Donuts and Marshmallows

Dear Ma,

You said you wanted to hear all my stories when we see each other again (Can't be soon enough!), but I was kind of scared I was gonna start forgetting everything. It's weird living here, time doesn't feel right, like it feels like I've been here forever and it's only been, like, two weeks! So, I thought I'd start writing stuff down, so I don't forget and get things mixed up.

The other kids are all kind of...I dunno how to word it. Cool? Nice? Well, most of them are super nice, like Vanya and Klaus are super nice, and Ben is a little shy but he's cool, too. Allison...I don't know about her, she's nice, too, but she kind of hangs out with Luther all the time, who seems nice, but doesn't seem that interested in me unless I didn't tuck my shirt in properly, so I haven't spent much time with her. Then there's Five (Yeah, that's his name, I think he thinks he extra special or something). He's not very nice, but he's not mean, either, just...I think he thinks he's better than everyone, 'cos he's really smart. He's annoyed with me, 'cos I'm good at school, too, well, that's what Klaus says, anyway. And lastly, there's Diego, he's...I kind of did something today that really, really, really scared him, Ma. I didn't mean to, it just happened, I swear! I think he might hate me forever now, but Vanya reckons he'll get over it. I dunno, but I'm going to try and make it up to him, not sure how...

I miss you so, so, so, so, so much it hurts! I still don't know why I have to stay at this stupid place, even if it is kind of fun being around kids with superpowers, but who even cares about that? I'd rather be home with you and Meg. That's my home, not this place! Anyway, I guess I could talk about how I'm learning different languages (Taught by a talking monkey!) and how it's super interesting learning about history and science, and how I even got braces today (The kids robot Mum took me to get them! She's an actual robot, Ma! Like, for real! So cool!), but I'm kind of tired and I gotta get up early, so I guess I'll try and write some more stuff tomorrow. Night, Ma.

Your Sunshine.

...

The next morning, Willa woke with a mission in mind: Apologise to Diego. That wasn't going to be an easy task, she knew it and she was already dreading it, because she was just a little nervous that Diego might end up trying to stab her with one of his blades if she rocked up at his door, but there wasn't exactly many options in the house. It was either talk before breakfast, which meant getting up super early and possibly waking up Diego, which seemed like a bad idea to begin with as a person who hated early mornings like herself could attest to, or wait until later that night when she might be able to catch him before he disappeared into his bedroom from the bathroom. That seemed more likely, but Willa liked to try covering all of her bases, so she was going to try for the morning and see how things panned out from there.

She purposely set her alarm for five thirty, though she didn't crawl out of bed until closer to six, much to her own annoyance at her own inability to be an early riser like she suspected most of the kids in the house were, aside from Klaus and, weirdly, Five, who you'd think would be an early riser with how grumpy he was...but that was getting off topic. She showered and dressed in her stupid uniform as fast as she could, pinning her hair back in a long braid, her tie actually straight on her first attempt, for once, before she ducked back into her bedroom. She still had the donuts that she had been planning to give to the kids the night before, only...well, she kind of got distracted by traumatising Diego and that hadn't happened, so she grabbed the best looking donut (Rainbow sprinkles) and wrapped it up in a tissue, because who could stay angry at someone offering free, surgery food...right? Right?

God, she hoped this worked.

The rest of the kids all seemed to still be in their rooms, leaving the hallway clear as she walked down to Diego's bedroom further down the hallway from her own room. She briefly lingered outside it, eyeing some of the scratches and scuffs on the wood, one even kind of looking like someone had kicked it at one point. The worst Diego could do was throw a knife at her and she'd deserve it, honestly, she told herself that, anyway, as she raised her hand to knock...

"He's out already," a voice spoke from behind her.

Willa wasn't ashamed to admit she might have squealed, just a little, and jumped a good foot in the air. Someone chocked on a laugh as she whirled around to find Luther standing behind her, already dressed in his uniform, like he slept in it or something, blonde hair perfectly combed in a neat side part on his head, while light blue eyes sparkled with the first hint of amusement that Willa had seen from him since she'd arrived in the house. Okay, it was aimed at her own humiliation, but she'd take it.

"Bloody hell," she gasped, and clutched at her racing heart over the lapel of her blazer, barely remembering not to crush the wrapped up donut in the process, "Luther...why not just use a foghorn next time, why don't you? I think I just lost thirty years".

"Where would I get a foghorn from?" he asked, seemingly genuinely curious.

"I dunno...your dad probably has one somewhere. Is Diego seriously already up and gone? It's, like, six thirty in the morning!"

"Some of us like to get a workout in before the day starts," Luther informed her, slightly pointedly, and she didn't miss how he seemed to be thinking that she probably would benefit from doing just that to try and catch up with them all...

She considered it for five seconds and nearly gagged at the idea. No, thank you. One gruelling workout for the day, seven days a week, was enough. She sighed slightly and gave him a flat glare.

"You're all a little sadistic, you know that?"

"What's sadistic mean?"

"Never mind," she shook her head, just barely biting back telling him to look it up, he'd find it right under a picture of his dear old dad. Luther would have, for sure, probably hated her forever if she'd said that, though, if there was anything she knew about Luther it was that he was kind of scarily devoted to his dad. Okay, back on track, Willa, "When's he likely to be back, then?"

"Number Two's usually not back until basically breakfast bell. Usually, he showers and meets up with us before we go down".

Her face fell, "Oh," she knew she should have slept in and tried tonight. She glanced awkwardly at Diego's scuffed door and sighed heavily, glancing back to Luther, "Guess I'll try chatting to him later...thanks for telling me".

She turned to walk away, trying to figure out what she was supposed to do now that she was already dressed and ready for the day, nearly an hour before she even needed to be.

"Number Seven...Number Seven..."

"Hmm?" she paused and turned back around on her heel, forgetting completely that she was supposed to be 'Number Seven,' since only Hargreeves Senor called her that. She looked back to Luther to find him giving her a thoughtful frown.

"Number Two's got a bit of a temper on him," he almost seemed to warn her, "You'd probably be better off letting him cool off. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm all for everyone getting along, we're supposed to work as a team and that's important..." Willa almost sighed aloud, practically hearing Hargreeves Senor spewing those words to his kids during training, Luther having seemingly memorised them and truly taken them on board, being 'Number One' and all that, "...but if you try talking to Number Two when he's still upset, he might...well...he might explode".

Honestly, considering it...yeah, she totally could see Diego cracking it and getting angry at her, if she tried talking to him, even apologising. Besides Luther was his brother, he should know him and how he'd react, so she decided it possibly was better to just let Diego go...even though it went against her instincts to not immediately apologise to the kid. She sighed and glanced at the donut in her hand, all wrapped up still...how long would it take them to go all stale and gross and hard? It would be a total waste to let that happen, and she'd already had them stashed in her room in the box at the bottom of her wardrobe since the previous afternoon, she really didn't want the kids to miss out on the chance to at least enjoy them. She glanced sideway at Luther.

"I'll keep that in mind, L-Number One," she said with a nod to him, before smiling slowly, hopefully, "But...in the meantime, I don't suppose you'd like a snack before breakfast?" she waggled her eyebrows at him, while Luther frowned at her in confusion. She slowly unwrapped the donut to show him, smirking slyly at him, "Full of sugary goodness and processed dyes...I've got five more back in my room, if you wanna try 'em?"

Even Luther, the most devoted solider of his father, couldn't deny that temptation.

...

"You're an angel blessed from God herself," Klaus gasped through a stuffed mouth of chocolate donut, sitting on the floor of Willa's bedroom, cheeks smeared with the icing and his eyes closed, head leaning back against her bedroom wall in pure heaven, "A true angel sent to walk amongst us weak mortals..."

Willa laughed from where she sat cross legged on her bed, watching him in amusement, "Whatever, Klaus," she said lightly, "Just make sure you clean your face before breakfast, I'm so not going down for smuggling donuts. What a lame criminal record would that make?"

She was pretty sure her words were lost on Klaus who was, quite possibly, experiencing one of his first highs of the many, many, many thousands to come in the not so distant future, or though Willa would eventually learn that even by the tender age of nine, Klaus and Diego had already huffed paint fumes in the basement at least twice, but for now her only vaguely innocent mind didn't know that. She grinned as she watched, quite happily from her perch on her bed, while the other kids all ate their donuts, each in varying states of dress. Klaus was shirtless and in his grey pyjama bottoms, while Five had already finished his donut and was in his pyjamas, a sight that had thrown Willa at first, while Allison was delicately savouring every mouthful of her strawberry donut and fully dressed in her uniform. Ben was half dressed in his uniform, missing his tie and jacket, and much like Klaus and Luther; he had practically inhaled his donut within two bites, while Vanya set on the end of Willa's bed. She had been the most hesitate about eating them, but she'd eagerly started once the other kids had started scoffing theirs down.

"I can't believe you convinced Grace to let you get these," Allison shook her head, sitting at the small vanity on the opposite side of the room, smiling as she popped a small piece of donut into her mouth. She laughed slightly, "And then shared them with us. You're way too nice for this house, Willa".

"Yes," Five said suspiciously, regarding Willa with a deep frown on his face, eyes narrowing on her, "A little too nice. What's the game here?"

Willa rolled her eyes at him, "Diabetes, Five," she told him flatly, making him briefly blink in confusion. She simply gave him a pointed glare, "I'm playing the long game here, obviously".

His dark, thick eyebrows shot up sharply and his mouth actually darted up at the corner in surprise, something like amusement lightening his features...before he seemed to remember himself and he looked away, huffing as he roughly scuffed at his mouth, as if trying to wipe away any trace of humour there. Willa simply grinned to herself, she'd seen it, even if he didn't want to admit it, she'd cracked his shell, just a little...Luther and Ben simply looked at her blankly, evidently totally missing the joke.

"What's diabetes got to do with anything?" Ben questioned with a small frown, from around his index finger, sucking jam off it from his jelly donut.

Five gave him a withering glare, "I'm surrounded by idiots," he muttered with a scoff, before pausing to spare Willa another suspicious glare. She merely smiled brightly at him; only making him narrow his eyes on her, lips pressed into a thin line...he suddenly blinked out of the room.

Willa only jumped a little bit, getting kind of used to him randomly disappearing and reappearing in a flash of blue light, but she did kind of wish he'd start wearing a bell so she might have some warning. She doubted it would help, but it might make her feel a little better, a little less like Five might blink into her bedroom at any second, or the bathroom, when she was showering or getting dressed...eww, yeah, she couldn't think too deeply on that, or else she'd never be able to shower or use the toilet in this house ever again. She'd be way too paranoid of Five blinking into the room.

"What's t-the party?" a voice said from outside the door.

It was Diego and he was wearing a pair of their normal training sweatpants, but he was wearing a white T-shirt instead of the ugly top that matched with the pants. He was eyeing his siblings with their faces smeared with icing and the empty pink box sitting on the desk, his expression curious, even though he looked deeply uncomfortable standing on the threshold of the room.

"I saved you one!" Willa said hastily, her eyes widening eagerly at her chance to try speaking to him. She grabbed the rainbow sprinkle donut that she had saved for Diego specifically from her nightstand, having had to almost threaten Klaus to take the chocolate one when he'd spotted it...She jumped off her bed so fast, Vanya was almost bounced off the bed, and hurried over to the doorway, peeling the tissue off the sweet to present it to the kid, who looked a little like he was about to run at the sight of her. She held it out to him and smiled hopefully, "Here! This one's for you, I thought...well, rainbows are pretty cool, right? I like rainbows, I mean, who doesn't like rainbows? They're pretty and who doesn't like sprinkles? I guess, it is sort of girly, so maybe you, as a boy, might not like them, but even still, you've gotta admit they're super cool and..."

"Do you...always t-talk like that when y-you're nervous?" Diego gaped at her, looking slightly stunned.

"Um..." she paused and took a deep breath, having made herself kind of breathless, her cheeks warming slightly with embarrassment. She smiled sheepishly, "I guess. Sometimes. I just..." her smile slipped and she eyed him apprehensively, frowning, "I'm super, super, so incredibly sorry about what happened last night, and I never meant it to happen and I don't know how I did it, but I swear, I'll never do it again, and I just..."

"J-just give me the damn donut a-and let's call us even, yeah? Jesus..."

Willa smiled broadly and basically shoved the donut into his chest, eyes shining with relief and delight, and he sighed slightly and took a large bit of the donut, almost as if he was terrified that if he didn't, she might start pestering him about eating it already. Truth be told, she probably would have, too.

"But I wanted the rainbow one..." Klaus moaned from off to the side, chocolate still smeared around his mouth, pouting.

...

Hey, Ma,

So, I kind of made it up to that kid I told you about the other night, didn't get around to telling you about it 'til now, though, 'cos Hargreeves Senor made us do this massive essay on the impacts of Global Warming and all that, which was super cool, kind of, but also a little scary, but anyways, I had to focus on that for a couple of nights and then I sort of hurt my hand during training (It's fine now, bit stiff, that's all, Grace wrapped it up and put ice on it, and then I had to spar with Luther tonight and he kind of slapped my hand. He was so, so, sorry, though...). I think I'm getting kind of the hang of this place, I mean, I still really don't like it, but I do like the kids here, Ma, you were right about that.

They've only ever really known this place, which is so sad and I just want to take them out into the real world, let them eat loads of sugar and milkshakes, and take them to the movies so we can all just do something that normal kids are supposed to be doing, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to do that. We did get to share donuts last week, I smuggled them into the house after I got my bracers on (They kind of make my jaw hurt, Grace gave me some panadol for it...) and it was so much fun and they all loved it, even grumpy Five liked it, I could tell, but I don't know if I'll be able to do stuff like that for them again, it's just...it's not fair for them, Ma.

I miss you a billion and one times, Ma,

Your Sunshine.

...

Willa hadn't really snuck around the Academy before now, she had normally been way too tired to get up to any such mischief as all that, even though she had been dying to check out the place when there was no one else around, when she was free to snoop and look on her own accord, not during a tour from one of the kids, no matter how much she liked Vanya, or from Grace, who, sweet and motherly as she was, did kind of make Willa a little awkward still, feeling a vague sense of almost peer pressure to follow the other kids lead and call Grace 'Mum,' like they did, but that would never happen. So, after a couple of months of being to bone tired to finally sneak around, the first night that Willa didn't feel like a wet noodle following dragging herself from her post-training shower to collapse into bed, Willa decided to take the chance she had to look around.

She guessed it was a good sign that she wasn't as tired as she used to be after training, she had noticed that she was actually getting muscles on her legs and arms now, a little bit of definition that she had seen on the girls at school who had done dancing or swimming outside of school, sports that Willa's Ma hadn't been able to afford to pay for. Now, she wished she had a little less sport after school, so...maybe be careful what you wish for, eh? What a horrible way to actually finally do a sport activity after school, she felt like punching her eight-year-old self who had begged her Ma to let her do jazz dancing.

The Umbrella Academy was way creepier at night, she soon discovered, and she didn't risk a torch as she crept around the halls of the school, briefly having a small heart attack when the shadow of one of the poor dead creatures that Hargreeves had shot and mounted to his wall had looked briefly like a very real bear looming above her, ready to attack...who the hell had animals mounted to their walls? When she got her own place, no way was she having any of that nonsense, she wasn't even a big fan of the massive wall of oil paintings that hung on the second landing where Grace liked to sit and charge, staring at a weird, creepy picture of a Victorian girl in a dress. Yeah, nah, not in her house.

The library looked pretty cool at night, but even though Willa tried to explore it as much as possible during the day, it reminded her a little too much of the lessons she would have tomorrow morning, so she moved on, creeping through the massive living room that she basically only got to use during the half an hour of free time that she got on the weekend. She moved on from that...she'd been in all these rooms already, during the day, and sure, she hadn't really explored them that much, she wanted to see the places she hadn't been to, yet. The kitchen, for instance...

She found the doorway to the kitchen, the same one she often saw Grace coming and going from during the day, and slipped down the narrow staircase that led down, seemingly to the above ground basement level. It was a lot more homey down here, she realised as she entered the kitchen, no fussy vases or paintings, no expensive rugs or couches that looked like Queen Victoria might have owned them once, down here, with a long kitchen that ran along one side of the wall, a very basic and simple kitchen, too, hardly one that you might imagine with a old fridge and oven, while a large wooden table sat in the middle of the room, seven mismatched chairs sitting at it...And one Five Hargreeves frowning at her with a deeply annoyed scowl, wearing his normal uniform, only without the blazer. He had a large chopping bored in front of him, a bag of marshmallows, and a jar of peanut butter open next to a bag of white bread, some of the slices falling onto the table.

"What are you doing down here?" he demanded, narrowing his eyes on her.

"Snooping," she said immediately, seeing no point denying it. He looked vaguely thrown by that, as if he really didn't expect her to be that blunt, before he frowned again. She shrugged and edged closer to the table, "What? I've been here for, like, two months now; a girl gets curious about the place she's got to live the next eight years in, okay?"

"Yeah, well, go snooping elsewhere, would you?" he dipped his butter-knife a little aggressively into the jar of peanut butter, getting some of the edge of his finger, "This rooms busy".

"Kind of defeats of the purpose of 'Snooping' if I don't snoop around to see what you're doing".

"That...isn't even grammatically correct".

"I know," she flashed him a grin.

He rolled his eyes, "Oh, God..." he muttered, turning back to his sandwich. He smeared the peanut butter over the fluffy white bread, seemingly deciding that the best tactic was to just ignore her, so she'd go away.

"Are those marshmallows?" she eyed the bag curiously, eyebrows darting up in surprise. She moved to stand closer, grabbing the bag to stare at it in slight disbelief, "How do you have marshmallows in this house?" she shot Five a bemused look, "I figured your dad would have a fit if anything sweeter and more processed than a strawberry entered this house?"

He snatched the bag off her and gave her a dark look, "Grace gets them for me," he informed her, almost haughtily as he began sprinkling the little dense, white sweets onto his slice of bread...Willa observed it with morbid fascination, "And dad doesn't know, so you better keep your mouth shut about it, or else I'll..."

"Jesus," Willa cut him off, which she would agree, in the future, was possibly kind of a stupid thing to have done, but she wasn't overly bothered by it as she gaped at the marshmallows and peanut butter sugar fest he was creating, all sitting on a chunk of the whitest, most highly processed bread she'd ever seen in her life. She didn't even notice the butter knife smeared with the nut spread being waved threateningly in her directly, barely a couple of inches away from her nose, "When I made that crack about diabetes being my long game, I didn't realise you were going to give me a head start, Five".

He scoffed slightly and lowered the butter knife, dropping it on the chopping board to pick up the second slice of bread. He slapped it over the first, throwing her another haughty glare.

"This happens to be the best sandwich, ever," he said firmly, as if it was simple common law and utter truth. He pointed to it, "No question. That's fact".

"I think I'm getting a contact high from the sugar in that thing just standing here".

"Do you wanna try it, or are you just gonna judge?"

She blinked at him, "You're offering me you sandwich?" she said slowly, bewildered that Five, probably the last person she'd expect in the house to share anything, let alone with her, was offering up his best and most favourite food to her.

He had to be a clone or something.

He sighed and looked as if he was seriously debating stabbing her again, "I'll make another one, I guess".

"Is it poisoned?"

"I'll happily poison it, just for you".

"Did you do something gross with it before I came in here?"

"I can rub Luther's underwear on it, if you're after a bit more protein".

"Eww!" she cringed, and leaned back from him pure horror, eyes widening in disgust. He actually cracked a small smirk, "Why would you even suggest that?"

He shrugged, peering at her with the same smirk still in place, "You seemed interested," he said lightly, almost innocently.

"You've got a seriously sick mind, you know that?"

"Number Seven..." he rolled his eyes, "There is very few things in this world I actually do consider to be sacred...this sandwich happens to be one of them. I didn't do anything to it".

Willa scoffed at him, narrowing her eyes, "I don't believe you".

"Do you want me to pinkie-promise that I didn't do anything to it? Would that make you feel better?"

"Oh, I believe that, I was only messing with you, what I don't believe is that you actually believe in anything sacred".

Five smiled, it was weirdly, she thought, perhaps the first time she'd actually seen him properly smile before, not smirk or sneer, or flash teeth at her before he went to totally wipe her out while they were training. A proper smile...it was nice, it made the green of his eyes more of a forest green, kind of like when the sunshine would break through the canopy of leaves...eww, okay, this was Five. She was not describing his eyes like that, so, so weird. Just no.

"You're not wrong about that," he said lightly, truly seeming amused.

She couldn't help smiling back at him, feeling rather as if a small victory had been made tonight with this moment, because Five was, by far, the hardest nut to try and crack out of any of the kids. But Willa wasn't daunted, well, not hugely, she figured that if she had to spend the next eight years living with the kids then they all might as well try and become friends, and that included Five. He couldn't hate her for eight years straight...right? Well, okay, maybe he could, but it wouldn't be for a lack of trying on her part to play nice with him. Besides, she kind of liked Five, grumpy and superior as he was, she liked how sharp he seemed to be, even if that keen mind seemed to lean more towards an unhealthy sense of paranoia that he seriously needed to work on. But, hey, they all had stuff to work out, so whatever.

So, if Five was going to offer her a chance at being actually nice to her and give her his sandwich, his very special, rather sickening sounding sandwich, then she wasn't going to say 'No' to that. She pointed to the sandwich and raised an eyebrow at Five, giving him one final chance to back out on his rather odd behaviour. He simply rolled his eyes and silently pushed the heavy chopping board an inch closer. It made a jarring scrapping noise on the table, though he didn't seem to notice, straightening and folding his arms over his chest, almost seeming to be appraising her. Willa had learnt quickly at the Umbrella Academy never to back down from a challenge, so she did the only thing she could do: she grabbed the sandwich and took a large bite.

It had been weeks since she had snuck the donuts into the house and since then, the sweetest thing she had eaten was strawberry jam (Jelly, as the American raised kids called it), and her mouth and tongue instantly was nearly overwhelmed by the sharp burst of pure sugar that hit her. It was hard to chew, too, and it stuck unpleasantly to the roof of her mouth and to her gums, but the hit of sugar was enough to make her ignore it. Okay, she could see now why this was Five's favourite food, it was close to becoming her new favourite food with this sugar rush she was feeling.

"Okay," she said, once she had full use of her mouth and tongue, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. She glanced up to see Five was preparing his own sandwich now, spreading more peanut butter over a slice of fluffy white bread, "That's actually, weirdly, really, really good".

"Told ya," he replied with a mocking shake of his head, eyes focused on his task.

She narrowed her eyes on him, "You love saying that, don't you?" she huffed slightly, before taking a slightly smaller bite then she had before, hoping it might make everything not cake as much when chewing.

Five smirked, but didn't respond as he poured a generous helping of marshmallows onto the bread and slapped a second slice of bread over the top of it. He then set aside the butter knife to pick up the sandwich with both hands, taking a large bite from the corner. They ate silently together, it probably should have been awkward, but Willa guessed that she was fairly used to eating in total silence these days and Five had known nothing else his whole life. However, that fact alone made her want to chat with him, rebel, just a little more, against old Reggie's damn rules...she found herself peering around the kitchen, taking in how homey it all felt in comparison to the grand upstairs.

"It's kind of comfy down here," she remarked, when she was halfway through with her sandwich, sitting comfortably in one of the mismatched chairs at the table, while Five chose to stand still, just another two bites off from finishing his whole sandwich.

"Bit different from upstairs, isn't it?" he noted with a knowing glance in her direction. She held his gaze and arched her brows, and he shrugged slightly, "We used to eat down here when we were younger, before dad decided we were old enough to start eating with correct table manners up at the 'Grownup' table..."

"He has seen how Luther and Diego eat, right?"

"I think even dad figured that was one battle he wasn't going to win".

She grinned and glanced back around the kitchen, wishing that they still ate downstairs instead. She could kind of see the kids all eating down here, how relaxed it would have been without Hargreeves Senor breathing down their necks with his music or ancient lectures playing on the record player, probably with just Grace for supervision. She liked that idea, how homey it probably felt, even if it was maybe only briefly. She kind of figured that a lot of the rules that the kids lived with now had developed over time, she didn't see how all of the kids could be so...well, normal if they hadn't been given a little more freedom growing up to be kids, but she guessed that as they got older, things became stricter. She wasn't looking forward to that. She sighed slightly, glancing sideways to Five.

"It must've been nice back then," she said with a small, pointed look around the kitchen.

Five gave her a flat look, "Nothing in this house has ever been 'Nice,' Seven," he told her coolly.

"Nicer, then," she rolled her eyes back at him, deciding that she wasn't going to let him get to her, like Five managed to get under the skin of all of his siblings with the same sort of look or tone of voice.

He only narrowed his eyes on her suspiciously, "What are you doing?"

"Um...chatting?" she frowned slightly, bemused by his shift, his sudden suspicious attitude. He had even placed the crust of what was left of his sandwich on the chopping board before him, seemingly focusing all of his attentions onto her...she also didn't like the fact that the butter knife was still out and close at hand to him when he was looking at her that intently. She straightened slightly in her chair, eyeing him warily, "Just...I dunno, trying to get to know you a little bit, I guess? It's kind of what people do".

Five scoffed, "The doe eyes might have Vanya and Klaus falling for you, but it's gonna take more for me to believe it," he frowned thoughtfully, peering at her closely; "Did dad plant you to try and test us?"

Willa stared at him silently for a long moment, before she sighed and shook her head, briefly closing her eyes in despair, "Why, exactly, would your dad go to that much effort?" she asked with a sigh, placing her elbow on the table and dropping her chin onto the palm of her hand, peering up at him warily. She also placed her other hand on the table, gripping the edge, just so Five's paranoia wouldn't imagine that she was concealing a knife or something.

"I wouldn't put anything past dad, that's why, and it all seems very convenient that dad turns up one day with some random girl from the other side of the world, who is just like us, and he's never bothered to drag another kid into the house before now. So, why now and why you?"

She instantly bristled at that and straightened, frowning deeply at him, feeling his words hit her a little harder than she meant them to. She didn't like where this conversation was going, she had been actually enjoying hanging out with Five until now, but she was starting to think that she would have been better leaving when he told her to get out.

"It's not very convenient for me, I can tell you that much, Five," she said quietly, regarding him grimly.

"How do you explain it, then?"

"Your dad is nuts," she said bluntly, not caring if saying that got herself killed or punched, she didn't care now, she'd say it straight to Luther's face right now. She didn't know exactly where Five stood in regard's to admiring or being almost afraid of old Reggie, but she didn't care, either. His words had sapped away her ability or care to filter her true feelings for the man. She fixed him with a level, stony glare, "I did something stupid and got caught using my powers, and next thing I know your dad is turning up at my house, preaching all this rubbish about going to his school and somehow he convinced my Ma to let him take me," she rose from her chair, scrapping the legs unpleasantly against the floor as she glared at him, "I'm not a plant or whatever, Five, I've basically been abducted by your psycho dad and forced to come here, and now I'm just trying to do what I've gotta do to make all of this semi-bearable. There's nothing convenient about any of this, not to me, so get that out of your paranoid head before I smack it into it for you".

The kitchen was silent...the fridge hummed softly and there was a dripping tape somewhere close by, while outside a lone car seemed to cruise by. Willa and Five merely stared at one another, neither seeming to be daring to even blink. Willa's heart pounded in her ears, part of herself instantly regretting everything that had just burst from her and at Five, of all people, while another part of her felt relief at having come out and said it to someone. She had been so careful about not saying anything bad about Hargreeves Senor, even with Vanya she had made sure she hadn't said anything to bad, but it was out of the bag now. She still couldn't bring herself to regret it.

"Do you really think you could?" Five said eventually, his own features still stony, but something in his posture had relaxed, some of the tension seemed to have eased from his shoulders, while something in his eyes seemed...different. He arched a thick brow, "Actually hit me, that is?"

She took a deep breath, lifting her chin, "I reckon I'm definitely angry enough to try".

His lips curved into a true little smile, "I'm kind of tempted to let you".

"It's weird that you're actually smiling at that idea".

Five shrugged and picked up what was left of his sandwich, seeming utterly relaxed and calm again, almost oddly amused, even, "I still find it odd for dad to chose now to bring a random kid into the house," he said lightly, eyeing his sandwich briefly, before flickering his gaze back up to her, "But I reckon that if you really were a plant, you'd be a little better at it then you are, so I guess the old man might just be losing it in his old age".

She frowned slightly and eyed him as he took a large bite of his sandwich, finishing it off...comically, it made his cheeks bulge and he looked far from the dignified boy she was used to seeing, but she refrained from commenting on it, figuring she had already tested the limits enough. Still, she couldn't quite decide if she ought to be offended or not.

"What do you mean by 'Better at it then you are?'" she asked, not entirely sure she really wanted to know the answer. He merely gave her an innocent look...around bulging cheeks and kept on chewing, brushing crumbs absently off his hands as he moved to leave the room, chewing his mouthful without a backwards glance at her. He probably would have whistled if it wasn't for the mouthful, leaving her to turn and stare after him as he disappeared from the room. She blinked slowly, "Well...goodnight, then".

She looked back to the table and almost cursed. He had left her with a mess to clean up...Allison was right. He was kind of a jerk.

Little bit of Five and Will bonding. I feel like he'd be the most suss that Willa was a plant by his dad or something like that to try and test them.

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