Hey everyone. This chapter of My Life (At the End of the World) was brought to you Pop Figure Collection on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I wrote for Nico Minoru's Black Jacket emotion prompt of lonely. I hope you all enjoy chapter two Five Meets Lily Luna.
Five found his existence a lonely one among the ruins of the place the world had once been. He had only meant to prove to his father that he could time travel. Go to the future and then be right back in the blink of an eye. But he hadn't counted on not being able to make the trip back. He must have traveled too far ahead.
"What's that Dolores?" he asked, looking at the mannequin found in the ruins of what was once a department store.
The mannequin stared at him with its immobile eyes and mouth, but he was pretty sure he heard her voice, or what he assumed it would sound like if she had one, in his head.
"We should help her," Dolores said.
"There's no one here but you and me, Dolores," Five pointed out, thinking this should be obvious to the mannequin. "There's no her here to help, and why should we even if there was?"
He didn't mean to sound dismissive of what Dolores was saying. If there was someone to help he would willingly help that person. But like he'd mentioned to Dolores, they were the only ones around.
"That girl over there by your old home," Dolores pointed out helpfully, looking towards the Umbrella Academy. "She looks a bit disoriented."
Five followed Dolores' eyes and sighed exasperatedly when he saw that Dolores was indeed right. Standing outside the Umbrella Academy looking very lost was a girl about his own age. The sun shone on her long red hair as she looked around herself, at the destruction that was the world now. He turned back to Dolores to see the look in her eyes change to one of disappointment.
"What's that look for?" he asked, hearing his voice break and knowing if the girl was close enough to hear he'd be embarrassed to sound like that. "She'll just slow us down and distract me, Dolores. I don't need any distractions while I'm trying to figure out how to get back home."
"But what if she can help?" Dolores offered up.
"What if she can't?" Five countered.
"It's the right thing to do, Five," Dolores pointed out, arguing to the things that his Mom had taught him and his siblings their whole lives. "Let's go over there and introduce ourselves."
"You just want another girl in this group so you can gossip," Five pointed out with a laugh. It felt like it had been too long since he'd done that. Laughed. There really wasn't much to laugh about in this wasteland. "Is that it?"
"Five," Dolores sighed exasperatedly.
"Fine," he muttered as he walked over to the girl who looks so lost in this landscape.
He could hear her talking to herself as they approached the girl. "Is this the end of the world?" she asked, looking at the paper in her hands. She must not have realized that she wasn't alone here because she jumped when he answered her.
"I think so," he told her as he stepped forward, pulling Dolores in the wagon he'd found a while back. "You might not want to stay in one place at a time. Not that there's anyone here to actually bother you or anything." He'd figured out that staying in one place too long would only cause one pain a while ago, after seeing what had happened to his siblings, Mom, and Pogo. Not that she probably had any family in the area anyway.
The girl cocked her head to the side as though confused by what he'd just said, and he wanted to put his head in his hands in exasperation but could see the look in Dolores's eyes. "Dolores says we ought to help you out," he told her, assessing whether she was a threat or if she could, like Dolores suggested, be helpful to him. "I don't know if we should though. I mean if we do, that's one more mouth to feed."
"That's a horrible way to look at it," the girl pointed out indignantly. "I'd think that helping someone would provide you with more company than some mannequin that can't properly be considered company at all." She seemed quite pleased with herself for making this point.
"I will have you know" —Five bristled at her statement, angry on Dolores's behalf— "that Dolores is a wonderful conversationalist." He caught sight of the look in Dolores's eyes.
"Five, you need human companionship too," Dolores pointed out.
"Fine," he told Dolores, "you always do tend to get your way on things." He turned back to the shocked-looking girl who watched the conversation he was having with Dolores. "We, meaning Dolores, have decided that we're going to help you. Get your stuff and follow us."
He started to walk off, hearing her huff behind him. Dolores had that look in her eyes that said he could have handled that better than he did. He sighed to himself as he heard her speak up once more.
"I'm Lily," she called after him, "in case you were wondering."
Not that he was actually wondering. He'd only allowed her along because Dolores wouldn't leave him alone until he did. "I'm Number Five," he told her, trying not to sound angry at her insistence that this was nothing more than a normal day and not the end of the world. "If you don't mind, I'm trying to get back to my family and figure out how to stop the world from going up in smoke." He pointed towards the landscape around him.
She, Lily, raced to catch up with him, a smile crossing her face, which for some reason he didn't understand. "Can I help?" she asked feeling around in the pocket of what must be her pajamas for something.
He didn't bother answering her because he knew that both Lily and Dolores would insist that he allowed the girl to help him. He just rolled his eyes as he continued to walk ahead of her, trying ignore Dolores's voice telling him that Lily could be helpful. He'd have to protect himself from getting too close to her, because once he got home he knew he'd probably never see her again. He wasn't ready to get hurt like that again.
I hope you all enjoyed Five Meets Lily Luna.