Allison still felt light and far too happy. Not that she knew if there was something called too happy, but considering the bullshit they’d dealt with since they were kids, she wasn’t sure she’d ever expected happy. She wasn’t even sure she’d expected content. But here she had both and it was a sort of stupid luck she’d never have believed existed before. She was going to talk to all of her family, naturally, but Klaus she wanted to go to first. No one else was going to be as likely to scream or hop up and down and be excited with her the way that Klaus was. Claire was still in the eyeroll stage of the information. She’d apparently known about it before. She was surprised she’d kept the secret so well.
She hadn’t been able to stop staring at her engagement ring for more than a few minutes at a time. Likely that would pass, but for now, she was still swept up in it. So she’d texted Klaus with a very simple and very vague, “I have news and the promise of coffee and donuts. Be dressed cause I’m coming over.” She wasn’t sure if ‘here’ was going to be his apartment or his work, but she had a feeling Aexis would forgive him a moment of squealing with his sister over her new engagement ring. She seemed the sort.
God, she was going to have to figure that out. It probably wasn’t going to be the biggest wedding in the universe, but she still wanted to get things planned...even if it was getting ahead of herself a little. First she needed to do the big reveal with Klaus. Then she could go overboard.
Klaus had a rare day off, so he was at home and not yet dressed when he received Allison's text. (He was, at least, already awake.) "Coffee and donuts? Must be good news. I'll put on more appropriate clothing for the occasion." Good news was welcome, but coffee and donuts were also always welcome.
"You gotta get up Jules Waffle," he informed the cat, who was asleep on his bare chest. "Blame Allison, she's so mean to you, but she's buying me coffee and donuts so you're just going to have to deal." The cat looked extremely put out at this development, but Klaus didn't linger, suddenly hungry now that his sister had brought up food. "What time is it?" he wondered, feeling extremely lazy having lounged around for some time. But he got dressed and ready for whatever Allison had in store for him, and was at the door almost instantly when she arrived.
"Allison!" he greeted, his voice a mixture of excitement and curiosity.
Allison was all smiles the minute that he opened the door and it took everything in her not to immediately say exactly what she came here to tell him about. She could tell Klaus was already trying to puzzle it out by the way he said her name. He was also pretty easy to read after this long. She moved in for a hug, not entirely certain she wasn’t vibrating from the excitement and happiness. “Hey, Klaus!”
When she stepped back, she adjusted her purse, not even bothering to seem normal by reaching with the hand closest to her bag just so Klaus would look and potentially see the ring. She was fairly taken with it. Her favorite color and also the fact that it came from Dan. It was different and she liked it for that.
“Glad to see you’re ready. Come on. We need donuts and coffee. For the purposes of celebrating.”
"Celebrating what?" Klaus asked, though his suspicions had already been confirmed during her very deliberate purse adjustment, but it still took a moment to properly register.
And then it did, and Klaus's jaw dropped open as he truly caught sight of the ring. "Allison!!" he exclaimed, unsure of what to do first, hug her or examine what appeared to be the most ridiculously perfect ring on her hand. It wasn't a contest really, as he wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her tightly before letting go and only then did he reach for her hand, lifting it and turning it to properly view the band and all the rocks contained within. "Wow, Dan gets all the points, doesn't he? Well done, Dan."
He held her hand a moment longer before releasing it, clapping his own hands together. "Allison, wow! Congratulations!"
A pause, before he added gleefully, "Called it!"
Allison’s smile widened the minute he realized what happened. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, laughing as he squeezed her. It was nice to have some happy things. As he inspected the ring, she tried to ignore the way her stomach kept trying to do somersaults. “He did pretty great, didn’t he? It’s made from stars? Moissanite? I think that’s what he said.” She laughed again, most of it nerves and everything else spilling out.
“I know. I wasn’t expecting it, but apparently Claire knew already. I mean, Dan had been acting a little weird, but you know. That’s just him sometimes.”
The ‘called it’ comment made her roll her eyes. “Yes, Klaus. You called it.” She lightly knocked into him with her elbow. “Just wait till I tell you everything else.”
"Well tell me!" Klaus urged but then hesitated, reaching for Ben's leather jacket. He put that on before adding, "Tell me on the way for celebratory donuts, that is!" He was definitely hungry for donuts now, especially with good news. "So Claire knew? What does she think? And yes, Dan can be a little weird," he agreed, almost solemnly, as if that was just a known fact.
"And did you say your ring was made from stars?"
Allison watched Klaus slide Ben’s jacket on, a sad smile briefly on her face before she lightly bumped her shoulder to Klaus’ again and started off to the lobby. “Well, I was definitely more clothed for my first proposal. To be fair,” she said, holding up her hand, one finger pointing up. “I wasn’t naked and I’m not the one that forgot a ring box was in his pocket while undressing.” So obviously that was what happened. “I’m so glad I bought new lingerie for that. God. Imagine the possibilities.” A pause. “No, nevermind. Don’t imagine.”
There was a small sigh. “She said she guesses he’s not too annoying.” But despite the sigh, there was an amused twinkle in her eyes. “I’m not sure if she’s pretending to be very hard to please or actually annoyed. The number of very dramatic sighs has picked up and the other day she flopped onto her bed with her hand over her eyes like it hurt her to look at the world.” Kids were a trip.
“Stars or meteorites. It feels similar.”
Klaus's eyes had gone wide as Allison started describing the proposal, then told him to use his imagination, before quickly retracting those instructions. He laughed easily, grateful for the quick change of subject, which caused Klaus to soften.
"Well of course, this is probably a lot for her," he nodded. And as someone with a flair for the dramatic, he could certainly empathize. "Maybe I can take her out for ice cream and we can talk about it." How he got to the point where he was even suggesting such a thing was pretty much beyond him, but here he was, doing so anyway.
"Oh! And do I get to go with you when you go to pick out dresses? And for Claire too?"
“Yeah. I’ve done my best to at least try to get her used to everything.” Allison frowned. “I know she misses Patrick, but there’s honestly nothing I can do about that. I don’t even have a picture to give her so she can at least have it, you know?” But she nodded at his words. “She loves Uncle Klaus, so I think she could be easily persuaded.” And it was sweet of him to offer. Klaus seemed to have a pretty good handle on things here and she was happy to see him growing and doing well.
“Who else am I going to ask to go with me? Diego?” Diego would go. He’d proven himself to be someone willing to put up with a lot of dumb shit for them, but Klaus was the one that she’d have asked anyway. “I doubt it’s going to be anything overly fancy and dramatic, but I’d at least like to look nice on my wedding day whenever that happens. And I’m pretty sure that might be a way to win Claire over a little more, too.”
"I'd be happy to spend more time with her and well, I'm not you." Sure he was stating the obvious, but maybe it would help Claire out to talk to someone more removed from the situation. And if not, at least she would get ice cream in the process.
"Ooh, I'm so excited," Klaus declared, smiling. "My sister's getting married. Are you going to keep Hargreeves? Or change it? What's Dan's last name, anyway?"
“You are not,” she agreed, slipping an arm through his as they walked. “Yeah. I don’t know if she’s talked to Sabrina or anyone else in the house about it. I’m honestly surprised she managed to keep it a secret for this long without telling anyone that it was going to happen. But I guess that’s one of those things.” It might’ve been a good sign? If she’d told her immediately, maybe it would mean she’d disagreed with it and didn’t want it to happen. Maybe this meant she was okay? Or it meant she hoped he’d forget and never ask. She had maybe thought about it too much.
“His last name is Torrance. And it’s not like I wouldn’t be a Hargreeves still if I took his name. You can’t get rid of me that easily.” She smiled though, looking down at the ground. “I’m still amazed that I’m getting married. Like if you’d have told me this when I first got here...I would definitely have thought you were crazy. I probably would have still thought you were crazy once we started dating. Maybe less so once I moved in with him.” She was rambling.
“God. There’s so much to do and I’m already overthinking it.”
"Allison Torrance…" Klaus said, repeating that two more times. "Nah, keep your last name. That's not nearly as good," he informed her, as if his opinion mattered on the subject. But as she continued, he looked over at her and smiled. "However it happened, Allison, I'm happy that you're happy. And besides," he added, leaning into her. "Don't worry about overthinking it. That's why I'm here, to not think too much about anything and balance you out."
Allison gave Klaus a look. “It’s not that bad.” And she’d had another last name before, but she went back to Hargreeves after the divorce and she’d never really changed it for the movies anyway. “But thank you for your balancing.” A sigh. “Now I just have to tell everyone else. How many quotation marks do you think this will set Dan back? Do we take bets on it?” She laughed a little at that. “Just make quotation marks the in thing.” There was a pause. “Should we make this a family celebration? With the donuts and the coffee? Or do you want it to be just us for a while longer?”
"Oh, I need to see Diego's face when you tell him," Klaus said. "So if the family is free, it'll be almost like we're young and sneaking off to Griddy's again. Without having to sneak off at all…" It was true, they were all closer now than they'd ever been back home.