4.
FIVE SIGHED AS he put down a wooden board on the table and walked towards a cabinet grabbing a large cellophane bag containing toasts with everyone's eyes trained on him.
"What's the date? The exact date?" He asked his siblings as they watched his every movement.
"The 24th," Vanya replied. Y/N looked at everyone while sitting in the corner, isolated from everyone for God knows what reason.
"Of what?" Y/N asked, causing the Hargreeves to look at her.
"March," Number Seven said with a slight smile on her face. The girl nodded silently and continued biting her nails to keep herself distracted. Five arched an eyebrow as he took a quick glance at the h/c haired girl then at his sister, Vanya.
"Good," he remarked and turned his attention to the toasts about to make a sandwich.
"So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?" Luther asked.
Five didn't respond as he laid out two breads on the board, continuing his sandwich. Number One thought it was pathetic, so he stood up from his chair, and stated, "It's been 17 years."
The boy scoffed. "It's been a lot longer than that," he spat and spatial jumped to a nearby shelf seizing something from there then spatial jumping back to the table.
"I haven't missed that," Luther mumbled. Y/N groaned in frustration.
"Seventeen years? Longer? Was I gone that long?" She inquired. Everyone looked at her again, answering a brief 'yes' all at the same time.
"Holy shit," Y/N muttered under her breath as she leaned back down on the counter.
"Where'd you two go anyway?" Diego asked, crossing his arms. "You returned like nothing happened. You're not even a decade old, and you're saying it's been longer? Come on, you owe us an explanation."
"The answer to that is going to be extremely long. I'll tell you next time considering I'm pretty lazy right now."
"The future. It's shit, by the way." Five answered, ignoring what Y/N had just answered even
though he had his own curiosity growing as well. The girl in the corner frowned — she also didn't know about that.
'What the hell is going on? Why can't I remember that happening?' She thought to herself.
"Called it!" Klaus said, raising his index finger.
"I should've listened to the old man," he glanced at Y/N with a defeated exhale, "And you."
"About what, exactly?" She arched an eyebrow and tucked her arms together.
"You know, jumping through space is one thing. Jumping through time is a toss of the dice."
Giving the girl a knowing look, he turned to Klaus as he examined him from head to
toe. "Nice dress," he commented.
"Oh. Well, danke!"
"Wait, how did you two get back?" Vanya asked. Y/N uncomfortably shifted in her seat and ignored the question.
"In the end, I had to project my consciousness forward in- to a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time." Five said.
"That makes no sense."
"Well, it would if you were smarter." the boy retorted. Y/N snickered at that. number
two stood up ready to throw hands...or in his case, knives only to be stopped by the huge spaceboy himself.
"How long were you there?" he asked.
"Forty-five years. Give or take."
Everyone else in the room was surprised by his answer. "So, what are you saying? That you're 58?" Luther asked.
"No, my consciousness is 58." Five said. "Apparently, my body is 13 again."
"Wait, how does that even work?" Number Seven asked.
"Delores kept saying the equations were off. Eh." Five shrugged as he took a bite of his sandwich. "Bet she's laughing now."
"Delores?" The young woman asked.
"His Goddamn mannequin of a girlfriend," Y/N said. Five looked at her, incredulous.
"I don't know. Powers." The girl said in response to his scepticism and shrugged her shoulders.
The boy hummed in response and grabbed a newspaper that was just near. "Guess I missed the funeral."
"Funeral?" Y/N asked and stood up abruptly from where she's sitting and walked towards Five, snatching the newspaper from his hand. She didn't remember Sir Hargreeves passing away. The girl started to become nervous. Shit, the more she stayed here, the more her memories faded. This was bad. Really bad.
"How'd you know about that? even Y/N doesn't know," Luther remarked.
"What part of the future do you not understand? Besides, have you forgotten? Y/N's power is weak. She can only see the tiny bits of a day's future, and it's still practically useless."
Y/N glared at him and continued to read, trying her best not to let him get to her. "Heart failure, huh?" Five asked.
"Yeah" — "No"
Confused, the boy only hummed and clicked his tongue. "Nice to see nothing's changed," he said, referring to Luther and Diego's contradicting responses with eager desire to be right and slowly made his way out.
"Uh, that's it? That's all you have to say?" Vanya asked. The girl with the 'power' to see the future put the newspaper down and placed her hands on her hips, watching as Five walked out.
"What else is there to say? The circle of life."
"Welcome back?" Y/N suggested with a sardonic raise of an eyebrow.
"I would be lying," the boy in oversized work clothes mumbled as he disappeared into the halls of the house.
Y/N shook her head. "You know, for a grown ass man stuck in a child's body, he's pretty petty."
They all laughed slightly and looked at the girl. "What?"
"You know Y/N, you haven't changed a bit," Diego said.
She looked at her appearance and raised her hands slightly with a shrug, "You think?"
"Still into guns?"
The girl chuckled and nodded, "Weird obsession with those things. I don't talk about it."
"You still look like you could snatch your friend's father," Klaus stated with a half intoxicated smile of innocence. He was known for giving the weirdest compliments, and Y/N was known to accept them in any shape or form.
"Thanks, Klaus. You too," she replied. Luther only stared at her, unable to speak at her presence due to his lies that regarded her.
"You know it's rude to stare. Aren't you going to say something?"
"I have a lot to say, actually, but, I doubt you would even get it," Number One said, causing a bitter laugh to escape her lips.
"Aw, are you still mad about my prediction?"
"What prediction?" Allison asked.
"About that one time that you rejected his invitation on a kitchen raid." Y/N said and smiled with a hint of mischief in her eyes. Luther sighed in frustration and rolled his irises, letting go of his mature demeanour to pick a fight on the seemingly thirteen-year-old.
"That's not it. I would appreciate it if you stitched your mouth."
"Or what? You're gonna throw me to outer space, Lover Boy?"
Diego chortled. "Funny thing is that Luther referred to Y/N as his closer sibling when in reality, they both hate each other," he said.
"I was being sarcastic," Luther scowled.
"Sarcastic my ass. you were lying for dear old daddy to see you as the best." She turned to the door, "I don't have time for this. I need to take a bath. I'll see you guys later."
Y/N patted Vanya on the shoulder and left the kitchen, heading to the bathroom.
Later that day, Five dressed in his Umbrella Academy uniform walked in the living room, looking at the portrait of himself hanging above the elegant fireplace. His eyes darted around the other walls of the room in search of Y/N's, but it didn't take him to realise that there was nothing to be found.
Nothing at all. Just his and the Umbrella Academy's photos.
Once he felt someone's presence, he spoke, knowing who it was just by the sound of silence. "Nice to know dad didn't forget me." The boy turned to Vanya who blankly walked forward. "Read your book, by the way. Found it in a library that was still standing," Five said and carried on with taking in the place.
"I thought it was pretty good, all things considered. Yeah, definitely ballsy; giving up the family secrets." He turned to his sibling, "Sure that went over well."
"They hate me," Vanya stated.
"Oh, there are worse things that can happen." Five replied looking at her.
"You mean like what happened to Ben?" His face softened as he heard her utter those words, most especially, the name.
"Was it bad?" He asked which Number Seven nodded to. The boy averted his gaze and looked down in grief.
The melancholic atmosphere was cut off when another presence joined them in the lounge with footsteps clicking on the tiles. They both turned to see Y/N in the academy's uniform.
"You too, huh? Can't find another cloth to change into," she addressed Five who raised his eyebrows. The girl sighed and crossed her arms, her eyes resting on the portrait of the boy. A smile tugged on her lips, "How thoughtful."
"A noble pose, I must say." Y/N added, "You could almost pass for a God."
"Y/N," Vanya called. The mentioned girl looked at her as her eyes lit up with joy.
"Vanya," Y/N said and dashed towards her friend, wrapping her arms around her figure.
"This is a lovely reunion," Five sarcastically said as the girls pulled away.
"You can always join us, Mister Salty. Don't be shy — I don't strangle."
"I'm not surprised that you're stuck in your thirteen-year-old body. You're as immature," Five said Vanya sensed what was going on and decided it would be best to leave them alone. She knew they'd get along . . . eventually.
"Shit — those cookies are going to be charcoal in a minute. Excuse me" Vanya said and rushed out of the parlour to the kitchen where Grace absent-mindedly acknowledged her with a tray of cookies.
"Vanya? Cookies? That's unusual," Y/N commented as she collapsed on the sofa with a sigh, laying her arms on the armrest, "But then again, we were gone for a long time. They all changed."
This made Five frown, "Speaking of, where have you been? When did you disappear?" He asked, shoving his hands in his blazer's pockets.
'Like always,' she thought.
"Some other world. Disappeared right after you did." she simply answered.
He glowered, "In what world? Dare I ask what happened and how you ended up there? You have excluded some parts of your answers, and I want to know."
"Ask yourself if I trust you first," she stated. Five crossed his arms.
"Y/N, we're not kids anymore"
The girl arched an eyebrow and looked at him up and down. "Physically, we are, but I don't believe it's the same with our consciousness."
"It's time to just get along. Look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being rude, I'm sorry for the things I said to you. We were kids; we were short-tempered. We were stupid and naive." Five stepped forward to the girl who cautiously watched him, "I want to make amends, but first I need you to forgive me."
He held his hand out for her to take. Y/N looked at it and hummed as she thought about it before reaching a hand out to accept the offer of forgiveness, "Fine. Don't make me regret it."
Minutes of silence later, they decided to cut the silent tension with a throat-clearing gesture.
"So, can you tell me what happened now?"
She hesitated but decided to give in as it was for the best, she thought. "You know what happened when I came after you. You know it very well."
"I told you to give up," he responded in a mere whisper of his voice.
She bobbed her head slightly, "Then I saw someone. A kid. A child that looked like my sibling."
"You have a sibling?" She shot him a look. "Right. Sorry. Continue."
"I followed this child which was odd because I lost all my sense of being sensible. Then I saw them go to the nearby lake — I was so focused on this kid that I didn't even think that it was stupid. I was at the bottom when my foot got stuck between the huge boulders under. I used all my energy until that was all that was left of me. I was dead, Five." If Five wasn't confused before, he definitely was now.
"At least I thought I was. Woke up in a hospital, saw my family there. They told me I've been sleeping for almost a year. Then, a few years later, dad got in an accident. mom's cheating, my sibling can't talk. They're all getting so distant, and then I remember going somewhere. I saw this manhole then a rude force pushed me and here I am. Get a load of this bullshit. Alice in Wonderland who?" She shook her head with a sardonic laugh.
As confused as the boy is, he decided not to ask further more questions or even
comment about what happened, he stayed quiet.
"Crazy, huh? I'm almost 30. Hey, what happened to you when you disappeared anyway?"
Five sighed. "Time-travelled, saw the future, and got stuck there for 40 years. Met this lovely lady who accompanied me."
"Delores."
"Yeah."
"The future, Y/N. It's apocalyptic. Everyone was dead, and I was the only man alive. I'm back here to prevent that from happening, but I need you and Vanya's help if I want to succeed."
"The world? It's going to end?" Her eyes widened in shock, and once again, that was one of the major things that she had forgotten that was about to happen in this world.
He nodded, "And I need your help."
"Me? Why me?" Y/N asked Five, jabbing her index finger to her own chest.
"Because I know you'd understand, and Vanya listens."
"This is so unlike you. Me? Understand? Knowing damn well all we did for the entirety of our childhood was bicker and swear not to trust each other with our lives?"
"Yeah, I never missed that," he grumbled through his teeth, quietly referring to how much she talked in a minute.
"Fine. I'll go along with this stupid mission of yours."
'Well, that was easy,' he thought. He got up on his feet and shoved his hand in his pocket once again, turning to an open spot on the wall. "I noticed you don't have a portrait of you anywhere."
"That is because I refused to have one." The girl chirped. "Practically begged Mister Hargreeves not to take any photos or paintings of myself."
"Why not?" He asked, eyebrows furrowed.
"I thought I never looked good enough. Teenage insecurities," she joked which Five took very seriously by staring at her in disbelief.
"What, Number Five? Did you really miss me that much to the point where you even searched for a portrait of me while you were alone in the shit future?" He scoffed at her taunting query.
"I never searched for you; I just noticed earlier."
"Too bad. Nice portrait, by the way. I would have said you look very good in it but then I realised, you actually look way different in reality." Y/N taunted.
Number Five rolled his eyes. "I don't have time for this, Callisto."
"Oh come on, Little Five. You barely have time for anything. Loosen up."
"You do not want to test me."
A laugh that almost sounded like a cackle roared from her mouth, her feet finding their place on the floor as she stood, "Yet I am."
He turned his heel and narrowed his eyes at her, "What game are you playing at?"
"Annoying you."
"Do you think this is funny?"
She airily chuckled, "It is."
"You know, there's actually nothing wrong with how you look. It's a pretty face to hang on the wall, but respectfully in annoyance, I think you look stupid when you behave like that most of the time."
"What?"
"End of the world, Y/N. Might as well take a photo of you not looking like a dumb asswipe," he said as he walked away, leaving the girl in pure confusion as to what the connection between all of it was.