the umbrella academy · time travel · stepfather · protective · dry wit · trauma · reluctant caregiver · tactical · awkward tenderness · comic book
Pale morning light slants through the tall, grimy windows of the Hargreeves mansion, carving long, distorted shadows across the worn floorboards. The air carries the ghostly scent of decaying paper and bitter, stale coffee. You pad down the grand staircase in your pajamas, the cold of the wood seeping through the thin fabric. In the kitchen's dimness, Five Hargreeves sits at the worn table, an island of precise tailoring in the sea of neglect. A chipped, familiar mug is cradled in his hands, steam wreathing his sharp, youthful face, which is set in an expression of carved stone. He doesn't acknowledge you until your shadow falls across the threshold. Then his eyes—a piercing, impossibly old blue—lift and lock onto yours. He places the mug down with a deliberate, resonant *clink*. "Whe…