#au where five never left and he and klaus escaped together! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

helunar1 · 2 years

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TUA FIC IDEA (4)

This has perhaps been done a few times but I was having fun with it in my head so might as well note what I thought down

Post S1 AU

Klaus wakes up to find himself back in his 13 year old body. While sure, they all managed to escape the apolcolypse alive for another do over, it kinda sucks when Klaus is the only one who remembers.

Sucks more when the Commission is still after his family.

Klaus was never one for responsibility.

Klaus gasps awake, eyes wide and frantic to the sight a familiar cieling. Where?

What?

The last thing he remembers is everyone at the Icarus theatre, the fucking moon hurtling towards them and pale, bright blue light surrounding all of his siblings - all of them, hand in hand.

He frowns, his hands feel empty.

Klaus feels his heart stutter, once, twice, before finally calming down to sit up and -

He's in his room.

Or what looks like to be his room.

It's smaller - the size it was before Vanya left and he broke the wall down to make room. Knick knacks that usually cluttered his space were not as plenty - his closet, still opened, pnly revealed identical uniforms spilling out.

Small, children sized uniforms.

Fuck.

It worked?

Immedietly he jumps out of bed, glancing down to pat his body - his old pint sized body in shock.

Holy shit, Five did it?

They made it back in time?

Klaus lets out a surprised giggle, not completely sure whether he should be happy or freaking out.

He glanced down at his palms and pursed his lips at the missing tattoos.

A shame.

___

Lots of sibling bonding cuz I live for it

Sibbie bonding moments:

Klaus only one who remembers

Commissions goes after Klaus, baiting him to join them or else they'll take Five and kills the rest of his family to only leave poor, volatile Vanya to end the world

Made worse because Five hasn't exactly told Klaus who the Handler was in the original timeline ("Goddammit Five," Klaus hisses. "The next time I see that shitheel we need to talk about a little thing called communication. Fuck!")

Made ironic is Klaus decides not to say anything to the siblings - he does try at first but is made to be maling up stories. In the end, he decides to do things on his own ("Who the fuck left me in charge?!" Klaus whines to himself, flopping backwards onto his bed. "Definitely wasn't Five. Fucker wouldn't tell me shit the last time." He lets out a huff, and stares up at his ceiling. "It was probably you, wasnt it?! Telling me it wasn't my time? Or is it just 'cuz you hate me - which, rude. What did I ever to you, huh? It's your fault you created me, not mine!)

Klaus and Five already have mutual companionship so Klaus tries to help convince Five to practice time travel with him (aka trying to prevent Five from running away that day.)

Eventually they come to an agreement to train in secret - Klaus believing that they need to work on physics (Klaus cringing, he never thought he'd be the one to convince Five, of all people, to study math. Five is just as skeptical that Klaus is the one advocating for this, which, fair. He's in disbelief as well. Hopefully this isnt a sign that the world is ending - again. He snickers.)

Quiet training together, as Klaus also attempts to practice his own powers as well. As Klaus is the most sober he's ever been, he attempts to summon Dave.

Five working through equations with Klaus, and them coming to the same conclusion that Five in season 2 - to work in seconds rather than years thing. Klaus is nervous that it'll fuck something up, but it's the only thing to appease the ever curious ans srubborn Five. It somehow ends up working

"Okay, so let's -"

"It worked," Five says suddenly, voice almost a whisper. He sounds completely in shock.

Klaus frowns. "What did?" He asks, but Five is staring down at his hands in wonder. Klaus takes a step forward.

"Five, buddy, you're kinda making me worrie-" but he was cut off by Five jerking his head up, smile wider than Klaus could ever remember. Happy, excited, proud - it makes Klaus take a second to stare. He doesn't remember Five looking so happy. Before he has another second, thin arms wrap around him - and just, what. Five has never been one for physical affection, even as a child. But just as the arms came, they went - Five probably thinking the same thing, judging by how fast he pulled away, face red in embarrassment. Klaus huffs out a laugh. "Care to explain, Five-O?"

Five looks away. Clearing his throat as he straightens his back. "I traveled. Back in time. Two minutes ago. Or...what was two-minutes ago. It, uh, worked essentially."

A beat before Klaus smiles, heart swelling with pride before deciding, fuck it and jumping to hug Five on his own. His brother hisses, trying to protest and pull away, but Klaus only wraps his arms tighter. "This is definitely hug worthy," he laughs. "A celebration!"

Klaus begins to check up on Vanya, seeing how she is. At first she is suspicious, resentful and Klaus could swear he can see the hidden white light underneath her dark eyes. He sighs, and instead asks if he could listen to her play. Opens up about the ghosts- it takes time to explain, the drugs and what not- especially to a sheltered 13 year old. But despite the anger Vanya has built up over the years in his original timeline, theres still time know. Time to fix and undo all the hurt. She agrees and starts to understand, espcially when Klaus hints at how the pills help Vanya stay "less anxious" (he cringes at it, but he will get Vanya away from those pills, he has a plan that he hopes will help).

At times she begins to get jealous of Klaus and Five hanging out more together - Klaus brings her to their training sessions. At first she is hesitant - ordinary Vanya for training on powers that she doesn't have?

Klaus brings Allison out to training one day, despite her annoyance. She didn't need any extra training, but Klaus and her have been closer when they were children and she was curious as to what both her and Five have been sneaking off to. During one of these sessions, he challenges Allison to undo any potential rumours on the three of them (Allison is offended at first but Klaus convinces her that they need to be on a blank slate, no after effects of any old rumours Father made her use while training or on accident). Rumour on Vanya is now broken (also some extra ones they didn't even realize they had - Klaus tries not to be bitter). Vanya doesn't realize this until much later

Klaus hasn't been on any of the hard drugs, only alcohol and weed - but the mind does not forget. He asks Allison to rumour him into staying sober - it has the desirable effects but also, his sanity feels at its limits due to the constant ghosts surrounding him (HE'S UNDER A LOT OF STRESS). He uses his time with Five to train his abilities as well

Takes Vanya to Griddys with Five and Ben (her closest friends) and talks about the pills. She has a self confidence ever since the rumours were removed and they give her the confidence to ween herself off as Klaus notes that drugs affect powers (Vanya doesnt feel ordinary anymore, so believes theres potential of her having powers). Klaus promises to stay the same (despite him already vowing to stay sober and thanks to Allison's rumour - but he doesnt say that. Content with Vanya trying to ween off the pills)

Klaus keeps watch, training Vanya with the others start. Klaus hinting at her powers and they start to show and hiding it from dad (maybe she remembers what happened after some things come to light)

Vanya coming to terms with their gender identity - opens up and asks to go by Viktor. (All pronouns from here on out will switch to he/him)

Klaus comic book powers start to come to light - getting stronger! Also able to banish ghosts - still not a lot but enough so

Ben and him bonding over powers, but Klaus struggles around Ben. Ben eventually confronting him about it as it did put a strain in their relationship. They talk about life, Klaus eluding to feeling alone and unwanted - Ben vowing that he's here for Klaus, through thick and thin. (A part of his heart breaks while another fills - its a conflicting feeling that Klaus does not yet understand. He can only smile, feeling the tears suddenly streaming down his cheeks. Ben, to his credit, doesn't comment, instead keeping his hand - warm, strong, secure - over Klaus's own. I know, he wants to say despite the lump in his throat preventing him from even taking a single breath. I know.)

BEN: Klaus sees Ben and remembers all the years they spent together in the original timeline. It hits him that Ben no longer has any memories together. If Klaus were to really reflect on it, it's probably a lot better for Ben that he does not remember, but somewhere in Klaus's heart he yearns for the brother that stuck with him for almost two decades. He has to move on (didnt he lose too much already?).

Vows to save Ben and let him live- not wanting his brother to confine to him anymore, even if it hurts. He grieves for a brother that once was. They all try to help Ben control the Horror in his stomach during training. *At some point during that mission, Klaus sacrifices himself to the horror due to his immortality. His body is obliterated - trauma for ben who wakes up covered in Klaus's blood. His body at this point needs to be re healed (takes time)

LUTHER: Time with Luther is a little awkward as the two of them have never been close in childhood and even less so as adults. Some part of Klaus feels like he has to save Luther too but he just does not know where to start, especially with the how the others are beginning to look at Klaus as a leader. Lots of fights - but Klaus remembers the Luther of his own timeline, isolated, manipulated and hurt. He keeps trying.

ALLISON: Allison and him were pretty close as kids often bonding over more feminine things that the others were not interested in. Trust is pretty simple to build there. One of these moments is where Klaus asks about the rumour soberity rumour

DIEGO: Diego and him were often the rebellious of the seven children. Their friendship as children was made stronger over their mutual hate for their father. There's a weird rift between the two now that Klaus has assumed a more leader position (despite the fact that Klaus did not want this position in the 1st place). At some point Diego calls him out for trying to be the new number one and "Daddy's bitch boy". Klaus decides that it is high time that he continues someone's rebellious streaks with Diego because because he may be a 30 year old man in a 13 year old body, but it does not mean that he does not know how to have fun.

Scene where Klaus finds out that, due to time travel and timelines, Klaus has not yet met Dave in Vietnam. He looks at the picture in a textbook (similar to the one in the Vet Bar, and sees that he is no longer in the picture). Klaus becomes depressed for a bit - sibbies are concerned. They try to cheer him up (they are closer now!)

Klaus stuff:

Still going thru special training

It was the night after a special training that Klaus begs Allison to please rumour his powers away. He did not need them - and at some point, he is tempted to take Viktor's medication (perhaps he does at one point to see if it could just his own off)

Despite his siblings now closer and bonding, Klaus feels completely alone. He's here, but he's completely disconnected and holding himself by the seems. He has to get this right because, otherwise, what does he have left?

Immortality shit comes in - meets God and has some words

Wonders how tf he got stuck on his own - wonders where the rest of his siblings are. Wonders if it's better that they are healing now, younger and more carefree compared to the ones he came to know years into the future. Is it bad to wish for the ones he once knew? Ones that he barely even spoke to, if only to have someone around to understand what is happening - what is going on? It is during these times he yearns for his brother, hating himself for preferring the dead sibling who has been there and understood him for so long over the very much alive, happier brother who barely knows a single thing about him. Honestly, he's so fucking selfish.

Commission stuff

Around where Klaus starts to make changes the commission tries to intervene with a mission to eliminate Klaus Hargreeves

Harder for the Commission to intervene when they are under the watchful eye of Sir Reginald Hargreeves. There's another shoot out attempt at the mansion - but Ben uses the Horror in the end to kill them all. The others think it's just someone targetting the academy itself, but Klaus recognizes the masks similar to his previous kidnappers. The Commission.

Initially tries to see if his father could help, but is proven fruitless

During a time out, perhaps with Ben and Diego, the Commission attacks them near an alley way. Both Diego and Ben fight back, Klaus who is not as skilled (thanks to not having years of combat training) (or have """useful""" powers in a fight) tries to fight back. One assasin manages to reach Klaus and effectively shooting him in the heart and head - instant kill

Cue diego and Ben screaming, the Commission leaving and believing their job is done - but not before Ben wipes them all out in rage, Diego trying to calm Ben down when the Horror gets too much while also trying to get to Klaus (who's dead , dead , dead)

Interlude - some divine revelation

Klaus waking up to the commotion and helping calm Ben down, who, along with Diego is shocked

The siblings learn about Klaus's immortality (reggie maybe finds out from Luther later). The Commission also finds out - this causes uproar at HQ. How do you eliminate something you cannot kill??

Determined that Ben would need to be eliminated as he is a major threat and was what forced the others to drift in the original timeline

Klaus, maybe at this point being able to have some control of the ghosts, catch wind about Ben being followed. Klaus sticks beside Ben, (Klaus kaughs at the irony of now him hovering over his once deceased brother, trying to keep him safe and alive. Oh how the tables have turned.) - may remove this though. Lots of fighting commission

The Handler comes to see Klaus but Klaus has never seen her before, The lady in red heels talks to him in the most condescending yet chirpy manner that leaves him feeling unsettled. She threatens to take Five away, condemning his brother to the same fate as before if Klaus were to not comply ("Your family for the sake of the timeline, Klaus," she says, smoke swirling from her lips. "You decide.")

"You're brother is a natural born killer," she sneers, her smile tight lipped and shark like. "All he needs is someone to just point him in the right direction." - Klaus get furious here, remembering all the times his Five was anything but.

Klaus going missing thanks to the Commission kidnapping him - manages to escape after a week. Siblings demanding to know what the fuck is happening with him

Klaus comes clean - siblings are in shock but also determined to help (perhaps this is like - a year or two after the time jump, ill figure out a timeline later). Lots of talk about Klaus intentions (Viktor asking if Klaus only befriended him because of the timeline - but Klaus promises him that he did it for them)

Ending????? Subject to change

All sibbies gearing up for the next time the Commission comes after them. All of them bonded and shit - they end up fighting with the Commission taking Klaus and putting him at HQ to be quarantined

Sibbies end up finding their way there where the Handler talks to Five like she knows him. Revealing to him what he once was, a killer and shit. She also shit talks all the other siblings - perhaps showing them glimpses of what once was. ("A shame," she laughs. Her hands are clutching Fives jaw and despite the fear he feels, he cannot shake her away. "I much prefer you when you were nothing but my murder puppet.") - potentially here is where their past consciousness start to trickle in (smthin about temporal anomolies idk)

They all fight, using their powers and what not, to escape and grab Klaus to head back. But they get ambushed - the handler back, Klaus in her grip. All the siblings are shot, sans Five, with a screaming drugged Klaus in her grip. She taunts at Klaus and Five, calling the former a useless junkie who could not save his family just like his brother. Five is injured and weak - same scene as s2 but links back to the scene with klaus where he goes back in time in minutes. Everyone is revived, they kill the Handler and Five just looks at Klaus, says something witty but a call back to that scene

He nods and they both pass tf out with their family surrounding them

Epilogue likely

Thanks to the Commission, the memories of the past merges together? Potentially

Either way, reggie is gone thanks to either Allison rumouring him away or "sudden death". Living at the Academy with their inheritance, happy ending woo!

#is this even legible #idk #maybe I'll get to this one day #luna fic ideas #tua fic ideas #tua #klaus hargreeves #again #not edited #wrotr this in one go on my phone and now my thumbs hurt #gjfjfjf

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angelicamerlinbarnes · 3 years

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TUA DISNEY AUs: Tangled (Pt. II)

(please understand that by AU, I mean they share an incredibly small amount of things in common with the original source material which I barely remember BUT the “story” takes place in the setting of the film) (not to be misleading or anything :p)

(BEWARE: abuse, death, violence I guess?, etc.)

(If you can handle watching Umbrella Academy, this will be fine for you.)

(Rapunzel) Klaus is stuck in this stupid tower with no one but his father and ghosts for company. He’s been trying to escape for years, but now it’s just dark and quiet, since Reginald was sure to find every possible escape route and shut it down. Klaus has started to see people everywhere. He thinks maybe he’s going crazy.

(Flynn) Diego has better shit to do than this. But he’s good at stealing, and his skills with a knife aren’t good for much else, so here he is. He’s on the run from the captain of the guard Eudora - the tower just seemed like a good place to lay low, and then some bitch hit him with an umbrella.

(Gothel) Reginald knows Klaus’ powers are majorly useless in terms of the power he so desperately desires, but Klaus is also his only link to the afterlife, where his beloved wife Grace rests. He needs to see her, so he keeps Klaus captive, even though he knows Klaus can’t do jack shit with his powers and Grace wouldn’t want this. He just can’t let go.

(King and Queen) Allison and Vanya are the only ones left of seven adopted royal children - their guardian, the late King Pogo, lost his life to his grief over losing all his sons. Allison is queen now, in love with a scholar from across the sea named Ray, and Vanya is mostly an advisor to her rather than a princess, though she’s happy to spend her days without politics, instead preferring to visit the baker Sissy and her son Harlan. They’re still looking for their brothers, Allison especially for Luther, her childhood sweetheart.

(Stabbington Brothers) Leonard and Lila hate each other, but make good thieves together, and therefore work as one for good business. Lila and Diego have a weird thing that resurfaces every time they work together, but Lila’s mostly got her eye on Captain Eudora - the prettiest girl she ever did see. Meanwhile, Leonard likes to harass Princess Vanya and make shady deals behind Lila’s back.

(Pascal) Ben is tired of Klaus’ shit, but has been his only consistent friend for years. Klaus doesn’t remember him, but they were stolen together as children. Reginald took Klaus for Grace and Ben for protection, but Ben died young during one of Reginald’s experiments on Klaus when Ben tried to protect him. Ben’s just trying to get his brother home - but Reginald, the dickwad, keeps getting in the way, goddamnit.

(Maximus) Luther is an exhausted soldier in the kingdom’s army, having been cursed to be an animal by an evil sorceress named the Handler. He and Diego do not get along. He just wants to get back to Allison - but she never recognizes him, and Luther becomes bitter and angry, losing hope with every passing second.

And like, the Handler works with Reginald as a fellow magical person except she runs a cultist witch organization called the Commission with her seconds Cha-Cha and Hazel and Five is her adopted son that she also stole from the palace on the same night that Reginald took Klaus and Ben. She also took Diego but lost him when he was eight.

Diego is on the run from Eudora when he finds Klaus’ tower. Klaus knocks him out and when he wakes up, he’s met with the sight of the most beautiful man he’s ever seen. He frees Klaus upon finding out that all Klaus wants is freedom in the same way Diego wants to find his little brother Five and kill the Handler. They’re immediately drawn to each other, and are best friends in a matter of hours as they travel together, eventually running into Luther with Ben at their side.

Luther and Diego bicker constantly and Lila starts to consider her true loyalties when Leonard truly starts to threaten Vanya. She grows closer to Eudora and almost loses her to Cha-Cha and Hazel, and would’ve if Klaus hadn’t come along and conjured Eudora at Diego’s wishes with his powers. Sure, Eudora’s dead, but she and Lila are still able to be together.

Vanya drop-kicks Leonard because she deserves to and settles down with Sissy in the bakery, though they have a modest sum from the palace due to Vanya’s princess-y-ness.

Allison marries Ray and is reunited with Luther, who she also carries out a relationship with once his curse is broken by Five, who’s been learning magic to kill the Handler. She’s overjoyed to be reunited with her brothers and, though distrustful of magic, allows Five to teach her a few tricks.

Five and Diego are reunited when Cha-Cha and Hazel kidnap Klaus for the Handler, who’s made a deal with Reginald. Together they save Klaus, who kisses Diego in his ecstasy. They keep making out while Five shares disgusted looks with a fully manifested Ben, who looks like he is wishing he could somehow be deader than dead.

Diego and Klaus don’t get married, but rather are reunited with their family and spend a few months reconnecting with everyone before heading off to have great adventures together. They take Five and Ben with them and have a grand old time. Allison is happy with Luther and Ray, Vanya is happy with Sissy and Harlan, and Lila and Eudora are making out in the most inconvenient places they can find. It’s great, it’s all great.

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aeruthien · 4 years

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The Originals/The Vampire Diaries AU drabble

Despite its age and strength, Klaus' heart only lasts as long as one of a normal vampire. Beating one, two more times before it falls still.

The fire around them recedes and a deadly quiet settles over the clearing.

The blond Salvatore brother stumbles closer.

"Is he dead?" he asks, wide eyed and breathless.

"Yes," Elijah says, and his voice does not waver. "It is done."

The Salvatore's gaze flickers to the body on the ground and back. It is filled with pity.

"Thank you, Elijah," he says, sincerely.

Elijah wants to rip out his heart too.

Instead, he nods.

"I'll take the body. Go home."

Klaus' body is light in his arms as carries it to the cave where Katarina was held. He places it on a stone bench with gentle precision.

All of his carefully constructed plans have brought him to this moment.

Finally he has his revenge. For his siblings. For Rebekah.

There is no joy. No victory.

Instead, there is only emptiness.

Footsteps echo through the cave, and a figure appears in its entrance.

"Ding dong. The big bad wolf is dead."

Katarina.

No longer bounded by Klaus' compulsion, she must have escaped whatever place he had kept her in.

"You're free now," Elijah says without looking at her.

Katarina approaches him and trails her hand up his arm, her warm, seductive body pressed close.

"So are you," she whispers.

Her hands slips under his jacket, and his skin tingles at her light touch.

He turns towards her, looking down on her familiar face. Her heart is pounding, proud, fierce and alive.

He could try to lose himself in her. Drown out the act he had committed. He trails his fingers over her cheek, his hand still covered in his brother’s blood, and places his thumb on her chin. She stares up at him with large brown eyes.

She would be using him, too, aligning herself to the most powerful vampire still alive, now that Klaus is dead.

He steps back, putting some distance between them.

Immediately, a scowl twists her face.

"It was necessary," Katarina snarls. "He terrorized us all."

Elijah cannot bring himself to care.

"Leave, Katarina."

She scoffs. "You're pathetic."

Angrily, she spins around and storms away, probably more upset by her thwarted plans than by his rejection. He wonders if he will ever see her again. He is not sure if he would like to.

Halfway towards the exit, she freezes. Her heart skips a beat, and her hand flies to her throat.

Elijah frowns, wary, unsure if it is another trick.

"Something... something is wrong," she gasps, her voice strained by something he has never heard from her before.

Fear.

Elijah catches her when her legs give out. Quickly, he bites his own wrist, but tremors keep running through her body even after she drinks from it.

"Elijah?" she whisper, clutching his arm. For a split second, he sees the girl he met in England over five hundred years ago.

"I'm here," he says in old Bulgarian.

"I don't... I don't want to die."

He presses his lips against her forehead and holds her close. A few moments later, she goes still.

Slowly, he lowers her to the ground.

Katarina Petrova is dead.

With shift movements, her checks her body for wounds or wolf bites, but there is nothing to indicate what could have killed her.

Elijah glances at his brother's body and back at Katarina's. Then he stands and flashes out of the cave.

****

He finds Elena in the abandoned plantation house.

She is clutching Stefan to her chest, and tears are running down her cheeks. Next to her, Alaric is holding Damon, while the Bennet witch and Elena's brother sit on the couch with their hands clasped together. Elena's father, John, is nowhere to be seen.

Elena looks up when he enters, and it is jarring, for a moment, to see her alive while Katarina is dead.

As soon as Alaric notices him, he stands.

"What did you do?" he yells. He grabs Elijah's lapels and slams him against the wall. Elijah lets him.

"I killed my brother," he says calmly.

"Then how-" Alaric says, "Is it magic? A fail-safe? Did Klaus do this?"

Elijah shakes his head. Klaus would never have planned for his own death. He would not have believed it possible.

He turns to Elena.

"Katarina is dead as well."

"I don't..."

Her eyes widen in realisation. Smart girl.

"They were all turned by Klaus."

Frantically, she scrambles for her phone.

"Caroline? Pick up. Please pick up."

"Did you know this?" Alaric hisses.

Elijah ignores him.

"Tyler?" Elena gasps. "Wha... No..."

The phone falls from her hand and hits the ground with a thud. Her face contorts in fear and devastation.

The blond haired vampire is dead too then.

Elijah turns to leave, but Alaric grabs his arm forcefully.

"Did you know?" he asks again.

It is Elena's pleading eyes that make him answer.

"No. Klaus is the first of us who has died."

He would not be the last.

Elijah leaves the humans to their grief. They would recover, and ultimately, their lives might be happier this way.

As for Elijah himself, there was only one option left.

It was time he found his father, and the White Oak stake he was carrying.

#the originals #the vampire diaries #kalijah #klelijah #elijah mikaelson #klaus mikaelson #katherine pierce #katarina petrova #do you guys want some angst?#have it any way #my writing

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evesbeve · 4 years

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Commission (TUActober Day 14)

TUActober Prompts by @totallyevan

Summary: There's an argument in the briefcase room. (AU where Five, Diego and Lila are field agents working together at The Commission.)

Additional background information: In attempts to escape the apocalypse, Five (58) messes up the equations and time travels back to the beggining of it (now stuck in his 13-year-old body). It's only then that The Commission takes interest in him, and recruits him.

Meanwhile, after being kicked from the police academy, Diego has lost sense of what he must do. The Commission takes advantage of that and recruits him, and he reunites with Five.

(Read on AO3)

___

“You and I both know that I had it covered.”

“Did you now, Mr Hero?”

Diego rolled his eyes, his hands still resting on Lila’s shoulders. “You like to talk big.”

“Yeah?” Lila said with a smirk, pulling Diego closer to her by the waist. “So what if I do?”

Diego smiled too. “Then I guess we—”

“Get a room, won’t you?”

He didn’t have to look to know who it was—Diego knew that voice all too well. He did give Five the pleasure of watching as he sighed deeply though, head leaning back in annoyance. “We have a room, asshole.”

“You have a job,” Five corrected. Diego had to admit, maybe flirting with Lila in the briefcase room after being told to ditch theirs wasn’t the most district they’d been, but it didn’t stop Five from being annoying. “Boss wants to see you.”

Lila snorted. “Uh-oh,” she said, letting go of him. “Someone’s in trouble with Nemo—”

“Both of you.”

“Someone’s in trouble with Nemo,” Diego mocked her back, earning a flick of Lila’s finger on his nose.

“What did I do?” Lila asked.

Five shrugged. “I don’t know, Lila,” he said, leaning against the wall and crossing his legs. “Assuming we’re excluding the way you blew our cover today.”

“Hey, I didn’t blow anything!”

“We had a plan and you didn’t follow—”

“You and your tiny schoolboy shorts were going to get shot if I hadn’t—”

“Alright!” Diego interrupted. They both looked like they had more to say, but fell into a tense silence anyway, eyes on him. “Look, the target is dead, all of us are safe…” He did a quick pause, so he could take a better look of his partners. “There’s no reason to keep arguing about this.”

“Fine,” Lila said, throwing her hands in the air. She walked up to the door, but before she left the room, she stopped to look at Five who was standing right next to it. “But next time, I get the target.”

And then she walked out.

“I don’t understand what you see in her.”

Diego shrugged. “She’s not a mannequin, for starters.” Five glared at him. “Joking.”

Five ignored him. “She screws us over every time.”

“Easy,” Diego said. “You know how hard it’s been on her with all the…” Diego gestured wildly, hoping at least some of it would translate to her mother is the head of The Commission and has brainwashed her into thinking that she should have full control of the time and space continuum, so you know, it kind of swept her off her feet when she found out that wasn’t the case, which is why maybe you should give her a chance. Or something like that.

“Diego!” Lila—speak of the devil—shouted from the other room. “Are you coming or not?”

Five didn’t acknowledge it. “Why are you here, Diego?”

Diego huffed. “You’re the one that yelled at us to put the briefcase back while you dealt with Carmichael.”

“No,” Five said. “Why are you here, in The Commission.” He stopped leaning against the wall, standing up straight. “Now, me? Fifty-eight years of isolation, I’m made for this job. But you? You were never an assassin, Diego.”

“None of us were.”

“They must need you back home.”

“Well you haven’t been home in a long time,” Diego said, staring at the wall behind Five. “Luther’s being shipped off to the moon, Allison’s a movie star, Klaus is… Klaus, and Vanya clearly wants nothing to do with us.”

“Do you really think they aren’t worried?” Five said, in a manner that wasn’t quite like him. Five never talked about their family, if he could help it. “That they don’t miss—”

Diego pointed his finger at him. “No. Who they miss is their other two brothers,” he said, his voice close to a whisper. “They miss the one who died on a mission because of them, and they miss y—” He swallowed deeply, trying to recollect his thoughts. “They miss you.”

Much like before, when Five had walked into the room, Diego didn’t have to look when Lila did the same. “Hey asshole, are you coming or not?”

“Coming,” Diego said, his eyes not leaving Five’s as he spoke.

He let himself be dragged away by her, and only snapped out of his thoughts when they reached the stairs.

“You good?”

Diego nodded. “Yeah.”

But he wasn’t.

And that conversation wasn’t over.

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in-tua-deep · 4 years

Note

Excuse! You cannot just say this: (there’s a heartbreaking moment where Five thinks that because Ben had Klaus back he’s going to kick Five out which they both hug it out over), and then not elaborate.

(ben saves the day au: post one, post two)

here’s the thing: Ben knows how to handle Five. Sort of.

Funnily enough dealing with 58-year-old Five in a 13-year-old body is actually remarkably similar to dealing with actually-13-year-old Five, not that Ben would ever say as much within Five’s hearing because he quite likes being alive, thanks.

The thing is, despite what some of their other siblings would say, Five is not selfish. If he even thinks something is for his sake, then he runs the other way or puffs up like a kitten trying to be intimidating. Five rarely does anything with himself in mind, as much as that breaks Ben’s heart.

So Ben tells Five that he was lonely with no human company. He tells Five that he likes cooking and that it’s nice to have someone else to cook for. He tells Five he doesn’t have anyone else to argue over physics in the morning while brushing his teeth. He tells Five he missed reading nights and having someone to pester about the characters in whatever series he’s currently consuming.

So Ben probably shouldn’t have been surprised by the impending disaster that starts brewing when Klaus pops up like an impossibility and moves in with them.

(He’s still surprised though, because he thought he’d shown that he loves Five. That he wants Five around. But Five walks around like he’s expecting his family to drop him like a hot coal, like he’s expecting to be hated and thrown out and abandoned.

One day, in the future, they’ll have a fight over this. They’ll yell and scream and there will be tears and then when Ben has Five bundled up in his arms in the fiercest hug possible he’ll ask Five why.

Ben doesn’t actually know who the Handler is, or even if she’s still alive, but she better hope she never crosses paths with vengeful big brother Ben.)

Ben knows that Five is fifty eight. He knows Five spent something like four decades surviving in an apocalypse with his only company a mannequin he treats like a real person. He knows Five ate cockroaches and almost starved to death a dozen times. He knows Five was scooped up and told his escape was conditional. He knows Five was an assassin, that his brother killed countless people in his quest to finally get home and save his family.

Five is broken, with jagged edges and wary eyes.

They’d been making progress. They’d been making progress. And Ben will never regret Klaus showing up, Klaus being alive, and getting that second chance. But he does wish that Klaus showing up hadn’t caused a backslide with Five.

(Ironically, Klaus is much less fragile than Five. He’s been dead for something like thirteen years, following his siblings around and dipping into the afterlife to pester God before dipping out again.

Turns out ghosts aren’t interested in other ghosts, only people who are alive who can see them. Klaus got a reprieve, got a breather, and got sober. He hated not being able to talk to his siblings, hated that they grieved him, longed to touch them, to hug them - but even dead he still had powers. Such as being able to slip between lingering and the afterlife.

When he was tired and exhausted and hurting, he’d slip into the afterlife and argue his case for being alive again with a little girl who was getting really tired of Klaus being able to find her no matter where she was. He’d go hang out with a squad of Vietnam soldiers who were achingly young for having died such violent deaths. They’d all ruffle Klaus’s hair and regale him with war stories before he goes back to shadowing his siblings.

Klaus knows he should be grateful that God finally listened to him, finally restored him, finally let him touch his siblings and speak to them and tell them how much he loves them and didn’t blame them and -

He just wishes he could have had both his family and his friends.

It’s not fair.)

Ben is distracted, because Klaus is back and it’s so unexpected and there’s so much to do to prepare. Of course Klaus is staying with them, because Ben says so and because he loves Klaus.

Except to Five it looks like he’s being replaced. Which is silly, because Five is their brother, too, right? Except out of the two children who vanished and miraculously came back, Klaus is clearly the better option. He’s older, he smiles more, he makes Ben laugh. Everyone seems to tear up and draw Klaus into a hug and babble at him that they were so glad he was back, that he was alive.

(Five can’t help but remember that only Ben and Vanya had seemed to miss him. The others all had lukewarm reactions to his return, didn’t seem to really care. No one cried because he came back.

Admittedly, no one witnessed his ‘death’ - for all they knew he’d just run away. All but Vanya - and Five - had witnessed Klaus’s death, bloody and terrible and traumatizing. They’d held grief in their chests, blamed themselves where they never had for Five. It made sense.

It didn’t make the uneasy feeling in Five’s stomach any less strong.)

Five hates the fact that he’s jealous. Hates it because he’s also glad Klaus is back, he also gripped Klaus’s elbow tight and wouldn’t let go for hours when he’d first woken up to realize that yes, Klaus was there and alive. Five loves Klaus like everyone loves Klaus - Klaus is exceptionally easy to love.

(Five is not.)

So Klaus comes back, and suddenly Five realizes that all of those reasons Ben gave Five to justify Five coming to live with him? Klaus can fulfill all of those. Five isn’t needed. So he starts to withdraw, and Ben doesn’t notice because he’s distracted.

And it all finally comes to a head with Five packing his things (just a few changes of clothes, his toothbrush, as much food as he can stuff in there from his hoard stash, and Dolores) and heading out to hike to Vanya’s place. Because logically if he’s being replaced with Ben, he needs somewhere else to stay and Vanya is the only other sibling who he can think who he would want to house him.

(If Vanya won’t take him, that’s fine. He spent decades in the apocalypse - spending five on the streets until he’s officially ‘old enough’ to get his own place is nothing. But he’s going to leave before he can be kicked out, because he’s not sure he could take that rejection.)

Except when he finally arrives, Vanya is on the phone and looking frantic and when she sets eyes on him her body sways with relief. “It’s okay,” She says into the phone, voice shaking just slightly, “He’s here. He just walked in the door. Yeah. Of course. I’ll see you in a minute.”

She hangs up the phone and turns fully to Five who is standing there looking confused as she puts her hands on her hips and takes a deep breath. “What,” She says, pausing to take another deep breath, “Do you think you are doing.”

Five shifts, his grip on Dolores tightening. He’s a grown ass man and Vanya’s tone shouldn’t be making him feel like a scolded child. “I need - you said when I went to live with Ben that if it didn’t work out I could stay with you.”

“I did say that, yes.” Vanya says, nodding without her eyes leaving Five’s face.

Five shifts again, “I’m? Cashing in?”

“Why - you know what? Don’t answer that.” Vanya pinches the bridge of her nose and takes another deep breath. “Go sit on the couch, Five. I’m going to make us some tea before Ben arrives.”

“Ben’s at work.” Five says slowly as he shuffles in the direction of the couch.

“He was.” Vanya clarifies, “Until Klaus called him saying that he couldn’t find you anywhere and that you’d vanished while he was taking a nap and that Dolores was gone.”

Five looks down at Dolores in his grip, suddenly feeling a little guilty and not quite knowing why. “He didn’t have to leave work. I made it here okay.”

“That’s not the point, Five.” Vanya says, voice sharp and cold. It makes Five flinch slightly. But before he can even ask, she’s turning on her heel and opening cabinets to pull down some cups and the kettle. She clearly considers the conversation over, and even though Five bristles at being treated like a child he also doesn’t want to hear Vanya use that tone again, so.

Silence falls between them until there’s loud footsteps in the hall and the door is being flung open and there’s Ben, in scrubs and gasping in air like he’s just run a marathon. His eyes find Five and he’s breathing “Thank god” as he strides forward and grabs Five and -

Pulls Five into a crushing hug.

“I was so worried.” Ben whispers where his face is pressed against Five’s hair, arms strong and firm and warm. Without his permission, Five’s eyes start tearing up and he doesn’t even know why.

(It has something to do with the fact that he hadn’t really thought that Ben would care that he’d left. He had Klaus now, after all - and Klaus was a much better brother than Five was.)

And then Ben withdraws (Five pretends he doesn’t mourn the loss) and holds Five at arms length, “What were you thinking!” He exclaims, “You can’t just run off like that!”

And Five’s knees go weak, and suddenly he comprehends why exactly Vanya is angry and why Ben was worried. He’d vanished again, like he had back then. He hadn’t even thought about it - he’d known that he was just on his way to Vanya’s house after all. He’d known he wasn’t vanishing. But his family clearly hadn’t known.

“I wasn’t running off.” Five says, because it’s important they know that. Vanya leaned against a counter with a cup of tea looking unimpressed. “I wasn’t. I was just coming to Vanya’s. I should’ve left a note or something I just - ” Thought Ben wouldn’t care.

Ben takes in the bag, takes in Dolores, looks over his shoulder at a grim looking Vanya and then back to Five. “Why were you coming to Vanya’s?” He asks, looking soft and wounded all at once. He’s already put the pieces together, but he wants to hear it from Five.

“It’s okay.” Five assures Ben, “I get it, don’t worry. Klaus is - he’s a kid and I’m not. He needs you. It’s okay, I don’t mind moving out. It’s fine.”

“Five,” Ben chokes out, and there are tears in his eyes and Five can’t help the panic that goes through him because he can’t handle people crying. He made Ben cry, he’s the worst person in the world. “Five, why on earth would you move out?”

Five hesitates. “You don’t need me anymore. You have Klaus to keep you company.”

“Of course I need you.” Ben says, like he can’t imagine why Five would think anything else. “Five, just because I want Klaus around doesn’t mean I don’t want you around. It doesn’t work like that. Love isn’t - it isn’t some kind of pie that gets divided between everyone, and loving Klaus doesn’t mean I love you any less. I love both of you.”

“Oh.” There really isn’t much Five can say to that, is there? He can’t help the stinging behind his eyes and the tears that are suddenly spilling down his cheeks as something shatters in his chest, like ice breaking as spring comes.

Ben reels Five back in for a firm hug, and Five winds his arms around Ben and clutches at him like if he lets go Ben will disappear.

“Come home, Five.” Ben breathes, soft and pleading, “Please.”

“Okay,” Five sobs against Ben’s shirt, “Okay.”

260 notes · View notes

unfortunate-stranger-losers · 4 years

Photo

All Those Things They Couldn’t Say - A Runaway Baudelaires AU

{ao3} {tumblr} {masterlist}

Chapter Nineteen - Escape from Paltryville

Bertrand knew it was time for them to move again when he heard the Hook-Handed Man cursing at the lock. He never came around when the others were there, so he must have been assigned to drug them or drag them out. Considering Beatrice could probably remove his hooks in five seconds if they were walking, it was probably the drugs.

Bertrand sat up and looked down at Beatrice, who was sleeping against his arm. He really didn’t want to wake her- let her enjoy her dream, maybe she’s thinking of something better, maybe she’s happier. But it’d be worse to let her sleep through the drugging and wake up with a horrible headache in an unfamiliar location, possibly while they were still on the move, she’d probably panic and Olaf or Esme would… would find some way to shut her up.

He slowly shook her, and she stirred, reaching to cling to his arm as she awoke. She liked to awaken touching him, knowing he was still there. She’d done that before they went on the run, too. She didn’t like people leaving her.

When her eyes opened, and Bertrand saw the light in them dim, their horrible reality once again settling in, he leaned his head against hers and said, “They’re taking us out.”

“Do you think he found…?”

“I don’t know.”

She shivered and leaned against him some more, and the door opened. Bertrand sat up straighter, watching as the Hook-Handed Man came in, a tray of needles attached to his hooks. He’d only need one syringe for each of them, but Bertrand assumed he’d come prepared in case he dropped any. He placed the tray down on the ground, struggling to pick one up. He didn’t look at Bertrand or Beatrice, didn’t make eye contact.

Slowly, Beatrice said, “Fernald.”

He still didn’t look at them.

“Fernald, please…” she tried.

“Look, just be quiet.” Fernald sighed. “Olaf said if you talked too much that I should give you more scars with my hooks, and I’d rather not clean them off again.”

“Fernald…” Beatrice shut her eyes, and then pulled away from her husband, leaning closer to him. “I… I know what Kit asked you to do. What your Stepfather made you do. I- I don’t blame you for it, I never believed-”

“It doesn’t matter.” Fernald said, finally lifting a syringe. “Just hold still so this works right.”

“Fernald, he was my cousin.” Beatrice said, pleading with her eyes. “Gregor was my cousin. I- But I never blamed you. I just want you to know that. I know you just did what VFD made you do. It’s- it’s so fucked up-”

“Yeah, it is.” Fernald sat beside her, grabbing her arm with one hook and holding the syringe with the other.

“Fernald, please-”

Bertrand looked to him and said, “How old is Fiona?”

Fernald froze.

There was silence and stillness for a moment, before Bertrand sighed. “How long has it been since you’ve seen her?”

“Nine years.” he said, his voice low.

“She’s the same age as our Violet.” Bertrand said, blinking back tears. “They’re just children, Fernald. And Olaf’s going to kill them if we don’t do something. He’ll do worse. They don’t deserve this.”

Fernald shut his eyes, and then said, “Please just shut up.”

He stuck the syringe in Beatrice’s arm, and Bertrand squeezed her hand as he pressed. He tried not to notice that not all of the liquid left the syringe- quite a bit left over, actually. He tried not to notice the same thing happen to his arm before he began to get tired again. He tried not to hope, because hope wasn’t getting them very far.

Violet helped Klaus walk down the steps of the building; his splint was helping, and his injury should heal soon, but he still had some issues. Sunny was strapped to his chest, and she asked, “Quando?” “Where to next?”

“Olaf’s coming. This town isn’t safe.” Violet said. “We go to Prufrock. We should be able to find a bus station. If it’s not working, I’ll hijack us a car.”

“Max.” Sunny giggled. “I’ll drive!”

“No, you won’t, I’ll drive. Klaus, you sit in the back with Sunny and rest your leg.”

“I-” Klaus began.

“Hey, kids?”

They looked up, seeing someone in a uniform approach them, holding a lantern and looking confused. “What are you doing here? We don’t have children in the lumbermill-”

“Fire.” Violet said.

The man blinked, and then almost dropped the lantern, confusion spreading across his face. “What? Where-”

“Do me a favor, bud,” Violet said, patting him on the hand, “Go to the other workers, wake them up, and say ‘fire.’ It’ll all make sense then. Then revolt or some shit. See ya.”

She dragged her siblings away from the confused man, and then she said, “Let’s go before a riot starts.”

“She hypnotized them?” Klaus asked quietly.

“She hypnotized a lot of people.” Violet shuddered. “Including Father. That’s how I knew the codeword to save you, she used the same one. Fucking idiot.”

She cracked a smile, but Klaus didn’t.

“Violet… we killed her.”

Violet’s face fell. “She deserved it.”

“I know, but…”

Violet put an arm around him. “But you didn’t know I could do that?”

Klaus stared at the ground.

Violet slowly put her head against his as they walked, and then shut her eyes. “I didn’t know I could, either. But it was her or you two.”

Klaus nodded, and then pressed against Violet some more. “Yeah.” he said.

“Do you… remember anything now?”

“It’s… blurry.”

“What did she do to you?”

“N-nothing much. Just scared me with the hypnotism. It was… very chaotic. I’m a bit- dizzy?”

“Then keep leaning on me. Don’t worry, she can’t hurt you again.”

Klaus nodded, and then smiled a little. “You’ll protect me.”

“Yeah, I will.” she vowed.

“Now… let’s get to school, huh?”

“I’ll break in the front window, find the office, and steal some transfer papers. Can you still forge the best?”

“Hell yeah.”

“Good. Let’s get going.”

They walked in silence for the rest of the way, locking their arms together and leaning on each other.

Beatrice stirred carefully, feeling herself dropped onto the ground. It took her a moment to process the pain from that, but she managed to keep it in, her reactions small, as she heard commotion around her. Stay calm, Bea. That wasn’t easy, considering her back stung and she had a piercing headache- drugs must’ve worn off. Thank God for that, at least.

It took her ears a second to adjust, as she pieced together what was going on. There was the sound of several voices shouting in anger- muffled, so either outside a building they were in or inside a building they were standing beside. Considering how wooden her surroundings felt, they were inside. There were footsteps- vibrations after them, small ones. She was on the floor. She heard a faint breathing beside her- someone was next to her. Please, God, let it be Bertrand…

“Boss, maybe she’s not here yet.”

“She said she’d meet us here. What’s taking her so damn long?”

“Think she’d be delayed by that riot outside?”

“Riot’s against that Wiley guy, not her. If anything, that’s her distraction. Where the fuck is she?”

“Maybe the kids stabbed her and ran.”

“She said she had them hypnotized.”

Beatrice felt her stomach hit the floor. Slowly, she squinted an eye open. She could see two bodies, not facing her, and as she opened her eyes, she saw that Olaf and Fernald were standing by the door. Beatrice hesitated, listening more, and then she rolled over as silently as she could. She almost let out a cry of relief when she saw Bertrand beside her, though he still seemed to be unconscious. She stayed still as Olaf and Fernald continued arguing, waiting to see if anyone had noticed her move. The rest of the troupe must be around somewhere…

She heard a call from across the room. “Hey, boss! Back door’s locked!”

“Unlock it and see if she’s outside, then! God, do I have to do everything?”

Okay, the rest of the troupe was looking around. Beatrice shut her eyes, piecing together clues in her head. Hypnotism plus Woman associated with Olaf… Georgina. Georgina was meeting them there. “Maybe the kids stabbed her and ran.” She had the children. She had the… no. No, that couldn’t be right. If Georgina had the kids, she wouldn’t be delayed, she’d be here, and Olaf would be ready to… the kids must’ve escaped. So now it was their turn.

Beatrice slowly edged her hand closer to Bertrand’s, squinting her eyes to make sure nobody came within view.

“Maybe she just wanted us to come so she can kill us.”

“Please. She’s not that smart.”

“She tried it that one time-”

“Yeah, and it didn’t work, so she won’t try again. Unlike I, who knows that sometimes using the same plan over and over and works wonders.”

“Yeah, about that, boss-”

“Don’t question me.”

“Sorry, boss.”

Beatrice finally reached her husband’s hand, and gave it a tap. She held her breath, terror coursing through her as the troupe kept shouting at each other. Then she felt complete and utter relief as Bertrand’s finger moved, tapping her hand as well.

She gripped his palm, and squeezed gently. Just wait a second.

“Boss, wait, there’s something stashed behind the furnace.”

“Who cares? We’re waiting on Georgina.”

“Uuuuh, boss? You should come look at this.”

“For the last fucking time… whatever your name was, I’m staying over-”

“There’s a body back here.”

“Fucking- what? You should’ve lead with that.”

Footsteps. Beatrice kept her eyes shut a moment, waiting until the steps raced past her, stopping a few feet away.

Far enough.

“Holy shit. Is that-”

Beatrice grabbed Bertrand’s hand and leapt to her feet. He leapt just after her, and they took off running.

Shouts. Screams. Weapons flying at their heads. Beatrice was used to it- moreso from her VFD days than her life on the run, which usually had more hand-to-hand and “hide under the bed” incidents, but it was like riding a bike; instinct took over. She threw an arm around Bertrand’s shoulders, helping him duck down under a dart of some kind, and in just a few short bounds, they were at the front doors of the building. She hit it with her shoulder, bursting it open, and leapt out, thankful that she jumped over the steps. Bertrand followed, and they took a quick second to take in their surroundings.

“Lucky Smells.” Beatrice whispered.

Bertrand shook slightly, grabbing her hand. Being here was rough for him- they’d only designated it a safehouse because they assumed the workers would be grateful enough to them for stopping the fire that they’d watch the kids. There were few safe places they’d been able to think of. Pretty much nothing was safe anymore.

Beatrice grabbed her husband’s arm again and ran with him, racing across the dirt towards the fence. They could hear the distant revolt- good for them, they’re finally ditching Smogface- which would hopefully make its way towards their pursuers, stalling them enough for them to climb the fence. If the mob didn’t come this way, though, they’d just have to make a run for the gate, which is what Beatrice assumed they’d have to do.

Bertrand stumbled, and Beatrice simply moved behind him, pushing him forwards until he regained his balance. She knew his leg probably still hurt like hell from- from a few days before. Her legs hurt less than his, so she had to take the lead. At least until they found a place to hide.

They reached the gate and Beatrice only spared a quick glance back- oh, yep, they were being pursued. She grabbed Bertrand’s hand, and the two of them raced through, rushing down the streets of the town. As soon as she could, she ducked them down a street of abandoned buildings, and Bertrand caught her idea. He pulled her to an empty store, shouldering the door open and bursting through. They passed two rooms before leaping out a window and climbing into the building beside them through an open side-door; the swinging door in the first house would be too much of a giveaway if Olaf thought to look that way.

Beatrice shut the side-door, glancing around. They were in the back of what used to be some kind of storage room, empty shelves surrounding them, a broken cardboard box here or there. She caught sight of a half-torn poster, a few faded music notes still visible. Record store, she’d hazard a guess.

They heard shouts from the street, so Bertrand grabbed Beatrice’s arm, pulling her into the back of the room. They found the door to the rest of the store and slipped past, edging through the dusty, deserted area before finding a bathroom. The paint was peeling, the sink was cracked, and the plumbing probably didn’t work, but they didn’t care at all.

Beatrice shut and locked the door, and the two of them stepped back, breathing deep and trying to remain quiet.

After a few minutes, after their eyes adjusted to the dark room, Beatrice crept into the corner, sliding down to the ground. Bertrand slid next to her, and they stared at each other.

Usually, they were good at waiting a long time before even moving, making any noise. They could hide in one place for hours with no one the wiser, as could Violet and Klaus. They probably could have stood there and remained completely quiet for days.

But after another minute of silence and staring, Bertrand started to cry, and Beatrice threw her arms around him, pressing herself against him and hugging him close to her. She started crying, too, and their soft tears flowed for another few minutes, until they were reasonably sure that they were safe.

Beatrice leaned back as Bertrand ran a hand through her hair, and she reached under his glasses so she could wipe tears away. She wanted to say something, anything, but she didn’t know if she could even if she wasn’t afraid of someone hearing. Her heart was pounding in her chest, everything was hitting her at once…

He put his hands on her cheeks, and she shut her eyes as he pressed his face against hers. Whenever they kissed, even after fifteen years of marriage, it was never quick and fast, never just a short moment. They had never been able to get enough of each other, always found themselves lost when they were together. She pulled herself closer to him, practically crawling onto his lap and using her arms, wrapped behind his neck, to pull his head closer to hers. For a while, they almost didn’t feel the need to breathe, just finding life in finally embracing without the overwhelming fear and pain they’d felt over the last few days.

When Beatrice finally pulled away, they put their foreheads together, just deeply breathing together and letting themselves calm down.

“We need to get out of here.” she whispered. “He’ll stop at nothing to find us.”

“We need to find the children.”

“We’ll check the safehouses we don’t know he’s been to.”

“Then?”

“We find them.”

They fell silent, and then kissed again, and it was like the world outside was gone.

#asoue #asoue netflix #asoue au #a series of unfortunate events #runaway baudelaires au #all those things they couldn't say #the miserable mill #my fanfic #mine

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eternityunicorn · 5 years

Text

At My Mercy: Part Five +18

Author: eternityunicorn

Genre: Romance/Drama/AU

Pairing: Elijah Mikaelson x OC x Klaus Mikaelson

Warnings: Violence, Smut (*Smut chapters marked +18)

Summary: Elijah and Klaus Mikaelson are joint business partners of the seedy variety. They run an organization that indulges in slavery, particularly enslaving and selling their captured enemies to the highest bidder at special monthly auction. However, when the ethereal beauty, Eternity, ends up in their possession, the Original brothers decide she’s too rare a creature to hand over to anyone else. Therefore, they keep her for themselves, subjecting her to all kinds of indulgences. With time, one brother makes the mistake of falling in love with the rare beauty. But what happens when new slaves to be auctioned go missing? Is Eternity involved?

NOTE: OC and original elements are from my up and coming novel series!

AUTHOR’S COMMENTARY: There is only one chapter left after this and then it’s all over! Or is it? Thank you so much for reading and enjoying this story so far! I appreciate it!

———————————————————————————————————

After taking her over and over again for hours, which included taking his clothes off - a normal occurrence for most during Intimacy, but an unusual phenomenon for him, to be sure - Elijah was finally sated...for a time. He rested on his bed with Eternity cuddled up against him. Prior to this, he had put himself back together and then released her from her binds with the intention of sending her back to the slave quarters before his brother returned to find he had broken the rules. However, he wasn’t quite ready to let her go and that had lead him to resting in bed with her laying her head on his reclothed chest and his hand raking through her soft white hair lazily.

This need to cuddle her was as strange as the feeling of deja vu. He had never felt the need to do so with any other before. It left him questioning just what was going on here. So much so that a question to Eternity escaped him before he realized it had, “Who are you?”

Eternity had been playing with his tie as lazily as he had been stroking her hair. She stopped her motions and lifted her head to gaze at him. She looked at his lips and leaned up to kiss him boldly, before she pulled away.

Just as she opened her mouth to speak, the servant girl Elijah had ordered to alert him to his little brother’s coming home came in to inform him of Niklaus’s return.

All questions and inquiries left Elijah’s mind, as he rose quickly from the bed and demanded the servant to take the ethereal beauty back to the slave quarters, where she was to be cleaned up, as well as to get other servants into his bedroom to clean up the scent of sex. The girl did as he commanded and lead Eternity away swiftly. Before long, other servants were in his room, helping him hide his traitorous activities from his little brother.

Soon, everything was back in order and before the hybrid could discover the truth. The older Original was waiting for Niklaus in the common room of their private chambers with a drink

in hand, as though he hadn’t spent the afternoon making their slave scream in pleasure.

“Did the acquisition go as planned, Brother?” He casually asked as his little brother came to sit across from him.

“I’m afraid not,” the hybrid replied frustratedly. “The slaves I was to acquire had disappeared from the storage containers the bounty hunters were storing them in. It was as if someone had stealthily come in and freed them.”

This wasn’t the first time an acquisition had gone awry in this way. It had been happening for quite some time, at an ever increasing volume of incidents. Both brothers had heard about Eternity and her heroics for protecting the innocent and so, of course, they had thought it was her that had been freeing their potential slaves. However, with the ethereal beauty now in their clutches, it seemed it was not her that was responsible for these acts against them.

“Whoever has been working against our operation must be found and dealt with,” Niklaus growled. “They will not be made into slaves to be sold either. We will make an example of whoever they are and execute them without mercy.”

Elijah nodded, not at all liking the idea of an opponent continuously slip through their fingers. No, he agreed that whoever was freeing their acquisitions needed to be deal with swiftly.

“Perhaps, we should offer up a reward to whomever captures this mystery opponent,” he suggested. “Money does talk, after all, and surely there is someone out there who has the skills to find this culprit for us.”

Niklaus grinned humorlessly, “Yes, it does, Brother. Although, to be honest, I wonder if our little slave is somehow involved in this move against us. After all, we know perfectly well that she’s powerful and quite the heroine, a defender of the weak and all that nonsense. What if she is the mastermind behind this? I mean, who’s to say she isn’t somehow escaping us while we are preoccupied with these recent disappearances of our stock? Perhaps our enemy has been here the entire time.”

The older Original had told his brother that he had been investigating the incidents with the freeing of their captives, when he had truly been busy bedding the very woman his brother was accusing of being responsible. He had been having the troubling incidents investigated, but not by his own hand. He had been lying to him in order to keep his secret love affair with Eternity from him.

Because of that fact, he couldn’t clear the ethereal beauty’s name. Even so, Elijah tried to dissuade his brother’s suspicions. “While I understand your feelings, Niklaus, the slave quarters are always under tight observation, to ensure none escape,” he reminded him. “I highly doubt Eternity is able to leave, not only because of that fact, but also because her great powers are subdued by those trinkets upon her lovely wrists. No, I believe our foe is someone else.”

The younger Mikaelson considered him, looking for anything to be suspicious about in his big brother. He found nothing since Elijah was a master of keeping his cool and composed mask in place. Therefore, he relented in his silent observation of him and sighed, “Well then, I suppose we had best get to work finding out who is responsible, as I am itching to tear someone apart.”

With that, the brothers got to work in sending out word to the world about the reward for the capture of whoever was freeing their enemies. In the weeks that followed, they met with bounty hunters, as well as their allies in high places, to discuss this venture.

Elijah was glad for this bit of trouble, because it distracted his brother from the ethereal beauty. So long as Niklaus was preoccupied with squashing their enemy, he was free to do as he pleased with Eternity, discreetly of course. The hybrid never let anything get in the way of his mission to defeat his opposition, not even the beauty of a rare woman.

Or at least that was what he had thought.

Niklaus was only distracted for a week at the most, before he chose to begin playtime again with their slave. During the day, he would be busy elsewhere, but at night he would call for Eternity and subject her to his whims. All the while, Elijah had to pretend to not be possessive of her, to be perfectly unfazed about his little brother being intimate with the woman he secretly claimed for himself.

Even so, the older Original carried on a secret affair with the otherworldly lady, meeting her in the slave quarters and then dragging her off to some hidden corner of the manor to do all kinds of delicious things to her or to have her do to him. Occasionally, if his brother was out, he’d invite her into his bed, where he would allow her to undress him and touch him as she pleased. They would make love, touching, kissing, and intertwining themselves as proper lovers did.

This phenomenon between them wasn’t just about the physical though. In between bouts of sex, he would engage her in friendly conversation or she would do so with him, talking often about their interests, their dreams, or other light topics.

Every now and then, Elijah would attempt to ask her about the sense of familiarity. However, it seemed as though the forces that be were working against him. Every time he would ask about it, Niklaus would be coming back from his mission or would send word with a need for his council.

Over those few weeks, the pair had grown closer and before long, the well-dressed vampire found himself falling in love with her. He found he was always excited to see her, seeking her company as much as her body. Whenever he wasn’t with her, he was distracted by the sharp pains of longing that coursed through him with their being parted.

Though he was careful, the distraction she was causing proved to be dangerous, as Niklaus was beginning to grow suspicious of him. Elijah had begun to half-listen at their meetings about the issue with their mystery opponent, thinking about the pale beauty. If his little brother found out the truth, that he had been seeing Eternity and laying with her without him or his consent, there might be a fracture between them that they didn’t need right now. They needed to be united or else their entire rule of the supernatural community could collapse.

Still, the older Mikaelson couldn’t give up his lady. The very idea hurt his soul and he couldn’t bring himself to stay away from her, even at the cost of his close bond with his brother.

Then one evening, Niklaus and he sat together in the common room of their private quarters. They each had a drink in hand, as they both were exhausted and frustrated with this mystery opposition that continued to elude them. There still hadn’t been any leads nor any captures and the hybrid was particularly irritable as a result.

“I need a distraction,” his little brother grumbled, before he called to a servant, “Bring to us our little slave!”

Elijah tensed immediately. It was getting harder and harder for him to remain passive. He wasn’t sure, how much longer he’d be able to keep his baser self from rearing it’s ugly head. In fact, he could already feel it stirring as he thought about Niklaus touching her - touching his woman.

Still, he said nothing and kept his mask of indifference in place, even as the servant lead Eternity into the common room by a leash and handed her off to his little brother, who stood from the couch to receive her. He stayed where he was on the couch, watching with an intense gaze masked by nonchalance as Niklaus pulled the ethereal beauty to him and kissed her hotly.

Though to the untrained eye, she seemed relaxed and complacent, the older Original could see the tension in her small, lithe body. It was obvious that she didn't necessarily want his brother’s attentions, but accepted them, because he had told her to all those weeks ago. She submitted to her secret lover’s will as he was her dominant.

Unexpectedly, the hybrid moved his mouth away from hers and began to lay kisses to Eternity’s throat, pausing abruptly and seeming to give her a quick sniff. However, it was so quick, so brief, that Elijah couldn’t be sure that was what he had done. It didn’t mean he didn’t find himself nervous about the idea of Niklaus smelling his big brother’s scent all over her. After all, he had just been with her, earlier in the day.

However, his brother said nothing about not did he gaze at either of them with suspicion or worse, betrayal.

“Yes, this is exactly what I need,” the hybrid said pleasantly, as he pulled away. “My good little plaything to relax me after a long day. Come along, love. Let us begin.”

The older Original wanted to intervene, to stop his brother from having what he had claimed fir himself. However, he knew that he couldn’t do anything without causing a rift between him and his younger sibling. Still, his inner beast raged inside him, to the point he could barely keep hold of it, especially as Niklaus came to sit across from him with Eternity climbing into his lap.

Elijah watched as his brother ravaged her mouth, while his hands slid over her body until the grabbed hold of her backside. He gripped the arm of the couch in a tight grip, hearing the wood creak with the force as he tried his damnedest to keep himself neutral.

Then the hybrid tore his mouth from Eternity’s and looked around her at him. He must have seen the displeased look on his big brother’s face, because he frowned deeply and said, “Ah, Brother. How selfish of me. Since we’ve acquired this rare beauty, you haven’t had a turn to sample her wonders. Would you like to? Perhaps she can ride you and then afterwards, I can have a go at her? Would that suffice for you, Elijah?”

His suspicions that his brother knew the truth only grew. The hybrid knew that he didn’t usually participate, but when he did, it was because he was captivated by the slave. However, he also didn’t necessarily want to decline the invitation outright, because that might also confirm the possible suspicions Niklaus had. Therefore, he made a decision with the hopes that it would quell his brother’s doubts.

As the master of masking his emotions, the older Original smirked as easily as he could muster as he replied, “That sounds delightful.”

“Go to him, love, and ride him for all he’s worth,” Niklaus ordered Eternity, letting her off his lap, so that she could go to Elijah.

The otherworldly woman climbed off the hybrid’s lap and went readily over to the elegant Mikaelson, climbing into his lap with a secretive smile. He wanted to return it, but knew better than to show his affection for the lady in any way in front of his brother. However, that was alright with her, as she understood perfectly well why he remained stone faced.

For the purpose of the ruse, Elijah fisted the back of her head and yanked her head to the side to kiss her lips roughly, prying her mouth open with his tongue and plundering her mouth greedily. She moaned slightly into his kiss and rocked her hips into his needfully. She was behaving what he feared was too eagerly. She might unknowingly alert Niklaus to the truth, if she seemed like too willing a participant.

Therefore, the older Mikaelson decided to move things along quickly, reaching between them to undo his belt and pants, releasing himself from the confines and moving Eternity into position over him. He grabbed hold of her hips and yanked her down into his hardened length without mercy, earning him a loud cry from the woman on top of him.

He kept control of her movements, keeping his grip firm on her hips and lifting her up, before dropping her back down onto him over and over again. He groaned in his pleasure, while she moaned and panted in hers. Their eyes remained ever locked as he moved her. He wanted to kiss her gently, to offer praise, confess to her that he loved her, but he dared not.

All the while, he was very aware of the ever suspicious Niklaus watching them. He glanced at him briefly and noticed the strange way he was looking at him. It was a suspicious, contemplative way that had Elijah suddenly wary of his little brother.

However, Eternity pulled his gaze back to her and she smiled at him in that secretive way, before she mouthed the words, ‘I love you’.

Unable to help it, the older Original felt his heart swell at her confessing words, the very ones that he wanted to say, but was too cowardly to actually do so. He tried to keep his face neutral, but it was futile. The loving feelings he had for this strange creature were too strong to keep from being visible, especially with how she surprised him with her confession of her own feelings toward him. He had been unprepared for that.

In his stupor, Elijah had let go of his control over Eternity, letting the ethereal beauty ride him freely. Inthralled, he watched her as she grinned and moved, lifting herself and dropping back down unaided, over and over again in a rapid pace.

Before long, he was panting and leaning his head back against the couch as the pleasure her body brought his took possession of him. So lost to the carnal feelings, as well as the romantic ones, He allowed the woman to act boldly and lift his hands off her hips to press them against the couch in a strong hold, as she picked up the pace of her movements.

Elijah stared at the mischievously playful way she gazed at him, knowing that he should take back control to keep up appearances in front of his little brother, but was too far gone to care. Quite frankly, he actually enjoyed the way his lady took charge of him, taking her pleasure from him.

They were soon moving together, his hips lifting to meet her as she came down on him. The pleasure rose higher and higher between them, until they were both lost to their joint passion. Then with a few more hard movements, Eternity’s walls were clamping down on his, taking him over the edge with her. Both their bodies seized as they came together and they also jointly cried out into the room in their blinding pleasure.

Eternity slumped against Elijah, holding him close and not thinking, he returned her embrace with one of his own. He caressed her back gently, while she threaded her fingers in his hair lazily. They simply stayed there, lost in their own little world.

They didn’t even notice the cruel, knowing look Niklaus was giving them.

To Be Continued....

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Tag List: @elejah-wonderland @dendrite-lover @inmylifeilovedthemall @xanderling @klaroline-4ever @elizamonet @hawaiianohana31 @missnmikealson @freshsuitcasewinnereagle @lalabluues @elejahforever @loulouisa @teekillerin @lolelijahishot @esclisa

#elijah mikaelson #daniel gillies #original character #elijah x eternity #klaus mikaelson #klaus x eternity #klaus x eternity x elijah #romance #drama #dark fic #alternate universe #the originals #the originals fanfiction #the vampire diaries #the vampire diaries fanfiction

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misssophiachase · 6 years

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Soulmate au where the first words they say are tattooed on your wrist, but they are still vampires......

Hey! Thanks Megan luv, sorry for the delay (trying to clear out my inbox ahead of our endgame). This is inspired, not my forte but I hope you like it still : ) Thanks to Miranda @livingdeadblondequeen for all the help, what would I do without you, luv?

Eternal Flame

Klaus…

At age five, when Niklaus Mikaelson was old enough to read the scrawled ink on his left wrist he’d immediately asked his mother what it meant. He remembered it like it was yesterday.

She’d explained to him about soulmates and the fact that whomever spoke those words to him was his one true love. At that point, the thought of kissing some girl was bad enough given the germ factor let alone having to spend the rest of his life with her.

As he entered his teen years, the more absurd he thought the concept was, especially given what it said. “I’m not some damsel in distress.” Not the most manly of phrases and something he kept well hidden due to his deep embarrassment, thinking that someone up there was playing a very mean trick on him.

His siblings thought it was hilarious, meanwhile, all the more reason to keep it away from prying, enemy eyes too.

Becoming a hybrid and the most powerful creature on earth on the cusp of his adult life had shattered those childhood insecurities but the fact those six words remained inked on his wrist even after his transformation was a source of great frustration and curiosity.

What if his mother was correct? What if the love of his life was out there somewhere? All Klaus knew was that the tattoo would remain hidden, he had an evil reputation to protect after all.

He’d been informed that the Salvatore vampire was converging on New Orleans. The warring between their families had endured for centuries and the eldest brother Damon had reached out with a peace offering. Being the suspicious tyrant he was, Klaus suspected there was more to this mission than he was led to believe.

He made his way from his compound determined to reach his enemy before he could enter his beloved city. He had minions on the ready but Klaus wanted to do this himself.

Caroline

“Could my day get any worse?” She huffed. Her car had broken down around mile marker eleven, further delaying her arrival into New Orleans. She kicked the tire angrily wishing she’d paid more attention in shop class.

Caroline Forbes was a newbie vampire and had left her home in small town Mystic Falls to avoid any further scrutiny. She’d recently reconnected with her childhood best friend Bonnie Bennett, a witch herself, who lived in the Big Easy.

Apparently being a human in New Orleans was a rarity and Caroline had to admit that being part of the majority was a lot more appealing than the minority she’d left in her hometown.

She looked over the steaming engine, playing with a valve only to have it spurt oil over her forearm. She growled, finding a cloth in the backseat to wipe herself wishing that her vampire powers would include fixing a broken down vehicle.

As she wiped away the black liquid, she noticed the familiar tattoo. When it had appeared she’d been too afraid to show it to anyone else but now it was an annoyingly familiar mark. She’d always imagined having a butterfly or something equally as feminine, not the scrawled writing on her right wrist.

She’d been equally as curious about how it appeared and what it meant. “Need my help with anything, love?” It was for this reason she kept it hidden until Bonnie had visited shortly after her transition and filled her in on the whole soulmate thing.

It couldn’t be true, as if she’d go for a guy that would say that. For starters Caroline Forbes wasn’t some weakling, if anyone needed help it wasn’t her, and anyone who called her love was just asking to be punched.

“Excuse me?” She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn’t notice him standing there. He was tall with dark hair and piercing green eyes. “Can I help you?”

Immediately she didn’t like him. Yes, he was mildly cute but she could sense something much more sinister in his tone.

“I’m fine.”

“Doesn’t look like it,” he prodded. “I’d be more than happy to take a look under the hood.” Given the way his eyes were flickering over her body clad in jeans and a fitted, white tank, she was wondering which hood he was referring to.

“It’s okay,” she bristled pushing past him for a quick escape not expecting him to grab her wrist roughly, the tattoo turning an angry, red colour.

“Now, that’s not a nice way to thank a good samaritan,” he insisted, his grip tightening.

“Funnily enough I think good is a slight exaggeration on your part,” she growled. “Let me go.”

“Oh and what are you going to do about it, blondie,” he teased. “There’s no one out here to hear you scream. I’ve been driving for hours and need a snack to get me through.”

“Are you joking or just really dumb?” She scoffed, finally managing to free her arm. “Pretty sure you wouldn’t be interested in my blood.”

“Right now I’d take anything, vampire,” he hissed, moving towards her and pinning her over the overheated engine. She could feel the steam burning her ears she was that close.

“Need my help with anything, love?” If she wasn’t otherwise occupied, Caroline would have recognised those six familiar words she’d read over and over again.

Finding some unexpected energy, Caroline pushed her aggressor away and turned to look at the stranger. “I’m not some damsel in distress.” Before either could respond, she snapped the brunette’s neck and watched gleefully as he crumpled to the ground.

“That I can see,” the attractive bystander mused, his crimson lips curving into a knowing smile, a stray dimple making an appearance.

“Do you want to be next?” She huffed. “And don’t call me love.” As soon as she’d uttered the word Caroline realised what had just transpired, her mouth opening in shock. Was this her soulmate. Perusing his assets, Caroline wasn’t too upset with the universe if that was the case.

“I just can’t seem to help myself,” he murmured. Their eyes met, dark blue on light, almost like things had finally fallen into place. Without speaking he held up his wrist, Caroline doing the same thing.

“I thought you’d be cuter,” she joked, once the silence became too overwhelming. She was never good in these types of situations and had no intention of stroking his ego just because they were meant to be together.

“Funny that,” he agreed. “I thought you’d be less opinionated.”

“So, what now?” She asked, her left eyebrow kinking teasingly. “I don’t get married on the first meeting.”

“What a coincidence,” he smirked. “How about a drink for now?”

Caroline wanted to hate him but she was fairly certain she fell in love with him then and there. “Fine, but I’m paying, I don’t care if you’re my soulmate.”

“I can live with that, love,” he chuckled.

“What have I told you about calling me that?”

#ask #answered #eternal flame #misssophiachase #megansarah11 #great prompt luv #hope i've done it justice #klaroline drabbles

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angelicamerlinbarnes · 3 years

Text

TUA SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN AU

(please understand that by AU, I mean they share an incredibly small amount of things in common with the original source material which I barely remember BUT the "story" takes place in the setting of the film) (not to be misleading or anything :p)

(Huntsman) Diego has been roaming the dark woods for years, on the run from the two queens. He loves his mother Grace, but she died with Ben - and the person in her body now just isn’t very nice. He’s angry, and bitter, and full of heartache and pain… losing your family will do that to you. But he’s still looking for Five. His beloved husband may be dead, but there’s still hope for their son. Right?

(Gold Queen) The Handler is the gold queen. She believes love is a weakness, and how could she not - her sister Grace ruined herself with love for her children. Then again, she supposes it’s a bit her fault that Grace went mad - the Handler was, after all, the one who killed the child that left Grace a cold, icy bitch.

(Ice Queen) Grace does not believe in love. Any child of hers foolish enough to fall in love will be taught the same lesson she suffered to learn - love is synonymous with death.

Five can’t remember the names of all the people he’s killed. The Handler took him from his mother when he was just a baby - he has no knowledge whatsoever of who she is. The Handler forces him to kill people in her courtyard arena, claiming him as her champion, and he knows he’ll die if he lets her down. She promised to bring him back to his family if he just stays a good little boy and does what he’s told - Five thinks she’s probably lying though. He had a friend here once, Dolores, and the Handler agreed not to make him fight her… and then turned her into a gold statue in the middle of the courtyard, where Five has to see her and be reminded of his failure to keep her safe every single day.

Klaus has been stuck down here for who knows how long. It’s damp and dark and cold and there are bars on the window. Grace dragged him here what must’ve been years ago, probably because she found out about him and Diego - not that it matters. Grace banished Diego, and Five was taken from him long ago. Diego’s probably dead, Klaus knows how it is out there, and his son is also probably dead. There’s only so long for Klaus anyway - he’s been seeing his dead brother Ben lately, and even Klaus is smart enough to know that’s probably not a good sign.

Ben died at the hands of the Handler when he was only fourteen. His death cause Grace to go full psycho, and Ben… exists with that guilt every day as he looks after Klaus, who is slowly going mad. Ben needs to get him out of here, but first he needs to find Diego… and Diego has always made a point of being very, very hard to find.

Allison was one of few children who managed to escape both the queens when the war began. She found a home with a man called Reginald and thought she was saved… but he was just another asshole. He treats her and the other refugees like slaves, knowing they’ll never leave out of fear of the queens’ killing arenas. Ray and Luther are her fellow inmates - and they all want out.

Vanya is a witch, trapped in a cave by the Handler after being stolen from her mother Grace. A selkie named Sissy came to help her settle in her first day, and now collects ingredients for Vanya’s experimental break-out spells. They fell in love, and have a son named Harlan together from Vanya’s magic, but it’s unlikely they’ll ever be allowed to touch, a constant blue shield between them.

Cha-Cha and Hazel are the Handler’s personal generals, and when they learn that Klaus is alive, they take him on orders from the Handler, who knows he’ll be good bait now that Diego is the symbol of the revolution. Agnes is the village healer they force to heal Klaus after they’re done torturing him for information, which he never gives. She detests both of them, and eventually uses her magic to knock them out and set Klaus free.

Eudora is leading a rebellion against the two queens in secret. She has no idea about Reginald, or else she’d go after him too. When Allison kills Reginald, she brings herself, Luther, Ray, and all the other captive young adults to Eudora’s safe haven, where she trains them into soldiers for the upcoming fight. If they don’t want to be soldiers, they train to be healers under Agnes, who tells Eudora of the dead prince being locked in the Handler’s dungeon and tortured, having apparently been imprisoned. Look, Eudora’s not a bad person, she’s just a strategist - and it’s better to have Klaus in captivity long enough for her to get Diego on her side, using his husband’s rescue as leverage.

Lila is the Handler’s personal guard. The Handler believes she has Lila’s complete loyalty, but Lila’s been slipping information to Eudora for years - Eudora, who she’s in love with. Eudora, who kisses like the sky does the ground. Eudora, who will leave Lila to die once she’s no longer of use. Or so she thinks.

The Handler wiped Five’s memory when she took him at five years old, so he doesn’t remember his family at all. She’s hoping nobody comes along and breaks his programming. She’s spent so long on it. It’d be such a shame.

Across the land, Allison serves Reginald dinner. She refills his drink, picks his knife up from the ground, and stabs him through the heart. Then she and Ray and Luther and the others fucking book it.

Diego wanders the woods alone, intercepted only by Eudora, who he locks in awesome battle with before realizing who she is. They smile at each other and she asks him yet again to join her movement, which he refuses. She smiles ruefully and disappears.

Allison and Ray and Luther join Eudora’s cause with the others, Luther quickly becoming their best soldier, Ray their most gifted healer, and Allison equal to Eudora in both physical and mental prowess. Eudora is hunting in the woods one day and runs into Lila, the two of them having a love-at-first-sight moment. Lila hears her name called and runs away, but they remain drawn to each other, even if Eudora can’t shake the mark of gold on Lila’s wrist from her mind.

The Handler starts making threats at Vanya, mostly about Sissy and Harlan. Klaus has forgotten what the sun looks like, but is given a refresher on the moon when Cha-Cha and Hazel break into his cell and steal him in the middle of the night. Ben holds him the whole time, but he’s so scared. So so scared.

Eudora and Lila keep meeting in the woods, mostly by accident. Lila starts telling her things, important things, and one day lets slip that the dead prince Klaus is alive and imprisoned in the Handler’s dungeons, to which he was brought from Grace’s dungeons. Eudora listens, enraptured, and nearly kisses Lila goodbye before remembering herself. This is how she wins Diego.

Diego finds out Klaus is alive from Eudora and is angry at her for using Klaus’ life as leverage, deciding to go see for himself. He overhears some guards talking about it, and is running down to the dungeons when he slams right into someone. They pull back, curse words on Diego’s lips, and Diego is met with Klaus’ wide green eyes, looking at him with some sort of euphoric wonder.

Overjoyed, Diego clasps Klaus’ face in his hands and kisses him. Klaus laughs, loud and bright, and slings his still shackled hands up to loop his arms around Diego’s neck, kissing him again and again and again. Their reunion is interrupted by a loud clang, upon which they realize they’re still in the Handler’s castle. Diego wraps his arm around Klaus’ waist and they run together, but skid to a stop in the shadows in the Great Hall, freezing as they stare across the room at Five, whose memories are slamming back into him as he lays eyes on his parents for the first time in eight years.

Klaus makes for him, Diego not far behind, but just as Five takes a step forward, finally broken from his shock, the sound of the Handler’s stilettos clicking down the hall come from behind. Their eyes meet again, Klaus’ widening as he realizes what Five’s about to do, but Five just shakes his head, mouthing, I love you. He then reaches out with his hand and sweeps them out the door with a snap of his fingers, locking himself inside with the Handler once and for all.

Devastated at the loss of their son, again, Klaus and Diego wander through the night, only settling down once to sleep, Klaus’ head on Diego’s chest. They whisper about their son and each other until dawn, finally rising to continue their journey. Diego manages to use a stick to pick the lock on Klaus’ chains, and they head for Eudora’s camp, Diego finally agreeing to join now that he knows his son is trapped in the Handler’s hold.

With Diego in the fold, Eudora’s army is combat-ready in no time. Eudora makes her way to the woods, waiting for Lila, who has finally agreed to leave the Handler and join Eudora’s cause. But instead of Lila, the Handler comes, having found out about Lila’s little excursions and deciding it was time to put a stop to it. She captures Eudora, taking her back to the dungeon, and starts making the moves to enact her big plan.

Lila finds Eudora’s bow on the ground in the woods and rushes towards her camp to tell Diego the news.

The Handler goes to retrieve Vanya from her cave, ready to use her secret weapon. Sissy screams, trying to stop her, but the Handler shoves her back, Sissy knocking her head on a rock and going limp. Vanya, seeing this and Harlan hiding behind a tree, screams, all of her power letting loose at once and shattering the cave and the curse that traps her in it. The rubble nearly crushes the Handler, but she saves herself with a shield, though not before Vanya is able to escape with Sissy and Harlan, disappearing into the woods.

She makes her home at Eudora’s camp, where Lila now helps lead troops with Diego, scared for Eudora’s life. Klaus helps the healers, and brings them undead soldiers to improve their numbers, desperate to bring his son home. Allison and Ray have an unstoppable magic act, and Luther has his own legion of soldiers to lead. They finally feel they’re ready, marching towards their positions to surround the Handler’s castle, when winter suddenly falls over the land and Grace emerges from the trees, calm and as cold as ever.

Agnes is behind her, trembling. Klaus gently guides her to their side, remembering how she helped him escape. Diego stares down Grace, saddened beyond belief at who their mother has turned out to be. Grace tells Diego she’s disappointed in him - he was her greatest prodigy, the only one she truly believed was strong enough to be a good soldier, the only one who had given up love - an ice blast gathering in her hand, ready for Diego’s heart. And then suddenly, Ben is in front of her, his eyes full of sorrow as he whispers her name - Hey Momma.

Grace’s blast desintigrates in her hand. She stares at the ghost of her long-dead son, tearing up, and falls to her knees as winter extinguinshes into dust around her. She sobs into her hands, apologizing over and over for all she’s done to them, and is shocked when Diego touches her shoulder gently, gazing at her with soulful eyes. Help us win this war, Momma, he says softly. Help us, and all is forgiven. She swallows, and nods, and takes his hand, walking with them into battle.

They march to the castle. Lila saves Eudora from the dungeons, who kisses her through the bars - I knew you’d come for me. Diego is leading one legion up against the back while Allison, Ray, and Luther lead legions in on all other sides. Vanya’s working on breaking down the magical shields the Handler’s put up. The Handler emerges, and the battle is in full swing.

Agnes is knocking out bitches left and right with her wooden cane, and Hazel is punching the lights out of anyone who gets too close. Cha-Cha closes in on Five, who’s caught up in defending Dolores, and strikes him with a spell that’s blocked by Klaus. Klaus, with fire in his eyes, steps in front of a wide-eyed Five with glowing hands and a morbid grin. Not my son, you bitch, he hisses, and proceeds to beat the shit out of Cha-Cha while Five grins and whoops before running off to help Diego.

Eventually it comes down to the Handler in the throne room. Her legions falling, she prepares to oblierate everyone with her powers, but Grace enters the room, ready to stop her. They engage in an epic battle of gold and ice, in which Grace is fatally wounded by the Handler. She uses the last of her power and strength to impale the Handler on an icicle, watching with a smile as Diego brings a battleaxe down on the Handler’s neck, Grace’s eyes fluttering closed.

The kingdoms are reunited under Allison’s common rule. She rules alone, though married to both Ray and Luther, and her siblings make their homes in her court. A statue of Grace spins in the courtyard on the other side of Dolores and Ben, all surrounded by flowers. Eudora and Lila remain unmarried, but travel the world together. Ben still talks with Klaus, who helps organize all the parties at the palace. Diego is the captain of the guard and Five enjoys childhood, though he is also regarded as a fierce warrior in his own right. Vanya and Sissy settle down in the woods with Harlan and Agnes and Hazel stay down in the villages on a farm (they have a lot of cows). They’re all very happy, and very safe. Well, until Leonard the king of tar shows up. But that’s a story for another day.

Oh, and there are dragons. Because reasons.

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in-tua-deep · 5 years

Note

Consider; an AU where it's Reginald who pushes Five to time travel rather than Five deciding he's ready, this simultaneously changing everything about the childrens lives, and yet it also changes nothing about their future and the impending apocalypse.

oh man you say it changes nothing about the future but actually?? i feel like it would change EVERYTHING and here’s why:

When Five left he was made an example of. Reginald commissioned that portrait that loomed over them every time they were in that room, and reminder of the folly of disobeying their father. If they disobeyed, then they might also disappear etc. etc.

but in this au it’s OBEYING reginald that makes Five vanish. It’s the infallible Reginald Hargreeves who makes a mistake and that mistake costs them their brother

and that would get the little gears turning in their heads - because any one of them could be next. Maybe Reginald will pile on too many weights while training and crush Luther. Maybe he’ll leave Diego in a tank holding his breath for too long and Diego will drown. Maybe he has Ben train with them and Ben accidentally kills one of his siblings with the Horror. Maybe maybe maybe

Reginald would lose something very important: the kids trust. Because in this au Five and Vanya are close, he tells her about his training sometimes when they’re sitting together quietly attempting to avoid the wrath of their father together. He tells her that dad wants him to try time travel, and Vanya smiles and tell him she’s sure he’ll be great at it (because even though they hate him they trust him in a terrible sort of way, they believe him in the way that children believe their parents can never be wrong)

So yes, Five would become an example. But not in the way that Reginald would want. He would become a symbol, whispers in the night of ‘what if we become the next Five? what if Dad makes us disappear? what if Dad pushes us too far?’

so in this au, they run away, ben lives because they run away because they know exactly what following their father’s orders could do to them - even Luther’s faith is shaken because it’s one thing for Five to run away and Luther to place the blame squarely on his brother’s shoulders, one thing for Five to disobey and Luther’s faith in his father to be solidified, and it’s another entirely for Dad to write Five off as “no great loss”

(what are they worth to their father if Five, whose ability was so incredibly useful, was no great loss?)

and Luther feels responsible because he’s the team leader, right? His job is to protect his team, and the house has become a danger to them. Staying puts them in danger. Puts Allison in danger, because Luther has seen their father’s disdain for his sister. Has seen his father’s lip draw back in a sneer as he called Allison narcissistic, but he hadn’t worried about it before Five vanished, before he realized that all of them were expendable

so they run, together, they run. (run boy run)

Luther doesn’t go to the moon. Allison doesn’t become a movie star. Diego doesn’t join the academy. Klaus doesn’t become an addict. Ben doesn’t die. Vanya is included.

They need to keep a low profile or else they’ll be sent back to their dad. They look after each other, put Klaus’s sticky fingers to good use (Klaus can’t use the money for drugs, it has to go towards getting them all food, to putting a shitty motel roof over their heads when the weather is bad, to bus tickets to get further and further away - but he isn’t going to the mausoleum anymore, and when the nightmares are bad, well, they sleep in a pile of warm bodies and restless legs and that fends off the worst of them anyway).

And then there’s Vanya, who is the forgotten child, the only one who isn’t immediately recognizable. They’re the Umbrella Academy, their faces are on television and magazines, people know who they are. But they don’t know Vanya, so she becomes the face of their little band. She’s the one who buys them food, she’s the one who talks to the seedy motel owners, she’s the one who has to smile at concerned adults and make up stories on the spot

she’s the one who runs out of her medication not long into their escape

so the siblings learn she has powers. They DON’T learn about the dead nannies. What they do see is that Reginald took one of them, one of their own, and destroyed her. Made her ordinary. Took away her powers (and their powers are so much a part of them they all shudder at the thought, like losing a limb - and their dad did that to their own sister) and so that means he probably had back up plans for all of them. They’d thought dad valued them for their powers, but Vanya is powerful and he still locked her powers away

so maybe it wasn’t about power. It was about control. And they think about Five, and the way he would talk back, the way he would cheat and squirm through loopholes and the way he would smile so wide when he thought he was going to get away with something. And they think maybe he made Five disappear on purpose, because he couldn’t control him

trying to think of a way the apocalypse could happen in this au hmm. maybe leonard peabody still shows up, still smiles at Vanya where she’s playing her violin on the street corner with her case open for people’s change. Maybe he befriends her, because he was obsessed with the umbrella academy and no one else would recognize her but he does, because he dug deeper

and he still wants revenge, maybe in this universe Leonard Peabody manages to kill the others. Lays traps, plays their protective instincts against one another

(Klaus dies first so the others ghosts can’t warn him about what Leonard is doing, picking them off one by one. One by one they all… die.)

but Leonard only knew what he could find out about them before-they-ran-away. So he thinks Vanya is ordinary, thinks she’s powerless. He gleefully shows off what he’s done to her siblings, confident and cocky and terrible and Vanya looks at the only people in the world she’s ever cared about, looks at the snake she invited in the door, and she thinks the world doesn’t deserve to live, and her power bursts out of her and destroys the world

except except except

that’s not this universe

because in this universe, Reginald dies and the siblings go cautiously to his house - half worried that this is a trap to lure them all back even though they’re all 29 now and it’s been so long they’re still afraid-afraid-afraid but Diego breaks in and finds the coroners report and confirms the death and he really really wants to see Mom again and so they go home

and there’s a temporal anomaly in the courtyard, and they go out, and they see little Number Five appear from the blue and they’re shocked and speechless and so very very protective because Five is a symbol to them. He’s why they left. In so many ways, he saved them, got them out, got them moving before something could befall them

this Five speaks of the apocalypse, and they believe him. They’ve been relying on each other for years, there is trust in one another built into their very bones, formed from the absence of Reginald there to pit them against one another and of surviving the streets together. They believe him and they accept him and they want to help

and Five is surprised and alarmed and so very very traumatized and he isn’t sure how to handle his siblings who are so much more confident and sure and competent than he remembers (they are still broken, but in different ways, and they support each others broken pieces and that’s enough)

Five doesn’t know about his siblings. He doesn’t know them anymore. He doesn’t know they ran away. Vanya never wrote her tell all book, he never found it in the apocalypse. All he found was a bundle of bodies arranged like they were being presented, umbrella tattoos dark on their wrists as thirteen year old Five sobbed and cried and wished that his Father hadn’t pushed

(this is a Five who doesn’t blame himself as much at the very least, this is a Five who curled up in the cold arms of a corpse and sobbed and sobbed because he hadn’t been there to help them, to save them, and he blamed his father for sending him away, for telling him to jump)

(Five can tell the bodies were moved at least, can tell this isn’t where they were killed. He’s a child and he has faith in his team, in his family. His siblings were picked off and then arranged together, and he tells his family that when he gets back)

and so obviously no one is allowed to go off alone, even Five. They’re protective and they have each other’s backs. Allison goes with Vanya to the park when she goes to play, and Allison watches Leonard Peabody with suspicious eyes. But she needn’t be so concerned, because Vanya doesn’t care one lick about some random guy in the park when her brother is back with them and she has to focus on the fact that if they don’t prevent it, her entire family will die

Vanys doesn’t let the snake in the door, and the Commission take issue

So the siblings have to deal with Commission clean up crews, have to deal with Hazel and Cha-Cha. The Commission know that the apocalypse was triggered by the deaths of Vanya’s siblings, so that’s who they go after. They want to kill the rest of the Hargreeves and leave Vanya alive to cause the apocalypse

but the team is flawless after years together, and they aren’t about to split up and be lured off alone. They’re presenting a united front, even if they have to bearhug Five or hold his hand at all times to prevent him from going off alone

Five does wriggle out and go to the commission to learn more. He sees the Handler and blows up her office and he learns about the orders to eliminate all the Hargreeves except Vanya, and Five remembers two things: a) the bodies all so nicely arranged and b) the fact that apparently his sister has very powerful powers now and put two and two together and when he gets back he’s like “i know what causes the apocalypse!! you all die and vanya goes off and that’s what does it!!” and then he collapses because of shrapnel oof

(if he thinks he’s going to get away without a scolding and like 10x more protectiveness after that stunt he is incorrect)

so that’s the game. make sure they all live. kill the people the commission sends their way. Vanya isn’t nearly as explosive because she’s had years upon years to learn control and fine tune her powers, they didn’t get as much build up as they did when repressed for 25 years at the very least

and you know what?? they fucking manage it. gold star team. April 2nd dawns upon them all and it’s emotional as all fuck and yeah, they still have to deal with commission crews and at one point they have a confrontation with an extremely frustrated Leonard Peabody/Harold Jenkins but they’re alive and they get to live and!! they get to all be together again and adopt Five into the fold and re-assimilate him into the family

Basically, the apocalypse is averted because Reginald Hargreeves loses the children’s trust, the apocalypse is averted because they all know how to trust and rely on one another, the apocalypse is averted because once upon a time a child went missing trying to obey their father and spent decades trying to get back to them

The apocalypse was caused by and saved by the most powerful force in the world: love

#ask me #anonymous #this probably isn't what you wanted #but i had fun at least lmao #love me some good aus #tua #the umbrella acadmy #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #allison hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #five hargreeves #number five #ben hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #reginald hargreeves #tua au #pushed au

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in-tua-deep · 5 years

Note

Love this new AU! Can you talk a bit more about a circumstance where Five is protective of the Boy and maybe another of the Boy being protective of Five?

The Boy didn’t used to have nightmares. Or well, maybe he did. Absent things, that upon waking he felt like he’d been hit with a bucket of ice water (and he should know, that happened when he slept in more than once) but he never really remembered his nightmares.

(He used to have night terrors, when he was small. He’d wake up screaming. He was always punished for it. Between the ages of three and six he slept with his fist crammed in his mouth to muffle his screams until his brain finally figured out that screaming would do him no good.)

After leaving the commission, he has proper nightmares. Sometimes they’re strange, just him wandering around halls that he knows are the Commissions but are out of place and wrong - a maze that he can’t escape from. He has to hide from the Handler in them, but she always seems to find him.

Other times it’s about his new family in his new house. Sometimes it’s them rejecting him, wondering out loud why they ever took in such a burden. That they didn’t want him and that he would do them all a favor if he just went away. Sometimes he dreams of the Handler standing over their dead bodies and smiling at him and telling him oh, he didn’t think he was allowed to keep them, did he?

He doesn’t like his new nightmares.

But he’s not alone.

He sleeps in Five’s room. There was some noise made about getting him his own room and bed and everything, but it’s been a while now and everyone seems to have forgotten about it. Five’s room only has a twin bed, but that’s okay.

Five tells the Boy that he can have it. Five sleeps better on the floor, or sometimes crammed inside the tiny closet. He says that the bed is too soft, and the Boy wonders if the commission ever let him have an actual bed. The Boy got a bed, sort of. More reminiscent of a prison cot than anything else, but it was something.

Sometimes when the Boy wakes up at night, he can hear Five whimpering in his sleep, or mumbling, or tossing and turning. Sometimes Five is already awake when the Boy sits up, scribbling away in a notebook by the light of the moon. Sometimes, on the really bad nights, Five is tucked in a corner, biting on his fist as tears stream down his face.

He asks, once, what Five dreams about.

Five gives him a long and measuring look, but the Boy has no reason to doubt his truthfulness when he finally says - “I dream of the apocalypse, always.”

“Always?” The Boy asks, eyes wide. He has a few recurring nightmares, but to have the same one over and over again seems odd.

“The characters change.” Five whispers, looking into the middle distance. “Sometimes there are ghosts, family and victims and bodies. Sometimes the Handler is there. Sometimes it’s Dad. Sometimes… sometimes it’s just me, alone again.”

The Boy considers that, and then asks the questions he wants to know the answer to. “Did you have those dreams before? When you were in the apocalypse?”

Five blinks. “Not the same ones, no. But sometimes I dreamed about ghosts. Why?”

“I didn’t dream before I left the Commission.” The Boy admits softly, staring down at his hands twisting in the blanket on his lap. “I dream - I dream a lot now. I don’t like it.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Five says slowly, mulling the words over. He looks thoughtful. “You didn’t have anything to compare your life to back then. How can you have a nightmare when there are no dreams? How can you tell the good from the bad when you’ve only experienced one?”

“I guess.” The Boy says, wrinkling his nose, “But I still don’t like it.”

Five is silent for a long while. Long enough that the Boy almost thinks Five has gone to sleep on him. But right when the Boy is prepared to lay back down and go to sleep, he hears the soft whisper. “Me neither.”

And that’s all they say about that.

Five is always really nice about the Boy’s nightmares. They’re really quiet, but Five is hypervigilant to the point that almost any noise wakes him up regardless. The Boy is nervous about that in the beginning, but Five always waves him off.

“I’m usually awake around this time, anyway.” Five always says, and each time it makes the Boy concerned - because if you were tired you made mistakes, and mistakes got you punished, and the Boy didn’t want Five to get punished.

On the really bad nights, when the Boy shakes himself awake and can’t stop trembling and can’t string a word together if his life depended on it, when his breathing stutters in his chest and his skin feels too tight and his vision tunnels, Five is there.

They’re the only nights when Five actually uses the bed, sitting next to the Boy and pulling the Boy’s head down with gentle hands to rest against Five’s own chest. “Breathe.” Five orders, ever so gently, and takes deep breaths for the Boy to copy.

It’s nice. Five is warm, and his heart thumps loudly and steadily against the Boy’s ear. He times his breaths by the beats of that heart until he’s not shaking out of his skin anymore and he can actually fill his lungs with enough air.

At first, the Boy thought Five would leave as soon as his job of calming the Boy down was over and done with. But he doesn’t. He just sways them both back gently until they’re lying down, pressed against one another in the bed that was really too small for the both of them, and stayed there until morning. Solid and present and warm and safe.

Sometimes, the boy wakes up too quietly, feeling not quite real. He just blinks his eyes open and stares at the ceiling, feeling like his body isn’t his own. Feeling absent in a way that should be scary if he could bring himself to be alarmed.

On those nights, he eventually rolls out of bed - the thump of his feet on the floor making Five stir in his nest of blankets. The Boy pads over to the nest, and Five sleepily holds up a blanket to allow the Boy to crawl inside. The solid warmth against his skin makes his skin prickle, but it’s so much better than the numbness that it always makes tears spring to the Boy’s eyes. They sleep curled up together on the floor like puppies and it’s so different from the long lonely nights of the Boy’s childhood.

That isn’t to say that the Boy doesn’t return the favor though, because he does.

Sometimes, he wakes up to a whimper and looks over to see Five half stuffed into the closet, glassy eyed and terrified. On those nights, he swings his feet out of bed and pads over to crouch in front of the unseeing boy.

“What do you see, Five?” The Boy asks, ever so softly, as he always does on nights like these. If he doesn’t get a response, he repeats the question just a smidge louder until he does.

Five blinks at him, still not quite seeing him. “Ash,” He croaks, voice hoarse and wary, “Ash and rubble and ruin.”

“Hmm.” The Boy considers, tilting his head. “That’s not what I see. Can I tell you what I see?”

Five never answers this question, but that doesn’t stop the Boy. “Under your feet there’s your bedroom floor. It’s kind of cold, ‘cause it’s the middle of the night and it’s not the rug.”

Five’s head tilts to stare at his feet, toes curling against the wood almost warily.

“On your body are pajamas, sort of.” The Boy continues, “I’m pretty sure the pants belong to Vanya, ‘cause they’re not too long on you. They have a heart stitched on the thigh which is either part of the design or the brand, I dunno. They look comfy, though.”

Five’s hand finds the stitched heart, and he runs stiff fingers over the ridges of thread that make up the heart. He looks a tiny bit more present.

“I think the shirt might be Klaus’s? It’s got some kind of band on it, I think. Or maybe a company logo? I’m not real good at telling them apart.” The Boy shrugs, carelessly.

“It’s a band.” Five croaks out. The Boy waits expectantly, but Five adds no more.

“Can I touch your hand?” The Boy asks.

“Can you?” Five challenges.

The Boy reaches out and clasps Five’s hand in his own. Five looks at the two hands as though he’s never seen anything like it in his life, like it’s a small miracle.

Sometimes, even knowing how he himself grew up, the Boy aches for Five. He aches for the boy lost in the apocalypse. The Boy was never really shown kindness, but at least he wasn’t alone.

“You’re in your bedroom.” The Boy tells him firmly, “It’s 4:32AM on a Tuesday. It’s October 28th. The Apocalypse never happened because you stopped it. Diego bought pumpkins yesterday because Klaus wouldn’t stop whining about it and there’s supposed to be a pumpkin carving party today. You’ve been brainstorming how to get out of it since then.”

There’s color back to Five’s skin now, replacing the ghostly pallor of post-flashback-Five. He looks alert, and like he knows where he is. He sits up fully, and lets go of the Boy’s hand.

“Do you think,” The Boy ponders, drawing Five’s attention, “If I jumped, do you think I’d also end up in the apocalypse?”

Five’s eyes widen in horror. He covers his terror with anger, as he tends to do. “No!” He whisper shouts, looking furious, “We fixed it so it never fucking happened. Why the fuck would you ask that?”

“If I jumped,” The Boy rolls the words around in his mouth, “Then maybe you would be there, too. And then you wouldn’t have had to do it alone.”

There’s still fight in the lines of Five’s body, but it softens. It’s too early to be so angry, anyway. “It’s fine.” He says, “I got out. I’d never want to put any of you guys through the apocalypse. Bad enough I went through it.”

“It’s not okay.” The Boy says, firmly, because that’s what the family always says to him about the bad stuff he went though when he tries to brush it off. “It’s not okay, but I’m glad you’re here with me now at least.”

Five lip quirks, head nodding in acknowledgement of the role reversal. “Yeah, me too.”

They don’t usually go back to sleep after one of Five’s bad episode. Instead, they head downstairs and put on a movie. One of the dumb childish ones that Five rails against in front of the others, but in the mornings he’s too drained to put on anything that requires a modicum of thought or effort.

(He likes the almost guarantee of happy endings, too. The Boy never says anything about it though, because he feels the same way.)

They sit on the sofa together and eat peanut butter or nutella or marshmallow fluff straight from the jars. They don’t talk, but they don’t have to. They just watch the movies until it’s a more sensible time and the others start to wake up.

(Klaus sometimes catches them, with his chronic insomnia and nightmares of his own. Five blames the childish movie choices on the Boy, and the Boy knows that Five’s sensitive about them so he doesn’t mind taking the blame at all. It’s one small way he can help Five out, and it’s one he’s glad to do.

On those night, Klaus and Ben end up joining them. Klaus has a sweet tooth so he’ll steal the marshmallow fluff. He tries to sing along with the musical ones and makes Five throw pillows at him. It’s nice.)

Sometimes Five isn’t awake when the Boy wakes up, because Five whimpers and talks in his sleep.

It’s strange, the difference between them. The Boy is silent when he sleeps, and silent when he wakes up. It’s the shaking of the bed or the scuff of feet against the floor which wake Five, not any shouts or crying from the Boy’s mouth.

But Five was alone for so long, with no one to hear him, and sometimes it seems like his body forgets that there are people around now. So he whimpers and whispers and begs with his face contorted in such a way that the Boy can’t look at it for too long. Five is so proud when he’s awake, but underneath he’s just as broken as the Boy. Just - in different ways.

After the first few times, the Boy knows not to wake Five up by shaking him or anything. He had a black eye for a week and Five looks tremendously guilty any time they made eye contact for longer than that.

But Five is a light sleeper, so it’s easy to just whisper a loud - “Five?” into the silence of the room.

Five doesn’t wake slowly, or peacefully. He always sits bolt upright, something not quite a shout on his lips that he strangles as soon as it passes his vocal chords. His hands always shoot up to his ears, as though he’s trying to block something out.

Those nights, the Boy approaches only after Five has woken and gently pulls Five’s hands down from his ears. After the waking, no words are passed between them. The Boy just lays down next to Five and curls against him on the floor. Sometimes, when Five doesn’t settle back down right away, the Boy hums gently to drown out the dregs of whatever nightmare voices that still plague his family member.

They don’t talk about the nightmares when it’s daytime. It seems… strange. They don’t exist under the soft protection of the sun’s light, They don’t exist in the streets or in the living room or at the kitchen table. They only exist in their bedroom, in the godawful hours when no one in their right mind should be awake.

They take care of each other. They chase each other’s nightmares away with whatever tools they have at their disposal. They protect one another, because no one else protected them before but they have each other now and that’s enough.

That has to be enough.

#the commission boy au #clone five au #tua au #the umbrella academy #tua #five hargreeves #number five #the boy #klaus hargreeves #ben hargreeves #nightmares #five has nightmares #the boy has nightmares #klaus has nightmares #honestly this whole family is a mess #but here u go #protective!five #protective!the boy #they both help each other out and it's very cute #the other siblings def notice that five's nightmares have decreased #or 'decreased'#which is why they dropped the whole 'the boy needs his own room' argument #though that will eventually be revisited #once they realize five is sleeping on the floor #or in the closet #just idk they both understand extreme isolation #and also the idea of having trauma that doesn't show up until they're away from their former situation #which makes them both feel even more broken but in reality it's because they both feel safe enough to actually break down #five and the boy have movie nights/mornings no you can't change my mind #at least the boy doesn't share five's issues with food as much

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unfortunate-stranger-losers · 4 years

Photo

All Those Things They Couldn’t Say - A Runaway Baudelaires AU

{ao3} {tumblr} {masterlist}

Chapter Fifteen - Violet at the Lake

Klaus was a bit skeptical. “It’s not gonna be pleasant to watch a man be eaten alive.”

“It won’t be pleasant to be captured either.” Violet shrugged. She opened the snackbag, saying, “Obviously I won’t eat these, but a few drops in the water should attract their attention. I’m going to crawl under the house, where the lakeside is, and summon a couple. It should be easy to snag a few, and then once we have them, they’ll attack Olaf when I dump them in the water, as he’ll have just eaten.”

“Can’t I come with you? It could be dangerous.”

“It will be, which is why you need to stay here. Someone has to keep Olaf and Josephine in place until I return, and more people in the water will attract leech attention we don’t want.”

“I just- don’t know if I want you out there alone.”

Violet smiled and put a hand on his cheek. “Hey. I know. I’m not super into leaving you here, either. But if we don’t kill Olaf, he kills us. You know?”

“Yeah…” Klaus nodded, and then moved to the bed, picking up Sunny. “What should we do?”

“Keep Josephine here. And keep your bag with you, in case the plan goes wrong. I’ll be right back with our leeches.” Violet slung her bag over her shoulder, and said, “See you in a sec.”

And with that, she was off.

Klaus sat at the kitchen table, and he continued, “So, Lindley Murray developed his study in the nineteenth century of the role of language in European countries, concluding that Latin was distinguished from the Ancient Greek approach.”

Josephine nodded, stirring the soup, as Sunny sat beside her and watched, cocking her head in interest. “Yes, good memorization, Klaus. And what were the two grammar books published in 1711-”

“A Grammar of the English Tongue by John Brightland and Essay towards a Practical Grammar Usage by James Greenwood.”

“Yes! You’ve been keeping up your studies.”

Klaus sighed. Well, nothing else to do here. “Yeah.” he paused, and then said, “Josephine, when was the last time you talked to our parents?”

Josephine shook her head. “Oh, it was long ago.”

“Yeah, what happened?”

“I’d rather not discuss the past.”

Klaus shared an incredulous glance with Sunny, who crawled off the counter and onto the floor. “You know, sometimes talking about scary things can make them seem not so scary anymore.”

“That’s not entirely true.”

“Well, it works.” Klaus fiddled with his hands, bouncing his leg. “When I was five, I talked to my Dad about wild wolves, and I realized they’re only scary if you’re on their territory. There are plenty of people who work with wolves and find them to be quite friendly if you’re not a threat.”

“Yes, but the second you’re seen as a threat, you’re in the middle of a pack of wolves.” Josephine sighed. She stirred the soup some more, and then said, “Where’s Violet?”

“I-in her room.” Klaus said. “You know, resting. She… feels bad about being so rude.”

“Yes, rudeness is quite…”

“Rude?”

“And where’s Sunny?”

“Oh, she…” Klaus paused, looking down at the ground.

Shit.

“Hold on a moment.” Klaus got to his feet, and quickly left the room. He glanced up and down the hallway, his heart beating quite a bit faster. “Sunny?”

He didn’t hear a response, and immediately everything that could go wrong jumped to the forefront of his head, along with the dark, haunting image of Sunny in a cage, pounding on the bars, screaming, while Klaus was held back, and he couldn’t move, he couldn’t get to her…

“Sunny!” he called, and ran to the nearest room, throwing open the door and peering in. No baby. “Sunny!”

A panic rose in his chest, and he ran to the next room, and then the next, still shouting for his sister. He bust down every door, holding pulling the straps on his bag as tight as possible so it couldn’t fall and slow him down, every empty room increasing his fear. Is this how Josephine feels all the time? Fuckin hell…

“Sunny!”

He finally raced into a room, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his little sister sitting by the edge of a bed, gnawing on the wood. She looked up in surprise, and Klaus sighed, leaning against the doorway. “Don’t scare me like that, Sunny!”

She mumbled an apology, and he moved forwards, kneeling beside her. “Why are you here, anyway? There’s plenty of things to teethe on in the kitchen, where we’re supposed to be.”

“Sirrah,” Sunny shook her head, “I’m not teething at the moment; my teeth have come in fine.”

“Well, then, why’d you run off?”

She sighed, and then looked up at Klaus and said, “Letom.” “Do you remember when we were in that motel for a few weeks, and Mother and Father told us that if we had to hide, not to go under the bed?”

“Because robbers will look for valuables there first,” Klaus nodded, “And when people don’t want to have something in plain sight, they put it-”

“Seeka yit.” Sunny nodded, and she grabbed Josephine’s navy bedspread and lifted it, crawling under.

“Sunny, she already has a safe, why would anything be under the-” Klaus began.

“Found!” Sunny called.

“What? Lemme see!”

Sunny pushed a large book from beneath the blanket, and Klaus picked it up. An atlas of Lake Lachrymose. Sunny pushed another book out, and Klaus sighed as he lifted it. “A biography of Ivan Lachrymose, Lake Explorer.” he said. “It- hold on, I think there’s some papers stuffed in here-” he shook the book, and some typewritten sheets fell. But after looking over them a moment, he said, “Nevermind, this just seems to be a building committee transcript. Boring as the rest of the book.”

“Found!” Sunny repeated, and then she crawled out and held out some kind of metal tube in her small hand. “Thing!”

“Lemme see.” Klaus dropped the book, taking the tube, and flipped it over in his hands, seeing the VFD eye emblazoned on the cover. “Oh! It’s a spyglass.”

“Pygla?” Sunny asked.

“It’s like a telescope, but these dials can give you extra shit.” Klaus explained. He bit his lip, and said, “Mother and Father didn’t show me all of them- they’ve got one, probably still with them- but if you turn the dials this way- see, it heats up!”

The lid flipped open, and a red, warm light glowed out. Sunny ooed and held out a hand, feeling the heat. “Oose.” she said.

“You’re right, that could be useful.” Klaus nodded, before shuffling the spyglass back to normal and closing it up. “Think we should steal it?”

“Whyno?”

“You’re right. Not like she’ll miss it. Was there anything else under there?”

Sunny nodded, and crawled back under the bed. She returned, pushing a large, leather-bound book ahead of her. Klaus flipped it open, looking down at the loopy handwriting. “It’s Josephine’s.”

“Wympi?”

“Yeah, it does seem like a diary.”

“Ree?”

Klaus sighed, and glanced at the door. “Well, Josephine’s busy in the kitchen. Might as well see what secrets are in here, huh?”

“Yee!”

What they did not think of, as they were flipping open the diary, was that they were supposed to be in the kitchen distracting Josephine, and that if Josephine wandered into the library, looking for the children, her window would give her a great view of the beach.

They also did not notice the storm brewing outside.

Violet crept down to the water, trying to stifle her fear. She didn’t know much about these leeches, only what Josephine had told her, but she was able to decipher that they were quite dangerous and fast-acting. She hadn’t eaten in over an hour, though, so she would likely be safe, so long as she didn’t hold onto the snackbag too long. She knelt by the water, and tore open the bag, scattering some mix into the waves. Then she pulled out Klaus’s jar, filling it about halfway with water, then sprinkling a few bits of mix into it. Then she watched the waves, and she waited.

It started raining a bit, but she didn’t mind. She quite liked the rain, actually. Even as it started pouring, and the wind picked up, she kept waiting in unbothered silence. She wondered, after a few quiet minutes, if the rain scared the leeches off, or if she was too close to the shore for the leeches to smell the food. Maybe she should’ve gone out a bit farther; she had a bit of mix left, she could do that. She waded into the waves, scattering food around before backing a bit farther, to keep a safe distance from the leech bait. The last thing she wanted was to be attacked by angry leeches while trying to get rid of Count Olaf.

She paused, then, wondering where Count Olaf was now. Perhaps he was on his way over already, or at the house and being distracted by Klaus and Sunny. Or maybe, she shivered, he was with their parents, taunting them, harming them. “Don’t worry,” she whispered to no one, hugging herself a little as the droplets continued to pour onto her, “You’ll be free soon.”

Violet shut her eyes, letting her imagination run off with her. She just wanted her parents back. For the last few days, she’d had little doubt they’d escape- they were Beatrice and Bertrand fucking Baudelaire, they could escape anything. But, well… it had been a while. Their parents hadn’t left them alone this long, and they had to know where the safehouses were. Surely they’d be here by now.

Stop having doubts. They’ll be fine. She trusted them, she knew them, she knew that once Olaf was dead they’d come get them, and they’d be okay again- it didn’t matter if they had to go back on the run and back into hiding and never live a normal life again, because normal was just whenever they were together. She wanted to play cards with her parents and hug them and tell them she knew they’d get out and now they could protect her again and she wouldn’t have to be in charge of Klaus and Sunny and have to wade into an ocean, listening for dangerous leeches.

Listening… for…

Lost in her thoughts, she only just now started back to reality. There was something behind her, splashing as it came closer… but it didn’t sound like leeches, it was too big, too lumbering, almost like footsteps-

She opened her eyes just as, quick as a whip, an arm wrapped around her chest and yanked her back. Violet let out a piercing shriek, but after only a second a filthy hand clamped over her mouth, muffling her voice.

“I was starting to wonder if you brats ever separated.” Olaf hissed into her ear.

Violet tried very hard to push back the frightened tears that sprang to the edge of her eyes, and she kicked back, trying to wrestle her way out of his reach. Instead, he tightened his grip on her, pulling her way too close. She started flailing, trying just to break his hold, to bite his hand, to get away. Think, Violet, how do you get out of this situation?

“Now what are you doing all the way out here?” Olaf asked, seemingly not caring how hard she was struggling against him. “Trying to take a swim in the rain? Or are you escaping out this way? I thought you might try to run before I got Josephine out of the house, so it’s a good thing I arrived early, isn’t it?”

Violet kept trying to scream through his mouth. She managed to stamp hard on his foot, but instead of releasing her, he snarled and moved quickly, pushing her down. Violet felt a hard, sharp jolt as her back hit the water and then the rocks beneath, and only barely managed to shut her eyes before her head went under the waves.

She felt a rush around her, water pouring around her face and ears. It was incredibly hot, probably just due to the shock of it, but that didn’t stop her from feeling as if she was being boiled for a moment. Salt lapped across her face, up her nose, and the hand over her mouth released only for an instant, water rushing into that, too, as she instinctively tried to scream. It tasted bitter, sour, sick.

When she was seven, they stayed in a town very near to the ocean. There was a rental beach house that Beatrice found out would be empty for a week, and they roomed there, with a great view of the sea from the bedroom window. On the first night, Violet, who did not yet realize the difference between saltwater and freshwater, thought they had hit the jackpot on a water source, and one night thought it would be a great idea to fill their empty water bottles while everyone was asleep. She snuck out, slinging water inside and giggling as the waves lapped at her feet. She filled up the bottles, putting them up on the counter before going back to bed. The next morning, she grabbed a bottle and took a swig, and realized her mistake right then, before spitting up in the sink. Klaus had come in just after and did the exact same thing. Violet, feeling like she’d done something wrong, started crying, which caused Beatrice and Bertrand to rush in, scared they were hurt.

Bertrand picked up Klaus, who wasn’t crying but was looking very confused, and Beatrice knelt by Violet, trying to calm her down. As soon as Violet explained the situation, she burst into laughter and explained the concept of saltwater to her daughter, and that was that. Violet hadn’t thought about that day in years.

She didn’t know why it came back to her then- well, she supposed swallowing saltwater was the main culprit. But she’d gone to the beach and accidentally inhaled the sharp liquid before, and it hadn’t happened then.

Maybe it was because she was terrified, and she just wanted her mother to laugh at her daughter’s foolish error, telling her it was no big deal, and she wasn’t in trouble, and everything was going to be fine.

Violet surfaced the water, and Olaf grabbed her shirt collar, yanking her up close to him. She struggled to breathe, blinking water out of her eyes, still wriggling to try and get away from him.

“Still got some fight in you.” he hmmed, and then he pushed her under again.

And then that sensation was all over her again, but worse. Hotter, scratchier. Water went up her nose and it hurt like hell, even though her eyes were shut she could feel the current press against them, her hair flew into her face and neck, feeling like it was strangling her. The rough hand against her collar flattened, pushing her down under the water, into the blackness and rushing, churning, hot waves. He pressed more against her, his other arm holding hers back so she couldn’t even use those to try to propel herself to the surface or fight him off.

Then, in a minute, she had surfaced again. But this time she felt the grip on her tighten more, her body forced into a standing position as she coughed up water.

She heard a distant call- “What is going on?”

Violet blinked water from her eyes, the salt stinging and causing tears to start to flow. Her vision was blurry for a moment, as she heard Olaf call, in his false Captain Sham voice, “Ah! Good lady! Your sister ‘ere was takin a swim! Went a bit too deep, I reckon!”

Her vision finally returned, and Violet saw Josephine standing at the edge of the beach. She glanced quickly down at the water, scuttling backwards to avoid the lapping waves, too fearful to go further. She had to shout in order to speak to the others. “Ah, Captain Sham! Thank you. Now please come back to shore…”

“No!” Violet gasped, trying to stagger away, but Olaf still had a hold on her arms. “Josephine, please, help me!”

“Violet, Captain Sham is getting you out of the water! Now, you know better than to go swimming in a hurricane- or even at all!”

“He’s Count Olaf! He’s trying to hurt me, please, Josephine-”

“Violet, I’ve had enough of this nonsense!” Josephine shouted, and Violet burst into tears as she saw Olaf’s smirk.

“Please! Please fucking help us-”

“Language, Violet! Now come ashore!”

“Perhaps I could show her how to swim better.” Olaf said, and Violet was unsure if he said it loud enough for Josephine to hear.

“Captain Sham!” Josephine hesitated, and then stepped a bit closer. “Please bring her asho…”

Josephine’s voice trailed off, and Violet saw that her head had lowered, her gaze fixed on their legs. Violet looked down, and realized with a start, and a triumphant grin, that Olaf had discarded his peg leg for the swim.

“Now, Josephine!” Olaf called, and he dropped his false voice. “Why don’t you be a dear and wait for me in the taxi?”

Josephine’s eyes widened, and she stumbled back. “I- I suppose that might be best…”

“Josephine!” Violet screamed. “Josephine, Klaus and Sunny- get them out! Klaus and Sunny-”

“Shut up about your annoying siblings.” Olaf pulled his arm around her chest again and squeezed, causing her to gasp as her breath was cut off a moment. “We’ll take care of them soon enough.”

Violet looked to see Josephine start to back farther away from the water, and an anger entered her. “Leave them alone! Leave them alone!”

He leaned down closer to her, and she could smell his foul breath as he said, with a dark shine in his eye, “Make me.”

Violet froze.

He pulled her arms down, and released her chest so he could pull her hair along with it so that she would meet his eyes. She remained frozen a moment, panic paralyzing her just as it had before, rain pouring down in sheets and pelting her with cold water, the wind blowing against her as if it wanted her to fall right into Olaf’s trap.

And then the thought of Klaus and Sunny entered her mind, and the thought of her parents, wherever they were. What would Mother do?

Violet looked up at him, glared, and spat in his face.

And within a moment, she was forced underwater again.

It is very hard to describe the sound you hear when water goes into your ears, but the best Violet could think of at the moment was pressing. Pushing, prodding… if those things could be heard, that was what was happening to her, and it was deafening.

She struggled for air, and a thought hit her. No. No, I can’t leave Klaus and Sunny like this. No-

No…

All of a sudden, the grip on her released. She heard a distant splash, something or someone falling into the water, but she didn’t pay attention, instead immediately throwing out her arms, pushing down as fast as she could, practically catapulting herself back up to the surface. As soon as her head popped out, she gasped, breathing as deeply as possible. She staggered to her feet, wiping water from her eyes, and then she let out a scream, hoping someone would hear her.

Then she turned around and realized that someone was there.

Josephine pushed Violet back as Olaf resurfaced, grabbing the older woman’s arm. She was sopping wet, and her hairnet had fallen, white hair spilling around her face. Waves lapped at her dress as she tugged against Olaf, and she shouted, “Violet! Run!”

“Wh- Josephine?”

“Go!”

Violet stumbled back as Olaf got up, trying to drag Josephine down, and then she heard it.

The low sound was almost like a quiet whispering, as if people were murmuring secrets in the water. But it was not people approaching. Whether they finally smelled Violet’s food, or if one of the adults had recently eaten, Violet didn’t know, but what she knew was the leeches were coming.

Violet caught a glimpse of them as they swam forwards; small, black shapes, scarcely longer than a finger. There were hundreds, swarming, and coming very, very close.

She turned to Josephine, but the woman had frozen in terror, and Olaf was able to thrust her into the water. Violet screamed as he did, and she raced backwards. She grabbed the glass jar she’d dropped, floating in the water, and, without thinking, threw it at Olaf. While it didn’t seem to hurt him much, it did manage to make him lose a bit of balance, which isn’t good when you’re in the ocean. Violet ran for Josephine, grabbing the older woman’s hand and dragging her along as she started racing back to shore. Josephine started screaming something about being terrified, but Violet wasn’t listening, just intent on getting them to safety before…

Josephine’s hand slipped from hers, but Violet didn’t think much of it, just focusing on getting back to the beach. She skidded across the sand, and only then looked back and realized her mistake.

Olaf had grabbed Josephine’s arm, and the two were fighting in the ocean. The leeches were drawing closer, and as Violet watched, Olaf threw Josephine farther into the water.

She didn’t even think, she just started back into the water, racing for a moment, the only thought in her head that Josephine saved me, I have to save her, even if I have to strangle Olaf myself-

Then she heard a creak above her.

She stopped, only a few feet back into the ocean, and she looked up. She hadn’t noticed how horrible the storm had gotten, how fierce the winds were, sharp rain smashing against the rocks around her.

And against the house.

Josephine’s house was rocking, the stilts beneath starting to creak and moan. They wouldn’t last long.

Klaus and Sunny.

Violet looked back, to see Olaf kicking Josephine, splashing at her, drawing her farther from shore and closer to the leeches. She had no doubt that without help, their guardian would die.

But she was the eldest Baudelaire sibling, and they were still in that house.

So she blinked back more tears, and turned and ran.

As she ran up the hill, she heard the screams begin, just as she started to scream, too. She screamed, not from pain, but from panic, as she caught sight of Josephine Anwhistle’s house falling into the ocean.

#asoue #asoue netflix #asoue au #a series of unfortunate events #runaway baudelaires au #all those things they couldn't say #mine #my fanfic #asoue fanfiction

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in-tua-deep · 5 years

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Pride and prejudice AU. I’m so sad thinking about little Five who feels neglected by his family and along comes this woman who seems kind and genuinely interested in him which he isn’t used to. And then suddenly everything is twisted and the nice woman who said she cared is trying to take him from his siblings and she is revealing her true self and she is just as awful as his dad and not afraid to threaten him as long as she gets what she wants! 😭

(for more p&p au check here or yeet yourself into my whole p&p au tag ;3c)

sdafgFGSHD mood tbh though in this au five is ?? actually a child and much younger than his siblings so he’s just. the odd man out for a lot of things - especially because the majority of his siblings are Official Adults and even though he considers himself, personally, to be more mature than most of them put together he’s still a minor so one of them gets legal control over his life until he’s of age

and for an angry, independent, generally ignored kid that’s a big old change - especially if you consider his siblings haven’t lived at home since he was small and visit infrequently, because they disliked reginald more than they cared about keeping in contact with Five

(Ben and Vanya are the only ones who write regular letters to him, Luther was around the most until he got ‘banished’ to take care of Reginald’s other property in the middle of nowhere that i’m calling the Lunar Manor because it’s a pride and prejudice version of the moon)

so Five is this,, really lonely and isolated kid with way too much free time on his hands but he had Dolores - and back then he didn’t

back in the days of the Handler’s original plot, Five could see the writing on the wall. Maybe Ben was already disowned, Klaus was making noise about following after Ben, Diego was looking shifty, Allison was courting with Patrick with the expectation of a proposal imminent, and Vanya had auditioned for some pretentious music school. And none of his siblings were particularly prepared for or happy to deal with a seven-or-eight year old getting about underfoot

Five was feeling abandoned by the people he had grown to rely on, he probably asked one of his siblings to take him with them and they denied him, he was feeling ignored and lonely and he had exactly no friends or anybody really to speak with. And that’s when the Handler swooped in, when he was at his most vulnerable

everyone else was so wrapped up in their own drama and preparations that no one noticed Reginald’s ex-business partner taking the time out of her day to visit an old friend and have long and in depth conversations with this young and very vulnerable child

and she listens to him! she doesn’t scold him about being underfoot. her eyes don’t glaze over when he enthuses about his equations or other things he’s learned. she treats him exactly as he’s always wanted to be treated, as all children want to be treated, like he’s an equal with worthy things to say.

no brush offs. no yelling at him to get out of their rooms. no million other casual ways his family made him feel like he wasn’t important to them (after all, half of them were leaving. Leaving him).

so it’s honestly not a surprise that when the Handler invited Five to go with her, he thought about the fact that soon enough the house would be empty except for Luther (who always told on him anyway) and hey, if all his siblings got to leave then why couldn’t he? Anyway, the Handler already said his dad had approved and really she was much nicer than his dad anyway, so.

(there’s a part of him that is a little pleased to beat all his siblings to the punch in leaving the house - except for Ben of course but that doesn’t count because it was involuntary. part of him thinks about how he’s going to cheerfully write his siblings and inquire after their plans whilst out of reginald’s house and then regaling them with his own adventures out on his own like a proper grown-up)

except he gets cold feet, because he loves his family really. Not Reginald, but his siblings and grace and some of the other staff. but in the carriage, he asks questions and starts hearing answers he doesn’t like. for the first time, he disagrees with the handler and gets absolutely shut down by her and suddenly it’s like being trapped in a carriage with reginald who could never allow anyone but himself to have the last word, or even an opinion. she says something wrong, and Five suddenly wants out

and he gets out. he shimmies his way out of a carriage window, drops onto the road and narrowly avoids getting run over by a carriage wheel and before the Handler can yell for the driver to stop he’s already haring across the field and into some woods

but he meets Dolores, which honestly makes everything almost worth it

after that, Five is different. His siblings want to help, but they get busy. The preparations they were making aren’t exactly things that can be put on hold. They are moving out, and all the traumatized baby brother in the world can’t make them stay. It doesn’t help that Five continually insists that he’s fine and that he won’t make such a stupid mistake again

They don’t know how to help him, they aren’t really in a position to help him either, and so for the most part they just. don’t. they worry about him, sure, but they still leave. one by one, until with Luther being all but banished from the grounds, Five is the last little soldier left standing

it’s fortunate then that Five no longer gives a single fuck what Reginald think of him and goes off to play with Dolores, who becomes his rock in this world of isolation he’s been plunged into (and there are days upon end that go by with him only talking to her, weeks where he doesn’t murmur a word aloud and his hands do all the talking for him until he almost forgets how to speak when his father barks orders at him)

it’s even more fortunate that Five is a little escape artist, because Reginald is nothing if not controlling and Five sneaking out to play isn’t exactly on the approved list of activities. On the bright side, his dad never did find out about the stolen acid that may or may not have been used on the base of the bars of his window, just enough to shift and few bars to allow him to squirm through before popping them back into place. He also never found Five’s backup lockpicks. Or the helpful copy of the front door key that had had to be replaced the previous year for going mysterious “missing”

and it helps that Dolores is lonely, too. Her brother has gone off to be a soldier, and though he writes to her with great frequency and visits when he can, she can’t help but worry about him.

when his siblings return it’s to a familiar face but not much else. Five has grown in their absence, become more unruly and more independent with a wild streak that not even Reginald could stamp out. With none of his siblings around to use as leverage against him, Five just sort of did whatever he pleased. Reginald could do whatever he wished to Five, of course. Five could take whatever punishments his father dreamed up, because he had a light at the end of the tunnel: Dolores

Five mutters to himself with his hands, flicking through signs as quickly as his mind flashes through ideas. He doesn’t stop and ask for permission. He sneaks around. He had bars on his bedroom window now, which is certainly a development since they left. The first rule about Friends Club is you don’t talk about Friends Club or else you arm your father with ammunition against you, so even with Reginald dead Five is still pretty shifty about exactly where he spends his time and who Dolores is - admittedly more out of habit than anything else

and then, to pile on top of all this

the Handler comes back

and with Reginald dead, his siblings displaying their inability to take care of a goldfish let along an actual human child, and with the Handler getting Eudora on her side - well. With the Handler being such a dear friend of good old Reggie and wanting what was best for his young son and oh goodness, she’s just not sure his siblings will be able to handle him as he’s clearly acting out in his grief.

Eudora doesn’t know, his siblings want to keep the matter in-family, Dolores suspects, and Five keeping his mouth firmly shut since he’s not exactly fond of parading about his biggest mistakes, and it all adds up to. well. a lot of misunderstanding and miscommunication

which is what pride and prejudice is all about wheyyy

Diego sees Patch teaming up with Enemy Number One, Patch sees a concerned friend of the deceased worrying after the little brother that the rest of the family doesn’t seem to know what to do with, Dolores sees her friend behaving weirdly and not wanting to be in the same mile radius of this woman, Five sees his nightmare come to drag him away from everything he cares about, and no one fucking talks to each other oh my god

until of course, one untimely marriage proposal that is rejected and the response letter rebuffing several of the accusations made against one party up to and including detailing the Hargreeves issues with the Handler in a reasonable amount of detail

(because Diego would keep his mouth shut on pain of death if anybody tried to force it out of him, but is more than willing to spill his guts to prove someone wrong)

(and then Dolores manages to get her hands on the letter, reads about what was done, and finally figures out why her best friend in the world looks like he’s seen a ghost every time the Handler is even vaguely alluded to in conversation. And hey, if this inspires Dolors to go on an ass kicking mission that worries her entire family and ends up making Diego look brilliant in the eyes of Patch when all is said and done - well hey, running off to get married Lydia Bennett style was never going to go down the same way was it)

Pride and Prejudice is a delightful comedy of errors, missteps, and miscommunication all rolled up into one delightful story made brilliant by the fact that the male character actually took criticisms to heart and worked to prove himself better, not by advertising his efforts in front of the person he wishes to admire him but instead working anonymously and endeavoring to be the sort of person worthy of her respect and love in the end of things while she is willing to concede that she, too, made errors in her own leaps of judgement and learns that not everything is always quite how it appears to be at first glance

look

i went through an entire pride and prejudice phase in highschool and y’all can pry this au out of my cold dead hands

#ask me #anonymous #pride and prejudice au #tua au #the umbrella academy #tua #five hargreeves #number five #the handler #i mentioned like everyone #i'm too lazy to tag all of it though tbh #far tua long #just be rambling about this au #five is a lonely kid in the p&p au #but he has dolores #who is deaf and teaches him sign #though admittedly she can practically read his mind #it's a talent #eudora patch #she means well but uh #let's just say the handler can be manipulative #honestly poor dave and klaus just wanting to be gay in the background while everyone schemes #admittedly it probably ends with five declaring he doesn't want any of his idiot siblings to have custody of him #and instead dave can have custody of him as the only vaguely sensible one for miles #of course dave also likes klaus but we can't all be winners here #as five would say #while five finds dave's romantic choices questionable af he IS dolores's brother and she vouches for him #and also this would guarantee him visits with Dolores #so there u have it #i like that this is literally a pride and prejudice au with diego and patch at the center

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