Super Sensitive - The Umbrella Academy (♡Klaus)《ON HOLD》

☂️Chapter 20☂️

     The two sat there for quite some time. Klaus crying in Kiara's shoulder while she tried to sooth him a little. It took some time, but eventually, Klaus's sobs became less and the crying became softer and softer until they were completely gone. The only sounds that still could be heard from the man were soft sniffles now and then. 
     "Ready to go back to the Academy?" Kiara asked as gentle as possible. Klaus leaned back, looking up in his adopted sister's bright blue eyes that looked back at him with a concern that she tried to hide. The fabric of her gloves felt ruff against his skin no matter how gently she was trying to wipe away the tear stains from his cheeks. He had missed her so much, she would never know.
     Eventually, Klaus nodded his head, silently answering her question. With a friendly smile, Kiara helped him stand up. Now she was able to look better at him, she noticed the tattoo on his left shoulder that hadn't been there three days ago, together with dog tags that hang around his neck and the blood that covered his hands and parts of his clothes. "Maybe take a bath once we're there?" Kiara suggested, deciding not to comment on any of it just yet. This time Klaus didn't take long to respond. 
     "Yeah, a bath sounds nice." He said in a weak voice. This time, there was no flirtation, no witty comment or wiggling eyebrows coming from Klaus as he usually would have done. Of course this didn't go unnoticed by Kiara. Not saying anything about it, she wrapped one arm around her friend's waist. Not caring about the weird stares they received from other people, she led him back to their old house. 

The Academy was quiet when Klaus and Kiara walked inside. There didn't seem to be anyone on the first floor, which wasn't really a problem. This way there would be no awkward questions or snarky comments from their family. Just like the walk to the house, the walk to Klaus's room was quiet. His shoes left bloody boot prints all over the floor. Without words, Klaus started to make his way to his bathroom while Kiara picked up some clothes he could put on after. Kiara could hear the taps being opened and the familiar sound of the bath filling up with water. "I got you some clean clothes." She said after knocking on the open door. "Or at least, clean-ish. You wore the pants a few days ago."
     "Thank you." Klaus shot her the tiniest of half smiles, glancing up at her from untying his shoes. 
      "No problem." She responded with a smile. Knowing giving the clothes to Klaus would result in more bloodstains, Kiara put the clothes down on a chair that stood beside the door. "I'm gonna assume you can do the rest yourself, so I'll go now." Kiara turned to walk out of the room, but Klaus stopped her. 
     "Wait. Could you stay? I- I don't mean in here. But like, stay close? Not too close, only-" 
     "I'll be waiting in your room." Kiara interrupted his rambling. "Is that close enough?" 
     Klaus nodded his head, "yeah. That's perfect." 
     "Just shout if you need me," the blue haired woman told him before leaving the bathroom. She didn't close the door entirely, but left it open three inches, just to be sure. 
     Knowing Klaus's baths could take hours sometimes, Kiara plopped down on his bed. The springs protested against the sudden weight, but that wasn't a big surprise since all the old mattresses in the house had the same problems. Finally able to take off her boots, she placed them on the ground before curling up in a comfortable position. Not feeling up to do anything, she just lay there, staring at the many posters on the walls, letting her eyes wander to the fairy lights that lazily had been curled around the metal bed frame.
     Kiara remembered the time she and Klaus had stolen them from Allison's room, Allison had so many of them she didn't even notice until years later. Back then, all the lights had been shining brightly, but some of the lights were broken and the other ones had started to fade, giving the dark room a sad glow. Of course the woman could have gotten up from the bed to open the curtains, but she honestly just didn't feel like it.
     Kiara had been so lost in her thoughts for the past fifteen minutes, that she hadn't noticed Klaus had shortened his usual bath time; had walked into the room and was now sitting on his knees behind her. 
     "I got blood in your hair." Klaus mumbled, reaching to touch the dark red and brown blood stains that stood out between the light blue en grey colors of her hair. Only before he could touch it, Kiara had shot up, a little startled by her friend's sudden appearance. When she reached to the back of her head herself, she winced after touching her still sensitive skin. It wasn't from Klaus, it was her own. She had totally forgotten to wash it out a few days ago when she got her concussion from fighting Hazel. 
     "You didn't do that." Kiara stated while she turned around to face Klaus. Only then noticing he wasn't wearing the shirt she had picked out for him, but she decided to ignore that for now. "That was Hazel, he threw me against a pillar. Just haven't had the time to wash it out yet." 
     "That masked freak? When did that happen?" Klaus asked with some concern of his own.
     "Two nights ago, when those lunatics attacked the Academy, looking for Five." 
     "Only two..." Klaus started mumbling, but stopped himself and changed his sentence. "Are you okay? Did anyone else get hurt?" 
     "Yes," The woman said with a frown, looking into her friends eyes.
     Klaus swallowed, not able to suppress his worried tone. "W- who?"
     "You did, you idiot. Me? I only got a concussion, the others barely got a scratch on them. You got abducted! Any idea how worried I was about you?" 
     "I'm fine," Klaus mumbled, avoiding Kiara's eyes. 
     "No, you're not." Kiara said, trying her best not to sound like she was attacking him. "You were kidnapped and tortured. Hell, you even went to withdraw at the same time!"
     "How do you know that?" Klaus asked, confusion written on his face. 
     "Diego's officer friend, Eudora. She called him, saying she knew were you were. So we went there, but we only-" Kiara stopped talking. Her thoughts had involuntary gone to the memory of Eudora's death. Quickly she shook her head, taking a deep breath before continuing. "We only found Eudora's body." 
     "She died?" Klaus asked in a soft voice, a feeling of guilt coming over him. 
     Kiara nodded, "I used my powers on the chair you were bound to. That's how I know. I just didn't know what happened to you or the two assassins. I was planning to go back when the police were gone, search for a clue or something, but here you are." The woman let out a somewhat hesitant chuckle. She was happy he was back and in one piece, at least physically. But she didn't feel like she should be laughing right now. Klaus didn't say anything, he just looked at her with an expression the blue haired woman couldn't quit make out.  "What happened?" Kiara eventually spoke up again. "How did they get to you? How did you get away?"
     A new silence fell between the two as Klaus looked anywhere but at her. Kiara could feel the hesitation in her friend, his feelings of insecurity, slight anxiety still mixed with the grieve she had felt with him the moment he had stepped out of that bus. When Klaus stayed silent, Kiara's eyes fell on the dog tags that were still hanging around his neck. Careful she took the small metal plates in her hand, turning them between her fingers so she was able to read one of them. The first thing she noticed was the name that was pressed into it. Dave. Klaus had been following her movements closely, so when she looked back up she met his eyes.
     "Who was Dave?" She asked gently, knowing it was a sensitive subject. Klaus's eyes started to well up with tears again, but he tried to force them back. 
     "A friend." He said in a shaky voice and a haunted look in his eyes. Kiara careful hung the tags back, her fingers brushing over his bare chest, making a shiver run down his spine. 
     "What happened?" The woman repeated her question, a sign of desperation sounding through. She really wanted to know what happened to him, she wanted to understand and help. But she wouldn't be able to if he didn't say anything. "Please, talk to me?" 
    "It doesn't matter." Klaus said. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you anyway. No one ever believes me, so it doesn't matter."
     "Of course it matters." Kiara stated, sliding down the bed to sit on the ground in front of Klaus, taking one of his hands in hers. "Besides. Our time traveling 58-year-old brother who's trapped inside his 13-year-old body, who has been working as an assassin for a time agency that monitors the time line for the last couple of years, just told me his life partner is a legless mannequin with only one arm. I think I'll believe almost anything at this point." When she noticed Klaus's confused look she opened her mouth again. "Delores is a mannequin. Don't ask- Anyway, my point was: I don't care how weird it sounds. I've heard a lot of bullshit the past few days. And I can tell when you're lying." There still was some doubt left in the man, but with a deep sigh, he decided to tell her what happened. 
     "Remember that briefcase?" 
     "The one you got to explode? Yes, I do." 
     "Well, that belonged to the two creeps. After that police woman got me free, Hazel came out of the bathroom. She pushed me away, down on the ground. My eyes fell on an air vent, scared for my life I opened it and crawled through. In there, I found the case. I thought it was filled with money or, you know, I could sell it or something. So I took it with me. Once I got on a bus I opened it- There was a flash and poof. I wasn't on the bus anymore. I was in this- this tent filled with sleeping man. Only wearing a towel and the jacket I stole from that Hazel guy's bed when I crawled through that vent." If it were any other circumstances, Kiara would have said it sounded like the start of a bad porno movie, but instead she stayed silent while Klaus continued.
     "I heard a helicopter, followed by an explosion. Within no time everyone was awake, running around, getting dressed, putting on helmets and guns. So many guns- It was a complete chaos." The more Klaus said, the softer his voice became and how darker his eyes. Kiara could even feel his anxiety rising, but he kept going non the less. "Turned out I somehow ended up in the Vietnam War. 1968."
     "You're serious?" Kiara asked, from all things that could have happened, she really hadn't expected something like this.
     Klaus nodded, re-positioning himself so he was leaning against his bed with his back. "They thought I was one of them, shouted at me to hurry up. Get dressed. I didn't know what to do, so I just did as I was told. Somehow I ended up in a bus filled with soldiers, fully dressed as one, I even had a gun. I still had the briefcase of course, never let go of it. I was planning to find out how it worked and get back the moment I could." He fell silent, fumbling with the dog tags around his neck. 
    "What made you stay?" Kiara asked.
    "Dave." Klaus's voice started trembling again, but he cleared his throat and continued. "He- um... He helped me. Talked to me. We became friends and I- I just couldn't leave him. God, I don't think I ever cared so much about another human being." 
     Kiara gasped over dramatically, placing a hand on her chest. "Okay, I'm gonna act like that didn't hurt." The woman joked, even though it actually did sting to hear him say that, but she wasn't going to let him know that. Especially not since she didn't now why it stung like that. Klaus didn't laugh, he seemed to scan her features for a moment before his eyes met hers. Staring into them with an intensity she had never experienced from him before.
     "You're more important to me than anyone ever has been, you know that, right?" Kiara was at a lose of words. She actually didn't know that, he had said a lot of similar things to her over the years, but never so direct and absolutely never this sober. Kiara kept looking in his eyes, trying to find something, even though she had no idea what she was looking for. Subconsciously, Kiara had started to lean in, and Klaus was doing the same. When Kiara noticed their lips were about to touch, she realized what she was doing and the woman leaned back, placing her own back against Klaus's bed as well. She couldn't do that, she couldn't kiss him. He was vulnerable and she was in a relationship. It was a bad idea and both of them knew it.
     After a short silence, Klaus started to giggle. Kiara turned to look at him, he was still somewhat trying to keep in his laughter. At this point, Kiara didn't really know what came over her, but she started laughing. Soon both of them were laughing uncontrollable for a solid two minutes. After some time, they had calmed down. Still siting beside each other, only now Klaus was leaning his head on Kiara's shoulder, tired of everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. 
    "How long did you stay?" Kiara asked eventually. 
    "Ten months." 
    "What?" The woman was more then surprised that he had been gone for almost a year. "You thought in a war, for ten months?" A new wave of worry came over her. "You could've been hurt or killed or-"
     "Kiki, calm down," Klaus cut her off. "I didn't get hurt and, unless you somehow have taken over my powers, I'm obviously not dead. Besides, It wasn't just fighting all the time. There were party's and alcohol. Dancing too. Oh! The disco's were the best! One of the guys had a monkey- one of those small ones. He was called Marcel. The monkey, not the man. Every time he took the monkey with him somewhere the entire room would sing that one jungle song and Marcel would start dancing. It was the cutest monkey ever." Kiara couldn't help the smile that curled her lips up, Klaus was starting to act a little like himself. Even though Kiara knew it would take a long time before he would be back to normal, if he ever would.
     Feeling a little guilty about it, Kiara still had one question she felt like she had to ask. "Klaus..." She started, "what exactly, happened before you came back? You were covered in blood and... you know..." 
     The little bit of joy Kiara had felt flowing through Klaus after their fit of laughter disappeared again, as if it was never there in the first place. "There was a battle. Me and Dave... We were at the front line... There were so many gunshots, so many bullets everywhere... Dave got hit and he-" Klaus paused, needing to take deep breath before he continued with the same quiver in his voice as before, almost choking on the suppressed tears again. "He didn't make it. I couldn't do anything... he- he was just... It all went so fast..." A single tear rolled down Klaus's cheek, going unnoticed by Kiara, who placed another kiss on the top of his head, his black curls tickling her nose. Taking his hand in hers at the same time as she lay her head to rest on his. 
     "Thank you, for telling me." Kiara said in a whisper, only loud enough so he would be able to hear.
     "Thank you for listening." Klaus answered in the same whisper, closing his eyes and squeezing her hand softly.

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A/N:  1.22K Reads???? That's amazing!!! Thank all of you so much for reading and voting and commenting and just, everything! I love you!

~Purple Dragon (12/08/19)