Episode One: We Only See Each Other At Weddings And Funerals

Part Four.

I don't own the Umbrella Academy.

The seven of them crowded together in a circle after everybody had gone to get umbrellas. Percy had been planning on using her green one—it looked close enough to black, anyway—but Five had already pulled out his, and it wasn't like they could hold hands while under their own umbrellas. Well, they could, technically, but it would be weird, so Percy just abandoned hers and followed Five. From the corner of her eye, she saw Allison give her a small smile when she realized that Percy and Five had made up again, and Percy managed a weak one back, but she still couldn't get the conversation she had had with Allison out of her head.

She was still wearing Five's blazer—something she was immensely grateful for. The wind ripped at her hair and nipped at all it could find, making her draw the jacket tighter around herself. Five immediately noticed, however, and let go of her hand for a second—just to wrap his arm around her shivering frame, switching the umbrella to the other hand. He pulled her closer against him, and a new burst of warmth spread through her... and especially on her face. If he noticed her turning into a blushing mess, he didn't say anything, although Percy missed the way his lips quirked up in amusement. She placed her head on his shoulder, just like she used to do when they had been children, as if they were witnessing something other than their father's death.

Everything felt so different... and yet the same, when she glanced around at her siblings. There was Klaus, with his clear, pink-rimmed umbrella that Percy couldn't help but snort at, and had to stifle another laugh when Klaus noticed and gave her a wink. Luther and Diego had both refused umbrellas, even when there were extra, and she wasn't sure if they were either trying to one-up each other, prove something to themselves, or something to them. She knew that Diego had always felt useless, had felt as though he was the family disappointment simply because he was always second, never first. Because first was always reserved for Luther, no matter what they were talking about. She directed her second smile at Diego, but he didn't see. Of course he didn't.

Her eyes travelled to Ben's statue and her heart clenched. God, she couldn't even express how much she hated that fucking statue. Their father had thought himself to be oh so clever when he had thought up the inscription "May the darkness within you find peace in the light." She wanted to scoff. Darkness? Ben? Ben was the kindest person she had ever met. He had never deserved anything he had gotten. He hadn't deserved the life that he was given. And yet here was his statue, accusing him of having an ounce of darkness in him. It wasn't fair. Why was it never fair?

She buried her face into Five's shoulder, whose grip around her shoulder tightened, but almost in a soothing way. Like he was trying to reassure her that no matter what she was feeling, he was there. And he would always be there. But he hadn't, she remembered. He hadn't been there for seventeen years, even if he hadn't meant to do that. She found herself clinging onto his jacket, suddenly worried that he was going to vanish into thin air again if she let go. Because he couldn't go. Not again. She wasn't sure if she would be able to bear it again.

"Percy?" Five murmured, clear concern in his voice, but Percy just shook her head, unwilling to let go and seemingly unable to speak.

He seemed to get the message, though, because he drew her closer to him, running his fingers through her hair, bringing her a sense of comfort, which she gladly welcomed. Five was possibly the only person that could calm her down no matter how severe the situation was, something that everybody had found out a little too late. Even Percy hadn't known that until Five had disappeared and nobody could calm her down when she went through one of her temper tantrums. The only people who had some degrees of success were Ben and Vanya, but they weren't nearly as good as Five was. She had only started bottling in her emotions after far too many traumatic experiences with their father regarding her inability to keep her emotions in check. Soon after that, she had turned into the cold Percy that everybody knew now.

Except Five was back now, and she was starting to allow herself to feel a little more, and everybody could see that.

They stood in silence for a few moments before Grace said, startling Percy so much her head snapped up from where she had mushed it against Five's blazer, "Did something happen?"

The siblings all shared confused glances at each other. How on Earth did Grace forget that their father had died? Percy's heart dropped. Grace wasn't breaking down, was she? She knew how much Grace meant to all of them—to herself, even. She was one of the only people who had cared about them as children... other than each other and Pogo, of course. She snuck a glance at Diego. She knew Diego was the closest to Grace, who had helped him so much during their childhood. And sometimes, she found it sad that Diego's greatest emotional attachment was to a robot that she wasn't sure could love. All he had ever wanted was a mother's love, and Grace had given it to him, but her love was mostly programmed.

"Dad died," Allison said, confusion clear in her voice. "Remember?"

"Oh," Grace said, looking down, as if she just remembered. "Yes, of course."

Everybody else was still a little concerned, though, and Allison questioned for all of them, "Is Mom okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, she's fine," Diego said, although Percy wasn't sure if he was trying to convince them or himself. He glanced at Grace again. "She just needs to rest. You know, recharge."

Percy looked down, biting her lip, already feeling upset again. She hated the fact that Diego had to face the possibility of losing perhaps the person he loved the most, and there was nothing he could do about it. Everybody could see that Grace was slowly starting to break down—she had been around for about twenty-five years... or so Percy had been told. It was perfectly reasonable for even the most well-built of robots to start breaking down around then, but then again... Grace was their mother. None of them wanted to actually believe that.

Pogo ambled toward them, his cane in hand, a black umbrella in the other, and looked at Luther, before saying kindly, "Whenever you're ready, dear boy."

Luther nodded, before looking back down at the urn. He hesitated, just staring down at it, before he finally took a few steps forward and placed his hand on the lid. Everyone stared on in anticipation. He slowly lifted the urn, tilted it, and let a surprisingly small amount of ash fall into a pathetic pile on the ground. Percy frowned. She was pretty sure that a grown man would have more ash than that, but from next to her, Klaus grimaced at the sight, and Percy decided that he probably had something to do about that.

Everybody just glanced at each other following that, probably wondering just how lame something could actually be.

In order to break the awkward silence, Luther said, "Probably would have been better with some wind."

Pogo looked around the circle and asked, "Does anyone wish to speak?"

Nobody would meet his eyes. Half of them stared down at the ground while the other half suddenly found the under of their umbrellas quite interesting. Percy placed her head on Five's chest, staring down at their shoes, and while she couldn't see it, Five glanced down at her, a soft smile tugging at his lips, his thumb gently tracing reassuring circles on her shoulders.

When Pogo realized none of them wanted to say anything, he said, "Very well." Then he paused, as if trying to decide what to say. "In all regards, Sir Reginald Hargreeves made me what I am today. For that alone, I shall forever be in his debt. He was my master... and my friend, and I shall miss him very much. He leaves behind a complicated legacy—"

"He was a monster," Diego cut in, gaining a wheezing laugh from Klaus. "He was a bad person and a worse father. The world's better off without him."

"Diego," Allison snapped, giving him a sharp look.

"My name is Number Two," Diego snapped back, glaring at her. "You know why? Because our father couldn't be bothered to give us actual names. He had Mom do it."

Almost as if sensing the tension between everybody, Grace asked pleasantly, "Would anyone like something to eat?"

"No, it's okay, Mom," Vanya said kindly.

"Oh, okay."

And Grace quieted down while Percy winced. She could feel another fight brewing, probably between Diego and Luther because they seemed to always get into fights nowadays, and she wasn't exactly sure if she wanted to stay for it. They had been under the same roof for under a day and had already gotten into a fight, accused each other of murder, and had one demanding the another to leave. She was honestly sometimes so tired of her dysfunctional family.

"Look, you wanna pay your respects?" Diego stepped into the middle of the circle, looking around at everybody. "Go ahead. But at least be honest about the kind of man he was."

"You should stop talking now," Luther grounded out.

Diego looked at him in almost disbelief before saying almost accusingly, "You know, you of all people should be on my side here, Number One."

"I am warning you."

"After everything he did to you? He had to ship you a million miles away."

Percy, Five and Klaus all exchanged wary glances. Everybody could already sense a fight coming on, simply because of some stupid, petty, childhood feud. Percy's grip on Five's blazer tightened in anticipation, which he noticed, and he offered her a small smile, pressing a small kiss into her hair, which did nothing for her nerves. How he made her blush in the presence of two of her brothers walking on the edge of a knife, she had no idea, and she really wished she could control her emotions around him. He was making her feel things during the worst possible times.

"Diego, stop talking," Luther said through gritted teeth.

"That's how much he couldn't stand the sight of you!" Diego shouted, jabbing his finger into Luther's chest thrice.

And the fight that Percy had predicted erupted.

Luther immediately threw punch after punch at Diego, who dodged every blow, ducking under his brother's fists. Allison just shook her head, looking exasperated and completely done with her family while Grace and Vanya stuck close to each other, Vanya hanging off her mother's arm while Grace was still smiling, although she backed away.

"Boys, stop this at once!" Pogo shouted, but none of them listened to him.

Klaus backed up, throwing out a hand in front of Five and Percy, his brotherly instincts kicking in. Under normal circumstances, Five would've murdered Klaus on the spot for thinking that he ever needed protection, but he was too busy himself making sure that Percy was alright. Her face had disappeared into his jacket again, a muffled groan escaping from her lips along with a few muttered choice words and something about where Diego and Luther could shove Diego's knives up, but she didn't look like she was about to explode. When Five was finally satisfied that she was okay, he looked up, only to see Klaus's arm in front of him, and, with an annoyed glance, pushed it down.

Luther managed to land a punch on Diego, his brute strength hurting Diego far more than the latter would've liked to admit, and Diego screamed, "Come on, big boy!"

Luther took the bait, lumbering forward, swinging at Diego again, but Diego ducked, punching Luther in his now-exposed stomach and, when Luther doubled over in pain, leapt up, landing blow after blow on Luther's back.

"Stop it!" Vanya cried, but they didn't pay any attention to her.

"Hit him! Hit him!" Klaus cheered.

Diego landed more punches on Luther than the other way around, but Luther didn't seem very affected by Diego's blows at all. All they seemed to do was make him angrier and fight even harder. Pogo sighed, and then scoffed, before turning around and leaving, unable to even deal with the two at the moment. The two fought for a little longer, now beginning to punch each other in the face, and Percy peeked out of Five's jacket just to see Luther grab Diego and fling him to the ground. Percy sighed, her fingers beginning to crackle with red energy, ready to slow down time as soon as the situation needed her to, before a grimace crossed her face and she closed her fists, letting the energy die down. She wouldn't use it on her brothers. Not unless it was a life or death decision. She had promised herself that.

Luther grabbed Diego, who punched Luther with every word he said. "Get off me!"

They threw a few more punches at each other before Diego, landed another punch on Luther's face and the two stumbled away from each other, panting and gasping for breath.

"We don't have time for this," Five muttered, giving his brothers an annoyed look, beginning to steer Percy and himself away.

"Come here, big boy!" she heard Diego shout, and then there was another sound—the clanging of metal—that made her whip around.

A gasp fell from her lips when she realized that Luther had punched Ben's statue, causing it to fall over and break as soon as it collided with the ground. Ben's metal head rolled around on the leaves as Percy's hands flew to her lips, and, for possibly the billionth time that day, she felt her eyes begin to water.

"Oh..." Klaus said, grimacing at the sight.

"And there goes Ben's statue," Allison muttered.

"What the FUCK is wrong with you two?" Percy screamed, finally snapping. "I have HAD it with your stupid feud! You two have done nothing but fight and get others mixed up in it! And now you've gone and destroyed Ben's statue? You two are the most—"

She broke off, unable to even continue. If she were in a cartoon, there would've been literal steam coming out of her ears. She was shaking, tears in her eyes, her voice raw from her yelling, and she hated it so much, but at that moment, she didn't care. Because how was it that whenever Diego and Luther fought, they always got someone hurt? And this time, it was Ben. A shrill, half-crazed laugh escaped her lips. This time, it was Ben, and Ben was dead. They had somehow managed to drag a dead person into their mess of a relationship. The skill needed for that took wonders.

She didn't notice the red wisps of smoke escaping her fingers, although the rest of them did, and all eyes were keeping a wary glance at her hands. What all of them failed to notice, however, was what the energy was doing. Her emotions were all over the place, and emotions were one of the triggers of her powers. That was why being emotionless was sometimes a blessing for her. It helped her control her powers better.

A gentle hand rested on her shoulder, and she whirled around, ready to take off the head of whoever had decided to touch her, but then she relaxed slightly when she realized that it was only Five. He glared at the rest of their siblings over her shoulder—throwing especially nasty ones at Diego and Luther, who flinched, suddenly realizing just how terrifying of a death glare Five had—before he gently turned her around and let her bury her face into his jacket again, where she clung onto him, and he led her back into the Academy, but not before throwing an icy look behind him.

When he turned back to Percy, however, his face softened, as it always did when he looked at her. He waited until the doors behind them closed before he asked her quietly, "Do you need to change?"

She nodded, and he veered for the stairs. Involuntarily, she immediately flashed back to one of the training activities they had done on the stairs...

"Nietzsche once said, 'Man is as a rope stretched between the animal and the superhuman. A rope over an abyss. It is a dangerous crossing, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous trembling and halting.' As much as you must strive for individual greatness, and strive you must, for it won't come to you of its own accord... you must also remember that there is no individual stronger than the collective."

Their father had drilled that into their minds. It was one of his favorite speeches to give, or at least Seven guessed so, because he often gave some variation of that speech. She shook it off though, instead mentally preparing herself for the race. She used to not take them seriously at all—used to half-heartedly go through with them—but then a few days locked into a room the first few weeks she had been part of the Academy to teach her to take her training "seriously" changed her entire attitude about it.

She hated lying to everybody about where she was whenever she "misbehaved", but it wasn't like she wanted to tell them that their father had locked her up in a room that was more like a prison... or a high security vault that was unopenable from the inside. Seven shuddered to even think about it. Every day that she was locked inside was the worst day of her life. Pogo had never done anything to try and get her out of it, but Seven understood why. He was conflicted about helping her and his duty to his "master", so he compromised by "accidentally" slipping Seven a book when Grace went to bring her her disgusting meals.

Their father had promised her that as long as she did everything he ever said, she would never have to worry about going back, and Seven was determined to not go back, ever again. If she got first in the race, then their father wouldn't be able to say that she wasn't trying at all. It was the only way to guarantee never going back.

Eight blew the whistle, and the seven children charged up the stairs. As usual, of course, One was first as the rest of them struggled to catch up, but Two somehow pushed his way first.

Five, not liking the idea of being one of the last, spatial-jumped to the front of the group, to which Two shouted, "That's not fair, Five's cheating!"

"He adapted," their father called from above.

Seven paused for a second, realizing that powers were allowed in this challenge, so she just simply shrugged and stopped time for all of her siblings. It was a little funny, really, seeing all of them stopped half-way—some of them even completely in the air, which meant that they were probably going to have a rather painful landing—and she skipped up the stairs, reaching the top of the stairs first and then snapped her fingers again, unfreezing time. Just as she had predicted, Five, who had had no contact with the floor whatsoever, fell as soon as she unfroze him, and went tumbling down the stairs, crashing into the rest of his siblings as they all went down, Seven's tinkling laughter ringing above them.

A fond smile crossed Percy's lips as she remembered the memory, her temper starting to smooth over a little. That had been one of the only training challenges that didn't involve any of them getting seriously hurt, and possibly one of her favorite ones for that sole reason. Besides, seeing all of her siblings tumbling down the stairs in such a comedical way was sort of hilarious to herself. Thank god they had only rolled down a short while or else it would not have been amusing. Their father had declared her the winner and she had smiled smugly in Luther and Diego's scowling faces, finally having beat them for once.

She had expected Five to become angry with her for dropping him, but he had just laughed it off and told her that it was fine, and he wasn't hurt. Well, not severely, anyway. He just told her to try and avoid doing something like that in the future again, to which she had mischievously smiled and shrugged innocently, telling him that she couldn't make any promises. Those had been the good old days.

"Feeling better?" Five asked, startling Percy out of her thoughts.

"Hm? Oh, yeah." She nodded at the railing. "Remember that one challenge we did? When I beat you all to the top of the stairs because I froze time for you guys?"

"Ah, how could I forget? You had me scrambling to pick up the shreds of my dignity after that."

A laugh bubbled out of her because god, how did Five make her feel better in a matter of seconds? Because she had never been that angry ever since Ben died, and that had been a real shitshow, but Five had calmed her down so fast that she hadn't even had enough time to be upset and cause a mess.

"You redeemed yourself pretty quick," she commented. "Wiped the floor in your sparring match against Luther."

Because although none of their other siblings wanted to admit it, Five had always been the best at hand-to-hand combat between all of them. Percy came in at a close second, but Five had had more training overall, and better training. Percy had learned by herself before being picked up by their father, and it was difficult, unlearning all of her terrible forms and wrong strategies. Still, the one advantage she did have was because her fighting abilities were a little bit on the wild side, any trained in traditional fighting would have trouble predicting her moves. That had been the only time she had ever beat the Umbrella Academy—they had been so thrown off by her strange fighting tactics that she had surprised them.

That was possibly one of her proudest achievements to date. And Five, hating the fact that he had gotten bested by a seven year old girl who had had no formal training prior, had demanded that she teach him everything he knew. She supposed that that was how he had improved so quickly—he combined the traditional fighting tactics he had been taught since birth... literally, and the strange fighting style she used. Perhaps she could've trained until Five's level as well, but she was... well, she was lazier than him. He trained every chance he got until he was satisfied, while she used to just read books on the sidelines and watch him, simply because his fighting skills were quite impressive.

"You did pretty well too," he told her.

Percy just shrugged.

She had been up against Allison, who, during that time, had yet to stop relying so much on her rumors. The girl had tried to rumor Percy about five seconds onto the training ring, and Percy had easily just kicked the other girl in the throat, causing her to lose her voice for a few moments and incapacitate her just for long enough to Percy to win a quick victory over her. After that, Allison began to work more on her fighting abilities instead of relying so much on her powers.

"Allison just relied too much on her rumors," she said. "Once she got over that, though, she did better."

They had reached her room. Percy opened and the two of them walked in, although Five lingered hesitantly at the doorway, unsure of what to do. Percy rolled her eyes and beckoned him to go in.

"Just use this," she said, holding up a random scarf she had found on the table. Then she considered it. "I guess you couldwait outside, but then you might run into one of our siblings and..." She trailed off when Five slammed the door behind him as the words fell from her lips. "Guess that's out then."

She handed him the scarf and waited for him to tie it around his eyes before she bit her lip and began changing. She knew that while Five couldn't exactly see her changing, it still did nothing for her nerves. Both their faces were bright red as she quickly pulled on her clothes, for her because it was still embarrassing, and for him because while he couldn't see anything, he could still hear her clothes hitting the ground.

As she pulled on her lilac sweater, her eyes caught the flash of black on her forearm and immediately flashed back to the day their father had forced them to get tattooed...

"The ties that bind you together make you stronger than you are alone," he said before they were forced to brand themselves. "They will make you impervious to the pain and hardship the world will thrust upon you. And believe me when I tell you, life will be hard. It will be painful."

Four was the first to have gotten his Umbrella Academy tattoo, followed by Three, who was still holding her arm, crying into Four as he held her, clearly barely holding back tears himself. Two was in the chair, his eyes screwed shut, an occasional groan of pain escaping her lips. Grace went to comfort him after seeing that he was in so much pain, but Two yanked his hand away, and Grace retreated into the shadows, where she was joined by their father, who looked on with approval.

One was after Two, and he looked on with barely concealed fear, his face slightly red from holding back tears. He crossed his arms as if trying to put on a tough act, although everybody could see right through it. Six was after him, and he didn't bother even trying to hold back his terror. Five, in the chair next to Six, looked on with a grimace, trying to hide his discomfort, but he didn't do so well. Seven, the last of them all, was gripping Five's hand so tightly that his fingers were starting to become a little pale, but he didn't say anything. He only tightened his grip as well, trying to soothe her, seeing that she was frightened, even if he was scared himself.

Her heart had felt like it was being ripped out when he was in the chair, and she could see the utter pain he was in. She had almost risen and rushed to his side, but thoughts of the vault beneath the mansion stopped her. Besides, it wasn't like Five would die, she had tried to reason to herself. It would just be painful, but they all had to get the tattoo.

When it was finally her turn, Five had tried to give her an encouraging smile, although it was twisted with so much pain that it looked more like a grimace. She had tried to give him one back, but then she sat in the chair and all her happy thoughts vanished. The only thing keeping her from crying out in pain was the thought that doing so would embarrass their father and he might send her back down to the room. She had squeezed her eyes shut, trying to focus on her breathing, while her arm was being branded, although that failed pretty quick. Instead, she had imagined Five's smile and his voice, and that had eased the experience a bit more.

"I'm done," she said softly.

As Five took off the scarf around his head, he asked, "You okay?"

"Memories," was her reply. "Seems that we can never run from them, can we? I mean, we can. For a short while. But they always catch up when you're least expecting it, don't they?"

"What were you remembering this time?" he questioned gently.

"Our tattoos."

"Ah."

Five couldn't hide his grimace, to which Percy smiled at, but there was no humor behind it. She knew that they had all hated getting the tattoo—all of them but Vanya, who hadn't gotten one, but that was the reason as to why she had hated it. Because she had always been left out. Vanya had shown her the drawing she had done on her own arm with a proud smile toward Percy, and Percy had to swallow down her bile, force a smile, and tell Vanya it was a really good drawing. Because while she sympathized with Vanya about being left out for a lot of things, this was one thing she did not. Because she could still remember the pain she had had to go through just to get some ink under her skin, and she wouldn't have wished that kind of pain on anyone. Perhaps she had been being selfish and entitled, but Percy didn't really care.

"Did Vanya show you her drawing?" she asked Five.

He nodded.

Out of all of them, Percy and Five were ones who had ever been nice to Vanya. Even Ben had sometimes been rude to her, but she and Five... they treated her the best. A fond smile graced her lips when she remembered the time Five had let her borrow his mask simply because she wanted to know what it felt like to wear it.

"How do I look?" Vanya had asked.

"Powerful," Five had told her.

The delighted smile that Percy and Five had received had brought one to their faces as well. She and Five had always agreed that Vanya was left out of far too many things, and they had always tried to include her whenever they could. Of course, they were too terrified to stand up for her in front of their father, because they had tried once—that had earned Percy three days in the vault, and Five had been forced to undergo harsh training; far harsher than what they others had to go through. He had received numerous bruises and several stitches. After that, Vanya went to them with tears in her eyes and begged them to not do something like that again, because she couldn't bear it if they got into trouble for her again. They had promised her they would try.

A sudden thought occurred to her: she had never told any of her siblings about the vault. Well, they had all guessed as to where she might've gone after she had spoken out against or disobeyed their father, but she had never told them the details. She was always quiet after it, barely cracking a smile, and she always holed herself up in her room, reading to escape her life. After a few years, she had taken up painting as another way to distract her from thinking about the vault. But, to that day, she had never said anything about the vault. The only people who knew about it now were Pogo and Grace, and they surely wouldn't say anything about it to anyone. And she wanted to keep it that way. Because Grace and Pogo would never lock her up, and she didn't want the chance of someone else ever locking her up again. She was finally free, and she would never have to go back again.

"I'm gonna go back down to the kitchens and get some coffee," Five announced. "Coming?"

"But Five..."

The words died on her lips. She had just been about to remind him that their father had hated caffeine, but then she decided that Five probably knew that and was just desperately hoping their father had some stored in the kitchens... for some reason. She wondered when he had started drinking coffee. It must've been some time after he had left, because she was pretty sure he had never had coffee when he lived in the Academy. Or did he? He couldn't have, because their father had never kept coffee. Or did he...?

And then she realized she was putting way too much thought into coffee and just nodded at Five, taking his hand.

Everything that happened in the episode was supposed to wrap up in this chapter but this ended up being insanely long so the best scenes of this episode ("well he hated children and he had plenty of us" and the entire diner scene in my opinion) is gonna be in the next chapter. I couldn't even keep one of my favorite scenes in this chapter because Percy left (it was Klaus shoving the cigarette in Reginald's ashes which was ICONIC) so I'm determined to keep as many other amazing scenes as I can.

Also, I forgot that you can't reply to comments, so I'm gonna answer them here:

Guest: Your suggestion of writing it where there are no familial ties was a really good suggestion, and it is kind of present in this book, but you won't see it until a couple chapters later. Because of how Netflix had filmed the show, with short clips of their childhoods just randomly sprinkled in during the other episodes, I also have to follow that format. It's going to be explained in later chapters, but before Five left, Percy had never thought of the other children as her siblings, and because she had felt no familial ties with them, it wasn't like she thought of Five as a brother first and then developed a crush on him. From the ages of seven to thirteen, she had always considered the other children to be her friends, but not real siblings, and then after Five left, she becomes closer to them, and then a couple years later, accepts them as a real family, but she doesn't until her mid-teen years. I don't really know if that explains it well, but hopefully it kind of makes sense?

Guest: I sometimes think that Five and Percy's relationship is too cliche and romantic too, but sometimes, a little bit of cliche and romance is what I want to write, even though it isn't really present in a lot of my other books, so forgive me if I made it a little too over-the-top, but I'm tried to capture the moment where these two people, who haven't seen each other in seventeen and forty-five years, finally see each other again, and they're still in love with each other. My take on it might be a little too over-the-top and too overdone, I know that, but even though I've never experienced love before, I imagine them to be extremely over the top and romantic with each other considering how long they spent apart. As for why they're still in love with each other after decades... well, I can't answer that. You can't control emotions, you can't choose when you love someone or not, and I probably didn't make this very clear in my first chapter, but Percy did try and get over Five. It just didn't work, though, and Percy and Five's feelings for each other is just that rare love where even time can't diminish it. To answer your question about how Percy's powers work, it's that she can manipulate time, but only in the sense of changing the speed of time. She can slow it down, speed it up, or freeze it completely, but she can't time travel, like Five, or rewind the clock, so she can't change history, or else she would've changed a lot of things. As for why she stayed so young... well, there's a lot of reasons for that, and I don't think I can do them justice in a single explanation.