Chapter 3
Claire had fallen into the family like an essential puzzle piece; with her bubbly persona and sass, she had quickly turned into the house gem. She'd even taken to calling some of them by their nicknames; Space-boy, Krakken and Séance. Aunt Vanya, Uncle Ben and Uncle Five retained their names as did mom.
It had almost been laughable at first how all their usual habits and daily schedules had adjusted around the newest addition. She'd been a welcome distraction as the siblings found themselves struggling to adjust to life together once again. They were each looking for purpose and direction while trying to maintain some kind of personal life.
Claire's presence offered a break from the awkward silences, the heavy introspection and the constant sibling bickering. They found themselves at least attempting to appear more civil than they were when she was around. Well, some of them anyways. Mostly everyone but Klaus who had developed quite the 'buddy cop' relationship with the six year old. Klaus treated her like a miniature adult most days and she adored his wild and flamboyant nature.
The two had taken to hiding in each other's rooms keeping each other entertained and skulking about the mansion constantly causing mischief. Allison had even caught them in Luther's room once, record playing as they practiced a coordinated dance they'd been brainstorming ever since binge-watching Dancing with the Stars.
Allison had been moderately concerned at first with Claire spending any time at all with Klaus alone without supervision, but after a couple weeks of watching the odd relationship grow...she realized she needn't have worried. In fact, she was actually quite surprised to realize Claire was having a greater effect on Klaus rather than the other way around.
Ben had wisely coined it on the nose one night when she'd been watching them from the second floor balcony while the two miscreants secretly argued over some changes to the dance routine which they'd gone so far as to draw pictures of down below where they sat opposite each other on the coffee table.
"She gets him out of his head," he said softly as he leaned on the rail next to her. "Gives him the distraction he needs."
"Jealous or grateful?" she looked at him out of the corner of her eye with a knowing smile.
Ben snorted softly with a smile. "Both."
"What about you, Ben? Any plans?"
Ben watched the two below as he contemplated the question. He shrugged. "Honestly? I spent the last fifteen years watching my family." He blinked self-consciously. "Right now all I want to do is just be with them." He smirked down at his crossed arms. "Cheesy, right?"
"A little," Allison grinned and then turned soft eyes toward her brother. She rested a hand on the back of his head. "Then again, you always were the best of us."
"Come on," she bumped his shoulder with her own, "before they decide to add glitter cannons to their routine."
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Vanya adjusted her music sheets nervously on the stand while her other hand held tightly to her violin and bow. She stopped suddenly, shoulders slumping. "We don't have to do this right now," she said apologetically to the only other occupant in the dining room.
Klaus, lying on the table with knees bent, one crossed over the other and hands behind his head looked up suddenly. "What are you talking about?"
"I can practice another time," she explained. "I don't want to bore you."
"Are you kidding me?" Klaus asked incredulously. "You're the only one in this house that hasn't threatened me with bodily harm yet. Trust me," he waved hand, "You're doing me a favor. Proceed with the distraction."
"I guess I just...never took you for a classical music type person," she hedged with a small smile.
"I'm more of a Vanya type person." He pushed up onto his elbows. "But don't tell the others, they'll try to box me into something explainable."
"Or turn that into something dirty," Vanya's smile was genuine this time.
Klaus eyes widened with glee. "Incest! Vanya you're a genius. I can already see Luther's face."
Vanya chuckled as she adjusted her bow into her other hand, looking at her sheet music.
Klaus' foot dangled in the air as he tilted his head at her. "What about you?" When she looked at him with a question in her eyes, he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Any plans to jump out of the closet?"
Vanya blinked at him, mildly surprised but she supposed she shouldn't have been. She smirked and ducked her head with a shrug of one shoulder. "No one's ever really shown an interest before…"
"Eeew, touchy subject," Klaus drawled lightly but sat up, crossing his legs as he toyed with a fork. "Before Harold Jenkins?"
Vanya nodded, ashamed and embarrassed.
"I've dated a lot of Harold Jenkins," Klaus nodded, introspective. "Some of them were really awful people," his tilted his head with a smile. "But not all of them. Don't ever be afraid of who you are dear sister. Somewhere out there is an amazing woman that can't wait to meet a violinist that loves boring button-ups and ponytails."
Vanya snorted and the room quieted a moment. "Don't tell the others just yet."
"These plucky lips are sealed," Klaus pointed to himself. "Though we should probably come up with a secret word or something in case one of them becomes suspicious, then I'll quickly distract them."
Vanya smiled and pursed her lips to the side, her eyes roaming the dining room walls in thought. Klaus gasped suddenly with jazz hands.
"Skittles and gravy," he announced.
Vanya laughed. "What?"
"It's perfect! They'll never suspect anything," Klaus gushed as he curled forward so he was now laying on his stomach, knees bent with his feet dangling lazily in the air, chin in his hands.
Vanya let the words roll over her mind, realizing just how perfect they actually were; a rainbow of color and tangy fruitiness and the other a classic staple rich in flavor. "Skittles and gravy," Vanya tested the words playfully.
Klaus swiped a hand out, shoving a glass from the table. It shattered loudly on the wooden floor.
"What was that?" Allison's voice called from upstairs.
Klaus smiled brightly at Vanya and held his hands out as if to say 'see, it worked'.
Vanya's cheeks hurt from smiling, her eyes sparkling with humor as she shook her head and settled her violin on her shoulder.
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"Hey," Ben casually announced himself as he slipped between the semi-closed door and it's frame. Five and Diego turned toward him, the latter whipping around with caught eyes. Both greeted him rather dismissively, Diego in a nervous manner and Five more so as if interrupted. Ben took in the video feeds with a narrowed expression. "What'cha doing?"
'Nothing' was blurted the same time 'watching Klaus' was announced rather dully. Diego's shoulders dropped and he turned a betrayed glare to the youngest looking sibling who unashamedly swiveled back toward the monitors.
Ben leaned in over their shoulders. "Find anything?"
"Klaus may have a new ability he's not fully realized," Five said with a tilt of his head.
"At what point were you going to share with the rest of the class?"
"When we had substantial proof to stand on," Five snapped back obviously.
"By any chance is the recent Patrick debacle under suspicion?" Ben asked knowingly.
"Oh yeah," Five snorted and chuckled as he adjusted the feed. Ben closed the door quietly behind him as he focused on the screens.
They played the videos for him which filled in a few holes that Ben had been trying to puzzle together the last couple weeks. He shook his head with a small amazed grin. He couldn't believe his brother's power had evolved to this.
"Kind of terrifying, isn't it? Klaus having the power to mind control?"
Ben squinted at the two monitors where the videos played on a loop. "The old bastard was right," he muttered to himself, recalling Klaus' confession of what their dead father had told him - that he'd only scratched the surface of his potential.
"What's that?" Five narrowed his eyes at him clinically.
Ben stood straight, hand still resting on the back of Diego's chair. "Have you told him yet?"
Diego sighed guiltily, "We were trying to get as much evidence as we could first before freaking him out."
Ben nodded, not entirely disagreeable with the decision. "I'm pretty sure he knows something's up though. He just doesn't know what it is yet."
Footsteps echoed from one of the feeds and they all looked to the one in Four's room just in time to see the brother in question fall onto his bed dramatically, staring at the ceiling, clearly bored. His head lifted suddenly as he looked toward the far corner of his room, listening. Klaus frowned, sighed and then sat up, hands in his lap and announced in a sing-song voice "I feel like some hard drugs are in order."
Diego's eyes widened and he moved to make a dash to stop his brother when Ben shoved him back into his chair with a humored smile. "Relax."
Klaus started dramatically searching in nooks and crannies, making a good show when he couldn't find any drugs where he'd thought they might be. "I wonder if there's any left in this sock? Maybe beneath this rug?"
"What if we missed one of his stashes?" Diego argued.
"Maybe behind this poster?" Klaus peeked behind a poster that was below and to the side of the camera to where he popped in and out of the camera's shot. "Oh, lookie what I found," Klaus said excitedly and suddenly his middle finger was filling most of the camera feed.
Five shook his head with clear disappointment while Ben grinned and Diego frowned. "How the hell could he know?" Diego growled.
"Probably tattle-Tess," Ben supplied helpfully. At Diego's questioning frown, he shrugged his shoulders almost guilty and sighed. "Nine year old girl with pigtails. Gunshot wound right here," Ben pointed to his forehead. "Has a disturbing penchant for spilling the beans. Probably what killed her in the end," he muttered the last bit.
"Saw too much," Five nodded grimly.
Diego remained quiet but was clearly disturbed by the idea of a little nine year old ghost telling Klaus all their secrets.
"Yeah, that's right Diego, everyone knows you like it up the ass," Klaus' face was now right in front of the camera cackling.
Diego's lips puckered thinly as he glared darkly at the feed. "How has no one killed him yet?" he muttered to which he got no response. "How long do you think he's known?"
"Judging by his reaction just now?" Ben tilted his head thoughtfully. "I'd say tattle-Tess just clued him in."
Suddenly the window by Klaus' bed exploded inward the same time two of the tv screens cracked and the entire house felt like it had just vibrated within it's very foundation. Ben was already out the door, ignoring his brother's curses as he charged down the stairwell and turned down the hall to find Klaus still crouched and brushing glass from his hair as his head swiveled back and forth, bewildered.
He was standing by the time Ben reached him with a worried question in his eyes. "I don't know," Ben shook his head. "I thought-"
He was cut off by voices downstairs. The two rushed to the main foyer to find Luther, Vanya and Allison with a startled Claire in her arms, standing in a debris field of glass. Ben and Klaus met Diego at the bottom along with Five who appeared next to Vayna.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to, I just...I wasn't expecting it." Vanya apologized, the white fading from her eyes as she gestured toward the ceiling. The large chandelier sat swinging a bit, what little glass remained was in jagged shards and in the middle of the iron masterpiece lay a body.
"Is that…"
"Yes, it is," Five grimly affirmed, well acquainted with the body armor the figure was sporting. Mostly black but with the tell-tale red gas masks with glowing eyes.
"Oh, you guys can see him?" Klaus chuckled, delighted..
"How the hell did he get up there?" Luther awed.
"Is he dead?" Claire's small voice asked warily. To everyone's horror the head suddenly parted from the body and fell to the floor with a sickening thud. "That's disgusting."
Five knelt down next to the head and picked it up, inspecting it with his usual clinical glare.
"Do you think there's more?" Luther's head swiveled back and forth.
"Maybe, although I doubt it." Five tinkered with the mask's eye piece. "You should check the house all the same."
Diego was the first to move, heading down to the basement, Luther took the floor they were on while Ben and Klaus searched the upper levels. Five had been correct, the house was just as it always was sans a few shattered windows, with no clues as to how the body had gotten there in the first place. By all rights, it looked like it had simply dropped out of the air onto the chandelier. It was by no means the weirdest thing they'd dealt with and for one of them it was a welcome mystery to be solved.
Five practically dissected the head searching for clues while the rest of the siblings remained on high alert; none of them appreciated the idea of another home invasion by the Temps Commission. Diego especially seemed to be sticking particularly close to Klaus who welcomed the extra attention as an excuse to find new and unusual ways of getting a rise out of his brother. Ben had watched from the sidelines, thoroughly enjoying the free entertainment.
It was one afternoon in particular, Diego was yelling at Klaus for sewing his initials in every single pair of his underwear when Luther trudged in holding his phone up.
"That was Eudora," he announced pointedly. "Said she's been trying your phone for the last twenty minutes."
Diego's forehead smoothed out as he turned an accusatory glare toward Klaus who stared back with wide, innocent eyes. "I didn't touch your phone."
"Doesn't matter, there's a situation in the business district" Luther interjected, pointing at them. "We head out in two minutes. Klaus, take off Diego's underwear," he added as he headed downstairs.
Klaus grumbled as he shimmied out of his brother's tighty-whities he'd lovingly knitted DH along the front of and had pulled over his favorite black leather pants to show off.
Diego cuffed him over the head as he followed him out, threatening him with bodily harm if he'd ruined all his underwear. They'd all piled into the van and headed to the business district where multiple office buildings had been evacuated and cordoned off by police, fire and EMS. Patch, their officially assigned liaison with local police, met them at the boundary line where crowds had gathered along with news vans.
"The suspect is inside; an employee of an equity loan company" she listed off facts as she weaved them through the empty alleyways and parking garages. "There's a few unaccounted for employees they think might be held hostage at this time but that's unconfirmed. Chief didn't want us moving in until we had something more solid." She glanced back at them pointedly. "I suggested the UA when more than a couple of the witnesses stated the suspect was shooting flames from his hands."
Luther frowned as they stopped beside a shorter, square building. "You think it's someone like us? One of the 43?"
Patch shrugged. "Like I said, it's all circumspect right now. But because of the recent shooting in Vegas, everyone's on high alert." She pointed around them. "You've got an unusually large evacuation border due to the suspected nature of our guy - about four blocks or more so do me a favor and try to keep it contained. We're trying to keep the social media to a minimum on this one."
"Got it," Diego traded respective nods with her before she headed back. He turned to Luther, "What's the plan?"
Luther was peering around the corner of the building, across the parking lot toward another two story building where their suspect was last seen. "Diego, Allison and I will go in through the front, try and draw his attention. Five, Vanya and Ben, you guys head around and find a back entrance. Hostages comes first; then, if he's willing, we'll try talking him down."
"What about me?" Klaus raised a hand.
"We need you to stay here and direct the hostages back toward the police line."
Klaus' shoulders dropped, he couldn't believe this was happening again. "Seriously? Five can micro-jump them to the ambulances in like half a second."
"That's true," Five nodded. "Probably safer that way too."
"Okay fine," Luther swiped a hand in the air, "but we need someone to make sure no one else goes in or out. We need you to watch our back."
Klaus made an unimpressed face. "I'm the lookout again?"
Luther patted him on the shoulders. "You did such a good job of it last time," he assured before one by one they scurried across the parking lot throwing Klaus apologetic glances.
"Don't overthink it," Ben gently warned with a pointed look, the last one to depart. "They'll come around eventually."
"Whatever," Klaus grumbled, "you're just happy you get to air out the tentacles for once."
"I'm serious, Klaus," Ben stressed as Five called after him.
"I know, I know," Klaus ushered him on. "Go. Roast marshmallows without me."
Klaus watched all the siblings disappear in and around the office building. He sighed loudly, shoulders slumped, hands wrapped around his neck with elbows touching. He paced in a lackadaisical circle, his leg swinging out kicking at broken pavement. Movement caught his eye in his peripheral and he paused to watch a young teen stroll through the alleyway, walking toward the office building.
Klaus held up a finger, his mouth open to call out to the teen as he passed him but his jaw clicked shut with sudden realization as he saw the back of the teen's head which was basically a gaping hole of bone and brain matter. When the teen glanced back at him, Klaus ran his hand through his hair, casually looking away.
When the ghost had passed into the shadow of another alleyway, Klaus sighed and leaned back against the brick wall of the building he stood beside, bouncing his head against it as he quietly mumbled the alphabet song to himself. He could hear sounds of unfamiliar screams inside the building across the lot and knew his siblings had found the hostages and likely the flamer suspect.
He pushed off from the wall and peeked around the corner only come face to face with a plump, smiling face with rosy cheeks and bobbed red hair.
"Genghis wenis!" Klaus cried out as he startled backward, tripping over his own feet onto the pavement. He cautiously leaned to the side to see around the corner again and sure enough, the woman was still there, smiling at him. "Sorry," Klaus dusted his hands on his shirt as he pushed to his feet. "Are you...one of the hostages?" his head swiveled around, looking for other people that might've also escaped.
"Not this time." The woman's voice was vibrant; far too perky for someone that had just fled from a life-threatening situation.
Klaus blinked at her, his eyes giving her a once over; no visible signs of death so likely not a spirit. "You really shouldn't...be here. There's like- a thing going on."
"I love things!" she giggle with a toothy smile.
"Wait, wait, wait," Klaus held up a hand. "I know you," he took a step closer and blinked. He felt his mouth fall open a bit as random flashes of memory tickled at his brain. "I've seen you...you were on the bus." She smiled pleasantly and feigned adjusting a hat that wasn't on her head. "And at that club the night I died."
"Oh that was a fun night," she chuckled heartily, hand pressed to her belly. "Also at your first public appearance when you thwarted that bank heist."
"Oh my god- you're Kenny's mom!" Klaus' fingers pressed against his lips. "How are you here?" he whispered.
"Oh, I'm always around, watching," she brushed away his concern with such bubbly casualness, as if it were a completely normal situation.
"That's not at all creepy. Are you like an Academy groupie or something?"
"Oh, just you sweetie."
"What...why?"
At this, the woman's chipper persona slipped, revealing an altogether sinister hunger and desire behind the brown eyes. "You fascinate me. I mean look at you," her belly bunched as she laughed, "is he dead? Is he alive? Who knows?"
"Who are you?" he whispered, unable to push his voice beyond the growing concern spreading through his gut.
"Oh, you adorable little creature," her red cheeks bunched her eyes as she smiled and leaned into his space, causing him to press against the brick wall behind him. "The real question is who are you, number Four?"
Suddenly there was a scream and a portion of the building suddenly went up in a fireball. The red-headed woman stepped to the side and watched him with almost gleeful anticipation. Klaus watched with wide eyes as Luther helped Diego and Allison through the building's front door, smoke pouring out around them. Suddenly Vanya appeared around the corner of the building dragging an unconscious Five behind her.
Klaus didn't have to count to know one very important member was most definitely missing among them. His breath caught in his throat as he heard Luther ask where Ben was only for Vanya to hoarsely cry out he was still inside.
Klaus' gut clenched as it turned to ice, shooting through his veins, he could barely breathe in his panic. He vaguely heard Allison yell at Luther not to go back, that it was too late. No, no, no, he whispered in denial before his eyes slipped closed and his hands balled into fists.
Suddenly he was surrounded by a suffocating heat. He blinked his eyes open and saw flames, everywhere he turned his head, fire hungrily licked and consumed. Klaus coughed and hacked, bringing his arm up to his mouth as he quickly rolled over and looked for an exit through watery eyes.
There, along the side of the building was a side office with a large window. The ceiling suddenly creaked loudly and shifted. Klaus scrambled to his feet and made a mad dash for the office window, jumping into a ball as he smashed through it and hit the ground at a roll, a plume of fire exploding over his head as the ceiling collapsed. He coughed and hacked and pushed to his hands and knees, looking around for his siblings. As he looked up, he could see a familiar short, plump, red-haired woman standing next to...himself.
It was as weird as he imagined it would be, seeing his body standing there, face completely devoid of any expression, looking as if a gentle breeze would knock him over. Then Kenny's mom, or whoever she was, smiled brightly and with a single finger tapped him on the chest.
That's when shit got weird.
...tbc
