Chapter Text
There was lipstick on his collar again. He was never really sure when or how they got there but it seemed every shirt he wore had some color of lipstick on the collar. He knew he wasn't hallucinating it because Ben had been making comments. No matter what color the shirt there was always a stark contrasting smear of lipstick on the collar. It didn't help that there were vastly different colors either: light baby pink, hot pink, neon orange, weird blues and reds, multiple purples, on one occasion it had been a black smear.
The problem? Vanya didn't wear makeup. It didn't bother him since he didn't really put stock into it and knew she felt more comfortable without it. She definitely didn't wear lipstick either. So he was at a loss as to where the colorful smudges were coming from. The only thing he did know was that he wasn't having an affair and never would. He couldn't even comprehend why people did in the first place and thought it was beneath him.
So now he was investigating, mainly because it was Friday and he didn't have class, but also because he was curious. It wasn't snooping. Even if he technically was going through Vanya's things instead of his it was still his room so therefore not snooping. It was fine, she was at work teaching her kids about music and wouldn't know. He may have taken pictures of everything before moving it so he could cover his tracks. Which was a totally responsible thing to do in general after all he knew for a fact that Vanya kept pictures of all of their books on her phone, which she then forwarded to him, in case she found something either of them liked.
He decides to start with their closet first to see if she left any in her pockets. When he doesn't find anything he decides to search through her jewelry boxes and once again finds nothing. It's only when he decides to give up and assume he's delusional when a floorboard squeaks under his feet on her side of the bed that he second guesses himself. He kneels down and jimmies the board out of its spot to find a medium sized makeup bag with a handle on top. Frowning he pulls it out, opens it and is rather surprised to find tons of lipstick inside it. He realizes that all of which he's seen on his shirts multiple times when he inspects the colors.
He honestly isn't sure when the smears started appearing on his shirts. If he had to guess it had started about two months ago when Vanya had visited his class. He had unfortunately gotten a rather annoying student that liked to flirt with him. It didn't matter to him since he didn't indulge the girl and all of his colleagues knew how devoted he was to Vanya so he never thought much of it. Not until he got home that day and Vanya started slamming things on the cabinets while glaring at him.
He flinches slightly when she slams a coffee cup down on the cabinet. “What's wrong?” He asks warily, already knowing the answer.
“She's pretty.” She snaps out in reply.
He gulps when he sees the windows shake a little from the vibrations of the cup. Her power leaking out from her anger. Normally he'd let her cool off by herself and listen to her instruments calm her down but she had been acting weird and he wasn't sure why.
“It happens every year V, you know that. I'm not interested in anyone else and she's an annoying kid anyway. They all are. It'll die down soon. I'll talk to her if you want me to, or I could get one of my assistants to do it if that would make it better?” He tries to reason with her.
He puts his hand on her shoulder to try to turn her around and smiles at her when she does. She looks up at him with pain in her eyes that he doesn't understand. He wants to sure. He knows she still has doubts that she deserves love or feels like she has to earn it somehow. Even now he's come home and caught her standing like their father wanted her to with perfect posture and a fake smile on her face. Like if she didn't then he wouldn't love her anymore. Every time she did he just raised an eyebrow at her and let her slowly remember that she wasn't on some god damned reward system. He'd smile through the mumbled apologies and kiss her forehead and her face through them.
“It's just,” She lets out a long exhale neither knew she was holding in, “we're so different! I mean you're super smart and I'm just…. me. I mean everyone knows I'm married, all my coworkers know it's to you but every time I get a new class and I show them your picture and say it's to you they're skeptical and it's annoying! Then I come visit you at work just to watch your students flirt with you?!”
“V,-” He starts out only for her to interrupt him by leaning her head on his chest and curling her fingers into his shirt.
“It's fine,” She mumbles against him. “I know it's a thing, and I know that you only have eyes for me but sometimes…. it's just hard. It's stupid…. We're twenty-three and happily married but I'm still acting like an insecure teenager because some girl has a crush on my husband.”
He wraps his hand under her chin and tries to keep a smile off his face. Knowing that she'll view it as him patronizing her instead of in a loving way. Tries to show how much love he has for her in his eyes when she whines at him and tries to pull her head away.
Leans down and nuzzles his nose behind her ear.
“How about we change that then?” He licks the shell of her ear and feels himself smile against her.
“Fiiiivvveee.” She whines out and smacks his chest.
One minute they're standing in the kitchen and she's yelling at him and the next he's attacking her throat with his teeth. Something primal in him settles as he picks her up and sets her on the cabinet. Growls against her throat and pushes her head to the side roughly.
Vanya subconsciously runs her hand over her tattoo as she paces in her classroom. She stops in front of her double sided mirror on her desk and smiles when she sees the marks on her neck that Five left. It had become a strange habit of theirs for him to leave marks on her skin. She knew that they were adults and that she probably shouldn't let her husband mark her neck up but she was selfish and enjoyed watching the shocked looks she got from others. She especially enjoyed when she visited Five in a regular shirt, her neck on full display, and watched the girls that had obvious crushes on him widen their eyes with realization when she grabbed Five by his tie in front of all to see and smirked at him just before kissing him.
It was fun. They had a rhythm going now after ten years of being together. They typically ordered in on fridays and had a lazy day since Five was off and she was typically tired after work. The kids were always more riled up on friday because the weekend was so close. So they were her lazy days too. Saturdays she and Five graded papers and sundays they were either grading papers still or having date night. They tried to do it every couple of weeks or at least twice a month but sometimes life got away from them.
They hadn't always been in as great a place as they were now. She wanted to say that dating Five had felt as normal as breathing but in reality? It had been… strange. It hadn't been weird like it was something forbidden more like it had been expected. Way more expected than she had thought. It had taken them a few weeks for them to admit their feelings for each other and when they did they were even more inseparable than before.
She remembers the first time they had wanted to spend the night together. How nervous she had been because unlike Five she was surrounded on all sides. Sure Klaus had soundproof walls because Reginald got tired of hearing him scream all night but everyone else's walls were thin.
“I could teleport in?” He had commented like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“I know but it still makes a sound. I know we probably don't have to worry about Klaus but Diego is a freaking night owl and stays up until four in the morning stabbing his walls. Meanwhile Allison plays loud music to drown it out if she's not in Luther's room. Seriously how do they get away with that even when we're in the second timeline? Do you think it's weird? I think it's weird.”
“Vanya-” He placed his hands on her shoulders to try to calm her down. Sensing her impending spiral.
“There's also Ben! I mean I know he's more by you than me but we are directly across from each other and I swear he's rigged the vents somehow. Oh wait, that may have been Diego. I think? You know now that I think about it I think Ben may not have a problem with it. I'm not sure. I didn't even know I had powers until I was thirty and we all know how that went so what do I know anyway right?” Her breath came out quick and she was feeling dizzy for some reason.
She felt him move her over to his desk and had her sit down in the chair. She had completely forgotten they were in his room or why they were there in the first place. Could hear him saying something to her calmer than she had ever heard him before, in that special tone he only reserved for her and a worried look in his eyes as he kneels down so they were eye level.
“-It's okay. Just breathe. We don't have to do anything if you don't want to. It's fine. Deep breathes. It's alright.”
“No! No, no, no, no, no. That's not! I'm not saying I don't want to! I just, I get… stuck…. in my head sometimes and it's weird and stupid and annoying and now I'm rambling and you don't want me to do that…. I'm gonna stop now.”
She heard him laughing at her and remembered getting annoyed. Sure she had gotten a fuzzy warmth inside her when he laughed but he was still laughing at her.
“You think I don't get stuck in my head? I mean come on Vanya. You've literally had to drag me out of here by my ties in order to get me to eat or socialize because I've gotten stuck for so long before.”
“That's not the same.” She mumbled out. She always had thought it odd that he compared complex math to emotions sometimes but figured it was just how he explained things to himself.
Now they were free to go out whenever they wanted. They were married, happily in fact. Had cut off ties with Reginald when they all turned eighteen and got the hell out of dodge. Then had all met up for their respective weddings: Allison had gotten married to a guy that was very much not her first husband but they seemed to be happy and she didn't use her powers on him or their kids. Claire was still in the picture and also a twin. She was second born while her brother Colby was first. Ben and Klaus got married next and were now discussing adoption if what Ben told Five was true.
She and Five had gotten married last because of their anxieties. She still has issues believing she deserves to be happy and Five was always looking over his shoulder for the commission to come take everything away. When they had bought their house he installed a highly locked gun room.
“Just in case.” He had said with shaking fingers.
Now they were happier than they had ever been. She had friends outside of family and work as did he. She often held discounted lessons in their home for kids who wanted to learn music but couldn't afford the higher classes given around the city. Five was still stuck in his ways and thought that math was more important than people most of the time but he still had friends outside of work too. She honestly still wasn't sure how and was fairly positive he didn't either. Neither really questioned it though because it got him out of the house or his classroom and he seemed genuinely happy when he was around them.
It didn't mean that they weren't oddly possessive of each other though. Five had a habit of leaving more than just hickies on her neck. Honestly the hickies were the last and most innocent thing he left on her. She was much more used to fingerprints etched onto her hips or sides and bite marks in her skin. She often left scratches down his back or on his chest in turn. On one occasion she had wrapped his wrists up a bit to tight and he had come home saying he hadn't been able to teach all day because of it. Any time he tried to they glanced at his wrists and gave him a knowing look until eventually he just shoved his face in a book at his desk and ignored all of them.
The first time he had left a hickey on her neck she hadn't even realized it. The pain had been gone by the time she got up in the morning and she very rarely looked at the tattoo on her own skin even though she touched and looked at her husbands’ quite often.
“Bethy? Stay after the bell please.” She had said to one of her students when she saw the purple bruise adorning the girls’ neck.
“Am I in trouble? Is it about the test because if it is then I can do better. I just didn't get enough sleep.”
“What? No, no. It's not about the test. It's just… Well you seem to have a hickey on your neck and I wasn't sure if you were aware. You may want to cover it before your next class is all.”
“Um, thanks but you may want to look in the mirror before telling us to hide ours. Especially since yours seems to be bigger than mine.” The girl had replied with a smug look on her face.
A mix of panic and confusion ran through her as she watched the girl leave both of which because Five had always been very cautious about leaving marks on her that could be seen by other people after she scolded him the first time. So for it to happen at work and for one of her kids, all of her kids, to have seen it was incredibly unprofessional. She paced in front of her desk and finally picked up her phone and called her overly possessive husband to yell at him when the last of her kids sat down.
She had gotten his voicemail. Of course she did.
“Mateo Five Hargreaves! I don't know what you think you're playing at but this. Is. Not. Funny! I mean seriously? Why?! Just why? Of all the inconsiderate! I can't even! Ugh! I am going to kill you!” She tossed her phone back into her purse and exhaled angrily. Closed her eyes for a deep breath only to be interrupted by someone coughing loudly.
She looked up to see her very own inconsiderate asshole of a husband looking like he was both caught red handed and also like a deer in headlights. He had one foot in front of his other one like a part of him wanted to reach for her but knew better. His arms were fidgeting at his sides while his eyes scanned her face for any clues. Her students on the other hand were looking at him like he was some kind of mythical being that just popped up out of nowhere. She supposed that unless you were used to it or knew his ability then that's sorta what he was.
“I'm confused… why exactly are you mad at me?”
“What kind of weird superpower shit do you have that gets random hot guys to appear out of nowhere and can you do it again?” One of her students asked from behind him while the others eye him suspiciously.
She groaned and pinched her nose in frustration before she answered.
“Class, husband. Husband, class.” She motioned between them as explanation. “Everyone good now? Great, because I'm going to yell at him some more!”
“Why are you mad exactly?” Five asked, stopping his fidgeting and instead looked at her like she asked him for a weird present.
She tried so very hard to look anywhere else and not at him but she failed. Oh she failed so bad. That one look made a major part of her want to stop her stupid anger and a small part of her to kiss his stupid face. The ever present chalk dust was on his hands and somehow on his elbows. His sleeves were rolled up again and he was wearing a black watch on his right wrist. She could feel her anger ebbing away the more she looked at him and decided that love was stupid. Thankfully her students piped up and reminded her exactly why she was mad in the first place.
“She's probably pissed because you gave her that big hickey on her neck.”
“What?! Are you kidding me! If I had a man like that I wouldn't ever complain about a few love marks!”
“Wait. Are you really mad that I gave you a few hickeys? Seriously?”
“Of course I'm mad! I mean it's not like I check my neck before we leave every morning so I had no idea I had this! We are adults and this should not be happening!”
“Okay so… you want me to stop?”
“Yes Five I want you to stop!”
The memory echoes in her head as she throws up the sandwich she just tried to eat in the middle of teaching. She could feel their concerned stares on her as she rushes out of the room just after grabbing her purse. She hadn't been feeling well the past few weeks and had chalked it up to a random stomach bug. Well she had until Five had commented that he hadn't had to buy her ice cream lately, which she had learned was his way of saying shark week hadn't come yet.
So she had been responsible and had bought ten, which may have actually been twenty, pregnancy tests. Unfortunately she wasn't so responsible to have actually taken any of them yet; just stored them in her purse and under the bathroom sink for future use.
She's staring at six of them now in one of the small stalls. All of them are perched in a neat circle on the toilet seat and say the same thing at different variations: two solid lines, a plus, the word positive. Meaning one thing: she was pregnant. She felt like the world was crumbling around her all at once. There was absolutely no way she could care for a child. Didn't even begin to know how to change a diaper if she was being honest. Plus there was the fact that Five doesn't even like kids.
She could not care for a child. Granted they were stable now. They had friends outside of family. Didn't speak to Reginald anymore. They were close with the others now even though they all lived all over the place. She has a stable job that she loves and loves her adoring husband, who also loves his job. Which honestly begged the question of why she was freaking out over having a baby in the first place? They could do this.
Unless her powers got to out of control because they were based on her emotions and babies are volatile little demons anyway so really she would probably end up murdering her own child on accident because they were both upset at each other over something stupid and completely fixable. Especially since she had murdered almost all of their nannies when they were little and the one she didn't kill was because they were a robot specifically created to be able to withstand her budding powers. Yep. They are definitely doomed.
Five hears her words of them being adults echoing in his head as he puts the box of lipstick back in its hole in the floor and covers it back up. The particular memory had been from when Vanya first started teaching but the words still rang true. So he wasn't really sure why she felt the need to hide that she likes lipstick or that she had been putting it on his shirt collars. Maybe she was worried he'd judge her? The shirt thing is a bit weird but he’s positive she has a reason for it.
Regardless he needs to know the truth. He doesn't even check the time before he jumps to her classroom. He really should have checked the time. Realizes this immediately when he pops out in the middle of one of her classes to gawking teenagers and a very stressed Vanya sitting at her desk and nervously messing with the papers on it..
“V? You okay?” She jumps a bit in her seat at his words and blinks rapidly at him like she's catching up with reality.
“Oh god, you're real.” She mumbles out after finally settling.
“Yep. Mhmm. I'm fine. Totally. Definitely fine. It's fine. Everything's fine. It's not…. I'm not freaking out.... No, I'm fine. Completely fanatic even.” She rambles out from behind the desk.
“Okay? You wanna talk about whatever you aren't freaking out over?” He asks from his spot.
“No, because I'm not freaking out. It's fine. I'm fine. Why do have lipstick on your shirt? Oh my god you're having an affair. Yeah okay, that's fine. It was only a matter of time really. I mean ask anyone-”
“-What? No! I'm not…. Vanya I'm not having an affair!”
“Then why do you have lipstick on your shirt!”
“Maybe because you put it there from your weird secret stash of them that you hid under the floorboards!”
“Oh. Right. Yeah I did do that. It was Klaus's weird idea. Stupid way for me to mark you or something. He said it was a girl thing. It's stupid.” She sniffles out and wipes her face.
“Girl, you hide your lipstick under floorboards? Nuh uh! We need to have a chat pronto.” One of her students yells out.
“No offence but I'm pretty sure Mr. H would rather cut his own eyes out than cheat on you Mrs. H.” Another comments.
“Yeah. See? Thank you random student very much for that comment.”
“No problem teach’.”
“Now what is going on with you?”
“Nothing!” She yells out at them with oddly renewed anger. Tries to hold tears and sobs back as she starts shaking until she just falls down into her chair and gives up.
“It's just that I'm a horrible person and I'll probably accidentally kill them because of my powers and I've already had issues before! Plus once he finds out he'll probably try to take me away and experiment on them and then torture me or something!” Tears flow from her eyes as she's talking and only get worse with each new word that comes out.
“What are you talking about? No one is taking anyone away V. You aren't making any sense.” He wants to go to her, wrap his arms around her and tell her everything is alright but the windows are already shaking from her excess use of her ability and his feet are rooted to where he stands.
“I'm pregnant okay?! You got me pregnant and you don't even like kids! So congratulations I guess!!” Her laptop screen cracks from the pressure of her voice. Eerie silence befalls the room after. Like everyone is afraid to even move and expects something else to happen.
“What?” He hears himself echo out of his mouth. The word sounds hollow on his tongue and his brain feels like two random rocks rubbing against each other for friction. Trying as hard as they can to make a spark but ultimately fail to do so.