THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY
fragile || five hargreeves x reader

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: WHY DO YOU CALL HER BY HER NUMBER?

Written By: peachyhxlland

°•.☆.•°

You looked up at your grandfather's house, feeling like you wanted to memorize what it looks like before the world ends. You opened the door which was surprising because your grandfather always locks the door. You quickly ran inside the looked for him. "Papa?" You called out as you looked into every room.

"Shit, shit, shit!" You ran upstairs and looked for him everywhere. Nowhere to be found nor seen but you suddenly heard his voice from downstairs. "Who's there?"

You quickly ran downstairs and saw your grandfather with a gun on his hand. "Papa!" Seeing him made you gasp in relief and ran towards him. A little bit of fear came to your mind and heart when you couldn't find him. You thought he was dead by the old woman who almost attacked you.

You gave him a big hug as the old man sighed in relief. "Oh, thank God. It's just you..." he hugged you back as you felt the heavy gun behind you. "Why are you here?"

Nico has his gun because he heard someone entered his house but he didn't know it was you. He sometimes forgets about locking the door. Being old sucks for him sometimes.

You hugged him tighter and finally broke down into tears, sobbing into his shirt. Your grandfather panicked and knelt down, putting down the gun, and wiped your tears. "Hey, hey, hey. Why are you crying? Some no-good son of bitch made you cry?"

"I... I finally knew what happened to me..."

Nico saw the pain in your eyes looked. He could tell that you were hiding your feelings for so long that it started building up until it burst into tears. Whatever happened to you sure did upset Nico but he also wanted to kill whoever did this to you.

"Tell me what happened, pumpkin."

You wiped your tears and inhaled sharply. "Dad kidnapped me. Experimented on me but his experiment failed to turn my body into 15 and froze me because the experiment made my powers stronger. Pogo said that dad will never let me out until the day he died."

"Oh, that son of a bitch deserved his death." Your grandfather hissed as he pushed your hair back. "If he were still alive, I would've killed him."

He knew a long time ago that Reginald looked like an asshole. Inside and out. He was distraught by the idea of the other mothers giving their babies to a man they don't even really know. Nico wished he forced his daughter to let you stay with him so he could've raised you. Better than Reginald. Sure, Nico can't really train you with your powers but he won't abuse you nor will he cold towards you.

He will give you love and support day and night.

You gasped for air as you clutched your chest. Nico was alerted and held you tightly. "Hey, hey, hey. Breathe deeply. You're losing air from this crying. You're hyperventilating. Come on, breathe with me."

You followed him as you breathe deeply and slowly, tears were still endlessly flowing down. Finally, your breathing went back to normal. You sighed heavily and wiped the remaining tears you have on your face. "My life... it was wasted... just because of his stupid experimentation... his selfishness... and then there's these... memories that I keep on remembering..."

You and Nico stood up and he ruffled his hands with your hair. He grabbed his gun and turned to you. "Come on. I'll make you some tea."

"I don't drink tea." You shyly smiled and chuckled. "I... uh, drink coffee."

Nico smiled. "Coffee it is."

Before you and your grandfather could even take a step forward, the door busted open, revealing the old woman who chased you a few days ago. She has a gun pointed at Nico while Nico stepped forward to shield you and pointed his gun at the old woman.

"How did you...?" You asked in surprise to see the old woman inside Nico's lovely home.

"I followed you. Should've been more careful, girl." The old woman smirked. She turned to Nico who was ready to shoot her. "You're gonna kill another one from our town, Nico? Another blood in your hands?" The old woman mocked.

It took a minute for Nico to realize who she was. "You're that Reaster girl. The preacher couldn't take his hands off you, can he? Kept on having an affair while he has a wonderful wife at home."

"We were in love, Nico. But you killed him."

"You two weren't in love. You two just enjoy the pleasures you gave for each other. I killed him because he hurt my sister. He hurt my sister so bad, she killed herself. Now, put the gun down. You don't wanna kill me."

"Oh, I do! I do want to kill you, Nico Russell! Every day I've been waiting for this moment! I even joined the Commission just to find you!"

'Commission?' You softly gasped. The Reaster woman was working in that organization that Five used to work at. Does the Handler even know that one of their agents went rogue and nowhere to kill your grandfather?

You peeked to see the old woman glaring at Nico. If looks could kill, your grandfather would be dead right now. The old woman gripped her pistol tighter in anger. "I'll just make you more miserable."

The woman quickly pointed the gun at you. Before you and your grandfather could react, she pulled the trigger.

It felt like a slow motion as memories flashed back in your mind. You with your mom, grandfather, your siblings, and of course, Five. As you remember those memories, you felt your body slowly falling backwards.

You thought it was a few minutes before you hit the ground but it only took you seconds and finally blacked out.

You didn't hear the loud scream of agony from your grandfather, the gunshot from his gun when he shot the old woman, your grandfather collapsing to your side, trying to wake you up, his pleas, his sobs, his screams.

You were shot right in the head. Of course, you won't be saved from this. Nico held you close, throwing his gun aside. He hugged your limp body and sobbed harder. He lost his parents, his sister, his daughter, and now he lost his granddaughter.

Your grandfather leaned back and looked at you, hoping to see you open your eyes, miraculously brought back to life, or maybe even your powers helping you to revive back again. But he knew your powers won't be able to bring you back. It was far too late.

The old woman coughed out blood and held her bloody stomach. She tried to sit up but she gave up so she just looked helplessly at you and Nico. "You took what's mine... now I took what's yours."

"A lot was taken from me." Nico sobbed. "My whole family. (Y/n) was the only family I have left. The only person you lost was that son of a bitch! That preacher ain't no good!"

"You don't know him like I—"

"Open your eyes, woman! He didn't love you. If he did, he wouldn't have lied to you about his wife, yeah? Heck, he will keep his affairs secret. He doesn't care about you, he cared about his reputation."

But the old woman didn't listen to him and kept her head shaking, disagreeing with him. "No, no, no, no! You're lying. You're wrong!"

Nico gently placed your lifeless body down and walked towards the old woman. He brought out a picture, showing her woman in her early 30s or mid-30s. With her was the preacher that Nico killed back in West Virginia. "That's his wife." Nico placed down the picture and went back to your body.

He didn't care about the old woman anymore, not caring if she was sobbing in pain and sadness. He ignored her when she took her last breath and died in the loss of blood because of the gunshot he made.

Nico didn't know he was going to kill another person again nor did he know about losing the only family he has left in this world before he even dies.

°•○●○•°

Five ignored the distant gunshot he heard on his mind as he followed the Handler to her office to eat lunch with her. She invited him not because he just wanted to eat with her. He wasn't really in the mood to eat especially when his family is still a few days away from the apocalypse.

He wondered why he heard a gunshot. Maybe he was just hallucinating or just hearing some things. And why does his heart ache?

The Handler slurped her drink loudly as she stared at Five. "And that's how Phil determined that the archduke just had to go."

Five set his glass of water down as the Handler offered him some sweets. Five smiled and shook his head. "I had a bad Twinkie in the apocalypse once. It kind of put me off desserts."

"Please, indulge me." The Handler slightly pushed the bowl of sweets towards Five so he could have a taste. Five sighed, grabbed one, and ate it. The Handler lit up her cigar and leaned her back in her chair. "What's that taste like to you?"

Five thought for a moment as he savored the flavor. "The 1950s?"

"Precisely right. Our clever metaphysics division concocted a way to perfectly distill an entire decade into a single candy. This one's modeled after the Fudge Mutt. America's favorite in 1955."

"Remarkable."

"You'll be happy to know it's the very division that's building your new body. Oh, that reminds me. I have something for you." She pressed a button to call someone and told the woman named Carla to bring the box inside her office.

Carla delivered the box and placed it on the Handler's desk. Both Five and the Handler stood up, looking at the box as Carla walked away. The Handler leaned on her desk and smiled. "Go ahead. Open it."

Five opened the box, revealing clothes inside. "Clothes make the man, Five." She said. "Won't it be nice when you can actually wear it? Very soon, I assure you. They're perfecting your body as we speak."

Five took the clothes and examined them before setting them down again. "Thank you. It's a very kind gift." Five closed the box and turned around as if he noticed something. "Is that a Chinese flamethrower?"

The Handler nodded. "Good eye." Five walked towards it and examined it. The two talked about the Handler's collection from her travels including Hitler's gun. When Five had the chance to touch Hitler's gun, he spoke. "I had some thoughts I wanted to run by you. Some suggestions to improve Commission protocol."

"Mm!" The Handler exclaimed as she took the gun from Five's hands. "Shaking things up already. I admire that." She said as she lightly caressed Five's cheek then lightly poked his nose. "Go on. Do tell!" The Handler returned back to her seat while Five followed.

"Gloria."

"Mm."

"The tube operator. Wouldn't it be simpler if case managers were to send their own messages?"

"I appreciate the thought. I really do. But everyone loves Gloria. I-I would never hear the end of it. She's been with the Commission family for years, and she's this close to making a pension. What you're asking is like we should take away a family member or the person we love. Oh! Speaking of..."

Five looked up from the desk and raised an eyebrow. "Hmm?"

"Just a question that came to my mind. Why do you call her by her number?"

"Who?"

"You know who."

Five tilted his head a bit, needing more confirmation. "No, I don't."

"(Y/n) Russell. But her name was changed into (Y/n) Hargreeves when your father adopted her. You were all called by your numbers and she was Number Eight. Then your robot mom gave you real names except for (Y/n) of course. So why call her by her number?"

Five bit his inner cheek, wondering how the Handler knew this kind of information. He was also surprised when she mentioned your former surname. He never knew what your last surname was. All he knew about your name is your first name and that's it and of course, the Hargreeves last name because Reginald adopted you.

"It's none of your business to know why I call her that." Five responded. "It's between me and her."

"Oh! So your siblings don't know about this too?"

"They don't need to know." Five turned to the door when he heard a knock from Dot. He was excused out from The Handler's office but before he left, he grabbed a few sweets.

°•○●○•°

"Five?" You asked in an empty room. You were looking for Five because you saw him a bit upset a while ago. You looked at the other room, your room, to see Five hugging his knees close to his chest and staring at the window with his bottom lip pouted out.

You sat beside him and poked his arm. "Earth to Five? You okay?"

"Everyone has names... well, you know, except for me."

"You have a name."

"A number isn't a name, (Y/n)." Five sighed as he leaned his chin on top of his knees. "You all forgot what name that Mom gave me... and unfortunately, I also forgot it... now I'll just be called by my number."

You frowned and looked down at your feet. You didn't want Five to feel left out. You don't want your close friends to feel left out especially Luther, Diego, and Allison. Those three are like the popular kids if the Academy is a normal school.

"But it's fine. I didn't want to participate in that anyway. It's stupid. The name she gave me was probably stupid as well. I like—"

"How about... you call me by my number?"

Five raised his head up and looked at you. "Why would I do that?"

You shrugged and looked up to the window. "So you won't feel left out. We'll get to call each other by our numbers."

"But (Y/n) is your real name."

"Well, dad adopted me so he made Number Eight my real name." You chuckled slightly. Five snickered as he shook his head. "This is a dumb idea. What if I wanna call you (Y/n)?"

"Then call me by that name whenever you feel like it."

"(Y/n)—"

You stretched out your arm and smiled at him. "I don't know a (Y/n). Call me Eight."

Five looked down at your hand before rolling his eyes, his lips twitched upwards, a smile forming, and shook your hand. "Call me Five. And you really didn't have to do this."

"I don't like you feeling left out." You admitted as you finally let go of his hand. "If you feel left out, then I'll be with you. Let's feel left out together."

-•-°-•-°-☆

All chapters were made and ready to publish. The chapters will be posted every day at 6 pm (Philippine Time).

If you guys have a chance to name Number Five, what would it be?