Turns out observing all movement outside of work included being temporary roommates. Five was extremely serious about not letting Cielo out of his sight. Following behind her at a reasonable distance so that he could see and react to any sudden movements. Occasionally she would look back at him. He was so quiet that it was only his constant glare that reminded her that he was following her.
They were heading back to her apartment for the night. That was true enough as he could recognize it being in the direction of Vanya's place. He didn't rule out that there could be a trap waiting for them when they got back.
Things aligned too well for him getting the right to observe her near 24/7. She, herself, was more cooperative than he expected after revealing everything. Asking pretty much only for him to treat her humanly. Kindness didn't get him anywhere in life. For her to be so picky about it all, was questionable. Annoyingly questionable.
"Can you at least walk beside me? You're making me uncomfortable following me like a little stalker at night."
"You make me uncomfortable." He said flat out.
"I didn't ask you to keep an eye on me." She mumbled.
"What was that?"
"Nothing!" A roll of the eyes accompanying her shout.
"Just to be clear, I don't fully agree with this situation either. I would have killed you on the spot if it wasn't for everyone being on your side."
"Like some old man can take me out. I may not be super athletic but I can kick shins hard. Even your kid body is too scrawny to take seriously."
"I'll let you know that I was the top operative at the Commission."
"And I'll have you know that I have no idea what that means. Didn't you say that the Commission was a time management organization? What do you even do there? Besides, apparently, having other versions of myself visit people."
He sighed. This would have been easier if she was the woman who confronted him. "To wrap it up, the Temps Commission does exactly that. However, just looking through screens isn't going to change anything. Hence why they sent out on-field operatives, such as myself, to... eliminate anomalies. Bringing order to the timeline."
"So you killed people to not sugar coat it." She paused. "A few days ago, the day we met, did you go to a diner late at night?"
"If you're referring to what happened at Griddy's doughnuts, then yes that was me."
He could see her figure tense up in what little light he had. At least that was a normal thing he saw in her. "Why did you do it?"
"They came to me first. If I didn't kill them, they would have done the same to me. Honestly it was their fault for not cleaning up the mess that they left behind."
"Was this an everyday occurrence to you?"
"For the most part yeah. I lost count of how many lives I took."
"Just because someone at this organization told you?"
"Yes. Does that scare you?"
"It makes me sad for you. Young boy runs away only to find the end of the world. Old man finally finds some hope in returning and they make you into a killer. You used to be a hero in the news. And I'm sure whatever they made you do was the same illusion. Preserving time is not an easy feat I imagine after all. It leaves me to wonder though, how did you feel about it?"
"I took pride in my handy work."
"Did you enjoy it though?"
For the first time since they left the restaurant, Five made an unintentional noise. His feet shuffled to a stop. Them being alone in the night really made the sound stand out. Cielo stopped as well. Turning back to him.
"You don't know anything about me." Of course he didn't enjoy what he did. He spent all his time at Commission trying to get out.
He took pride in being the best. In getting the privilege to say that he prevented multiple disasters in time. But with each one, he knew that he was getting more and more numb to the feeling. Sometimes even forgetting why he was doing what he was doing. It was as she said, it was at the beck and call of people he didn't even trust.
"Well that's why I'm asking you questions about yourself."
There was a prolonged moment where the two just stared at each other. Not sure who would make the next move. In Cielo's eyes, if they were going to be stuck together might as well make the most of it. In Five's eyes, he wanted no part of her messing with his head. Her asking all these questions was already confusing enough. He didn't like the implied message that he wasn't happy with his life. Sure he wasn't, but who was she to comment on it?
Her shoulders sank with a sigh. "Whatever, let's just get back already. It's cold."
"You give up on things surprisingly easy."
"You like your secrets. Not surprising and its not like you'll trust the person that ruined your life. In hindsight, I'm lucky you didn't stab me with the umbrella the day we met. Don't poke the sleeping bear they say. Especially not the one that is apparently the best at his job." She tucked her hands into her jacket. Continuing their walk.
An enemy wouldn't show their back towards him. She was intelligent. No, intelligent was not the word he was looking for. If she was intelligent, or even logical, she would run for the hills. She was stupidly trusting yet cautious of those around her. Not pushing boundaries under the guise of not wanting to waste effort. Taking the chance by asking her own questions with an attitude that wouldn't mind not getting the desired answers.
It bothered him that he couldn't put out a single word to describe her. An enemy that wasn't fighting against him. A time traveller that knew nothing about the concept. Kind but not afraid to snap back when required. Intelligent yet stupid.
"Can I change my question?" She didn't look back.
"Depending on what it is, I may not answer."
"Did you have a reason at the start? Besides the fact that it was your job?"
If he could boil her down to one word it would be confusing. Her questions being the same. "To return to my family."
She nodded. Him not seeing her tiny smile. "That's nice to know you didn't kill without reason."
"I'm not against resorting to it though."
The smile quickly dropped at his attitude. "And there it is. Should have known. Don't bother saying who you'll kill. I already know that answer."
"Good. Saves me from being rude and you getting upset at that."
"I said my conditions and don't regret it. It seems to be working in keeping you under control so far. Minus the death threats. We'll work on that."
"A reminder my main goal is in saving the world; not in being friendly with you."
"Kill two birds with one stone, potato tomato. You save the world with leg up against the world ender, I don't get assassinated nor disrespected. Everyone wins. But I suppose if it makes you feel better, I do like that you're a family man. Violinist doesn't talk much about the Umbrella Academy. I can see why but you're all just a little broken. I, personally, can't be mad at that."
She seemed satisfied in his eyes. He had to admit, she was better at holding a conversation than he was. Getting to know him without raising any red flags. Giving him small clues to her personality. She was the one killing the birds with a stone. Five didn't know if this was a manipulative character or a sign that she was easy for people to get along with.
Cielo was relieved seeing her apartment come up. A part of her was tempted to visit Vanya to get Five off her back. That would only backfire given the situation they were in.
It had been a long time since she brought anyone back to her place that it was a bit nerve-racking. It helped that she hardly saw him as a man. Though she didn't see him fully as a kid either. He was just a strange young-old man that needed better manners.
"Welcome to my humble abode. I ask you to take your shoes off please." She went ahead to grab some of the clothes off the floor. As he was taking off his shoes, he scanned the place all over.
"You live by yourself?"
"I do. Sorry about the mess. The space is kinda limited but it's enough for one person. I have considered getting a pet but I think the most I can handle is a fish. Do you want water or something?"
"I'm fine."
The apartment wasn't too different from Vanya's. A kitchen to one side and two doors to the other. Most likely to be the bedroom and bathroom. The living space was more like a mini office with only a couch and table covered in piles of textbooks and papers. She was studious at least. Though her lack of organizational skills with her personal items was concerning for his own liking.
"I don't suppose you have a guest room?"
"I do not. You sure you don't want to stay with your sister for the night? It might be more comfortable for the both of us. Her place is only a floor down. I'm not going to run away."
"And bother her so late? I wouldn't dare." He said with a smug grin.
"Fine, you can take the bed. It's the door on the left. Bathroom in front of it. I'll sleep on the couch." She walked over to a nearby closet, tossing the dirty clothes into a hamper, and grabbing some extra blankets from the shelves above.
"I don't mind if you want to sleep in your own room."
"Yeah well I'll feel bad that my assassin young-old man is sleeping uncomfortably for the night."
"If you're-"
"I'm not trying to get on your good side if that's what you're going to accuse me of. Nor am I putting you to sleep so that I can go do whatever nefarious plots to kill everyone on Earth." He shut his mouth. "Look at yourself, old man. Bags under your eyes and soulless eyes that tell me you're struggling to stay up at near midnight. I don't understand what exactly you are but a thirteen-year-old body should not be living this way. The world is going to end in 6 days. Not tonight. Get a good night's sleep."
"And if your sleep deprived self is the reason for doomsday?"
She sat on the couch with the blanket draping over her legs. "Then you'll stop me. Won't you? I'm going to sleep now. Call me if you need anything. You're old enough to take care of yourself. Make yourself comfortable."
"Weirdo." He chose not to question her intentions this time. She'll crack eventually. No one can last under 24-hour surveillance. Not someone like her anyways.
"'Night Five. Try not to kill me in my sleep."
"No promises." He followed her simple directions to the bedroom.
Same as her living space, there was nothing special about her room. A single queen size bed with night side tables on both sides, a wardrobe, and a bookshelf. A very minimalist style she lived that countered with her need to spread anything not important on the floor.
He immediately went to the bookshelf. Scanning it over he found the thing mainly having the expected textbooks about human biology. He had no interest in those. On the bottom shelf, however, he found what he wanted. Albums and journals. He grabbed the first one that was labelled Cielo 1995- 2005. Just the timeframe he was looking for. Convenient but he'll take it.
Flipping it open, he saw how loved she was by the amount of photos filling the pages. The little memos written on the back by her, assuming, parents changing to her writing in the first person. Each picture had a reason for wanting to capture the moment. He couldn't imagine his dad having anything similar to this for him and his siblings. Besides the many newspaper articles that he occasionally showed to them as a teaching lesson.
If what she said about her birthday was true, this album was roughly between the ages of 7-17. Her child self would stick her tongue out to the camera. Her preteen self would try to pose pretty. Teenage her would be more adventurous with the backgrounds and dressing to her young confidence level. It was strange that with each flip, he saw how she slowly aged.
The pictures alone showed she had a normal life. And while he saw her with a few relatives, none of them looked exactly like adult her. None of them were the woman he met in 2002. It had to be Cielo and Cielo alone.
He slipped the album back into the bookshelf, taking out three journals instead. They had the same spine but colours ranging from dark blue, indigo to purple. He spread the first pages open on the floor to determine the time frame he was working with. 2002, 2008, 2017. Ages 14, 20 and 29. Odd years in his eyes but it gave him a good chance to see into her mind.
Five took the journals onto the bed as if they were storybooks. Setting his blazer and tie aside, he got comfortable. The first page of the oldest journal started with her talking about the new year, new her deal. Truly the young mindset that he was glad to never experience. It was not in his plan to be reading a kid's journal in his enemy's house but at least this bed was better than camping out in the van.
March 27, 2019
Morning came with an annoying, consistent string of beeps. Before Five could slam the alarm clock off, it turned off by itself. Accompanied by the sound of someone sighing next to him. Shocking him wide awake. Reaching to grab the thing that managed to get close to his sleeping body.
Cielo jumped back with her hands up. He reeled himself back seeing that it was her. Running a hand through his hair. The light outside proved that it was indeed morning. She must have been awake for a while; her clothes different from yesterday. Still business formal. Fitting for her job. Though she could clean herself better by ironing her clothes out. There was always a small imperfection in how she presented herself.
"Glad to see killing in your sleep isn't an instinct of yours. Was worried for a second there. How are you feeling?"
"How long was I out?"
"I don't know when you slept. It's roughly 7:30 in the morning now. Were you reading my journals all night?" She pointed to the books scattered on the bed. Pretending that it wasn't embarrassing to have him read these. She knew she should have hidden them away. Living by herself made her forget about hiding those things. No doubt he already saw her albums.
"I was trying to get into your mind."
"Did it work? What am I like?" He snatched one of them out from under her hands. Not missing the flash of annoyance appearing. She wasn't good at keeping her emotions in check.
"You're still undeterminable. I didn't get too far into them." Somewhat of a lie. He knew of her family situation, her first love, some of her biggest achievements, breakdowns, concerts she went to, how she started at Meritech Prosthetics, etc. Anything that she found big enough to record in her journals, he knew.
Was this an invasion of her privacy? Absolutely. Was this a chance to find any holes in her story? Even more so. But despite subjecting himself to deciphering her chicken scratches, he couldn't find anything against her. Minus the few angry rants she vented out, she hardly had a nasty bone in her body. Reading her point of view, she had good points for each one too.
Hypothesis for how she destroys the world; nice person snapping and gets her hands on some sort of Earth detonator. Note to himself, be extra nice to her. If that was even possible.
"Are you lying to me?"
"Yes. I read through all of them but you're still a mystery."
She sighed, taking the journals back. "I appreciate the lie then. Now come on. I made us some breakfast. I'm not used to cooking for others so sorry if it's not to your liking. No, I did not poison and slash or drug it. To your knowledge at least."
"Your form of humour isn't very amusing."
"Yeah and you murdered people so my humour is the last thing I expect to off put you. Washroom is technically free to use if you'd like to freshen up. Don't take too long." She, mockingly, patted the air above his head before leaving the room.
Sitting by himself, he rubbed his eyes while his muscles groaned in pain. It truly had been a long time since he got any rest that his body was screaming to continue sleeping. He must have gotten 7 hours' maximum. Pushing aside the fact that his body felt it was safe to sleep in the house of a potential world ender, he hated that he slept deeply enough to let her in without hearing a single noise. He was getting rusty.
He went across the hall to splash some water on his face. Looking in the mirror, he could see the days of endless work finally starting to reflect on his young appearance. Not only was he starting to lose his edge with Cielo around, his body was reaching it's breaking point. Another reason he hated being thirteen again.
"5 more days. It'll be over in 5 days. I'll have all the time in the world to rest after that." Five slapped his cheeks once to wake himself up.
The smell of breakfast welcomed him as soon as he walked out the bathroom. He didn't have the energy to fight his mind telling him not to trust her food. She had already set the plates and utensils for him to use. Nothing too special. Some toast, cut up fruit, and an omelette being the main portion. Her plate already had some bites taken. He gave her a quick thanks before he started eating.
Cielo was almost shocked seeing him eat without more of a fight. She let him have at it as she went to grab herself the pot of coffee.
"Wow, you look exhausted. Your body has limits that you need to listen to. The mind can only do so much before it follows the body's lead. I would have let you sleep more but you probably wouldn't like it if I went to work without telling you. Would you like some coffee too? Can you actually drink coffee?"
"Black...please." He slipped in the last part seeing her scowl.
"Awww only because you asked so nicely." She placed the steaming cup next to his plate. Returning to the seat in front of him. "Isn't this nice? Having a calm breakfast without any fighting going on? I imagine living in the apocalypse made it a lot harder to get food. And now you have company with you as well."
"While I'll admit that it's nice to get easy access to food, I did have better company during that time." He took a sip of the coffee feeling the sweet relief to his tiredness. She, as well, continuing to eat at a much slower pace than him.
"Ooo a partner by chance? Romantic or platonic? If I can ask."
"Romantic. I will not answer any further in case you're trying to find out more and take her as a hostage."
"Booo. Here I thought we were making a friendly, normal conversation. Oh well. So what's the plan for today? Just observe me?"
"Get me all the files you can regarding eyeballs. I'll deal with Lance's black-market deals."
"You really have nothing besides the eye to follow? Your time travelling organization didn't have a book of records to prevent the end of the world or anything?"
"We had something like that. However, the Commission wants the apocalypse to happen."
"Why's that?"
"No one knows. Or at least they never told members like me. That's why I'm on my own with nothing but a fake eyeball." Commission sounded very strict from the sound of it. Though it was weird that the thing that controlled time would want an event that made time meaningless.
"So you risked all those people at the doughnut shop, and probably a lot more, coming after you to come back to your family? In turn, also saving the world? Sounds dangerous. Not to mention reckless."
"You could say that. It's not like I jumped without realizing the consequences that come with it."
Cielo smiled. "Then you're the good guy here."
Five never thought of himself as the good guy. Better than those fucked up at Commission, sure. Good guy was too nice of a title for someone like him though.
"Does that make you feel better about working with me?" He would take on that title if it meant she cooperated with him more. Though he wasn't sure what more she could do to show she was helping. Besides just outright showing proof she wasn't the end of the world or the woman that visited her.
"Not really. Being a good guy could mean killing me to save the world. Though I agreed to help, I mainly did it so that it wouldn't have to get to that point. That wasn't on you having morals that somewhat align with mine."
"Must you contradict every assumption I have of you?"
"How about you stop having assumptions about me? That can work."
"I'll take that into consideration."
"You really are a stubborn young-old man. I just wished you looked the part. Would make it easier to remember."
"Trust me I'm not pleased at my body being this way either."
"You didn't do it on purpose?"
"Like I would subject myself to puberty twice and be treated like a kid by everyone. Even my own siblings forget that I'm older than them all. Not that they don't act like kids on a regular basis."
"So what happened that made you like this?" He took out his copy of Vanya's book from his blazer. Since he found it in the future, he had used it as a notebook in a way. It also served as an anchor to what his life could have been if he wasn't so set on time travelling. A way to get to know his siblings that grew up without him.
"I worked for years, decades on an equation that would allow me to time travel back to at least 2019. I set on finding a point in the quantum plane that was suspended in order to project my consciousness, first and foremost, forward in time given that I was in 1968 when I attempted this." He could see the confusion starting to build. "I'll spare you the details, essentially, there must have been a flaw in how I executed this as it threw me into the body that I originally first jumped with."
He placed the worn out book open on the table. He may answer many of her questions but he was careful not to let anything sensitive slip out. Unlike her journals, he never recorded any of his time in the apocalypse. Nothing that wasn't scarred into his mind already was worth noting. Reading the equations in the order he discovered them wouldn't help anyone but him understand time travel.
"I'm not even going to try understanding this. Are you sure that there isn't a typo or something?" She didn't even look at him as she ate her toast.
He felt almost offended at the accusation thrown at him. "A typo? You're saying that my body is stuck like this after years of research because of a typo? The equation might look complicated but it won't be messed up so drastically due to a typo of all things."
"Hey, everyone makes mistakes. Don't underestimate the power a typo has. In designing prosthetics even 1 millimeter can cause the whole thing to be unusable. What's the harm in double checking? This book is ripped all over, covered in dirt, and what I hoped to not be blood. Like this part right here. It's so smudged how can anyone read this? If you've been studying this equation for years, there has to have been a point where you thought it looked wrong." True enough, the final calculations that he came to didn't feel right.
Dolores herself said it as well. That they were off. He couldn't tell why she said it though. He initially thought that it was due to the equation never having been done before. However, if it was a typo that could open up more options to work with. A way to get his adult body back.
Snatching his book back he quickly skimmed through each section of the equation. Muttering to himself while his finger rewrote everything in his mind. 40 years of tweaking his work. There wasn't a single part that he didn't know off the top of his head. Each part he went over was exactly as he executed. Until he got to the section that she pointed out. It was extremely smudged.
The proof of existence of a bound for the number of limit cycles of planar polynomial vector fields to a fixed degree. He did this calculation a long time ago. One of the first steps that he knew would be required in his jump. It was ground-breaking when he did it. Now looking at it with the intention of finding an outlier rather than proving it, it wasn't what he executed.
He remembered wrong. It was solely a typo on his part. The section that she pointed out too despite claiming not to understand it.
He looked up at her. "How did you manage to do that?"
"Do what? Is there actually a typo or something?" She leaned closer to look over the calculations. Tilting her head a lot as she couldn't understand it.
He slammed the book closed. There was nothing that hinted in her personality that she was a threat but somewhere deep inside herself was the real danger. Whether she knew it or not. This was all the proof he needed.
"You're going to be late for work. Let's hurry along." He shoved as much of the plate as he could in one mouthful.
She didn't question his sudden change in demeanor. Better not to ask questions when he doesn't look in the mood for more. "You don't even know when I start."
"Meritech Prosthetics opens at 9am. It'll take roughly 30 minutes for you to walk the distance, maybe 10 on a bus depending on the schedule. I would hate for you to be late. Unless you want me to use my powers to get us there?"
She shivered at the thought of possibly getting that headache again. "Never think about using that on me again. At least let me finish my food. And don't eat so fast in the future, you'll choke."
Now that she wasn't screaming out in pain, he wanted to analyse what really happened yesterday. Was it his powers malfunctioning after the jump or was it something relating to her? When he first learned how to blink it made him a little nauseous but never to the degree that she displayed. His siblings are the same.
It was solely her. He's been thinking that a lot recently. Everything about her was unique to her and no one else he's ever met before.
"Are you prone to motion sickness? Headaches? Conditions of this sort?"
"Not that I'm aware of. That does not give you permission to use your powers on me. I don't know what it does to me and I don't want you to experiment."
"It doesn't make any sense though. You are the only person who reacted to my blinking in such a way. What was it like?"
"It was... painful. Like something inside my head wanted to explode out. I fully believed that my brain would have. It hurt, okay? So without my permission, do not use that power on me." She warned him. There was nothing that she could threaten him with besides her words. It was working. Five didn't know what she was capable of. Best not to use it on her anymore.
"Works for me. Saves the effort. Jumping with other people is tiring anyways." She chuckled, finishing off her food.
"You always want the upper hand but the way you say it sounds like you're trying not to make me feel bad. I will take the more positive light for my own sake." Cielo stacked their plates, setting it to the side.
Both finished their coffees at the same time soon after. A silent way to show that they were both ready to start their day together.
A/N: I have good news! I have finished writing all of the season 1 portion of this story! Whoop whoop! All that I have to do is edit them so expect a few chapters all at once until the end of season 1. My goal is to finish writing and update this story up until the end of season 3 and then take a hiatus for season 4 so I'm on good pace and really happy. :)
