Claus & Flint

Claus & Flint is the family ship between Claus and Flint from the EarthBound fandom.

Canon
On the night the fire breaks out in Sunshine Forest, Flint joins the other villagers in searching for Claus, Lucas, and Hinawa. Eventually the twins are found, and Flint finally reunites with them, both of them dashing into a hug when they see their dad. After Flint starts lashing out in response to Hinawa's death, Tessie covers the twins' eyes. Flint is put in jail for hurting the others, and the next day Claus visits him. Claus gives Flint an apple, telling him that the core might be too hard, but he should eat it anyway. Just before Claus leaves, he tells his dad that he's going to get stronger, so that even Dragos don't have a chance against him. Flint eats the apple, and finds a nail file inside, which he uses to open the cell door.

After visiting Hinawa's grave, Flint finds out from Lucas that Claus took Flint's homemade knife and went to fight the Drago that took Hinawa's life. Alec tells Flint that it's a race against time and they need to go after him immediately. Flint travels to Drago Plateau, where he finds one of Claus' shoes, which he later brings home with him. Just below Flint, at the bottom of the cliff, Claus lays unconscious, location unknown. Flint proceeds to search for Claus everyday for three years after that, refusing to give in and believe that Claus is dead.

Much later, Flint arrives at the Empire Porky Building, and accidentally is sent down the falling elevator along with Lucas' party. He asks Lucas if he would let him check something and go on ahead of him. Flint does in fact meet with the Masked Man, who injures Flint. Lucas comes upon Flint, who tells Lucas that the Masked Man is Claus, and to be happy because he's finally found his brother. He also insists that Claus didn't hurt him, he just got those injuries while trying to bring the "Porky" out of him.

Midway through the fight with the Masked Man, Flint uses himself to protect Lucas from the Masked Man's PK Love Ω, begging Claus to remember who he is, because he's been looking for him for so long. When Claus eventually does come to his senses, on his deathbed he apologizes to Flint for not listening to him. Flint says Claus was just hasty, and asks Lucas to forgive his hasty brother.

Fanon
Claus is often thought to have been closer with Flint than Hinawa. Some suggested reasons are that he was more enthusiastic about doing outside work and being active with Flint, or just in general more similar to him. Some believe that Flint preferred Claus over Lucas due to his obsession of searching for Claus and consequent neglect for Lucas, although others argue that he was just very concerned with trying to save one of his family members that it became routine. This idea of a preference has led to extremes in fanfiction where Flint thinks that Claus is better than Lucas in certain or most aspects, or theories where even Lucas wonders if Flint would have preferred Claus to be alive instead of himself.

Claus' similarities to Flint have been pointed out with the way both swing their weapon. Flint's swinging of the wood log after hearing about Hinawa's death is very visually similar to the way the Masked Man swings his sword. Additionally, Claus responded to Hinawa's death with anger and violence in the same way that Flint did initially. Thus it is thought that Flint's actions as Claus' role model influenced him to try and kill the Drago.

It also can be interpreted that after hearing Porky talk about his "slave", Flint had an inkling that the identity of the Masked Man was Claus, and that was what Flint wanted to check after arriving in the basement of New Pork City.

Fandom
FAN FICTION