He was only jostled a little, but that was still enough to wake Dave. And, once he was awake, his body was all too happy to remind him just how much pain he was in. Every part of him ached, but he was still so exhausted he thought about trying to fall back asleep anyway. But then he swore he heard Klaus actually hiss at someone and curiosity got the better of him. Besides, his mind was fuzzy and he couldn't remember much of what had happened and being able to talk to Klaus was always a comfort when he felt like this. Then again, just being with Klaus in general was a comfort.
"Use your words," he joked, voice coming out rough and causing his throat and lungs to burn painfully. The muscles in his chest protested when he tried to move, so he gave up, settling back against Klaus.
"What am I supposed to do?" Klaus asked in annoyance, wrapping his arms more securely around him, the movement almost protective. "They were getting all up in my business. You'd think they'd never seen a guy covered in blood before."
"Blood?" Dave's eyes shot open and he squinted up at Klaus, disturbed by the state he was in. He was covered in soot and mud and blood, like he'd come directly from the battlefield. That was a sure way to get an infection, he knew that. "Are you hurt?"
"Dave," Klaus said, voice deadpan. "Look down."
He did. And he saw the blood soaked through his clothes, a big ugly rip in the center of his jacket. But when he brought a hand up to poke at it, there was no open wound, just a dull ache.
"Oh," Dave said dumbly.
"Really? That's it?" Klaus asked, laughing a little hysterically. "Great, hang onto that, because there's more."
"What's that supposed to mean? Klaus, what happened?"
"You got hurt," Klaus said, glancing down at the dry blood on his hands before quickly looking anywhere else. "It was bad."
"I'm sore, but I don't feel that bad," he said, checking his chest again. "What's going on?"
"Yeah, I'm not exactly sure what happened. But we had to get out of there or you'd die for real, so I grabbed that briefcase if mine. And now you're suddenly fine. Or, mostly fine anyway. I don't know. But that brings us to our next thing. Do you— hear anything?"
"Yeah," Dave said distractedly, finally glancing around at their surroundings. They seemed to be lying in a back alley in a city, but it didn't look like any of the alleys in Saigon or anywhere else they'd visited on leave. "I hear traffic. Lots of it. Klaus, why do I hear traffic?"
Klaus actually seemed a bit relieved at that, but the relief didn't last long. "Okay, so, don't be mad, but we time traveled."
"We what now?" Dave asked. None of this seemed real and he tried to sit up, go look at Him properly. Klaus helped him, but hesitated before he pulled away, like he didn't want to let him go.
"Yeah, you know," Klaus said, avoiding eye contact, gesturing broadly the way he did when he wanted to be distracting. "I told you I was from the future, remember?"
"Yeah, but why am I here?" Dave asked. "Isn't that going to change things? What if my being here ruins things somehow?"
"I didn't really have a choice, not after-" Klaus said, but cut himself off, changing direction. "Look, our options were to get out of there, or die, possibly by being experimented on, what with your miraculous recovery and my mysterious briefcase."
"I don't really understand. What exactly happened? How bad was it?" Dave persisted.
"Look, I'll explain everything, but we need to get off the streets first."
"I don't even know what we're supposed to do, now," Dave said, his mind spinning, barely able to comprehend being in the future. He didn't exactly have much of a life to lose in his time, but it was still incredibly disorienting, thinking that everything and everyone he knew were likely gone. He didn't know how to feel about any of this. Mostly he was just afraid. And exhausted.
"It'll be fine, we'll figure it out later," Klaus said flippantly. "Bad news, though. The only place I can think of to go is the Academy."
"Okay?" Dave said, because it wasn't like he had any suggestions he could offer.
"Good thing dad's dead, because he'd probably want to dissect you too," Klaus said unhelpfully.
"Great," Dave said weakly as he let him help him to his feet, too stunned to do much other than follow along, leaning weakly against Klaus. There were just too many questions and he didn't know where to even begin.