Trauma can make it difficult to open up to the people who love you. After a triggering incident, Lucas finds Claus confiding in someone less comforting.

Takes place post-canon, in an AU where Claus lives.

There was a breeze at Lucas’s back as he crossed over the top of the hill. The sun was still out and the meadow was aglow with a peaceful summer energy. Still, Lucas shivered where he stood, and pulled his coat tighter around his arms. He never liked coming here.

He made his way down the hill, feeling the crunch of leaves beneath his feet, listening to the birds above his head chirping out their happy melodies. A pair of squirrels chased each other through the grass, and Lucas had to focus not to trip over them. It seemed like everyone and everything was out to revel in the new world and the hope for the future it contained. All except one person.

Lucas sat on the ground beside his brother. Claus had his legs crossed and was staring at a patch of dirt by his shoes. His eyes were closed, and while from afar Lucas had been able to hear his voice, Claus’s lips had stopped moving when his brother came near.

Lucas cleared his throat. “Hey, bro.”

There was no response.

“I sorta figured you might be here,” he continued. “Me and Kuma and Duster were really worried about you. Yknow, cause you just ran out of the room without saying anything.”

A gentle breeze fluttered past the two of them, taking Lucas’s words away and offering none in return.

Lucas shivered. “I know you’re upset, Claus. But you can talk to me about it. I promise.”

Claus grimaced and muttered something under his breath.

“I…” His arm shaking, Lucas put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Was it something I did? Was it the joke I made about your wings? Cause I’m really sorry about that… I thought it was just a joke, but I wasn’t really thinking at all, and I never wanted to hurt you -“

Without looking up, Claus put his robot hand over Lucas’s normal one and squeezed it tight.

“You think this is about you?” Claus said. His voice trembled like it was taking everything he had just to speak. “I’m not mad at you. I’ll never be mad at you. You don’t deserve it.”

Lucas frowned. “But I do deserve it, if I hurt your feelings.”

“You wouldn’t do it on purpose, though,” Claus muttered, loud enough for Lucas to hear. “You’re too good. Not like me.”

“What? Is that what you’re worried about? You’re so good!” The words tasted hollow even as Lucas said them, and he could practically feel them landing on deaf ears. “You’re not the Masked Man anymore. We can move past that! Just cause you feel bad doesn’t mean you are bad. If you just tell me what’s wrong -”

“Stop it, Luke!” Claus spat, making his brother flinch. “You don’t get it. It just doesn’t work that way. That’s why I had to come to this idiot.” He kicked his right foot and it made a metallic thud that rang briefly in the air. “No one else would understand.”

Lucas sighed, and removed his hand from Claus’s shoulder. He picked his head up and looked through the window. Saw Porky’s sallow face staring back at him.

The Absolutely Safe Capsule looked much the same as it had before the end of the world. When Lucas pulled the final needle, the Dark Dragon saw into his heart and was led by the goodness therein to create a brighter, kinder world like the one they’d all known before Porky’s influence. However, Porky himself was untouched – whether because of the Capsule’s ability to keep him Absolutely Safe, or because Lucas didn’t have the heart to kill anyone, no one knew.

The fact remained that he was there, and everyone had to put up with him – in a way. He was really and truly trapped in that Capsule, without the ability to communicate with anyone on the outside at all other than by looking through the window. Porky wasn’t a problem anymore, but he was a bit of an eyesore, so the village eventually opted to move the Capsule containing him into an open field away from where anyone lived. And there he stayed, alone but for the trees and animals around him that knew not of his existence. Alone but for them, and for two boys in striped shirts.

Porky noticed Lucas’s gaze through the window and stuck his tongue out at him. Grimacing, Lucas started to turn away – then thought better of it, and stuck out his tongue right back.

“I know he can’t hear me, and that even if he could he wouldn’t care,” Claus’s voice cut in, turning Lucas’s attention away from the window. “He… heck, he even used to punish me for telling him about my feelings. He said I wasn’t supposed to have any. I’m supposed to be the perfect robot and perfect robots don’t have feelings…”

“Then why are you here?” Lucas asked. “You have a family now, and we’d never yell at you for having problems! You can tell us- can tell me anything.”

“No, I can’t!” Claus snapped. Growling, he let go of Lucas’s hand and clambered to his feet. “I’m not allowed to report to you!”

He stepped toward the capsule, bringing his boot down onto the grass with such force that the ground quaked.

“I’m only allowed to report to the King!”

He stepped again, and all of the woodland creatures around them scattered.

“He did this to me and now I can’t even get payback because he’s protected in that stupid capsule!”

Claus swung his leg at the Absolutely Safe Capsule as hard as he could and it tipped forward. It seemed for a moment like it might start rolling away, but it quickly righted itself and brought Porky’s sneering face directly in front of Claus. Porky stuck his tongue out again and Claus turned so red that Lucas could’ve sworn there was steam coming off him.

“…Claus?” Lucas asked, standing up as well. “Are you alright?”

Claus opened his mouth wide, wider than a human mouth should be able to open, and bared the razor sharp fangs that were drilled into his gums. He let out a rabid screech – “AAAAARGHH!” – and jumped onto the Absolutely Safe Capsule.

Lucas stumbled back in shock from the mess of limbs and machinery flailing about on the capsule. Claus kicked and banged and shrieked all of his aggressions out on his abuser, and on the other side of the window Porky just laughed and laughed – or maybe he was coughing his lungs out. It was impossible to tell.

It struck Lucas how much his brother hadn’t changed. He’d seen this kind of tantrum before – sure, Claus was a bit older, a bit bigger, a bit more filled with trauma-stained gears and cogs. But it was also such a familiar scene to see his brother so infuriated at an injustice – like being unfairly blamed and punished for pushing Fuel into the river – that he’d climb into bed and scream and punch the stuffing out of a pillow with his little fists.

They fixed that problem. Lucas had a feeling they could work on this one too.

“Claus.” No response – Claus probably didn’t even hear Lucas speak up. He grimaced and reached into his PSI, pointing his fingers at his brother and incanting “Counter!”

Claus’s next blow bounced right off the capsule and sent him flying. Startled, Lucas ran over to catch him and just barely managed to get under him in time. Claus’s weight brought them both to the ground, sending them tumbling away from the capsule. They finally came to a halt a good twenty feet away and just lay there on the ground for a bit to catch their breath.

Claus was the first to recover. “What the heck, bro?” he asked, sitting up and dusting himself off. “What are you doing protecting Porky like that? Are you on his side now or something?”

Lucas frowned, but remained lying down. “No. I’m on your side.”

“Well, if you were on my side you’d let me kick that fucker’s butt!”

“You can’t, though,” Lucas said. He saw his brother’s face twist in anguish and quickly continued. “I know it hurts but you know I’m right. Nothing can hurt him in that capsule. But… he can’t hurt you either.”

“He already did hurt me,” Claus grumbled. Scrunching his face up, he laid back down and crossed his arms. “It’s his fault Mom is dead. It’s his fault I’m a chimera. It’s- it’s his fault I can’t talk about my feelings with anyone other than him!”

“You’re talking about your feelings now,” Lucas pointed out, and Claus froze.

“Uhh… what?”

Now Lucas sat up, and with exertion pulled his brother up as well so they were leaning against each other. “I said, you’re talking about your feelings now. With me, Lucas! Not Porky.”

“But- but- but- I don’t understand,” Claus stammered. “You don’t have access to that data. It’s under strict privacy settings. Only friend classes can break encapsulation. How are you -”

“Whoa,” Lucas broke in. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Encapsulation? Like the thing Porky’s in?”

“No, not like that!” Claus groaned. “Come on, it’s basic chimera tech! They put some code in my brain that blocks off my emotions from everyone but my supervisors! I know it’s there, because every time I try and talk about my feelings I go into an infinite loop and totally lock up! How are you getting around that? Are you hacking? Are you a hacker, Luka? Are you really good at computers all of a sudden? Mr. ‘I Think Video Games Are Scary’?”

Lucas cringed at the memory of how he almost got sucked into playing that arcade game in New Pork City. “No! Video games are the worst. The only hacking I know how to do is hitting them with a big stick until they break.” He smiled weakly, but Claus didn’t seem to find it funny.

“Then what’s going on? I’m so far outside of protocol right now.”

Letting go of his brother, Lucas took a deep breath and stared at his hands. ”Claus, do you think I’m a crybaby?”

Caught off guard by the non-sequitur, Claus had to re-analyze his brother’s words to make sure he’d heard properly. “Uh. No? Not anymore.”

“Not anymore…” Lucas pulled his knees up to his chest. “After Mom died, everyone called me a crybaby. Like, everyday. Even more after you disappeared. It got so bad that I never wanted to talk about my feelings again because I knew I’d start crying and then everyone would laugh at me.”

True to his word, Lucas’s speech was punctuated with sniffles and his voice was getting hoarse. Worried, Claus tried to maneuver so that he could wrap an arm around his brother, but the angle was awkward and Lucas toppled onto his side.

“When I was traveling with Kumatora and Duster, we saw so many horrible things that made me feel like crying, but I just locked up whenever they asked me if I was okay. I thought, if they saw me crying, they’d make fun of me just like everyone at home. And then all of my friends would be gone.”

He buried his face in his hands for a minute, clearly to mask his tears, and Claus winced.

“Oh no, oh no, I’m sorry,” Claus blurted. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

“No. No! It’s okay,” Lucas continued, pulling his hands away again. His eyes were puffy but he was still wearing an awkward smile. “Because I found out that crying isn’t so bad. When I did cry, Kuma and Duster hugged me and let me talk about what was wrong. It was really hard at first, because I was so used to just bottling that stuff up, but then it got easier. Maybe it’s the same with you.”

Claus blinked. “Me?”

“Yeah!” Lucas strained to push himself upright again, and then used the same hand to wipe his tears away, resulting in streaks of dirt across his face. “Listen, I don’t understand the computer-y robot chimera stuff. At all. But I don’t think this is a robot problem? It sounds like a people problem. If someone makes you believe that they’re the only person you can talk to, maybe it starts to feel impossible to do anything else.”

He slipped his hand into Claus’s fleshy one. “It’s okay if you can’t tell me what’s wrong yet. I’m sorry for pushing you. But I don’t think your feelings are locked in a capsule or whatever you said. And I’ll be here for you when you’re ready to talk about them. Okay?”

Lucas looked into his brother’s eyes, and the robotic one was no longer alone in being red.

Claus coughed into his fist. “That’s… sappy.” He paused, glancing both ways to ensure that they were still alone in the field before continuing. “But… I appreciate it. That actually sorta makes me feel… better. Maybe you’re right. Maybe eventually I can open up and cry just as much as you.”

Lucas snorted. “You’re gonna have to wake up pretty early to out-cry me! I’m so good at it now, now that I’m not as embarrassed about doing it! Uh… not that it’s a competition or anything…”

Claus gave him a playful punch on the shoulder. “You also never used to be this good at bragging! Maybe that’s what adventuring does to you. Heh, go figure, right?” He paused again, closing his eyes for a moment as he reflected on the conversation. “Thanks, Lucas. You’re the best.”

Preening, Lucas rose to his feet and stood with the glow of the sun as a backdrop. “You bet I am!” He offered a hand to his brother to help him up. “That’s me practicing bragging. Did it work?”

Claus rolled his eyes and accepted the hand. “Barely! You gotta be way more obnoxious than that. Don’t worry, you’ve got the best bragger in the whole universe to teach you: me! You see how good I am at it?”

The two of them laughed and wrapped an arm around the other’s waist. The problem might not’ve be solved, the pain might not’ve be gone, but they weren’t alone in feeling it anymore. Without taking a look back, the twins headed off into the Sunshine Forest, to make their way back home with the knowledge that good or bad, thick and thin, they’d always have each other.

Behind them, the Absolutely Safe Capsule sat unattended in its open vault, and rotted.