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“Can we go see Diego?” Ben suggested, hoping his tone didn’t sound too pathetic.
“No.” his brother bluntly replied, shoving a pack of Twizzlers into his pocket.
“Vanya then?” Ben pleaded, definitely sounding pathetic, even to himself.
“No.” his brother snapped, turning around to scowl at him. Ben followed on behind him as he ambled towards the liquor. Ben was so goddamn lonely, he missed his siblings. He never even had the chance to have friends. Ben began to speak and Klaus swivelled abruptly to face him. Too abruptly, as he nearly fell over. Ben pursed his lips to stop himself from laughing. Klaus tried to play it off cool, though he was scratching the back of his head with embarrassment. “What I was going to say...” he mumbled, trying to speak in hushed tones “was that if you say Luther, I will put you in time out.” he hissed.
Ben sighed sorrowfully, Klaus ignoring him wasn’t going to help his loneliness. “You’re gonna have to see them sometime, you know.” he murmured. Klaus rolled his neck and turned back to facing the booze. “They’ll forgive you.” Ben uttered under his breath. They would forgive him, they were his siblings. Just because he does bad stuff doesn’t change that. Klaus whistled, clearly disagreeing with Ben’s sentiment. He slipped a bottle inside his coat, and they wandered out of the store.
Once they were out of hearing distance, Klaus earnestly suggested “Why don’t you just go visit them yourself?” There was a tinge of guilt in his voice.
“It’s not the same,” Ben mumbled, keeping his head down so his brother wouldn’t be able to see him wallowing “I can’t talk to them.” Klaus stopped at this statement, and turned to look at Ben. He looked like this had been a new revelation to him, which Ben thought was fucking stupid, but whatever.
Klaus began chewing his thumb nail, a sign he was mulling something over. He stopped his fidgeting and reached for the bottle in his coat. “Does it have to be them?” he pondered, his brow furrowed with genuine intrigue.
Ben had no idea where he was going with this, he narrowed his eyes at his brother, trying to work out what he was scheming. Usually it was a terrible idea. “I...” Ben trailed off. He didn’t know, he’d never really spoken to anyone else but his siblings. Sure, he had acquaintances and the likes, but their dad was so strict and he died so young - he never really thought about speaking to anyone else. What did it matter, anyway? He couldn’t speak to them. “I guess not?”
His brother hummed an acknowledgement as he unscrewed the cap of his bottle. Clearly he had some kind of plan, which made Ben nervous. Klaus took a few gulps, slid the bottle back in his coat, and practically skipped away. “Klaus?” Ben called after him, worrying about what trouble he was going to get himself in now.
Every time Ben would try to ask Klaus what he was doing, or where he was going, his brother would just scowl at him and harshly shush him away. Ben gave up eventually, just trailing on after him. He hoped it wouldn’t be anything too stupid, he couldn’t really afford to get arrested again. Finally Klaus came to a wobbly stop outside of a church one of his meetings takes place in. He stumbled up the steps, and began reading the bulletin board. “You came here for a meeting?” Ben asked, absolutely flabbergasted. That was the last thing he was expecting.
With an incredibly mischievous smile, Klaus shook his head. Ben was fed up of the dramatics, he just wanted to know what the hell he was doing. Klaus staggered into the church, leaving Ben alone outside as he tried to work out what the hell was going on. He assumed his brother wasn’t converting to Christianity. Ben scanned the bulletin board, trying to see what his brother had been checking for. It was just days of worship, AA, NA, a book club, a club for stay-at-home moms, and a knitting club. Ben couldn’t make heads nor tails of what was going on, so he shrugged and followed his brother indoors.
There was a selection of sandwiches, and free coffee. Maybe that was why he came, Ben thought. He did love free food. His brother was predictably shoving sandwiches into his pockets, and grabbing a polystyrene cup of joe. Ben wandered in, he hadn’t read the times of the various clubs so he wasn’t sure what this was. It definitely wasn’t a meeting, though. The sign at the end of the table of food said it was a book club. “Klaus you don’t read b...” Ben cut himself off as the realisation hit him like a tone of bricks. He turned to his brother, unable to control his excitement. Klaus was chuckling, which wasn’t a great look since he had his mouth stuffed with a sandwich.
After gulping down his sandwich and washing it down with coffee, Klaus waggled his eyebrows. “I’m going to be your ghost translator.” he whispered excitedly, wary of the few people hanging around. Ben couldn’t wipe the huge grin off his face, he was lost for words. Klaus seemed to gather this, as he waved an eh, whatever hand gesture his way. Ben turned to check the sign again, to find out the book. Luckily, he’d read it and remembered it pretty well.
—
“I don’t think that’s what it meant, I think it was more of a pastiche to the earlier works of-“
“-the greats such as Emily Dickinson...” Klaus briefly flicked his gaze up to Ben to check he’d translated properly, he was quite significantly worse for wear. Ben nodded his affirmative. Ben turned back to the rest of the circle and let out a humongous snort. The middle aged, middle class women were staring at Klaus with their mouths agape. He couldn’t really blame them, Klaus looked like he hadn’t even been in the same building as a book for five years. Klaus let out a high pitched, nervous giggle.
“Yes...” the leader of the group murmured, sounding wholeheartedly confused “what was your name, sir?” She looked like a soccer mom, Ben thought. Well, at least what he heard other people refer to as soccer moms, his mom was a robot and they didn’t know other kids.
“Klaus!” his brother exclaimed with a wink.
Ben groaned, Klaus just couldn’t help himself. “You’re gay!” Ben deadpanned “And she’s like forty.” he scoffed, finding the absurdity of the situation utterly hilarious. Klaus briefly looked over at him and smirked, before looking back to the woman. The less he looked at seemingly thin air the better, Ben thought.
“Well, Klaus...” the leader drawled “thank you for your insight.” Ben nodded as he knew the thanks were actually addressed to him.
Klaus beamed at her, as though he were actually receiving a compliment. It made Ben feel kind of sad, it really was the closest thing his brother got to compliments... “Klaus,” Ben caught his brother’s attention. Klaus coughed into his hand to signal he was ready. “What do they think of the romance-“
“-between Eleanor and Victor?” Klaus translated, smiling at them dopily.
—
They’d stayed for the whole two hours, Klaus had nattered away to them - allowing Ben to say whatever he wanted. He pronounced some words wrong sometimes, and began to drop off at one point when a boring old lady was rambling... but otherwise it had gone brilliantly. They made their way out of the church now, Klaus frantically lighting a cigarette the second they were outdoors. Ben still couldn’t stop smiling, even after two hours. It was the kind of smile that would’ve caused the muscles in his cheeks to ache, had he been alive.
“Thank you...” Ben mumbled, feeling quite bashful. He wasn’t used to having something done for him, nor being able to talk to people.
Klaus blew a cloud of smoke straight through Ben. “Whatever, will you shut the fuck up now about Diego and Vanya?” he quipped with a raised eyebrow. Ben knew he was just embarrassed that he’d actually done something nice for someone for a change. He nodded anyway.
“They will forgive you though, I promise.” he offered his living brother a glum smile. Klaus shook his head dismissively and let out a humorless chuckle.
Klaus began to set off, Ben had no clue where to. Probably to find someone to hook up with, it was pretty cold and Klaus currently had absolutely nowhere to live. “I’m gonna go back to being an asshole now.” Klaus muttered, almost dropping his cigarette from his mouth.
Ben knew they’d never come back to book club, and he knew Klaus would likely never do something similar again - but he was still grateful, even if it was just once. It didn’t make everything better, but it helped.