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Diego doesn’t see Klaus as often as he should.
He probably doesn’t see any of his siblings as much as he should, but Klaus most of all. He’s vague about where he’s staying most of the time, and he doesn’t really have a cellphone. The only time Diego can really reach him is when he’s crashing on Vanya’s couch, or when he’s knocking on Diego’s door at four in the morning because he happened to be close by and wanted some waffles. Of all his siblings, Diego can only tolerate two for so long, and he only worries about one in particular.
Vanya - tiny, quiet Vanya - is doing better than anyone else as far as Diego is concerned. She went to college. She has a steady job. No one is hounding her for information on her past, or about details of this mission or that. They don’t stare at her tattoo when they catch sight of it on the street, because she doesn’t have one. He worries about her the way a brother worries about a sister that tiny, but he doesn’t worry if he’ll find her dead in a ditch somewhere because she owed someone money or went home with the wrong guy. Not like he does with Klaus.
Klaus is a beanpole, taller than him but thin as a twig, and he hasn’t been sober since they were in their early teens. Diego has no problem with how his brother dresses and acts (when he’s not popping pills or drinking), but there are still people who do, and a skinny guy in a skirt who looks like he’s talking to himself seems like an easy target. Sometimes Diego can’t sleep at night, laying face up in his bed, police scanner turned on high. Every time they mention a dead junkie found in a back alley somewhere, or OD’d on their apartment floor, his heart seizes. Klaus, for all his faults, tries his hardest to be good, and kind. He’s a goofball and sometimes he’s impossible to be around, but he cares about his family and tries his best to be there for you when you need it. He never judged Diego for his stutter, or the rare times he caught him crying alone in his room.
No one in this shitty mismatched family worries him like Klaus does.
Tonight is one of those nights where Diego is awake, sharpening his knives because he can’t sleep.
“Hey Patch, we got another jumper.” He hears. He looks down at his collection of sharp objects, and shakes his head.
Yeah. Definitely not his scene.
“10-4. I’ll be right there.” Eudora responds. Her voice always makes him pause.
He won’t say the blame for their relationship ending (before it ever really began) is entirely on him, but he will admit that a large part of it is. He fucked up, and refused to talk about his past. She still doesn’t know much about it. Sometimes he considers spilling his guts to her. Laying himself bare. But he’s too much of a coward for that.
“Looks like a junkie. He keeps talking to empty air.” The other officer says, and Diego’s breath catches in his throat, cold raining down his spine.
He’s in his gear and at his car before he even knows what he’s doing.
It’s not him. He tells himself.
He calls Vanya.
“Hey, Van,” He says quickly.
“Hey, Di – “
“Have you seen Klaus since Saturday? Do you know where he is?” He interrupts, starting the car. The officer on the radio gives Patch the location, and Diego speeds away.
“No, I haven’t.” He can hear the confusion and worry in her voice. “Why, is he okay? He said he’d come to lunch with me this Friday.”
“I-I –” He forces himself to take a breath. “It’s fine. I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Okay.” She says quietly. He hangs up.
It’s not him. It can’t be him. He was fine last time you saw him, pull yourself together.
It’s not him.
He’s still not entirely convinced. He gets there in record time, stopping behind the myriad of police cars around him, and he spots Eudora near the front. She spots him before he can make it near the jumper, and gives him a look that’s somewhere between disbelief and annoyance.
“Diego, what you doing here? This isn’t your usual scene.” She huffs at him. “And this isn’t your job anymore.”
“I know, I just –” the potential jumper turns to his side, yelling something Diego can’t hair at the space next to him, and suddenly he can’t breathe.
It’s Klaus.
He’d been trying to convince himself the whole ride here that it couldn’t be. Klaus talked a lot about liking the numbness of drugs, but he’d never kill himself, right? He’d seemed fine at Vanya’s on Saturday. He laughed. He joked with them. He was – he was just Klaus. He’d tried to squeeze himself into one of Vanya’s only dresses and said dumb shit to make them laugh. He’d promised, for the billionth time, that he’d try and get sober, and Diego had actually believed him.
“-ego. Diego!” Patch is shaking his shoulder, and he sucks in a breath.
“I –” He doesn’t know what to say. His fear is chocking him, catching all his words and lodging them in his throat. She looks over her shoulder, at the jumper – his little brother, because fuck that same birth day bullshit – and her expression morphs into worry.
“Oh, you…you know him?”
“Y-yeah.” He forces out.
And then he’s ripping himself free from her grip and sprinting past the other officers. Some of them recognize him, and call his name, but he really doesn’t care.
That’s his brother.
“Klaus!” He yells. He’s afraid to get too close, afraid Klaus’ll see him and just topple off, plummeting to his death right there.
His brother doesn’t turn around.
“Klaus! Please, look at me!” He shouts. “Klaus! It’s – it’s Diego. It’s your brother. Look at me!” there’s murmuring behind him, but he can’t look. “F-fuck.” He breathes. “H-hey! Number Four, for fuck’s sake!”
Adam has known Diego for about a year now, and he doesn’t remember him ever mentioning having a brother. Of course, Diego was always pretty secretive. Not even Patch knows much about him, and she knows him better than anyone else. They’d gone to the academy together, apparently, before he got kicked out. He heard a rumor that they used to be a thing, and he can see it. Their banter when he drops by the station sounds a lot like flirting to him.
He can tell by the look on her face that she’s just as surprised as he is.
“H-hey! Number Four, for fuck’s sake! Look at me!” Diego shouts.
The jumper – Diego’s brother, who is apparently named number Four??? – finally turns around, eyes wide. He’s skin and bones, dark lines trailing down his cheeks and black makeup smudged around his eyes. He’s in a ridiculous outfit, a tiny glittery crop top over tight leather pants with rips in the knees. His feet are bare.
This is Diego’s brother.
“That’s it.” Diego says, taking a few steps forward.
“Oh my god.” Patch breathes, standing next to him. Adam’s eyes are glued to the scene before him.
“Fuck off!” Klaus/Number Four shouts shakily. Diego holds up his hands.
“I can’t do that, bro. Talk to me. What are you doing here?”
“Is that really his brother?” Adam whispers.
Patch just shakes her head.
“What do you care?!” Klaus screams. Around them, everyone is silent. “I’m just a fucking junkie, right? A disappointment! A waste of space! I mean, that’s what dear old dad always says, right?! It’s not like any of you ever disagreed with him!” he throws a hand into the air and wobbles, and Diego takes another step forward.
“Hey! F-f-fuck what the old man says, al-alright?” He stutters. Adam’s never heard Diego stutter before.
The whole thing makes something itch at the back of his mind. Old memories of watching someone on tv stutter and blush at the camera. Of people with numbers for names. Was it a show? A movie, maybe? For some reason, his mind throws ‘comics’ at him.
“S-since when i-i-is anything that asshole ever s-said im-important?!” He continues. He takes a deep breath. “D-don’t do this. Please. How and I supposed to tell our little sister that all three of her favorite siblings are dead, huh? First Five, then Ben, then you? I can’t do it. She needs you!” He pauses. “I-I need you.”
“No one needs me! I’ve never been useful in my life!” His brother shouts back. He turns abruptly to his side, voice choked up. “Shut up, Ben!”
Diego looks sharply at the empty air.
Isn’t Ben one of the dead siblings he just mentioned? And who the fuck names their child ‘Five’?
“Klaus, i-if you – if you jump,” Diego takes another step. He’s only a few feet away now. “I have to jump with you.”
Klaus flinches, eyes going comically wide and face paling even further.
“No. You can’t.”
“I will.” He takes another step.
“D-Diego. Please.” The brother sobs. Diego’s hand is only a foot away.
“I’m not going to live in any world that doesn’t have you. And I bet Vanya wouldn’t either. So…so if you decide that this is it for you, then it’s for me too.”
Klaus looks between his brother and the empty air, and then suddenly he’s vaulting over the railing and into his brother’s arms, trembling like a leaf. Diego’s mouth is moving, whispering things that no one else can hear as he holds him, and Adam lets out a breath he hadn’t know he’d been holding.
“Jesus Christ.” He breathes.
This night is far from anything he expected.
His heart pounds in his chest. He can’t hear the words he’s whispering in Klaus’ ear. Everything has faded away to static, the only things left behind being the feeling of his brother in his arms and the way he shakes at Diego’s words. He doesn’t know how long they stand like that. And hour. A minute.
Someone touches his shoulder, and he jerks, looking at them.
It’s Patch.
“You should get him home.” She says softly.
“I…yeah.” He breathes.
Klaus is safe. He’s going to be fine.
He leads Klaus back to his car, trying to ignore all the stares he knows he’s getting from the other officers. He doesn’t know them an explanation – the only thing he has to do is get Klaus somewhere safe and maybe go to their old house and beat the shit out of that douche that ever dared to call himself their father. He hasn’t seen Reginald in years, but he’d do it if Klaus asked.
(Klaus probably wont ask. He doesn’t need another ghost haunting him.)
“Your last name isn’t really Ramos, is it.” Another officer – Adam, if he remembers correctly – says quietly. Diego grips Klaus tighter.
“Adam.” Eudora hisses, eyes hard.
A small part of him is elated that she’s still kind of protective of him. most of him is scared shitless about what he just stopped.
“No. It’s not.” Diego gets out.
Adam stares at him, a thousand questions in his eyes. Diego finally looks past him, at everyone around them. Most of them are staring. Some of them are talking, no doubt about him. They’ve probably put it together, or are about to. There aren’t really any other families with kids named ‘four’ and ‘five’, and Diego does wear still wear that mask when he goes out at night.
“Go take care of your brother.” Is what he finally says, which is a surprise and a relief.
“We’re going to have a talk.” Patch says firmly, pointing at him. Klaus watches her, pressed against Diego’s side, arms wrapped around himself. She looks at him, and her shoulders slum. “After you help him.”
“You’re that cop lady.” Klaus croaks. “He talks about you sometimes.”
“Um. Yeah.” Eudora says awkwardly. Adam’s eyebrows raise. Diego opens the passenger door and Klaus, for once, just sits down without crawling into the backseat. He goes around the driver’s side and pauses, jaw working.
“I – we…” He starts.
“No, no, no, just go.” Adam insists. Patch nods.
“I told you we’ll talk later. Go take care of him. Just…call me when you can.”
He nods.
He gets in and starts driving, gripping the steering wheel tight so Klaus can’t see his hands shake. He considers going back to his own shitty apartment for a moment, but it’s probably better if they didn’t. so. Vanya’s it is then. She has work tomorrow morning, but he doubt’s she’ll mind.
“You’re not…you’re not going to yell at me?” Klaus says after a long stretch of silence. Diego looks at him, incredulous.
“What? No.” He insists. “I’m angry, yah, but definitely not at you, okay? I – I love you, Klaus. I just want you to be okay.”
“Oh.” Klaus looks at him, eyes shiny. He offers him a watery smile. “I love you too. Bro.”
Diego can finally breathe.