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❛ ᴡᴀsᴛᴇʟᴀɴᴅs ᴏғ ᴛɪᴍᴇ. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚ ▎❛ 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐎𝐍𝐄 ❜ ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ʜᴏᴏᴋᴇᴅ ᴏɴ ᴀ ғᴇᴇʟɪɴɢ ꒱
❝ DO YOU REMEMBER THAT
LITTLE MANSION OUTSIDE
OF THE CITY LIMITS? ❞
— Five, The Umbrella Academy
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Their frequent walks took them on different paths as days went by in hopes that the changes in scenery would keep things interesting. For the most part, it didn't. It was still a surprise, though, when Five and Dolores stumbled across a dilapidated mansion that was— amazingly— still mostly standing. The pair stared up at the structure in moderate shock as it was the tallest building they'd seen in years even if it was mostly collapsed (the right wing, however, was pretty much completely intact.)
"Should we look around?" Lola asked, almost hopefully. If the outside of the building was untouched maybe there were useful things inside.
The boy next to her frowned. "It might only look stable. Even the faintest wind could knock it over."
"Yeah, well, you could just blink us out of there," she suggested, "there might actually be something useful."
Five's sharp green eyes studied the structure critically as he weighed the options. "I suppose that is possible," he allowed, "but it might just be a waste of time."
"We have plenty of time to waste," she countered before she dropped the handle of the wagon and made her way towards the mansion.
The surrounding outdoor space was probably once beautiful, with bright green gardens and colorful flowers that lined the walkways. Now, though, the only remnants of any sort of previous décor was the cracked paths that wove around burned and broken sticks that used to be plants. As the girl tried the door, the boy finally leapt into action.
"Do— hey, idiot," he called as he ran to catch up to her. "You can't just go bursting in there."
The brunette turned pointedly so he would be able to see her eye roll. 'Yeah, I can. No one's gonna stop me."
Five crossed his arms as his eyes narrowed. "And what if the whole thing collapses because everything's balancing on the door?"
Lola let out an irritated sigh and flicked her tangled hair out of her face before she placed her hands on her hips. "Alright, what's your plan, genius?"
"I'll blink us in."
"You're supposed to be conserving energy."
"Well, since you're so insistent on getting inside this is the only way I'll allow it."
Their eyes met as they each dared the other to back down. Five's jaw clenched in irritation and Lola shifted her feet so they were shoulder-width apart: a classic rebellious stance.
"What if you need to blink and you've run out of fuel?" she challenged.
"I'll deal with it," he shot back, "but I'm not letting you inside in a way that will damage the integrity of the framework."
"You're being obnoxious."
Despite the insult, the boy couldn't help but smirk triumphantly. He'd won. Whenever Dolores went to name-calling he knew she'd already caved. "I'm being careful, so sorry for worrying about your safety."
She gave him another irritated glance and huffed as his fingers tightened around her wrist. She tried not to feel too pleased about the action (as annoyed as she was with him) and found herself inside the next moment.
As it turned out, their arguing was nearly pointless. The mansion had most likely been a summer home and, with it being April when the apocalypse happened, there were no truly useful supplies that were kept while the family was away. The right wing's first floor held a large kitchen, a sitting room, several connecting hallways, two bathrooms and a staircase that led to the second level. Five had disappeared somewhere out of sight so Lola decided to risk his nagging and took a few cautious steps upwards.
It was all she was able to do, though, since the second half of the stair case was blocked by collapsed supports. With a huff of annoyance, she returned to the main room where the boy was studying the dusty remaining furniture and useless knickknacks.
"Maybe they had a library," Lola suggested after a moment, "most mansions do, don't they?"
"And you have experience with mansions, do you?" the boy returned as he straightened from examining a cluttered, cobwebbed shelf.
The girl decided not to answer that and instead asked, "find anything interesting?"
"Nothing. I was thinking we could maybe use the cushions for something but they're. . . well, you don't want to use them," he finished, looking a bit disgusted.
"You eat bugs for breakfast, idiot. That's something to be disgusted by, but whatever. Anyway, the second floor's blocked," she said.
The boy rolled his eyes but didn't argue. "So that's it, then, isn't it? I told you it would be a waste of time."
"We could still get up there since you've decided to be stupid about this whole thing," Lola pointed out.
"I'm not being the stupid one— you're the one that wanted to waste time here anyway. I'm just making sure you don't get killed."
"I don't know why—" she started before she was interrupted by the familiar tug on her wrist and then in her stomach before the pair reappeared in the upstairs part. "Five! You interrupted me!"
"I know," the boy's response was smug, "you were going to say something idiotic so I thought I'd save you the trouble."
The brunette scowled at him and turned her back on the boy in irritation, only for her expression to brighten a moment later. "A bed!" she all but squealed happily. The girl ran towards it but the boy was faster as his hand flashed out to grab her arm, causing her feet to skid to a halt.
"Slow down," he scolded her, "you don't know—"
"I know enough," she interrupted him as she bounced eagerly on her toes. "C'mon! Oh, it's been ages since we slept on anything other than the ground!"
Five remained resolutely in place and prepared to argue with her again about being careful— and he was usually the one at the receiving end of the lecture! Lola turned towards him, her gaze bright and excited as she tugged purposefully on his hand. "C'mon, Fives."
"What?"
Lola tilted her head slightly. "What, what?"
"What did you call me?"
Her face warmed. Shoot. Why did she have to let that slip? "Uh, nothing."
Five knew he should let it go. That it probably didn't mean anything. That it was either just a slip of the tongue or something he misheard. But he didn't. "You used my name differently."
"It's called a nickname, idiot."
"Say it again."
"Say what again?"
The boy's eyes narrowed slightly. "I'm not going to let you get out of this. Say it again."
Lola's face felt very hot right now and she couldn't meet his gaze. "I said 'c'mon, Fives.' I— uh, that was an acc—"
"No it wasn't," he cut across her softly, "I don't mind."
Oh.
Now she really couldn't meet his eyes. Her gaze flicked back towards the bed that she'd previously been excited about. As her eyes studied the furniture in front of her, some of her prior enthusiasm returned and she gave a little bounce. "Look at all the pillows! We could have a pillow fight!"
"A what?"
The question made her turn back around. "Don't tell me you don't know what a pillow fight is," she said incredulously. When the boy shook his head, she openly gaped at him. "How? I mean, you should at least sort of know what they are! You had siblings!"
"That I never really did anything remotely fun with," he reminded her. The girl's blue eyes brightened and she began to tug on his arm insistently.
"C'mon, let's have fun, then. I'll show you!"
When he still didn't move, Lola faced him again and stuck out her lower lip slightly as her eyes widened pleadingly. She used her new leverage to her advantage: "c'mon Fives."
If she was going to be embarrassed about that, she might as well get something from it. Five sighed as he tried to ignore the sudden warmth on his face. "Fine."
She shot him a brilliant smile. "It's not like I'm asking you to clean the toilet, idiot. C'mon!"
This time, she successfully pulled him towards the bed. After climbing on to the fluffy surface— that had surprisingly maintained its original quality— she turned and grabbed one of the many pillows. Using the springs to bounce her steps, Lola took advantage of the boy's divided attention as he climbed onto the bed. She gave him a soft whack on the head that caught him by surprise and sent him tumbling towards the mattress.
"Hey! I—" he started indignantly.
"Snooze you lose!" she said cheerfully, "this is a game of speed and self-defense and seizing an opening. You gotta move faster."
Five's eyes narrowed. "You want faster?"
"Yeah, that's the whole—" the brunette started before a blue flash interrupted her. The boy reappeared holding a pillow and used it to effectively knock her off her feet. "Hey! No powers!" she protested as she scrambled back up.
"It's not my fault you don't have any. I'm just adapting!" this time when he went to hit her, the girl's pillow blocked him.
They exchanged several more volleys until he grew bored and stared using his powers again to get an advantage. Lola was a quick learner and kept trying to anticipate where he'd pop up next. She couldn't help the excited giggles that escaped her mouth as she waited for his reappearance and subsequent attacks. The girl's enthusiasm was nearly infectious and Five found himself smiling almost against his will as he admitted— to himself, only— that this was actually kind of fun.
During one of Lola's particularly well-placed hits, she sent both the boy sprawling and feathers flying as her pillow lost its integrity. Bouncing around the flurry of white, she tried to grab another weapon before the boy stood up, but he was faster and used her divided attention to retaliate from the first hit. Except— it didn't go exactly as he planned.
On her way towards the mattress, Lola's hand reached out and grabbed at the boy. Her grip fell on his sleeve, which caused him to topple down with her. He landed with a grunt on something that definitely wasn't the fluffy mattress. His face warmed again as he realized not what but who he'd fallen on top of. The girl was still giggling breathlessly underneath him at her success of his downfall as their current position had yet tp dawn on her.
"I got you," she said happily, "it's a draw."
The teen propped himself up on his forearms to stare at the brunette intently until the last of her laughter died away. A smile was still playing on her lips and her tangled hair was spread around her head like a dark halo as her eyes sparkled up towards him. With a jolt, Five realized that this was probably the happiest he'd ever seen her and, while a part of him felt guilty that that was true, the larger part of him was more focused on her smile.
Lola was the type of person who smiled with her whole face. As her lips curved up, her eyes brightened and she became vibrant no matter how small the gesture started out as. The boy's gaze continued to remain on her lips even as he tried to pull his eyes up. Why couldn't he look away?
Underneath him, the brunette felt her face warm again as she saw where the boy was looking. She'd read about a million scenarios where the main character was kissed and had loved every single one of them, but now that— that it was happening to her (was it? Or was she just reading into this too much?) her pulse picked up and something similar to fear— but not fear, because she could never be afraid of her best friend— tightened her throat. Her hands felt frigid as they were wont to do when she was excited or nervous or scared and now all her eyes were able to do were focus on Five's lips.
The air became charged between them as the boy's face hesitantly came closer. It felt (and was) as if truly just the two of them in the entire world.
Lola's breath caught in her throat as she felt the warmth of his breath gently hit her face. Her eyes fluttered shut for a moment as she pictured what it might be like to kiss him— her words from years earlier about not getting a chance to fall in love completely wrong— and then she remembered that he was going to leave.
It would already be hard enough for her best friend to abandon her, but to have her best friend and someone she cared about more than anyone else (a wordy title, but she wasn't ready to think of Five as her boyfriend) leave her at the same time? That would be too much hurt and she could never prepare herself for that. So, she panicked and said the first thing that came out of her mouth: "your breath stinks!"
The boy jerked back as if he'd been slapped. "W-what?"
Lola gently pushed him on to the bed and scrambled away from him, making an effort to exaggerate her disgust as her heart raced painfully in her chest. "Your breath stinks," she repeated.
"So does yours," he pointed out as he avoided her gaze. Had he really just been about to kiss her?
"Yeah, but I can smell yours. I can't smell mine," the brunette pressed her chilly hands to her warm face in an effort to cool it down, her gaze focused somewhere over the boy's shoulder.
"Whatever," Five said, rolling his eyes. Had she really wanted to kiss him back? What had scared her? He was glad, at least, that he had an excellent poker face (not that it helped him in the actual game) and he could hide his disappointment and sting of hurt without making her feel uncomfortable. Still, despite his efforts, there was tense silence that had never followed any of their words before.
In the following days, the brunette wasn't sure how to act around him and was very wary about being anywhere close to the boy. She often jumped and startled badly when he stood at what would've been a comfortable distance before what happened in the mansion.
Five did his best not to think about what might've been had he been able to kiss Dolores as he always found that sort of thought useless and a waste of time. It still didn't help that he felt the prick of hurt whenever he thought about how she'd avoided kissing him or the new wariness in her eyes as if she expected him to suddenly start kissing her right then and there without her permission.
Which he would never do. Surely she knew that?