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Pogo stared at the five young people crowded in the extravagant living room of the Hargreeves home. They argued heatedly, Luther standing up and getting close up to Diego’s face, Vanya pleading with them weakly to stop and Allison yelling at them that they were being ridiculous. Five laughed in a mocking, frustrated way, throwing his hands over his eyes and running them through his hair. It took all of Pogo’s strength to not go running in the opposite direction at the chaotic scene unfurling in front of him. He wasn’t even completely sure what they were arguing about now, all the different voices had merged into a loud blur a while ago, but he was pretty confident that they were on the topic of Reginald. His name was being thrown around enough for it to be, anyway.
“Oh fuck off, Luther!” Five called as he stomped his foot down to get the attention of his four other siblings in the room. “Nobody gives a shit that Dad died except you. That asshole did nothing for us except turn us into soldiers.” He walked closer to Luther and clenched his teeth in the man’s face.
Luther pushed Five away from him, meaty hands shoving his shoulders. It was hard enough to stun the shorter man, but not so rough as to knock him over, which Luther knew he was completely capable of.
“He turned us into the warriors that this city needed!,” Luther defended his father, like always. “It was for the greater good--”
“We were kids,” Allison cut him off, “we were just kids.” She shook her head and scoffed.
The room was silent at Allison’s statement for a moment, sitting in it, before Diego spoke up.
“This is what I’m tryna say. The guy was batshit, man. Speaking of batshit, where’s Klaus? I want to hear what he’s got to say about this.” Diego started looking around the room and above him to see if Klaus would be leaning over the railing of a different story of the mansion, watching them and giggling to an invisible Ben by his side.
Pogo shook his head, clearing the confusion clogging his brain, and came back to the conversation around him. “Mr. Klaus left last night.” Pogo stated.
“What? He didn’t say bye.” Allison questioned, endlessly wishing that her brother would stop leaving unannounced, as unsurprising as it was when it happened.
“Yes he did.” Five chuckled from where he leaned against the portrait of himself. “You guys just don’t give a shit about him.”
Diego took a step away from Luther to confront Five. “Hey, that’s not true--”
“Oh really? Then how come none of you believed him when he told you he was sober?”
Vanya put her hands out, trying to calm the brewing argument. “Guys-” she started.
“He’s been clean for a month now. Did any of you dicks know that?” Five’s voice raised a little.
Luther sighed. “Five, I know you haven’t been here for most of it, but he always just gets back on it-”
“Am I the only one who fucking listens to anything the guy says!?” Five shouted in disbelief. “If you’re going to ignore him all the time, at least admit to it.”
Nobody had a response to that, so they all sat in a tense silence for a few moments until Pogo piped up.
“Ah, though your brother may not be here, I can tell you that he was not fond of your father at all, from an early age.” He shuffled his feet and shifted his cane so it sat more comfortably in his grip.
Diego turned when he heard this, curiosity piqued. “Do you know why?” Diego questioned, furrowing his eyebrows and pointing at Pogo with a knife that he had pulled out when arguing with Luther.
Pogo’s gaze on Diego faltered, and he glanced around the room nervously when he noticed his slip up. Diego, ever the detective (or at least the boyfriend to one), picked it up and glared at the chimpanzee. “What’re you hiding, Pogo?” He demanded, his siblings watching intently.
Pogo wasn’t sure what he did to give away that he knew something about Klaus that the other Hargreeves’ in the room didn’t know, but he decided it was too late now. He sighed and leaned onto his cane a bit more. “Your brother… disrespected Dr. Hargreeves for the same reasons as you,” Pogo nodded towards Diego.
Vanya looked Pogo dead in the eye. “But?” She asked, her voice quiet.
“But, Ms. Vanya, there was some training that your father did with Mr. Klaus that he never did with any of you. It was directed entirely towards his abilities specifically, so none of you would have been able to train with him. It was something that was kept a complete secret between Dr. Hargreeves, Mr. Klaus, and me. None of you were to know.” Pogo finished, but Diego, Allison, Luther, and Five still stared at him, expecting more. Vanya held her head in her hand and fumbled for a pill bottle in her coat.
Luther coughed, drawing Pogo’s attention to him. “What was the training?” He asked, jealousy from the fact that Klaus got special training emanating off of him.
“Trust me Mr. Luther, you would not have wanted to partake in this training,” Pogo sighed again. “Their actions would take place weekly in the mausoleum. Dr. Hargreeves would lock Mr. Klaus in there for hours at a time, to try and teach him how to control his powers.” Pogo stopped, eyes getting cloudy as he remembered how loudly Klaus had screamed for him to let him out when Pogo brought him lunch. He looked to the floor so none of the Academy would see his tears.
“What?” Allison asked. “I’m confused.”
Five fell back into the couch and rubbed at his eyes in realization. Diego looked just as confused as Allison, and Luther looked like he was connecting the dots. Vanya was faster though, and she gasped a little as her heart sped up.
“Dad… He locked him in there… with all those ghosts… How old was he?” The last question was directed towards Pogo.
“He must have been fourteen, at most, when Dr. Hargreeves gave up on him and stopped with this specific training. When it started… why, Mr. Klaus was around ten years old.” That wasn’t entirely true. Klaus had been eight when Reginald first put him in the mausoleum, after he caught the boy talking to a wall. However, Klaus had come down with a heavy fever not an hour later, and had begun to vomit profusely all over the mausoleum. Reginald had decided that the boy needed a bit more time to adjust to his powers before putting him back in there.
Vanya covered her mouth with a trembling hand and excused herself as she rushed to her room. Allison shook her head and stood up to refill her water glass, while Luther stared at the wall across from him. His point of Reginald being an okay father, trying to do his best for them, had just been completely contradicted. There was no use in arguing that now.
Five warped out of the room to god-knows-where, trying to evade the tense environment. Diego held his head in his hands for a minute before rushing up in a fit of frustration and leaving the manor. He dodged into his car swiftly and immediately started scouting out the city, dialling a familiar number as he went.
“Helllllooo! This is Klaus Hard-greeves! Sorry to miss your call! Tootles!” Klaus’s voice was loud as it yelled from the voicemail, and Diego held the phone away from his ear to escape his brother’s high voice.
He didn’t bother leaving a voicemail, knowing it would never be answered. Instead he just called again and again, driving past tall buildings, white-knuckling the steering wheel. After ten minutes, just when he started getting worried, Klaus finally picked up.
Diego sighed in relief. “Hey, man! What’re you callin’ so much for?” Diego could hear Klaus’ cocky smile through the phone.
“You’ve been gone for a while, Klaus. I was starting to think I’d need to plan your funeral.”
“Bullshit, Diego, I’ve been gone for longer! It’s only been, let’s see...” Klaus went quiet for a moment, probably glancing at his watch. “16 hours!”
Diego ignored his brother. “Where are you?”
“Oh! I just got out of AA, I’m by the centre.” Klaus said proudly.
Diego’s heart sped up and he let a rare smile grace his face. “How’d it go?” Diego asked, instead of showing his surprise that his brother actually went to therapy for once.
“Good, actually. Are you picking me up?”
“Yeah.”
“Did something happen?”
Diego frowned at that. “No, man. I’m just picking you up cause I want to.” He rolled up to the rehabilitation centre that Klaus went to occasionally, lips tingling anxiously. “I’m out front,” Diego told the man, looking around for Klaus’ familiar bright choices of clothing.
Someone knocked on the passenger side window, and Diego turned towards it in fear, reaching for a knife in his waistband. He quickly gave up on grabbing a knife however, when his eyes told his brain that the man knocking on his window was Klaus. Diego unlocked the car and Klaus slid into the passenger seat. He looked a little worse for wear, his hair needed a wash and his clothes looked like they hadn’t been changed in a few days, but he looked happy and healthy. And most importantly, sober.
Diego leaned across the cup holders and the gear shift to embrace his brother tightly. Klaus squeaked in surprise, but soon enough was reciprocating Diego’s hug, enveloping his tanned arms around the other man.
Klaus chuckled. “W-what’s this for,” he asked, worried.
“I just feel bad. I haven’t been there enough for you, man.” Diego pulled away and held together the wall that kept his tears at bay with sheer will.
Klaus looked at him, still confused, but smiled nonetheless. “Well, in your defense, I haven’t been there for you much, either.”
Diego ignored him and pulled away from the centre. “I’m proud of you. For how hard you’ve been trying lately.” Klaus knew what he was talking about. “And so is everyone else. Five, Luther, Allison, Vanya, Pogo, Mom… hell, you’d know more than me, but I’m sure Ben is proud of you too.”
Klaus didn’t try to hide the tears rolling down his cheeks. “Thank you,” He whispered, his leather leggings feeling tighter than normal, and his army tags feeling colder than usual where they were tucked under his shirt.
“No, don’t…” Diego huffed and glanced at Klaus out of the corner of his eye. “Don’t thank me for that. You deserve to hear that. I’m just sorry I didn’t realize sooner.”
Klaus nodded, patting Diego’s hand where it sat on the cup holders with a silent acknowledgment. Diego kept driving, blinking away his tears and focusing on the road. He let them sit in comfortable silence, not bothering to turn on the radio. Klaus hummed anyway, but Diego didn’t mind. They would be home soon.