#klaus’s first story

[ded-and-gonne]

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Devil’s Night

A Ded & Gonne miniseries

Written by @firstpersonnarrator | Originally begun for @sheehalloween 2022 | Devil’s Night header gif by @salvador-daley | Sheehalloween prompt by Anon: Klaus behaving badly, genfic

AN: It’s Devil’s Night and Ben has no idea what that is. Until he becomes embroiled in a plot cooked up by his not-brother, Klaus. This Devil’s Night miniseries starring Klaus Hargreeves and Evil Ben is part of the Ded & Gonne family of stories. If you’ve been reading Ded & Gonne, this chapter follows immediately after the action in Chapter 6. Don’t feel like catching up? Devil’s Night can be read as a standalone fic. All Ded & Gonne works are genfic without exception.

TWs: Creeping dread (hopefully). Flirtation between two not-brothers. Swearing. A not-so-bright, mildly omniscient narrator. Made-up words and made-up tenses.

Ded & Gonne || Devil’s Night || Start || Next

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Part 1: Afraid of the Dark

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“Benneriiiinooooo.” Calling toward the hallway, Klaus is in his room waiting impatiently for Ben to “Get the fuck over here alreadyyyy!” Klaus has been curled up on the divan, working on his costume with his tongue poking out, all afternoon.

Ben’s head peeks around the door, sees Klaus half disguised as Jesus, and decides that it will go better for him if he picks his battles. (Never tell Ben that he’s at Klaus’s beck and call. It wouldn’t go well for you. Wrong Ben.)

The current Ben — Evil Ben — makes his way in, committing his entire body to looking both sarcastic and bored.

“Save me from my costume! I hate sewing,” Klaus wails. “Maybe I could have knitted Jesus.” Klaus punishes his costume for being annoying by throwing everything angrily in the general direction of his bed. He smiles with satisfaction as the pins and needles scatter on the floor, then turns to Ben.

“Ok, so, Bennerino. It’s Devil’s Night, and it’s cold cuz you won’t let me turn the heat up. So now I’m all snuggled on the divan where you apparently have no plan to join me. Sucks, but ok. Why?”

Ben curls his lip up in disgust. “For reasons, Klaus. It’s magenta velvet. And I can tell exactly where you always sit because the velvet has your ass permanently imprinted in it.”

“My eyes are up here, mister,” Klaus winks at Ben.

“Christ, Klaus.”

“Exactly!” Klaus decides to forego all the blaspheming he could do right now. He’s saving all his blaspheming for the kids on Halloween.

“Hurry up and pop your popcorn, Ben. We will not be stopping halfway through the first story for popcorn-popping. I mean, I know you live to piss people off, but that? It’s irritating. Just thought maybe that was something you could work on. You know, for the future.” Klaus smiles as if he’s indulging a child. “You’ll get there, buddy. You’ll get there.”

Ben is too busy being both taken-aback and off-put to say nasty things while Klaus is saying supportive things. Instead, he looks like a lost little boy. “I don’t live to piss people off.”

“Yes of course you do. It’s one of my favorite things about you.”

“But that doesn’t- Isn't pissing people off a bad thing?” Ben asks, looking confused and a smidge annoyed.

“Yeah, but it looks great on you.” Klaus seems to be feeling affectionate toward Ben again, judging by the smile.

“If you ruffle my hair, I will end you,” Ben warns.

Klaus retracts his hand.

Followed by Ben rolling his eyes, dropping heavily next to Klaus with a bounce, and waiting expectantly for the tv to come back to life.

After a few moments of uncomfortable yet companionable silence, Ben senses he’s being observed. He turns to find Klaus sitting there, expectantly staring at him with a ‘mommy bought me cotton candy’ vibe. All excited and hungry. It’s a little creepy, honestly.

“Uh, Klaus?”

“Yes, Benny Bear?”

Klaus can literally see Ben biting his tongue. “Great!” Klaus praises. “Look at you! You kept yourself from threatening me! And you held back the nasty! That’s progress. You’ve come so far, Benji.”

“Stop trying to provoke me, Klaus. It’s not what I’m going for right now.”

“Ok, fine, have it your way. I’ve taken the threat level down to just defcon Medium Meanie from defcon Big.”

Klaus goes back to staring eagerly at Ben.

This is normally when Ben would just hang up on Klaus. But now they live together. Like, together on the same hallway. Not, like, together-together. There’s a wall. Right in-between them. A wall, ok? Jesus. Whatever.

“So…” Ben prompts, hoping Klaus will start at the beginning. He’s feeling lost.

“I’m waiting for you to start, silly!”

“Start what, Klaus? Start talking, I’m bored.”

“Your story. But, don’t rush it. We’ve got well over 24 hours before it’ll start to be a little sad, missing Halloween entirely because of a creativity vortex.” Not as threatening or effective as a kugelblitz, though.

“What story? Klaus, I’m going to count to five,” Ben snarls. “Trust me, you don’t want to know what comes after five.”

“Ho!” Klaus’s eyes explode out of his head metaphorically, and he frantically begins scanning his bedroom. “Wait, wait! Where’s my bingo card?”

“Your,” [long dramatic pause] “what?”

“My business card.” Good save. “You know what, Bennerino? You don’t have to go first if you’re nervous. I’ll go first.”

“What are you talking about, Klaus? You’ll go first at what?”

“It’s Devil’s Night, Benny Bunny, and I will be your very own little devil for the night. I’ll-”

“Klaus, you’re making me uncomfortable.”

“I know, I’m really good at it. So anyway, where was I? Oh, right, I’m going first.” Klaus bounds out of his seat and Ben is plunged into darkness.

“Pffft,” Ben says, scoffing at the darkness. But then he hears the door creak and the lock click into place.

It’s probably not very kind to point out right now that Ben is already scared. He wouldn’t want you to know about that. So, moving on.

“Klaus?” He gives a quick swivel in his seat, and there’s nothing to see. Quite literally. “Why do you have blackout windows, Klaus?” It is utterly dark. No difference between eyes open and eyes closed. He reaches up to touch his eyes, making sure they’re actually open.

Ben starts fidgeting. He jolts when he notices the clock ticking. Suddenly, he realizes he never bothered to notice much of anything about the room around him. No idea what the layout is, or where the furniture is. Or the piano.

It’s just, whenever Klaus is around, he tends to fill the entire room. Like some obnoxious, yet exotic, tropical bird. All rainbows, pink feathers, and glitter briefs.

Ben starts to tap his foot in time with the ticking clock. It’s a good calming technique. Become part of the music of time and see how long you can keep the beat.

Ben’s tapping foot is sort of spastic, now. He either can’t keep up with the beat, or maybe he’s jumping ahead. He can’t tell which is which. The clock is gaslighting him.

Yep, it’s crawling.

His skin is now crawling. Officially.

Outside, a cat screeches and hisses. Because of course it does. It’s Halloween. Or Devil’s Night, whatever that is.

How could he hear hissing from this bedroom? That was outside, wasn’t it? He’d swear there’s a faint scratching on wood. Through the wall, maybe. His entire being is focused in his eardrums. Trying to gauge the nearness of the cat is more difficult than it should be.

Ben doesn’t hate cats. In fact, Mean Ben is a sucker for cats. They’re aloof and condescending, and yet you still do everything you can to get them to snuggle you. A lot like Ben, the snuggling snuggler, apparently. He definitely wants his benny bear at this point.

See, the thing is, the yowling sounded kinda far away and muffled, like through a wall, a few rooms down the hall, or down the street. But the scratching? That is a lot closer, and more claws than paws. Little scratches, but Ben tries to talk himself down by reminding himself that it’s an old building. Old buildings make sounds, right?

Ben huffs and rolls his eyes, which only serves to remind him that he literally can’t see anything. Nothing. The darkness is utterly complete. No crack of light below the door. No tiny shaft from between the floorboards. Just the scratching. The scratching that has him peering every which way, but the darkness is thick as ink. Almost oily.

Just darkness. Something small, scratching. Small? The ticking. His foot tapping. His heartbeat in his ears.

There were windows, right? Yeah, sure, there have to be, Ben reassures himself. But he vaguely remembers how very many objects Klaus has strewn around the space, creating traps that could be waiting just next to his feet. Like Klaus’s old lady taste in furniture — tufted and tasseled and poofy velvet all over the place. Coffee tables with legs and corners, supporting precariously perched bongs. And bongos. And ashtrays. And scissors. Klaus has to use scissors to sew. Has to.

But there are windows in here, right? There have to have been, right? Klaus wouldn’t choose a room without windows. He thinks he knows Klaus well enough by now to predict the man’s actions and motivations.

Underneath the patchouli oil, the sharp and keen sense of smell that makes Ben win every bake-off, senses something musky. It’s kind of like something evocative of freshly turned earth. Moist, but also tinged with a rotting smell.

The rotting smell is not coming from the same direction as the scratching. Or the yowling.

Ben reaches out with all of his senses like Pogo and Luke Skywalker taught him.

Beneath all of it is something dank and vegetal. And a slight drip coming from behind him. But the hallway is the only thing behind him. Isn’t it?

The scratching has stopped. Now it’s just the ticking of the clock and the droplets of water and the scent of mold, with something sickening-sweet just below it.

His blood is rushing in his ears. And nothing, fucking nothing, matches up. It’s like one of those old, creaky wind-up toys. The jack-in-the-box, cranking, cranking. The horrible clapping monkey, clanking its cacophonous cymbals. It’s an imperfect monkey, slightly out of time with his eyes rolling and the tune and the clanking and clanking. But the ticking clock is so close to the tempo. No, wait. It’s the clock keeping time. He can’t tell which is faster, and suddenly his entire body senses space — every hair, every brain cell, it’s all so wrapped up and jumbled. Which one is out of step with the others? But they’re all out of step and he feels like his ears are stuck in one of those 3D puzzles, the optical illusions your eyes sink into, by design. Suddenly there’s an entire space hidden to the eye, just beyond the length of his arm’s reach. Is there a table in front of him? He can’t remember.

And all of this jagged clicking, and tapping, and breathing, blood rushing in his ears, heart thudding out a tell-tale beat.

Ben’s feeling a little tippy. And he’s already sitting down. He lifts his hand to his face. It feels like something tiny has landed in the space between his nose and lips. Bringing his hand instinctively to his face, he’s surprised to find pebbling droplets of perspiration.

“Fuck!” His hand jerks up and slaps his upper lip. Hard. He pulls his hand back and with it comes a formerly living creature. A small spider. Or maybe a flea? Or a gnat. It had been crawling when he smashed the fucker’s little carapace against his skin. Too tiny to tell how many legs. Wings? Antennae?

Or if it’s alone.

Immediately following that unnerving thought, all the nerve endings in his body go on high alert. The springs in his seat complain when he jolts at the sudden awareness of sensation.

He feels a tickle or a tingle in tiny pinpoints, anywhere his skin is exposed to air.

Ben is starting to squirm. All the tiny hairs on his face and neck seem to get triggered at the same time, no rhyme, no reason. He quickly raises his hands to his face to wipe away all the sweat, and oil, and hairs, and crawlies, telling it all to shut the fuck up and get off his body. Ben finds himself compulsively itching around his neckline.

Everything feels like it’s moving. Ben feels nauseous. His eyes are rolling again, with nothing but thick ink to meet him in every direction. He wants to hug his knees to himself. He almost starts rocking himself; a self-soothing habit he abandoned years ago. But of course the minute he admits weakness, Klaus will undoubtedly return, already talking as he turns the light back on. But his shuffling footsteps can’t yet be heard out on the hallway’s ancient floorboards.

He can’t calm himself. Can’t soothe himself. Ben isn’t weak. He’s evil, for God’s sake. He can’t let Klaus see him like this.

Ben frantically wipes his palms on his jeans and again clears the sweat from his brow, trying not to think about all the little spiders he has just pushed off his skin and straight into his hair.

Ben literally sits on his hands to avoid scratching at his face. His neck. His scalp. His eyebrows. In the corners of his mouth.

No, Ben. No, that’s not a breeze. No. There wasn’t a breeze a minute ago, and there isn’t a breeze now. A prickling. Right behind Ben’s right ear, Klaus whispers, “Boo.”

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Ded & Gonne || Devil’s Night || Start || Next

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[ciakina]

The Man Outside My Door

Ben Hargreeves X Reader

In which Ben has a little crush on an ordinary and follows her around when he gets tired of Klaus.

A/N: Making a story the same day I started my page??😱 Productive ik

ANYWAYS ENJOY and if you don’t.. dont come after me😔

“Klaus this is the last time I’m taking you out of rehab.” I said leaning on the doorframe. Klaus turned around slowly with white powder under his nose.

this homeless bitch.

“That better be powdered sugar.” I pulled him towards me and wiped the powder away “Yeah yeah sure but I could go for some donuts” He laughed running to the car and tripping on his on feet.

“He’s an Idiot” “He’s an Idiot”

Oh yeah. There’s been this weird guy following me around, I would’ve called 911 if the guy wasn’t dead. Yes I said dead.

Ever since Klaus has been in rehab (like 3 times) he’s been by my side. Talking to me and just walking around with me. The only place he doesn’t follow me is my apartment, he stays outside. I think he sleeps there too. But nobody sees him. At first I thought I was have a psychiatric breakdown then I learned that Klaus could see him too…

That did NOT bring me comfort.

I learned to deal with him just being there, he was actually pretty interesting. Seeing him and Klaus fight was funny, but I didn’t want to let them know that I could see the ghost or “Ben” is what Klaus calls him.

I broke out of my thoughts to see Klaus taking a handful of pill.

how is he still alive.

“KLAUS SERIOUSLY.” I yelled taking the pills out his mouth “hey hey hey I don’t know where your hands have been” He said putting his hand over his chest “They’re probably cleaner than any place you’ve ever been” Ben sighed laying down in the backseat “Thank you Ben” I agreed shooting a glare at Klaus. There was a long silence as I started the car. I turned around expecting to see Klaus sniffing coke. Instead i see two pairs of eyes looking at me in shock.

Oh. shit.

A/N: I KNOW THIS IS VERY SHORT, I js wanted to see if yall would like it or if I should delete my existence🙁 if you have any advice feel free to share! But don’t go bashing me… I will find you😐

PT.2 ALREADY?? Around of applause?? No? Okay.

[whydotheycallmechimney]

I find it interesting that hayley clearly sees the mikaelsons as her family and feels a deep sense of love and loyalty towards them, but she’s been consistently shown to be wary of hope being raised around them.

[clerichs-xi]

finished this before traveling but never posted it, so here i am posting it after my travels! yves, finally with his own big illustration and outfit design after 2 years... im so sorry babygirl

yves (he/him) is my oc! please do not tag as otherwise <3

[buildoblivionthenwewilltalk]

can’t believe s3 finally established klaus as the chaotic but strangely smart, streetwise and spooky middle child ready to find out who he is only to do absolutely nothing with it in s4

[stinkrascal]

having ocs and posting them on the internet is so embarrassing bc whenever i rewrite an oc or retcon something im just like oh fuck. you arent sneaky stinky. everyone saw that. its the same feeling i get whenever someone sees me trip its like i just rolled a 0 on dexterity

[shalvis]

Xenoblade 1 is the best game like ever fucking made and it has two of the most dogshit sequels ever fucking made

[eternityunicorn]

*NEW* Part One

Pairing: Klaus Mikaelson x OC Eternity

Genre: Romance/Drama/AU

Warnings: Language/Violence/Smut (*Smut chapters marked +18)

Summary: A rumor swirls through Mystic Falls that there is someone in town that is capable of killing an Original. For the sake of self-preservation, Klaus Mikaelson seeks out this person with the intention of killing them before they can end him, only to come face to face with a creature he had never encountered before — a woman of otherworldly origins. Unable to kill her, but still determined to neutralize the threat against him, Klaus decides to make an ally out of this mysterious lady. But that might be difficult, seeing as he’s made her his prisoner in order to achieve this goal.

NOTE: OC and any other original material is from my up and coming novel series!

Read Here: AO3/Wattpad

Tag List: @elejah-wonderland @darknightfrombeyond @beautyandwords @njeancastro316 @muchadoaboutcj @elijahfangirl1984 @arrthurpendragon

[navree]

I think it is very funny (and by funny I mean infuriating and appalling) that people's reactions to a mother being terrified to death for her children's lives is "boohoo Alicent is stupid!" and not "poor thing, that's not how a mother should be made to feel by HER OWN FAMILY"

This is such a problem with literally any TV show or movie, which is that people forget that we are an omnipotent audience. We see everything, we know everything, we are the only people involved in the story that have complete and utter control over all of the information of the story. None of the other characters do, and that's why they make the decisions they do, and if they seem somewhat nonsensical to us that's because we know everything and they don't.

(seriously, as someone who was in The Originals fandom for a time, season 2 was the hardest time to be Hayley fan when half the audience forgot that her decisions made total sense if you just looked at the information she had access to, not all the information of the entire story.)

Alicent's information is this: 1) Rhaenyra lied to her (lies by omission count as lies), and then 2) appears to have leveraged those lies to strip away the last of Alicent's support as well as anyone partial to her children's place in the line of succession. 3) Rhaenyra is then callous enough to drive a man to suicide and, in the process, get another man killed, with no outward remorse. 4) Over the next ten years Rhaenyra commits at best a huge social faux-pas and at worse an outright treason and 5) the products of that treason are cruel to her own sons which Rhaenyra has done nothing to stop (or really do anything to bridge any gap in their relationship) until 6) she proposes the Jace/Helaena marriage, which just looks like an attempt to take Alicent's only daughter hostage when you have an uncharitable view of her. 7) Rhaenyra then does nothing about her son maiming Alicent's and in fact 8) demands that Aemond be tortured for having eyes that can see and 9) vocally approves the plan to maim Alicent's son and Alicent herself for also having eyes that can see, because it helps her succession and that of her sons. And the coup de grace is in 10) Alicent seeing Rhaenyra murder her husband so she can marry who she wants and gather more strength to her side.

That is all the information Alicent has on Rhaenyra as heir to the throne. That she is callous, thoughtless, bloodthirsty in the pursuit of getting what she wants, uncaring towards others, with the capacity towards coldblooded murder to anyone who gets in her way (and who are in her way? Alicent's Targaryen children, especially Alicent's firstborn Targaryen son), and no remorse or thought to consequence for anything she does. Of course, we, the audience, see things from more than just Rhaenyra's point of view, we know that her thoughtlessness is borne out of being sheltered, that she's lighthearted and playful, that she is genuinely just trying to find love within the confines of an incompatible marriage, that the faults in her relationship with Daemon lie with Daemon as the adult and senior figure, that her attempts to reach out are genuine, that she's held the best belief in Alicent for a long time ("I do not believe Alicent is capable of cold blooded murder") that she did not murder Laenor, and that she has no intention of hurting Alicent or her kids and genuinely wants to be a good ruler and pass down the Targaryen legacy/Song of Ice and Fire (whether she can be a good ruler is debatable at best, and also God I hate the stupid prophecy fuck it so hard).

So to the audience, yeah Alicent's reactions can seem irrational, but most people with basic competence and understanding of storytelling can also understand that the impression we have of the story is something no one else in universe does, it's why I'm also willing to give grace to Rhaenyra for sometimes thinking the worst of Alicent because she doesn't have access to the information that we do.

But let's be real, ASOIAF/GOT/F&B/HOTD and all adjacent fandoms have been horrifically toxic and misogynistic, a mindset that extends far beyond characters and even to the actors, no matter which side of certain debates you fall under (yes this is a fandom wide callout I've seen all teams be gross as Hell), as I'm of the belief that insulting Matt Smith's looks and harassing his mother is in fact just as bad as bullying Emily Carey off Twitter, and relentlessly castigating Sophie Turner for no reason including when she was a child is in fact just as bad as mocking Emilia Clarke's brain injuries, this shouldn't be controversial. So I'm not surprised that this toxicity exists towards the character, and there's a lack of understanding in how yeah, Alicent should not be made to feel that her children are in active danger due to the actions of not just their sister but also their literal father, her husband (and that the worsening of the relationship post-Driftmark is entirely on Team Black for not doing anything to make amends for what happened to Aemond whatsoever and refusing to even be contrite years after the fact, Vhagar eating Luke was too merciful for him I said what I said).

A lot of the people who think this way are mostly casual watchers, or just really die-hard Team Black Twitter stans, so we can at least take comfort in the fact that most people with media literacy, whether they be regular fans or even critics, are more willing to extend Alicent the grace she deserves, and us Greenies can stan her hard enough to power a major metropolis in the meantime.

[lightpickles]

[galvanizedfriend]

Klaus was 100% in a throuple with Maddox and Greta. That is canon.

The way Maddox looks at him, he’s totally gone there. And Greta is not even subtle.

Rip evil hoe Klaus tbh.

[daisythornes]

SO what i would've done in my epic perfect ending to the umbrella academy is:

EITHER

- ok, if we must do the downer ending where they sacrifice themselves to save the entire world and must no longer actually exist. what would've been a lot more satisfying and clever in addition to that is: the umbrella academy comics exist in the new world.

Claire is the writer/artist mastermind behind the series, because she has this strange near-memory of someone once telling her these bedtime stories about a group of dysfunctional but endearing superheroes. she assumes it must've been her imagination, but still, there's a resonating echo of love.

boom. our brellies live on and get to learn and grow and be happy in some way, even if it's in fiction.

OR

- when Five is talking to all the versions of himself in the Five Diner, he first thinks it's the whole family that's the problem with the timeline and yeah, that they'd need to die so everyone else could live, but then!

the other versions of him tell him that no, it's not the whole family that's the wrench in the gears of the universe. it never has been. it was him.

this whole time, he's been looking for answers in every direction but within. he was the only variable he hasn't considered, the last unknown.

more specifically, it was him leaving his family that broke the timeline and caused the curse of the inevitable apocalypse.

that led to the Commission, to the Kugelblitz, to the Umbrella Effect/Keepers Cult - to every possible bad ending, in every timeline Five and Lila ever saw.

so, uh... maybe after a conversation with Diego and Lila if they wanted to resolve that whole situation more.... maybe after a conversation with Viktor (Five's childhood best friend, despite the show literally always forgetting about that)...

Five gets on the timeline train one more time, then jumps back to the day he ran away. maybe he's young again but with all his memories intact, because he's figured out how to control that now, maybe he just tells his younger self not to mess with time travel or leave home.

either way, Five goes back to dinner. then he grows up with everyone.

Ben doesn't die, because Five being there helps save him somehow. Klaus gets better, Allison learns to let go, Diego and Luther reconcile, and Viktor has a best friend to tell him he's always been special, and help him sort out his powers properly.

Lila and the other Sparrows and Jennifer are still alive in this version of events, they just grew up differently, in different places and circumstances. they all find their way to the Hargreeves, because of course they do. Allison has Claire. my beloved Grace is there.

Reginald dies, and they dance at his funeral. the world doesn't end eight days from then, or any time after that.

the show ends with the gang dancing to I Think We're Alone Now, but they're in the same room this time, all together in their old house, and everything is the way they've always deserved.

[clerichs-xi]

now i taste like you, you, you

forever and ever and ever

details+full under read more (beware nudity, blood, scars)

klaus is a jealous guy, thats how he rolls now

[brionysea]

when it comes to the umbrella academy, a lot of people seem to think that the first half is great and the second half is terrible. personally, I think only the first *season* is great, or even good. here's why:

the mission statement at the end of season 1 is fixing viktor, but viktor isn't the only broken one, so you can infer that they're all going to have to fix *each other* - as a family, the one thing their abuser never let them be. and the world's burning down around them because of the most dramatic sibling confrontation to ever grace the earth, but they're holding hands and escaping together and surviving the impossible with the intent to move forward, even if that means momentarily moving backwards. it's a masterful allegory for finally growing up, accepting responsibility for your personal trauma and tragedy and how they shaped you, and the moment you take that power back by choosing to heal your inner child, only after being slapped in the face with the fact that if you don't, it *will* destroy everything you've ever built, ever cared about, and ever could.

and then the rest of the show forgets all of it. as it were, it goes in the *exact opposite direction.*

on the surface, the second season isn't *as* bad as the subsequent ones are. but season 3 and 4's faults can be traced back to season 2 by how it pivoted away from the serious subject matter that the story (not the plot - the *story*) was heavily baked in, leaning hard into the goofier elements instead, without ever understanding the contrast that those conflicting elements served to highlight. it made them both more powerful; the jokes were funnier because you were just devastated, and the trauma was more devastating because you were just in tears laughing. the emotional roller coaster is key to understanding these people, and you *have* to take the serious stuff seriously for it to work. at least half of the show doesn't, and as a result, the emotional moments feel hollow.

controversial opinion: as a character, luther is better in season 1 than he is anywhere else. he's more unlikable, but that's because he's implicitly there to show what *not* to do - even if he'd succeeded narratively by locking viktor up and saving the world, he still failed thematically by emulating their father and continuing the cycle of abuse - so luther's a character that's being very effectively used to add to the core theme of the story. he feels like a real, frustrating person, whose brain chemistry got messed up by years of abuse and isolation, all for the crime of thinking his father loved him and wanted the best for him. not like a made up guy on your screen doing silly stuff solely for your entertainment.

season 2 was also the start of the characters getting love interests instead of storylines, which season 1 never would have *dreamed* of; klaus and dave's tragic romance only served to further klaus's character arc, viktor's creepy boyfriend was actually manipulating him the whole time, five's fractured-psyche-mannequin was a narrative tool to let us see into the head of such an emotionally reticent character, and so on. the romance served the character, but fairly quickly into the show's progression, it felt like the character started serving the romance. five was immune to this curse for a long time due to aidan gallagher's age, which is why he's (for the most part) the best, most consistent character across the show, because they had to use their *imagination* for him and actually *write an arc* instead of falling back on tired romance tropes that any selection of characters could slot into to fill the dead space.

after season 1, the umbrella academy is entertaining, but it doesn't have anything to *say.* which is extremely disappointing when the show initially made such a strong case for what it wanted to be.

[theplotdemandsit]

When Five finally makes it back home with his siblings, finally makes it back to the right timeline, he finds he’s still holding his breath. 

“Is it really over?” He thinks out loud. 

“I guess there’s only one way to find out,” comes Luther’s response. 

So they do. And everything seems…normal?

But as much as Five wants to sleep for ten days straight, he can’t help but feel on edge. He spends his time visiting each sibling, popping in for dinners or briefly making sure they haven’t felt anything out of the ordinary. One day Allison asks him if he actually wants there to be an approaching apocalypse. His eyes fall onto Claire who’s catching him up on High School Musical the Musical the Series.

“No,” he answers. “I really don’t.” 

They make time for family dinners every Sunday. They still bicker and maybe swing some fists every now and then, but everyone is fast to apologize and laugh again. With room to breathe again without high stakes, the hurt finally begins to heal. They had been family before, but it slowly begins to feel like a real family. 

And for the first time, they really get to know each other. For all the crap they gave Luther about the moon, they listen as he shares the misery and loneliness and betrayal he felt. Allison describes her time as a Black woman in the 60s without her voice. Literally. Viktor tells them about what it was like growing up powerless only to end the world twice. How he lost his memory and found the one he loved only to lose that too. 

Klaus manifests Ben (who is still a ghost but as alive as he could get) and together they tell of their adventures growing up and the cult Klaus accidentally created. In between laughs, they also learn about Klaus’s harrowing experiences with drugs and death.

And Five? He has over 40 years of stories, and at first he doesn’t want to share any of it. His time in the Apocalypse, his time in the Commission, murdering for the sole purpose of survival in order to get back to his family—it’s not a side to him he wants his family to know about. 

But at the same time for reasons he can’t explain, he does want them to know. For the first time, he wants to talk to his family, the family he worked tirelessly to save. 

Little by little, he does just that. Every now and then he will start a sentence with, “Back in the Apocalypse…,” during dinner or his visits with them. Silly ones at first, like the time he had the nasty Twinkie. The time he sang all the Beatles songs he could remember and pretended he was having a concert. The time he found Umbrella Academy action figures and reenacted missions with them. 

When it’s just him and another sibling, he starts sharing some of the hard stuff too.

He tells Allison how he starved during his first winter alone and hallucinated that she had helped him find food. When he woke up he found himself in a storage house full of canned goods and bawled his eyes out.

He tells Diego about the first time he killed someone. How the scariest thing was that he wasn’t shaking. 

He tells Viktor how he sometimes still wonders if he deserves everything he got for messing with time in the first place. How he’s afraid that one of these days he’ll wake up and be alone again.

He tells Klaus about the time he thought about giving up and ending it all. 

He tells Luther about Dolores. About how even though he knew he was crazy for talking to a mannequin, Dolores was the better part of him that salvaged his sanity.

He tells Ben (and Klaus, by default) that his biggest regret is not being there. That he tries not to think about how things might have been different if he’d stayed.

Slowly, slowly, bit by bit, the tension eases from his shoulders. He stops worrying so much about the world ending and how to keep everyone alive. Instead, he spends his time going to the park with Claire, helping Diego and Lila with the babies, having midnight food outings with Klaus, and listening to Viktor play his music.

At their weekly family dinner, Luther tells Five he has a present for him and pulls out a box of Twinkies, saying, “I know you want to try one.”

Five gives him a practiced glare and says, “I would rather swim in a pot of boiling oil.”

Before, his family might have stared at him like he grew two heads, but now they laugh and think his retort is hilarious. Luther opens the box and pulls out a bag of marshmallows instead, and Five can’t help but crack a smile. 

One day they ask him what his plans are—what’s next for the oldest sibling.

Five warms his hands on a hot mug of coffee. “I’m tired of thinking about the future,” he tells them. “Right now, I just want to spend time with my family.”

That earns him plenty of “aww”s and “You’re such a softie, Five.” He waves them away and tries to duck out of their hugs, but they get him in the end. And even if he could teleport, he doesn’t want to.

He hadn’t been looking for happy, but he found it anyway.

Now cross-posted on Ao3 under the same handle!

[morguecuts]

Incase I’m Not Here

five hargreeves has a baby with fem!reader  synopsis: five has saved the world from an apocalypse countless times. after creating a loving family of his own, his constant worry that the end will come again unfortunately became true. word count: 1.5k tags: five is a father, fluff, angst, death, a few sad moments authors note: this is one of my most beautiful, yet devastating pieces. i truly love the idea of five being a loving father :(

  ♱⛧ ⋆ ˚｡ ⋆୨ ୧⋆ ˚｡ ⋆⛧♱ the end of the world was an ongoing tragedy for many years, ruining the lives of billions over and over again, but especially the hargreeves. the umbrella academy, as they were called, spent endless months trying to prevent an apocalypse from occurring. they traveled from timeline to timeline, skipping around decades trying to save themselves and the remainder of earth. 

when the timeline was assumed to be restored, the superhumans had agreed to go separate ways and live their lives. diego and lila created their own family, housing a new timeline version of lila’s birth parents. viktor moved all the way to canada, owning a bar and a gray cat named misty. luther was typically off the grid, except the occasional birthday post for him and all of his siblings. klaus and allison lived together, in a three story house with allison’s daughter claire. 

five hargreeves traveled the world, worrying about the potential upcoming events that would force him and his siblings to reunite in tragedy. he tracked previous timelines, looking for artifacts that hint at a glitch in the system. after the first 5 years of silence, and seeming nothing pointing toward any timeline issues, he began to calm his nerves. 

that’s when he met the mother of his child. she was the light that five never knew he was missing. she ignited a burnt flame deep inside his soul, rekindling the lost inspiration he held for things that were other than research. in addition, her beauty was unmatched to anyone he had ever seen, or met before. her long hair completely covered the back of her body, tracing the outline of her beautiful shape. her perfectly puzzled face made him swoon almost immediately. most importantly, the way that she loved him made him learn to love who he was inside, instead of who people wanted him to be. 

their home was a perfect combination of their personalities. a matte black and white aesthetic, perfectly clean and chic, with a hint of victorian vampire. her feminine touch was visible in all the right places, creating a warm home for the two of them, and anyone else who entered. his headstrong worries of future destruction set up for typically annoying safety procedures, but she didn't mind it. the pair merged together quite beautifully, carbon copies of the other. if five didn’t know any better, which to be fair he actually did, then he would say they were lovers in every possible timeline. 

five was used to living for himself, his siblings, and even the rest of the world. his purpose was always meant to save other people, live for them, protect them. however, now 5 years into the loving marriage with her, he had learned to live for someone who wasn’t superhuman. 

he stood hovering over the clean white bassinet. the small beaded eyes glance up at him, an overwhelming amount of confusion falls over them before turning to love. her small nose scrunching at the sight of him. the few hairs brushed upon her head are slicked down away from her face. her small pursed lips release grumbles and whines at an alarming volume, desiring for the tall suited man to hold her.

“she isn’t going to crumble if you pick her up, five. you have to hold her eventually, she needs to know who her father is.” the child's mother cooed, leaning into his back, wrapping her arms around his waist lovingly. the man sighed into her touch, except it wasn't really there. the air behind him was cold and stiff. his body ached for her, a sense of comfort was quickly turned back into sadness. 

“what if she doesn't like me?” he spoke into the rather empty room. “what if something triggers me to teleport and i hurt her? my only way of protecting her is loving her from a distance.” the water in his eyes glasses over the blue. he reeks of sorrow, insecurity, and fear. 

“you are the one man designed to protect her, my love. don't let what happened in the past make you afraid of what's happening in the present. she’s going to need you, we both know i can't help you anymore. please just pick her up, five.” the voice echoes around him, his eyes narrowing down onto the now sleep filled child. 

he carefully unbuttons the sleeves on his jacket, pushing it off his shoulders and draping it onto the side of the crib. he rolls his white undershirt above his elbows, hyping himself up in the process. the small fragile girl rests on the pillowed surface, her tiny chest rising and falling. his hands carefully wrapping around her body, supporting her head while raising her close to him.

the small being is unlike anything he’s ever seen. tiny hands attached to tiny arms, short legs with the smallest feet. she’s unable to do anything without him. her entire life for the next few years depends on his actions. a small worried smile spreads across his face, admiring the girl leaning against his arms. 

small eyes blink open tiredly, glaring around before landing on her fathers. pure love glistens with the hazel colors swimming around. she makes chirps and squirming noises, slightly frightening five in the process. he takes mental notes on all of her little features. definitely her mothers eyes and lips, but his nose. truly the perfect combination of the two lovebirds. tears form in his eyes when he sees her smile, a miniature yet exact replica that once belonged to her mother. 

a faint knock taps upon the nursery door, the caretaker is chattering unknown words outside. theres a moment of silence before she enters the room, glancing at five with the baby cradled lovingly in his embrace. he turns around at the sound of her appearance, looking into her puzzled face. “there’s been a call for you, it's from your sister in law.” her eyes are firm and strong, holding his gaze causing him to pause for a moment. 

“and what did she say?” he turns his back to her again, slowly rocking the baby back into her peaceful rest.

“a briefcase was found in new york this morning. i’m so sorry, but it’s starting, sir.” she holds her hands together in front of her body, head dipping into her chest. 

“how long do we have?” five knows his constant worrying would eventually lead to this. he thought by spending endless hours hunting down glitches in the timeline, he could find a cause, find a solution, but nothing ever came until now.

“they don't know anything yet. it could be weeks, months, possibly even years. i’ve been told it's not severe, but that doesn't mean that it won't become so.” the sorrow in her voice runs deep, an unfortunate sigh escapes her lips. 

his stillness is deafening, the room has a slight buzzing noise from the house's electricity, but otherwise is completely silent. the babe shifts in his arms, nuzzling into him for better warmth and comfort. it is at this exact moment that everything clicks into place. she is his new purpose, and she will be his future. if anything is to go wrong, he would sacrifice his life for her without a question. nothing will ever be able to cause harm to her as long as he is alive.

his mind races thinking of the possibilities, will she have powers like him? will she be as headstrong as him? will she be accurately able to save the world if he is no longer alive to do so himself? The caretaker takes a step backwards, beginning to leave the room before his voice breaks the silence. “i need parchment, as much as you can physically gather.” his words are cold, and demanding, nothing that he has ever been towards her before. “and pens as well, as many pens as you can find me. i have work i must do before it's too late.” he begins to lie the child back into her bassinet, gently wrapping her back into the warmth of the bed. “yes sir, is there anything else?” the caretaker steps towards the door once more, ready to step into motion as requested. five’s eyes scan over every inch of his beloved offspring, a protective concern washed over his face. “yes actually, the albums from the attic please. i want her to be able to recognize her family when things go south.” his comment is quieter, more personal and calm. the caretaker whisks away, leaving the man and his daughter alone once more.

“you will never be alone” a gentle hand brushes small hairs away and out of her face. rubbing her small, chubby cheeks before pulling back. “i will guide you through everything that i possibly know, you will not fail this world.” his feet step back from the white wooden crib, reaching for the black jacket that was hung upon it earlier that night. slipping into it before exiting the room, heading toward his office.

 ♱⛧ ⋆ ˚｡ ⋆୨ ୧⋆ ˚｡ ⋆⛧♱

thank you so much for reading!

i hope you’ve enjoyed it, please feel free to make any comments or story requests down below. any support is always appreciated <3