Invisible String | Five Hargreeves

𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞

You walk into the suite you'd originally been staying at, Five was already there drinking. "Pre gaming I see." You tell him placing down the box on the bed. "What's this." He tried to open the box but immediately getting his hand smacked away, like a toddler getting into something he wasn't supposed to. "Sloane asked me to be her maid of honor and she gifted me a dress for the wedding. Which I'm not allowing you to see until then." You open your suitcase that you had packed days before and thankfully, never took home. Luckily, you find your makeup bag and a curling iron along with other hair products. You wanted your sister to feel beautiful for her wedding.

"You're going to surprise me?!" he asks excitedly. He takes your hand trying to get you to join him in bed. "Five come on, I have to get back to Sloane." He sighs, "You're really feeding into this wedding, aren't you." "Well of course I am! She's my sister. The only one I have left at that. I want her to be beyond happy in her last few hours, if marrying Luther does that then I'll help." Five looks down at his ring. "Are you happy?" he asks. "Me?" He nods looking up at you. You hop on the bed beside him. "Of course I am. " You tell him pecking his lips. "You?" He smiles. "I'm happy." he mumbles happily. "Then you go to that bachelor party and let's make sure our siblings are happy as well, okay?" He nods. "I'll see you at the wedding." You give him one last kiss, taking your stuff and heading out. Leaving behind a flustered Five.

You go back to the suite Sloane was in showing her the stuff. "No way!" she exclaims. "You're a life saver!" You laugh. "Maybe me sneaking off was a blessing in disguise." You say making her laugh. "Let's get to work!" you tell her.

***

She was sewing her dress, occasionally putting in on and having you pin areas that needed fitting. She sat in front of you making the adjustments to her dress as you curled her hair. "I saw the ring." She says breaking the silence. "What?" You play dumb. "I saw his ring. You know the one we got that one time we stole money from dad." She smiles fondly at the memory. You laugh. "I don't know what you're talking about." She pauses looking back at you meeting your red face. She squints her eyes. "Y/n!" You break not being able to lie to her. "Finee" you groan. "Turn back around let me finish." She has a satisfied expression painted on her face. "He knew you like opal." She saw my ring too. "I can't keep anything from you can I?" "Nope" she pops the p. "Tell me everything!" she demands. "OMG are you two engaged as well?!" "No, no they're uh just promise rings."

"Oh come on the end of the world is upon us and you two didn't even tie the knot." "It's not that simple, Sloane." "What do you mean?" You sigh debating on telling her. Fuck it. "Remember when we firsts met the umbrellas?" She nods, making sure she didn't move too much messing up her hair. "Of course I do Five couldn't keep his eyes off you. Even Jayme noticed and you know how she was about that kind of stuff."

"Ha yeah she thought it was gross. Um anyways uh... there was a reason Five couldn't stop staring. Beyond infatuation. Uh, he had just lost a version of me."
She pauses again scrunching her brows looking back at you. "Wait what?"
"Yeah, turns out before the timeline got messed up, they all knew a version of me, like they did with Ben. Like his though that versions of me died, except this was only minutes before they came into our timeline."

Sloane looks confused. You pause letting her process what you had just told her. "You didn't want him to feel like this was the same y/n he once knew." She said. You nod, glad she understood. "Which is why we happened slower than you and Luther."

"Yeah I get it now. Maybe in another life, you know like the legend of the red string of fate!" She happily says. "The what now?" "The red string of fate. The thought that there's an invisible red string around the finger of those who are destined to meet, regardless of the situation, as they're each others one true love. Maybe you and Five are destined to reunite in every timeline."

You look down at your ring finger. "That's a nice way to think of it. I mean we already met twice who says we won't in another life." You say looking up at your sister. She smiles hugging you. "I'm glad you're still with me." She says burying her face in your neck. "I'm glad I still have you." Your voice trembles trying not to tear up. She sniffles. The two embrace for what felt like forever.

You clear your throat pulling away holding onto her shoulders. "No crying! don't wanna ruin my hard work." She laughs. fanning her teary eyes. "Right." The two go back to the wedding prep. As a comfortable silence embraces the room.

"So it's official." Ben walks into the room, interrupting said comfortable silence. "My ears are broken, and the idiot with knives really can't sing." He complains while checking himself in the mirror.

"Diego.You know his name is Diego." Sloane correct him. "Oh, whatever." Ben responds. "Maybe you should try and be nice to him and the others." Sloane tells his as she continues to sew. "And why would I do that?" he asks pacing around the room. "As much as I'd love to work out your anger issues right now, I have to get back to this. The wedding is in an hour."

"Fei is dead." He points out. You deeply inhale, trying to fight back the urge to go off on him, for Sloane's sake

"Yeah. I know. And so are the others." Sloane calmly responds. "Y/n?" "No comment." you say continuing to section Sloane's hair. "Oh, so that's it? You two are just gonna turn your back on the Sparrow Academy? I mean, you heard Dad. We have training to do. Something big is about to go down."

"I wish you were talking about my wedding." Sloane tells him. He sharply inhales. "Okay." he takes a seat in front of Sloane. "Sloane, listen to me-" "No." She puts down her sewing. "You listen to me. I'm sorry they didn't invite you to the bachelor party." "I don't... I don't care about that. Yes, you do. You care more about being invited to the bachelor party than you do Fei or the others. Or even saving the world."

"That-" he chuckles drily. "That's... That's crazy." "Is it? You, y/n and I, we've never been alone. It's always been the eight of us. Now it's just you." Ben scoffs. "So congratulations, Ben. You're finally Number One of one." Sloane stands up going to the vanity. "I'm a Sparrow, and so are you two." "Not anymore." Sloane says. Ben turns to you for support. You shake your head.

"What's so damn special about them anyway?" He stands. "They're a real family. They don't exist to sell action figures and tote bags." "We were more than that." "Were we?" You finally speak. "Isn't that why we have always butted heads though? You and Marcus were always so obsessed with pleasing dad and keeping our image. You couldn't stand having an imperfect sister. It irked you so much that I wouldn't listen to any of you. You hated me for it, when all I ever wanted was brothers who loved and cared for me. Even then I still defended you and the rest of our "family" against the Umbrellas. Something you would've never done for me. So no Ben, we were never a family, we were coworkers." Ben looks down not being able to meet your eyes. Sloane looks at you through the mirror proudly. "Why is it so important for you to be a Sparrow?" Sloane asks him turning around. Ben doesn't answer, that was his final straw as he stomps out of the room.