𝐖𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 ━ five hargreeves

14│THE FIRST OBSTACLE

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❛ ᴡᴀsᴛᴇʟᴀɴᴅs ᴏғ ᴛɪᴍᴇ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴛʜᴇ ғɪʀsᴛ ᴏʙsᴛᴀᴄʟᴇ ꒱


❝ TIME IS A VERY POTENT THING ❞

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As October rolled into November and the whistling winds brought a greater chill than before, Five decided it was time to test the theory of two-person spacial jumping in preparation for the time traveling they would be doing soon. Lola sat by the fire that evening and warmed her hands with the orange glow after the coolness of their day's walk. The boy sat next to her, though the space he left between them could have been described as excessive.

"I'm thinking we'll try spacial jumping tomorrow," he announced.

The brunette glanced over at him. "Are you sure? We haven't eaten in a few days so you won't have much fuel."

"We've been stocking up for this reason," he reminded her, "might as well try it before it's too late. I'm not one to put things off."

"Well I am," she admitted, "at least when it comes to school projects and such. I suppose that's why I don't want to practice— I feel like I do better when I wing it."

"Yeah, well, that's not an option this time," the boy said firmly, "you don't want to be lost in the unknown space of time travel so this is our best bet."

"What'll happen if I am?" she asked.

The girl received a shrug in response. "I've never thought about it since it doesn't affect me. Every time I blink it only lasts for exactly that— a blink in time. It's never long enough for me to think about what would happen if I got stuck. Time travel's the same way, really, so I don't know what would happen if you got lost."

"I might end up in another time," she suggested, "and I could be the one to escape the apocalypse."

"If that was the case it probably would've already happened to me."

"Not necessarily. You've only tried to go backwards," she pointed out, "and like you said, getting lost isn't going to happen to you, just potentially to any passengers. So it might be entirely plausible that I could end up in the 1960s or something if you get the math wrong."

"I'm not going to get the math wrong," the boy responded grumpily.

"Isn't that what you said the first time?"

"Would you just let that go?" he snapped back.

"Nope, since it's the only thing I can currently hold over your head," Lola said brightly, "if you mess up again though I'll be sure to give you a hard time about that as well."

Five gave a long-suffering, drawn-out sigh that usually came with her obstinance to let his mistake go. Lola rolled her eyes, used to his terrible attitude and lack of humor by now. She even knew that he didn't really mean it and that he was also probably more amused than anything else but that he would never admit to something like that.

Instead, he ignored the statement and said, "get some rest. We have a lot of practicing to do tomorrow."

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The next day dawned grey and chilly as every other one had before it. The sky's cloudy cover had not changed in the entire six months they'd been stuck in the apocalypse and there had been no true weather except for blowing wind and raining ash, both of which persisted. Neither teen took notice of their now-familiar surroundings as they stood next to each other.