Do you prefer chocolate or candy?
They all moved with one goal in mind: get back to the academy.
But moving Five down from the attic, down the steps, and into the car was quickly proving itself to be more of a demanding task than anyone dreamed of.
None of them had the power to move Fives passed out figure without hurting him but when Allison gave up and said they would just have to lower him through the hatch as gently as possible, Emery had a thought.
What was it Five had said? Light was in everything?
He didn't think it could be possible, what he wanted to do but everyone's eyes were wide and they were clearly afraid of hurting their brother even more. With a shrapnel wound left unattended to for so long, there was no telling what might happen to the boy if something were to go wrong
So Emery had taken a shaky breath in and then another and another until the breath was clear and even and then he spread his palms and felt for the light in between each atom of air, of Fives clothes and his entire being.
Slowly, after he thought his efforts were surely doomed to fail, Five's body became weightless, carried by the strengthened light down the hatch.
Emery carried Five from there with his own hands, too unreliable were his abilities to manipulate light to trust them to carry Five to the car and back.
By the time they got to the academy, the muscles in Emery's arms were strained. It wasn't because Five was heavy. Not in the slightest. He had just tightened them unbelievably so to reduce the likelihood of dropping the boy. His arms dropped to his sides as he as they laid the boy down and gathered around him.
"Idiot." Emery said— had said and would say for many more times before and after that moment in time. "Idiot."
"We should have taken him to the hospital."
"A kid with a shrapnel wound might raise some questions." Five contributed. He had woken up some time along the way. To be fair though, he's never really fallen asleep. Just had— fainted... several times and then come back to them in a deleterious haze.
"Yeah, well, so does the murder shrine in Harold Jenkins' attic," Diego said.
"He's still losing blood. What do we do?" Allison asked.
"Well, to start, get the shrapnel out. We have to clean the wound and make sure it's not infected before stitching it back up and wrapping it." Emery had never known much about how to tend to a wound before but being around Five in general and his mighty conquest to save the world from complete annihilation taught Emery enough about wounds to know how to go about fixing one.
"He's right." Diego agreed but his gaze snapped to elsewhere and then he was moving.
"Diego, where are you going?" Allison called out after the man but he wouldn't listen.
"Mom?" He called out and then Emery saw Grace there. It was the first time he had seen the woman but then again- he only saw glimpses of her as she and Diego talked and then she was coming towards them with almost stiff movements and a frown on her face. She scooped Five up despite his grains and carried him upstairs. Emery followed behind silently, taking the liberty of going to the washroom he had seen along the way and washing the remains of blood and dirt from his face when Grace claimed she needed a moment to work in silence.
He didn't know why but something pulled at him when he left Five and Grace alone. And he knew it was because some deep part inside of him wanted to stay, wanted to be there when Five woke up to comfort him and console him through the pain. He shook his head and splashed cold water on his face, ridding the thoughts away in time with the water disappearing down the drain.
Carefully, he unwrapped the bandages Five had applied onto him all those hours ago and winced when he saw the angry red wilt left behind on his stomach. Delicately running his hands across the rise in his skin, he traced over the stitching pattern done by the boy and cursed Fives name out once more. All the medical supplies were in front of him and he still decided to patch Emery up instead of himself.
"Idiot." Emery said, flicking on the light when he realized he was still in darkness. He blinked into the sudden light and looked into the mirror when his eyes adjusted. His eye was looking better if not decorated a lovely shade of bruised green and his hand looked like he had just undergone a boxing match against someone completely out of his weight and age class and lost.
Sighing, he rolled his shirt back down and switched off the light, padding down the hallway to the sound of voices.
Five was in his room, Grace sitting in the edge of the bed below him. He was sleeping now, thankfully peacefully and Diego and Allison watched the whole exchange from the doorway.
"Anything?" Diego asked when he saw Emery.
"There's no answer at Vanya's place. And the receptionist at her music school said she was a no-show for her lessons today."
Emery frowned. He may not know Vanya very well but she seemed like a person dedicated to her work. She wouldn't miss her lessons for anything. Anything but discovering she wasn't ordinary? Anything but potentially being in danger because of Harold Jenkins? The thoughts raced around Emery's mind and he had the overwhelming urge to move move move but he couldn't."
"Hey, are you ok?" Allison asked, breaking Emery out of his daze but she wasn't asking him. She was asking Diego, following him out into the hall as they spoke in hushed voices. Emery turned his head, sensing it wasn't his place to eavesdrop. It wasn't his place to be here at all but here he was.
Just as he figured he would be better off waiting in the living room or even the front steps of the academy, Grace was looking up from her work and beckoning him in.
"Are you Emery?" She asked when Emery hesitantly took a seat on the nearby chair, dragging it to Five's other side and sitting down. He nodded mutely.
"Yes." He said.
"Oh, that's good. How nice of you to be his friend. My dear Five needs more of those." She said.
Emery wasn't sure how to respond so he just nodded again. "Yes, I am glad to be his friend." He said when Grace sent him a questioning gaze, maybe not sure how he could answer a non-yes or no question with an indicated yes. "We don't always get along though." He said.
"Why's that?" Grace asked.
Truth be told, Emery didn't know fundamentally why they didn't get along, why they always fought. He supposed it was a plethora of things. "We don't always agree on the same things." He said. "We're alike so we but heads."
"You're both.. stubborn?" She asked.
Butting heads... stubborn. Emery shrugged. "Painfully so."
"But you care for him." Grace ventured carefully.
She wasn't wrong. Emery did care for Five in some weird twisted way. He supposed without him, he would have no one that could put up with his incessant stubbornness. At least this way, Emery had some purpose in his life that he could carry out before they all died- or not. Depending on if Five woke up, if he healed in time, and if they all got together and actually made progress before the world ended.
"I do, sure." He finally answered.
"And he cares for you. He asked where you were."
"He did?" Emery asked.
Grace nodded and Emery looked to Fives sleeping figure, a small frown on his face.
He and Grace didn't speak after that and soon he was left alone in the room. He supposed he should leave, leave Five to get some rest but much like many times prior before his thoughts could take on any other meaning other than 'maybe' and turn into something congruent, Five was up and wrapping his hand around Emery's arm as if he could sense what Emery planned on doing.
"Don't be an idiot. Stay." He said. "Or not. See if I care." He added with a grumble, arm going lax.
Emery didn't move and a sure smile found its way onto his lips. "Careful there, Five. Someone might think you actually care."
Five scoffed fondly. "I don't. How long was I out for?" He asked a moment later, seriousness seeping back into his words.
"Not long. There's still three days left. Two in a few hours. Allison and Diego-" he glanced at the empty doorframe and subsequent hallway. "they must have left a little while ago to let you rest. They'll be back soon I'm sure."
"Did I miss the sunset?"
Emery paused, remembering the boy's fondness for them. Such a humane thing for a boy who was remotely inhumane in his actions and emotions. But Emery was beginning to see the true human boy in him more and more each day.
"You missed it but we can go see it tomorrow. And the next day."
"If we're not dead."
"We won't be." Emery found himself responding. Never before had he said the words out loud but he felt at least some truth in it- partially. He had never been ready to accept that he was going to die. It would only make the realization that much more painful if they didn't prevent the apocalypse but who was he to say no to a little indulgence?
"Can you make it lighter in here please?" Five aid after a long moment. He rolled to his side and stretched his body out to switch off the lamp by his bedside, effectively sucking the rest of the light out of the room. Forget about a wound, Five was still an ass.
Emery groaned. "I manipulate light, Five. I can't create it."
"Says who."
"Says me. Says logic. You teleport, you can't teleport objects without touching them."
"I bet you I could. Want to see me try?" Five asked, moving to roll out of bed but Emery was there in an instant, restraining the boy from moving any further.
"Fine." He relented. "If you stay in bed for the next six hours. I will try. For your sake." He said.
"I'm only doing this because you could be the reason we survive this thing." Five said.
"I highly doubt that." Emery said, cracking his fingers though the act was to stall for time more than anything else.
Truth be told, he knew he couldn't create light from nothing.
Light is in everything. Fives words rang out through his head.
But was it in the dark?
"Come on Emery." Five encouraged.
"Shut up." He fired right back as he closed his eyes and searched the dark for light. An ironic thing it was really but what else was he supposed to do?
Of course it didn't work. He was a fool to think he stood even a chance but this was more to humor Five than anything else so he wasn't too downcast when he let his still dark hands fall to his sides and crack open his eyes.
Five was still looking at him, lips drawn as he studied Emery even when he opened his eyes.
Emery paused- hesitated. Did Five really think he could do it?
"Five, there's no way-"
"If I could travel through time with teleportation abilities, you can conjure light."
Emery groaned internally and was about to get up and leave Five alone in his short bed when he had an idea.
Exhaling and closing his eyes once more, Emery recalled the feeling he always had when he was working with light. Both lightness and heaviness of it in his palm when he took it and redistributed it, shaped it, and used it to his liking.
He felt a pull within him but that was just the natural light particles in his body. Every human had them. Five had said to conjure light, not pull it from a pre-existing source so Emery ignored it no matter how easy he figured it would be to summon it, show Five, and call it a night.
He felt around for a moment longer but felt nothing.
Come on, he urged in his head.
He could manipulate light. That was his thing. That's what he relied on when the world got too dark or the light too bright on him like an unwanted spotlight. He could shape it however he pleased but could he shape it into existence?
"Holy shit." Five said. "I said you could do it but I didn't actually think-"
Emery cracked his eyes open when the light behind his eyelids grew brighter but whatever light he had conjured died instantly, plunging the room into darkness.
He walked around the foot of Fives bed and turned on the lamp the boy had shut off.
He was almost scared to touch anything with his hands as if he'd forget the feeling he felt when he conjured the light, the newness, and both familiarity of it. Still, he put his hands to use turning on the light and then moving to sit back in his chair where he slumped into a more comfortable position.
"Six hours Five." He said, closing his eyes. "Six hours."