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“You say I used to be your brother, but you don’t know the first thing about me,” Ben said, shrugging Luther’s hand off his shoulder.
Not-Ben’s name was still Ben, which was both confusing and painful. Klaus would’ve preferred to just call him Number One, but whenever he tried, Luther glared daggers at him.
Diego, Luther, and Klaus had cornered Ben by himself in an effort to win him over to their side. It was going, quite frankly, absolutely terribly.
Befriending Ben was supposed to be the easiest part of their plan, but this Ben was not their Ben. There was no leniency to him, no sense of morality.
Also, Klaus’ siblings seemed to have forgotten every important detail about Ben ever. Honestly, he was almost glad the original Ben wasn’t there to see it. He could see their idealized version of him playing out in the conversation. “You were so sweet, you were so nice, you would never have said anything mean.”
What were they talking about? Ben was an asshole 24/6. On Sundays he took a break to be a dick instead. He was bossy and annoying and stubborn. But it seemed that their siblings had completely forgotten about that in the fifteen years Ben had been dead. (Technically seventeen years for Ben, but time travel was weird.)
“We do!” Diego pleaded. “We do know you. You are our brother. Were…”
Klaus winced at the correction. Nice going, Diego.
Ben snorted. “Oh yeah. Tell me one fact about me. My favorite TV show? Food? Anything?”
Luther and Diego stayed quiet. Are you kidding me? These were easy questions!
“You don’t’ like TV.” They all jumped and turned, as if they’d forgotten Klaus was there. He cleared his throat. “You think it’s boring. I don’t think you’ve sat through an entire show or movie in your life. Your favorite book is not War and Peace, like you tell Dad. You love Agatha Christie novels because they’re the only mystery books you can’t solve by the end. Your favorite is Peril at End House, because you think that there not being a killer is the best plot twist of all time. I kind of saw it coming, personally…”
Ben was staring at him, open mouthed. The others were too, though they looked more sad than shocked. He wondered if they were just now remembering all these little facts about Ben. They’d forgotten that their brother had been a real person. This… other Ben wasn’t him. Not even close. He moved differently, talked differently… But if they needed him on their side, Klaus could provide a few basic facts.
“What was the other thing?” he asked. “Food, right. Your favorite food is pancakes, but you can’t eat them unless Mom’s made them. You hate spinach but do have a weird obsession with cucumber. You refuse to eat octopus, because you think they’re too smart. You told me that if they can open jars and solve problems, then they know when they’re about to die. Um… what else? Your favorite snack is popcorn and-”
“Okay, I get it,” not-Ben snapped. He turned back to Luther. “Why didn’t you just let him do the talking from the start?”
Luther gaped. “We… well… He’s not usually…” The rest of the sentence trailed off as both his brothers (his original brothers?) exchanged looks.
Thanks guys.
But Ben was walking towards Klaus. With an unfortunate touch of murder in his eyes. “I haven’t read Peril at End House yet,” he growled.
“Oh… my bad. Spoiler alert I guess?”