𝙖𝙚𝙞𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙮 // 𝙛𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙭 𝙙𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙨

𝙍𝙀𝙐𝙉𝙄𝙊𝙉

/rēˈyo͞onyən/
an instance of two or more people coming together after a period of separation

- - -

"Does anyone else see little Number Five or is it just me?"

"Shit."

Five had been expecting his siblings to be somewhat tolerable of each other. But apparently not seeing your adopted siblings that you had never really gotten along with in the first place after—how many years had it been for them? 20? that sounded right—20 years tended to put a strain on the relationship.

"Where the hell have you been?" Luther asks.

Five stares at him. Luther had always been big, but somehow he's managed to get even bigger. His shoulders are broader than they should be for a man of his age. That's something to think about later, though.

"The future," he replies, blinking back over to the table and assembling a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich as his siblings watch. "It's shit, by the way." Is it called lying if you do it to save your family? He doesn't think so.

"Called it!" Klaus cries, stabbing a finger into the air. Five hadn't missed Klaus, but he did admit that he knows how to brighten the mood. Someone could be dying and Klaus would somehow manage to keep everyone from panicking. Or he'd be the reason they were panicking. There was no in between with Klaus.

"Wait, how long were you there?" Diego asks.

Five sighs. He doesn't mind Diego—his hero complex is annoying, but Five can handle a hero complex—but he has a tendency to ask dumb questions and then get mad when he got a dumb answer. Dolores likes to say if you don't want a stupid answer, don't ask stupid questions. He thinks Diego could stand to learn that every once in a while. "45 years. Give or take."

There's a beat of silence.

"So, what are you saying? That you're 58?"Luther asks.

He'd forgotten how dumb they all were. "No. My consciousness is 58. Apparently my body is 23 again." His earlier thought floats by. Is it lying if I'm doing it to save them?

"How did you get back?" Vanya asks. Five has to resist smiling at her. Of his siblings, she'd been the one he'd tolerated the most. Probably because she didn't have powers and as such was immune to the egos and the daddy issues. She'd always asked the right questions, too.

He takes a bite of his sandwich. "In the end I had to project my consciousness forward into a quantum state version of myself that existed across every possible instance of time."

There's another pause. He can hear Dolores telling him to dumb it down, amore, not everyone is a genius like you. He ignores her.

"That makes no sense," Diego says.

Five shrugs and takes another bite of his sandwich. "Well it would if you were smarter." He grabs the newspaper on the end of the table and stares at it. Knowing about his father's death didn't soften the blow, but he can pretend like it had. "Guess I missed the funeral."

"How did-?" Luther starts.

"What part of the future do you not understand?" Five looks back at the newspaper. "Heart failure, huh?"

"No."

"Yes."

He scoffs. "Nice to see nothing's changed," he says as he walks away.

"That's it? That's all you have to say?" Allison calls after him.

"What else is there to say? It's the circle of life."