THE THING WITH SORROW - The Umbrella Academy

The Flashback

Five and Zero were stuck in a staring contest across the dinner table, their shocking eyes against up against eachother as they silently argued over the sound of the recorded voice lecturing in the background.

Zero had short, cropped hair that fell to her chin and a blunt fringe across her forehead. One hand was clenched around her fork while Five's fingers curled around his knife, and to break the clinking of utensils against the plates, he slams it into the tabletop with a bang!

"Number Five?" Sir Reginald asked without looking up from his plate, all of the siblings looking across at the boy that caused the disruption.

"I have a question."

Zero sat back in her chair, trying to catch her brothers gaze but he refused to look at her.

"Knowledge is an admirable goal but you know the rules. No talking during meal times. You are interrupting Herr Carlson." Reginald stated firmly.

Five shoved his plate away with a screech and it clattered against his sisters, knocking her glass of water over and making her stand abruptly.

"Hey!"

"Number Zero, take your seat." He demanded.

She brushed the water dripping onto her red and grey checkered skirt, face scrunching up in frustration. She did not take her seat.

"I want to time travel."

Sir Reginald's full attention was now on Five, which was exactly what the boy craved. "No."

Zero picked up her falled glass and sat loosely at the very edge of her seat, not tucking herself close to the table, her shoulders tense as she watched her brother argue.

All of the others were tense and quiet, observing nervously. Five was usually cocky, but breaking rules at dinnertime like this was very out of character.

"But I'm ready. I've been practicing my spacial jumps just like you said," he stood, concentrating for a moment before he disappeared and reappeared next to the end of the table. "See?"

"A spacial jump is trivial when compared with the unknowns of time travel," Reginald lectured, placing his cutlery down. "One is like sliding along the ice, the other is akin to decending blindly into the depths of the freezing water and reappearing as an acorn."

Zero frowned, meeting Fives eyes for a second. She was silently begging for him to just sit back down.

"Well, I dont get it."

"Hence the reason you aren't ready."

"Im not afraid."

"Fear isn't the issue," Sir Reginald continued without once ever looking up from his dinner. "The effects it might have on your body, even on your mind, are far too unpredictable."

He finally turned to face the boy, impatient.

"Now, I forbid you to talk about this anymore!"

The young boy met the concerned gaze of his twin sisters as she mouthed the words, 'sit down.'

The young girl knew, when he didnt do as she said immediately that the split second too long of thought, of consideration, was too long. And she knew then and there that he wasnt going to sit back down.

"Number Five!" Reginald yelled.

He turned on his heels and ran out of the academy, and a fraction later, her chair skidded back from the force of her launching into a run. Her run was disjointed, going in and out of super speed and normal speed - to any outside she looked like a video game character glitches across the room. When she reached past the front gates in half a second she collided roughly with her brother before he even had a chance to use his powers.

They fell to the floor, a bundle of grazed knees, elbows and buzzing energy, and she latched her hand onto his arm after they quickly pushed themselves up.

"Where are you going?" She asked, yanking him towards her to shake him out of his delusion. "You can't leave!"

"I'll be coming back, idiot." He said back, trying to shake her grip off of him. "Let go."

"No!" She frowned, tightening it. "Dads right. You can't do this, its too ris-"

"-you're siding with him?" He cut her off sharply, betrayal flashing through his blue eyes. She went quiet. Thirteen years of their life and she had never admitted that their father had done anything right in their life, and he thought until then that she never would. It was such a shock, he felt he didnt even know the girl in front of him. "You don't think I can do it?"

"No, I fucking don't!" She snapped truthfully, then her expression lost its harshness. "And I don't want you to risk your life for you to prove a stupid point."

Their eyes locked for a second, and they could both feel the electric energy they shared with their powers buzz beneath their skin. Now, up against eachother, they clashed.

"You think its stupid, fine," he said coldly. "Go back inside then."

She knew she had to keep hold of him because the moment she didn't, he'd do something rash and stupid.

He knew she wasn't going to let him go.

She shook her head.

"Go back inside!" He shouted, shoving her backwards.

It was such a shock that her hand slipped and she fell back onto the floor, her elbows grazing across the concrete and tearing the fabric of her shirt with a smack.

With tears in her eyes, Zero looked up just in time to see Five turn his back on her and step into a walk, a flash of blue taking over his body. And then he wasn't standing there anymore.

"Five?" Her eyes searched the street, and anyone walking past simply gave her a strange look and moved around her, ignoring the odd girl holding her bleeding elbow sitting on the cold floor.

About thirty seconds passed.

Still, the space in front of her remained empty.

Sniffling, Zero swallowed back tears of pain and shock and pushed herself onto her feet, cradling her right arm that was bleeding worse than the other. When she looked down at it, the graze was long and covered her entire elbow and she knew Grace would have to fix the large tears in her white shirt.

Zero didn't want to go back inside but feared how much there father would yell and reprimand her for disobeying the rules. She picked her feet up and dejectedly went back inside the academy. When she did, all eyes turned to her and the bloody grazes she sported. She kept her head down so her hair covered her upset face.

"Number Zero! Sit back down, meal time hasn't ended yet." He ordered. The other kids exchanged worried looks but couldn't say anything. Reginald didn't even mention her brother.

Instead of doing as she was told like they all expected and like she always did, for the first time in years, Zero ignored their father and raced up the stairs to her bedroom in little bursts of electric energy.

Her side collided harshly with one of her walls and she put an arm up to block the shock of the hit, but it worsened the pain she was in already. She stumbled away, and checked her elbows again, allowing the tears to flow down her cheeks freely.

And when Sir Reginald called her down for studies later than evening, she wedged a chair under her door handle and ignored him.