Careful, Tidy Stitches
Fandom: The Umbrella Academy Summary: Viktor's hands aren't quite as steady as Grace's, but that doesn't stop him from helping. Warnings: Major character injury and blood Word Count: 669 Ship(s): Ben Hargreeves/Viktor Hargreeves
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Viktor felt like his heart was being torn out of his chest when he saw all of his siblings returning form the mission that they had just been sent on covered in blood. Their father usually made them clean up before they left the building that they had been doing the mission in so that if the press found them then they would be presentable. The only time that they came back to the house in this state of disarray was when something horrible had happened. The sinking feeling in Viktor’s stomach led him to believe that it was worse than he could even imagine.
His siblings all tried to keep him shielded away from the things that they were forced to do when they went on missions, today was no exception. He had been standing on the balcony that oversaw the living room while looking down at the front door where they were entering. They were all muttering amongst each other until they noticed that he was there, when they immediately huddled together and moved as a group. Viktor wasn’t stupid, though, he could tell that they were hiding something from them.
He waited until they had all dispersed to be debriefed by their father and clean the blood from their skin before he made his way to the infirmary. He didn’t even have to get the attention the robot that had been taking care of them since they were children anymore. She simply moved over on the bench next to the bed where the newest injured person was laying. Viktor washed his hands quickly and then grabbed the second set of surgical tools so that he could get to work on helping her.
He knew that his siblings were trying their best to protect him from the horrors that they faced, but he was already aware of a lot of them. He had been doing this, helping their mother bandage them up after missions, since right after Five left. It was a way for him to forget the worries that he had about them earlier in the day and since Ben was the one that was hurt the most often, it also allowed him to be closer to his boyfriend.
They technically hadn’t defined their relationship as anything yet, but they slept in each other’s beds more often than not, they kissed and held hands and cuddled, and Ben sought Viktor out before anyone else.
The non-superpowered member of the Umbrella Academy allowed himself to melt away into the rhythmic stitches. He pulled the needle and snipped it whenever it was required as he got all of the washed cuts closed so that they could begin to heal. He wished that Ben wasn’t put in situations that would result in him being hurt like this, but there was actually very little that he could do about it.
Grace finished doing the majority of the cuts and then left Viktor alone. She seemed to know that Ben would wake calmer and be less likely to hurt himself if she wasn’t in the room and the only person he had to worry about was Viktor.
The aforementioned teenage boy slipped into the hospital bed beside his lover. He was able to shift them around so that he was pressed into Ben’s side without being on any of his injuries. He pulled and tucked until the blanket and hospital gown were covering all of Ben’s body so that he wouldn’t get cold. Viktor then tucked his face away in Ben’s shoulder and cried and cried until there was nothing left anymore.
Almost an hour later, he heard a small groan of pain before Ben asked, “Vik?”
“I’m here,” the smaller, meeker teenager replied. He let out a hiccuping sob as the tears returned. “We have to leave, I don’t think I can stomach seeing you that messed up again.”
He expected Ben to fight, to object and protest that the Academy needed him, but instead all he got was, “Okay.”















