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Colliding Worlds

Fandom: The Umbrella Academy Summary: Viktor has just about had enough of people from other universes opening portals up into his home to provide him with more children to take care of. This time, thankfully, they're just visitors. Warnings: Mentions of canon-typical neglect and ableism Word Count: 11,320 Ship(s): Viktor Hargreeves/Five Hargreeves, Original Child Character/Original Character

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A/N: Here's my half of the fic crossover that I did with my mutual @lovely-number-7 ! I had so much fun thinking about what it would be like for our characters to meet since they're already universe-jumping individuals. It was so much fun to think about what interactions they would have. I didn't include every difference between the universe because I didn't want this to drag on for too long. I hope that you enjoy it! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

Colliding Worlds

An Umbrella Academy Fanfiction

A Portal to Home/Doing it Right Crossover Fanfiction

By Sissytobitch10seconds

There was a very distinctive ‘pop’ combined with a whirling sound whenever his son or husband used their abilities. Viktor didn’t have to activate his super hearing from his own power to hear it happening, even if it was all the way across the house. It was a noise that he always held his breath after hearing because it was usually immediately followed with a problem that he had to solve. A lot of the times that problem was because of a miscalculation in where they were going to land, which resulted in knocked over knick knacks and broken furniture.

When he heard that very distinctive noise sound off in the direction of his living room, he instinctively called, “Keiren, no teleporting in the house unless it’s an emergency, please!”

The noises that followed immediately after the reprimanding were not what he had been expecting, though. He had been expecting something like a groan or even an acknowledgement from his son, but instead he was met with a lot of crashing and groaning from voices that sounded adjacently-familiar to his children.

A cool rush of adrenaline flushed through his system as he remembered all the times that had happened before. He had three portals open up in his home to dump children into it, and one to give him his husband, so it wasn’t like this was a situation he was unfamiliar with. He was just sure that since the one opening those portals now lived with him and could control that particular ability, it would have stopped. Now that there was another one open in his living room, he knew that something had to be wrong.

Unbeknownst to him, it wasn’t his son experimenting with his powers and his siblings. He waited for a moment longer to hear if there was any shouting of pain or injury, but when there was nothing he returned back to practicing the piece that his orchestra had decided they were going to play for their yearly winter concert. He was sitting in the decompression room with his violin tucked underneath his chin and his fingers perfectly wrapped around the bow. He was still dressed like he had been for work, so he was in a pair of nice black slacks and a blue-button up.

The other occupants of the house were unaware of the portal opening up because they didn’t have the parent mind that Viktor did which caused him to listen to every sound to make sure that he wasn’t needed.

A lanky teenager with long curly hair pulled back into a messy braid that was falling apart with every one of her jerky movements bolted through the long hallway of the home. She was wearing a black pleated skirt that fell down to her knees and a flowy white blouse, which weren’t ideal for the kind of activities that she was doing. She skidded to a stop above the stairs and then began to take them two at a time so she could get as far away from her brother as possible.

The aforementioned brother, dressed in a pair of jeans a comfortable t-shirt so much more suited for running, was chasing after her as quickly as he could with his chest heaving in anger. “Reyne! If you bring that lizard into my room one more time I’m going to make sure that you’re sleeping in the garden for the next month,” he shouted.

Reyne laughed, tossing her head back with the force of her chuckles. She knew that it was an empty threat because it was his favorite one. Harun had been threatening to use the Horror to put her outside so that she slept in the garden since they were eleven, for anything as small as taking the salt when he was reaching for it to hiding his favorite book as an act of malice when they were fourteen. He had never followed through on it, so she knew that he was just agitated and she was safe.

They both stopped short when they got to the entrance of the living room, eyes wide and confused at the scene that they were met with. Given that they were a family of nine and all of them had barely controlled superpowers, it wasn’t like their family was every exactly a chill place to exist, but this was another level of weird.

There were nine kids around the same age as their youngest sibling piled up on the floor of the carpet. The swirling mist above them had just gotten so small that no one would have been able to fit in it before it closed. Each of the teenagers that were now in their living room looked similar to them or their cousins, particularly what they remembered Stan looking like almost six years ago.

Reyne slowly shifted Smoothie so that the lizard was sitting on her shoulder, blinking his eyes at the world around him without a single thought going through his mind. The same couldn’t be said for the twins, though, who were staring open-mouthed at the collection of teenagers, especially the two that looked very similar to them.

Harun was still standing in a silent shock when Reyne finally snapped out of it and walked forward. “Are you guys okay? Where did you come from?” she asked.

Her eyes were first drawn to the wheelchair user that looked remarkably like her youngest sibling, other than the fact that her hair was dyed and she had a little bit of eyeliner one. Andrya hated makeup because they couldn’t touch their face at all when they had it on. “May I touch your mobility device to help you up?” Reyne asked when she saw that the other version of her sibling was tipped upright with the wheelchair caging her in.

The smaller teenager seemed a little surprised by that but then gave a shaky nod. Carefully, Reyne lifted up the mobility device and then sat it upright directly next to the user. She then offered a hand to the other teenager and helped her back into it.

Everyone else was slowly bringing themselves into standing or sitting positions on the ground. Reyne stood up and back away from them so that she could examine them now that they were no longer a heap of limbs and bodies. The kid that looked like Einar was standing impossibly close to someone that Reyne had never seen before, which made him think that was a new person and not one of his cousins or siblings. Stan and who he assumed had to be Claire were near the back, though it was weird to see his eldest cousin (who was now twenty-one) and his youngest cousin (who was now nine) being the same age.

Slowly the thespian turned turned around so that she was facing her twin. “Can you go get Papa or Dad please?”

“This is not where we were supposed to end up,” the kid that looked exactly like Keiren muttered as he stared down at his hands. Reyne recognized that look from when Keiren was focusing, it was also something that her father did when he had overused his powers during a training session. While none of them were expected to go on missions, their parents still thought that it was very important for them to know how to defend themselves.

She waved her hands above her head to get attention. “So I’m guessing what happened is kind of like what happened when me and my siblings came to this universe. Did you miscalculate and step into another universe?” she specifically asked the kid that looked like Keiren.

“I guess I had to have done that, because this isn’t the restaurant that we were going to eat at,” the kid shook his head.

Reyne let out a little beath. This wasn’t what she had been expecting to deal with on her lazy Saturday between rehearsals. She was about to start the jam-packed schedules that always picked up right before the performances for the show started. She knew that this was out of her control, though, so she was going to try her best. “Well, that’s okay. My dad and one of my brothers has the same powers as you so he can help get you back in a little while.”

“Oh, that’s not necessary,” the teenager that looked like Andrya shook her head. “My dad has a tracker on us in case something like this happens. It might take him a day or two but he should be able to find us.”

Just then, Harun returned with Five and Viktor. Reyne turned around and explained what had happened to their parents, pointing towards the haphazardly gathered group of teenagers, “They just fell into the living room, Papa. I think that something similar to what happened when we were kids and Keiren sent us to you happened to them.”

Viktor raised a hand up to his head and rubbed his forehead to try and get rid of the tension headache before it even formed. Five reached over and grabbed the hand, moving it so that he could press a kiss to the agitated skin there. “It will be aright, beloved. We can handle having a few more kids around the house for a couple days before we can figure out how to get them back where they belong.”

Reyne and Harun looked at each other and made fake disgusted faces before their parents finally separated and turned to the other kids. “I’m sorry that you guys got dumped here, but I promise that we’ll keep you warm, fed, and comfortable until we can figure out how to get you back. Let me call down the rest of the household and then we can do introductions since you’re going to be staying with us for a while.”

“Little royal, I would suggest putting Smoothie back into the cage where he belongs before he gets stressed out and refuses to eat,” Five told his eldest child. They gave him a quick nod and then skittered off to their room so that their pet could be safely hidden way from all the chaos.

Andrya, and Keiren were hanging out together in the latter’s room, so they were collected and brought downstairs fairly quickly. It was harder to get Imani to come down because she had been writing her newest Model United Nations proposal paper and didn’t want her flow to be interrupted, but she recognized the serious look on her father’s face and knew that it would be better to listen to him. Einar had heard the rest of his siblings being collected and so tromped downstairs with the majority of them. Mateo was the most difficult one to collect because he came with an extra teenager in the form of his boyfriend. Luckily, Ronan had seen enough of the weird Hargreeves shenanigans that he was good to stay in his partner’s room until Mateo was able to come back.

Soon both families were gathered in the living room space, having spread out enough so that the family that lived there was on the floor while the visitors were all perched on the couches and chairs. Viktor sighed as he got the attention of the teenagers who were squabbling quietly amongst each other. “Alright! I don’t know the differences between our worlds and universes just yet but a good place to start is with introductions. My name is Viktor Hargreeves, I use he/him pronouns and I’m the father of all these kids,” he gestured his hand towards the collection of teenagers that he had been raising for more than a decade.

“Five Hargreeves, also he/him and I’m their other father as well as Viktor’s husband,” they both signed as they spoke, using the facial expressions and everything. It was clear that this was something they did as a family and not just something that they were doing to try and be inclusive. While Keiren had started out hearing, at this point without his hearing aides, he was entirely deaf.

“It’s kind of nice to know that Nibbie and Dad are together in almost every other universe that we visit,” the kid that looked like Harun noted.

The adults hadn’t finished talking as Viktor snapped his fingers to bring attention back to him. “Kids should also say their ages because several of you look like you’re older or younger than some of ours. I’ve noticed that the two of you don’t look like you’re counterparts to any of my kids, though, so you can go first and then we’ll have each counterpart introduce themselves with the visitor first,” he explained. After raising seven kids by himself for five years and then with only a singular other partner for the rest of that time, he had gotten used to explicitly explaining what was going to happen so that there was no confusion among his trauma.

There was a murmur of agreement between all the kids before the introductions started. “My name is Stan, I’m fifteen. I use he/him pronouns, I think.” Stan looked exactly as he had at that age in their universe. He had short cropped hair that had recently been shaved down and he was wearing a gray t-shirt underneath a leather jacket and a pair of black jeans.

“We have a Stan but he’s an adult and just got engaged,” Imani commented when he finished introducing herself.

“My name is Claire. I use she/her pronouns and I’m fifteen,” the next person went. Even though they knew that their cousin had most likely been raised very differently than her counterpart in their universe had, it was still interesting for all the Hargreeves to see what Claire would look like when she got older. She had her hair up in braids like the ones that Allison was partial to, the bottoms of them green and blue. She was wearing a pretty sun dress that was patterned with pink flowers and gold accessories.

“Jayme, she/her, and fifteen as well. I turn sixteen in a week back in our time though,” the last person that didn’t have a counterpart went. Jayme had wavy black and brown hair that was hanging loose around her face. She was wearing a red tank top and black jeans with a pair of combat boots.

“Alright, great!” Viktor smiled comfortingly at the kids. He could tell that they were nervous and felt awkward about the entire experience that they were living through, and there was barely anything that the parent could so about that given what they were having to endure.

“I guess that means we’re starting with the counterparts. My name is Indie. My pronouns kind of fluctuate, but today they’re they/them,” the kid that looked like Andrya finished. They were wearing a black ripped t-shirt with blocky white text on the front of it. They also had a pair of black jeans on and combat boots that matched Jayme’s. Their hair was cut semi-short, reaching just barely to their shoulders and was dyed purple.

Talking isn’t going to happen right now, Andrya signed towards their father.

“That’s alright, baby,” Viktor soothed. “Just sign and I’ll interpret, okay?”

They nodded. My name is Andrya, that’s A-N-D-R-Y-A, they started with their name sign and then spelled it out. Everything that they signed went through Viktor, who said it out loud. I use they/them pronouns and I’m fifteen. Andrya was wearing a pair of leggings with a baggy t-shirt that they had stolen from Einar. Their hair was long but put away in a bun on the back of their head so that it was contained and away from their neck.

“I guess I’ll go next. My name is V-valentino, I’m fifteen and my pronouns are he-he-he/him,” the next visitor said. He was signing as he spoke, making sure that it was clear despite his stutter. It was clear to the newcomers that this family frequently spoke both out loud and with sign so they were trying to accommodate that fact with the three that could use sign language. He didn’t have a name sign and just signed his name with each of the individual letters. Valentino was wearing a pair of chucks that were red with purple piping. He had on red and black flannel underneath a leather jacket and a pair of black slacks. He also had some silver jewelry on.

“My name is Einar, I’m sixteen and my pronouns are he/they,” the blond introduced himself. He was fidgeting with the end of his brain to try and keep his hands busy since he had been pulled away from the LEGO set he had been building. Einar was wearing a pair of red and green pajama bottoms with a white t-shirt on, his chin length hair hanging down around his face.

“My name is Fionn. I use he/him pronouns and I’m fifteen,” Einar’s otherworldly counterpart introduced himself. The kids were all immediately noting that they had to delve into why Fionn had an Irish name while Einar and Luther had both been given Swedish names. Fionn was dressed in a white button down with a pair of blue jeans and chucks that were the standard black with white piping. His hair was cropped a lot shorter than Einar’s more reminiscent of how Luther’s hair was cut but just a little bit longer.

“My name is Reyne, I’m genderfluid and my pronouns change. Right now they’re they/them. I’m seventeen,” Reyne beamed, giving a little spin before she jumped back up onto the entertainment center where she had been sitting before, her back just barely grazing up against the screen of the television.

“My name is Emrys, I’m fifteen just like everyone else and my pronouns are she/they.” Reyne placed their hand underneath their jaw as they turned to look at the other universe’s version of themself. It was kind of interesting to see the type of person that they could have been if they had been raised differently. They seemed to share the same fashion sense as Emrys, as the other psychic was wearing a beautiful green and brown flower print dress.

“My name is Harun, I’m the eldest-” the next of the universe’s natives began.

Reyne reached over and smacked their twin on the arm before they had the chance to continue. “You so are not! We came through the portal at the same time and we’ve lived every moment at the same speed since then. If anything I’m the oldest because I’m going to graduate before you.”

“Shut up, Reyne,” Harun rolled his eyes, though there was nothing but affection for his twin in his tone. “Anyway. I use he/him pronouns.”

“Uh, Hiroshi, fifteen, he/him,” the shy man introduced himself. Hiroshi and Harun were the two that looked the most alike out of all of the kids, which was a little heartbreaking for them to see two individuals that looked so much like their late brother, the one that they would never be able to get back. Hiroshi was wearing a green tanktop with a pair of blue pants that were beginning to fray around the hem, clearly comfortable clothes.

“Imani. Sixteen, she/her,” Imani introduced herself quickly and efficiently. She had work that she wanted to be finishing and she knew that the quicker she got this over, the more likely she was to be able to get back to it. It wasn’t as though she hated having guests, because she was the most social out of all of her siblings, but she just wanted to be able to get her schoolwork finished before her next tournament. Imani was dressed in a calf length pink skirt with a white button up on top and she had pulled all of her hair back into a ponytail to keep it out of the way in favor of styling it.

“Kai, fifteen, she/her,” the counterpart said, raising her hand nervously. She then dropped it back down to her lap and began to squeeze at the appendage to soothe her anxieties. She was wearing a pretty purple and white dress that matched Claire’s. Her hair was shorter than Claire’s but styled in the same way with the same colors.

Viktor, having anxiety himself and also having had to manage it with Andrya their entire life, was able to recognize the signs. “Kai, do you feel comfortable moving away from the rest of the group or would you prefer to stay with them?” he asked kindly.

“I-I can leave,” she replied with an awkward shrug.

“Come with me,” the parent said as he stood up and then walked towards the front of the house. The rest of the visitors seemed a little bit nervous about one of their own leaving when they weren’t sure that the place they were in was quite safe yet, but no one objected. Viktor brought Kai to the study, which was still serving as a destimulation room for the kids even after all these years.

The room itself was painted a pleasant, soothing shade of blue. There was a couch on one wall with a comfortable, soft looking throw blanket over the back. Next to it was a bookshelf full of classics and favorites of the household in almost every language. In a bin on the lowest shelf was a bunch of cords that looked to be chargers and another that seemed to contain every single fidget toy available for the public to buy. Peaking out from between the two was a power strip with nothing plugged into it but the red light signifying that it was on. On the other side of the room, there were two beanbags underneath the huge windows that currently had the late-autumn sun shining down on them.

“This place looks really nice,” Kai said quietly.

“A lot of my kids can get really overwhelmed, so I have this place so that they can calm down. While you’re staying with us, if you need some space by yourself since you don’t have your own bedroom in the house, then you can come in here. You just slide this shut so that the sign on the outside says occupied and everyone knows not to disturb you,” Viktor said, showing the sliding panel on the back of the door that effected the front.

The fifteen-year-old gave a nod and then slowly walked over to the couch. Viktor stepped to the doorway, saying, “Feel free to use any of the items in this room as long as you put them back where you think they were when you picked them up. Come out when you feel ready, alright?”

Kai gave another nod before she slumped back against the couch. Viktor was sufficiently convinced that she was going to be okay and then closed the door. He smiled softly as he saw the sign in the middle of the door change over to the red half of the sign instead of the green one. As he walked back into the living room, Five caught his attention with a flick a snap of his fingers and then signed, Is she okay?

Just overwhelmed. I told her to come out of the destimulation room once she was feeling better, he immediately signed back.

He sat back down next to his husband. The rest of the kids seemed a little bit nervous that their family member had just wandered off and hadn’t come back with the alternate version of someone that they knew, but they were obviously trying to roll with the punches after something so massive had happened. “Where were we?” Viktor asked so that he could start the introductions back up.

“I guess I can go next. My name is Keiren and I’m sixteen. I use he/him pronouns,” Keiren signed as he spoke, though he was shouting a little bit since he only had one of his hearing aides in. He had been rushed out of the house this morning so had most likely forgotten it and then just decided not to put the other one in after he came back. Keiren was wearing a pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt. His fingers and legs were covered in ink, though the tips of his fingers were stained with it while his legs were covered in doodles from when he got bored while listening to videos about storms.

“My name is Psi. I’m fifteen and I use he/him pronouns,” the counterpart to him said. Psi was wearing a red button up with a pair of nice black slacks.

Five turned his head just in time to see the way that the other boy was fidgeting. It had to have something to do with the miscalculation that got him and the rest of the kids dumped into a universe where they didn’t belong. As soon as they finished with the introductions he was going to take both the alternative versions of himself and talk to them. He knew that Psi would be able to find some solace knowing what Keiren had done when he was younger and the mistake that had cost Five the majority of what left of his childhood.

“I think that’s it,” Viktor said as he glanced over the kids. “You guys are all guests in our home while we wait for your parents to come and pick you up. I’m going to go get some of the camping equipment form the garage so that we can set you up with beds downstairs in the rec room, but feel free to hang out with the others. Kids, I want you to give anyone that has a phone mine and Dad’s numbers so that should you chose to go anywhere I know where that is. Also, explain the house rules to them,” Viktor addressed the last half towards his own children.

It may have seemed strange to the outside observer, a parenting passing off their duties as the adult onto the children, but Viktor was very quickly becoming overwhelmed and clearly needed to go do something physical before his powers went awry and started breaking things again.

“Psi, Keiren, if you would come with me,” Five said as he stood up from the couch. He noticed that Keiren was staring off into space and not listening to him, so he tapped his son’s leg and then signed what he had just said. Keiren nodded and then got up to follow after his father once Psi had separated from the rest of the kids.

Silence took over the living room as they all tried to process what was going on. Mateo then blanched and sprang to his feet, “I left Ronan in my room!”

The rest of the universe-natives rolled their eyes at their brother but then didn’t say anything. “Who’s Ronan?” Valentino asked as he turned to watch the other version of himself bolt up the stairs.

“Ronan is Mateo’s boyfriend. They’ve got a show tonight and they always hang out before their shows so that they can avoid making out on stage,” Imani explained.

Harun grimaced. “They did that the one singular time I decided that I was going to go to support him. It was nasty.”

“They think it’s funny,” Reyne laughed. “I think that it’s funny that Mateo gets yelled at for kissing his boyfriend during the middle of a performance and it’s encouraged for me to do that with Orion.”

“That’s because you’re supposed to. It’s in the stage directions,” Imani deadpanned.

Indie turned towards Valentino and said, “Almost every single version of you that we’ve run across has been in a punk band. That has to say something about you.”

Valentino left out a huff, “I think that it has something to do with how dope punk bands are.”

“Before anyone else has the chance to run away, we have a couple of house rules,” Harun said. For as much as Reyne liked to joke around that they were the eldest in the family since they were going to graduate sooner, Harun had the maturity to back up his claim. “I’ll give you the numbers for both us and our parents but no one is allowed to leave the house without telling one of the adults, preferably both, where you’re going.”

“Your parents really trust you that little?” Jayme asked as she folded her arms over her chest.

The kids all shared a look with each other. “We came to our papa back when our grandfather was still alive. Pogo knew that at least Andrya existed and so Papa had to be worried that Reginald was going to find out and take us all so that we’d be abused like our parents would be. It’s something that he struggles with and so we’re being nice to our parents by telling them where we’re going so that they don’t have to worry,” Einar explained.

The other kids went quiet as they were told the reason for the rule. It took about two beats for the next person to talk. Reyne shifted forward, “The second house rule is kind of complicated. I don’t know what the status of the Umbrella Academy is like from the universe that you guys are from but for us it was disbanded about seventeen years ago. So don’t use your powers in public and don’t mention any of the old heroes. We’ve managed to avoid the paparazzi finding out that Dad is the long-lost member of the Umbrella Academy for almost ten years so we don’t want to fuck that up now.”

Einar finished as the explanation of the big rules as he said, “Also, to the public we present Andrya and Keiren as being biologically Dad and Papa’s because they look similar enough that people would start getting suspicious of the coincidence.”

The other kids took a moment to process all of that before they nodded. When thirty seconds passed with absolute silence, Imani slapped her hands on her legs and stood up. “Well this has been great and not at all stressful. I have to go finish my speech before the competition next week.”

She departed from the living room while Reyne and Harun gave each other a little look. They were so close that it was easy for them to communicate without speaking or using sign language. Andrya ran a hand through their hair before they redid their ponytail. Imani had been right about the situation being stressful, even if none of the rest of the siblings were particularly happy with how she had phrased it. The youngest of the Hargreeves wasn’t going to be able to deal with sensory issues on top of the very stressful situation that they had just been placed in.

“I have a question,” Claire said as she looked over the group. “Are all of your siblings with each other?”

“Oh, yeah, I guess we should have told you that,” Einar laughed. “Um, when we were all three Keiren accidentally opened a portal-”

“We should preface this by saying that this is technically not our native universe. We came from another one, that like every version of the Umbrella Academy was adopted away from our birth mothers like Reginald,” Reyne said before they motioned for their brother to go on. Now that Keiren was gone none of them were signing, but they still had the habit of speaking very clearly and turning towards the person that they were addressing so that their lips could be read properly.

“Right, right,” Einar nodded. “But anyway, when we were three Keiren opened a portal and Andrya fell through. We obviously don’t remember it but Papa tells the story a lot. He was twenty-three when he found them and pretty heavily medicated because of his version of Reginald. He brought her back to the house and that’s how Pogo and Grace found out about Andrya. They tried to medicate them too, but Papa thought that was weird and didn’t want to let them do that anymore.”

“I, um, I was the one that showed him he had powers,” Andrya said, though it was obvious that it was taking a lot out of them to do so. Reyne reached over, pulling their younger sibling close so that the fifteen-year-old could slump against them into the comfort of their body.

Einar gave his sibling a worried glance but continued the story, “When we were all five, Keiren opened another one and that’s how Papa ended up with Reyne and Harun. Some weird time stuff happened that resulted them being a year older than us but the four of us only experiencing a couple of weeks between when they went through and when we did. The rest of us all came through all at once.”

“Einar was pretty against being with Papa even though it was obvious everyone was happier here,” Reyne chuckled. “As obvious as it can be when you’re six and four, I guess.”

“Are you all not siblings with each other?”

“No,” Jayme and Fionn shared a quick look at each other like even the idea of that was very startling.

“It’s kind of complicated for us too,” Stan shrugged. “My mom got me from her friends in the eighties and then brought me back to the modern day. So I’m technically adopted, just like Valentino is.”

“I’m an alternate version of Diego. That’s his name in your universe, right?” Valentino asked, getting a nod from the siblings.

“I think that’s his name in every universe,” Emrys laughed. “It just suits him when he’s in that form.”

“Anyway. Valentino and I aren’t biologically Lila and Diego’s, but we’re just as much their kids as their biological daughter,” Stan finished. He folded his arms and then placed them on the back of the couch that he had been hovering around so that he was leaning forward slightly.

The natives to the universe nodded. They all knew what it was like to be adopted, since they had been taken in by someone that hadn’t given birth to them. Just then, it clicked in Andrya’s head and they moved away from their sibling to say, “Wait, biological daughter?”

“Yeah, we have a little sister. Her name is Navya, she was born not long after I got to the other universe,” Valentino nodded.

The siblings all looked at each other with huge, shocked eyes. “You don’t think…” Harun trailed off.

“I mean, Aunt Lila was acting a little bit off the last time that we saw her,” Reyne grinned wickedly.

“Should we really be speculating about this? There’s a chance that the universes are different enough that its not actually going to happen,” Andrya protested.

“Sweet, precious, baby sib,” Reyne cupped either side of their face and pressed an obnoxiously wet kiss to their forehead. “You’re too innocent. Aunt Lila is totally pregnant and she and Uncle Diego are just waiting to tell us all.”

Harun groaned, letting his head drop back against the couch, “Shit, this means that we’re going to have to pretend to act surprised.” There was a ripple of laughter between all of the teenagers in the living room despite the tension and anxieties that they had beforehand. The siblings all laughed while the visitors looked a little sheepish that they had managed to unveil a secret that the others weren’t supposed to know about yet.

---

Meanwhile, Five had brought Keiren and Psi out to the shed that he used for work in the backyard. The walls were all painted with a special kind of paint that allowed him to use chalk on them like a chalkboard. He had several bookshelves on wheels that he could move around when he needed more room in a spot that had been previously blocked. He also had a magnetic whiteboard in the center that was covered in papers that had notes about the timeline scribbled on them.

“I work for a company that is supposed to stop alterations and paradoxes from happening in the timeline. That means that I spend a lot of time calculating the jumps in the space-time continuum,” Five began to explain as hes at both boys down in the chairs near the desk. He signed as he spoke, both for himself and his son. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life.”

“Did you dump almost your entire family into another universe where they don’t belong?” Psi asked, arms folded over his chest and a frown plastered on his face.

Five chuckled. “I’ve never sent a member of my family somewhere they shouldn’t be before because of what I did to myself. When I was thirteen I decided that I was going to try time-traveling for the first time despite all of the warnings that Reginald had given me. He told me that trying to travel through time was like entering a frozen lake and emerging from the other side as an acorn. It was dangerous, stupid, and reckless. I did it anyway because I was a young teenager and then I got stuck. I lived in the year 2019 for almost a month before someone from the place where I now work came and collected me. She’s the woman I consider to be my mother even if I don’t particularly care for her anymore.”

“So you had to have someone come and clean up your mess too?” Psi asked as he shifted on his chair so that he was sitting up instead of all slouched over.

“I was too young for it to be a calculated mistake. It was a decision that I made on impulse that resulted in unindented consequences. It was an accident,” Five explained.

Keiren piped up then, apparently cluing in to what his father was doing. “When I was three I brought Andrya to this universe, and ten I did it again with Reyne and Harun when I was five. The only time I made the link between the two universes on purpose was when I brought everyone else here. I also make mistakes all the time, I end up two inches to the left of where I wanted to be or on top of a table. It’s why we’re not allowed to use our powers in the house.”

“Our ability is very complicated. The math that we have to do every time we make a jump is something that most people can’t even fathom before they get into college,” Five explained. “It’s understandable that someone around your guys’ age is going to make mistakes when it comes to that. You didn’t do it maliciously, you made a mistake and that’s okay.”

“But I got everyone stuck here. Not that you guys aren’t nice, I just know I’m worrying my parents and it sucks for all my cousins and siblings to have to put up with the mistake that I made,” Psi explained.

Five knew that kind of resentment, he had felt it towards himself for a very long time. The Handler, as a sort of strange punishment, had forced him to repair some of the more damaged cases and he had gotten several of them wrong, which sent agents to very different times than they were supposed to be in without the ability to get help. “It’s a risk that they know they’re taking when they use your power. Each of us has the ability to do something wrong that could hurt other people. Ours specifically is more difficult because it can land people in places like this. But that’s okay. I’m sure that they’ve forgiven you for making a mistake, Psi.”

“Yeah, they love you because they’re your family. Family is supposed to forgive each other,” Keiren nodded. He wasn’t very good at comforting people because he could rarely pay attention long enough to know their social cues but he was also pretty familiar with the frustration that came with their abilities. The three of them were naturally intelligent and gifted when it came to math, but that didn’t meant that they were immune to the same mistakes and accidents that every human was.

The adult leaned forward so that he could catch Psi’s eye. “I know that the feeling right now sucks and is making you feel even worse, but it does pass. You haven’t done anything that’s irreversible. Your parents are going to come looking for you soon and if they aren’t here in the next two days then you and I can work together to get you back, alright?”

The smaller version of him considered it for a moment before he gave a sure nod. “Right.”

“Come on, let’s go see if dinner is ready,” Five chuckled as he brought both boys back into the house.

---

Mateo had just finished explaining the basics of what had happened to Ronan as they finished coming down the stairs. While they weren’t allowed to use their powers willy-nilly and explain who their parents had been earlier in their lives, several people very close to the Hargreeves were aware of their powers and how they had originally ended up in the universe. They figured that if someone decided to leak it, the Umbrella Academy had been dissolved for long enough that the news about what they really were either wouldn’t be believed or Allison and Imani could clean it up to protect the family’s anonymity.

I’m really sorry that we have to cancel tonight’s show. I just don’t think it’s a good idea with everything that happened this afternoon, Mateo signed.

Ronan was a little bit dressed up, like he always got right before a show, but most of his show-clothing was tucked away in the bag slung over his back. He was wearing a short black and red checkered skirt with a studded leather belt. His shirt was tucked in at the waist and black as well, with blocky white writing spelling out their band name. He was wearing just a little bit of mascara and eyeliner with red lipstick that matched his skirt. The taller teenager smiled softly at Mateo before he tilted the other boy’s face up to give him a sweet kiss. It’s alright. Next week?

They didn’t get to finish their discussion as Indie and Valentino poked their head around the door leading into the hallway. “You guys are in a band too, right?”

“Oh, yeah,” Mateo was still signing as he spoke. That was one of the things that he and Ronan had originally bonded over, the fact that Mateo was fluent and sign and fairly immersed the deaf community even if he himself was hearing because of his father and brother.

“What kind of music do you play?” Indie asked, signing as well.

“You don’t have to sign, I have my hearing aids in,” Ronan turned his head to the side to reveal the black device. “They’re not even the old pair that I use for shows.”

Mateo stared at his boyfriend with a kind of dopey smile, his eyes soft and adoring. Valentino and Indie shared a look with each other before the former asked, “What kind of music do you play?”

“Depends on the venue. We’ve got a hardcore album out on Spotify but I prefer classic rock,” Ronan shrugged. “We usually get booked for hardcore shows because I can play them really well. The classic rock is a little harder to get booked for because it’s more mainstream. Hardcore let’s us play in the back of pizza parlors and abandoned garages.”

“You guys are punk too, right?” Mateo asked. It only made sense for the other universe version of himself to share that trait,

“Yeah, we’ve got a band together,” Indie nodded. “Maybe we can show you some of our stuff.”

“I don’t know how well files from other universes are going to transfer because your band certainly doesn’t exist on streaming services in this universe,” Five chuckled as he walked over to the children. “Wrap up so that we can have dinner, alright?”

“Yes, Dad,” Mateo immediately replied. Five looked over the children as if checking to make sure that they were all still there and okay before he walked into the living room to have the same discussion with the rest of the kids.

“It was nice meeting the two of you. Indie and Valentino, right?” Ronan asked, pointing to them both respectively.

“Yeah, how did…?” Valentino trailed off.

Mateo looked down at his feet with a flush on his face. “I kind of tell him everything.”

The taller teenager grinned as he wrapped an arm around his boyfriend’s shoulder. “Loses his filter around me every single time. All I have to do is tilt his face up and kiss him.”

“Kisses from someone taller than you are pretty nice,” Indie conceded as they thought back to their own boyfriend back in their home universe.

Ronan chuckled and then said, “Nice chair, by the way. If you wanna spice it up there’s some good backing covers that you can find on etsy. My mom uses when for hers.” After that he paused just long enough to give Mateo a last kiss before he slipped out of the door and headed towards his car so that he could go home.

“That was thoroughly embarrassing,” Mateo muttered to himself as he locked the door.

“I like your boyfriend,” Valentino chuckled. “It’s nice to know that wherever we go we can still pull the hottest person int he room.”

“You should see him when he performs,” Mateo replied. He pulled his phone out of his pocket to show the duo some of their promotional band snapshots that they had convinced Calliope, Ronan’s twin, to take of them after Mateo had joined the band. They had to almost redo everything after they added another member to the group, but at that point Ronan and Darcy (the previous two members of the band) had enough supporters that they were able to call in their favors no problem.

The trio was completely enveloped in their discussion about music and instruments other than the classical ones that everyone else in Mateo’s family played. He was eager to have someone other than his uncle and bandmates to talk about this with. Mateo was awkward enough, and did a plethora of other activities that made him unappealing to some of the more mainstream punks, that it was hard for him to make friends his age that were interested in all of the things that he was.

Viktor came to collect them almost ten minutes later when dinner was finally ready. Einar and Fionn had just finished helping him extend the table with a couple of the removable eaves and get the additional chairs out from the kitchen closet. It was something that they did every time their piblings and cousins came over, so there was plenty of room for their guests at the table.

“I don’t know if any of you are vegetarian or vegan, but that’s what these two pizzas are,” Viktor explained. “We also have these two that don’t have lactose for Reyne and Emrys. I got a couple things other than pizza too because I don’t know what all your preferences are so I wanted to make sure that everyone had something to eat.”

“Thanks, Papa,” Imani kissed his cheek as she took a portion of the vegetarian pizza and then sat down at her regular spot.

Everyone else got the food that they wanted and then sat down at the table. Most of them sat near their counterparts so that they could talk about the differences between them, which is what they were all curious about. They were all chatting quietly, discussing their differences in extracurriculars, sexuality, and career choice quietly amongst each other. Several of the conversations petered out while people turned away from their counterpart and began to talk with some of the others that they found they were more similar to.

Then, Andrya smacked their hand into the table hard enough to make the plates and cups rattle. The visitors to their universe jumped, all startled by the sudden sound, all turning towards the person that had made it. The natives to the universe, on the other hand, looked up and towards the youngest of the Hargreeves. “Sorry,” they winced when they realized how badly they had startled the others. “I was just trying to get Keiren’s attention, he took his hearing aids out and that’s how we get his attention when he can’t hear us. I didn’t mean to startle anyone.”

They were talking so quickly and nervously that their fingers stuttered over the sign, leaving it messy and half done. Viktor reached over the table and placed his hand on their arm, “Take a deep breath. You’re okay. They were just startled, no one is mad at you.”

“Yeah, we just didn’t expect you to do that,” Indie immediately nodded. “I didn’t know that was the way that you got the attention of people that are deaf or hard of hearing.”

“It’s because we can feel the vibrations through the table. It’s also the way that someone can get our attention when we’re in another room, by stomping,” Five explained while signing along with his words. “We’re sorry that it startled you, this is just something that we do in our family so we didn’t even think about it.”

“It’s okay,” Claire quickly said, ever the diplomat in this universe or the next. “We were just surprised. Now that we know it’ll be easier for us to adjust. We don’t expect you to stop communicating with each other in the way that you’re used to and need to just for us.”

“Andrya is kind of nervous about it because some bullies at our school were being ableist and decided that they were going to harass them about it. Papa and Dad quickly put a stop to that by having a visit with the principal about their accessibility issues, but it still kind of sets us all on edge because we’re worried something like that is going to happen again,” Harun explained. He was the second most protective over his baby sibling, right after Einar, so that whole situation still really bothered him.

The rest of dinner went very smoothly. Keiren was taking care of the leftover pizza boxes while the rest of the kids were sent up to their rooms so that they could get some of the things from their room. They were all going to be sleeping in the downstairs rec room that night since none of them wanted to be away from each other when they felt like they had so much to discuss with each other.

Viktor was walking the rest of the kids downstairs to show them where they would be sleeping while Five approached the teenager. “Indie, I’m afraid out house isn’t very disability accessible and unfortunately the upper and lower floors are only available via the stairs. Luckily, our downstairs area where the rest of the kids are staying has a mini-kitchen that is stocked with plenty of snacks and dishes and it has a full bathroom. Do you feel comfortable staying down there or would you prefer to be on the ground floor so that you can get out?”

The young teenager considered it for a moment, slumped back in their chair. “I think that I can handle being downstairs. It sounds nice and I want to be with the everyone else,” they finally answered. Five knew how much it sucked to be disabled in a world that wasn’t very accommodating to that kind of thing, even if their disabilities were very different.

“Alright,” he nodded. “Do you want me to teleport you downstairs or would you prefer that I carry you and then bring your chair down afterwards?”

“Can you teleport me?” Indie asked politely.

Five nodded. He walked behind them and then told them when he was going to touch their wheelchair and then when he teleported them both down to the basement. The kids all got their sleeping arrangements spread out along the floor. The natives had several of their mattresses spread out on the ground while the visitors got to be on the pull out couch and a couple of the camping cots so that they were comfortable. Viktor had also brought down as many pillows and blankets as he had been able to find so that they could all be comfortable.

They all settled in so that they could go to sleep, the conversations from earlier beginning to emerge again. Reyne had just settled down on her bed after putting her hair back in a bun so that it wouldn’t bother her while she was sleeping when Emrys walked over and sat down next to her. “So, you said that you all came over way earlier than we did, right?”

“Yeah. I was about four or five when Papa adopted me. How old were you guys?” Reyne asked. She was very different from the other version of herself. Emrys seemed a little bit more quiet and reserved than Reyne was, but the had the same fire and passion burning endlessly inside of them.

“I was eight,” they explained. “How did you deal with the ghosts, by the way? I can’t imagine that your version of Viktor would have been okay with you using substances.”

The other teenager thought about it for a moment before she answered, “I dunno. I guess I never really felt like I had to deal with them. I had only been getting training for a little while since I had just gotten fine motor control and the ability to talk by the time I was taken away from my version of Reginald. Papa always made sure that I knew what the ghosts were and why they weren’t scary. He made sure that all of us knew there was nothing to be scared of because he was there to protect us. I think it had something to do with how he grew up.”

“How did he grow up?” Emrys asked. “My Uncle Viktor was the Number One of the Umbrella Academy and the strongest out of all the siblings. I mean, he has the same sensory overload thing that all of the versions of him do but my uncle doesn’t seem nearly as anxious as your dad does.”

Reyne blew out a breath as she began to explain, “Well, my papa was number seven, first of all.”

“They had the same ranks that we did then, before we came over and stopped being in the Umbrella Academy,” Emrys nodded.

“I think that it’s pretty rare to find a version of the Academy that didn’t have that ranking system,” Reyne laughed. “But anyway. Gramps decided that since Dad’s powers were too much for him to handle with training that he was going to pretty heavily medicate him.”

“Same thing happened with Indie. That was why they agreed to go through the portal in the first place, you know. Viktor immediately recognized it and took them off of those meds so that they could become the person we know today,” she laughed.

Reyne knocked its foot into the other teenagers before it continued explaining. It gave a small shudder when it realized how quickly its gender was changing and fluctuating, most likely because it was around so many new people and trying to figure out how it wanted to be seen around them. “Well, I think that’s where the difference happened. Papa was drugged for his entire life, to the point where he wasn’t even able to discover what his gender was until like a month after he had gotten Andrya and stopped the meds. Reginald isolated him from all the other members of the Umbrella Academy. He made sure that Viktor was never included in anything beyond lessons. According to my Uncle Ben, both Five and Ben tried to be close to him but Reginald tried really hard to make sure that they couldn’t do that. Everyone was totally a dick to him so he felt scared and alone his entire life. When he got us I guess he just decided that he didn’t want any of that to happen anymore.”

“Makes sense. Is Ben dead in your universe?” Emrys asked, tacking on the last half of the sentence like that part of Reyne’s story had just occurred to her.

The rest of the room quieted down, obviously interested in that part of the story too. Reyne screwed up its face before it answered, “Yeah. Uncle Ben died eighteen years ago. None of the adults will talk about what happened and Uncle Ben doesn’t like to talk about it so I don’t force him to.”

“That’s really fucking weird,” Indie grimaced.

“In our universe, Ben, Quentin, and Viktor are in a polyamorous relationship together. Quentin is our version of Five, by the way,” Hiroshi explained. “It’s weird to think that in a universe where they were all controlled by Reginald the entire time they were growing up and without Viktor’s powers being unlocked that I would have died.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of freaky for me to think about that too,” Harun admitted. “It’s gotten easier though, the more I talk to Uncle Ben’s ghost. We think that he’s pretty close to making peace with the fact that he’s dead and doesn’t get to spend all the time he wants with his siblings though. Like, he’s going to pass on soon.”

“Harun has been helping me on that front since I learned how to call ghosts from the afterlife. Uncle Ben goes back and forth between the afterlife and being a ghost. He spends more time in the afterlife though, so I think it’ll become permanent soon,” Reyne explained. The conversations drifted back so that they were all talking about what they had been before and the attention was no longer directly focused on the two psychics.

Emrys flipped over so that she was laying on her stomach and toying with some loose strings on the blanket spread over Reyne’s bed. “So have you ever walked around in a graveyard after dark?”

It let out a small snort. “Why would I do that when the ghosts at the theater that I perform at are so much more fun to be around and I have a key?”

“Do you think that we could go?” Emrys asked, their eyes lighting up with pure excitement.

The other teenager quickly got off of her bed and then began to rush to the staircase. “There’s only one way to find out, let’s go ask my parents!”

Emrys was off the bed in an instant and rushing after her alternate universe counterpart. None of them had changed into their pajamas yet since it was only about seven o’clock at night, which meant that they could get going on their journey a lot quicker than they would if they had to change.

The duo came to a stop as they reached the living room where Five and Viktor were cuddling on the couch. “Hey, baby, everything okay?” Viktor asked as he detached from his husband and sat up to face his eldest.

“Yup! Do you think that I could bring Emrys to the theater? I wanted to show her around and introduce her to some of my ghost pals. I think that they’d really like some of them since they’re interested in graves and ghosts and stuff,” Reyne explained. She was being rambly and a little bit avoidant of what she was actually asking in the hopes that it would make her father more likely to say yes.

“I’m not sure that you two going out into the real world is such a good idea right now,” he pursed his lips and glanced back at Five.

The other man looked between the two teenagers and saw how desperate they were to go on this adventure with each other. Five was well aware of how much his daughter wanted to be connected to someone that could see ghosts. Even though Klaus was mostly clean at this point in his life, he still flitted in and out of everyone’s lives in such a way that it made it hard for Reyne to really connect with him.

“Do you promise to text us every half hour with a proof of life picture?” Five asked. He was holding his husband’s hand to help Viktor feel more secure with the decision to let Reyne leave the house after something so stressful had happened.

“Yes,” the teenager immediately agreed.

Five gave a little nod. They were both aware that Viktor struggled with his children being out of hearing range where he couldn’t check that they were okay. It was the only thing that any of the kids had ever heard their parents talk about. While Reginald had been too eager to put them in danger, Viktor had tried to swing too far the other way so that he wasn’t letting them do anything risky. It was a fight for him to try and let them do things that he viewed as needlessly dangerous, so Reyne was happy to give in to her parents demands if it meant that they would feel better about letting her have adventures.

“I think that it’s not unreasonable to shorten down your weekend curfew to ten because of everything that’s happened today,” Five said.

"Right. So ten o'clock we're back in the house," she nodded in agreement.

“And how are you going to get there and back to the house?” Viktor asked. He was trying his best to let his daughter make her own decisions, but it was obvious that she was struggling.

"Bria has some family stuff she's doing so I was going to ask her for a ride since she'll be driving that way anyway. You know she'll want a moment to escape to bring us back too," Reyne explained. She then turned to the other teenager and said, "Bria is my girlfriend, by the way."

"Alright. But only because I like her and she keeps you out of unhealthy amounts of trouble. Please be safe," Viktor smiled nervously at them.

Reyne leaned down and kissed both of her parents on the cheek before she tugged Emrys over to the door so they could wait for the aforementioned girlfriend. They both talked about some of their experiences with ghosts and then the differences between Klaus in their worlds.

They waited in the decompression room for the car to arrive. As soon as it did, Reyne dragged the other version of herself outside. She beamed when she saw her girlfriend, rushing over to give her a quick kiss on the lips. Bria was leaning against the hood of her beat up white car, dressed in a pair of nice blue jeans and a half unbuttoned dress shirt that revealed her lacy undershirt. Her overly curly red hair was tucked back into a bun that barely contained it.

“Hey sweetheart,” she laughed as she pressed their lips together in a quick kiss. She kept one hand on her girlfriend’s hip while she extended the other one to the alternate universe version of herself. “It’s nice to meet you, my name is Bria.”

“Emrys. I love your outfit,” she beamed as she took the offered hand.

“Thanks. I usually wear a lot less clothing but I have a family thing so I have to look at least somewhat presentable,” she laughed. She gave Reyne another brief kiss on the cheek before she got into the driver’s side of the car. Emrys took the back while Reyne got in on the passenger’s side.

The beginning half of the car ride was spent with Bria asking questions about what had happened and Reyne patiently explaining it. Similar to Ronan, Bria had everything explained to her after she started dating Reyne and spending more time around the house. No one liked having to pretend like they didn’t have powers and they hadn’t come from a different universe when they were in the comfort of their own home, especially not as often as it would have taken had Ronan and Bria not been updated. The second half was spent singing along to the radio, which was playing a playlist of the songs that Reyne and Bria were going to be performing in their upcoming play.

They pulled into the abandoned parking lot at the back of the theater. Despite what it was like on a normal day, it was closed to rehearsals that night so they were going to be the only living people in the building. Bria turned so that she was looking back at Emrys, “I don’t know how long you’re going to be staying with Reyne but I would love the opportunity to paint the two of you.”

“Depending on how long we end up staying, I would love that. I don’t know how long it’s going to take my Uncle Five to get to us either,” they explained. They all bade their goodbyes and then the duo was left standing at the back entrance of the haunted theater, giddy with anticipation.

---

The next morning, all of the kids were exhausted as they hauled themselves out of bed around nine in the morning. Reyne and Emrys had gotten back at ten just like they had promised, but then they had all stayed up for hours while talking about the differences in their universes. The ones that were interested in it had also painted each other’s nails and done their hair in different styles.

They all slowly made their way upstairs so that they could eat something. Einar was teaching Fionn how to make pancakes when a portal began to swirl open in the living room. “Kids?” the adult version of Five from that universe shouted to try and get their attention from wherever they might be in the house.

“Dad!” Indie beamed as they quickly wheeled themself from the kitchen and into the living room again. Psi followed after, though he paused and looked shamefully down at the ground once he reached there.

Viktor and Five were in the living room in an instant, worried that someone might there to hurt the children. They relaxed when they saw that their visitors obviously recognized that version of Five, assured that it was safe. The rest of the kids piled from the kitchen, the visitors feeling excited to go home but dismayed that they wouldn’t have more time with their new friends.

“You’re all here? That’s going to make it a lot easier. For a second there I was worried that I was going to have to search different universes for all of you,” he chuckled. He hugged his children, as if to just confirm that they were okay and really there in front of him. Viktor could relate to that. He then straightened out and motioned towards the portal. “Come on, everyone go through.”

There was a good deal of hugging from those that liked touch and several goodbyes before each of the visitors finally stepped back into the portal and into the waiting arms of their parents. Quentin turned towards Five and Viktor, “Thank you for taking care of my children and niblings. I appreciate it.”

“It was no trouble, they’re all good kids. Thanks for coming to get them,” Five smiled at the other version of himself. He settled a hand on Viktor’s shoulder to try and reassure his husband that it was okay, that he didn’t have to get anxious now that the bad situation was over.

Quentin nodded towards all of them and then stepped back through the portal so that he could close it and seal the rift between the two universes.

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