number_five | December 25, 2020

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]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

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?"

From:

number_five

"Should be one for everyone," Five says, and he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a key, tossing it to Klaus, "Four on the third floor, four on the second. I think it used to be a boarding house, by the looks of it."

Five probably should have looked into the history of the building before buying, but it's structurally sound, not too close to the Necropolis, and it was available. Five didn't want to chance that someone would snap it up before he did. Or that the building would disappear. Or any other random fucking thing subject to happening in Darrow.

But now there's enough room for all four of them, with some to spare if Diego and Luther ever turn up too. Though he has his doubts about whether Diego would buy into something like this.

From:

terriblymisguided

Klaus catches the key and stares at it for a moment, throat working as he tries to process what he's feeling. It's astounding to him that Five would do something like this, and even more astounding that Five would include him.

"Five." He wants to hug his brother, and even twitches forward to do so, but he remembers all the times that Five has shrugged him off, so he reels himself in and blinks down at the key again. It's very unlike him to not have a joke ready for any situation, but this isn't just any situation. This is all of them living under one roof again, not because of the Academy or the apocalypse but by choice.

"I guess we need to pack up the apartment, huh?" He huffs out a laugh and looks at his brother, forcing himself to stay still. "And here I thought I was ahead of the game, getting you guys presents at all."

From:

number_five

"Well I didn't wrap this one, so we'll call it about even," Five replies. Reginald Hargreeves was never one for Christmas, so he imagines this is probably the first one most of them have spent together. Though, Five never really intended this to be a Christmas present in the first place, the timing just happened to work out.

"And we'll have to hope this one isn't haunted, because I don't think I can return it."

From:

terriblymisguided

The comment, as offhanded as it was, makes Klaus's smile grow even wider, because it means that Five took him into consideration. This place is far from the Necropolis, which is the one part of this city that Klaus hasn't explored, because his whole body seizes up in terror if he gets too close. This building may be haunted, but there is no sense of dread, nothing instinctually telling him to stay away. It's perfect.

"So far, so good," Klaus says, and this time he does reach out to put his hand on Five's shoulder, patting once and giving a brief squeeze as he passes by to step up onto the small porch. "Come on, then. Give me a tour."

From:

number_five

It was only an offhand comment Klaus made to Five about the Bramford Building being haunted, but it was enough for Five to remember to take location into consideration when looking for a place for them all to live. Of course, a simpler solution would have been to just ask Klaus along when he was looking but...

Well, he likes this better.

Klaus squeezes his shoulder and pushes past him, and Five manages a small smile before he walks forward to open the door.

"It's definitely smaller than any of us are used to, so give it a chance first," Five says as he steps in. The entryway almost immediately splits off into the library on the left and sitting room on the right. The stairwell's just ahead, but Five makes a right, into the sitting room, where an old, dusty couch is the only thing there at the moment.

"Last tenants left that behind," Five says, "I hadn't had a chance to get rid of it yet."

From:

terriblymisguided

"Ah, you underestimate me, brother," Klaus says with a laugh, looking around as the walk through the small entryway. "I've stayed in my fair share of dives. I lived in a studio apartment in Japan for almost a year. And technically, I shared it with Ben. Ghosts don't take up too much space, though."

They step into the sitting room and Klaus walks around the back of the sofa, patting at the cushions and raising a brow at the dust cloud that rises from it. "Put it on the curb. Someone will take it. Guaranteed."

Allison and Vanya run through the entryway and head upstairs, and Klaus smiles at having four Hargreeves under one roof again, with none of them even fighting. Yet. His attention turns to Five again, and he raises a curious yet very nonjudgmental brow. "Are you going to share how you got the money for this place, or leave it up to my very vivid imagination?"

From:

number_five

Five frowns, but doesn't have to consider his answer.

"It's probably better if that goes unsaid," he replies. For as many times as Five has called Klaus useless-- more back home than in Darrow, probably because they're not under the threat of a looming apocalypse-- he knows his brother isn't stupid. There's no way Klaus didn't notice the erratic comings and goings of the past few weeks, the spots of blood on his clothes, Five's increase in his coffee intake.

Long story short, it's probably better if any of his siblings don't ask too many questions about it all.

"Why Japan?" Five asks.

From:

terriblymisguided

Whether Five means for it to be or not, the non-answer is enough to confirm Klaus's suspicions. He's more observant than his siblings give him credit for, but even if he weren't, he thinks he might have noticed that Five has seemed a little off. A little tired looking, a little overcaffeinated.

"It was far away," Klaus says with a shrug, walking a slow circle around the room. "But I liked it there. The food was incredible, and Tokyo was just lights and sound everywhere. Amsterdam was where I stayed the longest, though."

He turns his gaze from the crown molding, and smiles over his shoulder at Five. "Altijd een leuke tijd in Amsterdam."

From:

number_five

Five considers this for a moment, then nods.

"I could see you in Amsterdam," he replies, "I've only been there briefly myself. Not a bad place. Not that I had a lot of time for sightseeing."

It had been a quick mission. The 1928 Summer Olympics. Somehow, he thinks the city's probably changed a fair bit from then to when Klaus was there.

From:

terriblymisguided

"That's a shame. It's beautiful." It's strange to think of Five as an old man traveling the world. They've all lived so much life apart from each other, and that's kind of bittersweet. Or mostly sad, in Five's case. Five was always so tough, tougher than Klaus ever was or will be, but he hates thinking about his brother being alone for so long, tough or not.

"This thing we're not talking about," Klaus says quietly, so their sisters don't overhear. He puts his hand on Five's shoulder as he goes to pass him, looking at him curiously. "Is it ongoing, or are you done?"

From:

number_five

"Done," Five answers, though he's not entirely certain it's the truth. Anonymous contract killing served its purpose here, he found a place for his family. But it would be a lie to say that he hasn't considered it to be a plan B for him in Darrow.

As far as professions go, there aren't too many for a grown man trapped in the body of a teenager, even in Darrow. And Five definitely isn't going to enroll in high school. He doesn't have a lot of options.

"I'm not entirely sure what comes next, but I'm putting that behind me."