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❛ ᴛʜᴇ ʙ. ʙ. ᴇꜰꜰᴇᴄᴛ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ʀᴇɢʀᴇᴛs & ᴍɪsᴛᴀᴋᴇs
ᴛʜᴇʏ'ʀᴇ ᴍᴇᴍᴏʀɪᴇs ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ꒱　


❝ I NEVER HATED YOU, YOU KNOW.
FOR WHAT HAPPENED TO BEN ❞

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Alexa lay on Five's bed with a pile of crumpled papers next to her, bored from randomly sketching things that she deemed "not good enough." Her best friend— hardly one to ever get bored— was at his chalkboard as he diligently scratched away at numbers that went way over the blonde's head.

Reginald had decided to leave town for a few days which graced the Academy with a short, precious time of peace. Alexa had no idea where her other siblings were but she didn't really care right now. Fed up with the silence, she chucked one of her crumpled paper balls towards the dark-haired boy.

He didn't glance up but asked "what?" somewhat exasperatedly.

Alexa's face furrowed in thought for a moment before she replied, "have you ever thought about what name Mom would give you if you let her?"

Five sighed. While he didn't always hate her 'what if' games, some of them were extremely pointless— like this one. "No, Lexa. I'm not going to disillusion myself to being anything other than an interesting science experiment for the man who calls himself our father."

The blonde rolled her eyes. "You're so lame! You've never thought about it? I mean, I can't really imagine you being anything other than Five but I have tried other names."

The boy hid his small smile from her by pointedly not turning around. "Did you want a different name?"

Alexa pursed her lips in thought for a moment before she admitted, "Dolores."

"Dolores?" he repeated, and the name caused him to finally turn and look at her.

The girl shrugged. "I think it's pretty. It also means sorrows. I looked it up after reading it in a book."

Five rolled his eyes at the explanation and turned to look at her critically before he announced: "I don't think you're a Dolores. You're not sad."

"I don't have to be the name, dummy. I just like it. Parents don't look at babies and say, 'this one looks sad, lets name her Dolores!' babies tend not to express too much emotion."

The boy rolled his eyes again. "And what name do you think I am?"

Alexa tossed another paper wad at him. "You're not playing the game right! But Frank." Then she wrinkled her nose. "Now that I'm saying it aloud, though, I don't think so."

Five made a face back at her. "Definitely not. Just because it also starts with an F doesn't mean it would be a good name for me. But what about a name from my country? Vanya's a Russian name, Luther's a German name— it could be something Irish."

"I don't know any Irish names," Alexa said with disappointment.

Five looked at her pouty expression and sighed. He hated giving in to things that had no real meaning but he also hadn't meant to upset her. "I know one," he revealed without offering any further information.

She immediately looked interested and sent a questioning gaze his way. "Which one?"

He hesitated before he suggested, "Aidan."

It was Alexa's turn to look critically at him. "Yeah, I can see it." Then she grinned. "And we'd both have the same letter, like twins!"

Five grimaced. "Ew, gross. I don't want to be your twin!" The blonde threw another paper at him and he raised his arm to block it as he laughed lightly. "You're gonna run out of paper, Lexa."

She stuck her tongue out childishly. "Well, if you weren't such a jerk I wouldn't have to worry about that."

Five lightly tossed a piece of chalk back at her which landed just short of its mark. "Yeah, well, at least I can face the truth."

"I can face the truth too, you know, but taking it with sugar is more appetizing."

☂☂☂

Five and Alexa returned to the Umbrella Academy to regroup after their night of catching Luther up on their impending doom. When they crossed the hallway, the floor in Klaus' bedroom creaked which alerted them of their brother's presence. The two Hargreeves approached the door cautiously and peeked in to watch their brother listlessly pad across the floor while looking surprisingly haggard.

"You okay?" Five asked, oddly concerned. Klaus looked up at them. 

"Hey," he said in a hoarse voice. "Yeah, I just— long night."

Alexa studied him and felt the familiar twist in her gut. Another failure, she thought. Something had happened to Klaus— something bad, and she hadn't been there to help. Then she remembered the man Diego worked for saying that Patch had found her brother and her heart sank. Of course, she realized. He must've been. . . She swallowed harshly, unable to finish the thought.

Five, however, didn't seem to notice the emotion clouding around their brother and chuckled slightly. "More than one from the looks of it."

Klaus sighed. "Yeah."

"Don't remember the dog tags."

Alexa's eyes found the said item around her brother's neck and the twist in her stomach turned leaden as she put two and two together. She knew what dog tags were for.

Klaus confirmed this as he lifted them slightly. "Yeah, they belonged to a friend."

"How about that new tattoo?" Five persisted.

"You know, I don't totally remember even getting it. Like I said, it was a long night."

"You did it, didn't you?" There was a strange note of excitement in his voice and Alexa put her hand warningly on his shoulder.

"What are you talkin' about?"

Five ignored her. "You know I can recognize the symptoms, Klaus."

"Symptoms of what?" Klaus asked as he sat on his bed.

Five walked towards him. "The jet lag. Full body itch. Headache that feels like someone shoved a box of cotton up into your nose and through your brain. You gonna tell me about it?"

"Five," Alexa broke in, making her warning more aggressive. Couldn't he see that their brother was hurting?

"Your pals, when they broke into the house and they couldn't find you, they took me hostage instead."

"And in return, you stole their briefcase."

"Yeah. I thought there was money in it or I could pawn it. You know, whatever. And then I opened it."

"And the next thing you knew, you were where? Or should I say when?" Five's tone was getting more enthusiastic as he spoke causing Alexa to glare at him— not that he saw.

The blonde moved away from the door frame to sit down on the bed next to her brother. She tentatively moved closer to him so that their legs were pressed together. When Klaus didn't flinch away like she'd been expecting— Alexa was always convinced he hated her the most for Ben's death— she looped her arms around him. He stiffened in surprise at her actions but relaxed into her sideways hug.

"What difference does it make?" he asked with a sigh.

"What diff— uh okay, how long were you gone?"

"Almost a year."

At the dejected note in his voice, Alexa leaned her head against his shoulder. She could recognize the weight behind his pain as her own.

"A year? Do you know what this means?" Five exclaimed. He pointedly ignored Alexa and Klaus' interaction.

Their brother tried to find some humor. "Yeah, I'm ten months older now."

"No, this isn't any sort of joke, Klaus. Hazel and Cha-Cha will do whatever they can to get the briefcase. Where is it now?"

Klaus slumped against his sister as he said, "gone. I destroyed it. Poof." He made the motion with his hand.

This certainly didn't please Five, who exclaimed angrily, "what the hell were you thinking?"

"What do you care?"

"What do I care? I needed it, you moron, so I could get back. I could start over."

At this, Alexa finally had enough. Klaus had tensed as if he was going to get up but this was his room— Five was the one who needed to leave. She knew she probably should've stopped the questioning sooner but moron was too far in this situation, no matter how accurate it usually was. She lifted her head from her brother's shoulder to glare at the boy she was usually so fond of. "That's enough, Five."

He stared at her in surprise. "What?"

"I said that's enough, Five. The interrogation is over. Clearly your social skills need work. Just because you have the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all do!" she finished angrily and lifted her arm to point at the door. "Take your attitude and go on, get out."

Silence fell after her outburst and Five's startled expression met the frosty glare she sent him and he had nothing to do but follow her demand. When it was just Klaus and Alexa remaining, her brother sank against her. They didn't say anything for a long while until the man broke the silence: "how did you know?"

Alexa knew he was asking how she'd recognized that he lost someone and answered simply, "I know what it feels like to lose someone you love." She wasn't just talking about Ben in this instance. "Do you want to talk about it, Klausy?"

The man sighed as he realized that she hadn't called him that in a long, long time. He still wasn't ready to relive everything, though, so he shook his head. The blonde squeezed him gently and said softly, "that's ok. I get it."

There was another moment of silence before he spoke again: "I never hated you, you know."

"What?"

"For what happened to Ben," Klaus clarified, raising his head to look at her. "I know we never really talked about it but I never blamed you for that." He glanced towards the corner of the room before he met her eyes. "And I don't think Ben would blame you either, if he was here."

Alexa blinked in shock, not having expected him to open that can of worms. It took her brain a moment to process what he was saying before the familiar heavy feeling formed in her stomach.

She got up shakily, suddenly unable to be next to him. "Uh— I-I hope you feel better," she started lamely. "Yeah— I— uh, better go find Five. Can't talk about this right now. See you laterloveyoubye!" She spoke the last part in a rush before she turned tail and fled from her brother's room.

Once in the safety of her own familiar bedroom, Alexa leaned against the wall and placed a hand on her pounding heart. She closed her eyes and tried to take a few deep breaths to steady herself. She couldn't believe that Klaus would even approach the subject like that. No one had spoken about it for years— or ever, really. It had been the final blow to the academy and everyone leaving was the perfect excuse to never talk about it again. And now— and now, Klaus reopened the issue?

The blonde shook her head as she tried to free herself from her spiraling thoughts. Surely he was just saying that because she'd helped get Five out of his face, right? He had every reason to hate her for being responsible in the death of his best friend. Why would he say something so completely opposite of that? Alexa came to the conclusion that he was still reeling from his trip (whenever he went) and wasn't thinking clearly (not that he really did on a regular basis) or was pulling some sort of prank on her.

Once she came to that realization, her world suddenly stopped spinning and she could breathe normally again. Of course, she thought, this is Klaus we're talking about. Even with a disastrous trip in the recent past, he can't be serious for two seconds. He was even joking with Five about being older than us now! This definitely has to be some sort of prank.

Now that her life was on the familiar axis again, she winced as she remembered her angry outburst towards Five— he definitely wouldn't like that. She certainly wasn't sorry for saying what she had but there were definite reparations that would need to be made. With a feeling of irritation tugging at her gut, she made her way out of her room to find the boy.