recklessthings | ᶾ allison hargreeves

He settles next to her and just watches her for a long moment, trying to take cues from her body language and any silent request she might make. When she shifts to grab the notepad, he doesn't keep a grip on her hand and when she flips it to show him, his eyes scan the words quickly.

One corner of his mouth ticks up in not-quite-a-smirk. "I know people." is all the explanation he offers, complete with a facial shrug attached. He's just that good, Allison. What can he say?

She smiles, a silent laugh settling in her shoulders, before she scribbles down a follow up message:

People that weren't enjoying seeing you in the back of the squad car?

Because let's be real, Diego. You're not exactly a people person. Patch may have been your only friend.

"Behind bars, technically-- but... Guy owed me a favor, did me a solid." He shrugs. "Doesn't really matter anyway." What good did any of it do him? Patch is still dead, the world is still not right, tilted all askew on its own axis.

The world has always been a little off it's axis, as far as Allison is concerned. The Hargreeves have always come at the world from another angle, with other advantages. Part of her considered, when she realized her voice was gone, that she's finally on an even playing field with the rest of them.

Yet at the same time, she's still an other. She's still not one of them.

Glad he did.

Whoever he was, she's glad that Diego is here with her now.

"Yeah," he mutters quietly. "me too." He tilts his head until it's on Allison's shoulder. Diego isn't the most affectionate person, it isn't really a Hargreeves trait (and Klaus is the most blatant with it, but Diego's sure that's only because his experience in the world taught him physicality got him what he wanted), but it's been a long and exhausting day. There's a lot he hasn't processed, needs to still, isn't ready to at all yet.

"What are we even supposed to do now?" He hates how small that question makes him sound, how lost and unsure of everything. But it honestly might be one of the most genuine things to come out of his mouth in awhile.

Don't know.

Her non dominant hand comes up and rests against the side of his face, returning the comfort offered all the same. Things were a fucking mess, and it doesn't seem like there are a lot of answers. But they'll figure it out.

Hargreeves didn't train them to save the world for nothing.

We save Vanya.

She touches his face and it's so reminisce of so many moments with Mom through so many of his younger years, that it tugs at something deep in his chest, makes him feel more like a lost child than anything in has in over a decade. He supposes it's a mom trait. And that tugs at something else all together-- the niece he never met, and if everything goes wrong, never will, and how pathetic is that?

Even in writing, her words feel so sure, so decisive, and he doesn't know how she can even manage that. "Yeah," he nods, "we will."

Because she knows that this isn't entirely Vanya's fault. It's partially what Hargreeves did to her, fearing her so much that he took away any reason she had to learn to control it. It's not fair, and it's not right, and while Vanya does need to learn control, Allison believes it's something she can do.

We'll have to train her.

"Yeah," he nods a little. That's kind of top of the list, at this point, right? Diego is a solver, a fixer, and he finds purpose in having something to focus on like this. Something he can actively do.

He starts thinking it over almost immediately, and it's clear in the look on his face. "We still have some of Dad's journals around, right? Maybe... we can find something useful in some of them." It was a starting point, at least.

Allison nods, because that makes sense. Their father was meticulous, he probably has loads of notes on Vanya and how her powers work. She also knows, however, that they won't be able to use all of his methods.

Can't be about controlling her.

It has to be about her controlling herself, and them giving her the tools to do it.

"So, we use whatever he's got as a jumping off point. Figure out what works, what doesn't, but... we- we give her say in it. If she wants to try the fourth thing on the list first, fine, it doesn't matter, and if she doesn't want to do something in it at all, then we don't. We let her decide, but we have to be careful, too, Allison. She's... unstable in this power, and we don't know any more than she does about how it works or the full extent of it."

It's all a lot more than he meant to say, honestly. It's hard to balance on the wire-thin line between making sure what happened before never happens again and being better than they were before. Or, at least, it is for him. He's pretty sure Allison has made the most seamless transition in the whole affair, all around. She is Vanya's biggest supporter at every turn. And Diego is trying, he is, but he can't deny he's a little scared of what might happen if they can't help her.

Yes, Vanya's unstable. Anyone would be unstable with these powers suddenly thrust upon them. And it's not just a matter of letting her choose her training it's about letting her choose the Academy. Letting her choose them.

But Diego is spiraling a little and she reaches to place a hand on his arm gently before writing her response:

She's our sister.

That's all there is to it. She's their sister. Vanya needs to steer the ship, and they have to trust her too.

He lets out a breath as her hand rests on his arm. He knows she's right, he wishes that was enough, that it was that easy, but he can't help thinking in terms of disaster, and contingencies. Hard not to, after they only barely escaped such a massive and wide-spread disaster of Apocalyptic proportions.

"I know..." He says softly, scrubbing a hand down his face. He isn't sure how Allison does it, takes everything so in stride, makes this whole situation seem so effortless.

It's not easy. There's part of her that wants to be angry with Vanya, despite her role in it. There's part of her that misses her voice and everything that comes with it. But she's also not going to let that anger mean she loses her sister forever.

We'll figure it out. Together.

ᶾ allison hargreeves | the umbrella academy

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