Chapter Text
The day had started off, as most things concerning Vanya were, quite ordinary.
Vanya kept her eyes on her own plate, refusing to give Five more attention than his tantrum, as she considered it, deserved.
They’d had a fight last night, about time travel again, and so they weren’t speaking. Vanya had timidly suggested Five wasn’t ready for time travel, that it wasn’t safe, (privately she doubted it was even possible) and he had, of course, taken great offense, storming out of her room in a splash of cold blue light. They hadn’t spoken since - Five hadn’t even spared her a glance.
But Vanya didn’t think she had been in the wrong, though she was becoming twitchier the longer this feud went on. Vanya wasn’t sure if Five had even noticed it – if he, absorbed in his own small world, even knew they were having a fight. Maybe Vanya had made the whole thing up.
But no. With annoyance she cut into her roast as forcefully as she dared; still making an effort not to scrape the plate too loudly for fear of incurring Reginald’s wrath. Time travel was all Five ever talked about these days, and it was beginning to irk Vanya. No, that’s generous – it had been irritating her for quite some time now. Five had always been a prideful, stubborn boy, but even Vanya’s once-endless patience for his wild theories and ramblings had worn thin this past week.
How was training? Vanya would ask politely, hands folded.
And Five would only scowl and pace wildly around the room, barely acknowledging her in his single-minded frustration. Reginald thinks I’m not ready, but that’s bullshit. What would the bastard know about time travel? It’s my power! Blah blah blah… This would go on forever until he would finally remember she was there, and then carelessly inquire about her violin playing or her studies. Only in a perfunctory way, it felt.
As if Five could be bothered to really care about Vanya’s violin playing when he had something as interesting as time travel on his mind, Vanya thought bitterly.
She had been afraid, truthfully. Afraid of losing him, afraid of being alone, afraid of Reginald. She was not naïve enough to think that Five would ever really listen to anyone but himself, and that scared her. He might be aggravating at times, and too ambitious, but he was still Vanya’s best friend, and what that was worth, what she was worth, she didn’t know.
If he left her behind to time travel, she wasn’t sure there would be enough here for him to want to come back.
Vanya glanced up from her roast and was not at all surprised to see Five glaring daggers at their father - the other children, like Vanya, awkwardly chewing and looking away in the tense silence of the dining room. His food untouched, elbows on the table – she looked away, and wished for this meal to be over with already.
Cut, bite, chew. Luther cleared his throat awkwardly, and opened his mouth as if about to speak. Then he peeked at Number Five’s furious expression, and closed it again.
Vanya slipped her pill into her mouth and swallowed it dry, anticipating the familiar way that the noise of the world dulled around her ever-so-slightly, dampening, everything a little smaller. Her annoyance at Five, so vivid just a moment ago, blurred and melted away.
Still, though. This whole 'time travel' thing was becoming unreasonable. Vanya rolled her eyes and reached for her water glass. She really hoped Five would get over this phase soon – he was obsessing, and it wasn’t healthy. It was exhausting.
The tips of her fingers had just brushed the cool crystal glass when Five, still glowering at Reginald without a spare scrap of attention for anything or anyone else, swept up his knife in one smooth motion and slammed it blade-down into the wood of the table with a thud.
Into the table, right through Vanya’s hand.