Stepping Sideways Ch.1 (Umbrella Academy x OC)
The day was grey. Rainy and grey. Which meant most people would be flocking to the indoors. Staying at home, or going to work. Some might try to plan outings such as shopping or even going to a museum. Like an art museum for example.
Baz Matsen was one of those people. The art museum in the city was free, and heated on cold days, which is one of the reasons it became a safe haven for the teen over the last year. Open from 9 in the morning to 9 at night, Baz could spend most of the day there, and not be kicked out as long as they moved around every few hours.
Baz was also lucky enough they enjoyed drawing, so any guard who saw them more than one day in a row, just assumed they were an art student, so in the end it all worked out, except during winter holidays of course, that wasn’t ideal.
Baz never drew the paintings, they drew the people, specifically what would happen to the people. Baz was blessed with the power to see the future, although it was a pretty hit or miss power. Sometimes Baz could draw a person tripping and it would happen in the next two minutes, and sometimes what they saw wouldn’t happen till years into the future. It was kinda annoying, and Baz didn’t think too far into it, they didn’t want to mess with ‘destiny’ anyhow.
This rainy day was like any other rainy day for Baz. They sat on a bench, in front of several large paintings in a large room with a balcony that allowed people to see the art from other angles, a sketchbook balanced on their knees as they started a light sketch of a man running into a wall. They laugh to theirself as they push white blonde hair out of their face. They could see the man clearly in their head, accidentally walking into the white wall to their left, instead of the hallway 4 inches to the left.
A loud voice breaks them out of the funny vision inside of their head. “I’m just saying, if Five gets to start picking places for our family outings, I think I should get to pick as well.” A tall man with uncontrolled curly hair and leather pants complains to a dark skinned woman who seemed rather annoyed.
“Klaus you don’t get to pick family outings because last time your idea of a fun outing was watching you shop for 4 hours, and then insulting the rest of our fashion sense.” The woman says, pinching the bridge of her nose.
Behind her a few more figures filtered into the room, including a (very)large man, a small boy, another woman, and a grouchy looking male who scanned the room as if he was afraid of being attacked. His eyes scanned over baz, if only momentarily, before turning to the eclectic looking group, giving a small nod as they spread out through the room to look at the paintings.
Baz took this as a sign it was time for them to switch rooms, as the young boy had taken to looking at the painting right in front of Baz. He had dark hair, and wore what may have been a private school uniform, Baz had seen weirder, but something had stirred an image in the back of their mind. They start flipping through their sketchbook as a vision fills their eyes.
The dark haired boy stands in front of a large painting, dead center. There’s a yell and then the sound of gunfire and he falls to the ground, blood splattering the painting in front of him. He looks up as there is more yelling, and more gunfire. He disappears after a few seconds in a flash of blue.
Baz blinks a few times, looking at their sketchbook, the image of the back of the boy’s head was in front of them, dated to about two weeks ago, that vision didn’t show the outcome. Ba scans the room, and up on the balcony are three men, all holding bags of various sizes. Baz throat tightens, they never interfered with a vision, then again they’d never been been this close to a murder scene.
“Uhh excuse me? Can you move a few inches to the left? I can’t see the painting.” Baz speaks up, deciding that today they were gonna tangle with destiny and fate. The boy is drawn out of his thoughts as he looks back at Baz.
“Yeah sorry.” He steps sideways, away from the painting so it was now looking at it at an angle. Baz lets out a small breath, and starts flipping through their sketchbook, maybe they could make this work.
They were running three people following them, yelling in a chaotic fashion, their voices all merged as Baz started to twist and turn through alleys. Left. Right. Duck. Stop. Continue. Left. Right. Left. Left. Climb. Jump. Left.
Baz blinks. That was going to be important. They reach into their pocket and write as much as they can in sharpie on the inside of their arm, with multiple other notes. They pull down the sleeve of their black hoodie, and stick their sketchbook and pencils in the backpack situated at their feet, they apparently had to be ready to run. Maybe.
The boy was looking at Baz strangely. His eyes were cold, much colder for someone his age, but Baz had no time to react as the loud ring of gunfire filled the room. Bullets spray the painting right where the boy had been standing. He looks over to the painting and then to Baz. “ You’re coming with me.” He grabs Baz’s arm before they can protest, and drags them over to where the other strange folks were beating the shit out of the three gunmen.
The boy drops Baz on the floor, as he disappears in a flash of blue light, appearing in front of one of the gunmen before tripping him, and disappearing again, only to end up behind the gunman with a small pocket knife, which Baz realizes was their pocketknife from their pocket.
The largest of the three gunmen is making a call, his words not quite making sense “Girl”, “Knew we were coming” “Umbrella”, were the words that stood out besides one right at the end. “Backup.”
Baz blinked and the three gunmen were down. Almost everyone had fled. Everyone except the group that had taken down the gunmen, and they were all looking down at Baz. The dark haired boy was holding out their pocket knife, and Baz takes it out of his hands, sticking it in their back pocket. “Well thank you for taking care of that very dangerous situation, I believe I should go before the police get here…” Baz says quickly, standing up. A knife embeds itself in the wall beside them, which Baz realizes was thrown by the Grumpy man who had checked the room earlier.
“You knew they were coming, didn’t you?” The boy asks, his tone harsh, yet curious.
“Nope, just getting ready to switch rooms you know? Just dumb, dumb luck.” Baz replies, taking the knife out of the wall, and dropping in on the floor.
“ Bullets hit exactly where I was standing, I would have gotten seriously hurt, but you asked me to step to the side.” He retorts back.
“I’m an artist, I couldn’t see the damn art.” Baz’s voice grows, they weren’t gonna win in a physical fight here, they needed to get out before the aforementioned backup appeared.
The large man looks as if he’s about to say something, but he’s quickly shushed by the dark skinned woman. “Look, we don’t want to hurt you, we’re just curious..” she says, stepping a bit closer. “And I heard a rumour that you’re going to tell us the truth.”
A/N: A New Fanfic, and I am so excited to share this! I love Umbrella Academy so much, and I’ve been developing Baz and their power set/story for weeks!
tenorgender