𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘 𝗜𝗦 𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗧𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘| ꜰ. ʜᴀʀɢʀᴇᴇᴠᴇꜱ

(23) Don't Try To Be Nice

"No," Diego shakes his head. "No, that doesn't mean anything." He denies. "Time could have been altered since that newspaper came out this morning."

The others start to nod in agreement with him, and I can feel a sudden change in atmosphere around us. Denial. This is really not the time to be a bunch of five year old's.

"You not listening." Five says. "When I found it, I assumed this place came down along with everything else. But here we are. The moon's still shining, the Earth is in one piece, but not the Academy."

Everyone goes silent. They can't argue with that can they? 

Klaus rips the newspaper out of Five's hand. He looks at it then glances back to us. "I'm confused."

"The listen to me, you idiot!" Five rips the newspaper away from Klaus. "Vanya destroys the Academy before the Apocalypse!"

A sigh escapes my lips, my gaze lands on the rubble below us. "I thought Harold Jenkins was the cause, and that if we stopped him all of this would be prevented." I face the rest of my siblings. "But I was wrong. He was the fuse."

"And Vanya is the bomb." Five finishes my thought. "Vanya causes the Apocalypse."

"We have to find her." Luther realizes out loud.

Before we can finish this little meeting of ours, its interrupted by the loud sound of a helicopter. We look up in time to see a helicopter flying over us, search light on. People are going to want to know what happened to this place. Shit.

"We gotta go, now." I say.

"Regroup at the Superstar!" Luther yells. "Go!"

I feel someone grip my hand, my vision warps and suddenly I'm standing right in front of the Superstar.

I gasp for breath at the sudden movement. "Holy shit. Maybe you could give me a warning next time?" I ask.

Five walks ahead. "Yeah," he says absentmindedly.

I sigh and follow after him. This situation is getting to him more than he's willing to admit. We enter the bowling alley, and warm air and childhood memories hit me. I haven't been here in a long time.

Five heads over to a circular bench next to a bowling machine and sits down, I follow after him.

We sit there in silence until Five starts nervously tapping his foot. As the seconds go by the tapping gets faster and faster. I don't say anything, but it starts to get annoying. I open my mouth to say something, but quickly shut it. What am I thinking? Five has every right to be agitated. Everything he worked so hard for these past few years has failed. The world could be ending in just a few hours.

I glance at Five, the words I should've said awhile ago finally coming out. "It'll be different this time," I say softly, "because we're here."

Five turns to me. I quickly glance away, trying to find something else to look at, anything else. Feelings are not my thing, especially when it comes to comforting someone.

"And there you go again, being annoying."

My head snaps in Five's direction. "Excuse me? I was trying to be nice!"

Five scowls. "That's exactly my point. Just go back to insulting me, can't we keep some sense of normalcy before we parade off to our deaths!" Five raises his voice, agitation and annoyance lacing his tone. And something else, something I can't pinpoint.

Never in my life have I ever wanted to strangle someone so bad. Its a once in a lifetime thing for me to be this nice to someone and this idiot just—.

I've been staring at Five for a good three seconds before it finally hits. The thing I couldn't pinpoint earlier. Fear. Five, fucking, Hargreeves is scared.

Of course my non-empathetic ass finds this hilarious. "Five Hargreeves, scared." Amusement laces my voice as a grin forms on my face. "Isn't that something."

Five clenches his jaw. "And you're not?" He stares at me, observing my face for a few seconds. He scoffs and looks away. "Of course you aren't, I've never seen you feel an actual emotion other then annoyance in all the time I've known you."

That's not true and he knows it. The only times I've ever showed true emotion in front of him are times we'd both like to forget.

I sigh. "Well, being abandoned as a child does that to you."

An empty silence fills the air after that. I probably shouldn't have said that, it might've been a bit too dark to say so casually.

"Do you know why I hated you when we first met?"

Totally not random at all. His question catches me off guard, but I quickly gather myself, a sharp retort on the tip of my tongue.

"Because your an arrogant prick?"

He pauses before whispering. "No. Because you were crying about how your mom had left you."

His answer is even more shocking then his question. Shock and confusion decorate my face as quickly as it appears, it disappears. "And you say I'm the emotionless one." A pause, I lower my voice. "I had a normal reaction to being abandoned."

He nods. "I hated you because you at least knew your mom." He says. "I was jealous, and then somewhere along the line that jealousy faded and I only knew how to hate you."

More quietness. I have no idea how to answer, and I don't even know if I want to. I guess now I know how all this started.

I lean back farther in my seat, my head resting on the top of the bench. I stare at the white tiled ceiling. Up until now I've been carefully contemplating my answers before I say anything, well mostly. I may have a slight temper. The point is I'm not one for letting my emotions swallow me, but as of now? I don't even know anymore, Five's confession must've really gotten to me.

I sit back up, looking at Five. "Well, having a mom isn't all its chalked up to be. I mean look where that got me." I stand up, facing Five. "I may or may not have contributed to ending the world." I say with fake joyfulness.

Five raises his eyebrows. "Wow," He says. "What a great speech. I feel so motivated to stop crying."

"I know, I'm amazing aren't I?"

~☂︎~

One after another our siblings poured through the door. When we had all arrived with our limbs attached, Luther was finally ready to start the 'Family Meeting'. A.k.a, what the hell do we do now?

Luther stands in front of us. "Look," He starts. "I-"

I raise an eyebrow. "Where? There's no where interesting to look except for Kenny's birthday, and the birthday cake doesn't even look that good."

Five groans, looking away. Diego coughs into his hand trying to cover up a laugh, while Klaus tries not to smile. Allison rolls her eyes. Luther on the other hand was not having it.

He narrows his eyes at me. "You really think your funny don't you?" 

"Hilarious." I drawl. 

A pause. No one's saying anything. Luther's steaming with anger, trying to figure out exactly what to say to me.

"You do realize that you being Number 1 doesn't mean shit to me, right?"

~☂︎~ 

...I got no excuses, it's been a crazy month, hope you enjoyed the chapter
-S.J.