Chapter Text
Can’t We Stay?
Part 1:
A Thirteen Year Old’s Dream
1
An Old Memory
Wake up! Wake up! Five kept telling himself. There was something important, something that he had to remember. It was coming to the front of his mind but then it drifted away again. Why couldn’t he remember? It was supposed to be important, but he couldn't quite but his finger on it.
His whole world began to shake, the darkness collapsing around him. He began to thrash, throwing his arms and legs out hoping to quell the shaking. He tried to fight back but something kept pushing, until it stopped and then he slammed onto something hard.
“Five, are you okay?” A voice asked. It sounded like a girl's. It was very familiar. The name was on the tip of his tongue.
Five opened his eyes to see a girl leaning over him. Her hair was shrouding her face. She pushed it aside and was gazing at him with an expression of worry creased across her features.
“Vanya.” He said as he began to get off the floor, blinking and realising that he was lying on the wooden floor. With a grunt he pushed himself up to a seating position.
“We’re late for breakfast. Dad isn’t going to be happy.” She said as she played with a lock of her brown hair. Her voice was so quiet, barely even a whisper. Vanya's voice had always been like that, meek and small because she was scared of raising it.
Five stood up and stretched his body. He could feel the ache already from where his back had landed, his gaze turned to his bed It was rare for him to sleep in, rare enough that Vanya had to wake him up. He gave a quick stretch and then heard the bell ring. He looked over at Vanya. She was dressed from head to tie in their uniform.
“I’ll be late. You go.” He pointed at the door and waited a moment for her to leave.
She stayed in the middle of the room rubbing her arm with her left hand.
“What is it?” Five said walking over to his closet and pulling out a clean uniform. He pulled the shirt off the hanger and then turned back to Vanya.
“About what you said last night. You are not really going to do it are you?” She asked, her voice was quieter than before and he was struggling to hear it.
There was that strange feeling again. This conversation felt familiar, although he couldn’t recall when he had it before.
“About what?” He said, beginning to unbutton his pyjama top.
His back was facing Vanya so he couldn’t see her reaction.
“About time travel! You shouldn’t do it Five!” She blurted out.
Five turned, his eyebrow cocked in surprise. Vanya’s hands flew to her mouth.
“I’m sorry, I know you want to do it Five but please don’t do it.” Her voice was quiet again, the mousey tone that he was used to.
Five scoffed underneath his breath.
“I’m not going to do it.” He said, his voice cool and calm. Well not yet anyway.
“Number Five! Number Seven! Come down here at once! Your tardiness is not accepted!” Their Father’s voice called from the doorway. It was crisp and calm but sent goosebumps over his skin. He had to fight a shiver that threatened to rise up through his spine.
“Oh no.” Vanya whispered looking to the door and then back to Five.
“Go. I’ll take the punishment.” Five said, pulling his pyjama top over his head.
“But Five!”
“Go Vanya!” Five said with an eyeroll.
He didn’t look back and heard her quiet footsteps retreat from his room. If he was going to be late, he might as well make a show of it. He had always had a flair of the dramatic, he had taste unlike the rest of his siblings.
Five took his time getting the rest of his uniform on. He made sure to pull his socks on as slowly as possible and then slipped his shoes on. As he was about to blink from his room, a soft knock came from his door.
“Number Five, your Father is getting very impatient. Are you ready yet?” His mother asked in her sing-song voice.
“I’m coming now!” Five called to her.
“Well that’s just grand!” She replied back and then walked away with the clacking of her high heels.
Five blinked out of his room and down to the dining hall table. All of his siblings were staring at him as he began to walk over to his seat across from Ben. His footsteps echoed across the marble flooring. As he got to his chair, he looked up to see his Father glaring at him.
Reginald Hargreeves had never scared Five. He was another human being like all of them, he couldn’t control Five. However there were times when he could really get under Five’s skin, like right now for instance.
Five felt his Father’s glare on him and then moved over to Vanya.
“Number Seven and Number Five your punishments will be decided after breakfast. Now sit!” His Father barked.
All of his siblings sat down on their chairs and watched as his mother began to bring out several plates all served upon a silver platter. She began to dish them out one by one. Five didn’t take any notice instead gripping his knife so tightly that his knuckles became white.
How dare his Father punish Vanya! It wasn’t her fault! He was fine to take the punishment but not quiet Number Seven. Vanya normally never got into trouble, it was one of the reasons that her siblings despised her. However Five understood that her violin was the only thing she had. She couldn't have that taken away from her.
He smirked to himself. Reginald Hargreeves really was a piece of shit but perhaps Five was an even bigger piece of shit for what he was about to do. His mother put out his plate in front of him, two boiled eggs, the smoke still rising from them. He waited until her hand had moved away, picked the plate up and threw it across the room. The eggs landed with a perfect splat on the wall and began to slide down leaving a trail of white.
“Number Five!” Reginald Hargreeves voice was shrill and piercing. It hurt Five ears. “My office now!”
Five stood up and smacked the table with both of his hands. The knives and forks clattered on the table. Everybody’s breakfast stayed untouched because they were all staring at Five.
“On one condition,” He pointed one of his fingers into the air. “I take Seven’s punishment as well. It’s my fault we were both late.”
“Enough!” His Father shouted. “Go to my study at once!”
Five moved away from the breakfast, his stomach rumbled as he looked at the splattered eggs that had now come to rest on the floor. He already knew one of his punishments was that he wouldn’t be able to eat for the day. His powers relied on food for him to use. It was going to be a rough day, perhaps one of his roughest.
He risked a look at Vanya. She was looking down at something in her lap but he could make out the faint glimmer of tears in her eyes. Whether she was crying for him or she was upset he didn’t know.
He heard his Father get up from the table. Five walked down the hallway to his study looking at the various knickknacks that his Father had collected over the years. Why he loved killing animals and then displaying their heads mounted onto a golden mount, he would never know.
As they came to the study with it’s famous oak door, Five couldn’t really recall if he had ever been in his Father’s study before. There was that time when all of them had wanted to say goodnight and he had ignored them, scratching away in his red journal. Five hated that journal with a burning passion. Almost as much as he hated his Father.
His Father unlocked his study with his key and then pushed Five inside. The room was dark until Reginald switched a lamp on. The study was bathed in a warm hue. Five could make out his Father’s desk with the papers stacked neatly on in piles with his red journal sitting proudly in the middle. If only his Father wasn’t behind him, he wanted to read that despicable journal and so what lies his Father had written about his adopted children.
“Stay there!” His Father commanded as he closed the door behind him with a loud thud.
Five knew that he was going to get some sort of punishment but what that punishment would be he didn’t know.
He looked up as his Father walked across to him and stared into his eyes. As usual the man’s eyes were unreadable. His Father’s arm began to rise and Five closed his eyes, preparing himself for the slap that was about to come.
There was a silent pause and then nothing. Five opened his eyes and saw his Father’s hand hovering in front of his face. The man moved away before glaring at him with glazed eyes.
“You will go without food for the rest of the day. Now leave.” He said not making eye contact with him.
Five furrowed his brow and walked out of the room. Why hadn’t his Father slapped him? He was sure that he had slapped him on that day. Wait, what on earth was he thinking about? This had never happened before-. God, he was going senile.
He retreated back to the dining room table with his hands shoved into his pockets. There were a chorus of voices, whispered hushes coming from his siblings. He knew they were discussing him. Who else would provide them entertainment after the stunt he had pulled and in defence of mousey Vanya?
All of the voices shushed as he felt everyone’s stares looking at him. Five looked up to see Ben giving him an awkward grin. Five said nothing and only sat in his chair staring at the spot where his food should be. He could already feel his stomach rumbling and clutched at it. He took a deep breath as the feeling subsided and heard his Mother humming.
She was cleaning up his mess earlier, brushing the bits of eggs up with a dustpan and brush. He felt a pang of guilt in his chest. His Mother had cooked that especially for him because he needed something that would be quick and enough energy to sustain him throughout the training. Yeah it was going to be a really rough day.
His Mother finished cleaning and then hummed her way back to the kitchen, not even batting an eyelid as their Father came back from his study. All of the children’s heads turned towards him as he sat back into his chair. The rest of Five’s siblings had already finished their breakfast but they wouldn’t be able to leave until Reginald Hargreeves had finished his.
Five stared at the crevices on the table watching as they swirled around into each other. Some of the table was scuffed, small marks where the wood was coming off. He heard the final scrape of his Father’s knife and fork.
“Rise.” His Father commanded.
All of the siblings rose and tucked their chairs in, in perfect synchronization.
“I have decided that Number Five will receive Number Seven’s punishment as well. Now leave and prepare yourselves for training!” His Father barked and stormed off back towards his study. No doubt to get his notebook.
Five eyes trailed after him as he left. Five had gotten the result that he had wanted which was to take Vanya’s punishment, but there was something nagging the back of his mind. The same feeling that he had in his Father’s study. Deja Vu. That this had happened before. As he got out of his chair again, he felt a smack on his back. He stumbled forward and then stood up sighing.
“Klaus. What do you want?” He snapped.
“What is a brother not allowed to come and bother his siblings?” Klaus pouted, flashing his long eyelashes.
Klaus had always been the odd one out of his siblings even with Vanya included. His powers were different, no-one could see the ghosts but him, unless he summoned them but Five hadn’t been a witness to that, and he doubted his other siblings had. Klaus was eccentric, he dressed flamboyantly but most of all he really did get on Five’s nerves.
“Considering you want to know what happened?” Five said scoffing as he looked at his grinning brother.
“Bingo!” Klaus smiled and draped his arms over the smaller boy’s shoulders.
Five ignored him for a second and watched how the rest of his siblings lingered on the edge of the dining room, except for Vanya who was looking at something in her hands with an intense stare. She disappeared and Five turned back to the nuisance currently hanging onto him like a monkey.
“If you must know, nothing.” Five muttered picking his brother’s arms off him like they were a piece of trash he had to pick up from the ground.
“Oh come we all know Little Five is the smartest out of all of us, you wouldn’t lie to me? Your favourite sibling?”
A strange flutter went through Five’s chest. It was at the word ‘little’. He had been called little before, sure but there was anger at that word. Full fledged powerful anger that raged throughout his entire core. Normally he would have retorted back at Klaus, but he was so surprised at the anger that he only grimaced. Klaus hadn’t noticed.
“Five! Come on, I'm your favourite!”
Klaus made a lunge for him but Five stepped to the side. Klaus, not being able to stop, pressed out his hand onto the wall, stopping himself before he collided with it. He looked back at Five with a pout.
“I could have broken my jaw again!” He said with a huff.
“Suppose we could have had a couple more weeks of silence?” Diego said as he peered his head around the corner.
He stepped into full view in the corridor and Five saw that he was dressed in his green jumpsuit. Five had always hated the jumpsuits. They were tight and made them look like perfect little soldiers for his Father.
“Diego. How could you be so cruel!” Klaus pretended to cry, locking eyes with his other brother.
“Well princess, you and Five might want to get changed. Training starts in ten minutes!” Diego said with a shrug.
His other siblings had disappeared, but Five found himself wondering where Vanya had gone and what she had been holding in her hands.
“Diego, is Vanya upstairs?” He found himself asking.
Diego looked back and laughed.
“Who cares?” He walked over with a wave to the training room.
It was true, Vanya liked to keep herself to herself sometimes so why did he care? Maybe it was because all of his siblings had been interested in what he was doing but Vanya had been more interested in whatever she had in his hands.
Did it matter? He sighed. Vanya could do whatever she wanted to do. He wasn’t the boss of her, besides he was to take her punishment. That was all he needed to do.
“Five take me with you upstairs!” Klaus protested.
"Yeah like I can do that." Five scoffed and blinked away into his bedroom to get changed. It was time for training.
The training room was located in the west wing of the house. It had once been a second living room before their arrival, but in the time since their Father had converted it. In one corner there was a row of punching bags that most of them had laid a punch on. In the middle of the room, there were mannequins that they would use to fight against and in the far side of the room, there was a wrestling ring where they were trained to use their powers against each other. It was a bland room, covered in their Father’s favourite green colour and scuff marks where many of them had hit the wall ever since they had started training.
As Five walked into the training room dressed in his jumpsuit, the first thing he noticed was Diego throwing his knives at a target that had set up. He was flicking his wrist up and down and then threw another knife that collided with the bullseye in the middle with a loud thud.
In the wrestling ring, Luther was throwing punches at tiny Ben who kept dodging in the nick of time. Ben had always been quick on his feet but apart from that, the horror was the only thing he had going for him. Allison was watching in the corner cheering for Luther, egging the taller boy on.
Five felt a strange sense of peace watching them. This was his home, these were his siblings. Sure this wasn’t the best home, but it was his home. Wait, peace? That was new. Something was going on. He had been feeling weird all day and now he was acting like an old man being sentimental, what on earth was wrong with him?
“Line up!” Reginald Hargreeves barked as he walked into the training room.
Five moved on to the wall, followed by the rest of his siblings. It would have to dwell on it later. He looked at his Father clutching his red notebook. Klaus came running in late the door bursting open.
Reginald didn’t say anything, only started to write in it with his favourite quill as Klaus joined the line.
“Today’s schedule is going to be 8:00-12:00 training. 12-12:30 lunch and for the rest of the afternoon, it is going to be your normal studies.” Reginald Hargreeves said, in a complete monotone.
Five sighed, so it was going to be a long day then, and not a day he was going to enjoy.
“Now let us begin. Choose your partner, we fill first go over your martials arts and then to power training.”
All of his siblings scrambled to each other, Allison and Luther picked each other. Diego looked unbothered as he ended up with Klaus. It was Ben that Five went with. The smaller boy was scratching his arm looking practically miserable. Everybody moved into their own corner, with Five choosing the far left.
Five’s stomach grumbled and he groaned. Why couldn’t his body just cope for once? He began to throw a punch that Ben blocked with his left hand.
“What happened in Dad’s study?” Ben whispered, keeping his voice low as he could. They weren’t supposed to talk or else their free time on Sundays would get taken away.
Five did a small left jab to the ribcage, he wasn’t actually trying to hurt Ben but his fist did come into contact with his brother.
“Nothing.” Five admitted leaping back as Ben swung at him.
“Nothing?” Ben repeated, sounding confused.
That was twice now that his siblings didn’t want to believe but nothing had happened and that was the truth.
Five nodded and they carried on fighting for half an hour. The only other sounds were his siblings also fighting and the scuffles from their feet. Soon enough the half an hour was over and Five drew away panting from Ben.
“I don’t believe you.” Ben said as all six of them lined up again.
Five shrugged. It didn’t matter if they believed him or not, nothing had happened. But something should have happened. Why couldn’t he shake that feeling? A flash of light came to his mind, a flash of green but then his head began to scream.
“Ow.” He muttered, clutching it. His head was pounding.
“Five, are you okay?” Ben asked from beside him. His eyes were alight with worry.
“I’m fine, I think I’m getting a headache.” He waved Ben off. He didn’t need his siblings to worry about him all of a sudden.
Ben frowned.
“I don’t believe you for a second but okay.”
It was the best he was going to get off his brother, so Five would take what he could get for now.
The next activity they moved on to was power training. One of Five’s favourite activities, this was the only time he could really test out his powers against his siblings. Individual training was a harrowing experience because his Father always pushed him past his limits, often leaving him exhausted. When he went against his siblings, he knew he didn’t have to worry because he was sure they too were holding back.
The first pair to go were Allison and Diego. Allison’s powers were funny because they weren’t exactly the best in combat unlike Diego but it was how she used them that really benefited her. Diego began his attack by launching his first knife. It almost hit Allison in the head but she laughed as she skirted around Diego.
“I heard a rumour that you couldn’t hit me until our training is over.”
Diego growled and began to throw even more knives but they only landed into the wall directly behind Allison. She giggled.
“Better luck next time Diego!” Allison laughed as she got out of the ring. With that their training was over.
It was Five’s turn next as he got prepared to blink into the ring. He reappeared with a smug grin on his face. However the grin disappeared from his face when he remembered who his partner was. Ben. This was not going to go well.
The smaller boy walked into the ring, his head looking at the floor. Once he was facing Five, he looked up and Five could see tears in his brother's eyes.
“Start!” They heard their Father call. Five gave his Father a quick glance and noticed that he was timing them with a chain watch that he kept on his person at all times. Yes, this really wasn’t going to go very well.
Five blinked by the side of Ben and gave him a small punch to the arm. He was careful not to make it hard, but it still had to land to make it convincing. Ben winced as the impact hit and then grimaced.
Five blinked back towards the ring and waited until it was time for Ben to start his turn. However the smaller boy didn’t move, instead he stood looking at the floor with his left hand clenched around his wrist.
“Number Six! Your intolerance is not accepted!” Their Father spat closing his red book with a snap.
Ben looked up and Five saw tears sprouting between his eyes, beginning to flow down his cheeks. He wanted to hug his brother he realised but he stayed where he was and saw his Father beginning to walk over to the ring.
“Number Six!”
“I don’t want to,” Ben sobbed.
“Enough of this!” Their Father began to approach Ben, his footsteps echoing around the room.
Ben shook his head, but he began to lift his shirt. He was afraid of his powers, but he was more afraid of their Father. The tentacles began to creep out, long and slithering. Five heard the sobs of his brother as the tentacles writhed slamming onto the floor looking for their next victim.
Five always had to be careful when fighting his brother’s powers, they were dangerous and for his pacifist brother well, it sucked. He knew how much Ben hated his powers, how he wanted to be normal like Vanya. However that was a long, fleeting dream.
Five teleported to the right in between one of the slamming tentacles, he could see Ben closing his eyes so that he didn’t have to look at the horror. Five prepared to teleport one of the objects from around the room, a small combat stick that his Father used for correcting their moments when they were learning how to do martial arts.
The object appeared in his hand with a warp, however one of the horror’s tentacles twitched towards the sound, the others soon followed and stopped right in front of Five. Five began to prepare to teleport away, however his fists refused. The blue sputtering out from now. Damn it!
The horror slammed down on the ring in front of him causing the floor to stumble, both Five and Ben lost their footing. Ben went down fast, and the horror began to retract back into a sobbing Ben. Five landed onto his knees and as he landed, a blue light began to appear in his head. At first he thought that it was his powers, but this was light blue like electricity. Then it was gone.
He groaned as he got up off the floor and saw his brother sobbing, wrapping his arms around himself.
“I lost control, they were going to hurt you Five.” He said sniffing. Snot was coming out of his nose.
“They didn’t Ben, you controlled yourself.” Five whispered, before their Father appeared in front of them.
“What an abysmal performance Number Six, you lost control of your powers once again,” He was scribbling in his red notebook, the pen much faster than his words.
“But-,” Ben protested.
“You will have extra training with me tonight, so that you can learn to control them,” He looked over at Klaus and Luther.
“Number Four and Number One it’s your turn.”
Klaus’s and Luther’s turn was over before it began, Luther punched Klaus surely in the stomach and the skinny teenager winced but offered no retaliation. Of course that didn’t please their Father at all, and all of them were forced to do some extra training before they had their afternoon classes.
The day passed on slowly as the morning turned into afternoon. When all of his other siblings went for lunch, Five was told to go to the library to read up on their studies for the afternoon. Five went to the library, but he went to one of the window seats where he kept hidden one of his favourite books. It was a large leatherback book about quantum mechanics, he was using the time he found free to study the equations to see if they could benefit his powers. It was frustrating when he could only use his jumps a certain amount of time before they faltered. There had to be a way he could improve his jumping power, and he was hoping that this book would have the answers.
The book hadn’t been originally in the house, it had been a present. Five had often snuck away to the bookstore to read, until one of the employees had decided to give it to him since nobody else wanted it.
Five got into his usual position and pulled the book out of his hiding place. It was heavy as he placed it into his lap and pulled out the notebook that he kept with it. It was filled with his notes that had started out neatly but had then faded into a chicken scratch of failed equations. Five opened up the book to the latest chapter and stared at the page.
A flash of another book came to the front of his mind, words that were English but then also filled with equations that he didn’t recognise. They were much too complicated for his young mind to comprehend. His head pounded as he saw the equations and old weathered hand skim over them.
He clutched his head as the throbbing intensified, the images began to trickle from his mind. He tried to recall the complicated equations that he had seen but they had faded, no nothing more than images he couldn’t comprehend. When on earth had he even seen them?
He tried to focus back onto his book, but he couldn’t focus. He had seen those equations before but he couldn't recall where. Something was going on with him, and Five wasn’t sure what it was. He hated the feeling of Deja Vu, he thought that it was a myth but here he was experiencing it every now and again, because he had been here before, or had he?
Before he could get distracted by his thoughts, there was a soft knock at the library door. At first Five thought that it was Grace coming to tell him that lunch was over and it was time for afternoon studies but her knocks were always firmer. This was a timid knock.
Five put his book down and teleported outside the door to see Vanya. She was startled by his sudden appearance and turned around to face him.
“You knocked?” He said.
“I wanted to give you this.” Vanya replied and passed him something wrapped in a napkin.
“What is it”? Five asked, feeling his stomach growl.
“A thank you.” Vanya said, looking at the floor. Her hands were running through her hair frantically as if she didn’t want to be here. She made no eye contact with him.
“A thank you for what?” Five said with a frown.
Vanya looked up at him this time, her expression emotionless.
“Nothing.” She replied and then turned on her heel down the corridor. Five watched her go. To the other siblings, Vanya was a tick on their sleeve. Five quite liked her company, she was someone who didn’t try to talk too much, she listened to his rants about equations and he would listen to her music. It was a system that worked properly, however despite all this there was still a rift between them that couldn’t be changed because she was ordinary and he was not.
Five felt his stomach growl again. He wasn’t sure how he was going to cope for the rest of the day without food. Perhaps he could sneak out later and get some food from Griddy’s.
He began to open up the napkin and found a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich nestled in the middle. He smiled to himself as he took it with both hands and took a bite from it. It oozed into his mouth, and he had to stop himself from eating it all in one go. Instead he took medium sized bites until the sandwich was gone. It looked like he wasn’t going to starve then.
He heard the bell come from down the hallway and sighed, his ‘free’ time was over. Afternoon classes awaited.