Chapter Text
Luther is an asshole.
He promised himself he was going to be there for his siblings this time. That he was going to be a better brother. He failed miserably. He couldn't even pay enough attention to notice his sibling was hurting. He just assumed they were getting high again. He didn't even have a second thought about it. The signs were everywhere but he just dismissed them, thinking he knew better.
His sibling fought in an active war zone, he lost people there, and he was grieving, he was traumatised, and all he could do was being happy they were silent for once. He was enjoying their silence, not noticing the dead look in their eyes, the quiver in their lips and the shaking in their hands.
Luther shakes his head, there is no reason to dwell on the past. What's done is done. All he can do now is look forward, and be better.
That's why, when he is looking through the model planes at the local store and he notices a specific one from the Vietnam Era, he buys it directly, hoping Klaus will like his new-found idea.
He doesn't bring it for a few days, because when he gets home he starts wondering if it really is a good idea to bring up the war like that. He isn't sure if it could trigger bad memories or not. He tries searching about it online but since he isn't used to the Internet, he doesn't know how to find actual useful information. He could ask Charlie but the man doesn't seem to like him very much. At the end, he decides to stop worrying too much and to go ask Klaus about it.
That's why, a week after he bought the model, he knocks on Klaus's door, hoping to take the first step in mending their broken relationship. The door opens and Luther takes a peek inside, to see Klaus sitting in the middle of their room, in a lotus position. He frowns a little at the door, wondering how it opened if they were all the way there.
"Ben opened it." Luther turns to Klaus again to see them watching him with a slight grin.
"I'm not your servant, you know ?" Luther is a little ashamed to say he jumped at Ben's sudden apparition at his side. The ghost glares at Klaus, but doesn't care about hiding the smile on his lips.
He can see his sibling shrug in the corner of his eyes, and Ben shakes his head before leaving the bedroom, closing the door behind himself. Luther watches the door for a minute before Klaus clears their throat to make him focus on them again.
They're watching him with a raised brow, still sitting on the ground. "What can I do for you, Lu ?"
"Well…" He should have thought about what to say to them beforehand, he isn't really used to socializing with his siblings and he feels awkward now. Klaus looks at him curiously, letting him time to put his thoughts in order, for which he is grateful. "I was wondering if you wanted to help me build a model plane ?"
They squint at him, confused by his proposal. "A model plane ?"
Luther nods slowly, rubbing a hand in the back of his neck. "Yeah… I was at the store a few days ago and I saw an helicopter model from the Vietnam War…" He feels a little awkward saying the last part, once again wondering if it was a stupid idea. Klaus looks at him up and down, not saying anything, making Luther squirms in his spot. "I just thought 'why not ?', you know ?"
Klaus stays silent for another minute, before shrugging as they get up from the ground. "Sure, I could use the distraction."
Luther frowns, suddenly remembering the strange position they were in. "What were you doing ?"
"I was trying to contact someone." He observes worriedly as his sibling grabs the dog tags around their neck, an exhausted look painting their face.
"Do you want to talk about it ?"
"No." They shake their head and quickly move past them to leave their room. They turn to him to ask "Your room ?"
"Yeah." He hurries to follow them.
When he catches up to Klaus, they're already sitting on his bed, waiting for him. He slowly goes to his desk, easily moving it against the bed so they can both use it at the same time without bumping in each other. He already got the pieces out of the box, all of them spread out on top of the desk. Klaus takes the instruction notice he had discarded to the side earlier, raising a brow at the paper.
Luther sits on his desk chair, observing their reaction with anticipation, he still isn't sure about his choice and is worried about what they think, not wanting to have made a mistake. "It's a Bell UH-1 Iroquois."
They nod, putting the paper back down. "Yeah, I know." At Luther's confused face they add with a mocking grin "I've been in one or two before."
They take one of the pieces to start working on the model, quickly followed by Luther who is looking at them in shock. "Really ?"
They give him a look and he can feel himself squirm against the scrutiny, again.
"I was in Vietnam. Choppers were a common occurrence back then." And Luther wants to slap himself for how stupid he keeps getting. Of course they've seen and been in a helicopter before, the vehicle was one of the most predominant during the Vietnam War.
He just nods, not wanting to embarrass himself even more, but something couldn't get out of his mind as he kept on building the little model. "Choppers ?"
"Yeah, choppers, helicopters."
He frowns at the weird slang. "Why do you call them like that ?"
"Because they can chop people's heads off ?" They shrug as if this was obvious, ignoring Luther's horrified look.
"Wh-what ?"
"Yeah, I've seen it once or twice. Pretty gruesome sight to be honest." They glue one of the pieces, not noticing Luther has completely stopped to look at them in shock. They look thoughtful for a second. "Well, not directly but, you know, afterwards."
"Afterwards ?" They look at him, finally realising he stopped assembling, to see him standing there in confusion.
They roll their eyes as they add "Ghosts."
"Oh…" Luther feels a little sick at the sudden image.
They continue the assembly in silence after that, Klaus focused on the work and Luther thinking over the new information he learned.
They are almost done when Klaus talks again, turning one of the machine gun in their hand. "You know, I've shot from a Huey like this one before."
Luther raises his head from where he is glueing a pal on the top of the model, his eyes widen dramatically. "Seriously ?" They nod slightly. "I always wonder what it would feel like."
Klaus is thoughtful, putting the piece back down as they rest their chin on their hand. "I felt super powerful, like nothing could stop me. It's a pretty great feeling, until..." their expression change suddenly, getting a haunted look.
Luther frowns, worried at where the conversation is going. "Until what ?"
"...until you remember you're literally killing people."
Luther can feel himself freeze at the sudden awareness of what his pacific sibling lived through in the War. Through the haze, he can see them shake their head, surely trying to clear their mind from the memories.
His eyes catch their clenched fists and he realises he has to change the subject. "I'm sorry."
They look at him like he has just grown another head, head tilted to the side. "About what ?"
"Everything." He shrugs, he isn't sure how to do that properly. They never apologized to each other before. "I've been a pretty crappy brother to you since we stopped the apocalypse."
Klaus grins mockingly at him and continues with the assembly again, seemingly ignoring their hand as it starts shaking slightly."You've been a pretty crappy brother before that, too. We've all been. Why apologize about it now ?"
Luther scratches the back of his neck, a little ashamed at their family's behaviour toward each other. "Because when we got back together after everything, I promised myself I would do better, that I'll be there for all of you in a way I never was before. I kind of really failed that with you." It feels even worse to say it aloud.
Klaus shrugs, still looking confused by his words. "It's not your fault if you didn't know. I didn't tell you."
He shakes his head, that's not a reason. He is Number One, he should have known. "I should have realised. Ben realised."
Klaus shakes their head. "Ben didn't realize anything, I told him."
"I shouldn't have just assumed - Wait, what ? Really ?" His eyes widen a little as they nod. He hadn't realised. "Oh…" He is a little hurt by that fact, but he knows they are closer to Ben than anyone else so it makes sense they would tell him and not them.
"Yeah. It's not your fault, how could you even get to that conclusion anyway ? Even with all the elements, there is no way you could reach the answer." That makes him feel a little better, it's true that 'Vietnam War' is not something any of them could have guessed, but it doesn't change that he shouldn't have made the guess he made.
"But I shouldn't have assumed you were back to drugs like I did."
They shrug again, looking resigned. "I can't really blame you for that. It was the most logical explanation."
Luther shakes his head, he can't let his sibling think they deserved their suspicions. He knows they're making a lot of efforts to stay clean, even more now than he knows why they do it. His mind wanders back to when they find them in their room earlier, trying to contact their friend. "No it wasn't. You were clean, and we're supposed to trust each other, not jump to easy conclusions."
"Trusting someone is not that easy, especially after everything I've done to all of you. I can't blame -"
"Were you always like that ?" He decides he has to stop them, he can't let them be so hard on themself.
"Like what ?" Klaus looks a little taken aback by his sudden interruption.
"Always putting the blame on yourself ?"
"Apparently it's a family thing." They wink at him, making him laugh a little, they do all have a habit of doing that lately.
"I guess… I really am sorry though." His tone becomes more serious, wanting to make sure they understand.
"Yeah, I'm sorry too." They nod as they glue the last part on the model. " Voilà ! All done !"
Luther smiles at their completed work. "It was fun."
They nod as they get up from the bed, clenching their shaking hand with a frown before stretching a little, making him notice the bullet wound scar on their stomach. "Yeah, we should do that more often !"
He smiles at them, ignoring the scar and the shaking, it's not the time to dwell on it right now. "Definitely !"
They wave at him before leaving his room to yell after Ben. He watches the door, a frown reappearing as his mind goes back to what he learned today.
He feels sick as he thinks back at his sibling's familiarity with litteral War machines. Klaus always was the most peaceful out of all of them, choosing to talk instead of fighting and the idea of them fighting in a war, killing people, makes him feel nauseous. He can't imagine what it must have been like, but he sees the result of it now and it's horrifying.
He shakes his head, he can't do anything about it anymore, it happened already, all he can do is help them go through it, one day at a time. He takes the completed model in his hands, hanging it on one of the ceiling's hooks. He smiles at it, nodding to himself. "One day at a time."