147 Murillo Street wasn't that far from Kissena Park, so the quiet drive from the park to his first childhood home was both tense and awkward; at least in Theodore's eyes. Sat in the passenger's seat with his hood pulled up over his head and legs tucked up beneath him as his gaze remained firmly on the passing scenery outside, he tried his best to ignore the other occupants in the car, although he could still feel their burning stares on him. Apparently the elder Hargreeves had been on the search for his doro before they had inevitably run him over and now they had returned to their search with the wanted Garde boy in tow. As the currently most wanted person (save for his parents who seemed to be involved with the apocalypse somehow) in the state, there was no way that Don Diego was ever going to let him out of his sight again.
It was odd for Theodore to be back in Queens after so long. Sure, the Garde boy couldn't rightly remember growing up in the eastern district of New York, but his parents had told him many stories of his (doro's) childhood home and they had driven by many times over the years. Those stories of his vera's were fond whilst those of his doro's were less so; but either way they had been enough to build up a picture of his primitive years outside of the woods and the grip of Mrs Kowalski & her cats.
The short drive had also served to help came Theodore further, particularly as he sat listening to his don's Spotify playlist through headphones that felt uncomfortably sticky with whatever he was trying not to think about (hopefully it was only earwax). As he started to calm down, he also started to plan. Keeping his gaze stalwartly on the passing streets outside, he watched with absently glazed but calculating eyes as he tried to think of an escape plan that would keep both him and his vera safe.
At first he thought that he would just return to the Umbrella Academy to grab his Go-Bag and then make his way back to A'Vera's place out on Jackpine Road. There, he'd wait for his Vera because he knew that it was one of the few places that they had both claimed as a safe place. Unfortunately there were a few problems with that; including the newly constructed barricade at the toll booth going out of town and the overprotective nature of Don Diego who was unlikely to let him out of his sight. If he had wanted to sneak away, he would have had to time it just right.
But now? Now he would have to completely rethink that escape plan. Theodore knew that he would still have to take/pack his Go-Bag because leaving without one was a suicide mission. After that, there was still the matter of, y'know, escaping. Perhaps he could contact one of the Garde smugglers? Like Mrs Anderson. He could contact someone like her to get him out of New York and out from under the LANE Keepers' noses before their trap encircled him too tightly. Because he knew that if he didn't leave soon, then he may not leave at all. The only caveat to this plan however, was that nowhere in it, had he left room or time to track down his vera. Maybe once it was safe he could come back and look for her? Because wouldn't he be putting her in more danger if he stayed?
Or maybe—and he was really playing devil's advocate here—he could get in contact with his doro for the first time in years and seek shelter under his care. Logically, Theodore knew that his doro would be enthralled with this idea; jumping at something so opportune to create the heroic academy he had dreamed of as a child (the one that would rival the Umbrella Academy which he had once yearned to be a part of, but never could be) but it was that very excitement which frightened the boy. Theodore knew that his doro had some bad things in the past; terrible, horrible things that had traumatised more than one person, including himself. Vera had never explicitly told Theodore what his doro had done; however kids were mean, people talked and Theodore had full access to the internet, so he had found out anyhow. It was always a bit of a talking point, learning that your doro was a mass-murdering serial killer with an obsession with half of your family and a moniker to long with it.
But at this point, Theodore was just spitballing and all of his half-baked plans were still up in the air. His first and foremost concerns were thus: finding his vera and hiding from the LANE Keepers. Anything else could wait until then. If they had to flee in the middle of the night or hunker down in the bowels of the academy, then so be it. As long as they had each other, Theodore knew that they would be okay. But first, he had to find her.
"…So, Theodore?" Ven Allison piped up from the backseat, pulling the boy from his stupor where he had been mentally jumping from roof to roof.
"Mmhm?" Theodore hummed. His voice was hoarse from weeping unapologetically into his don's shoulder only moments before and his eye—hidden behind wire-rimmed sunglasses—were an itchy red from those tears. Brown eyes darted up to the rearview mirror where he spotted his curly-haired ven and his smaller don sat in the backseat.
"When—when was the last time you were here?" Ven Allison asked, her tongue darting out to wet painted lips. Clearly it wasn't the real question which had been burning on the back of her tongue.
"H-here?" He coughed to clear his throat as his brows furrowed in confusion. He wasn't sure if she meant here as in Queens or here as in the city; because although the answers were similar, they were not one and the same.
"Here, as in Queens" Ven Allison explained further.
"Ah" He nodded in recognition as his gaze turned back to the passing scenery outside, "I grew up here, for a little bit. Least 'til I was four years old, 'coz there was that whole thing with the LANE pandemic. Vera was terrified they'd take me—us—away so we left"
"Where'd you go?" Don Fën added curiously and oddly soft for someone who had seemed rather intense over the last few days.
"A'Vera's place" Theodore shrugged.
"Mom's?" Don Diego puzzled, brows furrowed as he easily translated the title which confused the back two. "Mom doesn't have a place. She stays at the academy"
"No. Not Vera's vera, Doro's A'Vera" Theodore shook his head. "She has a cabin out in the woods"
"The woods?" Don Diego pursed his lips, "D'you mean out on Jackpine Road?"
"Yeah" Theodore nodded as he spared a glance towards his don in the driver's seat.
"So close?" Ven Allison whimpered under her breath, leaning back in her seat. "How could they have been so close and still not have said anything?"
"Well, that's kinda the whole point of going into hiding, sis" Don Diego sneered, flashing a teasing smirk at her in the rearview mirror as they rounded the corner.
"Oh, ha-ha" She deadpanned, shooting him a withering look as she crossed her arms and leant back in her seat. "So, hey Theo"
"Mm?" Theodore hummed, wanting nothing more than to slip beneath the gentle tones of Calum Scott playing through his headphones.
"Why did you come back to the city?" Ven Allison pursued, finally releasing whatever had been on her mind. Clearly Theodore's cliffnoted version of events (and what little gossip she had managed to scrounge up over the last couple of days) hadn't been enough to satisfy her thirst. Next to her, Don Fën looked equally curious. "Vanya never said"
Don Diego tightened his grip on the wheel until his knuckles were white whilst Theodore swallowed thickly. It wasn't a nice story and as they had come to learn one of the main characters—Eudora Patch, the detective who had helped them so much over the years—had recently passed in the line of duty. Theodore had no clue as to how her death had affected Don Diego, mostly because he hadn't asked (or had the mind to), but he imagined it must've hit him pretty hard considering how much he had wept when they had broken up years before. There was of course, Vera's missing status to deal with. A constant worry which had plagued Theodore since he had discovered she had not returned home since Tuesday and he wished more than anything, that he would turn and see her playing her beloved violin or she'd walk through the door exclaiming her worries about having misplaced him in all the chaos of the last week.
And then there was Doro, the villain in his story; a man who both frightened the boy and someone who he deeply cared for. He was his father after all and no matter how much he wished it weren't so, there were still parts of him that remembered fun times. Times where they would make blanket forts in the living room or catch fireflies in stained glass jars. There would be days where they trained out in the woods together, making so much noise that the ducks on the lake took flight and there would be rainy days where they would go around the cabin, naming all of the duck-themed ornaments in the house (Theodore's favourite had been the cuckoo clock in the hallway which he had cleverly named 'Quackers').
Sometimes when he was alone, Theodore liked to imagine that that was what a real family was like; that that was what their family would have been like if they had been normal. No powers, no murderers, just them. They would live in a small home with windows that looked out onto the street, there would be neatly cut grass painted on the lawn and a small caul de sac for him to play on with the other kids in the street. Maybe they would have a cat or a dog to play with and as he got older, maybe he'd even have a sibling or two. His parents wouldn't fight and they would be one big happy family. But that was just a dream—just a silly childish dream—that would never come true because Vera and Doro hated each other's guts (as told by their numerous violent bouts) and even though Theodore knew that his vera had chosen to live with a serial killer (for Theodore's sake) rather than live with her own father, he knew (now) that she hadn't been happy. Because their tale had never been a happy one; oh, sure there were happy moments, but in the end, they were still no more than some Shakespearian tragedy.
"…Ah, when I was seven years old, Doro had this notebook filled with notes on our Legacies—on our powers—like how to use us as weapons and stuff" Theodore eventually replied, his voice small and forcefully nonchalant.
"He…what?" Ven Allison blinked dumbly. "He kept notes? Like—like Dad?"
"Uh huh" Theodore nodded, "Anyway, when Vera found the notebook, she thought that he should burn it. But Doro didn't like that, so he got up, bear the crap outta my vera and crushed my face in"
"…What?" Don Fën breathed, seemingly taken aback. Next to him, Ven Allison had paled considerably.
"Yeah, so Vera returned the gesture and threw Doro through the wall, 'coz y'know, she didn't want him to do that again. When they went to trial; Doro went to jail, Vera got acquitted and was paid $100,000 of punitive damages and subsequent child support"
"Vanya threw someone through a wall?" Don Fën blinked dumbly, still stuck on the former half of the story. "Vanya?"
"Is that so weird?" Theodore asked, genuinely confused.
"It's Vanya! Of course it's weird!" Don Fën replied as if that made all the sense in the world. He couldn't seem to grasp the idea that the younger sister he had known was not the same one she was now.
"But don't you remember, Five?" Ven Allison turned to her smallest brother, "She threw Luther across the room at the Will reading"
"Yeah, but Luther was being an ass" Don Diego replied, noting how Theodore seemed to shrink in on himself at the reminder of what his eldest brother had done to the boy all on the presumption that a box labelled 'One' belonged to him.
"Y-you wanna know the funniest part of that story?" Theodore interjected as they turned onto Murillo street. "Y'know, when my vera maims and cripples a man?"
"What…?" Don Fën sounded almost hesitant in his reply. Like he hadn't just hadn't had his whole view of his sister tipped on his head.
"Doro was the one who had convinced her to stop taking her pills and to harness her Legacies in the first place! Ha-ha!"
The cab was filled with awkward silence after Theodore's forced laugh following the end of his story and with that, they pulled up in front of the little golden house on Murillo street.