𝐖𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 ━ five hargreeves

12│ACCEPTANCE

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❛ ᴡᴀsᴛᴇʟᴀɴᴅs ᴏғ ᴛɪᴍᴇ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐕𝐄 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴀᴄᴄᴇᴘᴛᴀɴᴄᴇ ꒱


❝ WHY DON'T YOU
USE MY NAME, FIVE? ❞

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"We've gotta get you home," Lola said, breaking the silence.

"What?"

"You heard me."

It was a few hours after their initial meeting and both had sat in silence for some time as they thought about their own problems. Lola had come to the conclusion that out of the two of them, Five had the best chance of stopping this thing.

"I don't get your sudden change of heart," Five admitted, "unless you're going to try and sabotage my math?"

The girl snorted, "you've said before I'm not smart enough to understand so there's no way I could. I've just been thinking that if you do stop the apocalypse you're inadvertently saving a version of me, changing the timeline and thus erasing me-me from existence."

"You'd do that to yourself?"

She shrugged, "I won't remember it. Besides, it's better than living here the rest of my life."

"How're you going to help me if you can't do the math?"

"I could keep you from becoming insane," she suggested, "and I'm good at recognizing patterns in numbers so I could check your math for you—"

"—that's not exactly how checking my math works," the boy mocked her, "you've got to redo the problem—"

"—and make sure you've carried your negatives and added properly, I know, thanks. Just 'cause I can't solve time travel equations doesn't mean I can't do basic algebra. Just let me help, Five. It'll get you home faster and you can completely ignore my suggestions if you don't agree with them but I need to keep myself occupied."

"You do know that this means you're going to have to stick around, right? And put with my apparent 'assholery' as you've put it."

The brunette sighed, "yeah, I know, but the faster we get you home the sooner the impending doom for my past self will be gone so I can put up with you for a bit longer I suppose."

"A bit longer? How long have we been here?"

"Three and a half months," the girl answered promptly, "approximately one hundred-six and a half days."

"You weren't joking about the counting thing," the boy said, almost bemused.

"Nope."

✧✧✧
[One month later]

"What's the first thing you're gonna do when you get back?" Lola asked as they settled down for the night.

"Stop the apocalypse, idiot."

She rolled her eyes. "After that, I meant. You'll have all the time in the world. I would certainly take a shower first, brush my teeth. And sleep— definitely sleep." She didn't mention her real desire: find her parents and make sure they were really okay. That touchy-feely stuff would shut him down immediately.

"What's the point of wishing for things you can't have?"

She gave a heavy sigh, "you're such a pessimist. Surely you want to do something?"

"I'm more worried about getting back. I can think about that after once we've stopped this."

The brunette froze at his use of we. Sure, they'd made more of an effort to get along in the past few weeks to solve this time-travel business but she hadn't expected a plural from him yet.