𝐻𝒶𝓅𝓅𝓎 𝒯𝑜𝑔𝑒𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 - 𝐵𝑒𝓃 𝐻𝒶𝓇𝑔𝓇𝑒𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓈 𝓍 𝑅𝑒𝒶𝒹𝑒𝓇

Part VI

Everyone sat or stood around the wooden kitchen table, bar Klaus, who sat on the table, drumming his fingers as everybody carefully observed Number Five bustle around.

"What's the date? The exact date." Five asked, snapping everyone out of the comfortable silence. 

"The 24th." Vanya replied. Five gave her a blank look.

"Of March, 2019." Ben added, and Five nodded, looking pleased.

"Good." he voiced.

"So, are we going to talk about what just happened?" Luther mentioned. His siblings and Y/N glanced round at each other, sensing the big guy getting angry.

"It's been 17 years." Luther growled, standing up abruptly and Five scoffed.

"It's been a lot longer than that." he remarked, walking up to his brother and attempting to stare him down, which was quite comical to witness. He suddenly blinked away to appear behind Luther and retrieve ingredients for a snack.

"I haven't missed that..." Luther declared.

"Where'd you go?" Diego finally questioned.

"The future," Five said as casually as he could, "It's shit by the way.".

"Called it!" Klaus happily chirped. Five ignored him as he continued.

"I should've listened to the old man." he thought out loud. "You know, jumping through space is one thing, jumping through time is a toss of the dice.".

Everyone pondered over his words in silence. Five looked up to make eye contact with Klaus.

"Nice dress." he genuinely complimented.

"Oh, well, danke!" Klaus thanked, feeling proud of himself.

The boy then turned his full attention to Y/N, who was observing him curiously. "Congratulations on your engagement." he smiled at her and Ben, always having a soft spot for this particular brother, and his fiancee who had been like a sister to Five growing up.

"Thanks." they simultaneously said, and Five froze up a little bit as though he had just realized something.

"I hope I'll be able to attend your wedding..." he murmured, and Ben caught it.

"You're definitely getting an invite." he beamed, not understanding that Five's words carried a different meaning than to what he was thinking.

"Wait, how did you get back?" Vanya advanced the conversation.

"In the end, I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time." Five delivered in a monotonous voice.

"That makes no sense." Number Two said, shaking his head.

"It would if you were smarter." the 13 year old boy sassed, Luther and Y/N had to physically hold Diego back from beating his brother to a pulp.

"How long were you there?" Luther asked calmly.

"Forty five years, give or take." Five told him. Ben choked on his water at that. Everybody's eyes widened as they stared at the not-so-teenager in shock.

"So what are you saying? That you're 58?" Number One queried, disbelief evident in his tone.

"No, my consciousness is 58," Five gritted through his teeth, "Apparently my body is now 13 again.".

He stalked over to a corner of the kitchen to examine a calendar hanging on the wall. Vanya began to shake her head as though her mind couldn't take in all this information.

"Wait, how does that even work?" she implored.

"Delores kept saying the equations were off, eh." he shrugged, taking a bite of the sandwich in his hand before walking back over to the rest of the group. "Bet she's laughing now." he finished, picking up a newspaper in his other hand.

Y/N looked at Ben, puzzled at the mention of a woman's name. Ben shook his head, silently conveying that he had no idea who this 'Delores' in question was.

"Guess I missed the funeral." Five announced upon surveying the news headline.

"How'd you know about that?" Luther stupidly asked.

"What part of the future do you not understand?" His time travelling brother exasperatedly voiced, growing more and more irked with each passing second.

"Heart failure, huh?" He tried getting the conversation back on track.

"Yeah."
"No."

Diego and Luther piped up with different answers, their voices mingling. They looked at each other ferociously and Ben rubbed his temples, hoping he wouldn't need to break up a fight anytime soon.

Five hummed at this and clicked his tongue, "Nice to see nothing's changed.". He finished off his sandwich and stalked off towards the stairway leading upstairs.

"Uh, that's it? That's all you have to say?" Allison spoke for the first time, Five continued walking.

"What's else is there to say? The circle of life." he ended on a highly positive note before finally disappearing from view.

Allison let out a sharp exhale and turned to look at Y/N standing next to her. The Y/H/C haired girl only smiled, "Boomers, am I right?".