Number Zero- The Umbrella Academy (Book 1)

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Five ascended the stairs towards his room, a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. "Five? What the hell happened to you?" Allison asked as she caught sight of the boy. "Are you okay? Can we help?" Luther asked, concerned as he reached out to him.

But Five grabbed him by the wrist and glared up at him. "There's nothing you can do." Five whispered, "There's nothing any of you can do." He continued before turning and walking towards his room.

Zero snuck in through the window just as a door slammed shut. Realizing it was Five's door, the blonde walked towards Five's room, knowing that the boy needed someone there. Phasing through the door he leaned up against the frame, "Are you okay?" He asked softly.

"What?" Five asked, stopping what he was doing to look up and stare at Zero.

He pushed himself off the door frame and walked towards Five taking a seat on the edge of his bed. "I asked you if you're okay?" The boy responded.

"I'm fine." Five answered uninterestedly. Zero knew that Five was lying, but he wasn't going to push him. He could see that the boy had been through a lot in the past few hours, even if he didn't know everything that had happened to him.

Zero pushed himself off the door frame and walked away, heading to his room across the hall. Five turned to look after him thinking that he was leaving slight relief passing over him when moments later, he returned with a first aid kit. "Sit." Zero commanded him.

"What? No, I said I'm fine." Five told the blonde stubbornly.

"Sit down, or I'm going to knock you out and stitch your mouth shut." He threatened, holding up a needle with a thread.

"You're a psychopath, you know that."

"Yes, now sit." Zero responded.

Finally, Five sat down on the edge of his bed while Zero kneeled on the floor and opened the first aid kit. He started by cleaning up the dirt on his cuts, making the boy hiss in pain. Zero could tell that Five wanted to smack him away, so he decided to distract him.

"Who's that?" He asked, nodding his head at the mannequin on the desk chair.

"That's Delores." Five said in a whisper. Zero's eyes flickered up to Five, who was looking away from him. He knew that Five cared about his opinion even though he would never admit it out loud.

So this was Delores, the person who had spent thirty years with Five and the person who meant the world to him, he thought to himself. Zero felt a pang of guilt as he realized that Delores had been a mannequin the entire time and had been the only thing keeping Five from going entirely insane.

"She's beautiful. She and my Maria would have gotten along great." Zero said, causing Five to look over at him in surprise.

"Thank you." The boy whispered, his voice filled with relief. "I think that she would have loved to meet her too." He said, causing Zero to smile to himself.

"I bet they would have gossiped nonstop about us making embarrassing comments and stuff." Zero said with a chuckle, causing Five to chuckle as well. After Zero finished cleaning Five's wounds, he cleaned everything he had used up and took a seat next to the boy. "Want to talk about it?" He asked.

Five didn't need to hear what Zero was talking about; he already knew that Zero would ask him sooner or later. "It's a long story." He said, looking at him.

"I'm sure we can spare an hour or two." Zero told him.

Five began telling him everything about how he ended up in the apocalypse. He told him about being alone before meeting Delores, about the Handler, and how she had offered him a job. After accepting, he became an assassin and a pretty good one. Zero listened carefully and intently to every word that came out of the boy's mouth.

"So I'm guessing they're after you now since you broke your contract?" He asked Five.

Five nodded. "The moment I broke my contract with the Handler, I became fair game. The Handler knows that I want to stop the apocalypse, and she made sure to send the best after me to stop me. After the guy's from Griddy's failed, they sent their two best assassins." Five said.

"And what happened tonight?" Zero asked.

"Tonight, they caught me off guard. They attacked me when I was least expecting it." He said, looking over at Dolores. "They almost got her," He said sadly. "Everything seemed to come crashing down, I was worried for her and myself, and then the shock of them finding me there made my powers completely useless, not to mention I was tired. If it hadn't been for the police coming, I would have been dead."

Despite his calm and collected composure, Zero knew that Five was far from it. With a sigh, Zero reached out and put his hand on Five's back before rubbing it soothingly; the boy seemed to relax under his touch. Five closed his eyes and let out a deep breath he seemed to have been holding in for a long time; he felt good finally telling someone everything that had happened to him and how he felt.

He told Vanya about the apocalypse, but he hadn't told her everything he had been through because if there was anyone who wouldn't jump to conclusions or judge him for what he had done, it was Zero.

Zero looked over at Five, knowing that he was still hiding something from him, "What else haven't you told me?" Five smirked at him; he knew that if there was one person he couldn't lie to, it was him.

"You all died." Five whispered to him, his eyes glossing over as he said it. He looked away and let out a shaky breath as he tried to recompose himself. "I found your bodies. Everyone looked different. I didn't know who they were until I saw their tattoos and you. You hadn't really changed at all. I never understood why you looked the same while the others didn't. But you were still dead, all of you." Five broke off, taking several deep breaths, "And I wasn't there to save any of you."

Zero let his words sink in before speaking, "I'm sorry you had to go through all that alone. You felt guilty because you weren't there with us, but at least you're here now trying to do something about it, and I'm going to follow your lead until the clock runs out." He said, pulling the boy into a hug.

Five and Zero may have been subconsciously older, but at that moment, they felt as if they were kids again. Five let out a small sob as he wrapped his arms around his brother and clung to him. He felt like he could finally let go at that moment, at least for a little while. Hearing his brother's sobs, Zero held him, letting his brother have a moment of vulnerability.

Zero had known that Five had had it worse than he did, but to hear the whole story made it much worse. At least Zero had managed to have people he cared about where he was, but Five had been all alone. So he let the boy cry as long as he needed and comforted him, making a promise that he would never leave his side for as long as he could.