Regarding Vanya

Memory Lane

Walking down the street, Vanya took in every minute detail of her surroundings. Her withdrawal symptoms kept recurring so she felt the need to distract herself with the view. It was so much better to escape from where she'd been: no towering academy near, no dreary overcast or abundance of cars, and no wind or rain to test her abilities. After all, there'd never been many typhoons in Dallas. A sigh of contempt masked the shoved fingers tingling in her pocket as she pressed on, choosing to remain near the back of the pack.

She figured they must look like the oddest group around, a strange mixture of schoolboy, Hollywood, and what she could only describe as  appearing to be uncomfortable (no, she would not compliment Diego's outfit, even in her own head). In order to allow the public their sanity, Klaus and Five had abstained from using their powers. Ben was no longer present (though Klaus kept bickering with him) and Five grumpily marched at the front, the stubbornly lost leading the stubbornly lost.

A few dusty roads down, they found a 50s style diner (probably authentic) labeled Calendar Girls in a faded red script. A small bell announced their presence as they took the largest booth, a velvet circular next to the oblong window. Five slid in first with Luther and Diego following, their struggle for the primary position lasting a good five seconds before the bigger man abstained, willing to be third for Allison's approval. She went in next, perfectly dainty as ever. Klaus and Vanya glanced at one another for a quick second, each somewhat unwilling to not be on the end.

"I have to use the bathroom" Vanya refused to be trapped between her siblings. Turning away, she went to the back of the restaurant, only pausing once she'd reached a stall. She loved them all, of course, but being around so many people after so long overwhelmed her. Turning towards the toilet, she allowed her symptoms to overcome her: throwing up nearly everything she'd eaten in the last three days into the unexpecting vessel. Going cold turkey was harder than it had appeared, she noted as the disorientation surrounded her world view. Only after approaching the sink, she noticed another woman, somewhat unnerving in green tie dye and sandals, watching her with a less than pleased expression. Vanya wiped her mouth, praying that she didn't seem too embarrassing in her presence.

Instead, the woman reached down into her pocket and pulled out a small box. "Kent?" She offered politely, "I find that one of these soothes me when I'm blitzed."

Vanya hesitated. "Thank you." She thrust two nimble fingers into the box before drawing out a single stick. Turning towards the outer door, she leaned against the wall, breathing in the unfamiliar Texas air. She never planned on using the cigarette, of course, but the feeling of something between her fingers gave them a distraction, a thing to twirl as she concentrated on breaking their rhythmic shaking.

"Vanya's smoking?!" A quick gasp alerted her to Klaus, who swaggered towards her from around the side of the building. "Oh how my goody two shoes sister has fallen!"

"I'm not, really." Vanya felt the need to defend herself against the accusation. "Just distracting myself from the jittering."

His eyebrows lost their arch, furrowing together in concern. As he came closer, he studied her profile, reaching a hand up to wipe the corner of her mouth before cleaning it on his pants. "Vomit too, huh?"

"Yeah."

"You know what helps?" Another eyebrow waggle. "Waffles."

"In a minute."

"Kay," he turned against the wall and looked outward into the shockingly bright sun. Behind the building, nearly a half mile of drying grass littered the vacant lot, more nature than they could find nearly anywhere in their former city. As he studied the ground, he found something that brought a grin, this time genuine, to his mouth. "Look at that little anthill" he pointed a few yards away to a small rise in the orange sand.

"Nice." Vanya never understood if Klaus was actually as excitable as he came off. She was a bit focused on her internal issues at the moment, and couldn't find a connection between her brother and his fondness for anthills. She did, however, wish he wouldn't look so close to the sun, especially with his delicate lighter eyes.

"Do you remember when we found that anthill?" He hoped that years of medicine, as well as her temporary amnesia, didn't have any effect on her long term memory.

The trace of a smile appeared on her mouth. "Yes, you tried to bring in a few specimen as pets." She began to giggle slightly, "something about putting them in Five's underwear."

"Well, I'm sorry if our dear brother refuses to dance, I just wanted to see his moves!" He did a disjointed full body shimmy mirroring that of which Five had done all those years ago. "And then Diego-"

"The family sociopath-"

"Our dear brother decided to take his own small aggressions out on those poor little ants with his more adult blades. But you weren't having it were you?"

Vanya stared down at the hill intensely. "It was wrong."

"Oh?"

"Those ants couldn't defend themselves... they were ordinary." Vanya failed to notice Klaus' flinch at her words, the mere reminder of that single, most awful term for his sister.

"Do you remember the break in?" She decided to avert the conversation once more. "We were ten, Dad said the cameras picked up a stranger entering the house at 3 AM..."

"Ah, the week Luther stayed up for 100 hours straight."

Vanya giggled. "That was me."

"Pardon?"

She smiled a bit, relishing the memory of her one disobedience, "I snuck out to buy ant food at the gas station." Vanya took in the struck look Klaus ogled her with before finishing. "They only had human food so I fed them Skittles."

"And here I was calling you a goody two shoes."

"It was nothing compared to what you used to do."

"But it was something." He reached over and patted her hand gently, glancing towards the corner of his eye where Ben grinned at him.

"Ready for those waffles?" Klaus nodded in return and they both went in to join the meal.