Fireproof

Klaus shuddered and inhaled sharply as he woke up- the vaguely menacing dream sending him into a quick panic. The shadows cast on the wall from their fairy lights and the distant hallway light suddenly seemed to be closing in. He closed his eyes and tried to even out his breathing, a soft inhale - then exhale - inhale - exhale. When he opened them again the room came into focus.

“You okay?” Dave’s voice was rough from sleep.

He nodded and the man sleeping at his side moved closer to settle his head against Klaus’ chest. He pulled an arm around him and snuggled close, holding him like a teddy bear giving Klaus no choice but to melt into the warm touch. This was his favorite place in the world - in Dave’s safe embrace and he hummed contentedly as he drew soft circles onto the other man’s shoulder.

They remained like that for a while and eventually Dave started snoring against him as he drifted away. Klaus couldn’t go back to sleep but that didn’t mean that heaven or hell combined would be able to make him move from this spot.

4 A.M on the dot he felt Dave shift against him and his eyes fluttered open, looking up at Klaus with a sleepy expression. Klaus responded by threading his finger’s through the firefighter’s hair in the way that he loved.

“Hm. You keep doin’ that an’ I’m going to fall asleep again.” Dave mumbled against his boyfriend’s skin.

“There’s nothing wrong with that.” He hugged him tighter against his body and watched fondly as Dave’s arm reached out in a stretch and he yawned loudly.

Klaus whined as Dave shifted up onto his elbow and the pressure on his body left sending a shiver over his skin. He didn’t move, however, as his boyfriend blinked slowly awake and their eyes locked, “You ready for today?” Dave stretched again, this time his hand came down and rested against Klaus’ stomach.

Klaus smirked, “Physically? No. Emotionally? That’s also gonna be a no.”

Dave laughed; an action that made him lean over and press his forehead against his boyfriend’s shoulder for support, “Well, I’m excited.” he seemed lost in thought for a few moments until he added, “But I’ve got a lot of time to make up for.”

“David… You’re not responsible for the time you didn’t know she existed.” Klaus had said this again and again but he knew that deep down inside, Dave felt guilt for something that he couldn’t control and just him being him that meant he would have to work to right the wrong, no matter how illogical.

Dave’s fingers moved up and down Klaus’ skin, and he intently watched the gentle friction between them as he spoke, “I know - but that doesn’t mean I don’t wish I could have been there from the beginning…”

“You really don’t - It was a very confusing birth, honestly. And she got a lot cuter after the first day but I’m not gonna lie she was a little weird looking when she showed up.” Klaus rolled his head back, “I mean, I would have loved her but I was pretty happy when she stopped looking like an angry tuber.”

Dave giggled and fell against him briefly, “Oh my god…”

“Newborns are unsettling - and somebody’s gotta say it.” He grinned as his boyfriend shook his head against him. After a moment his smile faded slightly and he reached up to pull his fingers through the other man’s mussy short hair.

“But if we’re being honest about ugly babies - I don’t blame you for not being there but I wish that you could have been. In the beginning.”

Dave leaned up and kissed him, slow and comfortable like they had all the time in the world - which, of course, they didn’t and judging by the loud thump from the next room, their time was running out fast. He used the hand that had been resting on his stomach to pull him down to kiss him in earnest, Klaus hummed and pressed his forehead against the other man. Breathing in his scent and trying to lengthen the seconds between them.

They sighed in unison as they heard some softer thumps from the kitchen and Dave smiled, he kissed his nose and fell back onto his own pillow. “5.”

Klaus rolled his head back, “4.”

“3”

Klaus put a finger up, “2.”

“It’s Halloween!” Their door burst all the way open and Kenzie bolted inside. Immediately jumping on the bed onto Klaus’ side of the bed. On her knees she threw her arms out excitedly, “And my birthday!” She announced.

She tumbled into her father’s arms and giggled as he immediately started tickling her, “And I see that not a single minute of the day will be lost.”

Kenzie shook her head, “Nope.”

“Happy birthday, pumpkin! Muah!” he kissed her on the top of the head just between her horns.

She draped herself over her father to look at the other man, “It’s my birthday, Dave!”

“What!? It’s your birthday? Klaus, is that why we have all those presents hidden in the closet?”

She moved up until she was basically sitting on Klaus’ hip, “You didn’t hide any presents in the closet. I checked!

Dave grinned at her insistence, “Well, I think you might have missed a few places.”

“No, I didn’t! I checked everywhere!”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Uh- huh!”

The bed bounced dramatically as Ben dropped himself next to Dave’s knees with a smirk and Kenzie toppled off her father to the middle of the bed. “Were you guys sleeping!?” He yelled with his hands cupped over his mouth like a bullhorn.

Both men cringed slightly at the volume and Kenzie continued to bounce between them with the energy of a six year old looking at a day full of both Halloween candy AND birthday presents. Ben repeated his gesture and yelled, “Sorry! We thought you were awake!”

Klaus lunged over his daughter and boyfriend and attempted to shove his brother out of the bed to no avail as he phased through him and ended up just collapsing over Dave’s lap. Kenzie was giggling hysterically now and Ben shrugged innocently, “Hey, I don’t need sleep so this seems like a you kind of issue.” He winked and high fived his niece.

Kenzie climbed over her father until he was effectively trapped between Dave’s legs and the weight of a six year old on his back. He went limp with a defeated “oof.”

“Say ‘6 years old’!” Ben stood back holding Klaus’ cell phone up.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me…”

Kenzie bounced and Klaus could feel his back pop. She raised up six fingers and beamed proudly, “Six years old!”

Dave smiled and held up a tired peace sign.

There was a soft flash and Ben pulled the phone back to check his work, “Perfect.”

He tossed the phone to the side, “Just emailed that to Allison so don’t even think about deleting it.” He raised his arms, “You ready to start the day, Demon Zombie?”

She leapt off her father and into her uncle’s arms, “Let’s go!” She bolted out of the room to go do god knows what.

Ben strolled to the door, “You can go back to sleep now!” He yelled through his hands. He narrowly missed the pillow Klaus tossed at his head before shutting the door.

Klaus went boneless again over Dave’s lap with a groan. His boyfriend was sweet enough to rub his knuckles over his back for a little while until they heard a crash and a surprised “Uh-oh!” from the living room.

Klaus reluctantly rolled off to his side of the bed and Dave stood up with a long stretch, he looked down fondly at the other man, “Coffee?”

He covered his eyes with his arm and sighed, “You’re a sweetheart. I’ll take it Black - two scoops of cocaine, please.”

***********************************************************************************************

“Aunt Vanny!” Kenzie bolted out the front door and into Vanya’s arms with glee. It was early afternoon and her energy had not ceased one bit through the day.

Vanya wrapped her in a hug and swung her around, “Oh, you’re getting so big!” She squeezed her against her chest, “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too, Aunt Vanny.” Then she moved over to Sophie, who had been standing patiently next to her girlfriend, “Chief!” She jumped into the taller woman’s arms and she caught her expertly and lifted her onto her hip.

Sophie looked so different when she wasn’t on duty, much softer in a blouse and jeans with her hair no longer in a tight bun and instead curled loosely around her face. Her eyes were covered now in thick lensed prescription glasses now that she wasn’t wearing contacts for work.

“Hey, fireball. I told you that you can just call me Sophie.”

Kenzie grinned, already kind of glancing at the birthday present bag between them, “Okay, Chief Sophie.”

Vanya snorted and led the other ladies back into the apartment. The place was buzzing with activity just like it had been since 4:30 in the morning except now there were more people. Nova was already there eating (He was a sucker for free food), chatting idly in the corner with Ben and Jessie was busy as always, putting things together and helping as standing still just wasn't an option for her brain. To add to the chaos, Jessie brought her twins, Noah and Riley, who were about a year younger than Kenzie.

Unfortunately, Because of Kenzie’s ‘special abilities’, she wasn’t able to be around kids her own age very often so Noah and Riley were basically her only friends at the moment that were her age. It didn’t take very long before the children were running in circles together and shrieking.

Liev showed up next, politely waiting for someone to open the door for them. Ben suddenly volunteered to be the new greeter and stood shyly to the side with his hand raised, “Come on in!” Then he added a little softer, “That’s uh- a really nice dress. It fits you- uh- it’s great, you look good in it.” He stumbled through awkwardly.

Liev didn’t mind and winked as they came through the door past him, “Thanks, Patrick Swayze.”

Ben laughed a little forcefully and followed them into the house.

They were followed by Glen, who got a huge reaction as always since it had been so long since Kenzie had seen him. Not much had changed, he still wrapped her up in a bear hug and then went directly to the kitchen to “test” the food.

A little while later during a game of Hide n’ Go seek with the other children that Kenzie spotted Sophie’s purse had fallen over and something pink was sticking out. Out of curiosity, she got up on the chair and tugged it out, mostly thinking it was candy.

“Oh- no, no, no - Sweetie, put that down…” Sophie ran to the table and pulled the box out of her hands.

“What’s a preg-”

“Your mom’s getting your aunt on the phone - don’t you want to go talk to her?”

Kenzie gasped, “Aunt Allison!” and jumped down, bolting into the living room where everyone had gathered with the presents. The fire chief sighed and shoved the little box back into her purse, this time placing it higher on the counter.

Dave was on his knees, and was opening a brown mailed package with a pair of scissors.

“Yeah, we’re getting it open now - Oh, there she is-” Klaus moved the phone away from his face and stepped over his boyfriend, “Kenzie, pumpkin- Someone’s on the phone for you .”

She ran up, “Is it Aunt Allison!?”

Klaus put the phone on speaker and handed it over to his daughter with a grin, she grabbed it “Hello!?”

Allison’s crackled voice came through, “Happy Birthday, Kenzie! How are you?”

“I’m having a party!” She said proudly.

“A party? I wish I could be there! I sent you something since I couldn’t make it this year - I was hoping maybe I could listen while you open it?”

There was some shuffling around but eventually Klaus ended up holding the phone while Kenzie sat on the floor with the box in her lap. She narrated politely to the phone as she pulled open the box, Dave helped her tug out the bubble wrap and a moment later she was holding a beautifully crafted music box.

She gasped dramatically then added, “What is it?”

“Yeah, Ally, what is it?”

Allison laughed on the other side, “Open the lid.”

Kenzie obeyed and lifted up the gently rounded lid and as she did so a lovely ballerina rose up and twirled to a gentle tune. The 6 year old’s mouth dropped and she watched the figure turn with awe, setting it down and staring at it completely mesmerized.

“Did it work?”

Klaus watched her fondly, “I think you hypnotized her, Ally.”

“What do you think of it, Kenzie?” Dave prompted.

“It’s so pretty! It’s perfect…” Shook her head and leaned into the phone, “Thank you, Aunt Allison!”

“Aww! I’m so happy! I’ll let you get back to your party, now. Listen, I’ll call you soon so we can talk, okay? Claire says ‘happy birthday’ and that she loves you!”

Kenzie grabbed the phone back, “I love you, Claire! I will talk- Talk to you soon!”

“You too, baby - Bye!”

Kenzie reluctantly gave the phone back to her father and continued to open and close the music box, completely enraptured by the elegant twirling ballerina.

The rest of the afternoon was as uneventful as a party for a demon child could be - thankfully, she had learned to control herself when lighting candles so they were all pretty safe. She got several fun toys and everyone dug into the cake pretty hard - so when everyone started filtering out it would make sense that she would have lost some of her energy - but that would be incorrect.

By the time they found themselves knocking on a boiler room door, she was dressed up and ready for the actual festivities to begin. This year, she was going as a demon Zombie which was 100% Dave’s fault since he tended to play a lot of zombie shooter games and she had become obsessed. Complete with torn, dirty clothing, and zombie makeup underneath her fully displayed horns this fit in perfectly with her Halloween motif as last year she had been a demon princess, the year before that, a demon cat and the year before that she was a yellow M&M (her horns hadn’t come in yet)

Kenzie knocked after her father, “It’s just us, Uncle Diego!”

A moment later he opened the door with an expression that was softer than Klaus had seen in a long time, “Thanks for letting me know you weren’t a threat.” he laughed, “Come here-”

She ran to him and he scooped her up, placing her on his hip and inspected her costume, “Sweet zombie digs.”

“Thank you! Momma let me rip up my old clothes and then he did all my makeup- It’s easy ‘cause it’s messy and stuff.”

“Nice! Hey, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to your party, today-”

“That’s okay- It’s okay to be a little shy.” She said innocently.

Diego scoffed, “I’m not ‘shy’, okay? I was busy working.”

She shook her head defiantly, “Momma said you were shy.”

Diego glanced over at his brother who was standing in the doorway grinning, “Yeah, well, your momma talks out of his ass sometimes.” Diego put a finger up, “I didn’t forget your birthday, though - I got you something.”

The little one clapped as Diego brought her into the shabby boiler room apartment. Klaus followed (Dave had stayed in the car) and watched as his brother pulled a small purple bag off his stove and handed it to his niece, setting her down at the table. She hopped up and down then looked at him expectantly.

“Go ahead, you can open it.”

“I swear to god, Diego if you’ve given her a knife…”

Diego turned to face his brother, “She’s 6, you think I’m going to give her a knife?”

“Yes.” Ben said, popping up next to the table where Kenzie was seated.

The child pulled out the white paper and lifted something that was wrapped in pink leather. She tilted her head, inspecting it, then she read off of the label “Pepper… Spray..” She grinned, “I love it! Is it spicy?”

“Oh my god - don’t eat that -” Ben was already reaching to pluck it out of her hands before she could accidentally unlock it.

“Diego!”

Diego blocked his dead brother and held his hands up, “It’s just pepper spray! For self defense - I’ll teach her how to use it! Relax -”

“I hate to break it to you, Dee but she can already light on fire - she’s got a built in self defense mechanism.” Despite his initial panic, Klaus wasn’t actually moving from his place on the staircase, instead just watching with an amused expression.

“Yeah, but that’s if someone has already got her - this stuff will keep people away so she doesn’t even have to burn them.” He glanced down at his niece and winked, “I’ll get the lethal stuff next year.”

She clapped, “Thank you, uncle Diego!”

“No problem - Hey, since your uncle Ben and mom are being such babies about this - you want to leave it with me and the next time you come over I’ll show you how to incapacitate a criminal?”

“Yeah! I can’t wait!” She made a quick punching motion and spun around in her chair as an example “Im’pacitate!”

Diego high fived her, “That’s my girl!”

She handed the pink pepper spray to him and hopped off the chair, “I’ll come back for it..”

She hugged him one last time and then followed Ben out the front door - before Klaus could leave Diego stopped him, “Hey-”

Klaus turned around at the edge of the exit.

“You guys be careful tonight.”

He tilted his head in response, “Aw, we’ll be golden, Dee - we’re just going to drop her off on the street and she’ll meet us at midnight at a rendezvous point. You know, basic stuff.”

Diego smirked and shook his head, “Jackass.”

“You know, tonight would be a fantastic night to take the night off.”

“It’s Halloween - It’s the busiest night of the year - someone’s got to protect people.”

His brother hummed, “Fine, then - maybe put some ice on that before you go out cracking skulls - wouldn’t want chafing under the mask now would we.”

Diego pressed his fingers on the ring of bruising around his left eye in response.

Klaus gave a teasing wave, “Bye, Diego.”

A few minutes later Klaus was getting the passenger side of the car - he glanced back to make sure that the little demon zombie was strapped into her car seat. Dave already had the heat on “How did it go?”

“I think Diego’s trying to make a vigilante minion.”

Dave huffed and put the vehicle in drive, “You ready to get some candy?!”

Kenzie cheered from the back seat and raised her jack o’ lantern bucket, “So much CANDY!”

*******************************************************************************

“I can’t believe she finally crashed…” Klaus mumbled with his forehead pressed against the cool glass of the passenger side window, “I’ve known meth heads she could out last.”

They parked and Dave tilted the rearview mirror to see the heavily sleeping child in the back, “She had to run out of steam eventually, she’s been going for, what? 16 hours straight?”

“Honestly, mind blowing.”

“I’m going to get her bed ready..” Ben whispered and then phased through the backdoor to meet them in the apartment.

Klaus stumbled out of the car - he wasn’t drunk but he was almost intoxicated from just pure exhaustion. He stretched and yawned, his body shuddering in a twitchy dance at the movement. He moved around, meeting Dave as he was getting out of the drivers side, “I’ll get the baby zombie if you want to get the bags…”

“You sure?”

Klaus waved a hand, “Yeah - Yeah, she’s not too big yet.”

He said that but he still struggled to lift her dead weight out of the car seat - Dave was watching him skeptically so he pushed through and she fell against his shoulder, only stirring a little. Dave got all the bags, including the bucket of candy and led them into the building, opening the doors since Klaus’ arms were full of precious cargo.

They got on the elevator and as the doors slid shut and they began to rise, Klaus leaned against Dave for support, “Hmm… So what do you think? Still want this?”

Dave reached his free arm around both father and child, he pressed them in close, “Are you kidding me? Today was the best day ever--” He kissed him as the bell dinged then gestured for him to go first.

“Even when Kenzie accidentally set the rug on fire when she saw herself in costume?” Klaus rocked the little one gently as Dave moved to open the front door.

“Even then.”

They made their way through their trashed apartment and Klaus settled Kenzie on the bed, sitting her up - she mumbled tiredly and her head lulled to the side.

“I know, pumpkin - let’s get you out of the undead and into the living again, huh?” With a lot of effort since the exhausted, sugar crashed child was putting in zero help, Klaus managed to get her into some pajamas and wiped away the thick white and black Halloween makeup from her face. He carefully undid the hairpins and brushed out her hair- they would have to wait until the next day to get the white hair paint out because there was no way he was going to try to give her a bath at this point.

By the time he finally tucked her into bed, she was basically asleep when her head hit the pillow. Klaus pressed a kiss on her head, “Good night, birthday girl.” He flipped open the music box and turned off the overhead light, dimming the room into the soft ambiance of fairy lights. He lingered in the doorway for a moment watching her sleeping form - another year older- was it too cliché to say that it was all going by too fast?

Before he got too misty eyed, he wandered into the kitchen, his footsteps heavy and uncoordinated in a way that only comes with either booze or parental exhaustion. Dave was drying his hands on a towel; he had just finished doing the dishes and there was a wet spot on the front of his shirt to prove it. Klaus poked the spot then hugged him, Dave happily wrapped his arms around the other man, still holding onto the dish towel.

“Now would be a good time for some wine…” Klaus mumbled into his boyfriend’s shoulder.

He sometimes wondered if Dave missed having alcohol in the house - he used to keep a few beers and a bottle of wine in the fridge but when they moved in he had purged all of that. He never talked about it, never rubbed it in his face, but Klaus knew that when Dave was hanging out with his friends from the station he would have a beer - Klaus could tell because of mint on his breath when he came home. Although Dave seemed to be guilty about it, it meant a lot to Klaus that he was so careful and considerate about the subject.

Dave hummed, “I don’t have any wine - what about candy? I’ve got plenty of that.”

Klaus pulled away and settled himself on a barstool, “I’ll take whatever I can get - after today, I’m starting to think it’s all the same.”

Dave slid over a kit-kat bar and Klaus began to dig in indulgently ( They weren’t pulling from Kenzie’s hard earned stash - they had a separate bag). They ate silently for a while, just observing the state of the house. Dave had gotten the kitchen all cleaned up but the once pristine, cold and untouched apartment was now positively littered with life. Now with burn marks on the rug, games splayed out, Kenzie’s toys that had been pulled out by three different children, the fire resistant blankets that were strewn chaotically about, and the new toys that she hadn’t had the energy to enjoy yet, all splayed out in the floor.

“She loved the bike…” Klaus took another bite of his second fun sized candy bar.

Dave glanced over at the new bike and helmet he had gotten her, “You think so?”

“Oh yeah, It’s gonna be so great… You’re right, Dave - every child needs to know how to ride a bike..” He leaned against the counter, “And to have someone who can teach them.”

Dave watched him from the other side, “I can teach you too, I mean, if you want to.”

It had been a sort of strange moment when Klaus finally admitted that he didn’t know how to ride a bike and less so how to teach his daughter how to do something so basic. It was everything to him when Dave stepped up and got her the bike - she had been so excited for the present and also for the opportunity to spend more time with Dave.

“Don’t get me wrong - I love disproportionate size comedy but I think realistically, I’ll need a bigger bike.”

The other man smirked, “I think we can handle that.”

Klaus plopped a tootsie roll from his boyfriend’s palm and tossed it in his mouth, “It’s a date, then.”

He reached out, those misty eyed feelings getting the better of him again and he squeezed Dave’s hand, “I’m so happy that you’re here with me.”

Dave returned the favor by lifting his hand and pressing a chaste kiss against his knuckles politely, “Me too, sugar.”

For a man who had been in multiple orgies, Klaus didn’t know how Dave always managed to make him blush.

They sat there for the rest of the evening eating small candies and drinking tea until Holloween rolled into November. They talked about the day, they talked about anything and everything until they were too loopy to make much sense, only busting out laughing at the dumbest things. When they finally decided to go to bed, their final kiss for the evening tasted appropriately like chocolate and sugar.