Number 8 ~ FivexOC

12

The place they ended up was none other than the very welcoming bar of The Umbrella Academy. They sat and drank some mixture that Five had pulled together with his limited knowledge of alcohol.

"Well, really think we did it?" He pauses, stirring his drink, as if he is lost in his thoughts. "Think we actually stopped the apocalypse?"

Quiet jazz music plays in the background, courtesy of an old record player somewhere in the room. Number 8 just sits in silence, slowly sipping on her drink. Head empty. It hadn't crossed her mind how real the apocalypse is yet here she is, sitting calmly without a care in the world.

"Now what?" She said finally breaking her prolonged silence but her gaze remaining on the margarita glass in her hands.

"I don't know," Five chuckles. "I'm open to suggestions." He looks over at her, admiring her, but for no particular reason.

A knock on the front door causes a stir to erupt between the two of them.

"Eh, I'll get it," Five places his drink down, spilling a few drops from its contents and starts steadily to the door.

"Hey, old-timer," Came the calm voice of none other than Hazel, his old pal if you will. He offers him a glass, to which he neither accepts nor declines, and is invited inside. Five actively ignoring the gun perched in the mans left hand.

"You're here to kill me?" Five finally addresses the problem, while drawing Number Eight into the small chat. finding his seat where he resumes sipping his drink.

"Oh. Shit. Sorry. Old habits." Hazel quickly puts away his gun, feeling a tinge embarrassed. "Well, I can understand why you might feel that way, you know..."

"Yeah, attacking the house, almost killing our family," She looks over to Five for a second, as to show the our she was talking about. "And kidnapped one of my brothers," She finishes as if she was reciting a list.

"Well, there's not much I can do about the past. Don't forget I'm not the only killer in the room," He glances at Eight. He hasn't know her for very long so he understandably doesn't know if she too is a 'cold blooded murderer' as some people would label Five.

"Hazel, why are you here?"

"Well, I'm you know-"

The man was interrupted by a violent kick from behind him, throwing him instantly to the ground with a loud thud. Several kicks and punches later, Eight finally stands with only a mouthful left of her drink.

"Eight. What are you..." Five looks at her confused as his sentence trailed off, he couldn't tell what she was going to do next. Could he ever? She shrugs at him, down the last of her drink before smashing the glass over the back of Diego's head. He quickly drops to the ground with a small spot of blood growing underneath his head of hair.

"Thanks kid. But I didn't need your help."

"Didn't look like it..." Five tries to contain a small smirk growing on his face. He was shocked yet impressed by her confidence. Or was it just plain idiocy? He wouldn't know.

"Hazel, whatever you came here to say. I suggest you make it quick." He throws a cautionary glance over Diego's now unconscious body before meeting Hazel's eye's once more. "You know, before he comes round,"

"I left my partner, quit the Commission, came to volunteer." Short n sweet. Best way to get out his true intentions.

"For what?"

"To help stop the apocalypse." He said as if there was no other answer to that question. Eight chuckles to herself.

"What on earth could be so funny to you right now?" Hazel shoots his eyes over to the smiling Number 8.

"Before she answers that, why do you want to help us?"

"Let's just say that I have a vested interest in a doughnut shop." Eight lets out an audible giggle at his cheesy response. She knew that his interest wasn't the shop. It was a woman. That giggle was from her thinking about how stupid love is.

"Well, I hate to break it to you pal but you're a day late and a dollar short." She quickly rises from her seat and begins to leave. On her way out she kicks Diego just for fun followed by another small giggle.

"The fact that you're here right now means, without a shadow of a doubt, that the apocalypse is over."

"Really? How do you know that?"

"The mark is dead. Found him this morning." And with this final contribution the conversation, she waves and exits the rooms without a peep from either of the males in the room. Conscious males that is. Five brushes off her strange exit and continues.

"You were the last known unknown in the equation." Begins Five.

"Shit. Really?"

"Mm-hmm. And if you're out, then Hellrider ain't riding." Five turns and refills his now empty cup with more of his mystery concoction. Celebratory noises came from Hazel as he realised that his dreams could come true. He could be with his woman.

Hazel saunters over to the bar and flops down onto the empty barstool on the left of Five. He grabs the jug of the blender and takes a large sip of the contents with a large smile painted across his face.

"So now what?"

"You know, to be honest, I don't know. I've been chasing this thing for so long, I..." Five paused to let his thoughts simmer "I never really thought of the day after," He chuckles quietly to himself. "What about you?"

"I'm done with all this madness. Time to start over. You should do the same."

"That's easier said than done."

"It doesn't have to be hard. I mean think about it like this. If you never time traveled, you never got caught up with the Handler, what would have happened?" Five looks behind him at the door where Eight had just left through. His thoughts run wild at the image of her.

But he realised that if he had never had the future of traveling back in time, she might not have had a place in the academy. Maybe she would've have just been another student. Not pushed away from everyone like she was. They could've grown up together. Or even never had met each other in the first place.

A sudden feeling of guilt washes over him. He feels as if he was the sole reason for her distant moods and behavior. He forced her to be pushed a way all because he wanted some kind of attention and independence. He internally shook himself and brought himself back to Hazel.

"Guess I would have grown up to be an emotionally stunted man-child like everybody else around here."