Word count: 2870

"𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 right thing to do?" Valerie questioned agitatedly as she and Five walked out of the mental institution.

"What? Rat Diego out and crush his dreams of saving the president?" Five raised his eyebrows before he scoffed, "Yeah, it was."

"I don't know, it didn't seem like he was doing too well in that place," she sighed, looking back at the building over her shoulder anxiously as she felt an uneasy feeling creep up in her stomach. "We could've at least trapped him at Elliott's place while we looked for the others instead. Tied him up or something."

"You think making him stay all day, every day with that lunatic would be better than that mental hospital?" His chuckle lacked humour as he shook his head. "No."

"Yeah, but . . . at least we'd get to see him. I mean, he's been by himself for the past three months, I'm sure he'd feel better around his family," she reasoned with a frown. "Maybe we should've just let him escape, and then we could've kidnapped him or something."

"You know we can't risk anything," he said softly, slipping his fingers through hers and gently squeezing her hand in reassurance. "If Diego somehow manages to stop the assassination . . ."

"I know," she sighed, giving him a small nod.

"Anyway," he cleared his throat before resuming, "before we do anything else, we need to get a first aid kit or something."

"Why?" 

He stopped looking around and stared at her for a moment. "Oh, I don't know, maybe for the hole in your stomach?"

She shook her head as she reassured him, "No, it's fine. Look, I haven't used any of my speed for the past couple of hours, and—" She swept the side of her blazer to show that the wound was already halfway through mending itself, quite visible through the hole in her dress. "It doesn't even hurt anymore. We should just focus on finding the others."

Five hesitated for a moment before he sighed. "Fine. But don't you dare use your speed until it finishes healing."

"You know I can't promise that." She gave him a half-smile and a small shrug. "Anyway, can we go back to Elliott's or something? I want to fix this hole in my dress."

"All right."

Five grabbed her hand, and spatial-jumped the both of them back to the kitchen of Elliott's place. Elliott, who had been in the middle of spreading butter on his toast, jumped, nearly cutting himself.

"Did you guys find number four?" Elliott asked after recovering from the surprise attack.

"Technically Number Two," Five mumbled.

"Yeah, it's a no-go." Valerie gave Elliott a small smile before asking, "Do you happen to have a sewing kit?"

"Uh . . ." 

Elliott disappeared into a closet, a few things clattering around as he looked for one. He reappeared after a moment, his face slightly red as he handed her a small, plastic box that was labelled as an emergency sewing kit. 

"Kept one from when I accidentally ripped my pants while selling one of my TVs."

"I'm assuming they didn't buy the TV?" Five questioned in amusement as Valerie took the kit from him. 

Elliott shook his head as he gave a small sigh. "Nope."

After giving a mutter of thanks, Valerie took the sewing kit with her to the living room and opened it. 

She took out a needle and a grey thread that was close to the colour of her dress and began to work on closing the small rip. It was small enough that the stitching was barely noticeable by the time she was done, which she was quite thankful for.

Valerie cursed silently as she realized she would have to fix the shirt she was wearing underneath. The only problem was that she'd have to take her dress off first, and she was not going to do that in this mess of a living room where a strange man could walk in any time.

"Elliott?" she called.

He poked his head into the room, his eyebrows raised. "Yeah?"

"Do you have a bedroom I could go into for a moment?"

He nodded and pointed to a door just opposite her. "There." 

She shut the sewing kit and got up before heading for the room. 

Five followed her in, making it in just before she closed the door. 

His eyes narrowed as he peered at her and queried, "What are you doing?"

"What do you mean? I'm fixing my clothes." She rolled her eyes as she opened the kit again, this time taking out a white thread from the box.

"Why do you need to be in the bedroom?" 

She took her blazer off and tossed it onto the bed before taking a seat on the edge of it. "I have to take my dress off to fix the hole in my button-up. Now, do you mind getting out?"

"Why?"

"Because I have to take my dress off!"

"Just take it off halfway." He shrugged and waved a dismissive hand through the air. "I don't want to go out there and be alone with that lunatic."

"Well, you know," she began as she slid the straps of her uniform dress off of her shoulders, then pulling the top of the dress down so that the button-up was revealed, "that 'lunatic' has been quite helpful, so you should be nice to him."

"I'd rather not." Five wrinkled his nose as he watched her carefully slip the string through the hole at the top of the needle. "We probably don't even need him anymore."

She paused for a moment to glare at him. "C'mon, Five. We're stuck in a totally different city than we're used to, twenty years before we were even born, and ten days before the apocalypse. We could use some extra friends. At least, until we find everyone else."

"Friends?" He scoffed as he sat down next to her. "We didn't have any friends the first time around either."

"And look where that landed us." She rolled her eyes as she poked the needle through the shirt for the last time, before tying the end and snipping it. "1963."

"You're saying that we couldn't stop the first apocalypse because we didn't have any friends?" he questioned incredulously as he raised his eyebrows. "Who would we even be friends with?"

"The rest of the Umbrella Academy for one. You should've told everyone about the apocalypse from the start," Valerie sighed as she closed the kit and looked towards him. "Maybe then we would've had more time and could've done something before Harold Jenkins got to Vanya."

Five's eyes narrowed as he leaned forward, jabbing a finger in her direction as he accused, "Oh, so now you're blaming me?"

"No, Five, I'm not—"

"It's my fault that apocalypse happened since I didn't tell everyone?"

"Five—"

"Even though when I did tell everyone, all that ended with was Allison almost dying and then Luther locking Vanya up and being the reason why she blew everything up? But no, this whole thing is my fault?"

"Five! Shut up!" Valerie clamped her hand over his mouth, effectively stopping his ramble, and sighed. "First of all, you're an idiot. Second of all, I'm not saying that the apocalypse was your fault. I'm saying it was a mistake to not connect with everyone again once you returned. I don't want to make that mistake again, not when we have someone who clearly is useful."

He pulled her hand down and muttered, "Fine. That doesn't mean I'll be nice to him."

"How else are we supposed to be friends with him?" she questioned as she slid her dress back up, slipping the straps back onto her shoulders.

"You can be nice to him," Five told her as he shrugged. "You're a nice person. Sometimes."

"You're so romantic, you know that?" She rolled her eyes as she put her blazer back on. "Now, who do we find next?"

—♫—

Quite a few hours later, Valerie and Five stood in front of a burlesque bar, glancing around them to make sure that no one was giving them any suspicious looks. 

Playful music floated out from inside, along with the chats and cheers among the men inside, and, even from the outside, they could tell that the bar was nearly full.

"So this is where Luther is?" Valerie questioned as she leaned back and examined the bright lights around the sign. "How do you know?"

"Don't worry about it," Five sighed as he slipped his hands into the pockets of his shorts. "Okay, let's go in."

Five was about to step forward when Valerie saw something and held her hand out to stop him. "I can't go in."

"What, because you're a girl?" Five raised his eyebrows before giving her a shrug. "I mean, you might get a couple of weird looks, but it isn't illegal or anything."

"Not that." She shook her head before nodding her head to the sign that boldly stated: WHITE TRADE ONLY.

A look of realization dawned onto Five's face as he breathed out, "Right. We're in 1963."

"Mhm." She ran a hand through her hair as she shook her head and sighed. "And I'm not white."

"What do we do?" Five asked as he turned to face her, his eyebrows furrowed. "I'm not going in there without you."

Valerie thought for a moment before nodding. "I have an idea. But . . ." she sighed, "I don't know if I have enough energy to do it long enough."

A grin spread onto his face. "I have a solution."

He dug through his pockets and whipped out a bar that was wrapped in plastic wrap. "I told Elliott to mix as many things as he could and then bake them into bars. This probably has, like, five thousand calories in it."

"Did you ask him nicely?" She quirked an eyebrow as she took the brown bar from him, eyeing it suspiciously as she unwrapped it. She sniffed it, although it didn't seem to have a scent, which only worried her further.

He shrugged. "Well, I didn't use a knife to threaten him if that counts."

"At least you're learning," she sighed before taking a bite of the bar. She gagged as soon as she did, grabbing onto Five's shoulder with her free hand and gripping it tightly as she forced herself to swallow. "Oh, Jesus fucking Christ."

"That bad?"

"The worst thing I've ever tasted," she coughed. "Do you know what's in this?"

"Uh . . . I helped him get the ingredients so that I could make sure there were a lot of calories . . . ." Five scrunched his nose as he searched his memories. "There was, like, ten cups of butter, ten cups of peanut butter, a few cups of crushed nuts, a bunch of chocolate, ten cups of vegetable oil, a bunch of cups of cheese—"

"Stop, stop, stop." She shook her head, her nose wrinkling as she tried to not throw everything up. "You mixed cheese and chocolate and oil and butter and—ugh. I can't believe I have to eat this. How did you even get so much of those ingredients? I don't think Elliott had that much shit lying around."

"Don't worry about it." He gave her a big smile—she then assumed he stole it all—before leaning forward and kissing her cheek. "Just eat."

"But I don't want to," she whined, her forehead creasing as she looked down at the bar with disgust.

She had no choice, however. With a deep breath, she shoved the entire bar into her mouth and tried to ignore the repugnant taste as she chewed. Once she swallowed, she gave a weak nod. "Good to go."

"Right, so what exactly is your plan?" Five questioned.

Valerie sighed before she began to vibrate as fast as she could, and she soon disappeared from sight.

"What—where did you—"

"I'm vibrating at the natural frequency of air, and I'm moving too fast for your eyes to follow," she answered.

"Won't it be hard to keep that up?" Five asked as he raised his eyebrows.

"Meh. Again, I had a lot of time to practice in those twelve years." She shrugged, although he couldn't see her do that.

"Hey, but your wound—"

"It's healed," she responded immediately. "I'm good to go."

"All right. Let's go." Five nodded before heading into the bar.

Valerie followed him in, looking around but, unfortunately, there were no gigantic men in sight. 

The bar was quite full, with various men taking up the seats at the rounded table. At the farthest end was a brightly lit stage, where a burlesque dancer in bright orange clothing entertained the crowd.

Five sat down at one of the circular tables in the front of the stage, his eyes watching the dancer.

"Seriously?" Valerie whispered, rolling her eyes.

"I have to blend in until we find Luther," Five whispered back, swivelling his head from left to right, not knowing where she was.

"I'm on your left, you dumbass," she muttered. She didn't like how glued to the dancer his eyes were, though she tried to push that anxious feeling away as she searched the room for the tall man.

Suddenly, a woman who wore a sparkly, peach top, and had short, blonde hair approached. She gave Five a tight smile as she crouched down to his level and cut in, "Excuse me, hun, I think you're a little too young to be here. We don't allow minors."

Five's attention turned to her, a small smirk playing on his face. His eyes roamed her figure as he slyly replied, "Well, what time are you getting off work, darling?"

Valerie scoffed. Oh no he didn't.

The woman looked taken aback for a moment before an amused smile reached her lips. She gazed at Five in the same manner a mom would to her child before standing up and walking away, giggling to herself.

Though he couldn't see her, Valerie was giving Five the worst glare she could muster. Sure, she knew that he had to keep his cover, but there were plenty of other ways he could've handled that.

She stopped vibrating her hand for a moment and slapped him in the face before having her hand return to the state the rest of her body was in.

"Ow!" Five held his hand against his cheek, groaning in pain as he turned his head towards her. "The hell was that for?"

A couple of people glanced his way, confused looks on their faces. Of course, as far as they knew, nobody was sitting next to Five.

"What do you think?" Valerie muttered.

"I'm keeping our cover!" Five exclaimed quietly, still rubbing his cheek as he glanced over at the table next to them. "I'm not trying to get with that lady!"

"Mhm, sure seemed that way."

"Wha—Valerie!" His eyes widened as he tried to keep his voice as quiet as possible. "Do you really think that I—"

Valerie looked behind them, seeing a familiar, angry man heading their way. "Shh, Luther's coming!"

Five turned his eyes back to the dancer as they waited for Luther. Once Luther had reached them, he bent over, murmuring to Five, "You have a girlfriend, don't you? Eyes to yourself."

Luther was now Valerie's favourite.

Five glanced over to him, an amused smile on his face as he responded, "Nice to see you too, Luther."

Luther rolled his eyes before shaking his head and asking, "What do you want?"

"For you to stop hovering like an ambitious stripper and sit down with us," Five replied airily.

Luther pulled up a chair to Five's right, sitting down before pausing, a strange look on his face. "Us?"

"'Sup," Valerie greeted.

Luther leaned forward, his eyes going towards the seemingly empty chair as he registered her voice. "Wha—Valerie?"

"Yeah, it's me," she confirmed with a small nod.

"Wh—you're invisible?" he questioned. "Why?"

"Racism."

A look of realization dawned on his face as he nodded slowly. "Right."

Five sighed, drawing the subject to change as he asked, "How long have you been here?"

Luther stared at him, his eyes hardening as he bitterly answered, "A year, thanks to you."

"I'm sorry, Luther," Five exhaled, a look of regret crossing his face as he sincerely continued, "I know that couldn't have been easy."

"I thought everybody was dead," Luther said roughly before his eyes looked past them and to a pair of arguing men. "I gotta go."

Five grabbed Luther's arm as he got up from his seat. "Luther, wait. Look, I get it, okay? I know what it's like to be stuck in time . . . Thinking this is how you're gonna live out the rest of your life. On the run, and not knowing if you're ever gonna see the people you love again, and to be in an unfamiliar world. But Luther, you're not alone. We have to find the others because the world ends again in ten days. I have no idea how to stop it."

Luther stared at him for a moment before scoffing. "I don't give a shit."