A/N: Hope you guys enjoy :)


Chapter Sixteen: Where's Five?

Five didn't answer her, cozy wasn't exactly the word he'd use to describe the tense atmosphere surrounding them. He unhappily notes that The Handler had her same mocking smile that she always has on, a mischievous smile that makes one think she knows their secrets, makes Five feel like she knows his deepest desires and greatest regrets. It makes him uneasy, he doesn't like feeling like he's not the one in control of the situation, like he's the puppet getting his strings pulled instead of the one pulling the strings.

"Hello Five." She greets him as she walked the distance to close the large gap between them, her heels loudly clicking on the pavement below her, making each step she took that much more ominous. Her green eyes linger on his family a moment before she stops in front of him.

"You're looking quite well, all things considered." She continues when he doesn't reply back to her greeting, she's greedily running her beady eyes over his form, taking in the changes that occurred with his time jump. He went from sophisticated old man to lanky teen with a perpetual scowl on his face, a startling difference for sure.

"I have to admit that congratulations are in order, it was clever of you to throw us off your track with the age regression, it's impressive and your commitment is admirable." She points to his body to emphasize her compliment, Five wants to tell her to keep her eyes to herself but he doesn't.

"Wish I could say that it was done on purpose, unfortunately it was just a miscalculation on my part." He supposes they would have found him sooner had he been the age he was when he was in The Commission, he hadn't stopped long enough to think that him being back in a child's body is what kept him under the radar for just a little longer.

"How about we jump right ahead, and you tell me what you really want? Why did you call me here?" The Handler playfully leaned on her tips toes a few times, having more confidence in the edges of her heels then what Five has in the entire situation, it always unnerved him to witness the carefree way she went about handling things. Five knows he's got a screw or two loose, he doesn't try to pretend otherwise, but The Handler was in a whole separate ballpark of crazy.

"You know what I want." Five doesn't bother to clarify, it was obvious what he wanted, he didn't need to go into unnecessary explanations, they were both too old to be skimming the line of mystery and untold truths.

"Yes, but you realize what you want is next to impossible to achieve, even for someone like me." She blinks at him with fake innocence, as if she really did consider his wants and was remorsefully telling him what he wanted was not possible.

"What's meant to be, is meant to be Five." She states with a wave of her free hand, her white smile growing larger as she glances around the empty brown fields that surrounded them.

"I refuse to believe that." Five growled at her, he wouldn't have gone through this much trouble if he believed it was fruitless, he wouldn't have put in all this effort if he believed even for one second that it was impossible for things to change.

"Oh Five," The Handler shook her head in mock sympathy, her smile turned downward into a frown, "This fantasy you've been nurturing about summoning up your family to stop the apocalypse, is just that, a fantasy. I must say though we're all quite impressed with your initiative and ambition, which is why The Commission would like to offer you a new position back at headquarters, in management." The Handler says with a flurry of rabid movements of her free hand, excitedly telling me this as if she was giving him the best news he will ever hear in his life.

"You're kidding me, right?" He said back, he wasn't sure if he was more amused or more unsettled by the way she proposed her idea, either way it did get the thoughts in his head swirling.

"No, of course not Five, come back to work for us again, it's where you belong. You won't be in the correction division any longer, you'd be in the home office. You know you'd be more happy working for us then going around in this senseless circle, be happier in your body then this child's play one you currently have." With each of her words she stepped closer to him, invading his personal space, he had to stop himself from taking steps back the closer she got to him, he had to make his interest seem believable.

"And what about my family?" Five questioned, seeming to consider her proposal.

"What about them?" She distastefully glowered over to Luther and Allison as if they were dirty animals rather than human beings.

"I want them to survive." He replied, saving the world is important to Five but saving his family first and foremost is what his main objective is, his family takes precedence over the world, as much as he wants to save all of it, he knows he would save his family above everything else, and he can't bring himself to feel bad about that.

"All of them?" She asked with curious eyes.

"Yes, ALL of them." He answered back with an eye roll, how else was he supposed to answer, how could he possibly choose which family members get to survive and which ones don't? The Handler is more delusional than he previously thought if she believed he could name any of his siblings above the rest. Some of them might piss him off and irritate him more than others, Five's eyes glance to Luther before looking away, but he wouldn't be able to live with himself knowing he didn't try his hardest or his best to save all of them.

"I'll see what I can do," she sighed like asking for the survival of his family was the biggest inconvenience she's ever came across, she held out her hand to Five for a shake, "Do we have a deal?"

"Just a moment." He walks away from her to Hazel and Cha Cha, grabs the gun in Cha Cha's hand to take the clip of bullets out, he throws the pieces in two separate directions, he does a quick search for any more weapons but not finding any he stalks back over to The Handler.

Five looks back to Luther and Allison, still frozen with their expressions unguarded, he hated having to leave them with Hazel and Cha Cha with no clue as to where he went but their smart, so he knows they'll be okay. He also thought about Vanya, Luna, Diego, and Klaus back at the hospital, they too wouldn't know what exactly what's going on, but he'll see them again soon, of that he's sure. For now, he needed to go with The Handler to hopefully give them the upper hand that they needed if they had any hope of actually stopping the apocalypse.

Five would do anything to make sure his family survives, with that train of thought he grabs The Handlers outstretched hand and feels the familiar pull of jumping, he watched as his siblings disappeared, his vision overtaken with blue light.

"You seem mighty confident in that statement." Allison tells Five with a shake of her head, it never fails to astonish her how cocky Five is, her brother's ego is much too big for his tiny body.

"Where's Five?" The question comes from Luther who is looking around the fields frantically, he vaguely recognized that Allison continued her conversation like Five was here, but now he isn't. Allison is stuck in her head for a little bit, wondering that same thing, she was just talking to him, literally had her mouth open to remark back to him.

"Five!" Luther yelled out to the empty fields, Allison could see she and Luther weren't the only ones disoriented, the crazy people were too, but they seem to be recovering from it much faster than she and Luther were, possibly having felt this feeling before.

"Five!" Luther screamed again; his worry was painted across his face with harsh lines. Allison tugged on his hand to get him to look at her.

"Luther, we have to go." She calmly told him, she was glad when he focused his attention on her and nodded, she was scared she would have to rumor him into the car, something she didn't want to do, rumoring is in her past and she has no intention of letting it rule her life again.

"What do I do with this?" Luther shakes the briefcase in her direction.

"Destroy it." Allison tells him, without second thought Luther picks it up above his head and slams it down to the cement beneath them. One or possibly both of the crazies scream at them, it was difficult for Allison's ears to differ the screeching. Luther shakes the thing in the crazies direction, teasing them with the busted-up case, before hurdling it into the air to the other side of the field, opposite to them, it makes a burst of sound upon impact.

"No!" The woman yells. Allison hurriedly gets into the passenger seat with Luther in the driver's seat, he presses on the gas pedal and their off. She wasn't sure if it was a smart decision to destroy the time travel briefcase, but she does know that Five said that it's extremely important to the crazies so to let it be back in their hands undamaged did not seem like a smart plan to Allison, plus they needed a distraction to get away, a two birds one stone deal.

Twisting around to get a look out the back window, she sees the woman hunched over the briefcase, distress on her face, and she sees the man putting together a gun that was separated into pieces, shaking his head in anger, glaring at their moving vehicle.


It feels like a lifetime has passed for Vanya, in reality it's only the next morning from when she spent the night talking with Leonard. She feels different then she did then, more comfortable with her emotions and surer of herself. She didn't like leaving Diego so soon after surgery, but she doesn't feel right having Leonard thinking something is going to happen between them when she knows nothing's ever going to happen.

She's out of place in the trendy coffee shop he told her to meet him at, it's not crowded by any means, but the atmosphere is to modern for her tastes. Everything is sleek black and white, there's no color or cozy home feeling about the bar stools they have as seats literally everywhere. The drinks are all long names that Vanya doesn't even attempt to pronounce, and the people around her are all on their phones or laptops, not one person is conversing with another human being.

Vanya can safely say that she will never be back to this coffee shop again, which she's okay with, this isn't the type of place she likes, she prefers places that have a homier feel to them.

Waiting for Leonard and knowing what she's going to tell him is like a ticking time bomb, it feels like she's breaking up with him even though they're not together, and that feeling makes her head throb at the temples. She doesn't want to hurt him by any means, she knows now that she should have never gone to him after hers and Diego's argument, she gave him a brief look into a future that is never going to happen, and she regrets doing that.

"Hey," Vanya jumps in her seat at the touch of a hand to her shoulder, Leonard is beaming at her, removing his coat after he nearly scared her to death, "I'm sorry I'm running a little late, sorry for scaring you too." He chuckles before seating himself on the stool next to hers, a little closer than she's comfortable with.

"It's okay, I haven't been waiting that long." She replies, he's turned towards her, but she has her face firmly looking down and her hands busy playing with the teaspoon to her coffee. It gets awkward for her fast, she wants to leave, she keeps herself planted though. Vanya has no idea where to start the conversation at, but luckily, she doesn't need to.

"Did you like the roses?" Leonard asked, his eyes say he's positive she did, he really seen nothing wrong with going into her home without her there.

"They were beautiful," and they were, roses are a gorgeous flower, simple and perfect without much effort, "but you shouldn't have gone to my house without my permission or went into my room. Only my daughter and her babysitter were there and that's not okay." She thought she was going to rush her sentence out, Vanya doesn't like confrontation, avoids it like the plague, but she's proud of herself with how calm and settled she is in her statement to him. His eyes harden for a split second that if Vanya weren't staring straight at him, she would have missed it, it was there and gone in a blink.

"You're right, I'm sorry," he reached out and touched her shoulder again, "I didn't mean to freak you out, you dropped your pill bottle at my house, I wanted to return it, I thought you'd like some flowers and a good old-fashioned note. I thought I was being romantic but obviously I missed my mark." He says, his hand started rubbing her shoulder, uncomfortable with his casual touch Vanya shrugs his hand off her shoulder, leaning back a little to put space between them.

"Yeah, you did, don't do it again." She leaves no room for his excuses in her tone. His eyebrows raise in response to her words, surprise lit up his face. He shifts in his stool, eyes tracking around the coffee shop, he's no longer meeting her eyes, he's trying to regain himself.

"So, I have a confession," he starts the conversation again after a moment of awkward silence, "I was curious about you and looked you up, imagine my shock when I discovered that you have a book." He lets his words sink in and the implications that come with it. She doesn't know what he expects her to say back, the book was made in a period of her life where she suffered from depression, and she was filled with anger and jealously for her siblings. That book doesn't define who she is now, she's changed from the child she was when she wrote it.

"What about it?" She asked, there's different directions this can take and she's not so sure if she wants to go down any of them.

"Well come on, The Umbrella Academy was a pretty big thing for a long time, I mean how was that? Growing up in that household?" He's leaning forward again, eagerly trying to engage her, it's not a topic she likes discussing. His expression is too anxious, too hungry for information, it's more like he's less interested in how it affected her and more interested in the mechanics of growing up in The Academy. His tone briefly reminds Vanya of her father, it has the same ingenuine feel to it.

"I shared a birthday with six other kids who all knew they were better than me in almost every way, and I was a number before I was a person so how do you think it was growing up in that household." Vanya can't help but snap at him, she's accepted and moved on from the way she grew up, but that doesn't mean she likes to dig up old memories. It wasn't some fairy tale that she likes to reminisce, it wasn't cupcakes and rainbows like other people like to believe, it was extremely hard trying to have sanity and an identity under Reginald Hargreeves's household.

"Whoa whoa, I didn't mean to pry, I was just curious, I'm sorry," Leonard is quick to backtrack and apologize, "I shouldn't have asked, I just thought that I should get a better feel for how you grew up before mentioning Luna's father, obviously that backfired on me." Vanya lets go of the teaspoon she has a death grip on and turns to face him fully, he doesn't seem like this news bothers him, he doesn't hold judgment or hostility in his gaze, only curiosity, but his words still make her bristle and defensive.

"What about Luna's father?" She plays dumb, she's not sure what he's asking, if he's asking anything at all.

"Family is never not complicated, right?" Instead of directly answering her, he quotes himself from their violin lesson. She doesn't know what it's supposed to mean, if it's meant to mean anything but she takes the opportunity to use it to say what she came here to say.

"Yeah, it's not something I expect you to understand." And she doesn't, Vanya herself barley understands it truthfully.

"I get it," he rushes to say, when Vanya looks at him with doubt, he explains, "Well I mean I don't get it, get it, but I'm not going to judge you, I mean it's not like you guys are actually siblings." He nonchalantly shrugs his shoulders.

"Right," she clears her throat, he's sweet to say that about something other people would raise their eyebrows at, but Vanya is ready to get back to the hospital, "Listen Leonard, I'm sorry but this isn't a date, I can't date you, I can't be with you, not now, not ever. I have way to much going on in my life with my siblings, my daughter, and figuring out where me and Diego stand, and I can't start a relationship with you full well knowing that I'm not going to put my all into it." Vanya thinks it's a decent explanation that gives enough information without giving away too much information, it's truthful without being unnecessarily hurtful and it's straight forward without being confusing.

Vanya's worried that she'll have to repeat herself when he stays quiet, he didn't expect her to give this mini speech that sounds eerily similar to a breakup speech.

"I want us to stay friends, you're a really nice guy and I really enjoyed spending time with you. But I needed to make it clear that me and you wouldn't ever be a thing." She further explains when she receives nothing in response. Vanya grows worried when he starts muttering under his breath, he's turning a deep shade of red, and his hands are clenching tightly to the table in front of them.

"Not supposed to be this way, suppose to fall for me, it's his fault, it was wrong, everything was wrong, have to figure out a different way, have to make this right, have to-" Vanya doesn't think he knows she can hear him, he's speaking very low, and normally she wouldn't be able to hear him, but the coffee shop is really quiet and he's too close. His reaction isn't right, couple it with his earlier eagerness to know about her life in The Academy, it sets off alarm bells, the red flags are flashing, warning her and Vanya has no intention to ignore them.

"I have to go." She almost falls from the stool in her hurry to jump off of it and leave. He's scaring her, whatever just happened wasn't natural and Vanya's gut is telling her to leave and get back to Diego.

"No! Wait!" His hand snaps forward to wrap around her wrist, he forcefully tugs her back to him.

"You can't leave! This isn't right! This wasn't how this was supposed to go!" He's shouting in her face; sprinkles of his spit land on her cheeks from how much he's enunciating the words coming from his mouth. She's struggling to get out of his grasp, but the more she struggles the more he tightens his hold on her.

"Let me go!" She screams back at him, they have now garnered the attention of the other people in the coffee shop, she's relieved when two guys that are bigger in size then Leonard make their way over to them.

"Hey man, let the lady go." One of the men pulls Leonard away from her well the other one stands in front of him to block his view of her. She doesn't wait to see what he does; she thanks the men as fast as she can move her mouth and runs out of the coffee shop and to her car that's parked down the road. She doesn't look back, to focused on getting away from Leonard, her steps are evened and rushed, she's never been more coordinated.

Vanya doesn't feel safe until she's on the road driving away from him. She has no clue what caused such a severe response from him, she also has no clue what he was talking about, but what Vanya does know is that offer to stay friends is off the table.


A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed, feel free to drop a review :)

***ANSWERS TO REVIEWS***

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