All Will Be Well

Luther followed the sound of violin music down the hallway to Vanya's room. There, he saw her door was half open. Squeezing into the space between the door and its frame, he leaned against it and crossed his arms to just watch her a moment. Vanya was focused on the sheets of music in front of her as her fingers nimbly moved up and down the neck of her violin. Her expression was far away and Luther began to wonder if he shouldn't come back later. Maybe tonight when they were supposed to be asleep? That was the only other time he would be free all day. Luther frowned at the thought. Even then, it might not be enough time to really speak with her like he wanted if Dad was watching those security cameras of his.

Vanya paused briefly to turn over one of the pages of music. While doing so, she finally caught sight of him. Her eyes went wide a moment and she jerked her bow, creating a screeching sound on her violin. Luther winced and so did she. Vanya then sighed and lowered her violin away from her shoulder as she said, "Hey."

"Hey," he returned.

An awkward silence followed where the two of them just stared at each other. Luther's mind raced to find a way to say what he wanted, but he kept drawing a blank and found himself gaping at Vanya kind of like a fish.

Vanya frowned a moment before taking pity on him. "Is there something you wanted, Luther?"

He nodded as the words suddenly came to him. "Can we talk?" he asked in a half-shouted burst.

Vanya blinked. "Um. Sure. Yeah." She stepped away from her music stand and toward where her violin's case was laid out on her bed. She gestured with her bow for Luther to step into the room. "Come in. I'll put my violin away."

Stepping into the room, Luther folded his hands behind his back and approached her music stand to look at the sheets on it. Conversationally, he said, "You were sounding really good. What is it you were playing?"

Clicking the case to her violin shut, Vanya picked it up and slid it beneath her bed before joining him in front of the stand to gather together the sheets of music and put them in the folder behind them. "A couple of different pieces by Schubert, actually," she answered. Once they were tucked away, she picked up the stand and put in the corner of her small, barren room. When Vanya turned back around to face him, she was wearing an odd little smile on her face. "I don't know if you'll believe it, but Dad gave me them this morning. I guess he noticed I haven't been playing because he told me, 'As long as you are in my house you will be made to live up to your potential, as meager and ordinary as it may be.'"

Luther crossed his arms and shook his head in disbelief. "Wow."

Vanya ran her finger along the metal frame of her bed. In a small, wistful voice, she said, "I think that's the kindest thing he's ever said to me."

For a moment, Luther was confused. How had what Dad said been nice? Then he thought over it a little more. Even though he was insulting her skill, their Dad admitted she had it. You could even say he encouraged her to keep at it by giving her new music. Still, Luther felt sad for her his sister. Dad hadn't ever been forthcoming with praise, but even he'd gotten a "Good" once in a while, and – just once – a "Good job". Luther placed his hand on top of his sister's, stilling her nervous fidgeting, but also offering comfort. "I'm sorry, Vanya."

She extracted her hand from under his own and tucked it and her other hand behind her as she turned to look out her window. "Don't be," she told him. "We all know Dad's the worst."

He sighed. "Yeah…" It was still hard for him to accept that their father was an utterly irredeemable asshole, but he was starting to come around to the idea. No matter his personal feelings about the man now or later, he was done trying to defend him to his siblings. It only made his siblings feel like he was denying or downplaying the pain their father had caused them. Luther didn't want that. He wanted his siblings to feel better after talking with him, not worse.

Vanya came around and sat on the corner of her bed. She gave the area next to her a pat, inviting him to sit with her. Gladly, he took her up on the offer. Once they were more or less level with each other, Vanya turned her head and met his gaze. "Well, Luther? What is it you wanted to talk about?" she asked. "Me playing the violin again can't be it."

He looked away from his sister and whispered, "I shouldn't have put you in that cell."

Vanya was quiet as she crossed her legs and arms and shifted herself so she was facing away from Luther. Just as softly as he'd spoken, she said, "I know you thought I was dangerous."

He put his head in his hands a moment and thought over his next words. To deny the truth would be stupid. Vanya had been a threat, she was a threat even now. Yet… "You were – are, I guess – but not then," he replied. Luther recalled the way she went so willingly into his open arms, how she'd been so easily knocked out. Vanya wasn't dangerous at that moment. Luther could see now that she'd been nearly as vulnerable and hurt as Allison, if in different ways. "The others were right, I shouldn't have locked you in that cell when what you needed was us to help you."

Vanya loosened herself up a little and shifted to meet his gaze as she said, "I'm not mad at you for doing it, you understand that, right?"

Luther furrowed his brows and frowned. "Why not?" he questioned, bewildered. Then, a feeling of anxiousness overcoming him at the thought maybe she didn't feel she could be, he reassured Vanya, "You're allowed to be. You were being manipulated by that creep and finding out all sorts of things about yourself and our family. When you came home, crying and apologizing for what you did to Allison, I didn't do what a brother should have. Instead of saying we'd find a way to help you and reassuring you that Allison was okay and you could apologize later, I knocked you out and put you in a cell like a rabid animal."

His sister uncrossed her arms and put a hand on his arm."You were scared, I almost killed Allison." She averted her gaze and said, "I know you love her a lot."

Even as his face heated up at her mentioning his feelings for Allison, Luther shook his head. "That's not an excuse!" Luther argued. "I've nearly killed Diego a time or two and he's almost done it to me as well. It wasn't fair of me to lock you up like that when Dad never did that to either of us." He gave one of Vanya's hands a tap, drawing her eyes back to him as he added, softer, "And you didn't even really mean to nearly kill Allison. She says so."

Guilt weighed Vanya's lips into a heavy frown as her shoulders hunched inward. "Allison feels she's partially at fault for all of this you realize, don't you?" she said.

He nodded, but felt unchanged in his opinion. "Yeah, she's said as much. I still believe her when she says you didn't mean to."

Vanya looked to her lap and began to smooth the wrinkles from her skirt. "Sometimes, I think you were right to lock me up."

Luther's eyes flew wide. "What?"

She peeked up at him through her bangs. "After all that I did… I can't help but believe maybe you had the right idea. My powers are affected by my emotions and I wasn't in a good place mentally before or after I hurt Allison and I only got worse the more time went on until I wanted to hurt everyone, not just you guys, or me." She dropped her gaze back to her lap, lips pulling into a new frown."I was the bad guy that forced you guys to get the team back together."

He only hesitated a moment before putting one of his hands on her knee."Vanya…"

She pushed it off and turned her legs away from him again. "No, it's true. I don't get why you and everyone else doesn't hate me!" she cried before furiously wiping her eyes.

Once again, Luther tried to comfort her by putting his hand on her knee. She tried to knock it off, but he held firm this time as he said, "You're our sister, we could never hate you."

Vanya lifted her head and met his gaze. Her eyes were red and rimmed with tears as she whispered, "I hated you."

Luther fought the urge to break eye-contact with her. He hadn't expected to hear that from his sister. Vanya had always been the most caring of them. She'd always tried to do little things to make them happier when they were upset and often put them above herself while they were growing up— And not just because Dad made her. But he thought he understood how she could. They'd always pushed her away, rebuffed her love, and excluded her from things they didn't have to. The level of rejection she must have felt, especially in those last days… Firmly, he said, "Well, I don't blame you for hating us. We did you wrong far more than you ever did us."

Vanya stared at him for a long beat, disbelieving. Finally, she told Luther, "I still think you were right. And I'm sorry."

He shook his head. He wasn't going let Vanya absolve him of his mistakes. "I know I was wrong and I'm sorry. Not just for putting you in that cell either, but for everything I did and didn't do when we were growing up and when we were adults too."

Her gaze was searching as she said, "Luther?"

"Yeah?"

He was suddenly enveloped in a hug as Vanya mumbled into his ear, "Thank you for apologizing for all of that stuff, I appreciate it."

Luther lifted his arms and returned the embrace. "You're welcome," he said into her hair. He held her tighter as he told her, "Thanks for being willing to talk to me." Luther knew this was only the first step in making things right. He'd have to really work on proving to Vanya he meant how sorry he was and show her he really did care for her too over the coming weeks, months, and years, but, for now, he just let himself feel forgiven and, hopefully, make Vanya feel loved.

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Thanks so much for reading everyone :)