Work Text:
Five and Klaus are terrified of fireworks. Klaus chalks it up to his fighting in the War whereas Five connects it to the apocalypses and The Commission. Either way, they despise fireworks.
And of course, it’s July 4th. Independence Day. Meaning fireworks. Meaning Klaus holing up in his room and Five pacing around the house, only to blink around when getting scared by the sound of the fireworks.
Viktor is the first to notice the ‘effects’ of it, seeing Five drop a coffee mug (and it shattering at his feet) after hearing a boom from the fireworks that were a few blocks away. Five’s hands had flown to his ears, covering them as the mug full of coffee dropped. Viktor’s first instinct is to go up to Five, close to pulling his younger-older brother into a hug before deciding to just tap his shoulder. Let Five know he’s there.
Five jumps, surprisingly not blinking away, slowly turning to see it’s just Viktor. Just as surprisingly, he pulls Viktor into a hug. And Viktor can feel Five. Feel his energy. He’s terrified.
Viktor returns the hug just as another firework burst is heard, Five blinking into a random room of the Academy, holding onto Viktor tightly as he does so.
It takes Viktor only a minute to figure out they’re in the basement of the Academy, where things have to be quieter. At least he thinks so.
“Hey Five…are you okay?” Viktor asks once FIve lets him go, Five already have gone back to pacing, still on edge.
“What do you think?” He asks, slightly harsh. “You should go check on Klaus, I’ll be fine.”
“Ben is with Klaus, I think. But I’m asking about you , Five.”
“You should know…”
“You hate fireworks.”
“They terrify me, Viktor. Not as terrifying as losing my family in apocalypses, but damn close.”
“Which is why I trust Klaus is fine with Ben.”
“ Viktor. ”
“ Five .” Viktor meets Five’s same inflection.
“I’ll be fine, Viktor.”
“Five you’re literally shaking. We can go up to my room or Klaus’...get you some headphones and make sure you don’t blink around?”
“You don’t have to…”
“I know. But you’re scared, Five.” Viktor mutters, and Five scratches his neck.
“Maybe I am.”
“You shouldn’t have to. Just let me help.”
Even down in the basement, there’s a loud boom of fireworks, causing Five to get scared and blink to another room.
He blinked in Klaus’ room, to see Klaus with Ben, Klaus buried under blankets and Ben trying to comfort him.
“Fireworks?” Klaus mumbles, probably hearing Five blink into the room.
“Yeah,” he admits.
Ben looks between Klaus and Five confused.
“We don’t do good with fireworks,” Klaus mumbles. “PTSD.”
Ben looks even more confused but doesn’t push it, nodding with an “okay.”
“Fivey here blinks around the house when he gets scared, so he ended up here.” Klaus explains.
Five just nods, blinking away a minute later due to awkwardness and another firework boom, falling into Viktor’s room.
“I knew you’d turn up,” Viktor responds, exiting his closet. He was now in more comfortable clothes, unlike Five who was still in the schoolboy uniform.
“Blinked here by accident…” Five mumbles, his hands over his ears like he had been earlier. Viktor goes to fish out some noise-canceling headphones from one of his drawers, handing it to FIve.
“Headphones?” he questions, confused.
“So you don’t get scared by the fireworks.”
“Thank you, Viktor.” Five mumbles, taking them and quickly slipping them on before more fireworks set him off.
“Get on my bed, Five.”
Five just cocks his head in confusion.
“It’s more comfortable than the floor.” Viktor explains.
“Thank you for the headphones, brother mine, but I will be fine,” Five responds as he fixes the headphones on his head.
“It’s only going to get worse, Five,” VIktor says, not trying to be malicious, but rather let him know he won’t be all fine.
“Viktor, I am not a child…”
“I’m not saying you are, Five. I’m trying to help you, I know how fireworks scare you and Klaus a hell of a lot, just let me, okay?”
There’s another boom of fireworks, and Five covers his ears over the headphones. “Okay maybe I should stay,” he mutters.
Then there’s an even louder firework blast and Five ends up in Luther’s room. He blinks himself out immediately, blinking back into VIktor’s room.
“You should stay.” Viktor says once Five is back in his room, giving his younger-older brother a small smile.
“I hate fireworks,” Five mumbles, low enough Viktor can barely hear.
“Why do you?” Viktor questions as he and Five sit on his bed. “I don’t mean to pry, I’m just curious,” he adds after Five looks at his brother quizzically.
“Apocalypses,” Five mumbles. “I guess, anyway. Similar to why Klaus hates them. And dammit, the sun’s technically still out, why are they shooting them off now!”
Five jumps, hands over his ears again. Viktor, all caring Viktor, opens his arms as if to offer a hug. And with another firework blast Five jumps into his arms.
He wouldn’t do this if it was anyone else, but it’s Viktor, and Viktor has always been there for him and he can trust him. Him and Klaus are the only ones he won’t mind letting his guard down around, and he immediately feels better when Viktor wraps his arm around him.
“I don’t know why they decided to have them go off so early, but if it’s any consolation these things only last up to half an hour. “
Five doesn’t say anything for a while, his face flushed with embarrassment because only a child would be terrified of fireworks and only a child would throw himself into his brother’s arms.
“Hey, Five, you’re fine, you’re in the Academy, no more apocalypses or kugelblitz or anything of the sort. None of it.”
Viktor didn’t know what to say to Five, but just the notion that there weren’t any more universe-ending things he had to wrack his brain to stop made Five feel so much better, even if he was still terrified of fireworks and the noise.
He’s thankful for his brother and that he noticed how off he was. Even if Five was a stubborn asshole sometimes.
“Thank you, Viktor.” Five mutters, still holding onto Viktor like he’d slip away if he let him go.
“Anytime. Are the headphones helping?”
“Yes.”
“I’m glad they do,” Viktor responds, smiling down at his younger-older brother, who was still holding him like he was going to slip away any second.
The door gets practically kicked open ten minutes later, to which Five tenses and freezes, not moving off of his brother, still finding comfort in his brother.
“It’s Luther,” Viktor mutters, considering Five wouldn’t look up.
“What’s Five doing in here…like that?” is all Luther says at first. Both Five and Viktor can hear the disgust in his voice.
“If you haven’t noticed Five blinking around the whole house…the fireworks are putting him off.”
“Why can’t he just handle it himself like always?”
“Shut up, Luther,’ Five half-mutters.
“ Luther .” Viktor glares. “He trusted me. He doesn’t like fireworks, just like Klaus doesn’t-”
“Well Five doesn’t-”
“Five has plenty of PTSD if that’s what you’re trying to say. He’s scared of fireworks and the noise and that is expected , Luther. If you’re going to be an ass towards your brother, you can get the fuck out,”
“You tell ‘im, Viktor,” Five mutters tiredly with a small smile on his face.
Luther mutters something about Five being an adult or whatnot before leaving, the door sounding like it slammed due to Luther’s super strength, which makes Five jump just like the fireworks does.
“He should have known.”
“He’s a bit of an ass, Viktor, it’s normal.”
“He’s still an asshole,”
“That we can agree on.”
Viktor smiles a bit. “We definitely can.”
“Y’know that you and Klaus are the only two who understood that I hate these fireworks…I didn’t tell any of you but you both knew and actually checked up on me. Thank you, brother.”
“Anytime, Five.”
Five smiles as he hugs Viktor a little tighter, before relaxing and realizing he was a lot stronger than he thought. Viktor laughs. “I think the fireworks stopped,”
Hilariously right after that, the loudest booms from the fireworks are heard, and Five can hear it close-to-perfect even through the headphones. He clutches Viktor, holding him tighter and probably taking the breath out of him, his eyes shut as he shakes a little bit. He can hear his powers ‘starting up’ just as Viktor presses his hands against the headphones, holding them so the noise muffles even more.
Once it quiets, Viktor releases his hands from Five, and Five relaxes, lessening how tight he was hugging his brother.
“Thank you. You didn’t have to do that,”
“I know I didn’t, but I wanted to. That was the finale, it should be over now.”
Five mutters another “thank you” as he gets off Viktor’s bed, the noise-canceling headphones now around his neck. “I really appreciate it.”
“Did you mean it when you said only me and Klaus know about the fireworks-thing?”
Five nods. “You saw Luther. He acted like a total ass. He didn’t know and doesn’t care. Ben was nicer, at least.”
“You talked to Ben about it?”
“I blinked into Klaus’ room, he explained it to Ben.”
“Ah. Well, I’m glad I could help.”
“I’m glad too. Now I’m going to get a cup of coffee since I shattered my last mug.”
“I need one too, mind if I join you?”
“Of course not. You’re my favorite brother and I greatly enjoy your company. So let’s go get some coffee.”