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The night Five disappears, she feels the most alone she had ever felt in her fourteen years of living. Being locked in her cell was nothing compared to the loss she feels on that warm, summer night; ironically, the complete opposite of what one should feel on a night like that. The others sat outside, absorbing the warmth of the setting evening sun, while all Vanya could do was sit inside and wallow in the cold left in Five’s wake. She makes a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich, on white bread with the crusts cut off, her brother’s favourite. Soon enough, it’s soggy with tears, a miserable excuse for a sandwich, and she knows Five would laugh if he were here. It’s okay! We can make another, he would say. But he’s not here, and she’s being ushered back to her cell, the soft shaky sounds of her violin trying and struggling in vain to fill the hole.
The first name Five can find himself calling out when the world has gone to shit and he’s surrounded by the ruins of his family home is Vanya . He cries out and begs, in the hope that maybe, maybe , she is somehow still around, just trapped under the rubble, or in a hidden bunker, or still in her cell deep below the ground. Except he finds nothing, and he is alone. Consumed by guilt, he sits down on a large chunk of rubble and lets hot tears burn down his cheeks. Letting himself cry and sob and whimper for the first time in ten years, since he realised early on at the tender age of four that the only thing crying would get him is a beating, and the only thing Vanya would get for trying to comfort him being the same.
“Why do you spend your time down here with me, when everyone else is out there?” Vanya murmurs softly, her voice heavy with insecurity and worry that the one person that wishes to be with her will realise how boring and normal she is, in her boring, quiet room, sitting on her drab bed with Five.
“I have all the time in the world to spend down here with you. You’re special.”
His sister sighs quietly, and looks down at her lap. “I’m not special.”
“When you grow up in a family of so-called ‘special’ people, your idea of normal and special becomes skewed. You’re special to me, because despite being powerless, you are still an exceptional person,” Vanya remains quiet again, and before she can open her mouth to object, Five is continuing, his hands steady on her shoulders, “You have a beautiful heart, Vanya. You care so incredibly deeply. One day, when the Umbrella Academy has faded away and our fleeting childhood fame has gone out the window, I know you’re gonna be the one that sticks around as a household name, because man, your violin skills are unreal! You’re gonna take the world by storm! I can’t wait to see you in sell out shows all over the world.”
Vanya cracks a smile at last, and hugs Five tightly. He returns the hug with just as much tightness and affection, and Vanya doesn’t feel so alone.
He looks exactly the same as he did when he disappeared, and Vanya feels her heart clench looking ahead at the sight of the boy that gave his best efforts to mend her broken parts all those years ago. It’s not until hours later when they’ve shut themselves away in one of the spare bedrooms that Vanya speaks up.
“I waited for you,” she whispers, fiddling with her hands, “I waited up every single night you were gone, praying and hoping that you were safe. That you’d appear into my room again like you always used to.”
Five stays quiet, and averts his gaze as guilt washes over him all over again.
“I would have taken you with me if I could. I’m sorryー”
“I used to leave sandwiches out for you and leave the lights on so that you would find your way home safely,” she continued shakily, ignoring that Five had even spoken, while hot tears threatened to fall, “Pogoー Pogo used to give me that pitiful smile whenever I swore you’d be back. God, Five, I was so alone without you. We have so much to catch up on.”
The pain and wobble of Vanya’s voice stung Five, and he let out a soft breath he didn’t even realise he was holding, as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders in an attempt to comfort her despite knowing a simple hug wouldn’t fix years of trauma and abandonment. It was a start, though, and Five swore to himself that they would solve the impending apocalyptic threat, even just to ensure he could spend an eternity fixing the damage of her isolation.
They’re propelled back in time as the world reaches its destruction, and despite the panic rising in his chest, Five smiles breathlessly at Vanya when she wakes up, because they have time. Time to mend the rift in their relationship that being stuck in the future caused, time to mend the world’s end, time to spend with his sister.
All the time in the world.