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The one thing that Vanya could say about not being out in the field with her brothers and sister was that she'd managed to finish school early. She didn't know how it was with the others - she half expected that their father wouldn't want anyone else to leave - but Reginald Hargreeves had paid for her way into a pretty prestigious music school. She might have been the unknown member of the Umbrella Academy, but that didn't mean that she could have less than the best transition into the next phase of her life.

The phase where she was actually independent instead of just practically. After all, the only one who ever seemed to care about her anymore was her mother. And sometimes the others. Luther and Allison seemed wrapped up in each other, Five and Ben were gone, Klaus was struggling in ways she couldn't seem to help, and Diego was...

She shook her head at her musings and continued packing her bags. It wasn't like she had much in the world. A couple of bags of clothes and her violin were all she really needed. Dad had a car to take her to the school tomorrow and she supposed that would be that.

Except that she hadn't actually told anyone she was leaving and she was half considering just leaving a note. Mom and Pogo she was going to say goodbye to in person, but she wasn't sure whether the others would even notice. And maybe that wasn't fair, but that's what it felt like sometimes. She'd always been the left out one as a kid, whether because their dad had left her home when everyone else went on a mission or whether they just forgot to include her in their games.

She shoved the last of her remaining civilian clothes in her bags and looked around. Her room was pretty bare. Mostly there were books she wasn't bothering to bring with her, clothes, and, in the middle of the room, her music stand. Kind of depressing, really. But maybe with this new start, she'd have a chance to find people she actually mattered to.

A note, she decided, but she wanted to go find Mom and Pogo tonight so she could leave first thing in the morning. She left her packed suitcases in her room and left to go find them. Pogo could be anywhere, but Mom would either be in front of the paintings or in the kitchen, so she tried the kitchen first. Even if Mom wasn't there, Vanya could use a snack.

[Vanya is seventeen and leaving the house to go to college. Come to the kitchen and find her or bump into her on the way. Feel free to have them see the packed bags in her room for maximum drama.]

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[They haven't really noticed that Diego moved out a month ago and he shouldn't be all that surprised. He's got an in at the academy and in a few more months he'll be able to enroll and finally do something worthwhile.

But he isn't used to being alone, not yet.
So he ghosts in and out, visiting Mom and keeping at least one eye on Klaus.

Should he be relieved to see Vanya finally packing her bags?
A little.]

You're finally coming to your senses too, huh?

You'd think she would have learned not to startle when one of her brothers showed up out of nowhere, but Diego had mostly been missing for months, now, and Five had been missing for years and they were the two prime suspects.

She shot him a bit of a glare.

"I'm going to college, that's all." Except that she wasn't sure she was going to come back. Dad didn't need her and they weren't one for family holidays.

Diego isn't around much. Not when he can avoid it. Sure he comes back to sleep but he is forever slipping in and out, dressed all in black, actually sleeping with his knives in place. Despite sneaking out, it is often with his mask, putting it in place as soon as he's free from the Academy and racing through the city.

He hates the things that Reginald expects of them, but there's something deep within him that doesn't want to stop helping others. The world was an awful place, and people that were coping with more than massive disasters needed help. He'd already talked to the two beat cops that had been wary of the Academy, but until he's eighteen, he has no choice but to try and help on his own. Even if Reginald had warned him off running the streets, trying to stop muggings and robberies.

It is just as he is heading out for the night, moving to slink out a window and get up to the roof and escape. Which is what brought him to Vanya's room. Standing there a long time, staring at the bags. Well then.

So when she returns, she might not see him at first. Standing by the door, leaning back against the wall and waiting for her.

She wasn't going to cry. She told herself that firmly. She was not going to cry. Saying goodbye to Mom and then Pogo had been more emotionally draining than she thought it would be and she'd gone back to the kitchen when she was done and made herself a cup of cocoa so she could take her anti-anxiety meds.

She walked into her bedroom on autopilot, head down as she blew on the cocoa to cool it enough to drink, and didn't even notice Diego until she turned to check her chest of drawers. She was pretty sure her pills were on the top.

That was when she noticed Diego looming and she yelped, jumping a little and spilling hot cocoa on her hand.

"Oww. What are you..." She trailed off as she looked from him to the bags ready to go and back. "Oh."

Diego moves instantly, quickly though not fast enough to stop the spill over her skin, but his hand coming up and under the mug, stabilizing it. Staring down at her though, not at the cup, a brow arching at that reaction.

"I was just using your window to get the out for the night but seems I had good timing," he says, glancing at the bags and then back at her. "Weren't even going to tell us you're bailing? That you get a reprieve?"

It's a cruel accusation when she's more or less ignored and being thrown out more than released, but the bitterness is there nonetheless.

Vanya wasn't a violent person. In fact, she was pretty sure she couldn't even throw a punch without breaking something, especially when it was against one of her brothers. Still, she glared up at him and took a very deliberate step back. She was used to being the small one, but him looming over her like that was making her feel claustrophobic.

"Maybe I told everyone I thought would care," she shot back.

"And it's hardly a reprieve. What, you think I'll be any less ignored by the family when I leave?"

Diego raises his gloved hands, as if that proves anything for a boy that could have a knife in hand and then buried in a person before they could even blink. Yet he makes the gesture, taking a step back as well.

"I wasn't a threat," he points out, shrugging though because he knows much of what he says and does holds a threatening edge. It's served him more than being soft has, and he tries hard to ensure that only Grace sees that side of him anymore. It's easier when no one can find chinks in the armor, after all.

He rolls his eyes, knowing that being ignored could be so good. At least he imagines when he is constantly having everything he does monitored.

"You'll make friends and you won't answer to him. Feels like freedom to me," he admits, which given how often he sneaks out and takes the punishment might show how much he truly feels that way. "I ask where you're going, would you tell me?"

“I didn’t think you were,” Vanya said and it was the truth. For him, for anyone but especially him, he was being polite. It wasn’t his fault that she was feeling jumpy that he’d caught her in the process of leaving. Or maybe she was just jumpy in general. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually gotten a hug from one of her brothers. Not that she thought Diego was going to hug her.

She walked over to the edge of her bed and sat down, sighing. “I’m going to school. Where else?”

She choked back the laughter and shook her head when he mentioned she had her freedom but didn’t explain the laugh. It wasn’t like he - any of them really - understood just how alone she felt. She was in a house with too many rooms for the people who lived there and even when the others revolved around each other, she was always the odd one out.

He takes her sitting down as an invitation and just kind of sinks down where he is, sitting cross legged in the middle of the floor. Maybe it's rude, assuming he's invited, but she's leaving and no one is hollering for him to do something else, and sad as it is, he suddenly finds himself curious.

"Where are you going to school? Are you leaving the city?"

Traveling to destroy things and kill people is one thing, but it's not like actually traveling.

"I can't wait to leave this damn place," he says, rolling his eyes. Speaking softly though, not wanting to be overheard. Vanya's leaving though, so it can't hurt, right? It just feels so good to say it to someone. To say it out loud. "Can't wait to get away from him."

"A music school in the city," she said grudgingly, not sure why it was such an issue to actually tell him. Maybe a part of her was wondering why he suddenly cared. But there was another part of her, a younger part from back before they'd grown even more apart than she'd always been from them, that had a question to ask.

"You could always come with me? Audition and everything. You're as good as I am." She could almost imagine it. An actual brother who gave a damn about her for longer than ten minute intervals. They'd both be free from their dad and able to do whatever they wanted.

Maybe that, starting over with someone she knew, someone she loved, that was the freedom he thought wrongly that she'd have out in the world on her own.

If he thought to examine it he knew why now, why it bothers him. Because she's always just been there, and so the past isn't gone, isn't entirely lost. She leaves though, and that's it. It's over. Another thing in his life lost, even if he's not always willing to buck the system to have them.

Diego goes still though at that, staring at her wide eyed and so still that he doesn't even seem to be breathing.

Staring at her as he rises, he creeps to the door as softly as he can and pushes it closed just as gently so that it doesn't make a sound.

"How?" It's the only word that comes from him as he turns to face her, barely whispering the word until he creeps closer. "I mean... I couldn't, could I? And how would I pay for it?"

He can't believe he's asking this, taking this chance, and yet the words are out before he can really overthink this and panic about being caught.

Vanya’s heart leapt up to her throat as she realized what he was saying, what he was asking. She hadn’t really thought about particulars because she hadn’t really considered that he’d want to come. She opened her mouth to say it was impossible but closed it again. She didn’t want it to be impossible, she realized. It didn’t matter that surely Diego was much too late for any enrollment for this year. It didn’t matter that her father might have pulled strings to get her in that he wouldn’t for Diego. He still wanted his team and Diego was a part of that. He probably couldn’t wait to get rid of her.

“Allison?” she suggested. She usually wasn’t for her siblings abusing their powers, but she’d never wanted one of them to use their powers for her before. She was allowed to be selfish just this once, right? “You’re a little late to come in for this semester, so we’d have to do something a little extreme.”

But not that extreme. Maybe Allison could find a rumor that they’d misplaced Diego’s application. And their father’s recommendation. That would put him on an even level with her. She didn’t really like thinking that she had an advantage.

“And you’re good enough to get a scholarship.”

It's crazy to even be considering this. Literal madness. Spending the last decade or so positive that the moment he had a chance, he would bolt from this place and get as far away as he could and realizing that this is it, this is his chance. Not just a chance to be free but to have a meaning, a place, to do what he loves. It's almost dizzying to imagine. Literally madness.

And he loves it.

A little extreme. As in asking this sister who is making her way to Hollywood to convince a school to let someone that hasn't technically auditioned to have a spot. She could do it though. Could.

"You think she will?"

It's wrong to feel this hopeful. He knows it. He knows feeling this hopeful is just waiting to crash and burn, but he can't help himself.

"And you'd want me there? With you?"

There was a time he wouldn't have second guessed that but their lives have changed. They've changed, and they've all been cruel in the process.

"I... I want to," he admits. "I want this. Not just to get away but this."

Klaus has spent a large majority of his teen years in some form of inebriation or other. The realization had dawned when he was twelve and prescribed pain killers during the whole Broken Jaw Incident, which Diego still likes to bring up as the most peaceful moments of his life. But it had opened a whole world of quiet to Klaus, too. He got real sleep without ghost shrieks waking him in a startled mess with the drugs dulling everything out.

Eventually, he took to trying things on his own. It was easy enough, not like Dad didn't have plenty of money to throw at things, and there was as arbitrary as it may have been a certain allowance they were given. And Klaus was the kind of person that made friends everywhere he looked, so a party here and a club there and he had everything he could want as his fingertips.

Tonight? He's stoned. Proper stoned, after the joint he'd smoked on the roof. It was kind of nice up there at night like this, so it was a common spot to find him sometimes. But right now? He could really use some food. And on the menu...pb&j pancake tacos. Because that sounded like the best plan ever. He wanders into the kitchen and starts pulling ingredients he'll need out. Usually, he doesn't do a lot of cooking, he's had a lot of, uh, mishaps in the kitchen. But he could handle pancakes!

He's already pouring batter into a pan when Vanya wanders into the kitchen. "Oh, hey, V." he gives her a little finger wave.

Vanya's stomach clenched when she saw Klaus in the kitchen. For two reasons, really. The first was that he didn't seem to have much success in the kitchen. She wouldn't say he'd started any fires. He'd just come close to starting fires. The second reason was that she loved him and she was worried about what would happen when she left.

For all that her family sometimes - or most of the time - treated her as if she were an outsider, she really loved them.

So, even though she wasn't going to tell Klaus about her plans, she did pull a chair up to the counter. If she could have a last conversation with him before she left, so much the better.

"I was looking for Mom or Pogo, but... I don't suppose you'd be willing to make another pancake or two." That was at least something he couldn't screw up too badly, especially now that she was here and keeping an eye on him. They were all the same age, born only hours apart, but Klaus always felt like the youngest.

Vanya is probably smart to be wary of Klaus in the kitchen, but all the more reason for her to be here to supervise, right?

"Yeah, for sure." He nods, glancing back over his shoulder at her. "They won't be pretty like mom's, but they'll be edible!"

"So any reason for the pancakes for dinner?" she asked as she settled into the chair. Not that was objecting to breakfast for dinner. But with Klaus you always had to wonder if he was getting into some kind of mood.

"And they'd better be edible. Otherwise, I'll make you eat the ones I can't finish."

Does there have to be one, besides pancakes are awesome?" A beat passes and he shrugs. "And easy to make. Don't have to bug Mom to make it if I can do it myself, yanno?"

He laughs over his shoulder at that comment, "Deal."

There was something about Klaus that could always bring a smile to her face and Vanya felt her heart clench and tears start to well a little when she realized she wouldn’t see him until…she didn’t know when. Their father had gotten her an apartment and so there was no real reason to come here during school holidays. There were some days she wondered if he’d set it up like that. The rest of the time, she was sure he had.

“You going to make any funny shapes?” she asked, surreptitiously wiping at her tears when his back was to her. It was probably a dangerous thing, asking Klaus to make shapes. Half of them were likely to be X-rated. But his unique brand of humor was a part of the charm of living with Klaus.

And she’d miss it. And miss him.

"I can try, but no promises they'll look good." He shoots another grin over his shoulder at her. She looks so... sad, he frowns a little. To be fair, Vanya often looks sad, but something about it seems further than her usual. But maybe he's wrong...

He goes back to the pancakes and does his best attempt at some, surprising, G-rated shapes. A very lopsided heart, a star that definitely only qualifies as 'you tried', among a few others. "Told you they would come out fucked up." He laughs as he puts them on plates for the both of them. He grabs the syrup from the cabinet, the butter from the fridge, forks from the drawer and--

"Oh, shit." He mutters and spins around to go back over to the stove to turn it off. Look, he's not in here that often, he forgets the steps sometimes. At least he remembered, even if late.

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{Where are you going, searching for answers so far from home

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