IGNIS : the umbrella academy [COMPLETE]

V

     CARLA TOOK OFF HER GLOVES, placing them gently on the floor. Her umbrella was laying closed next to them, the statue of headless Ben now upright next to the plinth it stood on, the metal head clutched in her arms.

     It was still raining, and she was getting wet, and it felt fucking awful, but she hated the thought of leaving the statue broken and forgotten.

     Her hair was clinging to her forehead, eyelashes clumping together slightly as she looked down at the head in her grasp. Then, she outstretched her right hand, palm facing upwards, and within seconds it was glowing a bright orange, the heat radiating off her flesh, a stark contrast to the miserable weather.

     Slowly, she used her index finger to trace the line of his neck, watching the metal turn bright orange and soften to a molten liquid. Stretching on her tip-toes, she placed the bottom of the head's neck onto the rest of the statue, trying to align it as best as she could.

     Carla held it in place for a few seconds, until the hot metal had cooled, before stepping back to admire her work. There was a small line where she had re-joined the neck, causing an influidity in the sculpture-work, but overall it looked pretty good.

     Satisfied, she nodded to herself, before tugging on her gloves again, and picking up her umbrella. She then glanced towards a window and saw the briefest flash of a face before it disappeared out of view.

     "God, this place creeps me out," she muttered, before heading inside, and looking around to try and deduce where Klaus would be.

     Of course, he would probably be where there was the most amount of noise, and sure enough, she heard a strum of a dreadfully out-of-tune guitar, followed by some vacant mumblings of lyrics not quite remembered.

     Carla walked into the basement, where Klaus was sitting in a chair, Five rummaging through the various cupboards.

     "Ah, Carla!" Klaus greeted, before holding out the electric guitar in his hands, "Can you tune this for me, my dearest?"

     "Sure," she smiled slightly, before taking the guitar and perching on the edge of the table, beginning to pluck the E string, tweaking the tuner until she was content.

     Growing up the way she had, living with Klaus in and out of rehab all the time, meant that there weren't too many things a fifteen-year-old could do without supervision. Picking up music was one way she tried to pass the time.

     Klaus frowned slightly, "Why are you wet?"

     Carla rolled her eyes, "Because it's raining, dumbass."

     "But you had an umbrella," he pointed out.

     She paused, listening as she tuned one of the strings, before replying, "Yes I did. But I put the umbrella down."

     "Why?" he crossed his arms over his chest.

     "Because I wanted to fix Ben's statue," Carla said as though it were obvious, and was aware that Five was listening intently.

     A part of her wanted to ask what was going on, how he appeared to know her and how, but then again, she thought it better not to ask.

      Sometimes ignorance was bliss.

     Plus, they had time. Her gloved hands awkwardly navigated their way around the fretting of the guitar, and she cursed as she played the wrong string.

     Klaus looked at her strangely, "Just take them off."

     "Yeah, no thanks," Carla muttered through gritted teeth, "I can do it with my gloves on."