𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐞 || ▹Umbrella Academy

the ties that bind us

When she passed him by, Five only sent her a rueful smirk.

"You really should have jumped to the finish line, Five." She smirked. "Thanks for the idea, by the way."

Five laughed. Face the consequences, indeed.

Thea ignored Luther, Diego and Allison's shouts of protest, though she did turn around and jog up the stairs backwards when she heard her sister begin to speak a little more cunningly.

"I heard a rumour- agh!"

The girl had gone to use her power to control the blonde but Thea had caught her in time and forced her to stop. Thea tittered. "Not now, Ally. There can't be two manipulators in this race!"

Now secure in her first-place position, she turned back around and began running once more. Only calling out behind her with a sickly-sweet tone of voice. "Klausy, Benny, come on."

Sounds of surprise and shock could be heard as the two boys were free to move once more, and they wasted no time in running after her, frustrating the others to no end. When she finally made it to the top, thighs burning something mad and her breath a little short, she looked to their father and was surprised to see a hint of amusement in his usually stoic, cold eyes.

"Did I win?" she asked Vanya rightly, and let out a whoop of joy when receiving a nod.

Hearing footsteps behind her she looked down at the frozen siblings on the stairs, angry expressions on their faces and let the tendril of control she'd blanketed them with loose. They all began to move as quickly as possible. Five, learning from his mistake immediately spatial jumped to the finishing line, seconds before Klaus and Ben arrived. He stood beside Thea wearing a smug, if not rueful expression.

Second place, while not as good as first, would do for now.

"So...not fair..." Diego panted as the trio finally made it to the very top.

Luther's cherubic face was twisted in annoyance and disappointment as he regarded Thea. "Cheating is not very sportsmanlike."

"It's not cheating, it's adapting," Thea drawled in a very Reginald-like manner. "It's called being the best, I wouldn't expect you to understand."

Before Luther could reply, Reginald finally spoke up for the first time. "Indeed, Zero. And why, may I ask, did you see it fit to release Number Four and Six during your stint? After all, securing your place at the top was the aim of this exercise."

Thea smiled sheepishly. She had no real reason other than personal pettiness. "Practice?" she said, the word coming out in a more questioning tone than she'd have liked.

Reginald Hargreeves' brows twitched. "And that it just happened to be those two in particular? A purposeful choice, perhaps?"

Thea looked up at their father and smiled, mischief twinkling in her blue eyes. "Not at all, Sir. I must just have very good luck."

. . .

Thea did not, at all, have very good luck.

She watched in tense silence as her twin brother winced and gasped underneath the sharp needle of the tattoo gun, his arm being held down by the large man who was tasked with inking matching black umbrella's on each of their arms. She bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from shouting, or even from making the man stop herself.

A warning stare from Reginald had been enough for her to quell her urges.

Though that didn't stop the tattooist from shifting occasionally under the heavy, deadly glare being sent his way from the little blonde girl. For such a child, it was certainly intimidating. He felt as though he was walking on the knife's edge, like at any moment his life would be decided as unnecessary. He tried to shake it off.