Disclaimer: I don't own the Umbrella Academy.
AN: I have not read the comics.
Pairing: Vanya/Diego
The first time she crawls into his bed is after their first real training mission. His body aches because while the situation wasn't real, the bruises are. It's late at night and he's on the brink of sleep when his door opens and he wants to lift his arm to throw a book or something except it hurts and he recognizes her footsteps. He turns his head and she's standing there in a white nightgown looking like a ghost. She walks silently towards his bed and lifted up the covers and slides in next to him. Her hands wrap around his waist and he turns over to hold of her hands drift over his bruises lightly and then she reached for his hand and kisses his knuckles, which were bruised from punching through a door, the way One did.
"What are you doing Seven?"
"Kissing it better. I don't have powers yet but I can do this."
He smiles and even though he knows they are going to get into huge trouble with their father, he closes his eyes and she does the same. Thy fall asleep, and it's Ben who finds them the next morning and he shakes them awake and holds a finger to his lips. They don't get in trouble, this time.
He gets bored at the mansion they all do, so its no wonder they sneak out.
Sometimes, on particularly bad days, he is able to convince Seven to join him.
They get a day off one warm summer day, and Four, Five, and Six head to the library, One and Three stay at the mansion, so he ropes Seven into coming with him to the park. He brings a sketch pad and she brings her violin and she plays it for him while he sketches, the sun on their faces, the fresh air feels liberating.
He sketches for a while until he decided to take a break so he lays down and closes his eyes letting the music wash over him. He's half asleep half awake.
She's not the best player but he knows she will be extraordinary one day. It makes him sad because once she gets her powers, she won't be able to play anymore.
The music stops but he figures she is wiring something down or taking a break.
Then he hears her voice, soft.
"Please leave us alone."
He hears the sounds of laughter and then he hears them mocking her.
He hears her cry out and he sits up and sees one of the boys has her violin over his head and she's jumping trying to get it.
They haven't noticed him yet and he picks up a rock, weighing it in one hand.
Their father is going to kill them for sneaking out and the punishment for Seven losing her violin or breaking it is worse but he won't let them hurt her.
He throws the rock, and he knows the throw is too wide but somehow the rock moves and hits it's intended target.
He picks up another bigger rock and tosses it. It hits a guy in the back of his head and he turns and glares at him.
"L-l-leave my sis-sister alone."
One of them opens his mouth and he knows they are going to make fun of his stuttering so he picks up a rock and throws it at him and it lands in the guy's mouth. The guy goes down choking and one of his friends hit him in the back. Twp picks up a handful of rocks and starts tossing them and he sees his sister duck down. Eventually, the three boys take off and her violin is on the ground in pieces and they run home. They pause outside the manor and he freezes when he sees her face.
His hand reaches for her cheek.
"Two?"
"Blood."
He pulls her into the house calling for Grace and Grace get to work fixing her up.
Their father yells at him for hours and Seven is in tears.
They don't get dessert that night and Grace has to fight for them to have dinner. For the entire meal, One is looking at them disappointed, Three and Five are annoyed, Four wants to know why he didn't get invited, and Six is looking at Seven with concern. However, he can't look at her, not without seeing the bandaid on her cheek from the rock he had thrown.
He had been trying to protect her but he ends up hurting her.
She doesn't even realize that someone has snuck into her room until she feels a hand brush the hair off her cheek.
"Two?"
"Shh go to sleep Seven."
"Stay?"
She feels him lift the blanket and then he is wrapping an around her and she feels warm and safe.
"Not your fault Two."
She feels him sigh and they fall asleep.
He finds the sketch pad on her dresser the next day and he realizes she grabbed it as they ran, he thinks about the shattered instrument and feels guilty.
When they are eight, she gets sick, really really sick and he hasn't seen her in days. Allison is the only one given the chance to see her and when he questions her, she shrugs and says that she's fine, that's there is nothing special about her.
He feels this intense anger because how can she say that. Vanya is special, she's the most special of them all. He sees her telling Ben that he's not a monster and he sees her slipping records into Luthor's collection and he watches her spend money to get nail polish for Klaus and Allison.
He feels guilty because he does not have much time for her between training and missions.
He's not the best brother in the world, but he tries to keep her on Luthor's good side, picking fights whenever Luthor get annoyed with her.
She appears at breakfast one morning and she looks tired, she jumps every time their father enters the room and she shies away from Allison who asks her about her special treatment when Mom gives Vanya an extra chocolate chip pancake. Vanya flinches and he sees her hunch her shoulders.
He wants to say something but their training kicks off and missions take up a lot of time and Vanya disappears into the shadows.
He creeps into her room one night and she staring at the wall.
"Go away, Diego."
He ignores and crawls into bed.
He hasn't snuck into her bed in a while, he misses this, their special moments, the special connection they have.
"Talk to me, Vanya."
"Father says I'm ordinary. I have no powers. I'm not special."
It hits him because he never considered the possibility of her not having powers. They all came into their powers at different times. Klaus discovered his ghost talent six months ago and Ben discover his two years ago. He found out about his second power a few weeks ago, it never crossed his mind that she wouldn't have powers.
She was like them, she was special.
"Vanya, you are special."
She shakes her head crying silently and he wraps an arm around her and pulls her back onto his pillow and he holds her as she cries.
She falls asleep and he mutters "you are special" over and over until he falls asleep.
He doesn't sneak into her bed as the training gets more intense and she disappears into the shadows.
She doesn't know why he doesn't come to her room anymore and he doesn't remember when he outgrew his sleepovers.
Rumor has it you are too old to be sneaking into Seven's bed for sleepovers.
After one of their mission when they are ten, they stand in front of their father as he lectures them on what needs to be improved. He dismisses them and Diego heads to the shower. He gets changed and he finds Vanya on his bed, chocolate chip cookies in her hand. He sinks down next to her as she eats and then she curls up next to him, careful of his injuries.
"Promise me, you will be careful."
He squeezes her fingers that are intertwined with his.
She nods and he can feel himself getting sleepy. As he drifts off he hears her whisper.
"I'm proud of you Diego."
It's the first time she spends the night since discovering she doesn't have any powers.
He wakes up to an empty bed, the only note of her being there is the smell of her shampoo.
He misses her.
Sir Regalnd hits him after a mission where he messed up, Luthor won't meet his eyes and Alison is pressed to his side. Vanya ushers Klaus and Ben out of fire range. But she coems back and stands in the shadows as the yelling gets louder until there is a loud slap and he's on the ground.
Luthor and Allison follow him, perfect soldiers. Pogo help him up while Mom fusses over him. He goes to bed without dinner not wanting to see anyone.
She comes in around midnight and she lifts the blanket.
She curls up close and he hates himself.
He's twelve, he should be embarrassed or angry about being hit. Instead, he's glad because it means she's with him. As he falls asleep with her fingers resting on his bruise, he wonders why he stopped having these sleepovers with her. he misses being like a child.
When they are fifteen, Ben dies, and everyone is shattered. Alison locks herself in her room and Luthor is taking his grief out in one of the training room. Five is gone. Curfew is broken so he heads to Vanya's room but she isn't there. He panics but then he hears her soft voice in Klaus's room and he enters the room to find Klaus sobbing and Vanya laying next to him, running a hand through his hair.
Klaus opens an eye when he enters but then closes them, Vanya gives him a soft smile and he walks out of the room. He comes back with the blankets from his and Vanya's room and he throws them over the two. Vanya grabs his hand as she looks at him and whispers.
"Stay."
He climbs into bed with them and the bed is too small to properly fit three growing teenagers but they manage, Vanya is pressed against him tightly, an arm around Klaus, protecting him as the boy cries himself to sleep.
He slips into her bed the night before the funeral and he presses kisses to her hair as she sleeps, she has an arm around Klaus. He can feel her breath on his neck and her hand is on his hips, fingers on bare skin, it keeps the pain he is feeling away. She wakes up early and he watches her strip and change into her black dress. She sits on the edge of the bed and he sits up and gently buttons her up. He kisses the back of her neck and helps her wrap her long hair into a bun. She helps him with his tie and laughs when he pulls his leather jacket over his dress shirt. He watches her coax Klaus who is shaking to the ground outside.
They don't know it at the time but this was the around the time he was on hard drugs.
They stand on either side of Klaus who falls to his knees and mumbled a "Ben?" as the statue goes up.
Then he mutters.
"He hates the statue."
Vanya closes her eyes and prays that is Klaus' grief and not the fact that he might see their dead brother that's bothering him and causing him to spiral ever worse and he prays that Ben has crossed over and is not lingering here, all it would do is cause Klaus pain.
He finds Vanya in Klaus' bed again, the skinny boy twisting muttering Ben's name. he slides in between the covers and his hand brushes again her bare skin and she turns to nuzzle her nose into his neck. when Diego wakes up the next morning, he sees that Klaus has turned to face them and he's pressed against her back. He feels a lump in his throat as he realizes who missing from their little sleepover, who will never be there again.
