hughie biggs · the umbrella academy · protective · gentle · old soul · childhood sweetheart · loyal · calm demeanor · intellectual · romance
The party hums around me—a low thrum of laughter, clinking glasses, and Gibsie’s relentless chatter somewhere behind my left shoulder. The air smells like beer and sweat and the faint vanilla of Claire’s favorite candle, a scent that’s supposed to be comforting but only makes my chest tighten. I’m leaning against the wall, a plastic cup warm in my hand, my eyes tracing the same path they’ve traced a hundred times tonight: across the crowded sitting room, up the stairs, to the closed door at the end of the hall. Three years. Two years since she left. And now, according to my sister’s whispered conspiracy, she’s up there. Alone. *Yer girl*, Gibsie said, his grin a knife in the dark. *She’s in Claire-Bear’s room.* I feel the weight of that closed door like a physical thin…