#tua patrick

@allison-appreciation-week Day 3: Rumors or Family

It's their first Thanksgiving back home as a family. No apocalypses, screwed up timelines or assassins behind their backs + 1 ex-dead brother and the girl whose mother threatened to kill them all. Overall, could be worse.

It gets better instead.

For instance, Patrick had suggested they spend Thanksgiving together, and Allison had jumped at the opportunity to have Claire meet her uncles and aunts.

It would figure, though, that between 8 emotionally stunted adults raised by morally incompetent parents, only one of them knew about the holiday.

Knew, loosely, because Allison had mostly follow her in-laws instructions and her Hollywood friends' advices. So really, they were all at a disadvantage.

But hey, that's what Google's for.

They set everything up a week before Thanksgiving.

Diego still ends up forgetting the turkey, and he and Luther stumble their way through 8 different stores the morning of.

"Can't we just replace it with a chicken? I don't think we've ever had turkey. "

Klaus is surprisingly capable in the kitchen.

"Are those pies? Since when can you bake?"

Bakers and chefs are good with their hands (which wasn't suppose to be dirty, goodness, Allison, get your head out of the gutter) although, for some reason, they always tried to Hansel and Gretel-ed him (it's because you are built like a twig, Klaus; you activate my fight or flight response).

Allison and Klaus aren't too worried about Ben and Lila helping out.

Until Allison catches them measuring an obscene amount of sugar, and she is violently reminded that Ben has a sweet tooth, and the ex-Sparrow version of him was not different on that regard.

Vanya, maker of peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches, is appalled.

Five does not cackled at watching two physical adults wallow in self-pity at the dinner table.

He also doesn't offer any help, but he still taste tests Allison's dishes, and blinks to the supermarket for whatever forgotten ingredient Vanya had asked to retrieve.

And then, he finds Diego and Luther wrestling an older woman for the last turkey. He records the whole thing.

When he returns, breath hitched and face pulled, his siblings are easily worried.

He shows them the video.

Suffice to say they end up having a 45 minute impromptu break. They don't tell 1&2 of their new development.

Vanya's mostly relegated to more "simple" dishes like mashed potatoes and roasting veggies, not that she's complaining, specially after the monster thing Diego and Luther brought back home (That doesn't even look like a bird!)

Allison lets Lila cut the "turkey" for fun.

"Ally, I love you, but have you considered replacing that thing with... I don't know... tofu?"

"At this point, I might."

Klaus teaches Ben how to make stuffing. It takes them three tries to get it right, none of them speak about the first two attempts.

Five saves those dishes because they are still good, and they can't be worse than an expired Twinkie (He hopes).

Somehow, by the time the bell rings, they are all done.

Claire barrels in, straight into Luther's arms. "Spaceboy! Spaceboy!" If he tears up, yes, he did.

Claire loves Luther from the getaway, even if he is a little awkward. She immediately asks him about space and the moon, and throws in some things she learned in school.

Patrick is understandably worried about what's going to happen in the next 3 days (A whole weekend! They are staying a whole weekend!) which in turn makes Allison anxious.

It doesn't get better once Klaus steers Patrick away from them. She is half-tempted to follow, but then Claire tugs at her sleeve.

Lila and Claire get unsurprisingly well. Lila braids her hair, teaches her some cool moves, none of which involves a lethal weapon. Allison is grateful.

When the family makes their way back to the kitchen, she isn't expecting Klaus and Patrick cracking up like a pair of madmen.

There's no alcohol in the table, not even on the sink.

"I guess this is something we can be grateful for."

"Vanya, I think our brother broke my ex."

They stuffed themselves full. Ben had claimed an entire pumpkin pie by himself, and Vanya, sweet little Vanya, had almost fought him for it.

10 minutes after Luther had taken the first bite of the turkey, the rest of them eventually picked some up (He never thought one day he would be relegated to meal taster, but there they were).

Diego had attempted to cut mashed potatoes with his knives because he missed them.

Unthinkingly, they had left an open space for Pogo and Mom, as if they were both coming down at any given point.

They have a sleep over, Diego, Ben and Five building the world's biggest blanket fort for all of them.

And even though there's plenty of space left, they cuddle next to each other, pointy limbs and tickling hair. Ben settles down with a book, reading it loudly for Claire, Diego pressed at his side, and Lila draped over both of them.

Generally speaking, Five doesn't like to be touched, but if he curls up at Klaus' side because his brother has vivid nightmares and Five is the lightest sleeper of them, no one has to point it out (maybe it's just because he's feeling soft, and Klaus is the less likely to question him about any sort of physical manifestation of affection Five is willing to throw out).

Luther can't reach all of them, but he tries. He ends up just hugging Vanya and Allison, though.

It's good enough.

Are we already starting to fall behind? M a y b e kfkdkdksk anyways I'm still v excited and I hope you like this 🥺🥺🥺 I still have yet to make an ao3 version but I'm,,,,, working on it?

Prompts by @totallyevan!!

(Also to give like a background before you read this is comparing some of the sibs love interests in s1 to their s2 ones!!)

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Patrick was like a building fire. He was like the start of something that would never be finished.

Allison met him at the one year anniversary of her first movie. She married him four years later.

(responsible luther au posts: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven)

Claire exists! I headcanon her as being about six during canon because that allows her the four years that Luther knew of her existence plus some extra years because I didn’t think she was four in that flashback at all SO because the responsible luther au takes place four years before canon…

Claire is in her terrible twos!! Allison is married and Exhausted and is now in contact with the squad a la skype/facetime, partially because Five absolutely insists and partially because Allison feels lowkey guilty about cutting everyone out of her life when she left home

the main difference between canon and au here is that Allison has a support network

She gets on skype and can vent and complain and ask for advice in a way that she can’t ask anyone else because her siblings know her, know her circumstances, and most importantly know her powers

I sincerely doubt that Allison confided in Patrick (their marriage had issues) and I doubt she breathed a word about her child soldier childhood with her actress friends and Allison was so very desperate to put it all behind, to be normal, that she was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. She felt like a failure constantly because she couldn’t handle an infant child, a job that is stressful for the best of people, and she didn’t know how to ask for help or advice and what knowledge she had to draw upon of disciplining a child made rumoring sound like a merciful option tbh

but the point is that Allison gets online and calls up the family and she has people who understand that her first reaction to most things is a violent one because violence was drilled into her bones, into their bones

so when Allison complains, the squad understand and are willing to brainstorm solutions that don’t involve violence OR rumoring, because Allison would absolutely admit her desperation or admit to rumoring her daughter into not crying or silencing a tantrum and all that, and, most importantly, she has people who would tell her no while understanding why she would jump to it

there’s no judgement (well only a tiny bit) but she’s talking with the people who remember her rumoring them to do really stupid and petty shit when they were kids. Diego still has the scar on his arm after the incident where Allison’s magazines went mysteriously missing that no one speaks about since Allison still gets that slightly crazy look in her eyes when it’s brought up (it was actually Klaus’s fault but Diego will deny it to his grave due to a very particular piece of blackmail between the duo)

Luther and Allison get close because Luther’s basically raising Five right now so they both compare notes on child rearing. Like yeah, there’s some differences but actually Allison’s advice on how to help your child sleep all the way through the night/soothe them back to sleep is alarmingly applicable with a traumatized Five who frequently wakes up not knowing where he is and thinking he’s either back in the apocalypse or locked up in their childhood home. And Luther’s advice on how to deal with a picky eater is pretty applicable to baby Claire, though admittedly Five’s wariness of certain foods which spoil quickly is fairly justified (Five still accuses raspberries of going moldy overnight which I mean. Luther can’t exactly argue with because he takes his eyes off the fridge for two seconds and suddenly the berries are fuzzy)

Klaus is somehow?? A baby whisperer? Small children absolutely ADORE him (Diego says it’s because he’s a child himself and Klaus always shoots back about being young at heart) so Claire can be a sobbing mess and Allison will facetime Klaus and then suddenly Claire is cooing at the phone and babbling about her latest imaginative story she made up while Klaus offers up critiques and suggestions for even cooler ideas and characters while Allison is gently irritated that Klaus can get Claire to stop crying faster than she can (but then again she’s also just relieved)

Patrick also chats with the whole squad now that Allison is actually back in contact with the family. Him and Klaus get along well, Patrick laughs at Klaus’s jokes and comments, though Patrick has already solemnly informed them all that if it comes down to it he’s legally obligated to take his wife’s side in every argument which they all respect

Allison IS maternal towards Five, but I mean,,, all of them are protective over their smallest and youngest sibling even though Five rolls his eyes and bristles under it half the time. Five survived the apocalypse! He survived thirteen years under Reginald’s regime! Honestly Five’s mood towards his siblings general being-older-ness is somewhat mercurial - sometimes he’s perfectly fine with it and even seeks it out and other times he absolutely rejects it and gets as prickly as a hedgehog

but for the most part Five is the one prodding everyone to call Allison and being absolutely draconian about everyone sitting down for family time because so help him god he spent months trying to get back here after finding his family’s dead bodies and dealing with THAT he’s very insistent on keeping an eye of everyone’s whereabouts and health (especially Vanya’s because he never did find her body)

honestly talking to Five actually helps Allison with Claire a lot because Five literally tells Allison to ask Claire things. Why is she crying? What upset her? Why did that thing upset up? What can be done to make it not be upsetting?

Claire adores Five because he takes her very seriously whenever he chats with her. He asks her very seriously about the status of some of her stuffed animals while she giggles into her hands. Five is willing to patiently wait while Claire introduces him to every single one of her toys, and he is also willing to memorize every single name given to him. 

Allison gets therapy!! Mainly because Five is in therapy, and Luther is in therapy, and Klaus is in therapy, and Vanya is in therapy, and they’re all trying to convince Diego to also get therapy (he’s actually seeing someone but hasn’t told the rest of them because he likes being a difficult son of a bitch) and so everyone is gently confronting their child soldier childhood and the shit they went through so Allison gets to go to therapy as well

and Allison gets to learn some communication skills and is encouraged to talk with Patrick so their marriage doesn’t break down the way it does it canon (though I dunno I still think they probably get divorced but more of an amicable one)

Allison probably does fly down at some point, probably after a few gentle kidnapping attempts a la Reginald/Hazel/Cha-Cha who are after Five, leaving Claire in Patrick’s very capable hands (they facetime twice a day so that Allison can see Claire, though Claire is sulky the entire time because a, her mother is gone and b, SHE wanted to go visit all her cool uncles and aunt as well heck)

Allison, showing up: oh, oh no. i’m going to get everyone a new wardrobe what do you have my baby brother wearing? 

Luther: j,,jeans? t-shirts? regular people clothes? 

Allison: are these from walmart? don’t answer that. everyone is getting a new wardrobe consider it payback for all the missed birthdays and christmas gifts from when I, you know

Klaus: cut us out of your life like yesterday’s trash?

Luther: KLAUS

Klaus: hey man you can keep your grease monkey shirts to yourself I for one and THRILLED to go shopping on Allison’s dime

Five: can i get a hat? I had a hat in the apocalypse and i was fond of it

aww now I want to write a scene where Allison shows up but this is already getting to be a really long post hmm

is that going to stop me though?? probably not

So Allison arrives at the door with her bags after a long day at the airport (she’d told Patrick five times that you only had to be there three hours before for international flights but he could be such a worrywart) and knocks a quick ‘shave and a haircut’ tune just like she always did as a kid. 

Immediately the door flies open and there’s a breathless looking Five who clearly jumped to the door to get their first and he’s got a smile on his face and yeah, she’s seen him through a screen with great frequency but it’s not the same as seeing him in person. Folding him into a hug is the easiest thing in the world. He’s so little, and skinny. Even skinnier than she remembered him being, and Five had always been a boney little shit with sharp elbows and a willingness to use them. 

“I like your hair.” He tells her, hands fisted in the back of her shirt. He’s told her that about once a day since she let Claire pick out a color and she ended up with purple hair.

She looks up and meets Luther’s eye where he’s wiping his hands on a towel and making a face that says there is probably more to this love of her hair color than meets the eye.

(”He saw us dead.” Luther tells her, later, when the rest of the house is asleep on the couches while one of Allison’s movies plays softly. “Your hair… it wasn’t purple, when you died. It makes him feel safer. He shredded Klaus’s favorite coat right after he moved in as well, almost caused world war three.”

Allison presses her hand to her mouth, feeling tears gather at the corners of her eyes as she looks over her shoulder in the direction of the teen draped across Klaus with a dog drooling on them both. He looks so carefree and innocent in his sleep, it’s so easy to forget what he’s been through. What they’ve all been though.)

“Allison!” The cheerful greeting heralds the arrival of Klaus who stumbles out of the kitchen, mouth half full of a cookie. Freshly baked, from the smell wafting around the house. It’s easy for Klaus to brush past Luther and wrap his arms around both her and Five, swaying them side to side and making Allison giggle as he lays an exaggerated kiss on her cheek with a loud “Mwah!”

“Okay okay,” Allison says, prying both of them off of her so she can fully come in the door with her suitcase.

“Let me take that for you.” Luther says, coming forward and grabbing it out of her hands. He looks good, more relaxed that Allison has seen him in years. He reaches out to ruffle Five’s hair in an affectionate gesture familiar between the two, “And why don’t you go grab our sister a cookie before Klaus manages to eat them all.”

“You’re sleeping in Klaus’s room.” Five informs her, smile quirking his lips up. The reason for the mischief on his face is quickly explained by the outraged squawk that emerges from Klaus’s mouth.

“You can’t expect Allison to sleep on the couch.” Luther throws over his shoulder as he’s already heading deeper into the house.

“I’d be fine with the couch.” Allison shrugs, half because she actually was and half to stir up shit because that’s just what their family is like. 

(It used to be if they weren’t in their rooms for bedtime, they would be locked out - because of course their rooms locked on the outside and not the inside, like in normal houses. Allison spent more than one night sleeping on the hardwood floor outside of her door, knowing that to be caught sleeping on one of the couches or other soft surfaces in the mansion was to invite further punishment.)

“We aren’t making our guest sleep on the couch!” Luther calls, out of sight.

“Diego sleeps on the couch!” Klaus hollers right back in outrage.

Five tugs on Allison’s arm, “Allison! Allison come on! You have to meet Mr. Pennycrumb.”

“I’ve already met him.” Allison informs her brother, because she has. Over the phone. Luther and Klaus are still yelling at one another, but it’s in a way that everyone knows that Klaus is going to end up sleeping on the couch.

“That doesn’t count.” Five insists, tugging on her arm again. Allison allows herself to be towed towards the kitchen where there is a half eaten tray of cookies on the counter, and a dog that looks like the very picture of patience laying in a dog bed in the corner. At their entrance, Mr. Pennycrumb raises his head and gives a few thumps of his tail but doesn’t get up until Five makes a ‘come on’ gesture with a hand.

Immediately the dog is at their feet, and Five’s hand is clamped around Allison’s wrist and offering her hand for said dog to sniff. “Mr. Pennycrumb,” He says, with great gravity, “This is my sister, Allison. Allison, this is Mr. Pennycrumb.”

“It’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Pennycrumb.” Allison says with equal gravity. Mr. Pennycrumb finishes sniffing her hand and immediately sits and puts one paw in her hand. Allison, never one to be caught off guard, gives it a firm shake. At least having a toddler prepared her for this - this exchange actually reminds her of introductions to some of her daughter’s stuffed animals. Though she is never going to inform Five of this fact.

Five, for his part, looks exceptionally pleased that the two of them are getting along. 

There’s a new argument echoing through the house, which from a quick listen reveals that it’s because of the state of Klaus’s room. Which, thinking back to their childhood, Allison is not so surprised. Though it seems to be only about clothes on the floor, which is far neater than their youth where scorch marks were commonplace. Klaus had been quite the little pyromaniac.

“Where’s the rest of the motley crew?” Allison asks, straightening up and swiping a cookie from the tray on the counter. It’s still warm, with gooey chocolate. Allison doesn’t even hesitate to pick up two more. Self preservation, really. 

“Ben’s probably with Klaus.” Five says, shrugging, apparently not even realizing that Allison is choking on her mouthful of cookie. No matter how many times she heard about their deceased brother being an active member of the family thanks to Klaus, it never got any more bizarre to her. “Diego should be here before midnight, maybe? He’s never on time for anything. And Vanya’s gonna swing by after practice but she can’t stay ‘cause she’s got a lesson with the Brat early in the morning.”

“The brat?” Allison asks, already amused.

“The brat.” Five confirms with a nod, “Vanya says she won’t tell me a name ‘cause of teacher-student privilege but she’s awful. Thinks she’s the next coming of - of - of whoever is a famous violinist except for Vanya I dunno.”

Allison elects to not inform her younger brother that teacher-student privilege isn’t actually a thing. It’s probably safer for whatever young girl happens to be both spoiled and have the luck of being taught music by Vanya Hargreeves.

“You know, you calling someone a brat is a little like the pot calling the kettle black.” Allison informs her brother with a smile, scrunching up her nose and pulling a face at him. He makes one right back, and it’s so familiar that it feels like she’s being punched in the chest for a moment. 

She’s known that Five is back for months, that he’s alive for months, but it’s not the same as him being there. Solid and real. He’s skinnier, cheeks more hollow and eyes more haunted. His hair is a bit longer than she remembers, though reportedly not as long as it had been when Five had made it back.

They’d never been close, her and Five. Not like he’d been with Vanya, with Ben, with the kids lower on the totem pole than Allison had ever been. Oh, their father hadn’t liked her, but she’d completed every task he set before her with ruthless efficiency and she was rarely punished. Too good at gaming the system. She’d only ever been close with Luther, too busy to deal with the others on a regular basis. But there had been times regardless where they’d all been together, as a family. 

Five had been a firecracker of a kid, always explosive where Allison preferred to skirt around the rules, bending but not breaking. They both liked the spotlight, though Five had never seemed to begrudge her for her own time shining. She’d thought he was such an arrogant brat, but he was still her brother.

It’s different now, seeing mischief light up his face. Back then she would have rolled her eyes, felt irritated, maybe even tried to rumor him into being quiet for once (though he’d gotten alarmingly good at telling when she was about to speak a rumor over the years, and gotten even better at jumping away before she could get a word out). Now though, now she just felt affectionate nostalgia. Maybe it was because she was older, she was an adult looking into the face of a child who she knew had never gotten a real childhood. It was almost a relief that Five’s spark had never managed to be stamped out. 

“Hey,” Five interrupts her thoughts. He’s on the floor, rolling Mr. Pennycrumb’s head between his hands thoughtfully, “Can we watch your movies? I’ve seen a couple but Luther and Klaus are always super weird about it.”

Allison’s mind scrolls through some of her more risque movies with scenes that she would much rather none of her siblings ever witness, especially her thirteen-year-old sibling. Or thirteen-year-olds in general, truthfully. “Uh,” She starts, but is thankfully interrupted by Klaus gliding into the kitchen to sweep up three more of the cookies, pouting while he does so.

“I,” Klaus pauses, bringing a hand up to gesture dramatically, cookie still gripped and sprinkling crumbs, “Have graciously decided to allow you to use my room - ”

“Technically it’s my room.” Five interrupts.

“You gave it to me!” Klaus rebuffs. It sounds like this is an old argument between the two, “You can’t just take back a gift! That makes it my room! You’re such a little brat - ”

The argument continues and Allison eases herself back to lean against the counters and watch as her two brothers snipe back and forth at one another with a smile. It’s the kind of controlled chaos that she’s almost used to. She can’t help the smile across her face. Even though she misses Claire like nothing she’s ever felt, that hurt is soothed just a little bit by being around these losers again.

Despite everything, she missed them. All of them.