illicit | five hargreeves - EDITING

thirty three

chapter thirty three: the blues and purple pink skies

The sun was beginning to slowly set and turn from a bright blue into a dusty purple and pink color, and Anthony thought it looked truly beautiful, and he smiled as he lay in the grass on the hill right next to Joey's family's farm. He kept his gaze on the sky, watching as the pink clouds merged with the white clouds, giving off a purple color with the fading blue sky in the background. Anthony rested with one of his arms behind his head, feeling truly content and happy for the first time in awhile.

It had been a rough couple of months for sure, but it was the gentle moments like this that Anthony was eternally grateful for; the moments where he could just really take a while to just lay down and breath. He had spent so much of his life hiding and running, it was nice to just let himself go even for a moment.

Anthony missed Number Five more than anything, and it pained him every morning to wake up alone without his lover, but he couldn't deny that he for once was actually doing a lot better just in general, and he honestly felt a lot better too.

September had quickly come and gone, nothing really changing other than his discovery of Diego in the mental hospital, the place where he now forced himself to visit every Sunday afternoon after he would go to church with Peggy and Antoine, just so he could make sure that his brother-in-law was as okay as he possibly could be in his current situation.

Early October brought another Hargreeves back into his life after Joey's mother Sissy accidentally ran Vanya over with her car. You can only imagine the reaction Anthony had the morning he walked into his friend's kitchen and was met with the woman who had blown up the moon only mere months ago.

For better or maybe for the worst, Vanya didn't remember a single thing they had happened, and Anthony had decided to blame that on the whole apocalypse incident and also on the blow from her literally being hit by a car. He also decided that it was best to not tell her about the whole apocalypse situation, at least not until he found the other siblings. Anthony didn't tell anyone that he knew her, because it would only create more mysteries and questions for everyone, and he was not about to risk everything he had for someone like Vanya.

It was a relief for Anthony though, just knowing that three of them had already landed in the sixties in the exact same alleyway. If they were there, there was a high chance that the remaining four were either there already or that they would be soon, and that gave him the small reassurance that he needed to keep going.

Anthony smiled to himself as he lay on the soft grass of the farm, Inez laying close next to him. Her eyes were closed, but she also maintained the faint smile that he was holding. Only minutes earlier she had been sitting upright and laughing with Anthony as she played with his hair, attempting to braid it despite the fact that it was too short, and putting flowers into it, specifically daisies, because apparently they were her favorite.

Dorothea was sitting close by to them, leaning against a tree trunk with a book in her hand, because she it seemed that she was already reading something. Her braids that Anthony had done for her earlier hung down onto her page, causing her to swat them away before pushing them back.

Joey also sat close to them all, sitting cross legged on the ground, his eyes focused down on the ground as he looked at and picked the flowers around him, not talking as much as he usually would.

Anthony honestly couldn't believe that the universe had given him such friends, because he really didn't feel deserving of any of them. They seemed to like him a lot, which only made the thought of parting with them even more tough and painful for him. He didn't want to hurt them, like Joey had said, but it was almost inevitable that it would eventually happen soon, and he knew that, and he also knew that Joey somehow knew that as well.