Klaus looked at his hands- his awkwardly, thin and spindly adolescent hands that shook uncontrollably. His fingernails were chewed short like he used to do when he was a 13-year-old kid…

"Woah…" A young, pubescent Luther voice muttered. Klaus looked up at the faces of his younger siblings.

"Holy fuck-a-mole." He muttered.

"Now is that any kind of language appropriate for a young chap, Number Four?" Five asked in an exaggerated British accent, patting Klaus on the back. Five's little arm was able to rock Klaus's body much more than it should have… Ah, yes. Klaus remembered this scrawny, barely-teenage frame of his.

Glory. Puberty again.

Five cleared his throat casually and stepped out of the sibling circle to take in their surroundings. He obviously wasn't as phased as everyone else. This was same-old, same-old for him.

It was amusing, he had to admit. He looked around the circle. Little Luther holding little Vanya. Little Allison. Aw, cute lil', menacing Diego. Five as they have always known him. And then…

"W- w- wait..." Diego stuttered, eyes falling on the sixth Hargreeve sibling. Klaus covered his mouth and chuckled gleefully.

"Ben?" Luther was the first to utter his name. So, everyone could see him, not just Klaus. It wasn't in a shimmery, apparition kind of style either- it was a solid, viable kid standing behind Klaus, his hand still gripping his brother's shirt.

All at once, the others swarmed him. Even Five broke out into that adorable, show-stopping smile and waited patiently for his own hug. When the excitement subsided enough to give Ben room to breathe, it left the little guy beaming with a mess of ruffled hair and tousled clothes from all of the embracing and amorous shoving. Kid-Ben finally looked at Klaus who patiently waited for his siblings to have time with their brother after so many years apart.

"Ya look good, Benji. Tangible, even."

Ben stepped towards him and Klaus reached forward with a curious hand, poking at his brother's cheek to make sure he was really there as a live body. He then proceeded to annoyingly poke and slap him until Ben broke into giggles, shoving Klaus's hands away. Klaus chuckled and rushed forward into an embrace he's been waiting on for over a decade. He squeezed his brother tightly enough to worry about snapping the kid in half.

Ben was able to wiggle his arms out around Klaus in return. They were stuck in that moment for a beat, not caring that everyone else was watching them with disgustingly, admiring smiles. Klaus just focused on the feeling of his best friend, alive after so long and squished between his arms.

"Thanks, Klaus." Ben finally muttered in a quiet voice.

"What-"

"I wouldn't have been able to come if I couldn't physically grab onto you. I told you- I like sober-Klaus."

Klaus finally released his brother to raise a cocky eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, I was pretty awesome, wasn't I?"

"You were okay."

"Alright. I see you all the time, you parasite." Klaus joked, shoving his shoulder into his peanut-sized brother and sending him stumbling back towards the others. Nothing about their current situation was okay. They were small. They were who-knows-when. The present world as they all knew it was obliterated. They didn't know what to do or where to go.

But Ben was alive again, and that was okay… That was more than okay.

"I'm not wearing this. I swore I'd never again." Klaus complained, raising the black mask above his eyes. At least it didn't have the white eye covers- they all decided to tone it down a bit since they were kids. No costumes, just… "modified" outfits Luther called it. Klaus gregariously offered to whip something up for everyone but that was shot down quite fast.

"Yeah, me too. But here we both are." Allison whispered, raising a tentative hand to her throat and wincing in pain.

"Oh, hey. Don't talk if it hurts." Klaus said, dropping the mask on her dressing and putting a worried hand on his sister's shoulder. They stood in her bedroom, getting ready for a mission that Luther found just across state.

"No, no. It's fine. Pogo said I need to ease myself into it."

Klaus looked at her with sympathy. He did feel bad.

"My poor Sissy." He pouted. She gave him an appreciative smile in the mirror. Allison turned her attention back to her make-up so Klaus took time to slip the undershirt of their new-and-improved ensembles on. He looked at the black material in the mirror, disdain all over his facial features. It was so uppity. It covered too much. What- was he going to go interview for Harvard or some shit?

Klaus danced lazily around the room until he found scissors. Returning to the mirror, he took no time to open them towards the hem of the shirt, cutting around his torso so that the shirt came above his waistline just a bit.

"Klaus!" Allison protested, shooting out a hand to grip his wrist.

"Whaaaaaat?" He whined, throwing his head back. "You guys can't stunt my right to freedom of creative expression." Allison shook her head, not being able to help the smile that crept onto her face.

"Luther's gonna kill you. He just had these made."

"This outfit is going to kill me first."

She sighed and released Klaus to do what he pleased. He smiled excitedly and cut off the rest of the hem. He then went for the obnoxiously conservative neckline, carving out a deeper dip.

"See? So much better." He stated as he pulled the accompanying jacket on, leaving it unzipped despite Luther's suggestion to always have them fully closed. Klaus had already removed the white stripe from the sleeves that were too similar to their old uniforms back in the day for his liking. Allison took notice and rolled her eyes. He wasn't wearing the right pants either. The ones they had made were just plain black but that was just so boring. He liked his black jeans better. Dark patterns subtly faded into the background of the jean material…much cooler.

Satisfied, Klaus started moving around his sister's room, taking no mind to get into her personal business. He picked up the notebooks sitting on her bookshelf, flipping through.

"Aw…" He muttered, smiling at all of the 'Dear Diary' entries scrawled out in curly, ten-year-old handwriting. A hand came and slammed the diary closed. Allison shoved it back in her bookcase and gave him a disapproving look. Klaus just moved on to the dresser beside it, raising his eyebrows in interest at her jewelry. He fingered through her rack of necklaces and took a particular liking to her rings, trying them on.

Allison rushed over again, grabbing Klaus's hand and taking them off of his hand one-by-one.

"Can't I borrow them?"

"Not for a mission."

Klaus sighed and let her take back all of her jewelry. She grabbed his arm and pulled him over to her desk chair and forcibly sat him down. He fell back into the chair, a little confused but he didn't fight her. She gripped his jaw and grabbed her eyeliner stick from her make-up bag and tipped his head up. Klaus smiled contently.

"Look up," Allison instructed and he did. She gently applied it along his waterline, her eyebrows pulled together in concentration. He had missed this. He couldn't go to anyone else for stuff like this. Everyone was either chock-full of testosterone or timidly conservative like Vanya.

"Close."

Klaus closed his eyes as she put a hand on his forehead, pushing her fingers through his hairline to move his head where she needed it. He flinched when he felt the cool, wet makeup on his eyelid again.

"Don't squirm."

"Mm…" Klaus whined through closed lips, too afraid to talk and mess her up. Allison carefully finished right above his eyelashes. When she was done, she spun the chair around so they were both looking in the mirror. Klaus clapped his hands excitedly and pulled his legs up to sit crisscross on the chair.

He was about to thank her, but she reached for his mask and tried to sneak it on him before he could pull away. Klaus was too fast though. He shot out a hand and pushed it away.

"No. I was serious about that."

"Klaus…"

She tried to surpass him and slip it over his head but he fought her in a tangle of limbs.

"No! No! No!"

Allison's arms dropped to her sides and she looked at him, annoyed.

Klaus gave her a sour look. She slowly raised the mask towards him but this time he didn't deny her. She slipped the band around his head and pulled the mask down over his eyes. He sighed and looked into the mirror as she did the same. Allison wrapped her arms around his neck and looked at the two of them in their reflection.

"Look. Adorable." She said, leaning her head into his.

"Aw. You make me feel all warm and fuzzy." He exclaimed with exaggerated zeal. They didn't look that bad. The masks were updated to look more modern.

"We used to be, like, best friends." Allison said.

"I remember."

She sighed sadly.

"What happened to those times."

"Well, you and Gigantic Curious George for one thing…"

Her arms fell from Klaus's neck and she gave him a dirty look through the mirror.

"Okay! Sorry, leaving." He said, jumping up and bounding out of the room before she could give him more grief for teasing Luther.

"Ow! Dick."

"Jackass."

"Diego-"

"Okay, you're not-"

"Ow!"

Klaus blew out another puff of smoke out of the cracked passenger seat window. He was so glad he wasn't sitting in the back, wedged in between his brothers like Diego, Five and Ben were at the moment. The circumstances that allowed him to get shotgun in Vanya's car might not have been particularly fair, but as Klaus had pointed out, life wasn't fair.

The gist of it was that Klaus was finally comfortable enough to start weaving his powers into his usual shenanigans. He was the last one out of the house, but that didn't stop him from having an apparition hold his place in the front seat. His siblings were so busy bickering as they filtered into the car that they didn't even realize that the figure was no one they knew, or even alive to say the least.

Ever since they were kids, the first person to the car got shotgun. That was the written-in-stone rule. To break it was… unholy. Perhaps that's why when it disappeared and Klaus stumbled in at the last possible second, the three guys in the back kicked up a chorus of protests.

"Woah, what- How-"

"Klaus, what the hell! You can't do that!"

"No saving seats, Dude!"

"I'm not sitting back here squished between these two lugs."

Klaus didn't listen but instead, he propped his feet up on the dashboard and sat back comfortably, lighting a cigarette. They had their whole lives to use their powers as an unfair advantage in everyday life. The only thing Klaus had to show for was the nagging voices that kept him up at night. You'll be damned sure that he was going to use his new control to do whatever the hell he wanted to.

Later, near the end of the trip filled with a lot of singing, fighting, and then more singing, things fell silent. Their mission destination was approaching and they all tended to get pretty introspective right beforehand.

Well, that and Five was just flat-out sleeping.

Klaus glanced back at his unconscious brother wedged between Ben and Diego. His head lolled back, his mouth slightly open releasing low, heavy breaths. Klaus flicked open the compartment in front of him and started rifling around.

He finally found something, unlatching his seatbelt and wiggling his way into the back of the car while Vanya continued to keep her eyes on the high way.

"Wait- Klaus-" she started but he shushed her. She huffed and shook her head. "If I get a ticket, you're paying every dime."

Diego and Ben looked up skeptically until Klaus started pushing down on their legs with his hands to keep him supported while climbing back- now they just looked annoyed.

"Shh. Sh! He's sleeping!" Klaus shushed them, fake-angrily. He flopped over into the back seat, one knee digging into Diego's thigh and the other leg still stretched into the front seat. Diego grunted in abrupt pain and shoved at Klaus who just absorbed the contact.

"Klaus, what the-"

"Shhhh! Inconsiderate. Geez." He said pointing at the still-sleeping Five and shaking his head at Diego with mock-disappointment. "Tsk, tsk."

Klaus uncapped the dark blue marker in his hand and very carefully raised the tip to Five's face. Ben and Diego watched him, neither of them particularly wanting to stop Klaus.

"Mm… Beautiful." Klaus mumbled to himself as he fashioned quite the Reginald-worthy, curled-tip mustache out of marker. For a finishing touch, he very slowly and carefully moved to Five's eye, tracing a circle around it like a monocle.

"Oh, you're awful," Ben said, but with a smile on his face.

"Asshole." Diego snorted, but Klaus knew he won his approval.

"And as quickly as he appeared, he disappeared!" Klaus whispered dramatically. His exit was not quick or graceful though. He pushed off his brothers' bodies to get him back in the front seat, a lot of struggling and swearing to ensue from both of them.

They got there eventually- this abandoned warehouse that Pogo has been keeping eyes on for a while. There were weird things going on there. Lightning when there were no storms, screaming, music… stuff like that. It had become quite notorious among the neighboring communities, and when teenagers started breaking in and never coming out, it became something worth looking into for the Academy.

Klaus broke free from the car and stretched in the cool, fresh air. He was getting antsy in there. His constant need for distractions without drugs wasn't fed well when confined in a little Chrysler. He lost count of how many cigarettes he lit.

Luther and Allison were already there waiting. They had left without them, claiming that the rest of team was "taking too long and they'd meet them there". Everyone knew they just wanted to drive together alone.

Klaus doubled forward when he saw Five tiredly emerge from the car. He had almost forgotten about his masterpiece. Five plastered on his usual "better-than-you" scowl which truly just completed the look. Everyone from their car stole glances at him, the corners of their mouths turning up not-so-subtly.

"What?" Five demanded when he caught Diego staring at him.

"No, uh… Nothing."

"Huddle up," Luther called for all of them to gather together. Klaus hopped excitedly toward the sibling grouping, happy with his handiwork. Luther started going through the plan, not noticing initially.

"We don't go in looking like we're seeking any sort of altercation. We have no idea what-" Luther trailed off when his eyes fell on Five's face. He didn't react. He looked like he didn't know how.

"What? ...What!?" Five's eyes went wide in frustration. Luther took a deep breath, obviously trying not to laugh. He kept an unconvincing and extremely wavering straight face.

"Um… I-"

Allison snorted and covered her mouth, not even trying to hide her smile. Five's eyebrows came together to form a steely expression. He ran back to Vanya's car and shoved his face in front of one of the mirrors. His face went slack in the most unamused, disappointed expression Klaus thinks he's ever seen.

Before he could realize what was happening, Klaus saw Five disappear and then reappear directly in front of him, delivering a hard punch with a bony little hand straight to Klaus's gut. He yelled out in pain and fell to one knee, holding his abdomen.

"Ow! What! You don't even know it was me who did it!" Klaus said through uncontrollable giggling.

"Oh please." Five spat accusingly, adding a slap to the back of Klaus's head for good measure. It just made Klaus laugh harder which made Five even angrier.

"Okay, okay. We don't have time for this! Five-"

"Here." Vanya interrupted Luther, handing him a few tissues. Five begrudging took them, touching his tongue to the material and then rubbing it roughly against his face.

"Like I was saying- let's split up and take different entry points. We'll cover as much ground as we can. Yell if you're in trouble or you find something notable. ."

Luther assigned areas to cover.

"Number 2, Southwest corner. Number 3, the second-floor fire escape..."

Needless to say, when he got to Klaus, Number Four was not happy.

"Really, Number One?" Klaus mocked Luther's use of their numbers instead of their names when on missions. "The 'outside'? Is that just another way of calling me the 'look-out' again?"

"Klaus-"

"I thought I proved that-"

"I don't have time to argue this."

"Holy… FUCK. What do I need to do to be taken seriously? I get sober,"

"Klaus."

", I act as a fully contributional part of this dysfunctional circus of a fam-"

"Klaus!" Luther shouted above him. Ben tried to shush them, looking around with worried eyes. Everyone looked concerned about the noise level. Klaus and Luther paid no attention. "Look at Five's face!" Klaus turned to Five but couldn't keep his composure. The marker was maybe a tinge lighter, but it was still clearly present on his face. He now had smudges all over his temples and on his hands. Five sternly stared at Klaus with crossed arms. Klaus clapped his hands over his mouth to muffle his giggling.

"Okay, that's… Awesome and unrelated."

"Everyone know where they're going? Ok. Good. Let's go." Luther completely disregarded him. Klaus's shoulders fell. He turned to Ben as everyone started walking towards the abandoned building.

"Ben? Some back-up, maybe?"

"Yeah, I-"

"Ben, c'mon. Northwest corner." Diego called after him. Klaus turned puppy eyes to his only hope. Ben always had his back.

"I have to… Next time-"

"Ben!" Klaus threw his arms up, appalled.

"We'll talk about this later!" He said, jogging after Number 2. Klaus clenched his fist and spun himself around in a quick, frustrated 360 degrees. He swiped the mask off his face and tossed it onto Vanya's car.

He knew he fucked around a lot.

He knew he got distracted easily.

He knew that his powers weren't as destructive as Vanya's or Ben's or whatever.

He knew that he still didn't even know the full extent of what he could do.

He knew he did a lot to lose people's trust.

He knew he was unpredictable and reckless.

He knew all of these things, but how dare his brother rub it in like Luther was some kind of… Number One or something. Klaus chuckled at his own inner conversation.

On that note, he also knew that they probably thought he was clinically insane. Maybe he was, but that didn't mean that they had to treat him like the bane of their existence all the time. How was he supposed to prove himself if he wasn't given the chance? Why was he getting sober? For nothing?

Klaus found himself meandering off into the surrounding forest that rimmed the crumbling structure. He followed a tiny toad that tried desperately to get far from his lumbering footsteps. It hopped through tangles of roots and over under fallen trees- it was easy to get lost in his thoughts while watching it. Klaus almost forgot about why he was there in the first place. He hummed "Uno" by Muse as he went.

Thunk.

Klaus felt something hollow underneath his foot. Weird… He stomped a few times.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

Hmm…

Klaus looked up and noticed that in one area of the woods, the trees thinned out more than usual. There was a small amount of evidence of man-made structure there- three-foot-tall concrete pillars that had obviously been crumbled down to nearly nothing. It looked to be a pretty large room at one time, now reduced to a few blocks of cylinder.

Klaus skipped over to what would've been the middle of the room. He glanced over to the warehouse to see if anyone might be looking for him… nope.

That's fine. It's fine. Whatever. Klaus kept humming. Who needed 'em.

"Fuck you guys." He muttered, flipping off the warehouse with both hands. He dropped them uselessly. God, he could use some ecstasy right now.

It was then when Klaus noticed the setting sun cast a gleam somewhere on the ground between the structural pillars. He ran over to find a very modern looking storm-cellar door embedded in the ground. Okay, now that was definitely weird. He couldn't open it either. Klaus gripped the handle and pulled with all his might and still… nothing.

All grudges forgotten, Klaus figured it was notable enough to go tell his asshole siblings. Maybe Luther could tear it open.

"Klaus!" He heard someone call him from the main building. It sounded like Vanya. Was it an emergency "Klaus" or a where-the-fuck-did-you-go "Klaus"… he did not know, but he didn't want to take any chances. If they needed him, he had to get there ASAP.

He ran.

And Klaus got... maybe five steps? Five and a half steps before-

BAM.

He fell.

The ground collapsed underneath him… he thinks? It all happened so fast. It was there and then it wasn't. Blackness came up towards him and he managed to get half a yelp in before his head connected with a cold hard surface and then…

Nothing.

Another chapter is coming very soon! Thank you for all the support!

KlausNeedsLove: I always feel so bad for the poor guy.

kakabane: Thank you so much for saying so!

asms2: That's exactly how I see it! They're all extremely busy, but poor Klaus is constantly dying inside. Thank you very much for your kind words!

affyfrances: Thank you- It's definitely difficult which is what makes him such a great character!

yukina2002: Merci beaucoup! Je suis content que tu l'apprécies!