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Well, today had been something. Training had been long, hours in fact. None of them really catching a break. And along with not catching a break, Klaus wasn’t catching his breath.
He was still breathing, of course. He was alive.
He was just… Struggling, something that had been happening a lot lately. Days where after running too long when practising exercise, or testing a new way to channel his powers…
The breath that he lost didn’t seem to return, not as easy as Luther’s did, or Diegos. Maybe it was something to do with how athletic they were in general. Luther's powers had to mean he was in good health, right?
And Diego had to do a lot of training and throwing things, he wasn’t just born good at aiming. Or, he kind of was. Just… Before, when they were younger, his targets wouldn’t always hit their destination.
But after all the exercise and training, they did.
Doing all of this stuff is meant to make you stronger, that’s what their Dad had told them. That all of this would pay off, and make them better. Make them greater heroes than they already were, and they were weak now.
Which yes, even included Luther and Diego. W
Which meant Klaus had a lot of catching up to do, he needed to train more so that he could breathe easier because sometimes it felt like he was choking. That no matter what he did, he couldn’t get any more air in.
When he mentioned being out of breath, it was joked about that he was simply, ‘out of shape’. Or inexperienced, it somehow felt worse than that.
Something felt wrong.
It’s at the dinner table that everything goes to shit.
Family dinner times, a lovingly tense , uncomfortable forty-five minutes where all of them are forced to sit together in silence and eat their meals.
He had no clue why Reginald made them stay. Clearly, the man hated when other people ate, or at least when children ate, all of them being forced to learn how to use utensils properly , as young as they remember. And not to mention the whole… Etiquette thing. Such as using the correct spoon, and how to drink properly…
It was stupid, and so was how he was feeling.
He hadn’t even done anything strange to be feeling like this. He hadn’t done too much running today, the mission that they had been called for didn’t require it. It was a simple case of getting Allison to rumour the men while Luther battered them.
Hell, the rest of them weren’t even needed . He never did anything on missions anyway .
So why was his chest feeling so funny?
Klaus poked at his food, the idea of swallowing anything, those few seconds of not being able to breathe while he already felt like he was choking…? That sounded like a death sentence.
Perhaps it was, maybe this whole… Sensation, was something that Reginald had caused, as a way to test new powers of his, it wouldn’t have been the first time.
And perhaps he had been playing with his food for too long, as for some stupid reason, his dull stabbing at the plate managed to catch the attention of their Father. The prick who was usually never this observant to dumb idling, until now apparently.
“Number Four?” Klaus felt the gaze of his siblings fall upon him, despite their discreetness he knew they were all staring, probably wondering what he could’ve possibly done to get addressed during dinner?
“Yes, Father?” He couldn’t tell if his own tone was coming out as sarcastic or not, but it tended to do that even when he didn’t mean to. But right now he wasn’t exactly focusing on his voice.
“Does something appear to be wrong with the food?” Klaus opened his mouth to speak.
“No… I-”
“Then quit playing with your meal as if you were a toddler.” Ironic, they weren’t allowed to play like toddlers, even back then he was sure it was still some sort of… Baby training, however you do that..
Klaus nodded, hovering the fork over his carrots, he stabbed in the food but made no effort to move it to his mouth. He just… Froze, holding the fork in place, his hands were shaking .
“ Well? What’s the issue, Number Four?”
He shook his head, everyone was staring at him now. He didn’t care.
The fork clattered to the ground.
He was gasping.
His siblings were at his side. Alison was shaking him, and five had blinked next to him.
Somebody was yelling something in his ear, or maybe both of them were. He wasn’t focusing on their voices.
He wasn’t focusing on anything . Save for the air that had now completely escaped his lips.
He was choking, he couldn’t breathe. Before he could be brushed off as being dramatic, because then he was still getting air , but now? None of that. With each desperate breath and crackling cough in an attempt to get anything into his lungs, it wasn’t working.
Nothing was working.
The others were gone, at least that’s what he thought. In his bleary panicked vision as his eyes darted around the room, it looked as if everyone had left, or they were out of his eye line.
Five was pulling on him, shaking him firmly by the shoulders, trying to get him to focus? Or maybe stand up…? Klaus didn’t want to do any of those things.
Five grabbed his sibling's head, forcing Klaus to look at Allison, who stared at him, her eyes wide with fear, her mouth was moving. And Klaus heard the words.
“I heard a rumour, you started breathing!”
Everyone was staring at Klaus,
“Yes, Father?” He spoke, they could all sense the sarcastic tone lacing the way he spoke. Their Dad seemed to be unphased and unamused by it, questioning why the boy didn’t seem to be touching his food.
Strange, but it wasn’t interesting. They discreetly watched as their brother tried to answer, only to be cut off by their Father.
He’d referenced the way Klaus was behaving to one of a toddlers, fitting for the most part but Klaus was hardly, playing with it.
Hell, he was hardly even touching the food at all.
Ben at his side, gave a bit of an odd look before reverting his eyes to staring back at his plate as he noticed his eyes had also met their Fathers.
He was sure their Dad was about to comment on why everyone was staring like their Brother was some sort of attraction when the others saw it.
The subtly increasing shake in Klaus’s fingers until the silver fork clattered to the ground, ringing loudly as it hit the floor.
And so did Klaus.
The others were understandably stunned for a few seconds, before the siblings stood, some in curiosity some in concern about what the Hell had just happened.
Klaus was gasping , gasping as if he’d never breathed once in his life.
Their Father was walking away.
Their Father was leaving the room.
Which meant the siblings were allowed to fall into an unsupervised panic.
“Shit! ” Allison spat out as she glanced over at her brother, he was sitting up on the ground. The gasping sounds now growing more desperate as he banged his fist on the floor, as if somehow hitting it was going to make his airways open.
The airless coughing was getting more desperate, it wasn’t even coughs . Just the sound of air. Ben Jumped as Five blinked to Klaus’s side.
He turned to Allison practically yelling, “ Do something!”
Ben, Diego and Vanya had all sprinted from the room, presumably to find Grace, or Pogo, or anyone who’d know what to do to save their brother from whatever airless Hell he was trapped in.
“Breath Klaus!” Five snapped in a panic, he wasn’t angry. Hell, he was the furthest thing from angry, he just wanted his brother to breathe . To make one noise which wasn’t the desperate sounds of choking.
“Allison, Rumor him!” He snapped, Allison’s eyes darted around the room, Luther was standing, ready to scoop Klaus up at any moment.
Klaus wasn’t focusing on them. He wasn’t listening to them.
Five was kneeling next to Klaus, shaking him. Trying to get his attention, Allison doing the same. Klaus’s eyes didn’t fall upon them, he was likely too focused on himself.
Five reached over and grabbed Klaus’s chin tightly, forcing it to look in the Direction of Allison. His eyes stared at her, desperate. As if he depended on her as his last hope for survival.
She hesitated, for half a second before trying.
“I heard a rumour, you started breathing!”
Klaus’s eyes rolled back, his body going limp. The three were terrified.
The longest most intense silence of their lives, before the blissful sound of an unconscious inhale, followed by the longest exhale they’d ever heard.
They’d all sighed in relief, Holy shit . It worked.
“Can- Should I pick him up?” Luther questioned, his hands hovering about their brother cautiously, as if the slightest mistake would take his breath away.
Allison glanced at Five, who nodded.
Luther effortlessly lifted their brother into his arms, in time to see Ben sprinting back, telling them to get Klaus to the infirmary. And God , they ran.
“Holy shit, what was that?” Klaus huffed exasperatedly, his voice sounded worried for once. It was scary.
Allison shook her head, unknowing. “It was terrifying , that’s what it was.” None of them disagreeing.
Five blinked forward to open the door, to save even a few seconds of trouble because to them, they were convinced their brother had died right there , and they never wanted to experience that again.
Everyone was there, Pogo, Dad and Grace.
And all of the others. Luther was instructed to lower Klaus carefully onto the medical table. And that about used up all of their usefulness.
They were quickly ‘motivated’ to clear the room and return to their bedrooms, which all of them hesitated before Reginald exasperatedly repeated himself in a far more sterner tone.
“ You , Number Three.” He spoke, before she was able to leave, “Come here.”
Allison walked forward, staring at her brother's rising chest, she looked to their Father, unsure of why she’d been called.
“What did you do?” It was a simple question, yet one she didn’t know the answer for. She knew he wouldn’t be pleased with the answer she gave, but she tried anyway.
“I rumoured him to start breathing.” She spoke honestly, she herself didn’t think it was going to work. That was like telling someone dead to just… Come back to life. But Klaus wasn’t dead, so maybe that was the difference.
“Wake him.” He spoke, certain. She hesitantly looked over at her brother, she didn’t want to. What if it happened again? What if he started dying again? Had he even been dying the first time?
“Number Three, I am growing tired of repeating myself, are you going to wake your brother, or must I do it myself?”
“I’ll do it…” She mumbled, which he sent a look for. He didn’t like mumbling, not in the slightest.
“Klaus?” He didn’t like names, either. “You need to- I heard a rumour… that you woke up.”
Klaus had gasped again, Holy shit he felt like shit. He felt like he’d just tried to expel smoke from his lungs, but without the smoke part.
His eyes darted once again, scanning the room, until they fell upon his sister! … And their Father.
“Wha’ ‘appened?” He muttered, his throat feeling raw .
“I wish to know that myself, you had a little incident at dinner.” Reginald turned to Allison, “That was all I needed to know, you are excused.” Allison bit back a glare, freezing for a few moments before finally retreating.
Klaus didn’t like the tension in the room. Reginald was looking at him, Mom was… Doing something with needles and tubes and Pogo was touching some kind of medical device.
“You almost stopped breathing, Number Four.” Ah yes, he thinks he recalls that. The whole choking on air thing was rather traumatizing.
“It’s a shame, I’d have thought one with your abilities would be exempt from any… Conditions. ” Conditions? What did that mean…? And what did he mean with abilities?
“Pogo is to check you over while I deal with the aftermath of your disruption. ” Oh… He was so sorry that this inconvenienced him.
And he was gone again.
Pogo approached him, “Klaus.” He greeted, he liked that. It was nice when he wasn’t being referred to by his number by an adult. “Are you alright?” Wow, first time someone had asked that since whatever happened.
“I’m… Breathing. ” Hopefully that was enough of an answer.
“I’m glad.” He nodded, turning to the table to reach for something, ah. A stethoscope, those always looked cool. But they were cold. It was currently being put on, and the end was being guided towards his chest.
Pogo looked at him expectantly, and Klaus realized that, ah . Maybe Pogo wanted him to undo the uniform. Yeah, that makes sense.
So he did, and he couldn’t help but wince as the coolness of the steel hissed against his skin, yup. Still freezing. Pogo gave a slight glance to Klaus as he listened, instructing him to just, ‘breathe normally’. So he tried, as normally as he could muster.
Pogo made a humming sound and frowned, shifting the scope. It was still cold, but not as unbearable as before.
Pogo didn’t seem to be happy with whatever he was hearing, Klaus began to look nervous as the chimp started asking questions. “Have you been having difficulties with breathing before?”
“Yeah- Uh, thought it was just because I’m unhealthy.” He quipped, grinning slightly. Pogo didn’t smile back.
“You are healthy, that’s the issue.” Well, that likely wasn’t good. “How long?”
“A few… Months?” Pogo had no traces of pleasure, none at all.
“You really should’ve come here sooner.” He tutted, removing the stethoscope, turning to Grace. Who had a kind smile on her face. “Grace, could you fetch me the flow meter?” She nodded, effortlessly finding it and placing it into his palm.
“I’ll need you to breathe into this, whatever Allison has done to you seems to have worked, but I just need to be sure.” Be sure of what? Nobody was answering anything .
Grace was standing next to Klaus now, as a way of comfort or… Support maybe? It wasn’t doing much to calm him, and the fact she was standing here just… Waiting , it made him feel more nervous if anything.
Klaus breathed into the oversized chunk of plastic. It had a large sticker on the side of it, marking green, yellow and red. As he tried to breathe normally, he realized he couldn’t breathe as forceful as he could.
The marker stayed barely in the red, right on the line of crossing over to yellow.
Grace reassuringly patted his hair. And he reassuringly pushed it away.
The hand didn’t return.
Pogo reached for the small tool, taking it from Klaus’s mouth. He glanced at it, before speaking.
“We seem to have figured out the problem, now.” Pogo nodded, walking over to where Mom had just organised, he was fumbling for something, before Grace helpfully picked it up and handed it to him.
Klaus was getting tired of the guessing games. “So what’s wrong with me? Am I gonna start dying again?” A normal question, really.
“You’re not going to, ‘start dying’. But you do have Asthma, so you’ll be exempt from any extreme-prolonged training.” Wait, missing out on training? That sounded amazing! Okay, he could handle the dying sensation for a bit if it meant that.
“ And , you’re to use this.” Pogo placed something firmly into Klaus’s hand, he looked down. It was a blue-ish tube. There was a button at the top of it, which Klaus almost instinctively pressed, but refrained.
“Whenever you experience any… Shortness of breath, bad coughing, wheezing or your chest feels tight, use this. And return to the infirmary, just to be safe.” This definitely sounds like something he’d be able to abuse.
He wouldn’t mess up this beautiful scapegoat yet though.
“And what if it doesn’t work? Or I don’t have it?” A lot of questions today, it seems.
“You will, we’ll make sure there’s always one available.” Sure, definitely. It was an open lie, there was no way they’d be bothered. Klaus nodded.
“You’re free to go, go see the others.” Pogo instructed, which they knew meant, ‘go get back to whatever Reginald wants you to do’. He left, Mom flashing him a smile.
“Did you die?” Ben sat in Klaus’s chair, as the other was laid on the bed.
“Yeah, I’m totally a ghost now. Ooooo.” Wiggling his fingers in ghost-like fashion. Ben beamed back at him.
“Glad you're not dead.” Klaus snorted at that.
“ Me too, glad you're not dead either.”