The first rays of morning light broke through the dense curtains and several plates of marmalade-lathered toast had been devoured between the pair of them. The sound of little feet fumbling around in the bedroom as Theodore got ready and sung in tune with some pop song that Five couldn't place. "So…" Vanya hummed, eyeing up her brother who appeared to be contemplating life in the bottom of his coffee mug.
"Mm?" Five hummed absently.
"What was it you wanted to talk to me about last night? Y'know, before…that happened? Something about the future, right?"
"Yeah…" Five sighed tiredly, running a hand through messy locks as his tongue darted out to wet dry lips. He suddenly felt more tired than ever, even though he had had the best sleep he'd had in years. He swallowed thickly—audibly—rolling the words around on his tongue before finally spitting them out. "When I jumped forward and got stuck in the future, d'you know what I found?"
"No" Vanya murmured as she brushed aside the excess crumbs.
"Nothing. Absolutely, nothing" He admitted, slouching over the table as he cradled the empty mug like a lifeline. "As far as I could tell, I was the last person alive. I never figured our what killed the human race, but I did find something else: the date it happens"
"…" Vanya raised an inquisitive brow at him, silently urging the time-traveler to continue.
"The worlds end in eight days and I have no idea how to stop it" The words just rushed out all at once, almost giving him a sense of relief now that he had told someone about what was coming.
"…And here I was thinking that Teddy's birthday present was all I had to worry about" She chuckled awkwardly. This time it was her turn to blink dumbfoundedly at the world-altering information thrown at her.
"Vanya, this is serious!" Five reprimanded, although his lips did twitch slightly upwards and he inwardly wondered if there was any significance about his nephew sharing a birthday with the end of the world.
"Sorry" Vanya apologised half-heartedly, her smile fading away as she rose to refill their mugs.
No, wait—! Five's heart skipped a beat. Don't leave me!
"…What…what was it like there?" She seemed almost hesitant as poured the coffee.
Five audibly swallowed, his tongue turning to lead as his thoughts of the apocalyptic world that he grew up in, flooded his brain. "…I—I survived on scraps, mostly"
"Mostly?"
"Canned food, cockroaches, anything I could find" He chuckled darkly as his hand ran through his hair again. "Y'know that rumour that says Twinkies have an endless shelf life?"
"Mmhm"
"Well, it's total bullshit" Five ended as he watched the hypnotising dark liquid flow.
"…I can't even imagine…" Vanya pushed his mug back to him, which he happily accepted.
"You do whatever it takes to survive" Five nodded his thanks before he downed at least half of the scalding liquid in one go. "Or you die. So, we adapted. Whatever the world threw at us, we found a way to overcome it"
"We?" She puzzled, catching the affectionate tone which coloured the term.
"…You got anything stronger?" Five retorted, ignoring his sister's inquisitive look. Vanya, likely sensing how serious and difficult this situation had become, easily plucked a previously hidden bottle of whiskey (one she'd pinched from Father's stores) and handed it to Five who used it to spice up his coffee.
"…You think I'm crazy" Five huffed irritably, slumping back to cradle his mug of liquid gold.
"N-no" Vanya stammered, trying to quickly over her ass, "It's just…it's a lot to take in"
"And you think that LANE shit was easy to swallow?" Five retorted, ignoring Number Seven's affronted look. "Exactly what don't you understand?"
"Why—why didn't you just time travel back?" She scrambled for an answer.
"Gee!" Five scoffed sarcastically, "Wish I'd thought of that! Time travel is a crap shoot. I went into the ice and never acorned. You think I didn't try everything to get back to my family?"
"If—if you grew old there, y'know, in the apocalypse, how come you still look like a kid? I mean, you're not a Garde and regeneration has got nothing to do with your powers"
"I told you already" Five heaved a put upon sigh as he empty his mug and then moved to refill it with just whiskey. "I must've gotten the equations wrong—"
"—I mean, Father always used to say that time travel could mess up your mind. Well, maybe that's what's happening?"
"This was a mistake, you're too young" He clunked his empty cup back down on the counter with a bit too much force. "Too naive to understand—"
"—No! Five, Five—wait! I'm just trying to understand this, Five!" Vanya interjected as he moved to pick up his uniform and leave. "You're not Garde, you're certainly not Mogadorian, but you can't be human. Not like this"
"And why not?" Five paused, brow quirked in question. He looked quite the sight in his pyjamas and bed hair.
"Because any human would've gone insane"
The atmosphere in the apartment bled into something a little more tense and strained as the two siblings stared each other down. One who had inadvertently called the other one stupid (after nearly calling them ordinary, the night before) and the other who had outright asked them if they were even human at all. In the background, Theodore bustled about, unburdened by whatever chaos was occurring in the kitchen. Eyes burned loralite blew and fists clenched at sides, encased in a similar glow as the two silently warred with each other over something so trivial. Each sibling was clearly concerned for the other, and each had more than their fair share on their plate, but having grown up in the Hargreeves household neither of them knew how to properly express those feelings. Which was why it was such a relief that the bay window slid open, cutting through the tense silence as Milton Greene III popped his head inside as he did every morning. (Both he and Theodore had caught the subway to school ever since the Garde boy had been able to detach himself from his mother's side).
SCHLICK!
"Morning!" Milton greeted joyously, popping the tension like a pin to a balloon. Both Hargreeves siblings turned to the boy as he leant partially inside the framed window, and Vanya couldn't stop the smile that broke across her face when he paused upon noticing the strange duo before him (he, of course, knew Vanya but he didn't know Five). "Oh…excuse me, do I have the right house?"
"…Greene?" Five gaped, flabbergasted at the sight of the blonde. Once upon a time the Hargreeves siblings had known a boy like that. One who had eagerly declared himself their rivals in their donut-eating competitions. Only Ben had ever truly compared.
"Yes?" Milton grinned.
"…Vanny" Five turned to his sister with wide eyes & ashen-faced, the childhood falling from his tongue like it was the most natural thing in the world. "What's this here?"
"Five, this is Milton Greene III" Vanya introduced, unable to fight the giddy grin on her lips.
"Shut up! Greene Bean reproduced?"
"Yeah~!" She chuckled mirthfully. "What? Did you think he was cloned in a lab or something?"
"…Look at him" Five emphasised, as both siblings turned to look at the boy sitting innocently in Vanya's bay window.
"…Huh" Vanya blinked, only now just seeing the resemblance between the two boys. Of course, she knew that this Greene was likely the son of the Greene that they had known as children, and she had recognised the name when they'd first moved to Broadview. But it hadn't really clicked until now. "Milton, have you ever actually seen your birth certificate?"
"Course" He shrugged, "Grammy frames them and everything"
"All—all right"
"Is Theo up yet, Ms H?"
"Why don't you go and see?"
"Okay!" Milton nodded eagerly as he clambered in through the window, dropped his bag by the sofa and bounded down the hallway with all the grace of a giraffe on ice skates, the tailcoats of his blazer flapping behind him. Even when garbed in St Greg's snobbish uniform, the long-legged boy somehow made it look like a pair of pyjamas.
"Huh" Five blinked after the gangly-limbed Greene boy who was almost an exact replica of his father. "Even Greene Bean?"
"Yep" Vanya rocked awkwardly on her heels.
"This really is a strange new world" He sighed as he ran a heavy hand through his locks, almost glad that the boy had arrived to cut the tension before things got any worse
"You can say that again"
"No" The two shared a weak conspiratorial grin at the exchange; one that reminded the two of the of childhoods long past.
When Theodore woke early that morning to the sound of his alarm clock blaring in his ears, it had taken quite the effort to roll out of bed (trying to avoid hitting head on the floating shelf above as best he could) and landed on the cold floors of his bedroom. Like most school mornings, he could hear his vera bustling about the kitchen as she prepared breakfast (usually a couple of slices of toast or pop tarts, considering whatever was available and a glass of orange juice); only today she appeared to be accompanied by his time traveling don. At least that's what he could gather as he zombie-shuffled over towards the bathroom with vision glowing the loralite blue of his lumen.
Sparing a glance at the bathroom mirror as he slid the door shut, the familiar sight of the blue light igniting the veins around his eye sockets and cheeks stared back at him. That ethereal blue dipped into his scleras, his pupils, the whole organ & cavity; staining them a colour not found on earth. And though, it may have seemed odd to an outsider, it certainly helped whenever he had to navigate dark places such as this morning (although the morning light was already pretty much in full force, but he was just too lazy to turn on the light switch or open a curtain). Without his glass eye pressed into his head, Theodore often thought that the lumen looked like a rather cool replacement; like he was some sort of Terminator-type android with his glowing blue orb of an eye. Not that he ever went out in public like this; that was a one-way trip to one of the centres and that was not something on his bucket list.
After splashing water on his face to wake himself up, Theodore paused in the mirror and his blue-tinted gaze briefly flickered down towards the alien-looking circular birthmark upon his collarbone. He had been born with it, just like every other Garde in existence and his (containing four dots/circles pertaining to the Orlin sector) always reminded him of a stamp tattooed there. One could argue that Theodore's birthmark was in an easy enough spot that he could hide it; and he could, during winter. During summer was another story. You couldn't very well wear turtlenecks during summer without drawing someone's curious gaze.
Flitting further downwards, his gaze caught the glass eye which had been sitting overnight in its cleaning solution like always. Theodore was pretty sure that it was the stuff that old people used to clean their dentures, because Mrs Kowalski had a similarly overly frothy cup that sat on her bedside table. Leaving wild curls to lay where they may, Theodore plucked the eye from the bubbly glass and dried it off before pushing it into the gaping socket with ease. It was an ease born of practised movements, instead of ease of use and it always took him a moment or two to blink himself back into focus after playing with his eye.
Still not fully awake, Theodore then retreated back to his bedroom in much the same fashion as he had left it. As teenagers (or nearly teenagers) were wont to do, his school things languished about the room in organised chaos. Over the floral patterned boxers went dark grey school boy shorts; the first item of the Saint Gregory's Royal Academy uniform. Shrugging on the white school shirt next, he slung his mauve pin-striped school tie around his neck and easily fastened it (he hadn't undone it since the beginning of term).
With the noose of a tie hanging loosely around his neck, Theodore then stuffed himself into the diamond-plated sweater vest which reminded him almost eerily of the Umbrella Academy's one when he'd first seen his don in it. Thigh high socks (or they were supposed to be) slouched around his ankles as he hopped into them, before grabbing his pre-packed schoolbag on the way to the kitchen (he was just glad that the LANE Keepers hadn't made too much of a mess when they'd searched the place).
Sliding down the hall, Theodore slung one of his bag straps over his shoulder as he went to go and dump his stuff in the kitchen, only to quickly backtrack and grab the mauve blazer which had been hanging over one of the few hooks attached to the back of his door. Again, he moved to leave, only to stop as another thought nagged at him. "Now, what am I forgetting?" Theodore mumbled to himself as he paused once more in the hallway, looking a little lost. "…Shoes!"
U-turning, Theodore easily plucked the mud-encrusted shoes from where they had been drying in the window last night and then slipped back into the bathroom to scrub as much of the filth off of his shoes as possible; least he feel the wrath of the nit-picky Mrs Fawcett (the dean). He didn't even realise he had company until his best friend, Milton Greene III, had greeted him with a jovial "Hey-O!"
"Hey, Milton" Theodore smiled as he deemed his shoes good enough for now. Shoving his socked feet into slightly still damp shoes, hopping up and down slightly as he did so. He didn't bother to dry them, knowing that they would dry before he got to school.
"You ready to go?" Milton pestered him, just as he did every morning. The boy was just far too energetic so early in the morning that it was almost annoyingly grating.
"Yep!" Theodore nodded as he plucked his bag from the toilet seat, where he'd chucked it upon entering (again). Together, the two school boys raced each other out of the bathroom and back up the hall where Vera was waiting his packed lunch.
Gracelessly grabbing the cheesy chicken & pickle sandwich from the air (his vera had tossed it to him as soon as they'd returned and been reminded to hurry if they wanted to catch the subway that would get them to school on time) and none-so-gently shoved it into his backpack (Saint Greg's had their own little cafe to buy food from, but the lines were always so long and most of the good stuff was gone within the first few minutes of each break time). The boy then slipped his school-regulated lanyard over his head (his held, both subway card & school access keycard and keys to home), and then Theodore was all good to go. Taking a moment to wrestle his arms into his blazer, both boys were out of the door and down the stairs with shouted farewells over their shoulders before Mrs Kowalski's cats had even stirred.