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“I’m sorry.” Klaus tried to calm himself down, taking some deep, shaky breaths. He let go of my stained T-shirt to wipe his tear-streaked cheeks, leaving a smudge of chocolate behind. “I think I’m just… It’s been a long day.”

“It has.” I ran my hands soothingly up and down his arms. “You must be exhausted.”

“I think I’m a bit overwhelmed from moving.”

“Of course.”

“And then we got interrupted earlier, and…” He shook his head, eyes overflowing again. “I’m just… frustrated, I think.”

“Of course. Yeah.” I hesitated, feeling like shit because that was mostly my fault. “I’m sorry.”

That did not appear to be the right thing to say, because Klaus started blubbering again, fresh tears spilling down his cheeks. “Don’t apologise, Brian. Oh Lucifer, you’re so sweet I can’t handle it sometimes.”

“Sorry,” I said again in reflex, then winced when Klaus made a kind of sobbing, snorting sound and a bubble of snot expanded from his left nostril.

Lunging across the island, I grabbed a napkin from the stack that had come with our dinner. With one hand, I used my thumb to gently wipe away the tears on his cheeks, while the other carefully blotted under his nose with the napkin.

“Please don’t be upset, Klaus,” I begged. “We can still eat the cake. It’ll taste good.”

He nodded shakily, still clutching my shirt with a chocolate-stained hand. He seemed to start calming down, until he looked down at his front and burst into tears again.

“I forgot I was wearing these jeans,” he wailed. “Nat was right. They are fucking ugly.”

“They’re not.” I settled my hands back on his shoulders, firmer this time, and gently steered him toward the sink. “Okay, wash your hands then go and take off the jeans and sit down. I’ll clean up—”

“No—” he began to protest, but I didn’t let him.

“Yes. You’ve had a really long day. You need to relax.”

I gently wiped away the smear of frosting on his cheek as he scrubbed his hands clean. Then I guided him into the living room, helped him take off the chocolate-splattered jeans and sat him down on the couch. There was a pink and red knitted blanket he’d unpacked earlier draped over the back of the armchair, so I shook it out and carefully wrapped him up in it.

I crouched in front of him and tucked some stray curls behind his ears, then cupped his cheek and swiped my thumb over the tear-tracks on his flushed skin. He gazed at me with big, red-rimmed eyes, his forehead splotchy and dark lashes clumped together.

“I’m sorry I ruined our evening.”

“You didn’t.”

His chin wobbled again. “You just wiped snot off my face.”

“That didn’t ruin anything.”

He sniffled wetly, eyes growing glassy again. “It doesn’t exactly make you want to rail me into the mattress though, does it?”

I made sure to keep the expression on my face exactly the same. My eye muscle twitched slightly with the effort it took to suppress my wince. The problem was, I had no fucking idea what the right answer to that question was.

“I—It doesn’t… not,” I said weakly, not even sure what I fully meant, just hoping it wouldn’t make him start crying again.

He sighed miserably, looking down at his hands in his lap. My chest squeezing painfully tight, I smoothed his hair back again and leaned in to kiss his forehead.

“I’ll go clean up the kitchen, and I’ll be right back,” I told him. When he just nodded sadly, still not looking at me, I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug.

I didn’t hug many people. In fact, I hugged zero people. But Klaus felt perfect in my arms. Warm and soft and right. I buried my nose and mouth in the bend of his neck and closed my eyes, breathing in his scent, feeling his messy curls tickle my forehead.

He relaxed in my arms, his body sagging against me as he hugged me back just as hard. When we finally parted, he even gave me a watery smile.

“I won’t be long.” I stood up.

Thankfully, Klaus had remembered to pick up paper towels at the grocery store earlier, because it took a lot of them to wipe up the chocolate frosting spattered everywhere by the fridge. I had to mop up all the lumps of cake and icing, gathering them into an even worse lump than before, then trying to scoop it all up so I could throw it in the trash.