Empathy [Ben Hargreeves]

Episode Eight. Part I.

Klaus waved them off and laughed. "Whoo!" His bell rang wildly. "He popped his cherry!" Klaus mock-gasped. "Now you're gonna have to marry her."

"Would you keep your voice down?" Luther hissed.

The bell rang loudly. "Hey, you know, I remember my first..." Klaus trailed off thoughtfully. "Small, blonde, totally emo..." he described. "And a total vixen in bed."

Eloise choked and flushed chili pepper red while her eyes flickered lilac. She ducked her head as Luther's eyes flashed to her. Shit, Luther wasn't supposed to know about that.

"You went all the way with him?"

Elle didn't appreciate the accusation in Luther's voice. She looked up to glare at her brother with defiant eyes. "Would you have slept with Allison had you the chance?" she shot back.

None of the Hargreeves children were blood related, and they were raised as teammates, not siblings. There was nothing wrong with her love for Klaus. There was nothing wrong with her love for Ben.

Klaus howled in laughter. The bell clanked away.

Luther only responded to Elle with a grunt and turned to their adoptive brother. "Klaus, what is it?" he snapped. "What was the point of this?"

Klaus stopped laughing. "What? Oh!" Calming down, he explained, "The... uh, important family business. Meet us downstairs, okay?" Luther turned to go back into his room. "And, Luther," Klaus stopped him. "No dilly-dallying, all right? Chop, chop."

Klaus looped his arm through Elle's to walk away after Luther closed the door behind him to get dressed. Elle used her free hand to punch Klaus in the arm. "What the hell was that? You completely outed us!"

"Darling, that was, like, sixteen years ago. He doesn't know that we did it many times since."

"You--" Elle inhaled quickly and exhaled for ten seconds to calm herself as they descended the stairs. "Klaus. Please." Her voice wavered.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean any harm. Luther has nothing to be ashamed of and neither do you. Sex is human nature."

"I'm not--" Elle bit her tongue to stop herself from lying. She was ashamed. Her heart still belonged to Ben, but her body was used.

Not only had she slept with others, but Elle had found herself back in the arms of Klaus throughout the years after they lost Ben. They were each other's comforting touch until Klaus chose drugs and Elle chose Lucille.

Eloise made herself a cup of hot chocolate with shaky hands and took a seat in the kitchen to wait for the others to arrive.

"Here, eat something." A plate of peanut butter toast with honey appeared before Elle's face. She was zoned out and hadn't even noticed Klaus puttering around the kitchen making her breakfast.

"You're already forgiven, you know," Elle said with a soft smile in his direction. He was too precious to remain mad at, and she was grateful that he was even alive to tick her off in the first place.

While crunching on her toast, Luther shuffled into the kitchen in a ginormous hoodie and dropped heavily onto a chair. Klaus poured a cup of coffee for Ben and then one for him. "Here we go. This'll fix you up."

As Luther was putting the cup to his lips, Five sauntered into the kitchen in his blue Academy pajamas and snatched the cup from Luther's hands before taking a sip. Klaus quickly picked up the coffee pot and filled another mug for his hungover brother while mumbling, "Nice. Okay."

Five slurped on the black coffee. "Jesus. Who do I gotta kill to get a decent cup of coffee?" he complained.

"That's not funny," Elle commented sternly. The ease of murder was not something to be proud of.