Here's another chapter y'all. I'm really enjoying writing this, and I hope y'all are enjoying reading it. As promised, there's fluff, although it's not super sweet. That's next chapter. It's a bit longer because research is important! And a wild Allison AND Ben appear as plot points. I'll try to have the next one out this week, but I'm a very busy bee so it might be next weekend when it comes. You're Music To My Eyes is still coming along as well.
Lemme know what y'all think!
Disclaimer: I don't own Umbrella Academy or I'm In Love With A Girl. This is just for fun and not for profit.

2003~

Research was a disastrous affair. It left Five with more questions than answers, and it definitely was a distressing endeavor. And that was coming from a boy who was a goddamn superhero for a living. He was also a boy who loved to learn, so researching was something he found enjoyable. He studied nearly every topic he could to learn about everything the world had to offer him. It was safe to say his thirst for knowledge was borderline obsessive. However, the subject matter of his recent investigations had certainly made him question whether he really wanted to know everything or if some things were better off unexplored.

This discomfort came from many sources, but the first and most embarrassing that Five had reluctantly consulted was that damn anatomy and physiology textbook. Even after a few years, it still made his head reel. He had also grabbed a few other books on the same topic that he could never bring himself to even look at after reading the first. The one had been enough for him.

The human body was an interesting subject, and Five didn't hate learning about it, per se. Or rather, he didn't hate learning about any system and function of the body that didn't have anything to do with reproduction. Admittedly, he had glossed over those chapters in his first attempt at research in the field of study, but the diagrams and explanations were still stuck in his brain. They were what made him avoid that section of the library for a month back then and what made him recoil in revulsion a few months ago. He had steeled his nerves and read the books anyways. The suffering he would endure in the name of science was unmatched.

Unfortunately, Five came up empty. The books provided plenty of information on how the body worked, but they gave no indication as to why they decided to react the way they did. He was a little irritated that he got nothing useful out of reading the books, but he was unsettled more than anything. Leaving no stone unturned had its benefits of quelling any lingering what-ifs, but there was always that bit of disappointment that came when nothing of use was discovered. He had thought for sure he would find something in at least one of the books that would help him understand what was going on with him. There was still research to do, but he did feel a pinch of discouragement at this failure. This usually manifested itself as irritability.

Although Five was beyond capable of masking his emotions, his short temper was something he found difficult to suppress. It wasn't lost on the other children of the household that he was in a bad mood with his snappy remarks and aggravated demeanor. The lower numbers had learned from an early age to keep away from him during these periods as he tended to lash out at them, unless they really wanted to fuck around with him and make him angrier. The upper numbers in contrast would try to reach out and comfort him any way that they could. The latter group conveniently included Vanya.

Her approach to calming him down had always been verbal or musical. She would go to his room and either play him his favorite songs or sit down on the bed next to him to talk. She was the one person who had any success in making him feel better, save for Ben who sometimes found the right words to say minus the presence of Klaus.

However, Vanya's methods had changed over the past few months. She still played the violin for him, but her verbal communication added a new feature. A physical one. She began touching him when she spoke with him. She'd place a hand on his shoulder, on his arm, on his hand, all gestures that sent sparks through his body and made his mind go numb. He knew she was just trying to help, but most of the time he just felt worse after they talked, his symptoms getting more and more exacerbated by the day.

Five then turned to pathology textbooks detailing specific diseases, though his search was fruitless again. Many times, he would have the right symptoms, but they wouldn't be severe enough or had persisted too long to be diagnosed as the sickness described. Maybe he had contracted a disease that had never been discovered. He'd need to study it more to be sure. Still, his unsuccessful research had left him uneasy and dejected. His irritable behavior only intensified with his continued failure.

Then Vanya started touching him in mundane situations outside of their private conversations, and Five knew he had to be dying at this point. She would elbow him while they sat next to each other in the library, press her knee against his at mealtimes, bump into him as they walked down the hall. She was acting so strangely, and he thought that maybe he had given her whatever illness he was suffering from. Because he was definitely sick and he couldn't think straight because of it, so she must've been sick too.

Why did he say that? Well for starters, Five found himself liking it when she touched him, even if he kind of felt like shit when she did. But it was somehow a good kind of shit? He didn't understand. Being sick wasn't a nice experience, but for some reason he almost enjoyed it this time.

He was really fucked up.

Then there's the problem with him wanting to touch her too. And what's worse? Five did touch Vanya. He touched her a lot. All in the same ways she would touch him. Her eyes would flutter and so would his heart. She would blush and he would heat up. A smile would pull at her lips and he would mirror the gesture.

Well, he did also pay attention to how he felt when touching or being touched by other people in the house. It wasn't like he was only touching Vanya. He did notice that no one else made him feel the way she did, but that was an insignificant observation as he concluded that those tests were just mistrials. He didn't think he could compare anyone else to Vanya. They interacted on a different level than the rest of the family. It wouldn't make sense to equate training sessions and visits to the infirmary to spending leisure time together. The mode of touching would have to be a factor controlled in future studies in for the results to be accurate and reliable.

Overall, he just chalked up his actions to research because maybe he finally accepted that touch did amplify his symptoms, although the fact that it was Vanya didn't have anything to do with it. He didn't touch her because he liked to see her react to him, and he didn't let her touch him because he liked the way he felt when she did. He allowed the contact because he needed more information on the subject that the fucking textbooks weren't giving him. That was all it was.

Correlation was not causation.

"Do you ever read anything besides those stupid textbooks?"

Five turned his head to see Allison walking towards him.

"Do you ever read anything besides those stupid magazines?"

He went back to his previous task of scanning the book shelves and running his fingers over their spines. He was scouring the library for another textbook that might solve his mystery disease. He was coming up short, as per usual, and he was becoming so desperate that he even thought about trying to look into any paranormal guides that the library had to offer. Perhaps he was demonically possessed and that was why he didn't seem to be in control of his actions. Although, Klaus probably would have notified him if that were the case, so that theory seemed highly unlikely.

"I read books too, ya know."

Five rolled his eyes. Allison had probably decided it was a good day to fuck with him.

"I'll believe it when I see it."

She stepped closer to him.

"Well, take a gander and start believing."

He sighed as he looked at her again. This time, she held up a book in her hand for him to see. The cover had a man and a woman facing each other with smiles on their faces and an intense concentration in their eyes. The woman rested her hands on the man's jaw while he had his hands placed on her hips. It appeared to be an intimate moment.

It was obviously a romance novel, the genre that Five had never dared read. Sure, he had read the classics, but only because they were either required by Sir Reginald or because they had more substance to them than just the romantic aspect. These factors usually overlapped anyways as Hargreeves didn't care much for romance either.

"You call that a book?"

She scoffed.

"No, I call it a masterpiece. Maybe you should try branching out from your boring science textbooks and read something like this."

He raised an eyebrow.

"I'd rather not, but thanks for wasting my time."

Five grabbed a random book from the shelf and teleported to his room before Allison could get the last word in. When he appeared next to his desk a moment later, he looked at the book in his hands and realized that it was one he had already read. He slammed it on the counter in frustration and sat down in his chair with a huff.

His research was not going to plan, and it was aggravating him to no end. He was getting nowhere, and he felt like an utter failure. He always had the answers, but now all he had was questions. This was one of the few things he loved, and he was failing at it. It wasn't a fun experience so far.

A light knock on his door alerted him to the presence of another person entering his room. When he glanced in that direction, he saw Vanya standing in the doorway. She seemed to have a sixth sense for these kinds of things. She knew when he, or anybody else for that matter, was upset without having to ask. She was always there to comfort him, which he was grateful for, even if his grumpy attitude didn't let him show his appreciation.

"Hey, Five."

She crossed the room to stand next to him, a soft and reassuring smile gracing her lips.

"Hi, Vanya."

He looked up at her from his seat. He was very aware of how close they were, and his body anticipated her touch by acting up in all the usual ways. From what he could tell, so was hers.

"Is something wrong?"

Her smile was gone now, and her expression had become one of concern.

"What makes you ask that?"

Five knew exactly what she meant, but he wasn't going to tell her hey my body is fucked up and I might be dying. It was kind of embarrassing that he didn't know what was going on, and he wasn't sure how she would respond to his research, especially if she knew she was a part of his investigations.

"You've seemed stressed for a while now."

Her eyebrows were knitted together and a frown pulled the corners of her lips down. He didn't like seeing her worry like this, although it was nice to know that she cared about his wellbeing.

"I'm not stressed."

He tried to reassure her, but she looked unconvinced.

"Are you sure? You look like you are."

She eyed him warily, trying to read his face.

"What about me makes me look stressed to you?"

Five wasn't sure where he was going with that question, but Vanya took it and ran. She never took her eyes away from his as she went about explaining her observations.

"Well, your shoulders are tense all the time."

She reached out and rested her hands on his shoulders, making him jerk in surprise, but he soon relaxed into her warm touch. Her touches were a familiar feeling now, a feeling that he had grown rather fond of.

"And you're always popping your knuckles. It's a nervous habit of yours."

She didn't lift her hands from his body as she slowly slid them down his arms, leaving agonizing trails of fire in their wake. She wrapped her hands around his and rubbed her thumbs over his knuckles.

"You've also got these worry lines on your face."

Vanya let his hands fall to his lap again before placing her own on either side of his head. She traced the tiny wrinkles that formed next to his mouth, across his forehead, in the corners of his eyes. She had never touched him like this before, and his face felt like the sun with her fingers gently caressing him. His eyelids fluttered, her touch making him want to close his eyes and sigh in relief. He kept them open, though. He wanted to look at her as she looked at him.

This moment reminded him of the cover of Allison's romance novel, where the couple held each other close in a similar embrace, although their touch was the only parallel that he believed they shared. Five remembered the placement of the man's hands on the woman's waist and decided that it wouldn't be so bad to touch Vanya too. So, he reached out and gently touched her hips. Her breath hitched briefly before she settled down and moved a little closer to him.

They stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity, gazing into each other's eyes and getting lost in each other's touch. Her touch burned him, almost as if she was branding him. She was making Five hers with just a brush of her hand, and he liked it. He hoped that she felt the same way.

"Ahem."

The moment was shattered by the clearing of a throat from someone at the door. Vanya jumped away from Five as he almost slid off the back of his chair in his haste to put distance between them. He glared at the door with a red face to see who had walked in on…whatever the fuck that was.

It was Ben.

"Sorry to interrupt but, uh, Dad wanted to see you for one-on-one training."

Five scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion.

"I already did one-on-one training with him this week."

Ben shuffled nervously.

"He wants you to help with Diego's training."

Five sighed. He knew what that meant. Diego would be throwing knives at a moving target. Him.

"Fine. I'll be down in a minute."

Ben nodded curtly and hurried off, no doubt acting so awkward because of what he had just seen by accident.

Five wasn't really sure what had happened either. He hardly had time to even think about what he was doing before he was actually doing it. It was almost like he was possessed, like Vanya was the puppet master and he was on the strings controlled by every touch of her hands. The scariest part about believing he was hers was that he wanted to be hers. He wanted to be sick, he wanted to be possessed, he wanted it all for her. What terrified him was that he wasn't terrified of this desire. He didn't know what this meant for him, and he was confused by his predicament more than ever.

"I should probably go practice."

Vanya muttered with a glance in his direction before leaving the room. She also seemed taken aback by her actions a few moments ago. Five couldn't blame her. It was an overwhelming situation, being terribly ill from a disease that made them lose their minds and was worsened by contact with another person.

Yep. He was still on his bullshit explanations. It was all he had that made sense, after all. His research efforts were sucking tremendously, but he would stick by his theory until he was proven wrong with no lingering doubts.

Correlation was not causation.

Five grumbled as he got ready to go to training. He wasn't looking forward to being Diego's target. He knew what the cut of his knives felt like all too well, and their sting was nowhere near as pleasant as that of Vanya's touch.

Which was irrelevant.

He was sick. He was fucking dying. Dying to feel her touch again that is, but he wouldn't admit that out loud.

Hope y'all enjoyed!

~SOS~