One second they were climbing the stupid mountain, the walking paths were soaked in water as it had been raining nearly endlessly the days prior and were nearly crumbling beneath their feet, for some bullshit training, and the next Allison was yelling, "Vanya!", getting their five brothers' attention in an instant. Allison was kneeling by the edge of the mountain's drop, no sign of their other sister.
"What's happening?" Luther immediately asked, "What's wrong?"
As Luther asked essentially meaningless questions, Klaus had joined Allison by the mountain's edge, looking down it. "Um, guys," Klaus called, an uncomfortable, barely contained panic in his voice, "Vanya needs some help."
In a flash Five was on the other side of Allison looking down as well, while Ben, Luther, and Diego quickly joined their other siblings. As they looked down, they could see that Vanya had somehow nearly fallen off the stupid mountain and was barely managing to hold onto the edge of a small ledge several feet bellow them.
"What do we do Luther?" Ben asked, "Vanya's too far for us to reach her."
As Luther tried to remember what their training would have them do, the stupid records were of no help now Dad, Diego noticed the wettened dirt under their feet was crumbling away. With the added weight of the six of them all standing by the edge of their part of the mountain, the muddy mixture began crumbling a bit at their feet. "First, everyone needs to get away from the ledge," Diego said, pulling Klaus back the collar of his shirt since he wasn't paying attention, "or we're all falling off a goddamn mountain today."
Once they'd moved a few steps from the ledge, Allison having yelled down to Vanya that they were working on a plan and to hold on, no shit, Luther began trying to explain some long-winded and far too complicated plan of so pulley bullshit.
And rather than listen to Luther's plan any further, Five carefully approached the ledge once more, noting that Vanya's fingers, now completely coated in mud, were slipping from her own ledge. Realizing that they wouldn't have time to even try Luther's plan, sometimes these idiots really forgot he could spatial jump just about anywhere, Five jumped from the higher ledge with the rest of his siblings to the ledge with Vanya, accidentally scaring her a bit, thinking the part of the mountain she was holding onto was crumbling completely beneath her hands.
"Vanya," Five called, getting Vanya to lift her head, she only now realizing it was Five and not the land giving way, "do you think you can grab my hand?" as he asked he stuck his hand out for her to grab, trying to keep from kneeling right along the edge in case it, like the land above, began to crumble.
There was a second where Vanya tried to pull one of her hands from the mountain to grab onto his, but based on the rapidly growing dark clouds above them and the biting cold that had rolled in, her fear was getting the better of her. "Vanya, please!" Five called again, trying to not frighten her any further, "I need you to trust me!"
Five could hear Vanya's shoes scrapping against the dirt below, trying desperately to find some solid ground to support herself as she called back to him, "I do trust you Five!" and in a much quieter voice she added, one that he almost couldn't hear over the winds, "I'm just, scared."
He hadn't heard Vanya sound as scared as she did now in so long, not since he'd brought them back to their 13 year old bodies and she was trying to learn how to control her powers. "Vanya," Five called again, keeping his voice steady and calm, "just focus on me. Focus on my voice."
Five waited a moment as Vanya calmed down a bit, trying to take a few steadying breaths, before continuing, "You know Vanya, that I will never let anything bad happen to you. Including falling off a fucking mountain." The short laugh he got from Vanya, even for just a moment, he counted it as a win. "I need you to trust me completely right now, and grab my hand. I promise, nothing is going to go wrong. Believe me."
Vanya looked at him hesitantly, her fear evident on her face and in her shaking hand as she, once again, reached out to grab him, Five meeting her halfway as her muddy fingers dug into his wrist as his own dug into hers. Five pulled Vanya up with all his strength as she tried to push herself up as well.
Thankfully, as a bit more of the muddy earth crumbled away, exactly where Vanya had been hanging from, Five managed to pull her up onto the ledge with him, backing them into the mountain as much as possible. Once he was sure neither of them were plummeting to their deaths, Five took a careful hold of Vanya's face, pulling her focus back on him as he asked her, "Are you okay?"
Vanya gave him a quick nod, her whole body still slightly shaking but the winds dying down and the darkened clouds above dissipating told him that she wasn't as scared anymore, before she essentially fell onto him. Completely exhausted.
"Five? Vanya?" Ben was calling for them roughly ten feet above them, "Are you guys okay?"
Once again, Vanya nodded against him as he called back up to Ben that they were fine and would be back up soon. Ben moved away from the ledge again, likely telling the others what he'd said as Five tried to get enough energy to jump not only himself, but Vanya as well, which always took far too much of his energy when jumping with another person, back to more stable ground above them.
Another two minutes later, Vanya, for the most part, had stopped shaking and Five was practically ready with enough energy to jump them back to their siblings. "Vanya," Five said quietly, his lips right next to her ear, "are you ready?"
She, equally quietly, replied, "Yes." giving him another small nod as she did so, her grip on him tightening ever so slightly as she prepared for the jump.
Despite not needing to say so, Five told her to "Hold on tight." roughly 10 seconds before he spatial jumped them back to the rest of The Umbrella Academy.
The second they'd landed on solid ground again, Allison was hugging Vanya tightly, Vanya melting into it, hugging Allison back equally tight. While their sisters hugged and comforted each other, Klaus practically jumping on top of them, Diego told him "Nice job Five."
"Thanks." Five replied, not an ounce of sarcasm in his voice for one of the few moments of his long life, keeping a steady eye on Vanya, Allison, and Klaus's hug, mostly Vanya, but no one needed to know.
"I liked you're plan far more than Luther's." Ben told him, moving to stand next to him, also keeping an eye one their still hugging siblings. Five gave his brother a look, clearly intrigued as to what this plan Luther, which had clearly shifted from the ridiculous pulley he'd been suggesting when Five had jumped away earlier. Ben elaborated that, "After you'd jumped, but before he realized you had, Luther had been suggesting, possibly, using the Eldritch to try and reach Vanya, but I-"
"You didn't trust them not to hurt her?" Five guessed, "Even on accident?" which Ben nodded to.
Ben sighed, taking a breath before continuing, "Thankfully, you'd just jumped and gotten to her. So I didn't have to risk any accidents."
The Hargreeves stood around a bit, trying to recollect themselves, before Allison asked, "What do we do now? Keep going? Or do we call Dad?"
"Fuck Dad!" Diego hissed, "This whole thing was his stupid idea, I say we just go back down. Because there is no way in hell we are going up any further."
Luther had begun glaring at Diego, opening his mouth to form some sort of retort, Ben jumped in, hoping to diffuse the situation before any fighting could start, "All those in favor of going back down, raise your hand." Diego, Allison, Klaus, Ben, and Vanya all raised their hands, with varying degrees of force. "That settles it," Ben said, taking note of the obvious majority, "we're going back down."
The seven of them slowly began moving back down the mountain, with minal protesting or whining. Five was close behind Vanya as Allison continued to cling to her side, solidifying the fact that her sister was completely safe. As they first began walking, Klaus called to them all, "And everyone stay away from the edges!" Which promptly earned him an elbow from Ben, who was walking next to him while Diego and Luther were leading them all back down, as safely as possible.
Roughly an hour into the journey back down the mountain, Allison had moved up to Luther and Diego, talking with them about who knows what, and with Allison no longer next to Vanya, Five slid into the now emptied space. "How are you doing?" Five asked quietly, taking hold of one of her hands in his own.
"I'm fine Five." Vanya replied, trying to ensure he didn't worry about her, but the uneasiness of her voice negated any words that she'd told him. "How are you doing Five?"
They continued their typical small talk, dancing around talking about their real thoughts and feelings with the others so close by. And despite the lack of words to tell each other how they were really feeling, Five had always had a special connection with Vanya, to an extent that they didn't need to use words to tell each other how they were really feeling.
And because of this connection, Five knew that Vanya was still shaken from nearly falling of a mountain, which he still isn't sure exactly how that happened exactly, but within the few minutes he'd been walking next to her, rubbing some circles into her hand, Vanya had relaxed immensely. Knowing how much comfort and safety he could give Vanya, even by merely being next to her, made Five feel warm inside and ever so slightly, a bit more cocky.
After all his time in the Apocalypse then with The Commission, Five thought he'd never be able to love someone as whole heartedly as he knew he loved Vanya. And to make it ever so sweeter, he knew she loved him just as much. Even though they couldn't risk getting caught doing anything at The Academy; any kind affection was strictly prohibited by their father, no matter which timeline they were in.
But there was nothing that anyone could say or do that would change the way that Five and Vanya loved each other. And for once in his life, Five had something to work for, something to look forward to in the future. And he was counting down the days to the second they'd turn 18 and could leave The Academy, and never, ever, have to look back.