The Flood // the umbrella academy [Klaus]

e i g h t

"Vanya's?"

Bea was confused. Five needed urgent medical attention for the gaping wound in his arm; if he wanted to lay low and stay away from the others she completely understood his motivation behind heading away from the Academy. What she couldn't understand, however, was why they wouldn't just go back to her apartment. Why the need to involve a third party? If under interrogation, she wouldn't be able to deny that she was a little jealous. She wanted Five to depend on her in their current predicament - they had just committed numerous counts of second degree murder together after all. And, truth be told, Bea was concerned about how Vanya might react to seeing the both of them sprayed from head to toe in fresh, crimson blood. She held no resentment towards the woman, of course, but jealousy was not a selective emotion.

It had been years since Bea's hand had been forced to kill. She wasn't sorry for what had gone down in the doughnut shop; in her eyes those men had deserved everything that came to them for approaching innocent civilians with loaded weapons, and destroying a perfectly good food establishment. She may have even been tempted to call it 'karma'.

"Why would we go to Vanya's?" Bea pressed. "I don't think she's exactly gonna be cool with us rocking up to her place in the middle of the night looking like," she gestured at the blood, "this."

"She'll have no choice."

Exasperated, the redhead let out a frustrated sound. "Five, why do we need to involve her?" She stared at her brother intently. "And tell me the truth."

Pulling up outside a block of apartments, Five stopped the car, switching off the engine and facing his sister. "Because," he began, "she's the only pers-, other person I can trust with the truth."

Bea didn't miss his momentary mistake. Although he'd attempted to cover it, which perhaps someone else may have paid no attention too, Bea did notice - and it hurt. Bea liked Vanya and she knew that she and her brother had been friends as children. What she didn't anticipate, however, was for Five to throw that relationship in her face; especially after what they had just been through. Deciding that she couldn't let the pain show, she continued with her investigation. "Why?"

"She's ordinary, Bea. She's no threat to anyone. Besides," he shrugged, "I've always trusted her."

Bea's heart constricted for a moment and she looked down at her lap, her eyes finally betraying her sadness. "Would you have even told me if I hadn't been there?"

Her question took the boy by surprise. For once in his life, he didn't know what to say. "O-of course."

She glanced slowly up at him, her face the picture of distrust. "You stuttered. You never stutter." Scoffing, she called him out. "You wouldn't have told me. I can't believe this! What - were you just going to play out to me like nothing happened? You said it yourself, she's the only person you can trust."

"Bea, it's not my fault! It's not that simple-"

"I can't believe this," she repeated, getting out of the car.

Five rushed out after her, frustrated at his sister's actions. "Where are you going?"

"To Vanya's!" Bea exclaimed, lifting both her arms out to the side.

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They sat in silence in Vanya's front room: Five in the armchair and Bea on the sofa opposite. Five insisted that they keep the lights turned off, so as not to alert Vanya to their presence. Bea thought he just loved a dramatic flair.

Five never wanted this awkward tension between himself and his best friend. His words had slipped up in the car; of course he trusted Bea. He stuttered because he didn't know how to answer her question without blurting out the real truth: that whenever he thought about his time in the future he pictured her, dead in his arms. That after every life he took he could only ever think about a family member who may be left feeling exactly as he did. That she was his main motivation for escape, because he couldn't fathom the thought of her being destroyed by the apocalypse any more times. And, more recently, that after seeing a certain drug addict still habitually using, he needed Bea alive so that she could save Klaus from himself.