CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:
THE E.D.H.T.I.

It turned out not only Klaus was dead but Alex was dead too!

Yayyy!

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Klaus asked his now-for-real-dead lover.

They were both standing in the barbershop, a radio was playing in the background, Alex couldn't identify the language but if he had to guess it was french.

"Me? I cracked my head and died, The fuck you doing here?"

"I think they cracked my head too."

"Huh," there was a moment of silence before they burst out laughing. Klaus was leaning on Alex as they laughed like their lives depended on it.

"Were so messed up dude," Klaus said between his laughs.

"Oh, you're telling me?"

After a while of laughing at how fucked up they were, they finally calmed down and started looking around the shop.

"Hey," Klaus said as he was looking at the photos on the wall, photos of the umbrella academy, all grown up.

"Jezz, stalker much," Alex said from behind him and looked at the photos.

"Did you," Klaus said and turned to face his lover, "Did you by any chance see a little girl riding her bicycle?"

"It was a tricycle, and yes. We talked and she seemed nice. I think she liked me for some strange reason." Alex shrugged like it was no biggie.

"Huh," On the outside Klaus seemed calm but on the inside, he was freaking the fuck out because what if she decides to keep Alex? Klaus can't lose him now or ever and if she keeps Alex from him, Klaus wage war against her. Not sure how he's gonna win, but he's dam well gonna try.

Klaus went and sat on one of the chairs there and Alex started to snoop around.

Suddenly, an apron was put around Klaus's neck from behind. Like you know, how barbers do their stuff.

"holy fu-" Klaus heard Alex whisper from where he was standing, but before he could turn around to see who was standing behind him, a wet towel was put on his head and blocked his vision.

"Oh. Oh! That feels nice." Klaus said and felt his chair spin around.

"What in God's name took you so long?" A familiar and elderly voice said from behind him.

Klaus froze. and he never froze so it was a surprise.

"Dad."

Now he understood why Alex had freaked out and had gone quiet.

"I expected my son who can conjure the dead to have brought me forth days ago," Sir Reginald Hargreeves said in all his glory, as he placed some towels on Klaus's shoulder.

"Hi?" Alex said from somewhere behind Klaus and a look in the mirror told Klaus that his lover was standing slightly behind his chair. Close but not too close. Reginald paid him no attention, like how he did when he was alive.

"Yeah, well," Klaus started not taking his eyes off his lover," It's complicated. You know, I- I tried-" Klaus was cut off by Reginald putting some shaving cream over his mouth and everywhere making him spit, "I did, but-"

"You were poisoning yourself," Reginald had made it his mission to interrupt Klaus as much as he could.

"Well, what do you expect? You'd just died,"

"Don't you dare try and use me as an excuse for your weakness," Reginald said and continued to put the shaving cream on Klaus.

Alex was still silence, only observing.

"Oh, right, well, yeah, You had nothing to do with it," Klaus said emotionlessly, "Locking me in a mausoleum with corpses when I was 13? No, You're right, It's irrelevant." He sighed.

Reginald looked at him and then came close with a razor but was stopped by Klaus making 'Ah-ah-ah' noises like he was talking to a kid.

"Careful, Dad."

"Don't worry," Reginald assured him, "You're already dead."

"Well, that's a relief."

"Dead Inside."

Both Klaus and Alex said at the same time. Reginald once again ignored his 'son' who was standing.

"You children like to blame everything on me."

"Well, you were a sadistic prick, Not to mention the world's worst father."

Alex cursed himself in the background because why hadn't he bought Reginald a mug that said 'Word's Worst Father' for father's day?! Why!

"I just wanted you to live up to your potential, You especially," Reginald continued his shaving, "You're my greatest disappointment, Number Four. You only scratched the surface of what you were truly caple of, if only you'd focused."

Klaus was confused but then Reginald continued, "I thought that maybe killing Number Eight would have motivated you enough to finally achieve what you're capable of, but it seemed that I was wrong about how you loved that boy."

Klaus and Alex's eyes were wide.

"Wait, wait, wait," Klaus said but was ignored.

"Instead," Reginald was acting like he hadn't just made the two boys' minds go boom.

Cause mind blown.

"Instead you pump yourself full of poison because you're afraid," Klaus sighed at his dad like the teenager he was, "Afraid of what? The dark?!" Reginald's voice raised at the end of his sentence.

"You know," From Klaus' tone it was obvious that he had enough of his dad for the day, "I suggest you get down off your high horse there, dear papa. You never had our best interest at heart. Look at your precious Number One, Luther found all the unopened letters he'd sent you. He knows that you sent him up to the moon for nothing."

Reginald paused his work, "That was foolish of me-"

He sounded like a caring father.

"-I should have burned it all."

Never mind, there goes the caring father.

Klaus started laughing and he heard Alex snorting from behind him.

"That's your takeaway? Oh, wow. Yeah, course it is."

"Not an ideal solution, I confess," Reginald said and yanked Klaus' head to the right so he could have access to his left side. "But I knew that the world would soon need him, need all of you, and I had to do what was necessary."

"What about Alex?"

Reginald hesitated before continuing his work, "What of Number Eight? He's dead isn't he?"

Klaus looked at the mirror to look at Alex who was standing behind him, both looking confused. Couldn't he see Alex?"

"No, he's not."

Reginald faltered for a second, "So he told you. Shame, I thought he could have kept it a secret for a bit longer."

"You made him pretend dead with us for years and if you hadn't died, he wouldn't have told us!"

"Where is he now? Is he okay?"

"Right behind me. Do you really care?"

"Everything I did, everything I put you through, it was to prepare you, all of you, for something bigger than yourselves, You never understood that." He said and his eyes scanned behind Klaus but slid right over Alex.

Even Dead He's The Invisible.

"We were," Klaus sounded like he was ready to cry and stopped Reginald, "We were just kids. Little kids."

"You were never just kids, You were meant to save the world."

"Wait, wait. So you knew all about this? About the apocalypse?" Klaus what he and Alex were both thinking.

"I knew that I had to bring you all back together, one way or another. The fate of the world depended on it."

"Wh-What? What are you saying?"

"The only way to get you all back together was something momentous."

"Wait. You No. You don't mean you killed yourself?"

"Mm." Reginald conformed and Alex gasped.

Klaus sighed, "You could never do things the easy way, could you? You couldn't have picked up a phone?"

"Would you have answered?"

"No," Alex said even though he knew only Klaus could hear him.

"Now, listen to me, Number Four. What I'm about to say is of great importan-"

Naturally, everything went to shit and white light surrendered them, "No, no, no, no, no, no."

Klaus was trying to stay dead, "I can't No, I can't-I can't go back. I can't go back!" In the end, he had started screaming and he could hear Alex's voice faintly calling him.

And then Klaus woke up. Back in the club with music blasting and people surrendering him. He quickly sat up and took a deep breath before looking around trying to find Alex.

"Alex!" He yelled and saw some people pointing to a direction and when he turned his saw his lover on the floor, still dead.

"No, no, no!" Klaus said and quickly ran to his lover's dead body and cradled his head to his chest, "No, Lex, don't stay there."

Alex's body suddenly jerked and sat up making the two knock heads, "Ow!"

"Oh my, You're alive!" Klaus said and hugged him.

"Of course I'm alive, I wasn't gonna leave you," Alex said and smiled.

Some people around them cooed.

"We need to find Monkey-man." He said to Klaus and then looked at the crowd, "Has anyone seen a Monkey trying to pass as a human around here?"

"Bouncers kicked him out." One person said.

"Oh, Great. Come on, Sixth sense." Alex pulled Klaus to his feet and with that, the two were gone.

★彡WORDS:1800★彡

SuP GuYs?!

OMG! 'Invisible' is now number 1 in 'the umbrella academy' tag and I'm screaming!

thank you, everyone, for being with me and supporting me, giving me the motivation to write this story and helping me along the way with the amazing ideas you have.

BTW, I've put some references in this chapter, so it was fun.

lova u all!