mama im in love with a fucking criminal☂ five x fem!reader

XVIII

Diego walks into the kitchen to join the rest of the family after helping Klaus into a bath, looking tired.

"How is he?" Luther asks before anyone else has the chance to.

"He's...he'll be fine." Diego says before sitting down at the table with Luther, Vanya and I.

"You guys should've seen him, he was...I've never seen Klaus so," Vanya ponders for the right word, "so overwhelmed. It was scary. I mean, he's always been the one to make a joke out of his misery, but his time he just..." she lets out a puff of air, and I think that's an accurate enough explanation.

I cover her hand with mine to offer some comfort, telling her wordlessly that I knew what she meant.

"Hey, you've stopped taking your pills, right?" I say to Vanya after a silence.

"Yeah," she says.

"Well, mayyyybeee we could start your training?" I suggest, looking around at everyone to see their reaction. "So that you can learn to control your powers before you blow up the moon?"

"Fine by me," Luther shrugs his huge shoulders indifferently, surprising everyone.

Vanya looks at him open mouthed before collecting herself and saying nervously, "Yeah, yeah. That sounds good."

"Great," I smile, proud of her for being brave enough. "I'll go get Pogo."

☂☂☂

The main hall looks exactly as I remember seeing it through a screen, with the exception of a few changes - like Vanya being a tad older, Pogo taking Reginald's place and the addition of myself and Allison beside him. Allison for moral support, and me to make sure everything goes as it should.

"Alright," I say, a bit nervous myself. "Hopefully you'll do better than when you were four," I give her a reassuring smile.

Pogo starts repeating Reginald's actions as I remember them, his words softer but authoritative nonetheless. Vanya starts making progress much faster than the last time she did this, with less tantrums and broken glasses. Whenever she gets frustrated, Allison cheers her on with words of encouragement.

"You're doing really great, Vanya," I tell her when she sits down next to Allison and I.

"No, I'm not," she sighs, hanging her head in disappointment.

"Sure, you are!" Allison quickly reassures her.

"Yeah, at least you didn't slit Allison's throat open like last time," I snort.

"What?" Vanya says.

"What?" I repeat, my eyes widening as I realize what I just said.

"What did you just say?"

"What did I say?"

"That- that thing about-"

"So would you guys mind if I went to take a shower? I've been, like, marinating in my own juices in this uniform for the past two days," I say while Vanya gapes at me.

"That was an unnecessarily vivid image you painted for us," Allison says, her face twisting into a grimace, seemingly unbothered by Vanya and I's little exchange.

"Hey," Vanya says to me. "Thanks. For...giving me a chance. You know, you could've just chosen to keep me on my pills and not even tell me until the after the apocalypse was due, but you didn't, and I just feel so much better, like, I feel-"

"Lighter?"

"Yeah," Vanya breathes.

"Vanya, you don't have to thank me for any of that," I tell her sincerely. "All your siblings - even Luther - chose to give you a chance. And one that they very much owed you, at that. So don't worry about me; I'm just a side character, the little elf on the side of the road that gives you a map in exchange for exactly nine mushrooms."

"What?" Vanya and Allison say at the same time.

"Weird analogy, but you get my point," I stand up.

Vanya and Allison murmur in disagreement but let me escape upstairs nonetheless.