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FIVE IS SEARCHING AROUND THE kitchen for coffee as I sit at the opposite side of the breakfast table. Klaus has his legs propped up on it as he sits at the head of the table. I want to talk to him but now doesn't seem like the right time since Five is here.

Alisson comes in. I lean my head back to look at her, feeling too lazy to turn around. "Hey, Alice," I greet her.

"Hey, Z. Where's Vanya?" She asks, setting down her coat as she stands beside me on my left.

"Not sure. Haven't seen her since the funeral," I reply, tilting my head as I watch Five riffle through the shelves.

"Oh, she's gone," Klaus tells our sister.

"That's unfortunate," Five says, turning around with an empty coffee picture.

"Yeah," Allison agrees, not realizing the change in topic.

"An entire square block. Forty-two bedrooms, 19 bathrooms, but no, not a single drop of coffee," Five sighs, banging the picture on the table, causing me to flinch.

"Dad hated caffeine," Allison argues.

"Well, he hated children, too, and he had plenty of us," Klaus justifies, laughing humorlessly while sharing a look with me.

"Accurate," I mutter under my breath, playing with my rings.

"I'm taking the car," Five huffs, walking around the table to my side.

"Where are you going?" Klaus asks, sitting up, unwrapping his arms from my old black electric guitar I hadn't noticed before. Where the hell did he find my guitar?

"To get a decent cup of coffee," Five replies as if it's obvious.

"Do you even know how to drive?" Allison asks, her arms crossed in front of her.

"Of course we do," I say, rolling my eyes, and standing up to join him.

"I know how to do everything," Five adds before taking my hand and blinking us away.

We now sit in the academy's car, me in the passenger seat. He lets go of my hand and turns on the engine, pulling out of the alleyway. We stay silent the whole ride. I am very cautious of my left side, not wanting to accidentally graze his elbow with mine or anything due to our close proximity. My hands feel clammy. Why do my hands feel clammy?

Shit. My stupid pubescent body isn't used to being near a boy. Specifically this boy. Man. Whatever. This is frustrating. I feel warm. Is it hot in here? Should I roll the window down? No, he'll think that's weird.

I take a deep breath through my nose, trying to get my thoughts together. Jeez, Zero, you've been around this guy for nearly your entire life. Keep it together, I internally scold myself.

It takes a few minutes before we pull into the parking lot of Grindy's doughnuts, the tires making a screech as Five aggressively puts his foot down on the brakes before getting out quickly.

Damn, I guess he really wants that cup of coffee.

As I stepped out, I realise this was a place we used to go to with our siblings when we were kids.

I follow him, a bell ringing overhead as we make our way through the door, a random guy politely holds the door open for us as he leaves. I thank him quietly before following Five inside. We take a seat at the counter, me at his right. Five rings the bell in front of us twice, impatiently. "Five, you alright? You seem tense," I note softly, eyeing him.

"I'm fine," he dismisses, staring straight ahead.

The bell over the front door rings again as an older man who looks to be a little over our age (not physically of course) comes in. He sits to Five's left, sighing as he removes his baseball cap, pulling out a pen and notepad.

I can hear dishes clattering from the back room before a skinny woman in a waitress uniform comes out, standing behind the counter. "Sorry, the sink was clogged," she sighs before chuckling a little. "So, what'll it be?" She looks at the stranger beside us.

I look at Five who merely continues to stare ahead.

"Uh, give me a chocolate éclair," The man orders.

"Mm-hmm. Sure," Agnus, I read from her name tag, writes down his order before looking between Five and I. "Can I get the kids glasses of milk or something?"

"Really?" I look at her, trying to see if she's serious.

Five scoffs with a smirk before saying, "The kid wants coffee. Black."

"Same here," I agree, leaning back in my seat.

Agnus raises her eyebrows at our abruptness before chuckling awkwardly again, looking at the man. "Cute kids." The stranger stays silent, clearly confused.

The waitress looks back to Five who has the widest grin ever that doesn't meet his eyes. It's a little scary. Also amusing. I smile a little, finding it cute how his dimples, which I haven't seen in a while, are revealed.

"Okay," Agnus dismisses, putting her notepad back in her pocket before walking back to fulfill our orders. She eyes Five's umbrella academy tattoo weirdly before moving on.

I'm feeling a little peckish and the more I stare at the doughnuts, the more I want one. "Excuse me?" I ask, getting the woman's attention again as Five and the stranger start to make conversation.

She turns around, politely smiling at me. "Yeah, hun?"

I ignore the pet name before standing on the foot bar and pointing to the sugar-covered twist. "Could I also get one of those?"

"Sure," she nods, grabbing a plate and some tongs before placing the doughnut in front of me. I felt eyes on me and noticed out of my peripheral vision, Five checking me out discreetly.

I politely thank her, sitting down, before ripping off a piece of the fluffy pastry. Five shifts in his seat as he continues his conversation with the man. "Don't remember this place being such a shithole," he sighs, causing the stranger to raise his eyebrows at his language. "We used to come here as kids. Used to sneak out with our brothers and sisters and eat doughnuts until we puked. Simpler times, huh?"

I smile down at my doughnut, enjoying the memories he's bringing up.

"Eh, I suppose," the stranger agrees, still apparently confused.

The waitress clears her throat as she walks back to the countertop with our coffees and the man's pastry.

The stranger pulls out his wallet before handing Agnus some cash. "I got theirs."

"Thanks," Five tells him as the waitress leaves for the back room.

Five and the man talk more. I zone out, just enjoying my meal as I look around the place, reminiscing over the memories I have from this place. I was so lost in my thoughts that I hadn't noticed the man leave until I felt Five eyeing me as I dip my sugar-covered doughnut into my coffee. "What?" I ask him as he folds a napkin before putting it in his blazer pocket. "Seventeen-year-old me seems to have a sweet tooth," I excuse with a shrug.

"I'm not judging." He shrugs as well.

"Lair," I reply, squinting at him teasingly before taking a bite of my pastry. "What's our plan? We have less than eight days to do this."

"I'm aware," he states, drinking some of his coffee. "We need to make a quick stop before we start saving the world, though."

"You're kidding," I said deadpan.

"I'm sorry. Do you not want to see Delores again?" He asks me bitterly.

My face falls. Delores. How did I not think of her? "Of course I do," I say quietly. Suddenly, I'm no longer in a teasing mood.

"Good." He nods once.

I look down at the doughnut before raising it toward his mouth. "Want some?" I offer softly.

He doesn't reply. He instead takes a bite expressionlessly causing me to smile a little as the bell over the front door rings again. His brows furrow as he tastes the pastry. "That's complete sugar," he comments after chewing.

"Your point?" I inquire, raising a brow.

I hear a faint beeping as the sound of multiple pairs of boots shuffling in fills the place. Five and I look into the reflection on the bell sitting on the countertop, noticing a young man with a large gun pointed directly at the back of Five's head. Multiple people in Swatt-like uniforms surround us with large weapons.

A little excessive, but okay.

I stay silent, enjoying my doughnut as Five acknowledges them, sighing as he places his mug back down on the table. "Hmm. That was fast. I thought we'd have more time before they found us," he says.

"This might be a new record," I agree before taking a sip of coffee.

"Okay. So, let's all be professional about this, yeah?" the man with a gun aimed at Five's head says. I don't doubt that a few of the other men have a gun aimed at me as well. How cute. They're feminists. "On your feet and come with us. They want to talk."

"I wonder what they could possibly want," I say to Five sarcastically. "You want to take this or should I?"

"I've got nothing to say," Five replies. After years of being partners on missions, Five and I developed a way of saying things to each other with underlining meanings so that others don't pick up on what we mean. He basically just told me that he wants to take all these guys out which I'm willing to comply with.

"It doesn't have to go this way. You think I want to shoot a kid? Let alone two? Go home with that on my conscience?" The guy continues.

"Wow," I say, turning around to look the man in the eyes. "They told you nothing about us, did they?" I grin up at him. "I should warn you, you kinda just triggered my partner and I, here."

"Well, I wouldn't worry about that. You won't be going home," Five adds, turning to look at the man as well.

The song Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by They Might be Giants starts to play in the overhead speakers causing my smile to widen. "Make peace with your gods," I warn the men around me, sweetly tilting my head to the side.

Five grabs the handle of his breakfast knife before blinking away, appearing behind the man and stabbing him in the neck as guns start to shoot. I dodge the bullets by hopping over the counter and ducking down as rounds go off. I sit, leaning against the back side of the bar, clutching my doughnut in my hand, taking my last bite as I watch blood get spattered across the wall, humming along to the music, and bouncing my head to the beat.

I lick the sugar off my fingers and see a stripe of gunshots go into the coffee maker in front of me, causing some to spill out. The overhead lights start flashing. "Hey, assholes!" I hear Five say before even more gunshots go off.

Not a second later, Five is next to me. I turn to him, pouting a little. "We never got to finish our coffee."

He sighs, "I know." He takes my hand before blinking outside the front door. Looking inside, I see that there is one man dead and three confused men on guard. Five knocks on the glass, causing the three to turn around, guns now aimed at us.

Five is too quick though, saluting them as he blinks us to stand behind them. The sound of glass breaking echoes around the room. I let go of his hand, taking a pencil from the countertop before stabbing a man in the eye, causing him to yell. Five breaks a broom handle before diving it into the man's side.

Five blinks away, now choking a man with his tie.

I kick the gun out of another man's hands, causing it to slide across the tiled floor. He tries to send a punch to my face but I dodge it, instead punching him in the gut. I had decided to wear my rings today so it must have hurt.

I tuck my leg around his before pulling it back, causing him to fall on his back. I kneel down, pressing my knee into his chest to hold him down before placing my hands on the side of his face. Snap! He's dead.

I turn around just in time to watch Five blink away causing two men to shoot each other.

I'm taken aback when Five appears in front of me before placing his finger under my chin to look me in the eye. "You alright?" He asks, catching his breath.

"Yeah," I whisper before clenching my jaw.

He looks me over, taking a step back. Once he sees I'm fine, he turns to a dead man on a table, tugging his tie off the dead man's neck.

"I don't think you're going to wanna keep that tie," I mutter, looking at the thin, blood-covered, fabric.

Five ignores me, putting it on. I still hear a faint beeping. I follow the noise, finding a device on the floor with a green screen and two red dots. It's a tracking device from the commission.

I share a look with Five as I toss it to him so he can see what it is. It barely takes him a second to realize what it is and what it means. He walks back to the countertop, rolling up his sleeve before putting his forearm on it to the side with his tattoo is faced upward. "You have a knife?" he asks me knowingly.

I lift up my skirt a little to reveal my knife garter around my thigh which holds three of them. "Take your pick."

He selects the narrowest one, his fingers grazing my skin as he pulls it out of its spot. He then adjusts his grip on it to point the blade at his forearm before pressing it into his flesh, causing my eyes to widen.

He then drops the weapon down before diving his fingers into the freshly made wound, causing him to grunt.

"Hey, hey. No. Stop." I pull his hand away. "I'll do it," I tell him.

He sighs, nodding once. I hover my hand over the wound, envisioning pulling out the tracker. I raise my fingers slightly. Five groans again, causing me to believe that it's working. I see blood start to pool on the table around his arm. When the tracker is out, Five and I look at it. It's the size of a wasp and has a blinking green light.

I have Five cut into my arm before I pull out my tracker the same way.

I haven't used my powers in a long time. Only for small actions like closing doors behind me or turning off the light if I'm too lazy to get up and do it manually. I haven't used them to their full strength since... well, you know.

Five pulls me out of my thoughts by taking both trackers and making his way to leave. I grab the notepad and pen that the older man who was in here left before scribbling Sorry for the mess, on it.

I jog after Five, noticing the discarded trackers on the damp ground as I pass them before getting into the car's passenger seat.

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A/N: Don't forget to comment and vote! Thx for all the support. <3 ~ Zoe Manijeh 02.19.2023

Word count: 2.6K