Claude broke into a laughters when he witnessed his brother’s anger at the mockery he had hinted before. ”I’m just pulling your leg brother. Don’t be so tense,” he clarified before winding the alcoholic liquid down his throat. 

     The younger man wasn’t happy when his taunt didn’t get to his brother. He rolled his eyes at the question, ”Ugh I don’t care Lars. I literally do not care. Look at my face,” he instructed as he turned to face Lars. ”Now tell me how many fucks do I give about anything.”.
     
     Before Lars have the chance to even answer the question, Claude retorted back to sit properly and said, ”Correct. It’s zero fucks. Zero fucks given.”. Then he chugged down whatever was left in his glass. ”Refilllll!”.

Laurence Anderson

    Claude couldn’t help but grin when Lars gave him that look. He accept and liked any signs and forms of amazements and attention, the things that he lacked when he was much younger. When his brother asked him that, he replied sarcastically, ”Oh the eighth wonder of the world!”. He then lift his glass to signal the bartender that he wanted another refill.

     ”HAHA! I Wish!” he laughed with a remark when Lars mentioned a nudist gallery. ”Oh I had it very easy. Your dearest father gave me TONS of money. I’d even be fine if I didn’t work.” he stopped for a while to chug the newly refilled glass, then motioned towards the bartender that he wanted more. ”I modelled for many kinds of fashion magazines. They’d dress me up and told me to pose, and so I did, naturally, I was good at it. And UGH the amount of clothes they would give me.”. An idea then came to him. He turned to look at his brother, ”Hey do you need any clothes?”.

Laurence Anderson

    Again, Claude wasn’t bothered by the scolding. At all. ”Hey gimme some more!” he said towards the bartender. The bartender went on to fix a drink for him but he was muttering something like ‘bastard’, ‘unappreciative’, ‘why I deserve better pay’.

     Despite his goofy demeanour, Claude listened tentatively to what Lars said. Without looking directly in his eyes of course. When Leanne was mentioned, Claude immediately chugged down the whole, less fancier, drink the bartender just placed down. “Come on man!” the bartender exclaimed with a sad look. ”More please,”. The bartender sighed and went to pick one of the alcoholic bottles and uncorked it, pouring the contents in a smaller glass. ”Thank you.” Mason said with a smile. Then continued to chug down the whole content as well. The bartender seemed to have suspected this as he poured more into the glass. 

     ”Well for starters, that old geezer left us. Second of all, I already invited,” he paused for a while, unable to say his sister’s name. ”her,” he said instead. ”but she didn’t want to come with me to Unova. Oh yeah I went to Unova. My only job was to pose.” he laughed at the word, ”Can you believe that? I can’t imagine how easy it actually is to make some cash,”.

Laurence Anderson

      Claude wasn’t bothered by his brother’s scolding. Why would he be? He was there for a drink, not for someone to explain to him what the contents of a drink is. 

     Though the thing that Lars said afterwards about the Galarian Highlands thing caught his attention. He was for sure going to ask for some later on. 

     He laughed amusingly when he was asked what he was drinking. Through his sunglasses, he looked straight at his brother, ”Does it fucking matter?”. A laughter then broke out from him once again. 

      He took another gulp of the drink before asking Lars, ”So where the fuck have you been?”. 

Laurence Anderson

    ”Ugh when am I ever serious. Oh wait you wouldn’t know because you weren’t there for most of my life.” he replied casually.

     The bartender placed a glass of alcoholic beverage in front of Mason with a wide grin, “This is my own concoction, I add-“ before the poor man could finish Claude already had some of the drink down his throat. He slammed the glass down on the counter. His lips smacked as he ruminated. Claude looked up at the bartender, ”Tastes great, keep up the good work,” he then smiled before chugging down the drink once again. 

     When Claude heard what his brother ordered he snickered, ”Are you serious,”.

Laurence Anderson

     Claude jumped off from his Salamence and pet its head before returning it to its Poke Ball. He walked up to his brother and observed the bar they were about to walk into. ”I can buy this entire place if I want to,” he scoffed.

     Claude didn’t listen much about the Rustboro thing, it didn’t bother him. So he just walked into the bar.

     He went over to sit at the counter and said to the bartender, ”Give me the best you have.”. The bartender immediately went to work on it. Claude liked that. No bullshits, just results.

     He was still wearing his sunglasses. He didn’t want to reveal how hard he had been crying over the past few days. He didn’t want people to know how vulnerable and weak he can become.

Laurence Anderson

    The club near the beach was packed, loud, and full of life. Claude, who had emptied many bottles of alcohol was among the sea of people on the dance floor. Their bodies move to the rhythms and beats of the music. Sweaty bodies rub against each others and everybody was reek of alcohol. 

     After a few hours had passed, Claude grew tired. So he stumbled his way back home. Luckily, he reached the villa he bought in one piece. The villa was costly as it faced the sea, but it was nothing to Claude. He searched his pockets for the keys. It took him a while but once he got a grab on it he jammed the key onto the lock, and turned it. The weight of his body was enough to push the door open. Once he was in he slammed the door shut, finally safe from the outside world. 

Bill Anderson

    Claude smiled softly when his brother began to relax a bit and not be too serious about things. He was also glad that he was not the only one who was addicted to nicotine. 

     ”Dont worry, I have a ride.” he said as he took a Poke Ball out from his pocket and waved it at his brother.

     Claude gave the Metagross a smile. He placed his hand on Ro’s head. ”Wow, he’s grown all big now.” he said as his eyes were mesmerised by the Pokemon. 

     He then walked a few metres away and said, ”Well, lead the way,”. He threw the Poke Ball into the sky, and out from it came a Salamence. Claude instantly caught the falling Poke Ball and hopped on to the back of the Dragon Pokemon. 

Laurence Anderson

    Claude rolled his eyes and took another long drag of the addictive substance whenever his older brother asked about him smoking or drinking. He wasn’t bothered to reply at all. It was unnecessary. 

     Though he managed to smirk when Lars asked what he had been up to. He found the question quite idiotic as Lars should know that he’s a grown man now and not some kid. 

     Claude waited and observed his brother putting up the candles. He guessed that two of them must be for Leanne and Mom. 

     He let out a long groan and a roll of his eyes when Lars asked him that question. ”Cut out that sad bullshit. Now show me the best bar in town.” he said as he begin to walk away. 

Laurence Anderson

    He let out an exhausted sigh as he realised who was behind him. He knew he would face him sooner or later. To be honest, he wasn’t in the mood for any kind of reunion. 

     Hands still in his pockets, he turned around. And through his sunglasses, Claude gave the other man an incredulous look. ”You’ve grown very paranoid. I wonder what kind of traumas you had to go through.”. 

     Another sigh was let out as Claude kicked a nearby pebble. ”We were playing near the boats and I accidentally tripped over a ‘Poke Ball’ or so we thought it was. Turns out it was a Voltorb.” He began explaining as he took out a cigarette and lit it with a lighter. ”Those creatures have no chill and began to glow, a sign that they’re about to explode. I was still trying to get up, so there was no way we could escape unscathed.”.

     He took a long drag from the cigarette and blew a big puff of smoke to the air. ”So as the ‘Saviour’, that you always were, you kicked the Voltorb.” he stopped a bit to laugh, finding that part quite amusing. ”It landed on one of the boats. We made a run for it and boom!” he said with a big grin and a hand gesture of an explosion. ”the boat exploded behind us. Later that day we made a brotherly promise that no other soul should know of this story.”.

      As he finished telling the story, he took another long drag from the ciggar. ”Do you wanna get a drink? This place is depressing.”

Laurence Anderson

    A sudden voice broke the trance he was in. He looked up from the grave but did not turn to look at the owner of the voice. He was too sad to move. Though he found the question quite amusing. So he let out a small, yet melancholic, chuckle. 

     ”Do I look like I’m lost?” he remarked with a smirk.

    There he stood, dressed in all black in front of his sister’s grave, sunglasses on to hide the red puffy eyes underneath. In one of his hands is a bouquet of white lilies- Leanne’s favourite flower. He bent down and set the flowers right in front of the grave stone, then stood up properly, now both hands in his pocket.

     He wasn’t good with words. He had never been. He just stood there, looking at the gravestone. Wondering whether if this was just one of those nightmares. In a way, it was.

     ”I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you.”