London. October 1, 1989
Cindy was walking down the street one evening down the streets of London, with an umbrella over her head while she made her way back to her apartment. She was thinking about what she would make when she finally got home, she was famished. Little did she know what took place in the next 60 seconds as she continued to walk, her feet padding against the wet sidewalk, the prickles of rain splashing on the umbrella. Cindy stopped suddenly in her tracks upon feeling a roll in her stomach, she gasped at the feeling, her hand grasping her stomach as she bent over in pain. This made the passerbyers's stop in their tracks as Cindy started to cry out, her stomach swelling, she fell to her knees. And in the next 60 seconds, Cindy gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
On the 12th hour of the first day of October 1989, 17 women around the world gave birth. This was unusual only in the fact that none of these women had been pregnant when the day first began. Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and adventurer resolved to locate and adopt as many of the children as possible.
He had made his way into the apartment, his silver trench coat and gray hat on his head, knocking only three times before Cindy answered, a questioning look crossed her face as she came face to face with the strange man. Reginald presented himself before Cindy hesitated to let him into her home, leading him to the newborn. He cocked his head and with a crude smile turned to the woman.
"Extraordinary, really." Reginald said, the baby started to cry, Cindy picked up her child, holding her to her chest. "How much do you want for it? Surely you do not want to keep it, not in this state of living."
"I would do just fine on my own." Cindy snapped at the man, recoiling as she regretted letting him into her home. "She is my baby, I-I never thought that-."
"That's quite the sentiment really, you know I like a spirited negotiator. I can give a whole new life, a fresh start, anything you could ever want, no strings attached." Reginald said.
He got eight of them.
...
You hated your siblings, if you could even call them that. It wasn't that you were a family, you were raised to be a team, always following the leader, Marcus. When you weren't doing missions or doing excessive workout routines you were in the library. Flipping through books of what you wished your life would've been instead of what it had become. The amount of time you daydreamed about your mother, the life and love you could've received, it cut in and out of important things, the amount of times you've been snapped at for daydreaming was far too many to count. You would read books about family, having a family one day, falling in love. It was something you indefinitely longed for as the years stretched on, being locked inside of this place. You had no choice but to stay.
"Hey, Y/n, we're getting pizza." Jayme said, opening the door to the library, you perked up at the voice, looking at your sister, before crossing your arms, hiding the book you were reading. You knew that it was obvious that you read but you didn't want her to know what exactly you were reading. She wouldn't know but it was erotica, but that didn't stop you from hiding it.
"Okay."
"Do you want to tag along?"
"No."
"You sure?" Jayme asked.
"Yes."
"What are you reading?"
"Nothing." You said, your face turning red as your sister walked over to you. You stood up staring at her, your eyes hard as you held the book close to your chest.
"It's definitely something." Jayme replied.
"Well I mean it's none of your business." You snapped, you looked up at her, you knew you didn't look intimidating, though your powers matched well up with your sister, you were still tiny. All your life your family has called you Tinker Bell, always making fun of your size and power.
You had the ability to control fire, but not in the cool way you would think. You couldn't throw fireballs or even start a fire, not easily. It was like little sparks that would shoot out of your hands, you named it Spark dust, knowing that Pixie Dust would've humiliated you some more. It was golden glitter that shimmered and smelled faintly of roses, you make things move with the sparks, they can travel through the air and hover over an object to move it around. If it comes into actual contact with an object or person, it will leave tiny scars that will look like day old glitter that you can't get off. If you can create enough you could create fire, but you always objected to knowing if your powers were stronger than this. You had always had a problem using your powers, Reginald said it was because you were a rather grumpy baby and child. The only time you could really use your power was when you were in a good mood, if you were scared or angry, nothing would happen. That's why you usually sat in the library, you were the recluse of the family. Reginald still forced you to train but you never went out on the field, you had tried before and you had only become an issue. An obstacle in their work, as Marcus and Ben never forgot to remind you that you needed to stay out of everyone else's way.
One of the biggest downsides of being in this family was not being able to be like the rest of them. Though you thanked god you didn't have to go out and fight crime, you wished you would've been granted some type of freedom. But the boys always said that you were unusual, you were thirty years old and were the size of a petite sixteen year old girl. Marcus never forgot to taunt you that you would never be able to find love this way, that the public would come after you because you were a Hargreeves. Your two brother's never forgot to remind you how different you were from the rest of them.
The thought made your blood boil as you stared up at your sister, gritting your teeth and said, "Let me be."
"Fine! God...you're such a bore, Y/n/n." Jayme said, slapping at your shoulder before walking out. "Oh and I made sure half was breakfast pizza."
"Thank you." You mumbled, before sitting back down to read your book.
Jayme had always looked out for you though she would never openly admit she cared for you, you by definition the little sister, and she always protected you. The only reason why you weren't close was because she didn't share one thing in common with you. You never forgot to openly express your feelings, whether it was anger or sadness, happiness or amusement. The way she expressed herself was closer to how Alphanso expressed himself, petty remarks and quick wit. The two had always been attached to the hip, best friends. You were far closer with Sloane, she was very girly, very caring and loving, she was the one to always hug you behind a closed door. Make sure you were doing alright when one of the boys or Fei said something mean to you. You knew that Fei hated you, she didn't ever let you forget how much waste of space you were. Though Marcus and Ben were not kind to you, they never said you didn't belong, maybe a comment about being different. Fei had made it very clear from a young age that she hated you. You wished that you could be closer with Christopher but he was as snobby as the first three of your siblings.
Jayme left with a side glance as you curled up back into a ball, opening up the book titled, Delta Of Venus, and continuing to read. Twenty minutes may have passed when a siren started to go off, an awful "Beep Beep'' echoing through the halls. You ignored it as you always did, it had nothing to do with you. But you had also wondered if Jayme had come back with that pizza, so you clutched the book to your chest before making your way downstairs and into the kitchen. You hummed as you sat down, opening the pizza box, completely prepared to eat the whole thing by yourself. But then you are startled by a loud voice, "And who are the weirdos on the balcony?" That was not one of your siblings, you remarked before stuffing the piece into your mouth. Since when have there ever been intruders? You peaked over into the living room, as your father stood up.
"They are the sparrows, my children." Reginald said, looking up at the balcony. You gasped softly as the house softly shook, grabbing on to the banister that you leaned against.
"I'm sorry. What do you mean, your children?" A boy said, turning to Reginald with a skeptical look in his eyes. You shivered while looking at him, he was really quite handsome. You didn't ever swoon over someone because they looked the way you aged, but he didn't. It made you even more curious as you looked at him because he seemed much older than his body. He seemed relaxed for a boy maybe sixteen years old, he didn't hold the insecurity that a teenager would. His hair was brown and looked incredibly soft, his jawline was sharp, could cut through glass you presume. He wore a similar school-boy outfit that the rest of your siblings and you grew up wearing. You leaned forward to get a better look. "That's not possible, old man."
"Of course it is! I think I'd know, wouldn't I?" Reginald replied. Another man interrupted the conversation, he was wearing all black with with a black sun hat on his head, his dark hair long shoulder length, and his voice rather clumsy.
"Everyone else can see Ben, right?" he asked, pointing to number 2.
"Cute hat, Sundance." Your brother retorted.
"They call themselves the Umbrella Academy, a group of scheming perfidious malcontents who accosted me in the fall of 1963," Your father continued to ramble as you felt a stare on you, you turned your head to come eye to eye with the boy you'd been admiring earlier. A dusty pink shade covered your cheeks as you followed his vision, he was looking at a suitcase in the foyer. "when I was away on business in Dallas. Be warned, they claim to be my spawn."
Your clumsy feet betrayed you as you stumbled into the room, your feet had been crossed and at the mention of what these strangers were, definitely set you off balance. "Ah, woah." You grumbled, falling on your butt. You clenched your eyes shut as everyone's attention turned to you, the blush on your cheeks deepening.
"And who's this?"
"Number eight." Reginald said, nodding to you, as you shakily stood up and dusted off your skirt before staring at them.
"You should go back up to your room." Marcus said, looking over to you as you looked down.
"I just came down for pizza." You mumbled. "Is he telling the truth?"
"Not the part about us being perfidious." Another woman turned to look at you, her hair was brown past her collarbones.
"No, we're amateur-fidious, at best." The odd one said.
"That's not a word." You grumbled before the woman spoke.
"But we are his children. This is our house." she said.
"Yeah-we grew up here." The tall one said.
"Okay now take your pizza and go upstairs." Ben said, cutting off Alphonso as he started to mock the man. "You're just going to be in the way."
"We don't want you to get hurt." Sloane said, looking over to you with a soft smile. You looked over at the strangers, stopping when you came eye to eye with the long haired woman, she had a look in her eye that made your spine tingle, it was some type of understanding, maybe even sympathy, but you ignored this before huffing and walking back upstairs, pizza in hand, but you didn't go as far as your room, you just in the hallway, not wanting to miss out on the potential drama. "I kind of think we would have noticed you, if you had grown up here."
"Hi, I'm Luther." A voice said, the one that belonged to the tall man, now Luther.
"Five, what the hell is going on?" A female voice said, you had seen downstairs, she had longish black hair and bangs, her skin looked very soft, you were a little envious of her beauty.
"I don't know yet, but it's concerning." The boy, Five said.
"Well none of you belong here." The beautiful one said.
"Oh well then. I guess we'll just pack our bags and move out." Fei said, Christopher spoke in reply and you rolled your eyes at the snarky sibling duo, the rest of your siblings laughing.
"I wasn't expecting company." You heard Grace say, you set down the pizza box, and the piece you had just been shoving into your mouth as you heard another voice, the one that yelled earlier called Grace 'mom.'
"Mom? She's a robot, you perv." Jayme replied.
"It's not a robot." The loud one said.
"Hey, don't you call him that." Luther snapped at Jayme. You felt a warm sensation fill you as you heard the obvious care and confusion of these strangers. You didn't know if you could outright believe them but you were curious about them.
"Or what?" Ben asked.
"Come closer and find out." Luther threatened, voices started overlapping each other and you sighed.
"You got thirty seconds to get out of our house." Marcus said.
"And if we don't?" The beautiful one asked.
"Then we'll have to settle this the old-fashioned way." Marcus replied.
"Look, we just fought a literal army." A nice one, yes, you assumed she was nice, said. "Okay, this doesn't need to get ugly. Let's all just calm down, and let's talk."
"Psst-ben-erino." The odd one said, you tried not to laugh at the stupid nickname. "You look so much better live than you do dead. Am I right? Expect that haircut."
"What the hell did you just say?" Ben snapped.
"Oh come on come on. Stop with all the hostility, Mr. Grumpy Pants." The odd one continued, making you giggle some-more, it went silent as a throat cleared and the nice one looked up at you. Your eyes widened before you sat back down, avoiding the eyes. "Oh wow, nice scar. Muy macho."
"Shut your mouth!" Ben retorted.
"You shut your mouth and just hug your brother-." he started before you heard the sound of fist landing on flesh, you winced as Luther yelled at Ben.
"Hey! What the hell?" Luther exclaimed, angrily. "You didn't have to do that." Everyone started yelling again before the fighting started, you sighed, continuing to eat your pizza. Then you heard a whirring of power before the nice one was launched into the air and thrown just by your head.
"Sloane!" You groaned.
"You're not supposed to be out here!" She replied, sternly, as you rolled your eyes. You moved over the victim, laying underneath the paintings, before helping her up and sitting her next to you. You offered her pizza but she politely declined.
"I'm Vanya." she said.
"I'm Y/n." You replied.
"You don't have powers?" Vanya asked, you set down your pizza and looked over to her. "For a long time, my father hid my powers away from me-."
"I have powers-I just they are very emotionally driven, and I'm also small. So it's hard to fight someone who is a grown adult-." You started just as two of the people landed right in front of you with a thump and a blue light. The beautiful one pants, trying to get back up, grabbing the railing to hoist herself up.
"Thanks." she said.
"No problem." the boy replied, looking over at his sister and the stranger. He eyed you for an extra moment before you heard a familiar voice.
"Hey, short pants. What's up?" Jayme greeted, as the beautiful one looked to Vanya, as the boy turned his head to stare at your sister.
"Go help the others. I'll handle this one." The boy said.
"Okay, are you ready to go back?" The beautiful one asked, looking to Vanya.
"No-I'll stay here for a sec." Vanya replied. "Allison, this is Y/n, Y/n-."
"Hi." You smiled, Allison nodded to you before she started to walk away.
"What are you, their mascot?" Jayme asked as the boy disappeared, like a blink of blue light. Jayme continued to walk before being stopped by a bunch.
"More like their ringer." The boy replied, as Jayme collected the venom in her mouth before spitting it at him. He started mumbling things and Jayme watched the hallucination for a moment before turning to you.
"Mascot really?" You grumbled.
"Are frantizing with the enemy?" Jayme questioned.
"What's it to you?"
"Y/n."
"No, no. I'm out of the way, and I'm having a chat. Consider one is out-." You started, looking at the boy, caressing the air, you cocked your head and looked at Jayme. "Or two."
"Are you all perverts?" Jayme asked, looking at Vanya. She opened her mouth before Jayme walked off after the boy.
"That's Five." Vanya said, you nodded.
"He's a kid?" You asked.
"Long story, but the short version is-wait should I even tell you? Is that your power?" Vanya asked, you laughed softly before bringing up your hand. You stared at your hand before you left an energy pulse to your hands, glitter like specks flowing up into the air before picking up one of the paintings that sat on the floor, lifting it back up and onto the wall. "Oh..."
"Oh." You nodded. "To be honest with you, Vanya. I would be the last person they would go to for anything, they barely notice me and when they do, they want me out of their way."
"Why don't you leave? You aren't a part of the team-your an adult." Vanya started.
"You're really rather sweet but-I look like this and though my brother's make it very known that I shouldn't be in the way, they wouldn't let me leave, not with their knowledge." You said, looking down before looking at her. "You won't tell anyone?"
"I won't." Vanya replied, nodding, giving you a soft smile before looking over the railing. "That's my cue."
"Oh um good luck?" You responded. Vanya laughed before leaning against the railing and ducking down to save her brother, but before she could, Sloane entered from the side.
"You again?" Sloane asked.
"Luther, go! Get out!" Vanya shouted, looking over at you for a moment, her eyes frantic. You swallowed before grabbing your book and scrambling away from the action, hiding safely in the hall. That's when moments later, you saw a group running towards you, you moved out of the way as Fei went after them. When Fei circled back around she stopped at you.
"You could've gotten killed, you dimwit!" Fei shouted at you, "And you didn't listen to Marcus, nor did you try to help, you were an obstacle. Why don't you ever just stay out of the way? You know how hard it is to track a little girl around? Make sure you don't accidentally kill her because she was in the way?!" Fei screamed as you felt your hands begin to shake, you closed your eyes, taking big breaths before opening them back up and looking at her.
"Don't ever speak to me like that again." You growled, before pushing past her and into your room. You locked the door, and bit your lip as you felt tears start to well up in your eyes. Tears of frustration, of sadness, of everything in the middle. You never felt important to this family, and seeing the family that showed up here. Vanya, a stranger, sitting down to talk to you because she had been through somewhat of the same thing, you didn't know exactly what but you got the jist. She treated you better than Fei has ever in the last 30 years. You took a deep breath before realizing that you had to make the choice. You knew leaving would be reckless, but would they even know you were gone? It should send you running to your family for protection and understanding, but you didn't have a family, not really.
You felt the hot tears stream down your face as you covered your mouth, your heart aching in your chest as you pulled your knees up to your chest. You just wished you had someone who loved you the way that family loved each other. You took a deep breath before grabbing a bag, stuffing your belongings into it, and slinging it over your shoulder. You did the fake dummy thing where you were just laying in bed, with a book propped up on the wall. You assumed no one would attempt to look for you. You opened your window, standing out on the fire escape and attempting to shut the window before continuing to climb down. You started looking around, hoping you would catch them not too far, that's when you saw them all sitting at the nearby park. You stopped in your tracks, a heavy feeling setting over your chest, you could label it anxiety. But you decided to follow them close behind. You knew that fresh off a fight that they specifically lost at, it wouldn't be great for the enemy just to pop their head around telling them she wanted to be in their family. You followed them until they got to the Hotel Obsidian. Deciding to wait out a few minutes before going in to get a room.
You walked up to the man with a smile on your face, "What can I do for you?"
"I would like a room." You replied.
"Okay, and how will you be paying?" he asked, staring at you, not skipping a beat as you pulled out some cash and handed it to him. "Great, good. Will you need some help getting up to your room?"
"Actually would it be weird to ask if my room was close to that one family, the really weird ones that walked in here a few minutes ago."
"I have no idea who you are talking about." He replied. You sighed, sliding a fifty on to the counter while looking at him.
"You don't need to." You commented. The man stared at you for a moment before waggling his finger, you set another fifty on the desk before he nodded.
"Terrific! Here is your room key." The man said, handing it to you. You smiled at him, grabbing your keys before walking to the elevator. You waited out after getting into the room, hearing a door shut you moved over to slowly look out the door to see Allison walking away. You looked towards the room, slowly closing your door before moving over to it and knocking a couple times.
"Did you forget-." Vanya started, opening the door but her eyes widening upon landing on you. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to help." You replied, Vanya let you into the room and you looked around, you sat on the bed with Vanya as she looked at you.
"What do you mean?"
"My siblings are awful, and-you guys are a real family you know? I just saw a chance to leave and took it. I don't think that they will miss me or even figure out that I'm gone. But I know what they'll do."
"What exactly is that?" Vanya asked.
"They're going to train, so when they see you guys again, they'll be ready. The ones to focus on are Marcus, Ben and Fei. They are really the leaders of the group, but with Ben and Fei you won't be able to compromise, but Marcus might hear you out."
"So I just met up with him?"
"Yeah, talk it out in a calm environment. Don't mention I'm here, they may not know that I'm gone, but if they know, they'll think you took me and they'll be no room to compromise."
"If it's dangerous for you to be here maybe..." Vanya trailed.
"They won't figure it out, and if they do I'll handle them. The longer I'm gone without them knowing, the easier it will be to confront them about it."
"Is that what your life was growing up? Always strategically moving around your siblings?"
"Yeah, Christmas last year, I decided I wanted to celebrate so I snuck out of the house and stayed at the mall for a week straight. They didn't even know I was gone and it was Christmas."
"That-had to be rough. I know what it feels like to be left out but-."
"But at the end of the day, you have a family that loves you." You said, Vanya laughed.
"I guess I do."