Disclaimer: I don't own The Umbrella Academy or the characters aside from the current OC and any I may introduce later. I'm only writing this story for my own amusement and don't earn any money through it.
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I took the stars from our eyes, and then I made a map
And knew that somehow I could find my way back
Then I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too
So I stayed in the darkness with you
- Cosmic Love, Florence + the Machine
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With a "thump" and a groan from Five (because Elizabeth had accidentally landed on him) they both had made the jump through the portal Five had created. "Liz, get down from me." Five groaned and she hurriedly got up, mumbling "oh, ehm, sorry!" while doing so. Then she froze. Before her was not Five - well, it was Five, but not the one she had just been with. Just seconds ago he had been the 58 year old man she knew and now he was the young boy she remembered from meeting him first all those years ago. Then she looked down at herself, kneeling in the dirt and blinked. Her hands were not that of a woman that had long since lost most of her beauty, marked by a hard life full of deprivation and hard work anymore. They were petite and well taken care of. She could even feel the callouses she had gotten from playing volleyball regularly. As if she had been at training just yesterday. Five got up.
"Does anyone else see little Number Five and some random blonde girl, or is that just me?"
At that new voice she looked up and saw the group of people standing there, three man and two women. At the mention of "little Number Five" Five looked down at himself, noticing his now much too big suit, and then at Elizabeth. Then he let out a hearty "shit". "Five," Elizabeth whispered, currently ignoring their audience "I think something went wrong. Why are we kids again?" The boy sighed. "I probably made a mistake in the equation." Then he stretched out his hand, helping her stand up. The next moment Elizabeth yelped, clutching her dress to her chest. It, too, was much too big now and the shoulder straps had slipped down, accidentally making her almost flash her breasts at the group. "My dress!" She squealed and Five let out another, though quieter "shit". He hurriedly slipped out of his suit jacket, putting it on her shoulders. Her arms slipped into it. The jacket was even bigger on Elizabeth and made it look like it was swallowing her, but it covered her completely and would stay on even if the dress did not. Then he took her hand, pulling her wordlessly into the house, ignoring his siblings completely.
They ended up in a kitchen, the group following them. Silently. Staring. Speechless. Five made Elizabeth sit at the table, some of his siblings following suit, the others standing. Then he begun the process of making sandwiches.
"What's the date? The exact date." Five suddenly asked. "The 24th." The woman with the brunette hair and mousy appearance answered. "Of what?" he asked again and the same woman answered "March." Five gave Elizabeth a look. "Good." Then he went back to sandwich making.
"So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?" The biggest man asked. He stood up. "It's been 17 years." Five scoffed. "It's been a lot longer than that." Then he teleported himself to a cupboard. "I haven't missed that." the big man muttered. "Where did you go?" The man dressed like some kind of assassin asked. "The future." Five answered, teleporting back to the table. "It's shit by the way." "Called it!" The man sitting on the table exclaimed. He was wearing a skirt and looked like he had just been through a very difficult time in his life.
"I should have listened to the old man." Five sighed and went to the refrigerator. "You know, jumping through space is one thing, jumping through time is a toss of the dice." He paused, looking at the man sitting on the table. "Nice dress." He then simply said. "Oh, well, danke!" The man said cheerfully.
"Wait, how did you get back?" The brunette woman asked and then looked at Elizabeth. "And who is that?" Elizabeth, who had been quietly examining the room and the, to her, unknown people, flinched and then smiled. "Sorry, yeah... I should have introduced myself a lot sooner, but I didn't want to interrupt your reunion. My name is Elizabeth Har- eh, I mean Roberts, but you can call me Liz or Lizzie, and I'm..." she blushed a little, looking down at the table. "I'm, ehm..."
"She is my wife." Five interrupted her. Everyone stared at them. "Liz, we're married now for 35 years, I would think it should be easy by now to correctly introduce yourself. It's Hargreeves, not Roberts anymore." Liz pouted. "Well, we never had a real ceremony. Also, I didn't want to just drop it on them. It's surely shocking enough to suddenly have you back. But coming back with a girl, too?" His siblings looked certainly shocked. She pulled Fives suit jacket tighter around her body and then blushed even harder. "... I also wanted them to like me before we tell them."
Five stared at her. Being together for so long already, he sometimes forgot how endearing she could be. Them ending up in an apocalyptic future had been his fault alone. Her being there with him had been a complete and stupid accident on his part. He had basically ruined her life. And yet this woman - or girl, in her current state - was so desperately wishing for his family to like her that she was even willing to hide their relationship for the time being, even though she had been so proud of finally making him see and accept that, despite everything he had done, she still was able to love him dearly.
Feeling his families stares he cleared his throat. "How we got back is easy: in the end, I had to project our consciousnesses forward into a suspended quantum state version of ourselves that exists across every possible instance of time." The assassin muttered "that makes no sense.", to what Five simply answered "Well, it would if you were smarter." The assassin angrily got up, but the big man held out an arm. "How long were you there?" He asked. Elizabeth answered, having calmed down somewhat. "Around 45 years." He stared at her and both men sat back down. "So what are you saying? That you're 58?"
Five made a face like he was already fed up with his siblings. "No, our consciousness is 58. Apparently, our bodies are now 13 again." He pushed one sandwich into Elizabeth's hands, taking the other one for himself. It was with peanut butter and marshmallows. She smiled. She knew that Five hated sweets since that incident with that Twinkie, yet the first thing he had made them to eat, now that they were back, was something that she liked.
"Wait, how does that even work?" The mousy woman asked. "Delores kept saying the equations were off." Five answered. "Eh." He bit into his sandwich. Elizabeth looked at him with concern. They had left Delores back in the apocalyptic future quite a while ago. Did he still talk to her in his thoughts? "Bet she is laughing now."
"Delores?"
Elizabeth smiled at the group. "That's kind of a long story." Five grabbed the paper on the table. The passing of their dad was the headline of the day. "Hmm. Guess we missed the funeral." "How'd you know about that?" Big guy asked, looking at Five and then Elizabeth, who was currently chewing on a bite of her sandwich, enjoying the taste she had missed for most of her life. "What part of the future do you not understand?" Five asked exasperated. Then, softer again "Heart failure, huh?" Assassin said yeah, big guy said no. Everyone looked at big guy. Five clicked his tongue. "Nice to see nothing's changed." Then he grabbed Liz' hand, again pulling her with him, both with sandwiches in their hands. "Uh, that's it? That's all you have to say?" The pretty black woman called after them. "What else is there to say?" He called back, matter of factly. "The circle of life."
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"You know, that wasn't very nice of you." Elizabeth muttered. "If you want them to help us stop whatever is coming you should be more open with them... and nicer." "We don't have time." Five answered, stuffing the rest of his sandwich in his mouth. She heard him snicker "Also, what's with you suddenly playing blushing bride?" She felt a surge of annoyance. She knew all too well that Five had been quite pleased to see her blush like that, making it obvious how much she cared about him. "Hm. Well, you suddenly brought up the stand of our relationship when they barely even know me. What if it turns out that they don't like me at all?" She came to a halt. "I would be devastated if it turns out I'm the cause of an even bigger rift between you all."
Five took a step back to her, cupping her cheek with one hand, making her look up. For the first time in decades they were almost the same height. She knew that would change soon, provided they stayed like that. He would go through a growth spurt, growing almost 20 centimeters, while she more or less stayed this height. When his other hand raised to her face as well her eyes fluttered shut, in anticipation of a kiss. The next moment both her cheeks were painfully pulled at. "Stop playing cute, we don't have time for that." He warned, though his tone was more playful than angry. "Ah, Akah! Pease sto!" She tried to get out and he finally let go of her. "Ay!" She whimpered while rubbing her reddened cheeks. "That you still have to do that! I'm an old lady now, you know?"
He looked at her, swallowed in his big suit jacket, fondness in his eyes. "Old lady? You look more like a little girl pretending to be a daddy right now." Again he took her hand. But before he pulled her further down the corridor in the direction of his old room he could barely really remember, he reassured her. "And you know that I love you, no matter what anyone of them says." Again she felt heat rush into her cheeks and ears. "God knows any other girl would have the common sense to stop coming unto me after the first few times I said no." He teased and for a moment Elizabeth was speechless. "Hey!" She whined. "Now you make it sound like I had to talk you into being with me when, at the end, it was you who proposed to me!" He snickered and together they went to his room.