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CHAPTER FIVE the world, my canvas
⋆*✧･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:
WHEN NADINE HAD HEARD about Five Hargreeves' disappearance, she'd been inconsolable. It had only been months since her Umbrella Academy obsession had sparked, and now one of the members was gone. The probability of a teleporting thirteen-year-old getting lost was probably high, but Nadine hadn't expected him to disappear for seventeen years. She'd watched unsolved mystery videos, surfed conspiracy blogs, and even set up a pinboard on her wall, documenting what she knew about Five's disappearance (he'd been the only one of the Academy who didn't have a name—he'd probably declined when the option for one had sprung up) and connecting the facts with red threads. This was the year she'd been obsessed with watching mystery films, and, after nearly driving both Louise and Beau mad with her constant flashing of her magnifying glass and searching neighbourhoods for missing pets, finally she had something to fixate on.
And fixate she had. For an entire year, Nadine tried to figure out where Number Five had gone. But with the limited amount of information she had about the night he'd disappeared on, and the fact that she was a thirteen-year-old girl with no special equipment, every path she went on came to a dead end. Eventually, she had to come to the conclusion that the disappearance of Number Five would not be solved by a thirteen-year-old girl, obsessed as she was. Then, after two years had gone by without the boy's resurfacing, Nadine figured he would never be coming back.
So, standing here, in front of the boy, who looked exactly the same as he had the day he'd gone missing, nursing her wounded hand (Klaus, surprisingly, had offered to wrap that up for her when they'd finally gone inside, and although the bandaging wasn't perfect, Nadine appreciated the gesture) and watching him prepare a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich, it was safe to say that her mind had been officially blown.
They'd all gathered in the kitchen (nobody, not even Diego, had tried to kick Nadine out. Probably because even he knew that this was a craziness on a whole different level), perched at different places at the table. Nadine found herself near Vanya (just a coincidence this time), while Klaus sat cross-legged on the table. All of them stared at Five and watched him set a cutting board and a knife down.
"What's the date?" Five asked, crossing over to the pantry and taking out a loaf of bread. "The exact date."
"The twenty-fourth," Vanya replied.
"Of what?"
"March."
"2019," Nadine clarified. At her clearly unfamiliar voice, Five looked up for a moment, his eyebrows knitted together in mild interest, before they flicked back down to the bread, which he was currently unwrapping.
"Good."
"So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?" Luther asked eventually, deciding to take the situation by its horns. Nadine was thinking the same thing. Her mind was still reeling over the fact that thirteen-year-old Five Hargreeves was standing right in front of her—he wasn't a member she'd been expecting to meet—preparing a sandwich nonchalantly like he hadn't fallen out of a wormhole not even twenty minutes ago.
