Disclaimer: I have never been drunk, or even drank alcohol before, so I have absolutely no idea what it's like to be inebriated. However, I've heard it's similar to being extremely tired, and I've definitely been there, so that's my basis for Mina's drunkenness (I may or may not be writing this whilst tired, so I can get accurate results)
Also, it is really hard to capture the charm of the end of this scene in writing... damn...
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My thoughts swirled and slammed together as I continued to spin myself around in the blue suede chair I'd plopped down into, unsure of whether the alcohol or the rapid motions would make me puke first. I hadn't planned on drinking when Klaus, Vanya, Allison, and I had left Elliott's, but after Allison suggested we head back to the parlor where she worked to eat—since, unfortunately, most places wouldn't even let her walk in, which was absolute bullshit—Klaus pulled out a bunch of bottles he'd stashed in a bag, and we all started to ramble about the shambles of our love lives. After being forced to relive the last 20 hours, I suddenly felt the intense need for one drink... then five... and then I lost count.
I brought myself to a halt as Allison growled angrily, reaching for the bottle of vodka on her vanity with one hand and combing through Klaus' hair with the other. I'd never seen her so fired up in my life, but it was pretty amusing.
"The nerve of that man," she snapped, her words ringing a little bit in my head. "I mean, one thing goes wrong, and he's on a warpath. I mean doesn't know who I am? No, no. No, Ray. You know exactly who I am. You just can't handle it"
I laughed as, beside me, Vanya pretended to shoot at the small bottles lined up on the vanity in front of her, using her fingers as the gun. God, I loved seeing her now that she'd stopped taking those pills Dad forced on her. Her true personality was really starting to blossom.
"I'm protecting him," Allison denied, definitely trying to convince herself of that more than she was the rest of us. Forgetting Klaus was sitting in front of her for a moment, she swung her hand out for dramatic effect, slapping him on the back of the head.
"Ow!" he exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head with the hand that wasn't nursing a cigarette. "From what?"
"The end of the world, for one."
That caught Vanya's attention, causing her to perk her head up and look to her two siblings across from her in the mirror, no longer preoccupied with all the little bottles.
"Is the world really gonna end in six days?" Her words came out slightly slurred... although, admittedly, that could have been some distortion on my part. My head felt like it was underwater. Allison halted in pushing back Klaus' hair into clips, staring at her sister's reflection with her jaw slightly agape.
"Well, it did last time..." I suddenly lost my train of thought, waving my hand in an attempt to bring it back to me. "...and we did everything Five could think of to stop it." Klaus brought his feet down from the vanity and stood up, beginning to make his way to the center of the room as he reached for his beloved flask.
"Hey, wouldn't it be weird if Five grew up all hot? Wouldn't that be weird?" he asked out of nowhere. My nausea intensified as I slowly processed his words, unable to imagine my brother as anything but the little kid presented in front of us. Not to mention, the mere notion of something like that completely grossed me out. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one, as my sisters also voiced their disgust.
"What?" Vanya scoffed, trying to dismiss the thought.
"Eww," Allison gagged. Klaus immediately whipped around and stared at her with wide eyes, a new opportunity discovered.
"Oh! 'Oh, eww! Eww!' Please, Miss 'Luther was my lover'." I nearly choked on my own spit, laughing hysterically at Klaus' callout. Finally, someone else in the family saw the weirdness with that situation!
"We have never even kissed," Allison shot back, trying to quell Klaus before he got the train moving. But there was no way in hell was I about to let this go.
"Yeah, but you were making little sick moon-dog eyes at each other all through puberty and breakfasts and that," Klaus taunted, one of his hips jutting out. I'd completely lost control of my laughter at this point, but compared to Allison and Luther, there wasn't room to judge that.
"Aren't we all brothers and sisters, or...?" Vanya pointed out, spinning her chair around as Allison collapsed down, gripping the neck of her bottle for dear life. Klaus snorted and leaned down, joining me in my uproarious laughter.
"Well... technically..." Allison stuttered.
"'Technically'?" I interjected. "If you have to word... if you have to use the word 'technically', you're already in trouble." I shouldn't have opened my mouth. The moment I reprimanded Allison, Klaus jumped on his opportunity, not even missing a beat.
"Oh, please! You have no room to talk, missy." He pointed down at me, smirking. I felt a hot shame start to creep over me as my sisters cast their eyes in my direction, realizing it could only be one of them. "Did Five not imply, back at the Superstar, that you once had a crush on our lovely Vanya?"
I pushed myself all the way up out of my chair, teetering slightly at the sudden movement as I attempted to get my bearings enough to stand up straight. Allison's cackling across from me only made the room spin more, but I refused to go down like this.
"In my defense!" I practically screamed. "Dad never really explained to Five and I that all of us were supposed to be related. He just—told us that he and I were related. I thought the rest-rest of you were just, like... other people that happened to live there or some shit. It wasn't until we were, like, eight that he actually called Vanya my sister, and the crush immediately died there." Feeling as though I'd talked myself out of the hole, I attempted to curtsey, but it ended in me falling against Klaus.
"Okay, can... can we focus?" Allison spoke up, drawing our attentions back to her. "I mean, clearly we're not saving the world tonight, but maybe, maybe, we could at least try to save my marriage." I jumped back and crashed into the chair behind me as Klaus poured more alcohol into his flask, filling it to the point that some of the golden liquid started to spill over.
"Oh, shit. Sorry, sir," I apologized, patting the piece of furniture in the hopes he'd forgive me.
"No!" Klaus whined. "No, because that's like... that's like asking a nun how to hump someone's leg." I turned to Vanya, an eyebrow raised, unsure as to where exactly Klaus was going with this... especially considering the fact we'd just been talking about our brothers and sisters. "I mean, who in this room knows shit about relationships? This one?" I instinctively shot my hands up in surrender as he pointed at me. "Who had a girlfriend that used to be a mental patient for, what, eight hours before she banished her?"
"Okay, you weren't there," I defended. "First of all, she's not crazy. She's just lying about something. And besides, we're not broken up yet, we're just... fighting... from a distance." It didn't sound right, now that I'd said it out loud.
"You're not helping your case," Klaus scoffed, before immediately turning his attention to Vanya. "Or, this one? In secret love with some farm Frau?"
"Her name's Sissy," Vanya sighed, clearly exasperated by even the thought of her relationship with the woman.
"Which is an improvement on her previous love interest," my eyes widened as Klaus kept going, "the serial killer?" Vanya straightened in her seat, eyes wide with panic.
"What?" Allison shook her head and mouthed the word 'later', dispelling the confusion for the time being.
"Meanwhile, I'm carrying a torch... for a soldier I haven't technically met yet, and Luther's in love with his sister." I shrugged. That basically summed up our family.
"Okay, again, we're not biological." That really was the hill Allison wanted to die on?
"Face it, the healthiest long-term relationship in this family was when Five was banging that mannequin."
I gagged again, my brain on fire as I pushed that concept away. Klaus had the amazing ability to just completely forget that some of us were actually related, and wanted absolutely nothing to do with the idea of them... ugh. Granted, I wouldn't want to think about that for any of these guys, but especially not my little brother!
"Okay, your speaking plivages has been revoked." A few moments after the sentence left my mouth, my brows furrowed. Something hadn't been quite right about what I'd just said, but I couldn't quite figure out what. (A/N: yes, this is an actual thing I accidentally said during planning. My brain works faster than my mouth, so my speech slurs sometimes in an attempt to catch up)
"The only thing the Umbrella Academy knows about love..." Klaus raised his flask in the air, as though there was something to celebrate. "...is how to screw it up."
I sighed, realizing he was right. The bottle perched on the vanity beside me began to call out to me as my mind sunk down, prompting me to reach out and take a swig of the liquid. When I'd first started drinking the rum, it stung on the way down, but now, I barely felt it. Funny how that worked.
"How do you guys deal with this?" Vanya groaned, leaning her head back against the chair.
"What?" I asked, the conversation we'd just had somehow completely flying out of my mind, leaving me confused.
"I mean, all of it. The time travel, seeing the dead, having a disappearing brother, the end of the world." The thought of Five disappearing again caused a hell of a lot more panic in me once I had alcohol in my system. Thankfully, Klaus seemed to catch it, and he came over and draped an arm around my shoulders, instantly calming me.
"Well, I get really high," he began to explain. "Mina literally dances until she drops." Offended, I scoffed and pushed his arm off me. How dare he not know I hadn't done that in two years? He hadn't been there at all, so clearly, he should have known.
Wait...
"Allison." Klaus hunched over and attempted to whisper, but it didn't go very well. "Allison lies to herself." Infuriated, the woman in question kicked her legs out, striking a stool and sending it in Klaus' direction. "And you suppress all your emotions deep, deep down until you... you blow shit up."
"Yeah, I'd really like to not do that anymore."
"Well, you've got six days, missy." Klaus spoke as though that was somehow supposed to help, but I couldn't find any logic behind it.
"What the hell are we supposed to do with six days?" Allison demanded, angrily brushing out some of her curls.
I kept trying to come up with something, but the longer I thought, the more ideas left my brain. Was there some way to keep them in? Just in case, I looked down at the floor around me, making sure they hadn't fallen down there.
"Party?" our brother suggested. Typical.
Vanya had gone oddly quiet, and when I cast a glance to her, she had a new sense of determination written on her face.
"I'm gonna tell Sissy that I love her," she asserted, sitting up a little straighter as a result. "I don't want any secrets."
Honestly, that wasn't a terrible idea. I should do that...
Not confessing to Sissy, obviously. I could find Lila and talk to her, maybe lay everything out on the table from both sides. Both of us knew we were lying to each other, so why not just completely clear the air? Sure, her coming from the 60s, her mind might be blown a little bit by the concept of the world making it all the way to 2019, but hey, it was worth it to find out what the hell was going on with her.
"You know what?" My siblings all looked to me. "I'm gonna find Lila, and I'm gonna get the truth out of her. 'Cuz I really, really like her, but, like, I can't just keep doing this if she's going to lie to me." Allison waved the comb she'd been holding in my direction, quickly swapping it out for her bottle as she stood.
"Yeah. Yeah, yeah, you're right." Never thought I'd hear her say that. "Yes, 'cause, you know, if it's all gonna go tits-up, the least I could do is be honest with my husband." Despite our optimism, Klaus's expression had fallen sullen.
"Oh... does that mean I have to face my cult?" I nodded vigorously. This was an all-or-nothing endeavor. "I just hate group break-ups. It's why I stopped dating twins."
With a renewed sense of confidence, Vanya threw her hands up, a smile dancing its way onto her face.
"This family's amazing."
Allison, Klaus, and I burst out laughing, choosing not to point out that she didn't know the half of it. Besides, our Dad may not have been the best man, but the siblings we'd been surrounded by? They were pretty damn great.
Overwhelmed with love, I reached over and yanked Klaus up, pulling him into a hug. He chuckled and gently shuffled the two of us over to Allison, forming a line of Hargreeves.
"Come here, Vanya," Allison called, opening the three of us up for her to join the group hug. "Come on. Get over here."
My head shot back with laughter as Vanya pushed herself up from the chair and executed three short little bunny hops to get herself over to us, pressing her body right into the middle of the group. Something just hadn't felt complete without her, and now that she was here... maybe things would finally start to go right.
Jesus, I missed these guys so much...
"I love you guys," Klaus sighed, leaning his head against mine.
"I love you guys, too." I couldn't help but get a little choked up, though it went away just a second later.
The song over the radio changed—when the hell did that radio get there? —, a much more upbeat tune filling up the space, and Allison gasped, her eyes lighting up.
"Oh! You guys! I love this song!"
As she turned the enthusiastic tune up—I recognized it as Sam Cooke's Twistin' the Night Away... I think—the dancer in me started to take over, and I couldn't help but begin to tap my feet.
It wasn't long before my siblings started to join in, shaking their hips and pumping their arms up and down, letting themselves loose after the stress and hell we'd all endured this week. Smiling wide, I reached out and took Vanya's hands, twisting our shoulders back and forth as the two of us laughed. Our shoes slipped against the waxed floor, causing us to stumble even more than the alcohol already was, but there weren't any casualties to speak of.
Allison suddenly grabbed onto our wrists and whipped the two of us around, pulling us into a line behind her and Klaus before she attached herself to a small cart of beauty supplies, bowing to it before dancing around it like it was a partner. At first, I wanted to laugh at my sister and how ridiculous she looked, but as Klaus and Vanya found themselves attracted to the object, I couldn't just look away, either, and I found myself spinning around right by their sides.
Who gave a shit if I looked like a fool? My siblings had seen that side of me for 18 years... and even beyond that.
We darted back and forth across the salon, plopping down into chairs and lowering dryers over our heads, just doing whatever felt good. At one point, as I passed by my own reflection, I became distracted by the movement, and I spun the chair in front of the mirror around once before slinging myself into it and blowing a kiss toward myself. The alcohol probably fueled that moment of self-confidence, but screw it. I had to have some at one point or another, right?
Just before the music ended, Klaus suddenly yanked me off my feet and spun me around in circles, causing me to screech as he caught me off-guard. Still, when he put me down on my feet again, I finished off my dance with my brother.
The four of us laughed as the song faded out, plopping back down into our respective chairs. We remained in a tired silence, until Klaus' eyes moved to me, now filled with curiosity. I stiffened slightly upon noticing it, uneasy about the directions he could potentially take that look in.
"Hey, Mina, what happened to that woman you were with before Lila?" he asked suddenly.
The world felt like it had come to a stop around me, my head now pounding with intense drums in time with the beat of my heart. My stomach began to churn, my breath shortening by the second. I'd mentioned Helen, ever so briefly, at the start of our outing, but I tried so hard just to not think about it.
"Shit, Mina, I didn't mean to—"
These thoughts couldn't just stay pent up forever. It wasn't like there was anyone I could see to talk things out in this day and age, for several reasons, and Klaus had always been the first person I turned to (even when Five was around, there was just things Klaus understood better) in times like these. If there was anyone who I could finally let this loose on, it was him. Not to mention, Allison and Vanya would understand. We were struggling in different ways, but at the end of the day, it all came back to the fact we weren't welcome in this time, and the same went for Klaus.
With a deep breath, I pushed myself up and stuck a hand out, cutting him off.
"It's fine, Klaus. I have to talk about this eventually, otherwise it's just going to become something that eats away at me."
My eyes glossed over my brother and sisters one last time, their patient expressions reminding me I was safe here among them.
"Her family found out about us, eventually. We figured it was going to happen eventually, but she'd hoped that when they did, they'd remember she was their daughter, and they'd still love her just like they had before they knew. But..." I fought down the bitterness climbing up my throat. "They were furious. Her parents screamed and threatened us, and they tried to say that Helen was 'brainwashed' by me, that I'd 'infected' her... and they forced her to go and see one of those people—the people that do those stupid 'Conversion Therapies'. She didn't have a choice. Her family still bothered me for a long while after they sent Helen away, but eventually, it all died down, and the house got quiet." I swallowed, watching as my siblings' expressions quickly turned to ones of horror. "Last I heard, she got married to a man and has a family with him. So... there's that."
My eyes fell shut, trying to get my brain to stop screaming. I forced myself not to go back to that place, trying to prevent a potential disaster, reveling in the silence instead. No one dared to move, or even breathe, for several moments after my words finished spilling out, but eventually, I heard the squeaking of chairs moving, the rustling of fabric, and Allison's heels clicking against the floor.
I began to sob as my siblings wrapped their arms around me, trying their best to offer reassurance for something they couldn't truly understand. To me, that didn't matter. I wasn't so sure I'd ever be able to understand it myself. All four of us were punished just for being us, which laid at the root of all of this.
How the hell did we end up in a situation like this?
I expected the pain to start fading away, for the hurt to start dulling as I gripped tight onto my brother and sisters, but instead, everything just started to swell, growing more and more intense as the moments went on. What the hell?
The sun had completely set by the time we all left. I could feel myself mostly sobering up, but I hadn't brought my car down this way, so I'd need to take a cab regardless. As I slid into the back seat, I almost instinctively asked to be taken to Elliott's shop, but on second thought... maybe a bath and a change of clothes would help me feel better. I could even sleep in my own bed tonight, instead of that paper-thin mattress Elliott had.
Hopefully, my brothers wouldn't worry too much—if they were even back.
I'd started to calm down on the drive home, realizing that a weight had been lifted off of me that I had carried around for so long. Nothing would ever make it completely go away, but just getting what happened out there in the open... it helped a lot.
Unfortunately, all that progress came undone as I unlocked my front door. My foot kicked a little envelope that had been slipped in through the mail slot while I'd been gone. Strangely, there was no name written on it, nor was there a return address or stamp. Though I was wary of the object's presence in my home, my curiosity got the better of me, and I opened up the envelope. Inside rested a crisp, thick piece of cardstock. The image of an umbrella had been printed on the top, along with the words 'From the desk of Sir Reginald Hargreeves'.
Shit.
How in the hell did he even find my address? Or know that I existed? He and I had never even run into each other.
The text neatly printed onto the creamy paper certainly didn't help to calm me down any.
To my pursuers,
I, Reginald Hargreeves, request the pleasure of your company for a light supper on the 20th of November, 1963, half past seven o'clock. 1624 Magnolia Street
Shit... shit... shit...
I was going to have to face Dad—the very person that put me in the position I'd worked so hard to recover from the man I'd told, on repeated occasions after the disappearances and deaths of two of my brothers, that I hated him, the very last person on this earth that I needed to see after all of this.
The gentle sands of my thoughts got swept up in the winds again, blowing them in spirals. My breath cut in and out quickly as my mind went cloudy, all my sense completely leaving me. I had to deal with this somehow, I didn't care how...
That's when my eyes fell on a set of keys hanging up on the rack, taunting me with the fact they wouldn't be allowed to remain there for much longer, regardless of whether or not we could stop the world from ending. It was an easy out, a cheap out, a stupid out; it erased everything I'd worked so hard to change.
I didn't care. I needed this.
Without even attempting to stop myself, I snatched the keys and sprinted into my car, taking off along the route I'd familiarized myself with. The building was completely dark, abandoned for the night, and there were no cars parked in the lot, but what were they going to do? Arrest me? The police wouldn't even be able to find me.
Maybe some of that alcohol was still left in my system...
Sneaking in through the back, I unlocked the door and stepped inside, flicking on the lights of one of the studios. It was like being welcomed back by an old friend, one I missed so dearly.
I didn't bother to find a record and put it on, I just went by the music in my head. I started off light, just bending myself about and kicking my legs, but as the turns and jumps came in, I began to push myself harder and harder. My mind started to fade to black as my legs and arms burned and begged me to stop, but I wouldn't listen.
I'd forgotten how thrilling this could be. It felt like I could go forever.
Until my legs suddenly gave out beneath me, and I collapsed onto the hard ground, my eyes forcing themselves shut just seconds later.