1.
It was weird, Luther thought at first, the way their father refused to be addressed as 'Father'.
He was a strict man, their father, and he was not as doting as other fathers that he knew of; like Mr. Robert next door who had two daughters of his own. At first, Luther believed that must be why—fathers were only fond of their little girls, and Luther wasn't Allison or Vanya. But upon closer look, their father treated his sisters no different than he did the five of his sons. He might have paid more attention to Diego because of his mild speech impediment, Klaus with his terrible nightmares, and Vanya because of her mood swings, but Dad never unfairly favored anyone else among them. Even Five, whose powers resembled Dad's that they were almost identical, was never shown any bias.
It was one of the many reasons that he liked him. Father might not be an affectionate man, but there were times when Luther knew he expressed his fondness for them in his own ways.
To Luther, it was whenever he would drop what he was doing to assist him. It didn't matter if Dad was reading an engaging book and the help that Luther asked of him was a hand on assembling the model airplane that he got for him.
Sometimes, Luther got the impression that Dad preferred that he would ask for help if there was something he couldn't resolve for himself, and for that alone, Luther loved his father.
2.
Diego remembered being afraid of their Dad at first.
He wasn't a good reader like his brothers and sisters. He would stutter without meaning to and would hate himself over it. Dad kept a close eye on their grades, and Diego had been terrified that Dad would punish him for his poor marks on oral recitation. He had half the mind to hide it from him, but knowing their father, he already knew beforehand.
To Diego's surprise, Dad had called for him alone in his study and asked him about his difficulty, and his open expression and willingness to hear Diego loosened his tight lips. The words had come out of his mouth in stutters, and Dad never once judged him. Diego slept that evening relieved as if he was free of a burden that he hadn't been aware of.
Dad began to tutor him, and together they would read aloud in his study. Diego would notice a tinge of frustration in him once or twice, and if Diego didn't understand that their father was just a single man who was taking care of seven children with different needs by himself, he would have disliked their father for it. But Dad never showed any judgment or any sign that he was getting fed up by Diego's speech. If anything, he had only been more patient, and guilty at the moments of his weakness.
When Diego managed to read a short story verbally without a single stumble, Dad quirked a small smile that was basically a smirk on his face. It was still a smile, and it made Diego proud of his small accomplishment.
He knew he would do better next time if it meant that their father would continue to look at him with pride.
3.
Dad wasn't an easy man to please.
Allison knew she was doing her best and was nothing but an obedient daughter and a good sister to her brothers and only sister. She would never get mad or impatient even if sometimes she was irritated at Klaus who would nab articles of her clothing and makeup without her permission. It had thankfully stopped when she brought it to their father as civilly as she could, though she disliked the way Klaus was not punished for it.
She never complained to Dad, not even when he seemed rather severe to her when it came to spending her allowance. He explained that it was hers to make do what she would, but he would rather that she learned to spend frugally. Dad never raised his voice whenever he reprimanded any of them, but it was just as bad that Allison wondered if it would have been better if he was yelling—he always had something to criticize about her, she thought bitterly.
There were times when she was very much tempted to Rumor him if only he could look at her more favorably than her siblings. She would feel guilty whenever she thought that she wanted the same attention he paid to Diego, Klaus, and Vanya. Unlike them, she had no need for Dad's focused tutelage, but she wanted it all the same.
It haunted her, the question of whether he didn't like her at all, that maybe he had no choice but to take her in with the rest of her siblings. And when one day she couldn't take the way Dad praised Vanya's playing of the violin, she asked him the questions she wanted to ask that by the end of her tirade there was only a mounting horror that she blatantly showed her insecurities. She wasn't sure what would be worse: that it would dawn on her father that she wasn't the perfect little girl that she wanted him to see her as, or that he wouldn't care either way whatever she was.
For the first time, Allison cried in front of someone, in front of her father, of all people, though she never got the chance to regret it when Dad simply let her spill her tears and patted her back comfortingly, if a bit awkwardly.
"I don't want you perfect," he said, genuine and the softest that she saw him. "I want you to be honest, Allison."
Oh, she thought as she hugged him so tight. I got it all wrong.
4.
It was Dad who believed him first.
Well, not first, technically, because he told Ben before him. Ben had been skeptical at first but took him seriously when Klaus asked him to sleep beside him after a nightmare. Ben did not ask after that, and he never said if he bought Klaus' claim that it had been a nightmare either.
Dad knew immediately, to his surprise. Klaus thought he was not as special as his brothers and sisters who have powers to show for it. And it would have been fine—or at least, he could have made do without the hallucinations that had him lean toward the belief that he was schizophrenic instead of special. But Dad, the best Dad in the world who was always willing to understand him better, told him that it was the manifestation of his powers. He did, however, scolded him for not telling him sooner.
It was explained to Klaus what his abilities were, though Dad admitted as much that he couldn't gauge the extent of it. For a moment, he was afraid of what his father might suggest. He had seen how he trained the others, and their individual drills had something to do with their powers.
If his powers had to do with the dead, did that mean that Dad would train him in a cemetery? Ask him to commune with or summon a ghost? The prospects were frightening, and while Dad was not truly harsh, he could be a demanding disciplinarian.
And so Klaus told him. Dad could call him a coward for all he cared, but Dad valued honesty more than anything. Honesty was a sign of strength, no? Klaus was glad that Dad was at least willing to hear him out.
"Alright," said Dad simply once Klaus was done telling him in detail that he wouldn't last any sort of training in a mausoleum, for example. "No training of that sort," he promised, and that was it.
He made it sound so simple which was why Klaus adored him very much.
5.
Their father was an odd man.
It took Five a while to realize why: Father reminded him of himself. It wasn't just the similarity in looks that Five could his own face aging in the same manner as Father's; their personality and temperament were so alike that there came an unbidden thought once that he and Luther might be different compared to their siblings for a completely separate reason.
They might be his biological sons while the rest were adopted.
But it didn't make sense in Five's mind. Luther was his twin so shouldn't there be anything in him too that was like their father if he was truly their biological parent? Why did Five only have them then?
In fact, he got his fair share of teasing from Klaus that Five was like a mini version of their father. With the same name even, he had said with an annoying grin, you should be Five Junior!
Five regretted that he hadn't paid much attention to Klaus' words because it turned out that he had been right, in a way.
"Ten years from now, ask me again," Father—now, Five wasn't certain what to think and feel to call him as such—said evenly when he was confronted with this discovery. "Ask me and I will tell you everything."
Five held him to that, and because he knew himself, he knew he would never go back to his word.
6.
If Ben didn't know any better, he would think that Dad often looked at him as if he was seeing a ghost.
He paid it no mind—it hardly meant that Dad particularly looked at him as if he was unique from the rest of his children. Unique beyond what he was capable of, that was. When he reached fifteen, Dad paid a peculiar interest in his abilities and would inquire about his health and his grasp on the creatures he could summon.
It was nice to be worried over sometimes, Ben thought, especially by their Dad who deemed him independent and had entrusted him to look after Klaus and Vanya especially.
When their seventeenth birthday arrived, Dad wanted him close to him. It was touching, seeing as they rarely spend a day together if it wasn't for training. But his uncharacteristic manner was a bit concerning too, so Ben asked and found that, perhaps for the first time, Dad was conflicted to tell him the truth.
"I have a reason to believe that your control might slip when you use your ability," Dad explained as succinctly as possible. "I'm not criticizing your capabilities, but better that I risk your anger and think that I have no trust in you."
Better than your death. Ben could read between the lines, and for some reason, he was more surprised at the alarming clarity and calm that the realization brought him than the meaning itself.
He knew now, at least, and Ben would be more careful from now on. He had no wish to die young and leave his brothers and sisters. He had no wish to leave Dad.
"Thank you for telling me," Ben said earnestly, a huge smile on his face despite the grim possibility that he could still possibly face.
7.
Vanya liked the pleased look Dad would have whenever he listened to her play.
At some point, it went from listening to her progress to listening for the sake of enjoying her music. He was the first to hear of her own composition: her first audience and her critic. She strived to perform her best for him. She wanted him to be proud of her.
He was ever patient with them, and the same patience was tested numerous times; like when Diego had a fistfight with some boys in the yard and claimed that he was defending someone from bullies, or when Allison and Klaus had gotten into their usual fights over some skirt or some other, or when Luther and Diego kept throwing hands when they couldn't resolve an argument with cool heads.
But Vanya knew that Dad was the most patient with her. She hadn't been an easy child, and if it had been anyone else who had taken her under their wing, she might not have grown at ease with her own powers and the destruction it could bring not only to those she loved.
Vanya could only imagine how she could repay her father for all that he had given and sacrificed for them. For her. It wasn't easy raising seven superpowered children from infancy, even if you have your own powers. Their Dad was only one man, and yet he cared for them all to the best of his capabilities. Oftentimes, Vanya wished that their father had someone looking out for him as well, someone who would accompany him once his children flew from his nest.
For now, though, Vanya would play for her father and show him that she was what she was today because of him.
+1
It should be odd to think of his family as his family in a whole another context.
And yet it wasn't, despite seeing the same young faces that he left all those years ago, despite seeing the same face that he used to have except this one would never know the bleakness of a desolated future at the age of thirteen. None of them would know if he could help it.
They might not be the very same family that he left and went back for, but they would be his to care for and protect. Time might have changed him physically and otherwise, but it could never change who he loved and held dear.
It mattered not to him, in the end, if he was their father or their brother. These people were his family, as simple as that.
If he had to die or live a different life for them, then so be it.
End