Fireproof

“How are we feeling today, pumpkin?” Klaus stood on the edge of the school with Kenzie holding his hand. She was 5 years old and it was her first day of 1st grade - after having a unique schooling schedule due to her tendency to start fires the chief (And her aunt) had signed off on getting her into public school.

It was a relatively small school that had been pre-approved by the fire department and Kenzie had already met her teacher and the other school staff members at the open house. That day she had been brimming with excitement, barely able to focus on anything but getting her backpack perfect and picking out her first day outfits.

Honestly, Klaus had been excited for her - they were going through the classic back-to-school routine and it was really fun. All this even though he may have been the one pushing to keep her in homeschooling until 2nd grade.

She looked up at him, then back to the doors of the elementary school which had been so inviting the first time they visited, they looked more foreboding now.

“I don’t think I’m ready for- to go to school yet.” She stated factually.

“Aw, pumpkin - It’s okay to be nervous, this is a big day!”

At this she turned and grabbed onto his arm with both hands, “I need another year. Please!”

He took a step forward and she tried to pull him back towards the car where Dave and Ben were watching them. “Do you remember all those fun books and activities they showed you last week? You don’t want to miss out on all of that, do you?”

Her face was twisting up like she was about to cry and she tugged on his sleeve, starting to lower to the ground. “But Uncle Ben can do all that!”

“Uncle Ben’s not that good of an artist - I promise you - Come here, sweetie…” He leaned down and just picked her up as she tried to crumple to the sidewalk. “You’re gonna do great! You’re gonna have so much fun!”

“I want to go home!” She held onto him but continued to try to pull away back towards the car.

Klaus took a deep breath and walked her into the school with much difficulty - his chest was constricting and every time she would whimper against him he felt his heart break a little bit.

Every worry ever was pounding through his head, whether it was the fact that she could light on fire if she lost control or if the pins they put in her hair to keep her beanie on would hold and keep her horns hidden to the more basic ‘what if kids are mean to her’ or what if this teacher isn’t as nice as she seems.

Also, Klaus had taken the day off, thinking that he would need it to recover and he just realized that left him with nothing to do but wait and worry all day as he experienced the day without his daughter for basically the first time in her life. That, in retrospect, was a dumbass idea.

Inside the pleasantly decorated elementary school Kenzie’s spirits didn’t raise even as Klaus talked her through the hallway and into her classroom. Her teacher, Mrs. Kelly opened her arms out wide as they came inside (only a couple minutes late) “Good morning! Hi, Kenzie! We’re so happy to have you here!”

She hid her face in his shoulder and Klaus made a face at the teacher, “She’s uh- having some second thoughts.”

Mrs. Kelly gave him an encouraging smile and clasped her hands, “That happens all the time, I promise you.”

She moved closer, “Kenzie? Hi! We’re going to have so much fun today! I am so excited to get to know you!”

When that didn’t get any response, Klaus just had to shift her away from his shoulder, “Okay, pumpkin, showtime!” He tried to set her down and she immediately started crying, clinging onto him tighter and curling her legs up away from the floor.

He straightened back up to alleviate some of the strain on his spine then dipped down again, “You’re going to do great!” This time he remained there with her legs kicking off the floor as he attempted to pry her fingers off his shoulder. Internally, as she started crying harder, he was repeating the age-old mantra – you know, the classic one; ‘please don’t light on fire, please don’t light on fire…’

Mrs. Kelly stepped in and helped him untangle from the five-year old’s death grip- opening her fingers and dragging her back down to the floor. For what it was worth, she seemed pretty unphased by this behavior and just continued to reassure both father and child that everything was going to be okay.

“Momma, please don’t leave me!” Kenzie gripped painfully onto his hand and he had to slowly rip his fingers away as the teacher kept her in one place.

“I will be back to pick you up so soon, pumpkin.”

Klaus backed away and his eyes flashed in desperation to the teacher for any help, she gave him a sympathetic smile even as she held onto the crying child, “She’ll calm down after you leave, it’s going to be okay, mom.”

He nodded and blew a quick kiss to his daughter, “I love you, pumpkin - I’ll see you soon!” His voice cracked and he stumbled backwards out the door. He shuffled down the hallway and then leaned over against the wall, squeezing his eyes shut as a pained whine escaped his throat.

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

“There he is…” Dave started the car as he saw Klaus finally exiting the school, this time without Kenzie.

Ben was in the seat behind him and they had been chatting off and on, speculating on what had been taking so long. Klaus’ face was unreliable as he walked slowly down the sidewalk towards them.

The driver leaned back, “5 minutes.”

Ben snorted and shook his head, “That’s adorable, David. But take this seriously.” He slapped the shoulders of the driver’s seat, “1 minute. Tops.”

Dave glanced back at him with a smirk after solidifying their bet then waited patiently as Klaus got settled into the car. His boyfriend didn’t look at him, only stared ahead and pulled his seatbelt on.

“How did it go?” Dave asked tentatively.

Klaus exhaled, “Fine, fine - I think we picked a lovely teacher. Mrs. Kelly seems so creative.”

From the backseat, Ben listed off just under his breath, “32...33...34..”

“I- uh - think Kenz’ is going to have a really great time here.” he nodded curtly, still not looking at the rest of the car.

Dave watched him with apprehension, “That’s good…”

“Yeah, yeah - It’s great...”

“54, 55, 56…”

“It’s fantastic!” Klaus snapped and doubled over with a long drawn out whine, curling his legs up and covering his face with the palms of his hands. A choked sob escaped, and he sniffled softly into his hands.

Ben sat back triumphantly, “There it is.”

Dave glanced back at Ben and started rubbing Klaus’ back, “Sweetheart…”

“She’s fucking miserable, Dave!” He said through his hands, “She thinks I abandoned her…”

Klaus let out a muffled scream through his fingers.

The driver shook his head, “I guarantee you, she does not - She’s just having first day jitters and it’s worse for her since she hasn’t had any experience with school at all - She’s probably already gotten distracted by all the other kids and things to do.”

Klaus was rocking back and forth lightly, “I hate this so much…”

Dave pressed a kiss onto his shoulder, “I know you do.”

Ben sighed and opened the back door, “Well, have fun with that, Dave - I’ll see you guys in 8 hours.”

“Where are you going?”

Ben leaned into the driver’s side window, “I told Alvarez I’d stick around - Don’t worry I’m staying out of her sight. She needs to do this on her own.” He glanced at his brother who had uncurled and was now staring straight ahead with a dead look in his eyes, “Plus, I figured you two were going to have weird sad sex all day and I don’t want be anywhere near that.”

He patted Dave’s shoulder and walked towards the school, gradually losing his corporeal nature until he was once again invisible as he phased through the front doors.

Dave sighed and looked over to where his forlorn boyfriend had brought his knees up to his chest and was glowering out the window, pointedly not looking at the elementary building. He pulled something out of his pocket then held up a pack of cigarettes, “Mind if I?”

“Go ahead.”

Klaus shakily lit the tip and took a long heavy drag of smoke, he closed his eyes and exhaled with a cough. It was painful to see the way his lips and hands trembled even as he fell back on the old habit. Dave reached over and took Klaus’ free hand, his boyfriend reacted by leaning over against him and taking another drag.

“I know it hurts but she’s going to be okay.”

Klaus whined in response, a few more tears escaping from his eyes and dampening Dave’s shoulder. Internally, Dave knew that Kenzie was going to be okay- he was more worried about his boyfriend’s state of mind.

“I had an idea for the day, I think you might need it.”

Klaus turned his head to look at him sideways, “Are you going to put me out of my misery?” he asked hopefully.

“No, not that - but I think it will be good for you anyway. Besides, we don’t get to have days just to ourselves very often and I’ve got someplace I’ve been wanting to take you.”

Klaus briefly looked at him and then nodded, “Yeah – yeah, let’s go before I go back and kidnap her...”

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

“A hiking trail… Really, David?” Klaus unbuckled his seatbelt and stepped out into the small parking lot and shut the door.

They had been driving about thirty minutes to this place which Dave had been reluctant to give any details about.

Klaus glanced down at his flimsy sandals, “Not sure- I’ve got the right equipment…”

Dave met him a moment later with a proud smile, “Don’t need any - this is just a little walking trail but Its got a surprise at the end.” He held out his hand, “Listen, if we go home now, we both know that you’ll just end up miserable - when have I ever steered you wrong.”

Klaus sighed and took his hand, “Fine… But only ‘cause you’re pretty.”

Recreational hiking was obviously never a hobby of Klaus’, as kids him and his siblings had done plenty of ‘reconnaissance’ and survival training on a piece of wooded land that their father owned but that didn’t exactly endear him to the activity. Also, even at that, where Luther and Diego would go full stupid outdoorsmen, Klaus usually ended up hiding somewhere in a tree with Ben until the fake warfare was over.

But as soon as they got down the trail and were fully enveloped in nature, he saw the way Dave’s shoulders relaxed and he inhaled the fresh air. Klaus watched as his blue eyes scanned the trees and took in the sights - so maybe, hiking wasn’t exactly Klaus’ forte - watching Dave was a good enough reason to love the woods.

To his credit, Dave was right, the new scenery did help get Klaus’ mind off the shitshow that morning and the way he felt like someone had ripped out his heart, stomped on it then tried to shove it’s mangled remains back into his ribs. Also, there was no ghosts as far as he could tell, he never had to banish anything, and the soft sounds of the forest were never marred by moans or screams. It was nice.

It felt like a sweet date that you would go on if you were a normal teenager, in puppy love - holding hands and pointing out the sights - sneaking in small kisses as they walked. Klaus was enjoying himself plenty even as they reached the end where the trail ballooned out around a waterfall and small body of water.

“See, I told you this place was a gem.” Dave was staring at him as he took in the sight of the cascading water down a natural rock formation.

There was a bench next to the scene and they settled there, it was close enough that they had to talk over the sound of the water, but they were also sprayed lightly by the fresh spring water. They sat there for a while, holding hands like lovestruck teenagers or an old couple just watching the water.

If this was a few years ago, Klaus would have found this terribly boring, and overdone but now he found it charming and he enjoyed watching how the landscape captivated Dave and his eyes gleamed in the soft mist of the waterfall.

“How are you doing?”

Klaus scoffed, rolling his head against Dave’s shoulder and watching the water trickle down over the rocks, “I wish she would have pulled my lungs out - dunked them in salt then shove ‘em back into my gaping chest - It would have been less painful.”

“That bad, huh?”

“She said - and I quote - ‘Momma, please don’t leave me.’”

Dave cringed, “Ouch.”

Klaus nodded slowly, “You know…” He trailed off.

“What?”

Klaus’ heart thrummed in his chest “I tried to abandon her. When she was first born - I tried to leave her at the police station.” He admitted with an exhale,

“Guess, I’m having flashbacks to that brilliant decision I almost made – and when she said that, I Imagined that tiny little potato face looking up at me as I put her on the concrete and just walked away.” Klaus’ face twisted and for a moment it looked like he might cry again.

Dave turned from the waterfall to look at his boyfriend, “You never told me that…”

“Yeah. Not my proudest moment.”

Dave seemed to be processing this information, his face was hard to read and Klaus realized how stupid it was to bring this up now.

“Honestly, I’m having a hard time believing that you would do that.”

“If you had met me 5 and some months ago - you wouldn’t be surprised. I mean, it’s not exactly like I’m actually cut out for being a father.” He scoffed, “That shit never came naturally to me - And I didn’t even want to have a child… I mean, I’m happy now that I went back for her but back then I—”

Klaus seemed to shrink away – “I’ll never forgive myself and sometimes I think that somewhere, deep, deep down in her subconscious, she remembers that night.”

“Doesn’t come naturally to you?” Dave started skeptically, “K, you were sobbing this morning – That’s not something that you can fake.”

They fell silent for several moments before Dave spoke up, “I’m glad you told me that.”

Klaus huffed, “You should’ve known earlier…”

“What matters is that you went back for her - that’s where your character comes in. What separates a person from their vices and the man they truly are.”

Dave pulled him closer and Klaus practically melted into him – the weight of admitting that lifting off his shoulders. “You’re sweet…”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Hm?”

“You know I don’t want to pry but - is her mother alive?”

Klaus laughed and squeezed Dave’s thigh, “Hoo-Boy, do I have a story for you…”

“Ah – She came from hell – As far as I know, directly from Hell or some variant of that place.”

Dave blinked, “So… what? She was on meth or something?”

Klaus swallowed, “Not exactly…”

He told him the story – something which only he and Ben had known about previously. He told him all the gritty details and the visit, the conversation he had with Satan and the resulting appearance of Kenzie on Halloween night.

To his credit, Dave’s face barely changed as the story went on until finally Klaus tossed his hand up with finality, “I stole some formula then went through a bitch of withdrawals. And that’s how I became a father…”

Dave leaned forward and rubbed his face as Klaus fell silent. Klaus could literally feel his own body recoiling at the fear of telling someone else this story – not even his own brother or sisters – but his boyfriend. No matter how much he trusted him or loved him, this felt like a stupid idea.

He half expected some sort of denial or skepticism from the other man – what he didn’t expect was for Dave cover his face and start laughing. Klaus watched him in confusion as he continued to belly laugh for a while until he finally sat back with a long “Hooooo- man – okay, yeah, okay.”

“Well, that’s not what I expected…”

Dave caught his breath, “Look, I’m sorry – It’s so terrible what happened to you and I’m so sorry you wanted to die – I’ve been there, and I know how awful that is.” He put a hand up, “I do want to go back to that but Kenzie? It’s just of course she’s a real demon! Why does that make so much sense!?”

Klaus watched him skeptically, “Does that scare you?”

Dave laughed again, “Klaus, last week I had to pull an invisible creature out of the cheerio box and I’m pretty sure it started biting me because now I’ve got these weird fish hickeys up my arm.”

“I had to help Kenzie get untangled after her blanket fort collapsed and her horn poked a hole in the fabric and got caught in the yarn – sweetheart, we are way past fear at this point – This has just become my life.”

Klaus stared at him with wide eyes.

“I have a harder time believing, based on who you are, that you tried to leave her than that she came from some sort of hell dimension.”

“I’m in way too deep for something like this to be the tipping point – is what I’m saying.” He looked down, “Plus, I may not understand everything, but I mean, it’s Kenzie – it doesn’t matter where she came from – I’m just happy she’s here and I’m happy that she’s yours.”

A long, deep whine escaped from Klaus throat as he took in the other man’s words and did the first thing that came into his mind which was to climb onto Dave’s lap and pull him into a bruising passionate kiss. Dave’s hands flew up to balance him and he returned the kiss with just as much desperate fervor.

When they finally broke apart Klaus was gasping and Dave reached up and pulled his thumb over the other’s man’s bottom lip with a soft chuckle, “Baby, I’m not going anywhere – I promise.”

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

“You’re a little early, don’t you think?”

Klaus looked up from where he had been waiting against the cool walls of the elementary school to see Liev and Ben walking up to him. He had to do a double take since the firefighter wasn’t in their work clothes and instead was wearing casual attire – which wasn’t all that odd except for the fact that they looked like they had been in a fight.

One sleeve of their blouse was torn and hanging off, there was dirt and grime all over their pants and they just in general seemed to be disheveled.

“Oh?” Klaus asked with a raise of his eyebrow.

“Sophie had me do some monitoring to make sure everything went smoothly today.”

Klaus blinked in confusion, “I don’t understand – did the children mug you or?”

They snorted, “I’ll let Ben fill you in – I better get out of here before the fireball gets suspicious.”

Ben nodded and walked past his brother with the firefighter, “Same – I’ll meet you in the car.”

Liev turned around, continuing to walk backwards, “Oh! By the way, we bagged you a new piece of furniture – it’s all strapped up in the back. You might need Soph’s truck to get it since Dave sold out for the soccer mom car.” They winked, leaving Klaus just more confused than before the conversation started.

He would just have to ask later – now he was still filled to the brim with anxiety.

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon….” Klaus’ leg bounced impatiently as he waited for the clock to chime 3:30 – The minutes were lagging by at a snail’s pace and he just wanted nothing more than to see his daughter after this exhausting day.

By the time the bell finally rang he felt like collapsing against the wall, other parents were showing up as the kids were let out of the classroom and they fanned out to find their families on the first day.

Klaus waited with bated breath until finally, at the back of the line Kenzie came out of the room with her beanie and her little backpack. She had a big smile on her face and when she saw her father, she bolted towards him, backpack swinging wildly against her shoulders.

Klaus bit his lip and dropped to his knees as she barreled into him with enough gusto to nearly topple him over, he grabbed her and held on tightly – “Holy shit – I missed you so much…” He said, earning a fee dissatisfied looks from the other parents.

He pulled her back and looked at her, “How was your day?”

“It was good! I missed you too…”

“It was good? Oh, I’m so happy…” He cupped her face with his HELLO palm, “You know I’m always going to come back for you, right? I would never leave you – I don’t want you to ever think that.”

She thought about it for a moment then nodded, “I know.”

He hugged her again, “I’m so proud of you – Now, come on- everyone’s waiting to hear what happened today –“ He took her hand only to flip it over when he felt something, “Is that a band-aid? Are you okay?”

“I’m okay – The paper cut me but it’s not that bad.” She held up her index finger which had a princess band-aid wrapped around it.

“Hmm.. Okay- muah!” He gave it a quick kiss then they hurried out the front doors.

As they reached the sidewalk, Ben and Dave got out of the car. Her uncle was the first one to bolt around the vehicle and run up to them. Kenzie met him halfway in a big hug.

He squished her against his chest, “First day of school done! How was it?!”

“Good! They said – Mrs. Kelly said that I’m a very good reader!”

“That’s amazing! Did they give you any books to read at home?”

She nodded.

He grinned, “I can’t wait to see them – maybe you can read one to me tonight?”

“Yeah! I can read them to you! After dinner though – I’m hungry but after I will!”

“I can imagine! You’ve had a big day.”

He moved out of the way and Kenzie immediately ran over to where Dave was waiting patiently by the car – she tackled him and he picked her up and swung her around a few time as she giggled, he put her down with an exaggerated, “oof!”

“Hey, 1st grader – You kick some butt today?”

“Yeah!”

“Alright!” He held up his hand and she high fived him as hard as she could, “I knew you would. I can’t wait to hear about everything that happened today.”

She hugged him and ran towards the backseat of the car, Klaus stopped her with a soft smile, “Ah-ah, are you forgetting something?”

She thought about it for a moment then her face lit up with recognition and she turned back towards the elementary building, she jumped up and waved, “Bye-bye, school! Thank you for teaching me! Love you!”

“That’s my girl…”

She got into the backseat just as Dave opened the driver’s side. Klaus sighed tiredly and Dave leaned over towards him and winked.

“You’re a natural.”