[✓] 𝐼𝑁𝑇𝐸𝑅𝐿𝑈𝐷𝐸 | 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧. 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑

Word count: 3834

𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄'𝐒 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 𝐅𝐋𝐔𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃 open, and she felt quite warm, despite the fact that it was the middle of a chilly November and that she was wearing nothing but her undergarments. 

The warmth she was feeling, she soon realized as her eyes blinked themselves open, was coming from the boy who had his arms wrapped around her.

She smiled as she looked up at Five's sleeping face. She loved watching him sleep (as creepy as that sounded). The way he would scrunch his nose from time to time, or the way his grip on her would automatically tighten every time she shifted ever so slightly always made her heart flutter.

He woke up a few minutes later and sleepily gave her a kiss on the forehead. His warm hands ran over her bare arms and moved down to her waist before pulling her closer to him.

"Is the door locked?" he mumbled, his hot breath tickling her nose.

"Mhm," Valerie hummed in response.

"Good." His lips formed a sleepy smile as his hand tightened on her waist. His sweet smile soon turned into a growing smirk. "Did you have fun last night, darling? Because I know you've been dying to—"

"Oh my God," she groaned as she turned onto her other side to face the wall.

"What?" he laughed, sliding his hand over her stomach as he moved closer to her, pressing his body into her back. "You know it's—"

"You're the worst," she mumbled into the pillow, shaking her head.

"Oh, really?" His voice became a whisper as he leaned his lips close to her ear, "Because that's not what you were saying last—"

"Oh my God," she groaned once more, shutting her eyes.

Five chuckled lowly before beginning to plant kisses along her jawline, causing her to giggle and try to elbow him backward.

"Five, we have to get up. Diego and Elliott must be waiting for us."

"No," he whined softly, continuing to line kisses down her neck. "We can stay here for five more minutes."

Valerie managed to turn around, and Five's kisses landed on her lips instead as he placed a hand on her cheek. After a few moments, she moved back from him and giggled softly. "We really should go, Five."

"My five minutes aren't up yet," he murmured, shifting himself closer to her and tracing her cheek with his thumb.

He began to kiss her once more, his hand trailing down to the lower part of her body as he began to lean himself up. Ignoring the fact that it was seven in the morning and that neither of them had brushed their teeth, Five kissed her passionately, his body hovering over hers.

Suddenly, there was a loud knock on the door, startling both of them. Five's head whipped around to face the door, frightened that perhaps somehow the door had unlocked itself.

It hadn't. There was another loud knock.

Valerie shoved Five off of her, and he groaned as he landed on the edge of the bed. 

She walked over to the door and unlocked it before opening it hesitantly. She cracked the door open so that it would only reveal her face as she peered out. "What do you need, Di—oh. Luther?"

She stared at the man whose hands were fumbling with each other. "Hey, Valerie. Listen, I'm sorry about what I said to you and Five—"

"Yeah, that's wonderful, I forgive you, could you maybe—"

Luther didn't seem to hear her as he continued, "It was wrong of me to lash out on you guys. I'm a leader, I'm Number One, but I haven't been doing my duties and—"

"Luther, please—"

"—I'm very sorry for that. But I figured that maybe—"

"I can't really—"

"—we can just leave that in the past and focus on stopping this—"

"Luther!"

She had finally gotten his attention. "Hm?"

"I love you, but can we maybe talk about this later?" Valerie pleaded. "I'm, uh, in the middle of changing."

"Oh, uh, of course, I" —Luther stepped backward awkwardly, tripping over one of Elliott's marbles—"sorry, I'll just . . ."

Valerie shut the door and locked it once more, sighing as she turned around.

Five was watching with a small smirk. "'Changing'?"

"Oh, what did you want me to say?" she scoffed as she rolled her eyes and walked back over to the bed. "'Sorry, I was busy making out with Five'?"

"No, you should've said 'Sorry, I was busy having se—"

"Shut up, idiot!" Valerie leaned over and smacked his arm, eliciting a grin from the boy. "Put your clothes on and let's go. Luther's waiting."

"Are you sure you want me to—"

"Yes!"

After dressing themselves back into their uniforms (Five doing so quite reluctantly), they headed out into the kitchen to find Luther cracking some eggs into a large, metal bowl. A pile of about twelve eggshells lay next to the bowl on the counter, and the pile was only growing.

Diego was sitting at the small table that was a few feet away from Luther. His fingers clutched the edge of his coffee mug rather tightly, and he was staring straight at the wall in front of him.

Cautiously, Valerie sat on the chair opposite of him, her eyebrows furrowed. She waved a hand in his face, snapping him out of his small daze.

"Oh, uh . . . hey, Northstar."

"Hi." She gave him a small smile as Five reached across her and poured his own cup of coffee. "You good?"

Diego's eyes lowered to the table as he gave a meek nod and muttered, "I'm fine."

Luther grabbed a pot and placed it on the stove before switching the burner on. He poured his eggs into the pot and grabbed a spatula, tending to the food as it cooked.

Diego ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head slightly.

Valerie stared at him, her eyebrows knitting together in worry as she began, "Diego, are you—"

"I don't understand," he said as he stood up abruptly. "They keep following me."

"Wait, who?" Luther furrowed his eyebrows, not taking his eyes off of the yellow eggs that were now overflowing the pot.

"Those Dutch sociopaths," Diego answered as he stepped towards him.

"They're Swedish, you idiot," Valerie corrected as she rolled her eyes.

"Hired guns paid to eradicate us before we do any more damage to this timeline," Five continued off of her, leaning against the doorframe with his coffee in one hand and the other slipped in his pocket.

"Yeah, but why now? I mean, I'm" —he snapped his fingers three times, quite angrily— "fine for three months until you two showed up. Don't get me wrong, Val, I love you, but seriously."

Five scoffed before muttering, "Yeah, love you too."

"Yeah, I was here for a year and no one messed with me," Luther remarked, his eyes slowly turning to Five.

"Even if it was our fault—which it isn't," Five added with a glare, "we only have six days before the end of the world, and the closest anyone's gotten to Dad was that driveway at the Consulate."

Luther paused, staring at the smoke that was rising from his eggs. "Well . . ." He sighed as he hesitantly looked over towards them. "That's not exactly true."

Valerie's eyebrows knit tightly together as the three of them looked towards him with confusion. "What do you mean?"

Luther quirked an eyebrow as they all stepped towards him, and he reluctantly shared, "I saw him."

He sighed as he piled his eggs into a bowl and poured himself a glass of orange juice. He pulled up a chair to the front of the table as Five sat on the right and Diego took the left. Valerie resorted to sitting on the edge of the table, her feet resting on the empty space in between Five's knees.

Luther recounted his story for them as he shovelled the eggs into his mouth.

After arriving in Dallas, he had taken a bus all the way back to their home (or the building that would later become their home) and told Reginald all about him being his son and knowing of the Moon base, Pogo and the apocalypse and such. Reginald simply shunned him about how dirty he was and how much in need of a shower he was before kicking him out.

He had finished half of his eggs by the time his story was over.

"That's pathetic," Diego commented as Luther forked another mouthful of eggs into his mouth.

"Yeah, well, at least he didn't shank my ass," Luther scoffed, his voice slightly muffled from the food.

Diego shook his head slightly before saying, "No, bro, he shanked your heart."

Elliott then walked in before Luther could retort, stopping right after stepping in. He stared at Luther and squinted his eyes as he slowly pointed at him and asked, "Is that my bathrobe?"

Luther froze, staring at Elliott with stuffed cheeks before letting out a small "No."

"Look, who cares what he shanked?" Five sighed as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "He knows something about time travel."

"Um . . ." Elliott raised a hesitant hand, resting the other on his belt before he questioned, "Wait, why don't you just do your thing and, uh, time travel us out?"

Five gave an exasperated sigh as he got out of his chair and went over to the counter to pour himself more coffee. "Anyone care to explain?"

"First time he tried, he got lost in the apocalypse," Luther started.

"Second time, he ended up without hair on his balls," Diego continued.

"Last time I tried, I scattered my family across three years in Dallas, Texas" —Five turned to Elliott, an irritated smile on his face as he lifted his cup— "possibly triggering a doomsday. Any more questions, Elliott?"

Elliott shook his head quickly, muttering a soft "Uh, no."

"You're missing the big picture." Diego shook his head as he looked towards Luther before telling him, "Dad is the ringleader of a sinister cabal that's planning to kill the president."

"A cabal?" Luther repeated, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Ignore him," Valerie sighed as she waved a dismissive hand, earning a glare from Diego. "Look, the way I see it, we only have one option."

"Oh, yeah? And what's that?" Luther questioned as he turned towards her, taking another bite of his food.

She slid off of the table and sat down in the chair Five had previously occupied. "It's time to get the Umbrella Academy back together."

"Hell, yeah." A smirk grew onto Diego's face as he nodded in agreement. "Family meeting."

Luther grumpily looked down at his fork as he requested, "Okay then, can one of you get Allison, please?"

"You two still a thing?" Diego inquired as he quirked an eyebrow. He then leaned forward, his smirk growing bigger as he slowly asked, "Do we need to . . . talk?"

"No," Luther replied with a grimace, "she's married."

"She is?" Valerie gave a small gasp of delight, clapping her hands together. "That's so wonder—I mean" —she caught sight of Luther's glare— "oh . . . oh, no . . . that . . . sucks?"

"Subtle." Five nodded, an amused glint in his eyes as she rolled her eyes.

"Dude, that's rough," Diego remarked as he sat back in his chair, giving his brother a pitying look.

"I can handle it," Luther gave a small chuckle before his expression saddened while he shoved another forkful of eggs in his mouth.

"We'll get her," Five reassured him as he gestured for Valerie to get up, to which she heeded. He began to walk to the living room before pausing and looking at Luther. "Can you get Vanya without, uh, squeezing her to death?"

"I'll try," Luther glowered.

After Luther gave them Allison's address, Five grabbed Valerie's hand and teleported them to the outside of a row of houses. He kept his hand in hers as he began to walk towards one of the houses before knocking on the door with his free hand.

After a moment of waiting, Five gave an exasperated sigh and teleported them inside. They found both Allison and Klaus in the kitchen, glasses of something pink and definitely alcoholic in their hands as they sat on the ground.

The two gasped as they saw who had broken into the house, and they clambered to their feet.

"Val," Allison breathed out before tossing the cup in the sink and engulfing her in a tight hug. There was a shattering noise that sounded, causing her to wince. "Whoops."

"Hi, Alli." Valerie let out a small giggle as she hugged her tightly.

After giving a miffed Five a bone-crushing hug, Klaus moved on to Valerie, giving her a similar embrace. "Oh, Valerie . . . I missed my little speedster," he chuckled as he ruffled her hair.

"I missed you too, Klaus," Valerie chuckled before wrinkling her nose. He smelled strongly of alcohol (though, was she surprised?).

"We don't have time for this," Five said impatiently. "We have to get back. We're having a family meeting."

"A fam—like, with everyone else? Like everyone else?" Klaus questioned, his eyes widened as he let go of Valerie. "The entire family?"

"Yes, everyone else. Luther, Diego, Vanya—the whole crew," Five said quickly as he rolled his eyes. "Now, let's go."

"Oh, so now we don't have five minutes?" Valerie muttered to Five as Klaus began to clean up his cup.

He gave her a small smirk. "That's different, darling."

Valerie rolled her eyes before grabbing Allison and Klaus and speeding them back to the front of the building they've been staying in. Five appeared a moment later, and the four of them walked in, at the lower level of the building.

"Is anyone here?" Allison called as they walked, her voice echoing throughout the large room. "Hello?"

"Le petit mort, le petit mort," Klaus mused.

"What?" Valerie turned to him with furrowed eyebrows as she scoffed, "You don't speak French."

"It's 'the little death.'" Klaus looked around at the TVs that Elliott used to sell, and his eyes widened in wonder. "Oh, wow. Look at this old stuff."

Just then, Luther, Diego, and Vanya came to the railing, staring down at them.

"Oh, wow," Klaus gasped as he looked up at all of them. "I know this is impossible, but . . . did we all get sexier?"

"Vanya," Allison breathed out as she looked up at her sister.

A grin came onto Vanya's face. "I can't believe I have another sister." She ran down the stairs, the other boys following, before going into Allison's embrace.

Diego gripped Klaus's jaw as the drunken boy played with Diego's hair. "Oh, you are drunk."

"Yeah. No, just a little . . . just a few . . ." Klaus turned slowly, then seeing the hug that was taking place. "Oh, that's so sweet," he cooed as he walked over to Allison and Vanya, then joining in on the hug.

"Klaus," Five called to him, his hands in his pockets. "Is Ben here?"

"Oh, uh . . . no." A solemn look came over Klaus's face as he released the other two and turned to the rest of them. "No, unfortunately, ghosts can't time travel."

"All right, then," Five sighed as he began to head up the stairs. "Let's get down to business."

As soon as everyone was settled in the living room, Five shoved his hands into his pockets and began, "All right. First off, I wanna say I'm sorry. I know I really screwed the pooch on this whole going-back-in-time-and-getting-stuck thing. But the real kick in the pants here is we brought the end of the world back here with us."

Klaus, who had just poured himself a drink, paused and turned to Five. "Oh my God, again?" He stared at the incredulous looks that everyone was giving him, and then exclaimed, "All of you knew? Why am I always the last one to find out about the end of the . . . Oh my God. My cult is gonna be so pissed. Five!" he groaned. "I told them we had until 2019."

"We have until Monday," Valerie said bluntly as leaned backward on the couch. "We have six days."

Klaus sipped his drink as he asked, "Is it Vanya?"

"Klaus!" Allison scolded.

"What?" Klaus protested as he frowned. "It's usually Vanya."

Vanya ignored Klaus and turned to the front before she asked, "Do you have any leads, Five?"

"Yeah, we have one," Five sighed as Diego handed him the file that contained the photo of what they had seen in the Frankel Footage. He gave it to Allison, who opened it, and her eyes enlarged.

"Holy shit, is that Dad?"

"Yeah," Diego confirmed with a nod as the others crowded around Allison.

"That's him?" Vanya questioned, peering over at the picture and squinting her eyes.

Diego nodded once more. "Standing on the grassy knoll."

Five sighed, "Val, Diego, and I have been trying to talk to Dad about what exactly this means. So far, we've got nothing."

"Not nothing," Diego corrected with a shake of the head as he looked towards Five. "He's planning to kill Kennedy."

"Maybe," Five humoured as he took the file from Allison and placed it on the coffee table before putting his hands back into his pockets. "But we don't know who or what sets doomsday in motion. Could be Kennedy, could be something entirely independent. But if we know something changes the timeline, we have to make it right."

"Yeah, but how, if we don't know what's broken?" Allison questioned.

"Come on. Do the math," Diego said as he began to slowly walk towards the couch. "We know Dad's having shady-ass meetings with some shady-ass people. We know he's on the grassy knoll in three days to kill the president. So I think we all know what we have to do."

"Find Dad," Five said.

"Kill Dad," Diego answered simultaneously.

Five looked towards him, an exasperated expression taking over his face as he shook his head.

"None of us are supposed to be here, right? I mean, what if it's us?" Vanya suggested as she looked around at the group and shrugged. "Has anyone here done anything to screw up the timeline?"

The group was silent for a couple of moments. Then, Luther started, "Diego's been stalking Lee Harvey Oswald."

"And you're working for Jack Ruby," Diego immediately retaliated, the volume of his voice rising as he jabbed his finger towards him.

Klaus, who was sprawled over a sofa couch, drawled, "Allison has been very involved in local politics."

"Okay, you started a cult," she responded with an irritated smile.

"I'm . . . I'm just a . . . a nanny on a farm," Vanya said quickly, her hands raised in defence. "I don't have anything to do with all of that."

"Well, maybe you do, we just don't know it yet." Allison shrugged.

Diego whistled, drawing everyone's attention to him. "Listen to yourselves. Everything in our new lives is connected to Kennedy. That can't be a coincidence. Luther works for Ruby, Allison is protesting the government, Dad is on the grassy knoll, Klaus is . . . doing something weird and pervy but probably related. See, clearly, we were all sent back here for one special reason: saving John Fitzgerald Kennedy."

The group began to argue, the volume of the room becoming louder and louder with each passing second.

Valerie groaned as she put her forehead onto Five's shoulder, who looked just as bothered. Her eyebrows knit together tightly as her mind transported back to the first day they had arrived; the fire, the destruction, the war that they had seen. Practically watching her siblings die. And here they were, arguing over some complete nonsense.

She turned around to see everyone still fighting, their expressions becoming angrier and angrier.

"Guys. You all die." Her voice broke as she spoke, but her words were enough to silence the group. She glanced at Five before looking back to the group and shaking her head. "We were there. We saw it. And I wanna forget it, but I can't. We saw Russian nukes vaporize the world with all of you in it . . . in a war that never happened until we brought it here. And Hazel gave his life to save us, so you need to shut up." She stared at them for a moment, swallowing before she continued, "I don't know if the things we've experienced here are all connected. I don't know if there's a reason for everything." She raised her eyebrows at Diego, who sighed. "But Dad will. We need to talk to him before everyone and everything we know is dead."

The room was quiet for a moment before Luther stood up and began to walk towards the exit. "Okay, I'm out."

Valerie turned to him in outrage, putting her hands on her hips as she incredulously questioned, "Did you even hear me, Luther?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I did." He gave her a sarcastic smile as he nodded his head. "I heard a little girl who still wants her daddy to come and fix everything. Well, you can count me out. It's time we all grew the hell up."

Everyone called after him as he headed down the stairs, and Diego followed close behind in protest. Five sighed before teleporting to the middle of the stairs, right in front of Luther.

"No one leaves until we figure this out."

Luther sighed. He was quiet for a moment before he grabbed onto Five's collar and threw him off of the stairs. Before Five could hit the ground, however, he teleported off, disappearing from view.

Valerie rolled her eyes before speeding out into the alleyway, where Five was brushing his blazer off.

"Jeez . . . ," he muttered as he straightened himself. "When did the monkey learn how to fight dirty?"

"Are you okay?" she mumbled, stepping closer to him and worriedly placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm fine." He gave her a reassuring smile before placing a kiss on her cheek.

Suddenly, a rock clattered onto the ground next to the two of them. They looked up to where it had come from and spotted the thrower: Lila.

She was dressed in all black and was staring down at them from the rooftop of the building next to them.

"Son of a bitch," Five breathed out.

Lila only gave them a smirk before running off. Only a moment later, she was running across the front of the alleyway, sending them a small wink.

Valerie stared at the area she had just run across. "How did she get there so fast?"

"I don't know." Five shook his head, a bothered look crossing his face. He looked towards her, his jaw clenched. "Let's go."