Author's Note: Based on the Netflix series. I've only gotten through episode three so far, but Klaus is perfect and I wanted to write this while the bug was there. Hopeful it will remain canon compliant, but if not, here's an AU. ;)
As always, the others want to leave before he does.
The air in here is electric, eclectic: so many people, so much noise. Klaus revels in it. This is the only kind of quiet he gets, when the noise is so loud the voices can't clamor over it.
But the others are babies about it, like usual. Vanya doesn't like the donut shop; it reminds her of Five. Luther doesn't like sneaking out; Dad can't find out about it. Diego doesn't like Luther, Allison honestly doesn't like any of you guys right now, why don't we just to home, like she isn't spinning this so Luther gets his way. And they're exhausted and splintering, like since before Ben, like maybe even before Five, and it's appallingly easy to stay behind and not even be missed when they're already down two brothers.
He has a few more donuts, but it's not as fun without the competition. He bobs to some music, but it's not their song. He hates how much quieter it is without his four obnoxious siblings. He can hear the voices, just whispers right now, like long, spindly fingers stretching out towards him, determined to suffocate him with their demands.
He goes outside.
Maybe he means to follow them home. There's a thrill in sneaking into the house, crawling through open windows and skittering across Mom and Pogo's blind spots. But there are two guys smoking outside, leaning up against the corner of the donut shop, and he suddenly thinks - why not? No one's here to stop him. Live a little. He knows these guys; one of them thinks he's cute. They'll let him bum a joint. He can talk almost anyone into almost anything.
An hour later, he's higher than a kite. No - higher than that. Higher than Luther, even if Dad ever achieves his crazy goal of putting him on the moon.
And everything is astoundingly, gloriously, silent.
Mom is the one who finds him the next morning, waking him up by pulling him off the ground into a tight hug. "Oh, Klaus, we were worried sick," She says.
They've been looking all night, and Dad is furious. With all of them - he knows they snuck out now, had to trace their movement to put together where they should start looking for him - but with Klaus especially, who fell asleep high and unprotected and alone in a ditch (and so, so glad; he has never been alone in his life). By the time the punishment is over, Klaus is completely sober. And exhausted. And aching from head to toe. He falls face first into his bed.
And then Ben comes. Propped on the edge of his bed, dressed in his Academy uniform, his face pinched in a scowl. "You were like the others," He says. "You couldn't hear me."
Klaus's heart skips a beat. Like the others, he thinks: astounded, ecstatic.
"I didn't like it," Ben says.
Into his pillow, Klaus whispers, "I did."