Wonder • Five Hargreeves

41

The Day that Was

Klaus had always loved his sister Winnie.

She was a beautiful girl with the kindest heart and she loved him for some godforsaken reason. Really and truly loved him, no matter how many times he fucked up.

He always had this secret thought that Winnie didn't deserve the life she was brought into. She deserved better. She deserved more.

Sure- he had always expected that there was some horrible mistake that lead him and his 6 other adopted family members to be bought up and raised by a psycho. No one deserved their childhood... but those seemed like such small fry mistakes compared to the karmic kick-in-the-teeth mistake that lead Reginald to buy up Winnie too.

Winnie used to write him silly messages on the mirror because he was always the one to take baths would fog up the bathroom enough to read them. For years and years she did this. And she would hold him and talk to him late into the night when he had nightmares, and she was the first person to laugh whenever he told a horribly crude joke.

She was the one bridge he could never burn, no matter how hard he tried.

She would answer him every single time he called her. She would pick him up, help him the best she could, and would just keep smiling, calling him Klausy like they were kids, no matter how badly he turned up.

He knew this about her and loved her for it dearly.

But he also hated her for it too.

How could he not?

He watched the way her eyes became wide with fear, the way her hand shook as she held the phone- but her voice didn't. And it wouldn't. Not until the family was dealt with.

"Allison, it's okay. Is he breathing? You have to tell me if he's breathing now." Winnie said into the phone and grabbed at her chest to calm her heart. "Is he breathing? Good- then put pressure on the wound and come home. Get Diego to drive."

Winnie said a few more things in the phone and hung up. Her vision swam with tears that dripped down her cheeks as her eyes fluttered shut. She felt like she was a little girl again, panicked and she couldn't do anything to stop it.

"Is he okay?" Klaus asked, and Winnies head turned quickly over to him like she forgot he was there. She breathed in deeply and nodded, brushing away her tears.

"Yeah Klausy. Yeah. I hope. He just passed out- there was debris on his back and.. I guess when he took the fall for me on the bar, he had lodged the debris into him. Im sorry." Winnie stumbled over her words and Klaus finally heard the fear peak through.

Klaus breathed out and pulled her into a hug. She gripped him back so strongly. "Why are you sorry?" He asked lightly.

"I just... want everyone to be okay. You all have to be okay. I dont care about saving the world- I just want.."

Klaus was so much taller than Winnie. He was able to set his chin on top of her hair, hold her close, and listen to her talk through part of her fear, part of her panic. Is this what she felt all through their childhood? Listening to him talk about the nightmares and ghosts and all the things that haunted him?

She was so much smaller than he was...so how did she take care of him for so long?

How did she love him? How did she love any of them the way she did? Klaus had fallen in love for the first time in his life and it just about destroyed him. It ripped him open in places he didn't know had seams; gutting him. Spilling him open.