though.” Klaus begins walking to the ticket machines. 

“Make sure to meet us outside, Klaus!” The man salutes him as he continues walking. 

“Shall we?” Five says. Ben nods and they leave the establishment to wait on Klaus. 

Chapter Text

“I heard a rumor that you went away!” Allison yells through her room. When they returned to the mansion she immediately went up to her room where she was met with a dozen ghosts. Most of them had clean wounds. A simple gunshot to the head, a simple slash at the throat. Others were more macabre. Some had their heads bashed in by baseball bats and spiked maces. One had an axe trapped in the center of his chest. They were all moaning and wailing and berating Allison. Telling her to help them or asking her why she killed them or telling her to die. It was so much. She caved and tried to rumor them away. It didn’t work. 

“I heard a rumor that you left me alone! LEAVE ME ALONE!” She screams. Allison bursts into tears and covers her ears. She falls to the floor beside her bed and begs the ghosts to leave her alone. She screams apologies at them. All of it is too much. The noise, the wounds, the fact that it’s her fault. Always her fault. 

Something touches her shoulder and she jumps. In front of the ghosts is Klaus. He’s looking at her with sympathy and a bottle of whiskey in his hand. 

“Did I scare you!?” He asked, sitting on the floor beside her. Allison takes the bottle and scoots over to let him sit beside her. 

“It’s not you, Klaus.” She sighs and opens the bottle. 

“Go on, it helps with the ghosts.” Allison looks at him skeptically before hearing one more ghost scream her name. She decides ‘oh what the hell’ and takes a giant swig of the liquid. 

“Woah Woah Woah, save some for me.” Klaus jokes. Allison puts the bottle down. 

“I’m sorry.” She says. 

“I was just joking, sis. Take the whole thing if you want. I heard the screaming and then I heard you screaming. I don’t think the others can differentiate your screaming from the ghosts, so I decided to be a good brother for once and help out the big sis.” He explains. Allison looks at him with sorrow. 

“You’ve always been a good brother, Klaus. You’ve never been bad. It was all us. Always us..” they drift into a sort of awkward silence, Klaus not knowing how to respond to Allison’s words. Allison takes another swig of the drink and the ghosts start to quiet down. 

They sit in each other’s company for minutes, the awkward silence turning into a comfortable one. Just being in each other’s presence makes Allison feel better. She wonders if this is what Klaus felt like whenever Ben was around, but couldn’t do anything. When he bothered any of them and all they’d done was tell him to be quiet. 

Allison takes another sip and she suddenly becomes aware that she can’t see nearly as many ghosts now. It’s not like they just leave the room, she looks at the bottle and then looks at Klaus inquisitively. 

“I told you, it helps.” 

“Yeah but not to this extent, Klaus. Jeez I’m so sorry. No wonder you became an addict.” Klaus just giggles and shrugs. 

“It’s not your fault. It’s not any of your faults.” 

“Yes, Klaus. It is. We weren’t there for you. We could have helped you.” Allison puts down the bottle and gives Klaus a giant hug. She feels him sink into it like he hasn’t had one in a long time. He craves it. She hugs him harder, squeezing the life out of him. 

“Okay, Ally. We get it, ya love me.” Allison stays hugging him for a few more seconds before she lets go, allowing Klaus to breathe again. 

Allison looks at her younger brother and sees the tiniest wince come from his body. She knows she shouldn’t, but she picks up the bottle and holds it out to him. Klaus looks at it and shakes his head. 

“No no, don’t tempt me Ally. I only brought it for you. You need it more than I do.” 

“It’s not good that you’re an addict.” Allison starts, “but it helps you in ways we never could have begun to imagine. And I can see now that you’re really, really trying.” She looks at her little brother with sad eyes and a heavy heart. 

“I’m so sorry that none of us noticed or had the ability to help or even tried to comprehend it. We treated you like shit. And no one deserves that.” Before Klaus can open his mouth, Allison continues. 

“You’re important to us, Klaus. Even if we never acted like it before. You’re not just some druggie addict. You’re our kind and caring brother who is really trying. And we will start helping you through this. Something we should have been doing the entire time.” Before she can continue on, Klaus holds his hand up telling her to stop. He gives her a genuine smile.

“Thanks, Ally. It’s okay, I promise. I still love you and everyone else. How could I not?” Allison tears up again and starts crying. She really did not deserve Klaus. None of them did. Klaus leans in and gives her another hug and she accepts it again. 

“It feels like Viktor all over again.” She sniffs. Klaus stiffens at that and Allison looks up to see why. His face is unreadable. 

“Klaus? Are you okay?” She questions. He smiles at her, less genuine than the last one. “What’s wrong? You can talk to me, Klaus.” There is silence before he finally decides to speak. 

“Ally, Viktor has been through way more than me. I don’t think my shit should be compared to that. I deal with a few ghosts here and there, that’s nowhere near his scale.”

If Allison’s heart was broken before, it was completely shattered now. At the realization that Klaus thought this was just some tiny thing. The realization that it was their family to do that to him. Her actions. 

“Klaus-”

“It’s okay, Ally, really. Just, Viktor was isolated his entire life, y’know? And then he destroyed the world, found love, had to leave it. So much shit has happened to him. There’s no room for me to complain about anything. You- everyone has said that to me at least twice.” He takes a breath, “And I know that you’re sorry. That I am important to you guys, really. I do.” 

“Klaus, don’t compare your trauma to Viktor’s, or mine, or anyone. Your shit is still bad and we were being shitty siblings for having those delusions. You have so much to complain about and we were so rude to you, Klaus I’m so sorry. So so sorry that you’ve felt like this.” 

Klaus looked at her and tried to give another genuine smile, but he failed at doing so. At least, Allison knew it was fake. 

“Klaus..” 

“I think I hear Ben calling me. Better go see what he wants.” Klaus stood up and left Allison alone in her room with the ghosts. 

She took another swig of the alcohol and the last few really bothersome ghosts went away, leaving only the ones who would just stand and stare at seemingly nothing. 

Luther walks to her doorway minutes later. He flinches back at a ghost’s scream she can’t even hear anymore. 

“Hey, how are you doing with this?” He says, leaning against said doorway. Allison just stares at the only ghost in her line of vision.

“This family is fucked.” Luther nods at the door. 

“I can’t exactly disagree. Dad fucked us all up.” 

“I’m not talking about dad, Luther. He’s gone. It’s us. We keep fucking this whole family thing up. First, we all leave out Viktor, fucked him up so bad he destroyed the entire earth . Now Klaus..” Allison puts her head between her knees. 

“What’s wrong with us? Why can’t we be a normal and functional family.” She can hear Luther walk toward her and take a seat where Klaus sat before he left. 

“As much as it sucks to say it, we’re not normal, Allison.” He pauses before continuing, “If it makes you feel better, I’m sure every family is at least a little fucked up. But we are all trying. We worked with Viktor and got through all of that shit, so we’re gonna work with Klaus and get through his.”

Allison nods.

“I’m gonna get going.” Luther says, standing abruptly.

“Where you going?” She asks. 

“Anywhere but here.” He speaks and points at an empty space. She looks at the space and then back at him and gives a hesitant nod. 

“Understandable.” She says, guessing whatever ghost he’s talking about isn’t being so kind. He looks at her with a confused expression on his face before making his exit. 

Allison promises to look after her brothers more. All of them. They have to stop leaving their siblings behind. Stop fucking up their family. 

It will all stop. They are all going to heal.

Hopefully then, their fucked up family won’t be so fucked anymore.