I Am Not Ordinary, an umbrella academy fanfic

Author's Note: I've been doing a lot of writing lately, including several AUs for The Umbrella Academy. For those of you who follow me or any of my other stories, you can expect updates on most, if not all, of them very soon. Sorry to keep everyone waiting for so long; I've given a small explanation of my absence in the author's note on ch.6 of Like Magic (a.k.a., Interlude One). If you are new to my works, hello, welcome, I am DH. Information on myself and what I'm working on can be found on my profile page, which I try to update at least once a month, if not every week.

Anyway. About this story. I've fudged a little bit of the timeline, changed a couple things around and whatnot, but it starts a few years before and will end just as season one starts. This story probably wont be very long, maybe ten chapters or so, but I do already have a sequel planned.

Disclaimer: Do people still do these anymore? It's not mine, of course, I'm just borrowing them.

New or old, please do not hesitate to point out any mistakes you may find. All favs, follows, and reviews are greatly appreciated.

Enjoy.

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Chapter One: Happy Birthday, I Think?

(AKA: Time to Speed-Run Some Childhood Trauma So We Can Get to the Other Trauma - I Mean, the Start of the Story)

Number Seven always suspected their dad was lying to her. Always suspected that she had powers like her brothers and sister. Well, not always, of course. The thought didn't come into her head until just after she had turned ten, when their training intensified. ("Their" meaning all six of her siblings, of course; the extent of Seven's involvement in training was only as an occasional assistant to Sir Reginald Hargreeves.)

If she and her siblings had all been born under the same circumstances, how did they have powers and she did not? She couldn't make any guesses about any other children who had been born the same way, but for her to be the only ordinary one out of the seven of them? It seemed incredibly unlikely. Of course, she could possibly have some sort of passive ability that didn't affect her life, but again, it seemed unlikely when her siblings all had very obvious and extraordinary powers. Alas, there was no way for her to test her theory, and she had no idea how to even go about doing such a thing.

She did, however, begin to think it may have something to do with her anxiety pills. Dad and Pogo, and even Grace, were so adamant about her taking them on time. Especially when one day, she had gotten distracted practicing violin that she completely missed the scheduled time for her second pill of the day.

After a very long lecture about the importance of schedules and medication, she had been banned from music for an entire month. The strange thing though, was that she hadn't noticed or felt anything different after missing her medication. All she had noticed was the music, the pull of the bow against the violin strings.

Number Seven was a meek young girl, though, having been told again and again that she was only ordinary. It took her a long time to get the courage to present her theory to Reginald, but by the time she had, Number Five disappeared. So instead, she used that leftover courage to ask for a real name. For all of them. Mostly for Five, though. Her favorite sibling. She was honestly fine with being Seven, but he had been the one to convince her that they should have "real names".

So, mostly thanks to Grace, they became Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Ben, and Vanya. When Vanya asked why Five didn't get a name, Grace smiled and said:

"Of course he did, Vanya."

But that was the only thing Grace would say about the subject. After a few tries, Vanya gave up on asking what Five's new name was. Life went on, mostly the same as before. (Dysfunctionally, with her often ignored or pushed away.) Then, the Hargreeves children started leaving home, leaving the Umbrella Academy.

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Diego left first, at seventeen, and managed to snag a spot in the police academy. He still came around for missions on occasion, when he could spare the time. That stopped, of course, when, just before they turned nineteen, Ben passed. Everyone else, except Luther, left pretty quickly after that, the Umbrella Academy officially disbanding. Klaus, who had already been 'suppressing' his abilities and avoiding missions for years, disappeared into the more shady areas of the city now that his favorite brother was gone. Allison went off to become a full time actress. And Vanya set herself up in a little, second-floor apartment on the other side of the city far from home, and got two jobs to support herself.

It was not an easy living, and she had to budget down to the last penny for a long time, but it was her place. And that was good enough.

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Life went on, and before Vanya knew it, almost five years had gone by. She realized this very suddenly one morning, as she was leaning against her kitchen counter waiting on the coffee maker. The more she thought about it, the more she realized she kind of missed, well, everyone, in a weird 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' kind of way.

With that in mind, and after making sure she was free today, she decided she would take a trip over to the Hargreeves mansion. There was no guarantee that anyone but Pogo and Mom would be there, but that was okay, she decided. They were her favorite family members, anyway. (Not really, but they were guaranteed to be there, and there was less of an emotional chasm separating them from her, unlike her siblings. So, for now, she'd call Mom and Pogo her favorites.)

After a small breakfast of coffee and a piece of toast, she threw on some casual clothes – a black-and-grey raglan tee, a pair of black jeans, a grey jacket, and her well-worn boots – and took a cab over to the Academy. Normally, she would have walked, as all the places she frequented weren't too far from her apartment, but attempting to walk that far was just excessive. Not to mention, she didn't want to give herself too much time to think about changing her mind.

As it was, she actually managed to let her thoughts wander on the cab ride over, mostly thinking about putting up fliers offering violin lessons, and treating herself to a nice dinner and a movie this weekend. She deserved it, for working so hard the last few weeks to pass an audition to the local orchestra. All too soon, however, she was standing at the wrought iron gates of her former home, nerves creeping up despite taking her anxiety pills less than an hour ago.

"Well, I'm already here," she murmured to herself as she stepped through the gate and up the stairs to the front doors. "I might as well."

Vanya took a deep breath in an attempt to steel her nerves (it didn't quite work), and knocked, wincing slightly at how loud the knocker was against the wood-and-steel door. She waited for what felt like several minutes, but in reality it was barely ten seconds before the door opened, revealing the shocked face of Pogo.

"Miss Vanya? What a surprise," Pogo said, and the corners of Vanya's mouth curled up into an awkward smile. "Come in, of course."

He opened the door further and moved aside, and Vanya slipped inside, throwing her arms around Pogo briefly in a hug before he could close the door fully. When she pulled away, he was smiling softly at her. He readjusted his grip on the cane in his hand – Vanya wondered briefly when he'd started using one – and opened his mouth to say something else, but another voice beat him to it.

"Vanya?" It was Luther, coming down the main staircase, and Vanya's little smile slid off her face in shock when she looked at him. He'd gotten big in the last five years. No, not just big, he was massive now.

"Hey, Luther. How've you been?" she said after a beat, managing to school her expression into something more neutral. A little too late, it seemed, because Luther frowned at her.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, stopping at the last step, his hand resting on the guardrail.

"Master Luther –" Pogo tried to intercept, his tone one of mild scolding, but Vanya waved him off.

"No, it's okay, Pogo. I know me being here is unexpected," she conceded easily. "But I'm here because…Well, because I woke up today feeling kind of…homesick, I guess. So I thought I'd stop by for a little while."

"Oh. Well…" It's Luther's turn to look awkward, but even from ten feet away, Vanya could see the tiny, crooked smile on his face. The one she remembered from their childhood that said he was pleased but unsure how to express it.

"Well, then, happy birthday, Vanya," he added, and Vany's eyebrows raised, her gaze flicking to Pogo and back to Luther. Was it really October first already?

"I've been so busy the last couple of weeks, I didn't even realise –" Vanya cut herself off with a shake of her head before she returned Luther's smile. "Happy birthday, Luther."

Her brother's crooked grin grew and he let out a laugh as he finally approached, pulling her in for a warm, but incredibly gentle, hug. She hugged him back, of course, but inwardly she was reeling. He must really be lonely to be so readily affectionate with her – ordinary little Number Seven.

"C'mon, let's go down to the kitchen. Mom said she was gonna make cookies after breakfast, so they're probably almost done. She'll be glad to see you, and maybe you could stay a while, and for lunch? Tell me about what you've had going on since you left?" Luther was already leading Vanya down the stairs to the kitchen before he finished suggesting it. Vanya let him, waving to Pogo distractedly as they descended.

"Sure, I can stay for lunch…"

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"Mom, look who's here," Luther called out as soon as they reached the kitchen, and just as he'd predicted, Mom was pulling a tray of cookies from the oven.

She set the tray down with practiced ease and turned around, a loving smile already on her face.

"Vanya, what a nice surprise," she said warmly, and Vanya felt the lingering tension in her body relax at her tone. Mom always had been able to make her feel like she belonged, like she was loved unconditionally, with just a few words. "Good morning, and happy birthday, dear."

"Thanks, Mom."

"Have a seat, you two, and I'll get you some milk to go with these cookies," Grace suggested, motioning to the table before she turned back around to plate the sweets and pour them each a glass of milk. The siblings did as they were told, and almost immediately, Luther was speaking.

"So, what have you been so busy with lately that you forgot it was our birthday?" he asked.

"I've, uh, been practicing to audition for the city's orchestra, and I actually did the audition two days ago," Vanya explained, briefly pausing to thank Mom as she served the cookies and milk to them, before she continued with, "I won't know whether I got in or not until next week, though."

"Well, if your playing is anything like I remember it being, then there's no way the orchestra doesn't accept you," Luther said confidently, a reassuring look in his eyes.

"Thanks, Luther. It, um, means a lot to – to hear you say that." Vanya looked down as she awkwardly accepted the compliment, and from the corner of her eye she saw him look down as well. They both lapsed into slightly uncomfortable silence, each of them eating a cookie – or cookies, in Luther's case – in the hope of somehow miraculously diffusing the tension of this unfamiliar scenario of "genuine sibling praise and acceptance".

Vanya finished her first cookie slowly, absently noticing Luther starting in on his third, and took a long drink from her glass of milk before she worked up the courage to speak again.

"So, what have you been doing lately, Luther? Anything interesting?"

That was apparently the wrong thing to ask, as Luther visibly tensed and dropped a half-eaten cookie back onto his plate. He swallowed audibly, and had to take a quick drink of his own beverage when he choked. Miniature crisis averted, Luther stared hard at the table for a long moment, hands curling into loose fists. Definitely alarmed by the reaction, Vanya started to tell him never mind, but he answered before she could do more than open her mouth.

"I was – My last mission, a couple months ago, went… it didn't… it ended pretty badly." the blond spoke quietly, hesitantly, as if he was struggling to articulate how bad it was without going into any gory details. "I barely – and if it weren't for Dad, I'd… I'm still technically in recovery. I… I woke up only ab-bout a month ago."

His voice cracked in the middle of his last sentence, and Vanya, tears in her eyes, leaped up out of her chair to throw her arms around him. It made perfect sense to her, now, why he was being so nice to her (despite the initial standoffishness), and why he was wearing a duster coat, turtleneck, and gloves inside. Luther had nearly died, had been in a coma for months, and was still recovering from it.

"Oh, my God, Luther. I am so sorry you've gone through all of this alone," Vanya apologised, her voice thick with emotion. "And I'm sorry I never called or visited before now, but if you need absolutely anything, you let me know. And – and I'll give you my number before I leave today, so you can call me whenever you want, okay?"

If Luther was surprised by her actions and words (he was), she didn't see it. She did, however, feel him return her embrace tightly, and she also felt when his broad shoulders began to shake. She only held him tighter, not minding in the slightest when her shoulder grew damp with his tears.