Chapter 2: Parental Guidance

Vanya's POV

She'd told him that she was going out for groceries. It wasn't totally a lie; they were running low on food. What she neglected to tell him was that Five was picking her up, she would be doing the shopping after, and it would probably be hours before she was back.

While neither were easy with Leonard, she figured that it was better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, right?

So when Five pulled up, she quickly jumped in the van and they drove off.

"So…" she prompted.

"Yes?" He asked.

She rolled her eyes. He had to know what she meant. "Is there a reason I'm pretending to be your mother?"

"He has an eye."

She jumped, whipping around to see Klaus in the backseat. "What?"

Five smirked; he enjoyed their confusion. Still, he went to the trouble of enlightening her. "It has to do with the end of the world. I need to know who bought this eye, and I need an 'adult.'"

"If Klaus is here, they why did you need me?" No one needed her. Ever.

Five glanced at his brother in the rearview mirror. He was caressing Dolores creepily, and he resisted the urge to yell at him. "I need a competent adult."

"Hey!" Klaus objected.

"So what do I have to do?" Vanya ignored her more… eccentric brother.

"I'm going to do most of the talking - just sit there and act all parental." Five said, pulling up in front of a large building.

She shrugged. "That's a plan, I suppose."

They went in and she did her best to 'act all parental.' It wasn't looking like they were going to get whatever Five wanted, until Klaus piped in, "What about my consent?"

Twenty minutes later, Five with a swelling lip and Klaus covered in snow globe chemicals, they were sitting back in the van. The whole ordeal had gotten them nowhere, as Five kept muttering. "At least you won't keep hunting down this dead end, yeah?" she tried to comfort him.

Now he was looking at her, and she became uncomfortably aware of the cut still on her cheek, threatening to open any time she smiled too wide. That wasn't normally an issue for her, but her brothers' antics and the feeling of being useful for a change couldn't help but put a grin on her face. This was the most fun she'd had in a long time. But the look her brother was giving her sobered her giddiness right up. Five passed a twenty back to Klaus. "Go get us some snacks. Take your time."

Klaus didn't ask any questions, and it went without saying that the money wouldn't be spent only on snacks. He took the money and left for the nearby corner store.

"So…" he mimicked her earlier.

"Yes?" she acted oblivious.

"You fell?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure about that?"

She nodded.

He reached out and gingerly touched the offending mark on her skin. She tried not to wince."Did someone hit you?" He ground his jaw at the idea that someone might dare touch her in that way. If only he knew.

She didn't answer. God, she wanted to tell him so bad. The way he was reacting made her desperately want to believe that he would care. But no. He would think that she was weak. He would tell the others. They had just barely begun letting her back in; she couldn't risk it. And then there was the little fact that she had nowhere to go, nothing to take. She couldn't.

"Vanya, please." It was him begging this time. "I know something isn't right and I'll help."

She willed the tears back. Why did she have to cry so much? Because she was weak. Ordinary; no, less than. She said nothing still, just looking forward. No one had ever noticed her silence before.

He sighed, leaning back in his seat and copying her stare straight ahead. "Leonard. How did you guys meet?"

She gulped. "He- he was a fan of my book." She was grateful for the change of subject, but knew that it wasn't entirely innocent.

He smirked. "You just date all the fans of your book?"

She shook her head, looking down. "No. He recognized me on the street. Said he had questions. I had time, so we went out for coffee and hit it off."

"What was it about him? Why did you like him?"

"He seemed… too perfect."

He rolled his eyes. "Well that's warning sign number one."

She shook her head again. "Not perfect as in a dream guy sort of way. As in perfect for me. He understood."

"Understood?" he prodded.

"What it was like to not be special. Just ordinary."

"Ah," he nodded. He didn't need to prompt for her to continue.

"He heard me when it felt like no one else did. Not since you left, at least. Everyone else had shunned me. I didn't have anyone. But he was there, and he understood better than anyone, and he told me that I was something special."

"You are," he told her.

She gave him a little smile. It felt really, really nice to hear it whether she believed it or not. "Thanks, Five."

He furrowed his brow, looking at her in a way that made her feel like he was digging down deep into her soul. "That's why you wrote the book, huh? So people would hear you, listen to you?"

She nodded. "I didn't mean for it to-"

"I know. They'll come around. But at least some good came out of it."

"What do you mean?" She hoped that he didn't mean Leonard. He was as far from good as it got.

"Besides Dolores, do you know what kept me sane all those years in the apocalypse? That book. Seeing your face on the cover, reading the words you wrote. Knowing what was happening with you guys after I'd left. I thought it was hilarious, thinking of Dad's reaction to everything you put in the world with that book. I loved it."

With the look he was giving her, she had to believe that his words were genuine. "Thank you."

"Thank you," he echoed. "Now, are you going to tell me why you have a cut on your face?"

Her breath caught in her throat. He had just been so raw, so honest with her. She didn't want to lie to him again. But all of her doubts crept back up, and she stammered out, "I- I fell."

He sighed, not angrily, but he looked disappointed and that crushed her inside. "Of course you did."

Her moment of guilt was disrupted by Klaus, running across the street with an arm full of goods and the clerk hot on his heels. "Hey, bitches!" he ran past the van, straight into a car.

Five threw his hands up in disbelief. "I literally gave him money!"

He dropped her off at the grocery store, offering her a ride to her place after which she declined. Leonard didn't need to see that she was with him. Five didn't need any more reason to be suspicious.

The walk home was grueling. She hadn't thought about carrying bags of food several blocks with her body in such a state. She already knew more awaited her when she arrived home. Three hours, she'd been gone? He wouldn't be happy.