Would you rather be an expert at one thing, or pretty good at many things?
"Like I said to your son and his boyfriend earlier, any information about the prosthetics we build is strictly confidential. Without the client's consent, I simply can't help you." The man that Emery never bothered learning the name of said.
Five was seething again. "Well, we can't get consent if you don't give us a name."
Emery raised his eyebrows and looked at the man in the lab coat with a smug smile. It was a good point, he had to admit. The man before him fumbled for a response. "Well, that's not my problem." he settled on. "Sorry. Now, there's nothing more I can do, so--"
"And what about my consent?" Klaus spoke up, his voice level but there was an edge to it that Emery picked up on. He gave the man a questioning gaze.
"Excuse me?"
"Who gave you permission... to lay your hands..." Klaus sniffled. "On my son and his lover?" He pointed to the two who were both now donning similar gazes that screamed 'what the fuck'.
"What?" The man in the coat said.
"You heard me."
"I didn't touch your son, neither one of them."
"Oh, really? Well, then how did he get that swollen lip, then?" Klaus stood up. "And how did he get that black eye?"
"He doesn't have a swollen- they don't have any inju-"
Klaus stood up and wound his hand back, letting it fly loose and smacking Five clean across the face."
"What the fu-" Five began. "No-" But Klaus was already onto Emery, clenching his fist and letting it fly as well.
The next second, Emery was aware of a throbbing on the bone surrounding his eye. Thankfully the man hadn't hit it dead on but it still hurt like a bitch.
"I want it." Klaus said, demandingly. "Name, please. Now."
"You're crazy." The man said, pointing a finger.
Klaus just laughed. "You got no idea." He looked down with a smile and picked up a decorative snow globe. "'Peace on Earth'. That's so sweet." He said before smashing it into his forehead.
Emery inhaled sharply as Klaus shouted out in pain, looking as the man revealed a bloody forehead with falling glass shards from where he was looking with one hand clutched to his face. "Oh, God that hurt!"
"I'm calling secur-" The man grunted but Klaus was there, grabbing the phone right out of the man's hand. "What are you doing?!"
"There's been an assault." Klaus puffed out. "In Mr. Big's office, and we need security, now. Schnell!" He shouted the last part and promptly slammed the phone back down on the receiver. "Now, here's what's going to happen, Grant," Klaus said once he regained his composure.
"It's... Lance." The man corrected timidly.
"In about 60 seconds, two security guards are gonna burst through that door and they're gonna see a whole lot of blood and they're gonna wonder, "what the hell happened" and we're gonna tell them that you... beat the shit out of us." Klaus's sobs turned into laughs as he straightened himself out. "You're gonna do great in prison, Grant. Trust me, I've been there. Little piece of chicken like you. Oh my God, you're gonna get passed around like a... You're just--- You're gonna do great. That's all I'm saying." Klaus smiled.
"Jesus, you are a real sick bastard." The man-- Lance said.
Klaus looked him dead in the eye and spoke, spitting out a piece of glass. "Thank you."
Five looked at Emery then with a smug smile. Emery just blinked but didn't deny the small smile that also fought its way onto his face though it physically pained him. The act was brilliant but the hit was maybe a little bit too realistic. It hurt like a bitch.
They followed Lance as he puttered about anxiously, taking the eye and searching for its owner. "Oh," He said, rifling through some files. "that's strange."
"What?" Five demanded.
"Uh, the eye. It hasn't been purchased by a client yet."
"What?" Klaus said jumping down beside him and looking over his shoulder. "What do you mean?"
"Well, uh," Lance stuttered. "our logs say that the eye with that serial number... This can't be right. It hasn't even been manufactured yet." He looked up. "Where did you get that eye?"
Five cursed and shook his head, obviously angered. Emery just stared at Lance with a scrutinizing glare that sent the man staggering under the intense gaze. Something about the man...
Five pulled them both out of there after he deemed it a lost cause. "Well, this is not good." He said when they were outside.
"I was pretty good, though, right? Yeah. What about my consent, bitch?" he laughed maniacally.
"Klaus, it doesn't matter." Five said.
"What? What? What's the big deal with this eye anyway?"
Emery gave Five a look and said boy sighed before taking a menacing step forward. "There is someone out there who's going to lose an eye in the next seven days. They're gonna bring about the end of life on this Earth as we know it." He started walking away.
"Yeah, can I get that twenty bucks, like, now, or what?"
"Your twenty bucks?" Five asked incredulously.
"Yeah, my twenty bucks."
"The apocalypse is coming, and all you can think about is getting high?"
"Well, that and I'm also quite hungry. Tummy's a-rumbling."
"You're useless." Five said, walking away and going to sit down on the same steps as the previous night. "You're all useless!"
"Oh, come on." Klaus said. "You need to lighten up, old man. Hey, you know, I've just now realized why you're so uptight."
"Because the world is ending?" Emery ventured.
"You must be horny as hell!" Klaus exclaimed, ignoring Emery and moving to sit down next to Five. "All those years by yourself. It's gotta screw with your head, being alone."
"Well... I wasn't alone."
"Oh? Pray tell."
"Her name was Dolores." Emery rolled his eyes at the mention of the woman. he didn't even know who she was but already Emery was sick of hearing about her. "We were together for over thirty years." Emery let out a low whistle.
"Thirty years? Oh, wow!" Klaus chuckled. "God, the longest I've been with someone was... I don't know, three weeks. And that's only because I was so tired of looking for a place to sleep." Ask Klaus was talking, Five teleported away in a flash of blue. Emery let his head fall into his hands and groaned internally. "He did make the most fantastic osso buco, though." Klaus continued. "It was... Five?" Klaus said when he realized the boy was gone.
Emery just shrugged when the man looked at him with a questionable gaze. "Are you not used to this yet?" He asked, moving to stand up in hopes of tracking the man down.
"Don't think I ever will." Klaus clicked his tongue. "Hey, what's the longest you've ever been in a relationship?"
"Never." Emery narrowed his eyes as he surveyed the area.
"Never?" Klaus asked, disbelieving. "Emerino, I have a hard time believing that. With a face like that.. sheesh."
Emery ignored the man, head whipping to the side when a taxi drove by and Five peered out the window.
"That son of a bi-" But then Five appeared right in front of him and before he could utter a single word, the world was being folded in half right in front of him and the next time he blinked, he was seated in the back of a taxi car.
"Like I said before, keep driving." Five growled out to the driver when he peeked at the new audience.
Emery didn't question where they were going. He knew Five well enough by this point to realize that he wouldn't get a straight answer out of the boy even if he tried so he opted to stay silent, looking at the city pass by as they drove through it.
"What are you thinking." Five asked some time along the way.
Emery didn't respond at first. "Lance is definitely lying." He said after a moment, nodding to confirm with himself more than anyone.
"What makes you say that?"
Emery scoffed. "He was fidgety," Emery said. "Stumbled over his words and refused to make eye contact."
"Well, did you ever stop to think that maybe he was like that because we just threatened him?" Five asked, sending a nasty glare to the driver when he risked a timid glance back, probably now scared he was driving two teenage dropouts with a secret drug-selling business.
"No." Emery said. "He wasn't reading off the file. He was making it up. He's hiding something from us."
Five scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Look, if you're trying to win my approval, you can give up. You're here, aren't you? I didn't leave you behind this time."
"Yeah." Emery said distantly, going back to looking out the window when he realized Five was too thick-minded to believe he could actually be on to something. "Sure."
✩
"Where are we going and for what purpose?" Emery finally relented whilst following Five through an abandoned parking lot in the middle of the night. He had mostly kept his questions to himself, knowing Five probably had the next seven days plotted out in his mind but he needed to know what was going through the boy's mind as he was teleported inside. "God, I hate that." He said, rolling out his shoulders once they were inside.
Five remained silent despite Emery's question and silently walked through the store, offering the barest nod of thanks as Emery gathered some light and used it to light their way.
Together they wandered down aisles until Five caught sight of some mannequins and started making his way towards them, observing three standing together before moving down the row to the next group he saw. Emery guided the way with pursed lips, drawing in confusion, and watched as Five slowed his steps, a smile taking over his features as he looked upon a singular mannequin in particular.
"Dolores." He breathed. "It's good to see you. I've missed you... obviously." Five said.
Emery gaped, blinking with a gaping mouth as he looked between Five and the mannequin he was... having a conversation with. The mannequin that was his wife. "Well, I... It's been a rough couple of days." Five said.
Emery rubbed at his eyes, wincing when he rubbed the one that was inevitably going to turn a ripe shade of purple to see if what he was witnessing was real but there Five was, looking at Dolores as if he had just reunited with the love of his life and in a way- hadn't he?"
The light in Emery's palm flickered as his brain registered to figures coming towards them, pistols drawn.
"Five!" He shouted a warning, ducking when bullets started ringing out.
"No!" Five cried out as he was forced to duck and move out of the way.
"Oh, shit it's them!" He said as Emery joined him hiding behind a rack of clothes.
Five lunged forward to grab the top half of the mannequin that hadn't been damaged and laid her down gently. "I'll be right back for you." he said before dashing off with a new plethora of bullets chasing them down the aisle.
"Shit!" Emery cursed as he skid around a corner, barely missing being impaled himself.
Five was there then two, reaching out for him and teleporting them away when the two figures reached them.
"You see that?" The pair heard one of their attackers say when they were safely out of the way.
"You said he was special. The other one was too, that's why we couldn't find him. He was probably in that room the whole time." They heard the other one say. Five looked at Emery curiously who just mouthed 'later' and looked over the clothing rack they were hiding behind to get a better sense of where everyone was. "So now what?"
"You start over there, I'll go to the other end. Meet in the middle. Shoot anything that moves." The two started moving and Emery could now see that they were both wearing ridiculous animal masks.
"You think you can survive?" Five asked.
"I'm sure I can handle myself." Emery breathed as he watched the two split up.
"We'll meet back up later." Five said, offering no more context before he was off running again.
Emery watched him go for a second before running the other way in a crouch, ducking when shots followed him around. He rounded a corner and then took another sharp one, drawing the light out of the area to mask his presence and directing it elsewhere to make it seem like one of them had turned on a light near the opposite side of the store. At least that bought him some time as he riffled around the aisle he was on for a weapon, eventually finding one in a hairbrush littered amongst what he found to be the hair care station.
He traded it between palms, weighing it and thrusting it through the air to test it before shrugging it, clasping it tightly, and moving once more.
More gunshots rang out and then cursing as the two masked people shot after a teleporting Five who could not be hit.
Police sirens sounded and Emery took the moment to sneak up behind one of the masked attackers and nail them in the side of the head with the blunt end of a hairbrush, ducking swiftly when the person turned and fired over his head. He stabbed the persons knee's next and rolled out of the way when the but of the rifle nearly met his head.
"Emery." He heard Five hiss his name and looked up and between the clothing racks to see Five aggressively gesturing for him to come over. He was wearing a backpack now with the head of Dolores peaking out. Emery would have rolled his eyes if they weren't currently being threatened with their lives.
He rolled to his knees and clambered away, reaching Five and clasping his hand. "What's wrong?" he hissed when Five tried and failed to teleport them away.
"I don't know." Five hissed right back as he tried once more and again failed.
"It's fine." Emery shook his head, looking around for an alternate route. "Come on." He pulled Five to his feet and together they jumped over a small wall and to the other side, just barely avoiding being pulverized by multitudes of bullets.
The sound of sirens was louder now as the two masked people conversed with each other, coming after Emery and Five for a last-ditch attempt only to curse when they were nowhere to be seen.
The pair of boys were left alone after that, hidden and panting behind a desk that covered them well.
Emery clenched his eyes shut and let his head fall back against the filing cabinet he was leaning up against, trying to regain his breath as lights danced across his vision.
Beside him, Five did the same, cradling Dolores to his chest.
Seven chapters and only two episodes done. We're going to be here for a while.
**Also thinking of adding original scenes between Emery and Five. Any suggestions?