ᶾ allison hargreeves | the umbrella academy

[rumorate]

	✔ Cʀᴏssᴏᴠᴇʀs/AU ✔ Aᴄᴛɪᴏɴsᴘᴀᴍ ✔ Pʀᴏsᴇ	✔ Pɪᴄᴛᴜʀᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴍᴘᴛs ✔ Oᴛʜᴇʀᴡᴏʀᴅʟʏ ✔ Sᴛᴀʀᴛᴇʀs	♥ F/M, F/F ⏰ Pᴏsᴛ-Sᴇᴀsᴏɴ 3

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[rumorate]

"All of the sudden?"

Okay, true, Allison has never been the most attentive of sisters. But she's trying to be better at that, trying to be a better person and not just float through the world concerned with only her own needs.

"You were gone for fifteen years, Five. You've been back all of a day. You haven't exactly stood still long enough to ask you any probing questions. Which is great if you want to avoid us, but don't assume we don't care just because we haven't figured out how to keep you from teleporting away."

[fogey]

"Yeah," he says, "you've made it real clear how much you want me around."

Like he's given them any kind of chance to say they missed him, like he's stayed put long enough or put away his prickliness enough to have any kind of real conversation with anyone. Like he's allowed himself to think, in years (in decades), that they care about his being gone or want him back.

The thought used to comfort him, alone in the apocalypse. Later, it was painful, thinking how they wouldn't recognize or understand him anymore. After the Commission, it became unbearable.

There's nothing of their sibling left in him, is the thing. He isn't the brother they lost. He never grew up into the good person they all wanted to become. He became the Commission's perfect murder weapon, and a monster like that can't call claim to anyone's love.

"How long, exactly, did you look for me again? Didn't think you'd noticed I was gone."

He doesn't ask because he cares (he doesn't; he doesn't; he doesn't), but to hurt her, to close the conversation all the faster.

[rumorate]

The barb hits as hard as it's intended to. Not because she doesn't realize that he's being cruel - she can recognize the difference between a knife and an off-hand remark when it comes to Five. The reason it hurts is because she honestly can't remember how long they looked for.

She does her best to keep it off her face as she tried to weigh an answer, one that wouldn't give away the vacancies in her memory (because everything is a chess match with Five, one way or another. Even when they weren't sparring he was always looking for a sparring partner), but it's hard to find something that won't give it all away.

(On the one hand, she knows she tended to be self-centered and self-focused. Insufferable and narcissistic, was what Hargreeves always said. At the same time, she isn't sure how long Hargreeves would have let them look before it became unproductive.)

"What did you expect us to do? Build a time machine and travel fifteen years into the future to find you?"

Yes. Because attacking him clearly seems to be the way to go. Good job, Allison.

[fogey]

He does not imagine what if they had, because he's too old for pointless dreams. In fact, if he feels anything from her defensive response, it doesn't show at all.

"Yeah," he says. "That's what I thought."

And he turns his back on her like it doesn't matter, going back to preparing that cup of coffee so he can get the hell out of here.

[rumorate]

"Yeah. You haven't changed at all."

Maybe he's gotten a little older, despite his youthful appearance. Maybe he's learned a few new skills and seen a few more horrors, but he's still the same asshole. And Allison honestly doesn't have time to be his emotional punching bag today, so she gets up from the couch and goes to head back to her room.

"When you decide what you want out of us, Five? Feel free to let us know."