#ler!five

She needs more sfw tickles (art, headcanons, fics)

Oh and since this is so hard to see, I’ll explain what’s going on:

Gonna be another long one, folks, the more I love the more I ramble

Ler

Kid Number Five was always an old man in a kids body

So different to nowadays where he’s

Hmm.... anyway. As a wee one he didn’t participate in all the tickle fights in the academy for a long time, as a ler and definitely not as a lee

Sounded exactly like Hargreeves, like crisp and calm “stop this childish nonsense” except it didn’t scare anybody because he was a lil boy

Had no interest in tickling anyone, nope, absolutely none

Flashes away the second tickle wars break out, totally to his room or the study. Definitely not just right outside the door to watch his siblings be silly

Okay, so he may have memorized his siblings’ ticklish spots

And practiced the tickling movements he saw his siblings make on himself to see if he could do it right

It wasn’t like he wanted to play he just... it was always best to know their weaknesses, just in case it would ever come up while sparring, or on a mission

Vanya catches him watching, once, and he turns scarlet, yells at her for being anywhere near their play area against Dad’s rules, and flashes her back to her room before she can see what he’s watching

Dad makes them spar without their “advantages” for once, but Five doesn’t really think that’s fair, because Luther’s powers can’t really be separated from any kind of physicality, and he may have taken some shots at his neck and ribs during the fight, quick and subtle, to throw Luther off and level the playing field (see, it’s totally useful!)

Luther yells that Five was cheating, and Five refuses to acknowledge he would ever do something so cheap or silly as tickle him, he must just be ridiculously sensitive, not his fault, and Hargreeves buys it, cause I mean, it’s Number Five

Klaus asks Five to tickle him once or twice when the others refuse, and Five flashes away like he’s been burned, this is clearly a trap, who would offer themselves for an embarrassing torture method such as that, Number Four obviously wishes to get him in arms reach

There is one time, though. Klaus throws himself over Fives lap one day while Five is trying to read, and with hardly a look at him, Five digs a hand into Klaus’s hip. Klaus screamed, falling off the couch entirely, not used to being taken by surprise on these things

The whole room stares at them, and Klaus is pointing like “Number Five tickled me! He’s in the game! He’s in the game!” And Fives just like “What the hell are you on about, Number Four?” And flashes away before the others can get any ideas

When he does start playing, at about twelve years old, he refuses to act like he’s that into it, but the others whine that it’s not fair, he can get behind anyone with his powers, and for some reason he knows where they’re all most ticklish

Can’t help but smile wide when he hears his siblings laugh

In his late fifties, seems to have forgotten the concept of tickling even exists

His siblings remind him, and he’s so touch starved he just.... breaks but he makes sure to remind them that they will get wrecked if they touch him

Lee

Kid Number Five saw tickle fights were becoming a Thing

And went from Not Particularly Touchy to flashing away the second anyone was close enough to pat him on the shoulder

He refused. He refused.

Didn’t even know if he was ticklish

Probably not, I mean, when he tickled himself he didn’t laugh

They got older, and they all realize that his powers actually have a limit- if they chased him long enough, he wouldn’t be able to get away

And yet. They dont

He is not the least bit put out that they don’t want to include him in their silly childish bonding activities, not at all.

Finally, one day, he just.... doesn’t flash away when the tickle fight breaks out

It takes a minute for the others to notice him awkwardly standing there, half-afraid they genuinely don’t want him to play anymore

But then they all basically stop the fighting to point it out to each other. It takes a lot of effort for him not to flash away at them all approaching him at once, evil grins on their faces

He still doesn’t flash away

He will die if you get anywhere near his knees, and blush and cackle if you get his hands. Other main spots are his underarms, feet, and back, but he’s ticklish /everywhere/. Giggles and angry shouts and threatens and shrieks.

I know there’s this generally understood thought in the community that Five can’t use his powers when he’s being tickled because he can’t focus, but I disagree. I think if his arms are free, he can

Afterwards he claims he couldn’t, and fuck them all for doing that to him, but if no one is holding his arms down when he’s being tickled, he spends the whole time gripping his hands together, trying to stay in the room

If you do get a hold of his knees, or get his armpits or feet in the right way, he loses all cognizance of that, all thrashing and fighting, and actually teleports not just himself, but everyone else touching him, some random place throughout the mansion. It’s not that he can focus- his arms just do it out of muscle memory, just places he’s teleported to in the past that are in range, he can’t help it

Siblings have been known to politely ask him to teleport him somewhere, and when he’s like “????no???? Since when am I a taxi use your legs”, and they’re just like “well shit, guess I have to borrow your powers then” and go straight for his knees, and keep him screaming until the random teleporting takes them where they claimed to want to go

Once they’re all on him at once, and his soul is leaving his body, and his arms teleport them into Hargreeves’s office and oh boy was that a day.

From the day he discovers how ticklish he is, he blushes like mad the second anyone mentions tickling

Partially because he’s embarrassed just thinking about how he reacts but also because holy fuck he didn’t expect to like it fuck

Does mental gymnastics to figure out how long it makes sense for him to let himself be tickled before tapping out and apologizing or doing what the siblings are asking or whatever, terrified someone will guess he likes it if he holds out too long

Sometimes if you watch closely, when Diego’s teasing Klaus about how much he likes being tickled, you could see Five in the background turning red and doing his damnedest to hide it

Klaus figures out he likes it, because Five slips up- he tickles Klaus, and characteristically Klaus doesn’t care about getting anyone back. Five gives this thoughtless “what? You’re not going to retaliate?” That sounds way too disappointed and oh boy he made a mistake.

Klaus is no ler but he joyfully becomes Fives personal ler and worst nightmare

He gets older, and this 58-year-old man internally swears it has been 84 years since he was last touched (at least touched in a positive way, not counting all the getting knocked around as an assassin)

Acts all composed and huffy and okay I’m gonna make my sandwich when he first gets back, but almost cries when he leaves the room to go look for clothes, cause he’d kind of expected them to???? Hug him???? Or at least try anyway damn

Manages to get his mind off it till the apocalypses are over (and those blessed hugs in celebration definitely felt good) but when there’s no more end of the world coming, it definitely starts to get to him how touch-starved he is

But he’s too prideful to ask to be held or something because a) he’s 58 b) he’s trying to be respected as 58 while looking 13 and c) he doesn’t want it to become a thing. He wasn’t Klaus, he didn’t need people all over him all the time

One day he’s like “who hid my fucking coffee where is it” just not in the mood, and Klaus is snickering. Remembering Klaus has been making a lot of height jokes recently, he starts to look for high places Klaus could have hid them, and sure enough, it’s on the highest shelf in a nearby cabinet

Helps with his dignity that he can teleport himself onto the counter but he still has to reach for a the damn thing. He refuses to ask for help so he just reaches up, half-climbing-cussing Klaus out in his head.

Klaus sneaks up behind him and pokes fingers into his armpits and Five shrieks and slams his arms down, losing balance. Klaus keeps his hands there, making Five falls against him instead of hitting the floor, but then keeps on wriggling his fingers, and Five just falls apart

The whole family quickly knows, as Five loses all control of himself immediately and ends up flashing he and Klaus into every room of the mansion.

Klaus is all smug when he stops until he realizes Five has started crying and gets really worried he’s overstepped, trying to help him sit up and apologizing

Five just starts hugging him and the siblings appear to find Five crying and clinging to Klaus for dear life

Nobody asks him what that was about after the fact but within the next week everyone spends some quality time with him (and there’s a lot of hugging and hair-ruffling and hand-squeezing, and Five acts all huffy but never tells any of them not to)

Anything for you my love 😘

This is hard bc I always see five as a lil lee but in this situation five is definitely a pain-in-the-ass ler

Five has a ‘I’m older than all of you but look like a pre-teen’ vendetta so he often tickles vanya just to remind her that he’s her LITTLE sister and he’s her BIG brother

And it works too bc vanya is so heckin ticklish that five barley has to put in any effort to get her squealing and rolling on the floor

But ofc five can’t leave it at that bc he’s an over the top, methodical, go above and beyond ass bitch

So vanya is brought to hysterical under fives fingers at three times a week, everytime five feels the need to establish his authority as an olDer bRotHeR