𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 ⇻ 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘷𝘦

chapter ii

❝ᴊᴜsᴛ ʙʟᴏᴡ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴀɴᴅʟᴇs. ᴏʜ ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ ʙᴏʏ, ᴡʜᴇɴ ᴡɪʟʟ ʏᴏᴜ ʟᴇᴀʀɴ?❞

"I survived on scraps. Canned food, cockroaches, anything I could find." Five let out a loose, almost heartless chuckle that split all the niceties away. "You know that rumour that twinkies have an endless shelf life? Well it's total bullshit."

"I can't even imagine." Vanya sympathised, looking at him with a strange tiredness in her eyes.

"You do whatever it takes to survive. Or, you die. So, we adapted. Whatever the world threw at us, we found a way to overcome it."

"We?" Effie glanced up from where she was finishing Five's wound.

"Got anything stronger?" Five sighed.

After Vanya had poured herself and Five a drink, (Effie didn't want one), Five spoke again. "You think I'm crazy." It was a matter-of-fact statement.

"No! It's just.." Vanya stammered and then faltered. "It's just a lot to take in."

"Exactly what don't you understand?" Five's defences were up. His tone became sharper, and his features were more accusatory.

"Why didn't you just time travel back?" Even Effie knew that seemed like a shitty thing to say, urged on by Five's scoff.

"Gee, wish I'd thought of that." He said scornfully. "Time travel is a crapshoot. I went into the ice and never acorn-ed. You think I didn't try everything to get back to my family?" Effie narrowed her eyes at him.

Vanya stared at both of them. "If you grew old there, you know, in the apocalypse, how come you still look like a kid? Why do you both look like kids?"

"My powers. I can control plants, and one day, I woke up and I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move, or speak, and it turned out that my powers had somehow caused plants to.." She paused. "Go inside of me. There were flowers in my lungs, vines in my muscles." Effie's usually soft-spoken voice was suddenly rock-hard, and she swallowed nervously. "My father remedied this with a serum that would stop the growth of the plants but also the growth of me." She left it there, not willing to explain anything else.

Vanya quickly changed the subject. "I mean, dad always used to say that.. time travel could mess up your mind. Well, maybe that's what's happening?"

"This was a mistake. You're too young." Five slammed the glass down, although not hard enough to shatter it. "Too naive to understand."

Effie only stared at him with disbelieving eyes. Too young? She looked like a fucking teenager.

He made motions to leave, and Vanya called after him. "No! Five.. Five wait! I haven't seen you in a long time, and I don't want to lose you again. That's all. And you know what? It's getting late, and I have lessons early, and I need to sleep. I'm sure you do too."

Vanya fixed the couch, pulling blankets from god-knows-where and laying them in a makeshift pattern, imitating a bed. "Are you all okay with sharing? I only have one couch. We'll talk in the morning, again. I promise? Night." She stood up and left the room.

Effie only glanced at Five, before pulling her medication out of her shoulder bag and swallowing them dry. "I guess we're sharing, then."

Five made moves to retrieve something from his pocket. He gazed at it, as if he was soaking in all it's inner details before he could never see it again. His fingers rolled it around until it had been turned around entirely, and a small inscription lay on the back. Five glanced at her, the back to the prosthetic eye. "We're going to find the owner of this."