Chapter Text
Klaus wasn’t sure when it started, this overly protective crap that seemed so stupid. Maybe it was the day Five came back, but it was hard to tell. He didn’t want to admit it, he never did in reality. But Five was just so little, so small, so fragile. He knew Five felt differently from pretty much constantly, but maybe it was the constant reminder of the torture his father was putting him through at 13 that made Klaus want to fix Five. Fix wasn’t the right word either, but maybe show him he didn’t need to be strong? Maybe he wanted to show him he was truly abused as a child and he can make it better now. It couldn’t be that first day though, he wasn’t sober for Five. He got Sober for Five. He would never admit it, a huge part of it was to be able to see Dave, but someone had to raise Five. Well, half raise Five. He could fear the small patter of Five’s feet yet, he was laying on his bed listening to the small genius work. Noise in absolute silence was something Klaus had been very good at picking up since he was a small child. Hearing his feet was almost a constant reminder that the child had absolutely no concept of time and the fact people needed to sleep to survive.
“He should go to bed.” Ben stated to Klaus, suddenly sitting on by his feet.
“You think I don’t already know that?”
“I’m just saying, you should tell him.”
“I’m sure that will go over swimmingly.”
“He might listen to you.”
“Easy for your to say when you’re already dead.”
“You never know. Come on Klaus, for me? Your only dead brother.”
“You sure pull that dead card a lot you know.” Klaus, sighed before getting ready for whatever response was about to come his way.
“Five, it’s one am.” Klaus yelled out to him, he could audibly hear a sigh.
“Then go to sleep.” Was called back to him, sass more than evident. It was Klaus’ turn to sigh loudly now.
“Come on Five, it’s one am, what could you possibly be working on?”
“Nothing you need to know about. You’d have to actually be smart to understand.”
“Come on, go to bed. It’s late.”
“I’ll go to bed when I’m ready!” Was shouted louder back.
“You both need to shut the fuck up before I shut you up.” Diego yelled at them, he supposed they were yelling at one in the morning, waking the rest of the family probably wouldn’t be ideal. Klaus sighed, and got out of bed, grabbing his dressing robe. It was always so damn cold in the academy. He walked over to Five’s room before opening the door, he didn’t need to knock he knew he wasn’t doing anything private.
“I did not invite you in here.” Five immediately stated to Klaus, barely turning his head over his shoulder. Why Five had to write on the damn walls was beyond Klaus. Dad would have physically beat them if he walked in on Five writing on the walls.
“It’s one am, I don’t need invited. It’s time for sleep.”
“I can sleep later Klaus.” He didn’t know why, but Klaus walked over to Five and grab his hand gently. Five looked at him like he was the actual Devil, cursing him with his eyes. His size allowed Klaus to keep his grip on him though, deciding that it would be worth being killed if he laid down.
“Why don’t you lay down for a while at least, then you can get back up and keep writing with he chalk.”
“I am older than you, stop this. I am not tired, I know when I need to sleep. I am not a child.” He could hear some venom in the tone from Five, but Klaus was almost at a lost. He wanted to chastise him, tell him it was bed time, but Five was technically older.
“I know, but come on. I know when I was 13 my body played a ton of tricks on me. I bet if you lay down, you might feel tired. Maybe, if I’m wrong you can keep working.”
“I don’t want to lay down yet, I want to go home.” Klaus sighed, this had been a common theme for about two weeks since they adverted the apocalypse.
“I get you want to go home, but if you’re tired at all your calculations could be wrong you would never know! It’s time to just lay down for a bit.”
“Why don’t you go to sleep?”
“Oh burn, he burned you Klaus.” Ben appeared and laughed lightly.
“Ben, shut up. Maybe you should go to bed. Back to you Five. Come on, you can work on getting home tomorrow.”
“Technically it is tomorrow.” Five said to Klaus.
“It’s tomorrow now.” Ben mimicked a comedy special they recently watched.
“Come on Five, please. I’ll lay down with you for a while if you want?” Klaus had tried this trick twice before, and each time he was met with silence before an agreement. Klaus wasn’t sure why this worked, Vanya had gotten it work a few times so Klaus began using it.
“I’ll lie down for ten minutes only.” Five finally caved sitting his chalk willingly down looking at Klaus angered, but less angry than he saw two minutes ago.
“Sounds good, come on, let’s lay down.” Klaus moved to turn the lights off, flipping a small penguin night light on that no one spoke about. Klaus watched Five get comfortable before half laying down, sitting up slightly so he could look down at Five.
“Ten minutes, just ten.”
“Yes Five, I know, just ten minutes.” He looked down as Five leaned closer to him, Five ended with his head on his chest. Five would never admit it out loud, but Klaus had the calmest heart rate next to Vanya, so laying on his chest made it a little better.
“Can I ask something?”
“You can ask anything Five.” Klaus’ hands began to mindless run his fingers through Five’s hair, a small hum in contentment came from Five.
“You guys became closer before you fell apart right?” Five had this new thing, he asked constantly about what their childhood was like after he left.
“Kind of, Vanya actually let Ben and I’s room get bigger. After Ben we all sort of fell apart.”
“Where did Vanya go?”
“Another room. She said she didn’t mind at the time, but we really didn’t need a bigger room.”
“Can you tell me about childhood?” Klaus’ heart ached at this question, he got it a lot from Five, he always tried to make it seem less bad, less abusive.
“When we turned 16 Dad refused to let us get our permits, but Grace snuck us out one Saturday so we all could get them. Terrible choice really, I can’t drive worth shit yet.”
“I’m not surprised you were probably wasted when you learned.”
“I had to keep them quiet somehow.”
“Was Ben always there?” Five’s voice became quieter as sleep started to take over the small 13 year old.
“Ben always has stayed no matter the drugs.”
“I love you Ben.”
“I love him too.” Ben said from the corner, reading a novel he had found.
“He loves you too.”
“I missed you guys.” Small hands scrunched at Klaus’ robe, looking for more comfort. Klaus switched from petting his hair to rubbing his back in a rhythmic fashion.
“We missed you everyday. I promise we all missed you, I know we have said it one hundred times, but we really did. We waited everyday, we just weren’t expecting you to be like this. In a way it’s nostalgic, think of all the times Vanya left out food, it was like you never left. So small and all.”
“I missed you everyday too. Not small.” It was barely awake as the words were said. Klaus smiled down, Five once again fell asleep in the same position he had found himself in multiple times now. He knew to wait to get up, he knew not to stop rubbing his back, he knew now because maybe Five wasn’t an adult right now and he didn’t need to be.
He remembers throwing a basic fire extinguisher into the portal Five opened, he isn’t even sure why his high self thought that was a good idea. But in reality, was there a better idea? He disagreed. Luther willing to put himself out front in front of his messed up family? He was willing to let space boy die, or was he because Luther was annoying in life, let alone if he was stuck with him forever. They didn’t want to run though, almost as if they knew something big was going to happen.
He saw Five immediately, and from there he feared the worse… he saw Ben every single day, but why was he just seeing Five now. Child Five at that, he should have seen him long ago if he died.
“Does anyone else see little Number Five, or is that just me?” He knew his words were laced with slight fear, but his voice rocking a bit was the least of his worries.
“Shit.” Was all he heard from Number Five before the family acknowledged him. Relief flooded over him, his brother was thankfully alive, but confusion followed. He was 13, he was a baby, he was so small. He thinks of the day, over and over, debates if he could have changed anything growing up, he hears soft puffs of air coming from the lips of the assassin, his signal he could finally slip out of the bed. Looking at the clock as he used his ninja like skills not to move him at all, thank you the unholy numbers of walks of shame he had to do over the years…