cigarette breaks / five hargreeves

Department Store Chaos

"𝘪 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 / 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳 / 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦 / 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘪'𝘮 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺? / 𝘭𝘦𝘵'𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘰 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦" friends with you, the scary jokes

/

Oz sat on their windowsill, feet touching the fire escape outside and staring at the quiet night around them. The empty city streets were illuminated only by the warm lamp posts and occasional cars passing by. It was nice, relaxing. They had a cigarette on their lips, and exhaled the smoke gently every-so-often as they thought the day over. There was a knock at their door.

They leaned their head back inside, "Come in!"

Five blinked through the door, "I presume you aren't busy?" He never was one for pleasantries.

"Just smoking." Oz responded, turning their body and swinging their legs over the windowsill, feet touching the carpeted bedroom floor.

He grimaced slightly, "Disgusting habit."

They hummed, "You never did smoke."

"I prefer to engage in other vices." He stuck his hands in his pockets.

"You remember when we snuck some of Reginald's whiskey into my room?" They chuckled, face lighting up at the memory, "That was a good evening."

Five looked away for a moment, "Nope."

Oz's face fell slightly, "Right. Yeah. Of course. No memory of me." They took a drag of the cigarette and leaned backwards out of the window to exhale the smoke, "So, uh, what did you come here for?"

"You said yesterday that you could teleport, correct?"

They raised their eyebrows "Yeah. Why?"

"Like how my spacial jumps work?"

"No." They shook their head, "Longer distance. I can create temporary rifts to allow me to move from one place in reality to another."

Five nodded, "Good. I need you to take me somewhere. I'd take myself, but this would be a lot more convenient."

Oz leaned back out the window to remove the cigarette from their mouth and extinguish it against the outside brick wall. They aimed very well for the dumpster further down the alleyway and threw the cigarette into it. They hopped off of the windowsill and leaned against it, "Where to?"

"Gimbel Brothers. The department store."

They grinned, "Resorting to shoplifting, are you? Y'know, you can just borrow some of my clothes. We're about the same size, I think. I'm just a bit taller."

"That's not what I'm doing."

Oz held out their hand to Five, "Alright. Grab hold, let's go."

Five took their wrist firmly. A rift appeared in front of Oz and they stepped neatly through it. Five stuck his head through cautiously, looking around at the dark and empty department store on the other side before stepping through himself, the rift disappearing behind him as soon as both his feet hit the tiled floor. He dropped their wrist.

"You can wait here." He said, immediately beginning to move.

"Uh, this place kinda unnerves me, y'know. Can I just... follow you?"

Five muttered something unintelligible under his breath, "Fine."

Oz kept a few steps behind Five as he clicked on a torch and navigated through the various aisles. After a few minutes, he turned to them, "You stay here. I need a few minutes alone."