8 ○ Umbrella Academy

Family Time

"Three days?" Allison asked, handing us all coffee.

"That's what Five said," Luther sighed, accepting the cardboard cup he'd been handed.

"The old bastard did mention the apocolypse, come to think of it," Klaus agreed as Allison made her way to Diego and I. I sat at his right side since his left arm was in a sling, warming my hands around my coffee as Klaus continued. "He just left out the part about how soon."

"But can we trust him? I don't know if you've noticed, but Five's a little..." She trailed off and circled her finger at her temple, giving a small cuckoo whistle.

"Our little psycho," Klaus chuckled, the short silence after dragging everyone's eyes to me.

"His mind isn't the same as it was when we were thirteen. With time travel and how smart he's grown since he was last around, his head is too complicated for me to look into. It's like trying to read Chinese with no former knowledge of the language," I explained as best I could, needing a long drink of coffee after.

"He was pretty convincing," Luther assured. "If he wasn't trying to stop an apocalypse from happening, those lunatics wouldn't be chasing him."

"That's why they were chasing after him?" Diego deadpanned, to which Luther nodded.

"What did Five even see?" Allison asked. When I had looked for Delores, the world around her either burned or froze, but I knew nothing more than that.

"Uh..." Luther took a second to take in the four of us, "Apparently, we all fought together against whoever was responsible." There was silence between us, all of us looking around as to where either Luther or Five had gotten that wacko idea, shortly interrupted by Luther playing leader. "Okay, so, here's the plan. We go through Dad's research--"

There was instant clamor between my siblings, all of it directed at Luther but fed consistently into my mind all at once. "Wait a tick, wait a tick, wait a tick," Klaus repeated as he held up his hand, ensuring he'd be center of attention for a moment. "What actually happened the first time around?" It was a perfectly valid question, and it came from Klaus. I focused a bit on his head, finding it unmuddled but still hazy; Klaus was going through withdrawal.

"Yeah, what are you not telling us?" Diego asked. I hadn't noticed he'd set his coffee between his knees until his good hand wrapped around my left one. "Come on, big boy, spit it out." Luther looked down to his coffee as we all turned to him, the only thing my mind was able to register was that it hated the fact that Diego was wearing gloves again.

He quietly mumbled, "Wedied," before taking a sip to avoid us.

"What was that?" Allison asked, having been the farthest from him.

Luther coughed, as if the coffee had been too hot, and clarified matter-of-factly, "I said, uh, we died." Diego's wide eyes didn't leave Luther but his hand tightened around mine, some bits of leather folding under my fingers as I squeezed his hand as well. Bringing my coffee to my lips, I could only guess that; since, you know, Five was alone in his apocalypse. I jumped when an umbrella dropped out of the stand and flung itself open, causing Klaus to scream like a small child and me to lean back into the sofa with a sigh.

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Everyone congregated at the bar while I sat on the sofa still, spit firing questions at one another. After several long moments of those four going back and forth, I looked up at the new thoughts in the room, ready to give Vanya a soft smile, but frowning instead when I got a flat reading off the man beside her; I thought she'd been alone until I looked up. I'd been informed of Vanya's boyfriend, Leonard, but his mind was blocked the way Pogo and Dad's minds had been, causing me to watch him in silence as he observed the group around us. "Hey," she softly started, instantly gaining everyone else's attention. "What's going on?"