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CHAPTER EIGHT curiosity killed the cat
⋆*✧･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:
BEFORE HER UMBRELLA ACADEMY phase, Nadine had an astronomy one. She was twelve years old, a year before the bank robbery that would change the world, and instead of attempting to hand-sew her own Umbrella Academy uniform and cut out her own mask, she would make cardboard space helmets and stick glow-in-the-dark stars on her ceiling. Instead of obsessively rewatching interviews with the Hargreeves children, Nadine would go through documentary after documentary about the Moon landing and the first spacewalks and the planets in the solar system. It was an obsession that so consumed her that, for a little while, she believed she'd grow up to be an astronaut.
Even years later, when Ichthyology became her main passion, Nadine's head was still full of facts about the universe. But no matter what she learned about other planets, no matter how many times she charted stars, Nadine's favourite celestial body was always Earth's own Moon.
There were still sometimes now that she went outside at a late hour, marvelling up at the milky orb that hung above her. Humankind had resided on there, once. Luther had spent four years on its surface, with nothing but the plants he cared for as company. Perhaps someday, far in the future, humankind would make it their second home.
It was also both strange and thrilling to realize that the Moon you were looking up to—no matter if it was a crescent fingernail, or a half slice of pie, or a full, waxy circle—was the same Moon that all of humanity had feasted its eyes upon. Cleopatra, Aristotle, Shakespeare... all of them had looked up at night and seen what Nadine did every night. In a way, this linked humanity together.
Then the Moon had been destroyed. And thus, humanity had shattered.
Tonight, though, the Moon was shining again, as it had for the past two years Nadine had been here. Time travelling away from the end of the world had inadvertently restrung the bond of humanity, but she couldn't help but worry that it was a temporary fix. A bandage on a wound that needed stitches.
According to Five, though, the upcoming apocalypse was not caused by a broken Moon. This was a nuclear war; a conflict between Russia and America that had spread to the rest of the world. Nadine wondered, though, what would become of the Moon if she failed again. Would it darken as the world was consumed in an inferno, or would it shine, healed and whole, in mockery?
Perhaps it was stupidly optimistic, but Nadine expected the former. The Moon had been through throughout the ascent of humanity; surely it would weep when that humanity came to an end.
In the backseat of Diego's car (Five had, of course, claimed shotgun) Nadine watched it, feeling the connection tug at the pit of her belly. It wasn't a full moon, though it was nearly there; a few days shy of being a full circle. It was still lovely, though, and as its light bathed Nadine's face, her mind went to the other members of the Umbrella Academy, the ones still lost. Were they looking at it, too? Surely Luther was. He'd spent enough time up there for it to feel like a second home. And maybe Allison was, too, because she'd always been so close with him. Perhaps Klaus had risen his gaze to marvel at it before climbing into bed.
