Work Text
He’s dead.
Is the first thought that runs through his head as he takes his first steps back into the Academy.
Ben’s eyes take in the familiar polished white and black checkered floors, hand carved intricate designs on the walls, the mahogany and walnut staircase that he and his siblings used to always run up and down on.
It hasn’t changed a bit since he’s last been here.
The crinkle of the fireplace reaches his ears and Ben turns, eyes catching on the portrait of him and his siblings before landing on Mom.
“Hi Mom.”
He paused and watched her for a moment.
Why didn’t she move? Why didn’t she say anything?
“Mom?” He steps towards her, the Eldritch twisting uncomfortably in his stomach, inches from entering the familiar room that him and Allison used to curl up by the fireplace and drink hot cocoa.
His mother continues to stare at the blazing fire, blonde hair done up in its usual grace, she doesn’t even twitch.
“Ben?” a familiar voice calls out from atop of the stairs, before the click of heels echo throughout the foyer.
“You actually came.” a soft chuckle leaves her lips.
Ben locks eyes with his sister as she finishes descending down the steps.
She looks different, and yet…
His lips lift up in a soft smile.
It’s been too long.
“Hey sis.”
“Hey Ben.”
They stand there for a moment, and Ben’s not quite sure he should’ve came, even though Klaus wasn’t upset about the book,
- in fact, he thought it was hilarious -
the same can’t be said about the others. He knows they're all still pissed about it.
But he needed to see with his own eyes if the bastard was truly dead.
Allison reaches out for a hug and he returns it, embracing his sister who he hasn’t seen nor heard from in years.
It’s awkward, but he hugs her all the same.
As soon as they part, a familiar deep, gruff voice makes himself known.
“Ah, Ben. I didn’t think you were brave enough to actually show your face here.”
Diego continues onwards, accompanied by the usual annoying
clanks
of his many knives, passing him by without a backwards glance.
“Are you seriously going to do this today?” Allison asked, lips formed into a frown, fingers tucked into her black pantsuit pockets.
Ben just rolled his eyes at his brother’s words.
Yea, definitely still pissed.
“Like I’d miss the chance to make sure the asshole is really dead.”
“Well good for you.” Diego deadpanned. Not once looking back at him as the grump quietly walked up the steps.
“Way to dress for the occasion.” Allison remarked with a huff, and Ben agreed with her.
What’s up with the spandex?
“At least I’m wearing
black.
” he shot back, briefly glancing down at them before continuing his way up the stairs.
“Well, isn’t he a ray of sunshine.”
Allison lets out a laugh, shaking her head slightly, black and blonde curls bouncing as she does so.
She gives him a soft smile. “It’s good to see you Ben.”
He lets the corners of his lips tilt up.
Maybe everything will be okay.
Ben gently knocks on the half opened door.
“I’m
busy.
” Five drawls, annoyance clear in his voice.
Same old, same old.
“Too busy to see me?”
Five briefly glances up at him from where he was writing
another
equation on the wall, before his pencil starts moving again.
“What do you want?” he asks, a grimace pulling at his lips.
Their fallout was a bit different from the others. Ben and his other siblings
- besides Klaus -
fell apart after the book.
But him and Five?
No, that happened
before
the book.
After the
event
of November 2002, any and all arguments with Five were about one thing and one thing only,
or
one person,
Seven
.
It’s an unspoken rule, don’t talk about Seven around Five.
“I heard you scribbling on the walls. Wanted to see how you were doing.” Ben folds his arms across his chest, leaning on the side of Five’s black bookshelf.
“I’m fine.” Five responds, not once looking away from the mint green colored walls filled with a jumble of letters and numbers.
Ben was smart, but he was never smart enough to understand Five’s work.
Not like Seven was.
Ben heaves a sigh, and the Elderitch shifts.
“You can’t
still
be upset abo
ut-...
” he cuts himself off when Five turns to glare at him.
“Upset about
what?
Huh?” Five spits out, “Upset about you saying all my work is pointless? Or about you saying she’s
dead.
Oh! And lets not forget about your book! About
my obsession.
”
Ben opens his mouth to defend himself but doesn’t even get the chance to before Five is speaking again.
“Just get out.” he quietly says, chest moving up and down rapidly, hands fisted at his sides.
Ben moves off the shelf, taking a step forward, a hand reaching out towards his brother, before he sighs and drops his arm, tucking his hands in his dark blue jean pockets, moving to leave the room, but paused right outside Five’s door, turning to face the tall man behind him.
“You know Seven wouldn’t want this for you.” Ben whispers, and Five tenses up, glare turning sharper the longer they look at each other.
All he gets in response is a door slammed in his face.
He quietly makes his way to the library, intending to grab a drink from the bar in the back.
“And if it isn’t my favorite bruder!” a familiar,
nagging
voice from upstairs shouts and bounces off the wooden walls.
Klaus.
Feet
loudly
thump down the stairs and slap against the white and black tiles.
Ben meets his brother’s hazy green eyes, before lanky arms are thrown over his shoulders and wrapped around his neck.
“
Oh! Benerino!
How I’ve missed you!”
Ben gently pats his back before unwrapping the arms around his neck and taking a step back, eyeing his brother’s clothing choices.
“Hi Klaus.” he says affectionately, rolling his eyes at his brothers bare chest paired with a black velvet jacket and long black leather skirt.
That looks a little bit familiar.
“Don’t you think it’s just
tragic
about what happened to dear old dad!” Klaus pouts, even though Ben can clearly see the relief and humor in his eyes.
He lets out a chuckle as Klaus twists his pendants around his fingers, wiping an imaginary tear away.
“
Deeply
tragic.” he agrees, a grin growing on his lips as Klaus snorts in response.
He hasn’t seen Klaus in a few months.
He was starting to worry.
Ben’s relieved to see he’s okay.
He spots the usual white and red hosipital band around his brother’s wrist.
Or at least, a little bit okay.
Ben squints his eyes, noticing a bulge coming out of his brother’s back.
“Klaus?”
“Hmm?”
“What’s that poking out of your jacket?”
Klaus freezes, before backing away slowly.
“What? Did you hear that?”
“Klaus.”
he warns slowly as his brother continues to back away further from him and closer to the double doors.
“What was that?! Oh! Okay! I’m coming!” And without another glance at him, Klaus sprints out the doors, his cackles resounding throughout the foyer and down the sidewalk.
Ben chuckles and shakes his head at his brother’s antics.
Yea, some things never change.
The fire crackles as he and and his siblings sit in silence.
There is the
clinking
of glasses and the
sloshing
of liquid at the bar from behind him.
Well, almost silence.
Five leans on the ledge above the fireplace with his arms crossed over his chest, Ben tried to catch his eye when he blinked in but the dark haired man ignored him.
And Ben has a hard time looking at Luther who seems to have doubled in size since he last saw him.
He fixes his gaze on his other siblings. Diego blankly looking into the fire with his usual stubborn set of a jaw, Ben leans back comfortably on the small couch cushion, adjusting his black leather jacket, waiting to see who will speak first. He eyes Allison amusingly as she takes a long gulp of what he assumes is liquor.
It’s been years since they’ve all been under the same roof.
“Um.” leaves Luther’s lips as he stands.
Why am I not surprised.
Ben can faintly hear Klaus pouring a drink in the background.
He better be pouring one for him too.
“I guess we should get this started.”
Ben looks up at Luther in his long, gray trench coat and thinks
wow, he got real big.
“So, I figured we could have a sort of memorial service, in the courtyard at sundown. Say a few words, just at Dad’s favorite spot.”
Ben grimaces.
Dad had a fovorite spot?
Allison voices his question aloud.
“Yea you know,” Luther looks at them with a confused expression, like this is something they should know “under the oak tree.”
Ben stares blankly up at him.
No I did not know that and I doubt the others did either.
“We used to sit out there all the time. None of you ever did that?”
No Luther, that man was a monster. Why can’t you see that?
Five lets out a scoff.
“You mean that ugly tree in the back?” Five remarks, eyeing Luther up and down.
Klaus walks around the small couch with a cigarette between his lips and two old fashioned glasses filled up halfway with liquor.
“Hey! It’s not that bad.” Luther says defensively.
Klaus steps over his legs as he hands Ben one of the glasses before taking the cigeratte out from between his lips.
“Will there be refreshments?” Klaus asks, sucking in a quick breath.
“Tea?”
Klaus looks down at him briefly.
“Scones?”
“Cucumber sandwiches are always a winner.” Klaus says with a grin as he plops down next to him.
Ben lets out a chuckle, taking a sip of the liquor Klaus handed him, licking his lips as it burns down his throat.
“What? No.” Luther looks at Klaus like he’s grown two heads before briefly shooting a glare at Ben, then goes back to scolding Klaus. “And put that out. You know Dad didn’t allow smoking in here.”
“Is that my skirt?” Allison interjects.
What?
Klaus asks the same.
“Oh, yeah, this.” Klaus pats it before smoothing it down.
He knew it looked familiar.
“I found it in your room. It’s a little dated, I know, but it’s very breathy on the,” and wiggles down a little lower on the couch, gesturing his hand down
towards between his legs,
“bits.”
Oh God Klaus.
Seriously?
“Listen up.” Luther snaps, “There’s still some important things that we need to discuss, all right?”
And it all kinda went down hill from there.
Five chuckled harshly and blinked out the moment Diego said what Luther was implying.
The rest of them followed.
He thinks one of them killed Dad.
Which is ridiculous.
If one of them was going to kill the old bastard they would have done it years ago.
His fingers trail along the book spines as his eyes catch on a familiar book.
Ben picks up the semi thick, dark blue chapter book.
He stares down at the cover.
In big, bold white letters is “
Number Six The Horror
.”
He opens the book, fingering the pages as he turns them and skimming over the words he knows by heart.
Music blares from upstairs and nostalgia hits him like a wave in the ocean. Ben smiles as he thinks of the times he and his siblings used to gather around in the foyer, singing and dancing as loud as they could while Dad was away on one of his many business trips. It was one of the only times all of his siblings actually got along together.
Including Seven, when she was still here.
Five stopped joining them after that.
“Children behave…”
“That’s what they say When we’re together..”
“And watch how you play…”
Ben starts bobbing his head, putting the book down, a grin growing on his face.
“They don’t understand And so we’re Running just as fast as we can..”
“Holdin’ on to one another’s hand..”
“Tryin’ to get away into the night And then you put your arms around me And we tumble to the ground And then you say..”
“I think we’re alone now…”
Ben moves along to the music, bobs his head and shoulders, his shoes sliding along the ground as he spins.
He was never a really good dancer.
“The beating of our hearts Is the only sound…”
He quickly sways.
The lights start to flicker as thunder rumbles before they shut off completely. Leaving him with just the blazing fire.
The music stops as the wind howls outside.
And Ben falls back into the bookshelves as the ground starts to shake and rain harshly pours down from the sky, streaks of blue flashing through the windows.
The sky growls, another streak of blue and one of the windows shatter completely, showering the floor in glass, wind blowing roughly through the now open space.
Ben can faintly hear crashes and more glass shattering from around the house as he makes his way to the courtyard.
Where the main source of whatever is causing all this seems to be.
He notices Diego rushing outside infront of him, bursting open the doors and Ben follows.
“Oh.”
Leaves Diego’s lips as they rush outside towards the…
Blue thing.
Portal?
Black hole?
Lightening strikes down aggressively, wind howling louder than Ben has ever heard it before.
“Holy shit.”
leaves his own lips but he barely even hears it over the pouring rain that smacks against the ground.
Luther and Allison move in front of him,
- he didn’t even hear them come up behind him -
stepping closer to the portal where…
Ben squints his eyes,
is that a person?!
Luther steps forward and Allison pulls him back.
“Don’t get too close!”
Yeah, no shit.
Which Diego voices for him.
“Looks like some sort of temporal anomaly. Either that or a miniature black hole. One of the two.”
“Pretty big difference there, Paul Bunyan.”
Seriously Diego? Paul Bunyan?
Ben is shoved to the side.
“Out of my way!”
“What are
you-”
“Klaus!”
he shouts as his brother sprays a
fire extinguisher
into the portal before just throwing it in.
“What is that gonna do?!” Allison cries out.
“I don’t know! Do you have a better idea?”
Electricity crackles and Luther pulls Klaus back and Ben grasped onto his arm, pulling his brother behind him, hissing out
you idiot.
All of a sudden, Five blinks into existence right in front of it.
Where the hell has he been.
“Five!”
he shouts over the angry wind.
“What the hell! Get Back!” he faintly hears Diego shout but it gets lost in the wind as well.
Which only seems to be getting stronger as the portal gets
bigger.
“Everbody get behind me.”
“Yeah, get behind
us.
”
Ben rolls his eyes as he is shuffled backwards.
Seriously.
Klaus grabs onto his arm and tries to pull him back inside.
“I vote for running, c’mon!”
Ben pulls Klaus back as he shouts for Five.
“Five! Come on! Back away!”
Five ignores him and just continues to stare at the portal as electricity crackles.
Ben swears he hears someone screaming.
Then, something
falls out of the portal,
and just like that, the sky clears and the portal is gone.
Something thuds to the ground.
No, not
something.
Someone.
Black backpack strapped onto the small person’s back.
Black baggy pants practically hanging off their legs.
Long brown hair hiding their face.
Bangs that basically cover the eyes.
No, it can’t be.
They all step closer towards the tiny person pushing themselves up off the ground, groaning loudly as they do so.Five takes a hesitant step forward as the girl moves to stand and she looks up at them before freezing, lips parted, just standing there in her baggy black pantsuit that swallows her whole.
Seven.
“Does anyone else see little Number Seven, or is that just me?”
“Seven.”
leaves Five’s lips and Ben thinks he never heard his brother say something so softly, so…
Precious.
Seven’s eyebrows scrunch together before she looks down at herself, moving her arms outward and turning her hands over and over, staring at them in what Ben thinks is shock.
Seven drops her arms and looks back up at them, eyes shifting to Five and back to them before she lets out a sigh.
“Shit.”
Seven pushes passed them and walks away into the Academy.
Ben doesn’t move, none of them do. They all kind of just, froze. Standing there soaking wet in what he’s gonna say is shock because what the hell else is it supposed to be.
Five moves first and quickly makes his way into the Academy, the rest of them scramble after him.
They find Seven in the kitchen, black backpack thrown on the table, all the cabinets wide open,
- how the hell did she open them so quickly? -
standing on a chair, shuffling around in the cabinet.
There is a jar of peanut butter on the table next to a cutting board.
Five pulls out a chair and sits right next to it.
Ben moves towards the further end of the otherside of the table and his siblings follow him.
Klaus being Klaus sits on the damn table, water dripping onto the floor, right in front of Seven’s bag. Eyes wide and watching Seven with a look of fascination.
A loaf of bread is thrown on the table and Ben jumps, a bag of marshmallows follows right after.
Seven jumps down from the chair and grabs a butter knife from the sink before heading towards the head of the table, placing two slices of bread on the cutting board and ripping open the bag of marshmallows.
They all just stare at her, waiting for her to say
something.
The first words out of her mouth aren’t a
Hi or Hello guy’s it’s good to see you again or an I missed you, it’s-...
“What’s today’s date?”
“March 24th.” Five quietly breathes out, eyes never moving from her face.
From the expression on Five’s face, Ben thinks he might cry.
Ben has only ever seen Five cry once, and that was the day he returned home without Seven.
Seven just nods her head as she takes a handful of marshmallows and puts them on her sandwich, adding the bread on top afterwards.
“Year?”
“2019.” Ben answers, and she briefly glances up at him, her brown doe eyes meeting his.
Brown eyes, Ben can’t believe he forgot the color of his sister’s eyes.
“Hmm. Good.”
Seven rips the sandwich in half before she takes a bite.
“So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?” Luther looks at Seven expectedly, waiting for her to answer.
It’s strange really, because when they were younger, Luther never looked at her at all, and when she was gone, acted like she never existed.
Just like Dad did.
Though, maybe that’s a bit harsh.
Ben always caught Luther looking up the stairs whenever they came back from a mission, looking up at the exact spot Seven used to always wait for them at when they arrived home.
Seven ignores him and takes another bite out of her sandwich.
Luther huffs and stands up. “It’s been 17 years.”
Seven looks up at him, raises an eyebrow and swallows her food.
“Its been a bit longer than that.” she says before taking another bite out of her sandwich.
“How did you get out of neutral space?” Five asks, eyes still glued to Seven as she swallows.
Seven looks at Five and tilts her head, her long hair slipping over her shoulder.
“The inbetween? Oh, I wasn’t there long. At least, not long enough to starve to death.” She stares at the rest of them, amusement dancing in her eyes, finding something funny that the rest of them don’t get.
The Elderitch curls up tight in his stomach as Ben thinks.
Didn’t Dad say Seven would be stuck in neutral space and starve to death?
How the hell did she -
“Where did you go then?” Diego asks, eyeing Seven suspiciously as he drys one of his knives with a kitchen towel.
Diego was always harsh with Seven, Ben, to this day, never knew why.
Seven heaves a sigh and puts down her sandwich.
“Well, when I lost physical contact with Five, who was able to return to the time his physical form was last present due to him having one foot in both places, I drifted for a bit, before I was pulled to the last opening that tore between time and space, The future.”
Ben stares at Seven blankly.
What?
Ben hears Five mutter, “Makes sense.”
“It’s
awful,
by the way.”
Klaus lets out a laugh and Ben jumps, startled.
“Called it!”
“Wait, but if you landed in the future, why didn’t you land in 2008? Five said he planned on three times, 2003, 2005 and 2008. If you were pulled through the last opening, why not 2008?” he asks her, thinking back on all the times all three of them would be hauled up in Five’s room as he planned and went through his equations.
“Five miscalculated.” is all she says.
Ben meets Allison’s eyes, her curls hanging wetly on her head, and he can practically read the
holy shit,
in them.
Ben focuses back on Seven.
When the hell did she go then?
“Klaus.”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t touch my bag.”
Klaus withdraws his hands from Seven’s bag with a pout and Ben flicks the back of his head.
“Ow.”
“That still doesn’t explain how you got back.” Allison comments, and no, it doesn’t explain how she came back.
Seven waves her hand like she’s swatting a fly, dismissing Allison.
He see’s Luther tense up out the corner of his eye.
And Ben stares at Seven in shock because,
no one dismisses Allison.
“How I got back is unimportant.”
Someone takes a deep breath and Ben shifts is gaze to Luther.
“How long were you there?”
His eyes move between Seven and Luther.
Seven purses her lips and nonchalantly answers, “Forty-five years.”
Ben’s eyes go wide as Luther slowly sits back down, his chair letting out a
creak.
45 years.
Five freezes in his seat and Ben hears Allison suck in a breath.
Klaus scoots a little bit more forward on the table.
“So, what are you saying? That you’re 58?”
Seven lets out a heavy sigh and closes her eyes.
“
No,
my consciousness is 58. Physically, I am now 13 again.”
From the way Seven said that, Ben thinks she might be irritated at all the questions.
And them.
“I don’t understand,” he says aloud, “how does that even work?”
Seven just shrugs her shoulders and swallows the last half of her sandwich.
“Don’t know. A problem I’ll just have to fix later.”
Seven’s eyes fix on something on the counter.
“Oh shit.”
she says, picking up a newspaper. “Shame I missed the funeral.”
Luther stiffens. “How’d you know about that?”
He can’t be serious,
Ben thinks.
Seven puts down the newspaper and just, gives him a
look.
One that basically says,
are you serious?
Luther’s lips part and his eyes go wide.
“Oh, right, your from the future.” he swallows.
Seven’s eyebrows rise up and her eyes go wide as she nods her head.
“Yea.”
Seven shakes her head before looking back down at the newspaper, flipping between the front and back.
“Heart attack?”
“Yeah.”
“No.”
Seven looks back up at them, eyes moving back and forth between Diego and Luther.
A puff of laughter leaves her lips before she sucks in a breath.
“Okaaay.”
She grabs her bag and then walks around the table, patting Five’s shoulder as she goes.
“Hi Five.” she says quietly, and alot more like the Seven Ben remembers.
“That’s it?” Allison asks, and Ben looks at her.
There’s something,
vulnerable,
written on her face. An expression he rarely saw on her when they were younger.
Ben doesn’t know what it means.
A sigh leaves Seven’s lips and she turns to face them.
She’s been sighing at them a lot.
“Well? What do you want me to say?” is all that comes out her mouth before she walks away.
A chair scrapes against the ground.
Ben looks at Five who is standing completely frozen.
“F
iv-”
is all he manges to get out before his brother blinks away.
There is only silence for a moment.
“That all just happened right? Or am I just
that
high?”
Ben just shakes his head.
God, this family is something else.