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justatiredghost · 4 years

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Fixes to the Timeline Ch7

Dave faces his biggest challenge being here in the future: surviving Klaus' family.

The Hargreeves have never been particularly good at pleasantries, so it was really thanks to Vanya that the conversation didn’t immediately fizzle out once they all got seated and started digging in.

“So,” she said, looking like she’d thought a long time about what she was going to say. Klaus couldn’t help but wonder how many questions she’d prepared ahead of time. “How did you two meet?”

“Oh, you know,” Dave said with that goofy grin of his that Klaus loved so much. “I like to think it was fate, or something. I mean, out of all of space and time, he got dropped literally right in front of me.”

It was a ridiculously sweet sentiment and Klaus had to bite his tongue to stop himself from making a joke about them both being half naked at the time. Not that either of them had really had time to think about anything like that. While Klaus’ inclination was always to ruin the moment, especially around his siblings, he knew this couldn’t be easy for Dave, talking frankly about their relationship when he’d had to keep that part of himself quiet for so long. He didn’t want to make it any harder for him and instead just took his hand under the table, squeezing it gently. He did roll his eyes a little though to keep up appearances.

“That’s sweet,” Vanya said, smiling at them.

“And what is it that you do?” Luther asked. Apparently he also had a list of questions.

“I mean, I got drafted,” Dave said a bit evasively. “Fought in a war, that sort of thing.”

“Right, Vietnam,” Luther said uncertainly. It was obvious he’d been asking for a bit more than that but didn’t exactly know how to prompt him along. Unfortunately Diego was much more blunt.

“And before that?” he said.

“Oh, you know, odd jobs,” Dave said. “I worked at a few restaurants, a couple bars, construction yards. Pretty much wherever I could find.”

He and Klaus both knew they were trying to figure out if he was going to be dead weight like Klaus, or if he was actually going to make himself useful. Their intentions were good, Klaus supposed, and understandable given the kinds of people he used to associate with. But it still wasn’t fair, he was trying so hard to be different now. And Dave deserved a chance to prove how amazing he was without the interrogation.

“And now?” Diego continued to push. “What are your plans here?”

“Come on, Diego,” Klaus groaned. “What does it even matter? Give him time to settle in at least. Time travel’s a bitch.”

“I know,” Diego said pointedly because of course they’d all done it by now.

“Fifty years is a big change,” Vanya said, voice still soft but at least they were listening now. “It isn’t fair to expect him to know what he’s supposed to do immediately. And he just came back from fighting in a war.”

“Exactly,” Klaus exclaimed, grateful to her for stepping in.

“Man, you guys are such buzzkills,” Ben groaned.

“You aren’t even drinking,” Luther pointed out.

“I’m gonna need to if you guys don’t stop bumming me out. Come on, we’re supposed to be celebrating here. Unless, of course, you want to ruin the meal Mom worked so hard making for us.”

That shut Diego up at least.

Klaus grinned. They were all still a little weird about talking back to Ben. But Ben had no qualms about taking full advantage of that. Maybe Klaus had been a bad influence on him all these years. At least it meant tonight might actually go okay, especially with Ben and Vanya looking out for them.

From what Dave knew of Vanya, she had often been separated from the family, made to feel like she wasn't one of them. So when he saw her sitting slightly apart from the rest after dinner, he decided to join her. Besides, the conversation was rapidly descending into roughhousing, and Dave’s injury wouldn’t let him join in, so he dropped down into the seat next to her.

“Wow, aren’t they a rowdy bunch?” Dave said. “Are they always like this?” Considering Klaus definitely was he thought he knew the answer, but at least it was something to talk about.

“Honestly, this is better than usual,” she said with a small chuckle. “You should have seen them at dad’s funeral. Diego and Luther were at each other’s throats.”

“This is an improvement?” Dave said in disbelief, watching as Klaus jumped onto Diego’s back, trying to get the bag of chips he was currently trying to devour. Luther bodily picked them both up when Ben snuck in and snagged it from Diego and jumped back out of their reach, laughing.

“Yeah, it’s kind of nice seeing them all like this. Growing up we were more concerned with just trying to survive dad, I guess we have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Ah, I guess I did hear a bit about that,” Dave said. “Klaus doesn’t really like to talk about it. What I have heard is pretty fucked up though. Did you guys really only get a half hour a week to play?”

“Yeah, that really wasn’t the worst thing he ever did though.”

Dave hadn’t actually wanted to talk about depressing shit, not when they were actually all trying to get to know each other, so instead he changed the subject. “Hey, you know, I bet if we worked together we could get the chips from them.” He leaned in conspiratorially, pleased with himself when she smiled and leaned in a little as well. “If I go in as a distraction, you can snag it from them easy.”

“Are you really hungry after dinner?” she asked.

“Nah, but it’s the principle of the thing,” he said sagely.

“And you’d really sacrifice yourself? Are you sure you want to put yourself in the line of fire against all of them?”

“I was a soldier, you know,” he said with a wink.

She smiled and shook her head. “I have a better idea.”

The air seemed to hum suddenly. Most of them didn’t seem to notice, too caught up in their game, until the bag was suddenly ripped out of their hands and went flying towards Dave and Vanya. He flinched, but there was no need to worry apparently because Vanya easily snatched it out of the air easily.

“Whoa,” Dave said, staring at her in awe as she blushed and looked away, trying not to smile. “That was amazing. Can you teach me how to do that?”

That got a laugh out of her.

Dave made the mistake of going to the kitchen to get another coke alone and ended up cornered by Diego and Luther on his way back. It was kind of funny, Luther trying to look intimidating but mostly just looking uncomfortable. He was still huge, though, and Diego was plenty intimidating all on his own.

“So,” Diego said, standing much too close as he cracked his knuckles. “You ever do drugs?”

“Oh,” Dave laughed nervously, glancing over to where Klaus was animatedly talking with Ben and Vanya. They were clear on the other side of the room but hopefully he could get over here before Dave got himself murdered if this conversation went as poorly as he thought it might. He thought about lying but there probably wasn’t much point in it. He was a terrible liar. “I may have indulged a bit in my youth.”

Technically that was true, he had been younger a month ago. The army was practically handing them out, more than encouraging them all to take a cocktail that would keep them on their feet as they were all run ragged. Dave figured that little detail was better left unsaid, but apparently that didn’t matter because that still seemed to be the wrong answer given the way Diego’s eyes narrowed and Luther attempted to look disapproving.

“Any thoughts to ‘indulge’ again?” Diego asked and Dave couldn’t help but notice his hand playing with one of the knives strapped to his chest.

“No, of course not,” Dave said and he didn’t need to fake the sincerity. “Klaus wants to get clean, I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize that.

“You sure about that?” Diego said, voice full of scorn. “Guys like you, you’re all the same.”

“Hey, that’s not fair,” Dave said because he always did have a bad habit of talking before thinking and maybe getting in an argument the first time he hung out with Klaus’ family was a terrible idea, but he just couldn’t stand the thought of anyone belittling Klaus and that’s really what Diego was doing, wasn’t it? Implying that Klaus couldn’t change despite how hard he was trying? “Klaus has been working so hard, he deserves more than a little faith here.”

“He’s right.”

They all turned to find Five standing there casually with his hands in his pockets.

“Thank you,” Dave said vehemently, raising a hand for emphasis.

“Now, hold on,” Diego said. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“We’re just worried about Klaus,” Luther said.

“Yeah, it’s you we aren’t so sure about,” Diego said, pointing an accusatory finger at Dave.

“You forget I was stuck with him for quite some time before I could bring him to the present,” Five said. “I could have killed him at any time if he turned out to be not worth saving.”

“Great, great,” Dave said with false cheer, once again not sure if he was joking or not.

“Don’t worry,” Five said, apparently having pity on him. “Do you really think I would have gone to all that effort if I thought it might have been a waste of time? Now, if we’re done here, I believe Dave owes me a rematch.”

“Whatever,” Diego muttered, apparently giving up as he and Luther retreated. He gave Luther a shove and Dave could have sworn he heard him mutter, “This is your fault,” and Luther shoved him back.

“I thought you’d never ask,” Dave said with a relieved sigh. The perfect excuse to get out of this incredibly awkward conversation. “Thanks. I’m pretty sure you just saved my life. Again. I don’t think they like me very much.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much, we hate most people. Barely tolerate each other, actually,” Five said with a shrug. You’ll grow on them like you grew on me. Like fungus.”

“I like mushrooms,” Dave said, perking up at that. He caught sight of Klaus heading their way, no doubt wondering what was keeping him. It apparently did wonders for Dave’s confidence and his impulse to ruin any tension with terrible jokes as well because he added, “Also, thanks, Five. You’re a fun-gi.”

“Aaaah yeah, finger guns!” Klaus exclaimed, overhearing, raising his hands to do just that.

“You don’t need to say it out loud,” Five muttered, rubbing at his temple like he was getting a migraine. “Diego? I changed my mind. Please come back here and stab them both.”

“Are you encouraging a minor to gamble?” Klaus asked in mock disapproval as he leaned against the back of Dave’s chair, arms crossed. This left him at the perfect height to place his chin on Dave’s shoulder as he watched.

“Fuck you,” Five said, not even bothering to look up. Thankfully there wasn’t really any anger behind the comment and it got a chuckle out of Dave so he considered it a success.

“I’m not sure you can really call it gambling,” Dave said.

“It definitely is,” Five said. “You really are much more devious than I would have expected.”

“Devious?” Klaus repeated in disbelief. “Are we talking about the same Dave? The one who saves earthworms from sidewalks and feeds stray cats his own dinner?”

“Hey, come on,” Dave said, turning to face him and mock whispering. “I’m trying to look cool in front of your brother.”

“Well that’s been a losing battle from the beginning,” Five muttered.

“Sorry, babe,” Klaus said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“He’s just mad because he’s losing,” Dave said, holding up his current hand of cards.

“I still think you’re cool. Well, kinda,” he added with a teasing wink.

“Hey, I’ll take it.”

“With all the handicaps we put in place to make things more fair, you better be winning,” Five shot back.

“You wish,” Dave laid his cards out on the table with a smug grin and Five tossed his stack down with a sigh.

“Fine, what do you want?”

“I want,” Dave said thoughtfully. “For you to compliment someone you haven’t talked to in a while.”

“Easy enough,” Five said, standing up and leaving Dave to gather up the cards.

“What was that all about?” Klaus asked, taking Five’s seat and watching as Dave shuffled the deck.

“We started that while we were hunkered down in hiding after he saved my life,” he said. “I suggested it, he’s a hard one to get to know. Whoever wins gets to ask the other person to do something. Usually it’s just to answer a question, but I thought we could use a little levity here.”

Klaus glanced over to where Five was talking to Diego. Five patted his shoulder as he turned to leave and Diego looked like he was trying very hard to remain stoic but was obviously equal parts confused and pleased. Klaus couldn’t help but snicker at that.

“Sometimes I think you’re too powerful, Dave.”

Dave just grinned back.

One thing Dave was realizing was that this family did not like to sit still. That was fine by him, he liked the energy just fine, but it did mean he kept finding himself confronted with a new sibling every few minutes. At least it was Ben who dropped into the seat next to him when Klaus got up to harass Diego after being egged on. The ribbing was all in good fun and thankfully not intentionally cruel so things were going well. According to Klaus, that was a work in progress.

“Hanging in there?” Ben asked.

“Still alive, for now,” Dave replied with a smile.

“Hopefully they’re not giving you too hard of a time.”

“I get it, it’s all good,” Dave said. “I suppose it’s your turn now, though. Go ahead, give it to me straight, I can take it.”

“Don’t worry,” Ben said with a laugh. “So far you’re good in my book.”

“Really?”

“What, you want me to have a problem with you?”

“No, it’s just, I kinda figured, out of everyone, you’d be the one with something to say. Diego gave me the shovel talk first thing but you haven’t really said a thing.”

“Look, Klaus tells me things he doesn’t usually tell the others,” Ben began.

“Uh oh.”

“It’s obvious you mean a lot to him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this happy. I mean, sure, he always acts like it, but it’s never been this genuine. You make him a better person and it’s just really nice to see him this way. So yeah, I don’t have a problem with you.”

“Oh,” Dave said, his voice breaking.

“You good?”

“Yeah, yeah, all good, just-- I dunno, I guess I always hoped I made him even a tiny bit as happy as he makes me. It’s just good to know.”

“Rest assured, he is utterly hopeless.”

“So am I,” Dave said, glancing over at Klaus, feeling so warm and fond.

After the little confrontation earlier, Luther seemed relieved not to have to try to be threatening. Diego for his part seemed to be trying a bit harder to behave himself. Although he was watching Dave very closely, like he was trying to find something to hate about him. To his credit, Dave managed to keep his cool and pretended not to notice.

Maybe it was because of his close watch that Diego eventually seemed to relax and warm up to him as the night progressed. Well, as warm as Diego ever was with anyone who wasn’t his siblings or Eudora. But he saw the way he and Klaus interracted, how soft Dave was and how happy they both were together. Or the way he stuck up for Klaus and seemed to truly mean it.

They all constantly poked fun at each other, Klaus understood that, he didn’t take it personally if the comments hit a bit too close to home, but Dave was always quick to counter, to heap on the praise and drag everyone up with him. That’s just how Dave was and Klaus couldn’t help but smile to himself, feeling immensely proud of Dave even as he tried to brush off any compliments because, really, that was much too embarrassing. He knew Dave would win over his family, though. He was good like that.

He was even managing to engage Luther who was usually not the greatest at this sort of thing. Luther could be a bit awkward with strangers at the best of times, but the added pressure of Dave being an important part of Klaus’ life as well as Diego pushing for most of the night for none of them to like him seemed to have left him a bit lost for words. But that’s always where Dave shined the most, finding anyone who was uncomfortable and making them feel like they belonged.

Between him, Klaus’ relentless antics, and Ben and Five discouraging any arguments, things honestly weren’t as bad as Klaus had been expecting. It actually had been a little fun, even if it still had been an incredibly long night and he was incredibly relieved when he and Dave could finally escape. They hadn’t even reached the bedroom door yet when Klaus started pulling off his shirt with a heavy sigh. He tossed it in the corner once inside and stretched as Dave closed the door and flopped down onto the bed still fully clothed, arm over his face.

“You good there, my man?” Klaus asked, sitting down next to him and patting his knee.

“Yeah,” Dave said unconvincingly. “So, how do you think I did? Do they hate me yet?”

“Are you kidding?” Klaus said, leaning down to kiss his cheek, taking the opportunity to snuggle up against him as Dave raised an arm for him to slip under. “You were perfect and they all love you.”

“You sure about that? I mean, I know I didn’t get stabbed, but it’s a little hard to tell how they feel.”

“Trust me, in this house? Not getting stabbed is practically a form of affection.”

“They are quite the bunch, aren’t they?” Dave said.

“I mean, granted I was probably a bigger warning than they’ll ever be, but really if you had any sense this would be the queue for you to make a break for it.”

“Never,” Dave said, kissing his cheek and Klaus couldn’t help but smile. Dave was quiet for a moment before he spoke again. “I know things haven’t always been great with you and your family, but I’m glad you had them around after you got back.”

“Yeah, about that,” Klaus said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly and avoiding eye contact. “It took me a while before I finally opened up about everything that happened. Most of them didn’t even know I was gone.”

“They didn’t?” Dave said, looking heartbroken. Klaus hurried to explain, not wanting to give the wrong impression.

“To be fair, I used to always disappear, it’s really no big deal. And hardly any time had passed for them. Eventually they started noticing I was a bit different, I think. Well, they expected me to give up on being sober, I guess, so after all the end of the world business was taken care of and I was still at it, they finally started asking the right questions.”

“You never were great at opening up,” Dave said, voice fond if a little sad, bumping his nose gently against Klaus’.

“Even I can’t dodge questions forever,” he said. “Well, and Ben was around by then and he wouldn’t let me. Five knew I’d time traveled and Diego knew I’d lost someone and Ben kept yelling at them to just ask me and eventually I cracked. I’m sorry, I wanted to tell them all about you, but it’s hard when no one takes you seriously.”

“I get it, you don’t have anything to apologize for.”

“Do you,” Klaus began and then hesitated because was he really ready for this conversation? But he owed it to Dave especially after everything he was doing for him. “Do you want to find your family?”

Dave laughed involuntarily, sounding almost nervous. He paused for a moment, as if he’d surprised himself with his own reaction and took a deep breath.

“No,” he said eventually. “I don’t think that would be a very good idea.”

“Why not? I mean, I know all this shit is weird, but everyone knows about the Umbrella Academy here, time travel is probably the least weird thing they’ve heard about us.”

“I don’t know,” Dave said, looking away. “It’s been fifty years, man. That’s a long time. They don’t need me dropping in on them now, they have their own lives.”

“I mean, I know it’s not really the same thing, but Five was gone for fifteen years and we were all still glad to see him,” Klaus pointed out.

“Five is great, though,” Dave said.

“So are you,” Klaus countered.

“But what good would it do?” Dave asked, suddenly sounding exhausted. “Either they’re great and I’m just getting in the way of that, dredging up any grief or loss, or they’re terrible and there’s nothing I can really do to help. I think it’s better this way, it’s not like they really lost much.”

“What are you talking about? They lost a whole person,” Klaus exclaimed.

“No, I mean-- fuck, this is gonna sound fucked up but, if I stay out of their lives, at least I can’t disappoint them. I’ve been telling myself that since before I got drafted.”

“Hey, come on,” Klaus said, putting as much emotion behind the words as he could because he hated how Dave was talking about himself. “You’re not gonna disappoint them. You’re amazing.”

Dave gave him a sad smile but instead of arguing he just pulled Klaus closer, wrapping him in his arms. “You’re here. That’s all the family I need right now.”

#klaus hargreeves #klave #dave katz #the umbrella academy #umbrella academy #fixes to the timeline #fanfic #my fic

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