you were everything

Vanya Turns Water to Wine

☂ and if Ben was here, he'd agree with me ☂ 

Turns out, that person is Vanya.

"I'm not sure I understand you," Vanya says. She hands Five another cup of coffee; his last cup was interrupted, courtesy of assassins. "You trapped yourself in the future." 

"Correct." 

"The world is about to end." 

"Exactly." 

"You think that glass eye causes it?" 

"Not quite." Five takes a deep drink from his glass, eyes darting over to me. "You got anything stronger?" 

Hesitantly, Vanya takes Five's cup, replacing the water with wine from the cupboard above her sink. 

"Are you sure you should be drinking this stuff?" 

"I'm not a kid," says Five, his dark eyebrows cinching together. I offer my empty water glass to Vanya's bottle, but Five bats my hand away gently. "Not for you." 

Rude. "That's not your choice." 

Vanya looks between the two of us, glances down at the bottle, and puts it back — leaving my glass empty. 

Outside, it is pitch-black. The streetlights cast a buzzing light onto the pasty sidewalk. I cannot see the moon. 

"At that point we'd do anything to survive," Five says, begrudgingly. He looks at the ground, one hand on his thigh, the other cupping his drink. "Whatever the world threw at us, we had to be strong." 

"We?" Vanya asks. "I thought no one survived?" 

The silence becomes poignant as Five brushes Vanya's question into the wind. Nothing Five says makes any sense, and yet, everyone constantly clings to his every word. 

I guess it's just how he says things. 

Like he means them. 

"I found you all dead," Five says, as if that clears things up. "Luther was holding this eye. Whoever it belonged to likely caused the apocalypse." 

He turns the glass eye over in his nimble fingers. 

Vanya's apartment smells like vintage furniture spray and vaguely of moths. I wonder what the glass eye smells like? 

"Do you know whose eye it is?" I say, crossing my legs and leaning back against the pillows. 

"Not a clue," says Five. "But I think I know how to find out." 

Five stands suddenly, causing the couch to squeak. His shoes clack towards the door but Vanya stops him. 

"Five, I don't think that's such a good idea." 

He turns around, eyes blazing. "You don't believe me do you?" 

"Of course I do." Vanya puts a hand over the doorknob. "It's late. I haven't seen you in forever. It'd be nice if you didn't disappear again. Y/N probably needs to sleep." 

"I'm not taking her with me," Five says, his teeth gritted. He doesn't look at me. 

"Don't go doing me any favors." I slump onto my back, staring at the ceiling. It's beige and crackly. 

"I should've known," Five says, seemingly talking more to himself now. "You're too young. Too naive to understand—" 

"It isn't that," says Vanya, but her protests fall to deaf ears. "I'm tired. We're all tired. I have lessons early tomorrow. I think you should spend the night and we can figure things out in the morning. Okay?" 

The lines on Five's forehead straighten out and his posture softens. "Fine." 

"You two can take the couch," Vanya says, then pauses. "If that's alright with you both." 

Five's nose turns up and his lips curl. He crosses his arms, but says nothing. 

"I'll take the floor," I say, and Five nods snidely. 

Vanya gathers a few blankets and I hoard the pillows from the couch. It's the least Five can offer me after he so gentlemanly stole the couch out from under my ass. 

"Goodnight, Vanya," I say. 

Five closes his eyes and turns on his side, facing away from both of us. 

"Night." 

Vanya leaves the room and I hear the tiny click of her bedroom door closing. The pillow under my head has not even grown warm before the clinking of glass breaks the silence and Five is on his feet, standing above me. 

"What?" 

"We're leaving." 

"We're leaving?" 

Five says nothing, toying with the eye. Partially, I'm surprised because it didn't seem like he wanted me to follow him anywhere. 

"What about Vanya?" I ask, when he continues to stand like a broken doll. 

"What about her?" Five says impatiently. His arms flap. "We don't have time for that. The apocalypse is coming." 

"But—" 

"But nothing," Five says. "If we don't do something soon, they will all die, and you—" 

I freeze. "I'll what?" 

"Nothing." Five's jaw tenses and his eyes flick towards the door. "Nothing." 

Somewhere outside, I hear a siren. There's a faint dripping from a tap. 

"Okay." 

"Okay?" 

"I'll come with you." I rise slowly from the floor, shrugging the blanket onto the couch. 

Five doesn't look contented at this, but he doesn't argue with me. 

"I don't need you to come with me," Five says quietly, stepping towards the door. "But I won't stop you either."