Chapter Text
Viktor finally caught up with Five, leaning against a shop window, studying something in his hands under the neon lights above him. "You just going to run out on me again? Here, when we're finally free? No more Academy, no more powers, just you, me, and the world?"
Five sighed, but didn't look up. "Thought we were supposed to be making our own separate ways?" He folded whatever he'd been looking at and put it in his pocket.
"How far do you think you're gonna get in that body without a legal guardian to—" Viktor's breath caught. "You grew up."
He'd been taller than Viktor already, but the form straightening up now had lost the gangly quality it had had just hours before. The same too-old eyes turned to him in a much more chiseled face, framed in soft wavy hair grown out of the slicked schoolboy cut. But in the same exasperated voice as usual, he said, "Like I've been trying to tell you, Viktor, I'm 58, and I don't need you babying me."
"No, I mean, you physically grew up. In the past ten minutes. Luther came out looking fully human again, Diego got his fingers back, and you—" he waved helplessly at the now unnervingly handsome man in front of him.
"Grew my arm back, yeah."
"No! I mean you DID, but that's not all." He suddenly felt flushed, tongue-tied, thirteen again. "You look like a-a-an adult."
Five frowned down at himself, as if he could see the change from that angle. "I guess that explains the…" he muttered to himself, pulling the something out of his pocket again. A wallet.
"What?"
"You check your pockets? Like I said, I don't need your help. I apparently already have a place to live waiting for me, and I'm guessing you do, too." He held a card out to Viktor.
It was a driver's license, and that was clearly a picture of Five, as he looked now: 29 and a half, just like the 10/01/1989 beside it would corroborate. But the name and address? Murphy, Finn V. 153 W. Elm St, apt.4—
"Who—?"
Five snatched the card back. "We've got places carved out for us in this universe. Identities to fall into, as if we've always been here."
Viktor patted his own pockets and found a wallet in his inner jacket. And there it was, Petrokov, Viktor— His heart leaped. "It's already updated! It says Viktor!"
"Your voice is lower, too. I have a feeling you've been Viktor a little longer in this universe."
"I guess without any powers to suppress, I wouldn't have spent most of my life sedated out of my mind. I might have figured things out soon—errrr, what was the address on yours again?"
"Something Elm Street, why?"
"153 West Elm Street? Apartment 4?"
"Ye…ahhh?"
Viktor flipped his own license around. "We live together."
"Huh." Five compared the IDs, then handed Viktor's back. "All right, you win. I guess we are sticking together. You still don't get to baby me, though." He was smiling, Viktor was relieved to see.
"I wasn't planning to! I think it would be better for both of us to have somebody familiar to lean on, that's all."
Five grinned outright now. "Let's go find Elm Street, then."
They set off in the general direction Viktor remembered Elm Street having been before, in a past universe. The streets themselves seemed to be the same in the rebooted City, but the buildings were slicker, more modern, taller. And somewhere, on every block, they caught the name on the signs: Part of the Hargreeves Consortium of Local Business. This facility protected by Hargreeves Security. Another Life Enhancement from Hargreeves Enterprises! Har-Mart!
"Har-Mart?"
"Har-Mart!"
They looked at each other and burst out laughing.
Viktor tempered the laugh into a groan. "God, he's everywhere. Makes me feel paranoid. Big Dad Is Watching Us."
"If it makes you feel any better, I don't think we were even adopted here, seeing that I still have Efa Murphy's last name."
Viktor smiled softly. "She your birth mother?"
"Yeah. Butcher just outside Dublin. Seemed pretty spunky. Don't know why she'd ever give me up." There was a forced lightness in his tone that made Viktor step closer, protectively. Not touching. But closer.
"I didn't get to read Klaus's book. Harlan found it first, and then— I was a little preoccupied. Did you read about my mother?"
"Yours? Yeah. She was really young. A swimmer. It was the Soviet era, she was probably being stringently trained to represent The Motherland at the Olympics. They probably wouldn't have let her keep you."
"Well, apparently she did, in this universe. Or someone not Dad."
"And yet we both still ended up in America. In the same City. In the same apartment." His brows furrowed, and he stared straight ahead, lost in thought. It was such a familiar expression on this new— and yes, really quite attractive— 30-year-old face. Viktor caught himself staring. He cleared his throat and forced himself to look away.
"Do you think the others live there, too?"
"With us? In an apartment? I sure hope not."
"Then where are they? And why are we together? Not that I mind— you'd be my first choice to bunk with, anyway." Had that come out too quickly? He toughened his voice. "Which is why I came after you in the first place, loser."
Five made a noise that sounded almost like a chuckle. "Honestly? I'm happy about this turn of events, too. We've barely spent any time together since I've been back. I've missed you, V."
That warmed Viktor in a more comfortable way. He'd been waiting for Five to say that for weeks. He smiled wryly. "You have? Sometimes I wasn't sure."
"Well I might've had time to show you, if someone hadn't kept causing apocalypses for me to stop…"
"I—!"
"Kidding. It wasn't your fault. I'm sure I've tried to explain all the extenuating factors involved in any one temporal event before."
"Yeah. Well, I am sorry I brushed you off the night you came back."
"I'm sorry I was so preoccupied I didn't even notice the predicament you were in that week."
"I'm sorry I gave you so much trouble about leaving Sissy and Harlan in the '60s."
"I'm sorry I lied to you about your part in the apocalypses."
"Well, I'm still not sorry I didn't tell you about Harlan and our mothers."
"Good. I'm still not sorry I threatened to kill you over it."
Viktor stopped walking to glare at Five. Five was smugly smiling back. Viktor rammed him in the side with his shoulder. He really had missed that asshole. A lot.
They stared up at 153 West Elm in hesitant admiration. It wasn't a large apartment building, but it was clean, and well-maintained, a converted three-story house with an outer staircase leading straight to Apt. 4. "Nicer than I was expecting. Nicer than my last place at least."
"Guess we're not doing too badly for a couple of emotionally damaged bachelors. You have a key?"
Viktor checked his pockets again and pulled out a key ring with several keys, a couple of which looked familiar. He singled out one of the unfamiliar ones. "I think so? Do you have one, too?"
"Here." Five pulled out another set of keys and found one identical to Viktor's. "Do you want to do the honors?"
"Sure." Viktor unlocked the door and pushed it open.
Almost immediately they were greeted by a stubby little dog, barking cheerfully and hopping between them. Viktor fumbled for the light switch while Five caught the dog and the door and shut the one before the other could run out of it.
The dog seemed interested only in greeting Five, though. "Calm down, boy! Yes, we're here, we're not going anywhere else for the time being, chill out." The dog licked at Five as he rumpled it around the ears.
Viktor watched in bemusement. "How do you know he's a boy?"
"I just know, right Mr. Pennycrumb? Because he's Mr. Pennycrumb, aren't you?"
"I had no idea you were an animal person."
"I wasn't. But this guy obviously loves me, and who am I to turn down someone with such good taste, right? He is one cute puppy."
Viktor could barely decide whether to keep watching this disturbingly adorable interaction or actually take a look around their new home.
Practicality won out. They'd entered toward the dining end of a wide rectangular living/dining room, with a warm beige carpet and lots of shelves around the walls. A round table stood between them and a narrow kitchen, separated from the main room by a counter topped with open shelving. A low, long bookcase and an easy chair loosely divided the dining and living areas. Viktor crouched in front of the bookcase and smiled. He'd spotted many of his favorite books. Not just by title, but the actual copies he'd owned in their home universe, worn in the exact same places.
"Now, which of these doors leads to the bathroom?" Five opened the door nearest the bookcase and nodded. "Lucky guess."
"One in three chance." Besides the front door and the bathroom, there were just two other doors leading off the big room. Viktor opened the one next to the bathroom. A storage closet, just deep enough to maybe be considered a walk-in, but barely, full of linens and boxes and a couple of winter coats. His winter coat, he noted.
The last door opened directly into a bedroom. It was a fairly large bedroom, but still just one, with just one bed. Viktor spotted another door in the wall beside him— maybe that led to another bedroom?
No, just another closet, filled with sharp suits that clearly belonged to Five, but also a bunch of familiar casual button-downs and the worn concert tuxedo he'd been wearing for years (not, he was relieved to see, supernaturally bleached white). So they shared the closet, and apparently they also shared the bed.
Were they…together? The thought confused him. It wasn't an unpleasant confusion, and that confused him even more. He glanced over the rest of the room and got distracted— and comforted— by the sight of a music stand by the windows, a familiar violin case at its feet.
He knelt in front of it and flipped the clasps. Yes, his violin. The only true gift Reginald Hargreeves had ever given him, in all its original splendor. Brown and whole. No blood stains, no explosive damage.
He lifted it to his shoulder and ran through a quick G-major arpeggio. Sounded the same, too. Barely even needed tuning.
His stomach rumbled, so he bent to put the violin away, but inside the case he caught sight of an engraved brass plate that definitely hadn't been there before.
To Vanya: I expect you not to squander this gift. You will dedicate your time to mastering this instrument, and bring forth music worthy of its storied history. --A.H.
A.H.? Allison? No, that sounded nothing like Allison. Besides, her initials wouldn't be A.H. anymore, would they? Unless she had still been adopted.
His stomach rumbled again. He latched the case and stood. "I'm going to see if there's any food in the kitchen," he called to Five as he crossed the living area.
He caught a muffled "fine" in response. Five was still in the bathroom.
The kitchen cupboards looked not all that different, on the inside, from the ones in his old apartment. If anything, they were slightly fuller, and contained a lot more beans, marshmallows, and sugary cereal. The refrigerator held not only fresh ingredients, but a half-used jug of milk and some containers clearly full of leftovers. One held what appeared to be his own specialty tuna casserole.
It was starting to sink in. This really was home.
He glanced at the marshmallows beside the bread and peanut butter in the cupboard. Nah. Their first meal in a new universe ought to be a little healthier. He made two lunchmeat sandwiches stuffed tall with veggies and cheese and carried them to the table. "Supper!" Then, "Five?"
What was Five doing, anyway? He still hadn't left the bathroom, even though the dog had pushed open the door and followed him inside. It circled his feet as he stood in front of the sink, frowning into the mirror.
Viktor slipped in behind him. "You okay?"
Five shook his head, almost imperceptibly, and didn't look away from his reflection. "I don't know this guy. When I was his age I had a full beard, bad teeth…scars. That pubescent body was inconvenient at best, but at least I recognized him."
God. How many times had Viktor stared into a mirror thinking I don't know this person? And yet the fix had been so relatively easy. Even a simple haircut had helped him feel more like himself, and now the reset had put him even closer. But what could he say to Five? Too bad this universe doesn't think you've spent the past seventeen years in a post-apocalyptic wasteland? Tentatively, he placed a hand on top of Five's, squeezed. "I— I understand."
"Hair could be worse. At least he doesn't have a buzz cut."
That did him in. Viktor let out a sob. "Oh Five. I can't…I can't begin to know everything you've been through, and I know I've messed up before, but I am here for you now, and I promise I won't brush you off ever again." He wrapped his arms around Five's torso and squeezed.
Five stumbled, stiffly shifted in Viktor's grip. "And emphysema. I'm not saying this isn't an upgrade. It's just going to take getting used to, is all." He lifted Viktor's chin, looking straight into his eyes. "You going to make it, kid? I'm really not worth crying over."
For a split second Viktor froze, before he managed to blink and look down. "You are SO, but, yeah, I'm fine, sorry."
"Sorry for what?"
"Getting emotional."
"You deserve to. You have to make up for years of emotional repression. Just don't want you to think you have to on my account." He wiped a tear from Viktor's cheek with his thumb.
Why? Five probably thought he was being a good big brother. The casual way he called him "kid" reminded Viktor that he was still 29 years older than he looked even now. But it had been so much easier to think of him as a brother when he looked thirteen. Now, it was confusing. Again. The same way it had been confusing back when Viktor had been thirteen, too.
He backed away, into the main room. "So do you want to see the rest—"
"What were you saying about— yeah."
"Um, there's only one bedroom." Best to get that out of the way first thing. "With one bed. Um, a queen-sized, but, you know."
Five peered into the bedroom, expression as unreadable as ever. "We did use to sleep in a twin-sized together once."
Viktor laughed. It was such an innocent memory that he felt better. "We were a lot smaller then!" The two tiniest of the little Hargreeves children, sneaking into each other's rooms at night, just to make up for the day spent apart.
Five was watching him with a soft smile. After a moment he said, "You can have the bed. I can sleep anywhere." He strode back toward the dining area. The dog and Viktor followed.
"Don't use it as an excuse to sleep poorly! You need to get out of the habit of going until you pass out. No apocalypses to thwart here."
"What habit?"
"No, seriously, when was the last time you had a good night's sleep? Drunken blackouts and heavy blood loss don't count."
"I have—recently. Sometime!"
"How about a balanced meal?" He grabbed the sandwiches he'd prepared earlier.
"Luther's wedding. HAH! Less than 24 hours ago, happy?"
"Typically people have two to three balanced meals in that time frame—"
"Didn't I tell you not to baby me?"
"Tough luck, I made you a sandwich. Yes, the kitchen is fully stocked! With stuff we like!"
"I'm withholding judgment until I see the coffee for myself— oh. Yeah. Looks like I picked the coffee." He set to filling up the percolator on the counter.
Viktor grinned, watching him. "Don't forget your actual nutrients, too." He set one plate directly in front of the coffee machine, then carried his own to the main room to continue exploring.
"Thanks, Mom!" Five called after him, then added, "That wasn't misgendering! It's just obvious you're emulating one of our parental figures and it sure as hell ain't the King of Har-Mart!"
"I figured!" Viktor set his plate on the desk in the corner. There was a big computer on top, like the kind at the library. Must be something Five used for his equations in this universe. Viktor couldn't imagine what he might ever need a computer for.
He took a bite of his sandwich and looked under the desk. "There's a briefcase here?" he called to the kitchen. "I guess it probably isn't a time machine? But I'm gonna let you handle it anyway, okay?" He moved on to the drawers. General office supplies in the middle. The left hand drawers were stuffed with papers scrawled all over with some kind of complicated calculus. "Uh, I'm going to let you handle these drawers, too? They're obviously yours."
"Wherever could you have gotten that idea?" Five set his mug of coffee on the corner of the desk and sat on the floor beside the open drawer, holding his sandwich out of reach of the dog, who danced back and forth at his knees. "You gonna help me check if physics is properly multiversal, Mr. Pennycrumb? I'll give you some ham if you help me proof these, hmm? Oh, you're right, you can't work on an empty stomach." He pulled a strip of lunchmeat out of his sandwich and dangled it in front of the dog, who slurped it up and yipped for another, tail wagging madly. Viktor grinned nearly as madly just watching them. "What?" Five snapped after a couple of seconds.
"Oh, nothing." Viktor shook his head and turned back to the desk. The right hand drawers were lined with tidy hanging folders, all neatly labeled in his own familiar handwriting. "This is better." He pulled out the first folder, marked "Vet," and flipped it open. "You're right. He is Mr. Pennycrumb."
"And you doubted me why?"
"Also, you sign everything 'F.V. Murphy.' F.V. Think I know how you got your nickname in this universe."
"My name, thank you."
"Your nickname, Finn." He dodged the ball of paper Five threw at him, and changed folders. "Look, pay stubs. Of course we'd have jobs here. Better to know about them now than when some boss we've never met before calls to chew us out for skipping. Looks like you're getting paid by the University. Wait, this one has my name on it. We're both working for the University."
"Probably not in the same department."
Viktor glanced at the equations spread out around Five and said, "God I hope not. Oh, holy shit. I'm still with the Icarus, too! I wonder if the rehearsal schedule is the same. I found my violin in the bedroom."
"I heard. I'm glad."
"Thanks. It would suck if it turned out I'm suddenly supposed to be a pro-level French horn player or something."
"These lives do seem to be sticking pretty closely to what we know. As if they've been made for us to step right into."
The equations must be working out, then, because Viktor couldn't see anything else about this life that resembled anything Five might be familiar with. "I guess that was nice of Dad then. Or Allison. Probably Allison." He flipped past some tax returns and cable contracts to a folder labeled "Documentation," and pulled it out onto the desk.
"Jackpot! Naturalization papers. Both of ours. They're from the same date, July 1994." The formal certificates were each paper-clipped to a stack of carbon-copy forms chock full of interesting details. "Our birth parents are still listed as our parents, but an 'Abigail Hargreeves' has signed off on these." Was this the mysterious A.H.?
"Abigail? Did he get married? Or did she learn something about herself in this universe?"
The thought made Viktor cringe. "If Dad wanted to be Abigail, he could have written that in from the start. I'd have been Viktor all along, if I was the one programming the universe— but I wasn't, and I'd be kinda pissed if Dad decided HE (or, she) could start fresh but then knowingly left little Ivanna Petrokova to figure it out the hard way." He smiled sadly at the wide-eyed photo on his naturalization certificate. "Sooner than I did but still. Anyway but no, here he is, too." He pointed to another signature on the accompanying forms as he handed them to Five.
"So he brought us here, but didn't adopt us. Huh." Five studied the forms. "There's something about 'Education' listed under reasons for immigrating, but then over on this page it says 'Scientific Study.' What's that about?"
Viktor had stopped listening. He'd spotted the words "Certificate of Marri—" among the rest of the pages in the "Documentation" folder, and his heart jumped into his throat. He slid the paper out.
This is to certify that Finn Vernon Murphy and Viktor Ivan Petrokov were united in marriage on this 10th day of November, 2017, according to the laws of the State of New York ….
He read it over again. And another time after that.
"Five. Look at this." His hands shook as he held out the document.
Five took it, at first curious, then his eyes widened. "Oh!" He quickly schooled his face into something Viktor couldn't quite read. "Well! Sorry I missed it."
At that Viktor couldn't hold back a hysterical giggle. Five's somber face cracked, too, as he continued lightly, "I heard the groom looked quite stunning."
Viktor cackled. "Which one?"
"You weren't supposed to ask the follow-up!"
Viktor shoved him. Five swatted him away, outright chuckling now.
"But how— why—" Viktor shuffled for the tax return he'd cast aside earlier "—why would Dad have put that into the reset?" There it was, "married filing jointly." It wasn't a joke certificate, at least.
Five shrugged. "Or Allison. But why would she have? Some weird payback for the grief we used to give her and Luther?"
"I never gave them any grief!"
"I did. And it was entirely hypocritical."
Viktor snarfled. "Wait, what?"
Five ignored him. "But maybe it's not their doing at all. Maybe the part that was reset happened much earlier. The whole— Dad bringing us to America but not adopting us piece was set in place, and this is just…the natural progression of F.V. Murphy and Viktor Petrokov from that point."
"So you're saying that, naturally, we would have—" Viktor's face burned. He hoped it wasn't too obvious. "I mean, I guess I can see that. I, uh… you were my first crush, actually." And if I'd seen you grow up the way you have now…
Five nodded but didn't meet his eyes. "Likewise."
"Wait, are you serious?"
"Why wouldn't I be serious?"
"Just— Idaknow! I was such a— I was so ordinary, and you—"
"Watch it. That's that Rumor talking. You really need to learn to catch that thing, remind it you know the truth now."
"You sound like my old therapist. Like you're in any position to give anyone therapy."
"I have 29 more years life experience than you do."
"Most of that with no other humans whatsoever and the rest with homicidal sociopaths."
"It doesn't matter! I'd been alive less than a decade when I could already tell that you were extraordinary. That's all the experience I needed."
"So you really…?" Viktor shook his head. "You liked me too, all along? I had no clue!"
"And maybe if you hadn't been so hung up on being too ordinary for me, something might have happened between us. Double that if we hadn't been adopted by dad. And if I'd never jumped…"
"But that's so many maybes!"
"And those are the maybes Murphy and Petrokov were working with!
"You keep talking about them like they weren't us."
"Because they weren’t! They grew up together and, and they dated, and went through the whole marriage process like normal people. They didn't stumble into a whole new universe to find out they're married to the childhood crush they've been trying to think of as a sibling for decades!"
Trying? "So…what do you want to do about it?"
Five shrugged. "What we've been doing. Figure out what's up with this universe and then live our lives in it.” He sighed. “It's a piece of paper. A legally-binding document, but still, what does it change? We already decided to live together, and to be perfectly honest, I'm just relieved it means we're equals instead of you being my legal guardian."
It…made sense, he guessed. What did it change, besides explaining the only-one-bed-room. It didn’t dictate their actions, beyond-- "But what if…one of us finds someone we want to marry for real?"
"Well, then I'll let you go."
His heart thudded. It was so hard to tell what Five meant sometimes, but it really seemed like— as if he— was he saying—? Viktor slid to the floor beside him and leaned in. "Five. Do you want to be married to me? For real?"
"Well I—" Five stammered. "I'm not saying it's not ridiculous, but I don't…mind…" He straightened up. "Look, I was married to half a mannequin for thirty-some years, I may have a slightly different understanding of marriage than the average person."
Viktor frowned. "Did you just s—?"
"Yes, I said what I said. Delores is complicated, okay? There are facts, and there are truths. Facts are I created her out of the rubble of a department store and my own desperation. I know this, I do! But the truth is she loved me. She kept me alive, she lifted me when I would have given up, she fixed my mistakes but forgave me for them, she made me laugh and even laughed back at me. That's what marriage is to me. A partner through the twists and turns of life! It has nothing to do with desire and passion and sex. But you…" he grew quiet— "you want more, and I don't want to hold you back."
Viktor pondered this. Five always had had a somewhat asexual streak. And yet…"You…said you had a crush on me, though. When we were kids."
"Yeah?"
"So, you're not, like, completely NOT …attracted to me, right? I mean I know I'm not the gender you thought I was back then, but if there's any—I mean?"
Five shifted, and frowned steadily, but he wouldn't look at Viktor, and he was…he was definitely blushing. "What are you getting at?"
It made him oddly braver. "What if what I want…IS you. What if I DO want to be married to you, for real. For— everything that entails."
Five seemed to stop breathing, then slowly sighed. "I…wouldn't mind that, either. Eventually."
"Eventually?"
"It's still…a lot to get used to. And— who knows. Here we are, alone together in a strange new world, your body's all hopped up on more testosterone than you're used to, what if whatever you think you're feeling is just…nerves? Clinging to the one familiar person you've got here?"
"Fi-ive…."
"You…you still have time to change your mind, is all I'm saying. We'll…take things slowly. Ease back into each other's company. See if we can really stand each other when we're living together again. It worked for these two, so—" he tossed the marriage certificate aside "—but I'm not him! Like I keep saying. I'm— I'm broken, I'm heartless, I…I threatened to kill you just two days ago!"
"I took that as a very stern warning, not an imminent threat to my life."
"I hope you're right."
"Five, I trust you.”
"You trusted that Jenkins, too, and look where that got you."
"You are nothing like—!"
"I know, I'm worse."
"You— the worst, the only time you have ever hurt me was, A, an accident, and B, a thousand times worse for yourself, oh, and not to mention C, actually all my doing as it turned out anyway!"
"I told you, the extenuating—"
"Five, stop! I know." He grasped his arms and squeezed. "And like I keep trying to tell you, you're not alone anymore. I'm here for you, I’m on your side, and I'm willing to help you work out whatever you need to, at whatever speed you like. And for the record, I’ve also done terrible things. But this is a new life, and we're partners in it. I don't even need that piece of paper to tell me so."
Five swallowed, and nodded. “Okay.”
Viktor pulled him into a hug, and this time he sank into it, breathing deeply. They sat, holding each other tight, for at least a minute or two, until Five pulled away and said in a suspiciously husky voice, "Thank you."
"Of course. I mean, we're married, aren't we?"
Five cracked a smile. Then he said, slowly, "I don't want to make things awkward…more awkward. But— that big bed— I think— I would like to stay close to you tonight. Just— to be there. Not…not alone."
"Like when we were kids."
"Exactly."
"Let's go to bed then. It's been a really long day."
Viktor knew he was dreaming, but it was more memory than dream: the first time he'd ever snuck into Five's bed in the middle of the night, when they were four or five. "I'm scared," he admitted. "Sir Reginald yells too much. It's scary." Why was he calling Dad 'Sir Reginald'?
"Don't be scared, Vanya. You just have to yell back, is all."
"No, Five! That's the other thing I'm scared of! You keep making him mad. What if he gets so mad he sends you back?"
"Then I won't go."
"I don't want you to go."
"I'm not going! I will never leave your side. I'm your knight in shining armor who protects you, Princess Vanya!"
Viktor frowned. He didn't want to be a princess. "Can't I be a knight, too? We can protect each other. Knights need someone to take care of them, too, don't they?"
Five looked thoughtful. "I guess so." He nodded. "Okay. You take care of me and I take care of you. We're partner-knights! And I promise, I will never let my partner get sad."
"I won't, either. I promise I will take care of you forever and ever."
"Yeah. Forever and ever."