“I made breakfast! It’s just cereal but it’s the only thing I can't burn.”
“And yet, I still don’t trust it.” He pokes at the bowl, bringing up a spoonful of rice krispies to let it slosh back into the bowl.
Klaus makes a face at him as they turn towards the counter to continue dumping sugar in their bowl.
“Tory,” they whine, “I woke up earlier than you just so I could make us breakfast.”
There’s a beat of silence that tells Klaus that Tory wants to sigh. He refrains.
“Thank you.”
There’s a grin on Klaus’s face as they spin around to face him with their breakfast in hand. Milk sloshes out of the bowl and onto the floor.
They don’t spare it more than a glance as they hop on the counter. Tory watches as they shove a spoonful of cereal in their mouth, it glitters with undissolved sugar. He throws a glance at his own bowl, a shadow of a chill passing down his spine.
He sucks it up and brings the spoon to his lips. It’s a surprise when all he tastes is some regular cereal, no chunks of pure sugar. His face must give him away because Klaus looks offended.
“It’s just cereal...I can’t mess up cereal.” Klaus doesn’t even know what they could’ve done.
“Stop pouting,” Tory rolls his eyes, “There are a million things you could've done, and luckily you’ve done none of them.”
That sets Klaus off. The rest of breakfast is filled with the back and forth arguing of how Klaus could’ve messed up cereal.
Tory washes their dishes while Klaus wipes up the milk they spilled. How they manage to be so uncareful with a bowl full of milk in their hand, he will never know.
When that’s finished, and Klaus is shepherding him to the couch, a thought occurs to him. His brow furrows but he tries to keep his concern under wraps.
As they settle into the couch and Klaus is scrolling through Netflix, he speaks up.
“When you said you woke up early to make us breakfast….” He doesn’t continue the question, the concern in his voice making it clear what he’s asking.
Klaus keeps their eyes on the tv, still scrolling through titles as they hum in response. It’s silent for a moment before they speak up.
“I mean I woke up early so I could make us breakfast.” They stop scrolling, curling their hands into their side. “I woke up a little early and decided to stay awake.”
“Of course, I’m not trying to say anything. I just...I can’t always expect to hear from you when things go wrong.”
“I think I've learnt my lesson.” There’s a bitterness in their tone that he hasn’t heard in a little while but is still all too familiar.
“Hey, I thought we made up. I’m not trying to attack you or anything. I just wanted to ask, didn’t want to leave you alone if you were having nightmares again.” Klaus lets out a breath at that, uncurling from their position a bit.
“I know, sorry. I’m just still a little on edge. I was a little unsettled by waking up early, it felt a little like a bad omen and a good thing at the same time.” Tory reaches out to grasp their wrist, messing with their hand.
“Okay. That’s okay, just...I just wanted to ask and now I've got my answer.” He smiles at Klaus a little bit, a little too genuine to be completely comfortable.
They take that as a cue to start scrolling again, clicking on the first decent title. It starts up as Tory slips his hand into theirs, offering support in a way he knows will be better received.
It takes compromise from both of them to keep things running. The argument was one of the worse things that have happened, and they want to avoid it happening again.
But as they sit watching a movie, resigning themselves to lazing around all day, it’s far from their minds. They’re getting along fine.