Y/N POV:
"I must admit, Number Five and Eight, in all the time that I've been here, I've never met a pair quit like you two," The Handler says.
She is currently taking us to our new job at The Commission.
"Hello Eight," A boy says as we continue to walk.
Five my have heard the boy because he puts his hand around my waist, pulling me closer to him. Five gives him a glare and the boy runs away.
"Hazel and Cha-Cha, for example, are talented, certainly, but... they can't see the big picture," The Handler continues to say as we walk into a building.
" And Eight...Your spunk, your enterprising spirit, well, it reminds me a great deal of myself, if... I may be so vainglorious."
"Ew," I whisper to Five, "I am nothing like her."
"If things work out here for both of you, you could potentially make fine successors, especially you Five."
"We would like to discuss the logistics of our family's safety at your earliest convenience," Five says, not giving two shits about what The Handler just said.
"Such chutzpah. It's refreshing, I'll admit. Slow down, you lovers. All in good time. In fact, now that you've finally agreed to work with us, we've got all the time in the world."
I roll my eyes at the new nickname. The Handler takes us up some stairs and leads us to the briefcase room. Oh, how I remember that room.
"The Commission works in support of a delicate balance between the timeline of events and mankind's free will. The briefcase is no longer part of your kit. So free your mind. You're both management now. One of us."
We walk up another flight of stairs and reach a big office. There were hundreds of people sitting at desks typing on typewriters.
"All the people on this floor are case managers, each one responsible for one major event at a time."
"So many of them," Five mumbles.
"Impressive, isn't it? Being part of something so... grand. Come along."
Five and I continue to walk down the hall while The Handler continues talking.
"Whenever someone chooses the wrong path and the timeline is changed, The Commission gets a report from field agents on the ground. These field reports are sorted and assigned to a case manager. They determine if anyone needs to be...removed from the equation to assure that their event happens as it should."
The Handler leads us into a room that had a whole bunch of tubes. Inside was an older lady putting a message down a tube.
"Based on that determination, the case manager sends instructions via pneumatic tube to temporal assassins like you guys formerly were. Any queries so far?" she asks.
"Yeah. Who was the case manager handling us?" Five asks.
"Ah. You mean the apocalypse," The Handler says as she strokes Five's cheek with the back of her hand.
I smack her hand off of Five's cheek and Five lets out a little laugh. He grabs my hand and squeezes it telling me not to be jealous. We follow her down the hallway to a smaller office still hand-in-hand.
"Five, Eight, meet Dot."
"Oh. Hi," Dot says with a smile.
"Dot is responsible for all apocalypse matters. In fact, it was Dot here who first flagged your appearances in 2019."
"No hard feelings," Dot tells us.
"Well, you certainly put us through the ringer. Outsmarting two of our so-called best temporal assassins. If that doesn't spell leadership material..." The Handler says, saying the last part louder.
Everyone stops what they are doing and looks at us.
"I just don't know."
The Handler walks us to the desk that was in front of Dot's. It had two chairs, a typewriter, and office supplies. There were also two nametags on the desk that said "Mr. Five" and "Mrs. Eight". I scoff when I see my name tag.
"I suspect you two like a challenge," The Handler says as she pulls out one of the chairs. I follow behind Five to the desk.
"Which is why I've given you two a particularly complex first case."
I stand behind Five, get on my tiptoes a bit, and lay my chin on his shoulder. He opens the case file and we look at the pictures. It was the Hindenburg disaster.
"It's too bad Joseph Späh decided against sabotaging the fuel tank. It would've been so much easier. Anyhoo... if you have any questions...I'll be right behind you."
The Handler walks out the door and Five and I take our seats.
☂ ♡ ☂ ♡ ☂ ♡ ☂ ♡
We have been working on this case for an hour now. Honestly, it was one of the easiest things we have ever done.
"Hiya, Five. Hiya, Eight. How's it going?" Dot asks from behind us.
"We must have utter silence in order to complete this task," Five says.
"Oh, okay..."
Five and I continue to work until we hear Dot behind us.
"Hey, a few of us are having lunch, and I was wondering if you...," she began to say but I interrupt her.
"Dot...," I warn.
"Right, you all are doing something."
Five finishes typing on the typewriter and hands me the paper. We read over it and I nod my head. I roll it up, grab a cylinder-shaped capsule out from the drawer in our desk, and put the paper in there. We get up and walk out of the room.
"Oh. Bye...Bye," Dot says as we leave the room.
We walk to the room where all the tubes are. We were about to put the capsule down a tube when we heard a voice.
"I'm afraid that's not procedure."
Five and I turn around. Of course, it was The Handler.
"Are you like, stalking us or something?" I ask.
The Handler just smiles and holds out her hand. I give her the capsule and she turns to an old lady sitting at a desk.
"Five, Eight, meet Gloria. Gloria is perhaps the single most vital cog in our machine."
"Oh," Gloria says with a little laugh.
She gets up from her desk and walks towards Five and I
"Gloria, this is Number Five and Eight," The Handler says as she points to us.
"Look at you. Deadly little things. I remember watching your alls wedding on the infinite switchboard. Almost everyone was there to witness it," she says with a smile.
My face instantly turned red. If they could see our wedding...could they see all the other stuff we had done? I get embarrassed at the thought.
"So happy we decided to close the contract on your life," Gloria adds in.
"I'm afraid your reputations precede you. And it looks like you're building on it here," The Handler says.
The Handler opens the capsule and take's the paper out. She hands the capsule to Gloria and unrolls the paper.
"Oh. Karl Weber. Now tell me, why unfortunate Karl?"
Five and I both smile as we look at Gloria and The Handler.
"Karl Weber is the butcher at the shop where Captain Ernst A. Lehmann acquires his weekly roast. So, if Karl dies, his butcher shop is passed on to his son Otto, who... never washes his hands, Which is disgusting," Five explains.
"So he's the one who gives the captain his roast," The Handler says.
"And that gives him food poisoning," I say.
"Which makes him late for work. Which delays the takeoff."
"And to make up for lost time, the Hindenburg flies through a weather front of high electrical charge and humidity."
"And the static electricity inside the aircraft makes it a virtual tinderbox. Tiny engine sparks..."
"And just like that, we have..."
Five mimics an explosion with his hand causing Gloria and The Handler to laugh. The Handler leads us out of the tube room and takes us back to the office we were in earlier.
"I'm sure you've all heard that Mr. Five and Mrs. Eight have proven to be as adept with a pen as they were with a sword," she says as she puts her hand on Five's shoulder.
I could feel jealousy build up in me.
"Let their efforts serve as inspiration to you all. Herb! How long have you been on the Lusitania?"
Five and I walk back to our desks and sit down. We open the new file that was laying on our desk and read it.
"Oh, ah... Well, let's see, I, uh... I...," Herb stutters.
"Sorry?"
"When I first started..."
"Sorry? I can't hear you."
Herb continues to stutter not knowing what to say.
"Still can't hear you."
And just like that, the lunch bell rang. Everyone gets up to leave but Five and I stay at our desk.
"Oh, Gene, a word before you go to lunch. Gutenberg seems to be having second thoughts about the printing press," The Handler says as she walks out the door with everyone else.
Once we were sure everyone left we get up from our desk and walk over to Dot's. We take a red file off her desk and Five puts it under his sweater vest.
"Come on," he whispers as he takes my hand.
We walk down the hallway towards a bathroom. When no one was looking we walk in and go to a stall.
"Ugh I hate her," I say as I lock the stall door.
"Darling, you have nothing to be jealous about. I don't like what she is doing either," Five says.
He moves a strand of hair away from my face and smiles.
"I know. But, it's like she can't keep her hands off of you for five seconds!"
"You know, you're cute when you get jealous," Five say with a little laugh.
"Shut Up," I mumble.
Five cups my cheek with his hand and smiles. I give him one back. He leans in and kisses me. I kiss him back as he wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him. His lips move against mine as we hear the people outside the bathroom walking to lunch. Five pushes me back a bit causing me to lean against the stall door. I put my hands behind his head and play with some of his hair. He moves down from my lips to my cheek and then to my neck.
"Five," I giggle. I can feel him smile as he kisses my neck.
"Shhh," he says as he comes back up to my lips.
The door opens and we stop. Both of our eyes widen not knowing what to do. Five picks me up by my waist and places me to where I am standing on the toilet.
"So, how's your first day going," I hear a familiar voice say.
Of course she had to come in here and interrupt us.
"Couldn't be better," Five says.
He lifts up his sweater vest and slowly takes out the file that we got from Dot's desk, trying not to make any noise. He finally gets it out and hands it to me.
"Glad to hear it."
I look at the stall next to us and see a big skirt fall down. I then hear the sound of urination. She can not be serious right now. I let out a disgusted face and I can tell Five is uncomfortable.
"Ah. I burned my rugae. Ever burn your rugae? Rugae. The ridges on the hard palate that help pass food to the esophagus," The Handler says.
I slowly open the file and my face drops when I see it. I hold it up to Five and show it to him.
"Shit," he mouths.
There was only one piece of paper in the file and it had a smiley face on it.
"Anyways, I'm on a liquid diet for two days, hence the marathon of urination. One faulty cog and nothing works as it should."
I hear her toilet flush and watch as her skirt gets pulled up off the floor.
"You know, we value integrity at the office above all else. Trust is essential, and that trust is... built over time. But in the event of a breach, the Commission will act swiftly and without mercy. An efficiency I'm sure you above all people can appreciate, Number Five. I'm feeling peckish. Have you had your lunch?"
"Not yet," Five says as I shove the file back under his sweater vest.
"Great. How would you like to lunch with me in my office? You can eat solid foods, and I can live vicariously... through you," The Handler says as she looks over our stall door.
"You trying to have lunch with my husband?" I ask, raising my eyebrows.
"You trying to have sex with him in a bathroom stall at your job?" The Handler asks.
Both Five and my face turn red.
"Yeah, I heard some of your little makeout sesh before I came in here. But, I guess since you are jealous of Five getting invited to lunch, you can come too."
The Handler walks out of the bathroom leaving Five and me alone.
"THAT BITCH," I yell as I kick the bathroom stall.
"Hey, hey, calm down. Someone will hear you. Look we will get out of here soon but for now, we still need to get her to trust us," Five says.
"Well, she better learn to trust us soon because I am so close to putting her head through a damn wall," I say as we get out of the bathroom stall.
Five lets out a little laugh and we walk to The Handler's office.
Fun Fact: Five's favorite siblings, besides Y/N and Vanya was Ben.