17 years ago

'Number Five, what you and Number Seven did is unacceptable, and I expect better from you. I hope you realize that this was the last time Number Seven ever stepped foot into your room...'

Honestly, Five lost his dad after the first few words. He was only partly listening to him wondering if any of their siblings would notice that the alarm did not go off yet. Luther maybe might have, he was always such a follower, but Klaus would probably be grateful for the extra minutes of sleep.

'Number Five, are you even listening?' asked Reginald breaking Five's train of thoughts.

'Barely,' said the boy, disinterested and honest, which he quickly learned was a mistake since his father got all red in the face looking like he would explode very soon. Five knew that apart from all of his children he was the only one who could push their dad's buttons, almost resulting in him getting violent. He could tell that he was close a few times to actually hitting him, but ultimately he always managed to get a grip of himself.

Like right now, when he finally took a deep breath, 'Number Five, I know you had been coming to Number Seven's room at night as well. If I ever catch the two of you do so again I will personally make sure you will deeply regret it.'

He rolled his eyes, 'Why? She has nightmares. I was just trying to help. There's no harm in it.'

He was half expecting his dad to yell again, but instead he looked almost interested, 'Nightmares?'

Five hesitated for a moment before he said, 'Ever since Allison told her to stay in the closet.'

His father frowned at that before he looked down at his notes again, 'Very well, I shall increase the dosage of Number Seven's medication.'

'What? No!' said Five, surprising himself as well. They all knew that the reason for Vanya's almost robotic behavior at times were the pills she had to take for her illness. If she took even more, what would she become? An empty shell? Would she still be Vanya? Her smiles were so rare now, he could count the number of times he saw one outside of their rooms scarcely on both hands. She didn't need more pills. She needed to be happier.

'Number Five...'

'We didn't do anything wrong. We just slept next to each other. We didn't bother anyone and it didn't ruin any of your stupid tests. It's not a big deal...'

'Enough!' his father looked up at him, 'Number Seven is a very ill girl with a very damaged emotional pysche. You can't even comprehend the consequences if she starts getting too emotional,' he looked back at his notes mumbling the last part, 'Sometimes I believe she is more trouble than she's worth.'

Five never liked the old man. Even when he was a kid and he watched the man come and check up on them when they were playing with the nannies and then Mom, he always felt this resentment toward him. Now, however, he felt hate. He knew he hated a lot of things like any human being, but compared to what he felt toward the man before him, that initial hatred was mere pittance..

'In fact, I think it would be best if Number Seven no longer interrupted you all in your practices and studies.'

Five froze in place with his mouth open.

'I believe there are many boarding schools in England which would be a much better fit for someone as ordinary as her,' said Reginald as he looked down, not bothering to consider the state he causes Five to be in.

He felt sick. He felt sick to his stomach as the man's words sunk in. He would send her away. He would send her away to England, away from him like some useless thing he didn't want anymore. He was such an asshole and monster that Five wanted to punch him. He felt that if he looked up at him, he would teleport and actually punch him. However, that would not give him what he wanted. That would only cause Vanya to really be shipped out of the house.

Instead he closed his eyes to compose himself before he said through his teeth, 'Don't send her away.'

'What's that now?' asked the man.

Five took a deep breath, 'Please…don't send her away.'

'That's entirely up to you, boy.'

Five felt like growling at him, but instead he begged, 'I won't let her disturb me anymore. I will never go to her room or allow her to come to mine just…please don't send her away.'

The old man looked up, 'Excellent, now send Number Seven here.'

Five rushed into his room where Vanya was standing looking at him confused, 'Five, what...'

'Dad wants to see you,' he said and literally shut the door in her face, too consumed by his own emotions to deal with hers in that moment.

He threw himself on the bed still feeling that the spot where Vanya lied was still warm. He never wished for anything more than for Sir Reginald Hargreeves to just die.

Now

When Vanya Hargreeves woke up the next morning, it took her five seconds to realize that she wasn't thirteen anymore and what actually happened the previous night. Their dad's funeral, Five's return, and him crashing into her apartment.

The moment she opened her eyes and was met with his calm and sleeping face, Vanya's "not quite woken up" brain didn't even bother with it, since it was so natural with the two of them. It wasn't until her eyes landed on the nightstand behind him, that Vanya remembered where they really were and what went down.

Five was thirteen again while the rest of them were adults, but none of that was important because he was back. He came back. She had hoped when she was a child that he would. Every time she left those stupid sandwiches out for him, she believed he would show up and things would be the way there used to be. She didn't care if they weren't allowed to sleep in the same bed anymore. She didn't care that he barely looked at her or that he was avoiding her. She would accept it. She would accept all of it, if it meant that she would see him while walking past his room. She didn't need much more. She just needed to know he was okay.

If she wasn't so numbed by the pills she would have cried because she had been waiting for him for seventeen years to show up, even if she stopped leaving the lights on and the sandwiches. She just...she just knew he would manage.

She very carefully rose her hand from under him, making sure not to break his peaceful sleep and very lightly touched his hair. He looked the same as he did that very day he disappeared, besides his eyes. When she looked into his bright green eyes she could see that the Five which came back was different, older, more experienced. He didn't speak with her like a thirteen year old. He spoke like an adult. With respect which he hoped to get in return.

Future, apocalypse, eight days.

She suddenly felt very guilty. He gave her respect and she dismissed his story like he was the crazy one. Last night she panicked. She was a coward and she was desperate for him not to leave, so she said something very mean to him hoping he would stay. When he told her, she wasn't sure what she believed. Reginald always made sure to pressure Five with how time travelling could damage him, something Vanya feared maybe even more than the locked dark room.

After seeing him having a nightmare like that, trembling and calling her name, she wondered. She actually wondered. Could it be that he suffered from even worse loneliness than she ever had? Is it possible that he was in a dead world all alone for so long?

She let her fingers touch the smooth skin on his cheek. She prayed it was a lie, an illusion caused by his own mind, but when the portal through which he came to them opened she saw the old man transforming into this Five.

He let out a soft sigh like he was waking up, but instead he snuggled deeper into the pillow. How long must it have been since he lied in a semi-comfy bed?

When she finally got off from the bed, she made sure to turn off her alarm clock and made breakfast. She didn't really eat breakfast unless it was the weekend and she woke up very late, so breakfast became lunch, but today she tried. She even made coffee remembering what he said back in the house. He was an adult after all.

She had to leave to work, but she left him a note and hoped he wouldn't leave her apartment unlocked if he decided to leave, but really, she hoped he wouldn't decide to leave before she got back. Not that she could ask him to stay.

She tried to finish her practice as fast as possible, earning a disapproving look from a few co-workers.

'Where are you off? To a date?' one of her colleagues joked, but she ignored him and rushed to the small grocery shop next to her building and then up the stairs to her apartment. She rarely ate breakfast so the little something she managed to put together that morning was literally all she had left. She usually went for lunch on a working day and ate whatever she could find at home. She had a very shitty life-style, she knew that, but it wasn't like she had anyone to try for, well until now.

The keys fell out of her hands as she tried to unlock the door. She was so nervous with anticipation wondering if he would still be there or not.

She mentally kicked herself and kneeled down to get her keys when the door opened revealing Five looking like he just woke up, 'You're incredibly loud, do you know that? You could never pass for a thief.'

She opened her mouth, but her breathing stopped for a few seconds upon realizing that he stayed.

He stayed.

Vanya grabbed the keys and stood up pushing the corners of her lips into a smile, 'Good Morning.'

He sighed, but didn't look annoyed with her as most of her siblings usually did, before he walked into the apartment. 'I hope you have something edible in that bag because I'm starting to get concerned with the lack of food inside your kitchen, dear Vanya.'

She followed him inside, 'I made breakfast.'

'Barely,' he said dryly and she smiled again. It felt like old times. It felt like nothing had changed. It felt good, almost too good. Vanya knew she would get eaten alive by this feeling and then only end up craving it more, and grieving after it once Five would decide that she was too annoying and needy to be around and leave, but for now, she couldn't bring herself to care. It was future Vanya's problem.

She started to prepare the dinner while he eats the breakfast in silence, his mind probably going through the things he told her last night. Things he needed to do in order to secure their future.

'Can I say...?' she started unsure of how to finish before she shook her head and turned around, 'I'm sorry if I offended you last night. It's a lot, and I'm not the smartest person to understand all of this in one try,' she told him honestly, hoping he would understand that she meant well.

He looked up at her from his plate. He finished his chewing before he answered with the confidence which was just so him, 'If you offended me I wouldn't have stayed. I realize it's hard to understand if you weren't there, but you have to trust me...because I don't think I can trust anyone else with this yet.'

She nodded vowing to trust Five from now on and never doubt what he said even if it sounded completely nuts. She hoped it would be enough for the both of them. It felt a bit bizarre to have him in her apartment like that. He was just so him. The way he spoke and how he ate and how he at one point found a piece of paper (her insurance of all things) and started to write equations on it freaking her out because it was her insurance. She accepted the fact that he was here yesterday, but to actually spend time with him felt...it felt so good that Vanya never wanted it to end. She never wanted him to leave. She was a terrible needy person which is why everyone always left. People wanted to be needed, yes, but they didn't want to be someone's whole world. Vanya always found someone she put everything she could into them only for them to get overwhelmed and leave her in the end. Sadly, she realized that everyone left her after a while, even Five.

He told her he had some things he needed to take care of. She felt a small stab of sadness as she realized he would leave just as she was getting so used to his presence, but nodded, trying not to look too bothered by it so he wouldn't be either. She couldn't give all of herself to someone, no one was made to carry that weight.

He put on his jacket just as there was a knock on the door. She sighed and explained that her neighbor sometimes thinks her cat sneaks into Vanya's apartment.

She rushed to the door, but instead of her old neighbor with food stains all over her clothes, there was a thirty something man with a big smile on his face.

'I'm Leonard.'

Vanya blinked confused which made his smile fall a bit, 'I'm your two o clock.'

She immediately started to apologize, embarrassed in front of the man, and Five that she completely forgot about her students. The man didn't seem too bothered and joked a bit while Vanya explained why she assumed he was her neighbour feeling even more embarrassed after she did it.

She turned around to look at Five who was still buttoning up his jacket even though he had like two buttons looking at the man intensely.

'I see you just finished with another one,' said the man, Leonard, and nodded at Five who still looked at him almost suspiciously.

Vanya looked at Five as well, unsure if she should correct the man and explain who Five was when the boy suddenly said, 'Yes, so I will see you next lesson, Ms. Hargreeves.'

She blinked, confused even more by this and pointed Leonard to the violin while she went to find her material for class. She completely forgot about today's classes, she had this new guy and Maria, a ten year old girl with concentration problems. Fun day.

She was going through her materials not noticing that Leonard reached out for her violin only to be stopped with his arm in the air by Five's hand on his wrist, 'Ms. Hargreeves doesn't like when first timers touch it.'

This puzzled her even more. Yes, she would probably take the instrument from the man's hands but Five's behaviour toward him was clearly screaming hostile.

'Uh, so I will see you next time, James?' she asked, picking the name off the top of her mind.

Five let go of a confused Leonard and nodded looking into her eyes as if telling her that he would come back or warning her to be careful, she wasn't sure since their intern communication was a bit rusty after the years apart.

As he left through the door, Vanya couldn't help a quick urge to run after him just to make sure he wouldn't leave her for good again.

'So, can we start?' asked the man smiling at her again and she nodded politely. It went on like most of her lessons with beginners. He was actually nice and joked a bit which left Vanya even more confused. Why was Five's reaction so bad toward the man? When he told her about his father, she felt a strange feeling inside her stomach thinking about her own problematic relationship with her father.

As she walked him out he completely caught her off guard when he asked her if she wanted to go out with him. She wasn't even sure if he was just polite or actually interested but she declined either way not sure what to even do about it in the moment.

She returned to her practice, and then Maria before she found a moment of peace in the book she still had left unfinished. It took a couple of hours but she realized Five wasn't showing up and she had no way of contacting him. It made her feel anxious that once again her brother would disappear on her and she would never see him again. She decided to go look for him in the house, the place of all her childhood traumas which proved to be a fatal mistake after meeting with Allison. She thought Diego hated her but it was obvious most of her family felt the same. Everyone except for Five maybe.

Returning home to her empty apartment was her only choice. As she dragged her feet through the ground, she thought about Allison's words.

Love someone so much it felt like you couldn't breathe when you were without them.

Her sister was right. She never was in love like that with a man. The closest she came to it was caring for her siblings, father, mom, Pogo. As she stopped by her door she realized that she felt that way only when Five left. He was her only companion in the house and with him gone she was all alone. Everyone had someone. Luther and Allison had each other, Diego had Mom, Klaus and Ben had each other and she had Five...until she didn't. With men it was a rollercoaster of trying to please them and putting everything she could on them only for it to backfire and them to leave. When she hit twenty-eight she just came to the conclusion she was too damaged for them. It was impossible to love someone like her, when she couldn't even properly love herself.

She was about to put the key inside when Five opened the door, 'You need better locks. Not the kind which open from the inside.'

She blinked, surprised and pleased to see him, 'I thought rapists could climb.'

He came back.

He rolled his eyes annoyed but she couldn't help a smile. He came back. She felt excited like a little girl,with her stomach doing flips, that he was here again.

She slowly walked into her apartment immediately noticing the mannequin on the couch, well… the upper half of a mannequin.

She tried not to be too weird out as she still felt guilty about how she acted the first time Five opened up and told her about the future. She still wasn't convinced the world was supposed to magically end in eight...well seven days, but she promised herself to try for him.

'Who's your friend?' she asked half jokingly, but as Five introduced the mannequin as Dolores being very friendly and serious about it, she realized it was no joke.

She walked closer to the mannequin and reached out to take her plastic hand, 'Nice to meet you, Dolores.'

She looked over at Five, 'She's very pretty.'

He watched for a moment his face unreadable before he smirked a bit and looked away. It wasn't his "know it all" smirk, no it was much softer, almost a smile, but not quite as soft as his rare smiles usually were.

'Yeah, she's okay. Dinner?'

She nodded all too happily and they went each on her couch with Dolores between them. She asked Five about his day getting from time to time lost in his story about the fake eye and doctor and then how he went to pick up Dolores to be able to think better.

'I think better during walks,' she told him, nodding that she understood that different things worked for different people.

'Yeah?'

'Yeah, I feel like I can breathe better, feel more too,' she admitted realizing she was referring to her medication.

'Shit,' she put the plate down and hurried to her bag. While worrying about Five and what Allison said to her, she completely forgot about her pills. She took one and swallowed it without water. She was so used to them by now.

Five was watching her intensely, 'Still two per day?'

'Yeah, like dad ordered,' she told him gloomily and went back to the couch to eat.

'Did you ever think about not taking them?'

She shrugged her shoulders, 'Dad, Pogo and Mom always insisted I needed them to function because I was too emotionally unstable. No point in ruining my life more than I already have.'

He didn't comment on it though. He then asked her about her day and she told him a bit about her work, upcoming concerts leaving out the part about her wanting to try out for first chair (why bother if she knew she would never get it) and then the first lesson she had with Leonard leaving out the part about him asking her out.

'Oh, I wanted to ask. Did you not like him? You seemed upset about him,' she said as she remembered his weird behaviour.

'I don't know, I didn't notice I was acting strange,' he said and shrugged his shoulders. Vanya shot him a look. He was joking, right?

Five, however, continued to eat as if nothing happened leaving her even more confused. Maybe she just picked the wrong vibe from him. She looked over at him again.

No, he definitely didn't like him.

When he put down his plate on her coffee table, she caught him hiss a bit in pain.

'What's wrong?' she asked looking at the wrist she helped him fix last night, but this was a different arm and it looked more like it was his shoulder.

'It's nothing,' he said after a second looking composed again, but Vanya already stood up and was in front of him.

'It's just some scratch,' he told her as she took his wrist and started to lift it. He stood up as well pulling away, 'I already took care of it.'

'Show me,' she demanded, surprising the both of them. After a short staring contest, he actually put down his jacket to reveal his already bandaged arm, 'See I took care of it.'

She didn't like the sound of it. First he had a cut wrist, then cut lip and now shoulder.

She crossed her arms, 'Five, what's going on?'

'I told you, I'm trying to stop the apocalypse.'

'You said you went to see the doctor about that prosthetic eye, why were you hurt then?' she asked, seeing how quickly he was getting annoyed with her questions, 'Look, this isn't important right now.'

She watched him for a moment before she took a deep breath and said, 'I-I just don't want you to get hurt. Do you understand that?'

He sighed, 'Yes, and I won't. Trust me, this,' he jerked his shoulder, 'is nothing.'

She wasn't convinced at all, but she let him off the hook for now. They cleaned the dishes together reminding her that, while she always helped Mom after every meal, he didn't. He never felt the need to please people the way she did. Well, maybe just to please her. She knew he couldn't possibly be that interested in her music, but he still found the time to listen to her play or talk about it. From all of her family he at least tried, and he understood and liked her book. It made her feel a bit lighter than she had in years when he said he thought it was ballsy.

'What are you smiling about there?' he asked, but he looked sort of happy as well. This was nice. Being together again was nice and just so easy like putting on a pair of your favourite comfy shoes.

She shrugged her shoulders, 'Just something nice you said to me the other day.'

'Oh? Do tell, I want to know what will earn me a smile like that again,' he said, sounding pleased.

She looked over at him, 'You said writing the book was ballsy.'

He chuckled and she couldn't help but feel on top of the world to be the reason to hear that lovely sound again.

After the dishes they went to her bedroom. This time he had his pyjamas on. They didn't even argue about the couch or him leaving as they got under the covers. In the bed, it was as if Vanya was the same height as him just like they were when they were young.

Her hand immediately found its way over his side, and he snuggled into the pillow, their breaths mixing. It was something she didn't realize she missed the most all those years. Him by her side in bed.

Just as she was drifting away to the dreamland she heard Five say, 'Just so you know, dad forced me to avoid you.'

He didn't have to explain which time he was referring to.

'I know, Five.'

17 years ago

Vanya was stunned looking at the shut door Five had disappeared behind. She was positive the sound woke up some of their siblings as she heard Ben's door opened.

'What happened?' he asked, sounding tired.

Vanya shook her head and hurried to their Father's office. His monologue was short. He told her that from now on she had to take two pills of her medication. He didn't comment anything about Five or that they were sharing a bed. It seemed almost like a victory, until she realized that really it was the worst punishment yet.

The first day, Five simply didn't look at her or talk to her during meals, before he was off to practice so she didn't think much of it. Surely, Father had to yell at him and didn't want to upset him more. She took the second pill like a good girl that she was forgetting about the world for almost a week. It was like there was a fog inside her mind that she couldn't overcome, making everything feel so slow and calm and dull. She didn't find joy or sadness in anything. Not even the fact that when she passed Five's room to talk to him he told her he was busy and asked her to shut the door. She simply left him alone.

Even her nightmares were no longer a problem because it felt to her like she never slept in the first place or was sleeping all the time. Perhaps it was all just a dream.

She didn't even feel like playing her instrument, earning a concerned look from Mom who came to listen to her play like she always did on Saturdays. Luckily, Diego came to cheer her up while Vanya sat on her bed looking out of the window. She sat there the whole night not realizing that she should have gone to bed. Pogo looked pleased that she was the first one to get dressed that day.

Ironically, the first time she finally snapped out of the fog of her medication was when Five stabbed a knife into the table, demanding to his father to let him time-travel, and then he was gone.

A.N: First of all I would love to thank you all for all the amazing support you showed this story. I was a bit unsure since I know Five and Vanya isn't maybe an obvious pairing but for me it really is. I am very happy for all the followers and favourites and reviews. God, love the reviews. I think I will have a new chapter on Saturday or Sunday at the latest. Thank you again and I hope you will enjoy this chapter as well. NOW edited by Madiemelody on ao3