This Is Beautiful

This is beautiful

the umbrella academy headcanons:

hargreeves wasn’t that bad. in the end, he really didn’t want them to forget where they came from, so he made a point of letting them learn their native languages (e.g.: russian for vanya, german for klaus, etc).

diego never stutters when he speaks spanish.

a sure sign that vanya was pissed for real when they were children was her mumbling darkly in russian under her breath.

allison never found out where exactly in africa she’s from (her mother asked to stay anonymous so allison couldn’t reconnect with her ever, even when she grew older), so she makes an effort to study a little bit of everything so she’ll never be caught off-guard in the event of knowing someday. she’s currently working on her luo.

i know the reason luther tends to sound british from time to time is because that’s really his actor’s natural accent slipping through, but i’d like to think it’s also because since he was the last one left in the house, he began to acquire a few of sir reginald’s speaking habits.

klaus was particularly good with languages because of the variety of ghosts he tended to attract when sober. on a whim, he studied russian as well, just so he could reach out to vanya on the days she got too frustrated with violin practice.

ben loved all asian languages equally. indian, filipino, japanese, etc. ? he’s (mostly) proficient in all of them.

diego has a habit of substituting Spanish words for English ones when he thinks he isn’t explaining himself well enough.

as adults, after they’ve settled the whole apocalypse business and start working on their family for a change, they decide to study each other’s languages because a.) it’s one way of being there for each other, b.) they’ll have more ways to communicate from now on, and c.) it’s one less barrier between all of them.

they start with russian because vanya was put in last place her whole life and they all agree that she deserves to be prioritized for a change. they keep it under wraps as a surprise, but diego accidentally spoils the whole thing by dropping russian curse after russian curse in front of her when he finds out klaus has done something particularly naughty with one of his knives yet again.

imagine vanya’s beaming smile when she hears her adoptive brother swearing in her mother tongue, and in a rare display of emotion, she actually leans up on her tiptoes to peck his cheek. diego goes so red that number five teases him about it for days.

they move on to spanish without telling diego as well, and the first time they converse with him is during breakfast, when they’re all awake and helping out in the kitchen because mom isn’t around to do things like this anymore. it takes him a few minutes to realize that he’s been talking with his family in spanish, but when he finally does, he smiles so widely that even allison is concerned that he’s finally snapped.

klaus is a surprisingly patient teacher when it comes to german lessons. they ask him to teach them instead of looking for another instructor because at least that way, his non-stop blabbering makes sense somewhat.

it’s more endearing than annoying nowadays, though, and number five blames his attachment on the fact that he’s going through puberty again, never mind that it actually does feel nice whenever klaus praises his enunciation or ruffles his hair playfully when he gets too frustrated.

imagine the siblings fighting together in perfect harmony, and their opponents being so confused because the battlefield is just one crazy mish-mash of different languages being hurled in all sorts of directions.

they learn mandarin last, but not because they forgot, no. they learn it last because they all agree that it’s the hardest, and they want it to really stick because this is their way of honoring their fallen brother. sometimes, they find themselves talking to thin air in mandarin, asking for ben’s opinion, despite the fact that they don’t even know if ben is there at all or trailing behind klaus as usual.

number five in particular develops a habit of talking to ben, asking for his opinion on things and ranting to him about their siblings’ idiocy on particularly bad days. once, he asks klaus to tag along with him to the department store. they head straight to delores’ display, and number five introduces her to ben in perfect mandarin.

ben keeps rolling his eyes at all their botched pronunciations, but at the same time, he’s just so, so happy, because here they are: his family, still a touch too dysfunctional, and yet much stronger because they’re all together again and helping each other heal - slowly, but surely, of course - from almost three decades worth of emotional and mental abuse. and if klaus sees ben wrapping his arms around their siblings sometimes, on days when the strain of being superheroes gets too much again, then he simply smiles before turning the other way, content to shut up for once.