#luther then asking about viktor once they're all out

[therantsofawriterrr]

The Umbrella Academy Final Season: My Version

Part Ten: The Box And The Plan

Overview: In the aftermath of the New Grumpson incident, the gang makes up a plan that tackles all their problems at once. Luther confronts Allison about Sloane and Lila reveals her secrets to Diego. TW: mature language, long ass chapter, FLUFF ALERT CAUSE ITS SO GOOD YALL, uhh tell me if i missed anything!! Pairings: Diego × Lila, a little bit of Five × OC A/N: hello, this one took some time to post sorry. i hope yall enjoy reading!!!

Masterlist

"Who were those weirdos with the fanny packs?" Viktor asked, as Luther looked at the road for a car that could give them a ride and the others just stood around.

"Was it me or did they smell like wet sheep?" Lila asked.

"Goats, I thought," Luther pointed out. "Maybe llamas."

"Who cares? They destroyed Wanda," Diego snapped, pointing at the van.

"Their names are Gene and Jean," Five explained. "They run an underground organization called the Keepers.

"Sex cult?" Diego inquired.

"Not a sex cult. Not even a cult if you think about it, but it's going towards it," Clementine said, from inside the trunk, where she was wiping the blood off her face.

"Eh, once you get to the top, it's always a sex cult," Diego persuaded.

"They're an extremist group who believe they have memories from an alternate timeline," Five stated.

"Yeah, and some of their memories are pretty much bang on," Lila affirmed.

"They're calling this phenomenon the 'Umbrella Effect'."

Clementine finally came out from behind, now wearing a black tank top tucked into her maroon trousers, her hair tied up into a tight ponytail. Five's gaze lingered on her a bit before Viktor's question.

"How is that even possible?"

"Yeah, we're working on figuring that out," Lila replied.

"What do they want with Jennifer?" Ben asked.

"Don't know. But, I'm gonna make some calls, find out how or if she's related to the Keepers," Clementine assured, making Ben sigh in exasperation as she whipped out her phone.

"Yes, yeah, I'm fine, Ray," Allison murmured into her phone. "Mhm, I'll call you."

Luther stared at her with mounting anger, still trying to press it inside as he turned away.

"You alright?" Allison asked with concern, when she saw him.

"I'm fine, no thanks to you," he said, talking to her for the first time in six years.

"Okay, I'm so confused," she pointed out. "Why are you, of all people, mad at me?"

"Why am I mad at you?" Luther finally snapped. "You think I don't know what you did, Allison?"

"Okay, look, I know that I went kind of cuckoo in that timeline, but I-"

"I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about what you did during the time reset."

"The time reset? You mean, bringing the love of my life and my daughter back?"

"No. No. Not that. I was happy you had a chance to do that. I'm talking about Sloane."

"Sloane? What about Sloane?

"You tried to make her disappear during the time reset, Allison! Stop playing dumb with me! And just so you know, it didn't work either."

Allison scoffed, her hand going to her forehead. "Oh, my god. That's what this has been about? You think I made Sloane disappear? Wow."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Luther asked, confusion warring with fury.

"Luther. I was happy you found Sloane, alright. After what happened with... well, y'know, you deserved it. The only thing I had in mind when I put my hand on that machine was Ray and Claire. I didn't need anything else."

Luther opened his mouth to throw out another retort but closed it. "Wait. So... you didn't make Sloane disappear?"

"Yes, Luther!" Allison exclaimed, tears welling in her eyes. "Look I... I made some mistakes back in there, alright? A lot of mistakes," she started turning to look at everyone as her voice cracked. "And even though every cell in my brain is telling me that it was justified, I know it wasn't. And I know I fucked up. So, I'm sorry. I don't know if you guys will forgive me or not, but still."

She sniffled at the end of it, tears already starting to stream down her cheeks. She wiped them away as she breathed out deeply and slowly, feeling lighter than ever as Klaus smiled at her proudly. He hugged her, leaving Luther to just splutter as he roved his fingers through his hair.

"Okay, well. I've made my calls, we'll be finding something out by evening."

"Evening? Yeah, that won't do. We need to find her. Who knows what those cult leaders will do to her?" Ben asked, the panic in him rising.

"Well, we're not going anywhere in this piece of shit," Five started.

A few hours later, Diego was knocking on Luther's motel room door. Luther opened up in a t-shirt that had a teddy bear on the front and Diego smiled.

"Looking good, big guy," he teased, making him laugh. "By the way, about earlier... Did you like, find Sloane, or something?"

Luther grinned with a nod. The previous weekend, he'd met the Sparrows. And he'd actually gotten along with them. And when he'd seen Sloane, he'd almost hugged her, but he'd curbed his reflexes and resorted to talking instead. It had been lovely altogether.

"And it's not just her either, the whole Sparrow Academy's alive. Except they're a lot... kinder."

"Really? All of 'em? Even the cube?"

"Yeah. He's human here, though."

"Oh. Damn. I guess Ben will be happy to hear that," Diego murmured. "So how'd it go? Was Sloane still the same or...?"

"Yup, she's pretty much still the same. She's a lot bolder here, but, y'know. Love that."

Diego chuckled and patted his shoulder. "Happy for you, man. Really happy for you."

When he went back to his room however, he found Lila pacing back and forth nervously.

"You alright?" He asked her.

She stopped and looked at him with wide eyes, looking like a deer in headlights. She shook her head no once, but the blurted out, "Don't you have questions?"

"About what?" He asked, sitting down on the bed.

"Well, they called me by another name," Lila said, sounding panicked. "You have to have questions about that."

"Well, yeah. I have questions about a lot of things, but, y'know," he shrugged. "I want you to tell me yourself."

"Fine. Fine. Alright," she said, sitting down beside him with her hands clasped on her lap nervously. But, Diego's unexpected patience calmed her and surprised her at the same time. "There is no... book club. I've been going undercover as Nancy to investigate the Keepers."

"So you're working with the CIA?" Diego asked.

"No, no, nothing like that," she said, batting a dismissive hand. "Just my own thing."

Diego pressed his lips together to suppress a smile, just looking at her with eyes filled with glee. Lila's face, in turn, twisted into one filled with absolute bewilderment.

"Wait. No fucking way. You knew?" She asked, her voice getting louder with each sentence.

Diego just gave her a small, casual smile paired with a small shrug as she stared at him, flabbergasted.

"How, though? I'm an excellent liar."

"Yeah, well, I know you. I had to follow you to see what you actually were doing, but, yeah."

"What did you think I was doing?" Lila asked, her body tensing up as she expected the obvious answer.

Diego shrugged once again. "I don't know. I thought you were going to like, a gun range or something."

Lila stared at him for a minute and asked, "You didn't think I was having an affair?"

Diego snorted. "What, like any of the guys in this world would be able to impress you? Pfft."

Lila's eyes started welling up with tears as she sniffled once. Diego laid a hand on her back, his thumb stroking the small of her back soothingly.

"I really thought I'd have to explain that there is no other man."

"I trust you, Lila. There's seven people I trust the most in this world. And you're the first one on that list."

She threw herself onto him, making him fall back on the bed. His arm went around her waist, the other going up to cup the back of her head.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"Being patient. I know I was being a little bit of an idiot."

"Next time, just talk to me."

"I will. I promise."

Meanwhile, Five was on his phone in his room, telling Derek the details of the car that had rammed them earlier.

"I need a run on a Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country, '80, '81. Brown simulated woodgrain sides, New Mexico plates. Look for matches with an owner first name Gene. That is Golf-Echo- November-Echo. Or Jean. That's Juliet-Echo-Alpha-November."

When he cut the call, Clementine who was straight out of the shower, asked, "What if they used a fake name?"

He sighed deeply, looking at her warily. "Then we'll figure it out."

She nodded, flopping down on the bed. "Sorry you gotta stay here with me."

He shrugged, leaning back to support his back on the wall. "It's fine. Not your fault. Plus, I'd rather have you than Luther or Klaus."

"You could've chosen Viktor, though."

"Yeah, I know. But, eh. I wanted to talk to you."

"About what?"

"Why'd you go back to the Thibedeaus' house?"

"Oh, that. Y'know, our things started after we went there. At first I thought it was just fever week, but I was wrong. So, I went back and found those jars. They're what broke that day you took us there."

"Why didn't you tell me you remembered everything?" He asked next. His voice was a bit soft and almost sad too.

She shrugged, leaning back beside Five their shoulders touching. "I don't know. I didn't even expect you to recognize me, to be honest."

"I don't forget pretty faces that quickly."

Clementine's breath hitched at his casual comment as she snapped her head to look at him.

Before she could ask him about it, there was a knock on the door.

"Luther's called a meeting," Klaus's drawling voice said.

They all huddled up in Luther's room, looking at him expectantly.

"Okay, so, all those people back in New Grumpson. They were wearing Hargreeves-branded military gear."

"Luther, the entire goddamn place was a Hargreeves town," Viktor pointed out.

"Yeah, it's like it was designed to keep Jennifer hostage," Ben said worriedly.

"What's so important about her anyway?" Lila asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Klaus asked. "She's one of us! Yay!"

"No," Ben replied immediately. "No way."

"I mean, that would make sense," Five agreed. "Why else would Dad build a Truman Show around her?"

"Okay, look," Viktor interrupted. "Now that we're on our own, we have two options. We either go after the Keepers or, worse, talk to Dad."

Everyone groaned while some let out sarcastic chuckles at the second option.

"I think we need to split up," Five suggested. "Me and Clementine will follow up with the Keepers. The rest of you talk to Dad."

"Wait, what?" Lila interjected. "I'm coming with you. Oh, and Diego will tag along."

Five made a dirty face as Clementine smiled at them both. "Why? We both will be fine," he said wearily.

"This is as much my investigation as it is yours," Lila replied plainly.

"Plus, the more brains that are involved, the faster this thing will be solved," Clementine said plainly.

"Well, I'm going after Jennifer," Ben declared.

"It's better if we stick together," Allison murmured, partaking in the conversation for the first time since she'd arrived.

"Yeah, well, someone's gotta go after her while you guys spend more time finding things. Who knows where those weirdoes took her?"

"You're pretty worried about this girl," Diego observed. "You know her or something?"

"Ooh, he told me he saw her in his dreams or something," Klaus replied.

"You're all a bunch of clowns," Ben said, trying to divert their attention. "I'm going on my own."

"Oh, right, I wanted to show you guys something," Klaus said, before turning and picking up the box that he'd picked up in the diner. "I found this in there."

They stared at the box for a few seconds before Clementine swished out a pen knife, cutting the tape that was sticking to every side of the lid.

As soon as the lid was removed, there was a mask staring at them.

"Isn't that...?" Five trailed off as Clementine nodded and said, "Cha-Cha's mask. Or Hazel's, I'm not sure."

Klaus took out a newspaper clipping with the Umbrella Academy standing in front of the Eiffel Tower. The headline read: Umbrella Academy Saves Eiffel Tower, Receives Key to City of Paris.

"When the hell did we save the Eiffel Tower?" Klaus murmured in confusion. He peered into the box, shoving the comics aside as he rooted into the box till he felt something cold and metal. He fished it out to find his and Dave's dog tag necklace that he'd lost due to the time reset. He smiled softly, a few memories flashing in his head as he smoothed his thumb over the engorged letters and numbers before putting it on, letting the metal touch his chest comfortingly.

The others fished out various things as well, some familiar, some not, but Clementine's gasp made them jump.

"Oh, sweet mercy of God," she gasped, taking out a gun that was plated with what looked like bronze. "I thought I'd lost her forever."

"Hmm. Nice," Five mumbled absentmindedly.

"Nice? This is amazing! This was a gift I'd bought with my own money for my birthday, man. Do you know how rare custom Mark 23s are?"

Five sighed with a slight shake of his head, a side of his lips tipping upwards even as he tried to resist a smile.

"Huh. So, artifacts from other timelines are showing up, then," Diego said, reading through the article that Klaus had fished out.

"Alright, well, now that that's confirmed, it's settled," Five said, keeping away the comics in his hand. "Clementine, Lila, Diego, and I will go the Keepers route. Luther, Allison, and Viktor, you guys go talk to Dad. Ben and Klaus, go after Jennifer."

"Dream team," Klaus said with a bright smile as Ben scoffed, but didn't really argue. Klaus was the most bearable of the lot.

That night, they slept somewhat peacefully, content with the plan that was made.

Another A/N: Thanks for reading!!

TUA taglist: @auxiliarydetective (tell me in the comments if you wanna be added!)

Likes, reblogs and comments are highly appreciated💖💙💜

[tua-five]

Season 3 Episode 10

"Oblivion"

There's a couple references to all seasons here

The last episode of season 3. Tomorrow is the day.

Ben flicking the tail 😭

This is so sad. I'm not ready. I'm so scared. Just thinking that Luther and Klaus died... I mean, I know everything is fine at the end of the episode, but right now... they're like, dead dead.

It's crazy how Klaus doesn't like pineapple on pizza. Him out of all the siblings, should.

"Nah, it's like the old man said. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, and three times ain't gonna happen 'cause I'm not a gibbering idiot." Fair enough.

"Hey, buddy 🤗"

"You 👿"

Speaking of the bouncy house. When Klaus lands, he says, "This is someone's idea of heaven?"

There's a couple of things with that. First of all, yes. Second of all, the fact that it is, means it's most likely a kid. And it's really sad to think that a kid died. There's a whole birthday party behind them... so that just makes me curious.

Also, him saying this means that that is how it works. When you die, you go to a place that you imagine to be heaven.

Reginald does have a point. Ben says that he made it happen. Being in Hotel Oblivion. But seriously. He did nothing to contribute to that fact.

Love how Five came out of the room, and it changed to number 5.

Reginald is genuinely surprised when Klaus comes. Just thought I'd point it out.

"You're going to ruin everything!"

"Oh, if I had a nickel for every time I heard that, I'd have a dollar."

Well, you know. Maybe this time, it's better to ruin everything.

They're all like, which idiot sibling rang the bell, when really it was the idiotic manipulative Sir Reginald Hargreeves.

Diego panicking and asking what floor is so real, though.

"Revenge looks good on her."

"Would you shut up and help us kill this thing?"

And then Ben just sits there. Watching.

And again, Five with the axe 😭

Love that for him.

Oh, yay. Ben finally contributing. I think part of it is because part of him is still umbrella Ben. And scared of his powers.

That or he's just a wimp.

And I love the Lila-Viktor duo. "This feels oddly familiar."

"At least this time we're not aiming at each other."

Very true. Now kill it.

Great. Now Five has lost his arm.

And Luther... 🥺😢

And the life being sucked out of them... (for some of them again if we go back to season 1).

The most impressive thing about reginald isn't that he is an alien. It's that his monocle stayed on when he fell over and died.

Ray being here, in this timeline, isn't right. He said it himself in season 2. He didn't want to come with to 2019. He had to stay for the movement. And now he's here. That's got to mess things up. The huterrfly effect. I don't care if it's a whole new timeline and it's reset. It isn't supposed to be like this.

"Obsidian Memorial Park. Graciously donated by Sir Reginald Hargreeves this 1st day of October 1989."

That date seems to always pop up. We all connect it to the Hargreeves's birthday. But it was never about them, was it? No. It's always been about Reginald. And Abigail. I'd say it's the day she died, but that isn't true. Reginald came to Dalas after she died way before 1989. So something else happened.

"Well, what are we supposed to do?"

"Live our lives." Yeah. And that's what you do. For six years, five months, and two days. Because you guys will never get peace.

What I don't like is Five looks so distraught. Confused. Yet there are no words when he looks at Viktor. Then turns and leaves.

And they all live their lives separately. Trying to figure out how to be normal again. For some, just trying to figure out how to be normal, how to live, for the first time. While Allison and Reginald get the life they wanted.

And Ben goes away on train. After being rude and grouchy, he smiles.

Here's a few gifs, but I'll actually create separate posts of just todays gifs.

[acearcane]

Who’s your favorite TUA character?

I’ve done been asked about my hyperfixation‼️

Because I’m incapable of being normal about Umbrella Academy rn, I’m going to rate all the Hargreeves siblings by way of choosing a favorite.

Going from least favorite to favorite (I like them all, but some are more precious than others):

7. Allison. Don't get me wrong, I love all of the siblings. For me, what really makes the media is the characters, and all of the Umbrella Academy characters are unique, endearing, yet flawed. That being said, Allison is the one I connect with the least, and also after season 3... well...

6. Diego. He would be higher, but I didn't really start to like him until season 2. Like Allison, Diego's one of the ones I connect with the least, although I do find his character arcs very compelling (and heartbreaking, to be honest).

5. Luther. Luther is very much back and forth for me. Like, he's such an idiot towards the end of season 1, but AMAZING in season 3. Honestly, I just love the trope of a big blond himbo, so even if Luther is as dumb as rocks, he's so endearing.

4. Viktor. He explodes things. He's just three apples tall. Viktor is just a little guy, and I've been his firm supporter since season 1. (Like, my sister keeps dissing him and I'm ready to throw hands). Plus, I really love Elliot Page, so like... Viktor, ya know?

3. Ben. I don't wanna let my men-loving show, but like, Ben's gorgeous. He's so hot. Ahem, anyway-- I love the whole concept of him being Klaus's conscience and voice of reason (even if Klaus never listens) and the only time I cried while watching this show was at one of his scenes. That being said, I don't really like Sparrow!Ben. I won't count him out quite yet though, we still have season 4.

2. Klaus. He's hilarious. He's sexy trash. He's wife material. Klaus is very much a close second when it comes to my favorite character, if only for the fact that he never irritates me. All of the other characters (except maybe Five) have moments where I'm screaming at the screen because they're so dumb (affectionate) but... never Klaus. Live love Klaus. He's great.

1. Five. I. Fucking. LOVE. Five. Which sure that's probably predictable, he's a fan favorite, but he's freaking hilarious, one of the deeper characters in the show (in my opinion), and his actor does a brilliant job with all of his quirks and mannerisms. Plus I hardcore headcanon him as either ace or aroace, but maybe I'm just projecting. But anyway, he's the new blorbo consuming my brain, and when I attend my first convention this summer (yay me!) I really want to cosplay him.

I'm so sorry for how rambly this was. If you can't tell, I'm very hyperfixated rn, and my sister hasn't finished season 3 yet so I'm practically vibrating with spoilers. I feel a little awkward being so obsessed with it cuz the fandom seems to be dead, for the most part, but hey-- I'm having fun. And that's what matters, right?

To all of my beautiful mutuals who followed me for Owl House content-- I am so sorry. The hyperfixation will return, the big ones always do. I'll try to feed you once in a while so you don't starve. Love you <3

[sissytobitch10seconds]

Suitably Distracted

Fandom: The Umbrella Academy Summary: Ben follows Viktor after the fight Allison started. Things go a little awry once they're in a closed room together. Warnings: Panic attacks and anxiety Word Count: 3,875 Ship(s): Ben Hargreeves/Viktor Hargreeves

Archive link!

The Umbrellas were once again in their living room.

This time, their father was safely locked away in the attic that they had transformed into a suite to fulfill all of his needs. He was likely watching his favorite program and eating the flavorless sandwich that Grace always made him for his lunch. 

They had also invited the other hero team into their home this time, which was seeming like a less than good idea the longer that time went on. They were sitting instead of standing with a whole host of furniture between them, which meant that if a fight broke out then it was going to get very complicated very quickly. The Sparrow side of the room was also full of less people than it had been originally because they had already lost a good deal of their teammates.

“Where’s the little one with the big powers?” Fei asked, the last to arrive from their side. She had one of her ravens perched on her shoulder so that she could see the others and where she was going. She moved like an elegant cloud of black smoke over to the couch, where she sat with one of her legs crossed over the other and her black glasses glinting in the light of the daylight bulbs.

Ben knew the names of all the Umbrellas by now, but he didn’t really care enough to correct her on who she was talking about. He looked over to the other side of the room so that he could assess them again, like a good leader always should. Diego was sitting on the couch with Lila beside him, though she wasn’t technically an Umbrella. Luther and Sloane had moved a footstool from the chair closest to the fire and were sitting on it with their hands bundled up into a complicated web of fingers. Allison was lounging in the chair furthest away from Luther, looking like she had just come off a five-day bender. Five was pacing around behind the couch with his fingers threaded together behind his back and his face pinched. Klaus was still absent, but that didn’t really mean much because he was never very helpful in situations like that.

“Yes, Allison, I would like to know that too,” Five nearly snarled. He stopped his pacing and then placed both of his hands on the back of the couch so that he could lean menacingly towards her. Ben was surprised at the rapidness in which his knuckles turned white, which implied some kind of iron deficiency.

“I told you that I don’t know. He could be on the other side of the world at this point,” she huffed. “I left him when I brought Harlan to the Sparrows.”

Ben’s stomach roiled when he remembered the trunk of her car popping to reveal the body. She had murdered him in a truly brutal way, especially to get someone of his height and stature into that small of a space. He had been threatening the old man from the moment that he knew Harlan existed, but he wasn’t sure that they ever would have actually killed him. He had been half against the killing of their enemies since the Jennifer Incident. They had mostly just wanted to get the upper hand on the other superhero squad.

“You left your brother unattended somewhere? With that kind of power?” he said after he had repressed the gag at the memory. 

The smell of blood and rotting flesh was something that was going to haunt him for the rest of his life. The first time he was exposed to it, he had been eight and they had just been sent on their first mission. It was supposed to be something small, a staged bank robbery, but it had gone wrong. They had gotten the directions wrong and were sent to a real crime with people actually trying to kill them. The Horror had reached out of the portal in his stomach without his permission and had killed all three robbers before anything else had the chance of happening. Reginald hadn’t been pleased, but he also hadn’t been happy. Ben had been disgusted and had to be soothed by his nanny for three days before he was able to return to training.

“He’s a grown man, he can fend for himself,” Allison scoffed.

“He can’t,” Diego shook his head. Lila elbowed him and then the two started arguing in what they must have thought were hushed whispers. Ben could hear them easily and clearly, but he didn’t care enough to actually pay attention to the thinly veiled flirting.

“The last time that Viktor was left alone he caused an apocalypse and then gave a kid superpowers,” Five grumbled. “The time before that, he started dating a serial killer.”

“Actually the last time that he was left alone he snuck out with a prisoner to try and take Harlan’s powers away,” Luther corrected.

As interested as Ben was in the whereabouts of the rather handsome human-shaped bomb that belonged to the other team, they had more pressing matters. He slammed his hands down onto the couch in front of him and then said, “None of his matters.”

“He’s right,” Sloane nodded. “I have a plan that would include him, but we have to make sure that it’s going to work for both of our teams first.”

Luther leaned further into her and gave her a sickly sweet look that made Ben want to gag. “What’s the plan?” he asked before his sister could get thoroughly off topic again.

She let out a little sigh and then began to play with the frontmost strand of her hair, something that she always did when she was nervous or thinking. Ben wondered if Luther had picked up on that yet, after the short amount of time the two had spent together. “Well, I was thinking that Viktor could use his powers to contain the Kugelblitz with me and then we could have Chris eat it.”

“Eat it?” Luther asked, furrowing his brows as he turned towards his new girlfriend. It was something that they all seemed to do when they were confused about something.

Ben thought that it was awful that he was beginning to pick up on through lines of their family. He didn’t want to get to know the other team, he wanted them out of his city so that his life could return to some sense of normalcy. Dealing with other people was annoying and made his life far harder than it had any right to be.

“I’m explaining it poorly,” she shook her head. “It’ll be easier to go into if Viktor was here and I could ask him some questions about his powers.”

“Would you be able to do it on your own? Allison questioned.

Five turned towards the girl with a suspicious look on his face, expressing exactly what Ben was feeling. Her adamance that she didn’t know where he was and that they didn’t need him for the plan was beginning to get more and more obvious as time went on. That usually meant that she had done something to him that she shouldn’t have, which was going to complicate matters heavily.

Before anyone could ask for the man again, there was a bang down the hall. Ben had lived in the mansion in his entire life and knew the sound of their front door being closed with too hard. It was usually him that was making that noise, so it was a bit surreal to hear it echoing from the other side of the house.

That sound was followed with heavy footsteps and then Viktor barreled into the living room. He had streaks of dirt on his clothing and a scrape the size of his entire forearm that had messily scabbed over. There was also a deep gash on his cheek, but it had been cleaned and sealed properly so it was unlikely that it had happened from whatever had happened between him and his sister. “Where is he?” Viktor demanded as he charged towards Allison.

“Who? Harlan?” she asked. When Viktor didn’t say anything right away, she scoffed and tilted her head away from him. “Does it matter?”

“Allison! You said that you were going to help me save him. You promised,” he snarled.

She was up from her chair in a matter of seconds. The chunky heals that she was wearing increased her height enough that she towered over him. Ben hadn’t seen someone look that feral since he had caught his own face in the mirror the day after their fifteenth birthday when his first mission had actually gone wrong. “What does a fucking promise matter when you were already lying to me? To all of us?”

Diego scoffed somewhere behind her when she tacked on the last bit. Ben could already tell that she was somewhat like Jayme, who did things for herself and then tacked on other people so that it was harder to criticize her. He bit his cheek as he tried to push back the feeling of grief that was threatening to overwhelm him. He could mourn the siblings that he had lost when everything was all said and done, but not while they were in the middle of it. 

“I never lied to you,” Viktor shook his head.

“Oh yeah? Then when were you going to tell me about our mothers?” Allison asked.

The others stopped and Five turned towards his brother, “What about our mothers, Viktor?”

The aforementioned superhero opened his mouth to answer and then swiftly closed it again. His hands were balled down at his sides and the room was rumbling just a little bit as he tried to contain his powers. Allison turned towards her siblings and said, “Harlan was the one that killed our mothers. He was the one that got us involved in this whole mess.”

“It wasn’t his fault, I was the one that gave him the powers that he used to make all of that happen and so I wanted to be the one to fix all of it. You promised that you would help me with that before you decided to be a petty, backhanded, fifteen-year-old bitch. He was just a little boy, he didn’t ask for all of this!” Viktor snapped. He had obviously been trying to keep that inside and now it was all exploding out of him in a rush of emotion. Thankfully, his skin was only glowing instead of releasing his extra powers into the air around him.

“A little boy? He was a grown ass man when he killed our mothers,” Allison snapped sadistically. “You want to know who was an innocent child that didn’t deserve to die? Claire!”

“That wasn’t my fault,” Viktor object as he shook his head. “There was no guarantee that you would have done the same things that you did in the original timeline or that you wouldn’t already be raising your kid as your double. I was trying to encourage you but I think that the only thing I did was encourage your bad habits.”

Allison folded her arms over her chest for a moment before she leaned forward and shouted, “Shut up!” The air rippled with power and Viktor’s eyes glazed over with white. When they returned back to their regular color, he was grasping at his lips and trying to open them in vain.

“Allison, that’s enough!” Luther shouted as he stood from the couch.

“How did you do that? You didn’t say ‘I heard a Rumor’,” Five said as he stared at his sister. Ben thought that his priorities were a little skewed given that Viktor was still choking on his own spit.

“I little residual gift from Harlan,” she snarled. She was keeping her eyes dead set on her brother instead of turning to the person that she was addressing. 

Viktor continued to scramble to try and get his mouth open. Ben had only almost drowned once, when he had fallen into a mud sinkhole during a mission that they had taken to find a supervillain hiding up in Alaska. He didn’t know if that was comparable to whatever Viktor was going though, but if it was then the other man had his deepest sympathies. 

Allison reached out and struck him across the face before she continued, “You’re right, it is always your fault! Everything that this family has ever been through is all your fault. You’re the one that was always in the way when we were sparring or training, which means that it’s your fault Ben died. Because guess fucking what? You’re nothing better than an apocalypse starter. We should have left you in the basement.”

A flare of bright while light burst from Viktor’s chest and echoed through the room so that each of them were thrown back a couple of stumbling steps. It wasn’t enough to make Allison tip over, nor was it enough to break any windows. The only thing that it did was make them all get far enough away from him that he could flip over and then scramble out of the room.

Everything was silent as they watched the doorframe that Viktor had skittered through. The Umbrellas then erupted into a series of shouts, accusations, and a couple of nearly thrown punches. Luther grabbed Allison’s arm and then turned her so that she was facing him before he asked, “What the Hell is wrong with you?”

“What is wrong with me? I’ve lost everything!” she shrieked as she pushed at his chest.

“No, you’ve turned back into the bitch that we all had to deal with when we were teenagers. I thought that the therapy and the healthy marriage would have taught you some shit but it seems that my faith in you was too high,” Diego growled. “Now sit your bitch ass down and we all might help you get back to your fucking husband if you act nice to us.”

She turned to glare at him, but it seemed like what he had said to her was finally getting through her haze of anger. She stalked back to the chair and then slumped down into it with her arms crossed over her chest. She looked like nothing more than a petulant, sulking child. Ben supposed that it was what she was, the Umbrellas didn’t appear to ever get the chance to really grow up.

Sloane tilted her head down and then rubbed her forehead to soothe the headache that was no doubt building there. His poor sister suffered from stress-related migraines and the last couple of days had not been kind to her. “We still don’t have Viktor to ask him about his powers and if they’ll work with our powers.”

“I’ll go to him,” Ben said as he turned on his heel and walked out of the room. None of the Umbrellas seemed like they would be able to actually calm the other man down. Ben wasn’t sure what had happened different in their childhood compared to the Sparrows, but it was something dark and gnarly. He was going to be the best person to try and pull Viktor out of his mind because he had been trained in it and even though he was usually pretty cross with his siblings, he was fairly good with civilians.

He walked down the dark halls of their home, the place where they hadn’t gotten renovations done yet. They had plans for the entire place but it happened slowly because they didn’t like having people in their home at all times. They were doing everything in phases and renovating superficial things like the floors and wallpapers on their own. 

The specific hallway outside of the front room and their living room was the one that they had all used as their bedrooms when they were younger. The rest of his siblings had all chosen to move up further into the house so that they could have their own spaces. Ben himself had only knocked down a wall into what had been Christopher’s room so that he could have a bigger space. As he got closer to his bedroom, he saw that the door was open and there was movement inside.

Something inside of him fluttered with excitement when he realized that Kaz had gone to his room specifically to hide from the reality of the world. He stepped into the space without announcing himself, which was probably a mistake. He should have been thinking more clearly, he knew that he had the capacity and the training. Viktor made his brain go hazy and stupid, though, and so he was very unwilling to try and fight back the cloud.

The man in question had his hands at his sides, clenching and unclenching them rhythmically. He had a pair of headphones over his ears and a cassette player was clipped to his chest by the neck of his shirt. His eyes were closed and his lips were pursed as he tried to calm himself down. Ben could almost smell the anxiety that was coming off of him in waves.

Ben had only been there for a couple of seconds, just long enough that he was able to take in what the other man was doing, before he was noticed. Viktor turned towards the other man and then ripped the headphones off of his ears so that he was once again exposed to the outside noises that he had been trying to block out. “S-sorry, is this your room? Back in my own universe it was mine so it was the only place that I could think of to go.”

He pushed himself off of the wall and then took a step forward so that he and Viktor were facing each other. He looped one of the headphone ears around his finger and tugged it closer to his own ear so that he could hear what was playing. “Farm noises?”

“Th-the only cassettes that Harlan has are weird sounds and it was the one that was most soothing to me,” Viktor replied awkwardly as he took the device back. He slumped down onto Ben’s bed for only a second before he stood up and began to pace in his tiny circle again.

It wasn’t hard to see that the poor man was having a panic attack. His entire body was quivering with the force of the adrenaline in his system and he had already removed his jacket because his sweating. Ben had had his fair share panic attacks and had helped his siblings through several as well. He knew the kinds of things that tended to work for them only because he knew them so well before they had happened, which wasn’t going to be the case with Viktor.

“What were they talking about the basement for? As far as I know there’s nothing in the basement of the Academy other than the luggage room,” Ben pried. Getting to the root of the panic was usually the thing that helped Sloane when she was waking from a nightmare.

“That’s because I was dead when the Academy was built in this universe. In the one that I came from, Dad made a tiny soundproof box down there so that he could keep my locked up in case anything went wrong. It was meant to be a failsafe if I ever had to go off my medication or decided that I wouldn’t take them, which was what actually happened. It’s the scariest place that I’ve ever been in my fucking life and Allison is a bitch for saying that she would have left me there. They did leave me there! I had to get myself out of the stupid fucking box with the sound of my own heartbeat before I started hallucinating,” he rambled.

Ben blinked. His father had been strict with them and had worked them to the bone at times, but he had never done anything that serious. He had apparently been more right than he had thought when he saw the twisted root of trauma deep inside of the Umbrellas.

It was clear that his first tactic wasn’t working as well as he had hoped. He tried to wrack his brain for other things that he could do. He had never been any good at coaching someone through breathing or mindfulness exercises, not like Marcus was. It was one of his biggest insecurities and it had grown to the size of a monster when he had lost the place as the Number One of the Sparrows. That meant that his only option left was distraction.

Ben pushed himself up from his chair and then caught Viktor by the sleeve of his white t-shirt. He looked adorable and yet so scared that it made Ben’s normally frozen heart ache with the need to protect him. “Kiss me,” he blurted.

Viktor blinked, and then blinked again. A small smile spread across his lips as he asked, “What?”

“I’ve heard that holding your breath is good for anxiety. If you kiss me then you’ve got a new sensation to focus on and you’re holding your breath,” he shrugged.

“I don’t think that’s how that works,” Viktor laughed, bright and mimicking the sound of tinkling bells. It was one of the best sounds that Ben had ever heard and he wanted to drown in it. 

“It could be, you don’t know,” he replied snidely back, though his own smile was spreading across his face.

The smaller man let out a small chuckle and then placed his hand on the back of Ben’s neck. He stood on his tiptoes to bring their lips together in a quick peck of a kiss before he dove in for more.

It only took that for Ben’s hands to wrap around Viktor’s hips so that he could hold the smaller superhero close to his body. He had never felt something that strong, something that could actually cut through the haze of depression in his mind and replace it with something that made him feel so good. It was addicting, the push and pull of lips and tongues and teeth. The smell of Viktor was invading his nose and flowing down his throat like the best medicine.

He had kissed Viktor so that he could help the other man calm down from his anxiety, but Ben was already convinced that it was actually healing him.

“There, no more anxiety for either of us,” he breathed when they had to break apart.

“Yeah. That was nice,” Viktor whispered as he placed his forehead down on Ben’s collarbone. “If I go out there and play nice with Allison, do you promise to do it again?”

“Are you trying to bribe me?” Ben asked. Despite his snappish comments, he didn’t move his arms from where they were wound around Viktor’s waist. 

“Am I being that obvious?” Viktor giggled.

“Yes, but you’re cute so I’ll let it slide.”

“Why thank you,” Viktor smiled as he untucked his face. Ben cupped his cheek and then leaned down as he gave the kiss that he had just promised. He could get used to that feeling

[doomdays]

Hey Luther is Viktor really your fave brother 🎤

absolutely yes, he wasn't kidding when he asked him to be his best man! all of the dynamics are special to me in different ways. but okay here we go:

there was never any real reason for luther and diego to hate each other, other than their father puppeteering them, making them out to be enemies so they would fuel each other to be better (despite loving & caring for each other quietly). but once they were free of their father's manipulation, they realized they really didn't have to be enemies (they still bicker like brothers and they still instinctually compete with each other every now and then, but the love is there, more present than ever!) and they make such a good duo now, easily could have been best friends all their lives and i think they realize that now, had those years not been wasted for them.

obviously he was closest to allison growing up and that was his best friend for a long time, but they grew apart when she left. (can't say much else about this since so much of their canon relationship is Horrible but. they were best friends and they knew each other better than anyone as they were growing up).

klaus is that brother that constantly annoyed him because, while all the siblings clearly really didn't want to be there, klaus made it the most obvious. and it frustrated luther back then, and it meant he was extra-hard on him, but as an adult, their relationship is so different. when luther finally gets his breakdown, klaus is the one he wants to see. klaus is the one he wants to be like. klaus is the one he's always admired because klaus was just klaus, he knew who he was, he got to be himself - luther never knew who he was. and that admiration finally comes out as an adult. ep 1x07 you are so famous to me <3 "i want to be like number four" you do not! but keep talking pls

luther was always jealous of five in a way because he knew he was better than him. and when he disappeared, he resented him, thinking that it was a choice that he made because he thought he was too good for the family / the team. obviously that's not true, and luther knew that deep down too, it was just easier to resent him than to let himself be sad or to accept that he would never see them again. when he's older, five becomes the only person who can start to comprehend what luther's been through, given their experience in isolation / being separated from their family. five really gets him and luther really looks up to him even when it's a bit difficult to admit that. he likes getting to fall into this little brother role with five.

we don't have a lot to go off of for ben, but luther telling sparrow ben that ben was the best of them is a lot. luther knew he was a good person and he respected him. he also butted heads with him because ben was pretty vocal about not agreeing with their missions, etc. (also their dynamic especially goes so hard in 'young blood'). ben wasn't afraid to call luther on his shit, either, as we see in the recent flashback when luther was quick to call for dad and ben called him a narc. the family fell apart without ben and luther never stopped wondering what kind of person he was going to grow up to be. as for sparrow ben, sparrow ben might not want to actually call any of them his family, but luther clearly sees him as a brother anyway. it's not his ben but it's a new brother and luther loves family so much that he's just happy it's growing. and luther was one of the few actually wanting a friendship with the sparrows, so it makes sense he'd be so protective of this ben now.

luther and viktor didn't have much to say to each other growing up, but they are both experiencing something so similar yet so different growing up + as adults. they're both being controlled by their father in a way that they don't get to find out until they're adults, and that's something they resonate with. luther's love of music clearly, to me, stems from viktor always playing it around the house. luther held no resentment for viktor's book because it opened his eyes to a lot of things - he annotated that book so much and he wanted to argue with some of it, but viktor was actually incredibly helpful to him in ways he hasn't ever told him. when we do see moments of them as teens, he's often quick to defend him. he defends him as an adult through season 1, too.

he obviously makes a choice with viktor in the end of season 1, and i think people get hung up on this and act as if this was personal / about luther not liking viktor, but that was very clearly never true. that choice was about seeing his sister bleeding out and doing what he's supposed to do by stopping a threat. and he makes the wrong call! because he's always making the wrong call when he doesn't know what to do, and that's something he immediately recognizes when they're dropped in the '60s. he takes accountability + he blames himself for ending the world even though he's off base, and he's the first one to speak up for viktor all through season 2, not only to make up for what he did, but because everything he discovers in season 1 makes him all the more appreciative + present with viktor there on out.

so when people acted like his choice of best man felt out of nowhere, that was simply so wild to me because his relationship with viktor had been building the whole series, and it was never actually bad, the way people assumed it was just because of his season 1 choice. viktor is the one he feels like he can talk to about things because - whether he realizes it or not - viktor gets him because he lived such a drastically different life but still can resonate with luther in the specific way they were both manipulated. so it's no surprise to me that it's luther reaching out to viktor in season 4, and people asking luther where viktor is, etc. they've clearly kept in touch more than anyone else for luther, despite viktor's insistence on moving away from his family.

[weirdwildwonderland]

Lochrann here, I can't send asks from my side blog 😅

Also, lol, I don't have all the emojis I need 😆

"Skate", 🎲, "mushroom"

HEYYYYY

🛼

describe your latest wip with five emojis-😭🥀🚗🛏️💗

🍄

share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings (I'm doing it with characters, I couldn't think of many for ships)

Allison bought Klaus a little stuffed chick at the airport when they met up again (in my story's timeline lol) and he carries it around all the time now, ever since Dave (and especially Ben) are gone

Lila is friendly with all the siblings, even Five, but she's especially sympathetic and watches out for Luther, because she knows what it's like to look up to someone who's manipulative and cruel and how hard it is to sever that relationship in your mind when they're gone.

Luther was never really comfortable with doing sexual stuff with Sloane. And if she was honest, she never liked that kind of stuff either.

Lila introduced Diego to Mother Mother and Twenty One Pilots.

Ray taught Allison how to cook and what he learned about trauma from doing civil rights organizing/stuff like that, and Allison is still surprised at how much it applied to her.

Five buys his clothes from thrift stores, because what kind of person pays more than $10 for any item of clothing?

Viktor found his old Ipod and downloaded all his music on it, and sometimes he gives it to Klaus when the nights get rough.

Lila is a night owl. Diego is not.

🎲

what stops you from writing more in your free time? 

Probably school, and just the sheer amount of assignments and stuff.

Other than that, sometimes I just get bored of what I write after a while, and it's hard to get back into once you've been out of it for a long time.

[happyandticklish]

ok i need ALL ur umbrella academy hcs

This has only been sitting in my askbox for a million years now, but better late than never~

I'm only gonna be doing the main cast (with the exception that I'll do both Bens), because that's all I really have headcannons for.

Before you ask, yes they are in order of their numbers because I think I'm funny.

Luther:

A lot of people, including him, feel like he's more ticklish than he is in actuality because he tends to react explosively to being tickled.

Definitely the type to start giggling and nervously backing away when threatened, but he's actually pretty chill about it if you catch him by surprise. The anticipation more than anything else is what gets to him.

Worst spots would be under his arms, his ribs, and his feet, though most people don't know about that last one as they're not often on display.

I saw a headcannon from @ssnicker-doodless that said that due to his monkey form he'd be less ticklish, and once it's removed at the end of season 3 he's far more sensitive, and I 100% agree with that.

Doesn't directly hate or enjoy being tickled, he's just kind of neutral about the whole thing. Probably prefers being on the giving side a little more.

Diego

Very fucking ticklish but he's grown good at resisting it in the beginning to deter people from trying. He'll scrunch up his face into this almost pained grimace while tensing every muscle in his body and holding his breath. Bro looks like he's dying lol. If you get at it for more than a minute or so however, the giggles will start to slip through, and from then on the whole dam breaks and he's a flailing mess.

Does and doesn't like being tickled. Most of the people he was "close" with throughout his life were his siblings, and he's not on the greatest terms with them. When he met Eudora he became more okay with it, and then immediatelly lost all of that growth when he met Lila.

The two are super competitive at first, and their entire love language is being dicks to each other, so he's a bit hesitant about letting himself be that vulnerable with her. But once she finds out that he is, all she does is tease him a bit, but doesn't try to initiate anything. I think ultimately that bit of respect is what lead him to eventually ask her to try tickling him.

Worst spots would be his neck, sides, and ribs, with ribs definitely coming highest on that list. Has a very growly laugh, deep, but desperate, and he'll squirm a lot when being tickled.

Doesn't genuinely tickle people a lot, but he'll do that annoying poke in the side thing with his siblings all the time, and he'll sometimes do it to Klaus if he knows the other has been craving it lately.

He tickles Lila a lot though and usually receives revenge for it, but once he admitted he liked it to her, he's found that this provocation method of seeking tickles is far easier than forcing himself to ask for it up front.

Allison:

Does not take kindly to being tickled, and she will let you know it. There are a few notable exceptions, such as Raymond and probably Luther in canon but I'm trying to block out that part of the show.

She's definitely more okay with being on the giving end however. Little pokes and squeezes from behind show up a lot in her day to day with her siblings, with Viktor or Klaus ending up on the receiving end of it more often than the others.

She'll sometimes tickle Five, if she wants to risk it, but it usually results in him not talking to her for days and the consequences outweigh the rewards.

Most ticklish on her thighs, stomach, and ribs (ALL the Hargreeves got the ticklish ribs genes, and they all hate it because it makes them easy to get too).

Has a very airy laugh that tends to go silent after a while, and snorts if you get a good spot.

Knows everyone's spots in her family; no one is sure how, she just knows.

Used to use her rumor power to restrain people when she was younger a lot, but as she grew older she stopped as she felt it gave her too much of an unfair advantage.

Klaus:

Not the most ticklish, but the most likely to react to it in a genuine way, so most people assume he is.

Loves being tickled and isn't ashamed to admit it. He doesn't bug people about it too often, unless it's in a teasing way to a Diego or an Allison, joking about how if they're so annoyed with him they should just tickle him. It works about 50% of the time, so usually he'll resort to being annoying, or splaying himself out to and waiting for the inevitable.

He tends to admit it more when he's high/inebriated, and will fall, giggling and swaying slightly on his feet, into people's laps, with slurred requests to get wrecked. This is how he met more than a few of his lovers in high-school and his early twenties.

Curls up into a ball when tickled, and doesn't actually squirm that much, but he'll squeal like he's being murdered, and protest just as much too, only to stare at them in confusion when they stop because "those were fun screams, what are you talking about??"

Loves being on the receiving end by a long shot, but certainly isn't opposed to dishing it out as well.

He's one of the few people who will risk tickling Five and, strangely enough, one of the few people who survive the process, which Klaus always boasts about, insisting he's his favorite.

Very verbal when teasing, pointing out which spots appear to be worse and about how funny it is that they can be taken down by something so innocent. Doesn't directly use baby talk, but his own thing that's kind of adjacent to that. Big fan of the "I'm not touching you" shtick.

Five:

Is actually pretty open about the fact that he's ticklish and won't deny it if asked. Usually scoffs out some version of, "Everyone is, what kind of stupid question is that?"

However, if anyone attempts to test that information he immediatelly goes on the defensive and teleports out of reach until he's sure they're not going to do anything.

Hates the image of being tickled more than he hates the act itself. He knows that people underestimate his skill and knowledge already because he's in a younger, smaller body, and he doesn't want to add such a vulnerable weakness into the mix as well.

He actually kind of likes the helplessness of tickling, how he gets to let go of the control he's constantly holding onto and have an excuse to laugh just to laugh. He doesn't mind the feeling either; a couple times in the apocalypse he tried to replicate the sensation, brushing fingers shyly over his knees or scratching at the normally sensitive spot on his palm, but it was never the same.

That being said, he hates how childish it makes him look and he has a hard time giving up that control and trust to someone else. Klaus is one of the few people he'll allow it with, mostly because he never brings it up. He'll tease him during, sure, but afterwards he'll move on like nothing happened. Five enjoys that their dynamic doesn't have to change after it, and he can still keep up his annoyed not-technically-older-brother act around him. So he'll let him do it more than the others, and has gotten stupidly close to being obvious about it a couple times, but luckily Klaus seems to get that he doesn't want to admit it, so he doesn't pry.

Won't ask to get tickled, as I said, but if he's drunk he'll be more touchy-feely with people, tickling them and brushing up against shoulders, falling into laps, giggling over nothing, all of which usually result in him getting his shit wrecked. Five has a love/hate relationship with his knowledge, because on one hand it gets him what he wants, but on the other hand he feels like he's getting too close to showing his hand, so to speak.

Doesn't tickle others a lot, unless he wants to be annoying. When he was younger he did it more, and absolutely used his teleportation powers to manifest on top of people and dig his fingers under their arms, or appear behind people and taser their ribs.

He uses teasing sparingly, but when it is employed, it usually consists of short, devastating comments that make everything a thousand times worse than they already are, especially when accompanied by that annoyingly smug smirk that he's always sporting.

Worst spots would be his neck, stomach, sides, and knees, which, as everyone has collectively agreed lol, is a death spot and will take him out instantly. His hands are also ticklish, though not nearly as bad as the rest of him. Just enough to get him squirming and fidgeting and letting out giggly huffs.

Actually really likes having his stomach tickled, though he'll never admit it, as it makes his insides swoop in a way that's almost pleasant, and feels vulnerable in a way that's not panic-inducing? If that makes sense? Also likes having his knees tickled, but can only take that for so long before has to tap out.

Doesn't laugh right away when tickled. Instead, he'll let out grunts and huffs of breath, with a lot of stuttered sentences and protests. When he finally does crack, his laugh is very giggly occasionally turning into a shriek if a spot gets bad. For the most part it stays at a giggle though, no matter how ticklish the spot is (though he'll snort on occasion if you grip his knees, a fact he vehemently denies).

Ben (normal):

The actual most ticklish out of all of the siblings, a fact he is unfortunately very aware of.

Worst spots would be ribs (which you can assume for basically all of them, with varying levels of sensitivity), calves, that spot where you back connects to your sides, and his stomach, which is his worst spot because it's connected to his powers.

ALSO his tentacles are absolutely ticklish and y'all can fight me on this. I don't think even he was aware of that at first, but once Klaus experimented with it in a sparring match and he nearly hurt them both with how fast he tried to pull them back.

Tickling obviously faded out of his life once his life faded out of his life, but once Klaus began to grow more adept at manifesting him, it started showing up in new and interesting ways.

At first it just began with Klaus realizing that he could tickle Ben now, much to Ben's chagrin, and spent forever teasing him with that, especially as Ben was unable to un-manifest himself to get away. After a while however, Ben realized that if Klaus could touch him, he could do the same, and the tables quickly got flipped.

Once they figured out how to let Ben possess him, they discovered something incredibly interesting. If Ben lets the connection flicker just slightly, Klaus can feel what he does, as they're stuck in this weird limbo area, and he takes advantage of that to tickle Klaus while possessing him. It's a dangerous game, however, as spending too long with a cracked connection can allow Klaus to slip back through and do the same to him.

Kind of likes being tickled, but he's also hella fucking ticklish and cannot stand it for very long. Definitely prefers being on the giving end more than the receiving one.

Sometimes Klaus will manifest Ben just enough so that he can touch to play pranks on his siblings by having an invisible Ben wreck the shit out of them.

Ben (Sparrow):

All the stuff about worst spots, tentacles, and the fact that he is by far the most ticklish still remains true about this Ben.

Tickling almost never came up with him as a kid, and if it did, he shut it down almost immediatelly. I don't think even he was aware of whether or not he liked it as a kid; all he knew was that it made him vulnerable, and weakness wasn't something he could afford to show to the others.

When he meets The Umbrella Academy, things change just slightly. Klaus is the most affectionate with him, and the only one willing to give him a chance, and so it's only natural that it would come up with him.

During the night they all got drunk together, Klaus was listing off things that were similar about the two of them, trying to see if there were any key differences with the whole time travel weirdness. Eventually he got to tickling, and Ben, in a moment of stupid drunkenness induced honesty, admitted that he didn't even know if he was ticklish or not. Klaus, of course, had to test that.

The situation was made far worse in that Klaus knew all of his Ben's worst spots and which techniques worked best, and therefore knew immediatelly where to target. Ben of course fell to hysterics and pleading quickly, his body overloaded by all the new, and horribly intense, sensations. There's nothing more disorientating than someone else knowing your body better than even you do. Klaus backed off pretty quickly, only for Ben, still drunk, still being stupid (at least from his perspective), asked if Klaus could do it again, only this time lighter. Klaus, who had never received this permission from his Ben, was happy to oblige~

Enjoys being tickled more than the other Ben, if only because he was deprived of it for so long, but he will violently deny it if anyone brings it up because he is Repressed TM.

Viktor:

Wasn't tickled much as a kid, always the one left out of most of their activities or play. He would sometimes sneak downstairs and watch them from cracks in doors or from a distance when they would have tickle fights. He was never brave enough to engage, though he definitely thought about it often.

As he was closest with Five, at least as a child, he would sometimes approach him and ask about the subject, such as why they always struggled so hard to get away if it was something that was making them laugh. Five would usually respond with a blush and a stutter as he tried to think of a way to respond that didn't give him away. In the end, he usually gave a brief explanation of what it was and simply ended on "It's embarrassing" and left it at that.

Even as he got older, the subject of tickling didn't come up often in Viktor's life, though it happened a couple times with Leonard, all brief, haphazard interactions that usually left him confused and vaguely wanting more.

It came up even more once Sissy came into the picture, and it was then that Viktor discovered just how ticklish he really was, and also why his siblings had always seemed so desperate whenever it was happening.

Does enjoy tickling others, in theory, but gets super shy about it and doesn't engage unless the other person has made it explicitly clear that they like it.

When he was younger, he asked both Five and Klaus on seperate occasions if he could tickle them, and both agreed with varying levels of reluctance.

Worst spots would probably be his thighs, feet, and under arms. His back is also ticklish, mostly on the shoulder blades area, and it's one of the few spots that he can actually relax into the tickling with.

[xviruserrorx]

Title: "The Rain Before The Rainbow"

Chapter 4/7: "That's When You Stu-stu-stutter Something Profound" (DRAFT)

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This fic was originally written around late 2019-early 2020 ish, but was abandoned for reasons and now I'm gonna re-write it to but I have a no-delete rule so I'm posting all the original drafts here for anyone who still wants to see them. "But Virus these are terribly written" you may say and, yeah I know, this story was one of the first things I had written after a 5-6 year writing hiatus... But here they are terrible Grammer and all!

Fandom: The Umbrella Academy (Tv & Comics)

Relationship(s): Five | The Boy & Everyone

Character(s): Five | The Boy, Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves, Allison Hargreeves, Vanya | Viktor Hargreeves, OC - Ymir Cyprus

Important Tag(s): Alternative Universe - No Sparrow Academy, Comic Book Elements, Time Traveling, Five-Centric

Rating: Teen and Up

Warning(s): Major Character Death, Cannon Character Death

Word Count: 10,176/41,006

The Hargreeves return from 1963 and find they have averted the initial Apocalypse. The siblings return to life as it once was but now together and not expecting impending doom. Five begins to adjust to life with his siblings how it used to be but knows something is missing. By something, he means someone. What happens when Five decides to jump back in time and try to save Ben. Is he successful? Or will he face the consequences of his actions?

"The End To The Beginning, The Beginning To The End" - Tumblr | Ao3

->Next: N/A

Continue reading below or read the edited version on Ao3

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Diego(POV)

" Hey make sure to call me when rehearsals over so I can come pick you up," Diego called out to Vanya as she jumped out of the car and ran to the theatre.

"Got it!" Vanya yelled already at the doors of the place. Diego watched her go into the building safely before pulling away and driving in the direction of his work, which wasn't far from the theatre.

Diego yawned, he had been woken up at 4 in the morning by Five getting ready trying to leave the house to get coffee. Diego obviously shot down Five's idea unless he was able to take him, Five had made a fuss about it but soon let Diego take him to the nearby coffee house.

Then when they got back home he was expecting to go back to a nice, quiet house and sleep. He should have learned by now that there is no such this with the Hargreeves.

Klaus had woken up all the siblings, minus Luther, over some argument he was having with their ghost brother. Had he expected anything other from the Séance at 5 in the morning? No, Klaus is just…….Klaus. He had decided not to head back to sleep and instead started making breakfast for the bunch.

Diego pulled into the station, parked his car. Shortly after they returned, Diego pretty much had asked for his job back at the police station, which he ended up getting. This time around there was no Eudora now, he's been assigned a kid who had just graduated the academy. He was young but he fit in with the team, Diego remembered working with before he had left.

He continues to do his night stalks and is just more careful that he doesn't get caught by his team if they're called to the scene.

Diego opened the doors and was greeted by Albert, one of the newer guys on his team. He was a smart and quiet guy compared to most of the other people.

Diego walked over to his desk and looked at the new file that was left there and opened it.

" Hell of a new case huh ?" One of the girls commented, walking over handing Diego a cup of coffee. Diego gladly accepted the coffee and nodded his head at her comment on the case as he finished reading it.

A man has been seen spying on young children and trying to lure them to him, all the descriptions the kids have given is almost close to nothing aside from all of them calling him, "The Boogeyman."

They have had many cases over the past couple of weeks of children disappearing and have no lead or any trail of them, many people are saying it's like their vanishing out of thin air.

Diego had been suspecting that they were all tied into each other, till a letter had appeared at one of the parent's houses and she had brought it over to them.

It stated that the one writing the letter was the one responsible for all the crimes, he led onto explaining how he captured multiple children, tortured, sexually assaulted, mutilated, and finally ate them.

Once again they couldn't get any leads with the note, their guy who deciphered the letter suggested he wrote the letter with his non- dominant hand because of how it was written.

Diego didn't like the thought of this guy roaming the streets especially with the intent of him being after children. Diego hated these types of cases, especially because of how young Five is.

Diego downed the rest of his coffee he was just given and went over to pour himself another cup to keep himself awake.

" Woah there Hargreeves that's already your second cup in the last 5 minutes," The girl, Amy commented returning to her desk.

Diego yawned again and continued pouring his coffee. " Someone had a long night," Mitch, one of the other guys said.

" Correction early morning, 4 in the morning to be exact," Diego said to the group as he walked back over to his desk.

They all picked up their files and sat around Diego's desk, " What were you doing at 4 in the morning Hargreeves?" Nico, the last guy on the team asked.

" Younger Siblings, and that's all I'm saying," Diego didn't want to talk about his siblings in front of the team, he had predicted they all started kinda catching on once they saw the umbrella tattoo on his wrist by accident, but they never questioned him about it.

"Awwwww you have little siblings," Amy started gushing over the fact that this brute guy they worked with had little siblings.

"I bet he's a big softie with them," Mitch whispered to the others. Diego glared at him, "I will throw this pen at your forehead."

Everyone quickly learned how good Diego's aim was on everything, whether it be shooting a gun, a game of darts, or throwing something at one of them.

"Back to the case!" Amy yelled before any of them got hit. They all returned back to the file and began discussing it in a more serious manner than what their conversation was about earlier.

Today was a short day, all he had to do was close up some old files and wait till they had leads on the newer one. " Hey you guys can head home me and Albert over here will finish up the last files," Mitch said to the rest of the team.

They all gave him a thumbs up and started cleaning up their desks, Diego glanced over at the clock.

4:32 pm

Vanya was gonna be out of rehearsal soon anyway, she's been staying late to work by herself on some solo she has coming up.

Diego looked over at the corner of his desk where he had a picture of Vanya, Klaus, Five, and apparently Ben was In the picture too based on what Klaus said.

They were all laid out on the couch watching a movie, Five and Vanya had fallen asleep on Klaus, so while Diego was covering the two with blankets Allison saw them and decided to take a picture of them. Klaus had drawn a little blue arrow over towards the back of the couch and said Ben was right there when Allison had taken the picture.

Five had seen the picture and wanted to tear it up, but Diego immediately brought it to work and put it in a frame.

As soon as Diego slipped his jacket on and grabbed his keys his phone began to vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at the caller ID that had Vanya's name on it, he stopped the green button and brought it to his ear.

" Hey, rehearsal finished?"

" Yeah just hanging out here with some other members till you come."

Diego placed the picture back down before answering Vanya.

" I'll be there in a bit, remember no meeting any serial killers." Diego messed with Vanya over the phone.

" I won't, I won't, I promise."

Diego laughed," Okay but be careful, I'll be right over there alright? Bye Vanya."

She said a small Goodbye before Diego hung up the phone and placed it back in his pocket before looking back over at the picture in front of him.

Amy peeked around him and looked over towards the photo.

"So that's them?" She asked in a much quieter and softer voice so nobody would hear their conversation.

Diego smirk and nodded his head," 3 of them." Diego remembered not to count Ben. She turned back to him," how many including you?"

He turned around and started walking towards the door with her," 7 in total, 5 boys and 2 girls."

They both walked out to the parking lot," and you're the oldest?" She asked, her eyes wide.

They walked over to their cars which were parked near each other," Second oldest, but the eldest is a bit of an asshole to all of them."

She laughed," Aren't they always." She waved her hand at him and smiled," Bye Hargreeves."

Diego waved his hand bye to her and got in his car. Any conversations he has with her always remind him of Eudora, Diego looked down at his hands and remembered that day.

They had found Five but then got a message from Eudora saying she found his brother. He quickly realized that in all the commotion they had completely forgotten about Klaus. As soon as he stepped in the door he had been hoping to find Klaus and Eudora, instead there was no trace of Klaus, and Eudora was dead.

Diego took a deep breath and turned on the car, with all two Apocalypse happening he never had time to even know what happened to Eudora or attend a funeral of any kind.

He pulled out of the parking lot and headed towards the Icarus Theatre to pick up Vanya. Diego pulled to a stop at the street across from the theatre, he pulled on his jacket, got out of the car, and walked into the theatre.

Diego walked in and saw Vanya talking with some guy and girl, most likely other members from her orchestra. She looked around and saw Diego and waved at him. He waved back at her while she turned back around to who she was talking to.

Both of the people leaned into Vanya and whispered something which made her start laughing. Vanya waved bye to them while she ran over to Diego still smiling.

"What's all the whispering about?" He asked Vanya as they walked over to his car. She laughed," They thought you were my boyfriend, but I told them you were my brother so they both proceeded to call you hot."

Diego smiled at Vanya

'Wait, Both of them?'

Vanya looked over at him and must have taken the hint from his expression," Don't worry I told Skylar you don't swing that way."

Diego rolled his eyes, opened the passenger seat door, and waited for Vanya to climb in," Thanks Vanya," He said, sarcastically.

He shut the door and got into the driver's seat, " You can always tell them Klaus is available."

" Noooooo of all people, I think Klaus would be the last person I would recommend as a partner."

Diego put the car in drive and headed for the Academy, "I think you're right on that one Vanya."

They continued to talk the rest of the drive, mostly Vanya kept picking on Diego that her friends called him hot. " You're not gonna take either of their offers, Diego," she said while nudging his arm with her elbow and a smile on her face.

He glanced over at her," Very funny Vanya." He turned the corner onto the Street the Academy was on."Awwwww come on Diego, I mean not Skylar's offer, but Melanie is a nice girl, she's our age, she plays the harp."

Diego pulled into the Academy and turned the car off, he turned and gave Vanya "the look".She unbuckled her seat belt and swung open the car door while putting her hands up defensively," Okay Okay I get it."

They both walked into the usually loud house and found it strangely quiet.

'That's a first'

"Diego look!" He and Vanya turned towards where they heard the voice, Klaus was levitating and was crisscrossed but upside down in the air. Klaus' sweater was hanging from his frame and so were his dog tags.

'Nevermind that thought of quiet'

Diego walked over to him till they were face to face and flicked his forehead." Ow! What was that for?" Klaus brought his hand to his forehead and rubbed where Diego flicked.

He slid off his shoes and hung his jacket up, "Cause I wanted to and where's everyone else?"

Klaus turned to his side," Oh shut your Pie hole, Ben." He turned back towards Diego," Allison is on the phone somewhere, Luther is…..being Luther I guess and Fivey is being a recluse in his room which I wouldn't bother him if I were you."

Diego nodded his head and turned back to Klaus," Isn't all the blood rushing to your head like that?"

Klaus flipped back upwards," it's either this or drugs," He landed his bare feet back on the floor softly," I need distractions."

Vanya piped up and walked to Klaus," I got one, Diego got hit on by my friends."

Klaus gasped," Diego you stud, see you're always running around in that little dominatrix get up of yours, your bound to draw somebody in…… and See I keep telling you guys he's-"

"Klaus! One more word and my knives will be in your skull."

"-into Kinky stuff," Klaus finished off his sentence, while one of Diego's knives almost decapitated him, but instead stuck into the pillar beside him.

Klaus jumped away and crouched behind Vanya.

Diego slipped the other one he had in his hand back in his pocket," And it's leather, not Spandex by the way." Diego said this out of habit because people always assumed it was spandex.

" Who said I didn't think it was leather?" Klaus giggled, and still hid behind Vanya."Klaus!" Diego growled at his younger brother.

"What are you guys doing?" Allison came down the stairs with what looked like some fruit and milk in her hand.

Klaus ran over to Allison and hid behind her," what about animals Diego are you into that type of stuff, I mean your name is The Kraken." He peaked up from behind her and wrapped his arms over her shoulders.

"Klaus!!" Diego raised his hand to throw one of his knives at Klaus before Allison stopped him.

" Hold up, hold up he's hiding behind me and I don't feel like getting stabbed with a knife at the moment."

Diego sighed and dropped his hand, replacing his knife in his pocket, " what's that for anyway?" He pointed to the food she had in her hands.

"Five's lunch, he's been cooped up in his room since breakfast, dead to the world"

Diego sighed," So all he had today was that gross sandwich he likes so much?"

Klaus put his head on Allison's shoulder and reached over grabbing a piece of watermelon out of the bowl," And coffee, you can't forget his coffee." Diego rolled his eyes at Klaus.

" Well, I'll make dinner early today since he hasn't eaten all day practically." Diego went upstairs to his room and changed out of his work clothes to a more casual t-shirt and jeans.

When he was dating Eudora he learned how to cook since she wasn't one much for cooking. So when they all returned to the present and decided to stay mostly at the academy he had taken up the role of cooking almost all of the meals.

Diego hesitated before going back down the staircase and instead turned around, and walked up the other flight of stairs that led to where Five and Ben's rooms were. Diego raised his hand to knock on Fives door but paused before his hand made contact, if Five had locked himself away he knew he was probably busy. He dropped his hand back to his side and turned around.

He froze and stood there as he faced Ben's room which had housed someone in it for over 13 years. Diego walked over and opened the door carefully gently turning the door knob. Everyone agreed to leave his room how he had left it but occasionally someone would come in here to dust it up a bit.

Diego looked around, like most of the siblings Ben had posters on his walls and a bookcase with a ton of books. They always would call him a book worm because he was always reading. His bookshelf was organized and dusted, while most of the other siblings' books were covered in dust or trinkets lined their bookcases. Diego smiled to himself and softly closed the door back up

He walked back down the many flights of stairs and waltzed into the kitchen to make dinner. Diego began to get everything out and started prepping everything. Diego turned around when he heard footsteps getting closer and saw Klaus walking over and sitting on the counter beside him.

Neither of them said anything to each other aside from Klaus talking and making comments towards Ben.

" You ever wonder what broccoli is thinking?"

Diego creased his eyebrows at Klaus' question and went over to the sink to wash his hands.

" What about you Diego, cause Benny boy over here is all Mr big brain." Klaus turned to Diego while he stuck his tongue out at Ben. Diego shook his head," I'm ignoring you, Klaus."

Klaus laid out more on the counter getting in Diego's way," You can't ignore me, Dee, you care about me too much."

Diego sighed and pushed Klaus' legs off of the counter letting them swing down," That's the problem."

Diego picked up a bowl and shoved it into Klaus' hands," Here help stir that at least." Klaus obliged and slowly started stirring the contents of the bowl while swinging his feet.

Klaus stayed in the kitchen with him the whole time occasionally stirring things, or helping Diego with smaller things that he knew Klaus wouldn't be able to light a fire to the house.

When Diego couldn't find things to distract Klaus with he began asking a random series of questions that Diego never answered.

" You ever think about how Five would look with long hair?"

" Or even Ben over here always with his slicked-back hair, I bet he would look great with a man bun!"

Diego stopped for a brief moment to imagine their two youngest brothers with long hair, Diego shook his head.

'Yeah, no'

" Does Luther ever shave, anywhere for that matter?"

" Or does he feel weird eating meat, like he's eating one of his own?"

Diego sighed, every glimpse he got into the thing Klaus called a brain was just getting weirder and weirder. Klaus went silent for a couple of seconds, which Diego was grateful for the moment of peace until he started talking again.

" Do you think all the dead animals can see me when I eat them? I mean they are dead and I can see the DEAD and they use me as this sorta gateway thing."

Diego stopped what he was doing and glanced over at Klaus who looked distraught over what he was rambling about.

" So it'd make sense for all these chopped up animals to just appear whenever they want to remind me what was killed so I could eat."

Diego slowly walked over a couple of steps so he was in front of Klaus before softly speaking.

"Klaus"

" Just these slaughtered pigs with their intestines hanging out, I mean not that I don't see enough human intestines everyday bu-."

"Hey!"

Diego put his hands on Klaus' shoulders, snapping him out of it and brought his attention back to Diego.

" Go wash up and call Five down for dinner for me, yeah? I'll get the others."

Klaus nodded his head

Diego patted his shoulder and motioned with his head for Klaus to go upstairs to retrieve Five. Klaus hopped off the countertop and walked out of the kitchen.

Diego walked into the living room where both of the girls were sitting on the couch deep in conversation with one another.

" Hey, girls dinner," Diego motioned with his hand for them to follow him to the kitchen. He never bothered with Luther, knowing Allison always called him or shot him a text to come down from whatever he was doing. All three of them walked into the kitchen while they waited for the others and Vanya and Allison sat down.

Diego placed a plate in front of Vanya first then Allison who were separated by a seat between them. Klaus had insisted that Ben was to sit there, so even though nobody could see him they kept the seat empty for their youngest brother.

Allison and Vanya muttered a thank you as Luther came bounding down the stairs into the kitchen. He had been more angrier with the others lately and always cooped up in Dad's office but nobody knew what the ape of a man was doing, mostly just pissing off Diego more than usual.

Diego ruffled Vanya's hair as he passed by her to get glasses for water. He placed all 6 glasses down as he heard two pairs of footsteps coming down the stairs into the kitchen.

Usually, they could only hear Klaus' bare feet against the flooring of the house followed by them seeing little blue flashes here and there from Five.

Five walked into the kitchen and sat down in his chair across from Allison, " Wow you actually walked down here for once." Diego commented to Five as he put down a plate in front of him.

Klaus came walking in after Five and sat across From Vanya. Diego put down Klaus' plate in front of him as he started talking," See told you he wasn't dead, Allison."

Diego stopped what he was doing and looked between Allison and Klaus wondering if he should even question it. Five turned his head towards Allison as well with his eyebrows creased.

Allison's eyes widened at Klaus' remark as she turned back towards Five," I knocked on your door for lunch and you never responded, but I did NOT think he died, Klaus."

Diego shook his head and sat down between Five and Klaus, across from the empty chair for Ben. Klaus let his body sink down in the chair while muttering under his breath, "You acted like it."

" And why would I think our brother would be dead Klaus?"

" Well, you can never truly know, sister of mine."

Diego chuckled and decided to zone out the two and their bickering towards each other. He looked towards Vanya who seemed to be enjoying the two siblings and their bickering, then he looked towards Five who seemed to have Zoned out from the argument a bit ago.

'Did he have those scratches this morning?'

Diego saw Five's cheek had two little scratches on it one was light, but the other was already scabbed up a bit.

"Where did you get these scratches from Five?" Diego questioned him while he lightly ran his thumb over Five's cheek. Five looked over at him and lifted his hand to feel the scratches on his cheek.

Diego reached and turned over Five's hand on his lap which had the same scratches. Five looked at his other hand which was the same then slightly scooted out his chair and pulled his shorts up a bit where there were marks on his knees and shins also. He lightly chuckled at Five's feet that weren't able to reach the floor without him being on the edge of his chair.

Diego knew Five was technically a kid, but he was never the type to go outside and play with all the other siblings unless it was something he could beat them at. So even now he doubted that Five tripped while outside or something because of how scratched up he was.

While Allison and Klaus stopped bickering at each other to overhear the conversation, Diego continued looking at Five waiting for an answer from the small boy.

"....uhhh," He saw Five quickly look over to Klaus and his expression slightly changing before he looked back up at Diego still not saying anything.

Allison cleared her throat to grab everyone's attention, " Five fell out of a tree this morning."

' Of course, he would '

Diego turned back towards Five with his eyebrows raised, " A Tree?!"

' What the Heck was he doing in a tree?!'

Diego didn't say that out loud but he guessed his face expressed it enough that they knew what he wanted to say.

Allison laughed," Ask Klaus he knows ."

Diego redirected his glance to Klaus who had moved to the farthest end of the table where Vanya used to sit when they were kids.

"What me? I'm just Number 4, the one who doesn't know anything," Klaus said while being very nonchalant.

Diego pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh.

'Don't get into any trouble he says'

'But do they listen?'

'When do they ever!'

"Klaus was the one who dropped me from the tree, " Five said to the group as he took a bite of his food. Diego and both of the girls turned their gaze back to klaus.

"Klaus!" They all yelled at him.

"What- but that's-…....uh…....Fivvvveeeee, " Klaus whined and looked over at their smallest brother.

" I said don't do ANYTHING stupid and you go and drop our brother out of a tree, " Diego said as he scolded Klaus. Klaus crossed his and pouted while Diego continued to scold him.

" You asked me the definition of stupid this morning, Klaus I didn't think I'd literally HAVE to define it to you-."

Diego turned his head towards Five at the sound of him sputtering. Five reached for his serviette and hurriedly brought it to his mouth as he continued to laugh.

"Aha, see he's lying," Klaus jumped just out of his chair and started spastically gesturing to the younger. Five continued to laugh more but this time without the risk of spitting water out at any of them.

Diego smiled and looked up at the others who were smiling at Five as well. Klaus moved back in his seat next to Diego as they dropped the topic but was still unsure of why Five was in a tree in the first place.

Allison shook her head," Anyways aside from these boys' adventurous day, how was work and rehearsal, you two?" She questioned Diego and Vanya.

Diego motioned for Vanya to start, " The programs coming along well and I finally decided what I'm gonna play for the encore." Diego smiled at her as she lit up and continued talking about her music.

" What song?" Diego asked

Vanya laughed and lifted her glass to her mouth and answered before taking a sip of water.

" Piece not song"

Diego rolled his eyes

' Ugh his Musician of a sister'

" Okay piece, what piece Vanya?"

" Oooooo I like pieces of stuff" Klaus jumped into the conversation. " Cake, pie, Men"

Diego almost spit out his water as Klaus had ended on that last note. Allison looked over at Klaus with an amused look, " Klaus hon please don't talk about your sex life at the table."

"Who said it was about my sex life?" Klaus said while looking at his nails, which looked like he had just repainted them.

Diego scoffed," Unless your a cannibal all of a sudden, I think it was about your sex life their bud."

Klaus turned to Diego, " I'll have you know I haven't gotten any action since we came back from the 60s."

" Yeah with that girl I saw you with in that garden?" Diego pipped up.

Allison widened her eyes at Klaus, " Klaus you could have gotten someone pregnant! And that would have messed up the timeline."

" Awww come on Ally tiny little me's would be adorable," Klaus said cooing at the thought of it.

Diego took a sip of his water before he started talking again, " I mean this is Klaus we're talking about for all we know there could be a bunch of his offspring running around our own time."

Luther, who had been looking at everyone confused, spoke up.

"But I thought you were-?" He pointed over at Klaus.

"Thought I was What?" Klaus replied sitting on his chair like it was a hammock.

Luther shook his head and continued back to his meal not saying anything else on the topic.

Diego peeked over at Five who seemed to have zoned out the sibling's conversation once again a while ago. Diego was about to say something to him when Allison called Diego's name, " Okay that's enough about Klaus' sex life, what about you Diego how was work?"

Diego sighed, " We got the file for the same guy we've been after." Diego said trying to shrug it off not wanting to talk about what this creep was doing to these little kids. " All I'm gonna say is don't let Claire come over here till we catch this bastard."

Diego saw Allison look at him then move her gaze over to Five, then back to Diego with a concerned look. He knew she took the hint and was probably gonna ask him about it later.

" Don't worry I'm gonna go see her When I go out for the photoshoot I have coming up." She paused for a couple of seconds then started again. " One of you should come, I mean to meet Claire you know Five, Klaus, Luther maybe considering you guys aren't busy much." Vanya looked up and smiled at Allison and nodded her head at wanting to meet their niece.

They all continued chatting for a few minutes till most of them were finished with dinner. Diego looked around and saw only Klaus and Five we're still finishing up their dinner, he got up and started to clear the plates.

Diego put down his and Vanya's plate near the sink and turned around when he heard someone clear their throat trying to get the other's attention.

" I wanted to ask you guys something," Five said while looking down at his plate and moving around a single piece of food with his fork.

Diego leaned back against the counter as he noticed Five wasn't asking any random question but looked torn up over what he was gonna ask. Everyone stayed quiet so they could let Five talks without being rushed.

"........I-I want to know the full story"

Diego heard the hesitation and nervousness in Five's voice compared to his usual smug way of talking.

Five paused for a second and took a deep breath before continuing.

" Of what happened the day Ben died"

Diego grimaced at the memory those couple of words brought back. Everyone remained quiet until Allison spoke up, " We've told you what happened Five and you also read what happened from Vanya's book." Allison replied to Five calmly, picking up her and Luther's dish and bringing it over to the counter.

" But not everything," Diego felt the tension rise as Five's voice got slightly louder than it was before out of frustration.

" Five," Vanya spoke up with her soft voice that was laced with sincerity. Five looked up from his plate and looked around at all the siblings in the room.

" Bud, you've asked us all on separate occasions about that day and we've told you all we can," Diego said, remaining calm much like Allison, trying to talk down Five.

" Can tell me or want to tell me?" Five snapped at Diego through gritted teeth.

Diego didn't know how to answer Five's question for himself, he knew they would all tell him everything that happened that day if it was easy for them to talk about it. Diego kept the same straight face at Five as he immediately dropped his head back down and looked at his lap.

Diego looked over at Klaus who had opened his mouth to say something but wasn't even given the chance when Luther cut him off.

" It's none of your business Five, " Everyone turned towards Luther. Diego bit his tongue to not say anything to the eldest sibling, one for not letting Klaus speak and two for what he said to Five.

Five firmly placed both of his palms flat down on the table before speaking," Was I talking to you Number One?!" His tone from earlier quickly dissipated into his normal bite that carried on with his words.

" You did address everyone Number Five, " Luther said back to Five, with that usual I'm Number one tone.

Five and Luther both stood up from their chairs which made him and Allison jump forward to stop the two.

" Stop it, Luther!" Allison said with a warning and serious tone, she had her hand outstretched in front of him. Diego was still near the counter behind her, but ready to be on his toes in seconds if needed.

" Maybe I was addressing everyone who isn't to blame for Ben's death!" Five said his words filled with venom as he slammed his right hand down on the table that had curled up into a fist.

The wooden chair Vanya was sitting in skidded across the floor as she hurriedly jumped out of her chair and exited the kitchen.

" Vanya!" Allison called out as she moved around Luther to go after Vanya. She paused at the entrance to the kitchen and turned around.

" You just had to ruin dinner didn't you?" Diego was sure she meant it towards Luther but let the assurance falter as he saw the look on Five's face change. Allison turned back around and ran out of the kitchen after Vanya with Luther hot on her heels as he attempted to go after her.

There was a couple of seconds where everything was at a standstill till Five slowly sat back down in his seat, head looking back down to his lap. Diego brought his hand up to his mouth as he leaned back against the counter taking in what was happening.

The arguing of both of his sisters and the slamming of the door was hard to miss as it echoed through the house leaving more drowning silence.

He saw Five flinch at the loud noise, which for Five was on the chart of today's things he never has seen Five do.

Diego turned his head in the direction of the creek from one of the wooden chairs and saw Klaus slowly standing up from where he was sat.

Diego watched as Klaus slowly walked over and gently laid his hand down on Five's shoulder. He saw the slight jerk from Five but he didn't push or smack Klaus' hand away.

" I'm sorry Five,"

Their usually boastful brother's voice was almost unrecognizable as he spoke in a more somber tone. Klaus looked up at Diego with a guilty look when Five didn't answer him, Diego swallowed and gave a half-smile to Klaus unsure of what he even meant by it. Klaus looked back to Five and let his hand fall off of his shoulder before walking out of the kitchen.

Diego stood across from Five still leaning on the counter trying to think of a way to approach the situation.

"F-Five," Diego stuttered out his name. He ran his hand over his face through his hair before taking a deep breath.

He let his head hang down as he stared at the tile floor trying to think about the words he wanted to say.

" Di……?" The nickname took Diego by surprise as his head shot up to look at Five. Diego pushed himself off the counter and slowly walked over in front of Five.

He looked down at Him before bending down so he was face to face with Five. He slowly reached out his hand and cupped Five's cheek so his Thumb was on his cheek, he felt Five slightly flinch on contact but he didn't pull away.

Diego took a second to realise just how small he was, him and Ben we're always the smallest out of all 5 brothers. But here Five was sitting in front of him with his schoolboy shorts and knee-high socks and feet that couldn't quite reach the floor on the large wooden chairs.

Diego finally broke the silence between the two, " What's wrong Five?" His voice was laced with sympathy unlike earlier where he knew Five didn't want any of that.

Diego knew what was wrong, Five just wanted to know what happened to their brother, his brother. Their always quiet and small youngest brother that didn't ask for anything to happen to him, that didn't deserve anything to happen to him!

Five looked up at Diego and opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. He slowly closed his mouth and let his head drop back down to his lap not making eye contact with Diego.

Diego wanted to shake the small thin boy in front of him and make him talk to him, make him accept the emotions he had that he wasn't willing to share with anyone; not even to himself.

Diego took his hand off of Fives cheek, tempted to walk away and let everything end like that, let him figure his stuff out, to let Diego himself figure Five out.

Instead, he brought his hand down to Five's knee in an act of comfort and rubbed small light circles, being careful to not touch one of the scratches he had. He stayed like that for what felt like minutes upon minutes possibly an hour but in reality, was only 1 minute at most.

He didn't know what to say, how to approach their tiny murderous gremlin who was actually a good almost 30 years older than all the siblings but somehow found himself trapped in this 13-year-olds body.

Diego pushed back what he wanted to say to the small boy and instead veered towards the safe option.

" Why don't you go upstairs and get some rest then we can all talk tomorrow." Diego felt like he was talking to a child not a 58-year-old but the small 13-year-old kid that disappeared all those years ago that they had only had back for a little over a couple of weeks.

Five nodded his head at Diego and stood up to walk out of the kitchen. Diego stood up from where he was on the floor and watched as Five walked to his bedroom.

Diego sighed, his siblings were probably scattered around the house and outside from whoever of the two sisters had left.

He walked into the living room hoping to find at least one of the others there but found no one aside from Grace who came up to Diego.

"Is everything alright dear?" she said with a concerned tone.

Diego smiled at her," Yeah just us siblings being siblings I suppose." Diego said trying to shrug her question off as he saw Klaus bounding down the stairs towards the front door. He put a hand on Grace's shoulder as he ran towards Klaus before he could leave.

" Klaus! Where are you headed?" He was dressed in his normal laced leather pants and lacey see-through black shirt accompanied by his black fur coat and leather boots. Diego walked in front of Klaus before he could escape.

" Out," was all Klaus replied as he moved around Diego and reached for his set of keys which were hung up on hooks alongside the door.

He grabbed the ones that had a small keychain with the number 4 on it and other various keychains. He stuffed them in his pocket before reaching for the door handle.

Diego reached and grabbed Klaus' shoulder to, " Hey hey hey can I drive you wherever you're going to? It's already dark out, I'd rather you not be out so late by yourself."

" It's somewhere you wouldn't want me to be," Klaus mumbled as he fumbled with a cigarette box opening it and sticking one between his lips, then reached to his other pocket and grabbed out his lighter.

Klaus's trembling hands struggled with striking the lighter till after 4 times he brought them down in defeat knowing it was out of lighter fluid.

" Fuck!" Klaus said throwing his arms down and taking the cancer stick out of his mouth.

" Hey," Diego grabbed both sides of Klaus' arms and looked him in the eye," Let's go to the roof yeah?"

Klaus' eyes lingered towards the door then looked back over at Diego and nodded his head 'yes'.

Diego put his hand on Klaus' back as he pushed the Séance towards the stairs. As they were about to climb the stairs to the top floor where both younger brothers' rooms were and the attic Klaus stopped in his tracks.

" Uno Momento, " Klaus held up his index finger before racing off into his room and returned clutching another lighter in his 'HELLO' hand.

Diego rolled his eyes as he started ascending the last staircase with Klaus right behind him. They rounded the corner and saw the light from Five's room shine out from under the door. Diego contemplated going and checking up on the younger but went against his idea and continued to the attic.

They both climbed over to the already open window and sat on the ledge. Klaus swung both legs over the ledge and crossed one over the other while Diego kept one leg on the ledge with his elbow leaning on it and the other hanging down.

Klaus struck the new lighter and lit the cigarette before taking a deep inhale. He jiggled his leg that was hung over the other as his hands started to shake less than they were before.

Both brothers stayed quiet looking at the sky till Klaus spoke up.

" This morning was only a one-time thing," He said quickly, taking a puff from his cigarette.

Diego turned towards him with his eyebrows creased unsure what Klaus was getting at.

" What are you talking about Klaus?"

" This morning Ben he-..... I can make ghost corporeal including Ben," Klaus grabbed the cigarette from his lips and put it out against the window seal then turned to Diego.

" Wait, Klaus what do you mean," Diego resisted the urge to walk away and pretend like everything Klaus was saying wasn't true.

" Last night I went out after everyone was asleep and got a few drinks so I was drunk and hungover so that's why I couldn't make him corporeal this morning," Klaus said very quickly and almost tripping over his words.

" Klaus! Your not making sense right now-"

" I've been able to make any ghost corporeal Okay! Those 3 years I was alone and sober I figured out how to do a lot, The only reason I was arguing with Ben is that I chose not to and because I couldn't today Cause of the alcohol that was still in my system from last night."

Diego reached over and grabbed Klaus by his shoulders hard and shook his small petite frame.

" How Long Klaus!! How fucking long are you gonna keep lying to us, we've all been here thinking and believing that Ben was completely gone when you could see him all these years."

Diego pulled back and took a deep breath as he saw tears began to rim Klaus' eyes and cascade down his face.

" He's our brother too, Klaus and you were selfish and kept him to yourself for all these years, Even during the 2nd apocalypse, you lied to us the whole time that he was there," Diego was fuming but couldn't help but feel a little bit of guilt as Klaus choked out a sob.

" I know I'm selfish I know I'm sorry! I- He was all I had, When Dad kicked me out I never saw any of you guys again. You all became successful and got jobs and girlfriends, boyfriends and Allison had a kid and got married."

"you all moved on with your life." Klaus brought his hands up to wipe at his face smugging his makeup.

" I lost you all and I-I just didn't want to lose him too," Diego brought his hand to his face and ran it over into his hair, he was pissed at Klaus for lying and hiding all this for so long.

" I just I'm so sorry to you guys and Ben, I just keep fucking things up as I've always have in this family."

" Fuck!" Diego cursed. He stood up from where he was sitting with Klaus and paced the room for a couple of seconds. He looked back over at Klaus but didn't say anything, the latter still crying and trying to wipe away his tears with his coat sleeve.

" I'm sorry Diego I- I should go," Klaus jumped up and began to walk out of the room. Diego hurriedly grabbed onto Klaus' upper arm and turned him back around.

" Klaus come on sit back down," Diego put his hand on Klaus' back and guided him back to the window seal where Diego sat back down next to him.

Diego scooted closer to Klaus and this time lowered his voice, " come here, " He wrapped his arms around Klaus and put his chin on top of his head.

" I'm sorry Klaus I Didn't- I sh-shouldn't have said any of that." Klaus continued to cry into Diego's shirt as Diego tightened his arms around Klaus careful not to hurt him.

" You're not a fuck up Klaus okay? Just your Klaus and after all these years you stayed you, that fun kind sibling we all care for and love." Diego lifted up Klaus's chin gently so he was looking at him.

" That I Love"

He lifted his thumb to Klaus' face and used it to wipe away smudged eyeliner and the still falling tears. He pulled Klaus back close to his chest and at this point, Klaus was practically sitting on Diego's lap.

They both sat like that for a couple of minutes and let the breeze from outside slowly drift over them, blowing the fur lining on Klaus' coat. Klaus' tears disappeared but Diego kept his hold on the younger firm.

Diego only started to pull away when he felt Klaus shiver as a gust of wind blew in.

Diego pulled back with his hands still on Klaus' shoulders but in a comforting manner and Klaus fist still grabbing onto the front of Diego's Shirt.

" Come on let's head inside where it's warmer and get some rest," Diego patted Klaus shoulder as they both jumped off the window seal onto the attic floor. Diego closed the window behind them then followed Klaus down the staircase to where their bedrooms were.

They both walked in front of Klaus' bedroom where Diego pulled Klaus into another hug," try to get some sleep, Klaus." He pulled away and turned to go towards his room but stopped when he felt Klaus grab his shirt sleeve.

" Can I sleep with you tonight?" Diego was shocked, he couldn't recall a time Klaus had asked him his permission if he could sleep with him rather just walked in whenever he pleased.

He contemplated his answer which would usually be yes but right now the anger of what Klaus had just revealed to him was still simmering deep down.

" I….I just need some space right now kay'?" He watched as Klaus' expression on his face dropped, Diego couldn't recall a time he's ever denied Klaus from sleeping with him this would be one of the first.

Diego reached over and ruffled Klaus' hair then turned to walk away this time Klaus' hand didn't reach out for him. He heard Klaus' bedroom door close softly behind him as he continued to walk towards his room.

He had planned to go on his normal nightly escapade but after everything that went down, he reframed from going, even though the thought of that bastard hurting kids was still lingering in his mind.

Diego reached for his doorknob and was about to turn it When the front door opened followed by arguing. He stepped back and rounded the corner to the stairwell to see what was going on.

Allison stood in the middle of the foyer looking up at Luther while she argued with him," You just couldn't keep your mouth shut could you Luther?"

" Allison I-," Luther attempted to sputter out but Allison cut him off.

" You know what save it, Luther. We finally were being a family except for you……. I don't know what problem you have against our siblings but you need to grow up and get over that Number One complex of yours you have going on because this is ridiculous Luther."

Allison spun around and walked towards the staircase Diego was leaning on. She stopped at the top of the staircase to talk to him, " Vanya went back to her apartment for the night. I'm not sure if she's gonna be back tomorrow morning or not." Allison gave a sympathetic smile to Him then continued to walk up the set of stairs, the clicking of her heels faded out as she got farther from him.

Diego walked down a couple of steps and sat down letting out a low whistle," you made somebody pissed."

Luther quickly turned to him and glared at Diego," Shut up Diego it's none of your business."

Diego let out an airy chuckle," You know what it is my business cause she's my sister, much like how Ben is Five's brother also."

Diego pushed himself off of the steps while shaking his head," You know Five was right, these past 13 almost 14 years we've all blamed you for Ben's death because if you were of have had actually acted like the leader you supposedly were, He would not be dead right now………. You never protected our siblings as much as you could have only the bare minimum."

Diego turned around to go back to the bedrooms when Luther spoke up," like you were any better of a brother."

Diego could feel the anger boiling and bottling up inside of him the whole time and that last mark blew all of his control out the window.

" NO Luther I was not the best I could have been to them but at least I'm man enough to admit that…. And I did more for them than you can imagine, was it as much as I should have? No, but I did something Luther. Heck, what have you done? Lock Vanya away like an animal where she was scared and terrified, toss Five off of a staircase like he was a piece of trash, throw Klaus around, and actually killed him all because he was trying to help you."

Diego ran a hand through his hair and took a breath before continuing," Y-you pulled Vanya into a hug just so you could knock her out, And Five what if he didn't use his powers in time? Fuck, you would have just tossed a defenseless 13-year-old knowing he would have possibly gotten hurt, and all Klaus was trying to do was help you; the person who has never given a damn about him, but in return, he gets pushed around and visits upstairs for a hot minute."

He was seething as all the memories came flooding in of all the times Luther had hurt all the siblings but of course with the exception of Allison. He was glad that even though Luther did all those things it was a situation where they could use their powers to not get hurt or in Klaus' case die.

The thought of another one of his siblings dying made Diego's stomach turn and bile threaten to climb up his throat.

Diego turned back around," So fuck off Luther."

He didn't receive any comments from Luther as he made his way back over to his bedroom actually going in this time.

Diego closed his bedroom door and changed into a thin t-shirt and some sweat pants before switching the light switch off. He flopped down on his bed and tried to close his eyes to sleep. The events of today barreled through his mind as he thought about the case, Five, Vanya, Klaus, and Ben.

He opened his eyes and turned onto his side facing the clock on his bedside table.

11:53

He huffed out a breath and sat upon his bed, switching on the light. He knew he wasn't going to get any sleep tonight, but he also knew who else wasn't either.

'Fuck'

' Maybe Five was right about him too, he was a pushover'

Diego tried to push the thought away until the bright red LED lights on the clock shone 12:15. He started to feel guilt that he knew he shouldn't be feeling till he pushed himself out of his bed and out his door toward klaus' room.

He didn't bother knocking and slowly opened the Séances door to his room. As soon as the door was open Klaus shot up from his position curled in on himself buried under multiple blankets, despite it being warm in his room.

"Diego…?"

Diego chuckled a little," The one and only, now come on before I leave you in here alone with Ben the friendly ghost."

Diego didn't want to openly tell Klaus it was fine for him to come sleep with him so he was glad when Klaus took the hint and tumbled out of his bed over towards Diego.

They both walked into Diego's room where he went over to the farther end of his room and switched on a small lamp, so there would still be a little bit of light for Klaus once all his lights were off.

He turned back around and saw Klaus had found one of Diego's hoodies which he had slipped on and was hanging off of his small frame. Diego let him wear the hoodie, stealing clothes from all of his siblings wasn't an unusual thing Klaus did anyways.

They both didn't say anything as Diego grabbed some of his old smaller sweat pants and tossed them at Klaus. He slid them on and had to double-knot them so they wouldn't fall down this thin waist. Diego slipped under his blankets first then moved over and held up the blanket for Klaus to crawl under.

He felt Klaus curl up to his chest as he pulled an extra blanket around Klaus who was always cold as ice. Diego reached over and turned off the lamp beside his bed which made the smaller light at the other side of the room brighter.

Diego laid his arm over Klaus and wrapped it around him as the younger began to drift off. Diego stayed like that with his 30-year-old technically younger brother cuddled up next to him with his legs twisted in Diego's. He glanced down and saw Klaus was completely asleep yet he himself still couldn't fall asleep.

He glanced over at the clock multiple times throughout the night. The first time reading 1:31. Then the next time he looked over it read 3:05.

A couple of minutes passed as Klaus started to stir a bit, Diego found his hand in klaus' hair combing through it which stopped his squirming around. Diego let more time slip by, occasionally focusing mostly on Klaus' soft breathing and the rise and fall of his chest.

He dreaded looking over at the clock as it read 5:42. He sighed for this was the 2nd night with little or no sleep in a row. This was usually the time he got up to do everything but there he was laying, having got no sleep whatsoever. The sun had already begun to rise as the tiniest bit of light started streaming in through his windows.

Diego looked down at Klaus, who he pondered on squirming his way out of Klaus grip or just waking the latter so he could escape. Diego decided to try his luck and just squirm his way out of Klaus' lengthy limbs. He carefully pulled back the blankets from him but still kept them on Klaus and started to peel off each extremity that was tangled with his own.

He moved off of his bed and covered Klaus back up with the blankets. He threw on one of his sweaters and exchanged the sweat pants for some jeans before exiting the room, softly letting the door click shut behind him.

He made his way down to the kitchen and began to prepare Breakfast as he does most every morning. The only difference was he didn't have work today so his work clothes were replaced with more comfy clothes.

Allison was the first to come down to the kitchen followed by Klaus who was still dressed in Diego's clothes. Diego heard the front door open then slam back shut as Vanya walked into the kitchen and sat down. Nobody was talking to each other besides Klaus who kept making small jokes to cheer everyone up.

" Did I ever tell you guys about the time I waxed my ass with chocolate pudding? I know I told Five and Luther but I don't think I told you guys." They all turned to him mostly with a disgusted face.

" It was so painful, Kinda what I imagine if you wax Your you know bits," Klaus let out a whistle while pointing down to his crotch.

Allison chuckled a little, " Klaus dear what were you doing with chocolate pudding in the first place?" She questioned him

Klaus' eyes lit up even more than they were before," Well you see meine schwester it started when-."

At that moment Luther came in and interrupted Klaus in the middle of him explaining his antics," So let's start the family meeting."

Diego scoffed," Forgetting one still if you hadn't noticed with that monkey brain of yours." Allison jumped in before the boys could start arguing," He might be asleep still he was up late last night."

" Or he might've never gone to bed, this is Five we're talking about," Vanya said more quietly than the other.

" She's got a point," Diego agreed as he stood behind Vanya's chair.

"Well then someone go get him," Luther said while sitting down in the chair at the head of the table.

Diego's grip tightened on the back of Vanya's chair as his anger got the best of him," You know Luther you cou-." Before Diego could finish Klaus jumped up from his chair making everyone look towards him.

" Oh look I'll go get little Fivey, but if I get murdered I'm blaming one of you," Klaus walked out of the kitchen towards all the sibling's rooms.

Diego loosened his grip on the back of the chair as Vanya looked up at him with a small half-smile. He smiled back and pulled the chair at the farthest end of the table close to her and sat down. They waited a couple of minutes then some more time passed that Klaus hadn't returned with Five.

" What's taking him so long," Luther asked in an agitated way. Diego crossed his arms and leaned back in the chair, " Not that you would know or care but Five hates being woken up and is quite hard to wake up as well."

They waited a couple more minutes till Diego started to notice that this was too long just to wake up the small Boy.

At that moment Klaus came running back into the kitchen, " Diego, Allison!" Klaus yelled. His hand was holding his chest as he took fast sporadic breaths clearly out of breath.

" Five he's- he's gone." Diego got up and walked over to Klaus," What do you mean he's gone, Klaus," Diego questioned even though Klaus had already Given him the answer.

" Gone Diego as in not here, Me and Ben searched everywhere we thought he would be in the house he's not here," Klaus gestured with his hands as he spoke trying to emphasize his point.

'Fuck'

Diego ran up to Fives room with most of the siblings trailing behind him. He walked into Five's room and noticed his light was still on even though it was day time. And his normally organised room had his books littered over his desk and bed along with an equation on his wall circled multiple times in chalk.

"Do you think the commission got him?" Allison asked unsure of where Five was as well.

Diego looked around Five's room trying to get anything to tell him where he was. His eyes landed back on the circled equation and noticed a date scrawled out next to it. Diego walked over to the wall that the smaller usually stood on his bed to reach, but was in perfect height with Diego.

He immediately recognised the date, the one that was in newspapers for weeks, the day when only 5 siblings came home instead of the 6 they had at the time. The day they were all covered in blood that wasn't theirs or their enemies but rather their brothers.

'NoNoNoNo'

"Fuck!" Diego cursed aloud this time hitting the wall and walking away not looking back at his siblings who all had worried looks. They all looked at each other then walked over to look at what Diego had seen. The realisation hit everyone as they saw the date, everyone remained quiet letting their minds piece together where Five had gone.

Diego knew that it might be a couple of days, months, or a couple of years before they saw their brother again. Maybe even another 16 years or more.

This time Five was gone

And possibly

Forever

[taiturner]

#big brother viktor

[super-unpredictable98]

The Eighth Child (~TUA AU~) - Season 3

Chapter 4: East, West, Home's Best

Warning: Strong language, mild sexual content, mention of death

(The Eighth Child Masterlist)

"Okay, gather around people," Five called as soon as we entered the hotel lobby. Most of our siblings were there, with the exception of one. "Where's Luther?"

"Haven't seen him," Diego shook his head.

"Vicky, any info on Luther?" 

"Uh... ew, he's thinking about sex," I nearly gagged. "That's zoophilia, gross!"

"I don't think you can judge other people's sexual preferences, brother fucker," Diego teased.

"Ha ha, as if you didn't have a child with your sister... And you? What were you doing fighting Alphonso earlier hah? With Stanley there, you have to be the most irresponsible dad I've ever seen! Except for ours."

"Were you spying on me? This power of yours is pretty cool, but stay out of my head, pendeja!"

"Pendeja? Seu filho da puta, vê se toma jeito! (You son of a bitch, get a grip!)" I said before realizing. 

"You two stop the bickering! Look at this, these are our mothers and they're all dead," Five flipped page by page showing everyone each of our moms. "They all died on the day that used to be our birthday, but not anymore because they never gave birth to us."

"That's dumb, if we weren't born, how can we exist?" Diego asked. "Shouldn't we start fading away like in Back to The Future?"

"Exactly! When we jumped here we created the grandfather paradox."

"And what's that?" Viktor asked.

"It's an old story, mom told me about it once. It was a boy who hated his grandpa so he time-traveled to the past to kill him. Only he killed his grandfather before his own mom could be born which leads to him never existing, so how could he ever kill his grandpa? Time collapses and everything goes to shit," I looked at Five for confirmation. "That's it, isn't it?"

"Yeah, that's it, doesn't sound very good, does it?" he huffed. 

"I'm so confused," Diego shook his head in disbelief.

"Shocking..." Allison sneered. She had been a royal pain in the ass ever since we arrived, I get how hard it is for her, but she wasn't the only one who lost people. Viktor had to give up Sissy, Diego lost Lila (at least he thought he did), and I had to see my friend Elliot murdered by those Swede bastards. Life is hard for everyone, not just for her.

"We shouldn't exist because our moms never had us, but we do, and the universe can't handle it, which is a problem," Viktor explained.

"Stanley, stop it! Now is not the time for karate!" Diego chastised my nephew who was very focused on his training.

"Mom said I need to practice," he countered.

"She's not wrong, you're pretty bad."

"And you're pretty bad at being a dad, quit it!" I snapped my fingers in front of his face. "You're talking like Reggie, only with a less posh vocabulary."

"So, we created a paradox, what does that mean?" Allison asked.

"I don't know exactly, but something very bad is coming, things are starting to disappear. Lobsters..." Five shrugged.

"A shit ton of cows," Klaus added. "It was so bad, Vicky's going back to being a vegetarian."

"Aren't you supposed to be retired?" Alli asked. "You know you can't keep dragging us through hell because you have an itch only an apocalypse can scratch."

"You really think Five wants this?" I finally snapped. "You think any of us wants this? I wanted to be buying wedding decorations and tasting cakes, instead I'm here on this timeline where I don't even exist trying to fix the world for the rest of you. I'm so sorry you are having a tough time, but you are not the only one, Wanda Maximoff! This is the only place we have, if we jump again that'll only mess the timeline even more, so you better accept that this is all we have!"

"Since when did you become Five's cheerleader? I thought you were only a shield to your little boyfriend. You think life is hard? Cause you can't buy your wedding dress? Well, I lost my daughter!"

"My headache won't fix your broken arm. We're both hurting and we both have our priorities, doesn't mean one thing is more important than the other or that you are hurting more than me. It's just different."

"Cut your bullshit, Victoria, you and your stupid philosophical sayings, it was childish when we were kids, imagine now."

Fortunately, the fight didn't escalate because Stan broke a vase with the pool club he was using to practice and silence reigned over the room. "It was the wind," he tried to shift the blame.

"That's it! I'm telling your mom! Where is she?" Diego punched the table angrily.

"Oooo I'm so scared," the boy mocked. "She's in the shower, I said she could stay with us."

"Lila is here? As if things couldn't get any worse," I cried, falling into Klaus' lap. "I can't take today anymore, I hate today. Can we just take a shower and go back to our room? I need a relaxing massage and some special attention."

"Behold, she's thinking of sex... Because that's the remedy for everything," Allison taunted.

"Just because you're not having any, don't rain on my parade. I escaped a mob of angry Amish bastards, I was nearly catapulted out of a car because of a ball of twine, I saw a rabbit being skinned. Leave me the fuck alone!"

"Don't listen to her, Vicky, she's in one of her moods," Klaus stroked my hair. "We can definitely do that after the meeting is- Five! Five don't leave!"

"I'm leaving," the little man announced as he rounded the corner to look for Lila.

"Hey, none of you heartless bastards care about our murdered moms?" Klausie asked. "Look at mine, I have her eyes, her name's Rachel. Look at my mother-in-law, cute little freckles like Vicky's, and the same mischievous look on her face. We need to find out who did this! This is the main thing!"

"What? It was obviously dad," I said, thinking he would've figured that out by now. "You heard him, he hated us in 63 so much he decided to unadopt us, but just to make sure we wouldn't be born he killed our moms and eliminated the scum before it could come out."

"You really think dad is capable of killing innocent people?" 

"Uh yeah! Dad kept me under a thousand pounds of metal every single day for fun, what would stop him from killing some women he didn't even know?" 

"I guess you're right."

"Look who decided to show, little late for the meeting, pal," Diego teased as Luther walked in, carrying a tote bag full of Sparrow merch and even wearing a Sparrow jacket. I was completely unimpressed, I knew he was a traitor from the moment we first learned how to talk and he decided to rattle me out for stealing a cookie.

"I was being held captive by the Sparrows. None of you noticed?" he asked, slightly offended.

"Oh yeah, we missed you so dearly," I nodded. "I was worried sick... Are you hurt?"

"No, they're excellent hosts! Quite charming, and you should see their gym, their house is amazing! I really think we've got these guys all wrong."

"Says the guy they kidnapped," Allison cocked an eyebrow.

"I was obligated to enter your dirty mind and see the filth going through your head, please never do that again, it was disgusting," I took the beer bottle from Klaus to take a sip. "Why were you even thinking those things while being held hostage?"

"What do they want?" Diego cut me off.

"They want Marcus, unharmed," Luther passed on their message.

"Well, we don't have Marcus," Viktor said.

"Oh, that sucks, I thought we could solve that one quickly and go on to problem number two... The disappearing people."

"Disappearing people?" I scoffed. "That's it, let's go, Klaus. I need a shower and all the rest."

"Oh? You still want all the rest even if I'm an Amish from Pennsylvania?" he giggled, following me to the elevator.

"You speak German, right?" I pressed the button to our floor and turned to him as the door closed.

"ohne Zweifel, (no doubt,)" he smirked.

"Then yeah, I do."

"Ich möchte Dich betteln hören," he pinned me against the wall, his lips inches away from mine and I already felt the palms of my hands tingling.

"You wanna hear me beg? I can beg once you're naked..."

—————————————————— 

So the world was ending again. People were disappearing now, we had to run and get things done before we all die. We wouldn't be able to dodge death when it keeps following us everywhere forever, it was like that movie Final Destination. We could try all we wanted to avoid our end, but it would always arrive and find us wherever we went.

"Heeey, Schnecke... Can we go somewhere today? Just us?" he rolled over to hold me after hours of me staring at the ceiling waiting for the sun to come up.

"Klaus! Not again, don't come at me with this shit!" I cried. "Do you even want to get married anymore?"

"Of course I do, what do you mean?"

"There's another apocalypse coming, we don't know how to stop this one because it doesn't seem like Viktor is the cause anymore. We can die or disappear at any given second and instead of worrying about the wedding, you're asking me once again to follow you into one of your stupid adventures! What am I supposed to think?"

"You're right, you're right... Can we maybe compromise?"

"What's the compromise?"

"You come with me to visit dad and ask him about our moms, then on the way back we can buy our outfits and I'll talk to Chet about the venue," Klaus suggested.

"Okay fine, but how do you expect to get passed security again and get into the house without being trampled on by those assholes?" I asked.

"Remember how we used to sneak out through the window?" 

"Yeah, but we can't do that, people will see us."

"There's another way inside..."

"NO! Klaus! No! I'm not doing that again, no way!"

I knew what he wanted. One time when dad shut the windows closed right after my accident falling from the second floor, we had to find another way to get out so we could get our doughnut fix. So Klaus had the brilliant idea to crawl through the sewers like we were in some Stephen King novel. 

It was one of the worst experiences of my life, and that's saying a lot! I can still remember the smell and it makes my stomach churn. I couldn't believe he wanted me to do it again, and all because we wanted to... Talk to dad? It was insane.

"Pretty please?" he pouted, batting those eyes at me. "It would mean so much to know what happened to my mother. I don't wanna do this alone, Vickynha! Please? It's not like you can get hurt or catch anything."

"Fiiiiine! But we're getting the outfits on the way back, so we better manage to take a shower at the mansion, I'm not trying on wedding dresses covered in sewage!"

"I promise, I'll take another beating just so you can take a shower. Thank you so much!"

Klaus managed to find us some diving suits, swimming caps, snorkel shit... And of course, two trenchcoats so we wouldn't go out in the street looking like a pair of lunatics. It didn't really help, but at least all eyes were not on my future husband's bulge.

As soon as he opened that lid I wanted to run back to the hotel. The smell was almost unbearable, but Klaus didn't seem bothered. He, in fact, seemed nostalgic, last time we did that we were 13 and imagined life would be different, happy, so maybe that's why the smell was comforting to him.

"That takes me back..." he said, dropping his trenchcoat and making his way down. 

"If we find a killer clown in there, I'm letting it eat you," I huffed, following him inside. "Ugh, the things you make me do."

"Oh stop it, you love me," he smirked.

I made a vow to myself to be totally honest and open when telling this story, but I really don't think I have the stomach to relive what happened in the sewers. I can tell you all I was never the same after that, the things I've seen in there will haunt me forever. I regret taking Klaus' deal several times while we swam through that shit (literally) to arrive at dad's office. 

"See? Not that bad," he said as he helped out of the pipe. 

"Oh yeah, I definitely don't wanna throw up and cry right now..." I rolled my eyes, taking off my suit to reveal the bikini underneath.

"Wow, that's what you chose to wear?" Klaus stared at me and his thoughts were so loud I could listen to them without even trying. 

"It made sense to me, a swimming suit under the diving suit. Stop thinking that, we're covered in shit!" I scolded.

"Sorry, but your ass looks really good right now, I'm only human!" he cried, getting out of his suit, he was wearing yet another skin-tight suit, but this one had his chest completely exposed and in between the two layers, he had a blue speedo on. 

"You look like Borat and Lady Gaga had a child," I tried not to laugh.

"Have at you!" Dad finally noticed us and grabbed a wooden back scratcher in the form of a little hand to use as a sword against us. I yelped, but as soon as I noticed what he was holding I heaved a sigh of relief.

"Did you do it?" Klaus asked, grabbing one of the little statues from the mantelpiece to counterattack. 

"What are you talking about? How did you get in here?" 

"Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to, dad..." I muttered.

"Did you kill our moms?" Klausie asked again. "Please just tell me if you killed them and we'll leave."

"After a shower," I added.

"After a shower," he nodded. "Please just tell us."

"I don't care enough about you to lie, do I look fit to murder anyone?" dad lowered his guard. 

"Not now, but I remember you, you were scary and horrible and a sadist! You'd love to make sure none of us are born!" I took the statue from my fiancé and put it back in place. 

"I remember you two better now. You're the drunk one and you're the childish one."

"No, I'm Klaus, the spiritual one," he argued. "And this is Victoria, the... Hot one."

"That's all I am to you? The hot one?" I turned to him, baffled.

"Victoria, the... Motherly one, the one who bakes, the interesting one, the caring one, the beautiful one?"

Before I could respond, we heard a knock on the door and ran to hide. We couldn't see who was there but we heard Jayme and Alphonso coming in with food and pills for dad. They insisted he took them and then forced him to sign some papers he didn't know anything about. I tried to read his mind and get any clues, but it was very confusing.

"His brain is a haze, he's totally doped," I whispered. 

"Who? Dad?" Klaus gasped quietly and I nodded.

The way they treated him made me almost sad for a second, I felt bad for him and that was a first! They threatened him and made mean comments, even after everything our father put us through, I couldn't help worrying. 

"Oh my God, dad... What happened to you?" Klaus asked when the others left and we finally came out of hiding. 

"How did we not have that idea?" I thought out loud. "They treat you like some sort of senile old man. You used to be an asshole, but you're the most respectable asshole I've ever met. Reginald Hargreeves, The Monocle, stuck in a room being drugged by his kids?"

"I sometimes wonder what happened to me as well," Reginald stared vacantly at the tv. "You kids better take a shower, you may use mine, but please leave it the same way you found it, in order."

"Thanks, dad," I dragged Klaus, who had many other questions but the smell was really starting to bother me and I couldn't handle it anymore.

That wasn't the man who raised us, that was very much clear. And though most of the changes in the timeline were concerning and disturbing, I found that one very comforting. Maybe there was a chance this father could like us. Maybe not like us, but at least not hate us.

When we came out of the shower, without saying a word to each other, we found two robes waiting, a gesture that was so small and yet nearly brought me to tears. We both got dressed and helped dry each other's hair like we did as kids. 

"That is much better, is it not?" Dad looked us up and down when we came out of the bathroom. "Now why would you think I murdered your mothers?"

"You hated us so much that you unadopted us, is it so crazy to think you wouldn't want us to even exist?" I sat by him on the couch.

"Seems I might've misjudged you, after all, you ended up saving the world in 63, so you must have done something right. I must admit I didn't even think of murdering your mothers as a solution."

"If we tell you we saved the world with the power of love will you believe us?" Klaus joined, wrapping one arm around me. 

"I find it hard to comprehend how love would stop an impending apocalypse, but anything is possible these days..." Reggie pointed at the TV where a news anchor was reporting on the rapidly growing number of missing people around the world, but before it was over, he changed channels to watch The Hunchback of Notre Dame instead.

"Oh, I love this movie," Klaus chuckled. "Vicky here likes the Disney version more, don't you, Schatz?"

"I am not the least bit surprised," father said, and I could hear him thinking once again about how my face makes me look like a child.

"Hey! It had some of the most beautiful songs ever, God Help the Outcasts is a masterpiece and Hellfire? The best Disney villain song ever written!" I tried to argue, but it only made Klaus' smile widen even more.

"Never turn your back, kids," dad said totally unprompted. "Especially on your children. You do your best, give them your all, but it's too much. Then it's pills in the porridge and something extra in the tea, next thing you know you signed your life away. All your dreams have been quashed, all your plans run aground, and the worst of it? No one ever comes to visit anymore. But you wouldn't understand that."

"Wouldn't we?" I quickly rubbed my eyes to stop any tears from falling. 

"Reggie, you have no idea," Klaus murmured, laying on my shoulder. "Have you ever been to a Baskin Robbins?"

"Can't say that I have," dad looked at us intrigued.

"They're like... You know the ones, they're half a Dunkin' Donuts and they're open all night, and it's 3 a.m, and nobody's switching out those giant empty tubs of fudge ripple. That's me! I feel like scoop after scoop after scoop has been taken out of me. Brother... Lover... A whole world... And now my mom. I don't have many scoops left, I only have two."

"Two?" his brows furrowed, certainly curious.

"Two, my Victoria," Klaus looked up at me with dreamy eyes. "And my pretty face. Once I lose that, I lost everything."

This boy's devotion reminds me of how I used to be like with Abigail, I heard the old man thinking.

"Who's Abigail?" I asked without hesitation.

"I forgot you can read minds, can't you, young lady?" dad asked.

"Yes, and I'm getting better at it."

"I see that. Abigail is none of your concern, I kindly ask you to stay out of my head, please. I have no idea what you two are talking about anyhow."

"I just feel like if I could find out who killed them, I'd have closure on-" Klaus continued, but was interrupted by dad.

"Do you want some ice cream? Would that shut you up?"

"Yeah, yeah I do," he grinned, nudging my arm. 

Father got up and I couldn't help imaging how my childhood would've been like if this Reggie was my father instead of the one we had back then. He tried to grab a couple of bowls, but one of them slipped from his grasp and fell, shattering all over the place. 

"Damn pills..." he cursed, looking truly embarrassed of his own behavior.

"Don't worry," I got down on my knees to clean it up, like I've always done my entire life for everyone around me. In a literal and metaphorical way, I've spent my whole life cleaning messes. "It happens to everyone."

"I can help you with that," Klaus offered. 

"The ice cream?" father asked. 

"No, the pills. If you don't wanna take them..."

"No no no, that's against the rules, I have to take them every day."

"All you have to do is just pop to the side, right here," he opened his mouth and pointed at the spot with his fingers. "And ta-da! Old necessary rehab trick."

"Huh," Reginald looked at me as I gathered the shards with my hands, then at my fiancé. "I didn't care for you when last we met, I thought the nature of your relationship was perverted and honestly disgusting, but I must admit you kids are growing on me."

Those words immediately brought tears to my eyes again, and this time I wasn't able to hold them. I exchanged a look with Klaus, knowing he felt the exact same way I did. We had never heard an I love you, or I'm proud of you, we never had a hug or a dad joke, we never felt loved. So this little kernel of affection meant more to us than anyone could possibly imagine. 

"Are your hands all right?" dad asked after I was done cleaning, noticing I was crying. 

"I'm also super-resistant, remember? I can't get cut like that," I explained. "I'm just a little emotional, you know? PMS."

After giving us our ice cream, Reggie sat back down to watch TV. We enjoyed that moment like Charlie Bucket enjoyed his yearly Wonka bar. 

We savored dad's company, trying to save every second of it in our brains so we'd always remember what it felt like to just do something everyone does with their dads, what it felt like to be normal for once.

Eventually, Reggie fell asleep and we decided it was time to leave. We still had the second part of the deal to honor, so we cleaned up after ourselves and prepared our escape plan. Initially, I would jump through the window and then help Klaus down, but something caught our attention. 

"Oblivion," dad murmured in his sleep.

"Oblivion?" I mouthed back at Klaus and he shrugged. 

"When he's asleep like this he's not so terrible... Wait, do you hear this?" his brows furrowed at the distant sound of mom singing. I don't think I've ever heard mom singing, humming yes, but singing? I didn't even know she was programmed for that.

Without having to say anything, we both headed to the basement where her voice was coming from to see what was going on in there. The risk of bumping into one of the Sparrows and having to fight again was quite high, but we were too curious to care, even more because the song she was singing was some sort of religious chanting.

"Wow!" Klaus giggled when he saw the huge ball of light in the middle of the room, it looked like a smaller version of the sun and I could hear electricity sounds coming from it. That couldn't be good...

Mom passed us by without even acknowledging our presence, too focused on the big bright light. She stopped in front of it and started to worship like some sort of deity, which definitely gave me Destiny's Children flashbacks.

"The Lord! The Lord is upon me!" she exclaimed and started to mutter a bunch of nonsense.

"Let's go, let's get out of here before she summons a demon or something," I pushed Klaus towards the back door, I just wanted to get out of that house as fast as possible, I didn't even care if we would bump into those shitty knock-offs. "I think mom is broken."

"You think? I thought she was about to start singing the Ragatanga. What was that like? Aserehe..."

"Aserehe ra de re de hebe tu de hebere seibiunouba mahabi an de bugui an de buididipi," I said as if that exact sequence of nonsensical words were my native language. 

"That's it," he carefully closed the door behind us and we could finally breathe, even though we were both wearing only swimsuits and robes.

"You remember the Ragatanga?" I laughed, thinking of that Jayme-induced dream I had the other day. "Remember how Diego was mad every time we started singing that?"

"Yeah and you taught everyone the choreography so we could do it to piss him off," he smiled, certainly assaulted by those old memories as well. "Good times... Actually horrible times, but having you there made it not so bad. Come on, let's get our trenchcoats and go shopping."

—————————————————— 

"I don't know how I feel about this one..." I turned in front of the mirror wearing the fifth wedding dress I picked that day. "I think it's pretty, but do I feel like a princess bride in it? Do I feel like my life is a fairytale?"

"I wouldn't know..." Klaus groaned, leaning back into his seat, I wrapped the thick robe sash around his eyes so he wouldn't be able to see my dress before the actual wedding. "I usually like being blindfolded, but right now it's a pain in my ass, just let me see it!"

"No, Klausie! It's bad luck for the groom to see the dress before the wedding, you know that!"

"You saw my suit, you even helped me choose, how is that fair?"

It was true, I did help pick the gorgeous green velvet suit that kinda looked a bit like one of those '70s jumpsuits, a little Donna and the Dynamos, but still very classy. Klaus would look so handsome in it for our big day!

"Yeah, but there are no rules about the bride seeing the suit."

"I'm the only person who can help you right now, Liebling! All our other siblings are doing boring apocalypse shit," he whined while I changed into the sixth dress of the day. "Maybe I can look as your brother, your favorite brother. That's still me, right? And there are no rules against that!"

"Ugh! Why did Ben have to go into the light? He would be perfect for this job..." I looked in the mirror and immediately hated what I saw, deciding to try on the seventh dress instead. "I can't let you see it because you might be my brother, but you are still my groom so that would ruin everything!"

You know that moment when you are talking somewhere very crowded and everyone else is being loud so you have to speak up more and more until you say something super embarrassing or incriminating and suddenly the room goes quiet and everyone hears what you just said? Well, that's what happened to me in that bridal store.

If dirty, weirded-out looks could kill, I'd be dead. Klaus certainly noticed what happened because he started uncontrollably cackling and even forgot about the stupid blindfold and his complaints about not seeing my dress.

"It's fine, we're adopted! I mean not like that..." I tried to shout, but no one seemed to care.

"I take it back, I'm loving this," he wheezed. "This is so funny, I love you so much."

"Shut up!" I finally looked in the mirror and gasped. "Oh my God, this is it... I knew I'd know when I saw it, and I do! This is my dress, this makes me feel like a princess and it's sexy, I love it, it's perfect!"

"I'm glad you found it, sis," he teased. "Can we just pick your shoes so I can take this thing off?"

"I'm gonna wear Allison's flats, those glittery ones, it'll be my something borrowed," I changed out of the dress as quickly as possible and ran to the front to pay for it and hide it inside of those big black bags where Klaus wouldn't be able to peek. I even planned to leave it with Viktor so nobody would see it. 

"Are you ready?" Klaus asked before taking the blindfold off.

"Yeah, you can look now."

"I can't wait to see it, but I'd marry you even in that swimsuit... Well, especially in that swimsuit," he smirked, stealing a kiss as we left the store. "You should wear it more often."

"Oh fuck!" I stopped, my heart jumping with terror.

"What? We forgot something?" 

"Jayme and Alphonso just died," I breathed. I could see them, I don't know whose mind I was reading, but I saw a blast taking them both out and nearly killing Christopher, Ben, Fei, and Sloane as well. 

"Who?" Klaus asked.

"That tiny one with the black venom and the big weird-looking one from Brazil," I explained, thinking about that conversation from the day of the first fight. "Hey, maybe I should be more like him, Alphonso I mean."

"What? Who would wanna be like him? He's like a human blob!" 

"First of all, that's pretty insensitive. Second of all, he told me something that day that kinda stuck with me. He said with my power if I gained more mass I could possibly absorb the impact of hits and send it back to the person hitting me."

"More mass? So you'd have to gain weight like I told you already..."

"Yeah, yeah, but maybe if I start working out I could gain more muscle, that must be amazing to absorb the impact! Look at Luther, he might be stupid, but he gets up pretty quick after a fight, he can take hit after hit after hit."

"Okay, so what I'm hearing is," Klaus squealed with joy. "Muscle mommy."

"What?" I laughed. 

"Muscle mommy! You're gonna look so sexy, oh fuck, I'll want you to crush my head with your thighs, lift me up in your strong arms! You have my full support."

"O-okay, thanks, Klausie. Now let's go see the damage with the Sparrows before you get a boner in the middle of the street."

"Might be a little late for that..."

[timerainseternal]

Random fluffy headcanon:

So, Five's powers seem to conserve momentum through a jump--see when Luther throws him off the stairs in S2E5. (Insert Portal "speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out.") Also based on this clip, he can change the direction of the portal, since he goes in nearly vertically, and turns it horizontally to not, you know, pancake.

With this in mind, I think Five could do a very fun approximation of skydiving/flying. He'd probably start out by jumping off a roof, let himself fall to very close to the ground, then flip the portal direction 180° and fling himself into the air, repeat until maximum velocity. He could probably slowly build up speed instead of jumping off a roof, but given how his powers seem to run out and who he is as a person, he'd likely find the roof a "more efficient option."

The very fluffy option, besides the mental image of a pre-apocalypse Five flinging himself into the air and giving everyone watching (including the neighbors) a heart attack, is that in a fit of sibling-to-sibling compassion, he'd do this with Viktor.

The way I see it going down is that Viktor would be feeling down about not having powers again, likely after special training or maybe even a mission. Five would see this, and tell him to meet him on the roof after lights out, no they're not all going to Griddy's, it's just for him, since the others already have powers. And it's more fun to imagine that he hasn't shared this ability yet, so Viktor really isn't sure what's going to happen, but he meets Five up there. Hr asks why, and Five says that if he wants, he can give him the power of flight, for a little while at least.

He's surprised, and extremely anxious, because honestly what the hell Five. He's asking Viktor to jump off a roof for fun. There's no way this could go well. But he trusts Five not to murder him on purpose, and when he says he can do something, he can do it. And, really, Viktor wants to know what it would be like, to have powers, to fly. So he accepts, and they jump off the roof.

Falling is the most frightening thing Viktor has ever done, by a large margin, and he's sure as the ground approaches that he's really going to die now. Then there's the swooshy feeling of Five's jumps, and suddenly they're going upwards, and the wind is in his hair, and when he finally manages to open his eyes to peek through his fear, they're high, high above the ground. Then there's a frozen moment when they're suspended in the air, and sure, Five's doing the work and he's grinning at Viktor in that annoying smug I-told-you-so look he gets far too often, but it almost feels like it really is Viktor's power, and he's the one doing it. It's the most thrilling thing he's ever done.

Of course, Five leaves eventually and all that, but once everyone gets reunited, it definitely gets brought up again. Viktor as an adult is appalled that he jumped off the roof as a child. Also, apparently he can really fly, so there's that. He probably wrote about it in his book, so once they eventually remember about it, the other siblings get curious and want to try, so Five goes flying with all of them, and even if he says it's ridiculous, he smiles the whole time.

Luther screams on the way down and denies it, and decides it's not his thing.

Diego very pointedly does not scream, but gets a little dizzy after too many jumps, so only does it a few times in a row, and very infrequently.

Allison screams on the way down and does not deny it. She doesn't like it the first few times but eventually really enjoys it. She doesn't do it very often anyway, because she feels very immature doing it and very seen when they get too high, and that's not a combination she's often in the mood for.

Klaus is ecstatic about this, and shrieks at the top of his lungs. This is his jam. When he wants to go flying he asks Five if they can "get high together." Five is not amused, and also completely misunderstood the first time Klaus asked that way.

Viktor finds it just as fun as the first time, and both nostalgic and freed by being able to do this again. More than the flying, it feels like Five is really back, and it's that more than the adrenaline and illusion of powers now that makes her happy.

When Claire comes to visit, he definitely takes her flying. It's Claire's new favorite thing. It's Allison's new least favorite thing. Allison knows Five wouldn't endanger Claire, but also, she feels she really can't condone her child jumping off a roof, so it's a point of debate whenever it comes up. They still get to do it sometimes, and Claire will occasionally announce afterwards that Five is "the best uncle." Five is smug and gloats for days afterwards, to the point of absolute insufferability.

As for Five, it's been a long time since he's had fun with his powers. When he can finally accept that he doesn't need to save the jumps, the energy, and can just do something that makes him happy, it finally feels like things are okay.

[tua-five]

Season 3 Episode 7

⚠️⚠️ S3 Spoilers! ⚠️⚠️

I always miss things. Like Lila going back and watching the Handler kill over. She repeatedly watches it. Rewinds it over and over. She is absolutely distraught because she thought she loved her. But she killed her. And then Herb and Dot come in. Kicking her out. "Oh, I get it. Ding-dong, the bitch is deal, so make her daughter pay instead." And she plays the drum pretty hard.

And Reginald, of course, causally sings while his dead "son" whom he killed is in the trunk. Who then proceeds to wake up. And reginald tells him he could've taken all of his organs... yeah. Okay, Reg. Thanks.

"You two sentient STDs." Okay, Five 😭

"I didn't get this my giving a mummy a handjob, okay?" Yeah, I didn't think so, Diego. Thanks for that information, though. Seriously, who wrote the script 😂 this is hilarious.

Okay, and once again, they don't miss Klaus. Barely notice he's gone. Like in season 1 when he was kidnapped. This time, he was, too. Ish? They ask where he is, and their response is probably Kugelblitzed. And then they move on, no grieving Klaus. There was no moment of silence for him. Nothing. That's a moment I hate. Despite him being the "druggy" brother, they still loved him. Diego was especially there for him, and for all of them to just dismiss him? No. I don't like that at all.

And Viktor, too. He's not there. And they're once again having a meeting without him. Are you serious? When has that ever gone good? Idiots. I mean, genuinely. What the heck? It's a family meeting. With both families. And they don't include Viktor. Who literally is the strongest. The best powers. Most powerful. Whatever you want to say. And you started the meeting without him. Bad move.

Diego's question is valid though and sometimes I wonder it too. "If we kill you do we get our ben back?"

And here comes Viktor, pissed and wondering about Harlan. And Allsion says she killed him. And Ben being Ben, bets on Viktor. Obviously. He now knows what he's capable of. Of course, he'll bet Viktor's gonna win. And Allsion reveals Harlan killed everyone's mom. And everyone just reacts and then continues to blame Viktor and blame Harlan. He actually genuinely didn't mean to hurt anyone. It's not his fault. It's no one's fault.

Everyone's reactions to Allison getting more aggressive are just... all over the place. Five says to take it easy, Diego looks concerned, Ben is just smirking like this is the funniest thing, Luther is yelling at Allison to stop, Five gets more concerned about Allsion yelling at Viktor and making him stop breathing without saying "I heard a rumor"... it's just... like, stop with the fighting. Luther only tells Allison to knock it off with the powers, but not the fighting.

Diego only steps in when Allison says they should've left him in the basement. Low blow. What the actual heck. No. That's too far and she knows it.

Then Viktor hits Allison, and Five checks in on HER. Not Viktor.

This is why I hate Allison. I know I've been saying that I know she's been through a lot, and I feel bad for her, but seriously.

Olay, fine. Enough of this for now. Viktor walks into Ben's room, and there's drawings everywhere. One is even being labeled Jennifer. Previously, Ben asked who Jennifer was. So either he lied and does know, didn't know they were talking about that Jennifer, or he's having dreams or flashbacks or memories of her. Of what happened with the umbrellas. A way to show that umbrella Ben is still in there. Fighting for a way out.

And Reginald. Asking what the Umbrellas did for fun. Asked where they went for family trips. Nowhere. Because yeah. Reggie really did put the "dick in dictator."

And finally, for once, Fives disappearance is mentioned. Whenever the brellies talk about what broke the camels back, they talk about the Jennifer incident and Ben's death. It's like Five never mattered to them. They only ever left after and broke apart after Ben died. And it's terrible that Five was just there. And then gone. He was looked at as arrogant and all high and mighty and thinking he's the better of them all. And he has no way to say different. Because he's gone. He doesn't come back until for him 45 years later. For them, it's just 16 years. They've kept that imagine of him for so long, and they keep it because he still looks exactly as he did. And he has to act like that because he has to save the world. He has no choice but to do everything in his power to stop doomsday because he can't bear for his siblings to die. He can't witness that again.

So I'm grateful that Klaus started to explain how the academy fell apart with Five's disappearance. Because at least Klaus noticed.

"Do you trust me?" No, Reginald. Absolutely not.

"Yeah. 🤗 I trust you." Flipping idiotic, naive, Klaus.

HOLD ON HOLD ON HOLD ON!

How come no one is talking about this? Not only does Klaus come back to life, but he also returns back to normal. After getting shot, nothing. Barely a scar. After getting hit by a bunch of cars, his broken legs are back to normal in seconds. He heals so fast. Like... that is so powerful.

Also, with all the cars that have hit him... has no one called the cops?? Like, hello???

Ben calls Viktor emo. For crying on his bed. But Ben is really the emo one. Let's be honest here.

And of course, Reginald drops Klaus off in a cemetery. Great. He has to face his literal demons.

Also, Allison and Lila was a duo I never expected.

And Grace turning evil I never expected either. Sure, she's a robot, and in every show and movie ever that's what happens, but not with dear old Grace. That's just cookoo bananas.

And poor Five has to be the to kill her. He just has to go through everything, huh.

Reginald tells Klaus that he made everyone confused about their powers so he could control them. And now he's helping Klaus master his. To control him. Klaus's is to naive to realize that, but everything is about Oblivion for Reginald. It always has been and always will be. He will always want a different timeline where he's in charge.

Christopher farting is crazy though.

Then they all celebrate. Not knowing the world is still over. It doesn't work. And what did they think they were going to do with the burning buildings outside? The billions of people gone?

Who knew luther was so crafty? That he could make a ring? And it's so sweet that he put the moon rock in it.

Oh, and Lila's pregnant. So I guess there's that huge announcement too.

"Hey, that was really nice of you. Kill Mom so Diego didn't have to." Yeah, that was n—

"My, God, we are a weird family, aren't we?" Right..

"Sorry. Yeah, I heard it as I said it." Yeah.. that was definitely weird. I'm realizing. Shouldn't be normal... 😬

"Do you know why I wanted this last jump to work so badly?"

"Because you're old and tired?"

"Because I slaughtered a boardroom full of people to buy our way back here."

Yeah. Yeah, he did.

"Little advice from someone who's been there? Don't do the math. That equation does not exist. There's no 'save five Harlans for every two Claire's' formula."

Yeah...

"People like us, we will never save enough lives to make up for the ones that we take."

"I don't accept that."

"Then you'll down. This is the price of being powerful. Sometimes, we step on ants. And the sooner you face that, the safer we'll all be."

He keeps saying we. He knows he's powerful, too. They all are. But he was an assassin, and he had cons to terms with everything. He knows what it's like.

"You know what they call a superhero who works alone and doesn't listen to anybody? A villain."

I used to interpret this as Five only calling Viktor that, but o think he's calling himself a villain too. Because he knows. And he's really trying to be better.

"But lie to us again... Viktor, I'll kill you myself."

That was harsh. He wouldn't. He can't. It's not in him. He won't. I refuse to believe it.

My lovelies, her are today's gifs