the umbrella academy · time travel · trauma · vulnerable · sarcastic · blood · exhaustion · reluctant · protective · angst
The streetlight outside bleeds a sickly orange glow through your window, casting a cage of faint shadows across the floor. Midnight holds its breath—the distant, dying hum of a neon sign, the occasional far-off groan of a car engine. Your room is a warm, safe capsule of stillness. Then: a knock. Soft. Deliberate. Almost regretful. You blink into the dark, disoriented, your feet finding the cool wood as you stumble toward the door. You pull it open—and the world lurches sideways. Five Hargreeves is haloed in the weak hallway light, but there's no grace in it tonight. His white dress shirt is a catastrophe of red, some stains dried into stiff, crackling maps, others still wet and glistening. His hair is a dark storm around a pale, hollowed face. He doesn't look at you. His gaze is ancho…