AN: Longer than the previous. Let me know what you think and enjoy!

Chapter Eleven

Klaus stretched, his muscles groaning and joints grinding from years and years of abuse. He'd been hurt so many times fighting for the Umbrella Academy as a kid, when his body was supposed to be developing, that it left him incomplete. Breaking bones while they're still growing probably made it a lot worse.

When he opened his eyes, he noticed that he wasn't alone in his bed. A shock of fear came quickly. He was afraid of who he'd called to join him, afraid of who he had to tell to get out, until he realized who it was.

A wave of relief swept through him at the sight of Andy. Curled into her pillow, face half buried while she laid on her stomach, she looked peaceful.

Klaus relaxed into the mattress, sighed as his head fell into his pillow. He stared at her and smiled. Memories of the previous night drifted back into his brain, no longer clouded by booze and weed.

Propping his head up, Klaus couldn't help but stare. With her soundly asleep, he had the chance and took full advantage. Of all the people in the world, from strangers to "friends", Andy was the last person he'd ever thought he'd sleep with. He never thought they clicked, that they fit together like that, but last night proved his half-baked theory wrong. They'd been in tune with each other's wants, moved as one and gave as good as they got. There were brief moments where he could have sworn it was a spiritual experience. Klaus had never experienced something so intimate with a woman before. Until that point, it'd only ever been Dave.

Reaching out, Klaus tenderly touched Andy's bare back. Her skin flinched from the contact, but she didn't breathe deeper or shift. She was ignorant to his fingers as they trailed along her spine and across her scars.

Her body was littered with them. They all were. Fighting crime for years wearing no armor left its mark. At any point in time, most of them had broken bones, been shot, or stabbed. The Hargreeves children's bodies told the story of their lives within the Umbrella Academy.

Andy healed better than most once she dunked herself in the tank in the basement, but she was never able to wipe the wounds away completely. Across her back alone, Klaus saw the scar down her spine from the vertebra she'd had fused when she'd been kicked square in the back, breaking it and nearly paralyzing her. He touched the small, circular scar on the back of her left shoulder where she'd been shot by a robber and the thin, nearly invisible marks from a life before The Umbrella Academy. He asked about them once and only once. Andy said they were from her grandmother, a religious woman, who began to view Andy as something unholy when her powers manifested.

Klaus was content, genuinely comfortable for the first time in a long while. In fact, he hadn't felt so good since the last time he was in the sixties.

"Have fun?"

Klaus sat up, heart racing. Across the room sat Ben, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees, his hands clasped together and a stern look of judgment written across his face. Klaus calmed immediately and even slumped back into the bed.

"I can't believe you," Ben said with a sigh. "Then again, when have you ever been able to control yourself?"

Klaus shot him a glare. With a glance at Andy, he crawled out of bed. Ben turned away, which Klaus appreciated, and didn't turn around until Klaus had thrown on his robe.

"What are you even doing here?" Klaus hissed through his teeth.

"Where else am I supposed to go?"

Klaus shrugged. "Anywhere?"

Ben rolled his eyes, but his gaze drifted to Andy still sleeping soundly a few feet away. An odd expression crossed his face.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked incredulously.

"Nothing," Ben grumbled.

But Klaus knew otherwise. He'd spent day in and day out for sixteen years looking at Ben's face. He could tell when something was wrong. The question was: did he want to get involved?

No. He didn't.

Klaus crossed the room and grabbed a bottle of something. It was clear which meant it could've been water, vodka or gin. He didn't bother testing it before swallowing a mouthful and grimacing.

Gin. Definitely gin.

"Oh, God," he grumbled, clearing his throat and trying to rid it of the strange backwash-like flavor. "So, why are you here again?"

Ben shifted in his seat and glared up at Klaus. "Have you figured out what you're going to do about the others, yet?"

"Others…?" Klaus lengthened the word, fishing for more clarity. Ben thrust his arm out, pointing firmly toward the heart of the house. Klaus grimaced. "Oh. Others."

"Well?"

"Well, what?" He shrugged and turned his back to his brother.

Without a care, he threw off his robe, knowing that Ben would likely avert his gaze. The groan of disgust from his brother made Klaus smirk to himself as he reached for the strip of fabric he liked to call his 'diaper'. After spending years in India, he probably should have learned what the technical name of the piece of clothing was, but he hadn't.

A soft sigh drew Klaus's attention. He shifted to peer around Ben as he tucked the flap of white fabric into the waistband, securing the garment in place.

Andy stretched out on the bed, arms and legs jutting out and making her longer than the mattress she was lying on. A loud pop caused him to grimace once more and Andy to mumble ow into the pillow.

"Morning," he said. Andy tensed. A smile touched his lips. "Sleep well?"

Andy shifted, clutching the blanket to her chest as she shoved herself into a seating position. Eyes wide, she looked round the room. He thought the worry written across her face was adorable.

A sheet of black hair had swept across her face, shielding one eye. The messy hairstyle added a surprising level of allure to the humorous embarrassment.

"Um, morning," she mumbled. Andy ran her fingers through her hair to get it out of her face. She chewed on her bottom lip and cleared her throat. "So,"

Swelling with a surprising amount of pride, Klaus sauntered toward her. "So."

Her piercing blue eyes met his gaze, pink touching her cheeks. "We had sex last night."

"Yup," he chuckled, hands resting on his narrow hips. "A few times, actually."

Ben groaned oh my God and rolled his eyes. Klaus hissed at him, but kept his attention primarily on the naked young woman in his bed.

"Um." She looked around the room, touching her lips out of nervous habit. "I suppose I should get dressed, perhaps take a shower."

"You can do that." He nodded. "We have pools, too."

Andy perked. "Do you?"

"Yeah." He smiled wide. "A few and a couple ponds, too." He paused. "I think."

"A swim would be lovely," she said as she stood, clinging almost desperately to the blanket. Klaus thought it was adorable. He'd seen every inch of her only a few hours ago, literally, but her need for propriety won out regardless. "Oh, dear." He noticed her looking over her clothes. "I don't have anything appropriate."

"You can borrow something of mine."

Andy glanced up at him, a small smile touching her lips. "As lovely as the offer is, I can't fit your clothes."

"Why not?"

"Darling, you're a twig." Andy motioned toward the nearly naked young man. "I'm not. Quite frankly, Vanya would barely be able to fit some of your clothes."

He chuckled, grinning wide. Klaus liked the joke.

"Maybe she should just get her clothes and come stay here?" Ben asked. "You could use someone to keep you-"

"Yeah!" Klaus pointed at his brother, not bothering to care that Andy couldn't see him. "Yeah, do that."

Andy arched a brow. "Do what?"

"You can stay here with me."

The second delicate brow rose to join the first. "I'm sorry?"

"You can get your stuff and stay here, with me." He smiled. "Good idea, right?"

"But." Her eyes darted toward the door. "What about your… followers?"

"Bah," he scoffed, waving his hand dismissively. "It'll be fine. Come on, what do you say?"

Andy stared at him and the stupid smile he knew he had plastered across his face. Klaus batted his eyes lashes at her, knowing that Andy had trouble saying no to him. At least, she used to. He hoped that hadn't-

"Okay," she said.

"Yeah?"

She giggled and nodded. "Yeah."

Andy fingered through her clothes and took only the dress. She hesitated and, without her having to ask, Klaus turned. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ben do the same.

Stupid. I'd peep all the time, he thought to himself.

"All right," Andy said. He turned and saw her cradling the dress to her body as she approached him. "Would you?"

When she turned, he zipped her into the piece and noticed she hadn't bothered with any of her underwear.

"Going commando, hm?" he teased. She was blushing when she turned back around. "Hot."

Andy shoved him, which caused him to laughed again.

"Well." She swatted at the garment, sweeping her hands down the dark fabric repeatedly as though it'd straighten it. "I suppose I'll be back in a little while."

She slid into her shoes and gave herself one final "straightening" before she left, hesitating at the door before slipping out as quietly as she could. To anyone else, it might have looked like a walk of shame, but he knew better. He wouldn't want to wake up his children, either. They were intense.

"Now what?"

"Huh?" He looked at Ben.

"Now. What."

Klaus's brows creased. "What do you mean?"

"You had sex with Andy."

"I know," he giggled.

Ben scoffed and shook his head. "You don't get it, do you?"

"Get what?" he asked, exasperated. "You won't say anything."

Ben stood and closed the distance between them, "You slept with Andy. Andy."

"I know," he said sarcastically. "I was there."

"What are you guys going to do now, hm? Everything can't go back to the way it used to be."

A strange knot formed in Klaus's gut and any trace of a mocking smile faded.

"Why not?"

"Sex changes things."

He scoffed. "No it doesn't."

"Really?" Ben asked. "Name one person you've had sex with that you still talk to." Klaus nearly opened his mouth when Ben added, "That isn't a member of your cult."

Klaus pursed his lips and glared. He thought about it for a moment, then another, and then another. There had been a lot of names to sift through, but the task became easier and easier as each one of them fell to the wayside because, like Ben hinted, Klaus didn't talk to any of them anymore.

"Oh," he mumbled to himself.

"Exactly." Ben crossed his arms. "Now, what are you going to do about your followers?"

Klaus scowled. He wasn't in the mood to talk about that.

Andy returned to the manor much later that day. She had taken a shower and changed before packing her things. In truth, the majority of her time away from the manor had been spent thinking.

I had sex with Klaus.

The thought repeated itself multiple times over the last few hours. In the moment, when his lips touched hers, when he ran his hands up the length of her back, across her cheek or through her hair, she wanted nothing more. When he kissed her body and whispered her name, there was nothing more.

But that had been then. Andy's mind was no longer clouded by desire or longing. She almost wished she could blame it on the drugs, but she couldn't. The weed did nothing more than lower her inhibitions. It didn't overtake her. And as for Klaus, Andy was well aware that it took much more than what he'd ingested to affect him.

It didn't mean anything was the thought that gave her the courage to return. The fact that Andy knew for certain Klaus wouldn't think twice on their night together helped her move beyond her embarrassment. While she wouldn't and couldn't regret it, she would be an adult about the whole ordeal. It meant nothing to Klaus, so it had to mean nothing to her.

The taxi pulled up to the manor and parked just beyond the Partridge Family bus. Andy paid the driver and forced herself inside. The living room (or whatever passed for a living room in a mansion) had been filled to the brim with people in blue clothing. They were knelt on the tiled floor praying, their low words creating a hum throughout the space.

Andy's skin crawled and she scampered into Klaus's room on the toes of her heels, doing her best to keep them from clicking on the tile and alerting them to her presence.

The moment she was inside his bedroom, she slammed the door shut, pressing her body against it and shuddered.

"Good Lord that is creepy."

While cults were always in a class their own, Andy had never been comfortable around the herd mentality and when that sort of thought process was aimed towards someone she grew up with, it made for a uniquely unsettling feeling.

Andy emerged wearing her bathing suit, a bikini with a high waist. She rather liked the look of them, not minding how much more conservative they were than those from her time. She thought it was adorable that some considered them salacious and slutty. String bikinis would give those people a stroke.

The pale blue garment came with a coat of sorts, a matching cape that could be buttoned shut or left open while at the beach. She'd always liked the combination, but desired it less and less the more she realized it was the same shade of color as the cults' clothing.

She wove through the members, light on her toes and doing her best to avoid eye contact of any kind. They noticed her, anyway. A few bowed to her, holding their hands up, fingers sprawled and palms visible. She did her best to keep from grimacing or making a face at it, but it was difficult. They'd come up with a name for her, too.

"Sister! Sister!"

The name was shouted from the inside of the manor, the panicked sound growing closer and closer. Soon, Andy could see the cause. It was the bald man with glasses, the one who'd given her the initial pamphlet with Klaus's picture and glared at her last night.

"Sister!" He was waving something in his hand, an envelope of some kind, and bounded out of the mansion.

He ran for her so quickly that Andy backed away on instinct, almost desperate to put as much space between them as she could.

A sudden loud gasp echoed around her. The other members, those who'd been tending the garden, dropped to their knees so fast that Andy heard them crack against the paving stones. She winced.

Her gaze drifted back to the bald man. His eyes were wide, mouth agape and his focus on her feet. Andy followed his line of sight and noticed immediately why they'd all bowed to her. In her hurry to back away from the bald man, she'd stepped into the reflection pond. It was level to the ground, perhaps a foot deep and filled with plant life, but she hadn't technically stepped into it. Her ability prevented that. Instead, she stood on the water's surface, barely a ripple caused.

Shit, she thought to herself. It'd been instinct not to fall into the water, instinct to walk on the surface. She had no control over it.

The bald man dropped to his knees and flashed his tattooed palms at her, too. Andy couldn't keep the unease from her features anymore.

"Don't do that," she said. "Stand up."

He was slow to comply, but did, grasping the envelopes tightly in his hands.

"Sister," he said reverently. "These came for you and Profit."

He offered her the envelopes. "Thank… you…"

Andy took one of them and popped the seal. She'd have been more selective if either had been named.

Inside rested a gilded invitation signed by a very familiar name. Andy's stomach curled.

"Where's Klaus?" she asked. No one spoke at first. "Where is he?" She demanded.

"He went that way, Sister," someone said, pointing into the distance.

Andy darted off, not bothering to address the fact that she'd walked on water in front of a bunch of religious zealots.

She jogged down the path, beyond people tilling and pulling weeds, beyond those trimming hedges and calling her sister. She'd traveled long enough that she began to wonder if they'd sent her in the wrong direction, until she rounded a corner.

A young man was yelling at Klaus, shoving something into his hands before charging off. Her brow furrowed. She didn't recognize the kid, and neither was he wearing the cult's wardrobe. He was someone else.

Andy was slow to approach, still eying the boy and wondering who he might have been until she finally glanced at Klaus. She froze in her spot. He was shaking –not trembling, but genuinely shaking so hard that the chain in his hand rattled.

"Klaus." She kept her voice soft. "Klaus, sweetheart, who was that?"

A sinking feeling had crept into her gut, twisting it around and making her uncomfortable.

"That was, uh," he muttered. He looked up, eyes pink and tears cascading down his cheeks. "That was Dave."

She was frozen. Andy's head snapped toward the distant path where the body had run, but he was long gone.

"Oh my God," she whispered.

"Yeah," he breathed. "That was him."

She turned her attention back to him. He continued to shake as he put the dog tags around his neck. There was no need for her to ask what happened. Andy wasn't a stupid woman, so she didn't bother and instead threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug.

"Shhh," she whispered, stroking his hair. "It's all right."

Klaus clung to her, squeezing her tighter than she'd ever been hugged before. It hurt, but she wasn't going to tell him.

He buried his face in her shoulder and cried, clutching at her cape and fisting the fabric. The sound of his genuine heartache caused tears to gather in her eyes, too.

With her cheek to his, cradling him close, Andy continued to console him. She'd tell Klaus about Sir Reginald's invitation later.