five and me ↴ the umbrella academy

chapter four ↴ and maybe

DALLAS, TEXAS

He was here.

Five was here. Was this a dream? Did Kenzie smoke too much weed again? What the hell?

"What happened to you?" Five inquired softly, caressing her pale cheek. They'd moved to her couch, where he hungrily drank in the sight of her, making little notes of the changes to her appearance.

Her dark brown hair was braided lazily down her back, a few stray baby hairs free. Her skin was a little tanner, not much but still noticeable, which made the few beauty marks on her face a little less distinguished.

God she still looked as beautiful as the first moment he'd met her.

"I'm hoping if I drink enough coffee maybe I'll overdose or something," She'd told him that night, a mischievous glimmer in her eye.

It bugged him quite honestly, because he was used to seeing her so bright and vivacious. But this Kenzie was... not?

It would be hard to tell if you didn't know Kenzie as well as he did, but to him it was as clear as day. She was still as beautiful as a field of flowers, but her eyes had clouded like a summers shower was simmering behind the mossy green tones.

Five thought back, the memory of Kenzie burrowed into his side burned into his memory. It felt all too familiar to him, but to Kenzie, it felt so unreal.

"What happened to you, sweetheart?" He repeated softly, insistently, desperately. Kenzie swallowed the harsh lump in her throat, pushing herself onto his lap.

"I woke up in a hospital." Kenzie began, eyes unfocused and glossy. "I was alone, and scared, and I didn't know where I was."

Five's heart clenched. Was it beating out of his chest, he wondered? Her just being this close to him set his nerves on fire.

He'd barely known her for weeks and it felt like a lifetime. Maybe they'd met in a previous one, maybe she still had the same mossy green eyes and maybe he was still an asshole and maybe they still adored each other.

"The nurses told me a boy named Richie had found me in an alley way and taken me to the hospital because I was bleeding." Kenzie continued, heart constricting painfully at the thought of Richie. "I climbed out of the window and the boy took me to the alley way. I was looking for someone, anyone I guess, that linked me back to my time. I found nothing."

Was that resentment in her tone? Most likely, Five concluded. She had every right to be furious with him. He'd stranded her by herself for a year and a half.

Hell, she could break up with him and he wouldn't be surprised. Absolutely heartbroken, yes, but surprised? No.

Kenzie swallowed, taking his hand in hers. That was a good sign wasn't it? I mean, she hadn't actively tried to murder him yet, so maybe she was in a forgiving mood?

What Five didn't take into account while thoughts rushed a million miles an hour through his head, was the effect he had on Mackenzie.

By god, she wanted to hit him and scream and be so, so furious. Every scenario she imagined in her head ended with her beating his ass, but now that he was here?

She couldn't be mad.

And fuck that, cause Kenzie wanted to be mad. She was mad, under layers and layers of sadness and a year and a half of depression. Fuck, she couldn't even pull herself together for months after her arrival in 1962.

She didn't know if she'd ever see Five or Klaus or Vanya or Diego or even Allison and Luther again! Kenzie would seriously deal with them if that meant being able to see her boyfriend and friends again!

A few times Kenzie wondered if it was even still worth it.

But she had pulled through. Kenzie had survived grief before, and she'd done it again. And if there was one thing this experience reminded her, it was that she, Mackenzie May, was a goddamn survivor.

Kenzie survived her sister dying.

"Please don't go, Angie!"

Kenzie survived her father leaving her for another woman.

"Please don't go, Dad! I need you!"

"Don't worry Kenz! It'll only be for a few weeks!"

Kenzie had survived in a time so different from her own by herself.

"Please come back, Five."

A constant, beating ache and been present in her heart for months, as though the other half of her heart still belonged to Five wherever he was.

Solitude and loneliness had made Kenzie realise a few, very important things.

Number one: She didn't need anyone, but she adored Five with her whole heart.

Number two: Never take the time you have with your loved ones for granted.

Number three: The sixties really sucked ass.

"I met a guy," Kenzie elaborated, a lazy smile decorating her features, "He owns the post office under this place. Said if I babysat his daughter a few days a week I could live up here."

Five swept his eyes around the room. It truly wasn't much, just a mattress and a couch and a small table but it was enough.

It was hers, and it was enough.

He glanced down at her, shame on his face. "I'm sorry, Pixie." He whispered guiltily. "I'm so damn sorry."

Kenzie smiled at him, perhaps a hint of shyness colouring it. "I've accepted that I can't change the fact that this happened." She told him, resting her forehead against his chest. God, she was still tiny. "But for what it's worth, I know you are."

He kissed her.

It was different from any other way they'd kissed before.

It was an apology and a greeting and a goodbye all at once. The goodbye Kenzie was denied and the greeting into the future.

There was no need to say they loved each other. They knew they did, but to them, what was the point? It was already a fact in their minds, solidified with secrets and faint whispers and rambunctious, exuberant laughter.

The hole in Kenzie's heart was not healed. Not today, at least. But one day she was sure it would be. One day she'd be whole and free again.

And she knew, that when that day came, Five would be by her side.