☂︎︎ HOUSE OF SHADOWS ☂︎︎ - five hargreeves

* 𝙰𝚛𝚐𝚞𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙰𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 *

[006]
- ☾ '☂︎︎' ☽ -

Allison entered her father's old office. She had spent a couple of hours flipping through books in the lounge and talking with Pogo until he reminded her that the funeral was to take place in half an hour. She had then gone upstairs to change and look for Luther to relay the information.

Sure enough, Luther was crouched over Reginald's desk, studying the autopsy report and evidence photos that Diego had stolen from the coroner.

"It's time if you want to, you know, get changed?" she said.

"You do realize I can't just buy suits off the rack, right?" Luther said. He looked up suddenly realizing the harshness of his words. "Are you still mad at me?"

"Am I still mad? Do you even know how messed up that was earlier?" she said, referring to the incident earlier. "You can't just drop a bomb like, 'hey, I think one of you might have killed Dad,' and just leave it like that."

"I didn't — "

"That's exactly what you did."

Luther blinked at her. She stood with her arms crossed and she looked upset. He noticed this and took on a more calm tone. "I'm just saying, look how we turned out. Vanya, insecure wreck. Diego 'roid rage poster boy. Klaus, barely keeping it together. As far as I know, Cassidy is the only one who, for the most part, has her life together. But she magically turned into a pubescent teenager a couple of hours ago, so I guess we're all screwed."

"What about Allison? 'Tabloid disaster?' 'World's worst mom?'" she asked, looked furious.

"I didn't say that. " The conversation was not going as Luther had planned.

"Are you gonna blame Dad for the way I turned out? Or what about Five? He just showed up, maybe you want to go accuse him of murder."

Luther was getting upset. "Yeah, and he just happened to show up today? That doesn't seem like a coincidence to you?"

"Dad's not the victim here, Luther. We were. We all got screwed over at some point. That doesn't mean we have a motive." Allison signed and approached him, leaning close to him. "Why are you doing this? What, like all of a sudden we're going to break out the spandex again? Maybe go beat the crap out of Dr. Terminal?"

He glared at her, hurt but infuriated. "You think that's what this is about – The Academy?" Without another look he angrily brushed past her and walked out of the office, Allison following him.

"Then what? Why do you even care?" she yelled.

           CRUNCH.

Luther put his fist through the wall in rage, leaving a basketball sized hole. He jammed his finger up at the ceiling. "Because he sent me up there, on the moon! He said, 'watch for threats, Number One.' He said, 'No one else can do this but you,' and I trusted him! Four years, by myself, staring at a bunch of stupid rocks. While every single morning I had to tell myself, 'Don't worry, Dad must have had his reasons. One day this'll all make sense.' But it was for nothing."

Allison gazed at him sadly, reaching out to touch his arm. Luther irritably slapped her hand away.

"You want to talk about motive, how's that for getting screwed over?" Then he stormed down the hall and out of sight. This time Allison didn't follow.

- ☾ '☂︎︎' ☽ -

Cassidy opened Five's partially closed bedroom door.

Vanya and the boy were in the middle of having a conversation but stopped as they heard the door creak open.

"Can't you knock?" asked Five.

She rapped her knuckles on the doorframe.
"Happy?" Then turning to her sister she asked,"Can I speak to Number Five for a minute, Vanya?"

It took her sister a moment to comprehend that the thirteen year old in the doorway was her previously adult, and much taller, sister. She nodded and cracked a small smile, then left. Once she was someway down the hall, Cassidy shut the door.

"I'm giving you ten seconds to explain this — " she gestured to her baggy clothes. " — or else I'm killing you on the spot."

Five blinked, unfazed by her threat. Although, he had no doubt in his mind that she was capable of inflicting some sort of physical damage to him. After all, they had both grown considerably over the years, in stature and in their abilities. Albeit stature had been taken out of the equation.

"To be completely honest, I don't know why this happened. But I have an idea. . . ."

Cassidy grabbed a chair and sat in it. She raised her eyebrow. "Well, go on, then."

Five cleared his throat, "Well, my working theory — which makes no sense, mind you — is that you somehow traveled with me to the apocalypse, then came back at the exact time and day as I did. Resulting in " — he copied her gesture — "that."

"Impossible," she sighed, rubbing her eyes.

"Obviously," Five replied, nonchalantly.

"I guess the real question now is how are you and I going to fix this?"

It was Five's turn to raise an eyebrow. "'You and I'?"

"As the victim of circumstance I feel I should have a part in any shenanigans you get yourself into."

"For the sole purpose of making sure I successfully get you back to normal," smirked Five.

"Obviously."

They both grinned at each other. Far too long had it been since they'd spoken — since anyone had spoken to each other. Only when Cassidy became an adult did she realise that losing something put into perspective how much you took for granted.

She stood up, moved the chair back, and opened the door.

"It's good to see you again, Five," she said, nodding.

The corners of his mouth flicked upwards in the ghost of a smile, but he said nothing as he watched her leave and shut the door behind her.