Number Five Imagines

Without her

Five Hargreeves x reader

A/N: Hey, this was a sweet request from a nice person on Tumblr

It was rare—almost unheard of, really—that Five slept in. But that morning, the sunlight was unusually gentle, the blanket warm, and the absence of doomsday-level threats meant he actually got a solid night's sleep. So when he blinked open his eyes and saw the clock blinking 10:30 a.m., his first reaction was confusion. The second reaction, however, was alarm.

Y/n was not in bed.

Now, under normal circumstances, a missing spouse might not warrant a full-blown panic. But this was Five. A man who had lived through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. A man who had seen timelines bend, break, and collapse. A man with trust issues not just with people, but with reality itself.

He sat up sharply, hair sticking up at odd angles, still wearing a T-shirt that read "World's Grumpiest Genius." He looked to Y/n's pillow. Cold. Her phone was not in its usual place. Her shoes were gone. The house was too quiet.

"Y/n?" he called, already swinging his legs out of bed. "Are you here?"

No answer.

He walked into the hallway, calling her name again. Still nothing.

Bathroom—empty.

Kitchen—empty.

He even opened the pantry door for a second and peered in, like she might have inexplicably decided to hang out between the flour and the cereal boxes.

Then came the garden. Also empty. He stared at the tomato plants like they might give him answers.

"Okay, don't panic," he muttered to himself, tugging a hand through his hair. "She probably just went out to grab something. Like... fruit. Or... emergency jam."

He pulled out his phone and called her. Straight to voicemail.

"Great," he muttered. "She was either kidnapped or I've slipped into another cursed timeline."

He called again. Voicemail.

He called Allison. No answer.

Viktor. No answer.

"Okay," Five said to himself, pacing in a circle in the living room. "If I were Y/n, and I decided to disappear without warning, where would I—wait, why would I disappear without warning?"

Out of mild desperation, he even checked the laundry room, just in case. Then the closet. Then, in a move he would never live down, he actually crouched and checked under the bed.

At this point, he was about thirty seconds from teleporting to every coffee shop in town.

By the time 2:00 p.m. rolled around, Five was sitting on the couch with a scowl so deep it could have split the Earth's crust. He had made himself coffee and promptly forgotten it, and now it sat cold and bitter beside him. His arms were crossed. He had called Y/n's phone at least seven times, and left a voicemail that could only be described as "angrily affectionate."

Then—finally—he heard the jingle of keys at the door.

Y/n stepped in, laughing, with Allison and Viktor behind her, carrying shopping bags and to-go cups. All three looked happy, relaxed, and completely unaware of the emotional hurricane Five had been through.

"Oh, finally," Five snapped, rising from the couch. "Look who decided to show up after vanishing off the face of the earth for four hours!"

Y/n blinked. "Hi to you, too?"

"Where have you been?! I woke up, and you were gone. I checked the entire house. I looked in the pantry, Y/n."

"You looked in the pantry?" Allison started to laugh.

Viktor added with a smirk, "Did you also check the freezer?"

"I almost did," Five admitted, with the sort of self-righteous glare only a 51-year-old man trapped in a 30-year-old body could manage.

"I turned off my phone," Y/n said, apologetic but clearly holding back laughter. "I just wanted a relaxing day. I didn't think you'd wake up before noon."

"I never sleep in!" Five said, waving a hand. "It was one time!"

Y/n walked over and kissed his cheek. "You're cute when you panic."

"I wasn't panicking. I was doing a thorough sweep."

"You looked in the pantry," she repeated with a giggle.

"That was part of the sweep," Five muttered.

Viktor patted his shoulder. "You know you're whipped, right?"

Five ignored him. "Next time? Just leave a note. Or a post-it. Or a breadcrumb trail. Anything."

Y/n grinned and slid her arms around his waist. "You really got that worried?"

"Yes," he grumbled, wrapping his arms around her anyway. "Because you are the most important person in my life, and when I woke up and you were gone without a trace, I thought maybe the universe finally realized it screwed up by giving me something that good."

"You're so romantic," she teased.

"Don't push it."

Allison and Viktor were now cracking up on the couch, and Y/n whispered into Five's ear, "I love you."

He sighed, kissing her temple. "I love you too. Even if you cause me minor heart attacks."

"And next time, I'll leave a note in the pantry," she promised.