Today was the day. Iris took a deep breath and squared herself, today was the day she got Klaus out of the bed. She would've said 'out of the house', but just talking to Klaus in bed was proving to be quite challenging, so baby steps, baby steps. Her steps had a determined spring to them, carrying her through the small distance between her house and Klaus's in a matter of seconds.
Iris stopped in front of the door and looked around. The street was deserted, most of the residents were having lunch with their families by now. However, Iris was not looking around for other people, she was looking for Haruka. The last time Iris had seen Haruka was last week, when she had found her in front of Klaus's house. Iris felt a pang of guilt, Haruka hadn't come around since that day, and Iris felt it had been because of her. She sighed, she would have to fix that later, but for now, Klaus.
Iris reached for the doorknob and turned it. She heard the now too familiar clicking sound and frowned. Locked again, huh? She knew it would be locked, as it had consistently been for the past two weeks, but she had hoped. She reached for her key and unlocked the door, wondering just how much Klaus regretted having given her a key.
The house was as dirty and unkept as she had left it not too long ago. Ugh, Iris couldn't believe Klaus had crumbled like this. Mistel had told Iris the reason why Klaus had left the party, but she didn't really know what had happened after that. She could imagine, though, she knew most of Klaus's insecurities, so she could fill in the blanks. Still, Iris couldn't believe how hard this had affected Klaus, he had already missed two of his deadlines, and was on his way to miss a third. Iris had told herself she would allow him to grieve as much as he needed, but she never imagined that Klaus would take so long as to affect his work, she had to step in.
"Klaus?" she called out of habit, she knew he would not answer back. She went to the kitchen, she had done the dishes the last time she had been here, so she expected there to be a lot more plates, but there were none, was Klaus not eating? She was immediately filled with worry, what if something happened to him? Iris rushed to the bedroom, already planning everything she would do if she found Klaus unconscious on the floor.
Iris reached the bedroom in no time at all, almost tripping twice on her own feet. The bedroom was extremely different from the last time she had been here. Clothes, dishes and trash littered the floor, leaving little space to actually step on. The curtains were tightly drawn, and Klaus was…somewhere, probably under the covers.
"Klaus." Iris called from the edge of the room because she wasn't sure she could make her way to the bed. "Klaus!" She called again, louder this time. When she received no response she let out an exasperated sigh. "Really now…" she murmured as she grabbed handfuls of cloth, lifted her dress, and carefully stepped on the little patches of floor that could still be seen.
Three times she heard something break, inwardly cringing at the thought that it could be something important. Iris approached the bed with difficulty and saw that it was in no better state than the floor. "Enough is enough!" she yelled as she yanked the covers from the bed. Bags of chips and candy wrappers flew through the room as she uncovered both Klaus and a strong smell of alcohol. "Ugh!" she grunted, covering her nose to avoid the smell.
"Stop it!" said Klaus, his voice was rough as if he had not used it for quite a long time. He tried to grab the blankets from Iris's hands, but his movements were slow and uncoordinated.
"So you were awake! Why didn't you answer me?" Iris frowned, Klaus looked...well...Not like Klaus at all. His hair was disheveled, his pajamas were a mess and he had bags under his eyes. There wasn't even the slightest trace of the man who always went out of his way to look like a perfect gentleman.
Klaus groaned, "I do not want to talk." His voice was filled with a finality that would make any other person drop the subject and leave, too bad he was talking to Iris.
"You don't need to talk; you only need to get out of bed." She said, walking over to the closet, not even caring about the trash on the floor anymore. She rummaged through the closet, "Come on, get up."
"Do not feel like it." Klaus said, his voice muffled by his pillow.
Iris gave a dry laugh, "I don't remember asking if you felt like it." She picked some clothes and threw them at Klaus.
He grunted, why was Iris being so persistent? "Iris I do not-"
"Klaus," she said, effectively shutting Klaus up. He knew that voice, Iris was angry. "I said, get up." She enunciated every syllable slowly and carefully. Klaus's instinct told him that it would be dangerous to oppose Iris, so he nodded. "Good, take a shower, shave, get dressed, and I'll see you at the dining room." She left without another word to him.
Klaus sighed, just why did he give Iris his house key…? He got up, and headed towards the bathroom. His movements were slow and lazy, resembling the movements of a child when he is told to get ready for school. He undressed slowly, debating in his mind if keeping Iris happy was really worth all this trouble.
The warm water felt nice on his skin. How long had it been since he'd taken a shower? Hours? Days? Weeks? He didn't know, he had stopped measuring the time in days and started measuring it in how many cup noodles he'd had. He stayed under the water longer than usual, just enjoying the sensation.
He got out of the shower, toweling his hair dry. Okay then, what else had Iris said? Oh yeah, shave. He touched his face with his hand and was surprised when he felt traces of stubble along his jaw. He hurried to the mirror with a sort of confused excitement, it had been too long since he had seen himself without a clean shave. Klaus wiped the steam from the mirror and stared at his face. He looked…well, awful. His eyes had a sort of 'dead' feeling to them, he had bags under his eyes and his stubble completed the 'I don't care anymore' package.
The shock of his appearance brought part of him back to reality. When had things gone so bad? He took his razor and started to work. He really had let himself go, hadn't he? He remembered coming home after his little 'incident' with Haruka. He also remembered going down a spiral of self-loathing, depression, cup noodles and other junk food. Ugh, he didn't even like junk food that much.
The razor hugged his skin with every stroke, leaving nothing but a smooth surface behind. He liked shaving, along with different pleasant smells from shaving cream and after shave, came a sort of 'dead' time. A time where the only thing he could think of was the razor on his skin. He had to concentrate really hard on every movement, and that left little time for his thoughts to wander to unpleasant places. Once he had finished shaving, he surveyed himself on the mirror. His hand touched his face and met the soft skin underneath, perfect.
Klaus dressed up, enjoying the fact that he was wearing cleans clothes once again, and got out of the bathroom. His jaw dropped when he saw his room, there was trash everywhere! How had he managed to live all this time in these conditions? Depression was a dangerous thing. He headed towards the kitchen, choosing to ignore the mess he had in his room, he would clean that later.
The smell of cooked food captured his attention and his stomach growled, Klaus hadn't even noticed how hungry he was! He settled on the dining table and waited for Iris to finish cooking. "What is for breakfast?" he asked, trying to keep the conversation friendly.
"Lunch, you mean?" She said, in a similar voice Klaus had used. Ah, they were both trying to be careful of each other.
Klaus disliked that, the point of having a friend like Iris was to never be careful of each other. He decided to push the boundary a little, "Lunch, breakfast, does it really matter?" he said in a dejected voice. His words caught Iris attention, who stopped stirring the soup in favor of shooting him a worried glance. Klaus couldn't help but laugh at her, that was so cute.
"It's not funny, Klaus!" She responded, glaring at him. How could he make jokes like that? Didn't he realize the shock she had gone through when she found him like she did?
Klaus looked at her, a little smile playing on his lips, "It is a little bit funny." He chuckled.
Iris wanted to smile. She was glad her friend was finally returning to the one he used to be, but she couldn't give in just yet, she was supposed to be mad! "It is not funny watching you throw away your life."
Klaus frowned, "Come one, are you not being a little too dramatic?" he asked. He didn't really think holing up in his room for a couple of days was enough to be categorized as 'throwing away your life'.
Iris removed the soup from the fire before turning to face him. "Too dramatic? TOO DRAMATIC?" she shouted, giving Klaus the impression that yes, she was being too dramatic. "Klaus, you've been here for more than two weeks! That's half a season! So forgive ME for trying to stop you from throwing away your life!" Iris exploded. It seemed like she had been wanting to say this for a long time.
Klaus's eyebrows rose, "What?" Had Iris just said half a season? "What day is today?" he asked, totally at loss.
"Fall 14?" her answer sounded more like a question. "You even missed my brilliant performance in the Fashion Show..." she muttered.
Klaus had to suppress a laugh, so that was the reason Iris had been so determined to get him out of bed. Still, he couldn't believe it was already Fall 14, where had all the time gone? Sometime during his pity party, he had lost absolute track of time. "Wait! My deadlines!" he panicked, he had already missed TWO deadlines with no explanation whatsoever! "I have to call my clients." He abruptly rose from the table and headed towards is bedroom.
"Klaus, calm down." Iris told him, "I've already talked to them, you have an extension until the end of Fall." She added calmly, neatly pouring the soup into plates. "Really now, being depressed for so long is only a luxury rich people can afford."
"Oh..." he said, lowering himself again. Iris really looked out for him, didn't she? She had gone so far as to talk to his clients so that he didn't lose points with them. "Thank you." He seemed to be telling her that a lot these days.
"What do you mean 'thank you'? You owe me." She put the plate of soup in front of him. Ah, bouillabaisse, she was spoiling him.
Klaus smiled, "Yeah? What do I owe you, then?" He felt like they were going back to normal, perhaps they had just needed to let out a little steam?
Iris laughed, crisp, cheerful and real. "I was just joking."
"Do not give me that. You can ask for anything, Iris. Anything you want." He offered, and he meant it. He would give Iris the stars if he could. It was not every day that you meet someone who will stick with you through thick and thin.
She chuckled, "Ah, well, if you insist." She pondered for a few seconds before looking at him straight into is eyes, "Get better, then." Klaus started thinking that he would not live long enough to express his gratitude towards Iris. "Let's eat."
"How did it come to this...?"
"I'm not the one who did this mess, so I don't. Come on, keep cleaning." Iris told him. Klaus sighed, picking up a bottle of empty wine and putting it inside a trash bag. "You drank so much..." she murmured. Klaus looked around and noticed the multiple bottles of wine. He didn't remember drinking that much, but he did remember waking up a lot, so perhaps he had blacked out. A shameful feeling enveloped him, he had drunk so much to make himself black out, how disgraceful.
"Ah well, let us not talk about that." He said while a small blush spread on his face. Iris got the hint and didn't press the issue.
They continued cleaning, one bag of chips at a time. "Where did you even get this much junk food? You don't even like junk food..."
Klaus wiped sweat off his forehead, "Ah, Marian gave them to me." He vaguely remembered the eccentric doctor coming to his house with an enormous basket of what he called 'comfort food'. 'It'll make you feel better', Marian had told him, immediately followed by a quick 'Please don't tell anyone I gave you this'. Klaus hadn't understood what he meant at the time, but now he could see that it would damage the doctor's reputation to be prancing around giving unhealthy food to anyone who needed it. "I did not really feel like cooking, so I ate most of it." Klaus looked around, it really had been a lot of comfort food. He couldn't believe he ate so much, perhaps that was why he felt so heavy.
The bags of trash filled one after the other, and soon, they could see the floor beneath. Iris mopped the floor while Klaus changed the sheets, they really made a great team. They continued their cleaning until late into the day. Klaus yawned and stretched, everything ached. It had been so long since he had even gotten out of bed.
"Tired? Should we take a break and continue tomorrow?" Iris asked, stretching too.
Klaus hummed and surveyed the room, it almost looked as clean as usual. "Sure, let us continue tomorrow." He put the dirty sheets in the laundry basket, which was now overflowing, and sat on his bed. Cleaning so much had tired him a lot more than he would be willing to admit. Perhaps his past irregular sleep schedule played a part in his tiredness too, but it was mainly the cleaning.
"Shall we go somewhere for dinner…?" Iris asked tentatively, watching Klaus closely as if to guess his answer from his expression. She knew she was pushing it, but she had already gotten Klaus out of bed, the next step was to get him out of the house.
"Sure," Klaus answered with a smile, dining out sounded like a great idea. Iris's cooking had reminded him how good normal food tasted. "Where shall we go to?"
Iris's eyes widened, "Really?" she blurted out. She was astounded that Klaus had given up so easily. She cleared her throat and composed herself. "I mean...Sure, yeah. Let me think about it." She thought for a moment, she hadn't really expected Klaus to say yes, so she had planned absolutely nothing. "How about Raeger's-" She realized her mistake a second too late.
Klaus's whole body went stiff, and the warm fuzz that had settle in the room froze. Iris stayed quiet, scared that she might make the situation worse. She mentally prepared her apology, waiting for Klaus's response. "Ah...I, yes. Let us do that."
"Klaus, I'm so sorry-" she started, but stopped once she registered Klaus's words. "Wait, what?"
Klaus stood up and smiled down at her, "I said, let us do that."
"Why?" she blurted out again. She really needed to stop saying the first thing that came to her head.
Klaus sighed, why indeed. The truth was, he was a bit of a masochist, and a little bit more of a hypocrite. It's not like he wanted to go to Raeger's and eat his cooking, however excellent it may be. He wanted to go to Raeger's because it was the most probable place Haruka might be. It wasn't logical, he knew. After all, it had been him who had holed up in his room for two weeks to avoid her, but now that he had come to his senses, he wanted to see her. Even when he had sworn himself to put distance between them, he needed to see her, make sure she was okay, even if it was from afar.
"I-" Klaus hesitated for a moment, debating whether to tell Iris about his real feelings or not. He looked at her, the woman who had, just a few hours ago, reached out to the hole he was in, grabbed him, and pulled him out. He didn't know what he did to have such a wonderful woman by his side, the least he could do was be honest with her. "I need to see her." He finally said, a small blush spreading across his cheeks.
Iris frowned, "Are you sure?" She asked, crossing her arms across her chest.
"Ah, you do not approve." Klaus smiled, how very Iris of her to try and protect him from further harm. "I can assure you I am okay." He said, and for the first time in weeks, he meant it. He was feeling great, apparently his two weeks of self-pity had thrown out all the sadness in him. "I just need to see how she is doing."
Iris sighed, but smiled. "You truly are something..."
"And when have I not?"