#klaus and dave during vietnam

[mayahawkeswife]

rewatching tua s2.. dawg dave was into klaus before he started talking to him abt the war 😭😭 like he got so excited and asked him how his fucking latrine was doing and was into the conversation and shit what if i start crying

[nexus-my-beloved]

Umbrella Academy where everything is the same (NOT) but Klaus took the bullet for Dave in Vietnam. Klaus comes back (not realizing he should, in fact, be VERY dead) to a Dave that is heartbroken and thinks he is dead, scares the shit out of him by reassuring that he is not in fact a part of the afterlife, and brings up the briefcase and bringing Dave back with him to 2019. Dave agrees and Klaus gets on track to being semi-sober with Dave's help. Umbrella Academy where everything is the same (NOT) but Ben didn't check the tank and blew it up like he was supposed to. A world where he walked home from the mission and waited for Five to come back like Viktor did when he made Five nutfluff sandwiches every night. Umbrella Academy where everything is the same (NOT) but Allison didn't rumor Claire and went to therapy and took deep breaths and didn't mess things up. A world where she kept her daughter and even if she and Patrick split she still was in good graces to spend time with her kid. Umbrella Academy where everything is the same (NOT) but Diego got Patch's message in time and managed to make it to the hotel room to either help her deal with Hazel & Cha-Cha or he got there before her injuries were too far gone and he was able to save her. A world where he kept her safe. Umbrella Academy where everything is the same (NOT) but Luther let Five do his job instead of threatening to drop Dolores out the window to keep Five from murdering people that might kick-start the apocalypse. A world where Luther understood where Five was coming from and didn't threaten to break the only thing that Five had learned to love. Umbrella Academy where everything is the same (NOT) but someone found out Viktor had powers and helped get him off of his power-supressing meds and helped him figure out how to use them. A world where Viktor was helped rather than left to spiral into a mindless rage that would end the world. Umbrella Academy where everything is the same (NOT) but Five learns about the subway before meeting the Handler and he learns potential outcomes and how best to solve the apocalypse. A world where he takes the Handler's deal but he breaks down the comission (or at least removes her from it, creep) and gets back to his family, and despite looking young he is alive, everyone is alive, and he checks the subway regularly (that he has made a map of) for potential oncoming threats. He learned at a young age during one of his subway explorations that he would inevitably kill Lila's parents, and he never does it, pretends to get the mission done so that his cover isn't blown before he goes home. Umbrella Academy where everything turns out okay because Five utilized the subway, people listened to each other, and they didn't have poor timing. Umbrella Academy where things didn't hurt as bad. A "do-over", if you will. Like "The Day That Wasn't" episode.

[tinned-beef]

chat in the timeline poster ben (orange line) enters vietnam during the tail end of klaus’ time there (green line)

and in the teaser he’s seen grabbing a soldier and looks to be in a jungle?

vietnam returns??? i hope we get to see dave again 🥹

[sissytobitch10seconds]

I think it's kind of interesting that Viktor is overshadowed by his siblings both in the canon and fanon.

In season one I could understand it. Despite Viktor being the main character that literally drives the entire plot, everyone focuses on the other characters. People make fun of Luther for talking about the moon all the time. Everyone is almost creepily obsessed with Klaus and the Vietnam fling that he had. No one really talks about Allison, but her story is primarily linked with Viktor's since she's trying to heal their relationship (fandom misogyny too). I think that there's a decent amount of talk around Five since he's such a fascinating character. There's quite a lot of talking about Diego too, since he loses Eudora and spends a lot of time trying to take care of Klaus. But no one really talks about Viktor and the amount of shit that he goes through in s1. All the siblings other than Allison completely abandon him too, and Allison only wants the idea of a 'sister' that she's built up in her head since she lost her husband and daughter.

In season two, it makes even less sense to not talk about what Viktor has done. He has a queer love story with Sissy and we get to see way more development and chemistry for, Klaus and Dave had a montage and some sad lines from Klaus as opposed to an entire arc through ten episodes, but no one really does anything with it. Allison gets basically no attention for the same fandom misogyny issues as before. Five gets some attention because of the fact that he's exhausted and still dealing with the Commission (his fight scenes are amazing). Diego gets the same treatment as Luther did but a little more deserving because the plan to save JFK was stupid. Luther gets totally sidelined and ignored too, but people really hated him in S1 so I'm not surprised. Klaus gets all the attention again even though his plot outside of Ben possessing him is honestly really boring and makes me so uncomfortable.

Season three is where Viktor should have gotten the most attention. If we're considering the fact that the TUA fandom has a very queer audience, then they should be super excited and celebrating the fact that Viktor is trans. Not only that, but he's also working his ass off so that he can fix things for Allison and get her back to a timeline where her daughter exists or back to the sixties. I think a lot of people ignore that, giving Five more credit than he deserves for trying to fix the world when Viktor was doing that until Harlan showed up and he wanted to handle that first. A lot of attention during the debut went again to Klaus, which was actually warranted this time since he was plot relevant by showing us things about Reggie and discovering his powers. Diego got more attention since he was parenting Stan and fighting with Lila, which was nice. Five got some meme attention but nothing serious and Luther got a little bit of genuine love. But mostly people just posted the conversation where Viktor comes out to his family and continued to ignore him.

Now Season four is out and no one cares about Viktor. He stands up to Reginald and says all of the things that he needs to say, he fights like Hell to try and save Ben from the Durango and get him someplace stable, he owns a bar and got fucking KIDNAPPED. No one is talking about him, all people are doing is complaining about fivela and the ending.

Viktor moved to Nova Scotia probably to get better trans healthcare, but also because none of his siblings care about him. My man is a tiny trans man that got kidnapped and ransomed off the street and they couldn't care less about him when they show up, Five is taking notes about the room they're in instead of checking to make sure that his childhood best friend is okay. Luther may have made him best man at his wedding, but it was just because Viktor had only just come out and all the other siblings were non options (never been close with Five, butted heads with Diego who didn't even want the wedding to happen, not their Ben, and Klaus was officiating) which was the same reason Lila was Sloane's maid of honor. Diego and Viktor barely spare two words at each other despite their closeness in the comics. Lila and Allison say something briefly to him before they also fuck off further into the plot.

Viktor isn't liked by his family despite them trying to include him in it when it's convenient for them, and he's also disliked by the fandom. I went into the TUA tag and about half of the top twenty posts were about someone else with him tacked on as an afterthought.

[hellomagicalsouls]

saw a post about how it was Dave who kissed Klaus first and i legitimately cried because this whole ass man was born and raised in the 50s and 60s and was probably told that gay = bad etc but still kissed this MAN in a disco. yeah it was slightly hidden but anyone could've seen and‼️he still did it because he loved Klaus goddamn‼️

he fell in love with a man in homophobic America during the pointless war of Vietnam

crying Dave Katz forever

[youlooklikedead]

Me, acting very normally: Klaus changed Dave's life significantly twice! First by their 10 month romance during the Vietnam war as an adult BUT THEN him meeting teen Dave in Dallas erased the existence of that romance in Dave's life completely because he doesn't end up enlisting into the Sky Soldiers in that timeline due to Klaus interference and warnings about his death, instead he enlists into the Marines which presumably saved him in the end and allowed him live a long life after the war ended. So Klaus is still a very important figure in Dave's life no matter if they ended up together or not, Dave will always remember him one way or another! So Klaus arc with Dave could've closed with him meeting old vet Dave in the future—

[hannahhook7744]

The Katz-Hargreeves Children (Headcanons);

The oldest (based off Klaus' son in the comics) is Klaus' son, Lôc 'Lucky' Ben Hargreeves.

He was born back during the Vietnam war to a friend with benefits Klaus had (before he and Dave became a thing), who died.

He is the oldest at 20 years old.

He has Aerokinesis and is also known as The Boss, and The Windbreaker.

He had ties with gangsters.

He likes reading and is quite handy with guns.

He likes waffles and is a great scientist and inventor.

Oh and he's a YouTuber (as a cover).

Lucky is the only bio child.

He's never been able to decide whether his favorite uncle is Viktor or Diego.

The second oldest is Thomas 'Tommy' Benjamin Katz-Hargeeves.

He's 17 years old.

He's also known as the Coward of the County.

He loves dancing, driving, drag racing, wearing makeup, and watching tv. Oh and Pepsi.

He has a girlfriend named Becky who he plans to propose to.

He prefers Tommy over Thomas.

Tommy usually drives his siblings to school but they're constantly running late for one reason or another.

He and his sister, Jolene, argue often.

He's a lot like Klaus but with a temper.

His favorite uncle, to the surprise of no one, is Ben but Diego is a close second.

The middle child is Jolene Alison Katz-Hargreeves.

She's 13 years old.

She's also known as the Chameleon because she's good at blending in.

She plays baseball, soft ball, and lots of other sports.

Jolene gets into a lot of fights.

She always has a sucker on her and is always wearing a baseball cap and something cameo-y.

She has a potty mouth. Likely picked up from Lucky and Tommy.

She's sassy and has an attitude and often comes off as impatient.

She is a dog person and loves the family dog, a black lab named 'Gummy Bear'.

Her favorite uncle is Five.

The second youngest and last boy is Revere Diego Katz-Hargreeves.

He's seven years old and very clumsy, which has earned him the nickname 'Clumsy'.

He is a ballerina.

Oh and has a nasty habit of eavesdropping on people. Mainly his siblings.

Revere is a cat person who prefers the family cat, a white persian named 'Cinnamon'.

And he never swears.

He's always covered in bandaids or wearing a cast due to his misadventures.

And he takes after Dave a lot.

He loves waffles (especially if they're strawberry ones) and silly/slappy bands.

He wears glasses (that have ended up cracked a lot due to his clumsiness).

He's also very good at puppeteering and ventriloquism.

His favorite uncle is Luther.

Revere is also very shy around people he doesn't know.

Finally, there's little Delilah Grace Katz-Hargreeves.

Delilah is the youngest at three years old.

She's a very cranky child due to her tendency to not nap. But hey, what child isn't?

She loves waffles, stuffed animals, drawing (mostly with chalk), and tea parties.

She spends most of her time in her playhouse when she isn't by her fathers' side.

Allison is her favorite out of her fathers' combined siblings.

[splosh-crime]

Forrest Gump/Umbrella Academy

Forrest Gump and Bubba become friends with Klaus Hargreeves and Dave Katz during the Vietnam War.

- If the deaths of canon (Bubba & Dave) are kept in the story, Forrest & Klaus become closer for it, grieving together.

- Forrest reunites with Klaus in the future (maybe in the Veteran’s place) and doesn’t question him still being young even if he makes a statement about it.

- Forrest helps stop the apocalypse by bonding with and comforting Vanya! 🥰

- I kind of want to see Forrest beat up “Leonard” like he does to Jenny’s abusers

[umbrella-academy-hcs]

Klaus gets nightmares about Vietnam and Dave's death and during his time in Texas Ben would help them through it

After Ben's disappearance the other siblings eventually found out about the nightmares and they help Klaus when they can

[five-and-dimes]

Okay I am a huge sucker for any kind of angst and “100 Years of Drowning” sounds up that alley BUT I also love the sound of “Angel of the Left Behind” so can I request both????

@child-of-the-endless

Certainly! Thanks @child-of-the-endless! 

“100 Years of Drowning” is actually the first fic I started writing for Sandman, it’s just gotten very out of hand which is why I still haven’t finished it lol. It’s basically “Dream is incapable of using his goddamn words until everything goes tits up and even then it’s like pulling teeth: the (attempted) shower sex edition”.

Dream has never been in this particular room, never having had any need to. He can recognize that the room's design is meant to be fancy and luxurious, more modern than the rest of Hob's home. There are seek metal finishings, granite countertops, large, decadent towels, and the obvious focal point being the shower. Dream's eyes fixate on it; on the large, wide showerhead arched within one wall of gently patterned tile and three walls of smooth, clean glass.

It's a different shape. 

It's a different shape, and Dream clings to that fact with his fingernails.

“Angel of the Left Behind” is a season 1 TUA fic during Klaus’ time in Vietnam, where Klaus decides to pull members of his squad aside whenever someone they love dies so they can have a chance to say goodbye. It’s equal parts me wanting to show Klaus struggling to find a “good” way to use his powers, me wanting Klaus to have a found family in Vietnam, and me having a lot of weird character headcanon shit that’s easier to show when he’s surrounded by people he wasn’t raised with.

“Hiya Bailey.”

Bailey blinked up in surprise as Klaus moved to stand next to his seat. There wasn’t anything particularly interesting about the interaction, but it still caught the attention of the rest of the table. They waited for Klaus to move to the seat saved for him next to Dave. 

But he didn’t. Klaus was smiling brittly, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, fingers fluttering in the air in front of his chest. His eyes darted around the tent before returning to Bailey who was frowning at him in confusion. “Take a walk with me.”

That had Bailey raising his eyebrows, “Um…” The two of them were friends, sure, but had only ever really spent time together in group settings, never one on one. And Klaus’ statement seemed to come from nowhere.

“Come, come,” he beckoned, “I’d like to rip this band aid off. Don’t be shy. Take a walk with me.”

[enklavefest]

Tattoo (2349 words) by Salvador_Daley Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Umbrella Academy (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Klaus Hargreeves/David "Dave" Katz Characters: Klaus Hargreeves, David "Dave" Katz Additional Tags: How Klaus acquired the temple tattoo, and how he feels now it is gone, Post-Season/Series 03, Angst, Fluff and Angst, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Hurt Klaus Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves-centric, Klaus Hargreeves Needs Help, Sad Klaus Hargreeves, Vietnam War, Klaus Hargreeves & David "Dave" Katz During Vietnam, Softie David "Dave" Katz, Tattoos, Klave, Prepare to be devastated, Emotional Hurt, Hurt No Comfort, "You suck!", This was the official review from my beta, Homeless Klaus Hargreeves, Veteran Klaus Hargreeves, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction Summary: The skin is blank, like an Etch-a-Sketch shaken clean. No hint of the intricate artwork he had worn there before. But the memory of the man he wore it for remains, just as clear as the day he acquired it.

Read it here.

[carry-on-my-wayward-hobbit]

✨Fic Masterlist✨

(For anyone who cares & bc I love making lists)

A Stranger in a Stranger's Bed

Teen / Wolfstar / Complete Lie low at lupin's drabble/character study. All the angst of canon compliance

Sweet Dreams of Holly and Ribbon

Teen / Wolfstar / Complete A Wolfstar take on Hallmark movies with single dad Remus, Christmas fluff, and side Jily

Tennessee Honey

Explicit / Klave / CompleteJust pure PWP for Klave Fucktober 2021 prompt 'Kitchen Sex'

Sucker Punch

Mature / Klave / Complete Modern AU , one night stand with an open/ambiguous ending

Beyond This Mortal Coil Series

Teen / Klave / Complete Reincarnation AU, technically set after S2 but mainly focusing around events of S1 for the reincarnation prompts for Enklave Fest 2021 & TUA AUgust 2021 Part 1: I’m Not Dead Just Floating Part 2: Can't Help Falling In Love

January Rain

Teen / Klave / Complete A different interpretation of what might have happened with the Sparrows, written for Enklave Fest 2021 prompt Hallucinations

This Years Love

Teen / Klave / Complete A snippet into Klaus and Dave's relationship during Vietnam, written for Enklave Fest 2021 prompts dog tags & Valentines Day.

Matryoshka

Mature / Klave / Indefinite Haitus Basically a Russian Doll AU

[gatoplanet]

since its klaus birthday, can you give us some headcanons of what dave would do for klaus’ birthday during vietnam please?

YOU BET I CAN so first of all i think klaus complains about sharing a birthday with his six siblings all the time but he only mentions the actual date once offhand in like, june. so klaus isn’t expecting much, he figures maybe he’ll remind dave day-of and they’ll do something fun up against a tree like they did for dave’s birthday. but dave committed that shit to memory like there was gonna be a pop quiz, and he slides klaus a little flower along with his coffee in the morning, and klaus is like, oh my god

and dave’s like okay i know you’re not technically exactly a year older than you were on 10/1/2018, time travel is complicated, but this is the day you’re gonna be born, so i think it’s still important, and i got you something. and klaus is like please yes, thinking he’s about to get smooched. and he does get the smooch, but i also love the idea of dave tracking down something practical that he noticed klaus would be able to use - maybe a new pair of boot laces that aren’t fraying at the ends, or a bandanna to keep klaus’s hair out of his forehead when he gets sweaty during the day. it’s not fancy, but it’s thoughtful

then it’s the potent combination of a) klaus misses his siblings, ofc he does, this was always something he shared with them even when they weren’t together, and b) klaus has probably never really celebrated his birthday in the traditional sense, and he’s definitely never had someone put time and thought into a gift for him just because they’re happy he got born. so there are maybe some tears. some emotions are expressed. dave doesn’t 100% believe that this is the best gift anyone’s ever gotten klaus in his life, but he’s glad he made klaus happy enough to say that

and then klaus is like oh my god all i got you for your birthday was head?? and dave is like well you’ll get another chance next year, also there’s a part two of my gift c’mere

[recreating-reality]

Posting some of my theories from the s4 trailer before I watch the final season.

Klaus is the first to rediscover his powers while working as a spirit medium. His powers feel off, in that he can accidentally possess people by simply touching them. At some point he thinks he will be stuck outside his body or inside someone else's. It's a terrifying experience so he wears gloves to avoid touching anyone accidentally.

Klaus and Luther live together in the abandoned Academy building. Luther gets the idea of working as a stripper from a story Klaus tells him. He's seen the girls at Jack Ruby's club do it enough times, he's sure he can pull it off.

Diego and Lila's daughter gets kidnapped or goes missing. This is why they bring the gang together, including Ben. That's the rescue mission they're talking about in the trailer.

They revisit some of the most important moments that led to the timeline diverting and becoming a mess. Hazel and ChaCha contributed to a lot of unknown variables with all their points of contact in their original timeline. The most notable being Klaus going to Vietnam and meeting Dave. Klaus himself further destablisised the timeline by contacting Dave during their foray in the early 60s before he enlisted, pushing Dave to enlist earlier. Vietnam ends up being a stop on the subway line for unfucking the timeline and we get to see Dave (possibly die again).

Ben is angry at Reginald for not holding up their deal. He goes after him and ends up incarcerated.

[dogbearinggifts]

Missing in Action

Umbrella Academy

Author’s Note: This is Part Four of my Sheepdogs series. If this is the first time you’re seeing this series on your dash, I’d definitely recommend going back and starting with Part One, He Saw the Ghosts, a slight AU exploring what might have happened had Klaus spoken with a kinder vet in the VFW scene. Dead Ringer and Tattoos With Better Stories follow the vets he meets as they try to offer support while trying to determine just why he looks so much like an unidentified soldier in a fifty-year-old photo. 

All installments are available on my AO3 account. 

The man’s name was Arthur, and tracking him down had proven, from the beginning, to be more difficult than Richard liked.

Sometimes he enjoyed the search. He liked to find a clue and follow the breadcrumbs down a trail to a discovery both expected and surprising, examine and marvel at all the little facts he picked up along the way. He’d never been fond of puzzles, but after putting the metaphorical pieces together on more than one occasion, he thought he’d finally grasped the appeal.

But there was a difference between struggling to find where a puzzle piece fit and putting the picture together only to find pieces were missing.

The friend of a friend put Richard in touch with a friend, who wasn’t home but—thankfully—was up on answering messages. A call to the number Richard was given also ended at an answering machine, but he’d only waited a short while for a call back before his phone rang again.

“God, I’m sorry,” the friend—Trevor—said. “I forgot—he’s visiting one of his kids. You want the number where he’s staying?”

Under ordinary circumstances, Richard would have said no, he’d left a message and that would be fine; but thoughts of Klaus made him hesitate. Accept the number and interrupt the man’s vacation, or delay the call and delay answers until after Klaus showed his face again—perhaps long after.

Maybe it wouldn’t matter. He’d faced Klaus more than once without an answer to a single one of the questions the younger man raised; doing so again wouldn’t be impossible. The kid needed a place to run to, a friend to listen. Richard could provide that without knowing where he’d come from or where he’d served or even his last name.

And yet….

He couldn’t face Klaus again, not with all those questions nagging at him. Not with doubt gnawing away at compassion and suspicion threatening to push concern aside.

“You sure he won’t mind?”

“Nah. If he can’t talk, he’ll let you know.”

Richard wrote the number down, thanked Trevor and hung up, but didn’t dial it immediately. The digits scrawled on a piece of notepaper—they were just a number. A sequence that would bring an interlude to a stranger’s visit with his family, if not grind it to a halt. Maybe things would stop there, end with the voice on the other end of the line announcing that he knew next to nothing about the unnamed soldier in the photo.

But maybe not.

Richard brushed a thumb over the paper. It was just a number, but it felt like a key.

Arthur preferred to be called Art, and if a stranger intruding on a family visit bothered him, his voice didn’t show it.

“I’ve spent the last forty years bouncing around the whole country,” he said with a laugh when Richard apologized for the interruption yet again. “Probably made me hard to track down.”

“Just a bit.”

Art laughed again. “So you want me to come on down today, tomorrow, when?”

Richard glanced again at the number he’d taken down. He’d been told the man had somewhat settled in Arizona, but the area code looked familiar. “How close are you?”

“’Bout forty minutes away.”

So his daughter had wound up in one of those towns scattered around the city, the ones that lured tourists in with a cultivated quaintness and a Main Street designed to separate them from their money. “We’ve got his photo at the VFW here in town.”

“I can get there tomorrow. You got directions?”

Art beat Richard and Jim to the VFW, and despite only starting his walk once hands were shaken and introductions made, he beat them inside and reached the memorial wall a few paces before they did.

“This the guy?”

Even before he closed the gap, Richard knew which soldier his pointing finger highlighted. “That’s him.”

A smile tugged at one corner of Art’s mouth and then the other, but no sooner had it spread than it lost whatever innocence it might have had, turning wistful at best. He shook his head. “Should’ve known Klaus would show up in the last place you’d expect.”

The name was like a thunderclap. Richard tried to think of something, anything to say besides asking him to repeat it, something that wasn’t incoherent stammering.

“Klaus?” If Art heard Jim’s voice increase in pitch, he didn’t show it. “That’s his name?”

“His parents were ahead of the curve, I guess.”

“My great-grandpa’s name was Orange.” Richard wasn’t sure how he managed to get the words out at all. “Married a woman named Blossom and never heard the end of it.”

“Klaus. He have a surname?” Jim asked. It sounded casual enough, but Richard heard the strain in it, the forced nonchalance.

“Hargreeves.” Art frowned, looking to the photo again. “Always did think that was weird, once the Academy started making headlines.”

Klaus wasn’t too unusual of a name—not like Orange. It hadn’t been the sort of name most mothers would bestow upon their children back in the forties, but it had existed. So had Hargreeves. If the parents of a perfectly harmless baby boy who had done nothing to deserve it could nevertheless choose to saddle him with a name like Orange back in 1843, then a Mrs. Hargreeves in the 1930s or 40s could name her son Klaus.

Richard tried for an unhurried gait as he moved closer to the photograph of the unnamed soldier—toward Klaus Hargreeves, if Art wasn’t the perpetrator of the world’s strangest and most twisted practical joke. Maybe if he were able to remove it from its frame and study it without the glass, he’d be able to find some discrepancy between this Klaus and the one he knew. It was the light, he decided. The light kept him from seeing it clearly, gave an admittedly spooky coincidence more meaning than it deserved.

Out the corner of his eye, he saw Art frown. “You okay?”

Richard didn’t try for a smile, or even a reassuring tone. Art struck him as a smart guy—too smart to be brushed off with something like that. “You want to sit down?”

There was a table somewhat close to the photo, and that was where they set up operations. Jim fetched a few drinks from the bar and passed them around; Art held onto his beer a moment before speaking.

“You know, I figured I’d just come in and name the guy.”

Richard kept both hands wrapped around his soda as he tried to find the proper words. It was tempting to toss all the cards on the table and let Art sort them out—but there was still a chance that all this was a coincidence or something darker. Throwing everything out into the open could muddy the waters before they had an inkling of what lurked beneath.

“We’ve had some….weird shit happen, these last couple of days,” Jim said without looking up. “And it all ties back to that guy in the photo.”

“To Klaus,” Art said.

“Yeah,” Jim said with a hint of a sigh. “To Klaus.”

“We still don’t know shit about him,” Richard added, motioning between himself and Jim. “But you do. Maybe you can help us clear a few things up.”

Art fell silent, gazing down at his beer. Richard tried not to hold his breath, tried not to let anticipation and disquiet show on his face. He tried not to watch, too, but that proved fruitless. Slowly, Art’s expression softened. Slowly, it became a smile.

“The guy was a trainwreck.” He shook his head with a soft chuckle. “But God, he was fun.”

He leaned forward, resting an elbow on the table. Richard had seen that smile before, wry and expectant all at once—the smile of a man who knew he had some good stories to share.

“This one time, I was just sitting there, minding my own business, and Klaus walks up, plops himself into my lap and goes ‘Trust fall!’” He chuckled again. “Of course, he didn’t get to that part until I was already cussing him out.”  

It wasn’t that Richard forgot the reason for Art’s presence. It wasn’t that he tossed the purpose of hearing his stories aside. But as Art told another story followed by another, as he relaxed into memories he may not have shared before, reason and purpose took a backseat. They remained in the back of his mind, but he was laughing too hard to hear their guidance.

Richard still hadn’t gotten his wind back from laughter at the last story when Art slapped the table. “The ghost moose! Almost missed that one.”

Jim coughed on his beer. “The what moose?”

Art leaned forward with his elbows propped on the table. He liked to do that and gesture broadly as he spoke, Richard had noticed. “So, Klaus didn’t know how to drive once he got in country.”

“How old was he again?” Richard asked.

Art frowned, as though he’d never considered the question before. “I…I dunno. Late twenties? Anyway.” He waved the question aside. “So we’ve got to teach him. He’s in the driver’s seat, bumping along—and there’s nobody for miles. Out in the middle of nowhere. But everything seems to be going great, he’s finally getting the hang of it, and then all of a sudden—bam! Guy slams on the brakes, almost pitches us all out. We’re all ‘What the hell, you almost got us killed,’ and he just stares at the road a minute and then he goes, ‘I thought I saw a….moose.’”

“You’re shitting me,” Jim said.

“Nope.” Art chuckled. “He said it just like that, too—like he knew he had all of two seconds to think of something good and that’s what he came up with.”

Richard gulped his soda. “A moose.”

“Yep.”

“In Vietnam.”

“That’s what the rest of us said, but he goes, ‘Well, maybe they lived here millions of years ago and now there’s a ghost moose walking around, ever think of that?’”

Art grinned through the laughter that followed.

“I’ll bet that story took off,” Richard said when he’d straightened out enough to speak.

“God, yes. After that, every goddamn shadow we saw was the ghost moose. Officers pull some new bullshit? Ghost moose. Mail’s delayed again? Ghost moose.”

Richard grinned. “Did the ghost moose have a name?”

“Spurlock,” Art said after another gulp of his drink. “Think it was Charlie who said we should call him Reginald. I thought it was a great name for a moose, but Klaus didn’t like that one, and since the ghost moose was his idea—”

“You wanted to go with something he liked,” Jim finished.

“Yep. Not sure where he came up with Spurlock, but it stuck.”

The name sounded familiar, but Richard couldn’t quite place it. He was still trying to match it to a face, a news article or anything else when Art nodded to the photograph on the wall.

“Every man in that picture came up with at least one story about the ghost moose. Dave started writing them all down one night. Gave the collection some long and important name, like For Those Who Have Seen Shall Never Unsee: Visages of Meese in Their Spectral Forms. But those stories...God, they were wild. That moose was into some weird shit.”

As much as he wanted to remain where the stories and laughter had brought him, Richard couldn’t ignore the nudging back toward the purpose of the whole meeting. “Dave….Katz?”

Art nodded. “He and Klaus were pretty close.”

Richard thought the way Art averted his gaze signaled something more behind those words, but the silence lasted less than a moment before Art shook his head slightly.

“Klaus was no idiot, though. Said some dumb shit, but he was a smart guy.”

Jim gave a wry smile. “Think everybody served with that guy sometime.”

“Better than a dumb guy who says a lot of smart shit,” Richard added.

“Yeah….” Jim exhaled, setting his beer on the table. “Served with him, too.”

“I tell you he knew Nixon would get elected?

Richard couldn’t say what about the question sent a jolt through him, but he’d learned years before to listen to that. Instincts could be off, but they could also be like a sound from far away, signaling danger not yet visible. “No.”

“Yeah, we were talking about the race, who everybody was gunning for—and Klaus goes ‘Eh, Nixon’s just gonna win anyways.’” Art shook his head again. “Figured it was the drugs talking, but come November, guess who’s president?”

The image of Klaus stumbling into a laundromat, covered in sweat and on his way to another club, resurfaced in Richard’s mind, but he pushed the thought back. “He knew?”

“Said it was a lucky guess.”

Richard looked to Jim, saw the same disquiet he felt reflected back, and pressed on. “Nixon won with—what? Forty-three percent?”

“Something like that.”

“And he just said Nixon was gonna win.”

“Like he knew,” Jim added.

“Look, the guy….” Art paused, pressed his lips together. “He wasn’t the only one who used, all right? Not by a long shot. And he said a lot of things like that. Just weird shit. Some of it made sense, some didn’t. But at the end of the day, he was a guy you wanted with you when shit hit the fan.”

Art sat back, and It took more of Richard’s willpower than he cared to admit to keep from slumping in his chair. He wasn’t defeated, he wasn’t chastised, because this wasn’t a fight. Just a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding he couldn’t clear up until he corralled the bizarre ideas and half-baked possibilities swirling through his head into something resembling coherent speech.

After a long silence, Jim was the one who spoke. “When’d he join your unit?”

“I don’t remember exactly when.” It was thoughtful, a consideration. There was still a hint of temper behind it, a note of irritation, but nothing more. “I know he did, since he wasn’t there from the beginning, but I don’t remember him ever joining. He was just kind of…there one day.”

“He ever say where he was from, when he got drafted?”

Art’s frown deepened. “Never did say. He was from here, though. Pretty sure.”

Jim’s questions had set Art pondering things he might not have pondered before—and sharpened the cold unease in Richard’s middle. Details no longer swirled past one another like debris in a tornado; they fell to the ground, snapped into place like pieces in a puzzle. He wasn’t sure he understood the picture they formed, but he needed to be sure. He nodded to the tattoo on Art’s bicep, the bottom half visible beneath his sleeve.

“Did everybody in your unit get that tattoo?”

“This one?” Art rolled up his sleeve, revealing the same tattoo Klaus had worn: a skull emblem below the words Sky Soldiers and 173rd Airborne Division. “Yep. Same place, same everything.”

Not quite the same. Where Art’s tattoo had faded and blurred with age, the one Klaus wore—the Klaus he’d met, at any rate—appeared more freshly inked. “How long was he there?”

Art looked down at the table. Any trace of mirth had vanished the moment questions took a turn he didn’t like, but Jim’s more routine inquiries had brought a sort of wistfulness, as if decent memories had begun to simmer at the back of his mind—the sort that needed no defense or explanation, only sharing. Every bit of cheer drained from him at Richard’s question.

“He didn’t even make it a year.”

Richard felt the bitterness in those words—had felt it time and again, when yet another friendship ended at the front line. He shut his eyes, trying to turn the flood of unwanted memories into a stream, turn the deluge into a current he could stand against.

“Him and Dave both. Fight ended, dust cleared. Dave was dead, Klaus was gone without a trace.” Art’s intake of breath shook. “Lost ‘em both that night.”

There was nothing to fill the silence that followed. Richard could have tried. Could have repeated some of the same platitudes he’d been given, knowing they’d remain empty no matter how much sincerity he poured into them.

Once again, Jim spoke first.

“You said they were close.”

It was an observation, and a gentle one at that. Art didn’t lift his gaze from the table, hands wrapped around his beer.

“You know, I think Dave might’ve been the first one to talk to him. Can’t say for sure, since I don’t remember when Klaus joined, but Dave? Saw the guy looking around like he still couldn’t figure out how the hell he wasn’t back in the States and thought That guy needs a friend.” His mouth tipped, more in rueful memory than genuine mirth. “There was a while, in the beginning, when the rest of us were wondering how the hell Klaus made it through basic without learning a goddamn thing, and Dave’s there with him, showing him what to do. Just all, ‘Try it that way. Do it like this. You got it.’”

The image of Klaus—the Klaus he knew—wearing David Katz’s dog tags surfaced in Richard’s mind. A quickly traded glance with Jim said his friend entertained similar thoughts—with similar disquiet.

“You never heard anything else, after he went MIA?” Richard asked.

Art exhaled. “I’m sure he’s dead by now.”

Now it was Jim’s turn to glance at Richard, meeting his gaze with a frown. Richard gave a small shrug, and Jim returned his attention to Art.

“You remember if he had any other tattoos?”

Art frowned. “Why?”

“Like Jim told you,” Richard said slowly, “there’s been some weird shit around that guy in the photo.”

“Yeah, but what do tats have to do with it?”

“We’re not sure we know, either,” Richard said.

Art gave them both a long look, let out a short sigh, and leaned forward. “Yeah. Had an umbrella on his forearm. I…always thought it kinda looked like the Academy logo, but never….”

His train of thought ended as his gaze shifted between Richard and Jim.

Richard knew he ought to speak. He didn’t trust himself to offer a full explanation, but he knew he should say a few words at least. Stammer something. Begin a sentence and end it too soon. But the more he fought for words, the more they eluded him. In his mind’s eye he saw Klaus concentrating on his knitting, Katz’s dog tags around his neck as the umbrella on his arm flicked in and out of view.

Klaus.

Klaus Hargreeves.

Klaus Hargreeves, haltingly asking about Richard’s time in Vietnam as he practiced stitches.

All the impossibilities bound up in that one, all the questions that went along with it, were nothing compared to that one certainty. He didn’t know how. He couldn’t say why. But in that moment, Richard would have bet money that the Klaus he knew, the Klaus Art knew, and the Klaus Reginald Hargreeves had adopted as an infant were one and the same.

Art’s gaze managed to pin them both down. “Are…you guys gonna tell me what’s going on, or….”

Richard drew a breath and then another. The first one shook, the second was steadier. He needed a way to phrase what he had to say, a means of softening it, but there was nothing. “I don’t think Klaus is dead.”

For a fraction of a second, Art’s face went entirely blank; then half a dozen emotions warred for dominance. Confusion. Shock. Anger. Relief. Despair.

Hope.

“If you’re shitting me—”

“I’m not. Swear to God, I’m not.”

“So what the hell made you say it?”

Richard opened his mouth to answer, traded a glance with Jim and thought better of it.

Jim drew a long breath and pointed to the photo on the memorial wall.

“Because I caught him crying over that picture just a few days ago.”

[theheightofdishonor]

Klaus is ridiculously good at surviving and charming the fuck out of people, and I definitely want to know more about both.