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Chapter Text

Lila Pitts sat in the rented house where she and all the siblings except Allison had found themselves after a few days of wandering this city in the new timeline by themselves and each finding that they no longer had a taste for being alone. She had watched them, gotten to know them. Diego and Five were the only ones she had shared more than a few words with before everything went crazy, and while she wasn’t best friends with any of them yet, there was some trust issues coming from them and some resentment that Lila knew was misplaced and unfair but she couldn’t quite set it aside coming from her. The dynamic between her and Five swung between ‘chaotic friendly’ and downright homicidal. Klaus was off in his own little world, but Lila liked him, he was down to drink and tell stories. It was a bit chilly between her and Luther, but just a little tense, not hostile.

That only left the smallest, quietest of the ‘Umbrellas’ as they apparently still thought of their group. Lila had watched Viktor very carefully at the wedding, after the fun and dancing had finished, and almost everyone had found a partner to split off and be quiet and intimate with, except Five, who had apparently never shown any interest in that sort of thing even after he was scooped out of the apocalypse. She had been kissing Diego, but Lila was observant as a survival trait. She had seen it, Viktor wasn’t aeromantic or asexual, he had someone, back in Texas, and had lost her. He was alone and hurting and craving companionship in a primal way, he just didn’t say anything because he figured it wouldn’t make anything better. Lila knew that loneliness and desire for even a hug……she had worn it herself for too long, all her life until she met Diego, even if she had hidden it better than Viktor, that boy had NO poker face.

Lila looked him up and down. Cute, honestly handsome when he was feeling confident, but cute the rest of the time. Lila could work with that. She leaned in and whispered a question to Diego. He sat up, looking very confused “Excuse me?” Lila sighed “You heard me. He’s sweet, look at him over there, he’s lonely, I think it would help him. So I ask again, WOULD IT. Be a problem for you?”

Diego really didn’t know what to say. He thought, they had all been through a lot recently, but even by Hargreeves standards, Viktor had been through a LOT. Diego knew things were much better between them now, but he knew he had done things that the knife loving vigilante himself might not have forgiven, and certainly not as quickly as Viktor had. Sometimes at night, Diego would see Viktor, locked in that awful room and begging to be let out, and he woke up sweating.

He nodded “Yeah, it’s very strange, but it’s fine.” As his girlfriend was turning to go, Diego grabbed her wrist. “Lila, Viktor is not as physically sturdy or emotionally secure as I am, do NOT hurt my little brother.” Lila smiled and patted him on the head “Aww, sweet puppy, worrying about his people. Don’t you worry, he’s in good hands.” Cackling like a trickster god, Lila scampered away, leaving Diego blinking in confusion about getting a pat on the head and being called ‘puppy’.

Lila hurried over to Viktor and grabbed his hand, causing the smaller superpowered human to jump. “Hey Viktor, come with me for a little bit. I’m think it’s time we talked, maybe a bit more.” Viktor looked to his brother in confusion, Diego shrugged from across the room and gave a thumbs up. Lila was insane and dangerous, but usually only one at a time, Viktor was probably as safe as any of them ever seemed to be. Viktor took the thumbs up to mean whatever they were doing was fine with Diego, and followed the quirky, unpredictable killer down a hall.

They reached Lila’s room and she let him in, closing the door behind them. “Okay dude, you are crazy bottled up. You NEED to let it out, or you are going to end the world again. So just you and me, we’re going to go through the steps I take when I feel like I’m about to explode. What do you want to do first, smashing, crying, talking or screwing?” She smiled the wild smile he had mostly seen on her when she was about to fight something. Poor Viktor was so confused. “Huh?”

Lila sighed and rolled her eyes “Wow, you lot do NOT get out enough. Come on then, easiest one first. Smashing.” She set up a vase. “Come on, smash it. Break it into a million pieces, then the chair, everything but the bed, rip it all to shreds.”

Viktor shook his head “Absolutely not. My powers….I still don’t have great control, if they were to come back…if they run wild, I could do a LOT of damage.” Lila nodded “Normally yeah, you could. But do you remember what happened when you used your power against me? I stopped it and stomped your little ass. If they come back, I will copy them, and you wouldn’t guess it, but I’m extremely disciplined with my power, I’m a lot stronger than you. If something goes wrong, I can shut it down. So I say again, start breaking stuff.”

Viktor watched her hesitantly, waiting for a trap. In his defense, for almost anyone else there would have been one, Lila really was crazy. But she had a soft spot for the smallest Hargreeves. He reached out a hand and tipped the vase from the table, where it broke on the ground. Lila rolled her eyes “Pretty underwhelming, but you see how it felt good to take control? Do it again.” This time he picked up the chair, and with a deep breath, he slammed it to the ground. Only a small bit came off, and his hands stung, but it felt…..good. Viktor raised the chair again and brought it down. For all the power he used to have, the lack of training had left him by far the physically weakest of the siblings, even Klaus could probably still beat three of him. What Viktor had more than most of them was pent up issues, decades of them, and not nearly as many outlets for them as his siblings. He had been lied to, manipulated, drugged and abused. Before he realized it, the chair was splinters.

He looked at Lila. Viktor was a trusting person, it had gotten him in trouble several times, but he tried to take people at their word….but he had also been a terribly abused child, and the one thing he had trouble trusting was that people wouldn’t start yelling at him. Lila gave him a comical grin and double thumbs up. That was all he needed. Viktor yelled and flipped the small desk. Lila handed him a metal baseball bat and he wrecked the hell out of the desk. He saw his father, Harold Jenkins, he saw Carl. Viktor yelled and reduced the desk to chunks of wood. He was panting, glaring at it, but he felt alive. He had so much frustration and pain and rage in one body, it was already doing him good to get it out.

He looked back at Lila “Okay…yeah, you were right. That felt good.” Lila smirked “Told you so. I can see it all over your face, you are keeping more inside than just about anyone I have ever known, even me. So that was a good way to address your rage. It’s also the one that requires the least trust. The rest involves more emotion, you letting me in. What do you think, can you do that to unwind some of the other stuff the same way?”

Viktor didn’t answer immediately, he thought about it. Lila was glad, she wanted him to take it seriously. Under the happy lunatic façade, Lila took things more seriously than anyone guessed. Viktor didn’t hardly know her, they had known each other for like 3 days before the kugelblitz happened, and one of those she tried to kill him.

As she had guessed, relief at letting it out won over. Viktor nodded “I’m willing to try.”

Chapter Text

When the bed was the only bit of furniture in the room that Viktor had not taken out his rage against, he and Lila sat on it. Careful not to make a sudden move, Lila reached out and put her hand on his. Her hands were much rougher than his, and that was comforting. Viktor wanted rough hands, like his siblings had from years of training, like Sissy had from being a tough rural woman. He had never thought about it much, so many years he had been drugged, but Viktor’s soft hands were a result of being excluded from what his siblings were doing, the only other soft hands on an adult he remembered were Reginald, who sat in his office and did not work with them. Those soft hands had struck Viktor more than once. Yes he decided, he wanted callouses.

Lila didn’t know what was in his head, she just knew he didn’t pull away, that was good. “So another good thing I have found that helps me deal with stuff is talking to someone. Not one of your siblings, an outsider like me. I like Diego, but it’s a VERY volatile relationship. I don’t have a bias in this, getting defensive about him or anything. I can see from all of you that your upbringing was not nice, but you are way more shy and scared than the others. Back in Texas, I don’t know if it was on purpose, but I saw you flinch when Luther walked by. None of the rest are afraid of each other, it’s just you…and they might be a tiny bit afraid of you, but that makes sense, their powers are cute little tricks, you can kill an army. So what would make someone so strong afraid of them? I’m not good at tact or getting there slowly, just share your demons and they get easier to carry.”

Viktor looked at her, clearly struggling with this far more than just being destructive. He chewed his lip. This wasn’t stuff he shared with anyone. Leonard had gotten some of it, and look how that turned out. Lila decided to help him along. Her own past was there for anyone who asked, Lila knew exactly who she was, and why she was this way, the only thing she was insecure about was her ability to be a good mother, and she knew exactly where that came from as well, all the rest had been burned away in the forge that made her.

She started talking so he could think. “My mother was the Handler before she was my mother. She had my birth parents killed because she knew how valuable I could be to her. I had a couple siblings, but I was the only one who survived to 18, she was the only constant in my life, so I felt like I needed her…I still do sometimes. I didn’t grow up in a loving home, she stole that from me. I didn’t even grow up in reasonably safe and controlled training. When I was 8, I wanted to stop and watch a street performer in the city. She agreed, we stopped, and she abandoned me, slipped a note in my pocket saying I needed to learn to make my own way home. I was 8, in New York City and had to make my way to New Jersey.” She said it without anger or malice, like saying she had been told to make her bed.

“At meal times, I had to fight something or climb something or solve a trap or puzzle if I wanted to eat. She liked to put my food under a mock bomb, and if I couldn’t defuse it in time, I got to watch my dinner burn or get splashed with acid. Sometimes she made me sneak around and steal, no dinner if I got caught. One time she dropped me in Siberia and came back a week later. I was not beaten, I was tortured, so I could resist it when it was real. And she never said she loved me, the only compliments or encouragement I ever got were about my talent. I killed my first human at 12, flirted to get in close and betray them when I was 16. It was so easy to turn on Diego, trick him when we first met because I had forgotten what it was to have someone actually care.”

Viktor felt tears in his eyes, he squeezed her hand, anxiously tapping his foot, not in impatience, just because he was overwhelmed. “Lila, I’m so sorry…..” he started, but Lila cut him off. “I wasn’t telling you those things because I need you to feel bad for me Viktor, I was trying to show you that I have no room to judge you for whatever demons you brought on yourself. And I want you to trust me. If you told Diego all of that, he could probably never trust me again, I have lived a lie so many times. So if you wanted, you could take away the only good thing I have going for me. I’m not just asking you to trust me with your dark side without showing some trust back.”

Viktor nodded. He stood up, pacing and flapping his hands around a bit. He went up on his toes, held it for a few seconds, then went down, doing it twice more. Eventually he nodded. “I would also prefer this never came up around the others. What I know, what I remember, what I resent, none of it’s a secret to them, for…reasons.” his cheeks flushed with shame at the memory of the petty, angry book. “But it’s probably still a sore spot.”

He thought about where to start. “I wasn’t given a name, none of us were. We were all given numbers, like Five. I was Seven…out of seven. I picked up a name later, but the only one my father ever used was a reminder that I was the least, least valuable, least special, least important. He didn’t love any of us very much, but every time he called my name, it was a reminder that I was loved the least.”

He looked to Lila “It wasn’t as physically brutal as you had, at least not for me, because my father was scared of my power, so he drugged me and from that point on, never missed a chance to remind me that I did not have powers and was a disappointment. We didn’t have tricks and traps, he wasn’t pitting us against the world, just against each other. Some meals, we all ate together, but most of the time, he set out six meals for seven kids. I had no powers and no combat training, I…I would have starved if Allison hadn’t rumored Pogo to not see me sneaking into the kitchen. Eventually my father caught on, and it was five meals for seven kids, and it was harder to rumor a robot.”

He clenched his fists tightly. “He didn’t put me in the sparring sessions, but he made me run with them. I’m a lot smaller, my legs are shorter, if I finished the run more than five seconds behind first place, he punished everyone.” He squeezed his eyes shut, then shouted ‘’MY SIBLINGS SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONLY THING I HAD IN THE WORLD, AND THAT ASSHOLE DID EVERYTHING HE COULD TO MAKE THEM RESENT ME!!!” He started to hiccup from the overwhelming emotions.

Lila couldn’t help it, she stood up and hugged him tightly, holding him close. Elliot jumped in surprise, he was very tense for a few seconds, before relaxing and hugging her back. He was quiet, thinking about something. “That’s five.”

Lila pulled back, but didn’t quite let him go. “Five what?” Viktor shrugged like it didn’t matter. “Five times getting hugged by someone other than Sissy or Harlan. When Allison and Klaus hugged me at the same time, once while I was being tortured by the govenrment and Ben’s ghost came to save me, once when Leonard was tricking me, once when Luther hugged me then cracked my ribs and locked me in the basement…and now this.” He smiled. “Thank you Lila.”

Lila thought she was pretty hard to shock or upset, but Allison was the only one of Viktor’s siblings she wasn’t thinking about murdering right then, including her boyfriend. Viktor would probably get a little stressed out if she went on a killing spree, so she just pulled him in for another hug, refusing to let go. Viktor’s demons had made it her fight, she was GOING to help him.

Chapter Text

Viktor was looking better, breathing easier than any time since Lila had met him. That was good, it made her happy, maybe it could make up for even one of her crimes.

Viktor has wiped out an army, yet Lila still had a thousand times more blood on her hands, and she figured it wasn’t done yet. Without powers, she was almost certainly the most dangerous person left in this world. Her hands had brought so much destruction and suffering, she told Diego she just needed to use the bathroom, when the reality was she woke from nightmares every night, fighting back a scream. Never of things chasing her, attacking or hurting her, Lila did not fear violence coming her way. She feared going to sleep because she would see her own actions again. There was a time, right at the end of her training, where the suffering had been fresh in her mind and she wanted to share it with the world. Torturing her targets had felt so good at the time, distracting her from her own misery, but now she heard those screams when she closed her eyes, day or night. And she couldn’t forget, wouldn’t let herself forget. Lila had made her choices, even a new timeline wouldn’t scrub her soul clean. She could still save Viktor before he went into true darkness.

She had dragged his pain to the surface, time to have some fun. “Cute boy like you, I bet you’ve had lots of sex” she said casually, just tossing it out there. Viktor almost tipped off the edge of the bed, eyes wide. “Excuse me?” “Sex” Lila repeated. “You know, clothes on the floor, sweaty, exploring, having a good time with a sock on the door, you know the one?” Viktor’s brain caught up. “Yes I know what sex is. I’ve just never….gotten around to it, or had anyone. Sissy and I fooled around a bit, but what we had was such a short time, and we were being so careful….” Lila looked shocked “Never?” Viktor shook his head, blushing so hard, Lila could almost feel the heat of his cheeks from here.

Lila touched his hand again. “Okay for me and Diego, we don’t communicate very much, we are sort of just…wild animals, it’s fantastic. I’m pretty sure if I started doing the things to you that I do to him, you’d go run and hide behind Luther. So I want you to humor me. I get that you are easily startled, but try to just take a deep breath before making choices, okay? If you decide you don’t like something, just say stop, it really is that easy, okay? Are you good to try, just see how far we get?? Viktor considered it, then nodded. His heart was pounding so fast, he had major trust issues after Leonard, but as Lila had pointed out, his siblings were close by, and Luther was a LOT bigger than him or Lila to stand behind.

At his nod, Lila rolled off the bed. She set her phone out, playing some happy little soundtrack Viktor recognized from an artsy movie years ago. Lila grinned and shook her hips to the beat, raising her arms and dancing for a few moments, then without warning whipping her shirt off and tossing it aside. She looked at Viktor, his eyes were wide, but there was no distress.

She kicked out of the rest of her clothes, his pupils were dilated. She sauntered over, put a hand on his chin and kissed his cheek. Viktor FINALLY pulled back a little. “Lila, I can't. Diego…he’s my brother, it wouldn’t be…” the naked assassin put a finger to his lips. “I talked to Diego, he knows, he’s fine with it. He’s a smart boy, understands that if someone like him is what I’m in the mood for, a jumpy, kind hearted guy like you isn’t going to steal me away. For me, the strangest part of these last few weeks is only having one partner, it’s not my nature. But as far as he goes, this isn’t a problem.” Viktor nodded again “Okay.” his voice was soft, closer to a whisper. Ever since Reginald died in their timeline, it had been a roller coaster for him, only slowing down for those few weeks with Sissy. When Lila came in for another slow careful kiss, this time he returned it. Lila caressed him so gently, her lips tasted like candy, she definitely had a sweet tooth.

She tugged at his pants, and he tensed but didn’t object. Her legs against his felt so nice, so very exciting. She rubbed his leg and he whimpered a little. The boy had been hugged a single digit number of times in his life, this was so far out of his depth. He touched her as well, Lila happily encouraging his uncertain touches. Then she put a hand on his chest, popped the top button of his shirt, and without warning, a rush of dread filled him. He pulled back from the kiss “Stop!” He pulled his legs in, hugging his knees. Tears started to form in his eyes but didn’t fall just yet.

True to her word, Lila stopped on the spot. She didn’t know Viktor well enough to know if he would want her to hold his hand or something, so she played it safe, getting off the bed and standing a few feet away. Viktor was breathing hard, hyperventilating. Lila took a wild guess “Those pills you told me about. Since you stopped taking them, your chest makes you uncomfortable?” Viktor nodded miserably “I’m really sorry, I didn’t realize how bad it would mess me up.” Lila shook her head “Not at all, that’s why I was so clear about you telling me to stop. Sex is only fun if everyone is enjoying it.”

Viktor nodded “Thanks….showers are….mostly okay, it’s just me. But I avoid the mirror like poison until my shirt is back on. And I guess that just…got me. I was reading about top surgery, but with no money, no job, no insurance or ID, it’s going to be hard enough to keep us all on our feet, I don’t see it happening.” Lila thought about it. Truthfully it wouldn’t be that hard to arrange, not for someone like her, but he didn’t need to know about the crimes. “Yeah. I’ll….do some research of my own” she promised. “Until then, your chest is off limits and the shirt stays on, it’s not even close to my first time playing by those rules. Unless you want me to go find a knife and take care of it?” Elliot scrambled back “Wha…what do you..” Lila laughed “I’m JOKING! ….mostly.” The trademark silly grin was back on her face, letting him calm down.

Lila carefully approached him again, and the next hour went more smoothly. Turns out Viktor was more comfortable as a top, to know what was going to happen, that was fine by Lila. She had a few toys and they had a lot of fun. An hour later, they lay together on the bed, Viktor’s head on Lila’s chest as she stroked his short hair. At some point, he had felt safe enough around her to take a 10 minute break and cry until his belly hurt. It wasn’t a bad cry, it felt like the other half of the yelling and smashing, he felt emotionally refreshed. He turned his head to look at this odd girl. “Thank you Lila. For everything, for…getting to know me and let me be myself….” He winked “And the sex wasn’t bad either.” Lila gave him a little shove and they just giggled for a solid minute

EPILOGUE 1- DIEGO, TOE WALKING

“Lila are you SURE about this?” Viktor asked anxiously. He hopped from one foot to the other. “You know I’m on board, but I really don’t want to cause problems….more problems.” Lila shook her head, wearing that wild grin that Viktor was learning to love. “Oh come on, nothing bad is going to happen. You’ve been hanging out with me all day, you know that if I want something, I go for it. Fear holds you back. Now come ON, let’s do this.”

She hurried off, leaving Viktor no real choice. He took a deep breath. Without thinking about it, he flexed his feet and started walking on his toes. It had been something that happened when he was little, before the pills…..Reginald had noticed it a few times, but realized it was a reaction to excitement, not fear. It didn’t show up near as often as some other behaviors.

With Viktor walking on his toes and being a good bit closer to Lila’s height, they went out to the lobby. Diego looked up, looking at Viktor “She didn’t hurt you, did she?” Viktor quickly shook his head. He did in fact have a couple new bruises, but he wouldn’t call it ‘hurting’ him. Diego nodded “Good” and looked at Lila, still feeling a little awkward, mostly about what she might have told his brother. “Did you get what you were looking for out of that?”

Lila smiled, messing Viktor’s hair. “Oh, definitely. Actually I wanted to talk to you about that. I want to date Viktor.” The smallest Hargreeves tensed. He loved Diego, they had been doing a lot better since Dallas, but part of him was ready to run for his life.

Diego looked confused and angry “Wait, after 3 hours you want to leave me for my brother? What the heck Lila?” Lila shook her head “No no, you colossal meathead. I told you when I first showed up at the hotel, I hooked up with several people in those 3 months. Every person is different, everyone brings something unique to a relationship. I rarely date just one person at a time. You are my big strong roughhousing partner. The one I go on adventures and get in trouble with, the one who is more likely to go camping with me. Viktor’s the boyfriend I come to with emotional stuff, cuddles, share my memes and cat pictures. Sit outside and look at the stars. I like all of that stuff, I like so much stuff that only one of you enjoys.”

Diego nodded, this was actually making sense “And we wouldn’t be dating….each other, right? Because I don’t do incest.” Lila laughed “You Hargreeves boys, Viktor said the same thing. No, I would be dating you, and I would be dating Viktor, and sometimes we all go out to dinner together.” Diego nodded “Sure, why not? I knew being with you was going to be all kinds of crazy, this is way more normal than the asylum. I’m in.” Viktor grinned, only one time had Diego glared at him, before the explanation, this was great! Viktor was very excited for his future.

6 months later

Lila had robbed two banks and threatened a government employee, but Viktor was able to get his surgery. Lila sat there and held his hand as they poked him with the needle.She waited by is side while he fell asleep, and reminded the doctor that she would carve him into small pieces if anything went wrong.

She was there when he woke up, groggy and hurting, she brought water to his lips and lt him drink.

She rolled his wheelchair out and got him home, where the siblings had a party for him after a day of rest.

She helped change his bandages, and kept him off his feet, by bribe, threat, and force until the doctor cleared him

When the last bandages came off, she put her hands on him and kissed his mercifully flat chest.

And that night, with the brothers in a strictly platonic deal on either side of her, Lila fell asleep, and didn’t have the nightmares.