December 25, 2020

[number_five]

When Five had first arrived in Darrow, he'd been convinced that he was going to be stuck there alone. After all, he'd spent 45 years on his own, and it just seemed par for the course.

But then Klaus had shown up, and suddenly he had family again. Sure, it was Klaus, but despite his brother's many eccentricities, Five cares for him, and it's been good having a chance to catch up. There hadn't been a lot of time for that, scrambling to prevent one apocalypse after another.

And though Five has been floundering, trying to figure out what the hell happens to him next and what he's supposed to be doing with his life now, things have been okay. Even if he'd become convinced that it'd just be the two of them. This isn't a result of Five trying to time travel, this is something sending them all hurtling across dimensions; maybe the rest of them show up, but odds are, they don't.

Five had been trying to make his peace with it.

That is, until seventeen days ago, when Five found his sister in the street, asking if they'd managed to make it home. And five days ago, when his other sister had knocked on the door in the middle of the night.

Suddenly, there are four of them.

They're all in Darrow, but somehow, it feels like they're still scattered.

Truthfully, Five has had the idea for a while, but it's after Allison shows up that he really decides to put it into action. He's only gotten a peek at Darrow's underworld before now, heard whispers at some of the less reputable establishments he sometimes finds a way into. But it doesn't take long before he finds an in, and gets himself hired-- anonymously, of course-- taking out high value targets from rival gangs.

It's like Commission work, but easier. He takes on a job, gets the money, comes home late and hopes Klaus doesn't notice the blood on his collar.

He's not supposed to be doing this anymore, he doesn't enjoy it, it started to turn his stomach after he took the Handler's deal. But he needs a lot of money, he needs it fast, and... well, this is what he knows how to do. He's good at it; the Commission made sure of that.

So it doesn't take him long at all before he has enough money to put a down payment on a small building on the corner of Crescent and Gerard. Three floors, a basement, a decent amount of space, even if the rest of their siblings do eventually turn up.

The invitation might be a bit much, he knows, but his siblings do turn up at the right time. Five is standing out front, his hands in his pockets.

"This has been a shitty few months... few years, depending on your perspective," Five says, "I figured it was time for a change."

He pauses, looking back at the building, then back at his brother and sisters.

"It's ours, and you're welcome to stay here if you want, but don't feel obligated. And it's not the Umbrella Academy, but maybe it can be something else."

Everything still feels scatted, but maybe this will help. Maybe the pieces will finally start to come together again, after 45 years.

[Tag in, tag each other, tag Five]

Comments

[terriblymisguided]

When Klaus first saw the invitation, returning from stepping over it in his quest for coffee, he thinks it's a joke. But then he remembers that it's Five, who never jokes, and he looks at the invitation with a more critical eye, unsure of what to make of it. Five isn't there for Klaus to pester for answers, so he folds the invitation and sticks it in the back pocket of his jeans.

He spends Christmas Eve with Obi-Wan, even though neither of them have any real sort of attachment to the holiday. He ends up staying over, and the next morning he thinks that he kind of gets the hype about Christmas mornings, that rush of excitement when you're gifted with something precious.

So, he's in high spirits when he heads out to the address on the invitation. The building isn't familiar to him at all, but Five is standing out front. Klaus doesn't even really have a chance to even start asking questions before Allison and Vanya show up. They give each other questioning looks, but then Five starts talking. Klaus's brow furrows as he listens, and then lift in surprise once he processes what's going on. He looks from Five to the building and back again, blinking a few times as he reaches up to put his cold fingertips against his jaw as it goes slack.

And then the surprise lingers, and Klaus feels a swell of positive emotion that he doesn't quite know how to process. When Five showed up at his apartment and claimed the spare bedroom, Klaus had never really thought that it was because Five had any actual desire to live with him. It was better than the orphanage, and he couldn't get a place of his own until he got emancipated, or whatever, after which he'd be gone.

"Well, you've been a busy boy," Klaus says to Five, trying to keep the waver of emotion from his voice. He's still reeling in vague confusion, and it takes him a moment to land on the bummer reason why: Klaus simply hadn't thought that any of them would want to live with him.

He takes a step forward, bringing him closer to Five as he keeps his hands in his pockets, looking at the front door before turning to face his brother with a bewildered smile. He huffs in amused disbelief and lifts a hand, shaking his head with a breathless laugh. "I don't know what to say."

For a moment, he searches for a joke, any way to draw focus from what he's feeling, but nothing comes. Instead, he just gives Five a slightly confused but hopeful sort of look. "There's really a room for me up there, huh?"

[nomorerumors]

The invite had been a bit ridiculous, but Allison was curious enough to see what Five had in store. Though she's had many good Christmases in the past with proper decorations and gifts and traditions to make sure Claire got the sort of childhood the Hargreeves kids never did, it still feels odd to be doing it now. Once everyone was gone, there hadn't been any real reason to get them all together again for a holiday they'd never celebrated.

A Hargreeves Christmas is an alien concept, but Allison is navigating the day carefully, with cheer and (sometimes forced) optimism.

The house they're standing in front of as Five gives his little speech comes as a shock. Allison has a million questions, such as how the hell he got the money to get such a big home, but those can wait. She can get out of her apartment now, move into a building with her siblings and feel much safer, much more like a home away from home. If they have to be stuck here, then at least they can have a home that Allison will help make damn sure is as far away from the Academy as she can manage.

"Five," she breathes out, staring at him, then up at the building, then back down to him. Questions of money aside, he's done this for them, as a family. Allison knew he did think of them, and much of his crazy focus on the apocalypse involved making sure they were all okay, but this...it's actual physical proof that Five does have a soft, squishy center somewhere in there. She'll take it, and give him a proper thank you when she can get a moment alone with him later.

Allison beams, and claps her hands together in excitement. "Is there a backyard? Or a garden? I call the room with the best view!"

[fifthbeatle]

The invitation had scared the shit out of Vanya. She woke up one morning on Klaus and Five's couch to a little letter slipped under their door. It occurs to her that it's not her place to look, but the letting is face-up and she sees that it may be for her, as well. To my siblings suggests so, but she's not felt like she belonged at all until very recently.

When she opens the door to her assigned apartment for the first time, the letter is there. A small, grateful smile twitches at the corner of her mouth. This is Five. He never pushed her away and she knows now that he never intentionally abandoned them. He'll never say it, but she knows that she is a part of what he missed while he was off being broken down and rebuilt by the apocalypse and the Commission.

Her hands are shaking a little when she walks up to the address. There's a part of her that is scared Reginald Hargreeves will be at the end of a walkway at that address, or that she'll find out the invitation had been sent by mistake and that her siblings will all look at her with that icy why stare she saw every day growing up.

It's a house. It's a big house - brick and huge windows and what looks like three floors. Vanya's trying to complete the picture here in the space before Five talks. Is this a reboot of the Academy? Is there something inside that Five needs their help taking on? She's too anxious for this kind of silence and the way her blood pumps into her ears she's afraid too much more uncertainty is going to blast out of her beyond her control.

It's ours. These words bump useless against the walls of her mind. She has to process it several times before she starts to understand what is happening.

"This is... for us?" Vanya asks quietly, her eyes big and curious and terrified. It's only once she pulls her eyes from the structure to see that Five's small, usually tough face is rich with an unfamiliar softness. She's stunned, gently bracketed by her other brother and sister. Klaus sounds deeply touched. Allison's voice is full of wonder. Vanya can't even imagine what words might sound like coming out of her right now.

Without any knowledge that she is doing it, Vanya launches herself the short distance between herself and Five. Her arms vault around his shoulders and she holds him tightly, willing her gratitude into him. To her, it feels like the sound of the trees rustling, the little keys jingling in their hands. It's Five's heartbeat against hers and the stunned breathing of their siblings, the sound of their shoes on the ground. There's a faint resonance that pulses out from her middle. Beneath her tightly shut eyes, she knows that her irises are white, but she is not afraid. The energy is warm and gentle - a vague sound of windchimes with a warm, pleasant breeze. Though she can't control it and has never felt anything like it, there is no fear in her. It's like the first time she played violin after the pills wore off, like the song within her and around her are finally the same melody.