Fireproof

Klaus sighed and flicked off the kitchen light, he wrapped his arm around his middle, feeling soft in the big cozy sweater that he was wearing for bedtime. He meandered around the apartment until he came to the living room which looked like a tornado had blown through it. Kenzie, Rory, and Trevor were sprawled out on the floor on blankets – apparently the couch and mattresses they had placed around were only suggestions to the 6 years olds.

Sally was sitting a couple of inches away from the TV watching a movie on low volume with big, wondrous eyes. The ghost’s head snapped to the side as she heard him lean against the entrance, he waved at her and smiled but didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to scare her from doing something she was enjoying, since she didn’t need to sleep like the other children.

Ben was in the back corner of the room, next to the windows, he had his legs crossed and he was reading silently. Klaus flashed a thumbs up and tilted his head to make sure Ben was going to be good with watching all the little one’s for the night. His brother mirrored his thumbs up, then went back to his reading.

Klaus had been to raves quieter than the day they had today so as he padded his way back to the bedroom, he marveled at the heavy silence left in the air now that the kids were asleep. In the bedroom, he stalled for a moment in the doorway, appreciating Dave’s figure stretched out on the bed calmly flipping through the pages of a woodworking magazine.

“Everyone good out there?”

Klaus crawled into bed and curled himself against his boyfriend’s chest with a tired sigh, “They’re passed out, guess that final batch of popcorn threw them over the edge.”

“Told you we just needed to keep feeding them.” Dave said with a laugh, rubbing Klaus’ arm and tossing his magazine onto the bedside table.

“What a day…” Then he added, “You know, I am so proud of Kenzie – I know it was so hard for her to make friends and now she’s having sleep overs? She’s gonna be fine.”

Klaus hummed, “Yeah… And what a group – thank god she didn’t make any friends like ‘Trent’—” He said in a slightly mocking tone, “Can you imagine dealing with his bitch of a father?”

“No kidding – and even with her little ‘surprise’ – I think it went okay…”

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

“Think we got enough snacks? There’s more of them than there are of us - if they turn we won’t stand a chance...” Klaus mumbled through the palms of his gloved hands. It was a particularly cold day and he and Dave were standing outside the school waiting for everyone to show up.

Dave chuckled, “I hope so - We bought enough to feed an army.”

Kenzie came out of the entrance of the school, grinning from ear to ear. Klaus exhaled, “You ready for this?”

“How would I know, I’ve never had a sleepover - Let’s just hope all the mommy blogs I binge read last night knew what they were talking about, I’d hate to ruin this for Kenz’.”

Klaus brought his hand over Dave’s jaw affectionately, “You’re precious - I’m obsessed.”

Dave snorted, “I’ve survived combat, K.”

“Hm. Denmother.”

A few minutes later and they were surrounded by a small herd of 6 year olds – Klaus noted with some concern that one happened to be a ghost, which Kenzie had not mentioned. He glanced at Dave only to remember that his boyfriend would only be able to see the other two children.

Before he could say anything, the smallest, a little boy who was positively round in his little red parka, scarf and gloves and boots, tugged on the hem of Klaus’ coat. “Hmmf fmf hmm ffm…”

He glanced at his boyfriend, “Dave – That pillow is talking to us.”

The little boy tugged down the scarf from his mouth, “I’m not a pillow, Mr. Hargreeves, I’m Trevor.” He reminded them in the sweetest, nasally voice. “My momma doesn’t want me to get ‘amonia’.”

“Hi, Trevor.” Klaus said, trying not to laugh at the kid, with his huge glasses and round face.

“My momma’ll give you a list of allergies…” Then he got distracted and went over the girl jumping up and down and yelling loudly. Rory was the tallest of the group and she also seemed to have the biggest personality.

They hadn’t even gotten started yet and there was already a lot of jumping and screaming- so much so they barely realized it when a couple walked over, the first to step forward was Trevor’s mom – a Black woman with nervous, sharp eyes in an expensive, stylish winter suit. Dave had spoken to her on the phone and all Klaus knew from what he had said was that she was a lawyer and seemed very protective of her baby boy.

Ellie Sanderson shook both of their hands quickly and she exchanged some words with Dave but Klaus’ stomach dropped when he got a clear look at her husband. He swallowed and looked down for a moment, reeling in what he should do. He couldn’t stand the idea of him being the reason that these people don’t let Kenzie’s friend come over when she was already so excited.

Mr. Sanderson tilted his head and stretched out his hand, “Klaus?”

“Matt!” Klaus tried to sound as casual as possible, “Long time no see!”

“Yeah, kidding.” He was smiling and Klaus was struggling to figure out what would happen.

“You guys know each other?” Ellie pointed between the awkward standoff, curiously.

“Yeah! Klaus and I are old friends from when I first started as an EMT – This guy’s great!”

It was a strange, white lie that this guy didn’t have to say and Klaus felt the need to throw up in relief as Ellie seemed to immediately relax, “That’s great! Oh, that makes me feel so much better! – No offense – but this is my baby’s first sleepover and I just want everything to go okay. There’s some crazy parents out there!” She laughed a little too hard and Klaus sympathized with her so much in that moment.

They were given a list of allergies, phone numbers, nearly half of his medical history and an instruction for him to call them every two hours and just before bed and when he woke up. As they left, Matt winked at Klaus and he pressed his hands up and closed his eyes to convey as much thanks as he could for the other father’s trust and discretion.

Rory’s mom, Avery Shultz, was in and out as fast as possible, apparently late for work, she stopped by and gave her daughter a bag of necessities and an extra blanket. She hugged her quickly and thanked Klaus and Dave for watching her overnight. Avery had been pretty vague over the phone but Klaus could guess that she was probably a single mother – and she probably worked two jobs to make ends meet so Rory was most likely a latchkey kid, always on the hunt for a new adventure.

Once the parents had left, Klaus glanced around to see how many people were around before waving his hand, allowing the palm to flash blue. A moment later Sally became visible and she lifted her arms and stepped around watching her own blueish body as she became corporeal. The kids lost their shit and were jumping around her a second later- the little one seemed a little overwhelmed but grabbed onto Kenzie and hugged her as hard as she could.

Kenzie broke away and ran up to her fathers, “This is my friend, Sally! She can come too, right!?” She looked up at them with pleading eyes. A few feet away, the ghost girl stared at them suspiciously. She had declined to mention this third, dead, party member and Klaus turned to Dave whose eyes were wide, staring at the ghost child.

“Yeah… Of course!” Klaus and Dave both nodded at each other with slightly questioning expressions. Kenzie cheered and ran back to her friends.

“K, that’s fucked up – that’s a little kid.” Dave whispered.

“Yeah – no kidding… There’re not usually any kid ghosts- they just go into the light immediately. I guess Sally didn’t for some reason?”

Dave was staring at her and the head injury that was now visible for everyone to see, “Poor baby…”

“We’ve only got three seats in the back, where are we going to put her?” Dave asked, snapping back to the practicality of the situation.

“I don’t know – I’ll – She can just sit in my lap. I mean—” He dropped his voice, “it’s not illegal if she’s a ghost, right?”

“Probably not- Let’s just make sure to keep her invisible on the road so we don’t get pulled over.”

“Okay, sounds like a plan—” They did a quick fist bump for morale then started the process of loading up four kids and baggage into the vehicle.

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

“You never got a chance to tell me what was up with Matt? Did you guys used to date?”

Klaus exhaled, his face falling slightly, “No – He’s an EMT… And he worked my old haunts so not only was he there the first time I overdosed when I was 17 but after that, he was usually the guy who scraped me off the pavement. Sweet guy. We built quite the repertoire and he always offered to drive me to rehab… Gave me his coat a few times too…”

Dave smiled, “No wonder Trevor’s such a sweet kid – I bet he was so proud to see you today.”

The other man snorted, “He must have been something since he didn’t immediately rat me out as a druggie whore.”

“He could tell you weren’t on drugs anymore – he wouldn’t have let his son stay with us otherwise.” Dave watched his boyfriend for a moment, “Besides, you look damn good.” He said with a wink.

Klaus smiled but didn’t acknowledge the sweet aside. Instead he hummed absently, “I think Kenzie had fun today…”

“She had a blast. I’m glad that we took so many pictures.” He huffed, “I think she’s going to be very clingy for the next few days, though.”

Klaus stretched, “Yeah, our little green-eyed monster.”

“She’s a momma’s girl, through and through and I don’t think she’s ever had to think about having to share you.”

“But I think it was good for her. Every kid today was honestly great.” He continued.

They went silent for several minutes, Klaus just enjoying the feeling of Dave’s chest rising and falling under him. When he spoke, his tone was more serious, “Are you going to be okay with – you know, the whole Sally thing?”

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

When Dave heard the unmistakable sounds of a child crying, his head shot up from where he had been shoveling pizza rolls into a Tupperware container. The sounds of life and activity were wafting through the air and all of it seemed to be happy, so it was strange to hear the sudden sobbing noises coming towards him.

He wiped his hands on his jeans and peaked around the corner, Sally was wondering down the hallway, holding her face in her hands. Kenzie was behind her, lightly poking her shoulder, her face twisted with concern, “What’s wrong? It’s okay – are you okay?”

The ghost child turned away from her and continued walking down the hall. Dave was crouching down next to her a moment later.

“I don’t know what’s wrong! We were just playing…”

“It’s okay, Kenz’, let me talk to her for a second, huh?” The little one begrudgingly left and went into the other room after patting her friend on the shoulder one last time.

“What’s going on, sweetie? Are you hurt?” Dumb question but it was just reflex.

She looked up at him and he had to physically stop himself from cringing at the close visual of her head wound. He couldn’t imagine what it was like for Klaus to see stuff like this on a daily basis – probably even more brutal – he had obviously worked up a tolerance because Dave felt like vomiting every time he looked at the poor ghost child.

“I want to go home!” She wailed.

“You’re feeling homesick?”

Sally nodded with a pout. He thought about it briefly, going over the options – this was probably normal right? For a bunch of kids of this age – unfortunately, to have any context she would need to have Klaus around, and Klaus didn’t drive but they couldn’t leave Ben incorporeal with a bunch of 6-year olds. Also, her ‘home’ was technically the locked-up playground of an elementary school – so the options weren’t great with this particular child. Not to mention – the idea of voluntarily leaving a child in a playground at night was something Dave just couldn’t wrap his head around even if she was a spirit.

“I’m sorry, Sally – Is this the first time you’ve been away from your… Home? In a while?”
She sniffed and nodded her head, “I want to go home…” She repeated, then added in a soft whisper, “I have to protect them…” Her voice was weak, Klaus said that it was probably because she hadn’t used it in normal conversation in such a long time.

“You have to protect who?”

“The kids – so they don’t fall…” She gestured to her own head.

“Is that why you stay there? So that no other kids get hurt like you?”

She nodded, she was very close to him now, huddling against his shoulder. Dave heart broke and he swallowed hard.

“That’s very brave of you – but there won’t be any kids there tonight so you don’t need to worry about that, no one will get hurt. You’ve been protecting everyone for such a long time – why don’t you stay and just be a kid for a night? Then we can bring you back home in the morning.”

She seemed to ponder this, “No one will get hurt?”’

“There’s no one there right now, I promise.”

She just blinked and sniffled for a little while; her face was still pressed against his shoulder as he waiting for her response.

“Okay.”

“You want to stay for a little while?”

“Uh-huh.” She said but she didn’t move.

Dave brough his arm around her and stood up, lifting her onto his hip, he brought her into the kitchen and just lightly bounced the child. After a little while she seemed to relax and she laid her head against his chest, curling her arms up and closing her eyes. He knew that ghosts didn’t sleep but she seemed at peace being cuddled again.

He hummed softly, an old lullaby that his mom used to sing to him when he was a child- he didn’t stop even when he looked up and saw Klaus leaning against the edge of the doorway, one arm around his stomach and his other palm pressed against his chest as he watched them.

Dave had a painful lump in his throat as he rocked her gently so he was thankful when Klaus glided over to stand with them, he placed the palm of his hand against her back and rested the side of his head against Dave’s shoulder.

Dave would never know how Klaus handled this – because the idea of letting her go back to her place, alone on the playground, to protect other children – made his heart feel like it was shattering.

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

Dave sighed thinking back on the evening – a few minutes later she had gotten back her energy and was running off to play with the other children like nothing had even happened. He didn’t feel that way. “How do you do it? Seeing that shit every day and not being able to help. I can’t even imagine.”

Klaus huffed, “I did heroin and now… I don’t know—I guess I just try to focus on something else.”

“And hey, maybe since we know why she’s there we can be like her vacation home – when there’s no kids on the playground she can just come hang out with us!” He continued in a more positive tone, watching the way Dave’s face seemed to harden thinking about the situation.

“I like that idea – At least we could do something. Would she just grow up like a normal kid if we did that?”

Klaus shrugged, “I think so? Ben technically died when he was a kid and the more experiences he has, the more he just ages normally? I mean, I don’t know how it works but that’s what Ben figures.”

“Huh.”

Klaus snuggled in closer and pulled an arm around the other man’s waist, yawning loudly which immediately caused Dave to do the same.

“What an insane day – and that’s saying something in our house…”

Klaus hummed in agreement.

“Did youhave fun?”

“Actually, I did… Which is weird because- I don’t even like kids that much.”

Dave snorted.

“I’m serious! It’s different with Kenzie – She’s my little mini me. My tiny protégé – I’m hardwired to love her. But all my siblings were the same age, I don’t know shit about kids.”

After staring at him for a while, seemingly lost in thought, Dave finally said, “I don’t believe that for a second…”

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

“Okay, Lilliputians! Gather ‘round – Dave went down a Pinterest rabbit hole and now we are doing this. Little pre-sleepover activity…” Klaus reached over the table and lined out the big group of art supplies, markers, stickers, glue sticks, and so on, at each seat was a white pillowcase (luckily they had already bought an extra just in case, so there was enough for Sally)

Klaus looked down at the overwhelming array of supplies and sighed, “I think it’s great that Dave ‘scheduled’ this one at the exact same time he had a Zoom meeting!” He said just loud enough that his boyfriend could hear him in the other room.

Ben, who was sitting off to the side watching everything with a look of delight, laughed and shook his head.

The kids surrounded the table and scampered into their seats excitedly, as they all got settled they ended up just sitting there staring at him politely as if not sure what they should do with their little hands.

“What are you waiting for? Go nuts!” He waved his hands around randomly and then reached over and grabbed onto one of the markers. He sat down and started to scribble on his own blank pillowcase.

The kids obliged and soon there was a barrage of tiny hands grabbing and speaking loudly over each other. To Dave’s credit – this did keep everyone busy until it would be time for dinner and to start movie and popcorn time. Klaus did, also, begin enjoying himself as he used the pillowcase as a blank canvas.

At some point, Rory lifted up her half-created pillowcase, “There’s no glitter – I want mine to sparkle!” She complained, shaking out the fabric.

Klaus looked around, “You’re right, there’s no glitter – He probably just forgot to put it out...”

“He didn’t ‘forget’, he didn’t buy any because glitter’s a nightmare to clean up and we don’t want to send them home sparkling for the rest of the month.” Ben chimed in.

“No glitter, my ass…” He mumbled, then he immediately cringed and looked around to see if any of the kids heard that. He’d been doing so well with not cursing. It was exhausting.

He left and then came back to the table a ridiculously short amount of time later with red, purple, and green bottles of glitter. “I know that this is a disgrace, but this is the only colors we had – now we can make some real art.”

Ben’s jaw dropped, “Where did you even find that?!”

The kids cheered, it was an instant success and pretty soon every pillowcase was being smeared with the glitter. And every hand. Also, faces, hair and the table and the floor.

“Momma, you’ve got purple in your beard!” Kenzie said, giggling and pointing to Klaus’ face.

“In my beard!? Can you get it for me?”

He leaned down and she wiped her palm over the bottom of his face, effectively wiping more glitter into his goatee until the hair was glistening with purple sparkles. Everyone at the table giggled hysterically and Klaus made a surprised face, “Did you get it?!”

Kenzie shook her head and reached up to put more on his face until Klaus couldn’t help but start giggling with the children.

Ben watched in horror. “Oh my god.”

Dave walked into the room, presumably finished with his meeting, and jumped like he had seen a dead body, “Oh my god.”

Ben raised an eyebrow, gesturing to the sparkling chaos, “You didn’t Klaus-proof good enough and now look what happened. You’re lucky he didn’t eat it.”

“Love!” Klaus announced, standing up to greet his boyfriend with open arms. “This was a fantastic idea!”
He sauntered up to him like he was going to kiss him, and Dave immediately dodged and escaped to the other side of the kitchen, “Absolutely not – that’s never coming out.”

Klaus cackled evilly, “Come on – give us a kiss!” He chased Dave around the island a few times making smooching sounds.

“No- no – Oh my god – it’s everywhere!”

Klaus lost his breath laughing and running at the same time until he looked over at the table of kids screeching in glee and raised his arm, “What are you doing? I gave you glitter – attack him!”

Dave didn’t stand a chance. And by the time they were finished with him he was left standing in the middle of the kitchen with small glittery handprints all over his clothes and arms. Klaus finally walked up to him victoriously and handed him a still slightly damp decorated pillowcase, laughing under his breath.

“I made you a pillowcase…”

Dave took it humbly with a grin, “Thanks. I can’t wait to watch you try to clean this up.”

Klaus pressed a kiss to his cheek, leaving a circle of purple glitter stuck to Dave’s skin. “Hm, worth it.”

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

Dave glanced fondly over at his new crafted pillowcase that was draped over their dresser drying, It was a childish mess with the words “Klaus Loves Dave” scrawled in big green marker letters, a glitter handprint on either side along with a smattering of heart stickers and emoji stickers.

“You’re fantastic with them.”

“Hm. Must be my youthful energy.”

They laid there for a little while longer in silence, thinking through the entirety of the experience. As chaotic and weird as their lives already were – they were relatively closed off, new people weren’t allowed into their little sanctuary. This was a big deal.

“Today was great though, right? Kids running around everywhere, the life and the chaos – it was great. I was really afraid we were going to bomb but I think we nailed it…” Dave’s voice was far off as he absently stroked Klaus’ shoulder.

Klaus lifted himself up onto his elbow – his eyes suddenly bright in disbelief, “Oh my god…”

“What?”

“You have baby fever.” He whispered urgently, voice dripping in amusement.

Dave scoffed, “I don’t have baby fever.”

“You have baby fever, holy shit!”

The other man laughed, “Listen, it’s not like that—”

“Oh really?”

“I am perfectly happy with the family that we have now – one kid, one ghost brother. Look, I never thought I could have a family like this! It’s perfect just the way that it is…”

Klaus continued to stare at him until he continued.

“I mean, I wouldn’t be against having a bigger family-- having more kids…” He finally admitted.

“What, you mean like…” Klaus swallowed, “With me?”

Dave tilted his head slightly, bringing his hand up to cup Klaus’ face, “Yeah – who else would I want to have a family with?”

Klaus blinked a few times.

“I mean, have you ever thought about having more kids?” Dave was leaning forward trying to get a read on the other man.

Klaus sighed, “You mean since the last time I spiritually raw-dogged hell and ended up with the first one?” He leaned back in thought, “No, not really.”

“That’s fine, like I said, our little family is perfect just the way it is.” He yawned again, stretching out and reaching for the light, “Now, let’s get some sleep – I have a lot of waffles to make in the morning.”

He flicked off the light switch and turned over, facing the door, leaving Klaus leaning on his elbow – his face blank and lost in thought. After a few minutes he reached over and tapped the other man on the arm, “But like, how many kids are we talking? In this biological clock fueled daydream, what kind of numbers are we talking.”

“Go to sleep, Klaus.”

“Just hypothetically!” He waited a few beats and when he still didn’t respond, Klaus tapped him again, “Dave? Dave, I know you’re not asleep.”

He gave up and rolled backwards onto his own pillow, the gears in his head still turning even though the exhaustion from the day had him melting into the comfortable mattress. No sooner than he had closed his eyes did they hear a muffled ‘thump!’ and a ‘squelch’ from the kitchen.

Both men’s eyes snapped open.

“Did you put the cupcakes in the locked cabinet?” Klaus asked urgently.

“Shit!”

They both rolled out of bed but before they could even reach their bedroom door there was a crash and a splat then a maniacal gobbling sound. This was immediately followed by a bunch of yelling children.

“Goddammit, Rot…” Klaus said through clenched teeth.

Dave sighed tiredly,

“You get the fiend. I’ll calm down the kids.”

,