#0.08 : The Mimic //COMPLETE//

1.1 - The Black

Claudia and Klaus collapsed on his bed when they got back to the house. "Klaus, I have to tell you something," she mumbled. "Please don't think any differently of me. I just, it's important you hear this."

Ben was standing in the corner, shaking his head in protest. "Don't," he said, "He's not going to like it."

"I'm not going to like what?" Klaus answered, looking Claudia in they eyes. She was already starting to cry, and Klaus just pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her midsection. "You can tell me anything, Claudia."

"It's my fault Ben died," she said, a sob shaking her small form. "I didn't mean to. He– he had been coming to me to help him with his depression, and I was just doing small things with my power to make him happy again. But one night he came to me and it was really bad. He was talking about dark things, dark thoughts. I– I didn't know what to do."

"Claudia," Klaus sighed, running his hand through her hair. "What happened?"

"I overdid it, like I did with Luther last night. Except with Ben, he went right into a mission, and he died. It's my fault. I never should have fucked with his emotions," Claudia sobbed more now. She could barely breathe. It had been so long since she had had a panic attack she almost didn't recognize it.

Ben spoke up before Klaus could provide input. "Claudia, what you did helped me more than I could ever tell you. I was the one who should have been more cautious when we went out on that mission after."

"Yeah, but–" Claudia started, but Klaus cut her off.

"Clauds, I don't blame you for anything. You were just trying to help him. If it made him happier, even for a little bit, that speaks volumes about you as a person," Klaus pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "It wasn't your fault, babe."

Claudia continued to sob, prompting Ben to come over and sit on the other side of her. He wrapped his own arms around her waist.

They sat like that for a long while, until Claudia finally surrendered to sleep and passed out on Klaus's shoulder.

——————————

The next morning, she awoke to Klaus sitting at his desk with the old dinner bell their mom had used to call them downstairs between his hands.

Claudia yawned and sat up, running her hands through the knots on the back of her head. "Klaus, what are you doing?" She asked, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed.

"I was just going to wake Luther up," he lightly dinged the bell. "You know, for the important family meeting," he smiled, turning to sit in the desk chair sideways. Claudia plopped herself in his lap and pressed a kiss to his lips.

"He got drunk and did ecstacy for the first time last night. He's probably got a major headache," Claudia laughed. "Let him sleep."

Klaus just shoved Claudia off his lap and bolted out the door, ringing the bell on his way down the hall. "Wakey, wakey! Eggs and bakeeeyyyy!!!" She heard him yell in a sing-song voice.

She rolled her eyes and quickly threw on a pair of black jeans and a shirt with a skull on it. She followed him out of the room, and caught up with him just as Luther was exiting his room.

"You pulled quite a disappearing act last night," Claudia teased.

"Yeah, what kind of mischief did you get into?" Klaus asked, peeking behind Luther into his room.

"I didn't," Luther denied, holding his comforter around his waist as a kind of cover.

"Maybe we should ask her," Claudia gestured at the girl from the grave last night. She was sitting on Luther's bed finishing getting dressed. Klaus waved at the girl, making Luther dive for the door and pull it shut.