Title: good medicine
Fandom: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Characters: Klaus, Ben
Rating: PG-13
Length: 678 words
Warnings: mature themes, drug use, drug abuse, adult language, theft, self-destructive behavior
Notes: Pre-Series
Summary: Fresh out of rehab (again) Klaus goes looking for drugs. Ben does not approve.



Fumbling his way in the dark his fingers found the key under the flowerpot. “Good old Brent, a most terrible, horrible person but apparently not a liar.” Klaus kissed the key and winked at his brother.

Ben shook his head and gave him a stern and disapproving look. Who knew ghosts could be so judgmental? Oh yeah, he did. Klaus ignored him and unlocked the door.

The place wasn’t exactly tidy, but it wasn’t quite the disaster zone he’d been expecting either. In rehab, Brent had been a mess. He’d also been chatty, which was how Klaus found out about the man’s stash. He’d bragged on and on about how all the drugs he had at home waiting for him when he got out of court-mandated rehab. Unluckily for him, Klaus had beat him to the discharge process by three days.

Klaus pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket, straightened it out, and checked his list. Medicine cabinet first, then the bedroom, and lastly the kitchen. Brent the idiot had been pretty detailed in his boasting. He might have felt a little bad about this little petty theft expedition if the man hadn’t also bragged about his penchant for hurting women. If the crying dead girls in the corner were his doing, then Brent had completely undersold his criminal activities. "Fucker," he muttered.

There were several prescription bottles in the bathroom’s medicine cabinet. Three different pain relievers, a muscle relaxant, and two varieties of Benzos. “Nice.”

Ben made a scoffing noise and Klaus rolled his eyes. “It’s medicine,” he said and shook one of the bottles at him. "The good kind."

“You shouldn’t be doing this, you just got out of rehab — again.”

“Lighten up Ben, that’s exactly why I should be doing this -- I'm celebrating.”

"You're self-medicating."

"Tomato, tomahto."

Klaus slipped on his headphones and hit the button on his Walkman to start the music going. This adventure needed a soundtrack.

He continued to ignore the girls in the corner. They weren’t paying him any attention anyway, it was best not to let them know he could see them. Ghosts were often needy bastards.

He opened one of the bottles. Alprazolam. “Sweet.” Not his favorite of the delightful Benzodiazepine family, but it would do. He shook a pill out into his hand and popped it in his mouth. He let the bitterness tickle his tongue in anticipation, before swallowing it dry.

“You could do so much more with your powers, Klaus,” Ben lectured.

Klaus rolled his eyes. “What, like you?”

“That’s not fair.” A look of sadness crossed Ben's face, and Klaus felt a pang of guilt hit him in the gut.

“No, it wasn’t.” Klaus shook two more pills into his palm — wouldn’t want that first one to get lonely — and downed them quickly.

It didn’t take long for the girls to disappear, their crying growing quieter until it ceased altogether. Ben stuck around a little bit longer, shaking his head in disappointment before flickering out of sight completely.

He stashed the rest of the pill bottles into his various pockets and moved onto the bedroom. He found a couple hundred dollars stuffed in the back of Brent’s sock drawer and under the bed was a box with several bottles of pills. Repeats of the ones he found in the bathroom. Those went into his bag.

There were some edibles in the kitchen cabinet behind a box of unopened Oreo cookies. He grabbed the drugs and the cookies, along with a bottle of red wine he found on the counter.

Klaus felt the tension leave his body as the pills took full effect. He felt good. Light. Almost happy. He locked the door behind him and tucked the key back under the flower pot. He fished a pack of cigarettes out from his vest pocket and a book of matches from the inner pocket of his coat. He lit a smoke and looked up. The sky was clear and the stars shined bright. He smiled to himself and walked off into the night.