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"Valentine's Day is dumb, don'tcha think?"
If the ghosts weren't going to leave him alone, then he should at least try to humor them right?
Klaus shuffles the last piece of waffle around on his plate, soaking up the remainder of the syrup before sticking it in his mouth ungracefully.
"I mean-" He starts through a mouthful of food. "-you can show people affection any day of the week."
He pauses to swallow. "Not that we had any of that growing up or anything..." Klaus trails off, gaze drifting over to a mutilated ghost that was staring at him from the corner of the kitchen. "What are you looking at?!"
Silence.
Wow, they only shut up when he actually attempts to get a rise out of them. How dreadfully ironic.
The ghosts weren't very good company, he concludes.
Klaus shakes his head as he stands to take the empty sticky plate and fork to the sink to wash. Breakfast was awfully quiet for him this morning, with Allison and Luther in LA visiting his sister's family. And Ben having gone with Vanya and Five to the library for the day. It's been almost 11 months since the apocalypse was averted and now that he isn't a ghost, Ben can live his life. Klaus is happy for him or he really wanted to be. It's just that after so long of being attached at the hip, he still wasn't really quite used to it.
Four felt alone and the familiar presence of unfamiliar ghosts didn't help in the slightest. He wasn't even able to see Dave after all this time. Maybe he moved on after all and Klaus just couldn't let go.
As Klaus turned on the water and ran the dish under it, he heard someone enter the room. "Who are you talking to?!"
Klaus jumped, dropping the plate into the sink with a loud clatter. Luckily it didn't break. "For fucks sake, Di!" He snapped his head toward the vigilante, forehead creased.
"Sorry I didn't mean to startle you, man." A smirking Diego dropped his gloves onto the tabletop as he moved around it and toward his brother, leaning against the counter next to him.
The medium turns his attention back to his task. "The bastard in the corner won't stop staring." Klaus tilts his head in the direction of the ghost, without taking his eyes off of the soap-covered dish.
"Oh." Two glances over to the empty spot before turning back to his little brother. "I take it the ghosts are more quiet today?" He cocks an eyebrow.
"Yeah. Seems that way." Klaus mutters, shrugging his shoulders lazily. He already felt drained and it wasn't even noon yet. Normally it was all of the noise the ghosts produced, but today it was the silence that had taken it out of him.
He washes the fork next and dries it along with the plate before putting them both away. "I would have made you breakfast, but you were a few minutes too late lieber Bruuuuder." He lilted with an awful faux-accent.
Klaus takes his spot back at the table and Diego follows suit, sitting next to him. "It's fine, I'm not really...that hungry- are you okay?" He side-eyes Klaus, brows furrowed.
"Hm?" Klaus looks up at him. "Yeah?"
The response came out sharper and more uncertain than he intended and repeated himself, voice softening. "Yeah, m'good." And gave him his infamous faux-smile before turning to look down at the table.
Diego looked at him incredulously, mouth pulled into a straight line. Ever since his brother got sober, he's been more timid, anxious, and sensitive than he had been. Klaus kept to himself a lot more lately. That bothered Diego.
"Look...if it's about Dave..." Diego swallowed. "I get it."
The room grew silent and a few of the ghosts started murmuring. Klaus reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose and groaned.
Diego stills a moment and abruptly stands, causing the chair legs to screech along the tiles. "I'm sorry...I'll leave you alone." He grabs his gloves off the table and turns to leave, disheartened.
"Wait wait wait! " Klaus frantically calls out after him.
He stops in the doorway. Diego wasn't angry or annoyed. He was concerned, and it was obvious by the way his brows creased as he locked eyes with his lanky brother. For the first time in awhile, he looked at him. Really looked at him. Klaus appeared a lot healthier than he had been since he got sober, but the shine he used to have in his eyes had long since faded. He looked so tired.
"I'm sorry, it's not because of you." He sighs. "I swear it's not…" Klaus sounds so small and panicked.
Diego leans against the frame of the doorway, arms crossed. The vigilante bites at his bottom lip as he considers the man in front of him, before slowly moving back to his seat.
He discards his gloves onto the table in front of him again and turns to his brother this time, sideways in his seat.
"The ghosts have been a real pain in the ass lately and with Ben gone...and Dave..." Klaus trailed off and closed his eyes, tears threatening to spill over.
He tries to swallow down the knot forming in his throat, but he chokes out a sob instead. "I don't know if I can, um...if I-" Klaus inhales sharply, clutching the dog tags hanging around his neck.
Diego can see the panic forming on Klaus' face, how vulnerable he is at that moment. He instinctively scoots forward to the edge of the chair and wraps his brother tightly in his arms. "It's okay, I get it" He reiterated his statement from before.
Klaus leans into him as tears start to fall.
"I've been thinking about Eudora a lot lately. And I miss her every damn day." He squeezes his trembling brother tighter. "So I get it. I know what you're going through, Klaus"
At this point Diego is crying with him silently. Then he can feel Klaus wiggling his hands free from the space between them to return the embrace.
For a time, no words were shared between them. Only the sound of Klaus' weeping fills the room. Even the ghosts seem to have lost complete interest in it all.
"This holiday really is kind of stupid." Diego mumbles.
Klaus struggles to get a laugh out as he pulls himself away from his older brother, voice cracking. "Finally someone agrees." He digs the heels of his hands into his eyes to wipe the tears away, smudging his eyeliner.
They exchange glances, big green eyes meeting brown ones and Diego grabs his brother gently by his upper arms. "You good?"
His younger brother notices his similar tear tracks. "Are you?"
That's when they started laughing. They weren't even sure as to why they were, but it felt good and genuine. It was something they could share together. They were leaning on each other by the end if it, almost falling out of their chairs had they not been there to support one another.
"Hey, Klaus-" Diego straightens up finally, laughter subsiding. "-Klaus!"
The medium abruptly stops laughing, when his brother calls to him. And at first he thought that maybe he had done something wrong or that he upset Diego somehow, but his brother was smiling at him. It was slight, but still there.
"What's up, Diego?" Klaus asked meekly, brows raised.
"Uhh…" The knife wielder hesitated a moment. "I wanted to ask-" He looks at his brother nervously. Diego still wasn't good at this whole sibling thing, but like hell he wasn't gonna try.
He sucks in a deep inhale.
"Do you wanna hang out today?" And at that moment he could see the sparkle in his brother's eyes return. "Just us? I mean, if you don't have any plans-"
"No." Klaus cuts him off. His heart sinks when he sees the hurt on Diego's face and he corrects himself. "No, I don't have plans I meant!" He nods. "That sounds great, yeah."
Klaus flashes his signature smile. And not the fake one, it was the real deal this time.
Two exhaled as if he'd been holding his breath. "Don't scare me like that, asshole." He shoves Klaus' shoulder almost knocking him out of the chair.
"Diego, what the-" and as he leans toward him to retaliate, his brother wraps him in another tight embrace. "-hell?"
"Now that Ben isn't here, I can actually spend time with my favorite sibling." Diego mumbles into Klaus' ear as if telling a secret he'd been keeping.
Klaus is taken aback. When was he ever anyone's favorite? One could argue that he was Ben's favorite too, but he can only base that on the fact that he was the only one who could even see him. Which is no longer the case.
"You're mine too." He mumbled back.
"I love you, man."
"Love you too, Di…"
Diego squeezes his brother again before letting go and pushes himself to stand. "So...it's still morning. We've got the whole day."
Klaus gestures at him and gasps as he stands. "Do you think Allison's Love on Loan trilogy is on TV today? I've wanted to see them."
Diego wouldn't admit it, but he'd been wanting to as well.
"One way to find out-" He snaps his fingers and makes a face. "After we go buy a TV…"
"Shopping trip?" Klaus claps his hands excitedly.
His older brother rolls his eyes at him, trying to hide a smirk. "Shopping trip."