"Dare to be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not and to believe in your own individuality."
17 years ago
It was a regular day in the Umbrella Academy household, where several children dressed in matching teal tracksuits, all stood at the bottom of a winding staircase, looking up at their father. Reginald Hargreeves stood with his usual rigid posture, eyes glittering sternly behind his single, shining monocle. He held a book aloft in one hand, while the girl beside him wore a large whistle around her neck. Vanya looked down alongside their father at her siblings, wide brown eyes full of emotions none could decipher.
The tense silence was broken when, with a signal from the man, Vanya blew the whistle as loudly as she could. The children below who had all been waiting anxiously for this moment to come, began running as fast as possible up the stairs. At the front of the pack was the tall blonde, Luther's natural athleticism pulling him ahead. Diego and Allison, neither one of them slouches in the physical department, were soon behind him. All three were racing to see who could finish first.
At the back of the group were the other four, Five and Thea pulling up in the middle while Klaus and Ben paced behind them. The higher they got the more strain was put on their thighs and calves from the many steps.
Reginald Hargreeves continued to watch them all from above, monocle shining ominously. He watched as the children pushed and shoved and panted from exertion. He watched and watched. Because this was a test. An test on their physical abilities, yes, but most importantly, it was a test on their willingness to utilise those powers they had been gifted with for their own gain. To use their unique abilities to their advantage.
His eyes flashed. Ah, yes. Here it comes.
Diego had managed to push ahead from Luther and Allison but from behind them, a boy was calculating and ready to make his next move. Without preamble a flash of blue disappeared from behind them and reappeared several steps ahead. Five had spatial jumped from his last position to a new one that put him directly in the lead.
The boy only smirked at the sounds of annoyance from those he'd passed, but knew that he had started something that would only spiral further out of control. After all, the one who takes the first shot must deal with the consequences.
That was why he wasn't surprised when a boisterous laugh bellowed from behind him and a sweet voice called out. "That's basically permission to cheat, right?" Thea laughed once again. "Say no more!"
The joyful laughter hid a deceitful pettiness as all at once, everybody stopped moving. All except Thea, that was.
The blonde girl continued to run past everybody from her position at the back, blonde hair trailing behind her with laughter that was bright and mischievous. She was like a falling star rushing past them all.
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.
After Klaus it was Diego, and then Five, and then it would be her turn. Thea watched it all under heavy-lidded eyes, filled with too much anger for such a young child. She was no longer staring at the scene of her siblings' pain but at their father, who stood beside Grace, watching it all occur from behind that infamous monocle.
The blonde girl seethed from her position next in line, wanting so desperately to change things. To use her power to make this all stop, to make it all go away and do things her way. Thea knew she could. That it was within her power. She could feel it deep within her, like an aching in her bones waiting to be used. She wanted to use it against him, to see the shock on his face when he realised that he had lost control of his precious little daughter...
...but she couldn't.
Something held her back. Perhaps a remnant of childish fear of parental authority, or perhaps because deep down, she knew that if she were to succumb to her potential too early, without any semblance of control or finesse, that it wouldn't just be her father she'd take down. It would be herself and everybody else with them.
So she stewed in silence. Even as it was her turn and the sharp needled began to pierce her flesh and mark it forever, brand her like cattle under her father's watchful gaze, Thea remained silent and obedient and hating herself for every minute of it. Because that was all she knew.
Thea was not lucky, at all.
. . .
With her head laid upon her brother's lap Thea blinked open her eyes, leaving the blurry reminiscences of days long past. Headphones had been placed over her head, covering her ears, and acting as a shield from the outside world. From the headphones came low, calming beats which drowned out the voices and horrors of the past. There was a steady hand brushing through her hair, and Thea felt content, sleepy like a child lulled into dreamland.
Through her sleep-addled gaze she could see people talking around her, she could barely make out the movements of their speech, their expressions shifting to fit their emotions. However, to Thea it was like she was watching it from beneath the waves. Drowning out by the soft jazz playing in her ears, she felt a sense of ease at simply watching the people around her – people she loved.
From her peripheral she noticed another enter the room, then her tired gaze was washed in a distant flash of blue. Thea watched it all in silence, until she felt a tap against her shoulder.
Klaus looked down at her with a patient fondness, so unusual to see. Thea blinked up at him with an uneven gaze, weakly pushing the headphones from her ears so that they sat around her neck. Sitting up, she looked around at those remaining in the kitchen. Klaus, Allison, and Diego stared back.
Thea frowned. "Where's Five?"
"Popped off somewhere in the search of coffee," Allison replied with a roll of her eyes.
Ah, she thought with a sigh. So that would explain the flash of blue. It had been her hope that Five would have waited around so that they could finally talk, rather than running off like he always did. Always, he was just out of her grasp...
Interpreting her sigh as one of sadness, Allison gave her a reassuring smile, a familiar spark within those dark, brown eyes. She walked closer to the pair, ruffling the blonde's hair. "Hey, sis. What do you say to following me upstairs so the two of us can have a sleepover, huh? A bit of girls-only bonding, for old times' sake."
Thea looked up at her sister – so beautiful and successful and kind, and yet still she kept that same giggly, teenage part of her that once dreamed of being famous and loved by all – and smiled. "Okay," she said, shuffling to remove herself from Klaus' lap. "That actually sounds pretty good."
Just as she made to follow her sister, a tug on her arm halted her movement. Klaus was looking up at her expectantly, and Thea laughed as she leaned down to press a kiss to his cheek. Her brother's face was happy and content, and Thea felt her own smile mirror his own. As she allowed herself to be pulled out of the kitchen by Allison, she was sure she saw the smallest of smiles on Diego's face.
Perhaps if Thea considered all of those special people in her family that she was blessed to know – such unique and unconventional siblings – she should consider herself lucky. If nothing else, she was certainly luck to love, and be loved back.
This chapter was a little lighter than the others, I love that flashback scene of the stair race, and I'm pretty happy with how I fit Thea into it - she couldn't help but rub Five's smug face in it could she, bless her.