bad idea ; klaus hargreeves

𝘴𝘪𝘹.

It had been weeks since Klaus had seen Beatrice. Ghosts would only make themselves visible when they wanted to be seen, and even then not everyone had the ability to see them like Klaus.

Klaus had searched every inch of the academy to try and find his Father's books Beatrice kept mentioning. He'd upturned his siblings rooms which they weren't too happy about and even tried to find any hollow walls or loose floorboards that she could have hidden them in, but he had no luck in finding them. 

He was growing impatient, everything was becoming too much, knowing he could help Beatrice but not knowing how to along with the withdrawal symptoms he was experiencing. Eyeing the bar in the academy, Klaus ran his fingertips over a few of the bottles before picking one up and unscrewing the cap.

"Klaus, don't do it." 

Looking up, he saw the girl standing in front of him, "Oh, it's you. My saviour." He dragged out the last word as he rolled his eyes, taking a swig of the bottle he'd picked up.

Beatrice's face faltered slightly in disappointment, "you were doing so well."

Klaus shrugged, "look, sweetheart... I appreciate your concern but I'm fine, I'm still alive aren't I?"

She sat down on the edge of one of the old arm chairs, sighing.

"If you've come here for my help, I'm afraid you're looking for the wrong person." Klaus said, as he continued to drink.

"They're under your bed." Bea admitted, standing up and beginning to leave.

"What?" Klaus asked, oblivious.

"The books." 

Klaus laughed, the one place he had never thought of looking, he'd searched everywhere apart from his own room, "clever..."

As soon as Beatrice had disappeared, he ran, or rather stumbled, up to his room and kneeled on the floor next to his bed and grabbed a pile of books.

Sitting cross legged on the floor with a book on his lap, he read each one carefully, every chapter contained information about each of his siblings he had never known about them, he couldn't wait to taunt them about it. He'd always wandered what his father had meant when he'd told him that he was his 'greatest disappointment', and upon reading the scrawled handwriting of Reginald Hargreeve's, he finally understood why. 

 What his Father thought he could do versus what Klaus was currently capable of didn't even scratch the surface of his powers. Klaus didn't believe a word he'd read, surely he'd have 'unlocked' these powers by now if he had them, he was extremely pessimistic to say the least that he could ever possess these abilities.

Days passed and Klaus didn't leave his room, he was wallowing in his own feelings and forgot about the rest of the world. His siblings decided to leave him alone, they'd seen him do this too many times to know not to bother him. However, Beatrice was tired of waiting for him to leave his room so she walked straight in and stood in front of his bed with her arms crossed.

Klaus sensed her presence but chose to ignore her, burying his head in his pillow.

"Well? Did you read them?" she asked.

Klaus scoffed, "Oh I read them."

Beatrice felt exasperated, "so...?"

"So... I'm sorry, Bea, but everything in these books are figments of his imagination, nothing I can actually do." 

"But he believed you could do some of this stuff." 

"He was a delusional, old man. Now... if you don't mind, I'd like to paint my nails in peace." Klaus  said, picking up the black polish from his bed side table.

Beatrice lingered for a moment, staring at him in disbelief.

"If you're going to stick around, you may as well help." Klaus raised his eyebrows at her.

Bea sat down opposite him on his bed, taking the polish from him, "I'll probably do a much more professional job." 

Whilst she was concentrating on painting his nails, he smirked slightly.

Once she'd finished, he admired them slowly, "Nice job, Red." he smiled.

Despite being a ghost, she could still feel her cheeks burning slightly.

"Listen... I'm willing to give it one more short. How bad of an idea could it be?" Klaus asked.

"Please don't get my hopes up again." She replied quietly, dipping her head slightly so that she didn't have to look at him.

Klaus reached out to comfort her before realising it was probably best not to, "one more try?"

Beatrice bit her lip, debating with herself in her mind, before finally agreeing, "okay."

"I'm not using these books either, we'll do it my way," Klaus said confidently, finally getting up off of his bed, gesturing for her to stand up as well, "how could this possibly go wrong?" He grinned.

☽