Chapter Text
Luther was having an incredibly chaotic couple of months. It started of pretty terrible. He knew his body was more than a little disproportionate, but the amount of people that commented on it with barely hidden mocking amusement was more than a little hurtful. Just another reminder of the price he had to pay for being so wilfully ignorant of his father’s abuse. A part of him was a little jealous of the others for being smart enough to see it before he did—but he thought maybe this was some form of karmic retribution for how terribly he had acted towards Vanya and his other siblings. It was just like him to overestimate his importance.
He would have succumbed to his depression and drunk his way through it, enticed by the idea of partying till he forgot just like Klaus did, if it weren’t for Vanya of all people telling him to move on as a form of sticking it to dad. He needed to make something of himself so he wouldn’t fall back to being nothing without Reginald. A part of him was vindictive enough to do it solely to stick it to his father’s memory, but another part of him, a bigger part, wanted to do it for himself. It was crazy to think that he had lived for 30 years and only now was he doing something solely for himself, but here he was.
“Luther”
He turned around and stopped putting away the crates he was working on. The warehouse he worked at stacked away large items like Tv’s and washing machines; things normal people really couldn’t pick up without a truck. Luther made the manual aspect of labour a lot easier for the workers there and so he was hired rather quickly. 9 months of working in a rather low-paying entry job had made him feel unnaturally accomplished. He knew it wasn’t anything special, that this was the kind of job teenagers did when they finally finished school, but to him it was an incredible steppingstone. So when he turned to the manager and she smiled up at him, handing him her vest, he felt his heart jump in his chest.
“Emily,” he greeted.
“Hey there big man, I got some good news for you. I’m transferring to management and it looks like you’re nabbing yourself a managerial role now. Yay! Congratulations! Woohoo!” she cheered, doing her cute little laugh, and pumping her fists up in the air.
Luther took the vest, unsure of what he was more enraptured by, his sudden new promotion, or the beautiful redhead in front of him with her gorgeous smile, and her awkwardly peppy attitude. He was lost for words, and so he opened his mouth a few times and found himself speechless.
“I—I don’t know what to say,” he said, chuckling in elation.
“How about a thank you,” she laughed.
“Thank you! I mean, thank you so much. I can’t even find the words,” he said, scratching the back of his head as he palmed the vest.
“Don’t say anything big man. You always do your work so diligently. No slacking off, very quick to listen to instructions, and just as quick to get all the slackers in line,” she praised. “I’d say you’re doing my job better than me if it weren’t for the fact that it’s your job now. So how about it… celebration lunch?”
Luther was caught off-guard by the way Emily was sending him a now nervous glance. Was he being… was he being asked out? He nodded quickly, unsure if he’d get the courage if he took another second to think.
“Yeah- yeah sure! Where do you want to go?” he asked.
“There’s this new burger place. Best sloppy joes around,” she said with a playful smile.
“Isn’t that messy?” Luther asked.
“That’s what I like about it,” she replied just as easily.
Luther nodded, sending her a grin. With Emily things just fit right in place. He was glad to have found her. He felt a little sad when she left, but the vest in his hands did take the edge of her disappearance. He was promoted. His first promotion! He should tell his siblings… wait no, that would be a terrible idea. They’d probably laugh at him for being so excited about something so small. Plus it wasn’t like he could be this excited about something they’d all done a decade ago. Yeah, it was best to just keep it to himself.
No, he couldn’t be pessimistic. He had a date!
Klaus thought that maybe Five was involving himself in something dangerous again. Surely the old man was probably already working in some underground hitman ring or something now that the commission was out of the way. If he was being honest, Klaus didn’t really care if Five wanted to be a hitman again. He was a supportive brother! What he did mind was the fact that Five hadn’t told him a thing and was leaving him out. This was more than a little frustrating, so he took to trying to find that little stash of alcohol he had left around for emergency days to get off that edge. A few sips wouldn’t make a difference would it?
“No, no, I remember putting it here,” he grumbled, pushing up the floorboard.
“Don’t bother.”
“Christ on crackers!” Klaus hissed, holding his chest in alarm as he turned around to see Five behind him.
The ex-hitman was wearing a black business suit, with dress shorts and long socks. Where the old man was shopping was beyond him. Klaus didn’t think the children’s section had anything that professional in it. As usual the little gremlin made his way to the coffee first thing.
“Jesus Five, warn a man,” Klaus said, nerves on end.
Five ignored his irritation as he took another sip of his coffee. “You won’t find your stash there. I burnt it.”
“Wait what? Why would you—um I mean what stash? How dare you accuse me of hiding my addiction?” he said dramatically holding his chest as if he were in pain.
Five pulled out a box of granola bars from the pantry while his brother yapped on when he saw something unsavoury and scowled. He took it out and threw it straight at Klaus’s face.
“Owww what was that for, you meanie?” Klaus groaned, as five continued throwing packets at him.
“Twinkies!” he said in disbelief, throwing his hands up and clenching his jaws as if the word itself burnt him. “Make yourself useful and incinerate these while I’m gone.”
Five dumped his cup back into the sink and jumped to the door to grab his coat. Klaus felt the urge to drink his troubles away again and decided that he didn’t want to stay in the house alone now. He wanted Ben so bad. For now Five would have to do.
“Hey, hey, hey, let me come with,” Klaus said hastily as he pulled out his favourite fuzzy jacket.
Five took a moment to consider before he nodded.
“Then make haste. I have a schedule to keep.”
“Oh, I know this place. It has really good sloppy joes,” Klaus commented with a laugh as he followed behind his little brother. “Are we going to log in some quality bro time?”
“No, I’m here to interrogate someone, and then I’m off to do some calculations,” he said dismissively.
“Oh, how boring. Who is this someone?” Klaus asked.
“Emily Roginsky. Luther’s date.”
“Oh! You should have lead with that. How interesting!”
Klaus clapped his hands in excitement, and then Five turned to look at him and for a moment he thought he saw the old-man’s face mellow out a little before he sighed, contemplating something and then took out a file. Klaus was more than a little excited when Five handed it to him. Oh goody, now he could be in on the fun! He took the papers and began reading through them in growing amusement and shock.
“You put together an entire case-file for one of Luther’s dates?” he asked in disbelief.
“It’s an extensive background check to ensure my calculations won’t be off in regards to situational anomalies. That’s often why I get my calculations wrong,” he said.
Klaus hummed pretending to understand, when he looked through her case-file and began chuckling. Emily was a furry? There were several pictures of her wearing a red dog suit at conventions.
“Other than her being a fan of Clifford The Big Red Dog, I don’t see why you need to be so worried. What’s she going to do? Yiff him to death,” he laughed.
Five snatched the files from him and snarled. “It’s precisely because she’s a furry that I’m worried.”
“Oh pray tell, why little-brother?”
“Because if you haven’t noticed, Luther is part simian. She could very well be leading on the big-oaf because of her interest in a niche fetish,” Five hissed angrily as they took a seat at the far end of the diner away from the redhead in question.
Klaus blinked and then he couldn’t help the disbelief that coloured his face. So this was what Five was doing! He was stalking his siblings! Of course that was what he was doing! Klaus didn’t know why he was shocked in the first place.
“Ho ho ho the old-man doesn’t want big old Luther to have his heart broken. That’s so sweet,” Klaus said wiping away a tear.
Five took in a deep breath and looked at the ceiling as if he was asking the lord for patience. Klaus was sure God wasn’t the sweet little girl she looked like, so she wasn’t going to grant Five anything right now. Klaus however, was glad he came by on this little adventure. This was turning out to be the most entertainment that he had in a while.
“I can’t believe you never invited me out on more of these,” Klaus said in mock hurt.
“I’m beginning to wonder why I agreed to today in the first place,” Five said, with that ‘don’t test my patience right now’ tone. “I’m going to confront the target. Make sure I can get a read on her motivations. Then I’m dropping you back home while I do my calculations in peace.”
Before Klaus could get a word in Five had teleported right next to the poor girl. He said a quick hello and she jumped in her seat in fright. Klaus chuckled in amusement. As if he was sitting this one out. He picked up his coat and moved closer to her stall to listen in.
“Shouldn’t you be at school right now?”
“Sick day,” Five said, before pulling out a chair and sitting in front of the redhead, and smiling that odd, disingenuous smile of his.
Emily sent the boy a confused look, before turning around to see if she could spot his parents. Unfortunately for her Five was not a patient man.
“Louisiana 2014,” Five said, catching her attention and making Klaus lean in with interest.
“How did you—”
“What are your intentions towards Luther Hargreeves?”
“I um—sorry who are you again?”
“Your intentions towards Luther,” Five pressed.
“Look kid, I don’t know what’s going on, but if you’re trying to threaten me for what I did back then, it’s not going to work. I made mistakes ok, but I don’t intend to do that again, and how do you know Luther anyway?”
“That’s because we’re brothers,” Klaus cut in, taking a seat next to Five.
“What are you—” Five began before Klaus shushed him. “Did you just shush—”
“Shhh,” Klaus continued before turning his charming smile back to Emily. “Don’t mind him. Fivey here, is a grumpy old man at heart. Very paranoid. You know how kids are these days.”
Emily nodded her head in confusion, although she didn’t know what he meant. It was weird watching the kid glare holes straight into the rather attractive older brother’s face. Emily wondered what kind of weirdness she had managed to catch herself in. Thankfully, the older brother seemed not as hostile as the younger one, and she would be lying if she said she wasn’t at least interested in Luther’s family. He didn’t ever talk about them much, other than an odd comment about them being unusual.
“What this angry little gremlin here means to say, is that he’s so entirely concerned about Luther’s happiness. You know how it is—someone like him, so big and dumb. So easily heartbroken,” Klaus said dramatically.
Emily couldn’t help but smile at that. “He is kind of big and dumb,” she said, with a fond chuckle.
Klaus chuckled back and noticed how Five’s shoulders had slumped mildly and he looked a lot less ready to attack the poor girl. Emily looked genuinely enamoured by the idea of a big dumb Luther, and so Klaus wondered why Five even needed to do so much research on her in the first place.
“You really care about him, huh,” Emily asked, before her fondness turned into mild irritation. “But you really shouldn’t be jumping people like that kid.”
“Just making absolutely sure. I’m sure you understand,” he said, with that oddly professional and clipped tone.
She shook her head in disbelief. She really didn’t understand, but it wasn’t like she was going to argue with some intense little teenager. Thankfully for her, the older one dragged away the kid.
“Well ja-ne! Enjoy your date. Tell Luther—well actually probably don’t do that,” Klaus laughed.
“I haven’t finished—” Five began.
“Sayonara!” Klaus interrupted, dragging the boy away.
Emily couldn’t help but giggle perplexed as she watched the two brothers disappear and not a minute later see Luther walk in, with that big goofy smile of his.
“Hey Emily, sorry for the wait—got a little caught up with the paperwork,” he said.
“Not an issue. A few interesting characters decided to keep me company,” she chuckled.
“They weren’t harassing you, were they?” Luther asked, looking entirely too protective.
Emily chuckled. “You could kind of say they were. A quirky man in a skirt and a very angry little boy in a suit, I’d say—so you want to tell me about them?”
“Wait Klaus and Five were here?” Luther asked.
“Brothers of yours?” Emily asked.
“Yeah,” Luther replied awkwardly.
“I want to hear all about them—about you”
Luther smiled. If those two idiots weren’t able to scare Emily off, then there wasn’t any reason to be afraid a few stories would. He grinned as he began opening up about himself for the first time in years.
“No calculations today old man?” Klaus asked.
Five paused, before a contemplative look took his face. “Do you think she was genuine?”
Klaus took a moment to point to his chest in shock. Was Five asking for his opinion? The old-boy crossed his arms and set his jaw in irritation.
“Yes, I’m asking you, although I wonder if your pea-brain can even process a standard question.”
“Hey, hey, no need to get so defensive little-bro. If you want my opinion, I think she genuinely likes him.”
“…ok.”
“Ok?” Klaus asked in disbelief.
Five was just taking his word for it? He blinked in shock when the little guy bent down and grabbed a twinkie on the floor and threw it at his face with spot-on aim.
“You still haven’t burned these. Get it done, and I’ll let you join in on the vetting process.”
Klaus saluted in affirmation and Five actually smirked at him, granted it was an amused smirk, but it was a smirk, nonetheless. Then he disappeared who knows where. Klaus did a little victory cheer. It only took him 9 months to get the little gremlin to open up. He turned to the empty space besides him.
“You must be proud of me, huh Ben?”
No response. At least he didn’t need one this time to know what Ben must be thinking. He could imagine him there, smiling at him and nodding his head proudly. Klaus thought that maybe it was the little reminders of Ben’s approval that got him through the day. Even after going to the light, his brother managed to nag him, because of course he did.
“Miss you too Ben,” he whispered softly into the empty spot.