Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"But I don't want to get dressed," Klaus complained. He was ass-naked and sprawled out on his bed. Luckily, no one but Dave was in the tent with him. "I want to stay here all day. With you. We can be naked together." Klaus grinned at him with a wink.

Dave couldn't resist the blush that spread across his face, but he shook his head dismissively. "Come on, Hargreeves. Everyone is already out, and I don't know much longer you'll survive if the sergeant keeps getting mad at you."

"I don't have to worry about that with you protecting me," Klaus looked up at Dave with the most adorable eyes, but he had to once again give him a disappointed face rather than a kiss which he was aching to do.

Dave pulled out the briefcase from under Klaus' bed. "Do I have to dress you myself?"

As Dave started to open the briefcase, Klaus' face suddenly dropped and his eyes widened. "No, Dave, don't-"

But it was too late. Dave was gone with a flash of blue.

Klaus slid onto the floor and clutched at the air where Dave just was as if he could pull him back.

The sergeant aggressively opened the tent doors. "Katz! Hargreeves! What's taking you girls so long?" A pause and then, "where's Katz?"

Klaus just looked up at his superior with tears in his eyes and shook his head.

"Well put on some damn pants and come on out, we'll look for him later," the sergeant yelled with not a shred of empathy.

***

Dave had never felt so disoriented in his life. He'd just been with Klaus and now he was on a bus in seemingly normal society again? Had he had some kind of amnesiac black out?

A few people were giving him funny looks, although the majority of the people on the bus were in their own worlds.

Now that he was reconnecting with his senses, Dave noticed he was holding a briefcase. Klaus' briefcase . Why would he still have this? And then he remembered there had been a noisy flash of blue after he'd opened the briefcase during the transition from there to here. 

Come to think of it, Klaus had mentioned some spooky things about the briefcase. He had joked that he was a time traveller and that briefcase was his "TARDIS" (which was apparently something from a television series that Dave had only ever watched half an episode of). Could it be possible he wasn't joking? If so, what year had Dave travelled to?

No, no. It couldn’t be possible. He had just had a memory blank, but the memories would come back soon. Although he should probably get off this bus and figure out where he was.

At the next stop, Dave left the bus and looked around. He knew he was back in America, but everything still looked so much different. From the cars, to the buildings, to people’s clothing and hair choices. It all looked so futuristic. So once again, Dave was suspicious that he really was holding a time travelling briefcase, and Klaus really was from the future.

Dave spotted a news agency nearby, and walked in so he could check the date. Even inside this shop looked futuristic. And picking up a newspaper, sure enough, the year was 2018. He should be 50 years older, but instead he looked exactly the same; he even still had his army uniform on.

Now onto the next question: was Klaus around somewhere? Dave had no idea what year Klaus had come from, but he was aching to hold him again, so it wouldn’t hurt to look.

So if Klaus was here, where would he be? He’d always enjoyed the clubs in Vietnam, so he could be at one of those, although it was currently too bright for that. Outside of that, he realised he didn’t know Klaus well enough to be able to make a good guess. It hurt a little to think about, but maybe he was wherever they sell drugs? Where do they sell drugs? Maybe Klaus was at home, but Dave had never heard Klaus mention anything about his house, so there wasn’t any way he’d be able to find it.

Maybe he should just give up and try to go back to 1968? The problem with that was that he had no idea how this TARDIS worked. So he just had to accept that he was stuck in the future forever? At least until he found Klaus. Klaus would know what to do.

So Dave decided to explore this new world to get familiar with it, and then when night fell he’d search through the clubs.

***

The clubs had changed a lot too. The music had a much heavier base, it was faster, and overall just something that hurt Dave’s head. The pain in his head was also increased by all the colourful lights, and why did Dave think he’d be able to find Klaus in this crowd? Also, what if Klaus didn’t like these kinds of clubs? What if he only liked the kind they’d had in Vietnam? Regardless, he couldn’t give up hope. He’d surely find Klaus eventually.

He decided his best bet was to ask a few people if they’d seen Klaus. They either hadn’t, they were too high/drunk to respond with any coherency, or they were suspicious of Dave and refused to answer. So Dave had to move onto the next club he’d spotted during the day.

The one highlight of these clubs that Dave noticed was that there had been a number of men kissing men and women kissing women, and if he was being honest, seeing that made his heart light up in a way he’d never felt before. The future was more accepting of people like him.

Dave went to five more clubs with no success, and his hope was rapidly sinking. He’d never see Klaus again, would he?

But then just as he’d given up hope and was about to find somewhere to sleep for the night, he bumped into someone who was heading towards the club he’d just left. Someone he’d recognise anywhere with those pretty green eyes and dark curls, although he looked notably more worn down and scruffy, aside from the carefully applied elaborate makeup. Dave’s heart thumped hard in his chest as all his hope was restored.

“Oops, sorry, cutie,” Klaus slurred, trying to stumble away from Dave again, except Dave couldn’t stop himself from lightly holding onto Klaus so he couldn’t run off.

“Klaus?” Dave said, his eyes and mouth smiling widely.

“That’s me. Do we know each other?” Klaus searched his face.

Dave should have expected it, but it still hurt a little to realise Klaus couldn’t recognise Dave because he’d never met him before. This Klaus hadn’t gone to the Vietnam War yet. This Klaus had no memory of all the precious moments they’d shared in secret.

“Um, no,” and now Dave had no idea how to proceed. “I… heard about you. From a friend. Um, are you sure you’re okay to go in there? You look pretty…” Dave dragged off his sentence and just gestured at Klaus.

Klaus didn’t notice that a word afterwards was implied so he just smiled. “You think I’m pretty? I think you’re pretty.”

“Oh, thank you. I do think you’re pretty. Um, but what I was trying to say was that I don’t think it’d be safe for you to go in there right now.”

“No I’m fine, I’ve been waaay more wasted when I’ve been here, so it’s all good, I’m the safest.”

Maybe it was weird for a stranger to care so much about someone they’d just met, but maybe Klaus was too high to notice anything off if Dave continued to try to help him? It felt a little wrong, like he was taking advantage of Klaus in his inebriated state, but he had to make sure he was safe. That was all he was trying to do.

“Klaus, I’m serious, it’s not a very good idea. Why don’t I take you somewhere safe? And have you eaten?”

“Ooh, you want me to eat you out?” Klaus giggled. “I can, but only if you pay me.”

Dave cringed. He really didn’t know how to do this without acting like a creep.

“That- That’s not what I meant, Klaus. Look… What would you think if I told you I was actually your friend from… your future, sort of. I accidentally time travelled here. But I know you, Klaus, and I just want to make sure you’re okay.” Might as well just say it, Dave would have to get it out of the way at some point anyway.

“Mhmmm,” Klaus shook his head with a giggle. “Look, you’re hot, but you’re kind of weird, so just let me into the fucking club, I haven’t even made it to the bouncer.”

Klaus started to walk away again and Dave started panicking.

“Klaus, no, wait! I will pay you. Just not to, you know… But just to come with me somewhere safe.”

Klaus turned back to Dave and put his hands on his hips. “How much?”

“Um,” Dave dug around in his pockets. “$10?” That could buy him quite a few things, except Klaus gave him a look like that wasn’t much at all, so maybe the price of things had gone up. “$20, then?”

Klaus held his hand out. “Fine.”

When Klaus had received the money he looked at it and scoffed. “The fuck is this? I might just be seeing things but this doesn’t look like any kind of cash I know.”

“Oh. It’s… from 1968. Like I said, I time travelled…”

Klaus stuffed the cash into his pants. “Weird. Well, if you’re still around when I’m done for the night, I might consider going home with you after all.”

And with that, Klaus disappeared into the club.

Dave sat outside and waited, because even if there was a small chance Klaus would actually come with him, he had to wait just in case.

A few hours later, Klaus appeared again, noticeably more high.

Dave called out to him, and Klaus tripped over himself as he approached.

“Wassup?” he greeted, waving his ‘HELLO’ hand around.

“Do you remember me?” Dave asked patiently, reaching out to help keep Klaus upright.

“Um,” Klaus looked at Dave’s face with glazed eyes, and then he smiled. “Yeah.” It was definitely a lie.

“Well you were going to come with me, remember?”

Klaus started to relax more into Dave’s arms. “Sounds good. Shhh, Ben! He smells nice.”

Dave helped Klaus walk to a decent-looking motel he’d spotted nearby, and then went to the reception desk.

“We only accept current American currency,” the bored receptionist said.

Shit, Dave had already forgotten about that. And Klaus was just hanging off Dave, singing something to himself, so he wasn’t going to be any help.

“Hey, technically this is worth more than a modern note of the same amount. It’s authentic,” at least, Dave assumed it would be worth more now.

“Yeah, sure it’s authentic,” the receptionist said sarcastically.

“Come on, my friend here just needs a safe place to stay for the night. Can’t you just accept that cash? I’m sure you can sell it for modern money.”

“There’s a cheaper hotel down the road. Go there. They’ll accept anyone.”

Dave sighed deeply, but he went there anyway. Cheaper meant less safe, but it was better than nothing.

They did in fact let Dave and Klaus in, and once inside the room, Dave laid Klaus down on the single bed that definitely had mould growing on it.

“Mm, not tired,” Klaus mumbled.

“I know, but it’s 4am, so you should try to get some rest anyway.”

Now that everything had settled more, Dave was starting to realise how tired he himself was. It had been one hell of a day, not to mention he never liked staying up so late. He knew that if he had been the one to take the single bed, he would have fallen asleep instantly. He’d probably lie down on the floor to sleep once he knew Klaus was going to stay put. And luckily for him, Klaus had already started to drift off, so Dave decided to as well.

Chapter Text

Dave was glad he woke up when he did, because when he opened his eyes, Klaus was halfway out the door.

“Klaus,” Dave croaked.

Klaus swiftly spun around to face Dave, shocked to realise he was awake already. He winced from the spinning and put a hand to his head, but his face quickly changed to a smile, “morning.”

“Morning, Klaus,” Dave smiled back.

“I was just going out to get some fresh air. It’s really… you know , in here. Don’t know how many toxins I would’ve breathed in last night,” Klaus laughed. He was going to run away and Dave knew it.

“Wait, can I come with you?” Dave asked, quickly standing up. “We can go get breakfast. Ah, but I need to get actual money first.”

“Why don’t you go to an ATM or a pawn shop or something then, and I’ll wait outside here for you?” Klaus casually suggested.

“Or we could do it together?” Dave wished he could do all this in the normal people-who-have-never-met-each-other way, but he didn’t have much choice right now because Klaus was going to disappear and Dave might not have as much luck finding him next time.

“What a wonderful date: going to get money out together,” Klaus said sarcastically.

“It’s… not a date. I just… want to get to know you better without you running off on me.”

“Moi? Run off on you ?” Klaus put a hand to his chest. “I would never .”

“Please, Klaus,” Dave cautiously reached out his hand. “I just… can’t lose you. Please stick around for at least one more day, and if you still don’t like me, you can leave.”

Klaus just snorted. “Look, I know my sex is out of this world, but it doesn’t mean you have to be so fucking clingy. So I’m heading off now.”

“We didn’t have sex,” Dave blinked.

“That might explain why you were on the floor and I was on the single bed, but you’re not fooling anyone; no one gets this attached without it. And I have things to do, so g’bye, creep,” and Klaus was off before Dave could catch him again.

Damnit. How did he fuck that up so badly? Maybe he should’ve just shown him the briefcase which would have proven the time travel, instead of relying on his words. But it was too late now…

Dave sank onto the bed that Klaus had slept in and stared at the roof until he ended up drifting off again against his will. He was tired from the rough sleep he’d had on the floor, plus the late hour he’d gone to sleep and the early hour he’d woken up.

Dave was awoken again by the end of his bed sinking down slightly. Blinking his eyes open, Dave realised there was someone sitting on his bed. They were slumped slightly and their arms were crossed. Dave started panicking until he managed to wake his eyes up enough to realise he was looking at Klaus, who was glaring into oblivion.

Dave sat up. “You came back.”

“It wasn’t exactly my choice,” Klaus muttered, still looking at the wall opposite.

“I wouldn’t force you to do anything-”

“No, I mean Ben made me come back. Little shit is always bossing me around,” Klaus grumbled, and then after a pause, “I do so always listen to you, why else would I be here? No, don’t even start!”

Dave decided it was best not to question Klaus. “So, do you want to get breakfast together after all?”

Klaus finally turned to Dave. “Sure, except it’s more like brunch now. Maybe you can explain this whole ‘time travel’ thing to me.”

“Oh, you remember me telling you that?”

“Nope,” Klaus got up and grabbed Dave’s arm. “C’mon, I’m starving.”

Dave smiled and his face warmed up, but he tried to hide it as he stood up and left the motel with Klaus.

First, he went and exchanged his remaining cash for modern cash. Apparently Klaus had already done that with his share, and already spent the money he’d made with it.

Dave took Klaus to the cheapest nearby café he could find. Looking at even these cheaper prices, he suddenly realised he needed a job. The money he had was probably only going to last a couple of days, and Klaus didn’t have any money nor did he have a job. Too bad he was never going to receive his Veteran’s income. Well, he’d probably still go back once he figured out the briefcase, but for now he needed a job. Anyway, that was a problem for later. Number one task: getting Klaus to stick around.

“Can I order the waffles?” Klaus looked up at him with puppy eyes.

Dave laughed fondly. “Of course you can.”

When the waffles arrived, Klaus’ excitement was one of the cutest things Dave had ever seen. Dave tried to bury his blush in his arm with a fake cough.

Klaus immediately dug in as Dave still waited for his food, and he was halfway done already when Dave received his.

“You still want to know about the time travel?” Dave asked.

“Obviously. But first, what’s your name?” 

“Oh,” Dave hadn’t even realised that he hadn’t told Klaus his name yet. “We’re getting serious enough now that we’re exchanging names?” he joked.

“You already somehow know my name so it’s only fair. Plus, you bought me waffles . I think I need to know the name of my sugar daddy.”

Dave choked on his food a little and had to take a moment to recover. “Um, my name’s Dave.”

“Cute. So onto the time travel tea.”

“Well, I know you because we fought in the Vietnam War together. This is going to sound crazy, I’m sure, but you suddenly turned up one day, and you sort of claimed you were a time traveller from the future. And I guess you were telling the truth, because seven months later I opened up your briefcase, and, well… I ended up here. Yesterday, but 50 years in the future for me.”

“I’ve heard crazier, just didn’t know briefcases were magic. So this other Klaus is future me and you’re from the past?”

“Yeah,” Dave was relieved he’d just accepted it so quickly. “But you don’t know how the briefcase works?” That would mean he wouldn’t be able to explain to Dave how to use it.

“Like I said, never heard of magic briefcases. So I’m going to need some proof that you’re not just making this shit up.”

“Uh, I do have the briefcase back at the motel, but I don’t think it’d be safe to open it.”

“Then tell me about myself.”

“You have six adoptive siblings, your dad was abusive but he’s dead now, and-”

“Wrong. My dad’s not dead.”

“Oh. I guess that’s going to happen.”

“Fuck yeah! But that’s not good enough. For all I know, you’re just some Umbrella Academy fan. That would explain a lot.”

“I’m not, I swear. You like to draw sometimes but you never show anyone. The only ones people have seen I’m assuming are the ones you said are on your walls and roof in your childhood home, and the ones you showed me. You’re good at it, good at making meaningful pieces. And you’ve been through so much , ever since you were born, and you’ve never gotten a break. That’s part of the reason you do drugs, but that’s also just traumatised you a lot more… But I promised I’d always be there to help you get through the day. So that’s why I’m here. So I can help you.”

Klaus was staring at his waffles. “I still don’t believe you,” he mumbled.

Dave’s heart clenched as his hope started falling apart again. “I can tell you more?” he suggested desperately.

“No. I get it. You know everything about me,” Klaus lowered his gaze to his legs. “But I don’t believe I could get that close to a person, or that they’d actually care about me. That doesn’t happen to me.”

“I know that, Klaus. You told me I’m the only person you’ve ever actually loved. You told me about some of your past relationships. I promised I’d be better than them and teach you how relationships are actually supposed to work. Of course, I was still new to being with someone I actually loved too because I’d only just realised I was gay, and everything we did had to be in secret. But when we both said we loved each other, and we meant it, I think that was the best moment of my life.”

Klaus abruptly stood up. “Go find some other junkie to use your stupid manipulation tactics on.”

Klaus left the café, leaving his half-eaten waffles and Dave’s heart on the table.

Dave buried his head in his hands that slowly started to dampen. He didn’t know how it was possible for him to just keep fucking up like this. Dave knew Klaus had believed him deep down, but it had been too much for him. He should know Klaus better than this, he should have known he’d freak him out with all that. He should have been more gentle. Instead, he was such an idiot he’d scared him away again, probably permanently this time.

Ten minutes later, Dave was still in the same position, and he would have stayed like that if it weren’t for the concerned waitress breaking him out of his trance. He quickly paid and left for the motel, where he tried to fall asleep again because he was even more exhausted now. But his body simply wouldn’t let him rest, it just made him repeat the conversation in his head over and over, making Klaus look more freightened each time.

Chapter Text

Eventually, Dave decided to just get up and explore the city. He figured it would be beneficial to look for a job, and it would help to distract him from his thoughts.

He dropped into a few shops and asked if they were looking for staff (they weren't) but then he stopped in his tracks when he came across a Veteran's bar. His curiosity was immediately piqued. What if he knew someone in there?

When he walked in, he realised he was the youngest person there. Everyone else was about the age he would be if he hadn't time travelled, though some slightly younger and some older. There was an old man downing a line of shots at the bar, old men playing pool, and old men sitting together with drinks.

Dave wasn't sure if he recognised anyone. If he'd known them, they'd changed a lot.

The first thing he did was approach the photo wall that had a badge with the logo of his brigade. He looked at the photo that had him on it. And Klaus. The Klaus that knew who he was.

He brushed his hand over the photo tenderly. For a moment he thought about taking the photo with him until he realised that would be unfair to the rest of his squad and the people that knew them. He briefly wondered how many people in the photo had died. He already knew one of them had whilst he was still there. But he quickly pushed the thought away as too many emotions and memories started to surface.

He turned back around again and headed for the bar, deciding he might as well have a drink. It had been a hectic couple of days, and he hadn't processed much of it yet, if at all.

He realised there was no one currently tending the bar, so he called for someone, only to finally get noticed by the other veterans, who didn't seem too happy to see him.

"What are you doing here? This is a bar for Vets only ," one of them growled at him.

Everyone turned to look at him now.

"I am-" Dave began, but he was cut off by the other guy who had been standing at the bar.

"Dave?" the guy said.

Dave looked up at him, surprised there was someone that recognised him which meant he must have been someone from his squad.

And then it hit him. Why hadn't he noticed earlier?

"Klaus?" Dave replied.

Tears welled up in Klaus' eyes and he pulled Dave into a tight hug. The other Veterans backed off.

The hug wasn’t long enough for either of them, but especially, Dave assumed, for Klaus, who hadn’t seen Dave for half a century. So Dave let Klaus decide when to end the hug.

When they finally parted, still holding hands, Dave said, “I’m so glad you’re still alive.”

“I can’t seem to die,” Klaus replied. Dave pushed down the way those words hurt, because it sounded like Klaus wished to be dead. “I’m so glad I found you again.”

“I’m so sorry. I’m never going to leave you again, okay?”

“You’d better not,” Klaus smiled, his eyes and cheeks shining with tears.

It was nice to have the Klaus that knew him back, even if it was strange that he looked so different when Dave had only seen him a day ago. Now that he was older, he had wrinkles, long white hair, and even had a clean shave. Although, Dave still thought he looked as handsome as ever. He’d aged well, and Dave wouldn’t ever admit that surprised him but it certainly did. Then again, Klaus had always been very concerned with leaving a pretty corpse, so it would make sense that he’d put in effort to still look this good.

“So this is where you ended up when you disappeared, huh?” Klaus moved on. “How long has it been?”

“It happened yesterday,” Dave explained.

“Wow,” Klaus said under his breath. “Where did you stay for the night?”

“Some sketchy motel. I need to get a job soon though because I won’t be able to afford even that soon.”

“Don’t worry about that, you can stay with me. I actually have my own house. Benefits of having fought in the war and the hella cheap prices that come with being in the past.”

“I’m happy for you.”

“So why don’t we get you that drink you wanted,” Klaus leaned over the counter and grabbed a glass and a bottle, “and then afterwards we can head to my place.”

“Sounds good,” Dave smiled as Klaus poured him a drink.

They talked for a little while, and then they got an “Uber” to Klaus’ house.

Klaus gave Dave a tour. The house was very Klaus. Colourful, eccentric, and also very homely. Dave could have lived here with Klaus, with just a touch of his own aesthetic added in, and he would have loved it. They could have grown old together here.

“I can get out a mattress for you if you’d like,” Klaus said, heading to a cupboard.

“Yeah, thank you.”

“And you can have this little guy to keep you company,” Klaus gave Dave a worn frog plushie.

Dave looked at the frog with fondness and held it to his chest.

Once it was set up, Klaus and Dave sat on the mattress together.

Klaus brushed his hand over Dave’s. “I missed you.”

Dave grabbed Klaus’ hand. “I know. But I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”

“But you need to, Dave.”

That caught Dave off-guard. He gaped up at Klaus. “What are you talking about?”

“You need to go back to 1968, back to younger me. It’ll be better for both of us. Besides, I’m way too old for you now. It’s too weird now, otherwise if we were the same age we’d be sharing a bed and fucking all night.”

“Oh, darling,” Dave held Klaus’ face in his hands. “I’ll always love you, no matter what you look like or how old we get.”

“But we should grow this old together . Please go back, Dave,” Klaus took Dave’s hand off his cheek and just held it instead. “It’ll hurt to see you go, but that won’t matter when you rewrite time and make everything good. So please?”

“The briefcase is at my motel.”

“We’ll go there tomorrow.”

Dave paused for a moment before nodding. It made sense. He also wanted to go back. Back to some sense of normalcy and back to his Klaus.

They spent the rest of the afternoon together, trying to keep it light-hearted and not as if they would have to say goodbye soon or that they’d been estranged for so long. 

Klaus cooked dinner for them, which was something he could do now, he proudly told Dave. And the food was great, just apparently not as good as Klaus’ mother’s cooking.

Then the next day, they headed to the motel together, Dave still carrying the frog plushie.

As they approached the motel room, Klaus scratched his arm. “God, I’m thirsty. Probably had a few too many, I really need to pee it all out. I’m busting.”

“You can go when we’re inside,” Dave said.

They walked in, and Klaus farted. “I think I need to shit too.”

“Bathroom’s there,” Dave pointed as he went looking for the briefcase.

Klaus opened the bathroom door and then he yelled, “holy fuck!”

Dave dropped the frog and quickly ran over to see what the commotion was about.

There was Klaus–the younger Klaus–lying next to a needle and syringe on the bathroom floor, barely breathing.

“Shit. We need to call an ambulance,” Dave said as he leaned down to check younger Klaus’ pulse.

Older Klaus clung to the bathroom doorframe like it was a lifeline. “No. This can’t be real. That’s not me.”

“Klaus, I think there’s a phone in the room, can you please call an ambulance?” Dave said sternly, hoping the tone would snap older Klaus out of his panic attack.

He just shook his head. “You can’t trust the ambulances. All the doctors I’ve ever seen have tried to kill me, Dave! They’re going to kill this guy too!”

Dave got up and ran to the phone himself. He was about to just dial in “0” until he remembered they’d introduced an actual number for all emergencies earlier in the year, or earlier in 1968. So after a moment of trying to remember it, he dialled in “911” instead.

“911, what’s your emergency?” the operator answered.

“Dave, don’t! They’ll hurt you! I don’t want to lose you again!” Klaus shouted, still holding onto the doorframe and sweating profusely.

Dave answered the operator before calmly saying to Klaus, “he’s going to die if we don’t do something, Klaus. And that will mean you’ll die too.” At least, probably.

“I don’t care if he dies! It’ll be good if he dies and I die! I just don’t want you to. Please, hang up.”

Dave tried to focus on the operator but it was getting so much harder. He thought he was good under stress, especially after all that army training, but everything just felt like it was falling apart and crashing onto him all at once.

Time travel and losing everything he’d ever known, younger Klaus not knowing who he was, younger Klaus running from him after he’d hurt him, another older Klaus existing, Klaus dying on his bathroom floor, Klaus wanting to be dead . And now Klaus was yelling at him and he couldn’t handle it and the operator kept repeating her question and it was like an earworm and he was going insane, and everything was so fucking loud, and Klaus was dying in his bathroom right now .

Dave fell to the floor as everything fell away and he was just observing himself crying, the only sound being the ringing in his ears that never went away. He was calm now. Klaus was still yelling but Dave couldn’t hear it and it didn’t matter anymore. All that mattered was this peace.

Chapter Text

Klaus woke up in a hospital bed, and Dave cried with happiness when he saw his eyes open.

"Oh you're alive, you’re alive. Thank goodness, you’re alive," Dave gave Klaus a soft hug. "You scared me so much."

"Why did you come here?" Klaus asked, his voice croaky.

"You were dying in the motel bathroom I paid for, what did you expect? I care about you," Dave let go of Klaus. He'd try harder to not scare off Klaus again, but he still wasn't entirely sure how to go about it.

"You weren't there," Klaus said, briefly closing his eyes again.

"I wasn't where?"

"The motel."

"Oh, yeah, I stayed at someone's house last night." Now would not be a good time to bring up the other Klaus, who had opted to stay back.

A nurse walked in, and she looked a little surprised, "Oh you're awake already, that's great, I'll get a doctor. And Mr Katz, you have a phone call."

Dave smiled comfortingly at Klaus before following the nurse to the phone.

It was Klaus on the other side of the line. The older Klaus.

"Hey, Dave, I just want to say I'm really sorry about my freak out earlier. I have no idea what came over me," Klaus said as soon as Dave answered.

"It's fine, it's understandable. You'd just seen your younger self dying; if I was panicking, I'm sure you would have had it a lot worse. It's not something you see everyday."

"Yeah, you're right. How is he? Or me?"

"He's just woken up. I'm sure he'll be perfectly fine soon."

"Yeah, like I said, I'm very hard to kill," his tone was joking, but Dave still felt uncomfortable about what it implied.

"I think that's a good thing. It meant you got to live long enough to find me again, and long enough to have so many other opportunities in life that, well you know, a lot of our friends didn't get." Dave stopped talking as his throat started hurting, like it was closing up.

"Yeah… Oh my god, you've just come out of all that, haven't you? Oh it took me forever to recover. If you need anything, I'm here, okay?"

"Thank you," Dave replied, his voice strangled. He cleared his throat and cleared his mind again.

"Oh, by the way, Ben told me what happened to the other Klaus."

"Ben? Who's Ben? The other Klaus kept bringing him up too."

"He's my–our?--dead brother."

"Wait. What? Then how did he tell you something?"

"Did I never explain? I can see ghosts, Dave."

Dave's heart started beating faster with all these revelations.

" What ?" 

"Yeah, but I hated them and drugs block them out. Ben seemed to always stick around for some reason, until he left for the afterlife."

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner??" Dave held onto the phone tighter, and he was almost scared he'd break it in his grip.

"Clearly, I thought I already did."

Dave tried to control his breathing but it was getting difficult again. He was already dealing with too much at the moment.

Klaus noticed. "Hey, it's okay, I can explain more later, okay? But I promise it's not a big deal. Anyway, apparently Ben told Klaus to go back to you, and when he arrived you weren't there, and then he… decided to use your bathroom."

"Shit. Shit, so this was my fault?" Dave clutched at his heart, sinking further to the ground.

"No, it's not. I promise. I used to do this kind of shit all the time, you being there wouldn't have stopped it."

"That doesn't make it any better! You used to overdose all the time?!"

"Yeah… I'm sorry, Dave. I wish I could give you a hug right now. But he's fine, isn't he? So you don't have to worry. Everything will work itself out and you can be there to help pick Klaus back up, yeah? I know you can do that, because you're such a fucking amazing person and so fucking strong, and maybe he'll do better now that he has you."

"Okay. Yeah. Okay." But Dave still didn't think he could stand up without getting dizzy.

"Just breathe with me."

Dave followed Klaus' breathing, and soon he'd calmed down, and he managed to stand.

And then someone with a large scar on his head and dark hair approached the front desk.

"Which room is Klaus Hargreeves in? I was called; I'm his brother," the man said to the receptionist.

"Hey, one of your brothers just arrived," Dave told the Klaus on the phone.

"The Batman wannabe?" Klaus replied.

"I think so?"

"Yeah, that's Diego. He was down as my emergency contact for years."

"Do you think I should hang up and talk to him?" 

"Go ahead, but good luck explaining your relationship with me–with Klaus. He probably won't trust you."

Dave waited a couple of minutes to give Diego time with his brother, before making his way to the room, but just as he was about to open the door, Diego did instead, a scowl on his face. And looking inside, Dave realised the room was empty.

"Where'd Klaus go?" Dave asked, of course the worst possible scenarios making their way into his mind first.

Diego directed his scowl to Dave now. "Why do you care?"

"I'm his friend Dave. He overdosed in my motel room so I rode to the hospital with him."

Diego gave him a long staredown–which Dave didn't quiver under–before finally answering, "He ran away as usual, the idiot."

"Shit, where would he have run to?"

"A number of places. I don't think I can be bothered tracking him down this time. He can deal with the consequences on his own."

"Well, could you at least tell me some of those places he might be so I can find him?"

"No. I don't know who you are and I don't know what kind of 'friend' you are."

"I promise I only want what's best for Klaus."

"Then track him down by yourself," and with that, Diego turned away and left.

Dave sighed deeply. Why couldn't Klaus just stay in the one spot for once? Why did he keep running away from Dave? Why did he have to keep putting himself at risk? Why couldn't Dave just go back to 1968, back to the young Klaus who knew him?

So instead of tracking the younger Klaus down, Dave decided to go back to the older Klaus and get him to finally explain how to use the briefcase.

Chapter Text

“I don’t exactly know how to use this, but I did fiddle with it a bit in the war, and I just hope I remember,” Klaus explained. They were in his lounge room with the briefcase. “I’d set it up to go back home months before you used it, except apparently it was slightly off because this isn’t 2019, obviously.”

Dave creased his brow, confused. “If you’d already set it to go back home, why didn’t you?”

Klaus looked at him like he was an idiot. “There was nothing for me in 2019, but with you, I had everything I’d ever needed.”

Dave melted and he hugged the old man. “I’m gonna miss you.”

“No, you won’t. You’ll have the real me back, and I won’t exist anymore.”

Dave pulled out of the hug to look Klaus in the eyes. “Don’t say that. You’ll still exist, just as someone slightly different. But whatever form you’re in, you’re perfect, and you exist.” Dave gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Klaus just turned back to the briefcase. “Alright, it should take you back to immediately after you disappeared. At least, I’m hoping; like I said, it was slightly off last time, and I might have forgotten some things, but it should be pretty close.”

“Thank you so much,” Dave reached for the briefcase, paused and gave Klaus a tiny kiss on the lips, and then opened the briefcase. With a flash of blue, he was gone again.

Dave took a moment to orient himself again, looking around. He was back in an army tent, although it appeared to be somewhere different from where Dave had last been in Vietnam.

And then he spotted Klaus, who spotted him at the same time. His heart swelled with relief. There was his Klaus.

Klaus dropped his green wool knitting and ran over to Dave in a clumsy mess.

“Dave! Dave, are you dead? Please don’t be dead ,” Klaus grabbed Dave’s wrist and checked his pulse before he started sobbing and clutching onto Dave. “You’re alive. Thank fucking God. Don’t ever do that again.”

“I’m so sorry. How long has it been for you?” 

“ Months , Dave. It’s 1969 now. And I haven’t been coping at all , I wasn’t built for war. Nixon said some of us will be withdrawn soon, but we could run away together anyway. Would you like that, Dave?”

Dave continued holding onto Klaus, regret about ever touching that suitcase marching its way through his body. His poor Klaus had been struggling without him, and it had been a lot longer for Klaus than it had for Dave. But there was nothing he could do about that now. All he had was the present, the real present, and he’d go anywhere and do anything to be with Klaus.

“But where would we go in Vietnam?” Dave asked. It would be hard to just run away, being in a foreign country that was an active war zone and all.

Klaus just gestured to the briefcase and Dave’s stomach churned. Maybe there was one thing he wouldn’t do, or at least he wasn’t favourable towards it.

“Can we not, please? We barely know how to use it, and I don’t want something bad to happen again. Besides, I prefer being in a time where I understand the culture.”

“But it doesn’t matter where or when we are as long as we’re not in the middle of a war and we’re together. And we’ll adapt to the culture soon enough, like I adapted here.”

Dave had never trusted anyone more than he trusted Klaus. Especially this Klaus–his Klaus–who was his age and wouldn’t run away from him at any given moment. This Klaus he would run away with , because he trusted him, trusted that he’d be there to help Dave adjust like how Dave would be there for him.

Dave held Klaus closer for a moment, inhaling his scent and feeling himself relax further.

“Yeah, okay. Let’s do it,” Dave said with a small smile.

“Great! I’ll get my things,” Klaus bounced back over to his bed. 

“Oh, right now?” Dave asked, trailing behind.

“Yeah, before the guys notice you’re back and make a whole thing out of it.”

Klaus picked up the green thing he had been knitting and a few other things.

“I didn’t know you could knit,” Dave commented, sitting down on the bed next to 

Klaus’.

“Once upon a time, way back when, I decided I might try getting sober–which lasted like 4 weeks–and I picked up knitting to help distract me from cravings and shit. Let me tell you, it did not work, because knitting is very mindless once you know what you're doing, so I still kept thinking about other stuff. All it really did was help with anxiety a little. But I wanted to make a frog now because I missed ya,” Klaus proudly displayed what Dave now realised was a half-finished frog.

“The older you I met in the future gave me a frog, it might have been the same one.”

“Well you’re not getting this one, she’s mine. His name is Dave.”

“She and his?” Dave asked, amused.

“They use all pronouns. Or, it will when I’m finished making it.”

“Right…”

“Anyway,” Klaus picked up the briefcase and messed with the controls before holding it out to Dave. “Are you ready for the rest of our lives?”

Dave breathed in and out slowly, eyes fixed on Klaus’ determined, enthusiastic ones. 

This country could survive without Dave. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with Klaus. Here was his opportunity to do so, and keep those precious eyes and comforting scent and everything else wonderful about Klaus with him forever.

He held onto the briefcase and Klaus opened it.

They landed on the side of a road, and Klaus was up first to check where they had ended up.

“Oh, shit ,” Klaus muttered. “Maybe getting the briefcase to take us somewhere random wasn’t the best idea…”

Dave slowly got up, holding his head because that was way too much time travel for such a small amount of time, and he almost felt how he’d imagined someone with a bullet wound in the head would feel.

And then he spotted the swastikas hanging around and he could have sworn his heart stopped.

‘Oh, shit’ indeed.

“Why the fuck did you think sending us to a random time would be a good idea?!” Dave never really got mad at Klaus no matter how stupid he could be sometimes, but he’d still managed to send them to Nazi Germany of all places, so who else was he supposed to get mad at?

“I was in a rush!” Klaus snapped back.

“Klaus, I’m a homosexual and I’m fucking Jewish ! What the fuck am I supposed to do?!” 

Dave felt like his lungs had stopped working and he was going to die then and there. Part of him was rethinking trusting Klaus, but the other part of him was doing its best to remind him that this wasn’t really Klaus’ fault. And he knew how impulsive Klaus could be, it came with the package deal. So he shouldn’t be upset with him. But then the majority of him was just screaming that if he didn't die right now from a lack of oxygen, he’d be sent to be worked to death or gassed to death or a number of other things he really didn’t want to think about.

Klaus reached out his hand, and for a moment, Dave relaxed, thinking that was going to be a hand of comfort, but instead Klaus just covered Dave’s mouth and ran them over to hide in an alleyway. 

Dave was going to yell at Klaus again before he saw someone in a brown uniform walk past the alleyway.

And then Dave got his comforting touch from Klaus, bringing him into a hug.

“I’m so sorry,” Klaus said, voice strangled like he was trying not to cry. “I’m such a fucking idiot. But it’s okay. We’re going to leave right now. I’ll figure out the briefcase properly.”

Dave nodded, and found his lungs again. He could still trust Klaus, he still loved Klaus; how could he ever stop? And there was no need to panic because they’d leave just as quickly as they had come.

Dave let go of Klaus so he could handle the briefcase. The briefcase… The briefcase that wasn’t there. The briefcase they hadn’t left sitting out there, right?

Klaus looked out the alleyway, and then looked back at Dave with a guilty, scared look on his face.

“I’m so sorry…”

Chapter Text

Klaus and Dave were making no progress with finding the briefcase because they were much more focused on survival for the moment. They'd stolen some clothes off a washing line so they weren't walking around wearing an American army uniform and modern casual clothes, and now they were just scoping the land.

Originally Dave thought he was going to die from hyperventilation when they first arrived, but Klaus had soon snapped him out of it, and Dave went into his army brain. Klaus was in his homelessness survival brain, although his experiences and the conditions here were very different. Nevertheless, the two of them made it work. No one had even questioned their presence yet.

Besides having to survive and make sure they weren't caught, it was difficult just being in this space. All the Nazi flags, all the anti-Semitic propaganda, and worst of all, the knowledge that not too far away, there were thousands of Jews and other people being tortured worse than Dave could ever imagine. He would be vomiting every time he remembered that if it weren't for his ability to switch off his emotions.

Klaus was doing the same, but it didn't last forever. 

Klaus was ordering food from a street vendor with money he'd pickpocketed. Dave had no idea what they were talking about because he only knew a few German words, but it seemed like a normal conversation. Except Klaus suddenly stumbled backwards like he'd seen a ghost. Oh, maybe he had.

"Sheiße!" Klaus grabbed the food and then Dave's wrist. "Diederik, kommst du."

Dave didn’t know what Klaus was on about, but he was being dragged away, so he figured it had something to do with leaving.

When they were away from people, Dave asked, "is everything okay?"

Klaus shook his head, and Dave realised there were tears in his eyes. "Nein, everything is not okay. There- there's so many ghosts. Fuck, Dave. I need drugs, where do they sell drugs?" Klaus clung to Dave's arm for dear life.

"I don't know, but you'll be okay, okay? I'm here for you," how were you supposed to comfort someone who was currently seeing horrible corpses? Dave would try his best, but he wished he could have the power to help Klaus in some way that really mattered.

"Um, okay, it'll- It'll be fine, sure , I just…" Klaus scratched his arms. "We need to… Dave, help, what the fuck are we doing here?"

"We're gonna get out soon," Dave was about to hug Klaus when suddenly there was a gunshot and- and Klaus fell to the ground? And he was bleeding out from- from his head?

What the fuck what the fuck whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhathefuck.

Dave bent down and checked Klaus' pulse. Extremely slow at first but then nothing . 

Dave gaped at the dead body in front of him, but he didn't cry. In fact, he didn't even feel like crying. He only had numbness inside.

This wasn't real. This was a dream. Klaus wasn't dead. They weren't in fucking Nazi Germany . Dave never time travelled. He was just having a normal nightmare, back in Vietnam, with Klaus in the bed next to his. He just needed to wake up.

Wake up.

But he wasn't waking up. Dave wasn't waking up and Klaus wasn't waking up.

Klaus was really dead? 

Dave looked around for the cold-blooded murderer, and his eyes landed on someone wearing some kind of giant colourful animal mask. No one would wear that in Nazi Germany, was this a dream?

Dave didn't stop to ponder, he ran after the thing immediately, and tackled them to the ground. They had a gun. They must have murdered Klaus. Dave's gun now. He shot the thing dead without a second thought.

People in black uniforms started coming for Dave, but he pointed his gun right back at them. Yes, Dave was outnumbered, but some fucking monster had just murdered the love of his life, so he was more than fuelled enough to take on whatever these Nazi scumbags wanted to throw at him.

But then suddenly Klaus was pulling Dave away. Klaus? But he was dead? 

Klaus had a briefcase now. He opened it while pulling Dave away, and within a flash of blue, they were suddenly in a busy city in what appeared to be Klaus’ modern era.

What.

Dave's brain couldn't compute.

Klaus was holding him but Klaus was dead; this guy wasn't real.

Dave ripped away from fake Klaus' grip and fell to the ground. The concrete was cold underneath his palms. He spread his body out on it. He let the coolness take him away and he let his mind go blank.

He wasn't sure if he fell asleep or passed out, but at some point he became aware of the smell of vomit, and when he opened his eyes, it was well into the night.

Dave sat up and looked at Klaus who was hugging his legs and rocking himself back and forth.

"G'morning. M'sorry I threw up," Klaus said into his knees.

Maybe everything had been a dream after all. But then, where were they?

"What… What happened? Where are we?" Dave asked.

"I dunno, and we're back at my home. It's s'posed to be 2019." 

Klaus twisted his body away from Dave and threw up again.

"Hey, are you okay, darling? What's happening?" Dave rubbed Klaus' back.

"It's just withdrawal. And I died? I didn't wanna leave you though."

So Klaus really had died, huh?

Dave still couldn't compute, but now wasn't the time to try to figure it out. They were out on the streets in the middle of the night, and his baby was vomiting, they needed to find somewhere safer. Army brain.

Dave helped Klaus up, and then they walked the streets looking for somewhere to stay for the night. At some point, Klaus pulled away from Dave to stand outside the door of a liquor store. 

“That’s closed,” Dave said.

“I don’t care, I’m not dying on you again just from alcohol withdrawal,” Klaus broke through the glass, and Dave opted to just stare across the street so he could feel like he had nothing to do with what was happening.

A few minutes later, Klaus returned with multiple bottles of alcohol. “Okay. I’m sorry. Let’s go.”

Klaus held Dave’s hand and they made a run for it.

Eventually they came across the same motel Dave had stayed in the last time he was here. He got a room which just so happened to be the same room he had stayed in too…

When they were inside and Dave saw the bathroom, his army brain crumbled. 

He swore he could still see Klaus’ limp body on the floor. Turning to his Klaus, he could see in the light now that there was dried blood where the bullet wound was. Klaus was dead. How was he not dead? 

Dave started hyperventilating again, and dead Klaus tried to steady him, but he could barely see him. He could just see Klaus dead in the bathroom, and Klaus dead in Germany, and old Klaus wanted to die but he couldn’t? Too many fucking dead Klauses . Dave didn’t know how he could keep existing when the man he loved kept slipping away from him.

Then the next thing he knew, his head was against a beating heart, and his hair was being stroked. His eyes were wet and they stung, but he followed the breathing of the chest he was against, and he started to feel calmer.

He started to hear Klaus’ voice, because Klaus was talking comfortingly to him, and he was against Klaus’ chest, and Klaus’ heart was beating.

Chapter Text

"See? Everything's good," Klaus was saying. He was slurring his words; he was drunk.

Dave finally decided to sit up properly. He took a deep breath, wiped his eyes, and held Klaus' hand.

Klaus kissed him. "I missed you so fucking much. And now that we're safe, do you wanna, you know…" Klaus put his free hand up Dave's shirt, but Dave immediately removed the hand.

"I'd really rather not; I just saw you die. Are you going to explain that?" Dave replied lightly.

Klaus groaned. "I don't know how it happened either!" He grabbed one of his bottles of alcohol and started chugging it.

"Could you at least tell me what happened from your perspective? Where did the briefcase come from?"

Klaus sighed. "I got shot, which is really fucking painful by the way, I don't recommend it. And then there was this really annoying girl that I swear I've seen in dreams before. Then I was like 'I need to go back to my boyfriend' and she was like 'brilliant, I hate you anyway, shoo' and then I was alive and you thought you could take on all those Nazis, and I love you Dave, and I think you're amazing, but please look out for your own safety. So of course I had to tackle you away, and the guy I think you killed was like those guys who tortured me just before I met you, so I got the briefcase off them, and here we are."

It was a bit hard to understand what Klaus was saying because he kept slurring his words together, but Dave thought he got most of it.

It just left him more concerned. Klaus had been tortured? Who was that girl and why did he hate Dave's boyfriend? Dave's boyfriend ? He'd never used that word before, but Klaus just had, so it must be okay. It felt nice to call him that. 

Dave blinked in response. "Right…"

"Yeah, super fun times," Klaus started chugging the alcohol again.

"Could I have some of that?"

Klaus protectively held the bottle against his chest. "Mine. You can have…" Klaus got out another bottle. "Aw man, this is my last one." He gave it to Dave.

"Well I'm not going to drink all of it, but how much have you drunk?"

"Not enough." He just kept drinking the bottle he was on.

"Uh, darling, you know you can die from too much alcohol too, right?" 

"Can I? Not when I'm clearly immortal," Klaus giggled.

"We don't know that, maybe it was a fluke?"

"Baby, I'm gonna explode if I get even slightly sober right now, just leave me alone."

"Sorry, love, I'm just concerned. That's a lot of alcohol even for you. Do you want to talk about what's going on instead?"

Klaus paused for a moment but he eventually said, "I got nothing to say."

"Okay, but please don't have any more after that."

Klaus rolled his eyes in response, but he made some noise of acknowledgement.

Dave rested his head on Klaus' shoulder and Klaus rested his head on top of Dave's. 

Dave let out a long sigh before drinking his own alcohol. He'd rather have poured it into a glass first, but there wasn't anything like that in their room.

The two fell asleep cuddled together, and when they woke up, they both had hangovers.

Klaus was the first to sit up. He rubbed circles on his temples. "Mm, I wanna kill myself." He reached down to get the bottle Dave had been drinking out of.

"Can we not make jokes like that right now?" Dave asked in a croaky voice.

Klaus dropped the bottle onto the bed and immediately spun around to face Dave. "Oh shit, Dave ! You're here! Wait, what happened? Where are we?"

"A lot… A lot happened," Dave replied, trying his hardest not to look at his memories.

"Oh… Yeah. Shit," he started drinking the alcohol, but at least not with as much intensity as he had last night.

Dave could feel he was about to regurgitate his guts, so he rolled out of bed and made his way to the bathroom as quickly as he could without his head spinning too much.

He threw up in the toilet. Ew, gross, also, vomiting was really painful. He couldn't imagine how Klaus could deal with this almost every day of his life.

"Yooo, you're hungover too?" Klaus called from the bedroom with a laugh. "Hangover buddies!"

Dave threw up again in response. He cupped his hands to drink some water from the tap, and then just sat on the floor to let out a groan.

Klaus stuck his head into the bathroom. "Do you wanna get food and some coffee maybe? It's 2019, yeah? I know all the good places."

"That sounds lovely, but I don't really feel like walking anywhere."

Klaus thought about it. "Okay, I guess I'll just get something for you." He started to dig in his pockets and then he widened his eyes as he properly looked at his own outfit and then Dave's; the clothes they'd stolen from Germany. "Uh, I'll get new clothes first. And you won't be mad if I steal stuff, right? I kind of don't have any money. Oh, maybe I could pawn these clothes."

"I'm too tired to think about morality…"

Klaus gave Dave a kiss and then left him to continue dying in the bathroom. 

Now that he was alone, Dave's mind kept forcing him to think back to the events of yesterday. Then when he remembered which bathroom he was in, it just made everything worse. He squeezed his eyes shut tight but that just made the images clearer. He kept his eyes open but the images kept creeping over to him from the corners of his vision.

Once he figured he wouldn't be vomiting anymore, he crawled into the bed and cocooned himself. It still wasn't helping.

He realised there was a TV, so he went over to it and used the buttons on the side to turn it on.

He went back to his cocoon and just stared at the television, very fascinated.

He didn't care whether the show he was watching was good or not, it was just so interesting to use a TV from 2019. It was in colour in a cheap little motel like this, and the image was so clear Dave felt like he could reach into the TV. And all of that in a wide, flat thing. Incredible.

Most importantly, it managed to whisk away all thoughts about yesterday.

Klaus returned an hour after he left with pinprick pupils, a coffee and a paper bag with a bacon and egg muffin in it, and he was wearing a skirt and crop top. Dave had never seen his Klaus in something like that, and he had to admit he found it extremely attractive.

"Oh, thank you so much," Dave said when Klaus passed the food and coffee over.

"Mhm," Klaus replied, joining Dave on the bed to snuggle.

Klaus soon fell asleep, so Dave gave him a kiss on the head and then went back to his show.

But eventually, the awe of modern television wore off, and all that was left was a mind-numbingly boring show. His thoughts started to go back to death.

Dave gently put Klaus down properly on the bed, and then went over to the TV to change the channel.

"--Reported the death of the world's most eccentric and reclusive billionaire," the television was saying.

Dave looked at the screen and saw the headline 'Sir Reginald Hargreeves is dead'. ‘Hargreeves’? Wasn't that Klaus' father?

Dave went back to the bed and nudged Klaus awake.

"Mm?" he mumbled.

"Is that your dad?" Dave pointed at the TV until Klaus sat up and squinted at it.

"Oh, yay, time travel worked," Klaus flopped back down. "We should go to the um, Academy…" he started dozing off again already.

The thoughts were back, but this time Dave tried to make them go away by watching Klaus breathe so he could be reminded that he was very much still alive. 

But the fact that he was alive at all was still a lot for Dave to wrap his head around. He still found it a little hard to believe that Klaus could see ghosts, let alone that he was immortal . 

But if time travel was real too, what was so surprising about immortality? And maybe that meant Dave was the luckiest guy in the world, because as long as he was a good boyfriend , he'd never permanently lose his lover.

So it was okay, so why was his brain still flicking back to Klaus dying in front of him? Just one bullet out of nowhere and he had been gone…

His brain was full of the memory again. He started panicking so much he had to check Klaus' pulse. He had a low heart rate, like it had been after he'd been shot until it had completely stopped… He was panicking more now, and although he tried to remind himself that it was probably just a drug doing that, that reminded him of the Klaus that had overdosed, possibly on the same drug this Klaus was on right now. 

And he was crying. Honestly, how had he gotten into the army if he could cry when just thinking about bad things? It was okay . Klaus wasn't dead anymore. Calm down .

Dave didn't notice through the blurriness his eyes had created, but Klaus had woken up again and he put his hand on Dave's cheek.

"What's wrong?" he asked, voice still sleepy.

"Uh," Dave wiped his eyes. "Nothing. I'm sorry."

They were both terrible at sharing their feelings with one another, weren't they?

"Doesn't look like nothing."

"It's just… death."

"Death's nice. Only dying’s bad."

"But what about someone else's death?" 

"They don't go away. They just come back to be a pain in the ass, so it's okay."

Dave wasn't sure if Klaus knew what he was talking about, but it was true that Klaus had come back.

"Yeah, you're right, so I shouldn't still be upset about you dying, right?"

"Uh," Klaus stared at his hand. "I guess that makes sense."

"What does?"

"That I'm dead."

"You're not dead, darling, you came back."

"I really am Jesus…" Klaus stretched his arms out on the bed.

"Yeah, I suppose so."

Klaus started to fall asleep again.

That hadn't been the most helpful chat, but Dave probably shouldn't have been expecting anything more. It was his own problem to deal with.

Chapter Text

Dave left to go for a walk because he couldn’t stay in the stuffy room any longer.

The fresh air and the exercise was nice. He didn't let his memories grab him by instead remarking at the views around him, like cool graffiti, and things in shop windows, and… someone who looked too similar to Klaus. 

Dave was walking behind this Klaus person, and the back of their head looked pretty much the same as Klaus, so Dave sped up to walk in front of them instead. He didn't want to think about Klaus right now–about dead Klaus.

"Whoa, it's you," but they sounded like Klaus too.

Dave turned around, and their face was the same too. This must be the Klaus that Dave met in 2018. Well as weird as it was, he couldn't exactly leave now.

"Yeah. Hi," Dave replied. "How have you been?"

"I just got out of rehab."

"Oh!" This Klaus was sober now? Wow, interesting. Had Dave done something to cause that? "How was that?"

"Hell, as usual. I overdosed right after," he laughed.

Ah, nevermind then.

"Oh," Dave blinked the images away.

"Omg, last time I saw you was that other time I overdosed! You're like some kind of weird angel."

Dave tried to laugh along, but it felt like his mind had turned to jelly and he couldn't focus properly. He just let out a "heh."

"Anyway, I have places to be, offices to loot. See you the next time I nearly die!" Klaus skipped away.

As if to match Dave's emotions, it started to rain.

He made his way back to the motel, and when he arrived he took his clothes off so he could dry off, then slipped into the blankets next to his Klaus.

The news channel was still playing on the TV, so Dave just quietly watched that. And wow, society really hadn't improved much since Dave's time. At least it was good at distracting him from his own life.

Eventually, Klaus woke up properly.

"Guten morgen," Klaus reached over to hug and kiss Dave. Then he realised Dave was naked. "Oh, hello." He lightly brushed his thumb over one of Dave's tits.

And fuck it, Klaus was looking really hot right now, and they'd never been able to properly have sex before. Now seemed like a very good time to do it.

"Do you want to teach me exactly how gay sex works?" Dave asked with a smirk.

"Oh, fuck yes."

Afterwards, Dave felt like he'd have a permanent smile on his face. He'd never felt so good.

Klaus had a small smile too, and he was gazing at Dave lovingly. He brought him into a cuddle.

 "So, what did you think?" Klaus asked.

"Oh, I loved it."

"I know right? I'm a sex god."

"What did you think?"

"You'll get there," Klaus gave Dave a pat. "But it was very fun doing it with you."

"Yeah, I wish we could have done this sooner," Dave said with a yawn. "Oh, now I'm going to fall asleep."

"Aww, but I wanna spend time with you," Klaus rolled over to be on top of Dave.

"We have all the time in the world to spend together now. We're free."

Klaus rolled off Dave again. "Yeah, well, you should still clean up before you sleep. I might have nasties in my ass-ie."

Dave sat up. "Oh."

"I bags the bathroom first," Klaus said before grabbing his clothes, entering the bathroom and closing the door behind him.

Dave just sat there, humming to himself and tapping on the blankets that had been sprawled everywhere. Memories tried to invade his mind, but he batted them away before they could take shape.

Klaus returned again after a while, "hang on, didn't my dad just die or some shit? Yeah, so we have to head to the Academy for the funeral, to keep the timeline in check or whatever."

"I think your past self is already doing that."

" Oh ? Oh, that makes sense," Klaus said, and then gasped with excitement. "We should meet up with him and have a threesome! I've always wanted to fuck myself!" 

"Uh- Could I just have my shower first?" 

"Oh, yeah, go ahead. Remember to pee!" Klaus giggled as he bounced onto the bed once Dave got off it.

When Dave was done, and he wasn't feeling sleepy anymore, he asked, "do you still want to go to the Academy?"

"Yeah!" Klaus jumped up. "If not for a threesome, it'd still be really funny to freak out my siblings, it'd also be cool for you to meet them. Just… keep your expectations low."

So they found umbrellas and went to the Umbrella Academy.

"Wow, this place is impressive," Dave marvelled when they were inside. "We should stay here instead of that shitty motel."

"Maybe," Klaus was itching himself as he walked into the lounge room and then over to the bar to make himself a drink

"Did you always have a bar here?"

"Yep! No wonder we've got two alcoholics in the family…"

Dave looked around the rest of the room. He saw a giant portrait of a kid. "Whoa, who's that?"

"Five. He ran away years ago, but he should be back in a moment."

"Do I get to see portraits of you too?"

"Yeah, and luckily they're not as… creepy as that one."

"Wait first, where's everyone else right now?"

"Probably outside doing the funeral already. Are you ready for utter chaos?"

Klaus grabbed Dave's hand and led him outside. There was nobody there, so they made their way to the kitchen instead.

"Shit, I really need to pee," Klaus pressed his legs together.

"Oh okay, I'll wait here for you then."

Dave stood just outside the kitchen as Klaus ran to the bathroom, but then a minute later he ran back to Dave.

"I didn't need to- Nevermind, yes I do," Klaus ran off again, and then back. "I've got no idea what's going on, let's just meet everyone."

They opened the door to the kitchen, everyone was there, but they fell silent when they turned to see who had walked through the door.

"What the fuck ?" Diego was the first one to speak.

" Klaus ? What?" the big guy was next.

"Holy shit!" past Klaus exclaimed through a laugh and a fart. "Are you real?" He poked Dave's Klaus.

"Whoa, don't touch me!" he pushed his younger self away.

Past Klaus hissed at the older Klaus then turned back to his siblings. "Are you fuckers trying to replace me? I knew I couldn't trust you. I bet Dad isn't even really dead."

Dave's Klaus jumped onto the younger one and started tackling him on the ground, biting and scratching him.

Everyone looked shocked except for Five who was just eating a sandwich with a calculating look on his face.

"...Does anyone know what's going on?" the short woman asked quietly.

"They've got paradox psychosis," Five said.

"That doesn't explain anything, why are there two Klauses?" the other woman asked.

“Yeah, just one is already too many,” Diego mumbled.

"Time travel,” Five answered.

He continued eating his sandwich, casually watching an attempted murder take place.

"Fucking die, asshole, I'm the real Klaus!"

"No I am, you shithead!"

"Uh… Guys? Please don't try to kill each other-" Dave tried to drag his Klaus away, but he escaped his grip and flung at the other Klaus again.

"I'm tryna protect you from him!"

"Hey wait a minute, it's you !" Diego pointed an accusing finger at Dave. "I thought I knew you from somewhere. You caused this, didn't you?"

"I just came here to meet you all, I didn't know they would do this."

"Who the fuck are you?" 

"I'm uh… Klaus' boyfriend. But what's important right now is that they are trying to kill each other, so can someone please help me split them up?"

Diego just glared at Dave, and everyone else but the big guy also didn't move. The big guy actually helped pull the two Klauses apart, and then Dave brought his one out to the front of the Academy where it was still raining.

"What the fuck happened there?" Klaus buried his hands in his hair. "I thought the only biting I was going to do would be the kinky kind."

"I'm not sure, but the older version of you I met acted sort of similar when he was around that Klaus. I just thought it was because he'd seen himself almost dead on the floor, but if it happened twice…"

"You met an older me? What were they like?"

Before Dave could answer, Five walked through the doors to join them.

"Klaus, what year are you from?" he asked with no acknowledgement to Dave.

"This one, or you could say 1969. That's a lot more fun to say anyway," Klaus replied with a grin.

"I'm from the 60s too, by the way," Dave said.

"Explain to me how you got to the 60s and back again," Five said to Klaus.

"Torture, briefcase, Vietnam War, lost briefcase, found briefcase, Nazi Germany, lost briefcase, found briefcase, here," Klaus recounted.

"Where did you get the briefcase from?"

"There was a lady with a pink dog mask, and a guy with a blue and yellow bear-thing mask."

"Cha-Cha and Hazel… So you're from the future? Only by a few days I'd imagine."

"Yeah, but Dave's from the past."

"And he's going back there."

"What? Why?"

"I'm not going back," Dave held Klaus' hand tightly. “And what makes you think you can tell me what to do? You’re a kid.”

"I am not a kid. I just look like it, but I’m 58. You might mess up the timeline, and I don't need more Commision agents running around."

"Are those the guys in masks? Because they don't seem very difficult to handle, I already killed one."

" How ? They're highly-trained assassins."

"So? They'd just- they-" go away, memories. "They'd killed Klaus…"

"So you went back in time to get him back?"

"No, he just came back to life. Apparently he's immortal."

"That doesn't make sense. I- I saw him dead. I buried him."

"Excuse me, when did you bury me?" Klaus asked.

"In just a few days, after the world ends."

" What ?" both Klaus and Dave exclaimed.

"How long did it take for him to come back to life?"

Dave really didn't want to be thinking about this right now, but he pushed on. "Not very long. A minute or so."

"And how was he killed?"

"Uh-" Dave took a deep breath, trying to steady himself.

"I got shot in the head," Klaus answered for him, his voice sounding distant to Dave.

"That still doesn't make sense. The Commision? No…" Five started mumbling to himself, his voice also sounding distant.

"Davey?" Klaus looked at him worriedly.

"Sorry, I…" Dave began, but didn't know what else to say.

"You've been through a lot recently. Why don't I get Five off your ass and then we can live here? I can take care of you until you feel better."

Dave smiled. "That sounds nice. But you've been through a lot too, so I'm going to take care of you too, okay?"

"Sure…” Klaus replied with a sigh.

Five was still mumbling away to himself, so the two slipped back inside.

The others were outside having the funeral, and Klaus and Dave went upstairs, where Klaus ran a bath for Dave.

"Do you want to be left alone, or do you want a sexy bathtime?" Klaus waggled his eyebrows.

"It would be nice to have you with me. Besides, you've got all those cuts from the other Klaus you need to clean up," Dave replied.

Klaus looked at his arms. "Oh yeah, I didn't even notice."

They slipped into the bath opposite each other and curled their legs together. They wrapped their arms over each other's shoulders and started kissing.

"Hey, guess what," Klaus said with a grin when they were taking a moment's break.

"What?"

"I love you so much."

Warmth spread over Dave's cheeks. "I love you too."

They kissed again, but then Dave said, "now get into the water properly and clean those wounds, Hargreeves."

Klaus complied, putting his whole head under the water. Dave leaned back too. Being engulfed in warm water was truly a relieving experience.

Klaus pressed his legs tighter against Dave’s, then popped up for breath and to kiss Dave again. He leaned over and got a pack of cigarettes out of his jacket.

"Do you want one?" he asked as he got one out for himself.

"Oh, yeah," Dave got one and put it in his mouth.

Klaus put their cigarettes together and lit them both at once.

"You know, I was watching TV for hours, but there wasn't a single cigarette commercial," Dave commented, letting out a breath of smoke. "And your commercials are so short and boring, what are they trying to achieve?"

Klaus snorted. "It's illegal to advertise cigarettes."

" Really ? Wow."

"Cigarettes are bad for you," Klaus shrugged.

"I think I read that somewhere, but I didn't think it'd be so bad they'd have to stop advertising them."

"Yeah, people get lung cancer and lots of other diseases from it."

"Oh," Dave stared at his cigarette for a while before opting to put it out. "But you don't care?"

"Babe, in case you didn't notice, I do a lot of unhealthy things. No, I don't care."

"Yeah, I know… I heard you used to overdose a lot. I- I saw it happen to your past self."

Klaus' face completely dropped. "Oh. I'm so sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologise, it wasn’t technically you, and your addiction isn’t really your fault either, it’s the world’s fault.”

Klaus sighed deeply and looked at the water. “It is my fault, which means it's my responsibility to change it. I… I haven’t been there for you, when you do so much for me.”

“You have been there for me. I mean, I probably would have died in Germany if it weren’t for you.”

“That’s not good enough,” Klaus said as he looked up at Dave again. “You know I’ve always told you I’m a bad person, but maybe I should try to change that? I need to be present and stay alive for you. I need to be sober.”

“Oh,” Dave found himself smiling. “That’s a really brave decision. I’m proud of you. But you’re definitely not a bad person no matter what, okay?”

Klaus just ignored him. “And you’re not allowed to look after me when I’m going through withdrawal.”

“I will definitely be looking after you. I’m never going to stop. I love you.”

Klaus pouted playfully. “Fine, but I’m gonna look after you more.”

“I’m gonna look after you most.”

“Ha, Tangled.”

“What?”

“I need to educate you on modern movies.”

“Well, we’ve got all the time in the world to do it now.”

They kissed. Dave felt lighter now for some reason, but he wasn’t sure what weight had been lifted. Klaus’ drug use? Maybe, but he hadn’t realised that was much of a weight until now.

Chapter Text

Dave peaked his head into the lounge room to find Past Klaus sleeping on the couch. He went back upstairs to inform his Klaus, and then they decided they would sleep in Klaus' room.

Klaus led Dave to a fairly big room decorated with fairy lights, posters, and a lot of writing covering the walls and roof, including some of the drawings Klaus had told him about.

Klaus picked up a soft unicorn toy. "Could you go give this to the other Klaus?"

"Yeah, why?"

"So he can wake up better, and I won't wake up better."

Dave was confused, but still did as he was told, just gently placing the toy next to Klaus on the couch, then quietly creeping back to the other Klaus. It was a headspin every time, but Dave, somehow, was getting used to it already.

"Did you want the grand tour yet, or?" Klaus asked.

"I think I'd just like to sleep," Dave said. It felt like he'd been having one overly long day these past few days.

Dave changed into Klaus' old pyjamas, Klaus just stripped because he always seemed to be opposed to wearing pyjamas. Then they slipped into the single bed together.

Dave awoke in the middle of the night because something was vibrating against him, and he realised it was Klaus shivering.

Dave blinked the sleep from his eyes and saw Klaus was wide-eyed. "Are you okay, love?"

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry," Klaus nodded.

"Are you cold? Is there another blanket somewhere?"

"No, no! I'm- I'm hot, actually. Uh-" he held tightly onto Dave's arm like it was his only tie to reality, but then he had to turn away to vomit on the floor. "Ohh, that's gross. I'm sorry." He gagged again but nothing came out.

"Hey, you don't need to apologise," Dave placed a gentle hand on his lover's arm, and felt him relax slightly. "You're doing amazing. Just tell me what you need, I'm here to help."

"Um," Klaus turned back to Dave. "No, I'm fine, I'm fine. Go back to sleep, I'm okay. I'll be fine."

Dave did end up nodding off again, despite not wanting to.

When he awoke, Klaus was drinking tea while sitting on the ground with his head resting on the bed. The vomit had been cleaned up.

“Did you get any sleep?” Dave asked, sitting next to him.

“Hm? Oh, yeah,” Klaus replied, not in a very convincing tone. “Should we do the tour now?”

“If you’re feeling up to it.”

“I’m fine , Davey. Don’t worry about it.”

Klaus got up, discarding his tea on the desk next to his bed.

“So, this is my room, the best room…” Klaus looked around with his arms spread out, but then his eyes landed on a shelf and he picked up the bong and bottle of alcohol from it. “What am I supposed to do with this…?” Then he threw them out the window and cringed when he heard them shatter on the pavement. He held his arms together, scratching the insides. “Maybe I could’ve pawned the bong… Oh, I could… pawn that…” Klaus looked at a hookah on the ground. “Why did I leave so much shit here?” he kicked an empty bottle that was lying on the floor.

“Hey, why don’t we look at the rest of the house?” Dave suggested, swiftly leading Klaus out.

Klaus changed his composure and poked his head through an open door to a bedroom with two of his siblings inside.

"Morning, guys," Klaus said cheerily, then turning back to Dave, "this is Allison's room."

"Oh, morning," Allison said, pausing with her packing.

"Which Klaus are you?" asked the big guy.

"The one with an incredible boyfriend," Klaus presented Dave to his siblings. "I didn't get to introduce you so, this is Dave. And Dave, this is Luther and Allison."

"Nice to meet you," Dave smiled.

Allison smiled back, Luther said, "aren't you supposed to be going back to your own time?"

"This basically is our time, but fine if you don't want us around," Klaus brought Dave away again.

He pointed out his other siblings' rooms before rushing into the bathroom to throw up. Then he just returned to Dave like nothing had happened. Dave rubbed Klaus' back comfortingly.

They went downstairs and bumped into a chimp. A chimp wearing a suit and holding a cane. He looked startled, and looked back into the lounge room then back at the two.

"Oh- Master Klaus? Ah, who have you got with you?" asked the chimp. Because of course there was a chimp who wears clothes and speaks English. Unfortunately not the weirdest thing Dave had encountered recently.

Klaus was itching himself more now, and looked like he needed to pee but was trying his best to ignore it.

"This is Dave, my boyfriend," Klaus introduced. "And this is Pogo, my… Well you're kind of my brother, aren't you?"

"I suppose so, yes."

"You're probably confused about why I'm in there too," Klaus said, pointing into the lounge room where Dave could just see another Klaus digging through the cupboards. "It's time travel." Then he suddenly said to the air, "yeah whatever, I can't hear you over the other ghosts, by the way… Yes…" then he smiled, "okay now shoo, you have a different Klaus to look after."

"Was that Ben?" Dave asked. He was pretty sure he was getting the hang of all this supernatural stuff now.

"Yep," Klaus said, looking into the distance.

"Well it was very interesting to see you, Master Klaus. And it was nice to meet you, Dave, you seem like a lovely man. I've got to start looking for Sir Reginald's book," Pogo nodded to the two and headed off.

Klaus sucked in a breath before turning to Pogo and saying quickly, "I threw it out."

Pogo faced him again, so Klaus elaborated, "right after I stole it from Dad's office because I thought it was worthless… It's supposed to be somewhere in the dumpster under the fire escape. I tried looking for it, but I couldn't find it. I'm sorry."

"Thank you for telling me."

Dave was also proud of his boyfriend for admitting that.

Then Five walked through the front doors, glaring at a glass eye he had in his hand.

He looked up and directed his glare at Klaus and Dave. "Great, you're still here," he sighed frustratedly.

Klaus gripped Dave's hand. "Correct, this is our home."

"Then maybe you can be useful and tell me what you know about the next few days."

"For a start, that's a deadend," Klaus gestured to the eye. "It hasn't been manufactured yet. And you never gave me my 20 bucks for helping you figure that out. Just saying."

Five rolled his eyes. "Anything else?"

Klaus shrugged. "I might be a year older now, but I'm not that far into the future."

The other Klaus came walking out of the lounge room but he stopped in his tracks when he saw his double. They both narrowed their eyes at each other.

Dave immediately dragged his Klaus upstairs, really not wanting to witness yet another murder attempt on his boyfriend.

"Hey, wait!" Five disappeared in a pop of blue, then reappeared right in front of them in another pop of blue. "This is what I'm talking about. We can't have two of the same person existing at the same time. It's not possible, so it's causing a paradox." Then he looked right at Dave, "And you are causing a paradox too, because even if the Klaus from this time goes to the Vietnam War, which is less likely now, the events that happen there can't possibly be the same, and then you might never end up coming here. It should be impossible for both of you to be here, so I need you to leave before you make things worse than they already are."

"Problem is we don't know how to work the briefcase properly," Klaus said.

"Then I'll set the destination for you. Where is it?"

"I left it at the motel again," Dave said. He hadn't expected to stay at the Academy overnight.

Five inhaled sharply. "Then go back there and get it."

"What if I'm exhausted, and I don't want to walk anywhere, and I'm going to throw up on you if you don't drop this?" Klaus said, holding his stomach.

Five looked at his brother as if with new eyes and gave him a scan. "You're sober."

"Correct."

"Huh. Good for you. Doesn't mean you're pardoned from leaving so as not to end the world."

Dave scrunched his eyebrows together. "Wait, are you saying we cause the end of the world?" 

"I'm saying it's a possibility , but I assume there are more factors involved."

"Let's go get the briefcase, Klaus," Dave said. "A walk would be nice anyway."

"But- but I'm so tired, and-" Klaus threw up over the balcony. But then after he wiped his mouth, he looked back at Dave and said, "okay…"

They left the Academy, and Dave embraced the fresh air. His brain was full of worried thoughts to mull over again.

"So what's this whole thing about the end of the world?" Dave asked.

“Back in the OG timeline, Five told us that when he time-travelled he ended up in some apocalypse. That’s pretty much all I know,” Klaus shrugged, looking very stiff like he was trying to hold his stomach together.

“And it’s in a few days.”

“Apparently.”

“But we might stop it if we leave this timeline.”

“I doubt it. Seems pretty inevitable.”

“So we’ll die if we stay here.”

“Maybe. So I guess we have to leave again, huh?”

Dave held Klaus’ hand. “We can do that. There’s got to be a better time we can live out the rest of our lives in.”

“Yeah,” Klaus said distantly.

Back at the motel, the two started brainstorming the times they’d like to live in.

“I reckon Ancient Greece. We can become famous philosophers,” Klaus said. “And I think being gay is chill there.”

“But if we do become famous, won’t we mess up time too much?”

“Pretty sure we’ll mess up time no matter what, I mean we already have.”

Dave dug his hands into his hair. He knew there would only be one way they wouldn’t mess up time. If they both went back to their respective time periods. But why had it been fine when Klaus had been with Dave in the war for months? Why was it suddenly a problem now? Why couldn’t anything just be simple?

“Maybe it doesn’t matter that we’re here. Maybe there’s some way we can help Five stop the apocalypse,” Dave said.

“How do you stop an apocalypse?”

“There must be something that causes it, and it surely isn't us, so I guess we just prevent that.”

“You know… I just remembered my dad used to tell us all we would have to save the world someday. Maybe this is it.”

“And with two Klauses, I’m sure we’ll be able to do that in no time,” Dave smiled.

Klaus snorted. “We both know I’m useless.”

Dave put his hands on Klaus’ shoulders. “No, you’re not. You’re definitely not useless. You help in so many ways even if you don’t realise it.”

“Like what?”

“Like you helped me embrace who I really was, you helped me realise that I’m someone who can love and be loved. Not to mention you helped me out on the battlefield many times, and you helped me stay sane, and I’m sure you’ve helped in lots of other ways I don’t even realise.”

Klaus’ eyes were shining and he smiled. “I think you’re describing yourself.”

“Then we’ve both helped each other, and I’m glad. You’re not useless, Klaus.”

“But how does that help in an apocalypse?”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” Dave kissed his boyfriend.

Klaus picked up the briefcase. “Alright, time to throw this in my brother’s face, and let him know we’re impossible to get rid of. Actually," Klaus turned back to Dave. "Do you wanna fuck before we go back?"

"Oh- What?"

Klaus shrugged. "I'm bored."

"I'm not really in the mood."

Klaus pouted. "Okay. Well. I don't… wanna go back yet. I'm sleepy. And." Klaus just curled in on himself.

"What's wrong, love?" Dave sat next to him.

"Nothing. I mean, nothing you need to worry about. I told you I'll be fine."

"And I told you I'm going to look after you."

"It's just withdrawal. It's fine."

"But I want to do whatever I can to make this as easy as possible for you."

"But I don't- deserve that."

"Oh, darling, I promise you do," Dave squeezed his boyfriend's hand. "You deserve so much more than you have, and I want to give it to you."

"I don't even deserve you. I'm a leech."

"You're so far from a leech. You're a gift that keeps on giving. And I don't care what struggles we have to go through together, no matter how weird–like an apocalypse–because I love you and you love me, and I want us to be together. We both deserve each other."

"I'm- I'm sorry. I'm just depressed. Withdrawal… But thank you. I love you. I'll try to cheer up."

"You don't need to. You know you can always be yourself around me, no matter your emotions."

"Yeah, well, Happy Klaus is back," he bounced up and smiled widely, but it was clearly fake.

Dave frowned, but didn't push it any further.

"Let's go out somewhere before we go back!" Klaus suggested excitedly.

They just walked around the city because they didn't have any money to do anything, but it was nice. Nice to finally have a relaxing break, and see all the pretty greenery in a botanic garden. Klaus seemed to get a little bit genuinely cheery too, despite throwing up multiple more times.

Then they walked back to the Academy, but when they arrived, they noticed the door had been forced open and there were gunshots coming from inside.

“Shit, that’ll be Hazel and Cha-Cha. They’re about to kidnap me. And then I’m gonna meet you…” Klaus said slowly.

“Shit,” Dave said. Because now he had a dilemma. He didn’t want any Klaus to get kidnapped, but if that didn’t happen, he’d never meet Dave, and who knows what would happen to the timeline after that. And they really should have come back earlier.

“Are we gonna do something?” Klaus asked.

“I… I don’t know…” Dave stared into space. “You said you got tortured by those guys?”

“Yup…”

Dave inhaled slowly, said “fuck it,” and ran inside. 

If he wasn’t going to keep his oath to protect his country, he could at least keep his oath to protect his boyfriend. Fuck the timeline.

Klaus followed him, but split off to go in the direction of the bathroom.

Dave found a cupboard with weapons. The only weapon he knew how to use was a gun, but it couldn't hurt to try out something new.

He picked up a flail, and then ran into the pink intruder.

With the help of Allison (who seemed confused about what Dave was doing there, but didn’t let that distract her from her fighting), Dave took down the intruder to unconsciousness and grabbed her gun. 

It was then that he heard a catfight going on somewhere else in the house, so he immediately ran in that direction. What he found was of course the two Klauses trying to kill each other, but the blue intruder was sneaking up on them.

Dave aimed his newly acquired gun at him. “Don’t fucking touch my boyfriends.”

The blue intruder pointed his own gun at Dave, but Dave shot first, making him fall to the ground, but not killing him. He punched him too to knock him out. He took that guy’s gun, then ripped the Klauses apart and brought his one upstairs.

“Shit, I forgot about the psychosis thing. I was just trying to protect him,” Klaus said, briefly brushing his hands over his bruises.

“I know, darling, it’s okay. You’re both safe now,” Dave gave him a soft kiss on the forehead.

Klaus went into his room and sat on his bed. “Hey, did you call me your ‘boyfriends’? Am I multiple people?” He looked into the distance as if seriously contemplating if that was true or not.

“Oh,” Dave hadn’t noticed he’d done that. He sat next to Klaus. “I guess I was talking about both you Klauses. It’s just really weird having two of the same person, even though I know I have different relationships with you two.”

“And now he’s never going to meet you, I mean the other you,” Klaus said. “Sucks for him, you’re all mine.” Klaus tried to smile but it faltered. “Is it weird I kind of feel guilty? And he kind of feels like my brother, or even closer than that?”

“I don’t think most brothers try to kill each other every time they see each other,” Dave joked.

Klaus gave him a look that made Dave’s concern for the Hargreeves family grow.

“But yeah, it’s okay to feel that way. I would’ve felt guilty if I just let him get tortured, but I also feel guilty for changing time so much,” Dave said.

“It’s probably fine,” Klaus shrugged. “Five might get mad, and Klaus’ll never have someone who actually loves him, but it’s fine!”

“Yeah… I’m sure it’s all fine… Klaus can find other people…” Dave said uncertainly.

“Okay, I’m bored, what do you want to do?” Klaus asked.

“I should check on the other Klaus,” Dave said before grabbing some bandages he’d spotted on the shelf and going downstairs again.

This Klaus was naked… Which Dave hadn’t noticed before. He was hovering over the intruder, checking his pulse.

“Hey, are you okay?” Dave asked.

“Oh, you’re still here. Hi,” Klaus waved, but then quickly covered his dick and sat on the ground. “Yes, I’m fine.”

“That’s good. We should probably take him to the hospital,” Dave said as he leaned down to bandage up the bullet wound.

“Really? I was gonna dump him in the dumpster.”

“I’d rather not,” Dave said. “Do you have a phone around here?”

He didn’t want to unnecessarily kill people, especially before they’d done anything. He might have killed the other commission agent, but that was just because he was in a fit of rage.

Klaus pointed out a phone, and then disappeared to go put clothes on.

Dave dialled in 911, and then felt distant from his ears when the operator answered. Because they sounded exactly the same as last time. But this time he stayed inside his body with all his senses, and calmly answered all of the questions he was asked.

Once that was all finished, he found the other intruder who’d also been left where she’d been knocked out, and asked someone to help him carry her to the front of the house.

“Why can’t we kill her?”

Dave opted to just ignore Diego. 

The two bodies were waiting together by the time the ambulance arrived and took them away.

“So why are you still here?” Diego asked accusingly.

“I live here now,” Dave replied calmly.

“ No , you don’t. We don’t know who you are, where you came from, what your intentions are-”

Klaus appeared and grabbed onto Dave’s arm protectively. “All you need to know is he’s the greatest guy you’ve ever met, and we’re not going anywhere.”

“Plus, I think Klaus is in his correct time now,” Dave added.

“Nah, still like a day away.”

“Close enough. Also, where's Five? We need to tell him we're gonna stop the apocalypse."

Chapter Text

Dave and Klaus went looking through the house for Five to tell him they were going to stay and help with the apocalypse, but he wasn’t anywhere to be found.

Eventually, they gave up looking.

Klaus looped his arm around Dave's. “C’mon, let's head in bed.”

“You mean to bed?” Dave asked as they started walking back upstairs.

“I said what I said,” Klaus smirked.

***

When Dave awoke the next morning, Klaus was spread out on the carpet.

Dave leaned his head on his hand. “You okay, love?”

“Ah-huh, I just… feel… sick,” Klaus grunted.

Dave immediately slid onto the ground and pressed the back of his hand onto Klaus' forehead. It burned. Dave started massaging his hands through Klaus' hair.

“I think you have a fever, do you have medicine somewhere in the house?” Dave asked.

Klaus looked up at him. “You wanna give me drugs?”

“Um, I guess? But they're good drugs.”

Klaus laughed slightly. “All drugs are good drugs. Except when they stop working.”

“Klaus, love, you know what I meant. Do you want some ibuprofen? Or a more modern medicine if one exists? I'll bring you some water as well.”

“I want…” Klaus looked down again. “I want alcohol,” he said weakly. “I don't really know why I'm doing this. I'm not exactly living up to my promise to be a better boyfriend for you.”

Dave wasn't sure what to say for a few moments. “You're in withdrawal, of course this is difficult for you. But it should clear up soon. About a week, right? But in the meantime I should be allowed to take care of you.”

“With all the shit I'm dependent on, it'll probably last longer than a week.”

“That's okay. All I want is to take care of you, Klaus.”

Klaus was still looking down, and now he sat up, looking at the wall opposite, his arms folding into themselves. Dave let go of his hair.

“There are some drugs that help with withdrawal,” Klaus explained. “I got them in rehab, and pawned them off to other inmates. Anyway, I know I should've gone to rehab, but I wanted to stay with you, and help out with the apocalypse and all that. I'm sorry.”

“What are you apologising for?”

“All of this,” Klaus looked back at him. “For coming into your life, for being an addict, for not going to rehab, for putting you in the middle of an apocalypse, for-”

Dave cut him off with a hug. He held him tight, and Klaus started crying, which made tears come to Dave's eyes.

“I'm sorry,” Klaus mumbled, but Dave shushed him.

“I don't know what to say to fix this, but Klaus , stop apologising. I love you.”

“Sorry. I mean…” Klaus just trailed off, instead hugging Dave tighter.

The door opened, and Dave peaked to see it was the other Klaus. Dave was honestly glad he had such a tight grip on his Klaus right now so he couldn't pounce on the other one.

“Oh… You took my room too,” the other Klaus said, then the two locked eyes and glared at each other. “You asshole need to stop trying to replace me .”

“Okay, let's all just stay calm,” Dave said, holding his Klaus tight as he helped them both stand up. “Klaus, you can have your room. Klaus and I will leave.”

Dave slowly pulled his Klaus out of the room, and somehow they made it without even a scratch.

As they walked down the hall, the other Klaus yelled out, “oh, by the way, Mum’s dead.”

Dave's Klaus stopped walking and gaped. “What?”

Dave looked between the bedroom door and Klaus for a second before pulling Klaus into another hug.

“I'm sorry,” Dave said.

“It's… Fine. I'm just shocked. She was already malfunctioning, so…”

They stayed there for another few moments until Klaus pulled away.

“Do you want to talk to your siblings about it?” Dave asked.

“Ah yes, because my siblings are just wonderful at helping each other grieve,” Klaus said with heavy sarcasm, spinning around to go waltzing down the stairs. The mood change was very abrupt, but that was Klaus' way of coping and Dave wasn't going to intervene.

“Is anyone even home?” Klaus asked as he looked through the living room. “Hello?”

There was a smash sound on the floor Dave was on. He was immediately put on high alert and went to investigate. Turns out Diego, Luther, and Pogo were all home, but Diego and Luther were clearly in the middle of a fight.

All three of them turned to Dave when he opened the door to the room they were all in.

“What are you still doing here?!” Diego yelled, pinning Dave to the wall.

“Diego! Stop it!” Pogo snapped at him.

“This man is an imposter!” Diego snapped back.

“I'm a friend,” Dave said calmly.

“You have no right to invade on these family matters. Where the fuck did you come from? What are you doing here?”

“I'm Klaus' boyfriend. He-”

“Bullshit!” Diego suddenly brought a knife to Dave's throat.

Dave grabbed the knife hand and then tackled Diego away. Perhaps a bad idea. The two started fighting, and then Luther joined in the fight. Pogo yelled at them to stop. There wasn't anything Dave could do at this point but defend his life. He was losing. Apparently, army training couldn't compare to whatever training these people had had. And Luther was incredibly strong. He was losing, and maybe he would be killed by these people, but he'd hang on as long as he could.

“Diego! Luther! What the fuck?!” Klaus shouted from out in the hallway.

Finally, the fight paused. Dave nursed his twisted arm.

“Klaus, you need to get away from this guy,” Diego said, pointing an accusing finger at Dave.

Before Klaus could respond, Pogo stamped his cane hard on the floor, and all of the men turned their attention to him.

“Enough! Enough of this!” he shouted. “Our home was attacked, and we barely got out with our lives. This man helped us all. You should be thanking him. He is a guest in our home, not an imposter. I know things may be hard right now because Grace didn't make it. But this is not how you honour her. Your brother is missing as well, and this fighting isn't helping anyone.”

“Sorry,” Luther, Diego, and Dave said one after the other.

“Who's missing?” Klaus asked.

They all turned to look at him, and that's when Dave noticed that this was indeed Dave's Klaus, but he had an alcohol bottle in hand.

“Five,” Diego answered.

“He’s still not back?” Dave asked, concerned.

“Oh. I'm sure he'll be fine,” Klaus shrugged.

Dave stepped over to be with him. “Ah, Klaus?” Dave said quietly, indicating to the bottle with his good hand.

“Oh, it's full. I wasn’t… Well, I was going to drink it, but…” Klaus placed the bottle on the ground. “Is your arm okay? We have a mini hospital here.”

Dave looked back at his attackers. Luther was looking the other way, while Diego had his arms crossed, giving Dave a death stare.

“Yeah, ah, medical attention would be nice,” Dave said, turning back to Klaus.

He was taken to the medical room by Klaus and Pogo, and then Pogo patched up his arm and other cuts and bruises.

“Hey, Pogo,” Klaus awkwardly began once Dave had been taken care of. “Do we happen to have any methadone or something like that?”

Pogo nodded. “Yes, we've been stocked with withdrawal medication since you were about fourteen.”

“Oh,” Klaus turned red. “Can I have some?”

“Of course, Master Klaus,” Pogo smiled proudly.

Klaus was handed a pill which he obediently swallowed.

When they left the room, they saw Luther and Diego were dragging a drunk Five to his bedroom. Dave and Klaus decided now probably wasn’t the best time to talk to him, so they waited for the morning.

They walked into his room at the beginning of the next day. Five was scribbling on the walls in chalk when they opened his bedroom door. 

He turned towards them and immediately asked, "where's the briefcase?"

"About that," Dave glanced at Klaus. "We're not going back."

"For the last time-" Five began, face full of rage.

"Cool your jets, Fivey," Klaus interrupted. "We just don't think we're 'causing apocalypse' material, but we are 'stopping apocalypse' material."

" You two think you can stop the apocalypse?" Five looked like he was just about done with the world. "You're powerless, you don't know anything , and I'm unconvinced you're not the cause."

"Except that in my original time, there was still an apocalypse about to happen, but Dave wasn't there," Klaus pointed out.

" And ? Maybe the cause changed."

"Face it, dear brother, we belong here; we're going to stay, and we're going to help."

Five sighed frustratedly and threw his arms out to the sides. "I shouldn't have told anyone! You're all fucking idiots!" Then he blipped to the door and slammed it shut on the two.

"He's a fiery one, isn't he?" Dave commented, slightly amused. He wanted to help calm Five down, but now probably wasn't the time.

“Mhm,” Klaus agreed, then started to drag Dave away. “Let’s go get some breakfast, and then maybe we can fuck.”

“What’s your sudden obsession with us fucking? Not that I’m exactly complaining.”

“Davey, you’re sexy, and I need to work on your self-esteem, and your sex-skills.”

When they were in the kitchen, Dave made some eggs for both of them.

“Dave, something happened,” Klaus said with big eyes when he was handed his eggs.

A panicked feeling fluttered through Dave. He sat down opposite his boyfriend. “What?”

“With Ben. Um, you see, I was trying to, um. Well…”

“You can tell me anything, love.”

“I was trying to relapse, yeah? And then Ben comes along to tell me the other me had passed out in a puddle of piss a few yards away or something, but he notices what I’m doing and he just fucking… yanks the booze out of my hand. I probably just made it up and just dropped the bottle, but what if… What if Ben actually touched something physical?”

“Is that possible?”

“I don’t know! But if I’m immortal I guess anything is possible with my powers!”

“I guess so,” Dave smiled. “That’s amazing, Klaus. You’re so powerful. Do you think you could test it again?”

“Uh,” Klaus laughed awkwardly. “I’ve got meds in my system now, it probably won’t work again.”

“Right. That’s okay,” Dave kissed his hand. “Now eat your eggs.”

“Thank you, dear.”

“Actually, should we check up on the other Klaus?”

Klaus shrugged. “It was yesterday, I’m sure he’s fine now.”

Dave frowned, but started eating his eggs anyway.

Then Luther entered the room. 

“Uh, Dave, right?” he asked.

Dave looked up and nodded.

“Hi. Uh, so, Five says he’s going to kill you,” Luther said. “I just thought I’d give you a heads up.”

Dave wasn’t quite as shocked as Klaus who spun around and shouted, “what?! He can’t fucking do that! Did you even try to stop him?!”

“ Yes , I made him put the gun down, but there’s no guarantee he’s not actually going to do it. I just thought I should warn you.”

Dave buried his face in his hands and sighed. “Can I talk to him?”

“We’re about to go for a drive, maybe afterwards? If the plan works he hopefully won’t want to kill you anyway.”

“Okay, sure.”

“Family meeting when I get back, by the way.”

***

“Sorry, Dave, but this is a family meeting,” Luther said.

“Exactly,” Diego spat at him.

“I would be happy to leave you alone, but…” Dave gestured to Klaus who had his arms wrapped around him like a monkey.

“You can take Klaus with you, we don’t really need him here,” Luther said.

Klaus tightened his grip on Dave, who gave him a kiss on the head.

“Hey!” Diego snapped. “Klaus is as a part of this family as the rest of us. It’s only Dave who needs to leave.”

“He’s not going anywhere,” Klaus grumbled.

“It should be fine to have him here. He did help us,” Allison said.

“Yes! Thank you!” Klaus agreed.

“Alright, fine,” Luther said.

Diego didn’t say anything, but he still looked pissed.

“So anyway, according to Five, he lived in the apocalypse after he ran away, so he knows that the world is ending in three days,” Luther explained.

Everyone was shocked except Klaus and Dave.

“Three days?” Allison asked.

“That’s what Five said.”

“Yeah, this is all old news,” Klaus said. “Me and Dave found out, what, a whole two days ago?”

“You guys already knew?” Luther asked, looking almost offended.

“But can we trust Five?” Allison asked. “I mean, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he’s a little…” she did a circling motion with her finger next to her head as she whistled.

“Who isn’t?” Klaus said. “Trust me, I’ve seen some shit, there’s no way he made this all up.”

“He did sound pretty convincing,” Luther agreed. “If he hadn’t tried to stop an apocalypse from happening, those two lunatics wouldn’t be chasing him.”

“That’s why they were after him?” Diego asked.

“What did Five even see?” Allison asked.

“Uh…” Luther began. “Apparently, we all fought together against whoever was responsible.” There was a pause. “Okay. So, here’s the plan, uh, we go through Dad’s research-”

Allison and Diego interrupted with protests.

“Whoa, hold on, what actually happened?” Allison asked.

“Yeah, what are you not telling us?” Diego asked. “Come on, big boy, spit it out.”

There was a long pause. “We died,” Luther said quietly, then quickly took a sip of his coffee.

“What was that?” Allison asked.

“We died,” Klaus answered for him. “Come on, keep up,” he said while snapping his fingers, “this is old news.”

There was silence, until they all started debating again.

At some point, Vanya appeared.

“Hey,” she said.

Everyone turned around. There was some random guy with her as well.

“What’s going on?” Vanya asked.

“It’s a family matter,” Allison said, looking at the guy.

“‘A family matter’,” Vanya said with thin lips. “So of course you couldn’t bother to include me.”

“No, it’s not like that. I mean Leonard-”

“Then why is he here?” Vanya pointed at Dave.

“Klaus won’t let me leave,” Dave said. Klaus had let go before, but now he wrapped himself around Dave again. Dave made a noise of pain because Klaus had gripped his twisted arm, so he let go again.

“Don’t let me interrupt,” Vanya said flatly, turning to leave.

Allison tried to stop her from leaving, but she still left, with closing remarks that chilled the air in the room.

They went back to talking about the apocalypse, now trying to figure out what caused it and how they were going to stop it.

Suddenly, blue waves pulsed through the air and Five appeared, falling onto the bar, clutching a briefcase. Everyone jumped back in fear.

“Five, where have you been?” Luther asked, catching him as he rolled off the bench.

“Are you alright?” Allison asked.

“Who did this?”

“Irrelevant,” Five said, then stood in front of them all to give an inspiring speech about fighting the apocalypse, then he revealed the name of who caused the apocalypse.

“So that means you’re not going to kill Dave then, right?” Klaus asked.

Five glared, looking between Klaus and Dave for a moment. “I still don’t trust him, so I don’t exactly want him to be part of this. But yes, Klaus, I’m not going to kill your fling.”

“He’s not just a fucking fling!” Klaus spat.

“I’m not a fling,” Dave confirmed. “We’ve known each other for months.”

“It’s my longest relationship!”

“Same, actually.”

“We’re, like… soulmates,” Klaus said slowly, almost just to himself.

Dave gaped a little, his heart warming, but with no idea how he would respond to that.

The moment was ruined by Five snapping, “do I look like I care? What’s important right now is finding Harold Jenkins.”

“Hey, uh, guys,” the other Klaus appeared through the doorway, swinging on a pillar. “There’s a random man in our house and he just straight-up stole Reggie’s figurine.”

Everyone turned to look at him except Dave’s Klaus who curled into a ball on the ground, letting out a fart.

“What?” Five said.

“Was it Leonard?” Allison asked.

“No clue who Leonard is. Were we having some kind of family meeting without me?” 

“Well, we had a Klaus here. I thought that was enough,” Luther said with a shrug.

“Oh. Oh, great,” Klaus chuckled, sliding down the pillar to sit on the ground. “He really is just my fucking replacement. I’m so fucking sorry I’m a dysfunctional failure, please, do feel free to find a newer, better, sober me, and just forget about the real me.” He got out a joint and lit it.

“Hey, Klaus, it’s not like that-” Dave began.

“Alright, I don’t have time for this. Is Leonard still here?” Allison asked as she marched out of the room.

“I don’t have time for this either. I’m gonna go look through Dad’s files. I still think this apocalypse has something to do with why he sent me to the moon,” Luther said, walking off behind Allison.

“Guys! I haven’t finished!” Five yelled after them, then sighed frustratedly when he got no response.

The This Timeline Klaus was busy quietly laughing to himself on the ground. Dave couldn’t bear to see him rejected like that, even if this Klaus wasn’t the one he knew and loved.

“I’m gonna check on the other you, okay?” Dave said, giving his Klaus a kiss on the head.

“Okay. I need a drink. I mean- of water, I’m suddenly parched,” Klaus said, slowly getting up to creep out of the room away from the other Klaus.

“Meeting over, I guess,” Five grunted, exasperated. 

“What was your plan?” Diego asked. “I’ll help out.”

Five led Diego away to explain, so Dave went over to kneel in front of the other Klaus.

“Are you okay?” Dave asked.

Klaus exhaled a cloud of smoking off to the side. “Just dandy, why do you ask?”

“I’m sorry you weren’t invited to the meeting. If I’d known where you were, I’d have invited you to go instead of me and my Klaus. We already knew about the apocalypse.”

“So there’s an apocalypse is there?”

“Yes. In three days. Five is trying to stop it.”

“Why bother? I’ve been waiting for my end day for decades.”

“Klaus…” Dave put his hand on Klaus’ knee, but Klaus flinched so Dave immediately pulled it away again. “Sorry, are you okay with me touching you?”

“Why not?” Klaus shrugged, taking another hit of his joint. He then held it out. “Want some?”

“No, thanks,” Dave shook his head. He liked weed, and he’d gotten high a lot in the war, but now he would never do that to his boyfriend. He decided not to try with the touch again just in case, but he continued on with what he was going to say, “Klaus, your life is worth so much. It’s worth as much as the other Klaus and as much as everybody in this world. The other Klaus isn’t trying to replace you, we just had some time travel mess-ups. It’s really difficult having two of you when you can’t be around each other, but when the apocalypse is stopped, I promise we’ll get out of your hair.”

“Who even are you? Where did you come from?”

“My name is Dave Katz. I’m from the 1960s. I was fighting in the Vietnam War with Klaus.”

“Yeah, that’s great and all, but you told me that last year. I just wanna know why I love you- why he loves you. I’ve never loved anyone.”

“I… I guess I’m just lucky.”

“Doubt that. So, what, was it one of those tropes where you saved his life and that made him fall in love with you? Or think he fell in love with you, but really, it was just the heat of the moment, and now you’re holding that moment above him to keep him wrapped under your wing so you can keep abusing him.”

Dave gaped at Klaus, slightly hurt. “What? No, no, no, of course not! Besides, if anything, Klaus has saved my life more times than I’ve saved his.”

“Then what is it? What’s so special about you that what’s-his-name ossobuco guy couldn’t live up to?” 

“I’m actually nice? I don’t force Klaus to do things he doesn’t want to? I don’t know, I…” he probably shouldn’t spill his feelings on a sensitive Klaus but it just came out, “I sometimes feel like I don’t deserve Klaus. If I’m the first nice partner he’s ever had, that’s not saying much. What if I’m actually a shit partner, I’m just slightly better than the rest? I wouldn’t know. This is my first time with someone I love as well. But… but we both love each other, so that should be enough for now, right?” Dave looked at the floor, suddenly doubting his skills at making people feel better.

“I wanna try it. I’ll figure it out myself.”

“What do you mean? Try what?”

Suddenly, Klaus was on Dave, kissing him deep. Dave just let it happen at first. It felt so natural. Then he remembered which Klaus this was and pushed him off, wiping off his lips.

“Klaus… What the…” Dave muttered, still in shock.

“Sorry. I’m sorry… I just wanted to… I’m sorry,” he got up and walked away.

Dave looked away and saw his own Klaus standing there with a glass of water.

“So anyway,” that Klaus said before taking a sip of water.