Start of the people who don't believe in champions verse.
Translations and notes at the bottom.
something as accidental as blood
Felix is almost three when his little brother is born.
He is in the living room with his Mama, playing with Lego while his Mama is doing the ironing.
There is absolutely no sign that this day would be special right up until his Mama's belly suddenly grows. Her eyes widen and she takes a step back and clutches the bump that had just appeared.
He is too young to really know what's going on, but he sees the panic in his Mama's eyes.
"Mama?" he asks, the tower he had spent the last twenty minutes or so building completely forgotten.
"Hol Papa, Felix," she replies through her teeth. "Und mach schnell." She doesn't sound like she is angry, this is something different, something he has not seen before.
Felix does what he's told and runs for his Papa who is cooking in the kitchen. He can't explain what's happening — he doesn't understand nearly enough of it — but he's crying and repeating his Mama's name — what he thinks is her name anyway, it takes a few more years before he gets it's actually Andrea. It's enough for his Papa to stop what he is doing and rush back towards the living room, closely followed by Felix himself.
His Mama is lying on the ground and screaming in pain, clutching her belly.
Felix doesn't have to know what's going on to know this is weird. If nothing else, the confusion on his Papa's face tells him that.
As Felix is standing there, his Papa is calling his own Mama — Felix's grandmother, his Omi — who lives just a street from them. She comes over and his Papa and Mama leave.
Omi finishes cooking the dinner his Papa has completely ignored and plays with Felix. He is distracted enough to stop crying and enjoy himself, but this is one of the first things to stay there at the back of his mind the entire time.
A few hours later — by that time it is dark outside and Felix has had his nap — his Papa comes and picks him up. They visit Mama at the hospital together and his Papa tells him that God has granted them a great gift and that Felix is a big brother now.
Felix is pretty sure people know about that more than a day before in most cases — Lisa in Kindergarten had been saying she was going to be a big sister since day one — but why would his Papa lie?
She's clutching a bundle close to her chest as they enter the room and it's only when Papa puts him on Mama's bed that he can see it's a baby. This must be the little sibling they had talked about.
"Das ist Klaus. Dein kleiner Bruder," his Mama explains. She looks very tired.
"Klaus," Felix repeats. "Schöner Name."
"Das denk ich auch," his Papa comments, ruffling his hair. He looks at Felix's Mama and tells her how Felix's grandma insisted on buying things for his new brother. For Klaus, who honestly looks adorable.
As his Mama comments that that is nice of her, Felix decides something. "Ich mag Klaus. Ich werde bester Bruder sein."
His parents exchange a relieved glance at that, which Felix doesn't understand. What could they possibly have been worried about? How could anyone not love Klaus?
Over the next few days, they learn that Klaus wasn't the only baby out of nowhere.
According to the newspapers, there have been 42 other women this has happened to.
No one finds any explanation.
Reginald Hargreeves is the first person Felix Brenner learns to hate.
In fact, he is pretty sure he learns what hate even is because of that man.
The reason for that is pretty simple.
He had taken his brother from him. Hargreeves had taken Klaus while Felix was away at Kindergarten.
(He doesn't like going there from this day forward. He doesn't like School either, once it is time for that.)
His Papa had been at work and his Mama had been home with Klaus, but she had been unable to do anything against the billionaire taking her son.
The reason for that is that she had been drunk.
Felix had been told before that his Mama is trying to stop doing that — and had done a good job the past four years. But sometimes, she can't stop herself. She normally makes sure Felix and Klaus are out with their Papa or over at their grandmother whenever that happens, but this time that had not been an option.
She had resisted the urge for a while but eventually had put Klaus to sleep when it is late enough that Felix's Papa — and Klaus's too, even if it is slightly different for him — for him to be there when Klaus would wake up.
And he would have been, had Reginald not entered their apartment without permission and taken him, only to leave a few thousand Deutsche Mark and a card saying that the child would be taken better care of by his staff.
The Brenners try to do something, try to get Klaus back, but as it turns out that kidnapping and human trafficking charges do not apply to billionaires.
Felix doesn't understand that part until years later. What he understands now is that his brother is gone just as suddenly as he appeared and that he doesn't like it at all. He understands that his Mama and Papa are trying to get Klaus back but can't.
It's not fair at all. His brother should be with him. Brothers are supposed to be there for each other and Felix as the older one is supposed to protect Klaus, but now he can't.
And it's all because Reginald Hargreeves had taken him away, thinking the money could be enough to compensate for him.
It isn't. Or rather, it wouldn't, since they don't actually keep it. No, Felix's parents give it to the KOK who try to make sure no one else is taken from where they belong. They sound like good people to Felix.
His Mama has a renewed determination to quit drinking after this and his Papa is determined to get away from here, from the judgment of the neighbors and the things that remind them of their loss.
They move to Berlin — West Berlin, though there is not really a reason to specify anymore, according to his Mama — when Felix is five.
He meets another boy there, Wolfgang Bogdanow, who becomes his brother. But not even he knows about Felix's brother by blood until Wolfgang's mother dies, pregnant with Wolfgang's blood brother. Wolfgang is the only one who is close enough to understand, and the only one who can understand the pain he feels.
They're brothers, the one thing Felix has wanted to be as long as he can remember.
(Meanwhile, Klaus Brenner grows up as Klaus Hargreeves.
He survives.
Mostly.)
Translations:
Hol Papa, Felix. Und mach schnell. - Get Papa, Felix. And hurry up.
Das ist Klaus. Dein kleiner Bruder. - This is Klaus. Your little brother.
Schöner Name. - Nice name.
Das denk[e] ich auch. - I think so as well.
Ich mag Klaus. Ich werde bester Bruder sein. - I like Klaus. I'm be best brother. (remember Felix isn't even three)
Kindergarten here in Germany is roughly what Preschool is in the US. The age group depends on the region, but I'm probably pushing it when have Felix visit one before he's three. That mostly became a thing in the 2000s, or at the very least that's how it was 2h hours away from Wuppertal (aka the place Felix was born).
The KOK is a real thing (though granted I found out about it while writing this). To quote their website "The German Network and Coordination Office Against Trafficking In Human Beings is a registered non-profit organisation. We engage on a regional, national and international level, fighting trafficking of women and promoting migrant' rights." It was around at the time, even if it only became an official organisation in 1999.
