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Number Six’s powers were truly marvelous and quite interesting, and yet, he never wanted to talk about it. Everytime someone tries to tell him that he did a good job on a mission that day, or talk to him about the monster that lives underneath his skin, he changes the conversation or simply walks away.
It is no secret that he despises who or what has made a home of his body.
Which is why that it is no surprise that after the mission, Ben, all bloody and bruised, says nothing or shows no outward expressions as he slowly walks up the stairs and into the bathroom.
It’s normal at this point.
The thing is, Number Five was never not observant. He’s always had a knack of finding out secrets, knowing the truth, and being able to understand his surroundings as soon as he enters a room. It’s his thing, along with being smart, obnoxious, and slightly irritating. It’s his thing.
Once, he found out that Klaus stole one of Luther’s records. The song on it was “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley, and Allison despises that song, which leads him to believe that Allison “I Heard a Rumor-ed” him into taking it. Five just never told anyone because it was fun seeing him be irritated at not finding his favorite record. (Plus, that song sucks.)
The point is, he’s observant. Very, in fact.
He just wishes he wasn’t sometimes.
As he walks up the stairs after the mission, after Number One, Two, Three, and Four have long gone to their rooms, he hears the sounds of the shower on. That’s normal, but what isn’t is the quiet, almost soundless sobbing.
Coming from the bathroom.
Five’s walk slows down, and he stops in front of the bathroom, still facing towards the hallway. He contemplates.
Ben could, theoretically, be crying about anything. He could’ve stubbed his toe, and Five would’ve made a fool of himself if he barged in there and demanded to know if he was alright.
But he was his brother , how could he leave Ben to keep on weeping in the bathroom if he could do something about it? And that could be his excuse, right? If nothing really is happening, he could just use him wanting to care for his brother, just like Vanya did on him. Just play the sibling card, and everything will be fine.
Deep down, Five knows it’s not just a stubbed toe that he’ll be dealing with when Ben opens that door.
But he won’t be able to muster the courage to knock if he understands that.
So, he doesn’t.
Just make sure he’s alright Five. That’s all you have to do. Make sure he’s alright and then everything will be okay. Put your hand on the door and knock, Five. That’s all you have to--
The door opens.
Number Six, head down, dripping wet, runs into Five. Five stumbles a little, but doesn’t fall down, and holds Ben steady.
Five stills for a moment because Ben looks like he’s gonna pass out any second. His eyes are seeing something else (someone else?), his face is pale, and his hands are shaking. Five is more nervous than he lets on, and steadily asks, “...Ben? You okay, Bud?” Yes! He finally got the words out, but apparently not in time, because Six all but runs into his room and slams the door.
So much for being a caring brother.
But hey, at least he tried, that’s more than he can say for his other siblings, besides Vanya, although he was still confused by what exactly that encounter was. (Was it supposed to be comforting. Threatening? And they say he was supposed to be the smart one.)
Congratulating himself on a job well done, but still not quite feeling like he deserved it, Five goes to his room.
His sad, barren room.
It’s not like it was uncustomizable, he just didn’t think there was any point in doing so when Mom was decorating everyone else's. He’s not a child. He doesn’t need fancy wallpaper, or cute letters above his bed that spell out his name. He’s fine with his bed, desk, and nightstand. Perfectly fine. He doesn’t need distractions when he’s so close to figuring out how to time-jump without serious consequences.
If only Dad would let him experiment.
He goes to his desk and pulls out his journal. He takes out a pencil, and gets to work on the answer to the time-jumping problem.
…But he can’t focus.
For five minutes, he tries to read what he was previously working on, but he can’t comprehend a single thing he’s reading. The equations are all mixed up, but he knows if he tries to fix anything, he’ll mess it up even more. He scribbles nonsense in his notebook for just a little longer, hoping to ignite something in his brain.
He groans, and stands up.
He won’t get anything done when he knows Ben is probably in his room getting the noose ready. He’s worried. Not worried…. Just concerned. Yes, concerned. But he isn’t just concerned for Ben, for Number Six. They all get bad days. It’s part of the job. He just has to learn to suck it up, and deal with it, just like Five did.
He opens his door.
He’s concerned for everyone else’s sake. What if he’s all messed up the next time a mission comes? No one will be safe if The Horror is a no-show. He’s one of their most powerful offensive players. The things he does are ten times more effective than Klaus’ “Seeing-the-Dead” powers that never seem to work for them.
He walks down the hallway.
His power is valuable. He would put a lot of people in danger, including his family. Why wouldn’t he check on him if there would be lives at stake? What kind of a person does that make Five? Irresponsible. No, Number Five AKA "The Boy", is never irresponsible. He needs to make sure that everyone’s safe from Ben if he ever decides to Hulk-Out.
He knocks on Ben’s door, lost in his thoughts.
And besides, what harm is there in checking to see if his friend, his brother, is okay? Just a little camaraderie between teammates, that’s all. No one ever said he couldn’t do that, even Dad. Even if Dad did say that, Five would never listen, he’s far too stubborn and--
The door opens a crack.
Ben stands there, looking… exhausted. From what Five can see, he has a book in his hand (The Outsiders…), his skin is pale, and the bags under his eyes could house the tentacles in his chest. His hair looks as insane as Klaus’, and he’s wearing his “normal” people clothes.
Five is silent for a while, a little too long than what’s considered normal, but if we’re pointing fingers, so does Ben.
“What are you doing here?” Ben asks softly.
Five slowly exhales and says, “I wanted to see if you were okay. You… ran out of the bathroom pretty quickly.”
“I was cold. I just got out of a shower.” His hair hasn’t dried yet, and the water drips on his book ( The Outsiders… ) as if it heard him. His words are curt, to the point. Five won’t stand for it.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
Five smiles, “Well, I hope you don’t mind me hanging out in here, then!”
“Wh-- Wait, What are you doing?” Ben exclaims as Five pushes his way into Ben’s tidy, but also chaotic room. Number Five realizes in that moment, that he’s never been in Number Six’s room. He observes. His twin bed is covered in papers, and half of the curtains to his window are ripped off. That might be concerning, but that isn’t the most startling part. There are books everywhere , but they’re all in neat piles, some almost reaching the ceiling. And are those… textbooks?
“I said, ‘What are you doing’, Five?” Ben’s irritated voice brings Five out of his observations.
Good. He’s getting back to being his normal bratty self.
“What? I can’t hang out with my dear brother?”
Ben rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, “You don’t hang out with anyone.”
“That is true,” Five replies mindlessly as he picks up a book (Fahrenheit 451),“Have you read all of these books?”
Ben takes to the distraction, “Yeah, mostly.”
Number Five hums, and runs his fingers on the spines of piled up books, reading each title carefully. (Night, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Stardust, Hamlet, Le Petit Prince, The Alchemist, the list could go on and on.) Most were in English, but some were in French, Spanish, Italian, and even Russian, but all of them were completely different from one another.
Maybe Five wasn’t as observant as he thought he was.
He picked up Ben’s copy of Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban, sat in Ben’s bean bag chair, and started reading with no further reply.
Eventually, Ben sighed and took a seat at his bay window. He picked up The Outsiders.
A few minutes into their little reading session, Five disrupts the silence with a seemingly back-handed comment, “This is your fifth time reading The Outsiders.”
Ben tightens his grip on the book and he tenses slightly out of the corner of Five’s eye, not replying.
Five flips a page, “Dibs when you’re done.”
Ben finally untensed twenty minutes later as he read the remainder of The Outsiders, and the beginning Jane Eyre.
From then on, the songs of the birds were the only sounds that were made.
-
Minutes turned into hours, and eventually they had to come back to reality. Just as Hermione was showing Harry the time-turner, Mom came up and told them dinner time was commencing.
They walk down together to the dining room, and see everyone standing by their chairs.
They go to their spots at the dinner table, coincidently right next to each other, and wait for Dad to seat them.
As they start eating, they quickly drown out his voice in the speakers teaching them how to properly asphyxiate a human and have small, quiet side conversations.
Including them.
“Hey, Ben?”
“...Yeah?”
“Why the hell do you have math textbooks in your room?"