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Klaus stormed into his room, frantically looking around. His hands were shaking, mind racing to keep up with his intrusive thoughts. He raced over to his bed and threw back the covers, throwing the sheets onto the floor and jumping onto it, landing on his knees. He thrust both hands under the pillow and felt around, yelping when he didn’t find what he was looking for.
“No, no, no, no! Where is it? Where the hell is it,” Klaus screeched, leaping down from his bed and heading over to his desk.
He swiped his hands over the surface, sending binders and notebooks scattering across his floor.
“Where is it?!”
Klaus launched himself back at his desk and managed to rip it free of the wall despite not possessing the strength necessary to do on the regular. Adrenaline coursed through his veins as he thrust it against the ground, a loud crash echoing through the small space. Some trinkets that he had kept on his desk were destroyed by the impact. He was too enraged to care about that when he was still on the hunt.
“Where is it,” Klaus repeated, horror clear on his face when he spoke. He may be alone in his room, but that didn’t stop him from speaking out loud and longing for someone to answer. “Where the fuck is it?!”
Klaus’s head snapped around, eyes training on different parts of his room. His breath came in sudden gasps, black dots clouding his vision. He couldn’t remember ever being this angry. He had seen Luther and Diego lose their cools too many times to count, but he had always been the almost oblivious one that was hardly bothered by much, often using humor to deflect his true feelings. This was one time, however, that he couldn’t do so.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
“K-K-Klaus?”
The timid voice of his brother was the last thing that Klaus wanted to hear right now. Ordinarily he wouldn’t hesitate to bring his brother in, especially since the rest of his siblings could sometimes be put off by him. There was always one sibling who never felt that way about him and he appreciated that. Right now, though, he just wanted to be left alone.
“Go away, Diego,” Klaus hissed territorially.
The knocking didn’t stop. “L-L-Let m-me i-in! I-I-I-I he-heard a cr-cr-crash.” There was a brief pause, then another knock. “O-O-Open the d-d-door!”
There was one thing about Diego: he was stubborn. He would stand there for hours if that was how long it took for Klaus to answer. Klaus could be stubborn too but would often become bored and move on while Diego seldom did. He often wondered what it was like to have that kind of focus.
“Klaus.”
Diego’s voice turned quiet, almost gentle. Even without Klaus seeing him, he was almost positive he could see the look on his brother’s face and know what he was feeling. Diego didn’t often like to show his emotions other than anger, yet Klaus was certain today it wasn’t anger that he would find there.
“Fine, fine,” Klaus muttered to himself, reaching forward and turning his knob. He swung the door open so far that the knob on the inside of the door hit the wall, breaking free and leaving a small hole. “There, you saw me. Now get out!”
Diego glanced past Klaus at the fallen desk, discarded papers, and torn apart bed. It was difficult to see the floor with everything that was strewn about.
“K-K-Klaus,” Diego began tentatively, still glancing to and fro throughout the room, unable to zone in on just one thing that worried him the most.
Klaus stepped aside and reached forward, grasping Diego by the shoulder and pulling him in. He then slammed the door behind him before anyone else could come and worm their way in. Although, he had no idea exactly who would bother to willingly go into his room at this time.
Diego agilely stepped around the broken pieces of desk, toe gingerly moving a piece of broken glass aside from a bird that Klaus had been given one year for Christmas. It was one of his most prized possessions and now it lay shattered on the floor.
“K-K-K-Klaus?” Diego’s voice was soft and cautious, gaze steadfast when he watched his brother.
Klaus ignored him and marched over to his bed. He began to punch the mattress until his hands started to ache. When that wasn’t enough, he stormed over to the nearest wall and began to lash out, kicking and punching furiously until paint chipped and drywall caved in.
With a yelp, Diego dove forward and tried to stand in between Klaus and the wall. He could already see dried blood beginning to show on Klaus’s knuckles while warm blood dripped down his hands.
Stepping in front only changed Klaus’s trajectory of rage from the wall to Diego, aiming surprisingly forceful blows anywhere that he could. Diego was used to sparring and being dealt blows by Luther, but this felt more personal. Diego tolerated it as much as possible until one punch caught his side just right and he almost doubled over, coughing fitfully.
“S-S-Stop it. Stop it!” Diego suddenly reached out and pulled Klaus forward so that his back was pressed against his chest. He still reached around to kick and tried to thrust his elbow backwards and into Diego’s stomach, teeth gritted in frustration. Klaus’s feet attempted to kick back at Diego’s shins or pull out his feet from under him.
“Let me go, Diego! Let me the hell go!” Klaus let out another fierce grunt and attempted to buck his head back, coming dangerously close to breaking Diego’s nose.
“N-N-N-Not un-unti-until you t-t-talk to m-m-me.” Diego held Klaus tighter, trying to make it more difficult for his brother to move in his grasp.
Klaus suddenly ducked his head down and sunk his teeth into Diego’s wrist. Diego shouted in pain and pushed him forward, sending Klaus falling onto the ground. He spun around on his knees with his palms pressed against the floor. He jumped up, frowning when he noticed pieces of glass sunk into his flesh, cutting deep. Ordinarily this would be something that he would’ve raised a fuss about, yet this time he stood watching the blood drip down his hand.
Diego swallowed a lump in his throat and reached out a trembling hand. “Y-Y-You’re bl-bl-bleeding!”
“No shit, Sherlock.” Klaus swallowed the obvious bite in his words as his bottom lip began to quiver. Tears pooled his eyes, threatening to fall the next time he blinked. “Barely even hurts, you know. Kinda tickles.” He raised his hand and turned it to the side, watching the blood swirl on his palm while the glass still sticking out.
Diego’s own eyes filled with tears. He reached out and grasped Klaus by the wrist, forcefully leading him to the bed. He forced his brother to sit down while he grabbed a box of tissues that their mother insisted that all of the children always keep in their rooms just in case. It was one of the only things that hadn’t been displaced in the room by Klaus’s fit.
He gingerly grabbed a couple tissues in his hands and started to pick tiny pieces of glass from Klaus’s palm, working up to the larger pieces that would take a little more ingenuity to pull out so not to cause Klaus anymore unnecessary pain.
“You can just yank it out,” Klaus huffed, eyes glued on Diego’s fingers while he picked the tiniest pieces free and patted his hand dry with the tissue. “I deserve the pain.”
Diego tipped his head curiously to the side, still keeping a firm hold of Klaus’s wrist. “I-I-I-I don’t fo-follow.”
“Of course you don’t. How the hell would you? You’ve already moved on,” Klaus seethed, teeth bared in the beginning of a snarl.
Diego’s eyes widened momentarily in shock. “B-Ben,” he murmured after a moment. “This is a-a-about B-Ben.”
“You’ve all moved on and so has Dad and shit I’m not going to do the same! It’s hardly been a month and you’ve forgotten him. You’ve forgotten him, Diego! You never cared about him,” Klaus roared, attempting to stand and push back against Diego.
Luckily, Diego was much stronger than Klaus and forced him to sit back down, grasping tightly at his wrists. He kept Klaus’s hand stretched out so he didn’t curl his fingers in and risk doing more damage to his flesh.
Diego held Klaus firmly, even as Klaus attempted to pull and wriggle away. Agitation blazed on his eyes, split collecting on his bottom lip. “You forgot about him and you only care about him now that’s dead. I want you to say it that you never cared about him! I want you to say it!”
Diego fought to keep his own emotion out of his voice. He was certain Klaus didn’t mean what he said and fought not to take it personally. His brother was clearly hurting, that much Diego could tell, and letting him say whatever he wanted was the only thing that Diego could think that would make it better.
“T-T-T-This is-isn’t a-a-a-about m-me and B-Ben,” Diego choked out, ripping one of the larger chunks from Klaus’s hand and throwing it on the floor before shoving a handful of tissues shoved against his palm. “T-T-This is ab-about y-you!” Diego leaned in even closer until he was almost nose to nose with Klaus. “W-W-What i-i-is t-t-t-this re-really a-a-about?”
Klaus closed his eyes tightly, tears still starting to fall down his cheeks despite his best attempts to stop it. A sudden sob tore from his throat as he leaned forward, head rested against Diego’s chest. Part of him wanted to pull back and apologize for being so weak, but he couldn’t stop himself no matter how hard he tried. His father’s voice echoed in his ears about how weak he was for showing emotion like this, sobbing like a baby while his brother comforted him. That was not Umbrella Academy behavior in the slightest.
Confusion shown on Diego’s face as he reached his arms around his brother’s shoulders and held him close, making sure he kept both of them upright. “S-S-S-Shhhh,” Diego whispered, chin rested on top of Klaus’s head. “I-I-I-It’s ok-okay to c-c-c-cry. It’s okay.”
Klaus shook his head. “I can’t find it, Diego!”
“C-C-Can’t fi-find what?”
Klaus pulled away from Diego suddenly, still pressing the now damp and scarlet tissue to his open palm. “The carving that Ben gave me! I always keep it under my pillow or on my desk and now it’s gone! I cant find it! I lost the one thing that Ben gave me.”
Suddenly all of the anger made sense. Although Diego hadn’t quite expected all that from a misplaced gift, he understood where Klaus was coming from. He had been one to take Ben’s death exceedingly hard and had been closed off since it happened. Now, though, it seemed that all of that bottled up emotion had come spurting to the surface.
“We-We ca-ca-can f-find it,” Diego urged, sweeping his hands on top of his mattress. “I-I-I-It ha-has t-t-to be a-around h-h-here so-so-somewhere.”
Klaus shook his head, tears catching on his eyelashes. “It’s not. I’ve looked everywhere! I don’t know where it is.” He let out another choked out wail. “What kind of brother am I to lose it?!”
Diego reached out and pulled Klaus forward fiercely, whispering softly against the side of his head as he pulled him in the tightest hug that he could muster. Klaus’s body shuddered against his as he sobbed against his shirt, the fabric becoming damp and slightly uncomfortable against Diego’s skin. He ignored it as he continued to murmur softly, willing Klaus to relax against him.
“I want him back,” Klaus wailed between sobs. “I need him back!”
Warm tears began to flow from Diego’s own eyes. He was completely powerless to stop it, feeling himself melt into Klaus’s touch. He wasn’t usually one for physical touch, but right now both he and Klaus needed it. His body bent forward, grasping Klaus even tighter so that his brother felt comforted even slightly.
“I-I-It’s g-g-g-going t-t-to be-be o-okay.” Diego’s voice was spoken more like a question, unsure what exactly would happen from this. He wanted to say more, but his throat grew thick and he was unable to speak. He feared that anything else he said would just make it worse and he closed his eyes tight, both his and Klaus’s sobs filling the room.
Meanwhile, Reginald Hargreeves sat at his desk, rolling a carved wooden fish between his fingers. It was so filled with details that each individual scale had its own design from wavy lines to speckles. It had a small name etched on the tail in the smallest of letters that spelled out K-L-A-U-S.
Reginald looked at it once more, huffed and threw it in the trash besides his desk without a second thought.