"How the Cards Fell" I Five Hargreeves x Reader I

The Case of the Missing Madness Cards

//the sent me away to find them a fortune a chest filled with diamonds and gold//

I left the room quickly, soundlessly slipping up the stairs towards Vanya's quarters. The hallway was still decorated the same way it was when I'd last set foot in the house. It had a quiet, but stuffy feel with the warm air clumping together in pockets. The ventilation had gone to shit.

I helped myself to a shower, relishing the feeling of warm water soaking into my scalp. I pushed my hair back out of my face, soaping and rinsing efficiently. Showering in three minutes is something I'd narrowed down to a science, since the showers at the Institution only lasted three minutes seven seconds exactly. Three minutes and seven seconds of ice cold water dripping down my back and making my spine twitch.

Wrapping in a towel, I didn't go to Vanya's room. Instead, I did what I knew I shouldn't and slipped into Five's old room. The place he used to go. The place I used to hide. I knew every crack and crevice in his wall, every mark that he'd made when he used to practise spatial jumping. Before he'd gotten good at it, Five used to regularly turn up at the dinner table with bumps and bruises. His hands were covered in bandaids from accidentally jumping into sharp things. That look of determination that appeared in his eyes, folding his eyebrows into the centre of his forehead.

I took a uniform from his closet. It didn't smell like him anymore, but there was something of his essence still hidden in that fabric. I put on one of the white undershirts that he kept in his bottom drawer, sliding on a jacket, and then slipped into a pair of shorts. They were loose, but I didn't care.

If he wasn't here, then I would pretend to be him.

The mirror laughed at me as I studied myself. Who was I kidding? I lifted the back of my shirt, staring at the Card planted in the middle of my back. The Joker. The red Joker, covered up the middle section of my spine. I ran my fingers over it, feeling the power stir in my stomach. Threw my shirt down and pulled myself together.

Then, I left. There was no point in harbouring lost ghosts in a heart that was long gone.

_

Allison recoiled the moment she saw me, unconsciously stepping behind Luther's bulky frame to shield herself. I, of course, had no desire to use my powers on any of my siblings. Not anymore, at least. It was beyond me to meddle in their pitiful lives.

Though there was fear coming off of six, save for Klaus who was too high to care for my presence, I didn't feel unwelcome. The warm swimming lights of the Umbrella Academy and the smell of worn books was always enough to conquer their hostility.

"Don't fret, my fellow cesspool of Reginald's Failure's," I announced, taking one look around the room at the people I used to call my siblings. Vanya, hiding in the corner, lifted her hand in a feeble wave. "I'm nothing more than a contained Jack in the Box, love," I spun to face Allison. She stood about a foot taller than me, but the wariness was etched on her face. "I don't intend to hurt you."

"Yeah, well that's good to hear, but what about Dad?" Luther asked, his dark eyes flashing. It had been one minute of interacting and he was already condemning me to fate's I never committed. Accusation. Anger. Overprotection of Allison. That was what he operated off of. Each of us siblings had a favourite. For Luther it was Allison. For Diego, it was Klaus. For me, well –

"Well shucks. Luther, I'm so sorry to be the one to tell you this, but dear old Dad, is –" I mimed a gun going off at my head. "Boom." I snapped my fingers and Allison jumped. "Relax, dear, you're making me nervous."

Klaus was the only one who appreciated my jokes. He pointed. "Didn't I always say that Y/N was the coolest out of you bitches?"

"Is that my skirt?" Allison asked a very confused Klaus, who shuffled into the centre of the room like it was his stage.