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sortofanobsession · 1 year

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Will o’ the Wisp - Ch. 4 (Umbrella Academy WIP)

Author’s Note: Okay, so I managed to get some more done. I have more sketched out but not sure how soon it will be done. I have plans. So stay tuned. Unbeta’d.

Please see chapter 1 for explanation of characters and character name details for Viktor. (again I am willing to take suggestions on this)

Minors DNI

So as it goes, Y/N = your name. Y/N/N = your nickname. Reader pronouns She/Her.

Tag Requests are Open just message me.

Primary Pairing: Diego Hargreeves x Female!Reader (Slow Burn)

Luther tries to be a decent brother, he isn't the best at it.

Series/TUA Masterlist

Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 5

Word count: 5k+

Content Warning: Canon typical neglect, manipulation, violence, angst, anger, fire, flames, knives (cuz Diego is gonna Diego) guns, gunshot wounds, blood, cauterization, head wound, mentions of death, mentions of murder, poison, depression, anxiety, fear, mentions torture (I probably missed something, so let me know and I'll tag it.)

Chapter 4: Discussions and Distractions

Y/N and Luther get back to the academy. She lets out a long sigh as she rolls her shoulders and lets the Wisp form behind her. Luther had gotten so used to her doing that, that he didn’t usually bat an eye, but this time he takes a second to study the hue and intensity of the glowing form. After everything, they had talked about, and the fact they probably talked more now than they had since they were really little, he really looked at both her forms. How could she stand constantly having dueling perspectives? The more he tried to think about it, the more it seemed nauseating. Like, split-screen video games or picture-in-picture but 24/7 and beyond just audio-visual. They’ve been together their whole lives, and he is just really putting it into perspective now. He clearly sucks at being the sympathetic brother. He looks away from her glowing form and to her actual human one. She looked weary, almost drained. He wonders how much it takes out of her to have this extra entity that is constantly battling for space. It might not be a mental thing, but it clearly took a toll. Would she even tell him if she needed a break or help? Would any of them? He guessed that was kind of the situation they were all navigating now. Learning to work together again. And all it took was someone killing their dad. Maybe he was thinking too much about this.

"What?" She asks when her much larger brother just keeps staring at her.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but-"

"I know," she says knowingly. "I need to get more sleep.” She huffs a sort of tired laugh and smiles. “Wisp is more of a ragged refulgence right now."

Luther wasn’t about to admit he wasn’t actually sure what that meant. Ragged, made sense. That one he got. Refulgence? Well, that one he would have to look up. Why did his sisters have to genuinely be so much smarter than he was? But he ignored it. It wasn’t meant as a dig against his intelligence or anything like that. That she usually reserved for Diego. He knows her tone made it clear it was supposed to be, at least partially, a joke.

"Yeah," he nods.

She gives him an amused look as he seemed to be in his head again. “Remember to get some sleep yourself, Luther.” With that, she goes off to her room. He goes to find Allison.

Y/N wakes up to Pogo telling her she had a call. She isn’t too surprised to find her boss on the line. She had given him the number as an emergency contact. She had not really expected him to use it, but then again, the guy wasn’t great on boundaries at times. For what feels like hours but is probably just a few annoying minutes, they argue about her next shift. She tells him how her family needs her and that she can’t come back yet. She can’t tell him the details. She can’t even guarantee a timeline. Eventually, her boss agrees to give her a few more days unpaid. To which she begrudgingly agrees.

Grumbling, she goes to get something to eat. Her annoyance is clear in the slight red tint to her fluorescent facsimile.

"Whoa, looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed," Klaus says. She glances up at the Wisp but shrugs.

"My boss called."

"Fun, clearly went well," Klaus gestures to the aggravated aura.

"He is not happy about having to find someone to cover my shifts. But he did give me more time off, unpaid time off, but that's not a surprise."

"Why do you still work there if your boss sucks?"

"Because I have rent to pay," she says. "And I was lucky to find that job. Not a lot of people want to hire someone like me."

"That is their loss. You're great. A literal ray of sunshine."

"I love you, Klaus, but I think you're a bit biased."

"There you are," She smiles as she sees Five. "If I didn't know better, I would think you were avoiding me."

"You?" Five says. “Nah.”

"I've seen Luther and Diego more than you, and that's saying something."

"That's because I trust you,” he insists, “I know you can do what I asked you to without me hovering. Hovering is more your thing." He gestures to the Wisp.

"I appreciate that, but I still miss you."

Five smiles sadly. "I miss you too, but once I sort out what I need to, then we'll have all the time we need for you to get sick of having me around like you do, Klaus."

“You sure you have that much time?” She grins.

“For you?” He pretends to need to mull it over, but he knew the answer. He had genuinely missed her. He’d missed them all, but she had always been up to any challenge he gave her. She never used to back down. She may have lost some of her edge and her warm light, but she was still his sister. “Sure.”

She studies him. "Are you okay?"

"I promise you, Y/N/N, I am not the one you need to worry about."

She narrows her gaze at him. "See, that just makes me worry more."

He chuckles. "I know, but I trust you to do what needs to be done."

"But what is your end goal, Five? I can't help you much if you don't tell me."

"I'm handling it," he insists.

"But-"

He squeezes her shoulder. “Just keep working on getting everyone on the same page."

She snorts a laugh. "I'm not even sure they're all using the same book, let alone page."

"You, Diego, and Luther were all in the same room and walked away agreeing on something last night, right?" She nods. "Then you are already doing better than I expected."

Grace approaches them.

"There you are, Y/N," she smiles, "you have a call."

"I'll fill you in later, okay?" Five assures her.

"Okay," she nods before going to get the phone. She was only partially surprised to find out it was her neighbor, Joan. Someone else she had given the number to for emergencies.

"Hey Joan, I'm sorry I didn't let you know but my trip home is taking a bit longer than I expected." She informs her only friendly neighbor. "Oh, I told Allison you were a fan…"

"There you are. I think we found something about Dad." Luther pulls Y/N to the side.

She is instant to inquire, "What did you find?"

“Pogo gave Allison the key to the surveillance videos. Dad had been using them again. Getting paranoid, I guess.”

“So you have video from the day he died?”

“Exact moment and before it.”

“So?” she prompts him to continue when he doesn’t elaborate.

“Grace gave him a cup of tea, and then he died.”

“So you think she did it?” She finds that hard to believe. She was their mom. She helped raise them when Reginald Hargreeves couldn’t be bothered to.

“You can see for yourself once the others get here.” They stand in silence for a moment while she really thinks about it. What would have been Grace’s motive? Why was he telling her now if they were going to show everyone later? Unless…

"Please tell me you don't think what I think you're thinking, Luther."

"I'm just telling you what we found. Figured you would want a heads up, going to have a family meeting."

"Luther," she starts.

"I'm not saying it was him, just you know how he is with Grace," Luther says.

"He would never ask her to do anything like that, never put her in a position like that. I don’t even know if that would be possible. He…no, there has to be something else going on."

"Just don't miss the meeting," Luther says.

Before Y/N turns the corner she hears Diego in Grace’s sitting area. She thought about her conversation with Luther.

“Mom, we need to talk.”

“Okay,” Grace agrees, “but only for a minute. I need to finish this cross-stitch.”

“Everything you did for us when we were kids... for me... why'd you do it?”

“Because being your mother is the greatest gift of my life.”

“Is that you saying that?”

“I'm not sure what you mean, Diego.”

“I mean, our father, he... made you.”

“When you think something, is it like he's telling you what to say?”

“Your father isn't here, silly. Did I do something wrong?”

“No, it's... it's not... Look. It's okay... if you hated him. He was terrible to you, to all of us.”

“Don't say that.”

“Why not? We were just tools in an experiment to him. Nothing more. So I'm saying, I would understand if... you know, if... if you wanted to hurt him.”

“Now, now. Mr. Hargreeves was a great man. Industrialist, inventor, Olympic gold medalist. He made the world a better place.”

“Stop it! Do you hear me? Stop trying to defend him! Mom, you gotta feel something. Look, he treated you worse than anyone. You worked for him for 30 years. He didn't even give you a room to sleep in.”

“But I've got such beautiful views here.”

“Mom, those are just paintings.”

“Of course they are. What a wonderful world she lives in. Sometimes I wonder if she is lonely.”

Y/N can almost sense Diego’s frustration from where she is, but she doesn’t say anything. She just continues on her way.

The Wisp hovers a few feet behind them all, just high enough not to heat any surfaces. But very little of Y/N’s focus is on the scintillate secondary entity. It was back to its usual melancholy tone. Her focus is on her siblings as they all gather.

“I mean, do you really think Mom would hurt Dad?” Vanya asks.

“You haven't been home in a long time, Vanya.”

“Maybe you don't know Grace anymore.”

“Not sure that’s fair,” Y/n mutters. “Most of us have been gone.”

“If he was poisoned, it would have shown in the coroner's report.”

“Well, I don't need a report to tell me what I can see with my own eyes.”

“Guys…” she starts.

“Look closer.”

“Dad has his monocle.” Diego narrates. “Mom stands up. Monocle's gone.”

“Oh, yeah!” Klaus agrees with a chuckle.

“She wasn't poisoning him. She was... taking it.”

“To clean it.”

Luther isn't convinced. “Then where is it? No, I've searched the house, including all her things. She doesn't have it.”

“That's because I took it from her,” Diego admits. “After the funeral.”

The Wisp flashes a vivid shade of vermillion for a moment before it settles back to its usual melancholy blue. An action that earns her a few winces and nervous looks, but no one mentions it. They instead choose to focus on Diego.

“You've had the monocle this whole time? What the hell, Diego?”

“Give it to me.”

“I threw it away.”

“You what?”

“You’re a dumbass,” Y/N grumbles as she rubs at her temples. The glimmer of the Wisp changes slightly as she does, intensity ebbing and flowing with the pressure on her temples. Like angry waves on a stormy coast. She misses the glare Diego sends both of her forms.

“Look, I knew that if you found it on Mom, you'd lose your shit,” Diego explains. “Just like you're doing right now.”

Y/N shook her head. This meeting was going nowhere fast. She shifted her attention to the Wisp and decided to search for Five. She barely registers the continuing conversation, giving it just enough attention that she couldn't be accused of ignoring it all.

“Diego, you son of a bitch.”

“Hey, no,” Vanya tries, “Calm down. Look, I know Dad wasn't exactly an open book. But I do remember one thing he said. Mom was, well, designed to be a caretaker, but...also as a protector.”

“What does that mean?”

Vanya explains, “She was programmed to intervene if someone's life was in jeopardy.”

“Well, if her hardware is degrading, then…We need to turn her off,” Luther states.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait,” Diego starts. “She's not just a vacuum cleaner you can throw in a closet. She feels things. I've seen it!”

“She just stood there, Diego, and watched our father die.”

“I'm with Luther,” Allison tells them.

“Surprise, surprise.” Diego snarks.

“Shut up,” Allison glares.

They look at Vanya. “I... I don't…”

“Yeah,” Diego doesn’t let her finish. “She shouldn't get a vote.”

“Wh... “ Luther starts.

“I was gonna say that I agree with you,” Vanya points out.

“Okay,” Diego accepts, “She should get a vote.”

“What about you, stoner boy? What do you got?” They look to Klaus.

“Oh, so, what? You need my help now? Oh, 'Get out of the van, Klaus!' 'Well, welcome back to the van'."

“What van?”

“What's it gonna be, Klaus?” Luther asks.

“I'm with Diego, because screw you!” Klaus glares at Luther. “And if Ben were here, he'd agree with me.”

“So far, that's three to two.”

They look at Y/N, but she says nothing.

“Y/N?” Luther calls to her, and when she doesn’t respond, he asks, “Where’s the Wisp?”.

“What?” Allison looks around. “Not here.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Diego seethes. He can see the faint blue glow under her eyelids.

“Hey!” Allison shouts as Diego grips their sister’s shoulder and violently shakes it. He fails to duck out of the way when a fist hits his chest, landing him on the floor.

“Asshole,” Y/N mutters as she gets up, flexing her fingers as she does.

“Were you listening?” Luther asks.

Y/N glares at him. “You doubting me too?”

She steals Klaus’ booze and takes a swig, earning a laugh from her usually inebriated brother. “Easy, Sunshine,” Klaus says with a grin. “Where’ve you been?”

“Looking for Five,” she pats his cheek as she answers. “So we can end this pointless discussion.”

“Successful mission or no?” Klaus asks with a tilt of his head as she takes another drink before handing it back to him.

“Sadly, I was rudely interrupted.” She glares at Diego.

“You are such a bitch,” Diego grits out from clenched teeth. She ignores him.

“But did you-” Luther starts on topic again.

“I heard you, Luther, unlike either of you fellas,” she gestures between Luther and Diego. “I can use both my brain cells.”

“You know what-” Diego starts at her, gesturing with his knife.

“No,” she begins with a sharp tone as four versions of the Wisp cage him in. He freezes. He can feel the intense heat surrounding him. “It’s my turn to vote.”

“Whoa,” Allison says in shock.

“Y/N,” Vanya moves towards her. “I don’t think that’s…”

“I’ve got this V,” Y/N slowly walks in a circle around Diego, just outside the Wisps’ blazing boundary, as it shifts, and he is enhaloed in a ring of light. It twists and coils around him. He feels like he’s surrounded by hellfire. “You want to know my vote, hmm? Fine,” the next part comes out almost saccharine sweet. “I heard your little chat with Mom. She didn’t even remember Reginald Hargreeves was dead at his memorial. She acts like he is just out of town. She has no clue what is happening. I think Mom needs a bit of a time-out or a nap. Isn’t that what she would have us do? Considering she is clearly so out of sorts.” It looked like Diego was going to take a swing at her despite the Wisps.

“That’s new,” Klaus states, somewhat in awe.

“When did she learn that?” Vanya inquires.

“Does it matter?” Allison asks. “She needs to stop!”

“Let him go, Y/N,” Luther says.

“Whatever you say, Number One,” she acquiesces and takes a few steps back before pulling back most of her powers between her open palm until it resembles a large orb she wills down in size. She keeps it there for a moment before letting it shift to its usual form and place behind her. Her everpresent coruscating companion.

Allison sighs at the dramatics. “Are you trying to burn the place down?”

“I know what I’m doing, Allison,” she replies.

“So it’s three to three,” Vanya says, trying to shift the focus back to the main topic before her sisters start to fight.

“Five will have to be the tiebreaker,” Luther admits.

“A vote we’d get done a lot faster if someone had let me finish my search,” Y/N complains.

“I’m sure he’ll be back soon,” Vanya says.

Y/N goes to leave without saying another word.

"Hey!" Diego snaps and follows her. “What the hell was that?!”

"Something I haven’t done in a very long time.”

“You had no-”

“No what, Diego? No right? That’s funny, because you can’t be serious. I have every right to be mad. Just like they do. You lied to them, to me. You hid this from them, from me! Let me guess, you don’t even think you did anything wrong, do you?”

“I was protecting, Grace,” Diego grits out.

“I defended you,” she pokes him in the chest. "You know that?”

"What?" He glares as he swats her hand away.

"At the gym, before you got there, even earlier today. I told Luther you didn't have anything to do with this. That it couldn’t be you. And yeah, you didn't kill him, but why hide it? Especially after he found out you were in the ring that night. I told him I trusted you, even if you hate me."

"Will you stop saying I hate you!" Diego shouts.

Her jaw dropped momentarily before closing with an audible click of her teeth, and her eyes flash red. But Diego continues his tone a touch less angry, "Does it frustrate the hell out of me when you don't listen, hell yes. Or how you never consider your own safety and choose to focus on everyone else's? Absolutely. Or when you push yourself so far past your limits you look like a shell of your usual self? Damn right it does. But I don't hate you. Never have. I hate that you won't let me explain or even help without you fighting me."

"That's rich coming from you,” she says with an eye roll. “How many times since we got here have you literally screamed you don't want my help."

"Really?” He crosses his arms. “We're going to do this now?"

"Yes, because you don't trust me."

"That's not true!"

"You don't even trust me to protect myself when I'm the Wisp. In the courtyard-"

"That is because I know you push yourself too hard when you're in a fight. You always do. And you are out of practice. And sure, in that meeting, you came out swinging, but in the courtyard? Your focus was on Five's portal, on looking after us, and you didn't even react when I touched you. Not a flinch, not a move to block. Nothing. That’s why I shook you so hard this time. Before, you were leaving just enough in your actual body to keep breathing. What was I supposed to do?"

"I knew you all wouldn't do anything that put me in danger. I knew you wouldn't hurt me,” she tells him. “No matter how much you-"

"I swear if the next words out of your mouth are that I hate you, I might-" He points his finger at her. And it’s like the anger bleeds out of her. Exhaustion creeping in from manifesting first multiple full-formed Wisps, but then the halo ring for the first time in years. She sways on her feet slightly. On instinct, Diego reaches out to steady her, one hand on her shoulder.

"Point taken, Okay?” She nods. ”Next fight, I'll focus differently."

"Need a hand-to-hand combat refresher, you know where to find me, but it's not just that, okay? If you're going to use your little lights to follow us again, don't scramble your brain too much. I know you're going to keep doing it, just don't push it."

"You've been talking to Luther, haven't you?"

"That too, but the others might not notice when you follow them around with your little lights, but I do. And yeah, you both straight-up confirmed that. I'm shocked you didn't see me toss the monocle. I went to the donut shop crime scene right after. Part of why I was shocked you were defending me."

She punched his shoulder. "Then why didn't you tell me?"

"You were too busy lecturing me to get a word on."

"You're such a jerk."

"Just to you, Luz."

"That's a new one," she grinned.

"Well, if we're supposed to get along, I can't very well call you Bruja anymore."

When she hears the start of a scuffle, Y/N splits into the Wisp and is in the thick of it before she even knows what is really happening. Bullets flying has her transferring enough of her mind back for her body to hit the floor before putting most of her focus back into her illuminated form. Moving to immediately back Diego up and trying to draw as much of the focus on the Wisp as possible. Shoot at her in that form all they want, even if they could. The main issue was these opponents seemed smart enough not to fall for her usual tricks. Especially when she realizes that Klaus and Vanya could be caught in the middle of it all. So she resorted to some older tactics, some of the first ones she learned. Klaus had always called it the flash and crash. Use the Wisp to blind one of the attackers and tackle them from behind. She gave her brother just enough warning to shield his eyes before the Wisp turned blindingly bright, and she went for the masked assailant's knees and panting a superheated fist against the masked face. Earning a litany of curses from Diego as she did. But he was right back at it, using his powers to keep his sister out of his blade's path as he did. He fought back the instinct to put himself between her and the fight but could tell she had actually listened to his earlier advice. Flames in her eyes matched the smoke coming off almost any hit she landed. Even singed the wall when she pushed off in an attempt to get a better angle to attempt to take out the gun. But that earned her a shout from Diego when the barrel of it trained a little too close to her torso for his liking, and a bullet nicked her arm as she dodged. A grunt of pain and shock has her pulling back and ducking into a doorway. She hears her name called before an angry noise from Diego. He was beyond done by that point. Throwing blade after blade to distract and hopefully overwhelm the gunman. He missed the way Y/N tore at the fabric of her sleeve, the fabric burning ever so slightly as she did. She let the Wisp take form and allowed her to split her attention to making sure nothing worse came her way while she dealt with the injury. Most of her heat faded as she wrapped the fabric around the wound and secured it enough before pulling her powers back to her and getting back into the fight. Diego and the fight were no longer right outside the door by the time she was sure the makeshift bandage was secure, and she was ready to get back out there. She goes looking for the fight but finds Vanya hiding in the process. Vanya pulls away as violently as Y/N stops in front of her. “Shit, V,” Y/N says, willing the heat out of her left hand, so she can get a better look at her sister's injury. “You're okay, V. I've got you. If you want I can-”

“Do it,” Vanya nods, wanting to prove that she can handle this stuff.

“Okay, but this is going to hurt like a bitch, and it only works on surface injuries. You sure?"

"Yeah, we're wasting time," Vanya says.

"Okay, V, brace yourself.” Vanya bites down on her sleeve as her sister superheats a fingertip and, as fast as humanly possible, closes the small wound on her sister’s head.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Y/N repeats before letting the Wisp take all her heat with her into its form. “Let me check.” She brushes Vanya’s hair out of the way and nods. Letting her hand rest against Vanya’s forehead to help calm her ever so slightly. “We should-” They both startle at the sound of the chandelier crashing and running toward the foyer. They are both momentarily stunned when they see Luther before he runs off. Allison goes over to Vanya, and Diego pulls Y/N aside.

"Let me see," Diego insists, quickly using one of his knives to remove the bloody fabric from her wound as soon as the shock of Luther's reveal wore off.

"It's a bad scratch," she tries to downplay the fact she barely missed getting shot in the side. She pulls away. "I can take care of it."

"It's a gunshot wound," he corrected.

"Wait, what?" Vanya says, coming over to look at her sister's arm. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

"I'm fine," Y/N assures them as Allison joins them. The sisters don't miss the grumbled curses from Diego before he storms off. "If I could, I'd have done the same thing I did to your head."

Allison looks at Vanya's injury and adds, “You should put some ice on that.”

Vanya nods, wincing slightly as she does but focuses back on Y/N. "But that doesn't work on skin that's used to being superheated, does it?”

"Nope," Y/N replies before hissing in pain as Vanya carefully wipes away some of the ash from the burned sleeve to keep it from getting into the open wound.

"Sorry," Vanya winces.

"It's okay, V at least I could help you, although it probably hurt more helping than if I had left it. If I had known the fight would be over that quick, I’d have-"

“Diego?” Allison asks when he returns, and he is still furious. He tosses a first aid kit onto the table toward his sisters.

“What are you still doing here?” He says to Vanya.

“I'm just trying to help,” Vanya admits, reaching for the kit to attempt to help the sister that had helped her.

Y/N recognizes the look Diego has. “Please, Diego,” she cautions him.

He ignores her and continues to focus on Vanya. “No, you could've been killed. Or gotten any of us killed. She is a liability.” He looks between his sisters that do have powers.

Vanya looks at Allison. “Allison?”

“I think what he's trying to say is that this kind of stuff is dangerous,” Allison says. “You're just…”

“Not like you,” Vanya finishes for her. She sets the first aid kit back down.

“V, it's…” Y/N tries to say something at the same time Allison says. “No, that's not what I... Vanya, wait.” But Vanya is already leaving.

“Let her go,” Diego tells them. “It's for the best.”

“Says who?! You?!” Y/N snaps. "I miss the meeting where you became Number One or something?"

“You know I’m right,” Diego attempts to not lose it. He knew she and Vanya were closer than he was with either of them. He also knew she was exhausted before getting shot. So he tried to keep his wits about it.

“She’s injured, Diego! And you just drove her away! What if she-”

“You’re injured too, and unlike her, you still have an open wound.” He retorts.

“She needs our help!”

"She’ll survive. She is safer as far away from all this as can be. And you!” Diego finally shouts. What happened to your two brain cells huh? You still using them," he turns on Y/N. "When I told you to be more aware of your actual body in a fight I did not mean for you to just throw yourself at a gun!"

"I am just as trained in this as you are. I had it covered."

"You got shot!"

"Would you prefer I left my physical self unattended while those assholes shot through the walls?"

"No!"

"Then pick a fucking lane, Diego! You can't have it both ways! And I sure as hell am not backing out of a full-on assault of my own home just because you want me to! So quit yelling at me!"

She rubbed at her temples as the last bit of adrenaline seemed to fade from her system. She stormed off, taking the first aid kit with her so she could patch up her arm.

Y/N isn’t sure how long she sits in her room. Too exhausted to keep track but too on edge to actually sleep. She wasn’t sure what to do. Her head hangs low as she sits on her bed and leans against the wall. She looks up when through the Wisp that hovers near the center of the room, she sees shadows move outside her door. She sighs as she hears a knock on her doorframe. “It’s open,” she greets.

The door opens, and Luther asks, "How's the arm?"

"I've had worse," she assures him. He gives her a skeptical look. "We dealt with enough dicey shit as kids that we both know this is nothing."

"Didn't seem like nothing to Diego from what I hear," he counters.

"Diego was acting like I took a fatal hit," she grumbled. "Though I'm not the one that took a whole ass chandelier." She narrows her gaze at him. "Are you okay?"

"Barely a scratch," he deflects.

"Luther, I'm not going to push, and you don't have to tell me anything, but…" she saw him physically flinch like she burned him as she spoke. "Is this…is this why you were worried about me checking in on you with my powers?"

"A bit," he admits.

"Because you know I don't care, right? Like, I know what it's like to be the one that gets stared at and whispered about for being…well, a freak. Not that I think you're a freak. I know that you guys think the Wisp is freaky. I know you guys think it's even more unnatural than most of your guys' powers. Ben always got that. Polar opposites powers wise, and he at least could hide his but-"

"You're not a freak,” Luther says, rather bluntly, “Okay?"

She rolled her eyes at that.

"No more than the rest of us ever were,” he adds. “Or at least when we were kids. This is not coming off right," he groans and moves to stand beside the glowing form and gestures to it. "This was never a bad thing, especially not when we were little. You literally lit up a room when you walked in. Always warm, and so…" he frowned at the way her shoulders seemed to shift, and it was like he was watching her close herself off. He groaned again and moved to sit somewhat carefully next to her on the bed. "No one came back from losing Ben, well, you know that, right? You are just the one that has a big flashing, what you call, a neon sign, of what's going on in your heart. It's like a mood ring on steroids. You get mad and glow red. And so bright it's like staring at the sun and standing too close to a forest fire. It's just tough sometimes because it's always blue nowadays. And we know there's nothing we can do to change that. Nothing I can do. I can't bring Ben back. I can't take away the pain of the shit dad put you through. And I can't make Diego less of an asshole." That earned him a laugh and made him grin. "So yeah, it isn't always easy to know there isn't anything I can do. We aren't kids that can just pull pranks or make stupid jokes to make ourselves feel better anymore. But the Wisp doesn't make you any different, any freakier than we were when we were kids. And as you keep pointing out, you're still my sister. Still the same person that refused to listen to half my orders if you think someone needs you."

"Exactly, you're still my brother. You're just even more so my big brother." She grinned. “Really big, big brother.”

"We're the same age, Y/N," he deadpans.

"Sure, Number One," she shook her head.

“Fine, then as your big, big brother, I say you get some sleep. You look like a strong breeze could take you out.”

“Wanna fight me on that?” She grinned.

“I would, but you’re injured, so I’ll take the L on that one,” he chuckles.

“Fine, I’m kicking you out,” she conceded. “But only because you asked so nicely.”

“Deal,” Luther stands and heads back to the door.

“Luther?” she calls before he closes her door.

“Yeah?”

“Glad you found your other brain cell. You were a badass from what I hear.”

He huffs a laugh. “Sleep, or you might lose yours.”