Someone's Missing (A TuA One-shot)
A/N: I do not own The Umbrella Academy in any shape or form.
This is my much different take on that scene from episode 3, after the attack on the mansion, because Klaus deserves so much better. I also saw an opportunity and I took it.
Rated T for foul language, curse words and violence.
Diego straightened, blinking several times. "Is everyone alright?" He asked, his mind still reeling from the most recent discovery regarding Luther's… appearance.
Allison snapped a shaky gaze at him from where she stood some feet away. Her face held vividly onto shock and disbelief.
"Y-Yeah."
Diego nodded, more or less reassured. "Anyone else in here? C'mon."
Vanya took an extremely hesitant step from the entryway; she kept one hand on the nearest column and the other held her head gingerly, her thumb hovered over a dark patch of red right at her temple. When she spoke, she wouldn't meet his eyes.
"Here." She answered, Diego kept himself from both sneering and sighing in relief.
"What about Five?" Allison piped up; Vanya jumped in alarm before he could answer.
"What about Five? He wasn't here." She glanced at Diego with sudden worry burning in her eyes.
Diego sighed, "Those maniacs came here looking for him," He ignored his sister's sharp gasp, "I'm sure he's fine, though I'll do a roundabout of the city later. Maybe ask him something like, you know, who the hell they even were."
Allison wrung her hands worriedly, hovering over Vanya. "You sure you're okay?" She asked, gesturing to the head wound. Number Seven nodded jerkily, clearly shaken still.
"Yeah…"
Diego stared at the two of them with mild forlorn, before a soft humming from upstairs startled him, he cursed in alarm.
"Shit! Mom!"
He went to leap up the stairs, something pulled him back. Something bugged him from the back of his mind.
He froze mid-step, an action that got everyone's attention as they halted with him.
The vigilante's heart gave a sharp tug, "Where's Klaus?"
Nothing answered him, then Vanya perked up suddenly.
"I saw him go into the bathroom earlier—"
She wasn't even done when Diego shot down the hall, overlooking his sisters' surprised yelps. His mind rushed only towards the following coherent need: Find Klaus. Find him and find him safe because-
Because strangers had just shot up their house and Klaus was most likely-no, definitely- high. Meaning absolutely defenseless, especially against the aforementioned maniacal strangers.
Diego grimly recalled that he didn't see Klaus at all during the attack. He silently pleaded that those psychopaths hadn't either.
He sharply turned into the hallway that connected lead to the door of the main floor bathroom, Klaus' favorite to use. Number Four loved to take long baths; hours and hours worth of soaking in bubble water, a habit that would've no doubt annoyed the Hargreeves' siblings if there weren't another four tubs and fifteen showers in that house.
One day, he remembered, after a particularly rough day of training, Klaus had spent the entire day in the bathtub, sapping the rest of the house from his rowdy presence. Worried over the lack of, well Klaus, Ben had peeped through a gap just to make sure that their brother hadn't drowned himself. That'd resulted in the inhuman screech that broke from Klaus, and a bottled shampoo shaped bruise on Number Six's forehead.
Diego had laughed back then, along with the others, because Ben honestly deserved it for being dumb and Klaus deserved the scare for letting his appendages turn into mutant raisins.
Anyways, his point being: Klaus takes long baths, usually with his headphones on. He wouldn't notice strangers with guns nearing him until one of those guns pressed against head.
He stumbled in front of the bathroom, almost stumbling in.
The door was ajar.
The room was empty.
He moved to turn around and sprint away, to search for Klaus in his room, or the kitchen or any other place in that mansion.
A tiny speck of blood, glaring from the tiled floor, gained his attention before he could flinch.
"Shit." Flew from his lips, "Shit!"
"Diego?" Called Vanya from behind him; the two women were standing at the doorway, looking scared.
Allison took a step forward, "Is he—"
"They took him."
A pause.
"A-Are you sure?"
Number Two bristled and shot to his feet, abruptly shouldering past them and rushing to the living room. The other two Hargreeves fell into step behind him.
"What are you doing?" Vanya asked him when Diego stopped in front of the landline phone.
"Making a call." He gritted his teeth, sturdily punching in the memorized number. "We've got a lot ground to cover."
Finding Klaus took them much longer than Diego would've preferred. Luther was finally coaxed into helping after ages of him dismissively claiming that Klaus was simply shooting himself up in some back alley. Five came back from wherever it was that he had been, visibly irritated, but he'd jumped to help the second they told him about the shooters, eyes icy cold.
Still, it was so long before Eudora gave them an address and met them at the lobby with various degrees of curiosity and concern oozing from her stiff posture.
When all of them burst through the small door of the motel room, respective weapons at the ready, and had found the place abandoned in blatant hurry, Diego deflated in despair.
Then, a muffled sound came from the closet.
There was Klaus, duct taped to a chair, bloody all over, skin burning and muscles tense from withdrawal and muttering endless 'thank you's once they'd gotten rid of the gag.
Diego, Allison and Vanya, the latter having absolutely refused to be left behind, just rushed to him and held him close. They were shaking nearly as much as he was, and fruitlessly willing their nerves to calm down now that they'd found him. Luther and Five held back, but there was no doubt they very much longed to latch onto Klaus as well. None noticed Ben sagging with relief in the background, not even The Séance.
When he'd final calmed down, Klaus let out a dry chuckle. It confused them, so they pulled back to look at the empty expression on their brother's face.
"I said that-, I-I told them that none of you would notice I was gone."
Diego's throat closed off, heart aching with guilt. Because he knew that if he'd gone to check on Grace like he'd intended to at that moment, everything else would've been forgotten, even his own brother.
Still, he took a hold of Klaus' hand and caressed a thumb over it, the somewhat soothing motion comforted them both, if just a little bit.
"You were wrong," He whispered, "We've got you buddy."
Thanks for reading! This is my first piece on this fandom so pardon if any of the characters seemed a bit too OCC.