Chapter Text
When Five had suggested to Vanya that they somewhat publicize their relationship, only to one or two of their siblings, he hadn’t expected everything that spiraled out of control after it had been revealed. Maybe because it wasn’t Five or Vanya that had been the ones to reveal it.
Five had been honestly surprised that he and Vanya had been able to keep their relationship a secret in their house for nearly three whole years. They’d gotten together when they were thirteen, in an exchange of sorts after Vanya had convinced him to wait on the whole time traveling thing. And as it neared their sixteenth birthday Five wanted to at least tell Ben and maybe Klaus about their relationship. Vanya did not, and nearly panicked at the mere suggestion that someone else knew.
He’d suggested telling Ben, and maybe Klaus, a mere week before they’d been outed by the two worst possible people to be caught by, (okay, really the third and fourth worst to be caught by, only behind Dad and Pogo, but the point still stands) Luther and Allison.
When Allison and Luther had walked into Five’s room, without knocking mind you, and caught Five and Vanya sitting far too close to each other to ‘just be friends’ (something Allison and Luther knew quite well), and it certainly didn’t help that Five had still been pulling away from pressing a rather chaste kiss (especially for him) from Vanya’s lips as they did. Five knew there would be the imminent tattling by at least Luther, and likely Allison, to their father to get back into his good (or at least not despised like his other subjects children) graces after being caught, again , sneaking around at night.
And less than an hour of being barged in on, just after he’d barely managed to keep Vanya from nearly bawling her eyes out because she, they, were going to be in so much trouble, Pogo was rapping several knocks on Five’s bedroom door, clearly sent to collect Five and Vanya and bring them to their father. Five could practically feel Vanya shaking with anxiety and fear, nearing on the edge of tears again, so Five steeled himself into being the typically more cocky and arrogant of the two of them.
That’s not to say that Five wasn’t the slightest bit worried about the inevitable punishments they’d be getting. Him for ‘wasting time’ with Vanya, and Vanya for ‘distracting him’ from what exactly was never said. Regardless, Five hoped that if he could take most of the blame, then maybe Vanya wouldn’t get too bad of a punishment.
And, to an extent, it had worked, Vanya was only punished with extra chores during their next free time. Once Vanya’s punishment was doled out, she was dismissed and escorted back to her room by Pogo, which was odd since their father typically kept them (whoever all was getting in trouble) until he doled out all their punishments then sent them off. When Vanya and Pogo had left, leaving Five to face their father alone.
There was a tense silence that had thickened in the room since Five and Vanya had entered, and only worsened when his other half was taken away, as Five and Reginald leveled each other with uncaring, mostly emotionless looks. “Number Five,” his father started, “you’ve been told on numerous occasions not to waste time with Number Seven.” As much as Five wanted to tell his father that spending time with Vanya wasn’t a waste of time, he knew it would only end badly for Vanya and held his tongue instead. “And seeing as no punishments, to you or Number Seven, have put a stop to this behavior, this will serve as a final warning for you, Number Five, if you are found to be frivolously wasting any more time with Number Seven, she will be sent to a boarding school for at least the next three years at an undisclosed location.”
As every implication that Vanya would be forcibly taken away from him was given by their father, taken from him beyond his control, felt a stabbing pain in his chest like when he’d been ‘accidentally’ stabbed in his shoulder by Allison in hand-to-hand training after she’d overheard him telling Vanya that he thought she was beautiful when he’d hardly ever given Allison any genuine compliments, especially ones about her looks.
“Do I make myself clear Number Five?” there had been many times Five didn’t want to hear their father’s voice, and this very moment was one of those times. And again, rather than say what he really wanted to say to his father, Five bit his tongue, nodded, and murmured a ‘Yes Sir.’ back before being dismissed to return to his bedroom with the wave of Reginald’s hand.
As Five left their father’s office, he noticed Luther standing nearby giving him a disappointed look, like he was the one how did something wrong. And if it weren’t for the fact that A. they were right outside their father’s office and they’d both get in trouble, and B. that Five’s punishment would likely be Vanya being sent away in the middle of the night or during training, then Five would’ve channeled a very Diego energy and fought Luther and his fucking stupid, knowing look right then and there. It was all Luther and Allison’s fault that Vanya might get sent away. Instead, Five glared at Luther, saving his pent up frustrations for training the next day, and walked back towards their bedrooms, planning to stop at Vanya’s rather than return to his own.
But it seemed that Reginald and Pogo knew he wouldn’t follow their orders, and had Pogo sticking around Vanya’s room, talking about some homework assignment that she had that the rest of them didn’t, likely as part of her punishment. And with Pogo staying in Vanya’s room, Five had no choice to return to his own room, (they were going to ‘bed’ soon anyway) and wait until he left before jumping back to Vanya’s room.
(And when he did later that night, what he hadn’t known, or noticed, was that the cameras in their bedrooms that had been disabled for nearly a year and a half, had been turned back on. Reginald had all the recorded evidence he needed to arrange for Vanya to be going to a boarding school the next day halfway around the world, in the middle of nowhere, and one of the coldest cities he could find, somewhere neither Five nor Vanya would have ever heard of and Five wouldn’t think to look, Verkhoyansk, Russia. Two short phone calls later, travel arrangements were made and there was a mission that would coincidently happen at the same time.)