Episode Two: Run Boy Run

Part Four.

I don't own the Umbrella Academy.

The three of them sat on the steps of the building. Percy and Five were still numb with shock at the revelation. Five, of course, being far more frustrated than Percy, because he had seen, first hand, the destruction of the world and what that meant while Percy still didn't know exactly what that meant. Klaus, of course, could sense that not knowing the owner was bad news, but it wasn't like he could do any more for them.

Five finally broke the silence. "Well, this is not good."

Ever in an attempt to lighten the mood, Klaus said, laughing, "I was pretty good, though, right? 'Yeah. What about my consent, bitch?'"

"Yeah, great," Percy said half-heartedly while Five said frustratingly:

"Klaus, it doesn't matter."

"What? What? What's the big deal with this eye, anyway?"

Five's frustration was turning into anger and annoyance and so he lashed out at Klaus, despite the warning looks from Percy. Stomping up to his brother, he all but sneered, "There is someone out there who's going to lose an eye in the next seven days. They're gonna bring about the end of life on this Earth as we know it."

Which, of course, was far more snappish than Five could've said, but then again, Five hated it whenever his plans didn't go according to... well, plan, and Klaus wasn't taking it all that seriously either. They had ended up explaining to Klaus what exactly had happened, but Percy had a feeling that he was either too high to understand them or he just didn't care enough or he didn't trust them enough to believe them. Mortifyingly, she had found herself wishing it was the first one.

As Five and Percy walked past Klaus, the latter called, "Yeah, can I get that twenty bucks, like, now, or what?"

The two not-so-teenage teenagers turned around slowly and incredulously.

"Your twenty bucks?" Five repeated slowly, as if he were having trouble processing what Klaus was saying.

"Yeah, my twenty bucks."

"The apocalypse is coming, and all you can think about is getting high?" Five snapped.

"Well, I'm also quite hungry. Tummy's a-rumblin'."

Klaus grinned at them and made rumbling sounds while wiggling his fingers, and Percy found herself unable to do anything other than to stare at him. He... wasn't being serious, was he? They had just told him that the world was about to end and the only thing he could think about was food and drugs? Maybe there was more to Klaus than she knew, and maybe he was fighting his own demons and he couldn't afford to fight theirs too, but seriously? Maybe he was tired of the superhero-ing business, but god, weren't they all?

"You're useless," Five scoffed. "You're all useless!"

"Oh, come on," Klaus said. "You need to lighten up, old man." As Percy sat back down heavily on the steps, wondering when her life had gotten so bad, Klaus continued, "Hey, you know, I've just now realized why you're so uptight. You must be horny as hell! All those years by yourself. It's gotta screw with your head, being alone."

Percy wondered if she could just... die. Was she being dragged into a conversation with Klaus and Five about Five's sex life? Maybe it wouldn't have been so weird if it hadn't been her brother asking her... well, brother who she also just happened to like, but still. Maybe she could stop time and then run away before they realized she left...

While Percy seriously contemplated the morals of this, Five said quietly, "Well... I wasn't alone."

That jerked Percy out of her thoughts. Her head snapped toward Five so fast she almost broke it, and she was sure that she wasn't being subtle at all, but Klaus looked just as surprised as she did. His eyes flickered from hers to Five's, a frown creasing his eyebrows.

Oh. Percy's face fell. Oh. Somehow, in the heat of the moment, she had somehow completely forgotten that someone named Delores had been in the future with him, and that he had fallen in love with her. Percy wondered how old said Delores was, at the moment. If she were thirteen, like Percy and Five physically, did it count as illegal if Five re-dated her? Maybe in the apocalypse, it didn't count because Five was still physically and mentally thirteen, and also because they were the last two people alive, but the wistful look on Five's face was enough to turn Percy's stomach.

She scolded herself, praying that her expression didn't betray her. Five was perfectly allowed to love anyone he wanted. It wasn't like she had been in the future with him, and if she truly loved him, she'd let him love whoever he wanted to. Her feelings were starting to get ridiculous now, and it was hindering her judgement far more than she would've liked.

"Oh?" Klaus asked, his curiosity piquing. "Pray tell."

"Her name was Delores," Five said, and there was a soft look in his eyes as he recalled the woman's name. He even had a ghost of a smile. "We were together for over 30 years."

Percy pinched herself, hard. She was not getting worked up over a woman she hadn't even met. Maybe Five would introduce her to this famous Delores and, in the future, when she got over Five, Percy would be comfortable enough with her to tell her that she had been in love with Five once upon a time too and the two of them could laugh over it during family dinners or something. Because how could Percy ever compete with someone who had stolen Five's heart for thirty years?

"Thirty years?" Klaus repeated in surprise, and Five nodded.. "Oh, wow! God, the longest I've been with someone was... I don't know, three weeks. And that's only because I was so tired of looking for a place to sleep."

Almost as if Five heard her desperate thoughts to get out of there before Klaus could continue talking about his sex life, or perhaps he was just as desperate himself, he grabbed Percy's arm and jumped out of there. Still, without the warning, Percy would've fallen over if they appeared standing. As it was, he had jumped them into a (thankfully) empty taxi, so Percy just felt like she was going to throw up instead of actually looking like she was.

The driver in front gave a startled gasp and jumped, but Five said sharply, "Don't stop. Just keep going."

Then he glanced out the window with a smirk while saluting Klaus as the latter shouted, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, what about my money?"

"Do you even have twenty dollars?" Percy murmured, laying her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes, trying to get her head to stop spinning. "Or were you just tricking Klaus and playing into his desperation for money?"

It took him a few moments to admit quietly, "I might've forgotten it on my desk, and I needed the rest of my money for this ride."

Percy snorted. "Five, you can spatial jump. Do we even really need to get a taxi?"

He paused at that. "Oh. Yeah."

Percy rolled her eyes, but there was a fond smile tugging at her lips. Five might've been the smartest in the family, but sometimes, he lacked a little thing called "common sense." She found that most of the family lacked it, and, unfortunately, that included Percy herself, occasionally. But she did find it hilarious that Five, who could solve the world's most complicated equations like they were nothing just sometimes overthought things far too much.

"Well, we can't leave now," Percy said, crossing her arms, before she shot straight up with a horrified gasp.

"What?" Five asked, looking slightly concerned. "What is it?"

"My car! I left my car!" And then Percy gasped again and whirled onto Five, her expression even more panicked. "Klaus knows how to hotwire a car! He's gonna hotwire my car! Five, kill me now. I'm gonna lose my car. Klaus is going to owe me a car."

"Or you can just get it back."

"But it won't be the same."

Five threw up his hands. "I don't have time to argue with you."

"That's because you know you can't argue with my logic."

Wisely, Five didn't say anything back. In their family, Five was the one who won arguments with logical thinking. Percy could've done that too, but she found it far funnier to just keep repeating the same thing and act like a little child. Annoying the rest of the Hargreeves children with her childish behavior had been too good of a treat to pass up. How undignified they looked, these child superheroes, arguing with another one of theirs that just stuck their tongue out at them at any argument?

"So where are we going now?" Percy asked instead.

"Back to the mansion," he said. "I need to do something first. And then we'll be going to a department store."

"Which one?"

He gave her a look. "Does it matter? You don't go shopping anyway."

She just shrugged, her way of saying true, before something else occurred to her. They had never told the driver where they wanted to go.

"Um, Mr Taxi Driver?" she said hesitantly. "Hargreeves mansion, please."

"Useless."

It was an hour past their conversation in the taxi, and Five was currently scribbling away on the giant chalkboard in his room, occasionally raining down white dust onto Percy's clothes. She had tried to brush it off in the beginning, but it just left white streaks across the fabric. Then she had thrown a book at Five in annoyance for ruining her clothes, and he retaliated by throwing a pencil back at her. For two people who were supposed to be fifty and thirty, they were sure acting the age they looked.

Percy glanced up with half-interest, her voice drawling slightly as she asked distractedly, "What's useless?"

"This! Everything! Ugh!"

Like any other kid having a temper tantrum, Five threw the piece of chalk against the board, snapping it in half. Chalk dust rained down on Percy again and, with a huff of annoyance, she snapped her book shut and stood up sharply, glaring at him.

"Five, I told you, no more getting that stupid cocaine powder all over me! Look, you'll figure it out, okay? Worse comes to worse, if you need a couple extra hours, I can slow down time and give you a couple hours." Percy frowned. "If I can even figure out how to do that. That's magic on a huge scale. I've never done that much in a long time."

"Whatever."

Five might've been soft on her and Vanya, but even they had limits to his temper. Whenever Five got annoyed, he could treat even the people he cared about harsher than he intended. To most people, that would've been an obvious red flag, but, unfortunately, in the Hargreeves family, that was just the norm. Everybody in their family was snappish and rude and cold to the people they cared about when they were angry or frustrated because that was just how they were raised. Percy had grown up on the streets, even. She didn't remember her parents, didn't remember if they loved her or not. She had survived on relying solely on herself and looking out for only herself. Bonding was just not something the Hargreeves did.

"I'm going," she snapped, scowling. "You can go find me whenever you're done with this shit."

Percy didn't swear as often as the rest of her siblings, but she was pissed, and honestly, in her opinion, why wouldn't she have been? All she had been trying to do was help Five, and he was taking his anger out on her? She didn't deserve it. If he wanted to get mad at her for something she had done, then she'd hear him out and try to understand why he was mad. But he was mad that he couldn't figure out the equation and honestly? Percy wasn't in the mood for one of his temper tantrums.

With a cold grace that would've made her father proud, Percy swept out of the room, her book still clutched tightly in her hand. If only she had a cape, the exit would've been more dramatic. She had considered slamming the door behind her, but then she decided against it; it would bring her greater satisfaction to know that Five had to get up to close the door behind her. And sure enough, when she heard him huff and jump off the bed, an amused smile graced her lips.

So perhaps she too was being petty, but all in all, it felt good.

Five would apologize later anyway, if he knew what was good for him. If he didn't, then she'd sit out the next adventure he wanted her to go on. She had put up with his fits for long enough, and she really didn't exactly want to be his personal punching bag. But she was sure that he'd calm down. She just needed to give him time to cool off.

And while he was doing that, she would be at least somewhat productive.

Just like the day before, Percy let her fingertips trail over the books resting on her bookshelf, her fingers leaving dust trails over the spines of books she hadn't touched in a long time. So perhaps she wasn't exactly being productive. Sue her. Books had been her only escape for a long time—before she had become friends with the rest of the Umbrella Academy, after Five's disappearance, and after Ben's death. She lost herself to those pages just like how Vanya lost herself to the music of her violin.

Ever since leaving the Academy, though, she hadn't really had a chance to read those childish, silly books she had fawned over when she had been a child. No, most of the books she read were either classics she had been shamed into reading that she had found so dreadfully boring over a decade ago, or books that taught her important life skills, like economics and whatever. Rarely did she ever revisit her classics, the ones that her father never would've approved her reading.

And so Percy wasn't surprised when she found herself fumbling in her closet for a dust-covered backpack she had almost forgotten about, shoved into the back, along with the rest of her Umbrella Academy uniform she had tried so hard to forget. Without thinking, she had swept all the leather bound books into her bag, careful in making sure that none of the pages bent.

Then she glanced down at her own clothes and frowned.

She hadn't exactly had time to change out of the bloodstained clothes from the night before. Five had seemed like he was in a hurry to get to the eye doctor place or whatever Lance or Grant or something worked as, so she hadn't bothered changing out of her clothes. Now, though, she sorely wished she had made Five wait for her to shower and change.

She glanced at her closet and bit her lip, contemplating it, which she thought so strange, because six hours ago, she wouldn't have even thought about it. Then again, Five had done it, but he hadn't exactly had another choice. Still, though, did she really want to go another few hours in such a state?

So it was with a sigh that she trudged back to the closet and pulled one of her uniforms off its hanger.

As she laced up her sneakers (she refused to wear the stupid knee-high socks and dress shoes her old uniform had), she heard the door to her room creaking open. Glancing over, she saw Five gazing at her with a look of surprise. Clearly, he hadn't expected her to be changed in her old uniform, complete with the plaid skirt and blue blazer. With Five also dressed in his old uniform, it felt almost like they were just two teenagers again, part of the Umbrella Academy, ready to deal justice on criminals. The thought almost made her lips twitch, but she resisted.

"Hey," Five said softly, shoving his hands into his pockets. "You're right. I shouldn't have taken out my frustrations on you. You were only trying to help. I'm sorry." Percy frowned, but before she could say anything, Five added with a small smile, "I know you didn't say that to me, but I also know you were thinking it."

Percy's frown turned into an eyeroll, but she silently acknowledged his apology with a slight incline of her head. She didn't know if she wanted to accept it—Five should've known better than to snap at her for something out of her control in the first place—but he had apologized, at the very least. That was something very few, unfortunately, could even bring themselves to do. Even Percy had to admit that she had trouble apologizing.

"So did you figure out what you did wrong?"

"Typo," Five said. "I put the decimal in the wrong spot in my proof. It should've been zero-point-five-seven. I accidentally wrote down five-point-seven."

"And that was supposed to be for...?"

"A proof of the existence of a bound for the number of limit cycles of planar polynomial vector fields of fixed degree." Percy just gave him a blank look, and he clarified, "Time travel. I messed up and ended up in the last body in this timeline as opposed to sticking with my old body."

"Ah."

Five nodded at her. "What's up with the bag?"

Percy shrugged. "Just thought I'd collect some mementos and bring it back home. It's not like dear old Dad" —she said the last word scornfully— "needs it anyway, and it is something from my childhood. I never thought about taking it with me the first time around, but... well, I thought that maybe it'd be nice to remind myself of the few good times we had in this place."

She had also stuck her dirty clothes in there, but that was information that Five didn't need. Also, she was sure that he would've been able to guess that.

"Anyway," she said, changing the topic, "you wanted to go to a department store, right? Are we going there now?"

Five nodded, but before he could reach out for her, a very familiar voice drawled from downstairs, "Hey, Percy, I don't know if you're here, but if you are, I left your car parked in front. Almost crashed, but I didn't. Yippee! Anyway, tell Five he's an asshole for me, won't you?"

Five rolled his eyes and called back, "You're the asshole, Klaus."

Taking her hand, Five spatial-jumped both of them into the living room. Percy felt like all the wind had been knocked out of her lungs, but at least she didn't feel like throwing up anymore. Five had forgotten to warn her, again, but at least she was getting used to the sudden jumps. It was clear that he had just remembered his promise too, because he gave her hand a quick apologetic squeeze before dropping it and raising his eyebrows at Klaus who had flinched at their sudden appearance.

Before Klaus could say anything, Five had strolled past him, slapped a twenty into his chest, and said, "Here's your twenty, but we're taking the car, so decide if you want to get a cab somewhere or if you want to spend it on drugs. Your choice."

"Pro tip: don't choose the drugs," Percy said in a threatening stage-whisper, her eyes full of warning. "Maybe breakfast. Go with breakfast."

"Aye aye, captain," Klaus muttered, but neither Percy or Five heard.

The first thing she did when she exited the mansion was to fret over her car, checking it over for any visible scratches or damage. Sure, it wasn't exactly the best car around, and it was rather old for car standards (Percy had just celebrated its ten year birthday a couple weeks ago), but it was still her car. Besides, it had been through the worst of times with her, and that car had seen parts of her that even her siblings had never seen before.

Five didn't say anything while Percy fretted over her vehicle, but there was almost a fond look to his eyes.

The drive to the store was mostly silent. Five didn't tell her why they needed to go to the store, and Percy hadn't bothered asking. She wasn't sure why she hadn't, but then again, she could probably guess. He needed clothes, right? Though why he wanted to go to that specific store was something she couldn't answer, but she supposed that maybe it was one of the last partially-standing buildings in the world, and Five had gotten his clothing there during the apocalypse, so it had some sort of sentimental value.

Though she then found herself wondering why they were going in the middle of the night. Were stores even open now? Were they going to have to steal? Why, though? Their dad was a billionaire, and if Five needed clothes that badly, she was sure Grace or Pogo would've gladly lent him any amount he asked for. So maybe they weren't going for clothes, but the trip weren't for that, then Percy had no idea why they were going.

"Hey, Five?" she asked uncertainly. "What are we getting?"

"Who," he corrected.

"Ah," was her response, as if that made any sense. Five didn't elaborate, clearing thinking the conversation was over, but Percy was frowning. Five probably needed info from someone who worked at the store, but other than perhaps the janitor or someone, Percy couldn't imagine who would've been at the store so late.

The parking lot seemed so strangely sad when Percy parked. The cold, spring night air howled harshly around them as she exited the car, leading to her wrapping her arms around herself, trying to warm herself up. So maybe trading her jeans for a skirt hadn't been the best idea, or maybe she could've gone with the knee high socks. It was too late though—it wasn't like there was time for her to change.

Quicking her pace, Percy jogged toward the doors—they were gated shut and both doors were locked, a thick chain coiled around the metal bars of the gates. Groaning in annoyance, she rattled the gates in frustration a few times, knowing that it wouldn't do anything, but it felt good to at least do something.

"Percy, you're not gonna get in like that."

"And you got any bright ideas then, Mr Genius?" she asked sarcastically, turning back around to raise an eyebrow at Five, but then she noticed his half-amused, haf-smug expression, realized he was holding out his hand, and understood what he was implying.

"Shut up," she muttered, and Five almost cracked a grin.

Instead, he took her icy fingers in his—and then there was the familiar weightlessness and uncomfortableness of spatial jumping—and then the two of them blinked into existence inside the store. Percy glanced around for a few moments, checking to see if anybody was there, before Five was leading her through the racks, casually swiping a flashlight from one of the bins to light them on their way.

"Five, we're going towards the women's area," she whispered.

"Gee, I didn't realize."

"You're such a sarcastic little shit."

"Thank you."

Percy went to retaliate, but Five pressed a finger against his lips, shushing her, pointing his flashlight at the various mannequins in the store. Percy just rolled her eyes, but she still wondered why he was currently scanning the women's section, because as far as she knew, Five didn't identify as a woman. Besides, that was the kind of thing he'd probably tell her... and also, when she had asked him what they were looking for, he had said they were looking for someone, not something. Was that why he was searching the mannequins? Did a mannequin count as a person?

Percy was still questioning everything when Five said softly, "Delores."

Percy jerked at that. Five was staring up at a mannequin with a soft look of adoration that made her stomach twist. So this was Delores. A mannequin with a long, brown in, yellow hat, and polka-dotted shirt. Percy wished that he had just stabbed her instead. It might've been less painful.

Because Percy had been expecting Delores to be a person, not a mannequin. How could she ever compete with Delores now? She was born from the imagination of Five, of pure imagination; how could she compete with someone who Five could make so utterly perfect in his mind? Delores was everything that Five could've wanted, and it was obvious in the way he smiled at the mannequin, his expression so earnest and loving that Percy felt almost sick.

Klaus had told her that Five used to look at her like she had created the heavens themselves, but how could that be true? Five was gazing at Delores with an expression that she had never seen Five look at her with.

"It's good to see you," Five continued, oblivious to Percy backing away slowly. "I've missed you... obviously."

Morbidly, Percy found herself wondering if Five gave Delores the memories of fifty-year-old Delores too. Probably considering how the one-sided conversation between them was going.

"Well, I..." he paused. "It's been a rough couple of days."

Just when she thought it couldn't get worse, Five had to go and say that.

Sure, it was true—they spent most of it trying to stop the apocalypse, got attacked in the diner by assassins from a time commission or something, and discovered that the only lead they had was really just a dead end, but... well, no. It was definitely a rough couple of days. But for some reason, she found herself hurting anyway; because the last couple of days had been the first time she had reunited with Five, and... well, it hurt more than she would've liked to hear him call their reunion rough.

Percy was so distracted that she didn't even notice the masked shooters until bullets were flying at them.

"No!" Five yelled, his face twisted into one of horror; he lunged for Percy and the both of them went down, the girl shouting in surprise as bullets flew above their heads.

In the chaos, Five grabbed the still-stunned girl and dragged her back with him, behind a rack of clothing.

"Wait!" Percy cried, struggling against Five, even though he won the small fight. "Wait, you forgot Delores!"

"Stop fighting!" he hissed. "You're going to get yourself killed." Peeking out from behind the racks of clothing, he caught sight of two children masks lit up by gunfire—with a curse, he moved back.

"Shit! It's them!"

"Who?" Percy demanded, but Five didn't answer.

Instead, he charged for the fallen mannequin, ducking under the gunfire. Grabbing the top-half, he dragged it back to where Percy was sitting, gritting her teeth in annoyance as she tried to figure out what the best course of action would be. The last time she had used her powers on a large scale, she had nearly passed out—if she ran out of juice in the middle of this fight, the consequences would be worse than if she did nothing at all. Gnashing her teeth furiously, she decided that she'd only step in with her powers if one of them were about to die.

Five lay Delores beside her. "I'll be right back for you."

"Five—"

He was already running. It took a few seconds for her to realize that he was trying to draw the assassins away from the two of them—clearly, he had realized that Percy was out of practice in terms of combat as compared to him, and, between the two of them, he had the highest chance at surviving. Percy hated that he was right. Mostly, she hated feeling useless, so she glanced around desperately, trying to see if there was anything she could use as a weapon. The best she could find was a coat hanger, so she quickly stripped the hanger of its shirt and gripped it tightly.

The gunfire had yet to stop, and, horrifyingly, she heard one of them, distinctly female, ask her partner, "You see that?"

Her partner, his voice male, replied, "You said he was special. So now what?"

"You start over there, I'll go to the other end. Meet in the middle. Shoot anything that moves."

Percy slid down a little more. Maybe if she didn't move... oh, who was she kidding? She wasn't going to leave Five to do all the work. Working furiously, she snapped the coat hanger in half, trying to go for more of a jagged weapon that could stab easier, but everybody froze (except for Delores, because she was already frozen) when the plastic snapped far louder than it should've.

"Shit."

What did keeping quiet matter anymore if they had all heard her?

Gunfire peppered the clothes beside her. She yelped and dove under the racks, coming out from the other side of the clothes and sprinting down the aisle, toward the shooter, in a zig-zag fashion. With a quick thrust, the coat hanger sunk not into the jugular, like she had been aiming for, but their arm instead. Anticipating what she had been about to do, they had raised their arm, blocking what would've been a lethal strike.

That didn't stop them from hollering, "Fuck!" at the top of their lungs and literally smacking her across the room with their brute strength, because after all, Percy was, biologically, a thirteen year old girl, and thirteen year old girls were not very heavy.

Percy let loose a curse of her own as her head banged against the metal racks with such force that the entire thing shuddered. Her vision blurred. Her head throbbed with horrible pain. Dazily, she touched her hair—it came back sticky and wet. She'd need medical attention for that. But the shooter was raising their gun at her and she needed to move if she wanted to live.

Grabbing Delores from where the broken mannequin was lying on the ground, Percy tried to run, but she was so out of it that even that she managed to fail.

She heard the shot rather than felt it.

The bullet seemed to be flying toward them in slow motion, but Percy knew that it wasn't because of her powers this time. With Delores clutched in front of her, she knew that the bullet was going to hit the mannequin, and if that happened, then everybody would make it out safe and happy and alive. But then she remembered Five's longing gaze, the little smile she had never seen him smile before when he looked upon the mannequin, and so, it was with a bitter, silent curse that she yelled, "No!" and threw the mannequin away from her.

The bullet missed her heart but sunk deep into her shoulder.

She was a bit embarrassed to admit she screamed.

As soon as she made it behind another rack, she collapsed, hand over the wound, breathing heavily. Blood was running from between her fingers, getting all over her clothes. God, and she had just changed out of her bloodied clothes. The back of her head was throbbing with a dull pain too.

"Percy!" Five shouted, his voice tight with worry because he could not believe her recklessness.

He had just watched her throw her life away for a fucking mannequin. A mannequin he cared about, granted, but over Percy? He had come to the department store to say goodbye to Delores because he had found Percy again, and he was going to lose her again? Did he really think he valued the well-being of a mannequin over her?

And then he felt so, so guilty because—

Well, maybe he hadn't exactly proved to Percy that he cared so much about her. It just wasn't in his nature to show his affections very much, but he hadn't thought himself to be so bad that Percy thought he cared about plaster more than her.

Percy, on the other hand, barely heard him call out her name. She was still clutching her wound, her breaths fast and shallow, struggling to keep her eyes open. She saw Five at the end of the other aisle, trying to dodge the bullets, but even in her woozy state, she could see how exhausted he was. He had to choose between her or Delores. He wouldn't be able to jump twice.

"Go," she croaked, hoping he heard her over the gunfire. "Go, get Delores, get out of here. I'll try and buy you some time—"

She didn't get to finish her sentence because at that moment, Five was already ducking under the sheet of bullets and had latched onto her arm—and then the two of them reappeared beside Percy's car.

The rain soaked the two of them to the bone. Five looked exhausted, but his face was grim and determined as he held her upright.

"But Delores—"

"Shut up," he snapped. "Percy, I don't care about Delores. You got shot. I need to take you to Grace and Pogo."

He ignored her weak protests and fumbled through her bag, grabbing her ruined shirt and gently pressed it against her shoulder, getting a hiss of pain from Percy. He gave her an apologetic look as he all but carried her into the backseat, trying to ignore how much of her blood coated his hands. God, if he had just shown her how much he cared, if he had proved to her how much he loved her, she wouldn't have thrown her life away for some plastic being. Besides, Delores couldn't even get hurt. What was the logic in taking the bullet for something not even alive?

How could she not see that, between her and Delores, he'd choose her every time, over and over again?

Percy, for her own part, in the backseat as Five swerved madly with a sort of road rage she hadn't thought ever existed, wondered distantly why he hadn't gone for Delores instead. He had looked at Delores with an expression he had never looked at her with before, so why would he have abandoned the woman he loved (even if she had been fake) for Percy?

Her head wound still throbbed. Her vision swam. Her shoulder felt like it was on fire.

MILD TRIGGER WARNING

She tried to even out her breathing as she concentrated on herself. She had to slow down the bleeding if she wanted to live, even if just a few weeks ago she would've rejoiced at the thought of letting go. Five had sacrificed the woman he loved to save her. She couldn't let go after that.

MILD TRIGGER WARNING OVER

(And maybe, just maybe, there was a tiny part of her that wanted to live too, though she hadn't felt that since after Ben died.)

Her shoulder glowed red as she slowed down time on her wounds.

She grinned triumphantly as she physically felt the bleeding slow down drastically.

And then she passed out.

Wow, this is both late and sucky. Who would've thought, huh?

I honestly didn't think people were reading this still, but then I checked my stats randomly and wow, people are. Also, I know I was rather concerned with Five getting a little OOC earlier, but at this point, I've given up. I want my cliché romantic moments and sometimes it requires Five to be OOC.

Anyway, Five's finally realizing that maybe he has to confess to Percy that he loves her because she took a bullet for a mannequin. And then she tried to get him to escape with said mannequin and leave her to die. Needless to say, Five's reaction was similar to my reaction, because who the hell would take a bullet for a plastic person?

This note is getting long now (oops) so I'll end it here.

As always, thank you readers, and reviews are appreciated!

WiseGirlDivergence46: Thank you, lol! The next chapter (this one) is now up!