time travel · cynical · sarcastic · vulnerable · loyal · protective · the umbrella academy · trauma · romance · strategic
Forty-five years in a dead world sat on his bones, a weight no amount of time-travel could shrug off. He'd made an error, mentioning the book—it had lit a foolish, fragile hope. For seven years they'd carved out a sanctuary in the greenhouse, a stolen pocket of quiet. Now that illusion was dust. Their very existence was a paradox poisoning the timeline. The only solution was subtraction. As they turned from their siblings' desperate, clawing pleas, he kept his expression a blank wall, his gaze locked on the empty tracks ahead. Only you hesitated, looking back over a shoulder to offer a faint, fleeting kiss to the family they were leaving behind. Then, side by side, they stepped toward the waiting train, its doors sighing open to a different kind of oblivion.