Chapter Text
Rage fueled every single one of Claus’s steps as he scaled the mountain. He couldn’t sleep at all the previous night, and every waking moment just made him that much more angry.
Lucas couldn’t sleep either, so despite Claus’s desire to rip the entire world apart, he spent most of the night soothing his brother. With both of their parents gone, Lucas must’ve thought he could cry as loud as he wanted- and boy, was he loud. Claus wouldn’t have been surprised if the whole village could hear him.
Claus almost cried too. He wasn’t trying to be stronger than his brother; it’s just the way things were. Claus was never much of a crier. Lucas would scrape his knee and sob for an hour, while Claus could gash his entire leg open and the only thing that comes out of his mouth would be “woah… cool!”
That’s just the way things were. In fact, Claus wished he would have cried when his mother died, and when his father started going on a rampage. But, when Hinawa shoved the boys into the river as that horrible spike caved its way through her chest, the emotion at the forefront of Claus’s mind wasn’t sadness, or fear. It wasn’t even “shock”- it was just a mild confusion. Lucas had screamed, but his brother simply watched it happen as he fell.
The freezing water made his entire body go almost as numb as his mind. As he and Lucas were slammed into rocks over and over again, Claus didn’t even think about his mother. He just thought these words in a vacuum: “what just happened?”
When his head occasionally reached the surface, Claus could hear Lucas’s strained screams. He could hear the silence when Lucas was thrown back underwater by the current, and the water rushing around his ears as he was too. He could’ve sworn he heard the roar of the drago as it realized it missed out on two potential victims.
‘Victims’- not meals. Claus was right there when he heard the news that his mother’s body was found. She hadn’t been eaten. Not even a nibble. There was no tragic situation that could have served as an excuse. She had been killed just for the sake of killing.
But Claus didn’t need to hear it from Bronson’s mouth. Just before he felt two pairs of hands grab him and yank him out of the water was when he finally realized that his mother wasn’t coming back. It didn’t matter how or why she died.
Just that she did.
Claus was pulled out of the water almost a minute before Lucas was, as the latter was spotted clinging to a rock for dear life. Tessie had yelled to him that the townspeople would help him if he just let go, but he didn’t seem to hear them. It took a rush of water to knock him off the rock and toward the hands that would rescue him.
Lucas couldn’t stop sobbing, even when he was out of the water. The occasional pained moan or cry for his mother would escape his lips, but he was completely unable to be reasoned with. He had thrown off his wet clothes, wrapped himself in a towel, and buried his head in his knees faster than Claus thought was possible.
Lucas was far from talking, so Tessie had knelt down and held Claus’s hands when she asked him what had happened.
He couldn’t answer either.
He just stood there with a blank expression as he was undressed, wrapped in a towel, and sat down by a warm fire that he hadn’t even noticed was there. Eventually, Claus found himself wrapping his arms around his sobbing brother. They were still like that when their father arrived.
Claus only felt a slight sense of hopelessness when Thomas arrived and confirmed Hinawa was dead, but Lucas screamed and his cries came back stronger than ever. Flint took it the worst.
Tessie had run up to the twins and put her hands over their eyes, but they could still hear their father’s guttural screaming, the heavy thwack of the log, and the panicked yells of the townspeople. They could hear the crack as two heads were bashed, and the thud as two bodies hit the ground.
So, that night, the twins had to go home to an empty house. Lucas climbed into their parents’ bed and covered his head with their mother’s pillow, and Claus just… watched.
He wished he would have cried. He would have felt more human. But it wasn’t even until hours later that he felt anything at all.
And what he did feel, slowly at first, was anger. Anger turned into fury, and fury turned into wrath.
He didn’t even remember making the decision that he would go, only that the decision was final. Lucas had finally regained the self control to clean out the wounds that the rocks gave him in the sink, though he was still crying the whole way through. Claus didn’t bother to tend to his own wounds.
“...Lucas.”
The blond boy’s head quickly turned to look at his brother. He wiped his tears and listened.
“I’m gonna go,”
Any tears that Lucas had gotten rid of were quickly replaced as he started scream-crying once again. The abruptness of it made Claus flinch, and his heart dropped. But his mind was made up.
“I’m… gonna kill the drago. Mom will be proud of me, and I’ll come back to you, and dad, and Boney. Everything’s gonna go back to normal,”
Claus didn’t know what he meant by ‘normal,’ and clearly Lucas didn’t either. He didn’t clarify, and he didn’t pry.
“So, I’ll see you later, ok?”
Claus took a step backwards towards the door, his eyes still on his sobbing brother. He was just about to push the door open, when-
“Don’t leave me!”
Lucas ran at him, stumbling on the way, and basically tackled him. They both fell against the recently knobless door, and it shot open, throwing both boys onto the ground.
The noise had woken Boney, who ran out of his doghouse, over to them, and started aggressively licking both of their faces. Claus was never too fond of dog slobber, but he was forced to endure it as his brother had him pinned to the ground.
“I don’t wanna be alone!”
That was the point where Claus thought the whole village would hear Lucas’s cries, and scold him for making his grieving brother even more upset. But if they did hear, no one came.
Lucas’s adrenaline wore off as sobs continued to rack his body, and his grip loosened enough for Claus to push him off. He didn’t take off running like he wanted to- he just sat there next to his brother, waiting for him to speak again.
But he didn’t. Lucas didn’t say a single word after that, he just continued to desperately cry.
For the only time that night, Claus second guessed himself. A small feeling inside him told him that Hinawa wasn’t going to be the only loss… but he pushed it away. He had to save his mother.
“I’ll be back, ok? I promise,”
Lucas threw his hands against his eyes and cried into them.
“You’ll see me again, and you’ll be so happy. Mom is gonna be so proud of me- of us.”
Claus pulled Lucas into a tight embrace. Lucas leaned into him, and the two sat there in silence- broken by Boney’s whimpering and Lucas’s cries- for what felt like hours.
“Boney? Can you bring me an apple and mom’s nail file?”
The dog did as he was told, bringing the apple first. If his mind wasn’t so preoccupied, Claus would have wondered how their family dog had become so smart.
“Thank you,”
“Arf!”
A few moments passed.
“...”
“...”
“...Lucas?”
The younger twin’s head peeked up, and he looked into his brother’s eyes.
“I love you, Lucas. Ok?”
“Mmmmmm…”
Claus took the apple and nail file in his hands and stood up in front of Lucas. He took a few steps away, and Boney immediately took his place, licking Lucas’s arms. The boy scratched the dog behind the ear and peeked through tired eyes at his brother.
And eleven-year-old Claus didn’t glance back.