After a bit of walking and Klaus refusing to tell them where he was taking them, they arrived outside a huge hotel. It was made from brick and concrete so it was pretty obvious that it was an old building.
As they were crossing the street and Five looked at Kali, "Are you okay?" She looked up at him through a curtain of hair, why was he asking that again? She said that she was alright. Kali gave him a confused look and nodded. "Are you sure? Did any of them touch you, did they hurt you in any way?" He asked worriedly.
Kali was utterly confused now. Why was he so worried about this? "I-I'm fine." She reassured in a bare whisper.
"You know that you can tell me anything, right?"
She nodded again.
Five was about to ask more questions but the sound of all their siblings struggling to try and get through the spinning door cut him off. Everyone was complaining and shoving and struggling to make their way through the doors.
Kali dropped Five's hand and simply went through the other spinning door with Five right behind her while everyone struggled. The others stepped out of the rotating doors and saw Kali and Five already standing in front of them.
"There were two entrances by the way." Five smirked.
Everyone ignored them and walked past with annoyed looks. Klaus tilted his head back and opened his arms, "Oh, Hotel Obsidian. I missed you, you slutty old dame." He walked past everyone. "Absorb her. Absorb her into your bosom." Kali snickered quietly at that word, bosom. It sounded weird. Klaus spun around to face them, "You know, 'cause back in her heyday, she played host to world leaders. Roosevelt, Gandhi, Stalin, Gorbachev, Castro, King Olaf of Norway, one of the Kim Jongs, Tito, Dalai Lama, Elvis, and not one but two Kardashians, allegedly." Allison began walking away. "Wouldn't that- Where are you going?"
Without looking back she responded, "I gotta make a call."
Klaus shrugged and continued, "Nowadays, she's just a flophouse, a party house for those of us not looking to be judged by society's rules and norms."
Kali hid behind Five again, she was pretty sure all the people in this building staring were judging them. Some days she wished that just everyone on Earth would disappear and the only people left would be her family but that's impossible.
"You mean, a place to hide?" Luther asked.
"Exactly! It's perfect! And the best part of it is, she's gonna look after us, no questions asked. Never ever. Right?"
Kali gripped Five's sleeve tightly in her hand, this place was creepy. And people would not stop staring, do they have no shame?
"Come on." Klaus encouraged and began walking away.
Diego whispered to Luther, "I may have questions."
"Yeah, me too," Luther whispered back.
"This place is weird," Vanya muttered.
They all slowly followed behind Klaus and uneasily glanced around at everyone in the building. They walked up to the front desk and Klaus rang a bell causing Kali to flinch at the unexpectedly loud ring.
Klaus gasped when he saw the man behind the counter, "Chet! Mon frère! It's so great to see you. I'd like my usual suite, por favor."
The man behind the counter stopped the bell from ringing and gave Klaus a look, "I've never seen you before."
Klaus looked at them proudly, "See? Told you. Discreet."
Diego and Luther were petting the pug that was sitting on his little cushion on the counter and it was whimpering softly. The man glared at the two brothers, "Please stop scaring my dog." The two backed away awkwardly. Kali just noticed there was a dog and she fell in love in an instant, ugh, she wanted to pet it so bad now.
Vanya spoke up from the back of the group, "We need some rooms, please."
"Super." The man exclaimed. "And how will we be paying today?"
Everyone looked around at each other expectantly but no one pulled out any money. "Fine. Empty your pockets." Luther ordered.
Klaus pulled out condoms, Diego a knife, Vanya some mints, Kali had a rubber band, and Five had... teeth? Are those teeth or just some oddly shaped, white pieces of rubble...?
"Condom?" Klaus offered.
"Put the knife away!" Luther scolded Diego.
"Can't exchange those for cash." Klaus pointed out to Vanya.
Luther pulled a hair net out of his pocket and stared at it in confusion, "Why do I have a hairnet?" He shoved it back in his pocket. "Oh! All right." He took off his watch and handed it to the man. "What does this get us?"
The man took it and inspected it with a magnifying glass, he nodded to himself, set it down, and grabbed two keys. Allison walked back to the group, much to Kali's dismay. "Two rooms." He informed them and set the keys down on the counter in front of them. "Mazel tov."
Klaus grabbed a key and Allison shoved through everyone to grab a key, "All right. Well, let's Brady Bunch this bitch."
They all headed over to the elevator and Five looked around, "Uh, meet back in the bar in two hours so we can make a plan." Kali nodded and looked down at her feet as they walked.
Diego ran in front of everyone and stood on the stairs, "I have a plan. We attack the Sparrows, and we take back our house, and then we punch dad a bit until he admits that we're better and he loves us more. Boom! done." He shouted. "We're wasting time!"
Everyone walked past him and crammed into the elevator, Kali in the very corner with Five blocking her.
Klaus patted Diego's shoulder as he passed, "Relax. Don't sweat it, man. Those shit birds are staying put for a while. I bet they're a swiped as we are."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I mean, kicking our asses looked exhausting." He dragged out the last word.
Diego got in the elevator and the doors closed. Luther looked around, "The boys have one room to themselves and the girls can have the other." He stated randomly.
Everyone made sounds of agreement except Five who just looked back at Kali who was staring down at her hands and picking at her nails anxiously. She just wanted to get out of the elevator, she wasn't even listening to what they were talking about.
The elevator dinged open and Kali clutched Five's blazer sleeve in her fist again. They all stepped out and the rooms were luckily only 3 doors down. The boys unlocked their door and when Kali went to go with them, she heard Vanya's soft voice from beside her.
"You're sharing with us, Kali. Come on." She waved her over to the other room.
She hesitantly let go of Five's sleeve and he watched as she slowly made her way over to the other room. She walked into the room and took in all the details.
The walls were green and a salmon-coloured pink, there were two pink beds, one couch in the center of the room, two windows that poorly lit up the room, and three lamps that did absolutely nothing to provide light.
Vanya looked around, "It's not too small. It's definitely ugly."
Allison looked back at Kali, "What do you want, the bed or couch?" Kali bit her lip and scanned the room again, she didn't want to be in here. She would prefer being with her brothers and Five, she's more comfortable around them. "Well? Hurry up and pick." Allison said impatiently.
Kali stared up at her sister through a curtain of hair, unsure about what to do since she couldn't verbally tell them that she didn't even want to be in this room.
Vanya spoke up, "Or you could go stay in the boy's room but I don't think-"
Kali quickly nodded her head to show that that was exactly what she wanted. Allison scoffed and crossed her arms, "So you'd rather sleep in a room full of boys than with us?" What part of Kali nodding her head was difficult for her to understand?
Kali nodded again, gave Vanya the smallest smile, and left the room.
She stood in front of the boy's door and lightly knocked on it. The sound of talking stopped and the door opened, Diego looked down at her with a tight smile. "Hey, Kal. What do you need?" She stood on her tippy-toes and peered over his shoulder and into the room, trying to spot Five. Diego understood and moved out of the way, "Come in."
She walked around him and immediately spotted Five laying on the bottom bed of a bunk bed. She noticed his blazer was off and hanging on the post of the bed, his eyes were closed, and he had an arm behind his head. Klaus was sitting on the top bunk and smiling brightly at her and Luther was laying on a mattress that had a metal frame, she could tell that was a squeaky bed.
Diego shut the door and she remembered why she wanted to be here in the first place. Kali slowly walked over to Five with her arms wrapped around her stomach and stood in front of the bed. She knew he wasn't asleep but he obviously still didn't know that she was in the room which was explanatory since her footsteps are silent and Klaus had resumed bouncing on the bed and making noise.
Kali looked over her shoulder at Diego and Luther who were talking about their own thing but it looked more like quiet fighting. She looked back at Five and reached out a hand, she lightly poked his arm and his eyes snapped open in surprise.
She quickly backed up a step and he chuckled, "Jesus, you scared me. I thought you were with Allison and Vanya?"
She shook her head and pointed to him, hoping he would understand. She knew that everyone was listening and that she wouldn't be able to talk to him even if she tried. Five, of course, understood and opened his arms, just like he had back in '63 on the couch. "Lay down for a bit, we can sleep for an hour."
She was about to get in but when she reached her arm out to lower herself down beside him she saw the state of her hoodie. And as soon as she saw all the dirt and dust that coated it, she felt it and just stared at it. It was as if she could feel every bit of dirt on her body, touching her skin, uncomfortably rubbing against her body. She unwillingly held her breath as she tried to pull the sleeve of her hoodie away from her skin so that she didn't have to feel all the dirt but it didn't work.
Five sat up and reached out to her to calm her down but she flinched and backed away. She ran into Diego and stumbled into the corner of the room, Kali slid down the wall and covered her ears, resting her head on her knees.
She immediately got out of bed and blinked away, he returned a second later with a different gray hoodie and a pair of sweatpants. He ripped off the tags, lightly took Kali's sleeve, and blinked them into the bathroom.
They stood in the middle of the bathroom and Kali had her eyes shut tight and her hands clamped over her ears.
"Kali, it's okay, love. Here, it's okay. You're okay." He kept repeating until she finally looked at him. "Look, love. Put these on, you're okay." He held out the clothes to her and waited patiently for her to take them. She took a few deep breaths and slowly lowered her hands from her ears, Kali reached out with shaky hands and took the clothes from him. She stared down at the clothes in her hands and Five looked around the bathroom. "You can go change in that stall if you want. I can wait outside or I can stay in here. Whatever you want, Kali."
She shifted in her spot uncomfortably at the feeling of her clothes and looked up at him, "Stay." She whispered.
Five nodded, "Okay."
She sniffled and slowly walked past him and into a stall. Kali quickly ripped off her clothes and pulled on the new ones and then just stood there, staring blankly at the door of the stall. All the emotions from the past 24 hours were thrown at her in a matter of seconds and she burst into silent tears. She sat down on the closed toilet seat and tried to wipe her tears away before Five began to question why she was in there for so long but the tears kept flowing. Kali realized she had been holding her breath again and as soon as she let it out a choked sob escaped her lips and her crying grew uncontrollable.
Five's head snapped up at the sound of her crying and he immediately blinked in the stall. He stared down at the crying mess and crouched down in front of her, "Hey, no, what's wrong?"
She leaned forward, wrapped her arms around his waist, and buried her face in his chest as she cried. Five was surprised by her action but hugged back nonetheless and lightly rubbed her back. "What's wrong?" He asked again.
"I-... I wanna go back h-home." She sobbed quietly.
"Yeah, I do too. And I promise you, I will fix this. I will do whatever it takes to make you happy and protect you." He said softly. "We'll be okay."
After nearly 10 minutes of Five just letting Kali cry in his chest and waiting patiently for her to calm down, she finally let go of him and rubbed the remaining tears off her face with her sleeve. Her head was pounding, her chest hurt, her throat was dry, her eyes were bloodshot, and her hair was messy. Five put a hand on her bouncing knee and stared up at her sadly, she refused to look him in the eye, ashamed that she was crying for so long over something so stupid.
"Kali, look at me." He said softly. "You have a perfectly reasonable explanation to break down. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner, I'm proud of you for being so strong. I will always be here for you when you need a shoulder to cry on or if you want to talk or if you just want to cuddle. You are my first priority and you always will be, no matter what."
Kali looked at him sadly and nodded. She opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out and Five waited patiently as she took a few deep breaths and forced herself to say something. "I love you." She said in a quiet and slightly hoarse voice.
"I love you more." Five smiled. He got to his feet and offered a hand, "Come on, we still have time for that nap."
She reached out and carefully held his hand, the two blinked back to the room and noticed that everyone else was gone now. Kali dropped Five's hand as he lay down in the bed and opened his arms as an invitation to lie down. Kali laid down beside him and he wrapped his arms around her protectively as she buried her face in his chest again.
The mental exhaustion from crying so hard obviously took a toll on her as she passed out a few minutes later and Five thought of plans and possibilities of what to do about the Sparrows until he fell asleep as well.
. . .
He woke up around an hour later and realized that at one point Kali had completely left his hold and was on the opposite side of the bed with her back turned to him. He groaned quietly before blinking out of the bed so that he didn't have to climb over her and made his way to the door of the room. Five opened the door and the second it squeaked he heard Kali wake up.
He turned to look at her and she was lifting her head off the pillow slightly, barely awake. "Go back to sleep, I'm just gonna go to the bathroom. I'll be back in a bit."
She hummed in acknowledgment and laid her head back down, immediately falling back to sleep. Okay, so maybe he was lying about being right back... but he would be back... at some point. He was just going to have a quick bath, eat supper, and inform his siblings about the conclusion he had made about the Sparrows.
Five left the room and soundlessly shut the door behind him.
~
After his bath, he had just thrown on a fluffy white robe and was heading downstairs to where he assumed his brothers were. He spotted Klaus, Diego, and Luther at a little table at the far side of the room eating Chinese food and he stopped by the bar and grabbed a martini before making his way over to them.
"You should try chewing, you might actually taste the food." Klaus scold the other two men who were literally shoving the take-out in their mouths.
"I haven't eaten in days." Luther defended. They all looked at Five as he sat down at the table. "What's wrong? You look happy." Luther pointed out.
"I am plenty happy." Five smirked. "I had a nap and shvitz. What does a man need?"
"Brothers who don't eat like barn animals?" Klaus suggested.
Diego and Luther looked up from their food with noodles hanging from their mouths. Five decided to inform his brothers about the conclusion he made, "So I've been thinking through our little timeline snafu, and I'm pleased to report that in my professional, expert opinion, we are totally in the clear."
"Awesome!" Klaus smiled.
"So everything's totally fine?" Luther questioned.
"More or less." Five shrugged as he picked up some chopsticks. "I mean, there is one... small thing. It's nothing we can't manage." He reassured and began to open a box of Chinese food for himself.
"So spit it out, Boomer!" Diego yelled through a mouthful of food.
Five huffed and was about to explain when Kali's voice rang through his head and she did not sound pleased, "Where are you? You said you would be right back!"
He pursed his lips and realized... he fucked up.
"What?" Luther questioned.
Five inhaled sharply through his teeth, "I thought she would sleep longer than that." He muttered to himself but loud enough for the others to hear.
"That doesn't explain anything." Diego pointed out.
Five was about to blink away and go get her from the room when the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Kali had her hood up and the pulled sleeves over her hands as she speed-walked over to the 4 boys, with an uncomfortable but pissed-off look on her face.
"What did you do?" Klaus chuckled.
"None of your business." Five mumbled. He opened his mouth to apologize but she kicked him in the shin before he could say anything. He yelped and pulled his feet away before she could kick him again. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" He pleaded.
She crossed her arms and glared at him for a second before pulling out a chair and sitting between him and Klaus as if nothing happened. She snatched the box of food from him, grabbed her own pair of chopsticks, and began to innocently eat it.
Five cleared his throat and regained his posture, "Alright, Diego, it's like this. Dad didn't adopt us as babies, but those babies still existed here."
"Aww!" Klaus whined.
"We just grew up in different places with different people."
"So?" Diego questioned.
"So where are they now? Odds are, we each have identical versions of ourselves walking around out there, living completely different lives."
Luther gasped, "Our doppelgangers!"
"That's a made-up word." Klaus scoffed.
"No, no! I learned all about this in Texas. Tell him about the paranoid psychosis, Five."
Kali honestly had no idea what they were talking about but this food was good as fuck. Diego spoke up, "Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa! I thought you said this wasn't a problem."
"Okay, yes, technically, if you're near your doppel for too long, you'll go insane." He shrugged. "So, if you see your other self-"
"Kill them." Diego deadpanned.
"Sleep with them." Klaus piped up.
Befriend them? Kali thought.
"Avoid them." Five scoffed.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Luther questioned, looking around at them.
"Come on. As if you wouldn't climb Luther Mountain." Klaus defended. Luther looked like he was actually thinking about it and Kali snorted quietly.
Diego furrowed his brows, "Wait. How are we supposed to guarantee we don't cross paths with ourselves?"
Five took a sip of his margarita, "Easy. We're the Benetton as of superheroes, born all around the world until dad brought us here, which he no longer did. Doppels probably aren't even in the same time zone as us."
"That's true." Luther nodded.
"Would you pass the moo shu?" Five asked, pointing his chopstick at it.
Luther handed it to him and Klaus stopped eating his food, "Doesn't it seem kind of rude that dad unadopting us didn't change anything? I'm offended."
Diego threw down his food, "Hold up."
"I never said that, Klaus." Five pointed out.
"I'll be right back," Diego announced as he stumbled out of his chair and ran away.
Everyone ignored Diego and continued talking. "Well, how are we gonna know where it changed?" Klaus asked.
"The point is, we did it. We saved the world. We stopped the apocalypse. And made it home safe in time for dinner. So whatever Dad changed, whatever timeline we're in now... we can handle it." Five said confidently. "We won."
Kali looked up from her food when she heard the man that gave them the rooms, whistling and holding a leash. Was he looking for his dog? The dog was just sitting at the counter when she came down here... that's strange.
"We won," Luther repeated proudly. The three boys clinked their drinks together in success. Kali looked around and felt the need to clink a glass as well so she snatched Five's martini from his hand, clinked it with Klaus, downed it, and handed t back to Five with a smug smile.
He set the glass down, "Wow, thanks. Really appreciate it." He stated sarcastically. She chuckled quietly and handed him the last bit of food left in the box. He took it with a playful eye roll and looked in the box, "There's like two bites left!"
She shrugged and hopped off the chair she was sitting on. "I'm going back to bed." She whispered in his ear.
He softly kissed the side of her head - he technically kissed her hood since it was still up - and then took a bite of food, "Alright, I'll be up in 10 minutes."
She nodded and quickly walked to the elevator so that she didn't give many people the chance to look at her. Klaus cooed, "Awww."
Five's demeanour completely changed in a second and the small smile was wiped from his face, "Shut up. Mind your own business."
Klaus raised his hands in defence, "I was just saying. You two are adorable-"
Five threw down his box of food angrily, aggressively shoved the chair back so he could get off, and managed to get 3 steps away before blinking upstairs. Kali was laying on the bed and hanging her head off the side and smiling at how everything was beginning to spin.
"You could get brain damage by doing that, y'know."
Kali looked over at him, "Too late." She muttered.
He sat down beside her, "You don't have brain damage. Sit up."
She groaned and sat up properly, "Wait time is it?"
"Like... 9 pm, I don't know." He shrugged.
"Goodnight, then." She deadpanned and lay down on her stomach, shoving her face into the pillow.
Five smirked and lightly slapped her shoe, "Get the shoes off the bed." She used her feet to kick off her shoes and pulled her hood back up since it fell down when she was hanging. Five yanked off his shoes, set them on the floor neatly beside one of Kali's shoes since the other was somehow halfway across the room, and laid down beside her. He put his arm behind his head and glanced at her, "What? No cuddles?" He teased.
She turned her head to the side to see him and huffed in defeat. Kali placed her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist, she sighed quietly and listened to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat which would occasionally speed up when she adjusted her position.
"Is that hoodie comfortable? It was just the first one I had seen." He informed.
Kali shrugged, "It's fine. Wanna go shopping tomorrow?" She whispered.
"I would love to but it really depends on what happens. So, I can't make any promises, okay?"
She nodded and muttered, "I'll try not to keep my hopes up."
"Good. Now sleep, child."
"We're literally the same age."
"Not mentally."
"Gross. Pedo." She teased quietly.
Five choked on air for a second, "Oh, God. Don't ever say that again. Jesus Christ."
"Don't use the Lord's name in vain."
"Sleep."
As much as he wanted to keep talking to her in this rare moment when she felt able to speak this much, he knew she needed more sleep and he did too. She finally gave in and closed her eyes, "Night."
"Goodnight, weirdo."
(Words: 4351)
AN: Hello, beautiful people! This chapter was a bit rushed because it's Christmas Eve, a whole bunch of family is coming over, and I'm extremely stressed about it. I hope you guys have a good Christmas! I love you all so much <3
-ash :)