The umbrella academy: In which Five gets all the love he deserves

Untitled Part 19

Viktor had found it by mistake. There had been a few weeks since they returned from '63 and now that everyone decided to stay in their house permanently they decided that a full clean-up must happen. And that includes all of them. Not just mom. Or mom and a few of them. They would renovate their rooms, add other things, change the beds, and everything from there. Renovate other rooms. Throw useless things. They even decided to make their mom a proper bedroom as well.

Now Viktor was in the attic putting trash and other useless things in trash bags when he found it in one of the boxes full of spiderwebs.

"Why is there a book here?', he asked and he opened it out of curiosity. It turned out that it wasn't any book. It's a photo album. Pictures with them are rare. Most of them are the ones that their father made them have. All but him. In their uniform and superhero masks. But looking through this album, he saw that there were normal photos. Meaning that they have been taken by their mother.

There were pictures of them together or alone or in pairs. Pictures were taken when there were little kids or teenagers. He smiled at one of the pictures with him and Five when there probably 9 years old when the boy sneaked into the panic room to keep him company.

Viktor frowned as he looked through the whole album. Now that he looked through the album, he realized that there weren't many pictures with Five. There were a few when he was a little kid and a few when he was 13 before he had run away. Looking through the box he saw that it was the only photo album. But how is possible to be so few photos with Five? Maybe their father had found them and threw them away or burned them. Maybe this album would have met the same fate if not hidden, most likely by their mother. But still. It wasn't fair that there were so few pictures with Five. Viktor decided to remedy that,

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So the next day he brought an instant camera and made it his mission to take as many photos with Five as possible. At least it wasn't as hard as he expected that it would have been. His assassin instincts had died down with them, a sign that he was comfortable and feeling safe in their presence to make him stop being on edge all the time. The first picture that he took of his brother was when Five was in the kitchen. Five was sitting on the counter with some papers in his hands. He was reading them as he kicked his legs back and forth, looking like the kid he was. Silently Viktor took the picture and when he looked at it he saw that it even caught how Five kicked his legs.

The next one. Well, it made him look like a creep. But Five was so adorable. The boy, thinking that he was alone, was napping on the couch with a stuffed pug in his arms. He recognized the toy as Mr. Pennycrumb, from when Five was younger. He didn't even know that the toy was still in the house. Five must have found it when cleaning his room. So smiling, Viktor took the picture and left after he covered the boy.

The next one, come days later. Five was helping Grace make their lunch. She instructed him to step by step and the boy did as told without fussing or telling her to stop treating him like a little kid who doesn't know what he was doing. And the best part. Five was smiling. So sneakily Viktor took the picture of him with their mom. He hadn't been as discreet as he had thought because his mom saw him. But she didn't say anything. Only smiled at him a little before turning her attention back to her little boy. 

The next one happened when they had their not so rare anymore, movie night. Sensing that it would have been an opportunity, Viktor had carried the camera with him. And he wasn't disappointed. In the middle of the third movie, Five, like most of them, had fallen asleep. Turning around he saw Five asleep with his head on Klaus's shoulder, and his arms wrapped around Klaus's arm. His brother was one of the ones who hadn't fallen asleep and he abandoned looking at the movie, in exchange for looking fondly at his little brother, sleeping so adorably with his cheek smushed on his shoulder. Grinning Viktor pulled the camera and snapped a picture. Klaus noticed him, but he didn't say anything, he only smiled his eyes shining with amusement.

The next time it happened when apparently Five thought again that he was alone. Another proof that his guard was done and his assassin instincts inexistent around them because he did;t noticed Vitkro who was close to him. That or he was so engrossed in the cartoon he was watching. That is the reason of why Five tough that he was alone. Because he wouldn't be caught dead by his sibling watching something as childish as Tom and Jerry. Five was smiling and his eyes shinned childishly as he watched Tom falling into his own traps. So Viktor pulled out the camera and snapped a picture before he vanished quickly without being noticed.

For a couple of weeks, Viktor keeps taking pictures of Five, without the boy noticing. There were with him, either cuddling with one of his siblings. Even with him. The other had noticed taking pictures of their brother. So they borrowed Viktor's camera when Five was either cuddling with him or was doing something with him that made him, happy and they took the picture.

He even took a few more when he was in the kitchen with their mother. His focus on respecting his mother's instructions, or his frustration at not making it right, we're making look so adorable. So childish. Exactly how he was supposed to be. Or when he was alone and he was either watching cartoons or reading books, for entertainment. Story books. Fiction. And he was entertained by them, by the look he always had on his face. Or how his eyes shined when he was eating ice cream. His brother was adorable. He hoped that what he was about to do next won't make his said adorable brother kill him.

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Viktor walked into the kitchen for dinner with a box in his hands and everyone looked confused at him. 

"Five", he said as he held the box in his direction. "This is my present for you. A thank you present or coming back to us and saving us from two apocalypses"

"Wha...Viktor. You.."

Viktor shook his head and he placed the box on his little brother's lap. "Take it. I hope that you would like it. "

Everyone crowded Five as he put the box on the table and he opened the blue ribbon before he pulled the cap. "A book?" Pulling the book he could see that the cover was made manually, as probably the whole book. The cover was blue, the same color as the one that he appears every time he uses his powers and in the middle, was written his name in the golden letter. When he opened the book, his siblings moved closer to him, and Five hissed at them. Five was surprised that the book was actually and photo album. He smiled as he recognized the picture taken when everyone were kids. There are group pictures, and pair one. The most bein with him and Viktor and him and Ben. His eyes widened when he saw pictures of his sibling as teenagers. At 15 and 16. He didn't have the chance to see them like this. He only saw them as kids and now as grown-ups. he brushed his fingers on some pictures before he moved to the next pages.

His eyes twitched when he saw photos with him, now, in what he calls a humiliating situation. His siblings cooed when he saw him watching cartoons or helping their mother, being all adorable.

"How did you take these pictures?"Five asked after he looked through all of them and his siblings moved away from the heat that was supposed to come. 

"I don't know if you hadn't noticed. But your guard drops around as. You feel so comfortable and safe around us that you don't notice when one of us passes you or is close to you. Look. When I was cleaning the attic I found a photo album, most likely hidden by our mother. And I noticed that there weren't many photos with you. So I decided to remedy that. It's not my fault that you are such an adorable child", he said as he pinched the boy's cheeks. Their other siblings gasped shocked. Since when did their brother become so bold and reckless. And waited for their littlest brother to explode. But Five didn't explode. He only smiled at Viktor. Thank you, Viktor. Really".

"No problem, little brother", he said as he kissed the boy's forehead and the others gasped again and the two of them rolled their eyes at their dramatics.

"Viktor. How you are still alive?"Diego asked later that night.

Viktor smiled amused. "Because I'm his favorite brother"

"Ben said that he takes offense on that", Klaus said.

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Five really enjoyed that album. Even some photos make him blush in embarrassment at how childish he looks in them. But he still likes them. And he liked to see the pictures with his siblings when they were kids and teenagers too. And if Five is watching through the album every night and sleeping with it under his pillow, to not lose it. Well. That's his business.