Work Text:
Diego, 15 Days Post-Book
Vanya was just about to sit down to eat her dinner when she heard something slide under her front door. She paused, almost scared to turn around since she knew someone was evidently stood right in the hallway. Vanya waited a few moments, as she heard the person’s footsteps grow distant, before she ambled over to her door. It was a letter, and it was directed to Number Seven. Vanya gulped. None of her siblings were really the type of people to write letters, never mind hand deliver them. Diego and Klaus were the only two people to know her current address. It had been radio silence from both ever since the book had been released. She tentatively opened the envelope with shaking hands.
“Dear Vanya, thanks for spilling our darkest secrets to the world. I hope it was worth it. Do you know how hard I have to work to make sure no one treats me differently because of who I am? I wear long sleeve shirts in the dead of summer, so that people don’t recognise the umbrella brand that dad forced on us. That part was heartbreaking... poor little Vanya, it must’ve hurt so much to not have a fucking tattoo at 13 years old. The press are interested in us again, which you must be freaking loving. I guess you missed out on all the fun the first time around. They put a picture of me in the newspaper, you know? I lost my job, and now I have people giving me shit about my stutter. Dad and One Luther might have deserved this but we didn’t. Especially not Ben and Five. Ben’s dead Vanya, you should’ve left him out of it. He didn’t deserve to have all of his traumas laid out to the world. You know how hard it was for him when he would come home covered in blood. I would listen out for a short white woman on the police radio, even asked my cop friend to look out for you. I know we weren’t the best siblings but we also weren’t the monsters you made us out to be. You couldn’t have even warned me?”
Vanya couldn’t have brought herself to read the rest of the letter even if she’d had the mental capability, her eyes were so blurred by tears. It physically hurt her to consider that Diego had probably written it as a letter since he couldn’t stutter that way. She dropped the letter as though it were a grenade and stumbled backwards, resting against her kitchen counter. Vanya reached a hand into her pocket and pried off the cap of her pill bottle. She swallowed two dry. That was it, things were ruined - she was never going to see Diego again. Vanya didn’t have to read more of the letter to know she was as good as dead to him. Her heart was beating like a frantic drum in her chest. What had she done?
—
Klaus, 29 Days Post-Book
Vanya was woken from her admittedly light slumber by a harsh banging at her front door. She turned to face her alarm clock and saw it was 3am. She didn’t believe in omens or the devil, but her gut feeling agreed with superstition - this wasn’t going to end well. She dragged herself from her bed and ambled over to her mirror, checking she didn’t look too disheveled. The banging grew louder as she grabbed her robe from where it had been hanging on her bedroom door. She began pacing towards her front door, when she realised she probably shouldn’t go empty handed. She panicked and grabbed a large frying pan from her kitchen cabinet; she really needed to buy a bat...
Vanya got on her tip toes to look out the peep hole, but it was too dark in the hallway to make out who was there. She sighed as she braced herself to open the door. Pulling it open a slither, she could make out Klaus’ disheveled form. Vanya felt a wash of relief, and allowed the door to open slightly wider. Klaus looked at the frying pan that Vanya was white knuckling, and stifled a snort.
Vanya waited for him to speak, but he just leaned against her doorframe and stared at her. His pupils were so large she could see her own reflection in them. “Royalties!” he eventually barked, shoving his hand out at her like a beggar with a cup. It took Vanya a moment to grasp the situation. “I... I uh...” she murmured, slack jawed. “Come onnnnn...” he groaned, slamming his head further against the doorframe. “I gave you such good content!” he slurred, giving Vanya his very best puppy dog eyes. Vanya was dumbfounded, only opening and closing her mouth like a fish. Klaus grew impatient, rolling his eyes so dramatically he threw himself off balance and nearly toppled over. Vanya awkwardly dropped her frying pan and shuffled into her apartment to fetch her wallet. She only had $20 in cash, and an old bus ticket.
Nervously, she walked back over to her door. Klaus was chewing frantically on his thumb nail. “Here, it’s all I have.” she apprehensively held the $20 out to her brother, wary of his reaction. Klaus snatched it from her in an instant, and then took a moment to focus his vision onto the note. “Twenty dollars?!” he pouted like a petulant child. Vanya stared down at the ground, biting at her lip. There was a cold chill in the hallway. “My chapter was the most fun!” Klaus pleaded.
“It’s really all I ha-“ Klaus cut her off by sticking his gangly arm through the gap and pointing at a bottle of whiskey resting on her kitchen counter.
Vanya shut her eyes with despair, but ultimately turned around to comply. She grabbed the bottle from the counter, and felt the weight of it tug on her arm. As she neared the door, Klaus made giddy grabby hands. Vanya reached the bottle out towards him, and he once again snatched it from her grasp. A huge grin crossed his face. “See ya, Vanny!” he cheerily exclaimed as he stumbled back down the hallway. “Oh, Ben said his favorite book was Little Women... not Gate Gratsby.” Klaus slurred over his shoulder. Vanya released a shaky sob as she closed her door.
—
Allison, 42 Days Post-Book
Vanya was trudging through the rain on her way back from rehearsal. She could barely see over her soaking wet hood. As she neared her apartment building, she noticed her sister’s radiant face on the cover of Teen Vogue. Vanya awkwardly approached the newsstand, and gaped at the magazine. ”WE HAVEN’T TALKED IN YEARS”... the headline read. She hastily grabbed it from its hook and bought it without a second thought.
Vanya scurried up into her apartment as quick as she could, she’d tucked the magazine into her coat to protect it from the rain. She was drenched, but didn’t even bother to shed a layer of clothing as she plonked herself on her couch. She had to know what Allison had said. Would she ever forgive her? Her brothers surely wouldn’t... Vanya flipped to the page listed on the cover, and scanned through the article frantically.
”She was always so jealous” Allison explained, clearly upset recalling their childhood.
Teen Vogue: “Do you agree with what was written in Extra Ordinary: My Life as Number Seven?”
”Somewhat...” Allison’s eyes gleamed with tears “she was right that our dad was abusive, but I think a lot of what she said was just her hurt talking”.
Teen Vogue: “Would you say all the secrets she shared were truthful?”
The Leaping on Love star blushed slightly. “I think it’s fair to say our family has had some... troubled members,” she brushed her luxurious curls behind her ear “but I don’t know if everything she wrote is true. Maybe the embellished truth”.
Teen Vogue: “Do you think you can ever forgive her?”
Vanya shoved the magazine down, too petrified to read Allison’s response. She’d only ever had one sister, and now she’d lost her - and it was all her own fault. They’d never been close, and they truly hadn’t spoken in years... at least not about anything important. Maybe Allison was right; had it been her hurt talking? What if she remembered her childhood as more traumatic than it had objectively been. Had her siblings really been so bad to her? Vanya knew her dad was a terrible person, but her siblings... Diego’s letter was probably right. She had just wanted the attention she’d missed out on the first time around. It had felt so good to get everything off her chest, to expose the Umbrella Academy for what it really was - but at what expense? It hadn’t been worth it, Vanya thought as she sobbed silently. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d had a real conversation with Allison, yet she decided to air all her dirty laundry to the world. Vanya forced her bleary vision back onto the interview.
”She’s my sister,” Allison replied with a smile “she’ll always be my sister - my only sister”.
Allison’s answer just made Vanya cry harder. She couldn’t get herself to believe she deserved forgiveness. She dragged herself up from her couch and threw the magazine into her waste paper basket. Vanya wished she had done that with her manuscript before she published it.
—
Luther - 549 Days Post-Book
Vanya had learnt to accept that she would never hear from Luther again. She expected as much, he always defended dad over everything else. Her book hadn’t exactly been kind to him, either. Every time she saw Allison on the tv, or a magazine, she would feel her blood run cold. The guilt had been eating her up for over a year. She’d had a couple run ins with Diego, and Klaus since their responses to her autobiography - but they hadn’t been good experiences. The book had actually made her mental health worse overall, which was ironic since it was her therapist who suggested writing in the first place. She should’ve just kept it to herself, never sent it to a publisher. It was a stupid idea that she could never take back.
Vanya had just closed the door on the violin student she’d been tutoring, when her home phone started to ring. The sound startled her, she didn’t really get calls... it was probably a student booking. She was too tired to arrange something, but she knew she had to if she wanted to pay her rent. Vanya stepped over to her phone and picked up the receiver. Putting it to her ear, she readied herself for an awkward conversation. She was always too shy on the phone. What she didn’t expect was Luther’s voice on the other line.
”Vanya,” he grunted awkwardly, no doubt struggling just as much as Vanya. She didn’t think they’d ever spoken on the phone, even before her book. Even though she wanted the ground to eat her, it was a relief to hear his voice. He had barely done any public missions in a long time - she’d been worried about him.
”Hi Luther...” she mumbled, totally out of her comfort zone. What was she supposed to say? Ask him about the weather?
Luther sighed heavily down the phone. “Look, I...” he paused, seemingly trying to find the right words “I’m going on a mission.” Vanya furrowed her brow in confusion, she wasn’t sure why he’d call her to tell her that. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. Was this a practical joke? “It’s uh... it’s a big mission.” Luther clarified. Vanya felt her stomach doing somersaults. “I just wanted to let you know, incase anything goes wrong in takeoff.” Takeoff?! What was dad forcing him to do now? This didn’t sound good, it sounded too risky.
“Thank you?” she mumbled. She wasn’t sure how else to respond. Vanya knew there was no point in trying to get more information from Luther - he’d never tell her about something as secretive as an important mission. “Goodbye, Vanya.” he sighed before he hung up. Vanya stood still with the dead phone-line ringing in her ear for a few moments. She was too shocked to even put the receiver back down. What if that was the last time she ever spoke to her brother... Vanya shakily put her phone down, and shuffled over to her kitchen to grab her trusty bottle of pills.