As August was approaching, Five couldn't help but feel baffled yet content at the life he was carving out for himself. The Byers family was taking care of him, he had friends that liked being around, and a decent enough job with co-workers he's becoming friendly towards. Still he knew he couldn't become complacent and deep down despite his joy, he needed to make some headway with his time travel equations.

Five was on his break and he was working on temporal equations in the back while sipping on a milkshake. Robin was with him, reading a book and she peered over to see what Five was doing. She raised an eyebrow as she pulled a loose piece of paper towards her and studied it. This made no sense and it looked too important for it to be summer math problems.

"What exactly are you working on Aidan?" Robin questioned.

Five noticed the paper in her hand and quickly took it away from her. He scoffed and retorted with,

"If you don't understand it, then you're simple."

"Oh do not even start Aidan. You know I am a girl of many talents, mostly with languages and music. I mean how else would we be able to annoy Steve with our varied conversations spanning different languages. The dingus is easy to frustrate, yes?"

Five and he chuckled since he adored screwing over with Steve by having conversations in French and Italian with Robin. His face always was furrowed and his whining and groans just made the acts funnier. Still Robin was right, she wasn't simple at all and he was just being a bit of an ass for no reason.

"Extremely easy but fun as well. Yet he's pretty okay when he's not talking to girls when they come up for ice cream. Seriously, how can he be so persistent? Does he have an off switch?" Five expressed.

Robin nodded and she lightly asked,

"You don't see yourself being the same way? I'd think after ditching daddy's home school prison you'd be all for exploring the fairer sex that weren't your sisters."

Five rolled his eyes at her and shook his head.

"There's more to life than girls Robin. Besides I have standards and honestly the type of girls Steve goes for might not be the girls I go for."

"Oh and what girls would you go for?" Robin asked.

Five thought for a moment and…he was kind of drawing a blank. I mean…what would he be into in terms of girls. Did he even want to date? He's seen several girls in passing in the ice cream shop and while they batted their eyes and looked pretty…his heart remained neutral. It was odd unless maybe he wasn't going through hormonal changes yet. When he saw most girls, he didn't feel anything, not even the slightest change in pulse.

"You know, I'm not even sure. Haven't given it much thought about it. Wasn't a priority to me."

Robin was a bit curious about that since boys to some extent would have the faintest interest in girls by now. Could it be…

Just then Steve opened the window and he called,

"Hey Aidan, El's asking for you. Make it quick since we have other customers."

Five raised an eyebrow and Steve stepped away for him to see El licking vanilla ice cream with sprinkles and whipped cream. Robin looked to him with a light smile and patted his shoulder to give him a slight boost. He got up to the counter and he smiled a bit at her.

"Hey."

"Hi." El spoke a bit shyly.

Things grew quiet and Steve groaned.

"Take her to a booth or table to talk okay kid?"

Five scoffed but nodded as he and El sat down at a table together. She licked her ice cream and glanced nervously over Five.

"So…um…you know Mike and I broke up right?"

"Yeah Will told me and he was being such a shit about wondering what he did wrong to lose you. By the way, I agree that breaking up with him was fine if he wasn't treating you right."

El nodded and ate her ice cream, trying to find the words to tell him. She glanced over and Five noticed that. He looked into the mall and saw Max trying, and failing, to be inconspicuous. Odd he thought but he returned his attention to El, who was blushing a bit.

"Well…I kind of…I'm kind of…um…"

El sighed and glanced into Five's eyes softly.

"Would you like to hang out…just you and me? Like a…like a date?"

Five seemed taken aback by this. El was asking him out? He softly looked over El, who has soft brown curls, a soft innocence to her, and easy on the eyes along with nice eyes. Five didn't know what to expect and if he should be feeling more about this, but this would be a good time to experience this. Besides, he wanted to get to know El for a while now and this would be a perfect chance to get close and perhaps form a kinship if a relationship ended up not happening.

"I must say…I haven't been asked out before so this is new to me."

El laughed softly and nodded in agreement.

"I agree….well I haven't asked anyone out. It was always Mike suggesting what we do and sometimes we didn't do much. I want to see how you and I can hang out."

Five glanced up to both Steve and Robin, and both were nodding and mouthing to accept like little cheerleaders. He chuckled a bit and shook his head. El frowned and she questioned,

"You don't want to go out?"

Five paid attention to El and she squirmed nervously in her seat. It dawned on him he was being a bit rude and he mentally cursed.

"I'm not laughing at the idea. It's not a no El. I would like to go on a date with you. I've been curious and thinking about you for some time now."

El blushed and she glanced at the wrapped neckerchief around Five's arm. He was hiding something and she wondered if they could talk.

"I've been thinking about you too. So um…when are you off work?"

"My free days are Monday and Friday. Monday's closer so let's have it on Monday. Where should we meet?" Five asked.

"Mall's good, maybe for 1? My dad has a strict curfew. Maybe we can catch a movie and get…well ice cream if you're not sick of it." El suggested.

Five chuckled and nodded.

"Maybe Back to The Future? It's a really good movie and I think you'd enjoy it."

El smiled softly and nodded. Soon they were joined by Max and she gently grabbed El by her hand and they left together. Five could overhear a cheerful whisper from El

"He said yes Max."

"I told you he will." Max whispered with a light chuckle before both girls left.

Five cracked a light smile as he went back to the counter to Steve and Robin. Steve was smiling smugly at him while Robin smiled a bit. She grabbed the whiteboard she was marking for Steve, drew a horizontal line, put an A down below the line and put a line under 'YOU RULE' on it.

"My my, someone finally got a date. Sorry it's not you dingus." Robin teased.

Steve chuckled and just nodded, cracking a light smile for Five. This was kind of nice that Five was going to have a date and with a good girl for his first.

"Hey I'm okay with it. Good on you Five. El's a sweet girl so just try not breaking her heart okay?"

Five sighed and stroked the back of his neck.

"I've never been on a date before and I don't know if this is going to become anything. I'm not sure if it should."

Five was going in deep if he was going to have a relationship, a romantic relationship. The last thing he wanted was to get too close and in the end he'll be breaking their heart when he returns to his own time. Then again he kind of did feel a close relationship with Will and they were simply best friends…well Will was his best friend at least. Dread and doubt were filling up his gut.

"Well you're not going to know all that when you start and until you start. I mean I've been on one off dates before so it does happen. Just don't worry about having this one date become an end all be all Aidan. You know, have some fun, talk, and see if you want another date or if you'll be better as friends. Even I was a worried mess like you once" Steve shared.

Yeah but you weren't a worried mess about girls because you weren't from this time. He sighed and he looked at Robin with a concerned look. She shook her head and commented,

"Just focus on the here and now. You worry way too much. El's going to like you and you're going to have fun. Keep it cool and keep it causal." Robin expressed softly.

Five was waiting in front of the mall on that fateful Monday afternoon for El. He was a bit nervous but he didn't know if the nerves were from a general attraction and liking for El or the fact this was a cardinal mistake about opening his heart for a doomed romance. Five did find El interesting and wanted to know about her past and powers but he knew he would need to be honest but could he bring himself too. As he stood there waiting, looking at his watch, he sighed and started to fidget. Maybe he should just…no he thought, he couldn't leave, that wouldn't be the gentlemanly thing to do. Still how was he going to get through this date? It wasn't even like making friends with Will; Will caught him using his powers and Will understood he needed to return to his time. El wasn't like that and he didn't know….

"Aidan?"

His thoughts were interrupted by El's voice and he looked to see her walking towards him. He glanced over her, smiling when he saw her in a blue sundress and a sunny yellow cardigan sweater. She did look sweet, Five thought and offered his hand.

"I'm glad you could make it."

"Me too. My dad Hop was a bit nervous about letting me go today. He's head of the police here and worries about people he hasn't met, especially boys."

Made sense Five thought.

"Sounds like a good father figure. Joyce has been good to me so I can understand the feeling."

El raised an eyebrow since she thought there was something else to that statement. She had 'Papa' before her dad and Max mentioned Aidan ran away from his dad. El looked to Aidan's arm and he was wearing a long sleeved shirt to cover his arm. He had to be hiding something but she wanted to like Aidan.

"So shall we go in and see a movie?" El asked, taking Five's hand.

Five smiled and nodded. They walked into the mall and located the movie theater. El looked to Five to make a movie selection since she wasn't aware of what was out. Well he had one idea and he'd known it would be a good movie to watch. After all, it was a good movie still in his time.

"You wouldn't mind Back to The Future will you?"

El just nodded and Five got them two tickets for the movie. They went to the concession stand to get sodas, popcorn, and some candy. While waiting on line El asked,

"Do you know what the movie is about?"

Five answered,

"It's about a boy named Marty who goes back in time and interrupts his parents' meeting as teens. It's bad because if they don't meet, they would never marry or have him. So he needs to get them back together before…well you'll see yourself."

El was intrigued and nodded as their snacks were given to them. They sat in the middle of the theater and watched the previews and then the movie. As the movie went on, Five wondered if he should do the cliched moves on stretching and put an arm around her or to take her hand in the popcorn. He didn't want to be like the other guys but he kind of wanted to see how this would go. His father neglected to teach him about dating and other normal shit and that's another thing he sort of failed on. He ran his fingers in his hair nervously and glanced softly at her. El watched the movie but she felt his eyes on her and felt a bit subconscious about it.

"Do I have popcorn on my face?" she asked.

Five shook his head and sighed.

"Sorry…I'm not good with this." Five whispered as he shifted his eyes to the screen. Dammit, he was making this weird but he didn't want to.

" Neither am I. My ex and I only hung out at my house mostly." El assured

Five sighed and nodded.

"Well you're the first girl I've been on a date with so this is all very new territory and it kind of scares me." he admitted with a faint blush.

"Yeah, this scares me too but I do like you." El said, offering some popcorn to him.

He smiled and nodded, taking some and popping it in his mouth. It was one thing to catch Back to the Future on tape or on tv, but it was very different watching it on the big screen in theaters. Five looked at El and she looked intrigued as well. He went to get more popcorn and El had the same idea since she was getting some as well. Their hands touched and Five quickly pulled his hand away to casually play it off. He felt something but what were his feelings he thought. So confusing, probably more confusing than the temporal equations. El looked to Aidan and gently took his hand and smiled lightly.

"It's okay Aidan. I liked it."

Aidan, a lie he thought. He wasn't being honest with her and yet he already shared his name with others already. God he hated this pit in his stomach. When the movie let out, El hung on to Five's arm and glanced softly at him.

"I liked that movie, you think there will be another one?"

"Yeah at least two more." Five said without thinking. Shit he thought and El smiled.

"Oh you think there will be two movies and not just one?"

"Uh yeah…good things come in threes. Any more and you mess with a good thing. Anyway, should we get ice cream now?"

They both made it to Scoops Ahoy and Steve couldn't help but smile at the two of them.

"Don't worry Aidan. Ice cream's on me. I'll bring you our banana boat sundaes."

Five thanked him and they went to a booth. El lingered on him and saw Five was not entirely looking at her. She bit her lip and asked,

"What's wrong?"

Five sighed and shook his head.

"Nothing's wrong…well okay maybe something is but I don't know how to explain it. It's just very…sensitive is all."

El tilted her head and questioned.

"Do you not like this date? Am I doing anything wrong?"

Five shook his head, sighing deeply and hanging his head back.

"Look…I'm not like most guys, I'm not like Mike or Will or even Steve. I have a lot that I want to share but I need to know if I can trust you."

El grew a bit worried and asked,

"So you were lying to me?"

"No El…well yes Will shared a different name to Max but only because my name would be…strange to most. It's more like I didn't share things even thought I kind of already know about you."

El's heart dropped and she crossed her arms nervously and defensively.

"W-Who told you? What did they tell you?" she asked.

"Will and Jonathan, but it's only because they know about me; things I need to keep to a small group of close people since this is a bad time for people like us."

"People like us?" El repeated.

Five took El's hand and he pulled up the sleeve to show her 011 tattoo. She flinched and pulled it back and glared at Five.

"You shouldn't have done that. I'm not some bad experiment…"

"I know, but please keep your voice down. We're not different. I think in some ways we are similar; both were wanted for our abilities by 'bad Papas' if you will. You showed me yours or rather I saw yours, I might as well showed you mine for a brief time. I just hope you don't think I'm preying on you. Honestly I can't keep this to myself knowing you value honesty and I do already like you." he whispered

El raised an eyebrow but watched as Five pulled up his sleeve to show her his umbrella tattoo. At first El was confused since this wasn't his Papa's tattoo to name his children, but another tattoo entirely.

"What is this Aidan?" she asked.

Five looked into her eyes and shared in a low voice,

"My name is actually Five Hargreeves and I'm from the future. I was part of something called The Umbrella Academy, to help people. I just hope you believe me."