A/N: So, this is the end? I feel like I only just started... Took double the time but it is over double the length of the other chapters so... Also, that means more potential for errors, let's be kind about them :) Review replies at the end as they got a bit long! I hope you enjoy the finale...

6/6: To Thank The Living

Sacrificing the sleep he barely ever gets anyway, Klaus secretly learns how to drive.

Not by himself, of course.

It turns out there are actually dozens of ghosts who don't want to drive him insane and just want to teach him to literally drive - mostly so he can take them to visit their relatives but Klaus is willing to do that if he gets what he wants out of the exchange as well.

It takes a painfully long time to master even the basics and he gets caught every so often, both by his siblings - mostly Ben, who's used to his untimely adventures - and various citizens who he almost crashes into and manages to talk out of pressing charges but for the most part, he's pretty adept at sneaking out and returning without being noticed.

Just like old times, but with a cleaner twist.

Most of the skills involved are easy enough, relatively speaking, to learn from ghosts but then he has to try and make sense of how to park and it totally goes over his head no matter how many different dead people try and teach him.

The old Russian lady from before finally decides to wrap a new scarf around her head and start talking sense but even she can't explain in simple enough terms. Granted, Klaus gets incredibly distracted by the fact that he'd never become fluent in Russian and yet he can understand her perfectly, but the absence of that confusion with ghosts who natively speak English doesn't make a difference so he decides to stop listening to any of them.

Which is why he ends up sneaking into Ben's room one night.

"Ben?" Klaus whispers, not wanting to switch the light on and annoy him despite being there for the sole purpose of disturbing his sleep.

It takes a few more - or rather, an awful lot more - repeated whispers for Ben to finally stir and groan. "Klaus? This had better be good, I swear…"

Klaus giggles and makes his way to Ben's bed, flicking the bedside lamp on and grinning down at his groggy brother. "This is your chance to prove you're a good teacher."

Ben just frowns, sitting up. "What are you on about?"

"You're great at driving-"

"I am not driving you anywhere right now," Ben interrupts, finally more awake.

Groaning dramatically, Klaus puts his hands on his hips. "You're not driving ME anywhere, Mr Uptight. You're just gonna sit beside me and teach me how to park without getting charged for minor property damage, savvy?"

Ben considers this for a moment, then furrows his brows. "Wait, so you can drive now?"

Klaus waves a hand dismissively but whatever he was going to reply with flies out of his mind when he catches sight of his palms and starts yet again mourning the loss of his tattoos.

Rolling his eyes, Ben blinks any remaining sleep away and grabs the sharpie that permanently lives on his bedside drawer purely for times like this before standing up, taking Klaus's right hand without saying a thing.

"What are you-? Oh…" Klaus beams sheepishly as Ben writes the word 'hello' on his hand as neatly as he can, then takes his left hand and quickly writes 'goodbye' on it.

Once Ben is done, Klaus' beam rekindles itself. "Thank you," he says sincerely, then adds: "And yes, I can drive now. Well, I can get moving and carry on going but I'm not very good at the stopping part yet."

"And so you need my help?" Ben concludes, twirling the sharpie in his hand with a smug look on his face.

Klaus gives him a pointed look. "Exactly which part of this scenario has inflated your ego?"

Ben shrugs. "Oh, just that you're finally begging for my help instead of ignoring me and begging alcohol to solve everything instead."

"Low blow," Klaus replies, mimicking Ben's voice with a grumpy look.

"Oh, get over it. I think I deserve one kinda rude remark in exchange for teaching you to park, don't I?"

Hope graces Klaus' face again, his prior annoyance forgotten already. "Really? You'll help?"

Ben snorts, finally putting the sharpie down. He grabs his jacket and slips it on as he nods to Klaus. "Of course. I know why you're doing this, after all."

At that, Klaus folds his arms indignantly. "Oh, really? And why's that, Mr Clever Clogs?"

Rather than replying like your average person, Ben just switches the bedside lamp off and slips out of the door, clearly assuming Klaus will simply follow him. And he's not wrong, obviously.

"Seriously?" Klaus whispers as the two of them make their way past the other bedrooms, managing to get outside without being noticed.

Ben just gestures to the car and smirks, causing Klaus to lightly punch his arm before giving up and climbing into the driver's seat, smoothly starting the engine as Ben slides into the passenger seat and glances at the mirrors to check they're positioned right.

"Are you sure you don't want me to demonstrate first?" Ben asks, clicking his seatbelt into place pointedly.

Klaus shakes his head. "Nope. I got this. Just tell me what to do with the stick when we have to stop, okay?"

Despite looking sceptical, Ben sits back and lets Klaus drive around for a bit, snickering to himself when Klaus mutters things at ghosts he can't see any more until Klaus finally turns to him. "Okay, Engie Benji, instruct away!"

"I keep telling you I don't know who that is," Ben sighs.

"And I keep telling you I'll show you when it starts to air," Klaus replies automatically, then gives Ben a pointed look. "Are you going to tell me how to stop or wait until a wall stops us?"

Spurred into action by that, Ben guides Klaus through changing the gear to the right setting and then easing the speed down until he can control the vehicle's movements properly.

Of course, Klaus decided to park on top of someone's letterbox during their first attempt.

They leave a little apology note but swiftly move on, trying again and again until the sun lights up the sky and they're both pretty exhausted.

"One last time? I think I've got it properly now!" Klaus doesn't really wait for a reply before speeding up again, driving to the nearest supermarket with a mostly empty parking lot so he can try again.

The little German boy who'd appeared in the backseat about an hour ago shouts something similar to a battle cry when he starts to slow down again. Klaus bites his lip as he thinks back to Ben's words and focuses solely on manoeuvring the little car into a parking space.

It works.

The car ends up perfectly central in the unusually tight space and Klaus breathes a sigh of relief, nodding at the proud-looking little boy before turning to grin at Ben, only to find him fast asleep.

"Oh," Klaus says blankly, frowning guiltily at his brother.

Ben is none the wiser. He continues to stay that way even as Klaus giddily drives them back to the house, even as the car is deftly parked in its usual spot, and even as Klaus struggles with carrying him back to his room, ultimately tucking him back into bed without either of them getting injured.

Klaus dimly registers the ghosts muttering something about manners and improper ways but he pays then no need as he sits down to catch his breath for a moment, suddenly feeling utterly drained of energy. Maybe he should exercise more, he thinks to himself as he yawns widely, lazily stretching his arms above his drooping head...

The other siblings all notice that both Ben and Klaus are missing at breakfast but none of them raise the issue, choosing to act as normal so their Father doesn't make it into a big deal.

"You'll check on them, right?" Vanya asks quietly when their Father gets up to leave, and nobody needs to ask who she's referring to.

Diego nods, worry shining in his eyes. "I'm already on it."

As soon as breakfast is over, Diego slips upstairs and heads to Ben's room, taking a moment to process what he sees as he opens the door: Ben is turned to face away from the door, clearly deep in sleep, and Klaus is sitting cross-legged on the floor, his back against the bed and his head drooping down onto the mattress, seemingly asleep as well.

"What on earth?" he says aloud, without thinking about it.

Klaus gasps, springing upright and immediately groaning, one hand reaching for his neck before he's even opened his eyes.

"Klaus, what are you doing?" Diego asks, making a note of the sharpie words that have somehow reappeared on his skin.

"Did we miss lunch?" Klaus inquires sleepily.

Diego takes a second to laugh before shaking his head and stepping forwards, holding a hand out in front of Klaus. "Breakfast just finished. Now come on, stand up."

Yawning carelessly, Klaus takes his hand and pulls himself up, then grins at Diego. "You didn't eat anything, did you?"

"What else do you expect me to do at breakfast?"

Klaus shrugs. "I'm pretty sure you'll have spent the whole time deeply missing my spectacular presence," he drawls.

Raising an eyebrow, Diego shakes his head. "I might have missed Ben but you... Well, it was a nice break."

"You wound me, dear brother," Klaus whispers hyperbolically, but then just nods in agreement, copying the serious nature of Diego's expression as he says, "I second the fact that we'd miss Ben but not each other."

Diego just rolls his eyes and glances at their still-sleeping brother. "Why isn't he getting up?"

"He had a late night," Klaus replies swiftly, "as did I."

Not letting Diego verbalise the questions it's obvious he has, Klaus jumps onto the bed and practically falls on top of Ben, who jerks awake and twists them around so he's on top of Klaus, an arm at his throat.

"Calm down there, sleepy head." Klaus just pushes Ben's arm off his neck, clearly not bothered by that at all; it takes both his siblings a moment to remember that he's had far worse, both willingly and otherwise.

"What's going on?" Ben asks as he sheepishly pushes himself back, directing the question more towards Diego.

Except Klaus ignores that and answers anyway. "We are going to go for a drive and treat Diego to an ice cream sundae as an apology for making him worry."

Ben makes a face. "It's not like that was my fault."

It's obvious Klaus had been expecting that because he sits up and grins smugly. "Which is exactly why you're not the one playing chauffeur today!"

Now it's Diego's turn to be confused. He glances between the two of them sceptically. "What are you talking about? We all know you're absolutely terrible behind the wheel."

Klaus slaps a hand to his chest and lets his jaw fall open as he gasps. "Diego! You continue to wound me!" After clearing his throat, he continues: "You'd think that going to the effort of figuring out this whole driving business would get at least one 'thank you'..."

Diego frowns further, still not getting it. "What?"

Even Ben, who's only just about awake, is exasperated enough to roll his eyes. "Our resident idiot here spent a billion nights sneaking out and learning to drive, Dee, I think that part is pretty clear."

Klaus tactfully ignores the insult in Ben's reiteration because Diego's expression of curiosity, realisation, and what might be horror is absolutely worth it. If only he'd been allowed to keep that camera he'd found a few weeks back.

"Did you seriously do that?" Diego asks quietly.

Klaus jumps up and smoothens out the wrinkles in his shirt. "Let's go find out, shall we?"

And so they do.

They make their way down to the back door, briefly stopping to assure Vanya that they are indeed okay before taking the usual path to their car, with Klaus walking round to the driver's seat this time, taking a deep breath before climbing inside and glancing to his brothers with an expectant look. "Coming?"

The answer is obviously 'yes' but it takes a while for them to settle in because Diego and Ben aren't used to sitting with one another. Once they do settle down though, Klaus starts the car and smiles gleefully, which is both endearing and extremely worrying.

"You're sure about this?" Diego asks Ben, who just elbows him and glares, implying that any doubt is pointless and rude.

Diego holds his breath - not that it means much - as they set off and speed up, easing along the familiar roads to the ice cream place with minimal turbulence.

"See?" Klaus asks after a while, as the ice cream place comes into view, half his attention focused on the very distinct lack of ghosts around them and the other half focused on monitoring Diego's reaction.

It's a reaction and a half. He seems utterly thrown by this turn of events and actually says nothing until Klaus slows down, at which point he still doesn't say anything but grabs onto Ben as if expecting them to crash, which of course doesn't happen, Klaus successfully parking the car as smoothly as his brothers can.

"This is the part where you say something nice," Ben whispers to Diego, internally laughing at his disbelief.

Foregoing words entirely, Diego swiftly walks over to Klaus and pulls him into a tight embrace, making him gasp and cough for a second before he can reciprocate and grin at Ben over Diego's shoulder. Ben gives them a few moments before joining in with the hug, squishing all three of them together with a proud smile on his face and gratitude in his heart.

He'd die all over again if it meant they could have more times like this.

When they finally pull themselves apart, Diego clears his throat. "Thank you," he manages, and that's all he needs to say.

Klaus beams happily, looping his own arms through both Diego and Ben's arms, starting to walk towards the little ice cream shop. "It's about time I repay the favours you technically haven't done for me, isn't it?"

Diego has no words, formed or not, to express the extent his love in that moment so he chooses to just nod, accepting that freezing cold, soft, and fruity payment is probably the best kind.

Sure, it's not exactly conventional to eat chilled desserts in the place of nutritional meals but sometimes, that's simply what it means to live life and, since the three of them have seen more than enough of death in their lives, they're happy to just enjoy the weird times they can have together, not caring if they have to throw away what might be considered ordinary in favour of embracing mundane pleasures, and each other.

Navyfan: thanks for sticking with! And yeah, their trio is a safe retreat so ups and downs are tolerated. So glad you liked it! I'm not certain I'd write a direct sequel to this but maybe another 5/1 or smthing as well as misc oneshots, your interest means a lot though, ly! x

Thewaythefeatherfalls: tysm! I did the same haha, there wasn't much when I finished watching but the number increased every day, I love the fandom! I'm honoured to be the first ;) yh poor klaus is so lovable, isn't he? also, thank you, I'm deffo invested enough to write more! X

I'm not Emma i am oats: hope you liked and thank you x

Everyone else, thanks for reading and interacting with this fic in whatever way, it makes my day! (also, over 5k views? I am shook, tysm!) See you in my next fic! * salutes *

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