"When trouble comes, it's your family that supports you."
Thea was awoken by the sound of a crash. Rubbing her eyes, she looked around the room for Five. After their conversation she'd fallen asleep in his room, the pair so easily falling into the kind of dynamic that they'd shared as children, curling into themselves, and whispering late into the night.
Only this time we weren't planning on taking over the world, more so saving it.
But the room was empty and she frowned. Neither Five nor the duffle bag were anywhere to be seen and she rubbed her eyes, feeling dazed from sleep. Thea could only guess that her brother had left and taken the bag with him. But where did he go, and why hadn't he woken her up?
Sighing in the way only a person accustomed to dealing with sibling drama could do, Thea swung herself off of the bed and pursed her lips, contemplating what to do. Further sounds from outside caught her attention once more, and her natural curiosity urged her to take a peek.
"I love you! Even if you can't love yourself!"
Klaus? Even more intrigued now, Thea knelt on the abandoned bed and hefted the window open, peering outside to see her brother knee-deep in the garbage disposal unit. What the hell? Scrambling through the window to perch on the outside fire escape, ignoring the morning chill on her bare legs, Thea looked down at Klaus holding a half-eaten bagel, clearly debating on eating it.
"How many times have I told you to ignore the impulsive thoughts?" she deadpanned, watching as he jumped in place, dropping the bagel in the process.
Looking up at where she stood above, Klaus rose his brows in surprise. Glancing discreetly to his side, at where the ghostly figure of Ben sat looking up with a disgustingly smitten expression plastered on his face, Klaus withheld a smirk. "Hey sis!" he called. "What's up?"
"What are you doing in the garbage?"
Klaus scratched his head, "Uh, dumpster diving?"
"Is that a question?" she snorted, squatting so that she could lean against the rusted railings and stare down at him with amusement. "And why would you need to dumpster dive? I buy you everything you need!"
Klaus averted his eyes with a pout. "Fine. I'm trying to find whatever priceless crap was in that box I took."
"That you stole?" Thea smirked.
"Took. Stole. Who cares? If it belonged to Dad then doesn't that make it ours anyway?"
Thea shrugged. "I wouldn't be surprised if the old man wrote us all out of his will."
Klaus tutted. "Touché."
"Maybe it's already been taken away with the rest of the trash?" she asked, eyeing the mounds of filth with a wrinkled nose.
Klaus groaned dramatically, collapsing to lean against the edge of the container in defeat. Thea laughed at his dramatics and scaled her way down the fire escape, jumping down so that she landed just above the garbage disposal, unwilling to risk infection at touching whatever was inside.
Unwillingly, she had sat herself right beside Ben. Klaus withheld a manic laugh. Ben was frowning, though, and that caught his attention and so he gave his sister a second look, and blinked.
"Why are you still in pyjamas?" he asked. She wore an oversized tee and satin shorts, the former adorned in a print very familiar to his childhood. The Star Wars logo forever iconic.
Klaus' eyes trailed above to the window she had come from, remembering that Five had jumped from that very same window only moments before. "Were you in Five's room?"
Confused, Thea cocked her head. "Yeah?" she asked, unsure. "What's wrong with that?" Looking down at he attire, she turned slightly pink. "Ah, I see. I forgot." She had not known exactly when Five would return and so had changed into something comfier before waiting in his room. It had been so late when they'd finished talking that she'd fallen into a deep sleep within seconds of her head hitting the pillow. "Maybe a jacket would have been a good idea..."
The shirt belonged to Ben, an old bit of memorabilia from one of the rare days they'd been able to leave the academy and have fun. It was clearly too big on Thea, despite the many years that had passed since its purchase, the neckline slipping to reveal pale collarbones. It looked well-loved and by the goofy grin on Ben's face, Klaus could only assume he'd come to the same conclusion. The idiot looked like Christmas had come early.
"Whatever, why were you in Five's room?"
"Jealous much?" she rolled her eyes. "I wanted to talk to him about some stuff, you know, with how things ended before he disappeared..." she averted her eyes. "I didn't want him to hate me. I missed him so much."
Klaus' expression softened. When they were younger, Klaus often found himself subject to the burning ache of jealously. He couldn't help it. Five and Thea just clicked in a way that he'd never quite understood, and become easy best friends. Klaus could understand, in a way. Ben was his best friend, and he'd always known where'd he'd stood in their little trio. Ben couldn't replace Klaus, because what Thea felt for him was something deeper than friendship or family. What Thea and Ben felt for each other was a different kind of love. Klaus hadn't ever had a reason to feel threatened...
But Five. Klaus had always restrained himself from acting snarky around the other boy. Thea liked Five, he knew, and Five acted differently around her than he did with anybody else. He opened up with her, showed a vulnerability that he would kill anybody else over.
However, there were no romantic feelings to separate their bond from his own with Thea. At least, none on her part... and Klaus was self-aware enough to admit – deep, deep down – that he was annoyed at their closeness.
He was only assuaged by the single fact that, out of everybody, only he had any biological claim.
Klaus had not really grown much since his childhood, and often acted like he still believed himself a teenager at times. However, at seeing the morose expression on Thea's face he swallowed back the snarky comment he wanted to make.
Ben's insistent voice demanding that he do something, say something, didn't help.
"It's not like I can do anything," Ben muttered bitterly.
Klaus made his way, rather awkwardly, up the fire escape towards his sister. When he finally reached her, he held her hands in his own. "I'm sure he doesn't hate you."
Thea sniffed before giving him a smile. "I know, I'm just so happy that he's back. It's like we're all a family again... if only Ben–" she choked on his name, snapping her mouth closed.
By her side, Ben smiled sadly.
"I-I'm sure if he were...ever to appear, he'd um, he'd want you to be happy," Klaus said with an awkward earnestness.
Thea smiled at his efforts, endeared. "Oh, I know he would, the big softie." She grinned lovingly at the thought of the boy who haunted her memories, leaving behind a bittersweet longing.
Ben wore an affronted expression at the description of being a big softie and Klaus couldn't help himself. He laughed at them both.
This, right here, what they had, was enough.
. . .
With nothing to do and a bout of existential anxiety resting upon her shoulders, Thea had struggled on occupying herself. Her family was in shambles, both literally and metaphorically. Everybody was split up, seemingly busy with their own problems and their relationships seemed as fractured as ever.
How were they ever going to save the world like this? What was Five doing? How could she help?
She found solace in Ben's old bedroom, no matter the ache that came from surrounding herself in remembrance of him. He had once touched every part of this room and somehow, she felt touched by him, too, somehow, just by being here.
Their father had not moved anything from the room since Ben's death – whether he just couldn't be bothered or didn't feel the need – Thea was grateful none the less. The far wall was covered in books, double-stacked on their shelves and collecting dust. Thea liked to stare at them, pretending that she was Ben who was trying to decide his next read.
Eventually, she'd picked up the novel placed at the end of the shelf, dog-eared, and clearly read many times. The front cover read Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol, and she was halfway through the novel when Klaus poked his head around the door.
"There you are! I was looking everywhere for you. Should've known you'd be in here..." he muttered the last part, eyeing the room.
"Is everything okay?" she asked, bookmarking her place in the book, and standing up.
"Something about a family meeting," Klaus said with a shrug, leaning against the doorframe, and munching on a packet of nuts. "Everyone's downstairs, they said to come and get you."
Thea raised her eyebrows in surprise, but nodded. Following him out of the room and down the stairs, the book still clenched in her hand. In the living room, all of her siblings were gathered around an old television screen, faces drawn tight.
"What's going on?" she asked, getting their attention.
Diego spared barely a second before making his displeasure known. Glaring at Luther as he spoke, his tone filled with venom. "Luther here has given up on his suspicion of us. Now, he thinks Mom killed Dad."
"Excuse me?" she asked, aghast.
Looking around at the others to see if they were as taken aback as herself, Thea noticed that they all looked disgruntled, as though this was a conversation they'd been at for a while already. Just what had been said before she'd arrived?
Luther's face was pinched tight, a sure sign of stubbornness. He didn't even attempt at explaining himself, instead he pointed toward the screen like it held all the proof of his claims. And, as Thea watched the scene play out, disturbed, she couldn't help but realise why. Grace, their mother, stood beside the bed that their father lay upon, dying, watching in silence, motionless. Like she really was nothing but a machine.
What the hell is going on...
"Do you really think Mom would hurt Dad?" Vanya asked, breaking the hush that had descended over the small group. Thea looked away from the screen, blinking back the eerily blank mask she had seen plastered on Grace's face as she'd watched their father die.
"You haven't been home in a long time, Vanya," Luther said with a rather smarmy tone of voice. His expression was closed off, eyes judgemental from his superior height. "Maybe you don't really know Grace anymore."
"Luther," Thea snapped, frowning. "That was unnecessary." She narrowed her eyes at his pursed lips and set shoulders, taking his stance as unwilling to budge from his convictions. She glanced at the others, who wore similarly unnerved expressions. "I'm pretty sure we're all wondering the same thing as she is."
From her side, Vanya sent Thea a grateful smile for defending her. Thea walked over and squeezed her shoulder in support, knowing that it wasn't easier for her sister to stand up for herself. Especially against someone like Luther. But no matter the animosity between certain siblings, Vanya was as much a member of their family as the rest, and so Thea believed she had the right to say whatever was on her mind. Even if some wouldn't appreciate it.
Taking strength from Thea's support, Vanya continued to voice her thoughts. "I know Dad wasn't exactly an open book, but I do remember one thing he said. Mom was designed to be a caretaker, right? To look after us... but she was also intended as a protector."
"Where are you going with this?" Allison asked. She had been mostly quiet up until this point, nervously wringing the necklace around her neck in a habit Thea recognised from childhood.
Vanya explained. "She was programmed to intervene if somebody's life was in danger."
"Then, if her hardware is degrading, we need to turn her off," Luther said in conclusion, tone dire.
Thea flinched at his words and Vanya's hand squeezed her arm in alarm.
"Woah, woah, woah!" Diego said, jumping to his feet with a furious scowl. "Wait a minute – she'd not just a vacuum cleaner that you can throw away once you're done! She has feelings, man. I've seen it!"
"We all know that, Diego. But–" Allison tried to placate him, stepping forward to block access to Luther. "But–"
"She just stood there and watched our father die!" Luther said, cutting Allison off and staring down at Diego as though daring him to refute his claim.
Allison sighed, looking at Diego with sympathy. "He does have a point..."
"Of course you take his side," Diego sneered, clenching his fists tightly by his side. "Why am I not surprised? What, too difficult to form your own opinion for once?"
All of the former sympathy wiped itself clean from her face as Allison glared at Diego with a bitter snarl. "I say we take a vote. Let everybody voice their opinions."
As one, Diego, Luther and Allison all turned to stare at the remaining three members of the family. Vanya flinched at the sudden attention, stammering out a response.
"Yeah, she shouldn't get a vote," Diego dismissed with a roll of his eyes.
"Hey," Thea snapped. "Knock it off."
Vanya glared too, surprisingly bold. "I was going to agree with you."
"Okay, then she's in." Diego shrugged, looking pointedly at the twins. "What do you say, stoner boy? Know-it-all?"
Glaring at his childish nicknames, she bit her tongue to stave off a childish jibe. Just because she could read minds, it didn't make her a know it all. In fact, she prided herself on knowing that what intellect she did possess was in spite of the absolute drivel she used to hear on a daily basis growing up.
There was never anything worth learning from your brain, dickhead.
Beside her, Klaus huffed dramatically, placing a hand on his chest in mock offence. "Oh, so, what? Now you want my help?" He mocked. "Get out of the van, Klaus! Well, welcome back to the van."
"Van?" Thea mumbled blankly. What on earth is he talking about? What do vans have to do with a discussion about switching off our robot mother on suspected murder of our adopted father?
Luther scoffed, rapidly losing patience with the entire affair. "What is it going to be, Klaus? Thea?"
Klaus returned his impatience with a smug smile. "I'm with Diego because screw you! And if Ben were here, he'd agree with me."
"No, I really don't."
Klaus purposefully ignored Ben, having gotten used to zoning out those things he didn't want to hear. Mostly when people disagreed with him.
But Thea sighed, resigned. "No, he wouldn't, Klaus." She shared a look with her brother. "You know he didn't like taking risks."
Just as impatient to get this conversation over with, Diego looked pointedly to Thea, who had yet to vote. "Well?"
Thea rubbed her forehead, trying to alleviate the numbing pain she could feel approaching. Knowing her luck it would be a killer migraine. The last thing she needed right now. On top of the existential anxiety of the oncoming apocalypse and Five's continued unknown whereabouts, Thea felt anchored down from stress.
"Look, I get where you're both coming from," she looked at Allison and Luther. "But I can't condone treating Grace like she's not a person, not after all that she's done for us." She sighed, looking up at them imploringly. "Can't we just, like, I don't know... see if anything is wrong with her wiring before assuming the worst?"
Luther shook his head in disappointment, but Diego rightly pointed out that the vote currently sat at four against two.
"The vote isn't final," Luther argued.
Allison continued. "Five's not here. The whole family has to vote. We owe each other that, at least."
"I mean, it wouldn't make much difference..." Thea mumbled but sighed, giving up. Even if Five voted yes, it would still make the vote four against three. But she couldn't be bothered trying to explain that to such a stubborn pair
With Luther and Allison were set on waiting for a full vote, they all had to agree on waiting for Five's return. The group split up, family meeting officially over and Thea was about to walk away too, to finish reading the book she still held in her grasp, when she spotted a figure at the doorway.
Grace. Silent and motionless, perfect face moulded into flawless neutrality.
Thea's heart dropped. How long had she been there? How much of their conversation had she heard?
Their mother's expression was distant, far away. She seemed to finally wake up out from whatever trance she'd been in as Diego spoke to her softly, expression twisted in guilt. When Grace looked past him and toward Thea and Vanya, she smiled. Picture perfect. As though her children hadn't just been discussing her termination.
"You all seem upset," she said, voice modulated into a perfect motherly cadence. "I'll bake some cookies and turn those frowns upside down."
Dropping her book on the sofa, Thea rose to her feet and walked toward them both, taking Grace's arm in her own and putting on a bright smile.
"Hey, Mom? Mind if I help?"
Grace offered her a blinding smile, red lipstick curled into the perfect heart. "Of course, dear. That would be wonderful."
As they walked away, Thea looked back to send Diego a significant look. It said, I'll take care of her. Don't worry. He stared back, nodding once. She was quite sure she understood his silent reply.
Thank you.
. . .
After finishing the prep and putting the cookies in the oven to bake, Thea had departed from Grace when the woman ushered her out of the kitchen, intent on doing the dishes herself. Thea had lost their argument and so had once more ended up alone and bored, roaming the house.
She was irritable, tense from the looming threat which continued to plague her thoughts, and the feeling of uselessness was beginning to gnaw at her conscience. All of this had slowly culminated in Thea storming into the bathroom and running a bath. She had watched, mind distant, as the hot water slowly filled the tub and the bathroom became hazy from steam.
She'd hoped that the bath would help release some of the pent-up anxiety, and she had been partially right. The hot water had loosened her muscles and lulled her into a hazy state of half-sleep. Halfway through Klaus had popped his head inside, looking frazzled and sweaty, and she'd vacated the tub so that he could have his own bath.
Now, sitting on her bed in their shared room and towelling her wet hair, she waited for Klaus to return. Mindlessly, she patted the ends dry, then running her fingers through the knots and trying to carefully untangle the strands. Her hair had gotten too long. At a length that she'd long lost interest in taking care of it herself, often resorting to the all-powerful ponytail.
Wet, the strands were deceiving, but Thea knew that once they dried out the strands would tighten and curl and bounce back to their usual wild mane.
Humming as she worked, she was startled at the sudden bang which reverberated throughout the house. Pausing, she held her breath, ears perked. Bang. Bang-Bang. Bang. Shooting up from the bed, Thea's body was tense as she tried to edge closer to the door.
Bang. Bang-Bang.
Unfortunately, Thea was only too familiar with the sound of gunshots and so immediately knew that they were in serious danger. Swallowing thickly, suddenly very afraid, she paused, blinking rapidly as her brain worked at a furious pace, trying to figure out what to do. It had been too long since she had been in a situation like this, and her body couldn't quite comprehend that she was currently in danger. That there were very likely intruders in the house and they were all vulnerable.
Think. Think! What can I do? Who's the most vulnerable?
Thea cursed that none of her family ever felt it necessary to announce where they were going, and so she had no real clue as to just who was in the house right now. Her eyes widened when a sudden thought came to her.
Klaus.
Like ice down her spine, she shot up straight, suddenly hyper-aware of the fact that her brother was in the bath, very likely unaware of the intruders and more vulnerable than the rest. Out of all the siblings bar Vanya, Klaus was arguably the least capable in a fight. Not only did he lack any sense of self-preservation or skills in hand-to-hand combat, but his power was practically useless if it came down to a life and death situation.
Bang. Bang-Bang-Bang.
Thea bit her lip. And the intruders have guns...
Decision made, Thea didn't waste time. It was a no-brainer. She could only rely on the hope that if Vanya was in the house, then she had escaped to safety, or was protected by another of their siblings. Right now, all Thea could focus on was the very real fact that Klaus needed help. She needed to get to him, and quick.
Peeking out from the doorway, she saw that the hallway was empty and so silently made her way closer to the stairway. Gunshots sounded off every couple of minutes and she avidly tried to ignore the sickness in her stomach at the thought of a stray bullet finding one of her siblings. Making it to the bathroom, Thea slowly cracked open the door and looked inside, instantly withholding a cry at the sight.
Empty. Only a drained bathtub and lingering steam fogging the mirror. Klaus was nowhere to be seen.
He doesn't know, Thea realised with a crippling sense of fear. If he'd heard the gunshots then he would have immediately come to the room... he doesn't know.
Now more urgent in her worry, Thea continued to make her way toward the noise, suppressing every instinct that screamed at her to leave, to get away from the danger and hide. At the end of the hallway, she paused, carefully angling herself so that she could see using the reflective surfaces of the mirrors scattered along the walls. She couldn't risk peeking out from the corner and being caught by a stray bullet.
Footsteps suddenly sounded on the staircase and she quickly hid behind the wall once more, heart hammering wildly in her chest. She felt clammy from the fear, sweat dampening her forehead and the back of her neck, but couldn't repress the shiver from the slight breeze which blew through the hallway. The academy was always cold, but now, wearing nothing but an oversized shirt and with damp hair, she felt vulnerable. Like prey, scuttering from danger. Hiding from the prey stalking their every move.
From the glass cabinet across from her, she saw a brief flash of the intruder. An unnatural, plastic mask covered their face – hot pink, large cartoon eyes and floppy ears. The intruder wearing a dog's mask walked down the hallway and straight past her hiding spot, unaware. Thea bit her lip to stop even the breath from giving her away.
The gunfire had stopped, but she couldn't be sure that Dog mask was the only one. They could have a partner, someone waiting in hiding for one of them to slip up and reveal themselves, and Thea couldn't take the risk of them finding Klaus first. Calming her breath, she steeled her nerves and crept out from her hiding place, following the intruder as silently as possible.
They clearly didn't care about being heard, footsteps heavy against the ground while Thea used her home-field advantage to avoid triggering any of the squeaky floorboards and announcing her presence. After a moment, though, the intruder paused.
Thea froze.
Her eyes widened at what had caught their attention. She withheld a scream.
Klaus, wrapped in only a towel, headphones in his ears as he danced to a silent song, completely unaware of the danger he was in.
Frozen in fear, paralysed by the sudden choice at what to do, understanding with a sick kind of horror that whatever she did right now could easily save or get them both killed. She blinked rapidly, mind spinning uselessly and her mouth open, useless. It was as though her voice had been stolen from her, so sudden and blinding was the panic, that she couldn't even muster up the words to stop them. To take control.
Instead, she stood there, utterly inept, and unable to move a single step as the intruder rose a gun and pointed it directly at Klaus.
At just that moment, her brother turned toward her, as though he could sense her presence. His eyes widened at her state of duress, hands coming to remove the headphones from his ears, and completely oblivious to the masked figure which crept up behind him. He opened his mouth to say something, eyes alight in a sudden fear but she cut him off.
"Run, Klaus!" she screamed, causing Dog mask to pause, cocking their head her way. "Run!"
Unknowingly, she'd imbued her words with power, and Klaus' eyes clouded over, his body automatically moving to follow her command. But what Thea had failed to realise was that she hadn't been the only one trying to send a warning.
As she watched Klaus attempt to escape, she failed to notice the second masked figure which now stood behind her, their arm raised.
There was a brief spark of awareness, of the hair on her arms rising in alarm before she felt the shift of air behind her and the exploding pain in her skull. Thea stumbled forward, eyes wide in confusion, trying to turn back to see her assailant but found herself dizzy, black dots blurring her vision. All at once, she fell to the ground in a heap, limbs crumbling like a doll with its strings cut and felt darkness overtake her.
Lots going on in this one, but I hope nobody minds the jumps, as I only really write scenes that Thea herself is in. Also, I know she didn't do much in the fight with Hazel and Cha Cha, but this was an example of how Thea is vulnerable despite her amazing powers. She makes rash decisions and freezes up in a panic.
Next chapter will include Klaus and Thea being kidnapped...and a sort-of reunion between lost lovers, maybe?