Gardens of Babylon, Five Hargreeves

IV. dancing is a dangerous game

FOUR. dancing is a dangerous game

Like many things in her life, McKenna preferred to drink alone. It was the only time of day she got any peace. Peace from the commission and the killing. All she had to worry about was the men that constantly bothered her. But tonight, things were different, and she didn't know how to feel having Five Hargreeves sitting beside her at the bar.

She shredded the corset off her body, which left the flory shirt she wore to hang off her body. Her hair fell in waves from the running around. Five shrugged off his suit jacket, leaving him in a white under shirt. His face was clean of blood.

McKenna wasn't sure how much they had to drink already. She stopped counting after five. They laughed uncontrollably loud, which caused them to be stared out from the people around them, but she didn't care.

"Did you see his face when I blinked? He looked like he'd seen a ghost." Five laughed into his drinking glass.

McKenna chuckled. "Should've seen the faces of the people when there was a bomb thrown by itself." They cackled again. "I haven't laughed this much at a bar in I don't know how long."

"Don't tell me you're a depressed drunk."

"No, I'm a takes ten shots and downs five glasses of whisky and then tried to drive home kind of drunk." She admitted.

Five's eyes widened. "Please don't tell me you've driven home like that." He didn't get an answer. "McKenna!"

"I'm kidding! I just live across the street!" McKenna laughed and threw her hands up. "The worst I've done is trip over my heels in the middle of the road."

He laughed again. "I'll try not to let that happen."

She smiled and looked down at her glass, twisting it around her hands.

Five stared at her while she looked at the liquid in the clear glass. Her cheeks were flushed red from the alcohol and from laughing. Her hair was messy and she was makeup less, showing the multiple freckles and moles that she was born with. She was still laughing to herself, obviously from the amount of alcohol in her system. "You're so pretty."

McKenna looked up from her glass and she stopped laughing. She looked shocked. As did he. He said it on accident. No man just blurts that out. "And you are drunk." She stated with a shaky smile.

Five nodded. "Maybe. I can't still think straight though."

She looked at him and he started thinking about all the different ways to describe how brown her eyes were. The liquid in her class. The afternoon sunlight. The Earth all around him. Wide like a deer and eyelashes tinted dark. Beautiful and brown.

McKenna didn't respond but her cheeks flushed a deeper red. She blamed it on the alcohol.

Five moved on. He took another drink of his whisky. "Tell me more about you." He insisted.

"What do you want to know?"

"Well, I know you've been at The Commission for a long time and you're one of the best. I know you work hard. I know you're funny and smart. But I don't know what else."

McKenna half smiled. "There's not really much else."

He gave her a look. "I know that's not true."

"I'm serious. I've known nothing but the Commission my whole life. Training and killing is who I am. I don't have a family. Never knew them if I did. I don't have any friends. I like to get drunk by myself and then go home." She explained to him. She took a large swig of her glass and slammed it on the table. "And repeat. But tell me about you."

He raised his brows. "Me?

"What like was like at the academy?"

Five's expression dropped in the slightest. "You don't want to hear about that." He said with a shake of his head.

McKenna nodded. "I do. I want to know everything."

She was smiling. Five wasn't. He didn't want to talk about his siblings but hopefully he would be drunk enough to not remember anything the next day. "It was. . . it wasn't your typical big family." He started.

The bartender came around and they asked for another round. "How so?" She asked him.

"Our father wasn't a real father. He didn't love us like a father should. He treated us like dogs instead of kids." The bartender sat another glass of whisky in front of him and Five quickly downed it. "We had to do things that kids shouldn't have to. See things. . . do things. . . all I really had was my brothers and sisters and I still took them for granted."

McKenna regretted asking.

"I wanted to prove to him that I was the best. I trained hard, was always the first to be ready for missions, and I always tried to be ahead of them all. I begged my father to train me further into time travel but he always said no. I was too stubborn to listen."

"And that's when you jumped?" She treaded carefully.

Five hummed. "Jumped too far and ended up in the end of the world."

That must have been really scary."

"It was. I spent nearly forty years by myself until the Handler came."

She felt remorse. McKenna couldn't fathom being alone for that long. "There's something good that came out of everything." She looked on the bright side.

"What's that?" He asked.

She lazily held up a finger. "You're incredibly smart. There's some others. . ." She held up another one. "You're one of the best trained assassins we've had since, well, me of course," she stated with a big smile. "And. . . you're the only person I can stand to be around at the moment."

Five's sad smile grew into a real one. "Is that so?"

McKenna really hoped it was just the alcohol talking. "Yeah."

Silence fell over them. We Belong Together by Ritchie Valens came on the radio. Five glanced around him to see the people in the bar come together to dance. He looked back at McKenna. "Would you want to dance with me?"

Her glass was raised to her lips. McKenna paused and slowly put it down. "Dancing is a dangerous game."

He only smirked. "I like a challenge."

He held his hand out and she stared at it. Slowly, McKenna took his hand and Five led her to the middle of the bar. She didn't take her eyes off him, for she suddenly felt nervous. He pulled her close and their hands connected. "I can't dance." She whispered.

Five grinned. I can't either. We'll just be bad together." He declared as they began to sway.

They were drunk, tired, and gullible. For a minute,  McKenna thought to herself that whatever this was,  was going to be like the others. She would meet a man, chat him up, and he'd take her home with him. It was the same routine over and over again. That's how she liked to live.

Clearly, Five didn't have those intentions. For now, till the next soul crushing mission or experiment came along, he just wanted to dance.