A/N: The order is 7-6, 4-1, 5. Rainbowdea was the first to get it right (on order)! bttrthanSHIELD and Fraguess got the reasoning right! most to least fucked up/needs the most fixing.
"What's your wisdom oh wise sage?"
"Well first of all, don't do that. Second, no drugs. I'd rather you not start that up again, at all, but it'd be really suspicious if you suddenly knew where to get them after... this." Ben paused and gestured vaguely to all three of them. Vanya nodded, making an aborted movement towards her notebook.
"Lemme see your nails." Klaus held out his hand, waiting for Vanya to put hers in his. He examined her nails and nodded. "You can write, just be careful."
Vanya grabbed her notebook and slowly scrawled with her left hand. She paused periodically and scratched something out. Ben turned back to Klaus.
"Third, don't try to kill father yet. We need to keep our financial stability until everyone has remembered. Pogo and mom can't exactly take over custody of us, and father's assests will be frozen. So until then we will wait for of us to get here and come up with a plan together, to get rid of him." Ben didn't even flinch when Vanya punched him in the arm. Klaus raised his eyebrow at that. He didn't even know that was on the table.
"Yeah, I know how much you don't like murder, but can't you just make an exception this once?" Vanya flipped to a new page and quickly wrote.
not around me.
Then flipped back to her original page. Ben pouted.
"Okay. Fourth? I think we were on the fourth pointer-thingy... Uh. I don't think showing off too much of your powers is going to be a major issue." Klaus rolled his eyes.
"Awww, I was going to bring up dear old daddy's ghosts. They're all super pissed at him. But I guess not..." Ben grimaced.
"Moving on, fifth point. Don't talk to the others about our time travel until they remember." This was one of the points Vanya was firm on. He agreed. Their thirteen year old selves were too immature to handle anything that had happened in the future. They didn't even know how to do taxes (Ben didn't know either, and Klaus had called himself a tax evader multiple times. Allison probably knew how to do taxes, maybe Diego.).
"How will I be able to tell they've remembered? Is it a magical little feeling? A glow? What if I misjudge?" Klaus wiggled in in place and waved his hands. Ben shook his head at him.
"Trust me, you'll know. It's kind of hard to miss." Vanya nodded at that.
"Who do you think is going to remember next? Has Five remembered?" Klaus wondered absentmindedly. Five wasn't here, but Five was... Five.
"Maybe Allison? I don't know..." Ben turned to Vanya for her input. She flipped her pages and wrote quickly.
five hasn't remembered. i think he's going to be last. prolly making sur we all got thru.
Then she tapped in the paragraph on the previous page. There were whole lines scribbled out, spelling errors made in a rush. Ben leaned against Vanya and read aloud.
"Continue acting like your thirteen year... old self for as long as you can. The longer you can keep father's eye off you, the... better off you'll be. I'm trying to... His attention is on me." Ben paused and started rubbing circles on Vanya's back. She leaned into his touch. "I think he has a way to watch us... he knew about my powers before Griddys. He has a notebook that he keeps notes on us."
"I think I know what notebook you're talking about." Klaus grimaced. Maybe he could lift if from father and throw it away again? It's not like father would immediately know it was him who did it, right?
"Just... just be careful." Ben warned cautiously, recognizing that gleam in Klaus' eye. Then launched into another round of advice.
Five leaned against the wall next to door and resisted the urge to teleport away. That would make a sound, and. And he couldn't let them know he'd eavesdropped.
He pushed away from the wall and slowly creeped away, tiptoeing around the loose and creaky floor boards.
That was... a lot to think about. Of all the things he'd suspected his siblings to be up to, that wasn't even in the top one hundred. But it made complete and utter sense. Vanya's personality change, Ben's attention suddenly being solely focused on Vanya, it all related back to time travel. And apparently he was involved.
He'd time traveled. Well, not him, not yet. Those three had made it sound like it was a matter of time before they all remembered.
He closed his door behind him and sat on his bed.
Did Vanya hate him? Did he do something in the future to make her hate him? Was that why she barely looked at him anymore?
He hoped not.
In the morning, Five resolved to be more involved in Vanya's life. To do everything he could to avoid her hating him. Even if it meant swallowing his pride.
Vanya sat at her usual seat, and waited. Saturdays were their one rest day, where father only gave them one lesson. The rest of the day was to be used as they pleased (as long as it was a father approved activity, but he was pretty lenient as long as you could spin it as educational or team bonding).
Ben, Klaus, and her were planning to hang out in the library and one of the gyms for 'team bonding'. They wanted to test Ben's tentacles, and Klaus' acrobatics. While they had absorbed their thirteen year old selves memories, muscle memory was completely different. At least for Klaus. For Ben it was just getting back into the swing of things.
None of them dwelled on the fact that everything was new for Vanya.
A chair scrapped against the floor. Vanya looked up from her empty plate and saw Five sitting to her left. She blinked.
Five had stopped sitting next to her after she refused to look at him anymore (he was a reminder of the apocalypse, the one he tried so hard to stop). She didn't mean to shun Five, it just happened.
"Hey Vanya."
A/N: plz recommend me good (family-orientated/fluffy/hurt-comfort) tua fics
thank you to everyone for faving, following, and reviewing!
mild spoiler below
Guest (on chapter 8): Ps. Isn't Dave actually still dead? I mean... He died during Vietnam War
klaus's logic is that he hasn't time traveled yet, and bc of that, dave is either in a retirement home, dead currently (but can be saved if he yanks him out of his time). klaus is being rllllyyyy optimistic (and i have plans for dave, so he schrodinger's cat rn). but yeah, you're right.
