Title: Your Wife Is Here
Summary: Everyone sort of assumes Vanya is Five's wife. Vanya/Five, one-shot
Disclaimer: I don't own the Umbrella Academy. If I did, more F/V moments obviously :D
Five was buried in work breathing in the smell of chalk as his hand was starting to hurt from how firmly he had set it. He was working for most of the day writing down his new discovery and trying to find a pattern he was clearly missing.
Five briefly heard Bob, his colleague who he shared the office with for the last two years, ask something, but he was tuned out by his own thoughts.
When the window cracked, signalling it was opened, Five's mind for a second assumed Bob asked Donna, their shared assistant, to open it.
Some fresh air might do them good.
It was his last thought before he was focused on his research again. He had been working for the university for over four years. He hadn't even finish school when the dean approached him asking him if he would be interested. Since all of his siblings stayed in the city, it made sense he would as well. Also he didn't completely hate the place, and he thought it would be more subduable to deal with people he already knew than learn to handle new ones.
After their time travelling back, Vanya learning control, and them spending more time trying to deal and fix their family, they turned out better than he could hoped. They somewhat survived another childhood with Sir Reginald and then moment they hit eighteen got the fuck out of that shit show staying together for a couple of months before they all individual found living arrangements which gave them both independence, but closeness they needed. They remained to have weekly dinners, lunches or just family meetings staying in touch as much as their lives outside of their family allowed them to.
Five was buried in work at the moment trying to finish because he knew he told Vanya that he would have lunch with her that day. He forgot of course, but it was the first thing Donna told him when he came this morning before he finished his coffee and got to his work again.
He thought he heard Donna's voice again telling him something, but he ignored not hearing the words. Luckily, his assistant knew him well since after a little while had passed, Five heard the worst sound imaginable coming from red painted nails on the blackboard next to the one he was writing at.
He clenching his jaw and dropped the chalk in the process as he tried to cover his ear.
His assistant gave him a sweet smile and offered his jacket, 'Your wife is here. You promised to take her to lunch.'
Sometimes Donna painfully too much reminded him of Dolores. Since he returned her home to her mall, he avoided the place like an illness, not ready to see her again after their goodbyes. That didn't stop him from sending Klaus or Luther occasionally over to checkup on her and report back. Both were surprisingly understanding and polite about it. Even if Klaus sometimes asked if she was free now, if he could have a shot earning a kick into the ankle from Five.
Five took his jacket groaning in the process and walking to the door before he stopped in track.
Who?
He went back in and looked at Donna as she was already walking back to her desk, 'Wait, whose wife?'
The redhead blinked at him with an amused smile, 'Your wife.'
'My wife?' asked Five slowly, and the woman nodded duh, 'Your wife.'
Five blinked slowly as if his brain crashed and wouldn't reboot, 'Wife?'
'Vanya,' offered Donna as if she saw his struggles looking at him now like he was demented.
'My wife...Vanya,' he said absolutely lost from those three words used in one sentence by him.
'Yes, your wife. Nancy from the front desk called that she's downstairs already,' explained Donna giving him a look like he was mad.
He nodded, his brain still failing to function before he wanted to ask, why she assumed Vanya was his wife, when Bob showed up in the door. Five didn't even notice he was gone until now.
'Oh, your wife is downstairs,' said Bob cheerfully before he stepped around him and got to his desk.
Not you too.
'Why-?'
'Shouldn't keep her waiting too long, I saw the dean going her way, and he can talk for hours,' said his colleague before he put his nose into his computer tuning Five and his bewild expression out.
Five looked at Donna, who raised her brows, 'Yes?'
'Why do you think she's my wife?' asked Five finally because his mind couldn't really wrap itself around the ridiculous idea.
'Well, she has the same surname as you and you bring her to every event as your plus one,' said Donna not understanding whatever game he was playing, 'She comes pick you up if you're working too late and constantly calls you to remind you to eat. Not to mention those notes she left you in the lunch last week.'
Five felt flushed. Seriously, he didn't know what to say to all that, so he just nodded and left the office all together.
WIFE?
This was very surreal for Five to be completely honest. He tried to go back to the times he first brought Vanya over for a Christmas party. He didn't want to go at all. He much rather had spent it at home working on his latest thesis, but one of his fellow co-workers stopped him when he was leaving for lunch with Vanya one day and asked him and her specifically if they would come. He remembered he introduced her to a lot of people at the party, but he couldn't recall if he actually used the word sister in the process. If he honestly never pointed out that she was a sister, and they shared a same surname it was fair to assume that they were married. It wasn't like they were biological siblings to look alike.
He walked down the stairs to the front desk, where he spotted Vanya in a pair of jeans and a bluish jacket, her hair down today. The dean was boring her in his conversations as he often did to people, but Vanya looked like she was very much interested. Always so polite and in rush to please people. Some things didn't change even in the new timeline.
He saw the moment, she finally noticed him, her eyes shifted ever so slightly and her smile grew a bit wider. Yes, some things didn't change at all.
She obviously took the opportunity to tell the dean that he had arrived as he started to walk to them. The man finally must have taken the hint and went to leave to Five's direction. He really could talk for hours.
As he was passing him they greeted each other and he took a moment to mumbled, 'What a lovely wife you have, Professor Hargreeves.'
Seriously, even you?
Five gave him a confused look as the man walked away. He didn't have time to correct him before he was in front of Vanya, 'Ready to go?'
The dean confused him even more than Donna and Bob, because unlike them, he told the dean on a few occasions he had siblings. He even met Ben at a university event and clearly saw that they weren't blood related. Yet, he still assumed Vanya was his wife, not sister.
'Of course,' he said. He didn't want to discuss the foolishness in front of her, so she wouldn't get embarrassed and worried over nothing like she usually did. Despite the newly gathered confidence of the new time line, she was still Vanya.
'I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long.'
'Not at all,' she said with the smile never leaving her face even though he knew he must have kept her waiting at least fifteen minutes with his constant stopping in the doorway.
'Oh, you have a bit of-,' she said and pointed at something on his face, '-chalk.'
He groaned a bit annoyed as he went to brush it off, but she grabbed his wrist and showed him his fingers still covered in the white powder.
She pulled out a hanky from her pocket immediately pressing it against his chin and brushing whatever was there out before she cleaned his fingers her hand still on his wrist.
'All done.'
She offered him a smile before she turned around and started to walk. The gesture was so natural he wouldn't even spare a second thought if not for feeling that someone looking at him.
Five took a moment to look over at Nancy at the front desk, who just looked away from him with a small smile probably thinking they were an adorable couple or something.
He swallowed a bit realizing that maybe they were doing things like this a lot which give out a vibe that they were more than just siblings or friends, but he never really paid attention to those little things. If he was covered in chalk, she just helped him clean up. It wasn't a big deal, was it?
They walked to the nearby dinner, which was their usual spot for lunches if they had them together. Icarus was relatively close to the university, so they had lunches together quite often. Five didn't mind, in fact it was a bit nerve calming. After they came back to their past, he grew a habit of always checking up on Vanya. At first it was because of her disability to control her powers, but then it became a force of habit to always find the time to know how she was, even if it was not related to her powers.
They sat at their usual table. Over the years the waitress, Suzie, had it a bit reserved for them.
'So what will my favourite pair have today?' she asked with a smile, and it caused Five to pause. Could it be that she thought they were a couple as well? If Five really thought about she made a lot of hints about relationships, marriage, and kids over the past few years, always finishing her stories with but I don't need to tell you two that. Five never really thought much of it assuming it was just because she knew they weren't in relationships and didn't have kids but maybe she was hinting on the fact that she thought they were together.
They ordered their food, and in his thoughts he returned to Donna's words about why she thought they were married.
The surname was an honest mistake of course. He brought Vanya to most...okay, to all of the university events because she was the most presentable one from his siblings, who didn't drag extra attention to herself the way, Allison did, or didn't tend to disappear to read a book in the corner of the room the way Ben did. She also looked lovelier in dress or suit for that matter, than Ben did. Luther, Diego and Klaus were out of the question completely of course. If it was true that he never introduced her as his sister but simply as Vanya Hargreeves it would make sense that people would just jump to conclusion that she was his wife.
Donna mentioned Vanya often came to pick him up if he was working too late. True again, but only because they shared a same way home for the most part, so Vanya had to cross a street to be on school's campus and Five could then walk her home. It would get him not to get lost in his work and sleep in his office as another benefit. Also he felt much better when he could walk her knowing she got home safe. It was illogical, he knew so. Vanya could destroy anyone who would cross her path with the intention to harm her, but it was something he couldn't really control. He was always very protective of her, the fact that he let go of that protectiveness only for her to get manipulated by someone like Jenkins only added to his obsession the second time around. Now he always needed to know she got home save, requesting she called him once she was home, like he was some obsessive toxic boyfriend. He knew it was questionable behaviour, but he just needed to know she was okay, so he didn't care how it might look.
The calls about his eating and if he wasn't working too hard, that was all on Vanya. If she couldn't come for lunch because she was too busy herself or if she wasn't working that day, she would call him several times like a needy girlfriend herself demanding for him to let go of his work for fifteen minutes to get eat something. It wasn't much demanding as asking him nicely. He was a sucker for her asking something from him nicely, and she knew it. This started to happen the first time she came to get him to go to lunch, before he had Donna to tell him she came, and was confronted with his office being a complete mess filled with a distinguish smell of a room which didn't had an open window for days. Vanya immediately told him she would have none of that opened the window and forced him to go to the dinner which became their usual spot. He didn't confessed to her that he didn't ever realize he spent two days in that office without food or new clothes, but judging by how persuasive she got to get him to eat every day and take time off, she must have known.
Then there were the lunch notes. This was because a pipe broke in his apartment last week and he was forced to move to Vanya's couch until his landlord would have it fixed. Due to Vanya having extra days off, she wouldn't come to lunch with him. Since she was worried he wouldn't go by himself, she cooked and packed him lunch leaving a note for him every day. It wasn't anything romantic or dirty as Donna and Bob joked on his behalf when they found out. The notes were just quotes. Quotes from his favourite books, but without the correct title or author so he also could think a bit and guess which book it was. He found the little quiz game a nice break activity when he wasn't working and of course the whole idea charming causing that he couldn't eat without a smile spread across his face.
Alright now after a further research he had to admit maybe there were a lot of reasons why people thought Vanya and him were married. They certainly acted like people who cared about each other. They spent a lot of times together. There were physical touches above the standard platonic line too.
Your wife, Vanya.
'What's with the smile?' asked Vanya at one point during the lunch as he got lost in thoughts.
'What smile?' he asked blinked before he realized he really was smiling. His cheeks even hurt a bit. Was he smiling this whole time?
She titled her head at him and raised her brows, 'The one you had all day. Something good happened today? Did you have a breakthrough?'
He shook his head. He wished he did.
He told her a bit about what he did that day and then listened to her day. It was strange, but he realized he was smiling at the thought of them being married. It wasn't funny. It was a bit troublesome at first, but it did make him smile now. The whole idea was a bit cute really. He tried to picture himself to have a wife like Vanya. Not much would have changed really. They would still live their lives as now, but instead of saying goodbyes in front of her apartment, they would be saying goodnights before bed. Oh right, there would be definitely more physical contact if they would be married...touches, kisses, intimacy. Those were usually things which made him feel unsettle a bit. Things he didn't have the first time growing up and living in the wasteland all alone. With Vanya however, someone he knew and trusted completely. It didn't sound so scary though.
Five briefly thought about telling her, maybe it would make her smile as well brightening her day a bit, but at the last minute he thought against it.
'Just...I'm just glad to be with you today,' he shrugged his shoulders hoping to sound nonchalant.
Maybe he could tell her later for now he just liked to keep the thought to himself. Just so that he could enjoy it freely without having to overthink it more and worry about what it could mean or what he should do about it. Just to enjoy a fantasy of Vanya being his wife and what would it be like. Yes, a nice thought, a fantasy, maybe a possibility...
She smiled at him. She grew much more comfortable with her smiles this time around, and he was utterly grateful for that.
Suzie brought their check.
'Ah, you young married couples are so adorable,' she said with a sigh.
'What?' asked Vanya startled her face going from calm and pale to surprised and red in the matter of seconds.
Well, so much for having a nice peaceful moment with the idea by himself.
'Yeaaah,' started Five as the waitress left, 'about that...'
A.N: Hey there, it's like 2a.m here don't judge me. This came to me literally today and I decided to write it down because why not? :D Hope you liked it. It wanted to write something light today anyway so here it is :) and yes, with that I am hinting angst and stress in my other stories -_- :D