Klaus wouldn't really consider himself a functional adult. He was used to living on the streets after all, barely scraping by, spending whatever cash he had on drugs, but things were different now. They'd saved the world, Klaus had somehow managed to clean up his act (well, mostly), and he had a boyfriend. He of course could have continued to crash at the Academy, but he found he actually wanted to try to provide for himself as well as for Dave. Beyond stealing of course. Besides, the idea of having a place with the love of his life was very enticing.
Unfortunately actually finding and holding down a job was proving to be very difficult. Famous or no, very few people were willing to hire a former junkie who'd never had a fulltime job and Dave was from the 60s with no actual record. It made adapting to normal life pretty tricky. They were both a mess of traumas along with their unique histories and sometimes just existing was hard enough.
Dave was the first to get a job, a part time position as a night janitor at a nearby gym. He had been so excited and Klaus was so incredibly proud of him. After holding the job down for a week Klaus thought it might be a nice way to celebrate if he stopped by for a visit. Technically Dave's boss hadn't said he couldn't let anyone in, he didn't seem to particularly care what he did so long as the place was clean by the end of his shift, and that alone left very little time for messing around unfortunately, but at least Klaus could keep him company.
That wasn't exactly the only reason he wanted to stop by, though. He'd gotten so used to sharing a bed even after only a few months of Dave being here and now having to face the night alone felt terrifying. Klaus never had liked sleeping, it was too easy for the ghosts to invade his dreams. This past week he hadn't been able to bring himself to even close his eyes no matter how tired, not when the ghosts were so loud and there was no one there to ground him, to remind him what was real.
And Klaus had been doing so good, he'd been sober for longer than he ever had, and he didn't want to risk losing that by letting the ghosts overwhelm him. He'd rather wait until Dave got home so they could nap together. Times like this he really missed Ben.
Sure, he was relieved that Ben was alive again, he deserved it and Klaus wouldn't have it any other way, but he had a life now, he needed to sleep, and while his room was just across the hall and he was almost always willing to drop whatever he was doing if asked, Klaus knew they couldn't hang out constantly anymore and he needed to get used to it. Besides, Klaus had always been terrible at asking for help.
So he had been occupying himself in other ways. Tonight he'd been digging through old belongings packed away in forgotten drawers and boxes and he'd found something he wanted to show Dave. Thankfully he didn't have to run around to too many windows before he found him, waving his arms to get his attention.
"What are you doing here?" Dave said as he let him in, careful to lock up again behind them.
"What, a guy can't stop by to keep his boyfriend company during his very long and boring shift?"
"Couldn't sleep?" Dave guessed with that knowing grin of his.
"Well, yes, but that's beside the point," Klaus said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek by way of greeting. "You've had your first future-job for, like, a week now, that seemed like a good reason to come down and thank you for your service. I know we can't get up to much mischief, but the least I can do is keep you company."
"Okay. What the hell is that?"
"Video camera!" Klaus said, holding it up and hitting record as he trained it on Dave.
"Oh shit, they make them that small now?" Dave said, looking absolutely enchanted. With a laugh Klaus let him take it. "Far out!"
"They make them a lot smaller, actually. Even phones can record video now," Klaus said, smiling as he watched Dave look around the room through the camera, recording nothing in particular. "That one's ancient, I found it buried in my room. Not as ancient as you, apparently."
"Oh this is so rad," Dave said, voice hushed with awe.
"God you're adorable," Klaus said, standing back to watch him have his fun. When the ghost of an older gentleman with a towel wrapped around his waist walked through the wall in front of him in nearly gave Klaus a heart attack. "Christ," Klaus exclaimed, clutching at his chest. "Why do you guys always gotta do that? You're all too sneaky."
"You don't belong here, get out," the ghost said because of course he did.
"Hey, you push off, we were here first."
"Whoops, did we wake up a ghost?" Dave said. He'd gone back to mopping the floors, but he'd set the camera on a counter pointing at Klaus.
"Yes, but he's very rude so I wouldn't feel bad if I were you. What is it with ghosts, do we all just become super dramatic and cryptic when we die?"
"As if you aren't already dramatic," Dave said fondly.
"Oh you love it."
"I said get out!" the ghost said, voice raised. Apparently he didn't appreciate being ignored like this. "You are intruding in this place!"
"Hey! Dave works here, so we aren't intruding!"
"Sorry love, but I think technically you're trespassing," Dave said with a laugh.
"Fair point, fair point."
The ghost roared at him which, honestly, was kind of amusing. It took a swing at Klaus which he knew would go right through him but he still jumped back anyway, more out of reflex than anything.
"Woah, we've got a live one here," Klaus said with a laugh. "Try to use your words, dear."
"Hey now, are things getting physical?" Dave asked, stepping forward, and he actually looked a little concerned, broom held the way he used to hold his rifle, instincts kicking in at potential danger.
Klaus realized that Dave had never actually been around when a ghost had tried to physically hurt him before. Maybe it had happened in Vietnam, but there were plenty of other things to flinch away from there so even Dave wouldn't have known the true cause.
Either way it wasn't something Dave could protect him from, no matter how much he might have wanted to. Not that Klaus wanted Dave getting in the middle of this shit show. Besides, it was old hat for Klaus, he'd been confronted with much worse, honestly the attempt was more amusing than anything. He didn't want Dave to worry, as sweet as it was.
"My hero," Klaus said, hands clasped together, grinning at him.
"Shut up," Dave said, embarrassed but smiling now at least.
"Some definitions of the word physical I suppose, but it's fine," Klaus admitted. "As funny as it would be to see you try to hit a ghost, not right now."
"Just let me know, I'm always ready to throw down," Dave said, grinning as Klaus laughed.
Usually Klaus did his best to ignore the ghosts. It rarely did any good to encourage them and he was too tired right now, feeling frayed too at the edges to attempt any sort of banishment, something he'd never actually done successfully in the best of circumstances. But right now he didn't think there would be anything more fun than messing with a particularly grumpy spirit. It wasn't like it could actually hurt them. What was it going to do, join the never-ending throng already keeping Klaus up at night? Why not, might be nice to actually see a familiar face.
"Hey Dave," Klaus said after a moment. "What do you think you'd miss most if you were a ghost?"
"Oh, food for sure," Dave said. "The pancakes Grace made us for breakfast? To die for. Er, live for? Whatever."
"Mmm, yes," Klaus agreed. He sat beside the front desk, tearing up bits of paper and flicking them through the ghost. "I think I'd miss clothes. This poor sap is stuck for all eternity in a towel."
"At least when I was alive, I owned shirts that fit," the ghost snapped at Klaus.
"You're just jealous. I look amazing in a crop top. Now let's talk in great detail about all the wonderful food and clothes out there."
This went on much longer than it really should have with Klaus egging the ghost on, teasing relentlessly, but at least it made Dave's shift more fun. But then, everything was more fun with Klaus. They messed around most of the night, and they brought the camera with, using it until it ran out of batteries.
Dave and Klaus where talking and laughing on the floor of Klaus' old room, half leaning against each other. It was how they spent most of their days, just enjoying any sort of casual touch, completely content in each other's presence, never running out of things to talk about. A knock on the door pulled them out of their own little world and they looked up to see Ben standing there in the doorway, video camera in one hand.
"You really should keep better track of your things."
"Oh yeah, hey, I was wondering where that went," Dave said.
"You left it by the door. Where did you get it anyway?"
"Found it," Klaus said. "How did you know it was ours?"
"I watched the tape. Here I was expecting a ransom video or crime or something, not you idiots. It was actually pretty funny though."
"Hilarious," Klaus said, rolling his eyes as he grabbed the camera.
"Why would someone leave the entire camera as a ransom note and not just the tape?" Dave wondered.
"Who even owns a VCR anymore? But seriously, it's good. You should upload it," Ben suggested.
"I know you're saying words right now but I have no idea what any of that means," Dave said.
"You know how I showed you Wikipedia?" Ben replied. "There's other websites too, some host videos. Upload this and anyone can watch it. People have actually made a living sharing videos."
"Are you serious?" Dave said, looking absolutely enchanted in that adorable way he always did when learning something new about the future. He sat up causing Klaus to almost fall over which was less cute but Klaus decided he'd let it slide. "The future is wild. How does that even work?"
Explaining hits and monetization to Dave turned out to be the hardest part, but in the end they managed to get it uploaded. They were skeptical at first, unsure why anyone would want to watch them talk to something that didn't even appear to be there, but it was almost an immediate hit.
Maybe it was because of the Umbrella Academy, maybe it was because it was just dumb fun, but either way they realized that they might actually be able to make some extra cash doing this.