𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐏𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓 ━ five hargreeves³

III│INTERLUDE III: WHEN FIVE HELPED ALEXA

"So this meditation thing will probably be hard for both of us," she admitted. "But at least this room has less distractions than the field and I don't have to worry about Klaus or dad. Basically what I did was I closed my eyes and focused on what was important to me. This is gonna sound really cheesy but that was, um, you guys. So I just focused on our family until the world eventually went quiet around me." She purposefully left out the part about where she'd run from her doubts. "Just. . . whatever you do, try to keep your eyes closed. I'm not sure if it'll work otherwise."

Five sighed. "You're right about the sitting still part being hard. What am I looking for?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe you'll feel different or something."

"Great."

The girl's eyes narrowed. "You don't have to help."

He took his hands from hers to hold them up placatingly. "Fine, fine. I won't complain anymore."

Alexa reached forward and grasped his hands again. There was a brief flash of blue as she shared her power equally between them. When the boy met her eyes again, there was a thin ring of blue around his green irises. She smirked faintly at him. "Wouldn't that be the day? Now shush."

He sighed again and closed his eyes— but not before he muttered: "why do you always get the last word in?"

"Shush!"

Then, the room fell silent. The only noise was the sound of their breathing. Five did his best to sit still on the mattress but— like Alexa— he'd always found that hard to do unless he was reading a book. All too soon, his limbs ached to move, even if his hands were pleasantly occupied by his girlfriend's. He fought to keep his eyes closed as he stared at the back of his eyelids and wondered when something was going to happen.

He waited. . .

and waited. . .

and waited. . .

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

Finally, he couldn't stand it anymore. Five opened his eyes.

Initially, there was no change to the room and his heart sank. He could only think about how disappointed Alexa would be when her theory proved to be wrong. He'd desperately wanted this to work, more for her than anything else. He let out a deep breath and turned to face the girl.

Wait.

He'd been sitting across from her! How had his position changed without consciously doing it?

That's when he realized that he was standing next to the bed rather than sitting on it. And— he was still sitting there, across from his girlfriend. They were still holding hands and their eyes were still closed. Except— instead of the brief flash of blue that had appeared when Alexa had shared her power, there was now a blue aura around both of them, like one of her forcefields. But. . . this one seemed to be custom-made for two people as it followed the molds of their bodies.

Upon seeing the mirror image of himself, Five did a quick check for Paradox Psychosis but found that his results came up empty. Confused, he studied the pair again but determined that it really was them, just as they'd been sitting moments ago. He approached the bed cautiously. "Lexa?"

No response.

"Lexa!" He tried to call her name more loudly but there was still nothing. He waved a hand in front of her face (while pointedly not looking at himself because that was just. . . weird.) He was reluctant to actually touch her because he didn't know how that would affect whatever state he was currently in.