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When Ben was a kid, he dreamt of having freedom as an eighteen year old. He thought maybe he could’ve escaped the academy, gone to get a real education - stopped having to unleash his literal monsters. He dreamt of visiting prospective colleges, having his first girlfriend, learning to drive. Instead, he found himself dead, and watching his brother skulk around the halls of a rehab. Klaus had only lasted months outside of the academy before he was sentenced to court ordered rehabilitation. Ben had hoped this would shake some sense into him, make him realise he was rapidly spiralling down a terrible path. He was so naive.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Klaus gasped as he walked in on a one-to-one counselling session in his hunt for an empty room. He pulled the door closed quietly, pulling an over the top apologetic face. “Come on, come on...” he murmured under his breath. Ben wasn’t sure if it was him he was talking to, or himself. He followed regardless. All the doors were locked, and likely because they knew people like Klaus would be doing exactly this. Unfortunately, the academy had been trained to pick locks since they were five years old.
Klaus checked over his shoulder to make sure the hallway was empty, before crouching down. He pulled a bobby pin from his hair, one Ben wasn’t aware was there - how in depth had he planned this? Klaus pulled it open with his teeth and began to jam it in the lock. Ben was relieved to see his hands were shaking too much to be able to be very precise. “Why don’t you just stay?” he asked his brother gently.
“I’m not detoxing.” Klaus hissed over his shoulder, checking once again that they were alone. Ben sighed wearily. “This could be good for you, a fresh start.” he tried to keep his tone as pacifistic as possible, hoping to avoid an argument. Klaus scoffed in return, not even dignifying Ben with a response. He continued to haphazardly jam his bobby pin into the lock, and to Ben’s surprise, it actually worked. Klaus turned around and stuck his tongue out at his brother, as though he could read Ben’s mind. Ben felt slightly anxious, could he read Ben’s mind? He hoped not.
The room was a doctor’s office, though it was bare and bleak. Klaus started to look through the cabinets, even though that wasn’t his main mission. Unlike the communal areas of the rehab, this office’s windows actually opened fully. Klaus clapped his hands with glee. Ben was relieved that there weren’t any drugs in the cabinets for Klaus to steal, at least that was something. Klaus shuffled over to the window and peered out. “No, Klaus!” Ben yelped “That’s like a twenty feet drop!” he was going to die all over again from the Klaus inflicted stress.
Klaus shrugged apathetically. “I can make it.” he stated, not a single doubt in his mind. He could totally do it, Klaus thought. Dad made them do assault courses all the time, this is a piece of cake. It’s definitely not the coke talking. “It’s the coke talking.” Ben whined. Klaus momentarily shat his pants, could Ben read his mind? He goddamn hoped not. Even Klaus didn’t want to read his own mind a lot of the time. There was only one way to test this theory. Ben’s a prick, Ben’s a prick, Ben’s a prick, Ben’s a prick he thought.
Ben was slightly alarmed that his brother had stopped as still as a statue, squinting at him with intense concentration. “What... are you doing?” he mumbled, hoping this wasn’t some weird drug induced insanity. Ben narrowed his eyes back at his brother, as if that could make him understand what he was doing. Klaus finally broke and let out a nervous giggle. “Nothing! Just playing, all in good fun, should’ve seen your face...” he rambled frantically as he pried the window open.
As he stuck his foot out of the window, he had a distinct gut feeling that he should stop - as well as his brother literally telling him to stop. Klaus threw Ben the finger, and his gut a metaphorical finger, and began to slide his other foot out, too. It wasn’t even that high, he would probably land on his feet like a cat! Just before he was about to make his big leap, he noticed a drain pipe to the side of the window. Klaus giggled confidently, and swung across to the drain pipe. Ben had phased down to the ground of the alleyway, practically having kittens with his nerves. Klaus could probably quite literally shimmy down a drain pipe in his sleep, he’d done this more times than he could remember.
“You’re better than this!” Ben yelled from beneath him.
Klaus laughed maniacally, almost Dracula like “I’m really not!” he was way too excited about this escape.
“You can quit now, before it’s too late!” Ben pleaded, wishing he would just get the detox over with and have a chance at a happy life. It was his first freaking day.
“It’s too late for that,” Klaus wheezed as he nearly lost his grip “I’m already quarter way down!”
Ben groaned deeply, absolutely incensed by his brother’s stupidity. “I meant the drugs!” he hollered, throwing his hands up with exasperation.
Klaus paused his shimmying to look down at his ghost brother. “You’re just jealous I’m alive!” he goaded, waving a hand around at his brother and almost slipping off the pipe.
Just as Ben opened his mouth to lose his shit at his brother, someone rushed into the doctors office and looked out the window, clearly panicked. She made eye contact with Klaus, who gave her a guilty smile and wave. “Such lovely weather we’re having, I just wanted a peek.” he announced, attempting to sound charming. The doctor gave him the harshest scowl he’d ever seen - and that’s something considering who their father is.
“Klaus,” she barked “get back inside now, before I call the cops.” she demanded, before grabbing a walkie-talkie from her belt and informing the rest of the staff of Klaus’ predicament. Klaus took her moment of distraction to drag himself down the pipe as quick as humanly possible, once he’d reached most of the way down he leaped off. Unfortunately, he didn’t land on his feet like a cat - he landed on his arm. He didn’t have the time to worry about the alarming angle of his wrist, instead he took one last shifty look up at his doctor and ran like the wind.
—
”It’s definitely broken.” Ben proclaimed, feeling very alarmed by the way he could see a visible lump on his brother’s forearm.
Klaus sighed dramatically. “I know, I think I need a new one...” he mumbled as he tried repeatedly to get his lighter to work. He only just stole this, the quality is appalling! He gave up on his attempts, and looked up to find his brother giving him a glare, not dissimilar to the look he’d received from the doctor earlier that day. “What?!” he whined defensively. Ben had been so goddamn grumpy since he died.
”I meant your arm.” Ben sneered through gritted teeth. He knew if he were alive his tentacles would’ve unleashed themselves. Klaus had the audacity to look down at his arm as if he was yet to notice the evident fracture.
”Oh yeah,” he agreed dopily “so it is...” Klaus casually reached out his other hand to poke at the lump, causing him to scrunch his face up in a pained expression. “C’est la vie!” he exclaimed with a shrug of his shoulders.
It was extremely tempting to just walk away and scream into a void, but Ben didn’t trust his brother to be alone without unintentionally killing himself. “You need to go to the hospital.” he urged, trying hard to stop himself from yelling.
Klaus fiddled with his unlit cigarette, looking sorely disappointed that he couldn’t smoke it yet. “No,” he sighed “can’t go there... too many ghosts.” Sometimes dad would make him go on “field trips” to the hospital when they were kids; especially the children’s units. Klaus still had nightmares about those kids. Just thinking about hospitals made him shudder.
”You can’t see them right now, you’re high.” Ben explained like a kindergarten teacher. They still couldn’t work out why he could see Ben, but Ben knew with absolute certainty that there were no other ghosts around right now. Klaus looked unconvinced, still grimacing. “You probably need it resetting, a cast...” Ben mumbled, thinking aloud. Klaus perked up slightly.
“A pink one?!” he squeaked, almost clapping his hands but thought better of it when a sharp shooting pain spread through his arm. He did always want a pink cast, Allison got one after a mission went badly - whenever any of the boy’s got a cast they had to have boring blue or red. He still wasn’t a fan of going to the hospital. Would their help even be that useful anyway? All they would do is patch him up and give him some pain rel... “Let’s go!” Klaus suddenly yelped, jumping manically off the wall he’d been sitting on. He should’ve broken his arm ages ago.