Reggie Hargreeves: Father of the Year

(Potential trigger warning: None-consenting drugging of a minor).

There were many different forms and styles of training that the kids of the Umbrella Academy were forced to study and undertake, ranging from all sorts of different physical combat styles, such as boxing, karate, judo, and jiu jtsu. Then there was the weapons training, guns, fencing, throwing knives, archery, sticks and clubs, but learning to dance? Well, that was one form of physical training that Willa could honestly say she actually enjoyed, one she was rather shocked to discover old Reggie would even bother teaching them, but yet, only a few months on after taking them to the ballet for their birthday and their first successful mission under their belts, they began leaning to dance.

The boys hated it...except for Klaus, who actually seemed to be kind of living for their weekly, hour-long dance lessons that took place every Saturday, before dinner time. Luther had seemed kind of interested, too, at first, and Willa hadn't failed to notice the slightly hopeful side eye glances he had shot towards Allison on their first day, but he had swiftly had a change of heart when they actually began dancing under the watchful, sharp eye of Reginald. Ben and Diego seemed to almost dread the hour-long sessions, the pair looking utterly miserable every time, while Five seemed more resigned to the matter.

And it was all because they had to dance with girls. Eww. 'Cos what was more gross to a ten-year-old boy then that?

They had been learning how to waltz for two weeks now, Reggie was adamant that they would learn how to waltz until he was satisfied, insisting that:

"The delicate art of dance can be just as deadly as wielding any blade, children! Dancing teaches strength and discipline, it provides cover and the opportunity to observe your surroundings while amidst a crowded room, allows you to blend in unnoticed to a crowed until the time to strike is on you..."

Personally, Willa just liked it because she wasn't possibly in danger of getting smacked in the face by anything, (Though, if you got paired up with Klaus, chances were pretty high of that still happening...), so it was a nice little change, in her eyes, to do something less violent, for once. She just kind of wished that some of the boys would bloody chill out and get over having to touch girls. For God's sake, Ben and Diego didn't freak out dancing with Vanya or Allison, but her? Suddenly, it was all blushes and stuttering and avoiding eye contact.

"How m-m-much l-longer?" Diego muttered tightly; jaw locked rigidly as he practically dragged Willa around the dance floor with how stiffly he was 'Leading' them around the training room. His grip on her hand was damp with sweat, which she was trying really hard not to be grossed out by, while his hand on her waist, which was more on her upper back, almost tickled her by how lightly he was touching her.

Willa gave him a flat look, before grimacing slightly as he spun them in a very jerky circle, very nearly clipping the toe of her dance shoes with his own feet. She gripped him a little tighter, just too desperately try and not be thrown completely off balance, like she had been three times already. She, Allison, and Vanya, who actually got to take part in this training, were instructed to wear their woollen pinafores for dancing practice and Grace had provided them with a pair of black, shinny dance shoes. It was the first time Willa had worn shoes that had a small heel on them, something that looked vaguely grown up. They kind of reminded her of her Ma's good kitten heels, the ones Willa had used to love stomping around in around the house when she was little. She kind of hoped to maybe keep these pretty dance shoes, they were the girliest thing she had since arriving at the Academy...but if Diego kept scrapping the damn patent leather off, they weren't going to be that pretty for much longer.

"Do you h-h-have to hold on so t-tight?" he hissed at her, glaring at her as if it was her fault that he seemed to be trying to dance with a pole stuck up his shorts, though he swiftly adverted his eyes from her.

"Do you have spin like that?" she shot back, her patience with him briefly overcoming any sympathy she usually felt for him when he got like this, all awkward and stuttery. She glared at the side of his face, which was blazing a deep shade of red, "I feel like I'm on a bloody Ferraris wheel that's malfunctioning!"

He scoffed slightly and, seemingly just to annoy her even more, spun them abruptly again. She gritted her teeth angrily and 'Accidently' stepped on his foot with the heel of her shoe, because he had totally done that on purpose. He hissed sharply in pain and shot her a foul glare.

"My foot!"

"My head," she snapped back, huffy.

"What do y-you expect? I h-h-hate dancing, why c-cant we p-p-punch something?"

Okay, now that was just a total lie, right there. She had caught Diego dancing with Klaus, of all people, at least twice since arriving at the Academy, and the kid had moves. There was no way he hated dancing when he was that good at it. He nearly put Klaus to shame with his dancing and that was saying a lot, because Klaus basically danced every single day. It was her; she knew it was; it had to be.

"Not everything needs to be punched or stabbed, you know," she gave him a slightly flat, sarcastic look, letting him turn them in a jerky little sidestep...she watched over his shoulder as Klaus went dancing by with Allison, the pair giggling as Allison twirled Klaus around and around. Reggie eyed the pair with a vaguely disgruntled frown, though he didn't seem about to intervene, which was a little odd. Probably because Klaus was actually, for once, doing something half-decently and seriously when it came to training. She hissed out a sharp, pained curse when Diego trod on her toe abruptly, accidently this time, and swiftly took her gaze off Klaus and Allison to glare at him accusingly, "Now that was my foot".

"Call it karma!"

"Is it seriously that bad dancing with me? I mean, I get that it's kind of weird, but I was over that last week".

For whatever reason, her words only seemed to make Diego blush harder, and his jaw locked so tight, she was actually a little worried he might break his teeth soon. She frowned at him worriedly, genuinely concerned for him and rather confused by what the hell had gotten into him, when the slow, piano music they had been supposed to be keeping in time with slowly began to peter-out, ending with a final, low note.

"Swap partners, children!" Reginald called immediately, standing by the record player off to the side of the room. He had his notebook in hand and fountain pen, regarding them all closely, "Number Seven and Number One, Number Five and Number Three, Number Six and Number Eight..."

"Thank God," Diego breathed out in a relieved rush, and all but ran off the 'Dance floor' to take a seat off to the side of the room, cheeks still rather pink.

Willa stared after him in bewilderment, left almost feeling abounded in the middle of the dance floor and struggling to understand what she was missing. Boys, she knew, were just such confusing, kind of gross, creatures, but she kind of thought she and Diego got along okay these days. They had even managed to get a really solid A in their history diorama about the JFK assassination last week, because who knew that Diego was kind of a secret JFK geek? They had worked well together and spent two days working on the diorama of the street and car, even working fairly late into the night, and hadn't bickered once, so it was a little bit odd and hurtful that Diego couldn't even bloody dance with her for one song duration without freaking out.

"Aww," Klaus complained loudly, blowing out a loud raspberry with pursed lips. He looked ready to argue, seemingly more than eager to keep dancing, even if it was all on his own...He looked hopefully to Reggie, "Can't Diego and I dance, Dad?"

"Shut up, Klaus!" Diego snapped at him, throwing him a rather annoyed glare, "I'm not dancing with you," and seeming to further prove his point, he folded his arms tightly over his chest and sunk down into his chair, shoulders hunched and a dark, brooding scowl in place.

Klaus ignored him in favour of giving Reginald puppy-dog eyes, all eager and hopeful.

"Sit down, Number Four," Hargreeves Senor told him without glancing up from his book, his tone full of no-nonsense and impatience, "You're preventing the others from dancing. Take up positions, children..."

Klaus slunk rather sulkily over to take the seat a little further down from Diego, a rather wise move on his part, because Diego looked ready to stab someone if they sat down beside him. Willa sighed and wiped her hands on her dress, trying to get rid of the sweat from Diego and turned to give Luther a small, tight smile. The taller boy gave her a tight, rather strained smile in return and awkwardly held his hand out, before hesitating, looking as if he wasn't sure how to approach touching her, even for the sake of dancing. It made it even worse that this wasn't the first time that they had danced.

"On my waist, Luther," Willa sighed, rather tiredly, and stepped forward to grab his hand, placing it on her back in the correct position, when he still looked rather lost and nervous. She tried hard not to roll her eyes as she then grabbed his other hand, ignoring how Luther smiled awkwardly and seemed almost more stiff then Diego had as she placed her hand on his upper back...she mentally sighed in exasperation to herself, meeting his blue eyes slightly pointedly, "It's only a dance, Luther, with a girl, not a death warrant. I reckon you can handle that, yeah?"

"Yeah," Luther smiled even though he blinked a little too rapidly to be entirely believable, his hold on her own hand reminding her of the onetime her Ma had taken her fishing when she was eight, only Luther's hand was a lot warmer than the cold fish had been, "Only dancing, nothing to it..."

He trailed off slightly as Allison and Five came dancing closely by them, Allison smiling and looking as if she was having fun, even though she was dancing with Five...who, curiously enough, almost looked like he was enjoying himself, too. Willa glanced flatly at Luther and barely resisted kicking his shin, because it was bad enough she had to ignore those glances Luther and Allison exchanged over breakfast, she wasn't doing it right in front of her. It grossed her out way too much and she wasn't in the mood.

"Move it, Luther, or I'm kicking you," she huffed, squeezing his hand tightly, dragging his attention back to her, "And it won't be your leg".

The slightly wide-eyed look he gave her told her that he hadn't expected the threat, nor the slightly dangerous glint in her eyes that assured him of how serious she was right now. It got him moving, anyway, and even though she found herself having to hold on just as tightly to him as she had Diego, out of fear of losing her balance on the turns, at least Luther did seem to be trying to dance properly. He managed to only clip her toe once, which he hastily apologised for and seemed genuinely rather mortified for, as if he had broken her toes...She had smiled and quickly reassured him that she was okay, knowing that it was a strong possibility that he could easily break her toe by stepping too hard. He just lacked confidence in himself that he wouldn't hurt her, but that wasn't something that was going to be fixed during one dance, so she let it go and found herself kind of enjoying it. Even when old Reggie managed to criticism them for having terrible posture and sloppy turns, just the fact that Luther was able to meet her eyes was enough to make Willa happy.

The song came to an end and Willa found herself paired up with Ben next, who gave her a rather nervous look and approached her as if she was about to gun him down. She was really getting tired of this nonsense.

"Is it really that bad dancing with a girl you're not related to?" Willa asked him warily, finding herself leading them, rather than Ben, because the poor kid stumbled and almost knocked them into Diego and Vanya twice before she finally just decided to take the lead, and if Reggie took issue with that...

Screw him.

"What makes you think that?" Ben gaped at her, looking thoroughly caught and embarrassed, all at once, even though he seemed to be trying to hide it.

She spun them gently and gave him a flat glare, "Because you and Diego have no issue dancing with Vanya or Allison, but me?" she raised her eyebrows and scoffed, "Suddenly, you start blushing and can't look me in the eyes".

"That's not true!"

"You're doing it right now!"

And he was, he had a light flush to his cheeks and his eyes were adverted from her, while she could literally feel him sweating, which was getting so gross and old. She was going to need to wash her hands after this to get rid of boy sweat. Yuck! On so many levels.

"Well..." he blinked at her, blankly and slightly desperately, eyes darting away from her towards the record player. He almost seemed to be trying to mentally speed up the song, before he grimaced and shrugged slightly awkwardly, still not meeting her eyes, "Maybe...yeah, maybe".

She squinted at him slightly in disbelief, "You can literally speak, like, four languages and that's the best you can come out with?"

"Er...maybe?"

"Did you have a stroke or something? What does that even mean, Ben?"

She completely forget they were supposed to be dancing now, her own annoyance bubbling over until she brought them to a stop and glared at him expectantly, eyebrows arched and a dangerous glint in her eye, pulling her hand from his and dropping her hand from his shoulder, just waiting for him to make sense, already.

"Um..." he gaped at her, and she had never quite seen him look so panicked before, cheeks flaming red and eyes wide.

"Number Seven and Six!" Reginald's loud bark broke through the air, making Ben and Willa jolt, looking up, just in time to see Diego and Vanya narrowly avoid dancing right into them. The old man glared at them stonily, "Do please explain to me why ever you have decided to stop dancing in the middle of the dance floor?"

Willa felt her cheeks warming with embarrassment, now, noticing the looks that the other kids were now throwing her and Ben's way, and she suddenly realised just how awkward it would be to have to bring up the fact that Diego and Ben seemed weird about dancing with her. It felt like she was revealing way too much and if she had learnt anything about the Umbrella Academy, it was that weakness would always be used and exploited, most especially by Reginald. Sure, she wanted to know what the big deal was, but she seriously didn't want the old man knowing anything about it. She licked her lips and glanced sideways at Ben, mind racing to think up something believable, an excuse...

"I got confused, Father," Ben said quietly, voice barely audible above the sound of the music, and Willa's eyes widened in shock. The shorter boy peered up at his father slightly meekly, "Wil-I mean, Number Seven was just trying to help me get my posture right".

The old man regarded him for a long moment, until Ben had ducked his head, before turning those shark-like eyes onto Willa. She dragged her shocked eyes off Ben, unable to quite believe that he'd covered for her like that for her, to his dad, no less, and hastily tried to arrange her expression into one of careful blankness. After a moment, Reggie scowled.

"If you find yourselves confused in regards to the steps, children, I expect you to consult with the diagram that I have pinned to the wall. And for future reference, Number Six, I would advise that you seek consultation from someone who is already competent in the subject matter, rather than a fellow student who still fails to manage to maintain even a marginal degree of grace in their own performance..."

The slight against Willa sailed right over her head, washed away with a bat of her eye as she glanced at Ben, who kept his head bowed very slightly. She couldn't believe that Ben, of all people, had spoken up in her defence, saved her from possible public humiliation in front of everyone, and, instead, taken it for himself. He'd even earned his father's disapproval willingly in doing so, something she had never imagined any of the Hargreeves kids would do for anything, let alone for her. She was...she was truly shocked.

"We shall swap partners again, I think, Children! Number Three and Four, Number Eight and One, Number Seven and Five..."

Willa barely heard it, though, turning back to Ben with a small smile curving her lips, eyeing the other boy curiously and gently, feeling a wave of affection towards him that she hadn't expected. She felt as if she belonged, accepted.

"You didn't have to do that, Ben," she said to him quietly, touched as she was.

He shrugged, still avoiding her gaze, "You'd do it for any of us," he muttered, scuffing slightly awkwardly at his nose to seemingly only further try to avoid meeting her eyes.

"Well...yeah," she blinked slightly, because she had already proven that she would, "But I didn't expect you to return the favour..."

"Oi!" a slightly exasperated, drawling voice broke through the air behind her, causing her to trail off abruptly, "Weren't you two numskulls listening? We're swapping partners again".

Willa sighed and slowly spun around to find Five standing behind her, looking oddly almost inpatient and annoyed, eyes very slight narrowed in a disgruntled glare, fixed seemingly largely on her. She arched an eyebrow and scoffed very slightly, crossing her arms over her chest. It helped a tiny bit that she had gained an inch or so in height over Five in the past month.

"That eager to dance, twinkle-toes?"

He spared her a flat, sarcastic smile, "Eager to get dancing with you over with, of course".

Once, she would have taken offence...now, she simply rolled her eyes at him. She wasn't completely sure when she had figured out that most of Five's biting sarcasm was meant as a very weird form of banter, perhaps it was from seeing him speak like that nearly constantly to all of his siblings that had made her realise that Five really wasn't as mean as he liked to make out, she wasn't sure, but she took most of what he had to say in that biting, sarcastic tone to be largely hot-air these days. Besides, she knew what it looked like for him to mean it, his eyes would crinkle around the edges and get this dark, steely look in them, something he didn't presently have written across his features.

"Yeah, whatever," she said with a tight smile back at him. She glanced behind her to Ben...only he'd already abounded her, seemingly at the first chance he had when her back was turned, the damn traitor. She turned back to Five and reluctantly stepped slightly towards him, holding her hand out...

She tried hard not to flinch when his hand took her own, fingers lacing, while he slightly stiffly stepped closer into her space, enough to be able to place his hand squarely on the middle of her back, not almost between her shoulder blades, like his brothers, but actually in the proper place. Huh...so at least one of the boys had been actually paying close attention, a thought that was only proven to be even more true when Five suddenly sent them off into the dance steps, making her blink very slightly in surprise when she found herself easily following. It was...kind of easy, actually. Five moved confidently, back straight but still relaxed enough to move, and it made it just so easy for her to let herself be moved along with him. She didn't feel like she had to hold on for dear life or even fear for her toes, it was just smooth and easy.

Kind of fun.

"You're...not terrible at this," she said after a brief moment, slightly blankly with her surprise.

Five's lips almost seemed to curve, before he caught himself and shot her a rather haughty, smug look, "Dancing isn't hard," he told her, "It's like fighting, only the context is different".

She smirked silly, glancing at him from beneath her eyelashes, "Always comes back to bloody punching people with you Hargreeves's, doesn't it?" she huffed out a small laugh.

"Punching things is still better, but..." he paused, almost seeming briefly hesitating, before he met her eyes, "Dancing isn't that bad".

"Try telling that to Diego and Ben. They both act like dancing with me is the worst punishment in the world".

"You're not that bad at dancing when you have a decent partner".

"How do you always manage to turn something into a compliment to yourself?"

Five did smile at that, his eyes twinkling with something like mischievousness and amusement, and without any warning at all, Willa suddenly found herself being reeled out and away from him. Her eyes wide as she found her feet automatically taking her away from him, somehow not tripping herself up as, with just a small tug and twist, he twirled her back. She...God, she had never felt so bloody girly before, her cheeks instantly heated up and her heart seemed to leap, before taking off like a racehorse as she found herself back before him, his hand back on her back as he carried on dancing them. She felt breathless and slightly stunned, and she suddenly felt rather flustered, and she had no idea why.

"Because I am just that good," he boasted smugly, giving her a pointed smirk that made her slightly dizzy head no better...at all. He didn't seem to notice, gaze sliding away from her, even though she felt as if she might never be able to look away from him again.

...

The next mission for the Umbrella Academy ends up taking Willa and the team to Paris, France, and for a brief second Willa is able to daydream about crossing to England and then Wales, sneaking away perhaps late at night, when old Reggie is asleep and taking the kids with her. Well, most of them, she somehow can't imagine Luther being ready to come, but perhaps if Allison tags along...but, of course, that's all it ends up being, just a daydream that she enjoys on the long, boring plane ride over, between ignoring how Five seemed to try annoying her by playing with the ends of her hair when she grew to quiet for too long and listening to Diego and Klaus debate the difference between robots and cyborgs.

They fight and win, and end up making international headlines, officially marking their debut as not just American superheroes, but global ones, and even Hargreeves Senor seems briefly pleased. Briefly, for perhaps a millisecond, while they stood for the press and media outside the Eiffel Tower that they had somehow managed to protect from being turned into a giant satellite tower that would have completely destroyed half the world's electron devices. One might have thought that their great success might earn them a little bit of leeway from Reginald's fanatical training and studies, but if anything, it only seemed to become even more intense.

And Willa was far from except from it.

Her vision blurred around the edges as she dragged herself upstairs, stomach rolling with sickening nausea and her heart thudded loudly in her ears. She felt like she was underwater, she could barley even remember leaving Reggie's office, one second she was lying on the couch in his office, head swimming, and the next she was partway up the stairs to her bedroom. One hand gripped the wooden banister of the stairs, legs feeling like lead…A cold sweat had broken out across her flesh and she felt oddly flushed, like she had a fever. She almost tripped several times, how she didn't fall and break her neck she would never know, but somehow, she managed to make it up those stairs, vision swimming in and out of focus, darkened at the edges. She was going to vomit, either vomit and faint or faint and then vomit, probably chocking to death right there on the damn stairs.

It might have been a relief if she had, because right now she felt like death warmed up.

Somehow, she managed to make it to the bathroom; somehow she managed to stumble through the door and inside it, collapsing onto her knees by the edge of the toilet as she gagged. She emptied her stomach into the toilet, until there was nothing but stomach acid left, burning her nose and throat. She still felt like hell as she fell weakly back against the wall beside the toilet, the smell of vomit filling the air and she was vaguely grateful for her hair being tied back. She roughly wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to desperately make her vision just steady.

Reginald had drugged her, for the first time ever; she had actually felt scared of the old man. It had started out as a normal one-on-one season with him, only this time the season had been set for late at night and upon entering, Reginald had begun his lecture. She had only half listened to it, truth be told, it wasn't until he had ordered her to hold out her hand and dropped two small, rounded, white pills into her palm. He told her that it was time for her training to take the next level, she had grown stagnant in her progress, and it wasn't acceptable, other methods were required…

Willa gagged and coughed, and hastily moved to lean back over the toilet, but nothing more came back up, she had nothing left to give. Pathetically, she spat out a mouthful of acid, tears prickling at her eyes and slipping down her cheeks. It hurt, her stomach and ribs ached from vomiting, her head pounded, her vision still swum weirdly in and out of focus, and she felt lightheaded, like she might still pass-out and truth be told, that would probably be a relief right now. Whatever those pills had been, she never wanted to take them again, never. But she had taken them, even though she hadn't wanted to, even though she had tried pleading and bargaining with the old man to let her try without them, but he hadn't listened and under his shark-like eyes, she had gulped them down with a glass of room tempered water.

It took twenty minutes before her head had started to feel weird. The pills hadn't made her fully pass-out, she had been conscious the entire time, but unable to really move. Reginald had sat by the couch she had been lying on, notebook in hand and pen scribbling away…he had attached electronic probes to her temples, while a machine had read her brainwaves, while he had had her attempt to astral project. Four hours it went on, four hours, before the drugs had started wearing off, before Reginald had allowed her to leave for the night. Later, Willa would marvel at how amazingly lucky she was that Reggie wasn't interested in kids outside of a purely scientific study. The old man was a sick, sadistic bastard, but at least he wasn't that sick.

Willa let her head fall back against the cold, hard tiles of the wall behind her, legs stretched out ahead of her, arms falling weakly down to her sides. Tears fell down her cheeks and she didn't have the energy to try and wipe them away. She wanted Ma. She wanted someone to hold her, tell her it was gonna be alright, tell her she was safe and loved, push her hair back behind her ear and gently kiss her forehead. She needed someone to care about her, protect her, but no one in this house was going to protect her from Reginald. He'd drug her again and again, until he was satisfied or felt that the method wasn't working, and Willa couldn't even remember if she had managed to do what he wanted. She remembered darkness and different voices, distant and echoing, but who knows how much of that was her power and how much of it was the drugs?

The bathroom door opened abruptly, and Willa looked up weakly, unable to even summon up the energy to feel embarrassed by whoever it might be seeing her in this state, but then her eyes were meeting a pair of blue eyes, and her bottom lip instantly began shaking. She hiccupped and chocked on a sob, a fresh wave of hot tears hitting her like a truck.

"Klaus," she chocked out between shuddering gaps and tears.

Klaus briefly froze in the doorway and gaped down at her, wide eyes taking in the sight of her. His curls were wild and sticking up, while he was dressed in the Academy grey silk pyjamas, hanging off his lanky, tall frame messily. His feet were bare…any other time, Willa might have laughed at the fact that he had his toenails painted pink and black, probably stolen off Allison secretly, but right now she was far too gone in her own misery to have more than a fleeting thought on it.

"Wills…" he gasped, and then he was moving towards her, expression swiftly crumbling with alarm and concern as he dropped to his knees on the floor by her side.

Willa didn't pause or think, she fell right into his chest, sobbing her little heart out as his arms wrapped around her back. He was really, really skinny, all sharp angels and bones, but to her the fact that it was someone she trusted made everything just a little easier. She hugged him tightly and he hugged her right back, patting her back awkwardly, as if he had no idea if he should be touching her, how he should be touching her, but trying anyways.

"What happened?" he asked urgently, "Wills, do you want me to get mum?"

"No!" she shook her head, sniffling into his bone chest, "No, don't...I don't want anyone to know…to see me like this," she squeezed her eyes tightly, pleading through the tears, "Please, don't, you can't".

"Okay, okay," his voice sounded deeper with her ear pressed against his chest, the concern and fear and alarm still plain to hear, "I won't tell anyone, but, Wills…" he grabbed her shoulders, then, a little more roughly then he probably meant to, and pulled her back from him…She blinked at him pathetically, sniffling as his blue eyes roamed her features. He looked horrified, quite honestly, almost as pale as she probably was, an alarmed frown creasing his face, "…you gotta tell me what happened. Did dad do this?"

"He gave me some pills. New training method, he said, I…didn't have a choice, Klaus. He made me take them…"

Klaus pulled her back into his chest, hugging her tightly, until her ribs almost hurt, because who knew that lanky Klaus could be so strong? But she took it all in happily, because she felt safe and cared for, and even though Klaus was just as trapped and tied to Reginald whims as she was, right now she kind of felt like it was just them two against the rest of the world. It made her realise just how much she had grown to really love her friendship with Klaus, out of all of the other kids, he was both the most dismissed and the loudest, and the one that people ignored and flocked to, probably because he truly wore his heart right on his sleeve, without apology for who he was, and Willa admired him for that.

"It's okay," he murmured into the top of her head, "It's okay, Wills, it's gonna be alright…"

She let his mumbling wash over her and it actually helped, gave her something else to focus on, and slowly the tears stopped and dried, leaving her cheeks damp and eyes sore, throat scratchy. She thought Klaus might have been part-comforting her, part-cursing his old man to hell and back, but truth be told she wasn't listening to what he actually said after a while, but it didn't matter. Slowly, she pulled herself back together and pulled herself back from his chest. Now that her own misery had started to drain away, she was starting to feel the first flicker of mortification creep over her. She couldn't believe she had broken down that badly and that poor Klaus had been forced to witness it, more than that, forced to cuddle her, basically, while she had clung to him like he was an oversized teddy bear. Thank God it wasn't Five, that was all she could really think, because Five would never have let her get over it, but at least Klaus might be nice enough to let it slide without too much teasing.

"I'm sorry," Willa said hoarsely, shuffling backwards, until her back hit the wall. She couldn't quite look him in the eyes now, pulling her knees awkwardly up against her chest, dropping her forehead against her knees just to not look at him, "I can't believe I broke down like that…"

"Hey, been there," Klaus cut across her, waving her off…she blinked and lifted her head, risking glancing up at him, only to find him grimacing slightly as he also shuffled back to sit against the wall opposite from her. He still looked a little pale and uncomfortable, but he seemed to be trying to play it off, giving her a thin smile. He shrugged, as if it was nothing, "Hysterical crying in bathrooms is no fun, Willy. Don't stress over it, I've got you".

She frowned, eyeing him, "Your dad's drugged you, too?"

"Drugged? I wish. Nah…" he looked away from her, then, sighing heavily, "Daddy-dearest likes locking me up in random crypts in the middle of the night, that's all…"

"What?" her eyes widened in horror; positive she had misheard him.

Hoping dearly, she had.

"Oh, yeah," he shrugged lightly again, like it was still no big deal, but the fact that he couldn't look her in the eyes told her that it really did pain him, "It's been going on for years now, Wills. See, he says I need to confront my fears, learn to use my powers and whatever, take control, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da…" he finally looked at her, smiling brightly, "He's a real capital A asshole".

"That's so messed up, Klaus. Oh, my God…"

"You think so?" he blinked, looking genuinely surprised, as if he really hadn't thought of it before.

Willa stared at him and even though she still felt slightly foggy headed, the drugs and crying leaving her feeling muddled in the head; even she could see that he really hadn't thought about it. Like, at all. She truly seemed startled by the notion that some of the stuff that old Reggie did wasn't normal, it made her truly realise just how far down the rabbit hole all of the other kids must be, too, because they had grown up like this, it was normal to them, and sure, on one level they had to know what was normal or not, they did get to read books and comics, but she supposed it was another thing to actually live and experience what a normal childhood was like.

"Um, yes," she nodded, firmly, before hastily stopping when she felt her head briefly spin. She grimaced and closed her eyes, tilting her head back against the wall behind her. She sighed slowly through clenched teeth, "Yes, Klaus," she went on, after a moment, "It is messed up. Everything about this place is messed up, actually".

"Huh, I mean, I can see it," he said slowly, blinking, still seeming a little taken aback, "Now. I see it now," he looked back to her and his expression grew serious, as serious as she had ever seen him, perhaps, a small frown curving between his eyes, "You feeling better?"

"Are you?"

He didn't respond, but neither did she expect him to. She simply stared right back at him grimly, his own gaze growing distant and heavy, before he slowly dropped his eyes from her, absently scuffing at his nose with the loose sleeve of his pyjama shirt. She sighed heavily, heart heavy, and wondered how the hell she was supposed to survive the next several years in this damn house under the so called care of Reginald Hargreeves. How were any of them supposed to survive?

I feel like I need to enforce that I'm writing this story with the belief that the Umbrella kids all loved dancing. I kind of feel like it was about the only childish thing they got to do and so they really took to it, all of them, even Five, and I feel like music has a really big place in all of their hearts because of how often they would dance and just let themselves be free. Dancing with a partner, though, is different, and I feel like to the boy it would have been kind of embarrassing to have to deal with, while Five would have kind of just seen it as another form of training that he had to master and be the best at, so he could be better than the rest of his siblings.

As for Klaus and Willa…trauma bonding is very real and this is kind of an important moment for these two in their friendship, it kind of marks what sort of relationship they have in the future. I considered Five being the one to comfort Willa in this chapter, but felt he wasn't emotionally mature enough to do that, same with Luther and Diego, while I didn't want Vanya to seem like just an emotional crutch for Willa and Allison, while she would have worked, I just felt like it was a moment that would have been great between Klaus and Willa. Klaus has been put through so much abuse and trauma from Reginald's own training methods, while I feel like the other kids got off easier, (Barely), so I felt like Klaus would totally have known what Willa needed in a time like this, because it's exactly what he wants whenever his dad locks him up in the graveyard.

I hope you liked it, tell me what you thought. Please review :)