Work Text:
“Please don’t put the phone down!” Klaus blurted as soon as Vanya picked up. The silence he received was rather foreboding, but at least she didn’t hang up. He’d specifically done this over the phone so she wouldn’t feel scared by him turning up at her door. “Look, I’m really sorry. What I did was so fucked up. I know I can never take it back but I just wanted to tell you I regret it, and hate myself for it. I didn’t even think I could feel shame anymore but turns out I can!” Klaus giggled nervously, looking over to Ben and seeing his supportive smirk.
If Ben could forgive him for stealing Vanya’s violin, then surely she could too right? Ben probably loved Vanya more than Vanya loved herself. It wasn’t even like he got the chance to pawn it before Diego caught him. That made it slightly less abhorrent. “I’m trying to change, I swear to god.” Klaus was trying to change, he was just failing. Vanya didn’t need to know that part. It would just over-complicate things. Klaus detested himself for what he did, it was unforgivable. He loathed that he was so dependent on the drugs that his morals flew out of the window years ago... but he just couldn’t bring himself to even attempt getting clean. The ghosts were too traumatic, he couldn’t stand the thought. Klaus also just couldn’t stand the thought of not being high or drunk - the ghosts aside... but he couldn’t admit that to Ben.
Feeling terribly unsure how to respond, Vanya just stood with her mouth silently agape. “You don’t have to say anything. I would uh, I would give you my number but I don’t have one.” her brother chuckled awkwardly. “Uhhhmmmmmmm...” Klaus drawled, seeming just as uncertain what to say as Vanya “...I guess goodbye?” Vanya cringed with remorse, knowing she might never be able to see him again if she said nothing. It would be practically impossible for her to track him down, beside going through Diego. Vanya wasn’t even sure if Diego had cut Klaus off, he’d seemed so furious with him that it wouldn’t have surprised her.
“Wait-“ Vanya whispered, her voice catching in her throat. She didn’t want Klaus in her apartment, she was fairly convinced she’d never feel comfortable with him coming here again. “Do you want to... get coffee?” she murmured self-consciously, feeling like a fool as soon as the words escaped her. Why would Number Four want to spend time with Number Seven? The silence she received in return made her cringing intensify. “I don’t have any money, Van.” Klaus mumbled, sounding quite humiliated. Just like the aforementioned shame, she didn’t think Klaus was even capable of such an emotion... maybe she didn’t know him as well as she thought. “I’ll pay.” she immediately offered, already having predicted that he’d have no money.
—
Seeing Vanya timidly shuffle from her apartment building, Klaus wondered if maybe this was a mistake. She should just disown him. That would be easier. “It’ll be fine.” Ben reassured him, even though he wasn’t impressed by Klaus’ plan to lie to her. Vanya approached, fiddling anxiously with the cuff of her jacket. She looked like a mouse with clinical depression. Klaus began to lift his hand to ruffle her hair playfully like usual, but stopped himself when Ben scolded him. He tried to play it off as a wave instead. It was the wrong hand for a greeting, Vanya’s eyes followed GOODBYE around with confusion. “Bonjour ma petite lesbienne.” Klaus awkwardly sang, the words flying from his mouth without his intention.
“Bonjour mon... grand gai?” his sister murmured with a befuddled furrowed brow. She was clearly trying to keep as much distance between them as possible, something Klaus couldn’t blame her for. She looked frightened, which made him feel unbearably guilty. Who the fuck scares their own sister?
“It’s this way.” Vanya shyly pointed down the block. Klaus nodded with a fake grin, gesturing for her to lead the way. Trying desperately not to stumble or slur, Klaus pulled out the bullshit sobriety chip from his pocket - disregarding Ben’s judgemental glare. It wasn’t like it was a bad lie, he was just trying to make Vanya less on edge. If she thought he was sober she might be less inclined to think he was going to rob her prized possession again. Klaus shoved it in his sister’s direction, biting his lip with shame that he was lying to her once more. It was different this time, Klaus told himself. He might not be sober, but he was better than he had been. That had been a pretty outstanding rock bottom, even for Klaus.
Looking down at the sixty day sober chip, Vanya forced a polite smile. Her brother smelled like alcohol. Vanya’s senses had always seemed heightened for some strange reason, which made being around Klaus somewhat difficult. Alcohol and cigarettes weren’t particularly pleasant smells, and his rambling overwhelmed her most sensitive sense, her hearing. Vanya was certain that his pupils would be altered if Klaus could bring himself to make eye contact. She wondered if his long sleeves were simply due to the weather, or to cover track marks. Vanya supposed even though he was lying about sobriety, at least it was just to try and make her less fearful around him. It was a start. “I’m... happy for you.” Vanya softly murmured, feeling guilty for sounding rightfully dubious.
Her brother hastily shoved it in his pocket, clearly avoiding meeting her eye. “Thanks.” Klaus mumbled, looking down to the ground sheepishly. Vanya felt like the walk to the coffee shop was taking much longer than usual, the time seeming to drag due to the awkwardness. It was peculiar having Klaus not blabber nonsense insistently. It ordinarily gave her a headache, but the absence was unnerving now. Vanya sensed Klaus looking at her, though when she looked up at him, he was actually giving pleading eyes to nothingness by her other side. It spooked her slightly, despite knowing he hadn’t been able to see ghosts in years. In the back of her mind, she knew it would be the facsimile of Ben he believed he had following him around.
”Ask her about her orchestra, or college or something.” Ben suggested softly, feeling quite sullen as he realised he no longer knew much about their sister’s life. Klaus harshly shook his head with a disbelieving glare, which made Ben realise asking anything related to the violin would be a terrible idea. Klaus briefly looked down to Vanya to give a halfhearted smile when he noticed her glancing up at him. He looked away instantly afterwards. “Your jacket is cute, it makes your eyes pop.” Klaus complimented their sister cheerily, risking another glance down to her to grin. “Thanks...” Vanya looked Klaus’ outfit up and down, causing Ben to snort with amusement. The garish clothing was enough to make your eyes ache. “Is that candy?” Vanya snickered, pointing towards the candy necklace Klaus was ridiculously wearing, much to Ben’s annoyance. He was pretty sure Klaus just put it on because Ben told him he’d look like an idiot. Klaus lifted it to his mouth and bit off one of the pieces, nodding his head happily.
”Wanna see something cool?!” Klaus inquired mischievously. Vanya was nervous to find out, considering she and Klaus had very different definitions of cool. She tentatively nodded her head anyway. Her brother giggled as he bit off another piece of candy, though this time he used the necklace’s string to catapult the piece through the air. Vanya shuffled further away from Klaus when it hit a man in the back of the head, biting down on her cheek to try and hold back laughter. She looked back up to Klaus when she heard him wheezing. Thankfully the man hadn’t bothered causing a scene. “Do you think Di can control things like that or does he have to throw them?” Klaus drawled curiously as he held the coffee shop door open for Vanya. “Thanks.” she muttered quietly as they entered the store. “Uhm,” Vanya tried to recall the notes she’d been forced to take in her siblings’ training “I don’t think dad made him try.” she admitted, though the idea of dad making Diego shoot knives from his mouth was entertaining.
Trailing behind Vanya to the counter, Klaus was amazed at the variety of coffees. “Oh!” he mimed writing notes, remembering Vanya’s role in the academy. She nodded shyly. “I know he can’t control bullets he fires from a gun.” Vanya shrugged diffidently, sounding remorseful for declaring Diego’s shortcoming. Klaus grimaced, remembering how daunting training had been for those few months dad insisted Diego keep trying with guns. Klaus scoffed teasingly when Vanya ordered an incredibly boring drink. He was going to get the most obnoxious one they had.
—
Vanya wasn’t sure if it was the ice breaking, or the sheer volume of sugar in Klaus’ drink, but he had comfortingly began to babble nonsense as usual. It was disheartening that his pupils were tiny, even though she knew in her heart that they would be. Klaus was utterly outraged that she hadn’t seen Mamma Mia. “You’re a bad gay, you know that?” her brother teased, loudly slurping whipped cream. Vanya smirked, rolling her eyes playfully. “I don’t think I really count anyway, no one is ever interested in me.” she supposed with a self-loathing shrug. It was the truth. “Bullshit! You must be beating the girls away with a shitty stick.” Klaus yanked his straw from his drink and gestured shooing away hoards of lesbians, splattering pink foam all over the place. Vanya looked around bashfully, hoping none of it landed on anyone. She allowed herself to chuckle when she spotted no victims. “No shitty sticks.” she assured her brother, sipping from her tea demurely.
“Maybe you should try that.” Ben snidely suggested, wishing his brother would stop throwing himself at any man he crossed paths with. He would’ve probably made a goddamn move on the guy he’d spat candy at, if he’d actually turned around. Klaus pretended to scratch at his face so he could subtly give Ben the finger. The irritatingly spunky DJ, from the radio station they had playing in the coffee shop, ended a song abruptly to release breaking news. Ben kind of hoped it was that their dad was dead, though he was half convinced the man was immortal. “Allison Hargreeves has just announced her engagement to NFL star Patrick Reiner!” Klaus and Vanya looked to each other with wide eyes. Ben was jealous he couldn’t be included in their eye contact.
“Do you think it was a rumor?!” Klaus exclaimed impishly, receiving offended stares from the other people in the coffee shop... Allison had successfully made herself America’s sweetheart. “She’s my sister!” Klaus yelled defensively, shuffling his sleeve down to flash his umbrella tattoo. They didn’t look convinced, and Ben could understand why. Vanya tried to block out her face with her hand, mortified by the attention being on them.
Vanya hoped it wasn’t a rumor, it would be nice to have one of them actually happy. Hopefully Allison had stopped relying on them quite so intensely, though Vanya was hesitant to believe that. She’d always abused her power to get everything she ever wanted. It was extremely difficult to not be jealous. Klaus was staring with irritation at Vanya’s side, which was disturbing. The thought of having a fake Ben sat beside her almost gave her goosebumps. It wasn’t Ben, but it was a Ben. Vanya wondered if he was like their actual brother had been, if he acted and looked the same. “Do you wanna go?” Klaus sighed, pointing to the unimpressed faces of the other customers. Vanya nodded eagerly, wanting to get away from the prying eyes - even though she knew no one was looking at her. Why would they? She was practically invisible.
—
The stench of smoke was making Vanya scrunch her nose and stifle a cough. Perhaps the prying eyes would’ve been preferable, at least he couldn’t smoke in there. ”I bet it’ll be in Italy or something, or maybe Malibu. I wish she had a TV show like the Kardashians. But then everyone would find out how much she rumors people.” Klaus giggled “To be fair, I think I would rumor people all the time too, probably even more than her.” Vanya nodded shyly, grateful that Klaus wasn’t leaving her any room to speak. Her brother suddenly hissed a string of curse words over his shoulder, causing Vanya to jump nervously. “I can’t decide whether she won’t invite us because she hates us, or whether she’d invite us to get more press coverage!” Klaus exclaimed, growing excitedly enthralled by the logistics of Allison’s wedding.
“I don’t think she’ll invite us.” Vanya mumbled solemnly, though she didn’t really want to attend anyway. The idea of being in a room with hundreds of people was making her panic, even hypothetically. “We haven’t all been together since we left the academy, the press would lose their fucking minds!” Klaus nearly accidentally whacked Vanya in the face with his animated gesturing. He didn’t notice. It wasn’t unexpected that her brother would forget Vanya wasn’t included in the family the public knew. It still hurt a little bit though.
As they neared her building, Vanya chewed on her lip anxiously. She felt slightly reprehensible to be going back to her warm apartment when Klaus was obviously homeless, given him not having a phone number to pass on. Vanya definitely wasn’t going to invite her brother up, despite him trying his best to make amends. He was still an active addict. “Are you staying with anyone?” Vanya murmured, hoping she didn’t sound like she was taking pity on him. She didn’t wish to offend him. “Uhhhhhh,” Klaus drawled in thought “I’ll find someone.” he shrugged casually. Vanya bit down on her lip harder, considering whether it would be a terrible idea to give him money.
“Diego?” Vanya suggested, still curious whether they were actually in touch after the violin incident. “Nah, I stayed at his place last week. Grumpy prick needs a cooling off period.” Klaus chuckled, flinging his cigarette butt over his shoulder haphazardly. Vanya prayed it didn’t hit someone, it was fascinating how little Klaus cared about such things. It was a relief that he and Diego were still keeping in contact, they were the only siblings who actually stayed somewhat acting like siblings now they were adults. Often times they acted too much like siblings, bickering and whacking each other childishly. “A motel?” Vanya didn’t bother asking about a shelter, she knew her brother loathed them from an argument she once overheard him and Diego have.
Ben groaned, wishing his sister wasn’t so eager to be walked all over. He knew Klaus would happily take her money if she offered. “Don’t you dare.” he grunted at his seance brother, seeing the cogs turn in his monkey brain. Klaus gave him a quick glare, before turning his sights back to Vanya. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” his brother surprisingly reassured Vanya. She frowned, fidgeting with the clasp of her satchel. “Are you sure?” she mumbled timorously, which was the last thing she should’ve said. Klaus had almost no willpower, he barely even knew the word. “Tell her you’re sure.” Ben demanded, watching his brother chew on his nails as he clearly had an internal debate. Klaus shook his head to Vanya, wincing with preemptive guilt. Ben shook his head too, profoundly disappointed in his brother. “So much for changing.” he jabbed as Vanya reached for her wallet.
”For a motel...” Vanya asserted, though her words massively lacked confidence. She held the bill cautiously in her hand, apprehensive to hand it over. “For a motel.” Klaus repeated unconvincingly, holding his hand out slowly, as if he was on the verge of changing his mind. Vanya sighed wearily as she put the bill into her brother’s silly palm tattoo, knowing with almost absolute certainty that it wasn’t going to be spent on a motel... at least there was a slim chance it would be, Vanya tried to convince herself. She’d attempted to help, that was the important thing. “Bye Klaus.” she depressively muttered, looking up to her brother’s face and finding a guilt stricken smile. “Thanks, Vanny.” Klaus awkwardly called as she turned on her heel to climb her building’s stoop. The foolish nickname made her snort gently despite herself, it was soothing to hear it again; she hadn’t been sure she ever would after what had happened.