SONG: All The Luv In My Sick Heart - Awfultune

"Oh, well, no wonder she's upset, seeing as how she's got the hots for you."

"What?" I asked, wide eyed before laughing and shaking my head, "Um, no. Vanya does not have the hots for me," I shook off what Klaus had just said. He hummed and shook his head from side to side.

"I don't know. Seemed like she had a little bit of a crush on you," he said, making an ok gesture that didn't touch to signal the little bit he was talking about. I scoffed and shook my head.

"No. Nope. I know she didn't because we tried that once and it didn't work out," I said, to which he hummed and shrugged.

"Maybe for you," he said. I sighed and just gave up, walking up to the table and taking a seat. I could feel Klaus's eyes on me before he reached over to ruffle my hair, and I finally slumped.

"I don't want to lose her," I whispered in a pitiful tone as tears once again pricked my eyes.

"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa," Klaus said, seemingly taken aback by my sudden wave of emotion, kneeling beside me to look up into my eyes, "You aren't going to lose her," he assured me with extreme care in his voice.

"How do you know? She thinks I used her," I frowned.

"But you didn't."

"But she doesn't know that," I cried. He struggled to get back to his feet and next thing I knew I was stood up and pulled into a hug.

"She just needs time. That's all," he said, stroking down my hair as I buried my face in his chest. This was just what I needed. I melted into his arms, holding onto him as if for dear life.

The moment was cut short when small, quick footsteps made their way into the room. I quickly pulled away from Klaus, sitting back down in the chair before turning to see Five looking around.

"Am I intruding on something?" he asked with a cocked eyebrow as I wiped my cheeks and looked away.

"No, nope. Not at all brother," Klaus lied, sitting back down at his spot at the table. Five looked between us, shrugged, and then went about his business. He seemed to look through every single cabinet while Klaus grabbed the guitar off the table, put his feet back up, and strummed a couple chords. Nobody said a single word until somebody new entered the room.

"Where's Vanya?" Allison asked as she walked in, looking at us all.

"Oh, she's gone," Klaus answered, looking at me before back to his sister.

"That's unfortunate," I heard Five as I looked down at my hands and picked at some chipped nail polish.

"Yeah," Allison said, looking at me, "You didn't go with her?"

"She didn't want me to," I mumbled, not really wanting to go more into detail about why I stayed.

"An entire square block. Forty-two bedrooms, nineteen bathrooms, but no, not a single drop of coffee," Five said, slamming down some can of something that apparently wasn't coffee on the table.

"Dad hated caffeine," Allison said as though it were a known fact, which to them it most likely was.

"Well, he hated children, too, and he had plenty of us," Klaus said, letting out a single laugh before dropping his smile completely. We all looked around at each other for a short moment.

"I'm taking the car," Five finally said, starting for the door before he was stopped.

"Where are you going?" Klaus asked slowly, putting his feet down and moving the guitar.

"To get a decent cup of coffee," Five retorted, every syllable laced with attitude.

"Do you even know how to drive?" Allison asked.

"I know how to do everything," and with that, Five had blinked away.

"I feel like we should try to stop him," Klaus started, standing from his seat and holding out his hand where Five had just been, "but then again, I also just kinda want to see what happens," he said, turning back to us while a car engine revved outside.

"Why's she still here?" I heard and turned to see Diego coming into the room, a bag slung over his shoulder, "Nevermind, doesn't matter. Guess I'll see you guys in, what? Ten years? When Pogo dies?" he asked his siblings, coming up to the table.

"Not if you die first," Allison replied, turning away from her brother.

"Yeah, love you too, sis," he said in response, "Good luck on your next film. Hope it turns out better than your marriage," he said, popping some kind of food into his mouth before taking off.

"Twat," I muttered under my breath, rolling my eyes at the gall of that man. Allison put a hand on my shoulder as if to tell me to calm down about it before dropping it almost instantly and turning to leave the room. I looked back at Klaus, who had turned to Diego who was still headed towards the door.

"Are-are we leaving?" he asked the annoying man.

"No, I'm leaving. Me by myself," Diego responded.

"Oh, fabulous! I'll get my things!" Klaus clapped and stopped walking with Diego, turning back to me. I raised an eyebrow at him before just shrugging it off.

"I guess I should get going home. I've already been here too long, I think," I said with a huffed sigh, not really wanting to leave. I wanted so badly to be able to call this house my home, but I knew I couldn't and that even the desire for that was weird enough.

"No, come on! Let's go bug Diego some more!" Klaus said, running up to me with small steps and taking my hands in his. I felt an uninvited smile cross my face at that, "I'm hungry. Are you hungry? I'm starving. We can go somewhere and get food, Diego can give us a ride," he said, smiling, "You know, just you and me," he leaned closer so our foreheads were almost touching, before rolling his eyes and turning his head to the side, "Go piss off somebody else for a change!"

I laughed and nodded my head, deciding this sounded like a time I definitely wanted to have and needed after today.

"Yeah, yeah, okay. Let's go," I answered, causing him to look back at me and smile.

"Great! Come on!" He let go of one of my hands, but kept a tight grip on the other as he pulled me along with him outside of the house and to Diego's car. Diego was already one foot into his car when we got out there, Klaus opening the backseat door for me, "Hey!" he shouted, letting me hop in before shoving himself in the car, "Diego," I could see the resignation written on Diego's face, "You know, everytime I close my eyes, I see a diarrhetic hippo about to shit on my face," Klaus said, grabbing both of Diego's shoulders, and I wondered if Diego saw Klaus in the same way as Klaus saw that hippo, "It's terrifying!"

"Terrific," Diego said, starting the ignition, annoyance clear in his expression, which was great. I tugged on Klaus's parka-thing--you know what, I'm just going to start calling it a parka, to get him to sit back, which he did, while shutting his eyes and shaking his head.

"No! No," he muttered in almost a scared tone, as if he were seeing that hippo then and there before he opened his eyes again. Almost immediately after, Diego sped out of the strange alley like lot the car was parked in.

It wasn't long before we arrived at a lot by the ocean, where Diego got out of the car and made his way to the water. I couldn't exactly see what he was doing, so instead I focused on Klaus, who looked almost entirely out of it. He had moved over to the window seat, so I had scooted to the middle seat.

"You okay?" I asked and he nodded, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a bag with pills in it. I rolled my eyes and slapped it out of his hand.

"Hey! That's rude!" he frowned, picking the bag up off the floorboards.

"Yeah, well, you don't need that shit," I retorted, crossing my arms as I looked at him with raised eyebrows. He hissed at me before rolling his head around his shoulders.

"Yeah, I do," he said, and before I could react, popped a pill I hadn't realized he'd pulled out of the bag into his mouth. I scoffed and shook my head.

"Suit yourself, I guess," I mumbled, but soon felt his hand on my knee in an almost comforting way, though when I looked up at him he was staring out the front window at Diego. I just looked back down, deciding against saying anything about it. I only looked back up when I heard the door open and saw Klaus stick his head out.

"Yoo-hoo, Diego!" he called his brother, "I hate to rush you through any kind of brooding moment you might be having, but come on, man, we're starving!" he shouted before giving up and leaning back into the car, shutting the door once more. He sat there for a moment as he took a deep breath before speaking again, "I'm craving... Eggs," he clicked his tongue, "No! Wait, it's too late for eggs. Uh... Waffles. Huh?" he looked over at me, though he kept looking between me and the window seat, "You like waffles, right?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Ah. Of course you do," he grinned and looked away, looking down at his hand that was still on my knee, "Everyone likes waffles," he said and I took a deep breath before deciding I just wanted to make a move, leaning in on his shoulder. I felt him turn to look at me as I moved my hand up and put it over his. Soon, Diego made his way back to the car, looking back at us.

"So, what are y'all? All lovey dovey and shit?" he asked. I felt my cheeks heat up and began to sit back up before feel Klaus put a hand on my head to keep me there.

"Diego, thank you for joining us, we have decided on, drum roll, waffles," Klaus said, completely ignoring his brothers comment as he drummed on the back of Diego's seat. Diego just sighed before continuing.

"I'm gonna drop you off at the bus stop. I gotta get back to work," he said. I looked up at Klaus to watch his small smile drop and his adam's apple bob.

"What? Breaking bones and cracking skulls?" Klaus asked with a small, obviously faked chuckle.

"Saving lives, baby," Diego retorted.

"Well, I guess it's frozen waffles again," Klaus leaned his head back against the seat as he looked back over at the window seat.

"Which bus stop are you dropping us at?" I asked as Diego fixed his rearview mirror and looked at me through it.

"The first one I can find," he replied. I nodded, looking around at our surroundings to try and place where in the city we were.

"Yeah, I could do egg and bacon, but I'm trying to cut down on my pig products," Klaus said as Diego put on what looked like an Umbrella Academy mask without the white eyes. I thought for a moment, then finally realized the dead brother he could see must have been sitting in the window seat. I looked between Klaus and the window seat before shaking my head and just waiting until Diego kicked us out of his car.

The bus stop he dropped us off at was familiar, specifically because buses, tubes, and taxis were all I used to get around in this city seeing as I couldn't drive, or rather, didn't want to. I looked at Klaus, who had already begun making his way Christ-knows-where, and stopped him.

"You still want good waffles?" I asked, grabbing his attention.

"Like... The not frozen kind?" he asked, to which I nodded.

"I know where to get them."

☂☂☂

I opened the door to my small flat, letting in Klaus behind me, who looked around. I instinctively made my way to my bedroom after pointing him in the direction of my living room and kitchen. While in my room, I grabbed anything and everything I had about the Umbrella Academy (which wasn't a lot and never exactly had been) and threw it in a cubby in the corner of my room. I thought about throwing them in my closet, but knowing Klaus wore feminine clothes, I didn't want to risk him finding it if he used my wardrobe to look for his next fit. Then I made my way to the kitchen, passing the living room, where his parka was thrown over the sofa. When I got to the kitchen, I saw a now entirely shirtless Klaus taking a long swig from my milk carton before he caught sight of me and stopped, putting it back while he fumbled with the cap.

"Oh, by all means," I said, not even exactly caring. I grabbed my waffle maker and reached in the cupboard, "Waffles with pancake mix?" I questioned, not really knowing how to make them from scratch.

"Sounds scrumptious," he joked, closing the door to the refrigerator. I nodded, grabbing a bowl out from a bottom cupboard, then pointed at the fridge.

"We'll need milk and eggs," I said, reading off the box. With only a small mess, we managed to make the pancake waffles. Some of the mix dripped down the side of the bowl, so I wiped it up with my finger and looked at Klaus. He wasn't paying attention, seemingly in his own little world (I blamed the drugs he took in the car), so I wiped it off on his nose.

"Hey! What was that for?" he asked, wiping it off with the back of his hand, though he was smiling.

"Saw it in some romantic comedy. Thought I ought to give it a try at least once in my life; see if it lived up to the expectation," I shrugged, mixing the batter some more before pouring it into the waffle maker, "It didn't," I smirked.

"Well, sorry to disappoint," Klaus said and I looked up at him.

"Want to make it up to me?"

☂☂☂

Later into the night, I was staring at the ceiling of my dark bedroom now that my eyes had adjusted to the dim light coming from the windows. I looked over to my left to see Klaus, fast asleep and snoring obnoxiously loud. I giggled a bit, covering my mouth to keep it quiet so I wouldn't wake him before turning over so I was facing away from him. My door was cracked open just enough that I could see the sofa with his parka folded over it. I turned onto my back, looking once more at the sleeping man beside me. He looked so different while he slept. Any sign of stress was just gone from his expression, he just looked... Peaceful. I looked back to my door, slowly and as quietly as possible moving the blanket and sitting up, moving off of the bed. I threw on some underwear and a baggy T-Shirt as I tiptoed my way to the door, occasionally looking back at Klaus. I got to the door, opening it and closing it behind me, but not all the way, then walked over to the sofa where his parka was.

I picked it up, feeling the warmth that still hadn't gone away, and the soft fluffy fabric. It was something I could only dream of ever wearing, though I quickly pulled myself away from those thoughts as I instead dug through the pockets. I pulled out a familiar little bag with two pills left inside it. I then looked back up and around, remembering how he had talked to his brother a lot in the short time we were together.

"Um, Klaus's brother... I hope you understand that I'm doing this because I care about him, and that this stuff isn't really... You know... Good. For anybody," I whispered into the darkness before sighing softly. Maybe I shouldn't be touching his stuff, really. I didn't want to be intrusive or anything on his life, I was just... Worried for him, I guess is how I'd put it. I felt a cold chill run down my spine, bringing me out of my thoughts, "Are..." I trailed off, "Are you here?" another cold chill, "Um... Once for no, twice for yes... Are you okay with this?" I asked. I felt a chill once again, shivering to myself. My face fell as it took a moment, but I eventually felt a second one, and it felt like a weight had been taken off of my shoulders, "Are you... Going to tell him?" I asked, worried. I really didn't want Klaus finding out and hating me for throwing away his drugs, especially since I knew how costly the things could be.

This time I only felt one chill, and another never came. I nodded, a sense of pride filling my chest as I made my way to the toilets that connected to my room through the living room. I shut both doors, pouring the rest of the pills in the toilet before flushing them away. I smiled to myself in the mirror and threw the small baggy away before strutting back into my room. I slid back into the bed beside Klaus and snuggled in close to him, my face buried deep into his chest.

"Was it a good shit?" I heard him mumble, half asleep.

"The best," I mumbled back, looking up at him to see a small smile on his lips, which I promptly leaned up and placed a soft kiss on, "Goodnight."

"Sweet dreams, little Lucy."