#the umbrella academy imagine

This imagine contains spoilers for season 2. It is part 1 of a two part imagine. Check out more of my writing : here. Enjoy!

This was it, you and your siblings had prevented the second apocalypse. And now it seemed that the fate of the world rested on whether or not Vanya could get through to a young boy to whom she accidentally transferred some of her power.

This already challenging task was not made any easier by the fact that the handler decided to declare a full out war against the entirety of the umbrella academy. The seven of you were so outnumbered that you honestly didn’t stand a chance. You just had to buy Vanya as much time as possible. 

You used your powers to shield your siblings as they made their way to safety. Your powers allowed you to heal and shield others, but not yourself. It was incredibly draining to hold up multiple shields and you haven’t had a lot of practice in recent years. That being said, you managed through. 

You then saw Vanya levitating ready to use her powers. She used her force to take out all of the soldiers, leaving only Lila and the Handler who somehow managed to create their own force field. You watched in surprise as Lila also began to levitate, you barely had time to react before she blasted you all with a force like Vanya’s. You managed to dampen it as it hit your siblings, making each of their landings as soft as possible.

You saw Lila head towards the house and ran after her. You watched as she threw Luther through the wall and ran to his aid as he landed in the snow. You healed him ignoring the light-headedness you were beginning to feel. Lila was now fighting Allison and you were about to go try to help her when Luther stopped you.

“Five is in there under the bricks. Go help him, I’ll help Allison,” Luther said.

You rushed inside and started to pull bricks off of him until he was mostly freed. You then put your hands on his chest and began to heal his injuries one by one. He shot forward and shook off the remaining bricks.

“Y/n, your nose,” he said and you reached up to wipe away the blood you hadn’t previously noticed. 

“I’ll be fine, I just need a minute,” you tried to smile reassuringly, “go help the others,”

With that five blipped out to try to find the Handler and stop this once and for all.

“Y/n,” you heard Luther yell with desperation in his voice.

You force yourself off of the ground and out to where he is holding Allison.

“Lila rumored her, she can’t breathe you have to-” Luther started.

“Oh no you don’t,” Lila said before grabbing you and blipping you away and throwing you hard against the ground.’

“Why are you doing this?” you ask before feebly making your way to your feet. 

“Because I want you and all of your siblings dead,” she replied before pulling out a knife and stabbing you before pulling it out, “and you were getting in my way,” she whispered as you sank to your knees. She then blipped back to the barn. It was time to avenge the death of her parents once and for all.

“Y/n! Klaus! Luther! Help!” you heard Diego yell. But as much as you wanted to, you couldn’t seem to move. The world around you was fading in and out. That was at least until you heard another voice, this time much closer. 

“Holy Shit! Y/n! Can you hear me? Hey just stay with me?” Klaus said as he slid down and started putting pressure on your wound. The force cause pain to shoot through you and you shrieked trying to push away from it. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re going to be fine. The others are going to come and we are going to get you out of here. You just have to stay awake, okay?”

Little did the two of you know that as you were laying there fighting for your life, the others were closing in on Lila. They were trying to tell her the truth about the Handler. And just as she agreed, the Handler came in and shot everyone seconds before the last Swede shot her. Five summoned all of his strength to go back in time just a few seconds to prevent all of this from happening.

And this time it worked. The siblings were all left standing, the Swede shot the Handler before leaving. Lila darted towards the handler’s case, mouthing, “I’m sorry,” to Diego before vanishing. Then they all refocused their attention on Harlan and Vanya, who was taking her power back from him. Once the noise and chaos were over they all let out a breath that they didn’t even know they were holding. It was with this newfound quiet that for the first time that they heard Klaus yelling for them. 

Five blipped to his brother’s aid immediately and was shocked to see the scene in front of him. Hesitating for only a moment before grabbing you and blipping you in the house. The others quickly raced in as five was blipping around frantically trying to find the tools he needed. You would need a transfusion, and to be stitched up, but maybe he could cauterize the wound and get you back to 2019 in time. Who was he kidding, you didn’t have time.

He found the lighter, alcohol, needle, and thread. And was trying to prepare himself mentally as the rest of your siblings come barging in. They are all freaking out, which is not helping.

“Everyone Shut Up! She is going to die if you don’t get a grip. Now then, Luther and Diego hold her down. Allison and Vanya see if you can find any type of painkillers or sedatives, anything,” he said taking his tie off.

“What about me?” Klaus asked.

“You, start making me coffee,” Five said as he crammed his tie in your mouth and whispered in your ear, “I’m sorry.”

He took a deep breath before glancing to make sure both of your brothers were in place before preceding to pour the alcohol in and around the wound. Your muffled screams pained your siblings, but they couldn’t stop. Five then took the lighter and fought through tears as he started to stop the bleeding. He was an assassin who had done unspeakable things, but he had never had to do anything that pained him this much. He was slightly relieved as your body went slack meaning the pain had finally taken over and you were unconscious. 

“Someone check her pulse,” he ordered as he dipped the needle into the alcohol. He then stitched up your wound and stepped back taking a deep breath. He did a visual check for any other overly apparent injuries before taking the coffee that Klaus had made and dumping the rest of the alcohol in it and starting to chug it. 

“How did you learn to do that?” Luther asked in astonishment.

“What part of assassin does your ape brain not understand?” 

“Is she going to be okay?” Diego asked.

“I don’t know,” Five said softly.

“She has to be, we can’t lose anyone else,” Klaus spoke. 

“You guys should take her upstairs and put her in one of the beds,” Five spoke.

This is my first Umbrella Academy imagine. This is definitely a part 1, I just haven’t decided whether tp make it a mini-series or a full blown series yet. I hope you enjoy, you can find my updated master-list here.

Being one of the Hargreeves kids was no easy task. It meant constant training and missions along with the impossible standards. But you never complained, instead, you decided from an early age that you were going to do your best to be there for your siblings. Your powers were empath/healing. For people you don’t know, you have to maintain a physical connection with them to read/impose emotions. But for those you knew, you could read them just by looking at them. Sometimes, you could feel the distress without looking at them, it just really depended. So far, in comparison to the others, this power proved useless in missions so you were only ever called in after. Your dad had said that you just needed to unlock more of your potential and that you weren’t trying enough. But you were, you really were trying as hard as you could. You just wanted to be with the others.

Over the years you got used to it. You would sneak around at night and check in on your siblings, taking away any soreness they had from training and making sure they never had to face any nightmares. It wasn’t much, but it was better than doing nothing. None of them were ever any the wiser as you would purposefully slip in and out without waking them.

This went well until one night when you realized Klaus was not in his room. It wasn’t long before you felt it. He was scared, terrified. You went to Pogo and asked where your father had taken # 4. Pogo was hesitant to tell you, so you took his hand and projected just an instant of what Klaus was feeling. Pogo then explained everything.

You were extremely careful as you snuck out of the mansion. You felt so much anger towards your dad for putting Klaus through this. But that anger was overshadowed by your concern for your brother. 

When you finally made it down to the cemetery, it wasn’t hard to find the tomb that Klaus was locked in. You struggled to open it and slipped inside.

“Klaus,” you said softly trying not to freak him out anymore.

But it was like he couldn’t hear you, not over all of the voices.

“Klaus,” you tried again, moving closer towards him. 

When you didn’t receive a response you decided that there was only one way to get through to him. You gently reached out and held his hands in yours. Then you lived his nightmare with him slowly taking it away and replacing it with happy thoughts. Tears were running down your face as you felt to loneliness and fear. 

“Y/n?” Klaus’ smaller than normal voice brought you out of your thoughts.

You wiped your tears and faked a smile towards your brother, “Yes Klaus?”

“Thank you,”

“Anytime,” you replied pulling him into a hug.

“Can we get out of here?”

“No, because dad would know and lash out”

“I-I can’t stay here alone, they’ll come back,”

“I’m going to stay here with you until morning. You aren’t alone,” you reassured.

The two of you talked for a while before you told him to try his best to get some rest. Which was an easy task once you used your powers on him. Everything was going fine until the exertion of using your powers earlier started to take over and you also fell asleep. 

You woke up being ripped off the ground and away from Klaus.

“Number 8, this is simply unacceptable. I am so disappointed that you feel the need to continually disrupt your siblings’ training. I think it is time to take a more direct approach with you,” your dad spoke.

“Please dad don’t she was just trying to help,” Klaus pleaded.

“As for you number four, I think we will just be forced to extend your stay here.”

“Please, don’t, he doesn’t deserve this.”

But nothing either of you said would ever make a difference. Not to him. So you decided to do something you never would have thought to do before. You grabbed his arm and forced on him the emotions of his kids. The nightmares, the doubts, the fear, the isolation. Before you could continue you felt a small pinch in your neck and everything went black.

When you woke up, you were locked in a small room, with annoyingly white walls. The floor and ceiling were also white, your clothes were white. The only thing of color was an empty IV connected to your arm, which was odd, but you didn’t really care. Nothing mattered, not really, not anymore. You just felt empty and alone. 

You were in that cell for 5 days and then you were allowed to return to your room which had been cleared of everything that you had once cherished. Grace came in to give you a vitamin explaining that it was supposed to help you. You swallowed it and laid down on your bed starring up at the ceiling. 

Over the next few days, you refused to eat. You didn’t see a point in any of it. You didn’t feel anything. Klaus returned and locked himself in his room wishing that he could forget the last week of his life. But now that the voices were activated, they wouldn’t go away and he was too distraught to even consider learning how to control them. 

Your siblings were told that you and Klaus went on a mission, one that did not go well. Reginald told them that neither of you were to be bothered. This naturally had the opposite effect. 

Five was the first one who managed to see you. He blipped into your room and was shocked to see how bare it was, except the plate of uneaten food. You were just sitting on your bed staring at the wall.

“Y/n? Are you okay?” he asked.

But you didn’t even seem to register he was there. To say he was worried about you was an understatement. You were always the one that…well that didn’t matter. The point was that something was wrong and he needed to help you. He reached out for your arm, sitting on the edge of your bed.

“Oh. Hello, number five. I didn’t see you come in,” you said in a straight voice.

“Isn’t that an understatement,” he mumbled to himself, “How are you feeling?” 

“I’m alright, how are you?” you said in a voice almost unrecognizable.

“Like you don’t already know,” he shot back trying to lighten the mood.

“I don’t, or I wouldn’t have asked,”

“What do you mean you don’t know? What happened to the empath powers?”

“I don’t have powers anymore,” you stated with indifference.

“Oh my god, Y/n I’m so sorry,” he said pulling you into a stiff hug. Your dad had said the mission went bad, but geez.

“Why?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why do you feel bad? I don’t feel anything, so why should you,”

“Listen- I don’t know what happened on your mission with Klaus, but we will figure it out, I promise.”

“What mission?”

Five was going to ask you what you meant, but before he could he heard someone coming and was forced to blip out of your room. 

requested by: anon. i think i got a little carried away with this - he’s one of my favouritest characters ever. thanks for the request <3
warnings: this may seem a little… well, you know. but i promise, there’s nothing inappropriate here! besides, he is an old man.

• At first, it’d be very uncomfortable to be around him at all. He’s like thirteen but speaks with a certain maturity that’s just very… odd. What kind of thirteen year old can have in-depth discussions about the Vietnam war and nineteen-forties politics as if he were there?
• But then the Hargreeves would take you aside and explain that although he’s thirteen, and although he was born on the same day as the rest of them, he’s actually fifty-eight. Again, it’s odd and a bit scary at first, but when you think about it, it’s entirely logical.
• You’d build a quick friendship when you finally understand him, and it’d catch fire quickly. You’d love to hear all his stories, his thoughts and terrifying knowledge of the apocalypse. But coming from an animated young man who had the patience of a grouchy old fogey, it was hilarious.
• He’d get annoyed at you the first time you start laughing while he’s talking. He’d demand to know why, call you childish, and walk off. The irony would just make you cackle harder.
• But soon, he’d begin to see your point. He’d crack a smile when he could see you trying to keep your laughter in, and although he’d get annoyed at your OAP jokes, he’d shake his head and let you have it.
• But only you. If anyone else were to try the same, he wouldn’t have it. That’s when he’d know you were different, that he felt some type of way about you.
• Soon it would come about that when you’re least expecting it, he’d randomly pop up by your side. Making dinner? You’d have to cook for two, just in case he showed up in the middle of your eating. Gonna take a shower? You gotta leave a note on the fridge, just in case he shows up and can’t find you.
• Sometimes you’d get home from work and find a note on your fridge that you didn’t put there. It’d tell you to check the oven - and you’d find that he’d cooked dinner for you.
• You’d never know, but he’d charge his siblings with making sure you’re okay when he’s off doing Five-things. You’d find that you’d have lunch dates with Allison more than before, and more than once you’d wake up in the night because of a fistfight outside your house. You’d lean out the window and tell Diego to go home.
• Klaus would tease the both of you - it would rub Five the wrong way when he calls out “cradle-robber”, knowing fully it could apply to the both of you. You’d think it hilarious, which is just lucky because otherwise Five would grill Klaus for days.
• You’d find yourself fitting into the dysfunctional family rather nicely, and you’re actually appreciated there - perhaps you’re a glint of that normality that they all miss out on. Perhaps its also because they’re glad someone can understand Five, and help him adapt to his weird situation.
• Eventually, he’d have no choice but to tell you how he feels, lest he wants to suffocate in his feelings. He’d have tried to keep them in, not wanting to make you feel uncomfortable or -god forbid- chase you away. But when he crashes your dinner and finds that you have a guy over for dinner (a guy your own age, dammit), his temperament would sour so quickly. He’d ask questions he didn’t want to know the answer to, and you’d be able to tell from how cold he was that he wasn’t alright. When he zaps away, you wouldn’t see him for another week. No notes, no random appearances, he’s not even around when you visit the Academy. Nothing.
• It’s only when Allison talks to him about how hard he is to be around that he decides he needs to fix it. Well, she blackmails him. “If you don’t do it, I’ll hear a rumour and you’ll do it anyway.” He may or may not have thrown a coffee cup or two in frustration.
• So he appears one evening, but this time, he only appears on your front step. He’d have to check from looking into one of the windows that it is where you live, because he’s never actually been stood outside it before - he just zaps right in. So when you answer the door, he’s both relieved and absolutely devastated.
• You’d invite him in, very confused, and make him a cup of coffee. He’d drink it all and ask for another one before he even says a word about what’s on his mind.
• When he does, it’s blunt. He explains why, and although you find it tremendously cute, he approaches it like a math question. Logical, systematic, trying to keep emotion out of it. But you can tell he’s nervous and upset, that this means a great deal to him. His voice is his typical explaining, analytical voice, but he clutches the coffee cup until his knuckles turn white and he struggles to meet your eye.
• Understandably, you’d feel a little uncomfortable with his confession. On one hand he’s thirteen, but on the other he’s fifty-eight. Either way, it’s… uncomfortable.
• But, you’d lean across the table, take his coffee cup, and place your hand over his. Clearly he’s suffering, knowing it can’t happen. But that doesn’t mean you have to be cold.
• You’d smile at him, and he’d give a blue smile in return. You’d explain to him that it can’t happen, and of course, he’d nod. He knows.
• You’d propose waiting for him - when he’s older, maybe you can give it a shot then.
• He’d be so salty. “When I’m twenty-five I’ll be seventy, you know.”
• You’d laugh at that, and he’d crack a smile at the familiar situation. You’d kiss his forehead before he goes, knowing it’d mean something different to him than it did to you. But what can you do in that situation?
• Before long, things would be back to normal. He’d be irritable, though charming, and your best friend, though simultaneously a child and old man. He’d will himself to push through the days, waiting for the day he’s ‘older’, and would spend each of those days reaffirming you that you mean so much to him, dinner in the oven and sweets left on the table with a note. You mean the most.

written by: archie

word count: 2291

request?: yes!

“i would like a imagine ( can be smut or fluff whatever ) with Ben Hargreaves from The Umbrella academy please <3 love your writing”

“Hi! I looove your writing and wanted to know if you could write a Ben Hargreeves x reader. TW: talk of suicide

You weren’t adopted bc your parents wanted you, but they moved close by and let you be trained. Ben was your one true love, and when he dies you just become numb, barely interacting with the academy and when they all split, you leave with your best friend Klaus. Despite your suspicions Klaus keeps saying he can’t see Ben. One night on the anniversary of his death, you don’t know what overcame you, you just felt like you couldn’t do it anymore, you just sat there and we’re wondering how bad it would be if you died. Ben of course is watching over you and sees the shift in you, he warns Klaus before you can do it, and Klaus comes and sits with you and lets you talk to Ben. You can literally take complete reign, I know I said too much but something along those lines!! Thank you!!!”

description: in which klaus uses his power to help the two of them have a second chance

pairing: ben hargreeves x female!reader

warnings: swearing, mentions of death, mentions of suicide, mentions of alcoholism

masterlist (one,two)

I sat on my bed, staring at the calendar on the wall. I didn’t need a marker to remember this date. I’d never forget it as long as I lived, despite how hard I tried.

It was the day I lost the love of my life.

I could still remember it like it happened yesterday. We were still kids, barley even 18. We were fighting dangerous criminals nearly every day. I had no idea how my parents ever let me join the Umbrella Academy, or how they let me stay a part of it once Hargreeves started forcing us to fight crime. One of us was bound to get seriously injured or worse.

And unfortunately, that one was Ben.

I never saw what happened to him, but I remembered seeing the looks of horror on his siblings faces. And I certainly remembered cradle his dead body as I sobbed over it for what felt like hours.

That was five years ago. I thought the pain would get easier. You know, time heals all wounds and whatnot. But I couldn’t be more wrong. In the years following Ben’s passing I never forgot him, I just grew to miss him more. Whenever I thought things were getting okay, I’d remember him again and I’d be set back to square one.

Like many who deal with trauma, I fell into unhealth coping mechanisms. Namely alcohol. It didn’t help that Klaus fell into the same unhealth patterns after we ran away from the Academy together and we ended up just being enablers for one another.

At least he went to rehab. Repeatedly. Numerous times a month.

Now it was yet another anniversary. Another year, another 365 days around the sun, without Ben.

Things weren’t getting any better, so I decided maybe it was time to bring things to an end.

I had a bottle of wine on my bedside table and a bottle of pills I had taken from Klaus next to it. He wouldn’t even notice they were gone until it was too late. I didn’t even think he was home to stop me.

I looked over at the calendar again, taking everything in one last time.

“I’ll see you soon, my love.”

~~~~~~

Ben’s POV

I watched as (Y/N) paced her bedroom. I couldn’t stop looking at the bottle on her nightstand. I knew (Y/N) had been struggling since my death. I had been watching over her all this time, wishing I could reach out and hold her every time she cried or to tell her she’d be okay soon.

I knew she was struggling, but I didn’t know it was this bad.

I was reluctant to leave her, but I knew there was no way I could stop her on my own. I had to hope my brother wasn’t too high to help.

Klaus was passed out on his bed, and I had no remorse in leaning down into his ear and yelling, “Klaus!”

He jumped awake, nearly falling out of his bed. “What? What?!” He looked up at me and groaned, laying back down and covering his head with a pillow. “Leave me alone.”

“Klaus, you have to get up and go stop (Y/N) from killing herself.”

This got his attention. He quickly sat up and looked at me in shock. “What? She’s…she’s gonna do what?”

“Klaus, I’m begging you, give me the reigns. I need to talk to her. I think it’ll help with closure or something. I can’t watch her suffer anymore, and I cannot let her do this to herself.”

I don’t know why Klaus wouldn’t let me talk to (Y/N). For the first year after I died, (Y/N) would beg Klaus to look for me or to talk to me for her, but he kept telling her he couldn’t Eventually, she stopped asking, but she always suspected that Klaus was lying.

I knew I was better off talking to a wall than to ask that of Klaus, but I was desperate. I couldn’t let (Y/N) kill herself. She had so much life ahead of her. A life without me whether she wanted to accept that or not.

To my surprise, Klaus threw the covers off of himself and threw his feet over the edge of his bed, facing me.

“Fine,” he said. “But just this once for (Y/N)’s sake.”

In an instant, I had jumped into Klaus’s body and took full control.

It was hard to get used to being in a living body again, especially one that wasn’t my own. It was like I knew I wasn’t myself, but at the same time I felt completely like myself - completely in control. I worried a little that I may get trapped in here or mine and Klaus’s subconsciousness would combine or something.

But that was the last of my concerns right now.

I quickly stood from Klaus’s bed and rushed to (Y/N)’s room. I was prepared to break the door down in order to get into her room, but luckily she left it unlocked.

I threw the door open, catching her with a handful of pills in her hand.

~~~~~~

(Y/N)’s POV

I jumped at the sudden appearance of Klaus in my doorway, causing the pills in my hand to fall to the floor and scatter everywhere. I felt a tinge of annoyance followed by some embarrassment at being caught.

“God, Klaus, you ever heard of knocking?” I snapped.

“(Y/N), you can’t kill yourself,” he told me.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Fine, I won’t. Now get out, I gotta clean up this mess.”

“I’m serious. You can’t do that to yourself. I know you’ve been struggling these past few years - ”

I chuckled, humorlessly. “Right, you’ve really noticed my struggles when we’ve both been blackout drunk or high out of our minds 24 hours a day. Listen, you’re just as fucked up as I am, Klaus. I don’t want to hear it right now. If you’re afraid of losing me because you won’t have a friend anymore, just stop doing drugs and my ghost will come back to see you. Simple as that.”

“(Y/N), I’m not talking to you as Klaus right now. I’m talking to you as Ben.”

Hearing his name made my whole body freeze. I felt like I couldn’t move from my spot. Klaus must’ve taken my silence as me believing him or something, because he continued to speak.

“I’ve been watching over you for years. I wish I could’ve contacted you before, I really tried, but with Klaus being so high all the time it was hard to get through to him, which made it hard to get through to you. But I’ve never left you, I promise. I’ve been with you all this time. You can’t kill yourself to be with me again, you have so much life ahead of you - ”

I finally snapped out of my trance as anger took over my body. I stomped across the room, reaching for Klaus.

“Get the fuck out of my room!”

My hands touched his shoulders and I started to shove him out of my room. He quickly reached up to try and pry my hands off of him, and the moment his hands touched mine something insane happened.

I was no longer looking at Klaus’s face, but rather at the one face I had been missing for five years.

Ben.

I shouldn’t have been so shocked. I mean, I was born to a couple who had not been pregnant when the day began and I grew up with superpowers, living just next door to seven other children who were also born that day and also developed superpowers. At this point in my life, anything could’ve happened.

But I just felt like I couldn’t believe my eyes. I yelped and jumped back, Ben’s face switching back to Klaus’s again.

“Ben?” I said, reaching out to gently touch Klaus’s face this time. When my skin made contact with his, his face changed again. “Oh my God. It really is you.”

“I told you,” he said, a cocky smile forming on his face. He even sounds like Ben!

I took his hands in mine, afraid that if I let go of him he would turn back into Klaus again. I led him towards my bed and we both sat down.

“So, you really have been around all this time,” I said.

Ben nodded. “From the moment I died and became a ghost, I was watching over you.”

“Only me? What about your siblings? Besides Klaus.”

Ben shook his head. “They didn’t need me the way you did.”

I could feel a lump forming in my throat and I tried to push it down, but it was hard. I knew this time I had with Ben would be fleeting and once he was gone, I would be alone again. Like always, back to square one.

I didn’t realize I had started to cry until Ben reached out and wiped a tear from my face.

“I’m sorry I left you,” he said, his voice soft.

I shook my head. “It’s not your fault. It’s not like any of us wanted to be out there fighting crime as kids.”

“Yeah, you have a point.”

“I just wish…” I trailed off, now knowing how to say what was on my mind.

“You just wish?” Ben prompted.

“I just wish that…that I could’ve done something to save you,” I admitted. “That I wasn’t distracted and I saw that you were being attacked. I could’ve done…something.”

“There’s nothing you could’ve done, (Y/N). Luther tried and he’s arguably the strongest out of all of us. You can’t live with the what ifs, and you can’t blame yourself for something you had no control over.”

I sniffled, the tears now steadily streaming down my face. “I know…I just wish you were still here.”

Ben wrapped me in his arms and I buried my face in his chest. He ran a hand through my hair, soothingly, as I sat there and sobbed.

In that moment, I could’ve been convinced that my suicide attempt had actually worked. That Klaus/Ben running in to save me was actually me being reunited with Ben again and saying goodbye to Klaus in the living world. I thought maybe I wasn’t meant to remember my death, but rather I would just naturally move to the afterlife.

“You have a long life ahead of you, (Y/N),” Ben whispered into my hair. “One without me. One where you’ll find someone else and you’ll grow old with that person. You’ll have a family and the life that you always dreamed of. And then, one day, we will meet again. But not now. Now isn’t your time.”

I moved away from the wet spot I had made on his shirt to look up at him. “But why can’t it be my time?”

Ben cupped my face in his hands. “It’s just not, my love. I know you want to be with me again, but I don’t want it to be like this.”

I sighed and rested my forehead against his. “I can’t promise I’ll be able to move on very quickly. I have five years of pain and unhealthy coping mechanisms I have to get out of my system first.”

“Then you can start there and take your time to get better,” he said. “When the time is right, you’ll know it. Until then, all I can ask is for you to please keep pushing. I know it’s hard. I wish I could take that pain away, but you have to do that on your own. And I know you can do that.”

He leaned forward and kissed me. I tried to savor the moment as much as I could. I’d never feel his lips on mine again after this moment, so it was hard to pull back and let him go. But I had to eventually. I didn’t know how long Ben could be in Klaus’s body, and the last thing I needed was to end up kissing Klaus and not getting my proper ending with Ben.

“I love you so much,” he whispered against my lips.

“I love you, too.”

“Take care of yourself, my love. And take care of Klaus, too. You both need each other.”

I nodded. “I will. I promise.”

He took hold of my hands again, giving them a brief squeeze. I could see the hesitance in his face to leave, and I knew he needed a nudge in order to go. So, reluctantly, I told him, “You can go now. I’ll be okay.”

He nodded, tears forming in the corner of his eyes as well.

And, just like that, Ben’s face shifted back to Klaus’s and he was gone.

It took Klaus a moment to fully come back to reality. He was still holding my hands, which I was fine with. I had a feeling he needed some comfort after having his body taken over by his dead brother.

“You okay?” I asked when he finally seemed to be himself again.

“I should be asking you that,” he said, his eyes shifting to the wine bottle on my nightstand and the pills on my floor. “Are you okay, (Y/N)?”

“I will be,” I said. “But I think it’s time we get help, Klaus. Like actual sobriety and maybe some therapy.”

Klaus nodded. “Yeah, I think you’re right, (Y/N). We’ll start by getting rid of this shit in your room.”

Together, we dumped out my wine and flushed his pills. It was a small first step, but it was the first step to the recovery we needed.