#INSIDE MERITECH

[tothosewholisten]

Forever Healed | TUA insert

Chapter: 05

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Masterlist

…

Five and I discussed our new plan on the way back to the academy.

“We need to go back, now.” Five insisted as he paced around his bedroom.

I stood by the door trying to distance myself from the angry teen.

“I know..” I pause. “But you already saw how demanding works. And also you're a kid, of course they didn't take you seriously.”

“Why is this eye so important anyway?” I ask.

He huffs. “Whoever has this eye brings upon the end of the world. I need to figure out who it is.”

Every time Five repeats that the world is ending I try to ignore it. But with the D-day getting closer and closer I realize I need to do a few things on my bucket list.

“We need someone else.” He mutters, breaking me out of my thoughts.

He's right, our story wasn't convincing at all. You need a strong narrative to get information out of suckers. So we need a dramatic person who can play a part.

Suddenly it dawned on me. We need-

..

“You know, I am so thrilled to join your guys' spy mission! It's just like old times.” Klaus reminisced with sappy tears in his eyes.

“I don't think we've ever done this.” Five retorts.

I know that the boy wasn't the most excited about getting help from Klaus but I told him if Klaus puts his mind to it, we're getting that information.

Five and I went over to the dining room where Klaus was snoring on the couch. In his underwear.

At first he wouldn't get up, that was until Five offered him twenty dollars and he bolted upstairs to get ready. We trailed after him back to Five’s room where he was waiting on Five's bed.

I love Klaus but his outfit choices have always been questionable even when we were teens.

“What are you wearing?” I asked disgustedly.

I did not receive an answer because Five heard a noise and peered his head out the door.

An annoyed look on his face appeared when he turned back around to us. “Vanya's here. Klaus hide.” He whispers.

Klaus gets up from the bed and dashes around the room, looking for anywhere that's big enough to fit his lanky body. I point to Five's closet.

He contorts himself to fit inside and closes the door behind him. Just in time too because Vanya walks into the room.

“Thank god, I was worried sick about you two.” She expressed her uneasiness.

I frowned. “Sorry, we left without saying goodbye.” If only I wasn't dragged by that little boy I would've loved to talk to her more.

“No look. I'm the one who should be sorry.” Vanya turns to Five. “Yeah, I was dismissive, and I– I guess I couldn't process what you were saying. And I still can't to be honest.” She stutters out.

I couldn't tell if it was an act but Five’s face turned almost sad. “Maybe you were right to be dismissive.” He says.

I'm not sure where this acting was when we were at Meritech. But I match his hurt look.

“Maybe it wasn't real after all. It felt real. Well like you said, the old man did say time travel could contaminate the mind.” Five continued.

Five is interrupted by a loud crash that comes from the closet. I ran over to stand in front of it trying to distract from the noises Klaus was making as they kept talking.

“Then maybe I'm not the right person for you to be talking to. Look, I used to see someone. A therapist, I could give you her information.” Vanya shares.

Five is quick to feign a smile. “No thanks, but I think I'm just going to get something to eat. It's been a long time since I've had good food.”

Vanya nods and steps back out of the room.

As soon as Five goes back to the door to make sure that she is gone, the warm look on his face disappears and his permanent scowl returns instead.

The closet behind me starts to shake and I take a step away hoping that Klaus doesn't decide to fall on me.

His curled body leaps out of the closet. “That was so… touching!” He trips over fallen junk from the closet. “All that stuff about family and Dad and time. Wow!”

“Will you shut up, she'll hear you.” He yells.

“I'm moist.”

“What the hell Klaus.” I scoot further away from him.

Five takes a moment to look him up and down. “I thought I told you to put on something professional.”

The outfit he put on was a green button-up shirt with frilly red-lined sleeves. Honestly atrocious.

“What? This is my nicest outfit.” Klaus cries.

“Let's go look at the old man's closet,” I suggest pushing Klaus out of the room.

Five groans before following us out.

“As long as I get paid,” Klaus exclaims.

“When the job is done.”

He stops us. “Okay, but just so we're clear on the finer details. I just gotta go into this place and pretend to be your dear old Dad. Correct?”

“Yeah, something like that,” I replied.

“What's our cover story then?”

“What? What are you talking about?” Five gives him a puzzled look.

“I mean, was I really young when I had y/n? Like, 16? Like, young and terribly misguided. Then yada yada some years later you came along, Five.” Klaus rambles putting his hands on his chest.

“Sure.”

“Your mother, that slut.. whoever she was. We met at.. oh! The disco.”

I cackle at Klaus’s backstory but Five couldn't look more concerned.

“Remember that.” The man snaps. “Oh, my god, the sex was amazinggg.”

“What a disturbing glimpse into that thing you call a brain.” Five turns to go down the stairs.

Klaus holds out his pointer like a stern dad. “Don't make me put you into time out.” He yells.

..

“Like I said to your son and daughter?” The same doctor questions us from before.

We arrived at the same part of the building but this time the man had the decency to bring us to his office.

“Yes, these are my children,” Klaus replies affirmatively.

He now had on one of Reginald's many suits; it made him look the part.

“Yeah, can't you tell?” My hand messaging my temple as I throw that in, trying to mask my sarcasm, cause well none of us looked alike.

“Well, like I told your children earlier, any information about the prosthetics we build is strictly confidential.” The man emphasizes each word to us like we are all babies.

Klaus sat in a chair across from the man's desk and I sat in the other, but Five stood up in the middle of us with his hands on the doctor's glass desk. Getting ready for round two of his yelling match.

“Without the client's consent. I simply can't help you.”

“Well, we can't get consent if you don't give us a name.” Five yells.

The doctor looks defeated. “Well, that's not my problem.”

I’m sure Five wished his powers were laser eyes instead of teleportation because of how he was staring at the man so intensely.

“Sorry. Now, there's really nothing more I can do, so–”

Klaus looked up from his lap. “And what about my consent?”

“Excuse me?”

Everyone turns to look at him.

“Who gave you permission… to lay your hands on my son?” Klaus cried.

“What?” Five, the doctor and I all say at once.

“You heard me.”

“I didn't touch your son.” The man states matter of factly.

Klaus slowly gets up from his chair “Oh, really? Well, how did he get that swollen lip then?”

“He doesn't have a swollen-”

The man didn't have time to finish his sentence because Klaus suddenly swung at Five and slapped him in the mouth.

I hide my expression with my palm and watch.

He inhales sharply. “I want it. Name, please. Now.” He slaps his hands onto the doctor's desk.

The man stutters trying to think of something to say. “You're crazy.” He replies.

Klaus fakes a chuckle. “You got no idea.”

He picks up the snow globe on the man's desk. “Peace on earth? That's so sweet.” He reads out loud.

He then smashes the snow globe into his head causing everyone to let out a shriek as it breaks into tiny pieces. I cringe looking at all that blood on his head.

He screams out. “God that hurt.” Water from the snow globe dripped all over his face.

The man doesn't break eye contact with Klaus but hurryingly reaches for the telephone on his desk.

“I'm calling secur– what are you doing?” The man yells out but Klaus takes the telephone right from his sweaty hands.

“There's been an assault… in Mr. Big's office, and we need security, now. Schnell!” Klaus screams into the telephone before slamming it back onto its post.

He sighs. “Now, here's what's gonna happen, Grant.”

“It's… Lance.”

“In about sixty seconds two security guards are gonna burst through that door, and they're gonna see a whole lot of blood and wonder ‘What the hell happened?’ And we're gonna tell them that you… beat the shit out of us!” Klaus rambles.

“While making googly eyes at my young daughter!” He sobs.

Five stares at Klaus admirably.

“You're gonna do great in prison, Grant. Trust me, I've been there. A little piece of chicken like you. Oh my god, you're gonna get passed around like a…” He moves his hips in a circle to make a point.

Then shutters thinking back at old memories. “You're just– you're gonna do great. That's all I'm saying.”

Lance almost cries out looking at all of us. “Jesus, you are a real sick bastard.”

Klaus stares at him blankly. “Thank you.”

He spits out a piece of snow globe glass. The look on Five face is priceless, I'm for one so proud of Klaus right now. He never went Broadway but this was pretty close.

Lance rushes over to a long line of filing cabinets. Searching for the information that will satisfy us. Klaus sat on top of the cabinet making the doctor go even faster, fearing for his life.

“Oh, that's strange.” He says.

“What.” Five ask.

“Uh, the eye. It hasn't been purchased by a client yet.”

Klaus jumps off the cabinet and gets up into Lance's face. “What? What do you mean?” He whispers.

“Well, uh, our logs say that the eye with that serial number… This can't be right. It hasn't even been manufactured yet.” Lance looks up at Five. “Where did you get that eye?”

Five huffs. He walks away from all of us to the elevator and leaves us with Lance.

I grab onto Klaus to move him outside as he blows Lance a smooch before we go into the elevator as well.

We walk out of the building's doors when Five starts to talk again. “Well, this is not good.” He says.

“I was pretty good, though, right? ‘Yeah. What about my consent, bitch?” He laughs.

“Klaus, it doesn't matter.” The boy sighs and we stop walking.

“What? What, what's the big deal with this eye, anyways?” The hurt Klaus asks.

I grab onto the two men to heal them of their injuries before answering for Five who looks like he's about to explode.

“There's someone out there who's going to lose an eye in the next seven days. And they're gonna bring about the end of life on earth as we know it!” I say, rubbing my forehead.

“Yeah, can I get that twenty bucks, like, now, or what?”

I stare at my adopted brother with my brows furrowed. “You're not gonna question what I just said, at all?”

Five steps closer to him. “The apocalypse is coming and all you can think about is getting high?”

“Well, I'm also quite hungry. Tummies a rumblin.” Klaus wiggles his fingers to imitate grumbling.

“You're useless.” Five shakes his head while walking away from the two of us to sit on the building's steps.

“Oh come on, you need to lighten up old man!” Klaus mocks. I move from Klaus to sit near Five and listen to the rest of Klaus’s spiel.

“Hey, you know, I’ve just now realized why you're so uptight. You must be horny as hell!”

Klaus’s laughter is matched by my own as he sits next to us. “That’s not funny Klaus,” I reply still giggling. Five on the other hand wasn’t amused, he looked deep in thought not even staring in our direction.

“All those years by yourself, it's gotta screw with your head, being alone.”

Five concentration breaks, “well.” He starts. “I wasn't alone.” Klaus and I immediately go silent and stare at him.

“Spill,” I say.

“Her name was Delores. We were together for over thirty years.” The small bit of happiness on Five's face was very easy to see.

“Thirty years? Oh, wow!” Klaus chuckles. “God, the longest I've been with someone.. I didn't know for three weeks. And that's only because I was so tired from looking for a place to sleep.”

Klaus went on like that for a good five minutes rambling about his love life and how hard it was not having anywhere to stay. I yawned in desperate need of a break from whatever this was. And it looked like Five was ready to blink away.

I turned to him and signaled that we should leave by nudging my head to the busy road that was right in front of the building. He nods back at me.

“He did make the most fantastic osso buco, though. It was..”

Five takes hold of my sleeve and we blink from the steps into a taxi. “Don’t stop, just keep driving.” Five demands of the panicked driver.

“Hey! Where’d you guys go?” I hear Klaus yell as we drive past him. Five turns to the window and gives Klaus a wave that makes him instantly stand up and try to run over to us.

“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, what about my money?!” He shouts but we’re long gone by then. I would’ve felt bad if this wasn't so funny.

Five was bleak at times and angry, and a lot of other things but he had his fun moments. We missed a lot of time getting to know each other but, this made up for it.

“So where to now?” I ask.

“I am going to run, uh an errand. I'm dropping you off at the academy.”

“Sounds good to me.” I smile. I needed this break to rest today. It was exhausting. “Our adventures have been fun, we should do it again.”

He turns to me, “Oh yeah?”

I hum in response.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

The sky turned a vibrant shade of dark blue by the time we reached a familiar street, we were almost at the academy. I kinda wanted to join Five on his errand but I didn't say anything.

I paid the taxi driver the spare tens in my pocket for not freaking out and reminded myself that I'd pay Klaus tomorrow too. And walked up to the doors of the Umbrella Academy.

“Goodnight Five!” I call out as I open the front door. But I walked in before hearing his response, only hearing the sound of the taxi driving away.

..

I found myself in a spot I always went to when I needed to escape my ‘father’. It was a storage closet-like room that had a tiny balcony where Ben and I would hang out in the late hours of the night.

But now I was by myself and Ben was nowhere to be found. So I lit a cigarette and stared at the night sky. It’s a bad habit that I picked up during all my time with Klaus, It did help me calm my nerves though.

“Y/n?”

I turned around to see Alison in the doorway. A frown was painted on her beautiful face.

“It's good to see you, I didn't expect you to still be here.” She expressed while sitting down next to me.

“Me neither but I had a busy day chasing around a fifty-something-year-old. Thought I'd stay just to see what else happened around here. Or the truth could be I just kinda missed it around here, I'm not sure.”

Alison nodded. “I'm glad you're here, we haven’t really talked at all I've just been so busy with trying to get in touch with Claire and-“

I briefly cut her off. “Yeah, is everything okay with that?”

“My ex-husband, Patrick is trying to make it seem like I don’t care about this court stuff. Since I'm missing a session of mandated therapy.” She huffs.

“Can I have a cigarette?”

I reached into my black jacket pocket and pulled out the pack. Half of it was already empty but I just bought it before I came here, I guess I need more.

“Wouldn't the court recognize that as like, certain circumstances?” I ask.

“Yes! That’s what I tried to tell him. But he won't listen at all.” Alison groaned, holding the now-lit cigarette.

I smirk. “He sounds like an ass.”

“You don’t even know,” we both shared a good laugh.

“But,” she says while laughing. “What’s been going on with you? I know that's very broad because we haven’t seen each other since my wedding but, have you been doing anything new?”

I look forward to the pitch-black sky. “Yeah uhm, not much,”

Alison thinks for a moment, “Oh! I know. Whatever happened to your boyfriend? The guy you brought to my wedding.”

I froze, my mouth slightly open and the cigarette I held between my lips fell to the balcony floor. “Oh him..”

“Did something happen Y/n?”

“No no, we just broke up I guess.”

Alison grabs onto my hand, squeezing me tightly. “I'm so sorry.” She says.

It’s not that I forgot about my ex, no I couldn’t. I just liked to pretend that he was a part of my childhood nothing more. But in reality, we only broke up about half a year ago.

“We didn’t have the best relationship,” I told her. “He wasn't the nicest guy but I stayed. We were on and off but I officially broke up with him a couple of months ago.”

She fiddled with her curly hair. “I would’ve never been able to tell, he just seemed so nice at the time. I thought you guys were the perfect match. Y/n I'm so sorry, forget I brought him up.”

“It’s okay, I mean you didn't know,” I reassured the woman.

“If you need anything I'm always here for you, you know? I don’t think we were ever the closet but. I'm here for you.” Alison states.

I wasn't sure how to respond, this was all so surreal. Telling someone how I felt was like a boulder being lifted off my chest. I was comfortable enough to do it again.

“Thank you, Alison, I appreciate you.” I grinned

“Miss Alison, are you up here?” Pogo's voice called out. The ape walked into the room as dapper as ever in his suit. “Ah, Miss Y/n you’re up here too good.”

“I was looking for you.” He said to Alison.

We quickly put out our cigarettes and turned our attention to Pogo.

“How did you, uh.. How’d you know I was up here?” She asked.

“Well it wasn't hard, this is where you two would always come when you were upset. I remember it, yes.” He nodded.

I didn’t know that Alison would come here too. All of our childhood I felt myself slightly put up against her when really we couldn’t be more alike.

“Who told you I was.. Luther.” She sighs.

“It was Miss Vanya. She called to make sure you were okay.”

“What happened?” I blurt out.

Alison stretches her legs by walking around the room. “I said some pretty

unkind things to her earlier.”

Pogo shook his head. “She’s your sister. She knows you didn't mean it.”

“Doubt it” Alison scoffs. “She doesn't know anything about me, which is fine because I don’t know shit about here either.”

That was the downside of all of us branching out, we never stayed in touch. If I had moved to a different state I would’ve never known how Klaus was doing and how I could help him. How different my life could’ve been, I mean what if I didn't come to the funeral? Life would’ve died without me having the slightest clue.

“Language”

Alison chuckles at his humor. “Sorry.”

Afraid of just sitting there, I cut into their conversation. “It has been a while since we’ve lived under the same roof, you know?”

They both agree with my sentiment.

“Almost thirteen years,” Pogo said

“Wow,” Alison and I both remark.

“How did you do it? Also in this big house for so long?” I ask.

“Well, one grows used to things, even if sometimes.. one shouldn’t.” He replies, the sadness evident in his voice.

I should’ve visited him, I'm an adult, Reginald can’t scare me anymore and no one was here. I was so close to them but still, I never wanted to come back without a reason. This place was my home for many years, yes, but it wasn’t my first home.

Pogo senses that we’re both down in the dumps. “You two should come with me. I want to show you something. It might just cheer you up,” he says.

..

We followed Pogo downstairs into one of the mansion's many rooms. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen this room before. The hallway was dark with only a few orange lights that barely helped see anything.

The tiny room was filled with rows of old TVs and controls with glowing buttons. Most of the tvs were black but there were a few Pogo must've turned on. Then he went into a box and pulled out a tape. He placed it into the TV closest to him.

The tape played old security camera recordings of us as kids, probably around thirteen from what we looked like. It would’ve been creepy if it didn't make me sad, these memories are some of the good times at the academy that I ignored because of all the bad.

Alison and I gawked at the footage. We sat in two chairs that were in front of the TVs as Pogo talked to us from behind. “Your father stopped recording years ago. But I still come here from time to time. When I'm missing you kids.” He said.

Alison was the first to speak. “Pogo, this is..” she sighs. “Most families have home movies to look back on. We have surveillance footage.”

“I hoped it might cheer you up.”

I laugh. “This definitely does.”

Previous to the new tape Pogo just put in, some of the other TVs had more footage. My eyes drifted from screen to screen soaking up all the cute moments.

“Oh my god look how little we were,” Alison tells me.

One screen was Alison and I in her room trying on Grace’s clothes. “Ohh, I remember this,” I said.

And Alison turns to see the one I'm looking at. “This was so fun! Mom always had the best clothes.” She exclaimed.

Grace's dresses were obviously too big for us, but that didn't stop us. Her clothes were modeled after old housewives of a different time and might look strange and out of date to others. But we loved them.

I moved to another screen of me, Ben and Klaus talking. We were sitting on one of the main staircases. I wish I could freeze time to that moment forever, just the three of us again.

Alison follows where my sad eyes are staring. “I miss him so much.” She said upsetly.

“Me too” I whisper.

The screen next to that was of Vanya, playing her violin alone. You could hear the sound of us children in the background and Alison’s voice while she played by herself. It was the heartbreaking reality of our childhood.

“Why didn't we include her? I mean if anyone ever treated Claire like that, I can’t even imagine.” Alison wonders.

“You were children, Miss Alison,” Pogo replies.

“Yeah.. but I'm not anymore and neither is she.”

Pogo straightens up like he’s getting ready to head out. “If you two aren’t in a hurry. There’s more tapes in that cabinet.” He nudges his head to a large cabinet overflowing with tapes with all different labels.

The man drops the key into my hand. “Make sure to lock up when you're done, things have been disappearing lately. These are too important to lose.”

I tell him I will and Pogo heads back out through the door. But before he leaves he gives us one more look. I turn back towards the screens and rethink back to those happier days.

Alison stands up to go over to the cabinet, she picks up a similar-looking tape. But above the box, there was a rusty tape. The label was gone and it looked scratched up.

“What’s that?” I ask. She opens it and slides it into a screen.

“I don’t know but I guess we're gonna see.” She hits rewind and it starts to buffer before playing. The video was harder to make out than all the other black-and-white films. Alison and I both leaned in and once my eyes focused it was clear what was going on.

“Oh god, Dad.”

…

Aug 14 update:

If you'd like to be added to the tag list for rest of the series (starts at chapter 10) say taglist in the comments!

[auxiliarydetective]

AP-01: Project Apocalypse

ch. 12: Sleepsong

AP-01 Masterlist

This fic is part of the Academy Projects series, a full rewrite of The Umbrella Academy with the addition of an original character, Kassandra Hargreeves. Throughout the story, you'll stumble across a few songs. This is supposed to make the fic feel as much like the show as possible, so I recommend you don't skip them.

Warnings: Canon-typical issues, alcohol / heavy drinking

The drive to Meritech was a long one, the tension in the car almost palpable. Diego and Luther could start fighting again any minute now, Kassandra knew, and so she was somewhat thankful for the awkward silence in the air. Each of the siblings was just staring out of the window or at the road, Diego and Luther in the front, Kassandra in the back seat. Still, at least there was something connecting them, and that was that they were all worried about Five. Kassandra’s worry only grew when they got closer and closer to Meritech. – She couldn’t sense her brother there.

“There, that’s Five’s van,” Luther called and pointed to a cleaning company van parked beside the sidewalk, in line of sight of Meritech.

“See, Kass?” Diego hummed as he pulled over and stopped the car. “You could’ve just stayed home.”

“Well, the van’s there,” Kassandra commented, “but Five’s not in it. So, you might still need me.”

Really, when they reached the van and peeked in through the windows, they found it to be empty. Luther pulled at the door but it wouldn’t budge, so Diego pushed him aside and cracked open the lock. Then, they proceeded to bump into each other and almost get stuck because they couldn’t agree on who got to climb inside first. Eventually though, they got it, and the siblings started searching the van.

The back was mostly filled with cleaning supplies, some hung on the wall, some strewn about on the floor, while the front housed receipts and documents and the crumbs of a few snack meals to last for the stakeout. Kassandra settled into the driver’s seat and flipped through the masses of paper to find something Five might’ve written, a message or anything, when a whistle from Diego demanded her attention. He had a habit of doing that, whistling to get others’ attention, as if they were dogs. As much as it annoyed her, Kassandra turned around, only to be faced with the first page of an open book. Not just any book. Vanya’s autobiography. So, Five had read it – a lot of times, clearly, since it was very worn out – and he had scribbled tons of equations in it. But Diego was out for something else, something he was tapping his finger against.

“What library is that?” he asked, pointing at the faded library stamp on the title page.

“Well, it’s the city’s public library,” Kassandra muttered, “but—”

“Yeah, I can see that, but which branch?”

“The stamp is rubbed off, I can’t tell you. All public library stamps look the same except for the name and address - but all that’s left here is the base shape and a few letters, that’s not much to work with.”

“Great.”

“Wait, you work at the Public Library, right?” Luther asked, turning to look at Kass. “Can’t you get into the system and find out where he borrowed this from?”

“Well,” Kassandra sighed, “judging by the state this thing is in, Five probably got this in the future and he most likely didn’t actually borrow it. But I could check which branches of the library still have Extra Ordinary in their collection – I think all of us got one copy of the book each but not all of us might have kept it. After all, the book became less popular as time went on.”

“Thank god,” Diego grumbled.

“So, let’s go to Thompson,” Kassandra suggested, motioning Luther out of the car. “Timmy’s on shift today and he still owes me a favour.”

“Timmy? Who’s that? Your boyfriend?”

“No, he’s a coworker. And you had better be nice to him if you want him to help us.”

-

So, another drive later, the trio arrived at Thompson Public Library, and Kassandra waltzed right in through the front entrance. Timmy was coincidentally behind the front desk when they came in and he beamed when he saw her but she could sense his blood turning cold the moment he spotted her brothers behind her. Kassandra cursed herself internally. Of course. Both Diego and Luther looked like they were about to assault people, Diego with his knives and Luther with his, what, seven feet of pure muscle? Any reasonable person would be scared of them if they didn’t know them, but Kassandra was so used to recalling their little seven-year-old selves, and she knew that they were all bark and no bite, at least to her. Timmy on the other hand…

“H-hey, Kassandra, I, uh, I didn’t think you’d be coming in. – Are- are those your brothers?”

It didn’t help that they were staring him down either.

“Yeah,” Kassandra said cheerfully. “This is Diego… and Luther.”

“Hi,” Luther said, giving a slight wave. Diego, however, barely made a simple gesture.

Realizing that she was getting nowhere with them by her side, Kassandra suggested that Diego and Luther should take a look around. Go find Five was the secret instruction, in case he was here. Hopefully, he was. It would cut their search a little short. The moment the two of them were out of sight, Timmy let out an audible sigh.

“Geez… I didn’t know your brothers were—”

“They’re real sweethearts,” Kassandra interrupted, “just, y’know… tough shell.”

“Ah.”

“Listen, Timmy, I need a favour.”

And so, Kassandra explained their situation, leaving out the part about their brother being missing and replacing it with some sort of inheritance issue that Timmy didn’t need to understand. Timmy, ever the gentleman, was quick to get on his computer and let Kassandra behind the front desk, asking her to sit down while he did his research. It didn’t take him long and he dictated the various branches of the library that still had Extra Ordinary in stock to her. So, Kassandra gained a list of possible places that Five could be hiding at, one of them being Thompson. If they wanted to find him and find him quickly, they would have to go by some sort of system. The gears were grinding in Kassandra’s brain, until something nudged her from the back of her mind.

“Do you have a map?” she asked, scribbling little symbols on the side of her notepad.

“Yeah, sure,” Timmy muttered, trying to make sense of her behaviour. “We have the flyers for— Hey, what happened to your foot?”

“Oh, I fell down the stairs, nothing major.”

“Nothing major?! Sandy, you could have a concussion! Have you been to a doctor?”

“No, I haven’t. And I did have a minor concussion but I got better.”

“Got better?!” Timmy huffed, his chest and brain spiralling and sparking. He checked the room for any signs of her brothers, then continued. “Kassandra, you know you can tell me anything, right? If you need help—”

“No, I can’t tell you anything,” Kassandra insisted, taking his hands into her gloves. “I can’t tell anyone anything, I thought you understood that.”

But Timothy just scoffed. “I shouldn’t have let you go home.”

“Don’t say anything,” Kassandra hissed. “You don’t know what it’s like. What we’re like. You wouldn’t understand. Once this is all over, I hope we can move past this,” she lied, “but for now, the only help I need is for you to give me a map.”

“I’ll call the police.”

That was when Kassandra grabbed Timmy by the wrist, yanking his hand away from the phone.

“Don’t,” she demanded, “or my brother will bust your kneecaps. That’s not a threat, it’s a warning,” she added, “because I don’t know whether I’ll be able to stop him.”

Wordlessly, Timothy handed her a flyer with a map of the various branches of the public library, and Kassandra took it, retreating to one of the tables near the entrance hall to start on her project. Sketchy lines and colored symbols covered new pages in her notepad, her trusty color-change pen her constant companion on this newest mission. Then, she laid the six scribbled pages out in front of her and got to work on the map, marking the Umbrella Academy with an X and making little annotations. Every library branch was equipped with a little symbol, an estimated distance to the Academy and a number. Finally, she connected everything with annotated lines.

“Holy shit,” Diego muttered behind her, pulling her out of her focus for a moment, “I haven’t seen those messy sketches in years. You really never forget shit, do you?”

Her two brothers were standing behind her, looking over her shoulder and inspecting the drawings.

“Five’s not here,” Luther announced. “Is that one this place?” he then asked, picking up one of the drawings.

“Yeah, that’s Thompson,” Kassandra confirmed, plucking it out of his hand.

She diligently gathered together all of the drawings and put them into her notepad, placing the flyer on top.

“We have five more libraries to get through and I’ve made us a route of where we’re gonna go in what order.”

“Woah, woah,” Diego cut in, “that looks like a wild goose chase.”

“Trust me, there’s a lot of thought behind it and a lot of logic even but I can’t tell you what the logic is, so you’re just gonna have to trust me. Just like good old times.”

-

Three libraries and almost double the hours later, Kassandra followed Diego and Luther inside Argyle Public Library. By now, she really regretted going with them. The two of them had done nothing but bicker throughout the whole journey, and Kassandra herself had felt very useless – and she had taken her last ibuprofen a while ago, so she was about to be in pain as well.

As per usual, the three of them split up to attempt to tame this monster of a library. Hundreds of shelves across so many floors… No wonder, this was the biggest branch of the eight that there were. Hopefully, Five was really in here. Otherwise, she would never hear the end of it from Diego about how awful her route had been. Unless Five wasn’t in the last library either, in which case Diego would be condemning the entire idea instead.

Still, Kassandra justified her tagging along on this goose chase with one simple thought: Five might need her. Not, Luther, not Allison, her, because she was the only one who really knew what was going on with the apocalypse. Maybe he would even give her a hint of a compliment for her efforts at trying to find out the source of armageddon. She had had her thoughts about it. There was one fairly obvious reason that armageddon could be caused, but if her whole route and scheme didn’t work out…

Finally, with a quiet ding of the elevator, Kassandra reached the top floor, only to find Diego and Luther standing at the stairs in a discussion. It was about why Diego had left. So, Kassandra quickly turned the other way before they could notice her, venturing into the labyrinth of shelves. That was when she heard the agitated whispers of two women.

“Where are his parents?”

“I’m calling security.”

Quickly, Kassandra followed the voices, turning back towards the balcony looking down upon the entrance hall.

There he was!

A very tousled Five was sitting on the ground between two pillars, sleeping with an empty vodka bottle in his hand and a mannequin in his arm. Well, it wasn’t much of a mannequin, really. It only had one arm and no legs, but Five was clinging to it like one might cling to a lover. The pillars and glass railing around him were covered in equations exactly like the ones in his copy of Vanya’s book, drawn on with a sharpie that had fallen out of his limp hand.

With a newfound urgency as well as some form of relief, Kassandra hurried back to Diego and Luther, who seemed to have reached a stalemate in their discussion, if only for a moment.

“Before you start again,” she cut in, “you should come with me. I found Five and I need your help with him.”

“What, does the little psycho not wanna go?” Diego questioned.

“He’s drunk and asleep. We should get him out of here fast, I think one of the librarians is calling security.”

Luther sighed. “He’s always been trouble.”

Swiftly, Kassandra led Diego and Luther back to where Five was sleeping. Luckily, the coast was still clear.

“Drunk as a skunk”, Diego chuckled when he saw the old boy. “Come on, Kass, you’re the caretaker here, do something.”

Carefully, Kassandra kneeled down in front of Five. Part of her was worried that his first reaction to being woken up would be to stab someone. Still, she shook him lightly.

“Five…? Five… Wake up.”

Five groaned and his head dropped to his chest. Then, he opened his eyes and looked at Kassandra blearily.

“Oh… It’s you… Is mommy coming to pick me up from school?” he slurred.

“Yes, mommy’s coming to pick you up.” Kassandra smiled and ran her fingers through his hair. “But I can’t carry you, so Luther will do that, okay? Right, Luther?”

“Alright, come on,” Luther sighed. He scooped Five up from the ground like a training dummy. As he did that, the mannequin fell out of Five’s arms.

“No, Delores!” he cried out.

Quickly, Kassandra picked Delores back up and put her back into Five’s arms. Then, she collected the bottle from the ground.

“Alright, let’s get out of here,” Diego grumbled.

They snuck their way out of the library through the back entrance, into a shady alley. In the state he was in, it was better not to let Five into any car. So, they had all silently elected to walk, as much as Kassandra didn’t want to. The only question was what they were going to do with the little troublemaker.

“We can’t go back to the Academy,” Luther stated. “It’s not secure there. Those psychopaths could come back any moment.”

“My place is closer,” Diego offered. “No one will look for him there.”

Five let out a small belch as he was hanging there in Luther’s arms like an overcooked noodle, holding on to Delores. Immediately, Luther smelled danger.

“If you vomit on me-”

“You know what’s funny?” Five cut in.

“No, what?” Kassandra asked, calmly as ever.

Diego was a lot less calm. He marched ahead of the group, looking completely annoyed. Luther wasn’t doing much better either.

“Ah! I’m going through puberty”, Five remarked. “Twice. And I… I drank that whole bottle, didn’t I?”

“You did,” Kassandra confirmed. “A little much for your small body.”

“Well, that’s what you do when the world you love goes bye-bye. Poof, it’s gone. … What are you guys talking about?”

Luther sighed in exasperation. “Two masked intruders attacked the Academy last night,” he explained.

“They came looking for you!” Diego announced in a sarcastically cheery voice. “So I need you to focus. What do they want?”

With a little cleansing breath, Kassandra pulled off her glove and put her hand on Five’s. The oncoming wave of drunkenness almost knocked her over, but it might just be their only way of getting clear answers, with her piecing together all she could read out.

“Hazel and Cha-Cha,” Five slurred.

“Who?”

“You know I hate codenames,” Luther grumbled.

“Oh, the best of the best, except me, of course.”

“The best at what?”

“You know…” Five trailed off, “Delores always said she hated it when I drink. She said it made me surly—”

“Hey!” Diego shouted and spun around on his heel to stare at Five. The whole group came to a stop. “I need you to focus. What do this Hazel and Cha-Cha want?” he asked very clearly.

Five just grinned like this was all a game to him. As to be expected, he said nothing.

“We just wanna protect you.”

“Protect me?” Five echoed. “I don’t need your protection, Diego. Do you have any idea how many people I’ve killed?”

“… No.”

“I’m the Four frickin’ Horsemen!” he boasted. “The apocalypse is coming.”

Then, he hurled his head to the side and vomited on the ground. Kassandra immediately brushed his hair out of his face. The poor guy… He would feel absolutely horrible in the morning and it was questionable how long he’d still feel good now.

“Anything from you, Kass?” Diego asked while looking away in disgust.

“Nothing that would change the original plan,” Kassandra murmured as she started gently rubbing Five’s back.

“Even if there was, she couldn’t tell us,” Luther recalled, grumpily avoiding his gaze. At least the vomit was going past him.

Finally, Five had stopped. He was breathing heavily and groaned as he settled back into his original position. Gently, Kassandra wiped his mouth with a tissue, despite his fruitless struggling.

“Why don’t you sleep a little, Five?” she suggested, carding her fingers through his hair.

“But I’m not tired,” Five protested. “Hey, is there still something left in the bottle?”

“It was empty, so I threw it away,” Kassandra explained.

She gave Luther a little nudge to start walking again. After all, it was best if they kept moving. Besides, she wasn’t sure if this little trick would work at all since, last she had checked, she wasn’t Allison.

“And I do think you’re very tired. I’ll even sing you to sleep.”

“I don’t want to sleep.”

But Kassandra started humming, her hand on Five’s head. In her mind, she made her intentions clear, and she sent them over to Five through her telepathy. Only the calmest thoughts reached him. Softly, she started singing a tune she remembered hearing when things had gotten tough at the Academy, when her world was starting to fall apart.

Lay down your head

And I’ll sing you a lullaby

Back to the years

Of loo-li lai-lay

And I’ll sing you to sleep

And I’ll sing you tomorrow

Bless you with love

For the road that you go

Diego regarded her sceptically and she could feel Luther’s eyes on her too, but she kept her mind on one intention only: Sleep. To lull Five into the world of dreams. The thoughts she sent him were calming, caring, all the love she could gather from her heart. Lord knew he needed it… Really, she could feel Five’s mind getting quieter with every line she sang.

May there always be angels to watch over you

To guide you each step of the way

To guard you and keep you safe from all harm

Loo-li loo-li lai-lay

Finally, his head dropped back and he snored quietly. Carefully, Kassandra removed her hand, a smile forming on her lips.

“You can do that?” Diego questioned, arms crossed. “Don’t ever do that to me or I swear I’ll douse you with an ice bucket.”

“I didn’t expect it to work,” Kassandra said quietly. “I’m not Allison, I can’t bend reality. But I have some power over the mind. I’m sure if Five hadn’t been drunk, it wouldn’t have worked.”

“He wouldn’t even have let you close.”

“That too. But I doubt his mind would have been open enough to suggestions either. It’s like hypnosis, it all depends on how cooperative the subject is. Well, I suppose it is hypnosis.”

With Five passed out and quiet, they reached Diego’s place soon. He lived in the basement of the boxing gym that Kassandra had found him at, right next to the boiler room. Not much of a place, Kassandra thought, but he had decorated it at least a little, and if he liked living here… Gently, Luther put Five down on the bed while Diego put Delores on a chair. All three of the siblings found themselves fondly staring at Five for a while.

“Funny,” Diego said. “If I didn’t know he was such a prick, I’d say he looks almost adorable in his sleep.”

“I think we all looked adorable when we were thirteen,” Kassandra hummed, only to be met with vehement resistance.

That was when steps echoed out in the hallway. Immediately, Diego told everyone to be quiet and pulled out one of his knives. But Kassandra sensed no danger. Still, she decided to obey. Virtue of silence and all. Quickly, Diego pulled open the door, ready to attack.

“You throw another one of those knives at me, I’m pressing charges!” the voice of an old man came from outside.

Diego scoffed. “What do you want, Al?”

A boxing trainer came in – Al, most likely. His face didn’t look like he was a trainer, but his attire made you assume he was. By what Kassandra gathered, he was the owner of this place, having given Diego the basement room in exchange for him mopping floor.

“I ain’t your secretary,” he complained

“Yeah”, Diego mumbled without interest.

“Some lady called for you, said she needs your help.”

“What lady?”

“I dunno, some, uh, detective. I think she said her name was, uh, Blotch or something.”

“Patch?”

Now, Diego was alert. Kassandra could feel electricity in the air, her sixth sense filling with a sensation akin to the smell of sea spray but sharper, more desperate, and a thumping heartbeat echoed in her ears. It was almost like he was in love with this lady Patch. Was he in love? He was in love. He loved her and feared for her.

“She needs you to meet her at a motel, a dump on Calhoun.”

“When?”

“About half an hour ago. Uh, said she found your brother.”

Now, Kassandra too was electrocuted. Five was here. But that could only mean the brother in question was…

“Klaus!” she gasped. “I knew it meant trouble that I couldn’t find him!”

Suddenly, all of the things she had forgotten came back to her. A blue bear and a pink dog, the hallway, guns, the stairs, Vanya. Rushing through the servant’s pathways with her leg damn near falling off, bursting into Klaus’s room. The way he had looked at her with wide eyes, how she had choked on her words and spat out blood, how he had tried to comfort her. The hit on her head, the fading in and out of consciousness, the sight of Klaus in absolute terror and despair, carrying her back into the pathway and shutting the door.

Oh, Klaus, I’m sorry…

Kassandra was already storming for the exit when she ran into Diego’s arm, hopelessly pinned in place.

“You stay here”, he demanded. “Take a rest. Ibuprofen’s in the cabinet over there, take it and sit down. I’ve got this.”

Then, Diego sprinted off. Kassandra was left there with large, pleading eyes and a metaphoric hole in her chest. Helpless, she looked back at Five and Luther, trying to console herself with the fact that she might be needed here when Five woke up. But Klaus… How could she have forgotten that? In large chunks, guilt was eating away at her heart.

General Taglist: @starcrossedjedis @oneirataxia-girl @daughter-of-melpomene @bravelittleflower @box-of-bats

Academy Projects Taglist: @therantsofawriterrr @come-along-pond @the-wyvern-institute @cherrybombgigi

Let me know if you’d like to be added or removed!

[efrost]

Automatic Hand-washing Machines Market to Observe Strong Growth to Generate Massive Revenue in Coming Years

Latest Report Available at Advance Market Analytics, “Automatic Hand-washing Machines Market” provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamics and a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining industry growth.The global Automatic Hand-washing Machines market focuses on encompassing major statistical evidence for the Automatic Hand-washing Machines industry as it offers our readers a value addition on guiding them in encountering the obstacles surrounding the market. A comprehensive addition of several factors such as global distribution, manufacturers, market size, and market factors that affect the global contributions are reported in the study. In addition the Automatic Hand-washing Machines study also shifts its attention with an in-depth competitive landscape, defined growth opportunities, market share coupled with product type and applications, key companies responsible for the production, and utilized strategies are also marked.Some key players in the global Automatic Hand-washing Machines market are

Meritech (United States)

CM Process Solutions (United States)

Xiaomi (China)

Smixin AG (Switzerland) Automatic hand washing and drying machine for automatic washing and drying of the hands and optionally for moistening the hands. The machine has a closed hand wash chamber in which the housing has a front wall with first and second openings for receiving it by the user's right and left hands. The first and second openings are covered with a first and a second flexible rubber seal, respectively. The housing also includes an inclined top wall made of clear and transparent material so that the user can visually inspect the hand washing and drying processes. Automatic hand washing is a kind of automatic device with which the water and infrared sensors can switch off the water. People just have to put their hands in the area of   the infrared sensor to wash their hands. The automatic washing machine is based on the principle of infrared reflection. When the induction area of   the handwashing machine, the infrared transmission tube infrared light, which is emitted to the infrared receiver tube by hand reflection by the human body, is processed after the signal is sent to the electromagnetic pulse valve for controlling the water system.What's Trending in Market: The Outbreak of COVID-19 is Expected to Boost the Demand of the Market

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High Current Demand from Hospitals to Ensure Cleanliness & Hygiene Inside the Clinic Premises to Ensure the Safety & Security of Patients from Diseases

The Global Automatic Hand-washing Machines Market segments and Market Data Break Downby Type (Desktop, Floor-standing), Application (Household, Commercial), Distribution Channel (Online, Offline), End-User (Airports, Educational Institutions, Hospitals, Corporate Offices, Hotels / Restaurants, Others)

Presented By

AMA Research & Media LLP

[meridian-technology-corporation]

[c0ffee-stain]

Whispers

Five Hargreeves x f!reader

Navigation • Previous Chapter: Chapter 4 - 1.04 • Chapter 5 - 1.05 • Next Chapter: Chapter 6 - 1.06

Warning: Contains: Alcohol, blood (if you squint)

Green, not brown

A blink of car lights and a the sound of a door slamming shut was all the Hargreeves needed. He hastily examined his surroundings and let a flash of blue engulf him, appearing beside the man he’s come to threaten and blackmail with a knife to his neck, his body stretched over to the drivers seat.

“One chance, that’s all you’ve got.” Five seethed before raising his voice. “One chance to tell me exactly what going on in that lab.”

“I… I manufacture prosthetic devices for fake patients.” The man admitted, his cheeks shaking. “I bill the insurance companies and sell them for cash on the black market.”

“Including eyeballs?”

“Yeah, they’re my biggest seller. I mean, they sell like hotcakes.” He gulped. “I’ve- I’ve got a list, a waiting list, probably 20 buyers.”

“So the serial number I told you…” Five trailed off.

“Uh, could’ve already been bought.” Five’s face stiffened and gave the man a glare, commanding him to go on.

“Yes, off-” Lance trembled slightly as he felt the blade inch deeper into his skin. “off the books.”

Five sighed, irritated, and spoke through his clenched teeth. “I need that list, Lance. Names and numbers, and I need it now!”

“I don’t have it. I mean not on me.” He corrected. “The only copy is in the safe in my lab.”

The boy licked his lips menacingly and reached into his pocket with his free hand, taking out a burner phone.

Keeping eye contact, Five pressed onto the keypad and brought the phone to his ear, waiting with hardly any patience for the roughness of my voice. Something he never thought he could be eager to hear.

——

A sudden buzzing in my skirts pocket caught my attention away from the sugar coated lollipop in my mouth. I reached for the burner phone and held it against my ear, giving a stern, “What?” as I pushed the sweet to the corner of my mouth, and removed it with an obnoxious pop.

“Where are you?”

“Near Meritech.” I responded.

“Go to Lances office and inside you'll see a safe to the left. Open it and you'll find a pile of sheets with the names of sellers from the black market and serial numbers of the products they've purchased."

I hung up and threw the phone in a dumpster, walking towards the prosthesis building and entering without a problem.

Or more accurately, without a problem that I'd be expecting.

I made my way towards the reception and expected to be greeted by an overly enthusiastic woman behind the desk, only for my limbs to tense and lips part in the disgusting feeling of unwelcome surprise. My eyes landed on a pair of sly crystal blue eyes instead from the expected cheerful espresso-coloured gaze.

“Y/n. Long time no see.” The woman adjusted the midnight blue barrette sitting atop her platinum hair. She sat on the receptionists desk, one leg crossed over another.

“I can only assume you’re here for these.” The Handler held several sheets of paper inscribed with hundreds of names and serial numbers in her smooth manicured hands, mocking my calloused and rough ones. “Don’t worry, these are only a few. Most of them are in the safe, waiting for you to rip them to shreds.”

“So you know?” I queried, biting the remains of the lollipop and spitting the white stick out towards her sleek black heels.

“Not much. But that’s what makes it interesting.” The Handler got off of the desk and strolled towards me as if she had all the time in the world. And she did.

“Like you and Jasper. You have no idea what’s happening to him. All the things we’re doing to him." The woman gave me a mock innocent laugh and tapped my nose before I could swat it away. "And I think that’s what makes this whole thing so much more...” She sighed dramatically. “interesting.”

I felt my heart skip a beat with the mere thought of Jasper being hurt any more than he already is. I swallowed thickly and glowered at the woman.

I took a large step towards The Handler, her tall figure towering over mine. “If you’ve hurt him—”

“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it.” She grinned. “I wouldn’t dare jeopardise this deal. Especially with the new developments.”

I cocked a brow, my lips turned downwards into a scowl. “I think you mean development.” I tried my best not to practically spit the words at her smug face. “Singular.”

“No, I don’t.”

All the hints of fear and anxiousness that I was previously exhibiting were now enveloped by a swarm of red hot rage. I bit down harshly onto my lip to try contain myself. The bittersweet taste of blood pooled into my mouth, erasing the sugary sweet aftertaste of the lollipop.

I swallowed thickly and narrowed my eyes. “Well, you should. We had a deal.”

“Deals change.” The Handler grinned and ruffled my hair. As she performed the action, she dug her nails briefly into the scalp of my head before saying. “And I wouldn’t suggest you go rogue as your dear mother did, bloodhound. You’re starting to act a little too much like her.”

“What?” I opened my mouth to say anything. A cruel remark, or a sly response. But it seemed that the words were stuck in my throat, rendering me speechless.

“Didn’t you know?” The Handler was obviously enjoying this. She traced her hand down to cup my face, the touch and movement all too heart wrenchingly familiar.

The second her finger traced over the scar just under my jaw was enough to snap me back to reality. I sucked in a rushed breath and shoved the woman away from me, reaching for a pair of scissors from the table behind her and held it to her neck.

Shock flashed over her features for a moment before returning to her eerily calm expression. “Go ahead.” She spoke, the taunt clear in her words. “Kill me and they’ll just replace me for someone else before you can even blink.”

Millimetres.

That’s how far I was from slicing through the arteries in her neck.

Millimetres.

I finally released her and stepped away.

“I’m impressed.”

“You should be. I was this close from slicing you open.”

“What stopped you?” The Handler asked. But she already knew. How couldn’t she?

“The quicker you give me these new developments, the quicker we’ll be able to be rid of each other.” I shoved my hands into my pockets and straightened my spine.

“It’s nothing too complicated.” The woman brushed down her puffed navy dress and leaned over to reach for something behind the desk.

Once she faced me, I couldn’t help but stare at the object hanging lazily from her fingers.

A briefcase.

“When given a signal, I want you to eliminate Five Hargreeves.”

“What signal?”

She began to activate the briefcase. “Trust me.” A knowing smirk adorned her lips. “You’ll know.”

A loud crash and sudden wave of heat stole my attention away from the woman. I span around, facing the direction of Lance’s office.

“What…” I turned to face The Handler only to see she was gone, vanished back to the ‘50s.

Great.

I swivelled on my heels as a large flicker of white and amber caught my eyes. Before I could register what was happening, a loud explosion and shattering of glass sounded, rocking the building and an enormous burst of flames shot through the hall at alarming speeds. A blanket of smoke hung heavily in the air, making my throat tighten as my lungs drowned in the toxic fume.

I almost stumbled as panic started to rise in my chest, and sprinted towards the exit behind me, only to come to the discovery that the lock was bolted shut.

“Fucking Handler!” I clenched my hands around the handles and pulled against the metal bolts. And just as I expected, I did so in vain.

I slammed my fist against the narrow glass lining of the door in a nervous attempt, and looked back to see the flames inching towards me, the vivid orange staring back at me with a devouring hunger.

��You know what to do if you want to survive…’

I clicked my tongue and scoffed. “Let me guess.” I sneered to the whispers that were listening eagerly. “To give in to you and your sickening words of deceit? To embrace you like a maiden in distress the first chance I get?”

‘Enough with the games, human’ It snapped.

“Human?” I laughed bitterly and shook the doors once more. “I thought I was no longer human as you so kindly remind me.”

It cackled in a bittersweet delight. That’s when I felt a chill run down my spine and an ice cold breath hit the nape on my neck, the hairs on my skin standing.

“Oh, don’t worry.” I didn’t dare move as I felt the chilling breath travel to the shell of my ear and the shadows beneath me twist as a painful but endearing sensation start to claw up my feet.

“If you’re worried that you’re one of us, I am pleased to inform you that you are not. You are something much much worse…”

BOOM

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“Y/n!”

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“Y/n!”

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“Jasper…” My voice came out in a strained groan, muffled behind the deafening high-pitched screams ringing in my ears.

I started to cough and slowly pushed my body up, only a few inches off of the ground, before letting my arms give out from beneath me, my cut cheek slamming against the concrete.

But other than a few cuts and bruises, I was… fine?

‘You can thank us later, bloodhound’

I shook my head to rid its voice from my mind and craned my neck to the side, expecting my gaze to rest on a pair of golden honey brown eyes staring right back at me with thick curls of ebony hair framing his features-

“Jasper? Who the hell is that?”

Green. Not brown.

Green.

Shit.

I coughed once more and hoisted myself to sit up and looked down at my clothes. My very burnt and ripped clothes, that is. My palms were scratched from several shards of glass and darkened from soot mixed with scrapes of blood.

I didn’t dare look at the boy standing beside me, most likely glaring down at my injured figure, waiting for answers.

“What? Did you swallow your tongue?” Five sneered. I felt his eyes run up and down my body. His eyes narrowed in pessimism and his forehead creased, trying to figure me out.

I didn’t bother to respond, so instead I scoffed at the Hargreeves and got up onto my feet, wincing at the painful throbbing in my shoulder and the newly blossoming bruises that stretched across my limbs.

A pair of hands roughly grabbed my collar, dragging me towards Five’s shorter figure, his jaw clenched and nostrils flaring. The corners of his mouth twisted into a disgusted scowl.

“Did you blow up the building on purpose? To get rid of the evidence with a swift click of a button?”

I let out a surprised short laugh and looked at the boy, clearly bewildered. “Why on earth would I blow up the building when I was still in it?”

“Well you’re not injured, except for a few minor bruises and scratches, now are you?”

I shoved the boy away and fixed my collar, realising that half of my tie had been burnt off.

“Fuck you, Five.” I spat and began to walk away.

“Jasper.” A voice growled behind me.

I froze.

“You called me Jasper.” Five stated. He neared me from behind and slammed a harsh hand against my shoulder. “Who is that? A boss that paid you to gather information on me? Huh?! You fucking blew it- literally! This was my only fucking lead!” Five scoffed. “Y/n, with God as my witness, you better tell me who the fuck this Jasper asshole is or else I’ll—”

SLAP

It was as if my vision burned red and my body moved at its own. With an insane speed, I span on my heels and sent a hard strike of my palm to the boys cheek, his head snapping to the side.

Five raised his fingers slowly to his reddened and bruising cheek, touching it gently with the pads of his fingers.

All emotion was drained from my face as I faced the Hargreeves, my voice sharp with venom. “And as God as my witness, next time you’ll be lucky if it’s just a fist.”

I left the boy behind me, his body still in shock as he tried to register what had just happened. He opened his mouth to say something but once his eyes locked on my retreating figure, his mouth snapped shut and the vein in his neck slowly start to bulge.

I had slapped him.

I slapped Five Hargreeves and he did nothing. No counter, no plan to blink away.

Nothing.

And it was pathetic.

He was Five fucking Hargreeves and he let some assassin to slap him. Twice!

No. No, no, no, no, no.

Five Hargreeves wasn’t going to be bested that easily. He would drag me from the very deepest depths of hell just to see me cower under his stare and get all the answers he wanted.

But every so often, a small voice in the back of his head would question his intentions. Why sacrifice so much just to see one person suffer, even if he was ultimately at fault for the situation?

Usually he wouldn’t care and result to silencing whoever was giving him a problem for eternity, or frightening them so the thought of betrayal would never dare to cross their mind. But I was different. And he despised it.

He didn’t know what to do and, as much as he hated to admit it, it scared him.

Five bit the inside of his mouth and contemplated what to do next.

There were so many options but so little time.

The hours were fleeting away from his fingers so he had to act fast. Starting with an infuriating bloodhound.

——

A laugh.

Spontaneous sounds and movements of the face and body that are the instinctive expressions of lively amusement and sometimes also of derision.

Or in my case, a very useful way to show that you’re going insane.

The second I had wondered far enough from Five and into a random alleyway, I couldn’t help but let myself descend into a fit of maddened laughter and giggles. The same sort of sound you’d hear straight out of a villains mouth in a movie.

And accompanying my descent to madness, were them and their own usually haunting cackles that I now found oddly amusing. Not the type of amusing where you find or watch something you enjoy- no, the type of amusement that makes your face laugh but soul cry and no matter how much you try to get away, you always end up crawling back in its presence.

How funny.

The Handlers words rang in my head.

‘I wouldn’t suggest you go rogue as your dear mother did, bloodhound. You’re starting to act a little too much like her.’

The last thing I wanted to think about was my mother.

Let alone talk about.

I shook my head, a habit that had started ever since I began to hear them for the first time, and began to walk down a random street with no money and no way of telling where I am.

That was until a building caught me eyes and my hopes lifted indefinitely.

I suppressed a smile that was starting to break through my stern exterior and entered the building, finally giving into the grin as the calming scent of spilt ink and fresh coffee hit me like a breeze of warm air in the midst of winter.

A library. A huge one at that.

Mesmerised by the hundreds of books displayed on the counters and shelves, I made my way straight to the true crime section, eager to find something to distract me from my overlapping worries and problems. I needed a distraction, desperately.

Not giving in to the countless stares whispers, I selected a book of my liking and walked up to the second floor to find a good-enough space to read between two large classics displays. I made myself comfy sitting down and stretching my bruised legs out as far as I could. I leaned back, letting out a relaxed sigh, soon slamming my wounded shoulder harshly against the wooden shelves, sucking in a pained breath between my gritted teeth.

Finally, I took a deep breath and opened the book, allowing myself to be fully immersed into the thriller.

——

4 words. 11 letters. The spark that ignited a series of events both Five and I would soon come to regret.

More specifically, Five’s iconic, “I need a drink.”

After a half assed attempt of looking for his very much hated ‘partner in crime’, the Hargreeves gave into his temptations and decided to unleash the bottle of alcohol he had stolen from the same corner store his deranged brother and I stole from.

“Salut.” Five scoffed, glaring up at the slowly darkening sky before taking a long swig from the bottle and laughing.

“What the fuck did I do to deserve this?” The boy asked himself. He took another swig. He looked back up at the sky, arms open wide as if he was welcoming an embrace. “Why the fuck does this apocalypse ridden world hate me! I’m trying to fucking help you!!” Five screamed this time, his voice loud and clearly hurt.

Pedestrians around the boy quickly scattered, leaving Five alone with a large bottle of alcohol and enough self-hatred and anger to fuel an entire country.

Horrible decision.

Five rubbed his forehead in annoyance and pinched the bridge of his nose. “And you! Bloodhound!” The boy drawled and swung his head back, chugging the alcohol. Five began to walk in a random direction, bearing his teeth as a menacing grin pulled on his lips.

“You!” He pointed up to the sky and let out a crazed laugh. “You ruined everything! Ev-er-i-thing! But I’ll get you back and you’ll always regret deciding to betray me. You will cower and tremble in fear because of me!”

Five drank once more and stumbled into a random building, his vision blurring slightly and feet stumbling as he held on tightly to the bottle.

“Golden books library.” Five slurred slightly.

He stumbled up a set of stairs, ignoring the many stares he was receiving and took another chug, almost dropping the bottle.

Lie. He dropped the bottle, watching it roll down and curve around between a set of towering book shelves.

Five rolled his eyes and ran as fast as he could towards his very desired alcohol, itching to feel the burning liquor slide down his throat and bathe in the dizzying after-affects.

“Oh, my sweet, sweet liquor…” Five pounced to the floor, reaching for the bottle and hugging it closely to his chest, not realising he had spilt some of the drink onto the person beside him.

“Ahem.”

“Huh?”

“Five, what is your problem?” I growled, holding the now alcohol soaked book I was reading between my fingers.

The boy neared his face towards mine, squinting and grabbing my cheeks with his free hand. “Y/n..?”

I glared at the drunken Hargreeves, slapping his hand away.

“What the hell do you want?” I spat.

“Why are you so mad? I was the one who got slapped!” Five slurred, the corners of his mouth twisting in frustration.

“For being an idiot, that is.”

Five scowled. “Says the one who blew up the fucking building-!”

“Keep. Your. Voice. Down.” I looked around, making sure no one was listening.

“Or what?” He raised his voice on purpose.

“Or I’ll slap you a third time and make sure that it’s hard enough to slap you back into sobriety.”

After a brief heated moment, I realised how close our faces were. I could feel his hot breath fan over my face and his nose just touch mine.

Too close.

I flicked his forehead and pushed him away, stealing the bottle that was now loosely hanging in his grip. I downed the liquor, letting my body succumb to the effects of the alcohol.

A dramatic “Ahhh~” left my lips, purposely annoying the boy beside me who snatched the bottle back and took a drink.

“Bitch.” He mumbled loud enough for me to hear.

I let out a snort and wiped my lips with the back of my hand. “Asshole.”

I took the bottle back and drank, only for Five to smack the bottle upwards, the alcohol spilling all over my face.

“Hey!” I exclaimed, my eyes wide. “You got it all over me.”

He rolled his eyes and took a swig, trying to hide the grin curved on his lips. But it didn’t go unnoticed. “Bastard.”

I chuckled, tipsy. “Oh, yeah. Like you’re whole family situation is perfectly normal.”

“Shut up and drink. You’re annoying when sober.”

I raised an eyebrow and sarcastically spoke. “I thought you were furious cause I blew up your precious building.”

“I am.” Five responded and shoved the bottle to my lips, giving me a smirk.

“Now drink.”

Taglist for Whispers 🏷

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[jellytoru]

Wonderland ( The Umbrella Academy)

(Five Hargreeves x Reader)

Masterlist

Chapter 9: " We're trying to have a serious conversation "

~☂~

The two teens are parked in front of the Meritech and were seated with utter silence, Y/n was eating a hotdog that she bought when they get there.

" You want some? " Y/n offered the hotdog to the Boy, which he shakes his head declining the female's offer while staring at the building, " Suit yourself, then. Oh! What about you, Dolores? " she asked then turned to the back where the mannequin was located.

" Shit I forgot you inside the bag, wait, " she told herself then sets down the hotdog on the dashboard and grabbed the bag before opening it and pulling out the mannequin from the bag.

She then sets down the mannequin in her lap before grabbing her hotdog and then offering it again to the mannequin.

" Aw, you're on a diet? Or just doesn't want more carbs? " Y/n said then shrugged her shoulders, " Suit yourself, don't argue if I already finished it all, " and resumes to finish her hotdog.

Just then Five turned around and grabbed the bag and was shocked that it was empty, " Hey, Y/n have you seen.... Dolores? " he trailed off as he saw the mannequin was already on the female's lap.

" No, I'm not drunk " Five replied, Y/n sent him a side glance and then whispered to the mannequin.

" He didn't want the hotdog too, "

" We're working " Five answered as he glance at both females.

Y/n nodded her head, " Yep, working about the eye thing "

" This is the place it was made or... will be made "

Y/n wiped her lips with her handkerchief and crumpled her trash then placed it inside her blazer, " It hasn't been made, bestie. We just have to wait for it to be made so we could know who is the cause of the apocalypse " she answered then reached out to the bottle of vodka at the back.

The female then felt a glare on her back, she looked at saw that Dolores was glaring at her, " Aw come on! I'm thirsty, gave me a break " she replied then placed the mannequin in the middle before taking a swing of the vodka.

It was already sundown and the two teens are still waiting though Y/n was drowsy from the vodka that she drink. The female was now taking a nap while Five fidget the glass eyeball in his right hand, he occasionally take glances at the female, who was hugging Dolores in her arms.

Just then Five was toning out then eventually he started to hallucinate, he was back in the apocalyptic future, and at the same time, Y/n was frowning in her sleep.

~~~~

A continuous knocking was heard though neither of the teens heard it, Luther who was outside the van had a frown on his face as he knocked and called out for the two.

" Five! Y/n! Five! Y/n! " he called out before opening the door on the female's side, Five snapped his head to his left and saw Luther with a worried look on his face.

Luther then turned his attention to his sister who was groaning and mumbling under her breath, the female also had a troubled look on her face, " Eight, wake up " he called out for the female as he gently shakes her shoulder, " Wake up, Y/n " he added once more.

Y/n then snapped her eyes open then turned her head at the larger male, she frown her brows at him, " Luther, what are you doing here? " she asked 

" Are you alright? " Luther questioned, clearly dismissing the female's question as he awkwardly hovered to the door.

Y/n gave him a shrug of her shoulders before nonchalantly crawling her way towards the Boy's lap and then placed the mannequin on the back before making herself comfortable on the Boy's lap. Five then wrapped his arms around the female's waist to rest it comfortably while Luther squeeze himself inside the minivan and took a sit from the previous seat that Y/n was sitting on.

The female rest her head on the Boy's chest as she looks at their brother, " You shouldn't be - How did you find us? " Five questioned as he turned his head at the larger man and sent him a glare.

" Um... " Luther trailed off before looking behind him, the two teens also turned their heads behind and saw Klaus hugging and swaying the mannequin.

" Hey, baby... " Klaus said then saw that the three were looking at him, " Hey, a little privacy, guys. We're really hitting it off back here " he stated

Since Five's arm was wrapped around her waist, Y/n used her ability to gravitate an empty can and throw it at their junkie brother, " Lay off your hands away from my bestie! " she hissed as the junkie let out a scream and used the mannequin as a shield.

" Get out! You can't be here! " Five yelled as he glared at the junkie, " We're in the middle of something " he added then turned back to the front.

Y/n then rest her the back of her head on Five's shoulder as Klaus crawled closer to them.

" Any luck finding your one-eyed man? " the junkie question

" Nope " the female whispered

This made Luther confused, " What's he talkin' about? " 

" Does it matter? It's Klaus " Five answered before letting out a sigh

Y/n then placed her arm on the wheel as Five asked the larger male, " What do you want, Luther? "

" Um...So, Grace may have had something to do with Dad's death " Luther said making Y/n to raised her brow at him.

" Ohh, so I'm no longer to put blamed on, huh? Elaborate why Mom "

" Will you let me finish first, Eight? I need you two to come back to the Academy, all right? It's important " Luther explained

Y/n rolled her eyes, " If it's way more important than this, can't you just tell us here? Just like Five said, we're in the middle of something here! "

" I can't this is a family matter- and middle of what? Making out? " Luther grumbled at the female.

" Making out? Are you fucking serious? What made you think and say that? " Y/n snarled

Luther was about to reply when Klaus cuts him off.

" Hey! Did I ever tell you guys about the time I waxed my ass with chocolate pudding? " he then lets out a laugh, making Y/n to breaking out a chuckle.

Five turned in the opposite direction to hide his chuckle then clear his throat to masked that he chuckles from Klaus's sudden outburst.

" It was so painful "

" What are you still doing here? " Spaceboy asked the junkie who blinked his eyes.

" I—what? Do I need an excuse to hang out with my family? " 

" We're trying to have a serious conversation "

" What, and I'm incapable of being serious? Is that what you're saying? "

The Boy then turned his head at the junkie, " Luther's got a point, you should get out " he insists

" What? "

" I third the motion that here why not I gave you your other 10 bucks and buy whatever shit that you want in that convenience store, " Y/n said then grab her coin purse on the inner pocket of her blazer then gave Klaus his other 10 bucks before using her ability to let the junkie out of the van.

The three siblings watched as the junkie walked himself towards the store that was just a block away from them before Luther turned back his head at the two teens.

" What the hell are you two up to? " he questioned

" Believe me you wouldn't understand " Five snarled while the female just stayed silent, letting the two brothers talk to each other.

" Try me. Last I checked. I'm still the leader of this family " Luther said

" Well, last I checked, I'm 28 years older than you " Five stated as he sent the larger male a smug smile.

" You know what your problem is? "

" Really hoping you'll tell me "

Luther turned his head and look outside the van, " You think you're better than us " he said as he turned back and gave Five a look, Y/n rolled her eyes clearly doesn't like how the conversation would end.

" You always have. Even when we were kids. But the truth is, you're just as messed up as the rest of us " Luther explains, " We're all you have " 

" Are you jealous or what, Spaceboy? " Y/n snarled

Luther raised a brow at her, " I am just stating the facts here, number Eight. Quit defending him, you remember how severely punished you are when you disobeyed Dad, 17 years ago, no? "

Y/n scoffed, " After all these years, you still think that I disobeyed Dad? Damn, must I correct you? I didn't disobey him, I just told him the truth about him and I have similar abilities and using my temporal wouldn't stop him from running away "

Luther just rolled his eyes, " You should have at least tried it then he wouldn't severely punish you "

" Isolating it that training room for a month isn't severe " the female replied then turned her attention to the front and watch as the people outside laugh and talk.

Luther then turned his attention back at the Boy, " You know it "

" I don't think that I'm better than you, Number One. I know I am " Five snarled back at the larger male making Luther let out a sarcastic chuckle, " I've done unimaginable things, things you couldn't even comprehend. "

" Right "

" Just to get back here and save you all "

Y/n then abruptly turned her head at the convenience store as the door opened so suddenly, " What the fuck, Klaus!? " she gasped earning the male's attention and turned to the front and saw Klaus running away from the police.

" Hey! Stop right now! "

" Hey, bitches! " Klaus yelled out loud while the police blows his whistle at him. 

" Are you serious that junkie male would stop? " Y/n chortle as she watches the scene outside.

" You, get back here! " a man shouted and Klaus was almost hit by a car if it wasn't for the driver to stop his car, the tires screech at the sudden stop.

" Out of the way, asshole!" Klaus yelled to the driver.

Five tighten his hold on the female in his lap as he commented, " Now I'm starting to wonder if that was the wisest decision "

" Yeah, to think I gave him 10 bucks, only for him to shoplift " Y/n commented as she leaned back to the Boy.

" I'm getting him " Luther sighed before climbing out of the van, " You two are needed at the Academy " he added before closing shut the door and making a run to catch up with their junkie brother.

Five then lowered his head to the female's neck, closing his eyes before letting out a sigh.

" It wasn't your fault back then, no need to worry your brainy brain " Y/n stated as she placed her right hand on top of the Boy's head, gently ruffling his hair, " though I really need to go back to the academy since it's mom that we're talking about... the chances of her being shut down is high because of Luther and Allison," she added before placing a kiss on top of his head.

~~~~~

" Hey, I'm not late aren't I? " y/n called out as she saw that all of her siblings except for Five were in the living room giving each other their theories.

" Y/n can you tell us if you notice something wrong about mom, the day before Dad's death? " Luther quickly asked her. 

Y/n took a sit beside Klaus and leaned to grab some popcorn from him, " Well, she was okay but recently acting a little different the past few days "

" How weird? "

" Can't put a finger on it but she became too nicer? " Y/n answered not so sure making the larger male scoff.

" Then what about the monocle? "

Diego then click the reverse button then took a step back, letting his siblings watch the scene once more, " Look closer. Dad has his monocle. Mom stands up Monocle's gone "

" Oh yeah!" Klaus chuckled

Y/n placed her cheek on her palm " Mom wasn't poising him, she was taking the monocle to clean it! " she said

" Yes, Eight is correct, " Diego said as he sent the female a grateful smile.

" Then where is it? " Luther questioned, " No, I've searched the house, including her things. She doesn't have it "

" That's because I took it from her " Diego claimed, " After the funeral "

" You've had the monocle this whole time? What the hell, Diego? " Allison grumbled

" Give it to me " Luther quickly ordered as he held out his hand.

" I threw it away " the Kraken replied

" You what? " Luther said in disbelief while Allison let out a scoff.

" Look, I knew that if you found it on Mom, you'd lose your shit, just like you're doing right now "

" Diego, you son of a bitch! " 

" Hey, No. Calm down " Vanya interferes, Y/n immediately snapped her fingers and the gravity on both Luther and Diego was in her control and made the two males stay in their place. " Look, I know Dad wasn't exactly an open book. But I do remember one thing he said. Mom was, well, designed to be a caretaker, but... Also a protector. " Vanya explained

" What does that mean? " Allison questioned, confused by what Vanya just explained.

" Mom was programmed to intervene if someone's life was in jeopardy. Remember? Mom would immediately patch us up when we have injuries after missions right? " Y/n further explained to her siblings.

" Well, if her hardware is degrading, then... we need to turn her off, " Luther said, Y/n shot Luther a hard glare as she heard that, and she quickly dismissed her ability from her two brothers.

" Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait! She's not just a vacuum cleaner you can throw in a closet " Diego snapped as he pointed his knife at him, " She feels things, I've seen it!"

" She stood there, Diego, and watched our father die "

" He deserved to die, Luther quit being a loyal lap dog to that old bastard- Mom was everything to us! " Y/n barked

Allison rolled her eyes, " Oh come on, Y/n weren't you the same with Luther back then? So I'm with Luther " she claimed

" Surprise, surprise "

" Just like I thought, Allison always sides up with her Luther, how cute " Y/n sarcastically added

" Shut up, you two " Allison told off the two. 

Diego and Luther then looked at Vanya waiting for her decision, " I- I don't- "

" Yeah, she doesn't get a vote "

" Diego! " Y/n called out

" I was gonna say that I agree with you, " Vanya told the Kraken

" Okay. She should get a vote " the Kraken said then turned at the younger female, " How about you, Eight? "

" I'm with you of course... I'm not letting anyone touch mom " Y/n stated voice laced with venom, " I'll go against my own siblings if they lay a single finger on my mother "

Kraken nodded his head at Y/n's decision before pointing at Klaus who was leaning at the marble pillar, " What about you, stoner boy? What do you get? "

" Oh, so, what? Do you need my help now? " Klaus questioned

Y/n placed her hand on her forehead, "Are you high again, brother mine? "

" Oh, "Get out of the van, Klaus! " " Well, welcome back to the van."

" What van? "

" What's it gonna be, Klaus? " Luther scoffed as he was getting impatient.

" I'm with Diego because screw you! "Klaus replied, " And if Ben were here, he'd agree with me " he added

" No, I don't " Ben declined in the background while looking at Klaus who hissed back at him.

" So that's four? "

" Wait"

" To two "

Allison interfere, " Vote's not final yet "

" What? " Diego looks at the Rumour raising his brows at her.

" Five's not here " she replied, " The whole family has to vote. We owe each other that "

" Right " Luther agrees then turned to the female teen, " I told you we need the two of you to be here "

The teen female shrugged her shoulders, " I'm also here to vote on Five's behalf and I say his vote is to Diego " then folded her arms against her chest, " What you two gonna do about it? We have the upper hand "

Allison clicked her tongue, " You can't vote for him- that's bias! "

" Well, everything is biased " Y/n snarled back at the Rumour, who sent her a glare in return.

" No, we should wait " Vanya claimed as a scoff was heard from Y/n before she started to walk away from the rest of her siblings.

Y/n made her way towards the stairs when she saw their mother standing while holding a plate of cookies in her hand, she made a turn towards the robotic mother.

" Hey mom, " She greeted before taking some cookies from the plate.

" Hello, Y/n! " Grace greeted back, " I made some snacks for everyone "

Y/n nodded her head, " Hey Mom, can I have the plate of cookies? I'm so hungry " she said as Grace smiled at her and gave her the plate then patted her head, " Thanks, mom! Then I'll be upstairs if you need me, alright? "

" Yes dear, oh! Are you going to finish the doll? "

Munching the cookie, Y/n nodded her head as she sent the robot a wave before heading upstairs.

As the female teen walked up the stairs, Grace then turned back to the living room and saw her two children walking up to her.

" Hey, "Diego greeted before placing a hand on her arm, gently holding her, " How long you been here? " he softly asked

Grace looked at him and smile, " I gave your sister the plate of cookies that I made for everyone, she already took it though and you all seem upset. I'll make another batch of cookies " she said before turning back and starting heading towards the kitchen, leaving her two kids behind.

" Do you ever wonder... All those moments with Mom, the things she said. Like, was it her or was it really Dad? " Vanya questioned making the Kraken turn to her.

" What are you talking about? " he asked

" Well, he built her and programmed her to be a mom, to be our mom. Sometimes when I look at her, I just see him " Vanya explained

" Maybe that was true at first. But she evolved "

" Well, how do you know? "

" Because Dad only loved himself " The Kraken answered before walking off.

Vanya then took out her pill bottle then opened it, the medicines inside rattled as she grabbed one and placed it inside her mouth before gulping it dry. Up from the veranda, Pogo was standing he had witnessed and heard the siblings' conversation, as silently he walked in and listen, he also silently walked away as he knew what the siblings had talked about.

Munching on the cookie, Y/n walked past their father's office before stopping a few steps away then walking back then stopping in front of the door.

" I've always had this lingering feeling to go inside this office and snoop around till I find something, " she said then turned to her right, " Do we go it or not? Dolores? "

" Why not go in? you might find something " the imaginary person replied to the female teen who nodded her head and twist open the door then let herself in.

Setting the plate of cookies on the table, Y/n immediately began to look around, opening some drawers here and there till she find herself sitting on the floor knocking her knuckles randomly on the wooden floorboards of the office.

" AHA! There's a hollow sound!! " she exclaimed then grabbed the last cookie from the plate which is also on the floor. Hovering on the flooring that has a hollow sound she then used her ability to get rid of the board and saw a small dark red box.

" I wonder what's inside of this... it's quite heavy " she mutters then hoist the small box and placed it on her lap, then swallowed the cookie and dust off the box with her left hand.

The teen opened the box and saw something that made her eyes sparkle in delight, " Holy bitch, I never thought Dad would have a double barrel revolver " she then grabbed it and aimed it at the painting of their father.

" Quite old but usable, great aim too... but I haven't tried this type of gun before..... " she mutter then looked back at the bullets which were also inside the box, she then grinned and placed the bullets inside the gun then placed it inside her blazer pocket then placed back the box where she got it from and put the wooden flooring back to its place before going back to her bedroom to get some shut-eye.

[dumdumsun]

Of Starlight

A/N: Another one of my favorites. I hope you guys will be able to tell just how much of my emotions I poured into this chapter

Warnings: none that I’m aware of

Word Count: 3157

—————————————

Chapter 8: To Be With You

“So, how come you’re hanging out with me and not Five?” Klaus asked as (Y/N) painted his nails black. Her (e/c) eyes flicked up to him for a second before moving back down to his hand. She tried to come up with a suitable answer that wouldn’t make her sound suspicious. She ended up scoffing and shrugging her shoulders.

“I don’t have to hang out with Five all the time. I have Allison… and you.”

“Yeah,” The thirteen-year-old tilted his head at his sister with a gentle smile. “But you spend most of your time with him.”

“Are you jealous?”

“Not at all. In fact, I’m relieved you don’t look at me the way you look at him.” He lightly laughed, refraining from moving too much as to not mess her up. She frowned, concentrated on the polish she brushed against his pinky nail.

“What are you implying?” She whispered as she moved onto his other hand. Klaus actually laughed this time. “What?”

“You’ve got the hots for Five. And he’s got it for you. It’s kinda weird, (Y/N). You know we’re all siblings, right?” He raised a brow as she stiffened, halting her actions. Her eyes moved to the side as she thought of a response.

“Well… technically we’re not actually siblings.”

“If you have to use the word ‘technically’, you’re already in trouble.”

She sighed before going back to his hand. She knew her and Five’s feelings for each other were just as weird as Allison and Luther’s. It’s why she never teased them like everyone else did. But she thought no one but Allison had noticed, so she hadn’t expected to get called out. “Does everyone know?”

“It’s so obvious, dear.” Klaus whispered, almost feeling sorry for his sister. She groaned and used the back of her wrist to rub her eye.

“It’s so complicated… I just… I don’t see Five as a brother, you know? I know I should, we’re all being raised by the same person, but… everything feels different with him…” She pouted and slouched slightly. Klaus moved his head to find her eyes. (Y/N) noticed and glanced up, lightly chuckling at the goofy smile he was giving her. She returned to his hand once again as he heavily sighed.

“Well, maybe once we’re out of here, you can find someone who isn’t ‘technically not’ your brother, yeah? Then things can be not-so-complicated.”

“Sounds like a plan,” She muttered. A minute or two of silence went by before (Y/N) closed the nail polish, gently blowing cool air onto her brother’s fingernails. “All done!”

“Thank you, sister dear.” He held up his manicured nails with a warm grin.

-------------------------------------------------

(Y/N) couldn’t keep her mind off of Klaus. Those visions couldn’t have been fake, but how was she seeing them? She wasn’t able to view her clones’ memories unless they were in her presence. She would’ve brushed it off as one of the many weird scenarios she had envisioned throughout her childhood had it not been for the sudden realization that crashed down on her; Klaus was the only one she hadn’t seen after the attack on the Academy. That means that the two from last night kidnapped not only him, but her clone as well.

“We’re here.” Lance announced as he parked his car. He and Five got out as (Y/N) picked up the dog and gently set it down beside her before leaving the car as well. The walk towards the lab was silent, Five’s quick pace putting him in front of her and Lance. Though, his pace only quickened at the sight before them. (Y/N) squinted through the smoke in the air to see that the inside of Meritech Lab was up in flames, orange peeking out from the windows. Seeing Five sprint towards the building, she immediately followed. She grabbed onto his arm as they neared the front, but was thrown back by an explosion, the two landing on the ground a little ways away from each other. Just as the back of her head smacked against the ground, she was overwhelmed with more visions of Klaus. This time, she was directly across from him. He was still tied up, but there was duct tape keeping him from speaking. They seemed to be locked in a dark, tight space. She could still feel the sensation of her wrists being pinned. Moving her gaze down, she saw that she was tied to a chair as well. Her eyes widened and she let out a fearful scream, but it was muffled. She realized that her mouth was also taped shut. Klaus let out a surprised hum and she snapped her head up to look at him, tears pooling at the bottom of her eyes. He was desperately trying to move closer to her, jerking his body forward so his chair would move, but their knees were already squished against each other and it hurt her. Wait. It hurt her.

“(Y/N)! (Y/N), we have to get up!” Five’s voice brought her back and she snapped her eyes open. Her eyes found his. He was hovering over her and staring in concern. “You okay?”

“No, Five, I’m not!” She snapped and sat up, instantly regretting it as her head swam. She gently placed her hand where her head had met the ground. When she pulled her hand back, she saw that there was no blood. Good sign. She let out a breath of relief and turned her attention back to Five. “I’m sorry… Yes, I’m fine, I just have a headache.”

He silently helped her to her feet, once again noticing how she leaned on her left. He’d have to ask later. For now, he needed to figure out his next steps. With (Y/N) following close behind, he went across the street to retrieve Delores and his alcohol before heading to the public library. On the way there, (Y/N) could see the look of defeat on his face. Despite the pissy mood she was in, she felt for him. The boy was trying to prevent the end of the world and everything seemed to be blowing up in his face. Literally this time. She needed to be patient with him, she needed to let him explain. She couldn’t lose her cool on him, not when he’s in a state of constant disappointment. She knew what that felt like and she knew how much it meant to have someone there to rely on.

Arriving at the library, the two received stares from almost everyone. Five ignored it, though, and dragged (Y/N) to a corner and sat on the ground. She hummed and slowly set Delores down beside him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a marker, beginning to write equations out of the wall beside him. She gasped and sat with him. “What are you doing? You can’t do that, Five, that’s vandalism.”

“Obviously, I don’t care.”

“What are these equations for? What are you doing?” She watched as he opened the bottle of alcohol and then drank from it, avoiding her questions. Sighing, she slumped beside him. “Five, two people in masks attacked the house last night. We barely made it, and I think they took Klaus… I know you hate letting anyone in on anything you do, but this is me,” Five’s writing slowed as he let her speak. “For as long as I can remember, you’ve told me everything. I want to help you, but I know you’re leaving important shit out. How am I going to be of use to you if I know next to nothing-”

“I don’t want you to be of use to me,” He turned to her with a clenched jaw. “I just want you alive. I want you all alive. I don’t want you all trying to save the world, it’s how you died in the first place…”

“Well, what is the point in keeping it from us? Had we known about these guys, we could’ve… I don’t know, prepared or something!” She whisper-yelled. “Allison said they killed Mom. We can’t lose anyone else. Who are these people and why are they after you?” She pleaded. Five stared ahead at his equations for sometime before sighing and dropping his arm.

“They work for my former employer… While in the apocalypse, I met a woman. Goes by The Handler. She recruited me for a job with an organization called the Commission. I was tasked to eliminate anyone who altered time. I became an assassin, they made me into an assassin. There are more like me. Those guys who attacked you? They’re Hazel and Cha-Cha, sent to track me down. They’re the best of the best, but not as good as me. I was a lethal weapon for the Commission, their perfect instrument, but I broke my contract with them to come back here and save the world.” Five explained. (Y/N) blinked and stared down at her lap.

“But… they wouldn’t send their best guys unless you were trying to alter time, right? Are you saying the apocalypse was supposed to happen?”

“According to The Handler, yes. Not only did I betray the Commission, but I became one of their many targets who threaten their goal of the rehabilitation of the time continuum. Hazel and Cha-Cha will do anything, kill anyone, to stop me. No one is spared…” Five took a hearty gulp of his drink before going back to his equations. (Y/N) glanced up at him with a questioning gaze.

“Has the Commission been able to track you down at all?”

“Twice. The first time was the night after I got back. Thank god you didn’t come with me… The second time was when I went to get Delores. I barely made it out… This is why I didn’t want you helping me.”

“Well, now I really need to,” Five quickly turned to her with wide eyes. “Last time you saw these guys, they almost killed you. I may not be a trained assassin, Five, but I’m not useless. You don’t have to treat me like I am.”

“I know,” He groaned. “I know you aren’t useless. But you… I just hate the idea of risking you. You’ve gotta understand.”

“I do.” She whispered as she watched him drink. She didn’t speak anymore, allowing Five to get drunk off his ass as he tried to keep his eyes focused on his writing. Eventually, the bottle emptied and Five was no longer sober. He leaned against the wall and held Delores close, lazily smiling at (Y/N). She only shook her head at him. With a gesture of his hand, he motioned for her to come closer. A small smile crept onto her face as she scooted closer to his side. Five leaned all of his weight on her, nearly knocking her over. She wrapped her arms around him as he rested his head into the crook of her neck.

“Love you…” He mumbled, lips grazing her skin. She shivered and gently rubbed his arm.

“Love you, too.”

“No, Starlight,” His hold on Delores was gone and his arm was loosely wrapped around her waist. “I love you…” He slurred, his breath evening out as he dozed off. (Y/N) softly smiled and kissed his hair.

“I love you, too.”

An hour or so passed by with the drunken Five curled up in her arms, soundly sleeping. (Y/N) had moved the bottle away from them and tried to organize his things the best she could with her free arm. When she was done, she leaned back against the wall and held Five tighter. His breath was warm against her skin when he softly exhaled and his dark hair tickled her nose as she rested her head against his. If she had to be honest, (Y/N) missed this so much. Longed for it, even. Granted, she thought of it less when she was married, but the thought of Five had never left her mind. She didn’t want to admit that Allison was right because that would mean that she would have to hope all over again. Hope that he would stay, that he wouldn’t be ripped from her again, that he’d be safe. She’d have to hope that she would never be lonely again, because if she were to lose him again, she was afraid that dark would swallow her whole.

“Where are your parents?” A woman’s voice sounded from above them. (Y/N) looked up to see two women quietly giggling at them. She rolled her eyes and moved her gaze down again.

“Fuck off.”

“I’m gonna call security.” One scoffed before they both walked away. She let out a breath and gently rubbed Five’s arm. Just when she thought they were alone again,

“Well, well,” Diego’s voice neared the two. “What have we got here?”

She looked up to see him and Luther, the latter with his brows furrowed. “Is he…?”

“Shitfaced,” (Y/N) finished. “Can you pick him up for me? My legs are falling asleep.” Her head nodded towards the boy. Luther walked over and picked Five up in his arms. She stood and grabbed Delores, setting her on Five’s chest. The boy instinctively wrapped his arms around the mannequin. (Y/N) softly smiled at him before looking up at her brothers. “Get him somewhere safe, please. I need to check on my kids.”

“Do you have your car?” Diego asked as the girl kissed the boy on the cheek. She shook her head.

“We left it somewhere. I remember where it is, though.” She began to walk away, but Diego grabbed her arm.

“Whoa, whoa, it’s late. You can’t be walking around by yourself at this time of night.”

“I’m a grown woman, Diego,” She stopped and looked to the side. “Mentally… But I’ll be okay. I’ll summon two of my clones to ease your mind.” Before Diego could protest, she walked off towards the exit.

-------------------------------------------------

Cha-Cha had just retreated to the bathroom after taping Klaus’s mouth shut once again. He turned to the clone, whose chest was heaving in distress. For hours, Klaus had been tortured and it was not able to prevent it. If the clone was not able to fulfill its duty soon, it would self-destruct. A muffled whimper came from Klaus as he used his feet to shuffle over to the table beside the door. Hearing footsteps from outside approaching, he tried to call out for help, but to no avail. Having no other choice, he began slamming his head against the table. The clone sensed that he was being harmed so it tried to break its bindings to stop him. Klaus groaned in pain, but continued his actions. He started to sob, thinking whoever was outside didn’t hear his desperate attempts, but then the door opened. A light-skinned woman with brown hair stepped into the motel room. “Are you Diego’s brother?”

“Yeah.” Klaus whimpered through the tape.

“I’m Detective Patch. I’m gonna get you and the other hostage out of here.” She explained, taking out a knife. Klaus yelped and nodded his head towards the closed bathroom door, where his kidnappers were privately talking. She silently shushed him and he stopped. Using her knife, she cut both his and the clone’s bindings. Sighing in relief, Klaus shook his wrists. Just as Detective Patch had finished with the clone, who immediately stood to help Klaus stand up straight, the bathroom door slowly creaked open. Carefully, the detective reached into her pocket and pulled out her gun, shooting once Hazel tried to fire at her. The clone grabbed Klaus by the waist and threw them down to the ground beside one of the beds for cover.

“Police! Drop the gun or you’re going down!”

“I’m coming out. Don’t shoot.” Hazel stepped out and dropped his gun as Klaus grabbed his coat off the bed and ducked down again. Gasping, Klaus opened the vent Hazel had screwed loose earlier to escape. He grabbed hold of the briefcase inside and wedged himself in, the clone pushing his rear to speed up the process before climbing in behind him.

The two now sat on a bus, Klaus happily laughing and clutching the briefcase as (Y/N)’s clone stared ahead, hands folded on its lap. “Oh! Please, be money… Only money… or treasure… diamonds…” He whispered to himself as he opened the case. The clone glanced over at the sound of a zap and a whoosh, but Klaus was gone. Blinking, it turned back forward, its chest heaving.

-------------------------------------------------

“(Y/N), you’re here!”

“Hi, Mom,” (Y/N) weakly smiled as she stepped into her mother’s house. “Are they sleeping?”

“For about an hour now, yeah. Did you wanna go and see them?”

“Yeah, but can I use your shower first? And some clothes to sleep in?” (Y/N) set down the clean uniform and another pair of Klaus’s old pants down on the couch. She made a stop at the Academy before arriving at her mother’s. The older woman nodded.

“Of course, honey. Are you feeling well? You’re, like… leaning.”

“Yeah,” The teenager limped towards the bathroom. “A bullet grazed me last night.”

“A what?!”

The shower felt like heaven to (Y/N). She felt almost restored and stood in the tub for a while, unmoving, letting the warm water pelt down on her skin. She would quietly wince when she would shift her injured leg, but other than that, she was in bliss.

Once she was refreshed and dressed in sleepwear that was too big for her, (Y/N) walked over to the bedroom her children slept in, a slight limp in her step. Leaning against the doorframe, she watched Michael and Jada cuddle in their sleep. The two have had their own beds for months, so it was heartwarming to see them like this. Silently entering the room, (Y/N)’s eyes began to water. She sniffled and very slowly sat herself down on the edge of the bed. If she hadn’t felt like the world’s worst mother before, she definitely did now. To them, it must’ve felt like she just up and left with no warning, with no intention of ever checking up on them. That wasn’t the case at all. There wasn’t a second that went by when (Y/N) didn’t think about her kids. She constantly dreamt of holding them again, actually speaking with them. She felt all her efforts of giving her children the normal life they deserve were thrown out the window the moment she decided to go to that funeral. Taking in a shaky breath, she finally let her tears fall before resting her hand on Jada’s, whose hand was clasped over Michael’s.

“Listen to my voice, my dears

And sing this lovely tune

I will be there to dry your tears…

I’ll be home with you soon…”

—————————————

Taglist: @melinda-hargreeves @43sparrows @sapphicsyn @m00n-sh @starcurrent @alexander-hamilhoe @youcandalekmyballs @wonderlandfandomkingdom @yrdadjstcallsmekatya @narikyuwu @sm0kingcrack @give-the-boy-a-hug @moatsnow

[vanillacaramelhoney]

Different (4)

Pairing(s): Five Hargreeves x Reader

Summary: YN leaned over to whisper to Five. "I like him."

Warnings: Mentions of doing the deed 😏, uhhh some violence?

A/N: I absolutely love Klaus and his dramatics

Will this post show up in tags? Who knows

Masterlist

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The Meritech building was modern, as expected for such a big company. Walls lined with windows gave a great view of the city outside while also allowing natural light inside. Nearly everything was white, giving the place a cold and sterile feel to it.

Five and YN waited a while for the building to open before they could finally go in. As they waited, Five had filled her in on the importance of the eye.

"Can I help you, kids?"

Turning back around, Five and YN saw a man dressed in a white lab coat with identification wrapped around his neck.

Five took the lead, stepping forward and holding the eye up. "We need to know who this belongs to."

YN stood right to the side of him.

"Where did you get that?" the man asked.

"What do you care?" Trying not to sigh, YN poked Five's back as a way to tell him to say something better. "We found it. At a playground, actually. Must have just-" Five clicked his tongue "-popped out." Five smiled up at the man, while YN bit the inside of her cheek, resisting a laugh.

"I wanna return it to its rightful owner," Five explained.

"Oh, what a thoughtful young man," the receptionist awed.

"Yeah, look up the name for me, will ya?" he asked her.

"Uh, I'm sorry, but patient records are strictly confidential," the man told him. "That means I can't tell you-"

"Yeah, I know what it means," Five stopped him.

"I can tell you what I can do. I'll take the eye off your hands and return it to the owner. I'm sure he or she will be very grateful, so if I can just-"

"Yeah, you're not touching this eye," Five snapped.

"Now you listen here, young man-" before he could continue, Five had the collar of his coat in his hands, pulling him down to his eye level.

YN let out a sigh, innocently glancing away from the scene.

"No, you listen to me, asshole," he spat. "We've come a long way for this, through some shit your pea brain couldn't even comprehend, so just give me the information we need, and we'll be on our merry way. And if you call me 'young man' one more time, I'm gonna put your head through that damn wall."

"Oh, dear," the receptionist's voice wavered. YN sent a smile her way.

"Call security."

The woman picked up the phone and quickly dialed. Recognizing defeat, Five let the man go with a shove.

Vanya let out a sigh at the sight of her brother. "Oh, thank god." He glanced back at her. "I was worried sick about you."

"Sorry I left without saying goodbye," he apologized, turning to her.

"No, look, I'm the one that should be sorry," Vanya said. "I was dismissive, and I guess I didn't know how to process what you were saying. And I still can't, to be honest."

"Maybe you were right to be dismissive," Five said. "Maybe it wasn't real, after all. It felt real. Well, like you said, the old man did say time travel could contaminate the mind."

"Then maybe I'm not the right person for you to be talking to," Vanya told him. "Look, I used to see someone. A therapist. I could give you her information."

"Thanks, but," Five trailed off for a second, "I think I'm just gonna get some rest. It's been a long time since I've had a good sleep."

"Okay," Vanya said. "And your friend- is she alright?"

"Yeah, she's around here somewhere."

"Alright." Vanya left the room after one final look at Five.

He followed after her to make sure she left, and the wardrobe door came open, two figures crawling out and unintentionally pulling stuff out with them.

"That's so," Klaus trailed off as he stumbled up, as did YN. "...touching. All that stuff about Dad and time. Wow!"

"Did you have to shove me in there with you?" YN asked Klaus.

"Would you two shut up?" Five hissed. "She'll hear you!"

"I'm moist," Klaus played, patting YN's back.

"I thought I told you to put on something professional," Five said, gesturing to Klaus's outfit.

"What?" Klaus asked. "This is my nicest outfit."

Five sighed. "We'll raid the old man's closet."

"Whatever, as long as I get paid." YN snorted.

"When the job is done."

They trailed out of the room together.

"Okay, but just so we're clear on the finer details," Klaus said, bringing them all to a stop, "I just gotta go into this place and pretend to your guy's dear old dad, correct?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"What's our cover story?"

"What?" YN asked. "Why would we need a cover story?"

"Well, I mean, was I like really young when I had you guys?" Klaus went in. "Like 16? Like, young and terribly misguided?"

"Sure," Five agreed, wanting the conversation to be over.

"Your mother, that slut." YN tried to hold back her laugh but failed. "Whoever she was. We met at..." he trailed off in thought before a fond smile spread across his face, "the disco. Okay? Remember that."

Klaus snapped his fingers. "Oh, my god, the sex was amazing."

"What a disturbing glimpse into that thing you call a brain," Five said, turning and grabbing YN's hand. He led her down the stairs as Klaus said something about time-out.

YN leaned over to whisper to Five. "I like him."

"Of course, you do."

"Like I said to your kids earlier, any information about the prosthetics we build is strictly confidential," the man Five and YN had dealt with not long again spoke to Klaus now, who sat across from him. "Without the client's consent, I simply can't help you."

"Well, we can't get consent if you don't give us a name," Five told him, leaning on the desk.

"Well, that's not my problem," he said. "Sorry. Now, there's really nothing more I can do, so-" "And what about my consent?"

The three looked to Klaus, confused.

"Excuse me?"

"Who gave you permission...," Klaus trailed off before continuing to speak with an edge of pain to his voice, "to lay your hands...on my kids?" He pointed up at Five, who stared down at him in confusion.

The man across from them seemed just as confused.

"What?" the three asked.

"You heard me."

"I didn't touch your children."

"Oh, really?" Klaus asked. "Well, how did he get that swollen lip, then?" He sat up in his chair.

Both YN and the man tried to question him on Five's lack of swollen lip. Klaus, however, was one step ahead, standing from the chair and swinging at Five.

The man stared in shock, and YN bit her lip to keep herself from doing anything.

"And her?" Klaus pointed back at YN, who's eyes widened as she realized it was her turn. "That bloody nose."

YN sighed, bracing herself.

Klaus's fist collided with her nose, and she stumbled back with a shout. Blood slowly dripped from her nose and down her face, falling onto the floor.

For someone that looked as scrawny as he was, Klaus sure did pack a punch.

Five was by her side in an instant to make sure she was alright.

Klaus inhaled sharply, turning to him. "I want it. Name, please. Now."

"You're crazy," the man pointed at him.

Klaus chuckled. "You've got no idea." He glanced down at the snow globe on the desk, picking it up. "'Peace on Earth.' That's so sweet."

In a quick motion, he smashed the snow globe on his head, groaning out in pain.

The three jumped, startled, as Klaus let out a howl of pain.

"God, that hurt." His face was wet, glitter in his hair and blood dripping down his face.

The man quickly picked up the phone, mentioning security. Klaus ripped the phone from his hand.

"What are you doing?"

Klaus gasped into the phone. "There's been an assault in Mr. Big's office, and we need security now," he said. "Schnell!" He let the receiver clatter onto the desk and looked up at the man.

"Now here's what's gonna happen, Grant," Klaus said.

"It's...Lance."

"In about sixty seconds, two security guards are gonna burst through that door, and they're gonna see a whole lot of blood, and they're gonna wonder 'What the hell happened?'"

Five looked at Lance, a smug look on his face.

"He really knows what he's doing," YN muttered to him. Five glanced back at her.

"And we're gonna tell them that you...," Klaus trailed off as a look of sorrow spread across his face, and a whimpering tone took over his voice, "beat the shit out of us." He let out a dramatic sob that turned into a sigh.

"You're gonna do great in prison, Grant," Klaus told him. "Trust me, I've been there. A little piece of chicken like you, oh, my god, you're gonna get passed around like a..." the man trailed off as he began rotating his hips in a circular motion. He quickly waved off the thought. "You're just- you're gonna do great. That's all I'm saying."

"Jesus, you're a real sick bastard," Lance said, looking between the other two before staring up at Klaus.

"Thank you." He spit out a shard of glass.

Lance picked through the documents with shaky hands with the three watching him closely.

He pulled out a file and opened it, sending an uncertain glance at Klaus.

"Huh, that's strange," he said.

"What?" Five and YN asked.

"The eye," Lance explained. "It hasn't been purchased by a client yet."

Klaus dropped off the surface and landed next to him. "What? What do you mean?"

"Well, uh, our logs say that," he trailed off a moment to glance at Klaus, who walked around him as an intimidation tactic, "the eye with that serial number... This can't be right. It hasn't even been manufactured yet. Where did you get that eye?"

He looked at the two across from him in bewilderment.

Five sighed with a subtle shake of his head.

It was quiet for a moment before YN finally broke it.

"Do you have any tissues?"

"Well, this is not good." The three walked out of the building in defeat once again.

"I was pretty good, though, right?" Klaus asked. "Yeah, what about my consent, bitch?" He let out a wild chuckle.

"Yeah, you were great, Klaus," YN agreed, "but did you have to give a bloody nose? Jesus." She dropped down on the steps of the building, holding a bundle of tissues to her still dripping nose.

"Look, it doesn't matter," Five injected.

"What? What? What's the big deal with this eye, anyway?" Klaus questioned.

"There is someone out there that is going to lose an eye in the next seven days," Five told him. "They're gonna bring about the end of the world as we know it."

"It's a pretty big deal," YN added.

"Yeah, can I get that twenty bucks like, now, or?" YN groaned in annoyance.

"You can't be serious, Klaus."

"Your twenty bucks?" Five asked.

"Yeah, my twenty bucks."

"The apocalypse is coming, and all you can think about is getting high?" Five seethed.

"Well, I'm also quite hungry. Tummy's a-rumblin'." He imitated his stomach, adding in weird hand motions.

"You're useless," Five said. "You're all useless."

"Five," YN warned.

"Oh, come on, you need to lighten up, old man!"

Five ignored him, opting to sit down by YN.

"Hey, I just now realized why you're so uptight- you must be horny as hell," Klaus laughed out, joining Five's side. "All those years- did the two of you never go at it, or something? That would be mind-blowing. Surely you'd crack at some point. Besides, don't think I didn't notice those rings."

YN hid her face in her free hand, trying to hide in embarrassment.

"You don't need to hear about all the things we've done," Five grumbled.

"Oh, so you've done a lot?"

"Oh, my god," YN drawled.

"I bet you say that to him a lot." YN looked away in disbelief.

"You know, you guys sure have been together a long time," Klaus said. "God, the longest I've been with someone was three weeks, and that's only because I was so tired of looking for a place to sleep."

"Can we leave?" YN whispered to Five.

The boy grabbed her hand, and they jumped into a taxi.

The driver looked back at them, startled.

"Don't stop," Five told him. "Just keep driving."

----Taglist

@fancytravelerbird​ @megasimpleplan4ever​ @yikes-matey​ @we-all-are-strange​

[thisisawonderfulusername]

let's save the world

season one, episode three

five hargreeves x reader

trigger warnings: cursing, a bit of angst if you squint, violence

summary: five gets his apocalypse lover back and the two of you have a small argument. then, when you’re back at the academy, looking around for clues, you have some visitors.

word count: 2.2k

a/n: bro all this support that i’m getting for this series means so much to me ;-; i don’t want to be all sappy but i used to write on wattpad and like it’s hard to get anyone on there to read your stories, but coming on here really just brought my motivation way up because of how nice you all are :) so thank you, and i hope you like the third part of this series *3*

"you're a fucking idiot." you grumble as you sit at five's side, the medical kit beside you open with it's contents disarranged from the panic you went through as five woke you up, a huge gash in his arm. now, you were helping him clean it up, and you weren't very happy with what he had done with his night.

sighing softly, five glanced at you. "it's not like i died." he defends himself, as if it would help your worrying. "it's just a scratch. it'll heal quick."

glaring at him as you finished stitching him up, you cleaned up all the blood. "’just a scratch’ my ass." throwing the bloodied rag to the side, you grab one of the bandaids, which happened to be designed with 'billy the choo-choo' which would have made you laugh if you weren't angry with him. "all this for a mannequin? seriously?"

that comment irked him, and he stood from the bed, putting his old uniform back on over the tank top he wore. "she's not just a mannequin." he mutters, going to grab the big duffel bag, which you knew 'delores' and various other things were inside.

"i'm glad i didn't go as mad as you." you throw everything back into the box, shutting it and just leaving it on the bed. you knew you'd need it again anyways.

five rolls his eyes as he pushes the window open, and you look at him in confusion. "you above doors now?" you question as he hops out onto the fire escape, quickly following behind.

he looked up at you as he started climbing down the ladder. “we don’t have much time, and this is the quickest way.”

sighing softly, you follow him down, and are met with klaus who was digging through the dumpster. stopping for a moment to look at him, you raise an eyebrow. “having fun?”

he looks to the two of you, a flask in hand as he leans against the edge of the trash. “oh! hey, hey.” he takes a swig, a goofy smile on his face, “you guys need any more company today? i could, uh, clear my schedule.”

five stops just a few feet away, holding onto the straps of the duffel hanging over his shoulders. “looks like you got your hands full.” he nods to the bin he had been digging around in, and klaus pushes himself away from the rim, practically slapping the metal.

“no, no, i can do this whenever. i just-” he suddenly falls down into the dumpster, and you jump slightly, eyebrows furrowing. “i’ve misplaced something.” he calls out as you could hear him rifling around all the trash, and your nose scrunched up at the thought. suddenly he pops back up again, holding up a bagel, taking a bite out of it, “found it!”

you swear you could have thrown up right there. he really was an interesting character. “i’m done funding your drug habit.” the young looking boy says simply, turning on his heel to leave, which you quickly follow.

-

“why are we here again?” you question, leaning back in the seat of the stolen plumbing truck. for some reason, five brought the two of you back to meritech, and you found it useless. “this is a dead end. we don’t know when the eye will be made and we can’t just wait here until the apocalypse comes.”

pursing his lips, five doesn’t take his gaze away from the building as people walk up and down the street, sometimes going inside or leaving. “this eye is our only clue to what makes the world end. we will wait here if it takes the whole week to find out when it’s made and who gets it.”

you groan, letting your head fall back against the cushioned head rest. there was no way in hell that you would wait in this stuffy van for more than a few hours.

slapping your hand against the arm rest, you sit up, “alright, then. you do that.” opening the door, you hop out, looking to five as he finally looks away from meritech.

“where are you going?” he hisses, eyes narrowed in the way that told you he was definitely mad. you just didn’t care at this moment.

brushing your skirt off, you glance around, “i’m not sitting around waiting for something that may not even have anything to do with what happens. so i’m going to look for clues.”

he just looked at you for a moment, obviously in disbelief by what you were saying. “you’re just going to leave me? you don’t trust me?”

at the accusation, you groan. “you’re kidding, right?” you lean against the side of the seat, the door still open next to you. “of course i trust you. i’ve trusted you for over forty years, and sometimes, five, you’re wrong!” you laugh bitterly, motioning to the building across the street. “i’m not going to wait around in hopes that your hunch about this eye is right!”

five just stares at you, eyes slightly widened from your outburst. after a moment, he turns away and looks back to the building. “fine. do what you want.” he mutters, and you almost feel bad about blowing up on him. almost.

“have fun with your mannequin lover.” you grumble, letting the door slam shut behind you as you walk away from the van, determined to figure this out by actually doing something.

-

your day was spent rooting around the academy, looking in every nook and cranny of every single room. the rest of the siblings showed up around noon, and they stood around in the main room, arguing about something that you didn’t care about. it was all useless to you, unless it lead to the end of the world.

now, night had fallen, and you didn’t find a single thing. you thought reginald might have known something. maybe left a clue for the kids to find. but no.

absolutely nothing.

you laid on five’s bed, fingers laced together on your stomach as you stared up at the ceiling. while you were trying to figure out somewhere you might find a hint to what ended the world, you were also worrying about five and how you blew up on him. sure, you two would get over it, but you weren’t sure how angry he was. he could hold grudges, and you knew that very well.

your train of thought was interrupted by gun shots, and your body shot up as your eyes widened. jumping up from the bed, you grabbed the pistol that you had carried around with you from your days at the commission, which you brought with you when you went through that portal. you just hadn’t gotten the chance to use it yet, and you assumed this was it’s shining moment.

running downstairs, the shots got louder, and you cursed under your breath. looking down off the balcony into the main room, where you could see diego curled behind the couch with two people shooting mercilessly at the furniture. before they could notice you, you ran towards the stairs, thinking up a plan for how to deal with this.

they were definitely from the commission. you were absolutely sure of that. the suits they wore, paired with the metallic and colorful animal helmets gave it away. so they were here for you and five. you just didn’t know if they knew of the reverse-aging you guys went through. here’s to hoping.

as you got to the archway, one of the assassins was thrown through it, you barely dodging it as luther followed them out, probably prepared to fight. looking back into the room, you saw allison being choked by the other, and quickly jumped into action.

not wanting to risk shooting the woman, you stick the gun in your skirt’s pocket before jumping onto his back, your hands igniting with flames.

there goes another perfectly good shirt

the burning was enough to get him to let go of allison, but he quickly threw you off of himself, not getting the chance to turn on you as luther came back in and chucked him out the door as well.

all three of the siblings looked at you, breathing heavily and shocked, “what the hell was that?” diego questions, and you groan, pushing your now burnt sleeves up.

“we don’t have time for this right now. let’s deal with these assholes and maybe we can have a nice little pow-wow after.”

the discussion was cut off when the assassins got back up and started firing again, all of you dropping to the floor to avoid the shots and you quickly crawled away, managing to get cover behind the bar. grabbing your pistol, you hear luther and diego shouting at each other and the fire ceases. you assume they scrambled to safety and neither of the assassins wanted to waste bullets.

you heard them converse before they separated, and you noticed one of their shadows approaching from behind the bar. calming your breath, you pull the hammer of the pistol down, hearing the soft click that told you it was ready to fire. as the man rounded the corner, turned away and towards a glass case, you jumped up from your spot, quickly shooting at him and effectively landing a hit on his arm.

with a shout of pain, he turns on you, and though you can’t see his face, you know he’s angry. he holds a mace that he took from the glass case, and you quickly cock the gun again as he makes a move towards you.

“it’s you.” he snarls, and you smirk.

taking a step back, you don’t lower the gun as you grab an empty bottle, “so she did send you.” you state, lunging towards him and smashing the bottle over his head. he stumbled back, the mace swinging around on it’s chain.

a voice calling out from the hall caught your attention, and while he was dazed, you take a glance towards where the arch was, seeing vanya. you curse, taking a shot at the man before sliding over the bar and running to her.

“you can’t be here!” you yell at her, and you’re lucky that luther comes in just in time to stop the man from attacking you once again.

she looked confused, and you didn’t blame her, but you didn’t have time right now. you just had to get her out. you glanced back into the room as the man with the blue helmet lifted luther and threw him to the ground, wincing at the sight.

when he turns to leave the room, you grab vanya and pull her against the wall, steadying your breathing as you somehow managed to go unnoticed when he looked down the halls and turning the other way.

once he disappeared down the hall, you run back into the room to see if luther was okay, not even caring if another attack would happen. as you got to him, the other two came barreling in, allison calling out to him and both of them swinging one of his arms around their shoulders to help him up.

as he stood up, he noticed the woman atop the balcony, a bloodied knife in her hand as she went to cut the rope that held the chandelier up. you didn’t have time to move out of the way and unfortunately luther didn’t have three arms to push all of you away, so it crashed down on both of you, though you got more lucky as it landed on your thigh.

still hurt like a bitch, though.

hissing from the pain, when luther lifts himself up it gives you the wiggle room to pull your leg out from under the chandelier, cursing as you see the blood that surrounds a shard of glass that managed to wedge into the side of your leg.

the room went silent when everyone saw luther’s hairy body, something you never expected to see, and honestly, you wish you didn’t. he runs up the stairs, and you sigh as you fall back, hand wrapped around the glass as you hyped yourself up to pull it out.

a few minutes later, you managed to get the glass out and wrap an old rag around it to hopefully slow the bleeding, and you were ready to pass out from the exhaustion coursing through your veins. you didn’t even care about the fact that your wound may get infected.

you stood from the ground, watching the others as allison and vanya sit down, diego pacing back and forth. when allison asked him if he was okay, he burst, yelling at the two of them before he turned on you. “and what the hell was it that you did?” he hisses, pointing his finger at your singed sleeves, “i don’t remember you having any kind of power like us. so what was that?”

you glare at him, pushing his hand away. “i was lying about the pow-wow.” you state simply before turning away and making your way up the stairs.

-

main taglist: @horrorklaus​

tua taglist: none yet

five taglist: @anapocalypseinmymind @five-hargreeves-official

lstw taglist: @aspiringwriter1 @thetrashypanda423 @lilacs-lavender

if you would like to be added to any taglist, just ask! :)

[strangeradventuresofp]

emotions (klaus x reader)

Man on the Moon - 4

warnings : swearing, character death, smoking, mentions of kidnapping

word count : 3612

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4

On the 12th hour of the first day of October, 43 women around the world gave birth. This was unusual only in the fact that none of these women had been pregnant when the day first began.

Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and adventurer, resolved to locate and adopt as many of the children as possible.

He got eight of them.

~~~

“Where the hell is Five? Those bastards were looking for him and they took Klaus instead.” Diego watched you as you paced around in your room, fists clenched. “I should’ve killed both of them when I had the chance.” Rage seeped throughout your body but you knew you had to try to keep a lid on it; you didn’t want to go on a rampage because you couldn’t control it. Eventually your eyes fell on Diego, who was sat on your bed, twiddling one of his knives around in his fingers.

“Are you gonna say anything or not? I might as well be talking to a brick fucking wall at this point.”

“I’m thinking.” Your brother replied very bluntly.

“About what?” Your tone was aggressive and you knew it, but you knew that Diego wouldn’t think your anger was targeted at him. He understood.

“About how we’re gonna murder those bastards and get our brother back.” You smiled slightly at his response, manic thoughts swimming around your head that you tried to keep at bay for the time being.

“I’m so glad we’re on the same page.” Diego wrapped at arm around your shoulders as you took a seat beside him and he gripped his knife hard in his gloved hand and he looked at you, a look you couldn’t exactly distinguish, through his dark, hooded eyes. The silence and the look shared between the two of you ensured that you understood each other.

Sighing, you looked down at your hands, picking at your fingers as you thought about Klaus. You were still mad at him even though he apologised, but you prayed he would be okay nonetheless. You would do anything to make sure that he got back to you safe and to just be able to hug him and see him again. If they even dared to hurt him, you would make sure of it that both of them got what they deserved and nothing less.

“We’ll find him, okay?” Diego rubbed your shoulder gently and you nodded, looking at him and tilting your head slightly, afraid to ask about the night before, with your Mother. “What is it?”

“Are you… okay? You know, about Mom.” Your brother took a sharp breath before looking at you. He always tried to hide his true feelings and he was absolutely terrible at it. You knew the next words out of his mouth would be a lie as he smiled, being able to mask the pain on his face but not the pain in his eyes.

“Yeah, I’m okay.”

Before you could say anything else, a loud thump came from one of the other bedrooms along the corridor and the two of you stood, moving along the hall to see where it came from. You could faintly hear Pogo’s voice behind one of the doors and stood there for a minute to listen at the conversation that was occurring within.

“Like I said, Master Luther, Number Five hasn’t lived in this room since he was a boy.”

“Yeah, I know, but we need to warn him. He doesn’t even know we were attacked. He doesn’t know they’re looking for him, he doesn’t know—“

“What are you doing in here?” Diego pushed the door open, eyeing Luther as he rooted through Five’s stuff in his drawers, brows knit together. You leaned against the door frame, crossing your arms over your chest as you raised an eyebrow at him. Number One frowned as he looked up at Diego, standing up, shifting uncomfortably in his place.

“Uh… Do you know about Mom?” He asked hesitantly, looking between the two of you, nodding at you in response when you mouthed a yes. His eyes flicked over to the boy stood beside you.

“Well, it looks like you got what you wanted, one way or another, right?” Rolling your eyes at him, you looked back over to Luther, smiling at Pogo when he caught your eye, which he returned politely.

“Wanna tell me what you’re doing here?”

“Looking for Five.”

“Oh, let me guess, you’re gonna save the day.” You pinched between your eyes in frustration, looking to the floor and sighing when they continued to feud. Quickly, you turned on your heel and walked out, unable to cope with their nonsense today. You needed to find Five. If you warned him about the intruders maybe he would have an idea about where they were and you could find Klaus. Right now, that’s all that mattered to you. Your feet echoed as you stepped down the stairs into the lobby, waiting for Diego and Luther to catch up with you when they had finished their squabbling. It wasn’t long before you heard them walking along the hallway and coming down the stairs.

“I say we ask around the streets, see if people have seen him.”

“Oh, and say what? Have you seen a boy about this tall in a strange looking uniform? Yeah, he’s a lippy little shit, that’s him!” Diego mocked.

“So, what, you have a better idea?”

“Why don’t we just go to the building and see if he’s still there?” Your brothers looked at you, as if you had just had the best idea ever and soon enough, the three of you were walking down the streets, looking out for the van that you and Five were in the day previous. As you walked up the road leading to the Meritech building, your eyes widened when you noticed the plumbing van, jogging up to it as Luther confirmed it was the van you were looking for. Luther tried the doors before Diego smirked, cheating the locks with his knife and you hopped in to the van, waiting for the two to join you.

Once all of you were inside, you grabbed the duffel bag, picking up a random book and searching through it, starting to read his notes just as Diego whistled, pointing to the page he had opened.

“I know where to find Five.”

Your mind wondered off to thinking about Klaus again, smiling as you remembered all of the time you had spent with each other. When you moved out and bought your own apartment, he had stayed with you for a while, sharing your bed with you. It was an understatement to say the two of you were intimate. You shared various ‘I love you’s and although you were never official, you were pretty much dating. Sometimes when he would go out, he wouldn’t come back until the morning. He tended to couch surf, but he always came back to you. Except one time, he didn’t.

~~~

Pretty soon, you pulled up short to the Argyle Library, wasting no time at all to start searching for the boy, rolling your eyes when your brothers started talking about what they earlier, groaning. You thought that if you rolled your eyes anymore they would probably fall out.

Something stopped your train of thought quite quickly. A woman’s voice, talking about a child and numerous giggles in the background. Your brows furrowed and you moved around a few corners, weaving around the people until you saw it. Five, sat up against the wall, in a deep sleep. His arm was slung around Delores and he held a bottle of alcohol in the same hand. He was surrounded by markings on the wall and notebooks spread out in front of him and you sighed, looking at Diego.

~~~

The three of you, plus Delores and a very drunk Five, turned down a secluded alleyway that was barely lit up by the streetlights. The sound of your shoes on the wet pavement seemed to bounce off the tall walls of buildings that surrounded you.

“Well, we can’t go back to the house. It’s not secure. Those psychopaths could come back at any moment.” Nodding at Luther’s logic, you looked up to him, frowning when a thought popped into your head.

“Where are we taking him, then?” Luther didn’t seem to have an answer to your question, so you both instinctively turned to look at Diego.

“My place is closer. No one will look for him there.”

“Hopefully.” You added just as Five let out a belch that honestly sounded like he was going to throw up all down Number One.

“If you vomit on me…” Luther warned and you laughed, looking at the boy in his arms, a dazed smile plastered on his face.

“I’d pay money to see that.” Diego chuckled slightly at your words and Luther huffed, looking down at Five as he opened his mouth to speak.

“You know what’s funny? Aah! I’m going through puberty. Twice.” He scoffed, his face falling for a few seconds before he started giggling drunkenly. “I drank that whole bottle, didn’t I? That’s what you do when the world you love goes bye-bye. Poof, it’s gone.” Frowning, you assumed from what he had said that he hadn’t gotten anywhere with the eyeball, yet again and you let out a breath, wondering what he was planning to do next.

“What are you guys talkin’ about?” Five looked up at Luther, who sighed at the state of the boy in his arms.

“Two masked intruders attacked the Academy last night.” Your hands formed into fists at the thought of it.

“They came looking for you. So I need you to focus. What do they want?” Diego questioned and you chuckled. The police career obviously hadn’t worked out for him but he still acted professional, like this was his job.

“Hazel and Cha-Cha.” Five mumbled and your blood boiled, face twitching at the name reveals. You wanted nothing more than to get your hands on them. Deranged thoughts crossed your mind again as your brothers murmured between themselves before Diego raised his voice, clearly annoyed at the state that Five was in.

“Hey! I need you to focus. What do this Hazel and Cha-Cha want?” A smirk fell over the boy’s face when you all stopped walking and you started to get irritable, trying your hardest to calm your emotions before they spilled over. “We just wanna protect you.”

“Protect me? I don’t need your protection, Diego. Do you have any idea how many people I’ve killed? No. I’m the Four frickin’ Horsemen. The apocalypse is coming.” Five shifted uncomfortably before leaning over Luther’s arm, groaning as he threw up, a distasteful look slapping the carrier across the face.

Once you all resumed walking, a thought crossed Diego’s mind and he was unsure of whether to share it, but you caught on to the look and turned to him.

“What is it?”

“Why does he have a mannequin with no hair, no bottom half and one arm?”

“He found her in the apocalypse. She was the only thing he had so I guess she’s what kept him sane, as hard as it is to believe.” Shrugging, you looked back to the pavement ahead of you, continuing to follow Diego as he led you to where he lived.

Once you had become face to face with the building, Diego drug around in his pocket, pulling out his keys and unlocking the door. Walking through, you wished you could find a light switch but decided against it as his room was sure to be only steps away. He led you through the building to the back, where he used his key to unlock the door once again, hauling the door open with his shoulder.

You took a seat on the edge of Diego’s bed after Luther laid Five down on it. You sighed in frustration, staring at the barely conscious boy in pure annoyance, clenching your fists.

“Funny. If I didn’t know he was such a prick, I’d say he looks almost adorable in his sleep.” A breathy chuckle escaped your lips at Diego’s remark and you stood next to them, looking at the boy from a different angle.

“Well, don’t worry. He’ll sober up eventually.”

“He better.” You spat, glaring harsher before looking away, sighing. It wasn’t Five’s fault that Hazel and Cha-Cha took Klaus, although it sort of was. You couldn’t be mad at him, it wasn’t fair. Luther began to speak but was quickly silenced by your other brother when he pulled a knife out from the vest strapped to his chest. He moved next to the door and you noticed the noise that he had heard, footsteps drawing closer and closer to the room you were in. Your eyes lit up with a murderous intent as you moved your body into a fighting position, hoping it was either of the two psychos that tried to shoot you the night before. Diego opened the door and you were ready.

“You throw another one of those goddamn knives at me, I’m pressin’ charges.” You sighed, relaxing and Diego did the same when the random voice from outside called into the room.

“What do you want, Al?” Diego asked as the man stepped into the room after he opened the door wider. He smiled at you as he entered and you returned it respectfully, knowing him from when Diego taught you some boxing moves after you had left the academy.

“Some lady called for you, said she needs your help.”

“What lady?”

“I dunno. Some, uh, detective. Said her name was blotch or something.”

“Patch?” You questioned, locking eyes with Diego before he grabbed a card from Al, looking closely at it.

“She needs you to meet her at that motel, a dump on Calhoun about half an hour ago. Uh, said she found your brother.” Your eyes widened as Al walked out; tears flooding in your eyes as they locked with your brother’s once again, swallowing hard.

“Klaus.” Rushing to the door, not saying anything else, pushing past him, sprinting to the car parked outside. Swiftly, you moved to get into the passenger seat, not even bothering to clip your seatbelt in. Diego pulled open the car door and started it up, looking over to you. You would have looked back, but all you could think about was getting to Klaus and killing those sons of bitches who took him. Your eyes were fixed on the road ahead of you, clenching your jaw and fists, thinking of all the things you would do to those bastards for hurting him. Diego wrapped his hands around the wheel and the car started to move.

The drive was painfully long, despite the speed your brother drove at, rather irresponsibly. The silence was tense but you weren’t bothered, taking deep breaths to make sure you were ready, your hard stare not faltering a bit when you pulled into the car park of the motel. You stepped out quickly, moving around to Diego’s side, following him when he got out. The two of you stealthily tiptoes around the outside of the building, looking for a sign from the outside, but when you couldn’t see anything, you knew you had to look through every room.

Outside of each room, you peered in through the window, calling his name quietly and then listening hard to see if anything could be heard. Further along the balcony, one of the doors was open and you peered in, eyes widening at the scene in front of you.

“Oh, no. God, no, no, no, no!” Your voice broke on you and you bit your lip in an attempt to hold back the tears that pooled in your eyes but it was to no avail. You rushed to stand in front of the open the door, facing Diego who looked extremely concerned and was trying to look past you. “No, Diego, don’t!” Your sobs resonated in his ears when he pushed you to the side, tears starting to stream down his own cheeks whilst he ran over to the body lying on the ground, a pool of blood surrounding it.

“No, no, no, Eudora! No, no, no!” His fist made contact with the ground multiple times, whimpers escaping his mouth as he turned her body over. Patch was a good friend of yours. You didn’t see her often but she was always there for you and you for her. She had met you when she had come to visit Diego one time at the gym when he was training you. You were grateful that your friendship didn’t falter when she and Diego stopped seeing each other.

Your brother’s voice was drowned out of your ears, sirens taking its place instead. Turning around, you noticed blue and red lights fill the room, your eyes widening in response. Rushing over to Diego, you grabbed his arm, tugging it away from Eudora’s body but he refused.

“Diego, we have to go!” You cried, pulling hard on his arm but he wouldn’t give in. Grabbing his face in your hand, you forced him to look at you, your tear stained face matching his. “We need to go, right now.” You pulled him away from her body after he spoke to her one last time, running back down to the car you came from, getting into the driver’s seat this time. You knew Diego wasn’t in a fit state to drive, tears clouding his vision. You looked through misty eyes too, but you felt better about driving yourself and apparently so did Diego, getting into the passenger side without a word.

The drive seemed even longer than before, silence filling the air once again. You had wanted to hurt those people before, but now they had killed your friend as well a kidnapping Klaus.

Shit, Klaus.

He wasn’t at the motel. The thought had completely slipped your mind, but you gave yourself a pass considering you instead saw one of your good friends dead on the carpet, surrounded by a pool of her own blood and a gunshot wound through her chest. You swallowed, blinking rapidly to rid the image from your head before you glanced over to Diego.

“I’m sorry… About Patch.”

“Yeah, me too.” He sighed, staring at his hands before looking over to you. “I’m sorry about Klaus.”

“Me too.” A weak smile crept onto your face and your hands wrapped tighter around the wheel, letting your face fall after he looked away from you. Tears flooded your vision again and your grip on the wheel loosened a lot. It suddenly became extremely hard for you to control the wheel, feeling just a weak as you had been the day you realised Klaus was never coming back. Still, somehow you managed to drive you and Diego back to where he lived safely, which you were grateful to yourself for.

As you pulled the key out of the ignition, Diego took them from your hand and you shot a puzzled look at him before he stepped out of the car. He moved around to your side, opening the door for you and waiting for you to step out.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m goin’ for a drive. Wanna be alone. Clear my head.” You nodded once, stepping out of the car and hugging him tightly. He returned it, glad he had you.

“Don’t do anything stupid, okay? Promise me.”

“Promise.” Watching as he stepped into the car, closing the door, waving to him as he drove off. You sighed, fumbling about in your coat pockets, taking out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. Plucking a cigarette from inside the box, you lit it quickly, taking a long drag from it before inhaling the smoke. You exhaled, repeating the actions until it was finished, throwing it to the ground and crushing it with your foot.

“Fuck it.” Your fingers grabbed for another cigarette and you chuffed on it again until it was finished. Smoking made you feel weak but sometimes it was needed. The relief a little thing like a cigarette gave you was incredible and you suddenly realised how much you could really do with a joint. You and Klaus would smoke together sometimes, when you were really stressed. God, you didn’t know if it was possible for you to miss a person so much. It hurt when he didn’t come back the first time, but that was his own fault. This time he had been taken from you and for some reason that made everything so much worse. It made you wonder if he would’ve stayed with you if he had the chance and you hoped to God that he did. Did he miss you as much as you missed him? Did he even care about being taken from you? Probably not, after the way you had treated him since you returned to the Academy. Your heart broke imagining that he would enjoy being away from you.

Your skin was burning up as your mind raced, anxiety swallowing up your body in an instant. Legs shaking, you took a sharp breath before finding your way back inside the building, holding onto anything you can to ensure that you have support if your legs give way under the pressure. You swallowed, wrapping your hand around the door handle to Diego’s room and pushing it open.

“Y/N, are you okay?” Your brothers rushed to help you in, sitting you down the bed beside Five and your eyes became full with tears again. “Y/N? What happened? Where’s Klaus?”

“He wasn’t there. We don’t know where he is, or if he’s even alive.”

my masterlist

[auxiliarydetective]

AP-01: Project Apocalypse

ch. 09: Deafening Silence

AP-01 Masterlist

This fic is part of the Academy Projects series, a full rewrite of The Umbrella Academy with the addition of an original character, Kassandra Hargreeves. Throughout the story, you'll stumble across a few songs. This is supposed to make the fic feel as much like the show as possible, so I recommend you don't skip them.

Warnings: Canon-typical issues, murder, catcalling

The next morning, Kassandra got up early, despite having gone to sleep so late. Maybe she should’ve taken the ambien. But Luther and Allison’s thoughts had kept her up all night, not to mention her own, and when she had slept, she had found herself back in the desolate wasteland of the apocalypse, having a cryptic conversation with Five that she neither fully understood nor fully recalled. She got dressed and snuck down to the kitchen to have breakfast, then disappeared into her room again. As far as she could tell, Allison and Luther were still in the surveillance room, discussing what they were seeing and trying to find a different interpretation. A little later, they went to see Mom and ask her some questions. Klaus, meanwhile, was outside, digging through the dumpster, trying to fix his mistakes. Apparently he had pawned one of Dad’s things, a box, and Pogo had gotten mad because the contents had been important and now Klaus was looking for them. Or at least that was what Kassandra could gather. Five woke up last and pretty much immediately headed back to Meritech to do a stakeout, slightly drunk, anxious and drowsy.

A while later, sometime around midday, Allison came into Kassandra’s room.

“Hey,” she said softly, and Kassandra could already tell what had happened. She had told Luther about Claire. “We’re having a family meeting later… About Mom. Luther says he’ll go get Five. Could you talk to Diego and I’ll talk to Vanya? I know you two haven’t exactly been best friends, but… I need to be the one to talk to Vanya. Apologize to her.”

“I get it,” Kassandra mumbled. She put on a smile. “Don’t worry, I can handle Diego. If it’s about Mom, he’ll come.”

“Speaking of our brothers…” Allison continued slowly. “Do you know what’s up with Five? Y’know, last night?”

“I know. But I can’t tell you.”

With a deep sigh, Allison dropped her head. “Got it. But… you’re keeping an eye on him, right?”

“I took an entire week off from work, mainly for him,” Kassandra revealed.

Allison smiled and sat down next to Kassandra on the bed, squeezing her shoulder. “That’s my sister. … Any hints you can give?”

Kassandra took a deep breath to sort her thoughts, trying to find something she could say without being cut off. A little hint, anything. But Five was usually pretty strict with his secrets, so…

Time, she wanted to say, but the words got stuck in her throat, forming a lump, cutting off her air. At the same time, her lips pressed themselves shut and her eyes were glossed over with a milky white. She tried again, tried to word it differently, but it was no use.

“I guess that’s a no,” Allison sighed. “Thanks for trying though.”

Then, she got up and left. Kassandra gazed over at the photos on her desk, her siblings’ picture smiles looking back at her, their eyes hidden behind their masks. Looking through her closet, she found herself a pair of gloves, one that matched her outfit and her mood. With one last look in the mirror, she headed out to go pick up Diego.

When she reached the place indicated to her, she really didn’t think anyone could live here. It was an old boxing gym, grungy posters of fights lining the walls, the inside reeking of sweat. Still, it seemed to be moderately popular, with all training spots in the main room taken.

“Hey, pretty thing,” a man suddenly approached her. “What’s a princess like you doing here?”

Kassandra looked down at her outfit for a split second.

Princess? This isn’t even half as regal as I can be!

“I’m looking for my brother,” she stated. “Tall, he likes leather, carries a lot of knives.”

“Sorry, he’s not here,” the man smirked. “But in the meantime…”

“No, I know he’s here.”

“Trust me, baby,” he hummed, running his fingers along her hair, “he’s not. Why don’t we go for a drink until he gets back?”

That was when a metal door slammed into the wall at the other end of the room.

“Hey, hey, hey, hands off my sister!” Diego yelled, shoving anything and anyone out of the way as he marched towards the man and Kassandra. “Go back to whatever shithole you came from!”

The man snorted and looked Diego up and down. “What, that’s your sister?” He turned around to Kassandra. “He’s your brother? Damn, your dad couldn’t do better to protect you?”

“Alright, shithead—”

“I have five brothers and two sisters, thank you very much,” Kassandra cut in, “all of which could beat you to a pulp, and I carry a taser,” she added with a sourly sweet smile. “C’mon, Diego, let’s go. We have places to be.”

So, she grabbed Diego by the arm and pulled him out of the studio, though not before he had made his I’m watching you sign at all the men in the gym.

“Do you really carry a taser?” he asked as soon as the door had closed behind them.

“No, and I haven’t fought anyone or anything since I turned 17,” Kassandra confessed. “Listen, it’s about Dad’s death again.”

“Oh no.”

“Pogo gave Allison access to the surveillance room and there’s a tape there that you should see. It’s about Mom.”

Diego sighed, his eyes flickering around in worry. “Listen, I—”

“I know what you did, Diego,” Kassandra mumbled softly.

“Do the others know?”

“No. That’s why I need you to come with me and either set the record straight or come up with a good lie. And, for the record, I stand behind what you did. If Allison hadn’t found that security footage, it would’ve worked out great. Luther was ready to give up.”

“Ah, shit…” Diego let out a frustrated huff, then looked Kassandra in the eyes. “Truce, round two?”

“If you promise you won’t backstab me this time,” she commented, but she shook his hand with a smile, glove on glove.

“I didn’t backstab you,” Diego claimed as he opened the door of his car for her, motioning her inside with a gesture somewhere between passive-agressive and cordial. “Admit it, you agree with what I said.”

“The first part, maybe,” Kassandra murmured. “That doesn’t mean you should’ve said it.”

“The second part too, you just don’t wanna accept it.”

“And is that so bad?”

The drive back to the Academy took them about forty minutes, a time spent in silence. They finally pulled into the little back alley next to the house and got out of the car. A good while later, all of the siblings had gathered in the drawing room.  Well… all except for Five, who had more important things to do. If only the other's knew… Klaus, meanwhile, had even brought popcorn, which Kassandra nervously stole a bit of. It was clear that this wouldn't go over well, so she needed the sugar to get her brain going.

Luther had put up a clunky tv on top of the bar, paired with a VCR player. He wanted to say something, he really did, but in the end all that came out was:

“Just watch this.”

So, he popped the tape into the VCR player and rewound it, and the same images Kassandra had seen last night flashed across the screen. They still looked just as awful as they had back then.

“Play it again,” Diego murmured.

Luther sighed quietly and did as he was told.

“Again.”

“Diego, the recording won’t change,” Allison insisted as the tape rewound again.

Kassandra just stood by and watched, tugging at her gloves, trying to find a detail to turn into a saving grace.

“This can’t be right,” Vanya murmured. “I mean, do you really think Mom would hurt Dad?”

“You haven’t been home in a long time, Vanya,” Luther commented. “Maybe you don’t know Grace anymore.”

“If he was poisoned, it would’ve shown up in the coroner’s report,” Diego hummed, fidgeting with one of his knives.

Luther pointed at the screen, raising his voice, his words becoming sharp. “Well, I don’t need a report to tell me what I can see with my own eyes.”

“Maybe all that low gravity in space messed with your vision,” Diego scoffed. “Look closer.”

He pushed Luther away from the tv, and rewound the tape, then stepped back in an aloof fashion.

“Dad had his monocle. Mom stands up. Monocle’s gone.”

“Oh, yeah!” Klaus gasped.

“She wasn’t poisoning him, she was… taking it.”

“To clean it, most likely,” Kassandra added, her eyes alight.

“Then where is it?” Luther asked.

Silence. A tension like static electricity extended itself from Diego, one that only Kassandra could sense. She sent him a little mental nudge, a signal.

“Y’know, I’ve searched the house,” Luther rambled, “including all of her things – she doesn’t have it!”

“That’s because I… took it from her,” Diego confessed, looking the least guilty he could. After all, he had no remorse, even though the fact that it had to come out at all was a bother. “After the funeral.”

“You’ve had the monocle this whole time?!” Allison called. “What the hell, Diego?!”

“Give it to me!” Luther demanded.

But Diego didn’t have it. “I threw it away.”

“You what?!”

“Look, I knew if you found it on Mom, you’d lose your shit,” Diego barked, “just like you’re doing right now.”

“Diego, you son of a bitch—”

And just like that, they were in their fighting stances again, Diego ready to fight back like a panicked puppy.

“Luther, wait—” Kassandra cut in, simultaneously with Vanya.

“Hey, no, calm down,” she said, stepping between her brothers though they could easily look over her head. “Look, I know Dad wasn’t exactly an open book, but I do remember one thing he said: Mom was, well, designed to be a caretaker, but… also as a protector.”

“What does that mean?” Allison asked.

“She was programmed to intervene if someone’s life was in jeopardy.”

Luther furrowed his eyebrows, thinking out loud, though Kassandra could already hear the disaster coming. “Well, if her hardware is degrading, then— We need to turn her off.”

“Woah, woah, woah, woah, wait! She’s not just a vacuum cleaner you can throw in a closet!” Diego yelled, and it was almost a miracle that he was pointing his finger at Luther and not a knife. “She feels things! I’ve seen it! And Kass can sense her, so she’s sentient. – Right, Kass?!”

“Right.”

“She just stood there, Diego,” Luther growled, “and watched our father die.”

“I’m with Luther.” Allison declared.

“Surprise, surprise,” Diego scoffed.

“Shut up.”

Suddenly, all eyes were on Vanya, various threats and questions implicit. Kassandra sighed. They were doing it again, tearing the family apart and jumping straight to a vote instead of deliberating first.

“I- I don’t—” Vanya stammed.

“Yeah, she shouldn’t get a vote,” Diego grumbled.

“I was gonna say that I agree with you.”

“Okay, she should get a vote!”

Classic.

“What about you, stoner boy?” Diego asked in a yell, pointing at Klaus. “What do you got?”

“Oh, so what, you need my help now?” Klaus mumbled, snacking on his popcorn. “Oh, ‘Get out of the van, Klaus!’ ‘Well, welcome back to the van!’”

“What van?” Allison scoffed.

Luther looked like he was just about done with the situation as he huffed: “What’s it gonna be, Klaus?”

“I’m with Diego, because screw you!” Klaus declared. “And if Ben were here, he’d agree with me.”

Something tickled Kassandra’s spine at those words but she couldn’t place it.

“Alright, Kass, say the word,” Diego said, a triumphant timbre already in his voice.

“I agree with you,” Kassandra stated, “but—”

“Here we go,” Allison sighed, and she was right in saying that for once since, not even a second later, Diego exploded again:

“What do you mean ‘but’?! There is no but!”

I should’ve known, Kassandra thought, defensively throwing her hands up as she tried not to let those sharp words get under her skin.

“Where’s all that talk about you being on my side now, huh?! She’s our mother, she’s sentient, she feels things, you said it yourself!”

“I did, which is why you should listen!” Kassandra hissed.

“You were never good at yes or no questions,” Allison interrupted.

“Do we shut Grace off, yes or no?” Luther asked harshly.

“Of course not!” Kassandra squeaked.

“Thank you,” Diego scoffed. “So that’s three…”

“Wait,” Luther mumbled.

“... to two.”

Kassandra, meanwhile, became distracted. They must’ve caused quite the scene, and her sixth sense confirmed it: They were being watched.

“Vote’s not final yet,” Allison declared.

Diego just stared at her as if she had just thrown away his knife collection.

“Five’s not here. The whole family has to vote, we owe each other that.”

“Right,” Luther said.

“No, we should wait,” Vanya declared.

With that, the family gathering disbanded, everyone in a sudden hurry to get where they were going. Only Kassandra, Diego and Vanya were left behind, with Diego immediately hell-bent on calling Number Eight out. But she just bumped her hand against his chest and covertly gestured behind herself. Caught off-guard by her sudden tranquility and a gesture he only knew from missions, he turned around, and a little shiver went down his spine when he saw Grace standing in the doorframe. Just like that, the argument was over, and the three siblings walked over to their mother.

“Hey,” Diego said in a soft voice. “How long have you been here?”

But Grace was zoned out, not entirely there. It took her a full seven seconds to notice that Diego was talking to her.

“You all seem upset,” she finally said, her expression lagging behind until she was back to her old, cheerful smile and tone. “I’ll make cookies.”

“I’ll help!” Kassandra immediately announced, the thought of getting to bake with her mom again making her giddy. After all, it had been years…

“Great! Shall we?”

“I’ll meet you down there in five minutes, okay?”

“Of course! Take your time.”

With those words, Grace left, her movements still soft and full of poise. The siblings’ eyes were pinned on her, each with their own thoughts behind them. Kassandra knew them all. She knew that Diego was cracking. She knew Vanya’s dark cloud of worry. She knew her own anxiety and desire to speak. But she said nothing.

“Do you ever wonder…” Vanya started, and for once, everyone listened. “All those moments with Mom, the things she said… Like, was it her, or was it really Dad?”

“Wh- What are you talking about?” Diego asked, the slightest hint of a stutter on his lips, forcing Kassandra to push back the urge to comfort him.

“Well, he built her,” Vanya explained. “And he programmed her to be a mom, to be our mom.” She sighed. “Sometimes, when I look at her, I just see him.”

There were things Kassandra wanted to say, but she kept quiet. Her biggest virtue had always been the virtue of silence, whether voluntary or not.

“Maybe that was true at first,” Diego said. “But she evolved.”

“Well, how do you know?”

“Because Dad only loved himself.”

And just like that, Diego was gone.

“What about you, Kass?” Vanya asked.

But Kassandra just shrugged. “I’ve never thought about it, honestly. I can sense Mom and though I can’t read her like I can you or Diego, I can understand her. But I never understood Dad. Maybe that’s stupid, but Mom is more human to me than Dad ever was.”

General Taglist: @starcrossedjedis @oneirataxia-girl @daughter-of-melpomene @bravelittleflower @box-of-bats

Academy Projects Taglist: @therantsofawriterrr @come-along-pond @the-wyvern-institute @cherrybombgigi

Let me know if you’d like to be added or removed!

[fairfowl]

Niceties Like Coffins (I'll Make You a Cup of Tea)

Of the six of them, Five and Klaus were the ones who had never really had the chance to grieve for Ben. Klaus seeks solace in the tangible, Five resolves that he will never be like Reginald. Five is the kind of man who will do anything for his siblings

The door to Ben’s room had been closed for the entire first week that Five had spent in 2019. It had been a small detail. Something that he hadn’t pursued, too preoccupied with attempting to literally save the world.

After their return it had remained so. The door remained tightly shut and blended into the hallway as if there had never been another child who had lived and breathed and grown with the rest of them. The small gap between the bottom of the door and the hardwood floor of the hallway had a layer of dust that even Grace had never disturbed. 

It irked Five slightly.

Upon his return he’d gone back to his childhood bedroom to find it immaculately clean. The books and papers that he’d left were mostly undisturbed, but it was clear that he had not been the last person in that bedroom.

Why would Ben’s room have been left undisturbed but not Five’s? 

So when he passed by the door to Ben’s room on the evening of April 5th 2019 and found that it was open Five’s curiosity was piqued. 

What could he do but look inside? 

If only to learn why the room had been opened for the first time in so many years.

Five had not been present for Ben’s death (neither the first nor the second). It was something that he had found himself regretting in the past few slow solemn days. Prior to their return on the second of April he simply hadn’t had time to dwell, but it hadn’t stopped him from missing his brother. 

When they had been children he and Five had gotten along well, and Five wondered if his gambit to stop the apocalypse would have gone smoother if Ben had been with them.

But he had been with them.

And Five had been careless enough to let that fact slip through his fingers. He’d squandered both a potentially valuable asset as well as his final chance to see the one sibling that he just could not save.

Now it was too late. 

The door, which had, in truth, been cracked more than truly open, creaked on its hinges as Five pushed past. It was likely the only door in the house with creaking hinges. Five was beginning to suspect that Reginald had for some reason seen fit to ban Grace from acknowledging the room’s existence altogether. He was not prepared for the spike of sadness that ran through his chest at the thought. 

The room’s interior was dark. A waning sunset filtered in through heavy gray curtains, illuminating shelves upon shelves of books with colorful paperback colors—Five guessed that they were mostly fiction, his brother had always enjoyed adventures and had been working through a pile of classics when Five had disappeared. 

While the two of them had both been readers they’d always had vastly different taste. 

There had been a time when they’d both liked sci-fi.

Five remembered passing a copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea back and forth under their school desks, each taking a turn reading a chapter before moving on, reading the notes they’d scribbled to each other in the margins.

He wondered what had become of that copy.

Something suddenly moved on the bed and Five immediately tensed, shifting into a fighting stance before his eyes had the chance to communicate with his brain. The dim light threw the entire room into shadow and the bed might as well have been a gaping hole into the void for all that Five could make out it’s features.

But the void was breathing. 

Over the sound of his heartbeat Five could hear it.

Warily he approached. 

As he moved closer Five’s eyes adjusted and he recognized Klaus’ gangly form sprawled ungracefully across the still-covered bed. His arms were wrapped around the pillow and his head thrown back exposing his pale neck in an uncomfortably vulnerable position. 

Five paused, still wary, if for a different reason. 

He’d barely spoken to Klaus. Not since that one afternoon just under two weeks ago when he’d coerced his brother into putting on one of Reginald’s suits and attempting to gather information from Meritech. 

It was another just thing that he hadn’t had time to pursue yet, another thing that had slipped away from him. 

They might as well have been strangers. He’d disappeared when they were thirteen, reappeared seventeen years later, and then Klaus had lived at least three—possibly four—more years more without seeing Five or anyone else in the family. 

They’d grown up together but that was a lifetime of trauma away from both of their perspectives.

Five heaved a sigh and stared at his brother on the bed.

In a way it made sense that both of them were here. Of all the living siblings Five and Klaus were the only ones who had never really mourned Ben before. 

Five because he’d only read about it well after the fact in Vanya’s book, months after burying siblings one through four. Even as a scared traumatized child he’d known better to hope that Ben had somehow survived the apocalypse, so when he found out that he had died just three years after Five had disappeared it had been a surprise, but not enough to really shock his already numb psyche.  

Klaus because despite the fact that he had been present at the time of Ben’s death his brother had never really left him. 

Five could only speculate how constant Ben’s presence had been in Klaus’s life, but it was apparent that Ben had haunted Klaus for longer than he’d actually been alive. If he’d been present from when they were sixteen until six days ago when Klaus had attempted to fight his way towards Vanya then Ben's ghost had followed Klaus for a not insignificant seventeen years. 

So Klaus was grieving. 

Which would partially explain why he was curled up on top of Ben's long-neglected bed with tear traces running down his pale face. 

Five nearly turned away and left Klaus to grieve in peace. He had never been comfortable dealing with emotions, be they be someone else's or his own. But as he began to turn Klaus's breath hitched. 

Where previously it had been rasping but slow, the sound picked up into sharp gasps as Klaus’ limbs shifted on the bed. 

He wasn’t awake—not yet. It was probably just a nightmare.

Five could still walk away. 

But the tear tracks of Klaus’ cheeks were still wet and his brother looked so devastated. How could he leave one of his siblings in such pain when there was something that he could do to help? Even if it meant stepping out of his comfort zone? 

Five had killed plenty of people in their sleep. He had never awoken someone who was having a nightmare before. 

Less than four feet in front of him Klaus had begun to sob in his sleep.

Enough was enough. 

“Klaus.” He spoke at normal volume, without inflection. Five wasn’t even sure if he could summon a gentle tone if he’d wanted to. On the bed Klaus began to mutter, just as lost to the waking world as he had been thirty seconds ago.

“Where are you?” It was hard to understand what Klaus was saying (slurring really) through the sleep and the tears but a few words came out clearly. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“Klaus you need to wake up.” Five stepped closer, hoping wildly that Klaus would somehow sense his proximity and wake on his own. It was dangerous to lose yourself in unconsciousness as most people did, and Five had learned long ago that he was safest as a light sleeper. 

Klaus made a sound like a wounded animal and twisted on the bed. One of his long knobby legs kicked out and then hung off of the edge of the mattress, his sweat mixed with tears as his breaths came in quick gasps. 

Something ugly curled in Fives, chest. It made his own breath quicken and his hands twitch. Inside his body Five’s adrenal glands tried to prompt him into action but it was not the time for fight or flight no matter what his instincts told him. 

Instead he reached out and grasped Klaus’s shoulder, giving it a hard shake. 

“Klaus, wake up!” 

And Klaus awoke. Wild eyes opened and flitted across the room frantically as Klaus shot into a sitting position, gasping for breath. His gasp immediately turned into a hacking cough, which in turn became a fit. 

Five took a step back, in part to allow Klaus to get his bearings, but also partially to avoid being coughed on. Gross. 

He didn't like the way that his brother hunched in on himself. 

It felt wrong to see him make himself small. 

Klaus was always so loud, larger than life and glaringly glitteringly visible. When they’d been children Reginald had obviously loathed Klaus’s need for attention, and repeatedly scolded him for seeking it out until the idea had become ingrained into all of their psyches. 

Everything Klaus did he did for attention. Klaus was not someone to take seriously. Everything was a joke to Klaus. 

Five wasn’t sure if he’d ever really believed any of it, but enough had sunk in for it to become Five’s knee-jerk reaction when he was being careless. He had just spent weeks not taking Klaus seriously. 

“Five?” When had his brother’s voice started to sound so defeated? Under the hoarseness from the cough there was an edge of exhaustion that Five was startled to realize reminded him of himself. 

Five and Klaus had always been polar opposites. 

They weren’t supposed to have anything in common. 

“What are you doing in here?” They said it in tandem, Klaus’s exhausted croak discordant with Five’s sharp too-high voice. 

“The door was open.” Five responded, directing every subtlety of his body language to indicate that his answer was finished, and that he had no plans to elaborate. Instead he tilted his head and waited for Klaus to give his own reason. Far a short absurd moment he felt like an impatient teacher awaiting a response from an inattentive student.

Instead of replying Klaus looked away, his eyes fixing on some point between his head and the wall.  His breaths were still too fast, and still rasping.

“Klaus.” He prompted. “Why are you in here?”

Klaus was so far away that he might as well have still been asleep. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes bright with what Five suspected was a fever, he looked disheveled, unwashed and unmoored. Drifting. 

There had been times when Five had drifted, alone and surrounded by ash. 

Five decided that he would need to touch Klaus again.

He wondered if he would have drifted less, had there been someone around who could touch him when he’d been so alone. 

He resolved his courage and rested a hand on his brother’s shivering shoulder. 

Five was not the sort of man who willingly initiated touch. 

Five was the sort of man who would do anything for his family. 

Klaus did not stop shivering, but his breaths slowed, and Five counted that as a minor victory. 

“I just wanted something.” Klaus said finally, his oft-raucous voice a whisper. “Something to remind me that he was there. I miss him so much Five, I thought it would help.”

From Klaus’s tone Five inferred that it hadn’t helped at all. He began to rub Klaus’s shoulder, ignoring the uncomfortable dampness of his sweat-soaked shirt, and waiting as patiently as he could manage for Klaus to continue.  

“But this isn’t really Ben’s stuff anymore, the Ben I knew hadn’t lived here for twenty years.” Klaus shuddered under his touch. “This is just stuff from when he was a kid.”

There was a desperation to his expression that made the ugly thing in Five’s chest writhe. 

 “There’s really nothing left.” Klaus’s hoarse voice finally cracked and he let out a breathless sob, hunched on top of the neat little twin bed. “I don’t know what to do Five.” 

Five knew grief. 

Grief had followed him like a  shadow throughout most of his life, and no matter what he’d gained back via time travel, pain like that left an indelible mark upon a person’s mind. 

But he was a stranger to the grief of others. 

And grief was such a volatile thing, the sort of trauma that changed people in unexpected, sometimes unpleasant ways. 

He sat beside his brother and wrapped his arm around him, pulling Klaus against his side. The contact was an adrenaline rush, alarming and unfamiliar to his touch-starved brain. Part of him embraced it, lapping at the content like a ravenous animal. Most of him wanted to let go and move away, to reestablish the boundary of personal space that Five had so carefully curated. 

Five held on, steadying Klaus as he shook and coughed and sobbed. 

He was the sort of man who would do anything for his family. 

Eventually Klaus cried himself out. 

Night had long fallen by the time that Klaus sat up, leaning unsteadily against Five. 

“Thank you.” He said, his eyes were downcast as though he had something to be ashamed of. The statement was followed by a wheezing cough.

“Let’s get out of here. I’ve been in tombs less dusty than this.” Five did not miss the way that Klaus flinched at his words but he didn’t understand what part of his sentence could have been upsetting. He filed away the thought to examine later. 

Thankfully Klaus didn’t argue and he let Five pull him into a standing position and lead him into the hallway without a fuss. His brother’s steps were unsteady, wavering. Klaus trailed his free hand against any wall or piece of furniture that he could reach until they made it to the door to his bedroom. Then he balked.

Five looked at him with curiosity and perhaps a hint of impatience. 

Klaus stared at the door as though he was looking into his own coffin. 

Not that he’d had a coffin the first time around. 

Five had barely been able to bury all of them before they started to rot in earnest, he hadn’t had time for niceties like coffins.  

“What now?” Five said, because he was not a patient person by nature.

“I don’t want to be alone right now.” The statement was so candid that Five can’t help but feel a bit bowled over. There’s such an open vulnerability to it, the sort of sentence that would have turned Reginald’s eyes hard and cruel. 

In another world Five might have responded in the same way, it would have been easy to start responding to the emotions of others with disgust. 

He’d never be asked to respond in kind if he gave in and allowed his immediate reaction to be scorn. 

Kindness was infinitely harder. 

Five would do anything for his family. 

He wasn’t Reginald. 

He’s not about to drag Klaus screaming into the dark. 

As a child he’d never questioned where their father was taking Klaus. They all went off to different parts of the property for their individual training sessions, but none of them had screamed the way that Klaus had. They’d all looked hollow and exhausted upon their return, they’d all acquired strange injuries and unexplained phobias. Five hadn’t questioned it. He’d taken it as a fact of life. 

But now standing in front of Klaus’s door, with a hand on his brother’s elbow Five resolves that he will never be like Reginald. 

“Let’s go downstairs then.” He said, voice toneless and commanding in the way he’d learned at the Commission. “I left my composition book by the coffeemaker and I need to finish some equations tonight.”

Klaus turned to look at him, eyes hopeful and fever-bright. 

“Okay.” He said.

“I’ll make you a cup of tea.”

[meridian-technology-corporation]

[in-tua-deep]

how about: dance, little, blue, and candle?

dance:

“Might be a better method,” Jaskier allows the avoidance since he doesn’t exactly love thinking too hard on his sister’s death anyway, “They’d never see it coming.

Jaskier’s fingers dance across his lute, a quick bust of complex melody as his face contorts into a frown.

His fingers dance across his lute, but he plucks no sound from the instrument for the moment. There are a thousand songs on his lips, of jealousy and longing and heartache, and if he lets any of them out into the world he might crumble into a million pieces.

little:

“I’ll have you know that I am making it my business. We’re supposed to be bonding, Five. Family bonding.” He fluttered his eyelashes at his littlest sibling, making the kid scowl.

“I have far more worldly experience than you, so maybe if you could find it in your black little heart to describe it, then I could help out.”

“A tackle hat and nothing else.” Klaus grinned as Five’s face twisted even further into disgust. Five was such an innocent little flower at times and was remarkably easy to wind up.

Their little fight seemed to have attracted the attention of the rest of the family as they came to see what all the fuss was about. Or perhaps they were just coming over to witness Klaus’s untimely demise since no one had any illusions on who would win a fight between them, thirteen-year-old or not.

Five nodded, widening his eyes just a little and blinking innocently in a way that would have totally helped them during the Meritech incident but that Five would probably never deign use outside of the family because he was a little shit like that.

The bed is soft and foreign and Five kind of a little bit hates it.

The itching sensation fades a little bit, but doesn’t go away entirely. “What did you even say to that kid?”

“I told her to go away.” Five says, flexing numb fingers to try and get sensation back into them. He’s starting to feel a little bit floaty again, more distant.

He’s just - he’s curious and a little bit spiteful and he wants to get the lay of the land before he goes any further with the plan that is only half formed in the back of his mind.

But the woman just raises her eyebrows imperiously, and looks at him in a way that makes him feel like the abashed little boy he isn’t.

She smiles at him again, but it’s a little sharper this time. “And you are?”

“I’m Number Five,” He announces, smile sharp enough to cut, “The Deadly Little Thing.”

It’s interesting for Five, hearing his own thoughts reflected back at him. The way he sees people, their little lives so inconsequential in the long run. So short and limited. He shifts on the bed, a sort of discomfort crawling down his spine. He never realized until hearing it out loud how… callous it sounded.

Five, folded in his hiding place with arms wrapped around his bony knees, can’t help but feel a little spiteful. She didn’t worry about you the seventeen years you vanished, the insidious little voice inside his head whispers.

Sometimes Five thought his sister was more than a little blind to manipulation that wasn’t as straightforward as her power was. Too blunt, too honest, too sincere in her efforts to repair their broken family.

Five winces, pressing his face into his knees. He doesn’t need his eyes to hear the conversation, after all. But it’s - interesting to see just how… little? His siblings think of him?

He doesn’t want his family to ruin this for him. He’s surprised and a little guilty at the thought, but - if they knew he had a friend they’d want to meet her.

The simple joy he’d felt what must be only mere minutes ago had evaporated, leaving everything feeling cold and a little bit hazy around the edges.

And oh, the accusations he’d overheard make his chest hurt, and if he thought he had a heart he’d say it might be breaking a little bit.

An insidious little voice in the back of his mind hisses at him to save it, to spread it out over the course of a few days. That he needs to conserve the calories for when he needs them instead of stuffing himself all at once and risking starvation later.

blue:

It was a gorgeous day, with blue skies and a gentle breeze that ruffled the long grasses artfully

Five breathes in the cool evening air and listens to his brother ramble and watches his other brother glow blue like a realistic star wars extra and he thinks.

He doesn’t even notice her, actually. Which is a big oversight on his part. So when a voice calls out, amusement plain in its tone - “Are you lost?” - he jumps about a foot in the air and vanishes six feet to the right in a flash of blue light.

Maybe having them agree over this is worth the ball of dread sitting low in his stomach, making him shiver with adrenaline and sending blue sparks racing down his arms and tingling against his skin.

A spark of blue ripples down his arm, something that happened whenever he was anxious but had always claimed was out of eagerness. That’s probably why Luther’s eyes widen and he lunges forward to grab onto Five’s arm to prevent him from jumping away.

“Five?” A voice comes from the side and Five turns his head. Ben, glowing blue and looking puzzled, but with no Klaus in sight.

---

and none for candle!! ;v;

[plumpromises]

TUA S1e2 between scenes snippet (after Five tells Vanya about the apocalypse)

From: Hello Apocalypse, Goodbye 2019

To Five’s credit, for a few seconds he did consider staying the night in spite of his jagged annoyance with the one person he’d bet on being able to trust implicitly. But she didn’t believe him. He’d made a bad bet. She thought he was batshit. That, paired with the fact that his previous impression of her constant loyalty had been shattered, was leaving him a little tense. He was angry. Disappointed. Taunted by the old man’s warnings yet again, and that chapped more than the rest. She was supposed to believe him, not take Dad’s side. It was the one thing he’d come here for, and he hadn’t gotten it.

That hurt more than he wanted to admit.

He’d have to do this without her, without any of them. He was on his own. Again.

Fine. That was fine. He didn’t need them anyway.

Five unwrapped the glass eye and looked down at it. There was no helping it, but he could do this. He had to. He let out a breath and steeled his resolve as he rolled it over to look at the back stamp. MeriTech. It was as good a starting place as any.

Standing, he headed for the door and opened it, watching the bedroom to make sure Vanya wouldn’t rush out to try and stop him. She might succeed. He wasn’t sure. He didn’t want to argue with her further though, and he didn’t want to face whatever guilt she’d try to throw his way. She’d made her choice. He was making his. If she wouldn’t stand by his side to stop this thing then she’d have to get in the backseat with the rest of the children.

His first stop was another phonebooth. He looked up Meritech in the yellow pages then tore out their section. Using the map on the passenger seat he drove by the address, noting that it wasn’t all that far from the mansion. Not a comfortable walking distance though, and it would take too much energy to jump it. He’d either have to take Dad’s car again or acquire another one. They were closed at this hour either way, so that would be a call for the morning. In the meantime…

His eyes dropped to his bloodied sleeve. He would need to change clothes. People asked too many stupid questions when they saw blood, and he didn’t have time for any more of those. Staring at the road and letting his mind go blank, Five returned to his childhood home, too frustrated and tired to consider all the day’s disappointments.

He parked the car in the alley and collected his map and phonebook pages before jumping into the family kitchen. It was dark and silent, but there were people awake in the house. He could hear footsteps upstairs. Not in a mood for conversation, Five shoved his hands into his pockets and walked to his room, ready to jump should he cross paths with anyone. As he stepped onto the landing where most of his sibling’s bedrooms sat, he leaned over and looked down the hall. Luther’s and Allison’s doors were closed. Diego’s and Klaus’ sat open. Vanya’s door was closed. He glared at it, a flare of anger rising.

Shaking his head, he continued up the stairs to his own room.

After clearing out his pockets onto the dresser, Five shrugged off his bloody jacket and let it fall to the floor as he eyed the space, feeling out of place as he stood amidst his adolescent playthings. He stripped down to an undershirt and boxers, then kicked the clothes towards the door for Grace to find in the morning. His skin prickled from the chill in the house, but he’d been far colder before. It didn’t bother him.

He sat on the edge of his bed and sighed.

He was so damn tired.

The day had finally caught up with him. When he’d woke that morning, he had been a fifty-eight-year-old assassin. He’d gotten up. Showered. Had a few cups of coffee and a bagel. Clocked in at the Commission. Was given a tommy gun and tasked to recreate a drive-by that George Clarence Moran had grown a change of heart about. Executed the job. Returned to the Commission. Got assigned the Kennedy assassination. Had a eureka moment as he’d stared through the sight of his rifle. Had decided in the span of only a few seconds that he would quit immediately, go home, and finally stop the apocalypse that had monopolized so much of his life. He’d reunited with his family. Found them just as broken as Vanya had promised. Avoided being taken in by his former employers, and then been let down by the only voice he’d had to his family in decades.

Five fell backwards onto his mattress and stared up. He examined the overhead light, then traced the lines of his ceiling, willing his body to sleep. He needed a few hours at least. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the sound of his breathing. A gust of wind brushed against the house, and the smell of smoke and decay swept past, warm on his cheek. His jaw clenched, and he rolled over onto his side, pulling his legs up until he was curled into a fetal position.

He tried not to let his thoughts wander. Tried not to remember the long nights of absolute silence and darkness, the sky too singed for the moon or starlight to break through. The muscles in his neck and back tensed. He tried not to think about the voices he could hear whispering from the mountains of rubble, the shadows so absolute he was sure they had weight. He tried not to think about he’d calculate their mass to keep from considering the words he shouldn’t be hearing.

He let the memory of Delores bleed through instead. The first night she kept watched for him was the first night he’d truly been able to sleep for more than a half-hour at a time. He’d laid down with her at his back, her arm draped across his as she kept both eyes open for them. Thinking of her helped his muscles unwind. He’d thanked her the next morning, genuinely grateful, already a little in love with her for the peace she’d brought him. They’d left the city together not long after…

Five sank into the memory, the ghost of pressure her arm provided enough to carry him to sleep.

He burst awake sometime later, the sound of something crashing downstairs melting together with the landslide of bricks that had almost crushed him while sleeping once. He scrambled off the bed, out of the way of rolling stone and stinging pebbles, falling to the floor with a thud and a grunt. He leapt to his feet, panting, eying the room wildly as he tried to figure out where he was. His eyes caught on a poster hanging from the wall.

His room? He was in his room. But how? Why? He looked down, still confused. He didn’t look right. Something was off. He didn’t feel right.

Five bolted from his room and made for the stairs. He needed a mirror. Needed to see. He fumbled down the flight and stumbled at the landing, lurching his way around the corner and down the corridor to the bathroom. He flung himself inside and shut the door, then dashed to the sink. He clutched the cold porcelain and stared into the mirror, unable to recognize the face staring back in the dim light that poured in from outside.

The eyes were wide. The skin sallow and sweat soaked. The boy in the mirror breathed heavy, same as him, and when he glared, the boy glared right back. It was him, he realized. And everything rushed back. It was 2019. He’d fucked the equation and was here to stop the apocalypse.

“Shit.” He breathed out, looking down into the drain. He turned the faucet on, then looked up at his reflection one more time. “Fuck.”

Five rinsed his face, swallowed a couple handfuls of water, then shut the faucet back off and stood straight. His breathing had slowed again, the nightmarish memory of almost getting crushed fading into the dark corner of his mind where he kept most things. As he left the bathroom and walked back upstairs, he wondered how much sleep he had gotten. Not nearly enough he wagered, but he wasn’t going to try again.

Instead, he pulled out a fresh uniform, dressed, then ran a hand through his hair a few times to straighten it. He grabbed the eye and napkin from the dresser, tucked them back into his pocket, then opened his top drawer and lifted up the stack of clean socks. He chuckled. The fifty-five dollars he’d stashed forty-some-odd years ago was still there. After pocketing that too, he strode downstairs.

In the foyer, he started to turn straight for the kitchen when a snort from the salon broke the silence. He walked over to one of the archways and looked inside. Klaus was sleeping on a couch, sprawled comfortably, mostly naked except for a pair of colorful underwear. Five shook his head at the sight, then turned and made for the family kitchen before jumping out to the alley, and out to Dad’s car again.

The dashboard clock said it was only three. Too early for anything meaningful, so Five drove aimlessly until he came across a diner that wasn’t shot to hell. He parked, went in, chose a corner booth, then ordered a cup of coffee and leaned back. He had a clear sight of the front door. That made him feel better.

After the waitress poured him a fresh cup and walked away once he declined to order anything more, Five pulled the eye out and unwrapped it. It stared up at him, and he stared back. They had an intimate relationship at this point, him and that eye. Countless hours of staring contests he could never hope to win. Not for the first time, he let his imagination wander, trying to conceive what the eye might have seen in those last few hours before it had been plucked right out. He wondered if Luther had been surprised to discover it wasn’t real after wrenching it loose. Death must have come immediately after that. Fast enough that his brother hadn’t even dropped his hold on the eye.

But what could have killed Number One that fast?

“You want a refill little man?” The waitress asked when she returned sometime later.

He bristled at her choice of words.

“Yeah. Be a dear and keep ‘em coming, would ya’?” He answered back, unable to clear the scorn from his tone.

It was petty, he knew, but he relished the indignity on her face and smiled before she could walk away.

Five spent the next hours circling doomsday scenarios, the same scenarios he’d considered a thousand times before, but they felt fresh now that he was so close to the epoch. He would put a stop to it. He lost track of how many cups he drank after that, and he dozed off more than a few times. After the fourth, he was sure the waitress had given up on shaking him awake since he’d almost stabbed her the last time when he’d burst out of a brief nightmare.

He jerked up to blinding sunshine when a rag slapped down onto the table and a spray of mildew scented disinfectant sprinkled his cheek. Five’s eyes darted up to a white-haired woman who didn’t have a face for patience. Must have been a shift change. He reached up and wiped his sleeve across his mouth, a string of drool growing cold.

“What?” He asked her, snatching the eyeball off the table to wrap it up again.

“If you don’t get your ass to school young man, I’ll be calling you in on truancy.”

“Truancy?” He scoffed, ready to say more until he noticed how bright the light outside was. “Shit. What time is it?”

“Quarter to ten and—”

“Keep the change.” Five slapped some cash down onto the table then scrambled out of the booth and hurried to the car.

MeriTech would be open.

After parking, finding the floor for prosthetic eyes, and then talking to the receptionist about who he’d need to speak with, Five stood in the lobby of floor twelve, the guilty eye held loose in one hand, the other buried in his pocket. The room was too bright. Too white, too clean, too sterile. He didn’t like it.

He paced, the coffee, lack of sleep, and anticipation of being this close to solving everything leaving him with an excess of energy. His eyes wandered the room. Two faceless mannequins stood at either end of the receptionist’s desk. Their highlighted body parts advertised the limbs that MeriTech boasted replacements for. Arms. Hands. Legs. Eyes. At least they had a diverse portfolio. He turned to the elevators, the sun irritating his eyes. He was getting a headache.

“Uh. Can I help you?” A voice called out from behind.

Took long enough.

[dumdumsun]

Of Starlight

A/N: Alright, this entire story has officially been written ❤️

Warnings: none that I’m aware of

Word Count: 3067

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Chapter 5: Extra Ordinary

Five years ago, Vanya Hargreeves began writing her autobiography, “Extra Ordinary: My Life as Number Seven”, less than two weeks before her sister’s novel, “One-Sided”, was announced in the papers. Those around who enjoyed her writing were buzzing with excitement, for it was the second book of her trilogy. (Y/N) was thrilled, herself, to be publishing her novel within the next month. Finally sharing her work with the world would have taken a tremendous weight off her shoulders, leaving her with only the weight on her bladder. While working herself nearly to death with her writing, she was with child for the second time, which added to her stress. Thankfully, she had a very supportive husband at the time to assist in anything she requested. It was in those times in which (Y/N) was grateful she decided to make something of herself rather than letting her past as Number Eight define her.

Once “One-Sided” was published, (Y/N) sent two copies out; one to Allison, one to Vanya. She figured her brothers wouldn’t want to read her romantic fantasy as much as her sisters, so she didn’t bother asking. Allison seemed ecstatic for the new addition, but she wasn’t too sure about Vanya, supposing it wouldn’t hurt to send it. If she didn’t want to read it, that was her decision. What she didn’t expect, however, was Vanya’s novel sent to her. After Jada was born, (Y/N) had taken time to read her sister’s autobiography. While Anthony was at work during the day, she’d multitask by reading and taking care of her newborn. She would quietly gasp at certain parts of the book before checking to make sure she hadn’t woken her daughter up. (Y/N) couldn’t believe some of the things her sister dared to put in that book. Some things she wrote were blatantly about (Y/N)’s own insecurities that she had trusted Vanya with knowing. Insecurities about her powers, her capability of being a suitable member of the Umbrella Academy. Vanya had compared it to her own doubts, stating that (Y/N) had no right to complain to her, of all people. Looking back now, (Y/N) could admit that it was a bit selfish to do that to her sister. Regardless, those had been personal and it was unloyal of Vanya to share that with anyone willing to read. Despite this, (Y/N) saw to promote “Extra Ordinary” along with her own work. Someone had to be the bigger person in this situation.

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Nostalgia wasn’t exactly what (Y/N) was overcome with when awaking in her childhood bed. In fact, she’d much rather have opened her eyes to the empty side of her king-sized mattress at home instead. She debated closing her eyes and pretending she had never drifted into consciousness, but sat up when remembering everything Five had told her the day before. If she remembered correctly, there were six remaining days leading up to the end of the world. She had promised Five to assist in preventing the apocalypse, and her drowsiness was not going to hold her back. So, she dragged herself out of bed and began looking for Five. She figured the first place to begin was his bedroom, so she stopped in front of his door and knocked. Hearing rustling on the other side, she asked, “Five, are you decent?”

“Decent enough. You can come in,” He called out, the door opening and (Y/N) stepping inside. He glanced at her over his shoulder as he fixed his white button up. “I take it you had a difficult time sleeping?”

“What makes you say that?” Her hand slid down her face, sarcasm in her tone. She didn’t need a mirror to know she had bags under her eyes. Five chuckled and moved to his vest and jacket, finishing with dressing himself. As he zipped his duffle bag closed, he glanced out the window.

“You tagging along today?”

“I plan to. I… suppose I have nothing to do.”

“Nothing, huh?” Suspicion hid amongst his words as he picked up his bag. “What is it you decided to do with your life, (Y/N)?” The question was simple, genuine, but the weight of it was suffocating. She really couldn’t go back to her normal, beautiful life after all.

“I… found my mother,” She slowly started out, carefully watching as Five curiously glanced up at her under his dark brows. “I became an author… and a mother.”

Suddenly, Five couldn’t breathe. He had anticipated this conversation, prepared himself for everything (Y/N) had accomplished while he was gone. But nothing could have prepared him for the stab in the heart at the mention of her having children. Children with someone who wasn’t him. It was stupidly selfish, he knew, to expect her to wait for him, to do anything else with her life except for the things he longed to do with her. Past the pain, however, he was happy for her. Something in him knew that (Y/N) would one day make a wonderful mother. She was patient, selfless, caring, and oh, how he wished he could’ve been the one. He didn’t even want to ask about the individual she had trusted enough to raise children with her.

His hesitancy to respond worried (Y/N) and suddenly she wanted to apologize. But for what? Her success, her marriage, her children? She had every right to those and she shouldn’t have to apologize. Her concern washed away when Five raised his brows in acknowledgement, opening the window. “Really? A mother? That’s great, Starlight…” God, that nickname… She thought. Why does everything feel so complicated now? Her feet moved her to follow him out of the window and down the fire escape. She thought it was best to not continue the conversation for now.

“Dammit, where’s Dad’s stuff?” The two heard an irritated groan on their way down. (Y/N) craned her neck to see Klaus digging through the dumpster. “Shut up! I’m trying to find whatever… priceless crap was in that priceless box so that Pogo will get off my ass!”

“I’d ask what you’re up to, Klaus, but then it occurred to me…,” Five turned to his brother. “I don’t care.” His useless comment earned an eye roll from (Y/N). Klaus glanced up at the two with a small laugh.

“Hey! You know there are easier ways out of the house, buddy? And bringing little (Y/N) along, too? Whatever could you two be up to?”

“This way of leaving involved the least amount of talking,” Five hopped off the ladder, helping (Y/N) down afterwards. “Or so I thought.”

“Klaus,” The eighth Hargreeves made her way closer to the dumpster. “Is Ben there?”

“Yes, dear, he says hi.” His hand waved in Ben’s supposed direction, (Y/N) softly smiling at her ghost brother. “So, hey, you two need any more company today? I could, uh… clear my schedule.” His eyes shifted to Five as he took a drink from his flask.

“Looks like you’ve got your hands full.” The boy falsely smiled.

“Oh, this? No, no. I can do this whenever. I’m just- I just misplaced something. That’s all.” He then fell into the trash as (Y/N) joined her traveling companion at his side. After a few seconds, Klaus reappeared with a bagel. “Oh! Found it! Thank god!” (Y/N) nearly gagged as he began to chew on it, muffling a ‘delicious’ in forced content.

“I’m done funding your drug habit.” Five spit out before walking away. She followed him and waved at Klaus, barely listening to him yelling after them as they climbed into a plumbing van.

“Why are we stealing a van?”

“Shush.”

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Once again, the two teenagers found themselves in front of Meritech Prosthetics. (Y/N) watched as Lance entered the building before sighing. “We’re really gonna sit here and spy on the man?”

“You got a better idea?” Five only kept his stare on him.

“I guess not… What’s the bag for, then?”

Five immediately turned his attention to the duffle bag he brought with them. “Oh, shit,” He muttered before unzipping it. “Hey,” He softly greeted before handing a bottle of alcohol to (Y/N). She blinked once, twice, thrice when he brought out the top half of a bald mannequin and set it between them. “Sorry you were in there for so long, Delores.”

“Wait,” (Y/N) choked. “That’s Delores?! The one you were with for over thirty years?!”

“Well, obviously,” Five frowned before turning back to ‘Delores’. “This is (Y/N), Delores. You know… the one I told you about.”

“You… talk about me to the mannequin? Should I be flattered or weirded out?”

“Oh, be quiet,” Five sighed and turned away. (Y/N) suddenly felt silly for being jealous last night. “No, I’m not drunk.”

“What?” (Y/N) frowned at the boy, who shook his head.

“Talking to Delores. She thinks I’m- Yes, it’s about the eye thing. This is the place it was made. Or… will be made,” His eyes moved up to his human friend. “We just have to wait…”

He’s actually talking to the mannequin, (Y/N) thought as she turned forward, eyes wide. So, that was what the apocalypse had done to him. She felt bad for him now. Initially, her heart warmed at the thought of Five finding someone to love, but knowing that his mind had gone somewhere far away enough for him to turn to a mannequin for comfort…

“So, (Y/N),” He started, his gaze once again trained on the building before them. “Your children… tell me about them.” Truth be told, Five wanted to know how much they had gotten from their mother. Were they just as humorous? Just as passionate? As wonderful? (Y/N) let out a heartfelt laugh as she closed her eyes.

“Where do I even begin? Michael, he’s… so intelligent. He has the highest reading level in his class and they’re thinking of letting him skip the first grade. He’s such a big help at home with his little sister… I swear, he’s a little man. He’s always trying to test my knowledge. Tries to get me to solve his ‘really hard’ math homework problems…,” She chuckled, Five looking at her with an unreadable expression. “And Jada… she’s such a character. No matter how many times I teach her the days of the week, she always gets them wrong… She wakes me up every morning, trying to guess. I say ‘Jada, if yesterday was Wednesday, what is today?’ and she just starts listing off every wrong answer… She’s a performer, too. I enrolled her into dance classes. Oh, it’s her favorite thing to do… And I’ll admit, she’s good at it. Don’t know where she got that from. Definitely not from me or her dad...”

Five tilted his head thoughtfully. “They sound… just like you. They think they know everything,” He joked with a small smile, (Y/N) playfully glaring at him. “Really, though… They sound like great kids… I’d like to meet them one day.”

“Yeah,” She smiled down at her lap. “I’d love for them to meet you… But I need to be an actual adult before I can face them again. Until then… It’s just checking up every once and awhile…”

“(Y/N), I’m so sorry,” Five frowned as he sat forward. “I- I’m going to figure this out. I promise.”

“I know you will,” She breathed and closed her eyes, her world slowly crashing down on her yet again. “Sorry, I need some air.” And with that, Five was in the car alone. Well, save for Delores. Outside, (Y/N) didn’t have much time to really be with her own thoughts before she heard Luther and Klaus’s voices nearing her. Turning to her right, she spotted the two walking side-by-side towards the van. Upon seeing her, Luther raised a hand.

“(Y/N), you need to get back to the Academy. We found something… and Grace might’ve had something to do with Dad’s death.” He gruffly explained, the young girl straightening to attention.

“Wait, what-”

“I can explain at the house, but we need both you and Five there for the family meeting. Is he in there?” He pointed to the vehicle their brother sat in.

“Yeah, but-”

“Great. Be right back.” Luther’s massive body brushed past her to get to Five, Klaus following behind to get in the back. Not waiting a second longer, she followed her junkie brother inside. When she entered the van again, Luther was trying his hardest to fit his body into the passenger seat as Klaus grabbed Delores, smirking at (Y/N) as he began to dance with the mannequin. She only watched him in disinterest. Once Luther was finally in, he turned to Five. “You okay?”

“You shouldn’t be… How did you find me?” Five’s question was answered when Luther turned to Klaus. With everyone’s attention on him, he looked up from Delores and dropped his smile.

“Hey, a little privacy, guys. We’re really hitting it off back here.” He began to caress Delores’s cheek before screaming when Five threw an object at him, Klaus using the mannequin to block. (Y/N) shook her head and moved closer to Five and Luther, the former fuming.

“Get out! You can’t be here! I’m in the middle of something.”

“Oh, but (Y/N) can be here?”

“Yes! We’re in the middle of something!” Five turned forward as Klaus joined (Y/N) at her side, poking her cheek gently.

“Any luck with your one-eyed man?” He asked her, receiving a head shake. Five sighed and turned to Luther.

“What do you want, Luther?”

Turning his attention away from the conversation between the two, Luther answered Five, “Um… So, Grace might’ve had something to do with Dad’s death. So I need you to come back to the Academy, alright? It’s important.” His request was met with silence for a split second before the time traveller shook his head.

“‘It’s important’. You have no concept of what’s important-”

“Hey!” Klaus interrupted, holding his sister at his side. “Did I ever tell you guys about the time I waxed my ass with chocolate pudding?”

And that was when (Y/N) tuned out the entire conversation between her family. She left Klaus’s side and pressed her back against the back of Luther’s seat, closing her eyes. She knew Five wasn’t going with Luther and Klaus to the house, and she didn’t need to listen to the bickering that would’ve led to that outcome. Her attention was eventually brought to Klaus swinging the back door open, huffing as he got out. She watched him slam the door closed and make his way towards the store across the street. Not trusting him in the slightest, she sent a clone after Klaus, telling it to “watch over him”. At this point, she was waiting for Luther to leave so her growing headache would subside, but it seemed the man wanted to talk some more.

“What the hell are you up to, Five?”

“Believe me, you wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me. Last I checked, I’m still the leader of this family.”

“Well, last I checked, I’m twenty-eight years older than you.” Five tightly smiled before (Y/N) snorted with laughter. The boy rolled his eyes and smiled fondly at her before Luther pulled his attention away.

“You know what your problem is?”

“Really hoping you’ll tell me.”

“You think you’re better than us,” Luther’s words wiped that sarcastic smile right off Five’s face. “You always have. Even when we were kids. But the truth is, you’re just as messed up as the rest of us. We’re all you have… and you know it.” Luther stared at his brother, as the boy slowly inhaled.

“I don’t think that I’m better than you, Number One. I know I am,” He hissed, Luther only chuckling. “I’ve done unimaginable things, things you couldn’t even comprehend.”

“Right...”

“Just to get back here and save you all…” Five stared out the window. (Y/N) sighed and grabbed Delores.

“Luther, out.” She ordered, her “big” brother turning to her with an offended look. “Five’s clearly not going with us. No use arguing with him either. So, just go and I’ll catch up-” She was cut off by the sound of a voice whooping in excitement. The three looked across the street to see Klaus running out of the store, arms full of stolen snacks, the clone following close behind.

“Hey, bitches!” He shouted as a cop chased after them, blowing his whistle. The clone turned to the officer and pushed him away with great force as Klaus was nearly hit by a car. Five’s head followed Klaus’s movement.

“I’m starting to wonder if that was the wisest decision…”

After Luther was sent out of the van, (Y/N) took over the passenger seat once again and set Delores down between them, Five quietly thanking her. “So… I’m going with the guys.”

“What? Why are you wasting your time, I thought you wanted to help me?”

“I do, and I will… But I don’t trust Luther to make decisions right now… I mean, if Mom really did have something to do with Dad’s death… Who knows what he’ll do? The least I can do is try to talk him out of it. I promise, when I’m done, I’ll come and find you.” She softly smiled, gently patting his hand. Five shook his head at her.

“You don’t have to promise me anything… I’m the one who owes you.”

“All you owe me is this,” She gently squeezed his hand. “You being here… That’s what I’ve wanted for so long. Now I have it. So, your debt is paid.” She chuckled. Five rested the back of his head against the seat as his eyes searched her face, trying to find anything that should worry him about her. But all he found was her warm smile and eyes that shone with affection. It suddenly felt inappropriate to have Delores around right now.

“Well, then, you should get going… You’ve gotta catch up with those idiots.”

“Alright. Don’t be out here forever, okay?” (Y/N) leaned in and pecked his cheek before getting out of the car and rushing after her brothers. As he watched her speed away, he tried to regulate his breathing, heartbeat increasing.

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Taglist: @melinda-hargreeves @43sparrows @sapphicsyn @m00n-sh @starcurrent @alexander-hamilhoe @youcandalekmyballs @wonderlandfandomkingdom @yrdadjstcallsmekatya