FEMME FATALE, five hargreeves

002 A Friend In Three.

     "Shit," she heard Five swear under his breath, pulling her from her rather barbaric thoughts as she looked up. An eyebrow cocked, Vivienné watched as he turned around, a hanger putting on display what looked like a school uniform, in his hand. The main colours seemed to consist of navy blue and deep, wine red combined with a crest comprising a skull, an umbrella, a lightning bolt and what she assumed was a mask of some sort. In all honesty, it wasn't too bad but it was the aggrieved expression on his face that made her lips quirk up.

     His eyes roamed the uniform, lips pulling together in a tight line before turning to face the clearly amused girl in front of him. As his eyes found hers, Vivienné's lips parted, the devilish glint in her eyes telling him it was something he would not want to hear. Five brushed past her, "say one word and I'll blink you to the Ice Age." He warned, laying the uniform on the bed in the space behind her before examining it once more. He had hoped to never see the uniform again in his life, let alone wear it.

     Vivienné huffed, looking over her shoulder to watch him. "I was only going to say schoolboy shorts suit you, yknow being a schoolkid again and all," she elaborated, shrugging her shoulder before uncrossing her legs and standing up to sift through the remaining hangers. Much to her distaste, all that remained were hideous copies of the uniform Five had pulled out, ones that looked both horrendously unflattering and uncomfortable.

     She turned around, a hanger in her hand as she inadvertently copied the position he had been standing in a few seconds prior. Her full lips had twisted downwards, smoke─tinted brows facing the same direction as her lips in disgust.

     Five caught this expression as he reached for the top button of his blouse, grinning at her disgruntled features. "What, not a fan?" He simpered, jutting his chin towards the rack in her grasp.

     Vivienné looked at him as if he'd just suggested murder ─ though, she wouldn't be opposed to murdering the creator of the uniform ─ eyes falling to the clothes before back at Five. "You can't expect me to wear this, I have standards! " She cried, frowning.

     Five let the corner of his lips drop ever─so─slightly, matching her frown. "My dad designed that uniform," he commented before shrugging the idea off. "I thought you said schoolboy shorts suit me," he added, pulling the blazer and jumper off the hanger in front of him.

     "Yeah, you not me! " Vivienné let out an exasperated sigh, "I wouldn't be caught dead in these. Not even at my funeral, God, if I was to die in these?" Her eyes widened at the thought, the pale blue becoming shockingly clear before she shuddered, quickly moving to place it back where she had found it.

     Directing his attention back to the buttons he had all but forgotten, Five pursed his lips. "That's all I got. I didn't realise saving the world required a fashionable outfit to go with it," he muttered and though the words had seemed light─hearted to him, they were like ice to Vivienné. A chill washed down her spine at the vocal reminder of why she was there, acting like a bucket of ice thrown over her head. She was spending far too much time around him, she decided and far too little time on the task that required her.

     "Say," she spoke, forcing her voice to be light and airy. "You don't think your sister has anything better for me? The one that gave me the mirror," she suggested, watching as the cogs in his mind turned.

     "Allison? Sure, that type of stuff's right down her alley," he waved the girl off, turning with a nod only to find that she had already left. Odd.

     Vivienné was multiple paces down the hallway by the time Five had turned around, slow steps with analytical glances as she went. She was standing in the Hargreeves family home now, this Vanya couldn't be too far off, right? Running her fingers along the various slabs of plastic nailed to the walls ─ maim, gouge, kill and so on with graphic images representing them ─ she frowned, what lovely messages for children. If this was what she had grown up with no wonder Vanya had turned out a super─powered megalomanic with a penchant for destroying the world.