Chapter Text
Vampirism isn’t what most people make it out to be. Most ‘repellents’ don’t work, or are just allergies. Take garlic for example, it doesn’t kill you and doesn’t hurt you, just a minimal allergen. Crosses or crucifixes? Absolutely nothing, although nice decorations or jewelry. Sunlight? Now that’s an actual problem. It’s not really a turn into ash thing but more like a severe allergy. Because of that, you tend to travel during the day with an umbrella, or a ton of sunscreen if you’ve had just fed.
Oh that’s another thing, food. Your main source of nutrients does happen to be within blood. But because of the extensive amount of 'scientific experiments’ you we’re put through as a child, your feeding days are far apart, with only the minimal amount of blood needed to sustain you. Besides, regular food just tastes like chalk. The only reason you know all this is because of your father. Looking back, your childhood wasn’t anything more than one giant experiment.
But those days are long behind you, you went to an actual school, got your doctorate, and now work in the ER department. Your therapist always makes a show of telling you how far you’ve gotten. Most people wouldn’t assume you’re a vampire, just a paler young goth person trying their hardest to not get a sunburn.
Tonight you’re helping secure and adjust an older women’s iv. She took a nasty fall, and is waiting for her x ray results back. Just as you’ve set the iv stand near her bed and you’ve made sure to double check her comfort your supervisor pulls her room curtain back and smiles apologetically. “Excuse me Mrs. Jones, I just need to borrow your nurse for a quick moment” he turns to you and you rush to sign out of the computer in the room. “Is there anything else I can do for you Mrs. Jones?” you ask. She smiles and shakes her head no. “Ok well I’ll just be a moment, make sure to push that button if you need any assistance from us” with a smile you walk to the curtain and follow your superior out, closing the curtain behind you.
You’re lead back into the office spaces before you’re superior finally turns to you with a saddened smile. “We’re all very sorry to be the barer of such unfortunate news but, your father, Mr. Hargreeves has passed tonight” wait…. wait that’s not the truth, no way. This must be a prank, there’s no way the old man has finally died. “As a representative of the company we can extend your vacation days to allow you better time to mourn for your loss”. You clear your throat and nod. “You’re hours have been adjusted, you’re free to clock out and head home for the night”. You thank him for his condolences and he awkwardly pats your shoulder before walking back to the front. If you’re left standing in the same place for a moment, no ones there to see you. In a blur of time you walk back to your locker, grab your belongings and clock out for the night, or for a week apparently.
Walking out of your work place, you’re met with faces of pity, and passing apologies. That night as you walk home, hunger pangs your stomach, it’s nowhere near your feeding day, so your stomach goes ignored. Once you reach your apartment you take off your nurse uniform and change into some slacks you got off your floor. A sigh leaves your lips and you drop you body onto your bed, feeling as if you’ve turned to stone.
The next day you check your mail box and find a letter. Bringing it back to your apartment you place it on your kitchen counter, staring at the sender. The letter is addressed in the name of the Umbrella Academy with the matching stamp and everything. You take in a deep breath and open it, pulling out the letter to read the contents of your summons. “Back to the Umbrella Academy” you sigh to yourself and set the letter back down, pacing into your room. Time to meet the family.
-
It’s a surreal feeling to be standing in front of the very building you practically ran from all those years ago. You take a moment to observe any changes to the exterior of the buildings, climbing plants have started to take over. If you’re stalling, you just hope it’s not obvious. Your mind starts to scream as you open the front doors and step into the grand foyer. The interior seems to have been left stuck in time, the same design all the way down to the same decorative jar on the small center table.
The sliding doors to the parlor are open. You walk to the doors, leaning against them as you watch Mom. She looks to be frozen staring into the lit fire place. Although Mom is a robotic human model she was everyone’s favorite caretaker out of the many others our family had run through in the past. Seeing her so broken down, her wiring clearly neglected, has you feeling guilty. You sigh as you push off the door frame and turn to the grand staircase, walking up to the customized stained glass. No one else has arrived yet, so you’re left to re-explore by yourself. Up the stairs you can see that Mom’s seating area hasn’t gotten any much deserved upgrades. Just another harsh reminder of dad’s shitty ‘care’. A bitter resentment from your past bares its ugly head as you stride to the doors leading to your dad’s office. You step into his attached greeting room and stop before the offices sliding doors. Father’s office was always off limits, no matter what your number was, no one was allowed to step foot into the room.
With a glare you pass the threshold you once feared. Just as boring and cluttered with random items and papers as you remember. Honestly after all the secrecy surrounding this room, it’s a major let down. Just a chaotic room perfectly reflecting the man who once hid within it. Filled with a new sense of confidence you stroll out the side door and move to the staircase leading up to the attic.
The windowsill where all your siblings used to hide away in has formed a thin layer of dust. Your ears faintly pick up your siblings heartbeats as they enter the house one at a time. You grab a nearby sheet and brush off the dust, pushing open the window before taking a seat. You’re glad you remembered to apply your medical sunscreen before leaving your apartment. The sun was always something to fear as a child. Your body was stuck appearing younger than your siblings and was always slow to heal your burns, so you generally abstained from the sun as an act of self preservation. Now as an adult the monster that was the sun has dwindled down to a bother, a pesky fly buzzing around your head.
The last heartbeat to enter the house was Vanya’s. Allison and Diego’s heartbeats overlap each other for a second as Vanya lingers in place. You finally stand up from the window when Allison moves upstairs to dad’s office where Klaus has been.
You meet Vanya and Pogo down in the parlor. “Young Master (y/n), wonderful to see you after all these years”. You embrace Pogo before pulling back. “Still moving around after all these years?” You jest, a light smile on your face. “I’ve still got a few years in me” He responds before excusing himself, leaving you and Vanya.
You smile as you turn to full face Vanya. “It’s been so long! How have you been? Are you still playing the violin?” You rush out question after question, excited to talk to them after so long. “Uh yeah, I’m still playing violin. I’m second chair but I teach classes now” A small, shy smile returns to their face, not used to such intensity. “That’s great! Is it mostly kids?” You ask, Vanya nods as their attention turns to the old portrait of Five. “Do you remember when we used to leave out snacks for him?” Vanya asks, you sigh. “Yeah, and how we always kept the lights on in case he finally came home and got scared”. Vanya huffs out a laugh while shaking their head. You let silence linger as the two of you stare up at your old friend. You turn back to Vanya, “I’ll be checking out our old rooms, if you wanna catch up feel free to come join me ok?” You gently clasp their shoulder as they nod before turning back to Five’s painting.
As you walk back to your room you can hear Luther and Allison chatting in dad’s office as you pass by. Oh course it’s those two in dad’s office. Father’s favoritism was barley better than how he treated the rest of us, but still was prominent. Especially when it came to his number 1.
When you reach your room your met with your old notebooks and 'posters’ full of the human blood system. Different posters for the arteries and the skeletal system. Father had you learn the minimal amount of information to better use you for monitoring your siblings. Before Five left your training was mostly on enhancing your senses.
As a child you were prone to outbursts, body still not understanding where its food comes from. Because of this your siblings never wanted to get near you, not wanting to get attacked by you. The only ones not detoured were Vanya, Ben, and Five. Vanya was the outcast, with you one step away from joining them. You were the only person to understand their anger, a calm force beside them. The two of you had rooms right next to each other. With yours in between Vanya’s and Luther’s. You spent most of your time by their side. Ben was always afraid of his abilities, and made fun of because of that. Him and Klaus were always together, but when Klaus would become too much you were always there to comfort him. Understanding was strengthened by your ability to hear his heartbeat, knowing when to reach out a hand in the darkness of one’s mind. Five was an enigma. He told you that he only stood so close because he’s stronger than you. But whenever your father’s 'experiments’ would stretch too long he would always roll his eyes at your deathly pale skin and shove his arm in your face, demanding you eat. “You’re dead-weight to me as a weakling” He would state as you patched him up apologizing repeatedly. 'Dead-weight’ he would always call you that as you were smaller than the rest of your siblings, and kind of a one trick pony. Him and Vanya always seemed to have a special bond, including you by proximity. Five and Ben were neighbors so when you were hanging out with Ben. Sometimes Five would join in, most of the time only joining just wanting to listen and shit talk for a moment. You four almost had a little group.
When Five left the family seemed to dim. Missions went worse, not used to covering more space in his absence. Vanya’s presence started to slow until you could only hear them practice their violin in their room alone. The two of you would leave the lights on every night, even leaving his favorite 'meal’ out for him. Then Ben died. Father got worse, pushing us harder, acting as if we got Ben killed. The memorial service was nothing more than another chance for Father to berate us. It was so obvious that even Mom knew. When Ben died the cracks in the family finally started to break apart. Klaus started talking to the air and couldn’t go a day without getting high, or drunk. Vanya started to disappear, gone from the house for weeks on end. Luther and Diego’s regular fights escalated horribly. Allison was cruel, only cared about herself, and the next person she was going to rumor into getting her way. After your friends disappeared one at a time you decided that maybe Father was right, you decided on not eating for weeks, up to months until you were too weak to move, being feed only by Mom supplying you with blood bags. No one was there to talk some sense into you. Your training had already primed you for a career in healthcare, so you decided to use your heightened abilities to help the people who need it most.
As soon as colleges would accept you, you left. Reaching for the closest ounce of freedom that came to you. Once you left, you never looked back. Too afraid to be met with the same scowl on your father’s face. The flinches of your sibling when you got too close. Replacing them with the grateful smiles from your patients and their families. It felt good to be depended on, trusted wholeheartedly with the lives of loved ones. You went to therapy to try to form a better understanding of your mental traumas, and how to best handle them. Most people only take you seriously when your on the job, your body being about 10 years too young still. You tried to boost your aging to at least get closer to looking your age, to remove the baby face your basically stuck with. It never worked, after fasting it would come right back. You shouldn’t complain too much about your gifts. Immortality is something that would be sold off the shelves going for millions of dollars.
But not truly immortal you muse to yourself. You’ve only got around 10 years longer than an average human to live out your life, and you’re happy to keep it that way. Your attention shifts as your ears are able to pick up your siblings conjugating in the parlor. You brush your hair out of your face as you walk out your room, moving to join the rest of your siblings.
You situate yourself on the couch next to Vanya, her being the only one of your alive siblings not deathly afraid of you. Luther starts to lead the group into a productive conversation. “So I figured we could have a sort of memorial service, in the courtyard at sundown. Just at dad’s favorite spot”. Everyone knew Luther was always the favorite, apparently somehow even more so than you all were aware of, even sharing a favorite spot under some tree out back. A piece of information that finally started to bring the realization to Luther as he sputters off, left personally hurt by our lack of connection. Klaus finally leaves the bar, joining us and entering the conversation. Luther tries to uphold father’s rules, a goody two shoes till the end. Klaus falls into the couch next to you. “Listen up. There’s still some important things that we need to discuss” Luther says, already starting up the age old infighting. Luther seems to believe that father’s death wasn’t just a heart attack, always needs to be a mission with him. Your thought is echoed by your siblings, not believing the grand mystery Luther’s trying to make it out to be.
You sigh as Diego starts to aggravate Luther, already missing your quiet apartment. The several voices and heartbeats mixed with the revolting scent of Luther’s mystery blood mix together to form a giant headache. You can already tell Klaus isn’t sober, smelling sickness and keeping track of the inner blood workings of your sibling was always your job. Klaus’s blood has been 'tainted’ since our early teen years. “I can’t just call dad in the afterlife and be like, dad could you stop playing tennis with Hitler for a moment?” It’s no surprise to you when he announces his state of mind. You check out of the conversation as heartbeats and blood pressure rise all around you and they start to raise their voices at one another, not wanting any part of their dumpster fire.
You’re ripped back into the conversation as the implications of Diego’s words compute in your mind. Luther really thinks that one of us would kill our own father? Sure you hated the old man for everything he put you and your siblings though, but such a small detail of his monocle being missing wasn’t nearly enough evidence to accuse you for murder. Luther’s eyes seem to be lingering on you, your frown deepens. Still trying to make me out as a monster then, you think to yourself. “Great job Luther. Way to lead.” Diego and Vanya walk out, Klaus following suit in a stumble. “Sorry I’m just gonna go murder Mom, be right back”. You stand up from the couch and wrap your arms around yourself, walking away with your head angled to the ground, following behind Klaus out the parlor and to the stairs, back to your room.
You lay your back against the headboard, eyes looking up at the same ceiling you prayed to every night for years, begging for your freedom. Or even a sliver of recognition from your father. A warm trusting smile from your siblings, anything. It’s weird to sit within these wall while they’re missing a key person. Your eyes slide to the window of your room with a protective cover over it. As a kid your skin was always in danger from the sun, the current cover is practically sheer, a major upgrade from your early days. The sun has started towards the horizon, clouds hanging in the winds.
A new sound joins the air, a women’s voice rings out as a light techno beat straight from the 80’s floods the room, through the walls. For the first time since you’ve arrived home a true smile graced your lips. You find your feet tapping to the beat, you sit up from the mattress as your body sways. Joy shines in the room encouraging you to your feet. Dancing around your room, carefree. Your smile brightens as your siblings heartbeats pick up with yours, creating a complementary second backing track to the song. You twirl around your room, entranced by the relief of pressure, wanting to savor the feeling. A piercing sound shatters the moment. You’re quick to rush out your room dodging metal items being thrown through the air, seeing Luther and Allison step out into the hallway, just as confused as you.
You all run to the courtyard, followed by the rest of your siblings. “Looks like some sort of temporal anomaly, either that or a miniature black hole. One of the two” Luther says. Klaus runs out with a fire extinguisher before giving up and throwing it into the growing blue mass. Klaus runs back behind the group and grabs your arm. “Everyone get behind me” “yeah, get behind us” Diego says, trying to seem just has important as Luther. Suddenly a warping image of an old man can be seen in the center of the blue mass as winds pick up. Just then a body fall from the hole and it closes instantly. The winds clear as the group push to the small moving body on the ground. As the boy gets to his feet a shock rings through you, it’s Five’s heartbeat, only paired with a different scent, like gunpowder. The boy’s face lifts up and you’re suspicions are proven correct. “Does anyone else see a little Number Five, or is that just me?” Klaus says, trying to disconcert reality, or his powers finally seeping through. Five looks down at himself “shit”.