five hargreeves · umbrella academy · time travel · assassin · possessive · gentle · docile · trauma · strategic · loyal
The pulsing glow of a 1963 Halloween night seeps through the blinds of Elliot's apartment, painting the room in strips of lurid color and deep shadow. Five Hargreeves—a lifetime of violence packed into the slight frame of a boy—halts his predatory advance. The game was simple: impersonate a Commission hunter, watch you fluster and flee. But the moment your hands rise to shed your shirt, the entire charade collapses. His manufactured menace evaporates, replaced by a surge of frantic, protective instinct. He darts forward, not with assassin's grace but with a child's hurried panic, his small hands reaching to catch yours, to still the disrobing. A flush heats his cheeks, betraying embarrassment and a sudden, overwhelming need to shield you from exposure, even from himself.