His Only Hope

Ball of Twine

Klaus pressed his lips together, frowning.

You looked away, clenching your jaw.

"How much?"

"1 grand."

The three of you stood in silence for a moment or two, but then Five shook his head.

"This doesn't make sense. If your family..." He trailed off suddenly, his expression surprised. "Oh. Right."

"What?" you asked, stepping forward. "What is it, Five?"

He shook his head.

"I don't know for sure, but... Allison could have given you fake memories." He bit the inside of his lip as your eyes widened. "So that you didn't feel bad. Shit." He watched your face intensely but didn't move to comfort you, and you tried not to be hurt by that. Unless you were physically injured, Five generally didn't know what to do or how to react, and was fairly awkward. Otherwise, his automatic response was violence.

"Oh," you whispered, tears building behind your eyes. "I... see."

"Sorry, lil sis," Klaus muttered, wrapping his arm around your shoulder and resting his head on yours reassuringly. "I probably shouldn't have said anything."

"No, it's... it's whatever." You cleared your throat, trying to shake off the hateful thoughts filtering through your mind. Allison had lied - again. "Can we just move on, please?" Your voice shook, and Five winced, looking away. "Klaus, um... why did you only decide to track down your mother now?"

"Well," Klaus began slowly, the atmosphere still heavy, "Dad disowns us. Grace isn't Grace. Ben's gone. Now just felt like as good a time as any to find out who I could've been if I didn't grow up in this stupid family."

"Well, can you really call what we had a family?" Five asked, squinting up at the sky.

"No, it was more like a-"

"Institute for snarky delinquents," Five interrupted him, and everyone laughed humorlessly. "And you know, not a good one at that! As we just proved, everyone still lies to each other, we can't get along... the works."

"But what is family?" you asked softly. "What is it?" It certainly wasn't the three people Allison had planted in your head.

"I think it's like some kind of giant... ball of twine," Klaus explained, holding his hands up to demonstrate, "that can never be untangled."

"A giant ball of obligation I've been pushing uphill my entire life," Five said, the three of you staring up at the ball of twine.

"And the older you get, the bigger it gets," Klaus continued. "And the more you try to untangle it..." 

"You watch it roll back down the hill..."

"It gets harder and harder to control," you added, frowning. 

"And what's the point?" all three of you said at the same time, and you looked at each other quizzically.

"Hey," Klaus said suddenly. "I'm glad you two came along. You're... a good brother, Five. And you're a good sister, Eight."

He stared down at you and Five, the cicadas filling the awkward silence.

"All right, all right, you say nice things about me now," Klaus said expectantly. When nobody said anything again, you being caught up in your thoughts, Five turned toward the car again.

"Let's go find your stupid mother," Five said, patting him on the shoulder before walking over to the road.

"Love you too, tiny dancer!" he shouted, chasing after him and laughing.

Before you could hop in the car, you elbowed Klaus lightly.

"You're a good brother, too," you said, and he smiled down at you hopefully.

"Don't ever change, (Y/N)." 

You laughed softly.

"It's weird hearing you say my real name."

"You told him your name?" Five had gotten out of the car, one hand on the handle still. His eyes were wide and unsure. "Like... your real name?"

"It's about time I did," you said, shrugging awkwardly. "I think I'll tell Allison next. I mean... I'm not so sure anymore." Your mouth twisted in a grimace at the thought of her planting fake memories in your mind.

"Wait... so this is going to be a, an everyone thing?"

"Yeah," you said after a moment, nodding. "Yeah. Now let's go. We've got a birth mother to reunite with."

The three of you got in the car again, Five still shocked.

"Klaus," you began once he had started driving. "Did you... see the location of my mother?"

He shook his head sorrowfully.

"Nope. Just the cash. I still can't believe Dad kept those check stubs."

"Shit," Five repeated.

You all sat on pensive silence as the car wound through green hills, the cheery music starkly contrasting the heavy mood. Finally, you drove onto a gravel road, leisurely gliding past a wooden fence containing grazing cows.

"Well, this certainly looks old-fashioned," you said haltingly as you looked around. "Like... very old-fashioned."

Klaus parked, and as you stepped out, a group of children all dressed the same went running past, laughing.

"Son of a bitch," Five said, his voice hinting at humor. "Klaus is Amish."

"Wouldn't have guessed that," you said, and Klaus elbowed you, glancing around with a grin.

"This explains everything," he said, bringing you to snort.

"How does this explain anything?"

"Because look!" Klaus said, waving his arms around. "Look at this place! This was everything my childhood was missing."

"What, no cellular service and a bunch of farm animals?" you asked, raising your eyebrows at the cows.

"Yes! Exactly!"

"Hey, uh, Klaus," Five called as he began walking toward the people.

"Yeah?"

"Wait up a minute." He took your hand, pulling you toward your annoyed brother. "Doppelgänger check. You feel anything strange? Uh, itching, sweats, anything like that?"

You noticed that he was holding Klaus' wrist tightly with his free hand and smiled.

"No," Klaus said calmly, looking down at his hand and causing Five to remove it immediately, sticking it in his pocket with an awkward frown. "No, no, I feel great. Apart from the old rash on the tackle, but what can you do?"

Five made a face at him as he turned to continue on his way once more.

"All right. Good luck."

"Have fun, Klaus," you added, raising your eyebrows when he turned around, shocked.

"What? Wait, you guys aren't coming with?"

"This one you gotta do alone," Five said, and you nodded.

"Trust us. It'll be better without your weird adoptive siblings there," you said, and he sighed dramatically.

"Alone?" He paused. "Yeah, okay. Yeah, I can do that. For sure."

He cast one final nervous look at you before walking off slowly, as if he still expected you to join him.

You shook your head with a small smile, looking after him.

"He's like a little kid. I feel kinda bad, making him go by himself."

"He'll be fine," Five assured you, wrapping his arm around your shoulder. "Plus, this way we can plan our next stop, right?"

You grinned up at him.

"The pie place is still at the top of my list," you said, and he rolled his eyes, but his mouth tilted up nonetheless.