Chapter Text
Since the prevention of the apocalypse 2 months ago, it had been a 6 years (for the family) since the original 2019 apocalypse (13 years for Five and Lila). The Hargreeves family had gone through 4 apocalypses before The time traveller had managed to create a correct, and completely intact timeline. Everything was perfect: Claire still existed, Patch was still alive, although Diego was with Lila now, and they had just had their baby girl: Grace Stanley Hargreeves (Five had won money on the name of their now-born daughter). Sloane was also here, where she continued her marriage with Luther. Five had even somehow managed to bring his sibling’s other halves from the 60’s along for the ride too! Harlan, Sissy, Ray, Dave and even Jill were in the current timeline. Oh and Ben had been brought back from the dead too: not sparrow Ben, not an alternate version of Ben, their Ben was alive and real again. Jill and Ben had gotten married a couple of months ago and were now living happily away from the academy. Five had succeeded, everyone was safe and everyone was happy…
Apart from Five himself…
Five was sitting in the dining room of the academy, placed at the long, mahogany table, nursing a cup of coffee whilst attempting to ease the raging hangover from the night before. Maybe a full bottle of vodka neat accompanied by half a bottle of red wine wasn’t the best idea, Five thought to himself bitterly. Despite their father’s death from just before his return to his family, he sat in his assigned place at the table from his childhood. Upon seeing a mark in the table, presumably where he had stabbed it both 23 and 58 years ago, he relives his worst mistake from - running on his time anyways - nearly 6 decades ago: the one which robbed him of any chance of a “normal life” that he may ever have had.
He thought about how all of those years ago, if he knew what those 3 time jumps would set in motion, he still would have gone through with it all. He’d have marched all through the apocalyptic wasteland and braved the storms that accompanied it. He’d have weathered the sub-zero temperatures, he’d have suffered the isolation and scent of decay that accompanied his “home” of 45 years. He’d have gone through it all again, just to meet her.
The most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes upon, how her y/h/c, y/h/t hair covered her face just before he would push it back and press his lips to hers in absolute adoration and contentment. How he would get lost in her sparkling y/e/c eyes.
He thought about their first mission together as partners in the commission: how they bickered and nitpicked every single thing the other did. How she drove him mad and yet was the only person on earth able to retain his interest and attention (other than his family of course). How they would both rapid fire equations and plans off of each other for the mission ahead as they grew closer: be it Commission work or Five’s goal to return to his family. How she could match his intellect if not even surpass it like nobody else could. How when they crossed the line of coworkers to love, it was like atoms colliding, like they were meant to be.
He also thought about the rare gift that they shared, alone in the world. How only they alone understood the genetic makeup of each other and the limitations of which that makeup brought, making their gift completely and utterly theirs to cherish together. How? Five wondered constantly, but he never found a satisfactory answer as to how it was possible: they both had the power of space and time manipulation…