CHAPTER TWENTY
late night bonds

⋆*✧･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:

     UNFORTUNATELY, IT WAS PRETTY hard to save the world when the person you needed to help you accomplish such a thing was nowhere to be found. So although Nadine Vidal was suitably empowered—had blinked away the tears that had formed but not fallen, raised her chin and reminded herself of what she was fighting for—none of that meant shit when she was still stumbling through her goals blindly, tripping like a baby deer.

This week, she'd slowly begun to knit together the story of the apocalypse and what she had to do with it, fitting together clues like they were puzzle pieces until everything had come into shape. And yet, she'd only figured everything out because of Five. He may have been an infuriating, arrogant asshole who refused to change out of the uniform, but he'd truly been the one to guide her on the right path. Now, without him, it was like a blindfold had been tied around her eyes. She was thus forced to confront the overbearing dilemma that had beset her: she had no fucking idea what she was doing.

She made her way back to the Umbrella Academy that night, her skin crawling, ready for a fight if Hazel and Cha-Cha decided to show their masked faces. Fortunately, they didn't, and Nadine managed to make it back to the Academy in peace, which was good, given that she wasn't sure if she could actually raise her fists tonight. She was exhausted, and hollow, and just wanted to sleep, to distract herself from the overwhelming number of problems that had surmounted her during the day. Unfortunately, it seemed that even her dreams were against her, as when she finally fell into bed, her mind was full of potential apocalypse scenarios. Aliens crashed down from Jupiter, raining gunfire on Earth. Natural disasters ravaged the planet, tsunamis drowning whole cities and tornadoes ripping screaming people from the ground. A meteor came hurtling towards the atmosphere, a trail of flame behind it, and Nadine's final thoughts were of her father before she was consumed in fire.

After dying over and over again, in a number of unpleasant ways, Nadine finally woke up, her entire body shining with cold sweat. Knowing it was unlikely that she was going to fall asleep again without dreaming of the sun exploding or a disease ravaging the world's population, she instead forced herself out of bed, deciding to search the Academy's many rooms for any sign of the elusive time traveler. It was only three in the morning, but Nadine had never pegged Five as having a good sleep schedule, and she figured that if she did end up finding him, she'd find him wide awake, perhaps frantically scribbling equations on the walls.

The house was dark and full of shadows, and Nadine's heart began to race as she crept her way through, each step causing the floor to groan. She headed down the staircase to the front hallway, blood roaring in her ears, her hands clenched into readied fists.

Tonight, she wasn't wearing her usual pristine getup—instead, she was clad in a silk set of pajamas that were a bit too long, the legs dragging across the floor. Her hair, which she usually kept bunched into some kind of protective hairstyle to keep the locks from falling across her eyes, was instead long and loose, tumbling down her shoulders in a glossy blonde waterfall. And, with her face barren of makeup, she looked younger. She could probably pass for twenty.

A low, muffled sound suddenly came rising up from the living room, and Nadine froze, her nerves set alight. Her heart hammered in her ears and her breathing grew constricted, and then she was fearing that Hazel and Cha-Cha were here, that they'd returned under the cloak of night. She knew that, if it was truly them, and if they found her, they could slit her throat without even waking up the superheroes.

Stay alive, said Five's voice in her mind, and Nadine knew he was right. So, trying to be as silent as possible, Nadine slipped into the adjacent room, where Reginald Hargreeves kept an entire cabinet full of weapons. She wasn't sure why, exactly, he needed them, only that they were extraordinarily helpful to her right now.

She jammed her fingers in the groove between the glass, forcing the cabinet open with scarcely a whisper. She studied the selection available to her for a moment, her brow creased in concentration, then finally picked up a long, curved blade. Shutting the door quietly with her other hand, Nadine took a deep breath, goosebumps prickling across her arms, and then stalked off to the living room to confront the potential intruders.

But as she made it to the doorway of the living room, she hesitated. The muffled sound had come again, but it didn't sound like Hazel or Cha-Cha or even Five, for that matter. Because it wasn't a laugh, or a low, murmured voice—it was a sob.

Nadine stepped into the living room to find Klaus Hargreeves, sitting on the floor, his head in his hands and his body wracked with cries. There was a bottle beside him—unopened—and a tissue box, with tissues strewn around, like patches of snow. In between his weeping, Klaus was attempting to wipe his eyes, trying to halt the flow of tears that were cascading down his cheeks, but it was fruitless. The waterworks just kept coming.

Nadine inhaled a startled breath. She hadn't seen Klaus since that family meeting she'd somehow ended up in, where the members of the Umbrella Academy were debating whether or not to turn Grace off, and she'd assumed that he'd been off buying drugs or partying in the streets since then. But the scene she was witnessing right now painted a whole different story, and Nadine realized with a twinge of guilt that she'd already made assumptions about his character. Assumptions that, based on the fragile, crying man in front of her, were simply not true. Whatever Klaus Hargreeves had been through didn't seem to have involved stimulants.

At this revelation, her blade slipped through her fingers, falling onto the floor with a clatter. Klaus jumped at the sound, whirling around, his tears freezing on his face. Realizing that she'd been caught, Nadine stepped forward, letting her face catch the weak light from the chandelier hanging above. "Klaus."

Klaus stared at her, his brows knitted together, looking, for some reason, like he was struggling for her name. Then it finally came to him, rolling off his tongue. "Nadine."

Nadine didn't know what she was going to do before she did it. She'd never been soft—she was all hard edges instead of supple curves—and had never been one to comfort people with a cup of tea, a kind word. Usually, she'd just give people the relief of her presence, and, once she'd pried the story out of them, would go after whoever had slighted them. Which is why it surprised even her when she instead stepped forward, plopping down beside Klaus in a heap of pink silk.

Up close, he looked even worse. There was a rawness in his face, a pain in his eyes that made him seem so utterly broken that it tugged on her heartstrings.

"What happened?" she asked. She didn't waste her time with pointless questions like are you okay or what's wrong, because it was clear that Klaus Hargreeves was very much not okay, and there was too much that was wrong. She knew she didn't know him all that well, but that applied to everyone else in the Academy, too. Besides, she wasn't just going to leave him here, crying on the floor, looking so utterly lost.

Klaus took in a shuddering breath, then wiped at his eyes again. He looked like he wanted to go for the bottle, but, to Nadine's surprise, he didn't. She swiped it anyway, just to be sure. Klaus breathed, "It doesn't matter anymore."

"Klaus. Tell me. I know we are not... I know we are not the closest of friends, but I'm not going to leave you like this." Her voice was stilted, awkward, but she forced the words out anyway, gnawing on her lip. Suddenly hesitant to keep holding eye contact, her eyes darted around the room, the awful, barren room in the awful house clearly full of unpleasant memories, and that was when the idea came to mind. "Hey." She put a hand on his shoulder, and he flinched, a lot more than he should. He reminded Nadine of herself, in those first months after she'd been shot. Heat crept into her cheeks, and she snatched her hand away. "Sorry. I just... there's this... this thing I do. When I'm upset, or just bored. I call them my Sanctuaries. It's like that garden I showed you. I make them, with my illusions, and for a while, I can just disappear. Do you...?" Her voice trailed off, but it was clear what she was asking.

Klaus nodded. "Yes. Please." His voice was barely above a whisper. "Disappearing sounds great."

"Okay." Nadine's voice was still a hush, a tone that may be used to rock a baby to sleep. Maybe it was the lateness of the hour, or maybe it was because Klaus reminded her so much of herself; either way, she was acting so distinctly un-Nadine-like that if she'd looked in the mirror, she would've been surprised to see her own face staring back. "Where do you want to go?"

He shrugged. "Anywhere but here."

A smile quirked on the edges of Nadine's lips. "I'll show you my favourite."

Concentrating hard, Nadine felt the hum form in the center of her forehead, saw the pale blue light illuminating Klaus's despondent face. The image was a painting in her brain, and as she assembled it around Klaus, it was like bringing said painting to life. Each splay of her fingers was another brushstroke, until the painting was finished, and Nadine Vidal and Klaus Hargreeves were sitting at the bottom of the ocean, nestled between stalks of seaweed and coral. The air around them warped, faintly blue, and the ground beneath them had turned to sand. A school of multicoloured fish swam in circles above their heads, there was an occasional flash of grey skin as a dolphin darted by, and where the ceiling had once been, the surface of the water glistened ethereally, shining in gold as an imaginary sun shone down on it.

Klaus's mouth dropped open. "Holy shit."

Nadine smiled, though it turned out weaker than she would've liked it to. It was hard work, attempting to keep the illusion up for the both of them, and she knew if her concentration wavered, the entire thing would crumble. "You like it?"

Klaus was staring around at the scene, still gaping like the fish that swam above them. "This might be the coolest thing I've ever seen." He straightened his shoulders, crossing his legs only to uncross them again, and then finally took a deep breath. He was trembling. "Okay. I guess... I guess I can tell you. But... don't tell anyone, alright? I... I don't know if I want the others to know."

Nadine wondered why Klaus was trusting her, then. Was it because she was a stranger, and not family, or was it just because she was here, right now? She didn't know, but she was honoured, either way. That Klaus saw her as an ear to lament his sorrows to.

"Alright," she said now, still focusing on the ocean. "I promise, Klaus, I won't tell anyone."

"Thank you." Klaus wiped at his eyes once more, taking in another shuddering breath. And then he began.

"So, uh... you know those masked assholes who broke into the house? Looking for Five?"

"Hazel and Cha-Cha," said Nadine, a shiver running down her spine. Anything that started with those two couldn't be good.

"Yeah, them." Klaus squeezed his hands into fists. He seemed reluctant to let the next few words loose, but he did it anyway. "Well, when they couldn't find Five at the house, they, uh..." he swallowed, throat bobbing. "They took me instead. They wanted me as a hostage."

Nadine's eyes widened, and something lurched in her belly. The ocean stilled for a moment, the living room of the Academy beginning to seep in through the cracks, but Nadine regained control over it, and soon the living room disappeared. "They what?"

"Yep." Klaus looked away from Nadine, instead training his eyes on the fish. "They... they tortured me. For the whole day. They... they wanted to know things, about Five, and... and..." he trailed off, his eyes suddenly widening. He jolted forward, as if he'd just been struck by lightning.

"Klaus?" Nadine swallowed, her stomach still twisting. "Klaus, are you alright?"

Torture. Hazel and Cha-Cha had tortured him. Nadine couldn't see any marks of it on Klaus, but she didn't doubt his word. They'd kidnapped Klaus, and they'd tortured him, and it was worse, so much worse, than just shooting him. Suddenly, any bad memories she'd retained from those two seemed minor, like they were nothing. Because Klaus had been tortured.

She was going to fucking murder them.

Klaus shook his head, his eyes still wide as dinner plates. "Shit. Shit. It's been so long that I almost—I almost forgot—oh, shit."

Nadine was beginning to grow even more worried. "What is it? What's wrong, Klaus?"

"I'm sorry—I didn't know what to say—they were torturing me—"

Nadine raised a hand. "Klaus. Slow down, slow down. What happened?"

"I... fuck..." Klaus buried his head in his hands, as if he couldn't even stand to look at her. "Nadine... I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. When I was being... when they were torturing me... they didn't just ask about Five. They asked about you. And I didn't know what to tell them because I didn't know you all that well, and they were... they took... I'm sorry."

For a moment, Nadine's vision whited out. She could see nothing, not the ocean illusion or even the real living room. She could just see blank nothingness, and hear Klaus's words echoing back in her mind. They asked about you.

When her vision finally cleared, and she was back in the ocean, she found Klaus staring at her, guilt brimming in his eyes. "Nadine? Nadine, say something..."

Nadine wasn't even sure she could. She half-expected that when she opened her mouth, no sound would come out. Or perhaps she'd just start blathering on in French, and be unable to speak a single word in English.

She took a deep breath, rubbing her eyes. Come on, Nadine.

"..."

Come on, come on. Just speak. Fucking say something. It's not that hard.

The words finally came out. "They... they asked about me?"

"I... I didn't know why. I didn't know why they wanted to know about you."

But I do, Nadine thought. And then was lifting her collar, revealing that damned bullet scar. "Hazel and Cha-Cha..." she began, her voice weak and trembling. She had to start over. "Hazel and Cha-Cha... we're old friends. And by that, I mean they gave me this."

Klaus sucked in a breath. "Oh, shit. Really?"

Nadine nodded. "I was eighteen. They cornered me in an alleyway, and I wasn't expecting it. Ever since then, I've been terrified, Klaus. Terrified that they'd come back. And now, they have."

Klaus let out a sob. "I'm so sorry."

Nadine reached out, placing her hand on top of his. The illusion was beginning to take too much out of her, and she let it drop, showing the living room once again. Klaus didn't seem to notice. "Klaus. It's... it's alright. It's not your fault. They were hurting you, and I was a stranger, and it only makes sense that you'd say anything to get them to stop." She closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath. When she reopened them, she asked, "What... what happened? After that?"

"This lady... she rescued me. I didn't even know her name, but I think she was with the police. She distracted them, and I crawled through this vent. And that was where I found it. This... this briefcase." He said the last word with loathing. "Back then, I was so... I was so thrilled. I thought I could pawn it, you know? I thought that I'd been kidnapped, and this was fate giving me something back as penitence. But when I opened it... there was no money in there. Instead, there was this flash... this flash of light, and then I was in this tent, and I didn't know what was happening. There were these explosions outside, and this really scary guy was yelling at me to get up, to put on a uniform, and it was only when I was outside that I realized I had stepped into a warzone."

Now it was Nadine's turn for her mouth to drop open. "What? What do you mean, a warzone?"

"I mean... I mean that I went back in time. To the Vietnam War. And I was there... I was there ten months. I served for ten months."

"You... you went back in time?"

The Commission, Nadine realized. It appeared that the briefcases were what Hazel and Cha-Cha used to jump across time. It was what had taken them here, to America, and it may have taken them to France, twelve years ago. No wonder they'd recognized her so easily. It might have only been months for them.

"I did." Klaus nodded. "And I wasn't... I didn't even know if I was going to come back. I know how that sounds, but the war wasn't all bad. There was someone I met... I would've thrown everything away for him. God, I loved him so much. But then... then he was gone. He's gone, Nadine. I loved him, I loved him so fucking much, and he's just... he's just gone!"

He slammed a fist on the floor, a fresh set of tears spilling from his eyes.

Nadine inched forward, lacing her fingers with his. A sob was building up in her own throat, but she refused to let it loose. "I'm... I'm so sorry, Klaus."

Klaus sniffed. "When I was with Dave, I truly felt like I knew who I was. Like I wasn't just some junkie that no one ever takes seriously. Like I was never part of the Umbrella Academy, never fucking traumatized by dear ol' dad... around him, I could just be Klaus. Just... just Klaus, for once."

Nadine knew exactly how he felt. It was what she'd felt when she was with Camille. But at least Camille was still alive. At least she wasn't dead, like Klaus's Dave was.

"I'm sorry," she said again, and then Klaus was falling upon her, sobbing, crying into her shoulder. Nadine raised her arms, patting him awkwardly on the back, thinking about Camille and Vanya and Dave and everything Klaus had been through. It was a miracle he was still standing.

And there they were, clinging to each other in the dark living room, shifting from acquaintances to friends as the night wore on. Nadine's eyes were beginning to be laden with exhaustion, but she refused to move, allowing Klaus an outlet in which to vent his sorrows to. And when he was finished, she let her own out, tentatively telling him more about her shooting, about the way she'd frozen up when Hazel and Cha-Cha had returned. How Diego had seen that moment of weakness, and used it against her.

Then she told him about Vanya. About their fight, and about Leonard, and about how she was beginning to wonder if she would always be second-best. "She said... she said that nobody thought she was special," said Nadine, balling her hands into fists. "And I told her I did. But it didn't matter to her. Maybe because I wasn't the person she wanted to hear it from."

"Shit," Klaus breathed. "That really sucks."

"I just... I just don't understand what she sees in Leonard, anyway. I mean, he's the most basic white guy I've ever seen! I could probably go into any grocery store and see at least three men who look exactly like him. I don't get it." Nadine buried her head in her hands. "Or maybe I just do not understand what anyone sees in men." Then she looked to Klaus. "No offense."

"None taken," he responded, gathering his discarded tissues. "You're right."

Nadine barked out a laugh, and Klaus even managed to crack a smile of his own.

"Thank you," he blurted out suddenly. "For everything. If you hadn't been here—" his eyes drifted to the bottle that Nadine had taken from him. "Just... thank you."

"Of course," said Nadine, and she meant it.

Later, when she bid Klaus goodnight and climbed into bed, she turned to the blinking clock on her nightstand. It was five-thirty in the morning. They'd been talking for two and a half hours.

She slid under the covers, feeling lighter than air. Like she could fly, if she put in the effort. She closed her eyes, letting herself drift off.

So when Luther woke her up only two and a half hours later, telling her they were having a meeting (which she was invited to, for some reason), Nadine Vidal seriously could've killed a man. Honestly, considering what would happen next, she should've. But she'd never been a killer, and so she had to instead force herself out of bed, heavy bags ringing under her eyes.

"This better be good," she murmured as she got dressed, to no one in particular.

It was not. 

⋆*✧･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:

HAVEN: this chapter was SO hard to write. not only because it's sad as hell, but because my brain didn't seem to want to cooperate with me when i was doing it. i actually ended up scrapping it and rewriting the entire thing (which is why it took so long to come out), and i'm still not sure if i like it or not :/// 

anyway, klaus and nadine are the mlm/wlw friendship we all need in our lives. i love them, and i love their bond, and i thought they both deserved a vent session <3 it's been a tough week for the both of them :( 

thank you for reading <3