THIRTY-NINE:
THE FAVORITE

Growing up in a house where everything you did was put under a microscope, recorded, and jotted down in some notebook, the Hargreeves rarely had privacy.

They still had none when they left the academy, their heroic acts when they were children and their extraordinary powers made them hard to forget.

When they were close to being forgotten —everyone besides Allison— Reginald Hargreeves died and then all of a sudden the spotlights were back on them. And after that with Five's return, they were running around trying to stop the end of the world without having much information and even less time.

When Alex and Klaus went to Vietnam they even had less time together, they were always surrounded by people —soldiers, and they were in the middle of a battlefield.

When they came back, they had new problems added to the old ones, PTSD was not fun to deal with. They still made time for each other, after all these were their last days on earth. And then Alex was presumed dead when their house was destroyed.

When they were transported back to the '60s, they were separated and alone. It was a blessing to find each other again.

So it wasn't surprising that the most privacy they've ever had —counting their wedding— in a long while, was when they were standing next to each other in Klaus' enormous garden, hand in hand, and hearts bared to each other.

Yes, Alex felt safe to say he loved that moment very much.

"Umm.."

Until it was ruined. Like all good things do.

Klaus closed his eyes and sighed, before turning and looking at a nervous Keechie, "Yes?"

Keechie looked between them before extending a hand and offering two envelopes, "This came for you, Prophet and Faithful."

Alex took one of the envelopes and gave the other to Klaus before opening his, "Did he just called me faithful? Like Mothers Of The Faithful?"

Klaus gave him a look before opening his letter, the envelope discarded on the floor, "What's that?"

"The wives of prophets were called either that or Mothers Of The Believers, it's from Quran I think."

"How do you know?"

"Wikipedia," Alex answered absentmindedly as he read his letter.

Klaus groaned, "I hate family dinners."

And then Alex and Klaus found themselves in an elevator with the rest of their siblings, all having arrived at the same time like they had psychic abilities or something.

It was an awkward ride, and even worse when Luther decided to let some of that gas out.

"Alright," Five said as they walked in Tiki Lounge, "when dad gets here I'll do the talking, okay?"

Diego walked towards the table, "I got a few questions for him myself."

"Hey, we don't wanna scare him off, he might be able to help us stop doomsday, get us home."

"Does that mean I can't go invisible and," Alex then mimicked punching and kicking and heard a few chuckles around the room.

"No."

"Even a little bit?"

"Maybe."

"We need to figure out why he's planning to kill the president."

Five choose a chair, " This is a matter of life and death, you imbecile."

"Yeah, maybe we should take turns talking, yeah?" Vanya suggested, "okay whoever gets this conch shell, gets to talk."

"We don't have time-"

"Maybe I should lead," Allison said and took the shell from Vanya, "we all know I'm a much better public speaker than the rest."

"Okay, daddy's girl."

"Ah jealous number two?"

Diego walked towards her, "Hey! No more numbers. No more bullshit, we're all team zero."

Allison stared at him.

"Um Diego, you don't have the conch." Luther unhelpfully pointed out.

Diego smiled, took the conch, and then threw it away with rage.

Alex was disappointed, he wanted to have a go with the shell. Maybe there are more around? He started looking around trying to find a conch shell. Even tho they were in a Sponge Bob themed lounge there were no more shells.

Klaus leaned closer to Alex from where they were sitting, "this all has a Sponge Bob vibe."

Alex nodded and smiled, "I'm pretty sure they're playing Sponge Bob music."

His husband listened before chuckling, "Yeah, I think the same."

At that exact moment, the doors opened and good old Reggie boy came into the room with a 2-star dramatic entrance.

He went around the table and sat on one of the chairs without looking or saying anything to any of them.

They all sat down.

"Now only have you burglarized my lab, set my chimp loose, conned your way into the Mexican consulate, repeatedly stalked and attacked me, but you have, on numerous occasions called me-"

Alex couldn't help himself, "Dada!"

"-dad."

Alex grinned and high-fived Klaus who has somehow conjured an apple juice, which he offered to share with Alex.

Is conjuring food a part of Klaus' powers?

"My reconnaissance tells me you're not CIA, not KGB, certainly not MI5, so who are you?"

Everyone opened their mouths but nothing came out, and they looked at each other until Five spoke, "we are your children," Reggie looked around at them, "from the future. 1989 you adopted us all and trained us to fight against the end of the world. Called us the umbrella academy."

"Why on earth would I adopt seven-"

"Eight. One of us isn't here." Allison said.

"Dead." Diego clarified, "one of us is dead."

"Actually seven, I unadopted myself." That got Alex some weird looks from the people who weren't in Odessa's salon the other day.

Ben started talking from where he was standing behind Klaus and Alex, "Dead, Yes, but I'm here. Klaus! Alex!"

"Yeah, bababababab, enough of that," Klaus said and turned to face Ben, missing the confused looks going around the table.

"Don't even bother asking me, I'm not talking to you," Alex said when he knew Ben would ask him next.

Reginald looked at them for a moment before continuing, "regardless, what would possess me to adopt six and a half ill-mannered malcontents."

"I wanna point out you raised us so if we're ill-mannered that's on you old man." Alex pointed at Reginald and then smiled innocently.

Five rolled his eyes, "We all have special abilities."

"Special? I'm what sense?"

"In the superpower sense." Luther clarified, which he seems to be doing a lot today.

"Call me old-fashioned, but I'm a stickler for a pesky little thing called evidence. Show me."

Allison poked her drink —where did she get it?— with her straw, "everybody wants to see powers all of a sudden."

"We're not circus animals." Luther scoffed, "we're not gonna bounce balls on our noses and clap our hands like seals for your amusement."

Alex scoffed louder, "I'd beg to differ."

Diego threw a knife and it did some twists and turns before it went to lodge itself somewhere behind Old McHargreeves.

And as usual, Reginald started writing.

Everyone leaned closer.

"What are you writing?"

"You are zero for two, young man."

Allison snorted and Diego angrily got up to go punch the shit out of McHargreeves when Five space-jumped and stopped him, "stop!"

"Now that is interesting."

Five took control of the situation, "okay quick run down, Luther super strength. Klaus can commune with the dead-"

"And summon food!" Alex happily said as he munched on some cookies Klaus gave him out of nowhere and beamed when Klaus patted him on the head.

"- Allison can rumor anyone to do anything."

"Except she never uses it," Diego said as he and Five sat down on their sits.

Allison stopped drinking and smiled, "I heard a rumor you punched yourself in the face."

Which Diego did and the crunch sound that followed made Alex wince, "hey! No harming each other!"

Allison rolled her eyes, "Yes Alex." And then continued to drink her drink.

"And you two?" Reginald said and looked between Alex and Vanya.

"Alex is probably your favorite kid—before he unadopted himself at some point in life—or maybe even then, and his superpower is invisibility."

Alex went to deny that claim when he saw everyone nodding their head, so he decided to ignore that and talk to them later about it, so he instead grinned, "Flame on!" And then disappeared to everyone but Klaus.

Reginald hummed and then looked at Vanya expectingly.

"Maybe we don't take Vanya for a test run," Luther said and smiled

"Yeah that's probably not a good idea," Klaus agreed and threw a hand around Alex's neck who was once again visible.

"It's fine," Vanya waved off their concern, "I can handle it."

"Handle it? Last time you handled it you definitely blew up the moon."

"Luther's precious!"

"No, no, no Vanya-"

And many other protests from the Hargreeves besides McHargreeves.

She ignored them and gently tapped her fork to her glass, making wave sounds and causing the big fruit basket thingy in front of them to explode in everyone's faces.

"Yay!" Alex laughed, "again! again!"

Reginald looked at his presumed adopted-unadopted son and wondered why on earth was he his favorite.

"This was my favorite shirt," Klaus said and looked down at himself.

"I'll make you another," Alex assured him before softly kissing his cheek making Klaus smile goofily.

"Oops." Vanya softly said and smiled.

Alex high-fived her from across the table.

Everyone took a moment to compose themself and wipe out fruit from themselves. Reggie cleaned his beloved monocle and Allison changed drinks.

"Look, we know that you're involved in a plot to assassinate the president," Diego accused him as he stood up.

"You were recently hospitalized, isn't that correct. You still appear to be suffering from delusions of grandeur and a cure paranoia."

"Am I ?" Diego said and took a picture of Reggie that they found on the tape out of his pocket and gave it to Reginald, "explain this, that's you. That's two days from now on the grassy knoll at the exact spot the president's gonna get shot."

"Well," Reginald said as he took a look at the picture, "I suppose you've solved it, you've single-handedly unearthed my nefarious plot. Is that what you want to hear? You fancy yourself a do-gooder? The last hood man who will save us from our descent into corruption and conspiracy? This is a fantastic delusion and sad reality is that you're a desperate man, tragically unaware of his own insignificance, desperately clinging to his own ineffectual reasoning. More succinctly, a man in over his head."

"You're wr-w-rong." Diego stuttered with tears in his eyes which activated the protective side in Alex.

"Okay that's enough, if you get pleasure out of bullying others then go and bully someone else cause I won't let you bully my brother, who is a wonderful human being under all the tough guy act. You don't know us and you don't get to judge us by what you've been told from your informants. We're not some silly thing you can judge based on 30 minutes, we're all scared, have several mental problems, and many other stuff that all comes from you.

From you training us to be child soldiers and sending us to kill at the age of 10, from you torturing 8 kids —kids!— by locking them in mausoleums and belittling them and making them have nothing as children. You took away our childhood.

You've killed one of us, maybe you didn't pull the trigger but it was you who sent him to his death and sometimes I feel like you did it on purpose, you sent one of your kids to the moon for no reason and had him believe it was for some grand threat that he needed to identify, you've traumatized us all with your horrible and monstrously actions.

If anyone here can judge anyone it's us judging you. No one but ourselves can judge each other and even then they all know the limits.

So don't come here using fancy words and expect us to sit and say nothing. We're a team and you just went after one of us, I promise you nothing good happens to those who try and stand against us. I view this meeting useless and done, we're leaving. Now."

Alex stood up and went to grip Diego by his shoulder, tugging him to stand up which he did without resistance. Klaus stood up and followed them without hesitation and slowly the others got up and followed them.

Alex didn't just defend Diego from the monster who they called father, he defended them all.

they all knew he was their favorite brother, they've known it since they were children, but this just made them realize how lucky they are to have Alex.

Reginald watched as the seven followed their brothers without hesitation and a backward glance.

He now knew why the others thought he was his favorite.

He was undoubtedly everyone's favorite.

★彡WORDS: 2500★彡

Heya!
How y'all doing?!

I hope in the past two years I've clarified Alex's relationship with his siblings. He'll goof around and insult them but god help the soul that wants to hurt them.

Alex being Reggie's fav comes from a comment section which I unfortunately don't remember who was involved in. But it happened.

Like the discussion of who's top. A lot happens in the comment section.

Also we're back to our previous update schedule, which is an update every week (4 updates a month)

I'm not gonna talk anymore, so bye!
Stay safe!
Love ya! ❤️