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❛ ᴡᴀsᴛᴇʟᴀɴᴅs ᴏғ ᴛɪᴍᴇ. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚ ▎❛ 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 ❜ ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴀ ʙᴀᴅ ᴅᴀʏ
ғᴏʀ ᴅᴏᴜɢʜɴᴜᴛs ꒱
❝ ARE YOU CALLING
YOURSELF A SQUIRREL? ❞
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The pair pulled up to the familiar sixties-style diner a short time later. Before Dolores could even unbuckle her seatbelt, there was a flash of blue. Five reappeared outside her car door and opened it for her, helping the girl out after she freed herself. "Well, at least I know chivalry isn't dead," she teased him as they headed towards the building.
The boy rolled his eyes as he offered his arm to her, allowing her to hook her hand around it. "You know you love it."
He was right, of course. The romance-loving girl that was buried somewhere deep inside of her did love it, so she only teased him a little. As the boy held the door open for her, her mood sobered slightly. "You know it's going to get worse," she said to him quietly as they approached the bar.
Five's hand dropped down to catch her slightly sweaty one as he gave it a gentle squeeze of support. "And I'm going to be there for all of it," he reminded her, "we already know not to be in the Academy at night and you know your schedule well enough to avoid the store and school when you're there."
Dolores let her feet swing below her as she sat on stool as she answered, "but what about after we stop the apocalypse? I'm going to want to see my family again, at least once. We can't avoid the Academy at night forever—"
The boy squeezed her hand again. "We'll worry about one thing at a time, Dolly. At least we know what we have to do right now." He released her hand for a moment to ring the service bell on the counter before it returned to it's previous position. This time the gesture was accompanied by the traditional three squeezes. As he was returning the action, the door tinkled behind them and the brunette immediately twisted around to see who it was.
An older, balding man entered the shop and sat at the counter close to them, causing the brunette to give him a suspicious look and whisper quietly, "why's he sitting so close to us? The whole shop's empty."
In response, her husband gently tugged on her arm to turn her attention back to him. "Dol," he said patiently, though his voice was firm, "relax."
As she let out a breath in an effort to follow his advice, a woman wearing a pink uniform approached them from behind the counter. "Sorry, the sink was clogged. So, what'll it be?"
The older man spoke first. "Uh, I'll have a chocolate eclair."
"Sure," she replied, "can I get the kids glasses of milk or something?"
Dolores knew this wasn't going to end well as Five answered bluntly, "the kid wants coffee. Black."
She aimed three kicks under the table at his foot, prompting him to be nice. Her efforts resulted in the boy giving a large, fake smile to the waitress who seemed more uncomfortable than reassured. Rolling her eyes, she added, "I'll have water, please."
The older woman stared at them for a moment before she remarked: "cute kids."
The man next to them looked uncertain. "Uh, I s'pose."
"Okay," she said, trying to recover as she tucked away her notepad. The woman went off to complete their orders.
"Good thinking about the water," Five murmured to her so the other man wouldn't hear.
"I want coffee but I didn't think it would help in this case," she answered grumpily, causing the boy to give her a more genuine smile.
"You can have some of mine."
She made a face. "Gross."
"Speaking of gross," he continued, "I don't remember this place being such a shithole. We used to come here as kids and eat donuts 'til we puked. Simpler times, huh?"
"I came here too, actually," Dolores commented with a nod, "and they were simpler but I didn't know you then."
He glanced at her before he looked away quickly. "Would you change anything if you knew what would happen?"
She knew what he was really asking. Did she miss her old life, without him? Without The Commission, before the apocalypse, before knowing it was up to them to save the world?
She knew the answer, though, and didn't hesitate to give it: "no."
"No?"
The brunette shrugged as she watched the waitress pour Five's coffee. "I'd rather have a difficult life with you than a simple one without you."
The boy stared at her, uncertain of how to respond but recognizing the familiar warmth that filled his chest as he watched her. It had always been so easy for her to admit her feelings— once they got past the first time, of course. It seemed as though it took no effort on her part to admit how much he meant to her and it took him by surprise every time. He was saved from responding by the return of the older woman, who placed the éclair in front of the man, the coffee in front of him and the water in front of the girl.
"I got his," the stranger spoke as he handed over the payment.
Five gave him a surprised look. "Thanks." As the brunette drank her water, the boy spoke again: "you must know your way around the city."
"I hope so. I've been driving it for twenty years."
"Good. I need an address."
✧✧✧
The man left not long after that, leaving the pair by themselves. The door tinkled again to signal another customer and Dolores tensed. This time, she had good reason for her suspicion. A group of men in dressed in black filed through the entrance, heavily armed with guns.
Neither ex-Commission worker acknowledged them, though. The only changes were minute: Five dropped his hand below the counter to hold on to the girl's tightly and the girl herself took an obnoxiously-loud sip of water.
"Hmm. That was fast. I thought we'd have more time before they found us," Five commented to the brunette.
Dolores placed her glass on the counter. "Well, they do know time is of the essence."
"Okay," the leader began as he held a gun up to the boy's head, "let's be professional about this, yeah? On your feet and come with us. They just want to talk."
"We have nothing to say," Five replied evenly.
"It doesn't have to go this way," the man insisted, "do you think that I want to shoot a couple of kids? Go home with that on my conscious?"
The brunette couldn't help but snort. "If you had a conscious, you wouldn't be working for The Commission."
The boy gave her hand a warning squeeze as one of the gunmen trained his weapon on her head. "Well, I wouldn't worry about that," Five said, "you won't be going home."
Slowly, he reached for the butter knife that was lying next to his free hand. Then, there was a flash of blue and the pair disappeared. There were confused shouts from the group which were ignored by the couple as they reappeared behind the counter. Five gently pushed the girl to the ground and crouched in front of her. "Stay here, okay?" he told her, "I'll be back before you know it."
His words didn't stop the anxious look from taking over the brunette's face as he stood to leave and the girl lurched forward to grasp his wrist. The boy, still half-crouched, turned and gave her an exasperated look. "Dol—"
"Be safe," she pleaded, unable to hide the worry in her tone. She knew she wouldn't be able to save the world without him. His expression softened, though he did give her a smug smile.
"Aren't I always?" he asked before he leaned forward to press a quick kiss to her forehead. He shook himself free from her grasp and blinked out of sight.
Once he was gone, the brunette pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face against them. The second the gunshots started, she used her hands to cover her ears as she huddled behind the counter. Of course she had faith in his abilities— as much as she detested that The Commission taught him how to do this— but that never stopped her from worrying before, and this time she couldn't hyper-clean to rid herself of the lingering doubts that plagued her for the brief minutes Five was out of sight.
She jumped when she felt a hand on her arm and her head jerked up quickly only to see the boy giving her a reassuring look. As she pulled her hands away from her ears, he gave her arm a squeeze. "It's just me," he told her comfortingly.
The girl uncurled herself and threw her arms around the boy, unintentionally pulling him back towards the counter and causing him to let out a slight "oomph" as she hugged him tightly. "Thank god," she whispered against his hair as hugged her back. As the boy pulled away, she caught sight of a patch of red on his arm and she grabbed it gently, pulling it towards her to inspect it. "Blood," she realized, her worry returning.
"The tracker," he explained quickly, "we'll have to take out yours, too."
That did nothing to ease her anxiety as she'd always been squeamish around blood, though she'd toughened up in the apocalypse when it had come to the boy's injuries— her own still grossed her out.
"I'll do the best I can," he promised, pulling her arm towards him. They'd worked with less before, after all.
The girl's only response was to bite her lip as his hand tugged up her sleeve to bare her forearm for the cut. They had nothing to sanitize it with but they'd make do with what they had. One of Five's hand softly gripped the underside of her forearm and the other held the knife. His fingers were steady and as gentle as possible as he worked to free the tracker. For Dolores' part, she only bit down more firmly at the incision and did her best not to make a sound at the sight of blood spilling from the wound. She forced down the urge to vomit as she felt the boy's fingers dig around to find the tracker, and then it was over.
The pill-shaped object sat resting innocently in his hand next to its pair that had come from his arm. The boy's expression softened at the discomfort on the brunette's face and he carefully lowered her arm so he could reach across and take her hand from her non-injured arm. "You did great, Dol," he told her quietly, leaning forward to press his lips to hers.
Dolores' eyes closed at the feeling and some of the pain seemed to dull from the action as she became. . . distracted. He pulled away all too soon, though, and his hand closed around the extracted items. "We should get out of here."
The brunette nodded in agreement and stood, turning to leave the way they came in. She was surprised to find Five blocking her path. "Uh—"
"Not that way," he explained quickly as his his grip tightened on her hand.
She frowned in confusion at why they'd bother to blink out when they could walk out without much extra effort, but she didn't protest as they reappeared in front of the shop. The brunette instinctively turned to look behind them, only to be stopped by the boy. "Don't," he told her quietly, "you don't want to look back."
She gave him a puzzled look. "Okay?" she agreed, though it came out as more of a question. She shook her head and turned to lead him towards the car instead.
✧✧✧
They arrived at Vanya's apartment a little while later only to find the lights on the second floor dark. Five gave a sigh of disappointment. "We'll have to break in."
Dolores gave him an amused look. "Or we could just wait for her to get home?"
"You want to wait outside?" he retorted, already examining the building. "How do we get in?"
"Uh, blink in?"
The boy shook his head. "I need to save my energy after all that. We could break the lock on the door."
"Or, instead of forcing your sister to replace the lock, we can just enter through the window?"
He turned to her with a frown. "Wouldn't that be locked, too?"
"Nope," Dolores answered confidently, "second-floor windows don't usually have locks on them. My bedroom was on the second floor and the windows didn't have them."
He gave her a concerned look. "You should have locks on your windows."
"Why? It's not like I had a tree outside that someone could use to get in."
The boy shrugged. "Rapists can climb."
"So can boyfriends and squirrels."
"Are you calling yourself a squirrel?"
She gave him an amused look. "What makes you think that?"
"Well I'm clearly the 'boyfriend' in this example."
"How do you know I was referring to you?" she countered, before her face became serious again. "I could've had a boyfriend before the apocalypse."
"You didn't," he answered confidently, though when her expression didn't change, he repeated it less so, "you didn't, right?"
Dolores finally let her smile break through as she laughed at him. "Of course not, you idiot. Come on, then."
She made her way to the escape stairs while the boy lingered behind for a second to mutter "thank god" before he hurried to catch up to her.
✧✧✧
The brunette made to turn on the light once they were inside only to be stopped by the boy, who shook his head. "If she sees the light on she probably won't come inside."
The girl sighed and— with an extreme amount of fondness—announced: "you are so weird."
Five gave her a faintly amused look. "You know you love me."
She returned the expression. "Unfortunately."
"Ouch," he responded flatly. He grasped her wrist and tugged her over to Vanya's armchair.
"And where am I supposed to sit?" Dolores asked skeptically as he promptly occupied the seat. The boy gave another tug on her arm and she lost her balance. She fell clumsily into the chair on top of him, causing her to exclaim "Five!" as her face warmed.
"What?" he sounded genuinely confused.
"I can't sit here!"
"Why not? You've done it before."
"That— that's different!" She stuttered, her eyes glued to the lamp that stood nearby. "I— your sister—I need to make a good impression!"
He had the audacity to laugh at her embarrassment and he received three hits on his shoulder, punctuated by her saying, "stop laughing. It's-not-funny!"
"I'm sorry you fail to see the humor in this situation," the boy said, though she could still hear his amusement. "You don't need to make a good impression, Dolly. You've already met Vanya. Is this still because you find me hot?" he asked, and it she didn't even need an imagination to know he was smirking.
The girl hmphed and crossed her arms. She kept her gaze on the lamp as she ignored him, though she was acutely aware of her awkward perch and the warmth that filled her face. She was definitely glad it was dark. After a moment of her sitting stiffly on top of him, Five reached around and gently tugged at her arms until they uncrossed. "Look, Dol, I'm sorry—"
"You're not."
"Fine, I'm not sorry for laughing, but I am sorry you're uncomfortable. Trust me, though, when I say that Vanya's not going to take offense to this," he gestured between them.
The brunette sighed. "I just— I wanted to make a good impression and—"
"You already have," he reassured her. He wrapped his arms around the girl's frame as he attempted to get her to loosen up. "C'mon, Dol, relax," he told her, not for the first time that night.
With a sigh, she slumped against his chest and tucked her feet against the arm of the chair. She rested her head against his shoulder and the top of her hair brushed against his cheek as she reached over to grasp his arm and pull it around her. Her right hand intertwined with his left and the boy's other free hand rested in a surprisingly comforting gesture on her shin.
"You should learn how to play the piano when all this is over," she commented quietly, remembering from their time in the apocalypse how long and nimble his fingers had been— and were.
"If, Dolly," the boy corrected her gently.
She shook her head against his shoulder. "When. I know we can save the world."
Five's expression softened and he turned his head slightly to press a gentle kiss to the top of her head. "What would I do without you?"
"Probably be pessimistic and grumpy," she answered with light amusement.
"Probably," he agreed, before he added, "you really think I should?"
"It would give you something to do— a new task. You'll probably need it," she pointed out, "and it's not like you won't have time."
He rested his cheek against her dark hair. "Would you like it if I did?"
"I think you'd be a very good one," she admitted, "though only if— if it made you happy."
He sighed. "Now that's a concept, isn't it?"
✧✧✧
The door opened shortly after and Five leaned over awkwardly to turn on the light, causing his sister to jump in surprise. "Jesus!"
At the exclamation, Dolores' eyes blinked open from the light rest she'd been having. The boy remained unstartled. "You should have locks on your windows," he informed her.
"I live on the second floor."
"Rapists can climb."
"You are so weird."
The brunette's head turned slightly to look up at him. "I told you that already," she pointed out.
Vanya closed the door and took a cautious seat on the couch, perched on the edge as if she couldn't fully relax. "Dolores," she greeted the girl.
"Hi, Vanya."
The woman leaned forward. "Is that blood?"
"It's nothing," the boy said, which was followed by an oomph as he was elbowed in the stomach.
"It is," Dolores confirmed, "do you have a first aid kit? I didn't want to rifle around in your drawers like a creep."
"Yeah, yeah I do," Vanya answered, though she made no move to get up. "Why are you here?"
"I've decided that you're the only one I can trust."
"Why me?"
"Because you're ordinary." This was followed by another grunt. "Would you stop?"
"You're not being nice," the brunette scolded him, "and you need to take care of yourself." She turned to the boy's sister. "From what I've heard from Five about his siblings, you're the only one who'll listen."
The woman met the girl's eyes and studied her for a moment before she nodded. "Okay," she agreed quietly, rising off the couch. She returned a moment later with disinfectant and gauze to clean the tracker wounds, which the brunette took from her.
As Dolores gently peeled back Five's sleeve and carefully maneuvered his arm to work on it better, he began to explain, "when I jumped into the future, do you know what I found?"
"No."
"Nothing," he answered simply, "absolutely nothing. As far as I could tell, Dolores was the last person alive. We never figured out what killed the human race, but. . . I did find something else. The date it happens."
"The world ends in eight days," Dolores finished quietly, her eyes still focused on her task, "and we have no idea how to stop it."
Vanya's response to that was: "I'll put on a pot of coffee."