☂️ ⓪ ☂️

I DUST OFF OUR FATHER'S jacket shoulder, which Klaus is currently wearing. The elevator is slow as it makes its way up to the floor Five and I had been on just earlier today. In little to no time, the elevator stops at the third floor. The doors separate, allowing the inpatient man in school-boy shorts to stride to the receptionist's desk once more.

Klaus and I watch in amusement as Five talks to the woman behind the desk in a quiet, threatening tone, requesting to meet with the same man we have spoken to before.

She watches him with fearful eyes as she picks up the office phone on her desk before telling her boss about our presence.

It isn't long before we sit in the Doctor's office. Klaus and I sit in the two seats reserved for clients, while Five stands to my left, his fist tightly clenched at his side as Dr. Lance continues to disappoint us further.

"Like I said to your daughter earlier," Lance says to Klaus. "Any information about the prosthetics we build is strictly confidential. Without the client's consent, I simply can't help you." He holds his hand in front of his chest, with fingers interlocked with each other.

"Well, we can't get consent if you don't give us a name," Five says through his teeth. He leans forward as his hands grip the desk in frustration.

"Well, that's not my problem," Lance states with a shrug. A glint in his eye shows that this is a rare occurrence for him to deny someone access to records. "Sorry," he adds, half-heartedly.

"You're enjoying this too much," I sneer, squinting my eyes at him suspiciously, causing him to eye me with doubt.

"I'm sorry you feel that way. Now, there's really nothing more I can do, so-,"

"Well, what about my consent?" Klaus interrupts the doctor, causing both Five and I to look at him in confusion.

"Excuse me?"

"Who gave you permission," Klaus pauses his sentences before he starts crocodile tears. "To lay your hands... on my daughter's Boo-boo Bear?" He points up at Five who frowns at his brother at the disturbing nickname.

"What?" Lance and I ask at the same time. I raise my eyebrows at him.

What the fuck is he doing?

"You heard me," Klaus says.

"I didn't touch him."

That phrasing is a little sus, but okay...

"Oh, really? Well, then how did he get that swollen lip, then?" Klaus questions with wide, psychotic eyes, causing all of us to watch him carefully.

"He doesn't have a swollen-," Lance is about to deny.

An audible swing and punch interrupts the doctor as Five groans in pain. Klaus just punched him in the face.

"Woah," I gape at the pair.

Lance gasps as Klaus inhales sharply, shaking his hand in pain. "I want it. Name, please. Now," my brother demands. He leans into the table getting close to the doctors face, hauntingly.

I stand, and Five glances at me with a silent question, 'What the hell?' I step toward with and take his face in my hands as I look at his bottom lip.

"You're crazy."

"Y'know, calling crazy people crazy can be triggering," I mutter in reply to Lance, not looking away from Five's injury.

Klaus releases a breathless chuckle. "You've got no idea." He looks down and spots a snow globe with planet Earth in the center before reading the text at the bottom aloud, "Peace on Earth."

Five places his hand on my wrist, causing me to look up into his eyes. His expression is stubborn as well as longing. I blink before taking a step back, realising that I had been intruding in his personal space, not that he had complained.

"That is so sweet!" Klaus continues with a smile, gaining our attention again. He takes the globe in both hands before ramming the glass into his head, causing it to shatter. Blood, water, and glitter now coat his face, hair, and borrowed jacket. Klaus groans loudly in pain as if it wasn't self-inflicted. "God, that hurt!"

Five grabs my waist and pulls me away from the glass protectively.

Idiot. I love Klaus. But he's an idiot.

"I'm calling security." The doctor grabs his phone and holds it to his ear as he dials a number quickly. I use my telekinesis to yank the phone out of his hand and into mine, causing Lance to gape at me with wide eyes. "What are you doing?!"

"Thank you, dear," Klaus smiles at me sweetly before taking the phone and speaking into the receiver. "There's been an assault in Mr.Big's office, and we need security, now. Schnell!" He gasps with false terror.

"Wow," I mutter, slightly impressed as I watch them from over Five's shoulder.

Klaus sighs as he catches his breath, dropping the phone carelessly.  "Now, here's what's going to happen, Grant."

"It's... Lance," the doctor corrects him in fear.

Klaus ignores him. "In about sixty seconds, two security guards are gonna burst through that door, and they're gonna see a whole lot of blood, and they're gonna wonder, What the hell happened?"

Five smirks at me in amusement over the addict's words.

Woah, a genuine smile.

"And, we're gonna tell them that you..." Klaus pauses for dramatic effect before bringing on the fake tears again. "beat the shit out of us." He looks back at Five and me, only to see me unmarked. He chuckles at the doctor again. "And, you didn't hit her because she's a girl!"

"Wow. That's not very feminist of you, Doctor," I scold him mockingly with a giggle.

"Exactly," Klaus sighs in agreement. "You're gonna do great in prison, Grant. Trust me, I've been there."

Was that part of the bit or... Y'know what? I don't want to know.

"Little piece of chicken like you," Klaus continues to taunt.  "Oh, my God. You're gonna get passed around like a..." He swings his hips in a hula-hoop motion. He hisses with a Cheshire cat smile. "You're just-, You're gonna do great. That's all I'm saying." He swats the air like his words were casual.

"Jesus, you are a real sick bastard," Lance says, looking up at Klaus with a clenched jaw.

"Thank you," my brother deadpans before spitting out a shard of glass.

Five smiles down at Lance gleefully, pleased with how the situation has played out.

•☂️•

Klaus sits on the filing cabinet across from where Five is standing impatiently.

I am standing in front of my brother next to the doctor, carefully picking out the small shards of glass in his hair as we all wait for Lance to find the correct form to match our glass eye dilemma.

Five side-eyes my actions, making eye contact with me for barely a second before he looks back to the doctor.

He's not... jealous, is he?

I'm only messing with Klaus's hair...

I have no chance to dwell on that idea before Lance states, "Huh, that's strange.

I stop running my hands through Klaus's curly hair to peer up at the man. "What?"

"Uh, the eye. It hasn't been purchased by a client," he informs us.

I step back from my brother as he hops off the cabinet to square up the doctor. "What? What do you mean?" Klaus taunts him.

"Well, uh, our logs say that the eye with that serial number... This can't be right," Lance frowns down at the paper as Klaus walk around him, invading his personal space to look at the form from over his shoulder. "It hasn't even been manufactured yet."

Five and I share a look.

"Fuck," I curse.

He has a similar defeated look at I'm assuming I have as well. We really weren't expecting this to lead us to a dead end.

"Where did you get that eye?" The puzzled doctor asks Five.

Five scoffs at the inconvenience. As he round the counter space to Klaus and I.

"Come on. We're leaving," he says before tugging Klaus by his sleeve and placing a hand on the small of my back to lead us back to the elevators.

"But, we didn't get any information!" Klaus whines, clearly wanting to bully the doctor some more.

"We did. We just don't know what to do with it," I correct him. "Who the fuck is loosing an eye within the next week? Seriously, they couldn't have just lost it like last Tuesday or something?"

Klaus goes to press the button for the elevator only for his hand to get swatted away by Five.

"Would've been more convenient," Five agrees bitterly as the elevator door slide open for us to enter.

Five's hand doesn't drop from my waist as the elevator slowly makes its way down to the first floor.

Cliché elevator music plays as Klaus sways his hips to the rhythm which makes me smile in amusement to myself.

The doors open again.

Five runs his free hand through his hair with frustration. "Well, this is not good," He says as we make our way outside building.

"I was pretty good, though, right?" Klaus asks pridefully. "Yeah, what about my consent, bitch?" He quotes himself before giggling.

"You didn't need to hit him, though," I mutter as Five glares at him.

"It doesn't matter," Five stresses with a clenched jaw.

Klaus turns to face us. "What? What? What's the big deal with this eye anyway?" he asks with zero empathy.

"There is someone out there who's going to lose an eye in the next seven days," Five explains.

"They're gonna bring about the end of life on this earth as we know it," I elaborate as Five starts to pace anxiously.

"Yeah, can I get that 20 bucks, like, now, or what?" Klaus asks.

I blink at him. "You're joking."

"Your 20 bucks?" Five repeats, dumbfounded.

"Yeah, my 20 bucks."

"The apocalypse is coming, and all you can think about is getting high?" Five asks, disgusted.

"Well, I'm also quite hungry." Klaus places his hands on his stomach like he's pregnant. "Tummy's a-rumblin'." He imitates his stomach growling, wiggling his fingers. "Errrr."

"Oh, poor you. It's not like we have a fully functional kitchen at home," I deadpan, glaring at him.

Yes, we fucking do.

"You're useless," Five realizes aloud.

"Five," I scold him.

"You're all useless!" He exclaims, strutting away.

"Hey!" I yell.

"Oh, come onnn," Klaus replies, not taking Five's words as personally as I did. "You need to lighten up, old man."

Five takes a seat at the steps leading up to the prosthetic manufacturing company building we were just in, sighing.

"Useless?" I repeat, deeply offended as a glare down at my ex-boyfriend. "Five, I did not quit my job at the commission just to come here and follow you around. In fact, if you remember correctly, I didn't want to fucking do this at all! If you hadn't-,"

"Zero." Five stands up and places his hands on my biceps, holding me at arms length as he stare deeply into my eyes, wanting to get his message across clearly. "Not you. For fucks sake, I didn't mean you. Never you. I'd loose my shit if you left again, okay? That's... not what I meant."

We're quiet for a moment. He eyes me carefully, fearful to how I might react.

"Sorry," I mutter softly with a sigh.

Okay. So, I may have gotten a bit extreme. Safe to say this whole situation is stressing Five and I far more than we've let on.

I roll my shoulders back, shrugging off his hands before I sit down on the stairs like he had before.

Five nods a little as he straightens his posture.

"Wow," Klaus says, having just watched this interaction with raised eyebrows.

Five rolls his eyes before taking a seat next to me.

"Hey, y'know, I've just realized why you two are so uptight," Klaus says with a glint of amusement in his eyes.

"This is going to be good," I remark sarcastically.

"You guys must be horny as hell!" He laughs.

Five and I become tense, not daring to look away from the concrete ground below us.

"All those years by yourselves," Klaus continues. "It's gotta screw with your head, being alone with no one but each other."

Five and I make no comment.

But lack of reaction must have spoken more than words could because next thing we knew, Klaus was gasping and practically jumping into the air with realization.

"Holy shit! You guys fucked! Woooow!" Klaus laughs, placing a hand on his heart as he proceeds to process this revelation. "But, you two don't seem like you're together nowwwww, Wow! That must be so awkward for you guys."

"Not helping, Klaus." I glare up at him.

"Wait, so you guys were together? Like full on Luther and Allison style?"

"What?" Five frowns up at him.

"Oh, y'know. How they were like," Klaus pauses his sentence to make uncomfortable kissy noises. "Ugh, Luther." He then switches his voice to a higher octave, "Oh, Allison! Ugh."

Both Five and I watch our brother with disturbed expressions.

"Please, never do that again," I beg sourly.

"I second that," Five agrees.

"Whatever," Klaus says. "I can't get over the fact that you're both almost 60," he sighs, thankfully switching topics.

"What? Did you expect me to be walking around with a purse full of butterscotch or some shit?" I ask, still on edge. "No, butthead. Get your own fucking butterscotch." I glare up at him.

Klaus's smile falls. "Sorry, grumpy. I would." He holds his hands up in surrender. "IF I HAD MONEY," he reminds us dramatically.

Five takes my hand silently before blinking us into the backseat of a nearby taxi, causing the driver to gasp in surprise.

"Don't stop. Just keep going," Five orders.

"Fucking hell. If Klaus said one more thing about our sex lives, I swear I would have tossed him into the fucking sun," I murmur, rubbing my temples stressfully as Five waves at our brother as we pass him.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! What about my money?!" I hear Klaus shout after us.

Five leaned forward to tell the diver a destination.

"Where are we going?" I ask him, not having been able to hear it.

"Klaus was wrong," Five says cryptically as he leans back in his seat, placing his arm around my shoulders protectively.

"About?" I ask, not pushing the physical contact away.

"We weren't alone," he clarifies, looking at me knowingly. "Not for all of it."

My mouth opens in realization. "Delores."

"Delores," he confirms with a nod. "It's about time you saw her again, don't you think?"

I nod immediately.

God, I missed Delores. It's been decades since I last saw her beautiful stoic face.

Five begins to play with the ends of my hair, twirling them around his long fingers gently. The action was so subtle that if I wasn't hyper aware of his body, I probably wouldn't have even noticed. I smile to myself as I subconsciously lean into him a little.

Maybe, there something's we can fix...

•☂️•

Word count: 2.5K

A/N: This update is soooo late. Sorry. :/

I watched season four of TUA last week when it came out... Oof. I don't know what to say other than that I'm disappointed with the whole Five situation, but how are you guys feeling?