Vanya Hargreeves came out of a bedroom, following the sounds of the siblings sitting down for dinner, joining them, feeling shaky, steeling for a big moment.
A few minutes into the meal, Luther notices, he could be dumb sometimes, but he CARED a lot and actually had a pretty good bond with his sibling. "Vanya, you okay? You look like that time Klaus had you convinced that the ghosts were plotting something against you".
The smallest of the Hargreeves siblings nodded, then a shake of the head "No, not really, I….need to say something." Vanya took another deep breath and a sip of win for the nerves.
"So, I have had these very confused feelings for…a very long time. I never could quite figure out what it was but...I had an idea. Until the day I was being tortured by the CIA. When Ben came in to save me, get me out of my own nightmare. He was in my head, I could feel him, feel his spirit…and the thing I had been struggling with".
Klaus looked at Vanya, very serious, with good intentions….but being Klaus, quite dim. "Vanya…do you think you are a ghost? You're not, ghosts can't drink wine".
Vanya giggled, happy just for a moment. "No Klaus, you dummy. I subbed my toe earlier and it hurt too much for me to be dead. But…." Now or never, it had taken WEEKS to work up the nerve. "I'm a boy. I'm not a girl, I'm a boy. I know that we all grew up with you eeing me a certain way, and I'm still the same PERSON, my brain and stuff, just…not your SISTER. I….hope everyone can be okay with that?"
Diego, surprisingly, was the first to speak. "Do we still call you Vanya?"
"I actually…would like to be Viktor"
Diego nodded "Okay, neat. Viktor, pass the pasta before it gets cold?"
He…that was a thrill to admit, even internally, HE passed the pasta. "So…we're all okay? I thought there would be some…pushback, or shock or…I figured I'd go to bed really upset tonight, you know?"
The other siblings laughed a little, and Five in his usual blunt manner, took charge, pointing around the table.
"You were saved by a ghost, Luther has the upper body of a chimp and has gone to the moon. Allison is famous. I am an old man in my teen body. We time traveled, our mother was a robot and father was an alien. Our butler was a talking chimp and the head of the time traveling hit squad trying to kill us was a talking fish. You have destroyed the world TWICE, we ALL have super powers…..and quite frankly Viktor, you have dressed pretty exclusively like a boy since BEFORE I ran away. I'm not sure why you thought you being trans would shock anyone here, even a little…" he winked "And I'm still going to clean you out in our Saturday poker match after we eat, you're NOT getting out of it." He looked around the table "Did I miss anything?"
And so it was that Viktor Hargeeves stepped out into the open world. And there was lots and lots of trouble and danger after that, and the siblings still fought like cats and dogs and there was LOTS of drama. But THAT was never an issue again. After the first couple days, the name Vanya didn't come up again except from an enemy agent who was corrected by ALL of his siblings in unison before being killed.
And Viktor carried on, still a bit of an accidental menace to society with his powers, but no longer feeling like he was carrying a dark secret, or afraid of it coming out. He was still treated the same, he still WAS basically the same. And their adventures continued without it being a big deal.