The seven siblings and Katya stared at Number Five. They had gathered at one end of the wood kitchen table. Five stood at the other end, pulling together supplies to make a sandwich, like he hadn't just appeared out of a wormhole after seventeen years. He ignored their staring.

Valentina couldn't believe he was here right now. Five disappeared so long ago that Valentina thought she'd never see him again.  At first, it was like an emptiness, a strange hole in the part of her heart that she reserved for her siblings. Over time, it started to dull and become a part of Valentina—the space devoted to Five, full of love but accepting that he was gone. She'd gotten used to it, to the idea that her brother was not coming home. And now here he was again, looking exactly the same as when he left.

"What's the date?" Five asked, "The exact date."

The siblings glanced at each other for a second before Vanya said, "The twenty-fourth..." slowly, as though she was confused.

Five looked up at her, raising an eyebrow. "Of what?"

"March," Valentina said, "It's the twenty-fourth of March."

Five nodded. "Good," he said.

Katya nudged Valentina from behind. "This is your missing brother," she said, making it very clear that this was not a question. Valentina nodded, and Katya raised an eyebrow. "He's blunter than I expected."

Luther cast a glance at the pair of them before looking back at Five. "So are we going to talk about what just happened?" Five ignored him, spreading peanut butter on his bread. "It's been seventeen years!" Luther said, sounding frustrated.

Five scoffed. "It's been a lot longer than that."

Valentina frowned. She knew Five had been talking about time travel before he disappeared, but she was pretty sure time worked the same way no matter what time you went to. Though, if he was a kid still, how could he have been gone for any amount of time?

"Where'd you go?" Diego asked, frowning. He nudged Valentina, as if to check on her, who perched on the edge of the table next to him. She was this close to shoving Klaus over so she could have more space, but to do that would push him right into Vanya, and she didn't want to hurt her sister.

"The future," Five said, as if it were obvious. "It's shit, by the way."

Klaus perked up, pointing at Five. "Called it."

Five ignored him. "I should've listened to the old man," he said, reaching into a cupboard. "You know, jumping through space is one thing, jumping through time is a toss of the dice." He said it like he had heard it a million times—which, knowing their dad, he totally had.

He returned to the table, looking up at Klaus with a little frown as he did. "Nice skirt, by the way."

"Oh," Klaus looked down at Allison's old skirt, swishing it a little where he sat. Valentina elbowed him. "Well danke."

Vanya held up a hand, closing her eyes for a moment. She looked confused, lost—Valentina almost wanted to paint it. "Wait, how did you get back?" she asked.

Five sighed, his thin child's shoulders rising and falling under his oversized suit. "In the end, I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time."

A frown spread across Valentina's face and her brow furrowed as she attempted to figure out what the hell that meant. She was no physicist, of course, but she thought she was pretty smart. This explanation, though, made no sense to her at all. Diego seemed to agree, mumbling, "That makes no sense."

Five looked up at him with a sarcastic expression. "It would if you were smarter."

Diego's face turned cold, and he stepped forward, raising his fists as though he was going to fight Five. Luther, though, held up a hand to stop him—that was certainly enough, with Luther's strength. "How long were you there?" Luther asked, subtly pushing Diego back.

"Forty-five years," Five said, "give or take." Valentina's jaw dropped.

"Forty-five years?" Katya whispered to Valentina, who turned to look at her. Katya's blue eyes were wide, staring at Five.

"So what are you saying?" Luther asked, "That you're fifty-eight?"

Five rolled his eyes. And that was an extremely familiar sight for Valentina; so familiar that for a moment, she was thirteen again, watching at the breakfast table with wide eyes as Five and Dad argued, as the rest of them could do nothing but sit there, as she clenched her fists so hard that her palms bled. She remembered crying that night, not just because Five had disappeared, but because Dad was so much harsher on her when he was angry.

She blinked, pulling herself out her memories bit by bit as Five said, "No, my consciousness is fifty-eight. Apparently my body is now thirteen again." He put a slice of bread on top of his peanut-butter-and-marshmallow sandwich, his favorite, and picked it up to take a bite.

"Wait, how does that even work?" Vanya asked, shaking her head. Valentina blinked, and had to agree with her—that didn't seem possible, the same way that Five's earlier explanation was nonsensical to her.

Five just shook his head. "Delores kept saying the equations were off," he said. "Eh. Bet she's laughing now."

Valentina frowned. Who the hell was Delores?

It seemed that Five wasn't going to elaborate on that, though, as he picked up a newspaper lying on the kitchen counter nearby, examining it with what looked like little interest to Valentina. "Guess I missed the funeral," he said.

Luther frowned. "How'd you know about that?" Valentina sighed; sometimes Luther could be so slow.

Five glared up at him. "What part of 'the future' didn't you understand?" he asked. Apparently, a great deal, Valentina thought—but she said nothing.

Five didn't seem to care that no one answered him, as he returned to the newspaper. "Heart failure, huh?" he asked.

Diego and Luther answered at the same time, contradicting each other, of course Diego said "Yeah", while Luther said "No", and Valentina sighed. This was something she had not missed about having the two of them in one room. She nudged Diego with her elbow, mouthing "be nice" at him when he turned to look at her. He rolled his eyes.

"Nice to see nothing's changed," Five said. He tossed the newspaper back onto the counter, took a bite out of his sandwich, and headed to the stairs out of the room.

Allison turned to watch him go. "So that's it? That's all you have to say?"

"What else is there to say?" Five asked, "The circle of life."

—

Valentina's hands fisted in the material of her black skirt, staring blankly forward at the wall of Umbrella Academy memorabilia and portraits that her father collected over the years. She supposed all of it was supposed to be a source of pride for them, to remind them that they did good and people loved them. Now, all Valentina saw was the pain her younger self hid so well, screaming behind those half-masked brown eyes. Now, all he saw was her father's hand on Luther's shoulder, holding him tight, tighter than he needed to.

Her father, Valentina knew, was an asshole.

He'd controlled the seven of them—eight, Valentina corrected; it was easy to forget that he hurt Vanya too—kept them separate from the rest of the world, their own weird little colony of superpowers and robots. He engineered a rivalry between Luther and Diego so Diego would feel the need to prove himself. He made Ben and Valentina and Klaus so afraid to upset him that they would do almost anything he asked.

She knew that her fear, her anxiety, her need to constantly look out for other people and to simultaneously act like she didn't care was because of Dad. Because of Dad, who told Valentina that caring for her siblings was a weakness, that she was wasting her time worrying about Vanya's loneliness and what happened to Five.

In her freshman year of art school, right after leaving Reginald Hargreeves and the Umbrella Academy in the dust, Valentina went to a therapist that her school included with her tuition. She figured, why not? She was tired of waking up in the middle of the night gasping and afraid, tired of crying whenever anyone raised their voices at her. So she went. She didn't tell the therapist everything about her, she wasn't comfortable enough for that, but Valentina talked a lot about her feelings and what her father had done.

According to the therapist, Valentina had PTSD. Her nightmares, her reaction to shouting—the therapist said they were classic signs of PTSD. She'd tried to help Valentina with it, tried so hard, but after freshman year, Valentina never went back. She got so busy with school, and figured she would be okay. But then, she never expected to be back here.

Valentina closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. One thing she'd retained from those eight months of therapy: deep breaths did wonders to calm you down. She relaxed her hands, smoothing down her skirt, double checking to make sure her maroon skirt was still tucked in. All well. Eyes still closed, she turned to face the rest of the central room. She opened her eyes.

Diego stood behind her, leaning against one of the couches. He hadn't changed out of his black vigilante outfit, and his arms were crossed over his chest. He didn't smile at Valentina, but he shifted slightly, dropping his arms to his sides. His eyes were soft. Valentina tried to smile, one side of her mouth raising a little, and she stepped forward, wrapping Diego in a hug. Or was it the other way around?

She clutched at her twin, burying her face in his shoulder. For a minute, she didn't think. The twins just held each other close, breathing deep. Valentina tried not to sob, though no tears came to her eyes. She didn't want to sob. Not today. Not like this.

Rain fell outside, and Valentina choked down her feelings.

—

1724 words.
Ahhh okay so this chapter is 100% not the best, especially the first half! I was too lazy to rewatch the episode to check dialogue, so this what you get.
Anyway, I'm pretty proud of the second part of this chapter; I'm very passionate about mental health representation and destigmatization, so I felt it necessary to include the fact that Valentina (and all the kids) are still suffering bc of what Reginald did to them growing up. He was an abusive prick, and I refuse to shy away from that.
Please do let me know what you think!! Who's excited for season 2?! I know I am!!