Only thing we share is one last name

by About20aIntruSIVEthought

Summary:

Reginald has to make the Umbrella academy through experiments, with each number signifying another failure. He’s getting desperate.

Number Five is another failure.

Another wasted chance, another number he would throw away.
-
Aka. The Umbrella Academy aren't born with their powers.

Notes:

So this is an AU I’ve had in my mind for a while, I don’t even remember when I started writing this and originally I didn’t plan on posting it but I figured it couldn’t hurt. I really hope none of the characters seem too OOC, I tried. I’m just proud of myself for finishing something lol. Anyway thank you for reading, I will be posting the next chapter next Monday or Friday.

Chapter 1

One by one they each left the house, or in One’s case were forced out. Each basically thrown out with nothing but a scowl of disappointment. He’d mutter to himself about wasted time and failures before moving on to the next number. 

Five was never really able to figure out what he’d categorized failure as, so he covered his bases by doing everything he could possibly think of to the best of his abilities. Every subject, every strange test he was given, Five had to be the best at it all. No matter how inconspicuous the test Five wasn’t going to fail it. Five likes to think that he’s passed most of them, but lately dad’s had this bitter contemptuous look etched into the lines of his face. Five turns away when he sees it, mind racking over any mistake he could have possibly made. 

The first time he realized his dad hated him, truly hated him, was when he was six. It was back when Number Four was still around, more accurately it was the last time he was around. Five watched him stumble out the front door slurring curses. He ran right into the front gate stumbling to get his shaking hands steady enough to open it properly. Five had gasped pushing forward to his brother before an iron grip caught his arm. He didn’t yank or pull, just tightened his fingers and held Five firmly in place. When Five had looked up into those cold uncaring eyes, he saw disappointment and pure unguarded fury. Five had failed a test.

At thirteen Five realized he hated him back just as much.

Five sprinkled the marshmallows over the bead making sure they were spread out evenly before slamming the sandwich closed. Alone in the vast kitchen there really wasn’t any risk of getting caught now, mom was in one of her moods and dad was barricaded off in his office. He’s been in there a lot lately, Five just assumes he’s cooking up another abstract form of child abuse. It is a little strange that he’s been missing dinner lately, those were supposedly sacred but he’s hardly seen him in a week. Not that Five’s complaining. He shoves the two sandwiches into ziplock bags and into a lunch box. He licks the peanut butter off the knife before dropping it in the growing pile of dishes. 

He jumps down from the chair, kicking it off to the side, and snatching the lunch box off the counter. He ventures through the empty house ducking under the knowing eyes of the portraits on the wall. He passes One, his bright smile naive and totally unaware, Two with his furrowed brow and deep frown, Three’s sly smirk, and Four’s unsure dazed eyes. His own portrait was hanging on the wall next, Five diverted his eyes finding it to be inaccurate and honestly a little unsettling to look into his own glaze. There were empty spots next to it making the house feel unbalanced.

Five usually doesn’t even bother with the front door just scaling down the fire escape leading to the alley on the other side of the academy. Again not that it mattered anyway, dad hasn’t come out of his office in literal days and it’d probably take him at least a week to notice Five was even gone.

His dress shoes land in a puddle splashing dirty water against the wall of the alley and echoing around him. Five doesn’t really pay it any mind actually going out of his way to replicate the sound with every puddle he strolled through. He’d just throw the shoes out, it’s not like he didn’t have fifty other identical pairs. He watched his reflection in the next puddle as his foot slammed down distorting it violently.

The morning sun peeks through the mouth of the alley lighting up Five’s face as he breaks out of the shadows. Everything is doused in a pale grey light, muffled in the overcast sky. He preferred the calm quietness of it, but it did mean that it would be much colder out. A prologue for the coming winter months, he hated those for a different reason. Five followed the sidewalk with practiced ease stepping over the uneven cracked pavement. 

It wasn’t the same every time, sometimes he’d have to search up and down the streets, sometimes he’d find it, sometimes he wouldn’t. He’d end up eating his sandwich on the way home, either way nothing wasted. 

He peeks in every alley just in case but most come up with nothing important, few people here and there but no one he's looking for. Eventually he can make out a figure shadow standing against the cool sky. Tall and lengthy Five can make out the faux fur of the coat moving slightly in the breeze. The figure’s head slowly moved in his direction, a puff of smoke dissipating into the air. Five’s face broke into a small smile as he sped up moving into a light jog.

“Cinco!” Four called a bright smile splitting across his face. Five rolled his eyes at the nickname. 

“Here.” He shoved the lunch box into Four’s chest. Four stumbles a little, bringing his hands up to grab at the lunch box.

“You gotta work on your customer service man.” Four says with a huff pulling open the zipper. “You wouldn’t have happened to snag some of daddy dearest’s fine liquor?” He raises his brows in a mocking hopeful gesture. Five glares back at him.

“What do you think?” Five deadpans shuffled closer to lean over and went to take his own sandwich out of the bag. Suddenly it was held shut, nearly trapping his hand. Five glares up at Four who has that stupid smile still.

“Nuh uh.” He tuts “I have a better idea.” With that he lifts the bag out of Five’s reach. Five shot him a confused look, that he seemingly elected to ignore. Four is frankly ungracefully swaying across the sidewalk moving towards some unknown destination. Five wonders if he’s drunk or on something. He scrunches his nose at the thought, it wouldn’t have been an uncommon occurrence… Maybe it was stupid for Five to think he would be better with him around. An incessant chipping pulled him out of his thoughts, Klaus is saying something beckoning him over. Five glances back towards the academy momentarily. Five followed after Four as he excitedly led their way down the street.

Apparently the thing that Four wanted to show him was an apartment. It was small, cramped and the air held a damp smell in it. It seemed to be one main room with a hallway and a kitchen completely devoid of any furniture save for two stools pulled up to the kitchen bar. Five shot Four an unimpressed look.

“Home sweet home.” Four drops of the lunch box on the counter. “It’s not much but it’s better than sleeping in dumpsters, huh?” He says it in a nonchalant airy voice but Five can tell in the way his eyes flicker across his face that he’s waiting for his reaction, hopeful. Five glances around, it’s nice… better then where Four was living. At least now he didn’t have to worry about storms or people roaming the night.

“How’d you pay for this?”

“Don’t you worry your little head about it.” Four says tapping a finger on Five’s nose laughing as he’s smacked away. 

“Oh yeah, not suspicious at all.” Five jumps up on the stool by the counter. He pours the contents of the lunch box out.

“What do we have here?” Four picks up one of the bags. It’s obvious what it is, it's peanut butter and jelly the same thing it's always been. More out of necessity than routine lately as mom hasn’t been cooking at it’s pretty much the only thing Five can make. “Ah man, my favorite.” Four marvels in fake surprise.

“Well you’re out of luck now, that was the last of the jelly.” Five takes a bite of his own sandwich. 

“So what’s Reggie up to?” Four asks bitterly, drastically throwing the mood.

“Thought you didn’t want to talk about him anymore.” Five has only ever seen visual anger on Four and it was usually directed at their father. “Still the same asshole.”

“Ah that he is” Four says a little distantly staring at one of the blank slightly stained walls. “He’s…” He begins eyes flicking towards Five with some kind of unreadable emotion.

“What?” Five says after the silence that follows.

Klaus opens his mouth to say something but seems to think otherwise.

“I have an idea, why don’t you help me decorate?” Four suddenly says changing the topic, he snaps out of his weird mood cheerfully clapping his hands and pushing up from the counter taking the sandwich with him. 

“What do you even have to decorate with? I’m pretty sure you're fresh out of material possessions.” Five loosely gestures around the empty room. He used to have blankets he’d stolen from the academy but apparently somewhere along the way he’d lost them. With Four’s position he couldn’t imagine he’d have enough money left to buy anything. Five could probably help and empty out a whole room in the academy without dad noticing. The problem would be getting it to Four as he won’t step foot in the direction of the academy and Five couldn’t haul it down the road.

“That my little friend is where you are wrong.” Four’s voice carries as he disappears down a short hall. Five leans over in the stool chair trying to see what he’s up to. Four leaving the room with a cardboard box in his arms. It is dropped right in front of Five, the cardboard old and tattered sends dust swirling into his face. 

“What is this your old home?”

“Ha-ha asshole.” He says sarcastically not even looking at Five as he begins to dig through the box. The first thing he pulls out is a quilt. Five’s eyes go wide as he sees it. 

“Mom’s quilt? You still have this?” Five reaches out and Four lets him pull it from his grasp. Mom had made it for Four when he had first left, Five just assumed it had been stolen or he’d left it somewhere. It was the last quilt mom made. Five balances on the stool leaning over the counter to peer over the edge of the box.

“Yeah…”

“Are these pictures?” Five rifles through the box after setting the quilt back down on the counter. He slides back onto the stool bringing the pictures up to his face. He recognizes the people he’s only ever seen in portraits. There’s one of Four and Three messing with makeup and bright smiles across their faces. Most of them feature Four with one of their other siblings, they almost looked like a normal family. Five feels a ping of jealousy, One, Two, Three, and Four had grown up together they actually got to feel like a family. He hasn’t even met these people who were supposed to be his siblings too. He flips through the photos heading them off to Four. The next photo is a little blurry in a dimly lit room. It looked like Four was cooped up in some kind of crib with a single light illuminating across his face. In his arms there was a baby caught mid tantrum by the photo. Suddenly the photo is ripped from his hands.

“Aww I remember this, you were such a fussy baby. Kept Two up all night.” Four traces his thumb over the photo, a soft look falling over his face. 

“Two was still around?” Five was never allowed to ask dad about any of his siblings, not even Four, as far as he was concerned they didn’t really care for him. Constant dead ends and cold shoulders was all he was met with so Five decided that he didn’t really care for them either.

“Actually it’s Diego now.” Four put the photo down with the other ones.

“Huh.” He deadpanned. 

“Yeah and One’s Luther, and Three’s Alison.” He adds in a cheerly excited voice. Five bite back a comment about not really giving a shit. It was stupid and pointless as far as he was concerned. Four seemingly liked the idea though, one time in a drunken haze he tried to get Five to help him pick out a name but nothing really stuck. He also tried to name Five as well but Five shut it down pretty quickly. “Soooo…” something appeared in front of his face. 

Five realized he was staring at an ID card, Four’s crooked smile shining back up at him. Five grabbed it from Four, reading the name off it.

“Klaus Herschberger” He reads out loud. He looks up at Four’s hopeful expression. “Klaus huh?” It feels strange to say, the name rolling unnaturally off his tongue. He looks from the card to F-Klaus one more time, he guesses it fits. “I like it.”

A smile splits across Klaus’ face. 

“Aww Fivey–you almost sound sincere.” He giggles pulling Five in pressing his cheek to Five’s. He’s momentarily blinded by a bright flash from a camera he hadn’t even known Klaus had.

“Hey!” Five jumped forward trying to snatch the polaroid photo from him. Klaus moved out of his way shaking the photo trying to get it to develop. 

Klaus flashed the finished photo at him. Caught in the moment Five’s scowling face mashed next to Klaus’ shit eating grin. The flash from the camera had made Five’s eyes squint awkwardly. 

Five gave Klaus a glare when he held the photo right next to his face.

“Isn’t that just the face of an angel.”

“Fuck off.” Five barely contained his laugh shoving Klaus away.

The photo ended up in the pocket of his blazer. If Klaus ever asked, Five would claim that it’d been lost or he set it on fire.

Chapter 2

Notes:

Chapter 2 was a little hard to edit for me as this was written a while ago so the style was a little different and kinda jumped around a lot, so I hope this feels cohesive (Pls ignore any spelling/grammer mistakes I tried). Anyway thank you for anyone reading this. Also sorry if the first few chapters are kinda short they get longer once the story picks up.

Dad came out of his office today. He didn’t look like he was in a rush but he clearly had a destination in mind. Five had been sitting on the couch reading through one of his physics textbooks when dad had walked right through the living room not stopping or acknowledging him at all. He simply disappeared into another room, leaving Five sitting there dumbly feeling like he imagined the whole thing. He’d expected a lecture for something but the utter lack of reaction threw him. He didn’t dare call after him, he seemed like he was in a mood.

Five didn’t see him again for the next few hours. The house was big enough that he could have missed him but after a thorough look through the house Five came to the conclusion that he’d actually left. Sulking off in some dark room was one thing but dad hasn’t stepped foot out of the academy in as long as Five could remember, or at the very least he wanted to give the impression of never leaving. This actually worried Five. It meant he was planning something, which was bad. It filled him with a creeping dread that sat heavy in the back of his mind. 

The atmosphere of the academy had been off for months, even in its suffocating strictness and oppressive air, something was different. There were no thoughtfully made breakfasts, and hand stitched quilts, nothing to distract from the empty house. Mom’s here, she's always here, but she’s not here. She spends her time staring off at the wall of paintings, her kind face still twisted into a pleasant smile. There’s almost an envious feeling when seeing her, she’s happy, she’s far away from here. 

He doesn’t talk about any of it with Klaus, what was there to say anyway. It’d just ruin the mood. It’s nice being there, the little apartment has admittedly grown a little on him. Maybe he just got used to the smell. Plus its most recent addition of a TV has helped a little bit. 

It was night by now and dad was still nowhere to be seen, so he decided to wait around the front door so he could confirm to himself that dad had gone somewhere. But he never showed back up, not that night and not through the next one. A week had passed and he was completely alone.

Mom wouldn’t tell him anything, she wouldn’t even properly look at him. The maids who would quietly come in to clean were much of the same, that was only because dad had strict instruction against interacting with the Hargreeves children. Five was getting agitated no one in this god forsaken hell hole will act like a normal fucking person long enough to tell him what’s going on. He might just have to go rearrange dad’s office, that just might get the old bastard back here in record time.

Five doesn’t visit Klaus, too worried to miss dad coming home, and missing something important. This must be a test, one with strange made up rules Five has to figure out on his own. Most of these tests have a weird focus specifically on the passage of time, maybe he should have been counting. It feels foreboding like there's a punishment looming over each corner.

He’s lazily picking at a half made sandwich when he can hear the front doors fly open with a vicious gusto. Five’s head immediately shoots up at the sound of shoes tapping against the floors. Multiple sets, there’s more people? Five quickly creeps across the kitchen following the sound, as the footsteps echo through the halls. He has to jump back as dad shoots past him two women tailing behind him. They don’t pay Five any mind as they cut through the house leaving nothing but displaced air in their wake. Five blinks a few times to try to discern if that had really just happened. He barely had time to process the fact that dad was back, much less the presence of more people in the house. There hasn’t been any one new sense Pogo left.

He takes off after them at a brisk walk almost breaking into a jog to catch up. One of the women conspicuously eyes him as he comes up behind them. Her eyes momentarily widen in shock at the sight of him before she quickly tears her head away.

“Number Five.” Dad’s scornful voice startled Five nearly making him stumble. The sound of shoes on hardwood floors dies down and dad’s posture rights itself, he looks much taller than Five remembers. Five can feel his stomach twist in a panic. He doesn’t even look at Five fully, just stares at him out of the corner of his eye, face distorted into a frown. He holds Five’s unnerved glaze for a few tortious seconds before he abruptly and silently turns back and continues to walk. The women scamper after him, one of them readjusting a bundle of blankets in her arms and sending Five a pitying look as she leaves.

The message is clear, he is angry. Five stands in the hallway feeling like the floor had been torn from under his mind frantically searching for some mistake he could have made. Dad is disappointed just like he was disappointed with One, Two, Three, and just like he hated Four. Five wasn’t like them though, he passes all the tests, he was better than that. Hot anger burns behind his eyes heating up his face, it’s not fair. Nothing they could have ever done would break even a smile from dad’s cold demeanor, not even One who was supposedly his favorite. 

He waited to follow, waited until he saw the two women leave the room moving like frightened mice quickly making for the front door. Five waits right outside the door, arms crossed as dad finally comes out. 

“Number Five.” He addressed impassively. 

“Dad–”

“ –I will not tolerate any childish tantrums. Do you understand Number Five?” His cane taps the ground right next to Five’s shoes. Five looks up at his father’s cold face. His monocle catches on the light and his features are swallowed by a harsh shadow. Five’s anger dies on his tongue. He forces his head into a nod, feeling sweat beads build at the base of his neck. Dad doesn’t smile but he does straighten back up casting the shadow away and going back to looking like an old man. He gestures towards the door, Five only stares at him in confusion. 

It was a bedroom, one down from his own. Dad only ever went down this wing when it was pertaining to testing results or to fetch Five, and even then it was mom’s job more than anything. Apparently this isn’t a new development, Klaus said he was pretty much disgusted with anything to do with their caretaking. 

Five gently pushes the door open like something on the other side will jump out at him. Five slips in the room cautiously looking around at every corner. His eyes trail across the room. It looked pretty much identical to his, but diverts where the bed used to be, instead there was a new addition to the room. His stomach dropped at the sight of the crib. He snapped his head around to look at dad in disbelief because he can’t be serious about this.

“Seeing as at this moment Grace is unavailable, he will have temporary nannies but Number Five you are also held responsible for his health.” Dad’s voice falls into the background as Five moves closer until he is staring over the edge of the crib.

Wrapped tightly in a blue blanket, is a chubby pale faced baby. It’s quiet, strangely quiet staring back up at Five with dark inquisitive eyes. It wiggles around like it just realized that was something it could do. He feels a strange mix of disgust and fear when he looks at it.

“Number Six.” He whispers heavily to himself in horror. Dad is about to say something else but Five is pushing past him running out of the room. He runs down the hall, flying down the stairs. Dad calls after him, but Five isn’t listening. He is already almost to the front door. He’s so frantic he nearly runs right into it before throwing the door open and jumping down the front steps.

He’s outside before he even realizes it. 

The air around him is cold, penetrating through the fabric of his uniform’s blazer. He wishes said uniform would include pants as his knees are particularly hit hard by the cold weather. His fire had died out around a block ago, and now he’s left a sinking embarrassment. Not only was he probably facing a punishment when he goes home, but he did exactly what dad thought he would and threw a tantrum. Over a baby, some weak shivling baby. Stupid stupid! He chides himself as harshly as possible.

He was at Klaus’ apartment before he had time to back out. Thankfully Klaus seemed happy enough to let him in without questioning, not that Five would tell him anything anyway.

It’s a nice getaway from the academy. He doesn’t want to ruin that.

Like most nights they find themselves in front of the TV.

“Jesus I got any channel you could dream of and you wanna watch that educational shit.” Klaus says through a mouthful of ice cream. Five throws him a blank look over his shoulder, then continues to ignore his rousing and goes back to listen to the dull voice of some professor waffling on about space and wormholes. He isn’t really listening, he’s already watched this episode anyway, but it serves as nice background noise for the circus that was his mind right now. 

Sitting on the floor back pressed against the couch that Klaus is currently sprawled out on obnoxiously eating as loudly as humanly possible. Five listlessly messed with his own quickly melting ice cream.

“Alright.” Klaus said after another long dramatic sigh. The ice cream and remote were suddenly snatched from his hands. 

“Hey!” He snapped chasing after them, but Klaus was already off the couch. Five stumbles onto the couch face colliding with the cushion as he hears Klaus cackling over him. Five lifts his face to glare at his brother.

“There he is!” Klaus cheered. Five sprung up from the couch trying to grab at the remote but it was held up over his head. 

“Hey you said I got to pick the show this time!” Five jumped for the remote but Klaus easily deflected him spinning out of the way. “Cheater.” 

“That doesn’t count you picked this one last week, it has to be a new episode.”

“You just made the rule up!” Five snaps.

“Yeah obviously, what psychopath watches the same episode over and over again.” Many people Five wanted to yell at him but instead he plops back down on the couch. He sulks as the TV switches to some shitty reality show. He’s shoved unceremoniously as Klaus squeezes down next to him on the small couch. “Relax, not everything needs to have a point.” Klaus pats Five on the arm, he fights the urge to bite him. 

“Maybe some people don’t like mindless slop.” Five grits out leaning against the arm of the couch and kicking his legs across Klaus lap. Klaus finally drops his ice cream back in his hands now even more melted. He glares at Klaus as he shovels a bite of chocolate into his mouth. 

Despite himself, Five laughed at some parts, quickly turning away from Klaus to chuckle into his arm. Time passed quickly and once a few episodes were over and the ice cream was all gone Five could feel his eyelids getting heavy. His head nodded against the couch cushion as he fought sleep. He can hear shuffling next to him and a pressure leaving the couch. Something soft falls over his nose and Five instinctually snuggles closer. He can feel a hand ruffling his hair as he finally gives up and lets his body fall asleep.

–

Eventually Five does have to go home. He couldn’t avoid it for long, dad would allow some freedom but even he had limits. He’d rather just get the punishment over with now then have it hang over his head for any longer.

He barely said bye to Klaus as he left.

Slipping past the heavy doors of the academy, Five tried to let them shut as quietly as possible. 

“Number Five.” 

Five jumped spinning around. Dad was standing right behind his stern expression drawn across his face as he watched Five unamused.

Five winced, his face hot with embarrassment.

Dad silently points in the direction of the training room.

Five glares as he stomps off.

He didn't get to bed until late that night body aching as exhaustion settled in his bones. 

The baby’s cries carried through his walls all night.

Notes:

Can you tell I really like writing about Klaus and Five's relationship lol. Klaus is actually a pretty tricky character to write sometimes, but I love him anyway. Finally Ben's here! Enjoy him being a cute baby while it lasts. Realistically I think Five wouldn't be the best with little babies, he'll have to learn to love his little brother tho. Again thank you so much for reading and the next chapter will be posted and edited Monday :)

Chapter 3

Notes:

TW medical experimentation/needles, pretty rough chapter for Five. I also updated the tags but please let me know if I missed anything I'm still not great with tagging. The story finally starts to pick up here and the next chapter is pretty long and will either be posted Friday or next Monday.

Number Six is annoying, needy, loud, and overall unpleasant. His nannies do little to comfort the screaming baby, he must have realized he was adopted by a psychopath and wanted everyone else to suffer. Five has totally given up on his room at this point choosing to sneak off to Klaus’ or the other side of the academy. Dad of course had nothing to do with the baby so he was predictably unresponsive to Five’s complaints.

It doesn’t help that dad has gone back to conducting his tests. Only they seemed to become more intense and erratic. Five can’t even escape into sleep anymore because dad forces him to keep these weird wires on while he sleeps so he can “monitor his brain”. The physical tests have increased to, he'd be forced to run laps until he throws up or passes out. Five can’t keep up and sometimes after a long day of having to deal with dad’s confusing tests he doesn’t want to deal with a screaming baby. 

Five held the pillow over his ears, curling in on himself as Six’s cries bleed through the walls. Jesus! How hasn’t he lost his voice already?! What’s the point of having nannies if they don’t actually do anything. He could hear them periodically go into check on him but nothing they did would calm the baby. With another loud blood curdling scream Five groans slamming his pillow on the floor as he stomps out of bed. 

Throwing open his door he makes the nanny standing in the hall startle, nearly dropping the sheets she’s holding. He pushes right past her into the room. She stammers out something but he ignores her and she apparently gives up probably going to wash the sheets she was holding.

The screaming is impossibly loud in here echoing off the walls like a siren, making Five want to cover his ears. He realizes pretty soon that he had no idea why he even came in here, to what yell at a baby? Like that would get it to shut up. He looks over the edge of the crib and is met with the red blotchy face of a screaming baby. He doesn't seem to even realize Five was there, his eyes were screwed tightly shut as he flung his arms around. Five now realizes why Two hated him so much.

“Six.” He snaps. The baby suddenly, almost comically stops crying. His little red face is still scrunched up in a silent cry but his eyes are open now. They’re red and glossy but fall on him and Five thinks there might be some recognition there. There were a few seconds of blissful silence before Six began to wail again, tiny chubby hands reaching up towards him. Five takes a step back in disgust, already planning on fleeing.

“Do you want to hold him?” A meek voice just barely audible over the baby cries pulled Five’s attention away. He turned around to see the same nanny standing in the doorway, hands occupied with folded sheets. 

“Why won’t he shut up?” To his surprise she laughs. His initial assumption of her being shy and unassuming seems to be wrong as she confidently stoles up to the crib. She sets the sheets down on the chair next to it with a soft smile on her face.

“He just wants some comfort.” She says softly, leaning over and picking the screaming baby up. She bounces him a few times patting his back, but it doesn’t work as the kid now has a snot bubble forming. Five cringed away in response as she whipped it away with a napkin. “Here.” Five couldn’t even respond before the baby was offloaded into his arms.

“ –What?! I don’t want this.” His arms instinctually come up to stop the baby from falling as a wet face is shoved into the crook of his neck. Five fights the urge to chuck the baby away from him and flee the room. 

“Here, support his head.” She grabs one of his hands and pulls it to rest on the back of the baby's head. This whole time he hasn't stopped crying, only now being muffled into the soft fabric of Five’s pajamas. He feels his skin crawl as his tears slowly soak into it. It’s gross, it’s disgusting, and Five is completely frozen and mortified. The woman only laughs, turning from him to change the sheets. Five tries to stutter out some words to get her to take Six from him but they die in his throat as Six screams right in his ear. 

“Shush.” he snaps jerkily bouncing him, mimicking what the nanny had done earlier. To his surprise it caused Six’s cries to sputter out and when Five lifts him away from his body just enough to look at his face, he can see it morphing into a curious wide-eyed awe. Five looked into the infant's eyes pitching his brows together and narrowing his eyes. Six copies him tilting his head slightly. His little hands break out of his swaddle reaching up to Five who quickly jerks his face away. Six freezes completing his empty hands before a look of agony split across his face, he began to scream again. “Ugh why are you crying!” Six predictably didn’t answer him with anything comprehensible. 

“Poor thing.” The nanny reappeared gently, taking Six from his arms. Six wailed, his little fists tightened on Five’s clothes as he’s pulled away. She says softly rocking Six in her arms. Six’s cries die out into sniffling hiccups as his struggling too becomes sluggish. The nanny set him back down in the crib, gently patting his head as she pulled her hand away from the now sleeping baby. “Tired himself out.” She adds with amusement. 

Five huffs crossing his arms. “Will he stay asleep? I'm sick of him waking me up.”

“He’s adjusting. He just wants to be comforted.” She moves around Five collecting the dirty sheets. “Maybe he wants his big brother.” She rests a hand on his shoulder as she leaves the room.

Big brother, yeah right. He scoffs to himself once he went back to his bed that night. With the absence of baby screams the academy felt oddly silent. He was left with nothing but to mull over the nanny’s words. 

A realization was slowly building in the back of his mind. This was him, he was the screaming baby keeping his siblings up at night. His siblings, that’s right they were his siblings but they didn’t view him as one of theirs. He guesses that it makes sense in a sort of ironic way, that he was now in the same exact position as the others. Except for Klaus, the only one who acted like they were really family. Five had always been too young to know what it felt like to really have siblings, he only ever had Klaus. What would the others think of Six, they would probably shake their heads, rant about Reginald adopting another kid and then go back to their apparently busy lives. Would Six ever even know their other siblings, are they even his siblings or are they so far removed all they share is history at the academy?

Would the others even want to know? They never wanted to know anything about Five so why would they care about a new baby. Five relented, he guessed for all intensive purposes he is Number Six’s only sibling. 

For some reason the nanny’s words stuck with him.

Even with the absence of the baby's cries, Five didn’t get much sleep that night.

–

Mom still wasn’t around but dad still enforced strict schedules, Five was forced to get himself out of bed at six in the morning after a long night of restless sleep. He stood outside his room leaning his back against the wall trying to rid himself of the last evidence of sleep. Dad had said he would come collect him this morning for an “important” test but so far he hasn’t shown up yet. 

Six was fussing again, not loud crying or anything this time just incoherent baby babble as the same nanny from last night tended to him. Eventually she brought Six out of the room cradling him in her arms. 

“Are you waiting for your father?” She readjusts Six in her arms as he squirms unhappily. Five non-audibly nods looking forward. He can hear her hum in acknowledgement, but the conversation quickly dies between them. It’s after what feels like silence stretching on forever that she tries to talk again.

“My name is Efa.” She used that same mousy voice again, sweet but a little sheepish. “Is there something else you want to be called?” This gets Five’s attention, he was sure dad briefed her on what his name was so there seemed to be little point in her asking. She seemed to stumble a little under his questioning glare. “I just thought, maybe you didn’t want to be called a number. It seems…” She trails off. Five narrowed his eyes, he was sick of hearing it from Klaus and now he had a new person hounding him on it. 

“I like my name.” He says firmly. It’s not totally a lie, he’s found that he’s pretty indifferent about the whole name thing, it just seems like unnecessary steps. Dad would never acknowledge another name anyway. If he’s going to be called Number Five it was because it was the name he chose to keep and not the number dad branded him with. 

“I call him Ben.” Efa says a soft smile breaking across her features. 

“Ben?” Five looks over the Six who is now quietly playing with a strand of Efa’s dark hair that slipped free from her bun. Five tilts his head to the side looking at the baby, he doesn’t really look like a Ben. He doesn’t really look like anything, Number Six just works in a more practical sense. 

“Yes, I just think maybe, he’d like to be called by something other than a number.” Five wants to scoff at the idea but he thinks about the way Klaus would flinch when being called Number Four, the way his whole demeanor would deflate even if he’d brush it off with a wry smile. Ben is now chewing on a piece of her hair, she only good naturally laughs and pulls it away from him.

“Number Five.” Five straightens up at the cruel sound of his father’s voice. Even Efa seems to tense up pulling Ben a little closer to her chest. He could hear the sound of his father’s cane before he saw him. Dad is moving through the hall confident and determined, he stops right in front of Five, his cold eyes dissecting him. “Take Number Six to be fed.” He demands Efa before he gestures for Five to follow him. He throws Efa a look before he turns on his heels uncertainty following after his dad. 

The room was a starch white with the fluorescent lights reflecting off the walls stinging his eyes. The air held a weird antiseptic smell that made Five crinkle his nose. There was a chair in the middle of the room with some medical equipment on a tray next to it. Five looked to dad nervously but received no comfort, only a stern arm pushing him forward.

“Sit down.”

Five did, unsure and a little shakily he sat in the chair nervously eyeing the tray. With a closer look he could see syringes and vials strewn about on the tray, the vials glowed with an unnatural orangish-yellow popping against the blinding white of the surrounding room. 

“D-dad?” Five tries to push himself off the chair to see where his dad went but he appears to his left usual suit retired for a white coat. Five panics, sweat building at the back of his neck as his breath comes out in hot puffs of air. 

“Put your arm here.” He demands roughly lining Five’s arm up with the arm of the chair. Five lets him pull his sleeve up and inspect his veins. Suddenly a heavy pressure snakes itself around his wrist. Five’s eyes widen as he sees the thick leather strap tying his wrist to the chair.

“Hey! What the hell!” He tugs on his arm scratching at it with his free hand in a panic. He leaves trails across the leather but it won’t budge and he’s unable to wrench himself free. Dad is silently watching Five struggle and a look of disappointment falls across his face. 

“Number Five, do not draw this out any more than it has to be. This is here for your own safety.” Not an ounce of emotion or comfort. Five snaps his head around glaring at his father. He’s pretty much completely stuck and could waste his energy fighting or he could just do what he wanted, and avoid any more punishment if it was possible. He gives one last tug of his arm before deflating back into the chair, heart beating rapidly in his chest. It’s not new, needles and all that, but the confinement, that’s new. That’s what scares him. 

Five listlessly allows dad to lock his other arm down. It’s tight, just tight enough to make him uncomfortable, but not harming him enough for dad to actually care. Five suspects he wouldn’t care if it was actually harming him. Once Five could barely move he watches as dad methodically lays the vials out of the tray, picking up the syringe. Five can see the strange glowing orange substance swirl unnaturally as dad inserts the syringe into the vital and it escapes into the cylinder of the syringe. The yellowish hue projects across his father’s face as he holds the syringe up, flicking it a few times with his fingers. Each clink of his fingers colliding with the glass sends tremors through Five. Five swallows thickly as he watches dad work, most horrifying is the small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Five had never even seen his father come close to a smile, but now he seemed to barely be containing himself.

The buzz of the lights and the horrible sound of the syringe had Five clutching his eyes tightly shut.

He can feel dad’s presence like a tiger stalking its prey, moving around him ready to pounce. He can’t even escape the cold lighting under his eyelids and he can see his father’s shadow flicker across the light source. A gloved hand is prodding at the crook of his elbow, pressing harshly into the skin as he tries to hunt down a vein. Five sucks in a deep breath as the fingers stall finding a spot and pressing done roughly. He can feel the cool metal of the needle make contact with his skin. 

It takes a long second before a sharp stinging sensation begins to radiate from his arm. It feels like a normal shot, at first. He feels embarrassed for worrying, slowly wrenching his eyelids open. He can see the needle of the syringe being held in place by dad’s hand as he slowly pushes the plunger down. He can see the weird golden substance under his skin leaving glowing streaks across his veins. 

He tricks himself into maybe thinking it won’t be so bad, until the burning starts. It starts with a slow spreading heat moving from the injection site up the paths of his veins. Suddenly it’s very uncomfortable making Five squirm in his seat without any way to soothe himself. It builds and builds until it feels like hot fire spreading through his veins. Five trashes trying desperately to tear his arms away, he wants to crawl out of his own skin. 

“Dad!” He shouts desperately. The straps over his wrists dig into his skin, it’s agonizing but distracts him from the burning. White hot pain shoots through his whole body, he can’t get away the buzzing of the lights is impossibly loud now. It feels like an ice pick being driven through his ear drums.

A scream tore itself from his lips as he kicked his legs out, thrashing uselessly in the chair. The back of Five’s head collides with the chair sending another ripple of pain through his skull.

His energy leaves him, quickly draining out to the point he can barely move his limbs. His head hangs limply as his vision begins to cloud and the tiles on the floor begin to mesh and swirl into each other and Five can feel his grasp on reality slip away.

Notes:

Five still has a ways to go and clearly doesn't understand children very much but he's getting there. I've never really interacted with a baby so I have no idea what I'm doing here, he's kinda gross but I assume babies are just like that lol. Side note this is not really Five's birth mother so that's not going to be a story element I just picked it as a reference.

Chapter 4

Notes:

This is probably the longest chapter so far, idk if it dragged a little but it was one of my favorites to write. I'm trying to write Five from the few times we actually see of him as an actual thirteen year old, so he might be a little different. Also I just realized that I've been spelling Hargreeves wrong, I think I fixed it now but i might have missed a few.

There’s blood in his mouth. The thick metallic taste clung to the back of his teeth and stung on the tip of his tongue. He tried to spit it out, causing thick globs of blood to dribble past his lips, allowing a few gulps of air to make it past into his lungs. His own bubbling gasps fill his ears as he uselessly struggles to clear his mouth of the horrible blood.

His vision is distorting bright white swirls with harsh red like looking through a kaleidoscope. It didn’t stop at his eyes, the feeling of twisting, dizzy shapes crawled its way under his skin, spider-webbing across his veins. His whole body felt like it was pulling apart into separate spinning pieces. His pain was numbed, falling away by a strange vast feeling like wading through the inky sea of space. 

With no body, no perception, he could feel something. Something was all around him, like strings of nerves that would shy away from him. It’s not darkness, not the quick-moving time of unconsciousness but somewhere in between. A frozen place in time, his mind can’t seem to comprehend but understands fully. 

“Date?”

“Wah–What?”

“Exact time.”

“I don’t…”

The taste of blood is gone from his mouth, but its memory remains.

“Time.”

Time…

“I don’t know.”

Something is being pressed against his temple.

“Number Five.”

Suddenly that disembodied voice is extremely clear and sharp. Five’s eyes open, missing any trace of that numb slowness. Like being doused in ice water It feels like he’s suddenly been thrown back into reality. No longer in the white sterile medical room he’s in another testing room, much darker adorned with more of Dad’s hunting trophies and portraits. For once it’s a welcomed sight. Five never thought he’d be happy to see this room, but anything to wipe the imagery of those white tiles staining red.

He’s still surrounded by equipment and monitors. Beeping insistently sending painful echoes around his skull.

He’s no longer bound to the chair but with the sensors on his temples he didn’t dare get up to disturb Dad’s readings. Not that he even can get up right now. He wasn’t even sure he could get his legs to move at all.

Five sluggishly lifts one of his hands wincing as he attempts to bend his fingers. Remnants of that burn hang in the tips of his fingers tingling in anticipation, like it’s biding its time hiding in his bloodstream just waiting to finish burning him from the inside out. The red band encircling his wrists is bordering on the start of a nasty bruise but hurts a lot less in retrospect. 

Five turns his head towards Dad, who is bent over the small monitor screens where Five can make out many different colored lines jumping up and down sporadically. He can see his heart rate line on the monitor dancing frantically, he brings a hand up to his chest feeling the violent rattle of his heart. He felt weirdly detached, not even noticing it until this very moment. 

“What was that?” His speech is slurred and his tongue feels numb and foreign in his mouth. Five wants to believe that what happened was a freak allergic reaction, it’s wishful thinking, really. He’s not stupid or delusional enough to think Dad wouldn’t subject him to whatever that was knowingly. His mind is still frantic enough to feel a sense of betrayal though. 

“Open.” Like Five hadn’t said anything at all, Dad held a thermometer an inch away from his mouth. Five allowed his temperature to be taken with little resistance, if he wanted to get any information it would be better to be cooperative. 

The thermometer was removed and Dad regards it coldly.

“Normal temperature.” He notes objectively. “What are your symptoms?”

“Uh, I feel…” Strangely he doesn’t feel hurt, all that pain and burning left him like a fading memory of a dream. “I was coughing up blood.” The memory of copper staining his teeth and blocking his airway has him shrinking away pressing his back harder into the uncomfortable chair.

“Blown blood vessels, to be expected.” Dad mutters to himself as he jots something down in his notebook. Five looks over at the golden ‘RH’ engraved on the cover, the light catching on it reflecting back into Five’s eyes. It’s inconspicuous and somehow mocking, like the book itself carries Dad’s uncaring, methodical personality. 

Dad turned away from him again as he looked through the tools on the table next to him. Five swallowed thickly as he anxiously watched Dad methodically hold forceps and scalpels up to the light, muttering quietly to himself.

Five ran his tongue over every inch of his mouth, the tangy metallic taste was mostly absent now, and nothing felt like it was injured. The memory of mouthfuls of blood blocking his airway persists in the forefront of his mind, though.

Dad turns back to Five with a tongue depressor in one gloved hand and a light in the other. Five shudders away from him but a stern look from Dad forces him to stay still. Dad presses the stick against his tongue and shines the light into the back of his throat. Five shifts uncomfortably under Dad’s scrutiny. 

 The stick is removed, and he is allowed to shut his mouth, the light suddenly moves to his eyes. Dad held his eyes open with his thumb, restricting Five from moving further. His eyes burn and he can’t escape the stinging light. His pupils dart around trying to avoid looking at his father directly. The light clicks off and Dad straightens up, dropping the light back onto the tray, picking his notebook back up.

“Minimal damage to blood vessels and abnormal dilation.” He glances back over at Five. “Describe your vision.” He demands.

“Uh…” Five glances around the dim room. The fuzziness that rests at the sides of his view and spikes with the movement of his head. “A little dizzy I guess.” His voice comes out soft and weak. Dad scribbles something down.

Dad conducted a few other tests, checking Five’s ears and blood pressure eventually he seemed to be satisfied and started to pack up the tools. 

“I believe that will be all for today. Go back to your room until dinner.” Five blankly nods as he pushes himself up from the chair stumbling slightly as his numb legs clank together. He caught dad’s eye as he regarded him something crossed his face momentarily before being masked by his usual coldness.

He doesn’t even remember how he got into bed after that, all the panic and fear seemed to crash down on him like a heavyweight dragging down every muscle in his body. He’s in bed letting his tired body melt into the mattress, it’s never felt so soft. Mercifully Ben is silent allowing Five blissful moments of sleep, balancing between the waking world and unconsciousness. 

There’s a buzzing building in the back of his mind mirroring the lights of the examination room, it drifts in and out of the forefront of his mind. Five doesn’t find it annoying or incessant like he probably should but it feels almost familiar, like he’s suddenly been reintroduced to something integral to his being.

It buzzes down the edges of his fingers. When he moves his hand leaves behind an afterimage, another transparent blue hand following his movements seconds behind. Almost like the sparkler he and Klaus had set off last Fourth of July. It leaves an odd imprint in the air, like the space itself had been disturbed. He feels weirdly struck with awe, tiredness weighing down on his brain, letting it be entertained by the minimal display like a baby fascinated with their own feet. 

The muffled sound of a door creaking open makes Five drop his hand down and turn towards the source. A sliver of light escapes from the hall splitting across the room like a claw mark. Five had to squint his eyes as the light draped across his face. A figure slips in front of the light causing a halo around their silhouette leaving their features overcast by shadows.

It’s a fuzzy image outline moving like static on a broken TV. It doesn’t look like it’s actually moving forward, only growing bigger and blocking out more and more of the light, until the room goes dark again. Blinking his heavy lids slowly he can’t seem to bring the figure into focus. 

“Five.” A soft voice over him nearly lost in the buzzing of his own mind. Somewhere deep in his hazy mind he recognizes that voice. It sounds concerned and gentle like comforting a baby. Something damp is pressed against his forehead. It feels nice, the coolness seeping into his burning skin. It gives him something to focus on, some cold relief from his burning body. “Sleep well.”

–

The morning light sneaks its way under his eyelids. Five groans loudly turning over in hopes of stealing even a few more minutes of sleep. He drifted half asleep escaping the arching pain of his body. There's a sharp pain that spikes from the crook of his elbow, pulling him back from the grasp of sleep. It hurts just enough to be annoying. Five chews on his lip as he gives up on actually trying to sleep. He stretches his arm out cautiously, wincing as the stinging grows worse. There’s gauze tightly wound around his elbow; it looks new, probably freshly changed. That means someone had been in here when he was asleep. It probably wasn’t dad and mom didn’t seem to be in a state to be able to do it. He has a fading foggy memory from last night, a gentle voice carried like an echo. 

Efa.

That can’t be right though, she’s here to take care of Number Six, not Five. It wasn’t her job to change his bandages or soothe his fevers. She probably even moved Ben away hoping Five’s sickness didn’t infect him as well. He looked at the bandages again, brows furrowed in thought. 

Five swung his legs over the side of the bed, staring down at his socked feet in a moment of numbness.

Klaus must be hungry, Five hasn’t been there in a few days. Of course he knows that Klaus can feed himself, but after he catches him eating out of a dumpster, he worries about the food Klaus is willingly putting into his body. Five wants to laze around on his couch and watch stupid reality shows, but his body is protesting even getting out of bed. At least Klaus has an apartment now and supposedly some form of income, as the apartment is quickly obtaining more and more decorations and furnishings. Five doesn’t need to babysit him, or make sure he doesn’t freeze to death in the snow. He won’t miss Five for a few days.

He shifts his weight onto his feet, stumbling slightly as his knees threaten to buckle under him. It doesn’t hurt as much as he thought it would, most of the pain is centralized in his hands and head, so once his legs are able to gain some stability, he can stand somewhat straight. He feels a little lightheaded and has to wait for the fuzziness to clear before he can move again. 

Five sneaks a glance out the window, it still looked early enough for the cool morning grey to light up the room. It felt nice soothing over his racing mind, nice and calm. He lets himself have a second to believe that that’s all this was. A normal overcast day, where he could take a slow walk to Klaus’ home and eat sandwiches by the TV. That wasn’t going to happen today though. 

Suddenly a scream erupts through the thin wall of his room. Five sighs, at least Ben waited for Five to wake up before he began to scream. Five shuffles out of his room, peeking out into the hallway. Efa or one of the other nannies probably should be around here somewhere, they usually come running when Ben starts up again. As if on cue, he can hear footsteps ringing down the hall.

 

Efa’s figure comes into view around the corner, her taunt face pulled into a stoic glaze. Suddenly her dark eyes lock on Five, she visibly seems to relax and a small smile lights up her face.

“Five.” She says relieved as she nears him. “You’re awake.” In her hands she is holding what looks to be a bundle of sheets and a baby bottle. “You seemed so sick, I hope you’re feeling better.” She arches her brows portraying her genuine concern. Five brushes her look off, avoiding her eyes.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He mumbles. It’s not convincing, and it is clear that Efa didn’t believe him either, but she didn’t push him any further. 

“Your tutor will be here in an hour.” Efa says with a sigh. Five looked at her a little surprised, she was irritated. He’s never seen her show any form of anger or annoyance before even when having to deal with an annoying baby. Efa gives a minute shake to her head before leaving to tend to Ben. 

Five watched her disappear into Ben’s room being left in confusion at the interaction. He’s only known Efa for a short amount of time, he’s not sure what she’s playing at. He’s also not sure why she is talking to him when it is something no one else does.

Five pushes it to the back of his mind, he has more pressing things to worry about right now.

He still feels shaky and sick, the idea of having to deal with schoolworkon top of that is enough to nearly make Five want to collapse back into bed.

The stairs give him the most trouble. Every step hurts more than the last and he has to tightly clutch the rails. 

Mom is notably missing from her usual spot, the chair left hauntingly empty. Five hopes that means she feels well enough to move again but this looming feeling makes him worry that it might be even worse.

He reaches the bottom of the stairs feeling winded clutching a hand to his chest. His heart is beating erratically against his rib cage. 

“Pull yourself together.” He chided himself digging his nails into the fabric of the vest of his uniform. He just needs to make it through this lesson, then he could escape out to Klaus’ apartment for the rest of the day. 

Running a hand through his hair and straightening the lapels of his uniform, Five forces the pain down. He ignores every ache and sting, swallowing it back and fixing his posture. It was infinitely more painful and uncomfortable, but Five would have to tolerate it. 

He waits by the front door for his tutor just as he is supposed to. Today it should be a math lesson, it was probably the only saving grace, as math was Five’s favorite. He could easily sit there and solve equations, forcing his mind to focus on the math rather than the pain.

If only that were true.

Five for the first time in his life struggled at math. The numbers on the page were melding together, spinning in circles like a twister. No matter how many times he tried to shake his head hoping they would pull themselves back into place he just couldn’t get his eyes to focus. His tutor, a stern thin man whose name he can’t for the life of him remember the name of, had come by his desk multiple times chiding him for his work and forcing another page onto his desk. 

When that didn’t work either he’d slap Five’s desk with the ruler as hard as he could to “wake him up.” Five hadn’t even realized he’d been falling asleep. That evolved into him snapping the ruler at Five’s arms but other than the momentary sharp sting of pain Five barely noticed.

Spots of red begin to form on the pages in front of him. Shakily, Five brings a hand up to his face feeling something wet trailing across his lips.

Blood.

His nose was bleeding again, falling onto the spinning numbers in front of him. Shit. Five thoughts are sluggish, barely catching up to what’s happening. He can hear a yelp from somewhere in the room as suddenly the numbers are rocketing towards his face. 

There’s a sharp pain and then a pressure against his cheek. The world around him is shifting like a ripple. Distantly he can sense a commotion around him. Hands clutch his shoulders and suddenly he’s pulled away gravity shifting as his head limply rolls. Something is pressed harshly to his face, when Five attempts to move away it follows him.

“Stop squirming.” He recognized his tutor's voice wavering a little. “Jesus. That man.” He mutters after a second. The world starts to pull itself back together and his tutor's face comes back into view. He looked a little mortified, snapping in Five’s face trying to get his attention. There was a towel bunched up being held firmly under his nose. “That’s it! I’m going to go talk to him!” He declared anger clear in his voice. He forced Five’s hands onto the towel before he stomped out of the room, the door slamming harshly against the wall as he threw it open. Five holding the towel limply in his hand, watched his tutor almost run right into Efa. They exchanged a flurry of words to each other before the man stormed off.

Efa crept into the room kneeling down at Five’s eye level. She reached a gentle hand out to the towel pulling it away for a second to get a look. Five watched her cautiously letting the silence lapse into uncomfortability.

“I’ll help you clean up.” She says softly standing up and holding a hand out to Five. Now that Five’s senses are rapidly returning, he feels a spike of anger. He debates slapping her hand away and marching over to dad’s office and screaming at him. 

Five brushes his fingers across Efa’s hand and lets her pull him up. Her arm snakes its way around his shoulders as he leans heavily into her side, it’s becoming very clear that he wouldn’t have made it to dad’s office anyway.

Efa is surprisingly good at navigating the house despite being here for such a short amount of time. She finds the closest bathroom and sits Five down on the edge of the tub where she wets a cloth and begins to wipe away the blood. She shoved wads of toilet paper up his nose to stop the bleeding despite Five’s objections. He feels stupid with his shirt stained in blood and toilet paper shoved up his nose.

“Shouldn’t you be dealing with Number Six?” Five balances his elbows on his knees. 

“Ben.” Efa corrects firmly. 

“Right, shouldn’t you be dealing with Ben? ” Five corrects himself mockingly. Efa seems to choose not to acknowledge it though.

“I was told that my job was the caretaking of the Hargreeves’ children.”

“I’m not a kid.”

“You’re thirteen.” A hand was pressed against his forehead. “And you have a fever.”

Five slapped her hand away.

“I’m fine.” Five grit out fighting the urge to spit the copper taste out of his mouth. Efa raises a brow at him, popping a hand on her hip. She clearly doesn’t buy it, Five doesn’t even buy it but it’s really not any of her business.

“You should probably change.” Efe gestured toward Five’s bloodstained collar. Five pulled his shirt away from him so he could see the extent of the damage. He looked like a murder victim, blood trailing down his front almost to his waistline. Five groaned, he’ll definitely have to just trash the shirt. It’s not like he doesn’t have around ten other identical ones anyway.

A wet rag is pressed against his face as Efa cleans the blood off his face. He tries to move away but she’s inconsistent, continuing until most of it is gone. Five grumbles to himself but doesn’t fight her much. 

Eventually the bleeding stopped, and Five was allowed to go back to his room after drinking a few glasses of water. 

As he passed by Dad’s office he could hear a commotion. Hushed arguments quickly ramping up in volume sneak their way past the thick door. Dad’s calm voice clashing with the tutors' increasingly angry shrieks. Efa’s firm hand ushers him forward. 

Five looks over his shoulder as his tutor slams Dad’s office door behind him, storming off down the hall.

“What’s his deal?” Five mutters.

“Nothing, don’t worry.” Efa dismisses as she holds his arm, keeping him from stumbling.

Eventually Five’s head collided with his soft pillow, he wasn’t even sure how he got here, but he was grateful for it anyway. 

“Don’t get blood on the sheets.” Gentle hands grip his shoulders pulling him away from the softness of his pillow. Five complains with a pathetic groan, but Efa doesn’t let up. “Just change out of your shirt, and then you can go to sleep.” Five grumbles a few curses but allows Efa to help him out of his shirt and put a clean one on. It’s embarrassing, but Five is too beyond tired to actually care at this point, and Efa mercifully doesn’t comment on it.

He feels better with a clean, dry shirt that doesn’t stick uncomfortably to his skin and carry the stench of blood.

He can hear Efa move around the room for a little longer, muttering something to herself, before his door is tenderly shut and her footsteps disappear down the hall.

Five’s vision darkened, and despite it being midday, the room grew impossibly dark. A heavy mist fell over his body, weighing down his eyelids. 

–

When he wakes up, there is a noticeable shift in the air, like a heaviness has attached itself to the academy.

Five still feels groggy and the phantom taste of blood sticks to his mouth. He can already feel a headache building behind his eyes.

Looking out the window it seems he’d slept through the rest of the day and night, meaning not only did he completely pass out, but he’s behind on his homework. Five groans as he pushes himself up into a sitting position. He’s still in his uniform from yesterday, the uncomfortable material rubbing against his flushed skin making him feel sweaty and itchy. 

Five finally convinced himself to move his body before Dad came bursting in his room and he’d be saddled with a punishment for tardiness. Five halfheartedly tried to smooth his messy hair into a more acceptable style, ultimately deciding to give up. 

Sluggishly, Five moves to the hall, leaning heavily against the wall as he waits to see if anyone comes to get him. Dad usually doesn’t give days off even when they pass out or are sick, Five doesn’t expect any lenience now.

Five is dozing off, head knocking against his chest, when the sound of heels makes his eyes snap open.

“Mom?” Five nearly yelps in surprise.

Standing in front of him is Mom with her hands folded in front of her and a pleasant smile ghosting across her face. She’s standing firm, with no hint of her previous swaying and the distant way she normally drifts around the academy.

 It's surprising seeing her actually up and moving, much less walking the halls without the acknowledgement of her ailment and almost comatose state.

“Number Five.” She greets a smile draping across her face. It's perfect, a perfect smile just like she’d give him at breakfasts or when she puts him to bed. This was different, something so small he couldn’t exactly put a name to it, but it looked too fake, too forced and plastic. She turned on her heel, entering Ben’s room.

“Efa takes care of him.” Five said. It comes out way more defensive and snappy than he meant it to. Mom turns to him stiffly, her body moving unnaturally with jerky movements. The small smile stayed firmly on her face. 

“She has been relieved of her duties. I am very happy to meet Little Number Six.” Five feels his stomach drop. He’d thought of Efa as temporary but thought she might be around a little longer. He feels this strange empty feeling of loss for a woman he never really even knew. He should be happy that Mom was back, but he doesn’t remember ever being this uncomfortable around her. He misses Efa’s easier-to-read face and body language. 

“His name is Ben.” Five says firmly. It comes out short and aggressively slipping between his teeth before he has the chance to keep it down. Mom’s smile mechanically pulls into a purse as she mimics a thinking face. 

“You must be hungry.” She smiles again. It doesn't reach her eyes. Suddenly her hand is on his back, gently guiding him towards the other end of the hall. Two hands clamp over his shoulders, and he can feel wisps of her blond hair brush the side of his neck. “Go on, I'll make you your favorite.” A chaste kiss is pressed to the side of his face as she gives him another little push. Five stumbles, a little disturbed as he looks over his shoulder at Mom catching the swish of her dress as she disappears into Ben’s room. 

Five rubs his cheek before deciding that he was pretty hungry anyway. Sure, Mom was acting a little strange, but she’s raised all five of them and hasn’t lost one so far, Ben would be fine. He was fine with Efa , he thinks a little bitterly. He was never all that close with Mom anyway, so when she first began her episodes of dissociative staring and what Dad had called ‘incessant daydreaming,’ he’d been pretty dismissive. Once she completely stopped moving and working, Five had felt a stinging guilt at his lack of notice, even more he felt guilty for not really missing her. He’s a bad son, that much he can recognise in himself. He fails Dad’s tests, doesn’t notice when his mom is sick, and sneaks out pretty much every week. He never really noticed his own mother’s decline until she was no longer there to make his breakfast. It’s horrible to think about. He can at least let her be there for Ben.

Five moves slowly through the house, the feeling of dread only growing heavier and heavier as he passes those stupid portraits again. His headache too was growing in intensity like a punishment beating down on his temples. He’s almost to the kitchen now, and the idea of food was beginning to sound more and more attractive as his hunger began to make itself known.

Five clutches his eyes closed for a moment when a sharp pain shot through his head. Then his hands clutched uncontrollably, nails carving through the skin on his palms in crescent shapes. Five bites down on the inside of his cheek as the pain passes through his body almost as quickly as it came. It died down back into the dull ache he’d been tolerating since he woke up. His hands buzzed, feeling hot and uncomfortable under his skin like a bone-deep itch.

Five breaths out an exasperated sigh as he allows his eyes to open again.

“What the hell?” His own voice thick with confusion meets his ears. His own bed is before him, the tousled blankets and pillows frozen just as he left them this morning are scattered around him. Five blinks looking around the room in puzzlement. He’d just been right outside the kitchen, he could practically taste his breakfast, and now he was back in his room. Five runs a hand through his hair a little manically. Had he imagined going downstairs? Was his mind really that scrambled? 

Delusions, possibly pain-induced hallucinations, something he’d seen Dad scribble down in his notebook as a side effect. Was everything that just happened a hallucination? Was his mind reportedly damaged from whatever Dad had given him? Cold panic shoots down his spine, his breathing is uneven and ragged, and his head still fucking hurts. Had he just woken up? Was he just dreaming about Mom? He held his breath waiting to see if Ben began to cry but was met with nothing but silence.

Ben’s room was empty. Five had peeked in if only to curb his building panic, but he was gone, leaving an imprint against the mattress and blankets. Five was rushing down the stairs past those stupid portraits looking for any sign of his brother. A smell suddenly wafting from the kitchen had Five stumbling to a stop. It was something he hadn’t smelled since Mom had fallen ill. Bacon and eggs filled his nose as his mind was catching up with him. He slowed down following the sound of movement and the taunting smell of food.

He had a clear view of Mom poking at a piece of bacon with the spatula. Five stands in the entryway of the kitchen, frozen. He breathed heavily, eyes tracking her movements.

What the hell is going on? Five is completely lost at this point, not sure what is real or not. Except for the ringing in his ears and the growing nausea.

A babbling laugh catches his attention. Ben is sitting in a high chair at the table, his face lights up when he sees Five, and his giggling and weird baby noises grow in intensity. He attempts to lift himself out of the chair, obviously failing. He gives up getting distracted by the plate on his high chair instead. Five, steadying his breath, tries to ground himself. At least Ben seems to be having a good time.

“Five!” Mom turns around with a plate in each of her hands. She smiles widely and calmly in the face of Five's astonishment. She is here. She places the plates on the table, turning to Five expectantly. He’s standing frozen in the doorway, struggling to make sense of what was happening. There was clearly something wrong, things aren't matching up and the whole house is choking in anticipation.

It was almost like a standoff, waiting to see if Five took the food or not. She stayed in the same stiff position bent over the plates like she’d been paused mid motion. She was still acting strange, so it must not have been a dream or delusion. Unless he was still hallucinating. Everything else looked to be in place though, it's the same kitchen it's always been. It still has animal diagrams across the walls sitting under high set rectangle windows spilling light into the room. It looked like it did yesterday and the day before the only difference being Mom standing in the middle of it like nothing's wrong. Five swallowed thickly.

In the end his hunger won. He’d have to file whatever was going on with his mind away for later, after he’d actually eaten and wasn’t swaying on his feet. Ben is happily allowing Mom to feed him some baby food slop, it is disgusting. Five ended up moving his seat as far away as possible not wanting to have to deal with that while he’s trying to eat. 

Five shoved a bite of eggs into his mouth resting his head on his palm as he chews. Five glanced out the windows, but they were positioned in such a way it was hard to actually see anything. He suppresses an annoyed groan as Mom coos at Ben speaking in a weird baby voice. 

“Your father will be pleased to see you awake.” Mom says drawing Five’s attention back to them. He pivots his body back to face the table giving Mom a blank look. When has Dad ever been ‘pleased’ to see him awake? 

“Why does he care?” Five shoves more food into his mouth mumbling through a mouthful of eggs.

“Your father does care, your development is very important to him.” She answers honestly like reading off a script. Five grimaces. The way that she says it, like he’s some test subject makes a shiver run down his spine. The worst part is he believes her, Dad does care about their development. Something about them, for some reason he raises them despite his utter disinterest in children and the adults they grow into.

The same reason he ties them down and injects them with some mystery substance. Something he keeps close to his chest, something Five will probably never understand. Dad doesn’t want them to understand, he wants test subjects. 

It leaves a bitter taste in his mouth.

Mom just happens to be another aspect of the academy, another tool used by Reginald to keep the children alive and in line. 

Five clenches his jaw, it’s not Mom’s fault but Five can’t help but lump her in with Dad. He keeps a healthy distance away just as he does with Dad.

Mom’s smile turned sympathetic, or at least she tried to move her face in that direction. It felt lifeless, fake. Five pushed away from the table, his chair scratching across the ground, causing a high pitched squeal. 

“Whatever.” Five grits out as he stomps out of the kitchen leaving as Ben begins to cry. He can’t sit there and listen to any more of that. That bastard and his stupid tests are already warping Five’s mind. Five needs to find out whatever Dad put in that syringe before his brain melts out of his ears. He’s angry just talking to Mom renewed that rage and Five decided he needed answers right now. Cutting through the academy, Five takes the familiar route to his father’s office.

Five was at his father’s office. Much too quickly, like turning a corner and suddenly the thick wood door was an inch from his face. His hands were tingling again, a slow warmth spread from the center of his palms to the tips of his fingers. 

He clenched his fists staring down the door like it would swing open through thought of mind alone. It doesn’t of course, if Five wants to confront Dad, he’s going to have to open the door himself.

His fingers graze the cold metal of the doorknob, it sends a shiver through his body. It’s stupid, the apprehension, it’s just another room in the house he shouldn’t be feeling this nervous. It’s easy, turn the knob. He goads himself on trying to force his fingers to tighten. He took a deep breath before shaking his head trying to dislodge his thoughts. Dad was beyond this door and he would have to answer Five’s questions.

He pushed the door roughly and it crept open with a high pitched squeal. Five tried not to wince at the sound, refusing to show his unnerve on his face. He needed to not let Dad in on his panic, he needed to remain strong and sure. It was something Dad was good at, finding weakness and insecurity and using it to weasel his way out of an explanation. It always worked on Klaus and the other’s, Five wasn’t going to let it work on him anymore.

Cold eyes peered over his monocle examining Five with a detached glance. He gives Five a second of attention before going back to scratching notes into his journal. Figures.  

“You’re up.” Dad observes not looking up again. Five can feel a twinge of annoyance, of course that’s all he has to say after all that happened. 

“W–”

“If you are up I see no reason as to why you are not attending to your studies, despite the departure of your tutor there is no excuse to not finish your work.” He dismisses. Tutors are a revolving door at the academy. He's not necessarily surprised or sad about this one being let go but it does make him wonder just exactly what they had fought about yesterday.

“What about Efa?” Five says without thinking. Tutors were one thing but she was Ben’s nanny surely she should have been able to give him a proper goodbye. 

He can quickly feel his confidence waning as dad lets the silence lapse. Finally dad sets his pen down on the table and folds his hands over the journal. He levels Five with a look, like Five was an idiot for even talking. Like there was something obvious Five was missing. 

“She has been let go as well. I no longer require her services.”

“But–”

“Is that all you're here to do? Harass me about the whereabouts of one nanny.” Dad says venom underlining his unemotional tone. Five grits his teeth, he knows that he’d get nowhere with this line of questioning. It’s not what Five is here for. 

“No.” Five says absolutely “I want to know what you did to me.”

Dad adjusts his monocle returning Five’s glare.

“That is none of your concern, Number Five.”

“But it’s messing me up. I passed out yesterday, don’t you even care?!” He doesn’t and Five knows it. “It’s my body.” Five deserves to know what was done to him, what was wrong with him.

“It seems your body had an adverse reaction to the serum, much to be expected I suppose.” Anger blares in Five at his dismissive tone. A small side effect, or ‘adverse reaction’ was all he categorized the burning pain, the complete agony of fire pouring down his veins as. It was more than missing a day, it was more than having to go to boring lessons and deal with snobby teachers. It was the cruelty that pushed Klaus on the streets, what drove Number Two to his hero act, led to Three’s failing marriages, and led to One’s utter inability to function without the academy. Five grits his teeth, nails digging into his palms harshly. What would Ben end up with, spin a wheel and pick an issue? 

“What the hell was it?!” Five’s own voice pulled him out of his thoughts. Dad didn’t seem thrilled, but he only held Five’s eyes with a glare.

“Number Five.” He says sternly standing from his desk. His pen rolls off the table, the sound of it hitting the ground sounds like a gunshot in the tense air. Five squared his shoulders as Dad circled around to the front of his desk. He wasn’t scared of being hit here, Dad was never that overtly physical the punishment would come later. Five couldn’t bring himself to think that far ahead acting without thinking. “I implore you not to question my methods.” He takes a step forward. Five’s instinct is to step back, but he forces his body to stand still. He had to remind himself that this is how Dad works, don’t show any weakness.

“Your methods are bullshit. ” Five growled. Not to mention painful and pretty much insane. Dad raises a brow, but he does not look amused. 

“Your instructor lessons for today will be postponed.” He says finally, Five is under no assumption that this means he is giving in. “It seems you need a practical lesson.” He looks Five right in the eyes. Five won’t let him get a reaction, he won’t let him know that he’s getting to him. “I suppose you require more abstract learning than your siblings.”

“I’m not doing anything until you tell me what you did!” Five stands his ground. Dad is looming over him now casting a shadow, but Five won’t let him see his unnerve. Five knows he’s digging a hole right now, he knows the punishment grows every second but he keeps digging anyway.

“I will not repeat myself again, Number Five. You can have as many childish episodes as you find necessary but you will not find what you are looking for this way.” He was right, Five wasn’t going to get anything out of him this way. Five glances around dad for a second, his eyes catching on the worn pages of the journal with black smudges of ink and neat handwriting filling up as much room as possible. He was right, he wouldn’t tell Five anything. Not spoken anyway.

“You are dismissed.” Dad says with finality. Five decided that he’s probably done enough damage for one day, when he leaves it's not because he was ‘dismissed’ but because he was choosing to retreat and form a plan. 

The door is about to swing shut behind him when Dad calls out again.

“You will report to the training room immediately.” Is said in tandem with the sound of the door shutting. Five feels a shiver dance along his spine. ‘Training room’ was more aptly a punishment, it was sparsely used outside of the consequences of ‘childish episodes.’ Five is apparently prone to those. The training room was difficult and oftentimes painful but like always Five would tolerate it. 

He pressed his back against the wall once he turned the corner and was out of sight of his fathers office door. He let out a shaky breath. A sinking feeling of that was building up in his mind. He feels stupid for even trying this. What did he think would happen? This was the only outcome. Five chewed on the inside of his cheek. He didn’t even get to the bottom of his weird spatial issues, or really anything important. All he got himself was probably getting locked in the training room and a night of no dinner.

The thought of food actually sent a yearning through him. He didn’t get to finish his food this morning, and he had supposedly been asleep for the majority of yesterday. Five thinks of eating ice cream with Klaus, it felt like forever ago at this point.

He wonders what the punishment would be if he just decided to run off to Klaus’ apartment instead. He could stay there for the night and eat dinner with him rather than huddled on the cold tiled floor.

He passes Mom on his way to the training room. Ben is huddled in her arms, eyes curiously following Five. She smiles as he passes, and Five feels guilt at what happened at breakfast. He hasn’t been able to see or talk to her and when he gets the chance he freaks out and storms off. Five’s feet slowed to a stop a few feet away from them. He sheepishly looks over his shoulder at Mom’s back as she continues on unaware. Ben has his head resting over her shoulder and his eyes light up when he sees Five looking their way. A little smile adorns his face as his little hand reaches forward almost in the beginning of a wave. Five adverts his eyes, a weird feeling clutching his heart. He thinks about how the others had seen him, a small nuisance that escaped the harshness of the academy by virtue of being too young to really experience it. Klaus was different though, even when he was in the depths of his addiction and so out of his mind he barely registered the ground beneath him he still treated Five like his sibling. He thinks of that photo of Klaus cradling Five in his arms, it was dark probably night and Klaus had crawled into the crib with his gangly legs bent uncomfortably to fit. It was like he wanted to be around Five, like he was more than a symbol for their failures to meet Dad's expectations.

Five gives Ben a small wave before he turns back around. He takes a deep breath, and he can basically feel the atmosphere of the training room grow stronger and stronger as he draws near. Dad wouldn’t be done for probably another ten to thirty minutes, the waiting only made it feel worse.

Notes:

Grace is here! Although she's still pretty out of it. Reginald hasn't perfected making a non-uncanny acting robot yet lol. So exits the only normal functioning adult, Efa was fun to write and I wanted her to provide some kind of outside comfort from someone not connected to the academy. Anyway thank you so much for reading and I appreciate all the kudos and comments, as always the next update will be Friday or Monday.

Chapter 5

Notes:

New chapter yay! TW for isolation and psychological abuse (?). I know this is pretty Five-focused so far but I promise the other siblings will be included in a few chapters. I wanted to introduce them in a natural way. I’m thinking about rewriting the next few chapters so they might be a little better. This chapter is kinda build up so I think I’ll try and update again Friday just to get the story moving a little faster.

Ps. Sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes. I have a learning disability, so spelling is really hard for me and spell check doesn’t always catch it. I'm constantly going back and editing chapters and fixing it. Speaking of, I went through all four chapters so far and fixed any mistakes I could see so it should make more sense now. I also realized I’d been spelling Hargreeves wrong lol.

The training room, despite its reputation, is quite underwhelming. It looked more akin to an indoor gym, with padded walls and sleek wooden floors. There was equipment huddled in the corners, including the weights that One used to lift and the targets Two used. It was a fairly big room but not nearly enough to not feel hot and suffocating. 

Five scuffs his shoe on the floor, leaning against one of the padded walls. Dad wasn’t here yet, but that was normal, he always made people wait for him. It’s probably some kind of psychological warfare, a tactic to build anticipation and freak him out even more.

He remembers from when he was five or six watching Klaus stumble around the perimeter. He’d been caught stealing Dad’s liquor and was forced to run laps. Two hours in he had thrown up, and four hours in he had passed out. Dad had Five sit there and watch the whole time, holding the stopwatch. Dad had left Klaus there, not even allowing Five to go check on his brother. When Klaus had slowly gotten up, he was met with cold displeasure and was prompted to continue. 

Years later, Five was alone in this room, standing in his brother’s shoes. It’s not the first time, and Five suspects dad has other shit planned because he’s always scheming for some new way to ‘unlock potential,’ which more often than not involves child abuse. Five had never really thought of it that way before, even while experiencing it. It was Klaus’ insistence on reading those therapy books and parroting it back to Five that might somehow have gotten to him in some way. He almost wished it didn’t, that he could go back to simply believing that Dad had his reasons for what he did.

He contemplated leaving sometimes, but now Ben complicates things; he can’t exactly run off with an infant, and he can’t just leave him here alone. Even if Ben was loud and annoying. 

The door creaks open. Five lets out a breath, more exasperated than anything at this point. He wished he could just get this over with so he could go back to bed.

Dad struts into the room, a book shoved under his arm and his cane clutched tightly in the other hand. Five tries to keep the contempt off his face but knows he’s doing a pretty poor job of it. Dad regards him out of the side of his eye, prompting Five to sigh again. Pushing off the wall, he tensely moved in front of his father, shoving his hands into his pockets. 

“I was going to test mental facilities to begin with, but it seems I have to adjust the schedule.” The journal under his arm is opened as he quickly skims over it before it is slammed shut again. He directs Five over to the weight equipment.

For the next few hours, Dad sends him around doing the weirdest exercises he could think of. He attempts to make Five lift weights that wouldn’t even be humanly possible, much less for someone of Five’s stature. When Five had predictably failed, he wrote something down in his journal and moved Five along to the next one. Dad seemed to be throwing things at a wall and seeing what stuck. It wasn’t even the physical aspect that disturbed Five, it was the methodical way Dad watched his every movement.

He was even forced to throw knives at a target. Five was getting pissed off now. Was this his punishment? Weird-ass ‘exercises’ probably just meant to confuse Five further. Dad seems to be getting more irritated each time Five fails or isn’t able to demonstrate superhuman abilities. 

“Run, not jog.” He snapped at Five. Five huffed out a breath of annoyance. He was running, full-on sprinting, as he had been trying to keep up for the past hour, he couldn't force the same body, which had struggled to get out of bed this morning, to go any faster. Five’s foot hit the ground awkwardly, causing him to trip. The hardwood collides with his hands, sending a shock wave up his body. Five yelped in pain as his hand burned where they made contact with the wood, the pain causing them to give out under him. Five’s nose collided with the wood floor, honestly quite embarrassingly. 

Five struggles to hold his weight on his burning hands as he props himself up. Drops of blood fall between his hands. The blood begins to spider-webbing into the grains of the wood, seeping in for a few seconds before Five pushes himself off his hands and knees, falling back on his ass. He brings a hand up to his nose, feeling the liquid roll underneath his fingers and stain the collar of his shirt. 

The back of his neck burned with embarrassment as he kept his eyes down, tripping over his own feet and busting his nose up was a stupid, pathetic mistake. Five grits his teeth, a stinging feeling burns behind his eyes. Humiliated by his own weakness, Five jams his arching palms into his eyes, rubbing furiously. He might as well be Ben, a shriveling baby crying because things didn’t go his way. 

Dad didn’t come over to check on him, only sounding his disappointment with a curt huff and sound of annoyance. Five wanted to yell, wanted to scream at him but it would only serve as a show of weakness. He’d know that Five couldn’t take it. He’d know that he’s gotten to him. 

Reginald will never see him cry.

Five roughly dragged his arm across his face, leaving a trail of bright blood smudged across his face and his arm. Five finally met his father’s eyes, making up for his tumble with a glare, he had to salvage his dignity and push himself up off the floor.

His shoes scuff the floor, standing in his own glistening blood, reflecting the cold lights back into his eyes. The light almost moved like the sun peeking through the depths of an open sea disturbed by the currents, faint hints of gold surfaced only to be reincorporated. He could still feel the blood pour down his nose and drip off the edge of his chin. Dad relents, calling Five over with an exasperated motion. Five glances back at the smudges of blood one last time before obeying.

Dad grabs his hands as soon as he’s within reach, his rough hands hold him still as he methodically examines his palms. Dad stabs a finger directly into the center of his hand, causing a shock of pain up his arm. Five fails to hide his flinch, and Dad’s eyes shoot up to his strange look of interest, crossing his face.

“Have you experienced pain or discomfort in your hands?” Five nearly scoffs at this, like he actually gives a shit about what he is feeling. Five must have shown it on his face because Dad tightened his fingers around his hand. “Answer me, Number Five. This is not a trivial question.” He demands. Five has to school his face, keeping it blank with practiced ease.

“I guess.” He grits out. Dad doesn’t look satisfied; he furrows his brow, egging Five on to say more. “I mean, they’ve been burning since… You injected that thing into me.” Five has to keep his voice level and not allow the venom to seep through his words. That and the quaking fear hiding just beneath the surface.

Dad has this intense look on his face, it unnerved Five as he’s never seen Dad look like this before. He almost looked… Happy? No, that wasn’t the right word for it. It was a manic pride, not pride in Five but like an inventor's pride in his invention.

He dropped Five’s hand abruptly, immediately going back to writing in his journal. Five cautiously watches him, confusion and fear overlapping. He was happy? Five had never even seen him close to pleased, what could have happened to make him see this out of everything as a success? This couldn’t be good. Five knows deep down that this isn’t good, but he can’t help the small twinge of pride. He had done something right even if he had no idea what that was.

“Overall there are no signs of improvement.” Dad observes with a clinical voice, eyes sweeping over Five’s exhausted form. “All perfectly average.” He says with a hint of disdain as he shuts his journal.

“Isn’t that good?”

“Only for an ill-behaved, underachieving child. The Umbrella Academy doesn’t settle for mediocrity, you of all people should know that, Number Five.” Five suppresses the urge to roll his eyes as Dad threatens to launch into another one of his grandiose monologes. 

Five hunched his shoulders crossing his arms over his chest. Five isn’t underachiving, he’s just not. He’s always scored better than his siblings, beating their long-held scores they are no longer here to defend. Physicality shouldn’t matter.

He’s not mediocre.

 Five’s glare sharpened, Dad didn’t seem to notice or care.

“Follow me.”

Dad moved past him without much more promphing. Five had to force his tired body to speed up to catch up to his father.

Dad led him down the hall then another flight of stairs. Five kept his breathing controlled trying not to let on how winded he really was.

They were standing in front of an elevator. Five had seen it a few times before, but he’s never actually been inside of it. Glancing at Dad’s stony face, he saw his father’s eyes dead set forward with a slight frown across his lips.

They silently step into the elevator, the doors slowly shutting. Five can hear his own heart rattling against his ribs. The silence cut up by the sounds of the machinery in the elevator as it descends. 

Five’s body buzzes with unease. He’s never been to this portion of the academy before, this was completely new to him. He had no frame of reference for this, no idea what was about to happen to him.

His breathing is impossibly loud, echoing off the walls. He feels like the walls are closing in on him. The small space is becoming a cage.

After what felt like years, the elevator shook and the doors began to open. A gust of cold air swirled in, filling the room. It should have felt refreshing, opening the claustrophobic room, but it only sent a shiver up his spine. 

The elevator opens right into another room. It’s a plain room, missing most of the eccentric flair of the academy but not like the sterile medical rooms. It was dingy, almost dirty-looking. Stone walls dimly lit by a single overhead lamp. A strange cilender metal structure sits at the back of the room from floor to ceiling, it takes up the entire back wall. It had a single foggy looking window. It loomed over him, its presence striking fear into him even without knowing what it was for. 

It’s daunting presence makes Five feel sick to his stomach.

With a high pitched screech the thick metal door swings open. Like the gaping jaws of a predator. From the darkness he can make out spikes like jagged teeth. Five instintavly tries to take a step back.

Something strops him. The cool wood of his father’s cane brushed against his back. Glancing up at Dad he met his eyes. There was no question, no hesitation, just one demand.

“Get in.” A chill spreads down his spine at those two words.

“What?” Five asks, a little breathless. He can’t be serious. What does this possibly prove, other than being some form of fucked up punishment. 

One look at Dad's cold, uncaring face told Five that he was deadly serious.

Assuming that a day in the training room was the worst of his punishment was Five’s mistake.

 Five snapped his mouth shut, teeth grinding together uncomfortably. Crying and begging would do nothing to sway him, so there was no point in Five trying. He wouldn’t let Dad have that satisfaction. He swallowed down the fear; logically, it wasn’t physical. Just a dark room and his own mind. 

He digs his finger nails into his palms focusing on the feeling. He glared forward at the box, or whatever it was. The pain flared in his hands again, but he ignored it, shaking his hands out.

Five sets his shoulders, straightening his posture. It helps him release some tension, the buzzing under his fingertips dissipates, if only slightly. Dad watched him curiously, his eye peeking over the brim of his monocle. He had a weird, contemplative expression, deep in thought. Five felt like a bug pinned down. 

Five marched forward before Dad could say anything else. Fingers finding the lip of the metal doorframe, he leaned in slightly, eyes sweeping across the metal spikes. It was a completely barren small room, where doing anything more than standing and sitting would be difficult.

His confidence was quickly wavering, and the time he spent hyping himself up and preparing for it was quickly being undone. He wanted to turn and run, go to Klaus’ house, forget about Dad, and forget about Mom and Ben. Five takes a step forward. Once the darkness is pulled over his body. The heavy door swung shut, metal clicking against each other as it locked shut with a finality. Light bleeds through the small window, proving to be his only source of light.

He watches Dad’s blurry figure retreat back into the elevator. 

His breathing echoes off the walls, impossibly loud as all outside sounds are cut off.

The room was suffocatingly small and dark.

Five whole body bleeds tension, staring off into the now empty room. Five had no idea what to do, what he was supposed to do. It wasn’t some kind of puzzle or test that he could figure out, it was stillness. Solitude in the form of sensory deprivation was closer to a punishment rather than a test.

A bitter anger rose in the back of his throat. Sliding to the floor, he pulled his knees up to his chest. Tapping his fingers against the cold metal of the floor he focused on the vibrations. 

He was looking for something. Every movement and change, Dad was looking for something. It was something he couldn’t find in Five. Every little thing written down in his journal. Five can’t help but feel like he failed at something.

It was stupid on his part. He knows what he’s looking for. Side effects. He was looking for a reaction, some evidence that the injection worked. Five looks at his anching fingers, a gentle blue glow, extremely faint, but still there lit up the dark room. Five could tell him. Probably end this all right now. 

But it feels wrong. If he’s doing all this now, what will he do once he finds out? The foreboding feeling of doom won’t leave him. He knows deep down that telling Dad would only lead to worse, more intense tests.

Five also just doesn’t want him to know, he had no right to know.

– 

The first hour wasn’t horrible. Sure it was cold and claustrophobic, but once his initial fear wore off, and he realized no one was coming back, he relaxed a little. Finally getting time to stop moving and just be was nice, there were no screaming babies or horribly agonizing shots or running until his legs felt like they were going to fall off. He nestles his head further into his arms, searching for more warmth. His uniform blazer draped over him like a blanket, it could almost be called comfortable. Certainly his body wasn’t picky at this point, and any spot to sleep would probably feel like heaven. Five let out a muffled sigh as his eyes began to droop, getting heavier and heavier.

– 

He woke up feeling worse, all the rest did was deplete him of what adrenaline had been keeping him going. He was left with nothing but the aches and echoes of pain buzzing under his skin and muscles. His eyes were stinging, and he felt even colder shivering on the hard floor. The small amount of light bleeding into the room burns his eyes and makes his head spin. Five rested his head in his hand, fingers tightening in his hair as the pain grew worse. The feeling of his hair being tugged gave him momentary reprieve, a focus on a different kind of pain. 

It takes an hour or two of head splitting pain before it fades even slightly enough for Five to take a full breath again. Or at least it felt like it, he’s long since lost track of time, but he knows that it hasn’t been nearly long enough to start theatrics, but enough to feel the building boredom. His mind had nothing in the room to work off of, and Five never had much imagination, fictional stories and daydreams didn’t stand up to reality. Math, physics, and science all had structure and answers that he could get right and figure out. It was easier for him to grasp in a way.

His hands itch for his notebook, mindlessly writing down equations while shitty reality shows blare in the background, accented by Klaus’ commentary. He’d lean over and correct “mistakes” Five had made just to make Five stumble over himself explaining how he was right and Klaus had no idea how to even add fractions. On the rare occasion he’d be right, Five would never admit it to his face, but he’d catch him smiling as Five tries to discreetly erase the mistake.

His stomach hurt, he was starving, having not finished breakfast and having spent the rest of the day running around. It was hurting now, a deep ache that settled in the pit of his stomach. He should have left well enough alone and eaten his breakfast, then gone to his lessons. He would have never had to deal with this. Kicking himself for his lack of insight, this was always the outcome, he just couldn’t keep his mouth shut. 

More time passed, hours maybe. His muscles were stiff and cramped, stuck in an uncomfortable position. Five lifts his head out of his arms and stretches out his legs, with a satisfied pop that did a little to help his body relax. Five rubbed his eyes aggressively, trying to ground himself.

Five pushes himself off the floor, stretching his arms over his head. His yawn echoes around the room, bouncing off the walls. Five traced around the walls cautiously hands testing the edges of the spikes, taking each step as it too joined in a cacophony of reverberations across the cramped room. He feels desperately empty, like an animal pacing its cage. 

Five kicked the door with frustration, finding no satisfaction as all it does is hurt his foot. The door was basically fused shut and the window had no give. It was all pointless anyway, if he got out Dad would just corral him back in.

In the end, he was back in the same spot, like nothing had ever happened.

–

More time passes, and he’s so hungry, everything is a haze.

–

It’s been hours, at least the rest of the day. Five is so hungry and tired. He thinks he’s fallen asleep a few times, but he can’t even tell if he just blinked or if he fell asleep, with the same dark walls meeting him every time he opened his eyes.

–

Five banged on the window. His hands hurt and stung with each impact, but he continued, anger spiking the more he was met with avoidance and nonresponsiveness. 

“Dad!” He shouted with another hit to the wall, narrowly missing a spike. “You’ve made your FUCKING point! Now let me out!” Five nearly growled, pacing back and forth in front of the door.

There was no answer, and there wouldn’t be in the next few hours.

–

Five is jolted awake by the sound of clicking. He immediately gets up, hope fueling his frantic movements. 

He scrambles up to the window, pressing his palms against the glass. 

Across the room he can see the elevator door creep open. Dad’s silhouette outlined by the warm light of the elevator haunts the end of the hall. Five lets out a breath of relief when he sees his dad despite this.

The front door doesn’t budge, but he watches Dad move closer, the sound of his steps completely muted by the walls. He stopped in front of the window so they were face-to-face. His cold, methodical eyes scanned over Five, his frown deepened. 

Suddenly air rushed into the room as the door swung open. Five moved back slightly, looking out at his father’s disappointed face.

“No change.” He notes. “Out.” He says, stepping to the side. Five gladly scrambles out, before he could make it past Dad, the back of his collar was caught, and he was pulled back. Five lets out a strangled noise, stumbling to get his feet under him.

Glancing up at his father’s eyes, he can see a wearing there clear as day. Five chooses to stay quiet, biting back a retort or complaint. Let him think he’s won whatever game he’s playing so Five can get out of here.

Something was shoved into his hands. Three small pills were pressed into his palms.

“Vitamins?” Five says a little mockingly, looking at his dad like he was telling some sort of joke. What the hell was this supposed to do, anyway? 

“Take these. It is to test your body’s reactions in a vacuum to ensure that the Marigold took.” He says, simply ignoring the fact that Five has no idea what he’s talking about.

“The Marigold?”

“You will inform me of any physiological changes or side effects.” 

Five opens his mouth to say something before a harsh hand on his shoulder pushes him back towards the room.

“Wait.” Five called out, but the door was already shut, cutting him off.

He was going to be in here for a while.

–

His hair was greasy, and his clothes stuck to his skin uncomfortably. Time slugs by him, it’s been… a while. He’s left with nothing but an aching pain of hunger, despite the pills that Dad had given him a while ago, not that they were meant to help him.

Marigold.

That’s what he had called it. Whatever he’d injected into him was meant to change him in some way. It had the strange things that had been happening to him. He kept quiet about it all anyway. Whatever it was, he didn’t want Dad to know about it before he understood it himself.

He kept his fists clenched tight, his ears buzzed, and he could feel pain building behind his eyes. Something is swirling just under his skin like an electrical current. Immediately he unclenches his fists, the buzzing dissipates, and the pain dies down. The electrical current still there seems to have lost focus, spreading out across his body.

It was very faint, but that slight emergence of his power seemed to be enough to be measured. He could feel a shift in the room slightly, like it was reacting to the current.

 After that, Five took careful care to not attempt to reach that current again.

–

Even sleep doesn’t relieve him from his situation, his dreams are adstract and infected by an alternating electric blue and pure darkness of the void. He passed agitation and even anger a while ago; he’s now in a weird state of acceptance or numbness. He promised himself he’d smother Dad in his sleep when he got out. At least in prison he’d probably get a bed. 

The sound of the door swinging open with a high-pitched squeal makes Five jump. A silhouette stood as a stain against the dim light of the room outside and the darkness of the cage he was in. Dad’s strict posture gave him away. His cane made contact with the floor, sending a wave of thundering sound bouncing around the walls. Five winced and covered his ears, the new sound too much for him.

“Number Five, this has been an immense disappointment.” His cold, disembodied voice rang around him. Five looks up, trying to find his father’s eyes, but he can’t seem to make out any features. Normally Five would have snapped back some kind of retort, but now he fell silent, staring up at his dad. He’s scared that anything he says will make Dad turn around and leave him here longer. The longer Dad didn’t move, the more panicked Five felt. He must want some kind of response, there has to be something Five can say to explain himself.

Five glares remaining silent. Reginald wasn’t worth a response, he could talk to the wall for all he cared.

“Even Number Four had not been this stubborn.” Five doesn’t know what this means, but he doesn’t like the mention of his brother. 

Five couldn’t keep the glare off his face. He hates him.

“Go back to your room.”

He steps to the side, and the doorway is left empty. The warmer lights of the outside clash with the cold darkness; it looks like a portal, a beam of golden light. Five rushes past his father, not even bothering to look at him or back into the room. 

Despite his stiff muscles and aching body, Five is nearly running. Tripping up stairs and jogging through the hall, mind locked on his soft bed and warm room. 

Five doesn’t even remember how he got into bed at that point, but suddenly his face collides with a pillow, sinking into the material with a fondness Five hadn’t even known he was capable of. He lies on top of the sheets, nuzzling into his pillow with a shaking sigh. 

Dad’s scornful face was etched into his mind. It promised more was coming, more tests, more training. He’d have to tell him something, or it would get worse. The longer he didn’t get results, the more he might get despite. Sooner or later he was going to find out.

Looking at his hand, he clutches his fingers reaching for that feeling again. It spikes under his skin, growing stronger the more Five focuses on it. His fingers begin to slightly shake as a light blue field dances around his fist.

He can’t let Dad know.

He has to keep this to himself.

Five shoved the looming feeling of doom back down, there was no point agonizing over it right now. He needed sleep, real sleep in a real bed. When he woke up, he’d deal with it.

For once sleep came easily.

Notes:

I realized I had to rewrite a lot of these chapters, so sorry that this came out a little late. Anyway, this is kind of meant to be set up for my explanation for Reginald’s motives. In this AU he is a lot less experienced and doesn’t know what powers the Marigold will give them, so he is trying to prepare for every possibility. That’s also my explanation for why he’d have that cell anyway, as I think it served more of a purpose than just containing Viktor. The reason it can’t detect Five’s ability is because it’s one of the only powers that needs to be activated; it’s dormant when he’s not trying to jump.

Chapter 6

Notes:

Sorry for missing the last two updates. I didn't have internet for awhile and then my computer broke on top of having to edit and rewrite the majority of this chapter. Schools started again so sorry if I’m less enthusiastic in replies or the summaries that being said after this the fic should be on track, so I won’t miss any more updates (Unless something comes up).

Five woke up disoriented, his blankets were wrapped tightly around him, pinning him in an uncomfortable position. Wrestling himself out of bed, Five groaned as his body protested movement.

It was early morning, the sun just barely peeking over the horizon with the sky still darkened. Five blinks heavily, letting out a shaky breath. He at least had a little time to himself before lessons. 

Five scrubs at his skin aggressively in the shower, neglecting to do it yesterday, he takes extra time under the hot water. He takes a minute of stillness to himself, listening to the water hit the tiles.

He feels better once he’s in a new uniform. He pushes the aches and pains plaguing his body to the back of his mind, ignoring them the best he can manage.

By the time he makes his way downstairs, the sky is light out, and Mom is busy in the kitchen.

“Mom?” He calls cautiously as he peeks into the kitchen. She straightened snappily, turning towards Five.

“Good morning, Number Five.” She says with a bright smile on her face. Five glances around looking for Ben.

“Where’s Ben?” Five asks when he doesn’t see his brother nearby.

“Hmm? Oh, Number Six is getting his shots right now.” She says with a nod, going back to washing a dish. Five feels an uneasy air settle around him hearing this. Flashes of glowing gold liquid move across his vision, memories of searing pain haunting him.

He left Mom standing by the sink without another word.

Easily finding the med-bay Five pushes the door open. It swings open with little resistance, leading to a small, sterile, hospital-style room.

There’s a man in the room standing next to a metal tray, he throws a bored look over his shoulder when Five enters. Five recognizes him, it’s his usual doctor, one who doesn’t ask questions or care much for morals. Ben was sitting on the table flailing his little arms around.

He babbles when he sees Five, his distressed cries now directed at Five. The doctor lets out an exaggerated sigh.

“What do you want, Number Five? I don’t have any appointments with you today.” His eyes lazily flicked over Five, regarding him as nothing more than an annoyance. 

“Why isn’t Mom here with him?” Five eyes the syringe in the man’s hand. It isn’t glowing orange or some otherworldly substance. Marigold Dad had called it, his mind supplied. He still feels his body tense at the sight. 

“Why would she be?” He draws it out like it's an obvious answer.

Five grits his teeth, he looks over at Ben’s red face smudged with fear. Mom was always present for their examinations when she was still stable. She’d offer Five her hand even if he’d never admit to needing it. When Klaus was still around, he would follow Five to all his doctor appointments too, usually being way too clingy. He never seemed to trust anything medical. Five is seeing things in striking clarity now. 

Five strolls over to Ben, plopping down on the exam table right next to him.

“Don’t cry.” He demands, jabbing a finger in Ben’s face. “You look pathetic. And I’ll have to deal with you crying all night.” If Mom wasn’t going to be here, Five had to make sure nothing happened. At least he wouldn’t be alone.

The image of that dark room padded with spikes flashed through his mind before he chased it away.

Ben sputtered, hand wrapping around his finger in a surprisingly strong hold. It knocks Five back into reality as he stares at his brother. Five half-heartedly tried to pull his hand away but gave up when Ben squealed in protest.

“Whatever saves me having to hold the brat down.” The doctor grumbled, ignoring the glare Five sent him.

Ben did in fact cry, loudly. When the doctor was done, he waved them both off. Now Five was left with a screaming baby. 

Five immediately regretted even stepping foot in that room. Ben flails in his arms, his little hands smacking Five in the face every few seconds. He kicks his legs like he can even walk anywhere anyway.

“I swear to God if you don’t calm down I will throw you out the window.” Five snaps after Ben nearly hits him in the eye. 

“Mom!” He shouts into the kitchen. Mom’s head shot up as she looked over in their direction.

“Number Five, Number Six.” She chirps happily. Ben pauses his squealing for half a second to acknowledge their mother before he goes back to sobbing. Five rolls his eyes, readjusting his hold on Ben so he doesn’t fall and crack his skull open.

Five hesitantly pats Ben on his back, not sure how to console a baby. Mom watches them, her eyes looking frosty and far away. 

“Are you okay?” She asks softly. Five jolts, surprised by the sudden sincerity in her voice.

“Uh, yeah, he’s fine. He just got his shots.” Five mutters out as he struggles to hold Ben right.

“Are you alright?” She repeated. She was looking straight at him in a strange episode of clarity; he hadn’t seen her look like this in a while. Cautiously her hand cups the side of his face. “You look thin.” She adds eyes scanning his face.

Five allows for a second of comfort before he pulls away, cheeks feeling hot.

“I’m fine.” He snaps, averting his eyes. “Ben’s hungry.” He redirects, pushing Ben into her hands. She mechanically blinks a few times before she seems to process the baby in her arms. 

“Breakfast?” She says a little distantly. Five eyes her, her demeanor falling back into that familiar fog. She places Ben into his seat, pushing away his little arms as he swings them around. Five sat down in the chair next to him.

Ben’s tantrum dies back once he sees Mom approach him with his bottle. At least he can’t scream while he’s eating, Five can finally take a breath of relief.

“I think it’s almost time to have him try real food.”

“Is he old enough to feed himself yet?” Five muttered. Mom nodded good-naturedly, helping Ben finish the bottle and wiping his face with a napkin. 

“Not for a little while.” She kisses Ben on the forehead, he giggles, reaching for her hair to play with. Five watches them for a moment; she seems more present today than usual.

“Is Dad around here somewhere?” Five asks bitterly, usually he would have been down by now or sent some tutor to harass Five. Wishful thinking that maybe he was hiding because of what happened yesterday. Five was happy not to have to see his father’s face anyway.

“Your father has a business meeting out of town right now. He says that he won’t be home for a while, and to make sure that all your classwork is finished by the time he gets back.” She delivers it like she was giving an announcement in a flat voice. Five could feel the tension leave his body in a long breath. 

A plate is placed in front of Five. Pancakes with blueberries arranged in a lopsided grin. He blinked a few times, glancing from his plate to Mom. It’d been forever since she’d made this, not since her illness and bouts of dissociation. 

She’s smiling in an almost genuine way and caring for Ben like he’s actually her kid and not some task Dad sent her upon. Ben would be fine for a day, and Five could relax without Dad looming over his shoulder.

Five finished his breakfast quickly, dumping his plate in the sink. He ignored Ben’s calls as he hastily left the kitchen.

Rushing upstairs, he gathered his schoolwork into his duffle bag. Swinging it over his shoulder, he let the weight settle at his side. He feels a sense of urgency to make use of as much time away from his father as necessary. He can finally catch an opportunity to get out of the academy for a day, and he wasn’t going to waste it.

He doesn’t bother telling Mom on his way out, in case she’ll report it to Dad when he got back. He instead takes the fire escape through his window. 

Five scaled down the ladder, a bag slung over his shoulder. His shoes send an echo when they hit the ground. 

The day is bright, literally that is. The sun is shining through the alley, filtering in with warm rays. Five’s hands grip the strap of his bag, readjusting the weight as he walks. He had shoved every textbook he could get his hands on so he wouldn’t have to come back to the academy for a long while. It was annoyingly heavy, though.

The sunlight hit his face as he exited the alley. It was nice; the warm light washed over his pale face like a comforting blanket. He let his eyes flutter closed for a second, stilling his steps to enjoy the feeling. Open air unobstructed by thick stone flowed by him, a reminder that he was outside. Outside the academy and the ghosts haunting its halls.

It was a quick, easy walk to Klaus' apartment.

Five knocked impatiently on Klaus’ door. He could hear shuffling behind the door, like someone was dragging their feet and bumping into everything on their way there. The door swung open, and the smell of cigarette smoke hit Five’s nose, making him scrunch up his face in displeasure.

Klaus looked half asleep before his eyes focused on Five. His face immediately pulled into a smile. 

“Finally decided to visit your poor older brother.” He said in a mocking whine. Five rolled his eyes, shoving past Klaus. “Oh, c’mon, Fivey, don’t give me the cold shoulder.” He shut the door behind them, following Five back into the apartment. 

Five dumped his bag onto the counter with a heavy plop. Relieved to finally get the weight off his shoulder.

“Geez—watcha got in there? Seems heavy.” Klaus leaned over him and before he could respond, he was riffling through his stuff.

“Not liquor if that’s what you’re looking for.” Five says blankly. Klaus lets out a loud groan, dropping a textbook on the table.

“You’re so lame, Five.” 

“Whatever, not my fault you can’t solve a simple math problem for your life.”

“Why would I need math anyway?” Klaus says, pushing off the table and taking one of the thick books with him. “I mean, look at this slop, it’s all made up anyway.” He holds the textbook open to a random page, shoving it in Five’s face.

“First of all, everything is made up, and second of all, this is useful. It helps visualize concepts of space-time. Not to mention math is the reason anything works in the world.” Five says voice thick with condescension mixed in with one of his passionate ramblings. He snatches the book out of Klaus’ hands. Klaus lets it go, clearly losing interest in the conversation topic fast. 

“Sure, sure. Makes total sense.”

“Were you smoking again?” Five asks without looking up from his book. Klaus stiffens beside him.

“Can’t get anything by you, huh?” Klaus shrugs. Five glares at him.

“Take a shower or something you reek.” Klaus let out an offended squawk at this, Five pushed him out of his personal space. 

Even if the room did stink of smoke and a weird damp smell that seems to stubbornly insist on sticking around no matter how much Five tries to snuff it out, it was still a miles better place to be than the academy right now. Despite Klaus dancing over his nerves every chance he got.

Five only got a few problems done before Klaus returned and coaxed him away from his work, getting him in front of the TV and excitedly explaining the plot of his newest shitty reality show. 

Klaus is pushy today. This isn’t necessarily out of the ordinary, but today he seems akin to a lost puppy, basically clinging to Five’s side with his not-so-subtle attempts at physical contact. Apparently Five can’t not see him for a week before he starts to get worried and clingy. Five can deal with it as long as he lets Five drink as much of his coffee as he wants. Even if he can’t make a good cup of coffee to save his life.

He’s acting weird, though. Five will catch his eyes lingering on him, his brows pitched together ever so slightly, mouth curved into a slight frown. It infuriates Five, if he wants to say something, he might as well go out and say it.

Five hadn’t been in the mood for Klaus’ antics anyway, choosing some space documentary and sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table. He dropped his physics textbook and notebooks down in a flurry of pages.

“One of those days, huh?” Klaus asks, leaning over the couch, eyes moving over Five and to the TV. Five doesn’t give him a response, sipping on his mediocre coffee and absentmindedly flipping through the pages of his book, fingers gliding by the smudged notes that adorned every page. “You’re no fun.” He whines, dropping down on the couch, sending a pillow off the edge. 

Five gave him a blank look before reaching back to his book, the sleeve of his blazer slipped down further the dark bruises on his wrist met the air for a second before he quickly pulled it back up. He can hear Klaus suck in a breath, but for the sake of his work, he elects to ignore it furiously scribbling some notes down.

He gets at least a page in before he gets hungry again, and honestly a little bored. Klaus had decided he had better things to do evidently and had wandered off into his room, probably mumbling out some stupid excuse Five hadn’t been paying attention to. He seemed a little airy, distracted by something Five couldn’t see. Five let him be for the moment.

Sometimes he just gets like that.

Wandering into the kitchen he riffled through everything he could reach in the cabinet with little interest. It was mainly sugary cereals and canned foods that Five didn’t really want to put the effort into. He put his knee on the counter, pulling himself up to peer into the top shelves. Shoved way into the back he can see a box of graham crackers. Five smiles to himself as he stretched out fingers grazing the edges of the box. It’s knocked closer to him, sending a puff of dust into his face. Five sneezed as the dust invaded his nose, causing one of his knees on the edge of the counter to slip over the edge. Five barley has time to let out a yelp before his gravity begins to shift. 

The floor jumps at his face, instinctively his hands come up to catch his fall. He expects to feel the hard contact and shooting pain of hitting the floor, instead his hands collide with something soft. It gives under his weight and Five’s face collides with the fabric as he bounces slightly at the recoil. 

In the kitchen the box of graham crackers crashes into the floor.

“Five!” Klaus shouts barreling into the room, phone clutched in his hand clearly mid-conversation. Five looks up just now realizing he was sprawled over the couch. “What happened?!” His voice raises in panic as his eyes sweep around the room. Five follows him dumbly, mind still spinning widely with confusion. 

“Uhh…” He opens his mouth to say something but something strong and copper drips on his tongue. Five brings his hand up to his face whipping at his nose. When he pulls his hand away seeing a smudge of red across the back of his hand. “I fell?”

Klaus lets out a breath running a hand through his hair. Usually he’d laugh it off but there is a deep tiredness lining his features, it's weird to see him so serious. He mutters something into the phone before hanging up. “Jeez, Fiver you're even more clumsy than Luther.” Klaus moves around the couch helping Five up by his elbow. 

“I wouldn’t know.” Five says bitterly. He doesn’t even mean to, feeling bad when Klaus’ grip on his falters. Five doesn’t look at him, instead choosing to rub at his nose more trying to keep the blood from dripping all over the floor. 

Fingers reach over his head, suddenly pitching his nose.

“Oww!” He snapped swatting at Klaus’ hand. Klaus, seemingly snapping back into himself, laughs good-naturedly. 

“Nuh uh Fivey, let your favorite big brother take care of you.” He said in a sing-song voice free hand on Five’s back leading him to the small bathroom down the hall.

It ended with Five sitting on the edge of the tub with Klaus having shoved a bunch of toilet paper at his face.

“I can never remember if you're supposed to hold your head back or forward?” Klaus muses as he wipes the blood off Five’s hands. Five rolls his eyes, it’s pretty much done bleeding anyway. Klaus’ fingers suddenly brush across the bruises on his wrists. Five jumps ripping his hand back from him. He glares at Klaus cradling his arm away from him.

“Sorry.” Klaus mutters as he stands up throwing the blood paper towels in the trash can. Five watches him warily as he washes his hands. The atmosphere falls back into this weird mood. It’s suffocating, Five hates it. He comes here because he doesn’t have to think about these things, he comes here because he didn’t think Klaus cared about anything. His somber mood is infuriating, and most of all it unsettles Five. He just wants things to be normal after the week he just had.

“You want some ice cream.” Klaus smiles at him. Five huffs to himself rolling his eyes.

“Of course.”

He shoves Klaus' hand away when he offers to pull him up. For the sake of his pride he pushes himself up trying to hide the unsure wobble in his step. Klaus hands hover in the air around him but shy away from contact like Five might bite him if he strays too close.

Briefly he considers it. 

Five rubs at his face one last time before following Klaus out of the bathroom. The air around them is still fogged in that weird tension, and Five just wants everything to go back to normal. This is the one thing he just wants to be normal, but it seems the academy has ways of bleeding into every aspect of his life. 

Hunching his shoulders up, Five feels bitterness build in the back of his throat. Glaring at the back of Klaus' head, he tries to focus on anything else. 

Klaus dances around the mess in his kitchen, not even bothering to pick up whatever Five had knocked over. He didn’t even question why there were graham crackers strewn across his floor, and Five didn’t offer an explanation.

Not that he could give one that didn’t sound batshit insane. He wouldn’t believe himself either. He can’t tell anyone until he knows what's wrong with him.

They settle back down by the TV, Five’s textbooks all but forgotten as Klaus flips through the channels listlessly. 

Five leans against the arm of the couch, the light from the TV flickers across his face. His eyes burn slightly and he can feel the beginnings of a headache crawling its way up his skull. Five glanced at his brother’s face.

It’s uncomfortably silent.

Klaus is never supposed to be this quiet, it’s just not his nature.

“Was Mom always like this?” Five breaks the silence. 

“Huh? Like what?” Klaus seems startled at the question, or maybe the new noise breaking through the monotonous switching tones of the TV.

“Loopy–you know…” Five searched for the least offensive words “Distant.” He settled on.

“What, no.” He laughed like Five had told a joke. “She’s always doing the most, I mean you couldn’t meet a more involved mom. I mean, I don’t think Reggie would keep her around otherwise.” Klaus added with a shrug.

Five feels his heart twist uncomfortably. He stays silent for a second, darting from the ice cream in his lap to the books and papers scattered about. Another way Five is different from his siblings, another aspect of their childhood Five could never get.

“What’s up with Mom? Is she sick again or something?”

“Sick again?” Five asks, turning to look at his brother. Klaus just shrugs again.

“Not really sick, but you know that house just sucks the life out of a person. Sometimes she just seemed a little lost.” It seems more than sometimes these days. Something else stuck in his mind. Reggie wouldn’t keep her around otherwise. The words rang around his mind. It had gotten so bad that Efa temporarily had to step in, Mom had gone somewhere but Dad hadn’t seemed too worried.

Would he really get rid of Mom? 

“Earth to Five.” Klaus tapped Five with his foot. Five slapped him away with a grumble.

“What?”

“I asked if everything was all good. You seem a little… I don’t know, more bitchy than usual." Five only responded with a huff. The couch made a shuffling sound, and suddenly a weight was thrown over Five. Five yelped as he fell into the couch under Klaus’ weight.

“What the hell get off me!” Five shouted, throwing his arms about as his brother used him as a pillow.

“You’re all bones,” Klaus complains in a grumble. “Not comfortable at all.”

“Get. Off. Asshole.” Five grit out smacking the back of Klaus' head. Klaus only rolled over so Five was trapped under his back. He was either surprisingly heavy or Five was very weak. Either way he, like a stubborn stain, wouldn’t budge.

Five lets out a long, exasperated sigh. He can feel Klaus giggling above him, vibrations traveling through Five only worsening his headache.

“I’m starting to think you don’t appreciate me.” Klaus put on a ‘woes-me’ voice saturated with mock sadness. 

“I'm starting to think you're a dumbass."

“Don’t be like that, Fivey.” His weight slipped off Five. “I’m your favorite brother.” Klaus’ smug face stood strong against Five’s glare. “Now…”

Klaus plopped back down on the couch, jostling Five. “Why don’t you tell your favorite brother what’s really up at the academy? I know it’s not just about our dear mother.”

Five pushes himself up so he’s sitting straight up again. 

He should tell him.

Tell him about the tests, about Mom and Efa, about Dad’s strange behaviors. About the weird air of apprehension that choked out the academy.

About Ben

He should tell him about Ben.

Five opens his mouth, but the words don’t come. He’s not even sure where to start. He stills letting the silence lapse into uncomfortability. 

Klaus could barely keep himself safe and fed, really what could he even do for Five, much less a baby? The only thing telling him right now would do is stress him out. Five can figure things out on his own.

“Nothing. Nothing's going on.” Five pushed up from the couch, gathering his books into his arms. Klaus was scrambling up after him.

“Wait! C’mon, bond with me, man!” Klaus shouts after him. Five throws his bag over his shoulder, turning every time Klaus tries to get in front of him.

“Look, I have to go, Dad might be home soon.” And I left Ben with Mom. He doesn’t say it, but the thought cements itself in the back of his mind. Something about it fills Five with an uneasy feeling.

Klaus only responds with a dramatic, drawn-out sigh. Five glances over his shoulder to see that Klaus has at least stopped his pursuit. He seems vaguely annoyed at his wasted efforts. Five doesn’t allow himself to feel guilty for it, he has to go home eventually. He’d rather get home before Dad and not have to deal with any more punishments.

Five didn’t look back as he left the apartment, but Klaus’ words carried after him.

“You can stay, you know?”

It was weak, nothing more then a whisper. Like it slipped from his lips without his permission.

Five paused for a second, eyes still glued to the street ahead of him. 

He couldn’t, though. Not with Ben and Mom, even Dad’s plans seemed to keep him tethered to the academy in a way that he couldn’t easily sever those ties.

Five takes his time walking home, dragging his feet each step of the way.

Eventually he makes it to the front gates of the academy. He glances up at the imposing front of the academy. He only stares for a second before circling back to the fire escape that leads to his window. 

He readjusts his bag on his shoulder and grabs onto the cold steel of the metal. Pulling himself up with a grunt, his aching body protests each movement. Everything seems laced with a faint buzzing sound. His vision swirls slightly off center. 

He hauls himself over the edge of the window, getting his legs under him with more effort than he wanted to admit to. 

He throws his bag on the floor, the contents spill out. Five chooses to leave them there. Dragging his feet he flops down onto his bed with a huff. 

The moment of silence stretches on as the air seems to settle around him. He lies on top of his covers, staring at the ceiling as shapes dance across his vision. Distantly he can hear Mom moving around in the next room, laying Ben to bed. Mercifully, he doesn’t cry. The muffled voices carry down the hall, Five’s too tired to focus enough to make anything out.

Something was wrong with him. Whatever had been done to him was leaving him feeling beyond tired and sickly in a way he couldn’t place. Like something deep in his mind had shifted. Each block in his memory, where he found himself somewhere he wasn’t a second before, pushed it further and further. 

Did Klaus know? The whole time Five had been there, it seemed like there was a question hanging off the tip of his tongue, like he was too afraid to ask it. The way his eyes locked onto Five’s wrists, or his weirdly hidden phone call when he never seemed to care about privacy before.

He feels uneasy. Something is wrong.

The academy is silent, but Five’s mind is so incredibly loud.

Notes:

Sorry if this is kinda a boring chapter, but I wanted to add more Five and Klaus interactions. I'm finding it kinda difficult to keep in character tho. In other news, the other siblings will be making an appearance in the next chapter, finally lol. I remember adding them a lot sooner but ig not.

Notes:

So I’m still here I guess, I’m not sure how good this story actually is but I figured I would just post it because why not. I felt pretty bad for not following through on my other fic, which I still at this moment plan to finish, but I had this one from a while ago that I figured I could finish and post. This is almost finished, and it’s a pretty long story that will be updating every Monday and possibly Friday I haven’t decided. Anyway thank you so much for reading this far, I will continue to be in this fandom until I lose interest which won’t be anytime soon.