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Lingering outside of the academy, Five knew he’d have to walk away. The commission would find out if he did anything stupid. It was so tempting though... but he couldn’t. Five had to keep working on his equations and get precisely to a time nearer to the apocalypse. His family would be no use to him at this age anyway, they were just kids. Maybe he could just stay here for a while longer, it was the late evening after all. The commission wouldn’t know he wasn’t just minding his business in a shitty motel. It wasn’t like they’d have any reason to check his tracker.
He’d only been missing for two years in the time he was currently visiting to kill a mark. He wondered if Vanya had made him a sandwich and left the light on, like she described in her book. It ached to know she probably did, and that she’d wake up sorely disappointed. Five heard boys’ hissing voices, sounding like they were bickering - and then the noises of two sets of feet jumping down to the ground. He hastily shuffled up against a nearby wall, not wanting to cause the goddamn early apocalypse with the Butterfly Effect.
“Will you sh-shut the hell up?” Diego whispered angrily at his brother, feeling inclined to just sneak back inside and ditch him. “Will you shut the hell up?” Klaus repeated mockingly, pausing his pacing to light a joint. Diego stormed ahead, not wanting to inhale the vile stench. He stopped suddenly when he spotted an old man staring at them intensely around ten feet away. Diego threw a hand backwards to stop Klaus too, grimacing when the smoke blew towards his face. He had a knife, but dad would probably murder him if he stabbed an innocent civilian and brought negative attention to the academy. There was no way for Diego to know whether this guy was actually trouble or not. Not yet at least.
Following Diego’s gaze and looking down the block, Klaus shrugged when he saw a man watching them. “We’re sexy, what can I say.” Klaus giggled, shoving away Diego’s arm and continuing towards the movie theatre. He had dealt with enough creepy men to be unfazed by this one in particular. His brother quietly growled with fury, grabbing Klaus by the collar before he could flounce away. “He could be a bad gu-guy!” Diego whispered nervously, not tearing his eyes from glaring at the old man. The guy looked incredibly freaked out, seeming too on edge to move. “He’s shitting his panties, Di! He’s not a bad guy.” Klaus exclaimed in a relatively low volume, rolling his eyes at his brother’s stupid paranoia. It was like he was the one on drugs. Klaus purposefully puffed smoke in his brother’s direction, hoping to chill him the fuck out with the secondhand high. Diego stopped his staring match with the weirdo to turn and glower at him.
“I don’t want cancer, asshole.” Diego spat in hushed tones, though he considered Klaus was probably correct for once. Even a stopped clock was right twice a day. “He’s probably just some perv.” Klaus drawled, gesturing nonchalantly to the man in question. He did kind of look like a pervert. “He’s got the pedophile moustache and everything!” Klaus wheezed, making a fairly compelling argument.
Five pulled a face of deep disgust as his brother impishly winked at him. “Ungrateful pr-“ Klaus began to offendedly yell in response before Diego reluctantly shoved a hand over his mouth. Five had to pretend to cough and cover his own mouth to hide his smirk.
Snatching his hand back before Klaus could pettily lick it, Diego wanted to wash it with bleach. “You’re so g-goddamn stupid.” he frustratedly whispered, dragging the moron along the block before mom, dad, or Pogo heard - and more importantly before the likely pervert could get enraged. His brother giggled childishly as they headed towards the movie theatre. Diego wished Ben hadn’t said no, being alone with Klaus was always maddening. Ben had been too worried about doing poorly on his literature examination tomorrow with Pogo. Diego didn’t know why he cared so much, it wasn’t like they were allowed to go to college like normal kids anyway. Ben seemed to believe otherwise though, determined he’d be able to escape away to college at eighteen. They’d probably die before dad would allow that. “Can we see Scooby Doo?” Klaus whined, brushing away Diego’s hand now they were further from the peeping tom. “Why the hell would we see Scooby Doo?” Diego snickered, hoping his overwhelming amusement at that suggestion wasn’t too evident. Maybe he’d accidentally inhaled some of the weed...
Breathing a sigh of relief, Five rubbed at his eyes tensely. He really needed to stop spying on his siblings whenever he ended up remotely near them, he was going to get caught one of these days. The commission would kill him without a second thought, and he’d be unable to ever save his siblings. This encounter was far too close, he couldn’t do this again. Although it was wildly comforting to see his siblings not much older than when he’d left, it simply wasn’t worth the risk.
Peeking at his brothers for one last forlorn glance, he saw Klaus mischievously tapping Diego on the shoulder opposite from the one he was wandering beside. Diego frantically shot his vision to locate the tapping, clearly still on high alert from Five watching them. Klaus began to laugh so hard he had to double over. Five smiled wistfully, loathing that he lost out on these years with his siblings. At least they had each other. For now. It was gut wrenching that they didn’t know what was to come. That they were blissfuly unaware they didn’t have much longer with Ben, that they were going to be crushed in apocalyptic fury. Five was determined to stop the latter, but he could never bring Ben back.