#KLAUS' ROOM IS SO INTERESTING THERE IS SO MUCH TO DISSECT!!!!!!

[in-tua-deep]

au where five found out about vanya's powers in the apocalypse? Like maybe he found Reggie's book or he saw the eyes of vanya's corpse?

oh man like. that would be interesting to be sure, if Five managed to find Reginald’s book in the apocalypse

(He doesn’t read it at first, not for a few months after he finds it. He opened to the page that detailed Reginald’s experiments with how long Deigo could hold his breath in clinical unfeeling words and has to put it away while he breathed - not too deeply though, he didn’t want to breathe in more ash than necessary)

But he eventually does. He sits Dolores up and rages and vents to her, cursing Reginald’s name with every new sordid detail, every new terrible sin he now knows to hurl at Reginald’s feet. He reads no great loss under his section and he’s too dehydrated to weep but something breaks inside his chest nevertheless

(He’d never thought that dad loved them, not really. He might have hoped, back when he was little but he knew better now. He was thirteen, old enough to know better. But he’d at least thought that dad found them useful. 

Five had tried to hard, trained so much, been so adaptable. Even then he was no great loss.)

Five finds out from Reginald’s book about Ben’s death. Cold words that describe the way his brother died. Reginald seemed to care more about Ben’s death than Five’s presumed death, but that could be becuase Ben’s power was always bigger than Five’s. More violent. More efficient. Of course Ben was a greater loss, Five’s power wasn’t even inherently useful for fighting.

(Klaus’s power wasn’t useful for fighting either. Reading Dad’s dismissive words calling Klaus a failure makes him bristle. Reading about Reginald locking Klaus away in the mausoleum for days make Five want to hurl the book against the wall.)

Finding out about Vanya is - it’s weird. Vanya was always so ordinary. He loved her of course, for fucks sake he was the only one who cared to interact with her half the time. He loves all of his siblings but he has no illusions about how casually cruel they could be to one another.

But he reads about her powers and clenches his fists and wonders what Reginald would have done if Five had stayed, if Five had kept on his path of rebellion. Would Reginald have drugged him, too?

(Reginald had the power to take their powers away. Five wonders what Klaus thought when he found out, if he had cursed and sworn and raged at the man who watched his son suffer and turn to drugs to deal with seeing things no child should ever see. Reginald had the power to help, and he tortured Klaus instead.)

Because - of course Five assumes that they know. He reads Vanya’s books as well when he comes across it, tucking it into his wagon. He wonders when the truth came out, because the rage that drips from those pages is very real. Vanya doesn’t mention her powers in the book of course, but she would have been what, in her 20s when she wrote it? 

Vanya said in her book that she left home at 18, which means she’s had years to get the drugs out of her system and discover what their father had taken from her. Did she think that they knew? That they had kept it from her? Is that why the pages of her book drip with bone deep hurt, making Five’s fingers shake with the ache of them

(Or it could be the hunger, a now constant companion)

Five keeps both books close, even though he wants to vandilize Reginald’s book half the time. It’s strange to see the insight on them and their powers from the perspective of a scientist, odd to see the written results of the torture they went though

(He almost rips the page on the effects of electricity on his warping powers out on principle, but he just ends up curled around Dolores as he trembles involuntarily at the memories)

Five has so few belongings when he is recruited to the Commission, or at least has very few personal ones. He leaves Dolores behind in the apocalypse with a heavy heart but she’s too big to take with him. Too big to hide.

(Five always learned to only take what you can hide, because what you can’t hide will always be used against you.)

He tucks Reginald’s notebook in the waistband on his pants, the hard edges against his back a constant almost reassuring pressure. Vanya’s book gets pushed into one of his deep pockets. The glass eye gets shoved into his sock the same way he used to hide scavenged bills and quarters he would then place beneath the floorboards of his room

(He wonders absently if his money stash was ever found, but it doesn’t really matter now does it?)

He goes through the Commission with the knowledge that he has a bomb hidden away. As much as he keeps the notebook around out of a sense of sentiment he knows he doesn’t want it to fall into the hands of the commission, doesn’t want them to have this dissection of his powers on hand

(he has so little of his siblings left, just the bitter words of Reginald and Vanya both - the irony is that no matter how much Vanya extolled being excluded she had constantly been by Reginald’s side to write down observations, listening to his words, by his side more than any of them. sometimes he reads Vanya’s vicious words and hears the echo of their father in them. It makes sense. He still hates it, just a little bit)

He writes his equations into Vanya’s book instead of Reginald’s. He doesn’t like to read the red book, only opens it to look at the photos included so that he won’t forget what his siblings look like, tries to ignore the words that detail exactly how much force it takes to pop Luther’s bones out of his oh-so-durable joints

He solves them one day, or at least comes close. Closer than he ever had before, and he figures why not? Time for another little experiment. Who knows? Maybe he’ll add this one to dad’s book.

He pushes, and pushes, and then he falls and he’s in a courtyard he hasn’t seen in decades staring at people he hasn’t spoken to in just as long. He looks at them all with wide eyes

(He looks at Allison and hears his father’s clipped tone stating how Allison in improving at overriding survival instincts, he looks at Luther and hears Vanya’s childish voice accusing him of caring more about being a hero than anything else in his life, including his family, he looks at Klaus and sees a face covered in ash and blood with unseeing eyes)

He looks down at himself and sees smaller hands with smoother skin, absent of the burn marks from the variety of fires he’d set in the apocalypse, absent of the crooked knuckles from when he’d crushed two fingers in some rubble trying to get to a can of food, absent of the cracked and brittle nails from malnutrition and food issues

“Shit.” He says, with feeling.

He can feels the press of the glass eye against his leg, the solid weight of Vanya’s book in his pocket, the edges of Reginald’s notebook digging into his skin as he hauls himself off the ground and into a standing position.

They have a family meeting in the kitchen.

Sort of. Five flits about, snagging bread and peanut butter and marshmallow fluff from the cupboard to make himself a sandwich, trying to avoid looking too desperately eager. He hasn’t had his favorite food in so long that the anticipation is actually insane.

“What’s the date?” Five asks, and learns that he doesn’t actually have all that long until the end of the world. But hey, it’s doable. Probably. Unless the reason the world ended was like, political nuclear war or something? But there would probably be survivors of that somewhere, so it was more likely something bigger scale.

(It has to be something he can stop, or this was all for nothing. He refuses to believe he doesn’t have a chance.)

“Cool, so like, the world is ending.” Five says, because why the fuck not? He has all his siblings in one room (except Ben, he has failed Ben, will always have failed Ben because he’s a coward who couldn’t return to a time when Reginald Hargreeves was alive) and he has Reginald and Vanya’s words pressed into his brain, “We have eight-ish days to fix that.”

“Five, what the hell are you talking about?” Luther demands.

Five waves his hand, “Dad sucked, I time-travelled, the end is nigh. I figured even you could grasp that.”

(His eyes ghost over Luther, skittering about the room. He can’t look at Luther’s body without remembering the cruel diagrams pain stakingly inked into the book as Reginald grumbled about failed experiments.)

“You went to the future?” Diego says, voice full of doubt that make his voice harsh. It’s so much deeper than when Five left, no more of the cracks of puberty.

“No shit.” Five says, and he’s so tired. “I was in that hellscape for forty-five years.”

“Forty-five years?” Diego squawks, as though he’s personally offended.

“That would make you... fifty-eight?” Luther’s voice also has doubt in it, and Five can’t really blame him looking at his squishy little barely teenage body.

“Dad was right,” Five manages to get out without gritting his teeth, “Time travel is a crapshoot and sometimes your body does fun and wacky things on you, blah blah blah trees and acorns.”

“Prove you’re from the future!” Klaus demands, eyes bright as he leans across the table, “What’re the lotto numbers, baby brother?”

“I think they’re ‘fuck you the world had already ended by the time I ended up stuck there,’ Klaus.” Five says, mock thoughtfully before tearing off a chunk of his sandwich.

It tastes like ash and peanut butter. Only Five’s genuine trauma regarding food waste and the fact that most things tasted like ash in the apocalypse have him still chewing his food and swallowing.

“Rude.” Klaus says, making a ‘blat’ noise in disappointment.

“Dad’s rich as fuck, wasn’t him kicking the bucket essentially like winning the lottery?” Five points out, and this time it is Luther squawking at him in disapproval.

“Don’t talk about Dad like that!” He demands, and Five has some more uncharitable thoughts about the way Luther’s arms flex just a little unnaturally underneath that big trenchcoat.

“I like this version of Five better.” Klaus declares, looking like Christmas has come early.

“Dad was murdered and you guys don’t even care.” Luther spits out, looking very offended.

“You were murdered and I care very much about that.” Five retaliates, and the entire kitchen goes quiet.

“Can you elaborate a little, Five?” Allison says, ever the diplomat.

(That’s a lie. Allison started more fights than Diego, probably. She just got caught way less often.)

“Well. I mean, I dunno if murdered is the right word considering everyone was dead. You might have just been collateral damage, who knows? Does murder imply intent?”

“Everyone was dead?” Vanya says, voice very quiet.

Five shrugs, then nods, then shrugs again. He doesn’t like thinking about it. “Yeah, but that’s not going to happen this time.”

“I don’t have time for this nonsense.” Luther mutters, and Five valiantly tries to ignore him. 

“Five, are you - are you sure you’re alright?” Vanya’s voice wobbles and she looks like she wants to reach out and hold him or something ridiculous like that. She looks at him with big sad brown eyes, “Dad did say that time travel could... mess with you a little.”

Allison nods and oh, Five does not have time for this bullshit. 

“I have proof.” He says, and he reaches back and pulls out Reginald’s red notebook and slams it onto the table.

“Is that Dad’s - ” Luther cuts himself off, looking at the notebook with wide eyes.

It is very clearly beaten up to hell and back. Ash has stained the edges of the pages grey and there may or may not be a gouge across the front from a near miss with a bullet while working at the commission. It is a book that has clearly been through hell.

Five also dig’s Vanya’s equally beaten up book from his pocket to dump on the table as well, equally stained with ash and barely held together after being read over and over again for decades, including being used as a notebook in the final years.

(Vanya lets out a little gasp, hand flying up to her mouth with the knowledge that at least one of her siblings read her book. Certainly not the one she thought it would be.)

Five reaches into his sock to pull out the glass eye triumphantly, setting it down on his small stack of treasures.

“What the fuck?” Diego is the one to ask.

“If I time travelled from that day in 2002 to right now, how the fuck would I have Vanya’s book?” Five says triumphantly, “It came out in 2015.”

“Why do you have an eye?” Allison sounds slightly horrified.

“It’s the key to figuring out who caused the apocalypse.” Five says, turning it over in his hands, “It’s gotta have something to do with it at least.”

“Why does he have Dad’s notebook?” Luther demands, sounding equally outraged.

“Found it.” Five shrugs, like the little scavenger he is.

(Emphasis on little. His suit still almost fits, and reading the numbers in Reginald’s notebook versus seeing how fucking tall all his siblings got in person is frankly unfair.)

“Oh my god, okay.” Allison says, throwing her hands up in the air like they’re all nuisances. It’s a familiar Allison look, and Five actually feels a little soothed by the memory. “So the world is ending, Five is back from the dead, and our only clue is a goddamn eye?”

“I was never dead.” Five points out, “But basically, yeah.”

“I don’t have time for this, I have to get back to my daughter.” Allison says, shaking her head.

“I mean if you want Claire to live I would think stopping the apocalypse would kind of be a priority.” 

This draw Allison to a halt from where she’d been gathering herself to leave, “You... know her name?”

Five makes the executive decision to not mention the torn out magazine cover featuring his sister and niece that is pressed between some of the pages in Reginald’s journal. “I’d like to meet her one day.”

Just like that, Allison has been won over.

“Do you think it has something to do with whoever murdered Dad?” Luther asks seriously, even if the question makes Diego groan like this is an argument they have had before.

“Who knows?” Five shrugs, “But if we’re splitting into investigation teams, I call Vanya.”

Vanya startles from where she has been sitting quietly, “Me?” She asks, eyes wide.

“Yeah.” Five nods, “I mean, with Ben gone you’re probably the team’s heaviest hitter.”

“What?” Several voices ring out in confusion.

Five blinks, a little confused himself. Unless - “Wait, did you never train your powers?”

“Five,” Vanya says slowly, like she’s explaining a simple concept to a particularly dim child, “I don’t have powers.”

This was - this was unexpected. Why did he not think of this explanation? It’s just - he has now known about Vanya’s powers for like way longer than he hasn’t. It’s almost second nature to think of Vanya as having powers by now. And she doesn’t know.

“Oh boy.” He says, picking up Reginald’s notebook, “This debriefing may take a bit longer than I first thought. Oh, and at some point we should probably cut the tracker out of my arm as well.”

“The what out of your what?”

Yeah the day doesn’t really get much better from there.

[lalainajanes]

I don't know if you're taking prompts, but I had an idea: Klaroline fanfic, Misfits AU/AH. I don't know if you're familiar with the show but basically a bunch of young offenders get struck by lightning and gain (super)powers. They find out that others got struck and also have powers. It doesn't have to be young offenders, but could be based around the idea of one or both getting struck by lightning and gaining powers. The show was like Heroes meets Skins/Skam/Teen Drama,

I’ve only seen a bit of Misfits! It’s on my to continue list. I snuck in some bonus Halloween vibes just because.

The Rush Too Much

Klaus rollsinto the driveway slowly, his eyes on the half constructed haunted house on thefront lawn. It was rather larger than he’d anticipated but then he’d only seenit in pieces.

Carolinehas obviously been busy.

It’s beendrizzling all day, and claps of thunder have been steadily growing in volume asKlaus made the drive home. Caroline seems undaunted, decked out in a rain coatand a knit hat. She’s perched on a step ladder, carefully stringing lightsaround the top edge of the haunted house’s façade. Her curls are a wild messunder her hat and her cheeks are pink and wind chapped. Still, he’d bet moneyshe’s humming happily to herself while she works.

The Fourthof July Barbeque she’d thrown had proven that Caroline took holidays veryseriously and thoroughly enjoyed herself in the process.

Carolinehad moved into the house in June. At that point she’d merely been a friend of afriend who’d been looking for a new living situation. Klaus had been desperateto fill his spare room. Kol had been unsubtly hinting about relocating andneeding a place to stay and Klaus thought living with his younger brother wouldbe a special sort of hell.

Asroommates he and Caroline could havebeen a disaster – they were both a bit overly fond of getting their own way – butthey’d come to rub along rather well. Despite being the social sort, and anunrepentant chatter box, Caroline was very much an only child, fond of her ownspace and occasional bouts of quiet. She was excellent at reading when hewanted company and when he preferred solitude. And while Klaus might not be asneat as she liked as long as he kept his clutter confined to his private spaces(and took care of the messes in the shared ones in a timely fashion) she mostlymanaged to keep from complaining too strenuously. They liked some of the sameTV, enjoyed arguing about the instances where their opinions differed.

If an outside party were to witness one of those debates they might have commented on how Klaus andCaroline tended to crowd closer together on the sofa, all under the guise ofmaking their points. Klaus had come to deliberately stoke the flames, tossingout a not-so-innocent observations that he knew would irritate her. He thought Caroline might be doing thesame, that she was going out of her way to touch him when they sniped at eachother, and Klaus was mulling over a way to test the theory.

Theroommate angle made making a move annoyingly complicated. Klaus had neverhesitated to go after what he wanted but he didn’t relish the potentialawkwardness that would follow if he was drastically misreading the situation.Their respective friend groups had begun to mingle and Rebekah would likelykill him in his sleep if he ruined it now that she was making her own moves onCaroline’s friend Enzo.

Besides, itwasn’t as if Klaus was just attractedto her. That would have been easy. He’d seen the way she looked at him when hewas just out of the shower, noticed her eyes lingering appreciatively when hewas shirtless and rushing around in the morning. If it was just lust they wouldhave been able to work that out in a night or two and then slip back into theireasy routine with their sexual tension no longer an issue. Klaus had found thathe liked Caroline. Liked making herlaugh, liked hearing her impressions of her least favorite coworkers as sheunwound from her day, liked sharing coffee and the newspaper over bowls ofcereal on Saturdays.

It wasdifficult to figure out if Caroline felt similarly. She was an affectionateperson in general, free with smiles and touches and, as far as Klaus couldtell, she’d yet to make a gesture that could be definitively considered morethan platonic.

He spentfar too much time thinking about it, dissecting their every interaction,wondering if she were possibly doing the same.

A wickedgust of wing whistles past and Caroline wobbles on her perch, steadying herselfjust as Klaus gets out of his SUV. “Hey!” she calls, once she’s stable again.“I didn’t hear you pull up.”

Klausburrows deeper into the collar of his jacket, stuffing his hand in his pocketsas he approaches her. “Lost in your own thoughts?”

“Somethinglike that. Do you like it?” She wriggles her fingers, dropping her voice, “Isit spo-oo-oky?”

Klausfights a smile as he studies the weathered planks. The haunted house is made ofwood with groves cut into it in a brick pattern, painted grey and made to looktextured. Caroline had made a special trip back to Mystic Falls to pick it up afew weeks ago, had spent last weekend painstakingly re-doing the paint. Klaushad helped, had even added some creeping vines around the windows and door inshades of green.

He’d been abit dubious as she’d laid it all out. He’d thought she’d been exaggerating whenshe claimed that she took Halloween was muchmore important than July 4th (and hewas a bit concerned about what Christmas would bring given that holiday’sposition at the very top of Caroline’s hierarchy of celebrations. He’s going toneed to draw the line at a Santa suit). It had been impossible not to be sweptup in Caroline’s excitement as she’d told him about how she’d helped her Dadbuild the haunted house, how they’d added and embellished over the years untilshe’d gone away to college.

He’d died afew years ago and this was the first time since that Caroline had lived in aplace with a yard. She was determined to restore the house to its former gloryand make a Halloween to remember.

By the timethe painting had been done Klaus had agreed to help carve jack o’lanterns (andhe’d been out on a mission all day searching for perfect pumpkins). He’ssomehow even been roped into manning the haunted house, in costume (though he’dvetoed the first dozen or so of Caroline’s suggestions), and handing out candyto the neighborhood children – previously the stuff of his nightmares.

A crack oflightning sparks and they both startle. “It certainly fits into the currentambience,” he says. “It’s perfectly apropos for a dark and stormy night.”

“Right?”Caroline agrees. “I’m going to have to take a picture for Instagram after I’mdone with the lights.”

Klausglances up at the darkening sky, “Maybe the lights can wait until tomorrow,love.”

“I’m almostdone. You can go in. The pumpkins will be fine in the car. I’ll help you unloadtomorrow.”

She turnsback to her task and Klaus fights a sigh. He’s only lived with Caroline for afew months but he’s well aware of what she’d like when she’s set on a project.She stretches to reach a corner and Klaus eyes the step stool worriedly. He hasno idea where it had come from and it doesn’t look especially sturdy. He stepsa bit closer, a hand rising to hover around her lower back. “How about I help?If you fall and break your neck I’ll be stuck with about a dozen pumpkins and aBatman suit.”

He can’tsee her face but he knows that she’s smiling. “Pumpkins are nutritious and delicious. And I’m pretty sure youcould totally use the suit to pick up women. Chicks dig the illusion of atwelve-pack.”

Klaus openshis mouth, intent on using the opening she’d just given him – he has zero interest in picking up women whoaren’t her – but he’s interrupted by another flash of lightning, closer thanbefore, and accompanied by an ear-splitting burst of thunder. Caroline yelps,losing her balance and toppling off the stool. Klaus lunges for her, wrappingan arm around her waist as she crashes into him. He struggles to stay uprightwith her added weight, and they plow into a nearby tree. “Fuck,” Klaus gritsout as he takes the brunt of the impact and pain shoots from his shoulder.Caroline looks up worriedly at the curse, her hands running over his sides,“Sorry! I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

“Fine,” hemanages, clenching his teeth together.

Carolinerises up on her tiptoes and touches his shoulder. It stings, even though she’sbeing careful. “Ouch, that looks gross. You’re bleeding. I can call Elena. I’msure she’d be thrilled to practice her stiches.”

“No,” Klaussays, immediately. “I’m sure it’s just a scratch.” Elena Gilbert was Caroline’sleast tolerable acquaintance and he did nottrust her to sew him up, doctor in training or not.

Carolineisn’t completely placated, “We’ll see. I’ll clean it up when we get inside andsee if the bleeding will stop on its own. The better news is I think I can evenfix your jacket.”

“You don’thave to…”

She makes adisbelieving noise, “Shush. It’s the least I can do after you did such a kickass knight in shining armor impression.” She catches his eyes, hers narrowingeven though a smile curls her lips, “Try not to ruin it with an ‘I told youso,’ okay?”

“I wouldnever,” Klaus teases, gratified to see her smile widen.

He thinksabout kissing her. Imagines her sharp inhale and grasping hands as sheresponds, softening and crowding closer until they both forget all about thechill in the air. Unfortunately, once again, Mother Nature sees fit tointerrupt a moment.

The lastthing Klaus remembers is a light so bright he has to close his eyes.

He awakenswith a cough and it’s painful, his throat dry and burning. It’s fully darkoutside though the moon is full. Klaus can just make out the splinteredremnants of a trunk where the tree used to be. He’s soaking wet and smells ofsmoke though all that barely registers because his head is pounding. It’s difficult to focus – why in the world is he layingon the ground?

A movement catches his eye and a he remembershe hadn’t been alone. He sucks in another lungful of air and turns his headwith a pained groan, one that’s echoed by Caroline as her hand flutters to herchest. He hears her thick swallow, watches her push her tangled hair from hereyes. She looks confused and Klaus can’t blame her, wincing as he sits up.“What…” her face twists and she coughs, hoarse and hacking, rolling to herside.

Klausreaches out to rub her arm, helps ease her into a sitting position when shequiets.  “I don’t know,” he says,answering her unspoken question. He nods to the tree, or the jagged splintered remainsof it. “I suppose the lightning hit the tree? And we were thrown in theimpact.”

“We wereunder a tree during a lightning storm,” Caroline moans, burying her face in herhands. “My girl guide troop leader would kick my ass. Of all the moronic…” Herexpression turns guilty, “Sorry, It’s not like you had time to figure out abetter plan when I fell. I didn’t mean it like that.”

Klaus wavesher apology away, “I know you didn’t.”

“It couldhave been worse, right? We’re both in one piece.”

Klaus’relief grows when she smiled. If Caroline’s managing that sort of optimismalready she must not be injured. “I genuinely did not think the storm was thatclose though, truthfully, I was a bit distracted.”

“By?”Caroline asks with a slightly teasing flutter of her lashes.

“By havingmy lovely roommate so near, of course.” He heaves himself to his feet beforeCaroline can reply, stretching and double checking to ensure all his limbs havea full range of motion. He’s a bit achy but it’s nothing a proper meal and a littlesleep in a warm bed won’t cure. He offers Caroline a hand and she takes it,mimicking his actions once she’s upright. He watches her carefully. “All right,love?”

She nods.“I’ll probably have some nifty colored bruises but everything’s intact.” Shehesitates for a moment before she steps closer, winding her arms around hiswaist in a hug. Klaus draws her even closer, gently, mindful of the bruisesshe’d mentioned, burying a hand into her hair. Her forehead rests against hisshoulder, “I’m really glad we’re okay,” she says.

“As am I.And look, your haunted house survived too.”

“It’ssturdier than it looks,” Caroline mumbles. He expects her to pull away to checkbut she doesn’t, seemingly content where she is. Klaus eyes the structure, thebranches and chunks of tree that litter the ground next to it with somedisbelief. “You’re probably not as stoked that it’s standing,” she teases. “You’restill on candy duty. Wonder Woman can’t face the hungry hoards alone.”

“I’llsurvive,” Klaus tells her dryly. He might even enjoy the experience, because he’scertain Caroline will go all out with her costume. “Shall we go inside?”

Carolinehums and Klaus stiffens when her lips brush his throat, “Yeah. We smell likebarbeque and dirt. Rock paper scissors for the first shower?”

“Deal. Doyou want to order some food?”

“Totally. Ideserve pizza.”

She tanglesher fingers with his as they make their way up the footpath. Caroline casts hima speculative look, “You know, they say near death experiences arelife-changing. That they put things into perspective.”

“Oh? Andhow do you expect your life to change?”

Shesqueezes his hand, “First, I think you should pay for the pizza so we can callthis a date.”

That issomething Klaus can definitely do. “And second?”

Caroline’slips curl, a smirk with a naughty edge that makes Klaus’ interest rise and hisbody tense. “I’m not sure. But I’m open to suggestions.”

He’d wonthe first shower (best two out of three). It might have been more gentlemanlyto have let her win but Caroline wouldn’t respect such a move, as competitiveas she was. He’d rummaged under the sink for his electric razor, figuring hemight as well tidy up a bit since the evening has potential to go somewhat differentlythan his evenings in with Caroline usually go.

If he getsthe opportunity he’d hate for the beard he’s been lazy about tending to chafeany of her delicate skin.

He stripsdown, happy to get out of his wet clothes. Turning to the side he’s pleased tosee that Caroline had been wrong about the severity of the cut on his shoulder.There’s only a thin scratch, and it’s no longer bleeding. He doesn’t even needa bandage nor does the wound hurt when he pokes at it. Klaus is just reachingfor a towel when the door opens and Caroline enters. He hadn’t locked it andshe jumps when she sees him, the door shutting behind her. Her eyes widen andshe flushes prettily, her eyes slamming closed as she turns around. A hurriedexplanation tumbles from her. “I didn’t think you were in here since I didn’thear the water! I was just going to pee but I can totally wait and…” she’spicking up speed and Klaus wraps the towel around his waist. He’s about tointerrupt her (or at least try to) when their very eventful evening gets evenweirder.

Maybe he’dhit his head at some point but Klaus drops the razor as he watches Caroline plowthrough the bathroom door. She’sstill talking, apologizing, but it’s now muffled by the wood.

“Caroline!”he calls, taking several large steps forward. He rips the door open, uncaringwhen it bangs into the wall. She faces him slowly, her lips parted like she’dbeen in the middle of a word. She eyes the door for a long moment, reaches outslowly, “Did I just…” she breathes unsteadily.

“I thinkyou did,” Klaus manages, fighting to keep his own tone even. Caroline’s gonealarmingly pale and if he loses his composure she’ll surely feel worse. Still,it’s difficult to maintain calm. “But how…”

He gripsthe doorframe when she touches the wall, her hand slipping into it, coming out on the other side, once more inside the bathroom while the rest ofher remains in the hall. He hears her breathing quicken, the obvious edge ofpanic in it.

He can’tblame her. He lifts his own hand, presses his palm to hers, pushing hers back untilhis own meets the solid wall. She yanks her arm away and into her chest,cradling like it’s been burned.

“You…” hestarts, trailing off. “Your hand. Through the wall.” He’s never been lessarticulate in his life but his brain is having trouble comprehending what he’djust witnessed. It’s impossible and,if he wasn’t seeing it with his own eyes he’d never believe it.

Sheattempts a smile, and there’s a hint of tears in her eyes. “What was that I wassaying about life changing? Becoming a super freak was so not what I meant.”

She blinkshard and Klaus shakes his head, grasping her shoulders firmly, “Don’t say that.You are not a freak. Perhaps it’sjust a fluke.”

Herexpression turns stubborn and she shakes him off and darts forward, easilypassing through the wall and circling behind him. “You were saying?”

Klaus runsa hand through his hair, “We’ll figure this out, Caroline. It’ll be okay.”

“Promise?”she asks, though her chin lifts and he sees a welcome spark of determination.

He doesn’thesitate before answering, “I promise. And I don’t hand those out to justanyone, you know.”

Carolinepresses her lips together and takes a tentative step forward before she laysher hand on his chest, dread flitting across her expression. Klaus holds hisbreath but remains still. The both relax when nothing happens, her palmsettling on his skin. It’s cooler than he’d like and he brings his own hand upto cover hers. “I can touch you,” she says, relief evident.

“Anytime,”Klaus replies, letting his tone dip suggestively. She rolls her eyes, a smallsmile tugging at her lips.

“This is such an inappropriate time forflirting.” As an admonishment it’s weak, particularly when her other hand comesto rest on his stomach. Her eyes fall, tracing over his skin as her hands pressharder. The towel was hastily secured, sits low on his hips and her eyes lingeron it for a long moment. Klaus’ lack of clothing seems to dawn on her andCaroline takes a quick step back, bumping into the vanity. She staresresolutely at a spot beyond his shoulder. “Right. We can’t do this right noweven though I really, really want to.You, shower. I’m gonna call for the pizza and get my laptop. I’ll see if googlehas any entries for post lightning strike weirdness.”

She bustlespast him before Klaus can think of a clever way to lure her back. Perhapsthat’s for the best. They’ve got a pressing matters to deal with, a problem tosolve. He’d promised to help her and it’s not one he’d made lightly. Whateverit takes for her to be okay he’ll do it.

He’s waitedmonths for a sign that Caroline felt something for him he can wait a littlelonger know that he knows that she does. When they do move forward, when he hasher underneath him, flushed and squirming and on edge, he’ll require her full attention.