Dysfunctional ~ F.Hargreeves

3} Night At Vanya's

"Hey, Jenna, I-" Five looked over to the passenger's seat to find Jenna fast asleep while First Love/Late Spring played in the car. She'd put that on his mixtape right when she found a beaten up disk in the apocalypse. He'd never truly understood why until he ran away. He continued to stare at Jenna's peaceful face while he was stopped at a red light. It'd been years since she got proper rest. The apocalypse always posed threats in the middle of the night, at the Commission she was always up every time she heard a creek thinking Stephen needed something. And when Five was gone she couldn't hardly sleep at all, just hoping he'd stop by in the middle of the night. Hell, even when she was growing up she was burdened with constant nightmares of the Upside Down and Hawkins Lab. A car beeping at him kicked him out of his daze and he sighed looking back at the road. He realized Vanya's apartment was nearby and decided to stop there for the night to let Jenna rest.

He got out of the car and went over to the passenger's side to pull Jenna out. He placed her securely on his back as he began to climb up the fire escape to the apartment he hoped and prayed was Vanya's. He would've spatial jumped, but he was way too tired and exhausted to jump that amount of distance. He got to the window and realized it was conveniently unlocked.
Doesn't she know that's unsafe? I'm related to idiots!

He pulled himself through and laid Jenna out on the couch. While doing so, he grabbed a blanket draped over that back of the couch and spread it out on top of her. He was about to move and sit on the armchair nearby, but Jenna grabbed his hand in her sleep and forced him to stay. He sat on the couch and rested her head in his lap.
God, I missed this so much.

Five clicked on the standing lamp next to him as he heard Vanya unlocking the door.
"Jesus!" She exclaimed.
"Shhh. You'll wake Jenna," He said while stroking her hair. If she knew he was this close to her, she would've ripped his arm off. He was relishing every second he got. "Also, you should have locks on your windows."
"I live on the second floor."
"Rapists can climb."
"You are so weird."
"Tell me about it," Jenna groaned and sat up, rubbing her eyes, "Are we in her apartment?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Just asking."

Vanya sat down across from them and looked at the blood covering Jenna and Five's clothes.
"Is that blood?"
"It's nothing," He replied.
"It is blood. He's a messy k-" Five put his hand over Jenna's mouth to stop her from revealing any further information. Jenna licked it and he quickly pulled his hand away.
"That was disgusting."
"Yeah, for you and me both."

Vanya shook her head, "Why are you two here?"
"I've decided you're the only one I can trust. Other than my wife here."
"Ex-wife."
"No. I won't sign the papers. Never ex-wife."
"Can you two stop fighting for five seconds? Why am I the only one you can trust?"
"Because you're ordinary."
"Because you'll listen is what he meant to say," Jenna jabbed him in the side.
Five retaliated by lightly smacking her arm. She winced slightly at that. He forgot she couldn't heal her arm.
"Oh, shit, Jenna. I'm sorry, I forgot. Vanya? Do you have any supplies to clean up cuts."
"Uh, yeah. Let me go grab stuff real quick."

As Vanya rushed off to the bathroom, Five grabbed Jenna's wrist, pulled off the tie, and examined the wound.
"I'm fine, Five. This is one of the most mild cuts I've gotten. You of all people should know. You need me to show you the scar on my arm again? How about my leg? My stomach?"
"I don't care. You still need to fix it."
Vanya came back with the supplies and sat across from Jenna helping to treat the cut. She started putting rubbing alcohol on it causing Jenna to willingly grab Five's hand.
"Keep talking," She told him.

"When I jumped forward and got stuck in the future," He started to tell Vanya, "you know what I found?"
"No."
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. As far as I could tell, I was the last person left alive. I never figured out what killed the human race, but... I did find something else. The date it happens. The world ends in eight days, and I have no idea how to stop it."
"I'll, uh, put a pot of coffee on."

Five proceeded to give the entire run down of how he got stuck in the apocalypse and his experience.
"I survived on scraps. Canned food, cockroaches, anything I could find. You know that rumor that Twinkies have an endless shelf life? Well, it's total bullshit."
"I can't even imagine."
"You do whatever it takes to survive, or you die. So we adapted."
"We? As in you and Jenna?"
"For the first, about, decade, no. I had no one but a doll. Then, I tried to time travel back again one day and I almost did. But, not quite. Jen, you wanna take it from here?"
"He created a portal back to Hawkins in the late 80's when I was on the brink of death from fighting an interdimensional being. It was my last fight. I was ready to die fighting for my family and friends, but Five here took me away from that."
"Do you have anything stronger?" Five cut it, not wanting to think about the fact that he stole Jenna away from her home.

Vanya scurried to the kitchen to pour them each a glass of whiskey. Jenna, much to Five's surprise, took the glass and gulped it down in one swig.
"Since when do you drink? I thought you were terrified of getting addicted again like you did in high school."
"I started again when you left," She shrugged, "Got any vodka?"
Vanya grabbed out a bottle of vodka that Jenna just took straight from her hands. She used to drink a lot in high school. It was her unhealthy coping mechanism of choice when dealing with her haunting nightmares and her best friend not liking her back. Five looked at her state: taking big swigs straight from the bottle and doing so sloppily.
I can't believe I did this to her.

"So, back to the apocalypse," Vanya tried to put on a polite smile, but Five wasn't buying it.
"You think we're crazy."
"No, no. It's, uh... it's a lot to take in."
"Exactly what don't you understand?"
"Why didn't you just time travel back?"
"He couldn't," Jenna hollered from the couch, "He tried over and over again and only got me out of the deal."
"Time travel is a crap-shoot. I went into the ice and never acorn-ed. You think I didn't try everything to get back to my family? To get Jenna back to hers?"
"If you two grew old there, you know, in the apocalypse, how come you both still look like kids."
"He fucked up the equation," Jenna toasted to herself from over on the couch. She was already half way through the bottle.

"I mean, Dad always used to say that... time travel could mess up your mind. Well, maybe that's what's happening?"
"This was a mistake," Five grunted after he downed the rest of his glass, "You're too young... too naïve to understand," He walked away ready to garb Jenna and leave.
"No. Five... Five, wait," Vanya called after him, "I haven't seen you in a long time, and I don't want to lose you again. That's all. And you know what, it's getting late, and... I have lessons early, and I need to sleep, and I'm sure you two do, too. Here." She grabbed another blanket off the couch and placed it next to Jenna, "We'll talk in the morning again. Okay? I promise. Night." Vanya walked to her room.
"Night."
"Nightly-night, V! I'll miss you!" Jenna giggled.
"That's enough for you," Five took the bottle from her and brought it to the kitchen.
"No! My Murray-FunTime Juice!"
"Enough, Jenna. Go to bed."
"But I can't sleep anymore. I'm wide awake!"
Five laughed and shook his head as he sat down next to her looking over the glass eyeball he'd always kept in his pocket.
"You're still wandering around with that thing?"
"It's the only lead I have. You know that. I need to know why Luther had a death grip on it when I found him. Now's the time to do that. Now, you stay here and get some rest. Here's where I'll be by the time you get up," He handed her a note with the location he'd be coming outside of. "Find me when you wake up."
"Stay!" She whined, "I want cuddles."
"You haven't wanted me in a five-mile radius of you till now."
"But I'm druuuunk! I need my little pocket watch to be my pillow right now."
"No."
"Pwease?"
"Ugh! Fine!"

Jenna pulled him down and laid right on his chest; just like she'd do every night when they were alone in the apocalypse. He didn't want to leave, but he knew he had to. He slowly felt Jenna's breathing even out and just relaxed for the first time in months. In over a year, even. Just like Jenna, he never rested. Always working or struggling to survive or dealing with funeral plans for his son. The whole world was out to get him except for Jenna. Well, it was that way until he fucked everything up and she wanted a divorce. He kissed her forehead after just laying there for about a half an hour and pried himself free from her grasp.
"I love you," He whispered to her, "See you when you wake up, my little thunder storm."