Slipping into the room, her eyes narrowed in annoyance as she found Five sleeping peacefully. It hardly seemed fair when she had spent the night tossing and turning, her mind descending into a complete panic.

Closing the door behind her she crossed over to his bedside.

"Five." Vanya whispered, her tone urgent as she shook his shoulder. "Five, wake up."

"Alarm's not gone off yet," he murmured tiredly, batting away her hand, "go back to sleep."

He shuffled sideways to make room for her on the bed but otherwise kept his eyes closed, resolute he was not waking up.

"Five!" She hissed. Ignoring his half-hearted slaps she continued to shake and prod him until he conceded defeat and cracked open one eye to look at her.

"What?"

"We have a problem."

Apparently that was all she had to say in the first place. Five shot up from the bed, his eyes now wide and alert.

"The others are planning to tell me tonight."

The pair stared into each other's eyes, frustration written across their faces.

"Why do those fuckers never listen to me?" Five eventually exclaimed.

"I overheard them, they met yesterday afternoon for a family meeting..."

"Family meeting?" He cut her off. "I wasn't invited."

"Neither was Ben..."

"Then how can they call it a family meeting?" Five asked indignantly.

"Five." Vanya whined to draw his attention back to her. "They knew you and Ben wouldn't agree."

"Did Klaus go?"

Vanya sighed. "Yes."

"Those fuckers."

"Yes, they are." She impatiently agreed, eager to get him back on track. "How are we going to handle this?"

"What did you overhear?"

"Well, they said they'll wait until we're about to head home from Griddy's, tell me you perfected time travel..."

"Perfected might be a bit strong." Five said with a pleased smirk.

Unimpressed, she asked: "Are you trying to be modest right now?"

"I thought I was doing quite well."

"It needs work." She retorted with a smile.

Vanya slid into the free spot on his bed and continued her story. "Anyway. They'll tell me we all travelled back from the future and that I have amnesia. Then they plan to tell me about the apocalypse and how I started it, how I have powers, how I've always had powers and Reginald has been suppressing them since we were young. Then they think after telling me all of this I'll miraculously remember everything, we'll have a big group hug and I'll become a member of the Umbrella Academy." She exhaled heavily. That used to be her dream but after hearing it all laid out by her siblings yesterday it suddenly felt akin to a nightmare. "They know we went back in time and not to another universe, right?"

"Sometimes I wonder." Five drawled.

"I kept listening to them last night to see if I could find out more, but they haven't mentioned it since."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"I was panicking." She admitted.

Nowadays a panicking Vanya meant the structural integrity of the building was at risk, so she'd spent the evening practising the breathing exercises Five had looked up for her until she felt somewhat calm enough to sleep. The nightmares woke her up not long after. They always did now, when she slept alone.

"We agreed when you feel upset you'd come and find me." Five lightly scolded, well aware how her powers could spiral when the negative emotions overwhelmed her.

He'd witnessed her crush one of Luther's model aeroplanes with her mind the other week after all. The buzzing had disturbed her reading causing a spike in annoyance, the next thing the mangled wreckage nosedived into the bushes outside the Academy. Thankfully Number One had so many of them he didn't care it was missing; Five having hidden the remains under his jumper to smuggle out to the dumpster.

"I know but the others are suspicious about us spending so much time together." Vanya excused.

"Who cares what they think?" Five scowled.

She tried a different approach: "Five, you haven't seen them in decades. Don't you want to spend time with them instead of being permanently holed up with me?"

Five had spent yesterday evening chatting with Diego and Klaus. When she'd spotted him in the kitchen he'd seemed so carefree and unlike his usual stressed, grumpy fifty-eight-year-old self, that she hadn't had the heart to interrupt them and ruin his fun as she always did.

"I see them in training." He shrugged.

"That's not the same." She looked at him appraisingly. "You don't have to babysit me all day you know. Besides, I think the others have already set up a schedule for that. Whenever you're not here one of them are."

"I am not babysitting you." Five scoffed. "And neither are the others. They just want to spend time with you. Allison is desperate to. Trust me – they're more jealous that I'm taking up all of your time than you taking up mine."

"They didn't want to spend time with me the first time around." Vanya remarked, a surge of bitterness rising in the back of her throat. She choked it back down.

"Vanya," Five chastised, "the last time they were children being terrorised by their supposed Father, who told them to stay away from you or they would put you in danger."

"That never stopped you." She interrupted.

He grinned at her cheekily. "I'm braver. What I'm saying is, give them some credit. They're trying. Maybe you should be too?"

"I've been making such good progress." Vanya said sadly, flopping back onto Five's pillow. "What if this messes it up?"

"You don't know it will." Five encouraged. "It will make it easier when they know – we won't have to hide your practice from them and they can each help with the development of your powers. Diego will be good at helping you target your energy bursts, and Allison will be invaluable once you start using music to affect people's moods."

"I still don't know if I can do that." She said uneasily. "It's just a theory."

"And one we'll test out. Maybe after you make progress with your atmokinesis?"

"My what?" Vanya said, glancing at him.

"I looked it up," Five explained, "controlling the weather is called atmokinesis. I couldn't find a term for super hearing though – maybe we could make one up?"

"I'm not sure about that one either. I made it rain but I'm not sure about anything else. I'm not sure about any of this."

"Vanya," Five said, grabbing her hand, trying to ground her, "we will figure it out. Together."

"Together as in you and me, or together as in all of us?" Vanya asked sullenly, playing with his fingers to give her mind something to occupy itself with.

"All of us." He stressed, still determined that her pseudo-amnesia was ending even if he disagreed with the other's methods.

"Until you leave again." She replied angrily, pulling her hand away.

The prospect that Five could return to the future, leaving Vanya behind for a second time, was still a sore point between them.

They'd spent a lifetime apart from one another, it was to be expected their friendship couldn't immediately be picked up from where it had been left off. It was taking time but they were learning everything new about each other, the changes in the other's character resulting from the passage of time and the absence of pills. That they had both nearly killed the other caused some brief contention: Five had easily forgiven her for creating the post-apocalyptic wasteland he had lived in and told her to forget about almost draining the life out of him – assuring her that self-preservation is entirely natural. As the book had proven however, Seven couldn't forget. The White Violin did not forgive. And Vanya stewed in guilt.

She had come nowhere near repairing the damage wrought by Five's first disappearance and nothing he could say could reassure her she could survive a second. She tried to put into words how devastating it had been for her and he had attempted to do the same, but the threat that he could leave again had shaken her no matter how hard Five tried to convince her everything would work out.

"We've got months before we have to decide about that." Five soothed, trying to take her hand again and sighing when she evaded him. He'd always known, much to his chagrin, that physical contact was the most effective way to calm Seven – he wasn't sure if he was relieved or exasperated to find it was still the case with Vanya.

"What are we doing about tonight?" Vanya asked, determined to change the subject.

"They need to find out, eventually."

Vanya huffed, feeling consumed by the girl she inhabits need to sulk.

"Are you pouting?" Five said incredulously, openly laughing at her. Her frown deepened and his laugh grew.

"Shut up." She said petulantly. "I'm thirteen. Thirteen-year-olds pout. Not that I am pouting. But if I was, it would be completely justified."

Five continued chuckling to himself.

"I like you like this." He eventually managed.

"What do you mean?"

"Off your pills – you're a different person. I mean you're still you, but this is who you were always meant to be. And I like who that is. Pouting and all." Five said.

Vanya prodded his ribs. "Giving me compliments won't make me agree with you."

"I'm not like that." Five said. "I only give compliments when compliments are due."

It was true, he did. Five never restrained himself from telling the truth unless his back was against the wall. How many times when he'd tried to comfort her had he accidentally insulted her instead, his mouth spewing forth the uncensored thoughts his mind contained without a second thought? Once, when having a panic attack after Reginald called her a failure of nature, he had compared her harsh intakes of breath to that of a congested pug. The words, stated so bluntly, startled a laugh out of her even as he cringed in the anticipation of more tears.

There had been plenty of times he had complained she was torturing her violin's strings, but that meant when he complimented a piece she was working on he truly thought she had improved. That's why she had always found him so easy to be around – unlike the others who complimented her only when they wanted something and shut her down when they wanted her to fade once more into the background. Five treat her like a human being; one with flaws, but not so flawed as the others made her believe. He was honest to her when it most mattered, something she appreciated even more now that she knew how many people had lied to her before. Sometimes he would soften the blow, but he wasn't one to waste time with sweet hollow words.

"I still don't want them to know." Vanya said, fighting the urge to cross her arms haughtily across her chest. "I get why they always acted the way they did, but doing this doesn't exactly show me they've changed. How am I supposed to trust them if they're still acting the same way?"

He sighed, agreeing with her frustration. "Has Ben found out about the meeting yet?"

"No he'll find out this morning."

Five crooked an eyebrow. "Do you have precognition now?"

Vanya clamped down on a smirk the White Violin was desperate to display. She enjoyed being reminded how infinite her powers seemed the be. "Klaus said he will tell him."

"Okay, I'll see Ben later and ask him to talk the other's out of it."

"Well if he can't I'm not going tonight." Vanya insisted, pointedly ignoring the roll of Five's eyes.

She wasn't being unreasonable.

"Fine. But you know how persistent they can be." Five agreed, glancing at his alarm clock.

Unfortunately she did. If it wasn't at the diner they'd pin her down somewhere unless Ben and Five could talk them out of it.

"I'll see you in the usual place for training later, okay?"

"Yeah."

"You'll hear if I get pulled into extra training?"

"I'll keep an ear out." Vanya said, frowning as a thought occurred to her. "Does it not bother you, that I'm listening? Because I can stop?"

"No." Five stated, getting up from the bed to stretch.

"Are you sure?"

He shot her an unimpressed look. "If you were bothering me, I would tell you. Besides, I don't want you trying to contain your powers. You need to have some free rein. Trust me, it's not good to bottle them up. Remember that time I broke my leg and Dad wouldn't let me jump until it was healed?"

"Mmm hmm."

She'd spent most of the week with him and by the end of it – for the first time in their friendship – she truly thought he might unleash his notorious temper on her. She kept offering to help him and as the week progressed, but he only got more surly with her. Although, as he hadn't thrown a plate at her head like he did at Klaus, she counted herself lucky she emerged from his ordeal with no permanent scars even if his snapping did hurt her feelings.

Five looked apologetic before continuing. "It's like the energy I exert with my jumps just built up inside me. I felt like my skin was too tight and I could hardly sleep. I think when I finally got the clear to teleport I jumped for an hour straight to burn it all off."

"And we've already learnt what happens when my energy builds up." Vanya nodded, understanding his point. "I just don't want to intrude."

"Vanya, Reginald intrudes on our lives all day every day. You," he said, patting her shoulder, "I don't mind at all. Besides, I need you to keep a listen out for anymore stupid ideas the others come up with. Ben and I can't supervise them all day every day, sometimes they get away from us."

"Okay. I'd better get back to my room before Grace does the rounds."

"I'll take you."

"Oh but..."

He grabbed her and jumped to her bedroom before she could finish the protest.

Vanya staggered sideways as he let her go but soon regained her footing.

"I think you're getting better with the symptoms." Five commented.

"Ugh."

"You know what they say, practise makes perfect." He grinned smugly.

"It's moments like these," She retorted without thinking, "that makes it really hard for me to convince the White Violin not to kill you."

He blinked at her.

"Is it too soon to make jokes about nearly killing you? Because I thought you nearly killing me made us even?"

"You consider your powers as a separate entity?" He asked disapprovingly.

"Oh," she managed, her voice far too high, "it just makes it easier. You know, to deal with the guilt of murdering seven and a half billion people. And to hide away the more violent, murder, murder thoughts."

"Well that's not good."

"I guess you want to take back your earlier comment that you prefer me this way?" Vanya said anxiously, twisting her fingers sharply together until her joints protested.

"Do you think about murder a lot?" Five asked, his tone too conversational. It was setting the White Violin on edge.

"No."

"You're still an awful liar."

Vanya closed her eyes in shame. "Reginald."

Five snorted. "Is that all? It's a good thing none of us have proposed a vote on it, I think the motion would pass."

"Pogo." She added, her voice trembling. "Every time I hear him or he talks to me or touches me, I think about stopping his heart. Throwing him across the room so hard his back breaks. Pushing down on him until he suffocates. Hurling him out the window. Separating his skin from his bones. Slitting his throat with my bow, like I did to Allison."

Vanya trailed off, so deeply ashamed.

"Vanya..."

"Don't tell me it's okay." She said, slapping away his outreached arm. "It's not. It's wrong. I'm wrong."

Her head glanced at her bedside table where her pills were kept. She so desperately wanted them yet at the same time she wanted to crush them so harshly they disintegrated into dust.

"Vanya, your eyes."

Her tears blurred her vision. She didn't dare look in the mirror. The thought of being met by those bitter blue eyes scared her more than she ever thought it was possible to be afraid.

She squeezed her eyes shut; she didn't want to subject Five to them. They were so horrible.

"Vanya?"

"Seven?"

She glanced at him for Seven.

"Seven, yesterday I watched you walk all the way around a pigeon in the courtyard because you didn't want to disturb it while it was eating some crumbs." Five smiled. It was a genuine smile this time. "You will not kill Dad and you will not kill Pogo. But I don't think you're wrong for wanting to."

He grabbed her elbow and brought her to the mirror. "There see, nice and brown again."

Exhaling, she observed her normal eyes with relief. "Thank you, Five."

"You're welcome, Seven. Until this afternoon."

After Five jumped back to his room, she got ready for another day. There were general classes together first thing after breakfast, followed by Vanya's French tuition when the six went off to train. There was no one-to-one training for Five today so Vanya wasn't called upon for his side-jumping practice – for which her stomach was eternally grateful. Lunchtime passed without notice although it became clear Ben now knew of the 'family meeting' if the sour looks he kept shooting at his fellow siblings over the top of his book were any indication. He was reading Dostoevsky again, which was always a sign Ben was in a bad mood. At least he was on one of the relatively upbeat ones – well, The Idiot was upbeat for Dostoevsky anyway. If he were reading Crime and Punishment or Demons, she would have been more concerned.

After lunch Five and Vanya were able to sneak away while Reginald started putting Luther through his paces.

Five had developed a more structured training schedule, based on the notes Vanya had collected from Reginald's book. He felt she was making good progress with telekinesis but he wanted her to try moving several objects in different directions at once.

While she had pulled several objects towards one target before – as in the case of Leonard – it was proving difficult attacking several targets at once with only her telekinesis. When she'd stopped her siblings attacking from opposite ends of the room it had been with that white energy she still couldn't figure out.

Five placed a stack of books between them.

"I just want you to pick each volume up and make them float in a separate location from each other. Don't worry about trying to throw them or making them do trick shots."

The trick shots were fun. She'd made one of Allison's old hand-me-down dolls do pirouettes the other day.

"All of them at once?"

"Let's start with two, then add more books to the sequence."

"Like juggling?" Vanya asked, focusing on picking up one book.

"Exactly."

She had three in the air, only a few millimetres away from each other, when she overheard Ben asking Klaus where Five was.

Sighing, she focused on the fourth determined not to let her concentration drop but it was too difficult trying to suspend four books in the air and listen to an important conversation simultaneously.

They fell onto the bed and Five gathered them back up into a pile between their legs, not yet realising she was utilising another power.

"That was great for a first attempt..."

"Ben's looking for you." Vanya said absently, turning her full centre of attention onto the discussion downstairs. "He's talking to Klaus now."

"Anything important?" Five asked.

"Ben's trying to talk Klaus out of tonight, but he won't listen." She listened another minute then shook her head. "No, he won't listen."

"That's unfortunate."

"No shit." Vanya muttered, tracking Ben's footsteps, oblivious to Five's proud smirk. "He's still checking downstairs. Why don't you go meet him? You said you would talk to him about tonight, anyway."

"He can find us."

"I told you they're suspicious about all the time we spend alone."

"They do it too." Five shrugged. "I see Luther and Allison are sneaking out again. They're determined to get in trouble with Dad."

"He's been helping her." Vanya defended. "Dealing with losing Claire."

"She hasn't lost Claire. Not unless she chooses to."

Vanya wished she could talk to Allison about it yet, despite the olive branches Number Three kept offering her, she couldn't help but feel like she must be the last person on earth Allison would want to discuss her daughter with. It hadn't gone well the first time, and that was before Vanya triggered the apocalypse which had killed Claire.

"I feel bad."

"You will do." Five said, not trying to placate her with meaningless platitudes. "The guilt is something we all have to deal with. You're not the only killer amongst us, Vanya."

"It's different."

"How?" He asked patiently.

"You all didn't enjoy it."

"Hey, Five?" Ben called, hesitantly pushing open the door to their makeshift training room.

"What?"

Five's tone was too sharp towards her kindest brother and Vanya was quick to chastise him with a light hit on the arm. He always found her weak slaps amusing, mainly the reason she did it. Amusement had always been the way to best diffuse Five's temper.

"Five, I need to talk to you for a minute."

"About what?"

Ben paused before speaking: "Guy stuff."

She knew it was an excuse Ben was using to get Five alone but she couldn't prevent her eyes from widening. Looking between the two boys in disbelief she waited with bated breath to see how Five would respond.

"Guy stuff?" He said, his voice laden with annoyance and discomfort. Five agreed to go with him however, knowing he had promised to speak to Ben.

As Ben left the room first, Five was free to visually communicate with her, tapping his left ear to indicate that she should listen in on their conversation.

She half-listened at first, as she already knew everything Ben would tell Five to catch him up. While they spoke she tried levitating some books again, focusing on two this time. She was determined to get a greater distance between them than she had before.

They were inching gradually apart, passing to opposite ends of the bed, when her pills were brought up.

"If you possessed monsters which can literally tear you apart wouldn't you want rid of them? Don't you think Klaus would have appreciated drugs which made the dead people who terrorise him every day disappear?"

Turning the full extent of her powers back to Five and Six, Vanya listened warily. Her family still didn't understand what those pills represented for her. Everything the man she had looked to as a Father had stolen from her. That ever present hollowness, the one thing in her life that was constant. It had gnawed away at her for three decades and they still didn't know.

"You think those pills just got rid of her powers? They ate her from the inside out until there was barely a scrap of personality left. You were with her longer than I was – when did you see her laugh, properly laugh? Or stand up for herself? Those pills scooped out her powers and everything that makes her who she is and left her as a docile pet for Dad to tame. Do you want that for yourself? To be left as an empty shell only capable of feeling sadness and rejection? Because maybe we can arrange a trade."

The White Violin sneered at her desire to run to Five for a hug. She mentally told her to shut it.

"What are you two doing? You're always holed up together, it's driving Allison crazy."

"Dad increased her pill dosage a few weeks before we jumped back. She's still dealing with the effects. I'm trying to help her." Five said.

It wasn't a lie exactly, Reginald did increase her pill dosage when she went through puberty.

The technicality didn't lessen the guilt. There was always so much guilt.

"God, could you imagine if she'd had these powers as a kid how easy missions would have been? I wonder why Dad suppressed them, you'd think he'd be thrilled to have someone so powerful?"

Vanya snorted, safe in the knowledge that neither of them possessed the hearing range to notice.

Five understood. For now that felt like enough.

She listened to them discuss her book, remembering the feeble attempts of fury that had bubbled within her when writing about Ben's death. After everything the regret she felt over the book had significantly subsided, helped by knowing that at the very least the book had provided Five with some useful information while he was trapped in her apocalypse.

Vanya wondered if Five looked for her there, and whether her body would have survived the damage she had caused.

She thought the boys' conversation had ended when Ben stopped Five from returning to her.

"I was just wondering if you know if I've upset Seven somehow?"

Once again Five was right. She wasn't as good a liar as she thought.

"I was just excited to be back with her again. I mean you try only having Klaus for company for twelve years." He joked. "I thought it wouldn't be so bad, even if I do have to pretend not to know about the future. We'd always been fairly close – not as close as you two – but I didn't think I'd have such a hard time connecting with her again. Ever since we came back though, it almost feels like there's a wall between us and she's not letting me get through."

"Why don't you try asking her about it? But after you talk to the others."

She sighed, turning her attention back to the room. That was a fun conversation she could look forward to later.

Startling Vanya abruptly realised she was surrounded by books, each contentedly rotating at a sedate pace in different corners of the room. As soon as she realised what she was doing they all fell to the ground, some with an audible thump if they landed away from the bed.

"What was that?" Five asked cautiously, the door swinging open. He noticed the books and grinned. "You did it."

A scowl probably wasn't the response he was expecting, so she explained again how she lacked basic control over her powers.

"We know your powers have a stronger response to emotional inputs than logical commands." Five said. "Most of us do – why do you think Dad used such extreme measures when he trained us? To draw emotional reactions which would trigger a stronger release of our powers. Luther and Diego always responded well to anger, that's why he never discouraged them from their pointless infighting. The eldritch Ben possess react to his fear. Depending on emotional stimuli can make control difficult, but we build up to that."

He gathered up all the books and put them in a pile.

"Let's try again. Ben kept me longer than I thought and we don't have much time."

Concentrating she could only keep three spinning separately from one another, barely reaching opposite corners of the bed. The White Violin found it exasperating but Five kept up a steady stream of encouragement which Vanya greatly appreciated.

Her progress wasn't likely helped by her need to listen to her siblings' meeting. When she heard Luther agree with Ben, she almost shot one book out the window.

"I'm not sure if the plan is still going ahead." Vanya said, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. "Good catch, by the way."

Five had jumped to seize the volume before it could shatter the glass.

"Luther agreed with Ben not to tell me. Apparently if the others are going to tell me tonight, he won't be there."

Five nodded thoughtfully, tossing the book back onto the central pile. "Then I guess we find out tonight."

"I'm not doing a good job acting like Number Seven, am I?"

"None of them know. They just think it's worse than they remember."

"What if Reginald figures it out?"

He sighed and stopped collecting the littered texts. "Then Allison rumours him into forgetting. That's all we can do."

They parted ways, the Umbrella Academy returning to training while Vanya headed downstairs for her art lessons. A lot of the time, the first go around, Seven had convinced Grace or Pogo to allow her to spend the sessions on violin practice instead – Reginald not caring either way which useless subject she engaged with – but Vanya now found the extra creative outlet refreshing. Even if the current medium of choice, gouache, was heavier than what she would prefer. The work produced was also a way for her to brighten up her room.

Her living spaces had always been bland, a result of her upbringing by Hargreeves. He saw decorating as frivolous, and he only permitted it as a reward for good behaviour. His idea of good behaviour was succeeding on missions, therefore Seven's chances of ever getting anything was slim unless Pogo agreed to plead her case and secure her some posters from local concert performances.

She wondered now why he did that. Perhaps it was the guilt, if he were capable of such a feeling.

Downstairs Ben was still waiting to talk to her; she could hear him muttering to the others asking how long until training would finish and where she was likely to be.

Five told Ben she would still be in the classroom unless she'd gone to the music room. As the classroom was closer to the training room, Vanya made it easy on Ben and stayed where she was.

"What a lovely painting, Seven." Grace praised, coming to stand by her shoulder. Her head titled as she analysed it.

"Can you tell what it is?" Vanya asked, suspecting the piece was too abstract for Grace to process. The smudges of green accented with brown all meshed together, forming no real lines to the creature.

Picturing the gears grinding in her head, Vanya took pity. "It's an otter. See, that's its eyes."

"Yes, of course it is." Grace said, smoothing her hand over Seven's hair. "I see it now. You are certainly dabbling in a lot of different art styles as of late."

"I like to experiment." She shrugged. "Although I preferred working in watercolour or oil. I find the gouache too heavy."

"I will remember that for our next session. Why don't you let me set it aside to dry then, if you want, we can hang it in your room tomorrow?"

"That would be nice. Thank you, Mom."

Grace moved elegantly around the room, setting everything away and ensuring the space was clean for the children's classes tomorrow morning.

"Are you coming to the kitchen dear?"

"No, thank you. I wanted to look something up in the French textbooks." Vanya excused, having no intention to do so but needing Grace to leave so she and Ben could have privacy.

"Very well."

The door shut behind her, not remaining closed for long before Ben poked his head into the classroom.

"Seven?"

"Hey Six. What're you doing here?" She asked innocently.

"I wanted to talk to you. Five said you might be here."

"I just finished art class." She confirmed, moving over to the sink to wash her hands. The paint had caked beneath her fingernails.

"Oh." Six mumbled, looking hesitant as he lingered by the door. "Erm, could I see what you've been working on?"

She nodded tentatively, pointing over to her drying piece of art.

"It's meant to be abstract." Vanya hastened to explain as he looked at it, not wanting him to think she was a bad painter.

"Is it an animal?"

"An otter."

Ben smiled. "That's my favourite animal."

"I know." She confessed quietly. She knew all of their favourites except for Five, who thought having a favourite animal was stupid. Vanya also knew that, unless Five had somehow surmised it, the others would have no idea what her favourite was. Of course that would be difficult for them to, since they had never asked, and she had never told them.

"Can I have it?" He asked.

The request surprised her but she couldn't deny Ben. "If you like."

Ben glanced around the room. "You do so many things without us, I never appreciated that. It's like you have a whole life outside of us. It's weird."

"What did you think I do when you're all training? Sit in my room staring at the wall?" Seven asked wryly. She said it as an accusation but it was the truth, that's all she had seemed to do growing up. Sitting, waiting, hoping.

"I don't know." Ben admitted. "I only realised that you paint when you started putting them up in your room. Why didn't you do that before?"

"I didn't think they were good enough then."

The double meanings were endlessly exhausting.

"I think they're beautiful."

He crossed over to the bookshelves. "You speak French too."

"Yes. I want to learn Russian as well, as that's where I was born." She confessed. "I also think it would be nice to read the Russian classics in their original language. Mom says it's a difficult language though."

"You can do it. You can do anything you set your mind to." Ben encouraged.

"I think it would be easier to learn if I could practise the languages more. I only have Mom to converse with. Five can sometimes follow along as he knows some Latin but, he can't talk back so it's not that helpful."

"I'll learn."

Vanya glanced at Ben. He seemed to have surprised both her and himself by the offer.

"When?"

He looked momentarily dejected, recalling his strictly organised days, before brightening. "I can read the textbooks. I'll learn the basics and you can tutor me on Sundays."

"Oh..."

"Come on, it'll be fun. We can drive Four and Five crazy by having conversations in a language they don't understand."

She tentatively agreed to the plan, smiling at his open enthusiasm.

"Great. Which book should I start with?"

Vanya went into the supply closet and dug around for the elementary textbooks she had long since surpassed. She found the series she had most preferred when she began and handed it over to him.

"There's a phonetic table at the back which will help you understand the pronunciation."

"Thanks, Ven." He said happily, tucking the book under his arm. "You know, I don't know if I've ever told you this but I always kinda envied you."

"Me?"

"I know for you it's most likely the other way around," Ben said shyly, "but I always hated training – I still do – and I don't like going on missions, not when they make me..."

He sighed, looking down at his hands which never seemed clean anymore.

"Whenever we'd leave you in the classroom, I'd wish I was staying too. I didn't want you to go in my place, I'd never want that for you. I wanted us to stay here together, safe, learning something that Dad would consider a waste of time. You've always been my one thread of normality in this house. When we sit together, for a moment, I feel like I could be anyone – anyone except Number Six. I know you hate being called ordinary, and I understand that. But to me being ordinary would be extraordinary. I always thought that was your super power, helping me feel normal for a few hours and forgetting the darkness that's always within."

Vanya glanced at his stomach. Ben seemed unaware that as he spoke his hands lowered to where the eldritch resided.

He chuckled wryly to himself. "Do you know what my favourite memory is?"

She shook her head.

"The others were on a mission in Germany but I'd been injured the other week and as I was still recovering Dad grounded me. Pogo knew I was miserable, so he snuck me and you out of the house and drove us to that bookshop. We spent hours there. I don't think I've ever seen you look so content." He smiled. "When Pogo finally said it was time to go I wanted to cling to the shelves and refuse to let go."

Vanya still went to that bookstore as an adult, always imagining she could see Ben amongst the stacks just out the corner of her eye.

"That was a good day."

"The best."

It was only as silence descended on the room again that Ben seemed to recall his original intention in seeking her out.

"So, I wanted to ask you," he scratched the back of his head awkwardly, the words struggling to find their place in his mouth, "if you..."

"Five said you thought I was upset with you?" Vanya said, making it easy for them again.

Ben exhaled with relief. "Yeah."

"I'm not. I've just been feeling," she shrugged, "I don't know, weird? Tired."

"Why do you think that is?" Ben asked warily.

"Dad said it might be a side effect of my pills. I'll get used to it."

She brushed it off, before Ben could try to talk her out of taking them.

He did anyway. She wished he had before.

"I can't do that." Vanya insisted, shaking her head tensely. "But, I, I'm sorry you thought I was mad. I swear I wasn't."

"I know, Seven." Ben soothed. "Still, I want you to feel that you can tell me. In fact if I ever upset you or make you angry I want you to tell me. Or, if that's too much, you can just throw something at my head, I'll get the message."

"I'd have to ask Two to do it. I'd miss." She said, making her way over to the classroom door.

"Well if you're asking just tell Five to punch me in the arm. He'll do it if you ask him to."

"I'll consider it. Was there anything else?"

"No – are you going to practice your piano?"

Vanya shook her head. She wasn't going to practice the piano.

"I planned to take a nap. If we're going out later I want to rest first."

"Okay. Well I'll see you tonight."

"Bye, Six."

Retreating to her bedroom, Vanya snorted to herself as she saw the stack of books Five had brought for her to use that morning sat on her desk. There were all mathematics textbooks which he knew better than to try to make her read, so he must be hinting she continue her earlier practice.

Shifting her music stand in front of the camera, ostensibly so she could reach the box on top of her wardrobe which held her jumpers, she picked up the books and practised again. She took care to keep practice light since Five wasn't around to catch any misfired projectiles, working with only two books and scattering her jumpers and pillows on the floor to muffle the sound if they fell.

Since she had the most success earlier moving separate objects while utilising her super hearing (she still felt ridiculous talking about her super hearing, it didn't even sound like a real power), Vanya turned her attention to the skies.

Listening to air traffic was proving a relatively effective training exercise. As there was limited movement in the skies she could focus more on targeted hearing. Many flights flew the same routes at the same times so she could listen for the identification codes. It would go smoother if she could make notes matching the codes and times for reference, however if it was found by another member of the household it would raise questions she couldn't risk answering under Hargreeves roof.

Once she had selected a flight, she stuck with it as long as she could, wishing she had a way to know the distance they travelled away from her before she lost contact. It felt further than anything she had accomplished listening to in the city, but then again there was nothing in the city she could straightforwardly track except perhaps the subway, but the screeching brakes set her nerves alight.

When the airliner she tracked disappeared out of range, Vanya chanced opening her eyes to look at her books. She gasped as she realised half the room was floating mid-air.

Her earlier precautions came in good use as one by one objects dropped. Fortunately her room was generally clutter free and the heavier furniture hadn't shifted – including the music stand, which was the only thing hiding her spiralling powers from Reginald's attention. It was mostly the floor padding, books and some loose possessions like her hairbrush which had taken off.

"Huh." She muttered to herself, somehow both thrilled and infuriated with herself. Quickly scrambling off the bed, she moved to pick everything up and tidy it away. Picking up all the jumpers but one, she returned them to the box and put it back in its place. The music stand moved back into the corner also, opening her up to scrutiny again – that was if Reginald even bothered to watch her anymore. He was so certain in her complacency.

Mercifully as they got older, he had reduced the invasions of their privacy, an accomplishment Klaus later took credit for. Apparently he made a habit of doing things behind closed doors he knew Reginald wouldn't care to see. Ultimately he had to remove the cameras from everyone's rooms or risk an outcry from the increasingly stubborn teenagers over the disparity in treatment.

The upcoming removal didn't stop Vanya's skin from crawling and it was difficult to resist looking at them every time she entered a room, well aware where they were all positioned after the decades of familiarity she had amassed with the manor. Doubtlessly the others were going through the same thing, and Vanya imagined that Reginald monitored their activities far more closely than her own.

She felt sorry for them.

The White Violin didn't.

It was a struggle to reconcile the two trains of thought, so Vanya headed downstairs. The dinner bell wouldn't ring for another twenty minutes but she didn't mind waiting.

"Hi Seven." Luther said and Vanya had to restrain a flinch, remembering his comments from before.

She'd thought she was doing so well fooling them all.

"Hello Number One." She replied tentatively.

They walked down the stairs together, One trying not to glance her way too often and Seven trying to convince her feet to stay on track instead of putting more space between them.

It was ridiculous really. Out of everyone in the Umbrella Academy, Luther and Diego posed the smallest risk to her. Klaus too now Ben was no longer a ghost for him to project. Luther couldn't even hurt her unless he got his arms around her, which wouldn't happen twice, and even if he did, she had enough control over her powers now to get him off her. Yet she couldn't get stop the skittishness she felt, especially when it was the two of them alone.

It was something she needed to manage.

The White Violin pointed out killing him could count as management but Vanya effortlessly cast the suggestion aside. The thought of doing any of the six anymore harm made her stomach wrench uncomfortably; she wouldn't entertain the idea. Luther wasn't the same as Reginald or Pogo. The children had all suffered in some way or another. They couldn't be used as scapegoats for her fury. It wasn't right.

Number Seven knew it wasn't right.

Vanya enjoyed remembering her mind as Number Seven. Her existence had been overwhelmingly miserable, but she had somehow retained an idealism and morality back then that adult Vanya had long ago lost. She'd lost it as soon as she sent the book to the publishing house – maybe earlier, perhaps when Ben died – and now she was back to her young body she couldn't help but mourn its loss.

They were all battle weary, some of them displaying their scars more candidly than others.

A therapist would have a field day with them.

"Did you have a good afternoon?" Luther tried.

She took pity on him and endeavoured to give him a proper response instead of the nervous nods and shakes of the head she had been limited to as of late when around Reginald's favourite child.

"Yes. I was painting with Mom. We've started using gouache – it's not my favourite, but it's nice to try new things. Don't you think?"

"Yeah." He replied, surprised by the positive response. Luther offered a tentative smile in light of her words. "I've been trying new things too."

She'd heard. Personally she didn't think he should dive straight into the astrophysics books, he would do better to first create a stronger foundation of physics and chemistry knowledge to enable him to understand the more advanced theories. She couldn't tell him that, however. Not without first explaining that she had super hearing and was using it to keep tabs on them day and night.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I've been reading about astrophysics. I don't understand it much though." He said glumly, the corners of his mouth falling. "I'm not smart enough, I never have been."

The last part was said like a silent confession. She had often been privy to silent confessions as a child. The others would forget her very existence and anything she saw or heard from then on was an intrusion.

Except, this time, he kept looking at her. This time she was a participant in the conversation.

"I know you have better things to do. And I don't know why you'd ever want to help me. I'm probably a lost cause anyway, but, do you think," he sighed, "forget it. This is dumb."

"What is it?" Vanya asked softly before he could march off.

She thought his confidence would fail him but somehow he finally spat it out.

"Could you help me understand it? I'd ask Five," he hastened to add, "but he's not patient with me and, and I don't think it would work. After him you're the smartest person I know."

"Sure I will. Although Five knows more about it than me."

Five had taught her most of what she knew in the sciences – he'd far surpassed what Grace was teaching them from a young age as his hunger for knowledge grew, devouring the textbooks in Reginald's library and requesting more. Seven had nothing better to do and had jumped at the opportunity to spend time with him when he offered to show her what he had been learning.

Luther wasn't wrong though; he could be a very impatient teacher. In fact impatient wasn't a strong enough adjective. He had a temper as short as a ruler, easily triggered whenever someone didn't immediately keep up with him. Five would pour out a multitude of facts and expect everyone to understand. When they didn't, he could be rude and dismissive (if she were being kind in her description). He had an ego to rival the size of the moon she blew up. She figured it was to be expected of someone so intelligent.

Somehow, however, he had usually kept his infamous temper under check when she went to him. She believed it was because he could never deny someone who was genuinely interested in what they wanted to learn. Perhaps if Luther demonstrated his dedication in the subject Five could come around to the idea. And if she spent several days persuading him first.

"I think you'll be a better teacher." Luther assured, leading them into the dining room. They were the first there.

Despite the lack of company, as they split for their separate ends of the table, their conversation felt truncated. The 'no talking at the dinner table' rule felt too ingrained to break, especially with such a distance between their chairs.

Five and Ben came in together, taking their seats beside her.

"Good afternoon?" Five asked, having no concern for dining room rules.

"Yes, thank you."

"Have you seen Seven's artwork?" Ben directed the question at Five. "It's fantastic. She's letting me have the latest one."

She felt like giggling as Ben and Five began to discuss her artwork all too seriously.

"Modernist?"

"I'd say more post-impressionist." Ben replied.

Vanya's cheeks were already pink when Luther asked if he could see it when it was finished.

"You'll be able to see it on exhibit in my room. I already know where I'm putting it." Ben said cheerfully.

"What're we talking about?" Klaus asked, coming to stand beside Ben.

"Seven's art."

"I wish I got to do art too." Klaus sighed. "But Mom started locking the supplies away in the cupboards after I rubbed all that blue paint in my hair."

"You looked like a Smurf." Ben laughed.

"I did it one time. Talk about an overreaction."

Allison and Diego hurried into the room, just getting behind their chairs before Reginald entered.

The evening's lecture was on origami folding.

Vanya idly wondered if Grace would reintroduce paper crafts to her art classes as she picked her way through dinner, trying not to eat too much if she were to eat donuts later. Luckily years of practice had taught her how to disguise the fact she left half of her dinner behind. She didn't appreciate how much the pills had affected her appetite until she weaned herself off them.

She followed Five into the library after they finished dinner, asking for his help in choosing some books to give Luther for reading.

"He's learning astrophysics?" He asked dubiously, leading the way to the physics section.

"Yes. I think it's nice he's trying to make a better future for himself." Vanya defended. "Have you thought about what you'll do when we grow up again?"

"I'll worry about it once we know the Commission won't come for us anymore." Five deflected.

"Maybe you could be a professor."

His face contorted into disgust. "And teach kids?"

"At university." She clarified. "Teaching adults."

"Young adults."

"So that's a no? Hmm, how about a researcher? At a lab somewhere? By yourself?"

"It's a possibility." Five said, refusing to commit. "Although it's bad enough being subjected to Mom and Pogo's classes. I don't think I'd have the patience to sit through years of university lectures, listening to a bunch of old farts drone on. I mean, you know what they say about teachers?"

"That they're only teaching because they failed in their profession?"

"Exactly."

"You know I used to teach violin, right?" She asked, just to watch him freeze.

Laughing to let him know she wasn't really offended, Vanya pushed past him to grab Newton's Principia.

"You learned Newton's laws of motion?" Five noted, a mixture of pride and respect injected into his voice.

"I learned a lot from these books after you disappeared." She shrugged, hoping her confession wouldn't upset him. "They reminded me of you. Reading them sort of made me feel like you were next to me again for a few minutes, trying to explain them to me."

Five nodded. "I used to do that. But I'd read those depressing Russian books you and Ben used to like so much."

She beamed at him. "You read fiction? Are you saying all I had to do to get you to read War and Peace was start an apocalypse?"

"Apparently." Five grinned, pulling out a few more books to join Newton before tugging her over to the chemistry section.

Vanya held out her arms to accept the growing stack of books as Five perused the shelves, occasionally asking her opinion before deciding on a text suitable for Luther.

"What time are we leaving tonight?" She asked when Five leaned in to give her another book.

"Ten thirty as usual." He replied, staying close to her so he could quietly ask, "I meant to say, have you realised what week we're approaching?"

She replied enthusiastically. "Yes. A whole week of freedom. Well, besides Pogo and Mom."

"Well I think we can work a way around them." Five muttered, pulling away.

"I suppose those will be enough books."

"Plenty, I'll go pass some of them along for One to start reading. I'm not sure how I'll fit tutoring One in physics and Six in French though. Not without encroaching on our sessions."

Five looked at her like she was mad. "You can't do that, ours are more important. Why does Six even need to learn French?"

"He asked me to teach him." She shrugged. "I couldn't say no."

"Actually you could." He said disapprovingly. "Remind me to add 'saying no' to our training schedule."

"Let me rephrase. I didn't want to say no."

"Better." Five nodded. "Don't worry, we'll work it out. If the worst comes to the worst, I can teach Number One. Sometimes. Not too often though, I might kill him."

Luther was surprised when they both turned up at his door to hand over his new reading materials, even more so when Five eventually left having made no cutting remarks about his new hobby.

Five stayed with her until it was time for the act to begin, separating to prepare for bed. They wished Grace goodnight and shut themselves in their rooms.

It was just past ten when Five reappeared in her room, having already gone downstairs to put the cameras on a loop. He was holding some scarves and jumpers in his arms and tried to offer them up.

"Thank you but I've already got on a jumper and two pairs of socks. Plus I'll wear my own scarf and coat, that will be enough."

"You're always cold though." Five said, trying to offer her another jumper.

"I'll be fine."

"Okay. But you said that once before and then I ended up walking home without a jacket."

"We were eleven, will you stop throwing it in my face?" Vanya huffed.

He was still holding the jumper, so she reluctantly snatched it from his hand. Tugging it over her head muffled her retort; she had to repeat herself once she had it on.

"I said, if I get too warm you're carrying my coat home."

"I can manage that."

Getting to Luther's room was a long unpractised art, but they all managed it. Vanya was also far more confident going down the fire escape this time, safe in the knowledge she could use her telekinesis to stop herself from falling flat on her face if she slipped.

Allison chatted happily with her for the entire walk and insisted Vanya sit beside her when they reached Griddy's.

"I'm so glad we could do this ag...glad you could finally join us." Allison caught herself. For an actress she seemed to have trouble memorising the lines. "Have you ever had a donut?"

"I've brought her one before." Five said, echoed by Ben.

"I like the strawberry frosted ones." Vanya said.

"Then I'll ask for extra strawberry." Klaus announced, getting up to place their order.

"So what did you today, Seven?"

Vanya glanced around the table. Evidentially while Allison led the conversation, the others were just going to listen and stare.

Talk about uncomfortable.

"Lessons."

Allison raised an eyebrow, prompting her to elaborate with a gentle smile. Vanya looked to Five for help.

"Well if you recall Number Three, we started with maths then we had an hour of English..."

"I meant after we left Five." She snapped.

"French then art."

"You're learning French?" Allison asked sweetly, her smile faltering when Ben pointed out Seven had studied it for years.

"You speak French?"

"Je parle assez bien le français." She shrugged. She'd been rusty when she restarted the lessons, but it turned out she remembered more than she thought. Even if she was still struggling to successfully conjugate her verbs.

"Oh."

"How was training?" Vanya asked pleasantly, trying to wipe away Allison's clear expression of regret.

"Fine. I mean excruciating, but that's nothing new."

"At least you didn't get rope burns on the climb." Klaus grouched, returning to the table. He held up his hands which were still visibly red. "I was almost at the top too."

"I told you not to look down." Diego said.

"You shouted at me! Of course I looked down."

"I was just asking if you were okay."

"You were taking quite a long time to climb it." Luther added.

"I was doing fine until I was screamed at."

"Don't exaggerate."

"He didn't scream."

Ben leaned into her side. "Are One and Two agreeing with each other or am I hallucinating?"

"I would say you're in a sugar induced coma but, since we haven't eaten yet, I guess it must be real."

The waitress set the platter of donuts down in the middle of the table and Ben pushed it towards Vanya.

"Take as many as you want, Seven."

She took one, placing it on her napkin to break into smaller bites. Klaus tried to snatch a piece, but Ben was quicker and slapped his hand away.

"There's a whole plate full you dummy."

"I always like how Seven tears them into little pieces."

"Then you do it."

"But then my hands would get all sticky. It's much easier to steal Seven's."

Vanya tugged her napkin further away from Klaus' greedy hands and ate, glad that the food had brought Allison's line of questioning to an end. She had two strawberry donuts; Five nudging her shin with his foot until she ate a third, this time a jam filled one. He'd long given up on trying to make her eat more but even he couldn't stand the nervous looks around the table, the others worrying Seven wasn't enjoying herself when eating so little.

She made a show of smiling as the jam dripped onto her chin. "Yum."

"The jam ones are my favourite." Allison said.

Vanya knew. Luther had always saved them for her when they'd all go to Griddy's together.

"They're good."

"I always thought I'd like the strawberry ones more," Allison said, leaning closer to Seven as if she were revealing some secret, "because I loved pink and thought the frosting was pretty. But, and don't tell the others this because they'll think I'm a freak, I hate sprinkles. Literally can't stand them."

"Freak." Vanya said good naturedly. "Sprinkles are amazing."

"They're hard. And they don't taste of anything."

"They're not meant to. They're decorative."

"You don't care about decorations. There are cars that are decorated more than your room."

"Strawberry frosted are still my favourite." She shrugged.

Klaus deposited some money on the table and they all grudgingly agreed to return to the Academy, none of them ready to leave the warmth and happiness associated with Griddy's and return to the cold shell they were meant to consider their home, however they knew for now they couldn't toe the lines Reginald set.

Vanya was far too warm as they left and smugly handed Five her coat which he folded over his arm.

"Don't say it." He warned.

Allison dragged her away from Five and Ben to walk alongside her at the front of the group instead, which also brought her back to Luther's side.

"That was nice. Wasn't that nice?" Allison asked. "Did you have fun?"

"Yeah."

"Sure."

She looked at both of them, unimpressed by their lacklustre responses.

"Well I had a great time." Allison said. "We should all sneak out more often."

"Maybe the next time Dad goes out, Three."

Vanya nodded in agreement with Luther.

Allison seemed loathe to allow the evening to come to an end, following Seven up the fire escape and trying to convince her to stay in her room for a sleepover after they crowded into Luther's room.

"Come on, it'll be fun." She said. "We've never had a sleepover before."

Klaus snuck out the room first, followed by Luther who needed to use the bathroom.

"Thanks, Three. But I'm tired." Vanya excused.

While she loved her sister, she couldn't bear the thought of keeping up the charade for much longer. Pretending to be the person she no longer is was more exhausting than she had imagined when she first entered her lie.

"Oh, Seven wait." Allison said, grabbing hold of Vanya's arm as she tried to be the next to sneak out of One's room. "Don't go yet. Six can go next."

"Don't mind if I do." Ben said, standing from the windowsill to stretch.

"This is s-stupid." Diego said, glancing around the room for support. "Just tell her already."

Vanya froze, trying not to glance to Five for rescuing. "Tell me what?"

"Yeah, tell her what?" Five asked warningly. "She said she doesn't want a sleepover, leave her be."

"What Five said." Ben chipped in.

"Seven," Diego started, "we travelled back in time from the f-future because you started an apocalypse."

She blinked at him with the biggest doe eyes she could summon.

"Diego." Allison hissed. "You idiot. Did you have to tell her like that?"

"You've had powers this whole time," he continued, speaking matter-of-factly, "those pills D-Dad gives you suppress them."

Allison looked at her uneasily, torn between wanting to berate Diego and wanting Vanya to finally learn the truth. "It's true. But we're all here for you. We'll help you learn to control them."

There was a wealth of bad memories for Vanya to draw upon but she selected the worst, the one always guaranteed to make her cry, and she soon felt the moisture build up in her eyes. The important thing was not to look at Five; she could feel him rolling her eyes from across the room as he watched her performance.

"No, Ven I swear it's real." Allison insisted, shooting a glare at Diego as she crowded around Vanya. Her arms were outstretched, ready to draw her into a hug.

"You're making fun of me." Vanya said flatly, the first tear spilling over.

"No."

"It's t-true." Diego insisted, dodging Ben's hand as his brother tried to hold him back. "You have powers. Crazy, scary, earth ending powers."

"You didn't really want me here tonight, you just wanted to make fun of me." She insisted, backing to the door before anyone could grab her and scurried off to her room.

She was worried that she would draw the adults' attention as she ran yet somehow her powers seemed to pull the sound away from her steps, keeping her movements soundless as she fled down the hallway. The door fell silently behind her despite the unwitting strength she put behind the closure.

"Great plan." She heard Five say to the others before he teleported into his room.

Angrily swiping her tears away, unsure whether she was furious with herself or the others, Vanya quickly got dressed for bed figuring Five would be by shortly to talk to her. She listened to Ben advise the others to leave her alone for the night just as Luther returned to his bedroom, confused why half of them were still there and Allison was so upset.

"Diego, we agreed that I would do it tomorrow." Allison said. Vanya could hear her hands sliding across her cheeks, collecting her tears. "You've ruined everything."

"No, I haven't." Diego said. "She'll be in that room now thinking about what we've said. Five and Ben can c-convince her tomorrow to stop taking the pills and then she'll know. And when she does, we can get the hell out of this house and away from that m-monster."

"Is that what you think will happen?" Ben asked sharply. "Is that why you've done this? Because you think once Vanya knows the truth we can all just leave?"

"Yeah, why can't we?"

"We've still got to train Vanya to use her powers." Luther pointed out, going over to the dresser to pull out his pyjamas.

Five jumped into her room but Vanya held up a finger before he could speak, indicating that she was listening to the others. He nodded, taking a seat on her desk while he waited.

"We can do that somewhere else." Diego said, his voice turning desperate. "We're not actually staying here are we? I can't s-stay here."

"It's not about you." Allison snapped.

"It's about all of us." Diego insisted. "And do any of us want to be h-here? With him? I feel like I'm going mad being here – I can't be the only one!"

Her voice softened when she was able to manage a response. "No. You're not the only one."

"It's hard for us all Diego." Luther assured. "But there's no reason we can't make it better this time."

Ben rubbed his eyes. "I'm going to bed. Goodnight."

Sighing as the door shut, Allison turned to her two closest numbers. "Am I the only one who feels like I'm fucking up every step?"

"No." Diego snorted. "It doesn't help we have the Five and Ben telling us every other minute."

"Someone needs to keep us in check." Luther said. "And I'm happy to let them figure this out because, honestly, I don't know what to do anymore."

Allison patted him on the shoulder as Diego took his leave. Vanya stopped listening to the goings on in One's room then, wanting to afford her sister and Luther some semblance of privacy.

Her hearing withdrew down the hallway, checking on her other siblings, until she refocused on Five.

"Well?" He asked, noticing that he finally had her attention.

"Diego thinks he's planted the seeds of doubt in my mind." Vanya sighed, gratefully clambering into bed.

"His delusions are almost as bad as your acting."

"They believed me, didn't they?"

"You wouldn't have fooled me."

"I know I wouldn't." She said softly, not pulling the blankets up in case Five decided he was staying.

"You would have told me eventually, wouldn't you?"

His voice was quiet, but it was no struggle for her to hear him.

"Yes. I always would have told you first." She admitted, knowing it was true.

It felt nice to tell the truth, especially in a house so intrinsically built on lies, and Five had always been her closest confidant. It was true she didn't tell him everything, always so scared of becoming too much of a burden that even her best friend would reject her, but he was the person who knew her best. Even with their fractured friendship upon his arrival in the future, she still recognised him as her best friend. It likely didn't help he looked exactly the same as when he disappeared but she knew being back in Seven's body had wrought a similar effect on Five when they jumped back. Like they were picking up where they left off, even though everything was so completely different. Maybe it was a vain hope, but she was happy to try.

"When?"

"I guess we'll never know now. Not unless you feel like resetting everything again?"

Five pulled a face. "Unless it's strictly necessary, no. I thought I was going to hack up my entire digestive track the night we got back."

He took a seat next to her on the bed, pulling up the blankets to cover their legs.

"I would have told you long before everyone else." She assured. "The first week we were back, and I was struggling to decide what to do I wished I could find the courage to tell you. And Ben," Vanya amended, "but I was worried he'd tell Klaus and give everything away."

"Why didn't you tell me then?" Five asked, his voice unusually small.

"I was too scared. I didn't know what would happen – what you were all planning to do to me. So I kept it to myself and practically drove myself mad doing it. I felt like I would fall apart."

"We'd put you back together again." Five said understatedly. "So, Ben's next on the list, huh? Any idea when you'll break the news to him?"

Vanya giggled gently, a slightly manic edge to her laughter. "God help me. I just did."

"What?" Five frowned.

"He's been listening outside the door the whole time." Vanya laughed, raising a hand to stifle her panicked chuckles.

She used her powers to absorb the surrounding sounds again, her anxiety somehow manifesting itself in that manner, allowing Ben to noiselessly enter the room. He glanced at Seven and Five dumbly, having just enough sense to close the door behind him.

Yikes. Okay, if you've made it through this incredibly long chapter just pat yourself on the back right now. Seriously, I don't know how you put up with me XD So, Ben's now in the know. That's nice right. Also I couldn't resist pulling Klaus out of the final conversation, revenge for Ben and Five for not being invited to the 'family meeting'. I already have a plan for the next (as of yet untitled) story, and even put a little set-up in this chapter for it. As always thank you for all the feedback, I'm so blown away by the response I get on this series. Every comment makes me so happy, it's always lovely to hear people enjoy my work. You're all amazing 3