A Matter of Time || No. 5

.oi

     Sixteen years, four months and ten days since I swore off everything extraordinary. Including myself. Sixteen years, four months and fourteen days since my best friend disappeared. But today is the day. Today it happened, Sir Reginald Hargreeves' funeral. The remainder of the Umbrella Academy would be brought together two blocks down the road.
     But the one I really wanted to be in that old house wouldn't be there. No ones knows what happened to Five. Not even me. Sir Reginald Hargreeves found dead. Cause of death heart failure. That's interesting. Of all things, I would've assumed assassination. Perhaps even one of the Academy.
I turn away from the small t.v. in Griddy's Doughnuts. Some things don't change. I still come here twice a day. Morning and night for hot chocolate. Agnes is basically the only one who works there anymore, the owner drops by every now and then claiming I'm 'his best customer'. Try only customer. In the last ten years this place went straight down the drain. Most people go to the newer internet cafes and the hottest brunch spots, so Griddy's is mostly quiet all the time.
I had gotten off work late at the drive-in theater down the road, having to close, but I knew I couldn't break tradition tonight. I had to go to Griddy's no matter what time it was. So around 10:30 I walked into the shop and sat down at the counter.
"Oh, Althea, I was worried you weren't coming in tonight." Agnes walked through the swinging door and went to grab a mug.
"So was I. I had to close tonight, but I still needed my hot chocolate." I smiled when she sat down the hot chocolate in front of me. "Thanks Agnes. I don't know what I'd do without my daily choco dosage." I blew on the mug before letting the sweet drink burn down my throat.
"You of all people know how bad that can be for you. How much longer do you have until you graduate?" Ah, the tricky question. Immortality complicates things like that. I had already graduated high school looking like a 15 year old and I'm supposed to be nearing thirty. Ideally, I should be a certified doctor, and I do have my doctorate, but no one will hire someone who looks like a freshman.
"I just have a couple more online courses and then I'm done." The lie tumbled out. The same one I've been telling her for years. She sends me the same understanding smile she's always given and goes into the back.
The man at one of the corner tables leaves some money on the table before getting up and heading to the door. After it closes, someone impatiently taps the bell twice. How annoying can you be? No, that's not annoying, that's rude.
The bell chimes on the door as someone else enters, probably two truckers stopping for caffeine. Agnes gives me a smile as she passes me, headed to the new costumers.
"Sorry, the sink was clogged," she said with a chuckle. "So, what will it be?"
"Uh, give me a chocolate eclair." A gruff voice told her.
"Mm-hmm. Sure. Can I get the kid a glass of milk or something?" Kid? Why would a kid be out this late. An offended scoff comes from where she stands and I glance over.
"The kid wants coffee. Black." My heart stops. It's like a semi-truck plowed straight into my chest. No, it can't be. I know that voice. Soft, sarcastic, and seething. I haven't heard that voice in years.
"Huh, cute kid." Agnes goes to the coffee pot and the 'kid' sighs and turns to he man next to him. It can't be. Five's been gone for over a decade. It can't be the same guy. And yet he's wearing the uniform. The uniform Five always showed up in, and occasionally changed out of when he came to my house to hang out.
"Don't remember this place being such a shithole." Definitely Five. There are few people in this world that can sound refined with such vulgar language. "I used to come here as a kid. Used to sneak out with my brothers and sisters and eat doughnuts till we puked. Simpler times, huh?" Positively Five. He used to tell me about his 'siblings' all the time. He claimed to hate them, but there was only affection in his voice.
The man next to him looks confused, and I would be too. "I suppose." Agnes comes back with their food, but I'm still too stunned to speak. As it is, my tears are barely contained. The man pays for both his and Five's orders.
"Thanks. You must know your way around the city." Five says, probably noticing the tow-truck logo on the man's vest.
The man looks up from his newspaper. "I hope so. I've been driving it for twenty years."
"Good. I need an address." He says. That's it. I can't take it. I have to say something. One more big gulp of my hot chocolate while I take a deep breath and steady myself for disappointment.
"Five." His head swivels from the napkin with a written address. His eyes widen as they meet my own.
"Althea." The surprise slowly slides from his face and shifts into a mix of confidence and affection. "You haven't changed much. Glad I'm not the only one." He slid off his stool and walked over to me while I stood to meet him.
I was too overwhelmed for words. Too overjoyed to have my best friend back. I hugged him with a ferocity I hadn't felt since my parents died. He takes a step back from my force but wraps his own arms around me. I was past the point of crying happy tears. Right now I was just happy, until I realized something.
"What the heck?" I say as I jerk away from his comforting embrace. "How dare you just run away and leave me without any kind of explanation you little-" I hit his arm every other word until he grabs my hand to stop my assaults.
"Hey, hey. Calm down. I'll explain everything as soon as you chill out, alright." He let's go of my hand and sits back down in front of his coffee, gesturing for me to take the seat next to him.
"Wait. Why do you look 13?" I ask him after sitting down. He glances at me from the corner of his eye before turning to face me.
"Remember when I kept saying I was ready to time travel? Well, apparently this is a nasty side effect." He told me with a small grin.
"You actually did it? You time traveled? To when? How was it?" I started to share the excitement I had for him before anger took over. "That's where you've been this whole time? Off living la vida loca? And you didn't say anything?"
"Hey, it hasn't been all fun and games for me either. And it's not like I planned to be gone for as long as it was. It's been a lot longer for me, trust me. I went to the future, but-" he pauses and looks out the window i to the dark parking lot. "Not here. I can't say much, it's not safe. Besides, I don't remember you being so bipolar." He gives me a quizzical look, making his dimples show.
"Yeah, well. Having your best friend disappear for years on end does that to people." He gave a sad smile at my sarcasm. He started to respond but stopped when he caught movement right outside the door.
"Follow my lead. Don't say anything." He gives me a pointed look and the door chimes when it opens. Four men walk in dressed in black with guns pointed at Five.
"Hmm. That was fast. I thought I'd have more time before they found me." He takes a sip of his coffee before setting it down carefully.
"Okay. So let's all be professional about this, yeah?" The guy directly behind Five says. "On your feet and come with us. They want to talk."
"I've got nothing to say." Five is calm and almost, dare I say, amused at this situation.
"It doesn't have to go this way." Said the same guy from before. It's obvious he's the leader and the others are probably just insurance. They need it too, I've seen Five fight, one guy he can take down in his sleep. "Think I want to shoot a kid? Go home with that on my conscience?"
I can tell what Five will do next. And it will not be pretty. He glances at me before replying, almost in a play along way. "Well, I wouldn't worry about that." He turns and looks at the man, his hands still resting against the mug. "You won't be going home."
Everything happens so fast I can't keep track. Five grabbed the butter knife next to him and spatial jumped to attack the men. I sprang into action, doing what I could.
Gunfire erupts around us, taking out most of the lights. It's quiet as the man collapses after Five stabbed him. They are all confused, waiting for him to appear. He jumps onto the table long enough to insult them before vanishing again. They all fire in the spot he had just been.
I launched into hand-to-hand with the man that had grabbed me, breaking his hand. Five knocks on the glass door from outside with a large grin, causing the men to fire all at once again. He appears inside and stabs a man as I ram another's head into the counter, knocking him unconscious.
"Seriously, Five? Why so violent?" I ask as I kick one of the men's gun out of his hand and punch him in the face. Five had taken off his tie at some point and used it as a noose for a guy with a black beanie on, breaking his neck.
I toss my guy over behind the counter and jump over to the same side. Meanwhile, Five plunges a pencil into the last guy's thigh. The man I've been fighting with pushes me off and stands up, but is quickly knocked back down by Five throwing a plate at him. I hear a repulsing noise followed by a scream. The first guy I knocked out woke up and aimed to fire at Five but he spatial jumped just in time for two of the criminals to shoot each other.
He reappears after they fall and puts his tie back on. He walks over to a man I had fought and broke his neck. "Honestly Althea, why can't you just kill them?" He's breathing heavily and is covered in the men's blood, but somehow he still has it in him to be sarcastic.
Five picks up a tracking device with a blinking dot as I jump over to the counter to stand by him. He takes one of the men's knives and rolls up his sleeve. "No. Please tell me you're not going t-" My sentence is cut off by my gagging while Five slices into his forearm. I slowly turn back long enough to see him pull out a device the size of a pill, blinking green.
He grabs my hand and he walks out into the cool night. He drops the tracker by a drain and continues to a car, gesturing for me to get in. He drives for a while but pulls over so he can explain things to me.
"I got into some trouble while I was away." He starts out slowly.
"Yeah? No kidding. Who were those guys? Why were they after you? What did you do?" The questions flow out of me before I can stop them.
"If you'd stop talking, I'd tell you." He gives me a pointed look for interrupting. I return it with a playful scowl back. "I went to the future. There was a... corporation. They recruited me. But I broke my contract when I came back here. Now they're trying to find me." I open my mouth to ask another question but he stops me. "I hadn't meant to stay in the future. But I got stuck. Dad was right, I wasn't ready. That's why I'm trapped in this body, my equations weren't accurate."
"So... how old are you really?" I ask, slowly comprehended all of his information.
"My consciousness is 58." He says simply.
"So, you were in the future for 45 years?" My shock showed through my words and kind of chuckled at me.
"Yeah. So, what's your excuse? You look like you're 15. Shouldn't you be thirty?" He pulls back out into the road, glancing at me as he does so.
"Technically, I am. I just don't look like it. I'm immortal, remember. Youth is a packaged deal with that." I say vaguely trying not to explain further.
"Yeah, but, you aged the same as everyone else when we were kids. What? Did you just suddenly stop at 15?" He asks me, with a very valid point. I was just hoping to not have to go into this so soon.
"Well, not exactly." I take a deep breath, thinking about my words carefully. "From what I can tell, my aging depends on the use of my powers...." I twist my thumb ring, a nervous habit that had grown over the years.
"What do you mean? You stopped aging because you stopped using your powers? Or..." He trailed off, implying it could be the reverse of that. He takes his eyes off the road to look at me. I just nod in response. "Huh. So, why'd you stop using your powers?"
Ah, the dreaded question... "Well. I don't know." He gave me a look, calling my bull crap. "It's true, okay? I had my reasons. Can you just drop it?" At this point I was grasping at straws. I couldn't unload my feelings out right now. It was obvious Five wasn't telling me everything, so why should I admit it all to him the first night I see him. "So... want me to take care of that for you?" I move my head to nod at the arm he cut.
"Can you even do it anymore?" I glare at the side of his face. "I mean, you haven't tried in, what, sixteen years?"
"That doesn't mean I'm incapable. Now give it." He reluctantly pulled his hand from the wheel, and I scooted to the middle of the seat in front of the radio.
As I take a deep breath, I pull his makeshift bandage from his arm revealing the open wound. I feel my hands warm when they emit a green glow. The streams of magic weave themselves under the skin like it's sewing it shut, the wound closes and leaves nothing but a thin scar.
"Guess I've still got it, huh?" I tell him proudly. Five makes a fist, flexing his fingers and testing it out.
"I suppose so." He says with a smirk. I grab his arm to look at my handy work. After I drop his hand he leaves resting against my leg, palm up.