#oskasks

Diego wakes up in the motel room they’ve booked for the night. When he’d gone to sleep on the pull-out couch, with stains he hadn’t wanted to think about any further, Luther had been next to him, his weight and slow quiet breathing a comfortable reminder that his family was still there, still alive, still with him. Now though the other side’s empty.

Diego sits up with a groan and looks around. There is a pink sticky note stuck onto a milk carton on the table with Luther's round handwriting that still looks a little like he was preparing to get a good grade in calligraphy even though they had been 8 when Dad stopped making them do that.

To: Diego

Good Morning! Me Vanya and Klaus are headed out to do some research on Ben and the sparrow academy. Decided to let Allison, Five and you sleep. Hope your leg’s okay, if not painkillers are in the bathroom. There should be some toast, peanut butter and eggs left for breakfast and we’ll bring home dinner.

Luther.

Diego isn’t sure if he should be annoyed about actually not waking up when three of his siblings (two of them not exactly the quietest people alive) have gotten ready and left or relieved because his leg actually is still splitting from the pain of a tractor falling on it, which apparently isn’t healthy, who would have known?

He hobbles to the small (and kinda dirty) bathroom and gets the painkillers someone had left on the sink for him, swallowing two before he walks back to the living area thinking about what to do to help.

He decides to check on the other two remaining siblings first, they put Five in the ‘kids room’ a fact he would have probably protested had he not been already half asleep in Luther’s arm when they checked in. He’s still asleep on the small bed curled up in the spongebob blanket, another sticky note has been left on one bed post.

To: Five

Keep resting!!! We’ve got it handled, don't worry. We’re doing research right now. Vanya made you a sandwich if you’re hungry.

Luther.

Diego shrugs amused if Luther really thinks pink sticky note is going to hold their brother back he was dead wrong, though for now exhaustion was doing a good enough job of keeping Five at bay. The little guy seems really out of it, still he keeps the door slightly ajar as he leaves and makes his way to the bedroom where Klaus, Vanya and Allison had shared the bed.

Now he can only make out one body under the white covers curled up closely, only her dark curls visible pouring over the mattress and pillow.

He can’t see any pink sticky notes anywhere in the room. He wonders if Luther felt it was too awkward to leave their sister a note with their history and how awkward shit got last evening but still it felt like a shitty thing to leave both him and Five a message but not her.

“Way to go Luther,” he mutters quietly to himself.

“What?” she asks. Her voice is hoarse. “Oh,” Diego says and clicks his tongue. “You’re awake.” “Yes,” she mumbles and sits up. She looks like shit. Her eyes are all red and she honestly looks like she hasn’t slept at all last night. “Have… have you been crying?” Diego asks her like it isn’t apparent. Allison doesn’t even bother answering him, she just shrugs.

Diego suddenly wishes that Klaus or Vanya were here. Or even Luther would be better at handling Allison and her pain than him. He’s not good at this. He’s never been good at this. And he and Allison had never been all that close with each other anyway, definitely not touchy feely enough to talk about all the shit that had been going on.

“So…” Diego starts and makes a face. “Wanna get up? Have some breakfast maybe? Or… I could bring you something. Breakfast in bed.” “I’m not hungry,” she says. Her voice is flat now, like she’s trying to undermine how upset she still is. Last night she realized that Claire (her daughter; Diego’s niece; their family) is gone now, in this timeline. The only reason she even went back in time with them. Leaving behind what seemed to be a good life, though Diego hadn’t really gotten that much of a look at it. Shit. He has to talk to her about this, doesn’t he?

“So… Ray seemed like a good guy,” he starts and as soon as it’s out of his mouth he wants to kick himself for saying it. “I mean… I bet he brought you breakfast in bed.” Great. Making it worse. Allison looks away. “He was a good guy,” she says, then finally voice breaking. Shit. “Good,” Diego says and hums. “Wouldn’t want you to be with someone who wasn’t.” What else can he say? “Hey, Allison? I’m sorry.” “Why?” She asks. “For the shit I said. At Dad’s funeral about your marriage, the other one you know? That was… could’ve handled that better.” “Diego, that was years ago,” “For you. Just a few months for me. And no matter how long I was being an asshole.” “Being an asshole is kinda your deal,” Allison tells him and huffs. “Yeah…” Diego bites his lip. “It is, isn't it?” This is going really bad. “But… maybe I don’t want it to be my deal anymore. And maybe…” he stops himself. “Shit, Allison, everything’s just so messed up. And it’s bad… but like... it's the worst for you. And I’m sorry.”_ _He sits down on the edge of the bed partially because his leg _is _hurting him - thank you very much for asking Luther, too bad you forgot about asking about Allison’s heart - and partially because he wants to be on a level with her, feels like that’s better than just awkwardly hovering over her. “I’m sorry about Claire, Allison.”

Okay so if they were little like between 3 and 6 years old (I'm not counting when they were actual babies because that would be a little boring maybe):

Probably a lot of playing together/playing with available adults (the older they'd get the more independent their games would get)

There was like a few building blocks Vanya threw over with a nanny in the oatmeal scene so that's an activity I'd imagine they'd get up to together. Maybe some puzzling, some pairs games first with help of one or two of the nannies at first maybe Grace later or playing it only with whichever sibling wants to join (or maybe Pogo I can see them begging Pogo to join them and "Wooh"-ing when he does - and he always does of course). Then probably games like catch or hide and seek that could very well also be part of their training at that age. (It's really hard to tell what sort of toys Reggie would allow them but the building blocks make me think they had at least some! (The building blocks don't leave me I hope Vanya helped the owner(s) of that awesome tower build it back up. Like who cares about the nanny, your siblings put a lot of time into this Vanya!)

And some make-belief games which would I think for them be a lot different than the ones of kids that didn't grow up like them. Like maybe they try to play 'Pogo' and walk like him or they played classroom with Five at the black board talking like Reginald or if they had baby dolls they'd play nannies.

I don't think there would be much very big rule breaks and a lot of them more accidental(ish) (you could argue Vanya killing nannies is a sorta big rule break but I mean free time sneaking wise) because Reggie was super intimidating and also because they were being observed 24/7 and I think at these ages even the future trouble makers were probably a lot more hungry for love and scared breaking rules might take any positivity from Reginald away from them.

Now at 7 to 10 years old I think they probably got a little more bold and some of them already realized that they wouldn't get love from their father and started to search for just attention from their caregivers.

So in their actual free time they might have still played together though would have probably gone over to single play activities more sometimes and probably had a lot of their interests developing. Like Ben was probably reading a lot, Luther was starting to get really into space (personally I think his love for it started through the Cassini-Huygens mission!) and so on. 

I can also see that their play pretend together would be a lot more oriented in what they got from real life. Like they might have seen a movie or read a book in which something happened which they start to emulate rather than what they see around them. Luther might start to want to play astronaut a lot maybe even try to build a rocket out of cartons or they’d play pirates or princess and princes and knights (I think they would take a lot from whatever books they could read) 

They might also have started to play more in unused rooms away from the cameras and being monitored? 

I don’t think there would be any sneaking out yet but a lot of... like secret games of “I spy with my little eye” or telephone in the classroom during training or during dinners that were extra hard because forbidden.

Which brings us to 11 to 14 years old and I think that’s where the real sneaky shit started! 

Of course the younger they are the more typical childish games they’d still play but I think they started to sneak out to Griddy’s around 11ish. This was also probably the time Allison and Luther build their little house on the attic and the other children probably also made more private hideouts for one or two or maybe three. They would probably try to do things away from Reginald’s control for the first time. More sneaking around more things outside of the house. Like I said a lot of Griddy visits, maybe even sneaking out to the movies... just fun stuff they didn’t do before. 

Klaus would probably also start developing his attictions at some point around the later half of that time and I think he’d be the first one to get outsiders as friends with some of the others following. 

I think though after Five vanished that they started to drift apart activity wise. That they had less outings together and more dreams of how to escape of their own. I do think they still tried because they loved each other but. Things got harder at that point. 

And 15 to 18 years old is probably where their activities got more alone and more oriented away from the household. All but Luther were probably making plans at that point as to how they would get away from their home. And probably started to make plans for change. The others would have been a painful reminder of their childhood hell at that point especially after Ben’s death. Things would have gotten harder until everyone was moved out and went their own ways. Their activities would either be focused on finding ways out, hanging out with other people or focusing on their own dreams and hobbies depending on the sibling a little. 

Sorry to get so sad at the end. And sorry this took so long.