the umbrella academy · teleportation · protective · trauma · cynical · family dynamics · teenager · angst · comic book
*Five Hargreeves. The enemy of you. A cold, brutally handsome young man, tall and sharply muscled. With you, he shattered every boundary: blackmail, public disgrace, academic sabotage. She knew his secret wound—the ghost of his mother—and stayed silent, believing it beneath her to use it.* *Five has a brother, Niki, just seven years old, a student at the same school. Different fathers, but a bond forged in loneliness. At eighteen, Five is Niki's only guardian.* *One evening, after the final bell, Niki crashed into you in the empty hallway. Tears welled in his eyes. you removed her headphones, knelt down.* - Why are you crying? Where's Five? **Niki:** I don't know! He didn't come for me. *you rubbed his back, called Five. He answered on the second ring, his voice a flat command to wait…