Snippets of Memory - The Umbrella Academy

Closer to the Sun

"Not only did I tell you to back off, but you're taking your shit with you".
"You're really gonna stop him from turning his head off, like he says? His only relief, his only satisfaction".

Over the thunder of bass kicking back in, I took the baggie Klaus was already trying to hand me and flung it in Quinn's face. He caught it without flinching. Calm, on the outside. But inside? I know he was a heartbeat away from smashing my skull against the slimy concrete.

"You don't know shit".

It drove me mad to see this bastard posing as a good Samaritan, a savior, when all he wanted was to drag Klaus back down and keep him crawling at his feet. Honestly, the rats in these tunnels had more integrity than him. And he couldn't stand that Klaus wasn't dependent on him anymore.

"What I do know is you're messing with my business, and I hate interference with my transactions".

I helped Klaus to his feet, completely ignoring him and the brass knuckles I saw sliding onto his fingers in his pocket. And I think I told him:

"Oh no, I'm gonna cry. Poor baby goat's gotta rethink his business plan".

His fist swung out fast - straight through my intangible head - and slammed into the concrete with a crack I'd rather forget. I didn't feel an ounce of sympathy for his knuckles, just like I didn't for his knees, which smashed against a leaking pipe under his own weight. Klaus was laughing so hard he could barely breathe, completely fogged over by whatever he'd already taken.

"Poor Quinny's gonna have to sniff arnica for ten days to heal his boo-boos..."
"Move your damn neon ass".

I wasn't sticking around to see what came next, mostly because I was scared Quinn would get back up and go after him. Back then, I couldn't teleport anyone with me: otherwise, believe me, I'd already have done it. And despite all my badass vibes, I always realized what I'd done after the fact. My knees were shaking at that moment.

I grabbed Klaus and started dragging him back toward the flashing-light room, through a narrow pipeway blocked by a sheet of rancid water dripping from the ceiling. Trying to pick up the pace despite his staggering.

"That was magic. Glitter on a rainbow space-cake".
"Shut up, Klaus".
"I want to replay that moment like ASMR".
"Keep moving. We have to blend into the crowd".
"Not too fast, Rinny, I-"

*Tchk - Tschfff!*

I froze. That sound, I recognized it instantly: too well. I'd heard it far too many times at protests. Even at Pride, when the ultra-conservatives showed up swinging bats. The tear gas had popped not far from us, right as the music and strobes cut out. Instinctively, I made my olfactory field intangible. Klaus looked at me, already knowing his mascara didn't stand a chance.

"Enforcers!"

Someone shouted it, and just like that, the sewer snapped back to its grim reality: dull and dark, lit only by a few mounted spotlights. There were a few seconds of stillness, of silence. Then the screams replaced the bass, and chaos exploded in a disordered blast.

More shouting, bodies crashing into each other, lights shutting off in rapid sequence, and intermittent flashes: the kind that came from the tasers carried by The City's security forces, sent to break us up. The crowd burst apart like a bubble of sweaty silhouettes, glitter stuck to their skin, pushing and shoving, nearly trampling one another in the filthy water. Some stumbled, slipped on the slime-covered tiles, others frantically searched for the tiny exit beneath the bridge. Some were trying to find their friends. Others were only trying to save their own skin.

Hands shot up to cover faces, trembling, crying, coughing until lungs felt like they'd rip open. The tear gas kept hissing, spreading its poison in thick, choking clouds. Klaus buried his face in the crook of his arm - uselessly - and we just ran, right into the chaos.

"ILLEGAL ZONE, MOVE ALONG!"

A guy dressed as a drag mermaid collapsed screaming after taking a baton to the ribs, and all I remember are his eyelashes: wet with disgusting sewer water, catching the torchlight like dewdrops.

We tried to find our way, unable to see more than a stride ahead, nothing but disjointed shadows fleeing in every direction. Klaus was coughing so hard his knees buckled beneath him.

That's how it was. Sometimes, The City was kind, wrapping us up like a warm bath. And sometimes, like that night, it just seemed to want to kill us. Us, and everything we dreamed of, everything that kept us going.

But even in the middle of that hell, the city hadn't played its last, unexpected card.

"You", a voice said, and I knew immediately it wasn't meant for me.

I didn't see him clearly, the one in an enforcer uniform, one of those volunteer brigades tasked with keeping order in The City. I just felt the shift in the energy, a stillness in the middle of the thunderous chaos. I don't think he even saw me. He just grabbed Klaus and pushed through the crowd in the opposite direction.

*Crack !* I followed by teleporting, quickly turning intangible so I wouldn't have to worry about collisions: something I hadn't been able to do while dragging Klaus. The enforcer knew the layout of the sewer: he knew exactly where he was going.

He dragged Klaus to a tiny staircase, hidden behind a collapsed utility room. A side access point to the sewer, the same one the enforcers had likely used to get in. He took three steps back, retreating while still staring at Klaus, just as I caught up to them, but he didn't even glance at me. Then he turned and disappeared back into the chaos, right as I realized the cool air from outside was falling down the broken stairs.

"Holy fuck!", I practically shouted at Klaus as I collapsed beside him, my eyes still watering just like his, because of those moments when I hadn't managed to dematerialize fast enough. Adrenaline was still pounding through my veins, like the music hadn't stopped at all.
"What the hell was that!"

We slumped against each other in the rubble. And with our eyes still fixed on the last scattering shadows of the crowd in the distance, salvation at our backs, Klaus whispered:

"That was my brother. That was Diego".

---

Notes:

It's always been clear that Klaus and Rin's adventures were never exactly a walk in the park, even if The City gave them as much as it took. A party, a break, a high, and then the shadows of the past often crash back in, just like The City's own harshness.

With this prequel, I'm trying out a writing style that's more raw, more urgent than in the main story. Grittier, more urban, more punk, maybe because that's what their early years felt like to me. That's what shaped them into who they became. Here, they're literally dancing on the edge of the abyss. But they need it.

I love the idea that Klaus's path would cross with his siblings' again, accidentally, painfully, even in the middle of the chaos.
But I've got no sympathy for Quinn. That bastard had it coming.

Any comment will make my day! ♡