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Klaus is once again high off his rocker, and Ben is about ready to explode.
Though, Ben must admit, if Klaus were to get high at any time, Ben can understand why it’s now. He knows it's Dave's birthday. A day that Klaus was never able to celebrate with the other man. He also knows that relapses are bound to happen. He knows this. He would be willing to help Klaus through it.
But Klaus won’t listen to him. Every time Ben tries to say anything Klaus tries to ignore him and keep smoking, drinking, and taking pills that Ben is sure are out of date.
“Klaus, P-”
“Benny, Benji, Benjamin, Ben-Ben, Ben, Why do you feel the need to ruin my happiness,” Klaus mumbles and laughs in that high-pitched way of his that Ben connects to being high.
“You aren’t happy, you’re high,” Ben argues, and he doesn’t like this. He doesn’t like having this conversation because his brother has been clean for 6 months and now it’s gone and this conversation sounds exactly like the ones back when Klaus was sleeping on the street.
“Same difference,” Klaus says, and Ben has never understood that saying. Ben sits in silence then, not knowing what to do. He can’t convince his heartbroken brother to stop being high, he knows that. He knows so many things about the situation yet he can’t do anything about it.
He watches as Klaus takes another drink from the bottle of liquor he found in Five’s closet and bites his lip to stop himself from begging him to stop again.
“Why did he have to die?”
Ben doesn’t answer immediately. How could he? What is he supposed to say to such a sad question asked by an even sadder man? How does he navigate this situation? Ben doesn’t have to, because Klaus keeps talking.
“I mean, he hadn’t had even turned 30. He didn't make it." Klaus says, and Ben can barely take the pain filling his voice. "He was supposed to be okay. He was supposed to live, and now he's gone."
Ben just sits and listens. He listens to his brother talk for an hour about Dave, about how he had loved him more than anything, about every little detail Klaus remembers about the dead love of his life. His favorite color was green. Like Klaus' eyes. His favorite fruit was grapefruit. The fruit Klaus hated. Dave liked to run his finger across his hand tattoos.
"He sounds like he was amazing," Ben says, hating that he has to use past tense. Klaus is silently crying now, the liquor bottle was forgotten on the floor and the pills he once had are somewhere on his bed, lost in the blanket.
"Oh, he was. So, so, amazing," Klaus says, looking over to Ben for the first time tonight. Ben swears he can see the moment everything falls into place. The alcohol, the pills, everything comes to Klaus in that single look and then Klaus is crying harder and apologizing softly.
"Klaus, hey, shh, I know," Ben says softly, walking over, wishing he could calm his brother down. Klaus looks up at him with sadness and Ben thinks there's a bit of fear there too. "Lay back on the bed, alright? Sleep it off."
Klaus nods and lets himself lay back on the bed. He grabs his blanket and wraps it around himself as if he's hiding from all of the bad in the world.
"I'm sorry," Klaus says, pulling the blanket closer to himself. "It just hurts."
Ben nods and sits on the edge of the bed.
"I know," He feels the urge to run his fingers through Klaus' hair and he's sad that he can't. "Get some sleep, Klaus."
And Klaus does. He goes to sleep and he wakes up in the morning and gets rid of the pills and the alcohol and he apologizes to Five for stealing his liquor and Five curses and goes into his closet and gets rid of it all.
Luther looks at him with disappointment but Klaus can see the concern there.
Vanya plays him a little song as Allison paints his nails and he knows that they care about him more than he ever thought was possible.
Diego looks a little hurt when he learns that Klaus relapsed but when Klaus tells him yesterday was Dave's birthday, he hugs him close.
Ben is happy Klaus has Diego to hug him when he can't.