"Oh no," Dave said with dread in his voice, walking beside him. "When you said you knew a place we could sit and chill, I didn't know you meant here."

"Why, what's wrong with it?" Klaus asked, hopping up onto one of the swings on the empty playground.

He was standing on it, using his body weight to swing back and forth and gain momentum. He watched as Dave walked over to one of the other swings and glared down at it.

"My nemesis," Dave muttered before turning his back on it like it wasn't worth his time and moving to take the swing next to Klaus.

"Is that the swing that kicked your ass?" Klaus asked, surprised he remembered something from the second night they'd hung out. Normally he did his best not to remember anything about anyone. "Oh, no, you don't, you gotta face your fears. Get back on there and show it what's up."

"What's up will not be me," Dave said, tentatively returning to it and carefully, slowly, sat down.

"There, see? You did it."

He started to swing back and forth, but was incredibly tense. Klaus couldn't help but laugh at him as he himself started going higher. Eventually, Dave seemed to take courage and relax, eventually swinging to match.

"So," Dave said eventually. "Ghosts. Do you really see them?"

"Man, way to bring down the mood," Klaus said, but he was in a good mood and incredibly high so he decided to indulge him. Everyone always asked eventually, so might as well get all the burning questions out of the way now. "Only when I'm sober. How fucked up is that? Usually it's the other way around."

"Wait, really? It, like, blocks them out or something?"

"You bet, baby," Klaus exclaimed. "Finally, some peace and quiet. I'm the only one yelling now!"

He wasn't even really sure why he was being so honest. He almost never was, so why now? Apparently he told Dave a lot of things he'd never tell anyone. But he didn't want to think about the why right now.

"Does that mean seeing them is bad?" Dave asked. "What's it like?"

"You ever have someone missing a good portion of their face beg you to save them even though you have no way of doing so?" Klaus asked, because he was feeling spiteful.

Not towards Dave, of course. He didn't know, he didn't mean anything by it. But towards his abilities, towards all of the endless questions Klaus could never answer because even he didn't really know how his abilities worked. And especially towards the judgement at his failure to even face the ghosts, because surely Dave would get, now, why he was living this life.

Dave was quiet for a long moment and Klaus couldn't help the smugness he felt for having managed to stop the questions so thoroughly. But then he finally did answer and the response was so serious and sad it took him by surprise.

"Yes."

"Oh."

Klaus hadn't meant for things to take such a grim turn, but it occurred to him too late that Dave might be the closest out of everyone to know what it was like for him. Sure, the corpses on the battlefield probably didn't get up and scream at Dave the way they did for him, but there was still the dead and the dying as well as the fear and the helplessness.

Not that that mattered. It wasn't like the knowledge could help either of them in any way. In fact, it was probably worse. Maybe it would just give even more reason for Dave to judge him. He hadn't run away from his own ghosts, after all.

"Is that what it's like for you? All the time?" Dave asked, but he must have gotten the answer from his expression alone because he continued almost immediately. "Come on, I have an idea."

"What kind of an idea?" Klaus asked skeptically. He dropped down so he was sitting on the swing normally.

"Well, you've been showing me all these great places around town, I think it's time I return the favor."

"Oh?" Klaus said, hopping down and Dave did the same. "You intrigue me, Katz."

"It's not exactly a secret, you've probably been plenty of times, but at least it'll be my treat."

It turned out to be an amusement park, one Klaus had been to a few times, but he wasn't opposed to going again. It wasn't particularly big, but this late there weren't many people to wait behind so they could ride whatever they wanted. And sometimes the bored and exhausted workers would let them on for free just for something to do. The teacups were particularly fun, even if they got yelled at for testing the limits of how quickly it could spin.

The best way to enjoy a good Ferris wheel was to be high as a kite, but Klaus was beginning to come down as it slowly went around. It also made him aware of how tired he suddenly was, especially after all the running around and yelling they'd been doing. He didn't mean to slump over and rest his head on Dave's shoulder, but once he was there he was too comfortable to move. Besides, it wasn't like Dave was complaining.

"I thought about suggesting the haunted house, but thought it was a little on the nose," Dave said and Klaus couldn't help but laugh.

"What about the mirror maze?" Klaus suggested. "I'm sure getting lost in there while high wouldn't be a disaster that ended horribly."

"Yeah, we should do that only if you want to stumble across me crying in a corner wondering why there are so many of me."

"Really?" Klaus asked. "Because there being more of me is, really, best case scenario in my book."

"Okay," Dave laughed. "As long as you don't abandon me in there. How much do you think we're going to regret this?"

"Either it'll be fun, or we'll both end up lost and crying," Klaus joked. "Either way it'll be quite a trip."

"Hey," Dave said. "Thanks for coming with."

"Yes, it was such a burden," Klaus said, in exaggeration, because thanking him for not bombarding him with more questions about ghosts felt too heavy on his tongue.

"However will I repay you?" Dave said, equally exaggerating his words.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm sure we'll come up with something."

He couldn't help it. Flirting just came too naturally, especially with Dave, and he couldn't deny that original interest was definitely still there. Thankfully, Dave played along, because suddenly Klaus was struck with how devastating it would be if he lost this friendship. He popped a pill. Those were thoughts he wasn't exactly interested in indulging right now. He was supposed to be on his own. He wasn't supposed to care about anyone else.

What was he doing? What had he gotten himself into?