SONG: Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival

I was walking down the rainy street, staring at the note in my hands. There was a meeting time and place--the time was a very big gap, like between the time I found the note and almost six hours from then, so I definitely had time to walk there instead of taking a taxi. Not to mention that it was fairly close to my flat anyways. There was no signature of who'd left it, and I began to think it was that strange woman, though she would have been up front about it and not left a note. I tried to think of everyone I'd been in contact with the past few days. Maybe a waiter or somebody off the streets got it there? It sounded crazy even to me, but I wanted to know what exactly said person knew about me.

I had thought about asking Vanya or Klaus to join me, but if it was somebody who knew about my powers, I wasn't as sure about that. I didn't want either of them finding out. I knew I should probably tell them, but it seemed too late to tell Vanya and too unimportant to tell Klaus. I preferred to just keep it to myself.

I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings, only rereading the note and mumbling to myself when I ran into the back of someone in a tight leather jacket. I looked up as the woman turned around, revealing Allison.

"Allison, hey!" I said, stuffing the note in my pocket before I noticed the two people standing behind her. Vanya and a guy—I was assuming was the guy she'd been telling me about. He was a bit taller than Vanya and I, but much shorter than Allison.

"Luce," Vanya said, smiling at me before confusion crossed her face, "Are you okay? Why are you in such a rush?" she asked, to which I waved her off.

"Just trying to get somewhere to find someone that can install these bloody lights for me," I lied. It seemed I had been doing that more than usual the past couple of days, "This is...?" I trailed off questioningly.

"Leonard. Peabody," the man introduced, holding his hand out as a greeting for me to shake it. I nodded, eyebrows rising.

"What an interesting surname," I smiled as I took his hand, "Luce Liddell," I introduced myself with my faux last name.

"Um, I'm sorry to interrupt, but, uh... Could you come back to the house?" Allison cut in, asking Vanya, "We're having a family meeting."

"And that's my cue to leave. Allison, great to see you, as always. Leonard, a pleasure to meet you. Vanya, I inevitably will see you later. We have a lot to catch up on," I said, patting Vanya on the back with a strange side-hug thing before continuing my way down the street, this time paying attention to where I was going. I didn't want to be invited to said meeting, even though I was dying to go, simply because I knew I needed to get this done first.

"Oh, Luce!" Allison called after me and I froze, turning back to them with a forced smile, "If you have lights that need to be installed, maybe you could ask Luther? I'm sure he'd be happy to help," she suggested, to which I nodded and held up a thumbs up.

"Brilliant. Thank you!" I said and wasted no time continuing on my way.

As I was walking, I felt a hand on my back and looked over to see Leonard walking with me.

"Um, hi," I greeted, not slowing down my steps.

"Sorry, didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, was just trying to get your attention is all," he removed his hand, keeping up with me, "So, you're Vanya's friend?"

"Best friend, actually. Almost like sisters," I educated him, watching as he nodded while he listened intently, "And you? What are your intentions with my almost-sister?" I questioned.

"Well, if all goes well, hopefully to go on a date with her," he answered, seemingly entirely truthful. I looked over at him skeptically.

"Why?"

"Why?" he repeated, confusion written entirely in his expression.

"What makes you want to go on a date with her?" I questioned.

"Well... What wouldn't?"

"Touché," I admitted, "Look, you seem nice enough, but I'm kind of in a rush right now, and don't have time to be talking. Maybe another time, yeah?" I asked, though I still hadn't slowed my footing.

"Yeah, sure," he said and the next thing I knew, he was gone. I let out an exasperated sigh, finally being able to freak out in peace.

It wasn't much longer before I made it to the place, looking around and trying to take in my surroundings. I recognized the place. It was the lab Five had taken Klaus and I to. I also noticed something else recognizable—Five's van sitting outside.

"And you don't have any powers."

I felt Five slip something into my pocket before he blinked away.

I almost let out an audible growl as I realized the little grandpa had played me. I angrily made my way to his van before noticing a big man I knew to be his brother doing the same thing. We made eye contact and I looked at the van, where his glance followed. Finally, we both darted for it, though he reached it first, having the longer legs. I sighed and stayed back, letting him do his physically bigger brother thing, which was knocking on the window and calling Five's name until he got his attention before opening the door and sliding into the front seat with an extreme struggle. I rolled my eyes and went to the back, opening the back of the van to reveal none other than Klaus, who was currently dancing with a dismembered mannequin.

"You have got to be kidding me," I muttered.

"How did you find me?" I heard Five ask Luther, who pointed back at Klaus.

"Hey, a little privacy, guys. We're really hitting it off back here," he joked, earning Five throwing an empty can at him, which bounced off of the van's interior and ended up hitting me in the forehead.

"Ow!" I groused before climbing up into the van, with a hand from Klaus, who had at some point put the mannequin down.

"Get out! You can't be here!" Five shouted at them, "I'm in the middle of something. Did you bring them?" he pointed at me, and I shook my head.

"No, I just, um-" I tried to word my response so that it wasn't dodgy to Klaus or Luther, "I just got here, saw your van and decided to come say hi, and ran into Luther," I said, which wasn't a complete lie.

"Anyways!" Klaus cut off the rest of our conversation, running up to the two seats, "Any luck finding your one-eyed man?" he asked Five in a slightly hushed voice as I walked up beside him to hear the answer.

"No," Five whispered back.

"What's he talking about?" Luther asked.

"Does it matter? It's Klaus," Five responded. Ouch. Five sighed, "What do you want, Luther?"

"Um..." Luther trailed off as if looking for the right words to say, "So, Grace may have had something to do with Dad's death-"

"Who's Grace?" I asked, being my nosy self.

"Our mom," all three of them answered at the same time, making me back away and hold up my hands in defense.

"All right."

"So I need you to come back to the Academy, all right? It's important," Luther finished.

"It's important," Five mocked Luther, "You have no concept of what's important."

"Hey!" Klaus interrupted, "Did I ever tell you guys about the time I waxed my ass with chocolate pudding?" he laughed, "It was so painful!"

"What are you still doing here?" Luther asked.

"Ay, ay, ay," Five muttered.

"What? I- What? I need an excuse to hang out with my family?"

"Well, no, see, we're trying to have a serious conversation," Luther retorted.

"What, and I'm incapable of being serious? Is that what you're saying?"

"Luther's got a point," Five said.

"What?" Klaus asked incredulously while his brother was still talking.

"You should get out," he finished. Klaus sighed and looked at me.

"Come on, then, Luce. I guess the big boys need to have a chat," he said, opening the door.

"She stays," Five said, grabbing my attention.

"What?" I asked in unison to Klaus and Luther.

"This is a family matter," Luther said.

"She's the only one I actually asked to come to talk to, so she stays," Five glared at Luther, who eventually just gave up. I looked at Klaus with an apologetic look.

"You're not really staying with these morons, are you?"

"I just need to talk to Five for a minute, then I'll be out, all right?" I asked. Klaus grumbled and hopped out of the van, looking back in at all of us.

"Fine!" he shouted, slamming the door. I sighed and looked at Luther.

"Look, I understand this family matter is important or whatever, but can you please get out so I can have the conversation I was asked here for and then take my leave?" I asked him. He looked between Five and I.

"The hell you up to, Five?" he asked his brother before a look of disgust crossed his face, "Oh, God, you two aren't like-"

"No!" Five and I shouted in unison.

"That's her and Klaus," Five added.

"Klaus?" Luther asked, now seeming even more disgusted before an almost enlightening look crossed his face, "Oh, that makes sense."

"Big man, just please get out of the van for a minute. I pinkie swear, you can have your brother back when I'm finished with him," I held out my pinkie.

"This damn van is so hard to navigate," Luther grumbled, struggling to get out of the van without even interlocking pinkies with me. I quickly dropped my hand and waited until he was entirely out of it to turn back to the strange little man-boy.

"You wrote?" I questioned, pulling the note out of my pocket and holding it out to him.

"You answered," he smirked at me in a devilish sort of evil little boy way.

"What do you know?" I asked, to which he cracked his knuckles.

"I know everything, Luce," he said, looking back to the building in front of the van and I sat there for a moment, waiting for him to continue. He didn't.

"Elaborate?" I finally egged him on.

"Why are you lying to my siblings?" he asked, turning to me, "I know you're powerful, that only goes to show me you're hiding it so you can burn them," he glared daggers at me, taking me aback.

How is it that so many people know about me and my powers recently? I haven't been actively trying to use them for almost five years.

"My intention was not and is not to hurt your siblings in any way-"

"Then why don't you just tell them? Announce it to the world the same way you did in England, 2014," he said, looking out the front window instead of back at me.

"I didn't mean to in 2014, and I'm not trying to ever again," I explained myself, knowing I shouldn't have to to a 58-year-old consciousness wearing schoolboy shorts, "2014 was a mistake. That's why I moved to America. I didn't ask for the powers I was given-"

"But you have them, and yesterday I had to pretend like you didn't. It's annoying. You could be so useful, but your constant desire to be like everybody else is holding you back from your potential and rendering you entirely useless!" he glowered. I just stared at him with my jaw slack-open.

"You don't know what this power does to me-"

"That's why you learn to control it instead of shutting it out," he looked at me.

"Like you learned to control your time travel?" I pressured. His jaw clenched.

"At least I know where I jump to when I blink. You can't even aim a flame," he sneered.

"Want to bet on that, Number Five?" I challenged, feeling my hands burning into the backs of the seat before I pulled away, too afraid to leave a mark.

"My point exactly. You're letting your emotions get the best of you," he turned away from me.

"Well, I'm sorry I didn't have a Reginald Hargreeves to train me!" I scorned.

"Neither did I!" he shouted back at me, the first time I'd heard him raise his voice, "For over forty years, I didn't have anybody to help me control it. But I learned--You know why? So that I could get back to my family and save the damn world, so stop blaming your incompetence on your daddy issues!"

At that, I was stunned. I fell back away from him before just shaking my head and opening the door to hop out.

"I wasn't done talking to you," he sneered, though turned away from me.

"Well, I'm done with you!" I shouted back before turning and making my way as far away from his dumb van as possible. I stopped when I watched Klaus run out of a variety store carrying tons of random rubbish in his hands and dropping about 80% of it as he ran from what looked like a security guard.

"Hey bitches!" Klaus shouted as he ran, not slowing down for anyone. I sighed and shook my head, my anger subsiding a bit. Enough to know I wouldn't end up burning something down or hurting the next person that touched me, "Out of the way, asshole!" Klaus shouted as he ran into a taxi and had to jump out of the way, ending up dropping even more of the stolen items.

☂☂☂

I knocked on the big doors to the Umbrella Academy mansion, holding a sloppy chocolate cake that I had angrily baked when I got home, and then realized that I didn't even want it. I waited at the doors, going to knock again before they opened to reveal a familiar chimpanzee.

"Hi Pogo," I greeted him while he looked at the cake in my arms. Thank Christ Pogo was shorter than me, seeing as you could see through the plastic covering the cake that I'd written "twat" with some nice black icing, then tried to smudge it into what I'd hoped would become some sort of marble effect. Now it just looked like a smudged twat.

"Miss Luce. What a pleasure to see you again. To what do I owe the visit?" he asked. It was so strange that this chimp had better manners than pretty much everyone else in the house.

"I was looking for Vanya. Or Klaus. Are either of them here?" I had checked Vanya's place first, wanting to just sit in and watch the tele, but she hadn't even been home.

"They both are, actually," he smiled at me and I nodded.

"Family stuff?" I asked, remembering Allison asking Vanya to come home earlier, though I assumed the family meeting would be good and over by now. Nevertheless, he nodded, "I can come back later."

"Oh, no, please do come in. Excuse my manners, I didn't mean to keep you waiting outside," he said as he opened the door wider and let me inside, "Fortunately, the family matters are paused until Master Five gets home," he said, "If you don't mind my asking, what's the cake for?"

"Oh, I just... Made it. I like baking. I don't want it though. Do you like chocolate cake?" I asked, to which he shook his head.

"More of a banana bread kind of man myself," he said, causing me to let out a soft laugh.

"You got jokes, huh?"

"Every chimp has their secrets," he winked. Pogo seemed like a cool guy-er-monkey man. I could see why pretty much everyone in the house seemed to get along with him pretty well, "I can take it off your hands if you'd like though," he offered.

"No, I mean, unless you wanted to," I said, looking down at my poorly iced chocolate twat cake.

"It wouldn't be a problem," he said, holding his arms out for the cake. I sighed and handed it down to him. He looked through the plastic and nodded, "Ah, one of those kinds of days," he observed.

"Only a little," I said. He looked up at me with another smile.

"Feel free to make yourself at home, Miss Luce."

"Thanks, Pogo. It was good to see you again," I said as he started making his way in the direction of the kitchen.

"Always a pleasure," he acknowledged before disappearing behind a hallway.

I looked around and let out a heavy sigh from somewhere deep within my chest before deciding to look for one of the two people I knew here.

"Luce?" I heard from behind me once I reached the top floor, turned to see Vanya, and smiled.

"Hey! I brought a cake, but I gave it to Pogo," I said. Vanya always gave me such a sense of tranquillity that I just didn't get from anybody else, "So if you want any chocolate cake, there's some just down in the kitchen," I finished.

"Hey, are you okay? You seemed really rushed this morning," she said, completely passing over my cake.

"Yeah, I'm good. Did you hear the part about the cake?" I asked before remembering something, "Oh, that reminds me! I need to find Luther!" I said, turning around as if I was going to go find him now before turning back to Vanya, "Just not yet," I said, more to remind myself than her. She smiled and shook her head in shame at me.

"So, then I'm guessing you never found somebody to help you install the lights?" she asked and I shook my head, "Come on, I'm sure we can find him together," she started before stopping, "On second thought, maybe he won't want to hear from me," she added nervously.

"Why?"

"We--I mean, like, our family got into an argument today about something, and I kind of sided against him," she explained. I nodded, making an o shape with my lips. It must have been whatever family matters Allison was asking her to come back for.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" I offered. She shrugged.

"It's just our mom, she-" she stopped and then looked at me, "Did I ever tell you about our mom?" she asked.

"Um, no, not other than she raised you," I answered, needing to think about it for a moment.

"Oh, well, she's not... Really like other moms," Vanya tried starting slowly.

"Oh, I know. She's gorgeous for her age," I expressed.

"Yeah, well, she's also... Kind of... A robot," she lead into it. I stared at her blankly, letting the words actually hit me.

"Oh. Well... I guess that explains why she looks so young," I shrugged. Honestly, at this point, there were a minimal amount of things that could surprise me in their family.

"Yeah, that's one way to put it. Anyways, we think her programming's been deteriorating lately, and Luther wants to switch her off, Diego doesn't," she explained.

"And you sided with Diego?" I asked curiously. Diego was always such a twat to her, I wasn't sure why she'd side with him.

"I mean, not just to side with him. She's our mom, I don't want her to just be shut down over an assumption," she explained, which made enough sense to me.

"Ah, gotcha," I nodded.

"Anyways, you should still go talk to Luther, though. He's still a nice enough guy," she smiled at me. I nodded, looking around.

"Uhm, any idea where the big man might be?"

☂☂☂

After enough looking and watching the sunset through the big spacious windows, I found Luther in a room on one of the top floors, sitting out on a windowsill and staring up at the big, blue moon. I made my way cautiously into the room, trying to estimate the mood before I made my approach. I didn't want to just go up to him and ask him to help me install lights if he was upset or angry. Fortunately for me, he seemed to be neither.

"Beautiful, innit?" I asked from behind him, causing him to jump slightly and turn back to me.

"Luce? What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Oh, I brought a cake. Really, was looking for Vanya and Klaus, but I'm glad to have found you," I smiled, "You like the moon?" I asked.

"I mean, I guess," he turned back to it, "Gets boring after being up there for four years, but you're right. It is still beautiful from all the way down here," he responded. He lived on the moon? That sounded brilliant, "Why are you glad to have found me?" he asked, turning back to me once more.

"I had a favor to ask."