𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐏𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓 ━ five hargreeves³

19│WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS

"What happened after we closed our eyes? Did you. . . see anything different?"

The girl's gaze shifted away from him. "I don't think you'll believe me."

Five squeezed her hand reassuringly. "Try me, darling."

"Promise not to laugh? Or say that it's impossible? Or—"

He sighed. "Lexa, would I ever do those things?"

She gave him a look that clearly said 'yes. Of course you would.' "Would you like me to list my examples by date or alphabetically?"

"Okay, fine! I promise," he huffed. "But I'm not really that bad."

"Uh-huh. Have you heard yourself recently?" When he just rolled his eyes, she continued, but this time more seriously: "well. . . the reason why I think you'd react that way is because I did see something that. . . seems impossible. Um, it was a door that—"

"Apparently lead to nowhere?" he finished. At her wide-eyed look, his expression became extremely smug. "I told you that I'd believe you, didn't I?"

"How. . . what did you see?"

The boy nodded. "The same thing. Was yours the Umbrella Academy doors?"

"Um. . . no. It was steel. Kind of like the door you'd see in a bunker. What-what did you see?"

He hesitated for a moment before he admitted: "I think I saw your memories. Did. . . you see mine?"

Her eyes met his again. "Sort of. The door that appeared was kind of hard to open. All of the other doors looked like the main one and were embedded in this. . . underground passageway. I tried a lot of them but most of them were sealed shut."

"Really? All of the doors I came across were wide open," he commented. "So. . . did you see any of. . . my memories?"

She shrugged. "Only ones that I already knew about. Those were really far from the main door. Do. . . do you think that we were reading each other's minds or something?"

"Or something," he allowed noncommittally. "I don't think that you can read minds, Lexa. I think that it was more. . . the ability to access memories. It makes sense if you think about it."

"How?"

"Well, you said that you think your power comes from both your heart and mind. A person's memories are stored in their mind, but the feeling about them comes from their heart. It's like the capstone in your hypothesis."

She grinned slightly. "How can you make emotions sound so scientific?"

"It's only one of my many talents, mio angelo." He smirked at her. "Care to experience. . . another one?"

Alexa let her earlier thoughts return as she propped herself up on one arm to look down at him. "I'd love that. On one condition."

"And what would that be?" She sat up and kicked the sheet completely off of both of them. With a rather mischievous smile, she shifted so that she was straddling him. Five's eyes widened as he let out an awed breath. "Oh boy."

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

"I'm sorry."

On the other side of the hotel and two floors up, another (recently married) couple woke up to greet the final day. Sloane, who was resting her head on her girlfriend's— sorry, her wife's!— chest, shifted her head to look up at the brunette. With a puzzled frown, she wondered: "what for?"

Deianira smiled almost guiltily down at her while her right hand traced a soothing pattern on the blonde's bare arm. "I was supposed to take you to see the world. Now I don't think that you ever will."