A few moments following the assassination of one John F. Kennedy found Theodore and Yugi spilling out of the sewers and into the alley behind Commerce & Knox with all the grace of limp noodles. It appeared the subsequent swallowing and regurgitation of Yugi had worn down his tantrum some, but the boy was still understandably upset. Theodore hadn't known Kiran for that long; sure, they had grown up together, but there had been a lot of kids at School, and very few ever broke through the unspoken barriers to form tentative friendships with each other. Why bother, when you could die tomorrow? Of course, there had been a few brave souls like Barbara and Kiran who had thrown that rule to the wind, forming those bonds anyway, and look how they ended up.

So it was with this in mind that Theodore didn't particularly grieve for the youngling, as cold-hearted as it sounded, at least not like Yugi was. Those two had clearly gone through so much together for the teen to be reacting in such a way. Whilst the Loric Garde paced up and down the alley like a caged animal muttering to himself and getting all worked up again; the Human Garde slowly pushed himself up into a hunched position, hands on his knees and head bowed as the two minds split painfully split apart. You'd think that with the frequency that the pair often shifted control, the change would become easier to handle not harder, but alas.

"Shhh!" Theodore groaned, bending over to cradle his aching head in his hands. "Quiet yelling! Quiet yelling"

"Kiran just died!" Yugi furiously spun on his heel, facing the (physically) older Garde with a wicked red-eyed glare, trimmed with tear-tracked cheeks.

"I know, and my head is killing me, so shhhh!"

"HE WAS 13!" Yugi snapped, growing louder as he stepped closer. Out of the corner of his eye, Theodore acknowledged the sudden appearance of Uncle Five blinking into the alleyway with the rest of his family rounding the corner not far behind.

"I KNOW THAT!" Theodore saw red, shooting up to stand over the boy with a wince, doing his best to ignore the pain shooting through his head in protest."GOD, DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT?! BUT YELLING ABOUT IT OR KILLING YOURSELF ISN'T GOING TO BRING HIM BACK!"

"IF BARBARA WERE HERE—" Yugi bargained, shuffling back a step or two as the elder Hargreeves edged closer with wary movements; watching the pair of them like they were escaped animals at the zoo.

"—But she's not. You killed her, remember?" Theodore cut off coldly; the icy tone easily cutting through any further protests from the boy. He wanted to take the words back as soon as they left his tongue, especially at the violent flinch he received from the other boy.

"We didn't mean to…"

"And yet she's still gone"

Theodore knew he was being far harsher to the boy than was necessary, but some petty little vindictive part of him felt like he needed to remind Yugi that he—that they—weren't as invincible as he seemed to think they were. God! Didn't he remember the horror that was the School? Theodore didn't think he could ever forget that; not even with a thousand bottles of moonshine or Ordin interference. But once he'd started venting, he wasn't sure that he could stop no matter how much his brain was screaming for him to. It was like the entirety of his Garde experience was finally coming to a head, and unfortunately for Yugi, he was the recipient to this exchange. "Poor little Loric" Theodore purred, eyes narrowed and lips pulled up in a cruel smirk—he'd definitely gone too far by now. "Playing house for three years, but no more. Sad little Loric, all alone and so very weak"

"You have no right!" Yugi slammed him back, pinning Theodore up against the brick wall in one quick move. The protests from his family were ignored as a crooked elbow pinned him against the tarnished brick. "You have no idea what happened to us, 2419!"

"Oh I don't, do I 2109?" Theodore pushed back, easily throwing off the boy and shoved him to the ground at his feet.

A quick glance out of the corner of his eyes was spared towards the end of the alleyway where the elder Hargreeves stood watching them in varying stages of interest and distress. Uncle Klaus appeared to be throughly enjoying the interaction as if they were nothing more than a live-action soap opera, Uncle Luther appeared rather confused by all the strange terms and accusations thrown around, but his shoulders were hunched in tight—even if he didn't know what they were saying, he could understand their actions and tones just fine. Uncles Five and Diego were the only two who seemed genuinely interested in the scene, analysing their words and movements with skills only gained through years of training. Finally, both Mama and Auntie Allison stood shifting in place with visible distress displayed on their features as they warred with how to intervene in on the situation. Having dealt with superpowered siblings was one thing, but two children with alien powers was another can of worms all together.

"Don't I know about the experiments? Don't I know about the Augments? Don't I know about the graves we dug or the brands burnt onto our skin?" Theodore pursued as he ignored the hushed gasps from the other end of the alley. Stalking towards Yugi like a predator, he let his resentment towards the aliens and their blasted organisation wash over him as the ginger tried to back-pedal away from quiet feet. He only got so far however, before his back smashed up against the dumpster on the other side of the alleyway. "And what about you, 2109? What do you know about our hunters? About sacrifice? About destinies?"

Yugi stared up at Theodore with teary eyes full of fear—fear that he was clearly trying to hide (shown by the clenched fists at his sides and nails biting into his palm) as the Human Garde crouched down at his feet and stared at him with pupiless loralite blue eyes that pinned him in place. Theodore was honestly sorry about the words that were coming out of his mouth, but it was like he'd lost control of his lips, making him unable to stop no matter how much he wanted to…But it did feel nice to finally let it all out, a small part of him had to admit. Hopefully, he wouldn't say that bit out loud.

"They're gone, you little dorvak and there's nothing we can do" Theodore's tone softened, dropping down an octave as his eyes lowered from his peer's fearful ones to Kiran's ashen-smudged pendant where it lay entangled with his own. The smiley little Loric popped to mind, his little jaunty tune still playing through his aching head and Theodore deflated like a wet balloon. The two little Frija Lorics had clearly gone through a lot together, and losing one or the other hadn't factored into their minds. But that didn't mean Theodore would take Yugi's abuse lying down and if he was being honest, his ranting retort had been long-coming. He kinda hoped that the emotional suppressant wasn't something he'd picked up from Mama—he'd seen how well that technique had turned out for her. "The Mogs will always hunts us to the ends of the earth, whether you like or not"

He let out a heavy sigh as his pounding head bowed as if silently asking for forgiveness from the teen. All the fight had gone out of him by this point and Theodore wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and disappear. The scowling boy he had met only hours before had been reduced into a snivelling mess at his feet and all because his friend had been killed in front of him and Theodore had thrown his failures right back into his face, alongside other grievances that had nothing to do with him all whilst under the stare of the Umbrella Academy. He felt like the wind had been knocked from his sails as a sad smile graced his lips. "So" He petted Yugi's outstretched foot, only barely able to ignore the flinch that had Yugi wincing when his head bumped against the dumpster at the action. "Let me know when you've climbed off of that high horse of yours and we can sort this shit out"

"Where—where're are you going?" Yugi stuttered out as Theodore rose to his feet and shuffled towards the back door of Elliot's department store with his head still pounding, but now his heart clenched in sorrow and guilt coursed through him like a raging river.

"To take a nap. Wake me when we're dead"

WHOOSH!

"What the hell was that?!" Uncle Five demanded as he blinked into the foyer of the abandoned department store, barely giving Theodore any room to breathe. He must've looked quite the sight, sat crouched on the stained floor with his fingers twined into his locks and tears streaking down freckled cheeks that heaved with each hiccupy breath. Uncle Five's voice sounded muffled in Theodore's ears as everything seemed to hit him all at once. Kiran's death, Mama's disownment of him, the approaching Apocalypse, the Mogadorians hunting them still. On and on and on.

"Hey! Who is that? What's this about more people outta time? Hey! Theodore! Look at me when I'm talking to you!" Uncle Five demanded, pacing in front of the crouched boy scrunching and unscrunching his fingers like he was trying to refrain from wringing his neck. Absently Theodore noticed that the floor beneath his feet was stained with dried blood that crackled and peeled away with each minuscule movement that ran overtop of it. Clearly someone had tried their best to clean up whatever had marred the floor, but they hadn't done a very good job or hadn't expected the blood stain to stick so much. "Theodore!"

"He's—he's like me" Theodore whispered as his tears mixed with snot and dripped onto the already messy floor.

"…What?" Uncle Five stopped at that, locking his calculating eyes on his nephew who refused to raise his head.

"They're a Student—uh, a Garde, like me" Guilt roiled inside Theodore as he reflexively rubbed at the brand engraved onto his left wrist. Ever the eagle-eyed assassin, Uncle Five's hand shot out to snatch up the limb in question and pulled his nephew to his feet so as to easier inspect it. Theodore barely struggled in his grip, far too drained—physically & emotionally—to try and wrangle his way out of the tight grip.

"They?" Uncle Five asked softly, his hand gently shoving back the floppy cardigan sleeve to reveal Theodore's Student ID printed there. It was like watching through someone else's eyes as the calloused thumb ran back and forth over the raised numbers with a gentleness that Theodore didn't really acquaint with the schoolboy assassin.

"Th—there—there was another one—a youngling" Theodore hiccuped, wiping his other sleeve across his face in an effort to get rid of the mess splattered there. It didn't do much except disgust his uncle. "He was just a youngling…why is it always the younglings?"

At this, Theodore slowly lifted his head to look at Uncle Five who bore a thoughtful expression as he sucked on his lower lip and grazed his nephew's face with narrowed eyes. Theodore hadn't really explained what was going on and it was clear that his uncle didn't really understand what was going on, but was intent on finding out. Especially if whatever Theodore had brought to the table had thrown an unexpected wrench into his carefully crafted half-baked plans. He wasn't sure if Uncle Five had answered his question, lost in thought as he was, but in the end it didn't matter. It seemed his body had made the decision for him; swaying once, twice and then slumping into his small uncle. Theodore felt more than saw the arms come up to stop him from taking the pair of them to the floor with a surprised grunt as his own body collapsed into noodles.

WHOOSH!

Theodore had barely blinked, before he found himself being teleported further into the building and then shoved none-so-gently onto the awaiting couch. Staring dizzily up at his smallest uncle, Theodore barely flinched when the crocheted blanket was tossed over him, sliding over his head and flopping over splayed legs; instead far more interested in hiding beneath it as his ears pricked towards the sounds of hushed chatter of his family floating up the stairs. At least that was until he was shoved down onto the cushions by Uncle Five who had procured a cup of coffee and stared down at him over the rim of the steaming cup with concerned eyes. "Sleep"

"…G'night Uncle" Theodore mumbled, eyes sliding shut as feet thundered up the steps.

"Good night Theodore"