Runaway ~ TUA (Book 3)

Chapter 7

Taya laid upside down on one of the chairs in the room that Stanley was cleaning, her hair hanging down with her as her feet rested on the wall while Klaus leaned against the door frame as he took a sip of some sort of liquid as Stanley dusted the walls.

"You missed a spot," Taya called as she gestured to a piece of furniture Stan hadn't dusted yet.

"You missed a spot on your face and I'm not complaining," Stan shot back. Before Taya could say something in return Klaus interrupted her, waving his hands dismissively.

"Hey, hey, hey. Listen to me, buddy. This is nothing compared to what I endured when I was your age," Klaus said, "You know once he gave me six months of laundry duty. Six months! Just for pawning one of his stupid priceless artifacts from Mexico. Well, it turns out it did have a price, Dad, and that price was $35 for meth, thank you very much." Taya sighed a bit as her uncle rambled, watching Stanley dust the dresser.

"Laundry duty doesn't seem that bad." Stanley had moved onto dusting a painting, slightly straining his neck in order to see what he was doing as he dusted the frame.

"Well, it is when you know what your brothers do into their socks," Klaus replied, Taya made a face as she sat up straight, moving a few strands of hair out of her face while Stanley asked Klaus if he got into a lot of trouble at his age.

"Oh, tons," Klaus told him, "Truancy, larceny, arson. You know, a lot of stuff I was doing wasn't even illegal at the time. Have you heard of Klaus's law?"

"Nope," Taya and Stanley said in unison as Kaus collapsed onto the bed with a tired groan, "Half of the time I was just trying to piss off my dad, Luther, Diego, or Ben."

"Yeah, oppositional defiant disorder," Stanley spoke as he seemed to look around the room. Taya tilted her head in confusion as Klaus lifted his head to look at the boy, equally as confused as Taya was.

"Huh?"

"At least that's what my shrink calls it."

"Go on."

"It's typically associated with an argumentative, aggressive...," Stanley began.

"... Irritable mood," Stanley continued as he and Klaus spoke in unison.

"Antisocial, risk seeking behavior and impulsivity," Stanley listed and Taya nodded, rather enjoying this free but slightly unprompted psychology lesson.

"Ding-dong, who's at the door? Me," Klaus whispered as he looked at the ceiling, "I have the – Wow! You know, and it feels so good to put a name to it, so all the drugs and the manipulation and my cult and —"

"You had a cult?," Stanley questioned as he looked at Klaus with a slightly concerned facial expression.

"Long story," Taya sighed, chuckling a little at the memory.

"Well, it was the 60s babe, everyone had one," Klaus defended, "But the point is that all of that was a reaction to my father and his obscenely high expectations for me. And then after Dad died, I had Ben haunting my every move."

"Who's Ben?," Stan asked as he snooped around the hotel room, it seemed like he was looking for things he could snag and keep for himself.

"Ben is your dead uncle. Who's alive in this... timeline," Taya explained, sighing as she shook her head slightly, not even sure if Stan would believe what she had said.

"But he's dead to me. It doesn't matter," Klaus added quickly, sitting up. "But, I mean, if I set this room on fire..."

"Yeah?," Stanley inquired, his face brightening slightly as Taya silently begged for chaos not to ensue.