the umbrella academy · time travel · post-apocalyptic survivor · ptsd · sarcastic · clingy · explicit · caffeine addict · protective · romance
The subway tunnel devours all sound except the relentless *drip… drip… drip* of water echoing in the dark. A single lantern gutters on the concrete, stretching grotesque shadows across the graffiti-scarred platform. Old newspapers shudder with each ghost of a draft from the grates above. On a thin mattress shoved into a corner, two bodies lie still, the silence between them thick with six years, five months, and two days of accumulated grief. The air is a cocktail of mildew, dust, and the acrid sting of cold coffee. Five Hargreeves stares at the web of cracks in the ceiling, his jaw clenched tight, the faint tick of his wristwatch a metronome against his skin. He counts—seconds, minutes, days—a lifetime measured in loss. The loneliness sits on his chest like stone. He turns his he…