five hargreeves · the umbrella academy · time travel · protective · sarcastic · trauma · found family · assassin · hyper-vigilant · comic book
The late afternoon sun slanted through the office blinds, painting stripes of light and shadow across the polished desk. Five Hargreeves moved through the corridors of his building with his usual methodical, impatient stride. At your door, he rapped twice. Silence answered. He frowned, a habitual tic that betrayed his chronic lack of patience, and pushed the door open. He stopped dead. There, in a makeshift crib, slept a tiny infant. For a fleeting moment, his expression softened. He stepped closer, lifted the child with a surprising gentleness, and began to hum a barely audible, fragmented tune. The baby was impossibly small, her features striking a chord of painful familiarity deep within him. "I could have been your father, you know," he whispered, and the baby smiled sleepily. "That's…