[✓] 𝑆𝑇𝐴𝑅𝐿𝐼𝐺𝐻𝑇 | 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐬𝐢𝐱. 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑘𝑒𝑙 𝑓𝑜𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒

Word count: 2981

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆, Elizabeth woke up slowly, her eyelids begging her to close once more after opening.

The small rays of sunlight that attempted to make their way into the bedroom through the closed blinds illuminated the walls and only gleamed more after Elizabeth wiggled out of Five's arms and opened the blinds.

She glanced over at the clock to see that it was nearing eight in the morning, meaning that the two of them had gotten more than enough sleep.

Quietly, she climbed back onto the bed and kneeled down next to Five. She shook his shoulders gently, gradually bringing him to consciousness.

"Already?" he mumbled as he slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes with one hand.

"Mhm." Elizabeth kissed his cheek before getting off of the bed. "C'mon, sleepyhead, we have to get that footage developed."

Five gave a drowsy hum of agreement as he slipped his shoes back on. After grabbing the orange box from the nightstand, he followed Elizabeth out into the living room.

She peered into the kitchen as Five walked over to the board and inspected Allison's photo.

Elizabeth frowned as she noticed the bedroom door that was still shut; Elliott wasn't awake yet.

She then walked over to Five and took the box from him. She turned it over in her hands, examining it, before grabbing a black pen and scribbling out the date so that it was unreadable.

She looked up at Five as she put the pen back onto the desk. "We can ask Elliott to develop these once he wakes up."

Five furrowed his eyebrows as he looked around the room. "I didn't see a darkroom."

"Yeah, he converted the hallway closet." She shrugged, nodding her head back in the direction of the room that she had visited only a couple of times.

Just then, they heard the creak of a door and a few footsteps. Elizabeth viewed into the kitchen to see Elliott, dressed in a suit that consisted of a red-and-green plaid blazer and an emerald green button-up, making himself a bowl of cereal.

He spooned his cereal into his mouth as he strode over to them. "Hey, guys. What's up?"

"'Morning, Elliott. Can you develop this?" Elizabeth asked brightly as she held out the box towards him.

"Huh." Elliott placed his spoon into his bowl, holding it tightly with one hand as he used the other to take the footage from her. He turned it to its back and scanned over it, reading the label out loud, "Frankel Footage. Friends of yours?"

"Cousins on my robot mother's side." Five gave him a miffed smile as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "Can you do it or not?"

"Sure I can," He reassured them as he gave a quick nod.

Five sighed, "How long?"

"Well, I mean" —Elliott frowned— "I'm running low on acetic acid."

"Elliott, why are you always low on acetic acid?" Elizabeth complained, folding her arms. "This happened with Diego's photos!"

"I know, I know." He gave her a small smile before turning around and beginning to ponder. "But . . . Beeker's Cameras is open today, but it's two miles away. I mean, I'd have to take the bus. On the other hand, Gibson's is only ten blocks away, but I gotta cut through the park, and there's pigeons—"

"Elliott," she sighed.

He turned back around towards them and concluded, "It's, like, five, maybe six hours."