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WE WALK INTO THE FRONT doors of a prosthetic body parts manufacturing building. If our assumptions are correct, this is where the prosthetic eye we found in the apocalypse originates. Five's fist holds the eye in his shorts' front pocket as we pace up towards the receptionist's desk.
"I still think we should have stopped by Vanya's," he mutters to me under his breath.
"And I still disagree." I shrug, turning my head to look at his boyish face.
He doesn't reply. Instead, he steps forward, looking around the lobby and up to the letters on the wall that confirm that we found the company that made the eye. A man with crutches passes us as he speaks to another man in a lab coat. Five's eyes follow the duo as he faces the receptionist's desk again.
"Uh...Can I help you?" a guy steps out through the glass doors leading further into the building to our left. He also wears a lab coat with a badge hanging from a lanyard around his neck, which reads "Dr. Lance".
Five tilts his head to the side a little as he walks up to Lance and holds up the glass eye. "I need to know who this belongs to," he states simply.
"Where did you get that?" the doctor asks, looking down at him.
"What do you care?" he retorts, furrowing his brows at the question. Lance merely looks at him. "I... I found it. At a playground, actually," Five lies with a shrug, smiling to himself a little. "It must have just," he pauses to click his tongue to make a popping sound. "... popped out."
He's an idiot. Do we look like we go to the playground? Fuck no.
"We wanna return it to its rightful owner," I smile at Lance, going with Five's lie.
"Awe," the receptionist coos at us softly. "What a thoughtful young couple!"
What an annoying young woman!
"Yeah. Look up the name for me, will ya?" Five sasses at her, causing me to smirk to myself.
"Uh, I'm sorry, but patient records are strictly confidential," Lance stops them. "That means I can't tell you-," he starts to mansplain.
"Yeah, we know what it means," I say coldly, glaring at him.
"Well, I'll tell you what I can do," Lance continues, shoving his hands in his pants pockets. "I will take the eye off your hands and return it to the owner. I'm sure he or she will be very grateful. So, if I can just-,"
"Yeah, you're not touching this eye," Five interrupts him, holding the eye away from him.
This takes the doctor by surprise. He does his best to sound authoritarian as he says, "Now, you listen here, young man-,"
Five grabs him by the collar of his lab coat, pulling him forward, before kneeing him in the gut, causing Lance to grunt in pain. His face contorts into slight fear as Five speaks dangerously close to his face. "No! You listen to me, Asshole," he says through his teeth, clearly not enjoying being talked down to. "I've come a long way for this.
I shift my weight to my left leg as I shove my hands in my pocket, sighing at Five's aggression but not bothering to make a move to stop him. "We," I correct him in a false cough under my breath, but he ignores me.
"Through some shit through your pea brain couldn't even comprehend," Five continues as though I hadn't said anything. "So, just give me the information I need, and we'll be on our merry way." He glares at the Doctor, smiling at the fear in his eyes."And if you call me 'young man' one more time, I'm gonna put your head through that damn wall."
"Ugh! I love it when he threatens," I tell the horrified receptionist in a hushed voice, visually shivering dramatically. "Runs shivers down my spine."
"Oh dear," she replies, looking back at me in worry as her hand reaches for the phone to her right.
"Call security," Lance whispers to her softly, not daring to break eye contact with Five.
I step forward and hold a finger down to the hang-up button before she even has the chance to dial the number. "Yeah, I don't think so, sweetheart," I tell her.
"SECURITY!" Lance yells out.
"Z," Five mutters, drawing my attention away from the receptionist as he continues his staring contest with the doctor. "Let's go."
"Really?" I ask as he shoves lace away and straightens out his jacket, taking a step back.
"Yeah." He turns to me and nods his head towards the exit. "Let's go." He lets me lead the way out, only a few steps behind me.
"Playground? Really?" I recall his words under my breath as we near the doors. "We look sixteen, Five. Not six."
"Not now, Zero," he mutters coldly, clearly not pleased with how his plan turned out.
They make their way onto the street. "You don't wanna just teleport home?" I ask him curiously, noticing a slight stomp in his walk.
"I need to clear my head," he huffs, shoving the eye back into his pocket.
The fact that he still has the eye at all surprises me. Decades he's held onto it, and it still looks brand new. I realise now that he truly never lost hope in returning to now and saving our family from this inevitable mess.
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Not too long after, they finally made their way back to the Umbrella Academy. Five had somehow managed to convince Klaus to help us. He probably would have asked a different one of our siblings instead, but he was the only one here when we got home.
Currently, the addict is buttoning up a very loud shirt with frilly sleeves. "We said something professional, Klaus."
"What?" he replies cluelessly. "This is my nicest outfit."
"The skirt was nicer," I disagree.
"Ohhh, true," Klaus admits, pouting his lips with a nod.
"We'll raid the old man's closet," Five sighs, making his way to our father's room with us following not too far behind.
"As long as I get paid," Klaus reminds him.
"When the job is done," the time traveller replies.
"Okay, but just so we're clear on the finer details," Klaus starts, recalling what we had told him about Five's "new and improved" plan. "I just gotta go into this place and pretend to be your dear old dad, correct?" he asks.
"Yup," I confirm as we walk down the hall. "You look like me more than you look like him, so I guess you're my dad in this situation. They assumed we were a couple," I add context, gesturing between the Five and I.
"I see. So, what's our cover story?" he asks, looking between us.
"Cover story?" I repeated in confusion. Both Five and I stop to stare at our brother.
"What are you talking about?" Five asks him, clearly just as lost as I am.
"I mean, was I really young when I had you? Like 16? Like, young and... terribly misguided?" he holds his hands to his chest as he gets into character.
"Sure." Five shrugs, continuing down the hall only to stop as Klaus has more to say.
"Your mother, that slut, whoever she was. We met at... the disco," he smiles as he paints us a story. Five and I share a look, him of annoyance, me of amusement. "Okay? Remember that." Klaus snaps his fingers. "Oh, my God. The sex was amazinggg."
"What a disturbing glimpse into that thing you call a brain," Five retorts, putting his hand on the small of my back to guide me towards our father's room.
"Don't make me put you in time-out!" Klaus warns him, wagging his finger.
"ZEROOO!" I hear my name get called from another part of the house.
"WHAT!" I yell back, recognising the sound of my brother's voice. "I'll be right back," I mutter to Five, turning to go the opposite way.
"You're leaving me to deal with him?" Five asks me, ignoring the fact that his comment made Klaus gasp in offence.
"You can handle him for a few minutes, and then I'll be back to babysit. Don't worry," I tell him over my shoulder as I make my way to the main staircase. "THE FUCK YOU WANT, IDIOT?" I yell, searching for my brother.
"Could have been a lot less obvious, sis," I hear his voice say as my vision becomes obstructed by some sort of paper. Deigo had stuck a Post-it note to my forehead. I peel it off to glare at him before looking down at the note.
Sorry for the mess! It read. Ah yes, the note I left at the diner last night. Curious as to how he managed to find it.
"What about it?" I ask him with false confusion.
"There was a shit-ton of dead bodies everywhere at that doughnut shop we used to go to when we were kids. You telling me you know nothing about that?" He interrogates, leaning close to my face.
"No clue," I shrug, my stare at him unwavering.
"Right." Deigo nods. "Sure," he says sarcastically.
"Need anything else, detective?" I raise an eyebrow at him, daring him to say more.
He pauses, looking into my eyes for a lie, only to come up empty-handed. He shakes his head before taking a step back.
"Good to see you too, brother," I mutter before walking back up the stairs to find Klaus and Five.
"Zero," she gets stopped by a different voice this time. Vanya jogs up the stairs from the first level, passing by Deigo as he makes his way out of the house.
"Yeah?" I ask softly, turning back.
She meets me in between the sair case levels. "You alright?" she asks me, seeming genuinely worried.
Almost like it was out of reflex, I put on a fake smile and said, "Of course, Van. Why?"
"Nothing." Vanya shrugs her shoulders. "I was looking for you and Five earlier and couldn't find you."
"Uh, yeah." I nod, quickly coming up with a lie. "Had some business to take care of." Okay. That's not a complete lie.
"Business? You barely got back," she notes aloud.
"Doctors," I think aloud on the spot. "You know what dad used to say. Time travel could have resulted in psychological trauma. Wanted to get us checked out, y'know? Just in case we were more mentally damaged than we thought." I shrug.
"Oh," she replies in a small voice.
"I know. With the childhood we had? Impossible, right?" I joke, hoping it helps make the lie more believable.
"Right." Her tone doesn't change. "So do you?" She asks. "Have psychological trauma?"
I think for a moment before honestly answering, "Probably," with a shrug.
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A/N: Over 10K reads?? That much support earns you an update! I'm so sorry for not being active on this book. My priorities are everywhere, lol. Hope you liked this chapter!! :)
Also! Thoughts on the season 4 TUA trailer??? OMG
Word count: 1.8K
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