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❛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀʀᴛʏ ᴍᴄғʟʏ ᴇғғᴇᴄᴛ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴀ sɪᴍᴘʟᴇ ᴛᴀsᴋ ꒱　


❝ LISTEN TO ME YOU
USELESS PUKE BAG! ❞

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Nighttime sometimes found Alexa hungry. To help with this, Five usually spacial jumped to the kitchen to prepare their favorite snack before returning to share it with her. It was far safer for only him to leave the safety of their rooms since he had the most direct path. Now, the blonde crept silently down the stairs with bated breath as she prayed her father wouldn't find out that she was awake and up.

She let out a relieved sigh as she successfully reached the bottom stair and quietly made her way to the kitchen. On autopilot, she sleepily pulled out a loaf of bread, peanut butter and marshmallows. Without thinking, she arranged four slices of bread on the counter and steadily prepared two sandwiches.

When she was done, Alexa put back her ingredients and picked up both, taking a bite out of one. She'd eat half and then jokingly give it to Five before giving him his actual sandwich. She smiled as she imagined his indignant response. The lights suddenly flicked on, causing her to jump and her eyes to stretch almost comically wide as she looked frantically for the intruder. With her sandwich halfway to her mouth and her other hand preoccupied, she knew she was caught red-handed. Her heartbeat slowed when she recognized the brunette girl standing shyly in the doorway. "Jesus, Vanya, you scared me!"

The girl flinched. "Sorry," she apologized quietly. "I didn't mean to."

Alexa gave her a slightly irritated look. "What are you doing down here anyway?"

She shrugged. "Couldn't sleep." Then, timidly, her gaze flicked to what her sister was holding. "What's that?"

"None of your business," the blonde shot back sharply. "I'm leaving now, don't let Dad catch you on the way back."

As she made a move towards the door to push past her sister, Vanya spoke again: "who's the second sandwich for?"

"Five." Then Alexa flinched. "Nobody, I mean," she tried to cover it up.

Vanya's face seemed to soften and the blonde's irritation grew. Couldn't her sister leave her alone? "You know he's gone, right?" Vanya asked softly. "He hasn't come back yet."

Alexa stilled, her heart suddenly twisting painfully. She'd forgotten he was gone, so used to their late-night rituals. To cover up the sudden grief that washed over her, she snapped, "of course I know he's gone. This is in case he comes back and he's hungry."

She turned on her heel and made her way back to the kitchen to pull a plate out of the cupboard and placed the uneaten sandwich on it. Then, she put the plate on the floor of the entryway to the kitchen to be sure Five wouldn't miss it if he came looking for a snack.

"Make sure you leave the lights on so he can see it," she said shortly, covering up the spark of fear at the thought of Five leaving again if the house was dark. "And leave me alone."

The blonde stalked past her sister still carrying her half-eaten sandwich. Vanya lingered in the doorway to the empty kitchen feeling her own sadness at the thought of their absent brother. Quietly, to no one, she whispered, "I miss him too, you know."

Sometime later, Pogo would make his way to the kitchen for a cup of tea and step in the first of many midnight snacks that the blonde would leave behind.

☂☂☂

"Weren't you a little harsh on him?" Alexa asked as Five drove the car to Vanya's farm.

"Who, Diego?"

When she nodded, he rolled his eyes. "He needed a slap in the face to get his head out of his ass. Besides, when did you get all buddy-buddy with him?"

"When I apologized for hating him when we were younger," she offered.

He shot her a sharp look before returning his eyes to the road. "You hated him? I had no idea."

She shrugged uncomfortably. "Yeah, well, I didn't exactly broadcast it on local news."

Five snorted. "First a semester abroad and now I find out you hated Diego. What else have I missed?"

The blonde sighed. "Quite a bit, actually. Fourteen years, four months and fourteen days is a long time to be gone."

He nearly braked the car in surprise. "You counted?"

Alexa almost wished she'd kept her mouth shut as embarrassment flooded through her. She hadn't meant to say that. "Uh, yeah. Every day." She added softly, "I thought it would make the time pass faster."

Five's hands tightened on the steering wheel. "You know, I'm not sorry that I time traveled," he said slowly. "I don't think I ever will be. But I am sorry that I left you to face Dad alone."

Her expression softened and she glanced towards him. "You didn't know you were going to get stuck. No one could have guessed."

He clenched his jaw, keeping his gaze focused on the road ahead. "Still. I was a foolish child. I gave him such a hard time as a kid."

"He deserved it. He might've been right a few times but that doesn't amend for how horrible a person he was."

"Did he get worse after I left?" Five asked softly.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her nod. After a moment of hesitation, Alexa admitted, "he— he made me stop looking for you. He said you were— you were dead." Her voice caught on the last word. "I never believed him and I don't think he believed it either. I know some of our siblings were jealous of you for— for being able to leave but I knew that if where you had gone was good, you would've come back to rub it in our faces."

He gave a small smile at that. "That's probably true," he allowed. "I'm glad you didn't think I was dead," he added.

Alexa swallowed. "Yeah, well, you're going to say this is stupid but there was no doubt in my mind back then that I would have felt if you no longer existed. I still think that's true, actually," she added quietly.

They fell into a brief silence before Five shifted and his hand moved from the steering wheel to reach blindly across the console. A small smile passed over her face and Alexa gently caught his hand to thread their fingers together as she gave him a reassuring squeeze.

Then, almost too quietly for her to hear, he said, "I don't think that's stupid, Lexa." He paused. "I think that would happen for me, too."

☂☂☂

As Five turned the corner, he leaned out of the driver's window as another car passed them. Alexa couldn't see the expression on his face but she gave him a curious look as he pulled the car to a stop. He scrambled out of the car with Alexa hot on his tail from the other side. Her eyes widened slightly at the sight of Vanya who demanded, "what are you guys doing here?"

"Looking for you," Alexa said with surprise.

"We're going back to 2019," Five explained as the three of them met in the middle of the road.

"What are you talking about?"

"Look, I don't really have time to explain right now but I found a way home," Five said. He looked at the synchronized watch. "We have thirty minutes to leave."

"What about my friends? I can't just leave them here!" Vanya protested.

Alexa's expression softened. She meant Sissy and her son, Harlan.

"Vanya, you don't have a choice in this, alright?" the boy told her sharply as he turned back to make his point clear. "Doomsday will happen if you don't come with me."

"Okay, then I'm bringing them with me."

The blonde put out a hand to stop Five from snapping back. "Vannie," she began, trying to sound gentle. "They belong in this timeline. We don't."

"Says who?" she demanded. "Sissy deserves a life where she doesn't have to pretend to be someone she's not. And Harlan? There's a name for what he has. We can get him the help he needs—"

"Vanya—" Five started, but she wasn't done.

"Look, a mom and her eight-year-old son are not gonna screw up the timeline!"

Alexa gave her a sympathetic look. "We all have a bigger impact than we realize, Vannie. There's a name for that." She waved her arm around vaguely. "The butterfly effect, the ripple effect."

"They're insignificant!" Vanya pressed pleadingly.

"No one is insignificant," Five argued, agreeing with the blonde next to him. "I'm sorry, alright? But we can't take that risk. They have to stay. Come on."

He turned to go as Alexa lingered, looking apologetically at her sister. The dark-haired woman glared at them. "Why do you get to decide? You're the reason we're stuck here in the first place."

The blonde stiffened. Not a good move. Subtly, she stepped closer to the space between the boy and her sister.

"If I did nothing right now, we'd all be dead thanks to you," Five shot back.

Alexa winced. It definitely wouldn't de-escalate from here.

"They're coming with me."

Five stalked towards them and Alexa readied herself in case she needed to shield them from each other. "Vanya, do not test me right now."

Her sister gave a sarcastic smile. "That's funny," she said as she stepped closer to him. "I was about to say the same exact thing."

Alexa raised her arm and placed her hand gently against the other woman's chest to prevent her from stepping forward again. "Hey, hey, maybe we should take a breather, yeah?" she tried.

"I'm perfectly calm," Five replied through gritted teeth as he glared at Vanya. Alexa glanced down and saw his hands were clenched into fists with blue light shining around them.

Vanya's familiar humming resonated in the air as her face turned paler than normal and white emitted from the center of her chest. Alexa was stuck in between, desperately trying to get the two people she loved to calm down.

"Don't make me do this," she warned them. "You guys aren't the only ones with glowing powers."

"Get out of the way, Alexa," Five said, his voice chilly.

The blonde shook her head resolutely. "You're both being ridiculous."

Suddenly, Vanya caved. "Fine."

"Fine what?"

"I'll be there," she clarified, "but I need to say goodbye first."

"Oh, Vanya, we don't have the time."

"Well, it's either that or I'm not coming," she said firmly, turning away from her siblings.

Five scoffed but he didn't follow her. "The alley. Don't be late."

As she drove away, he looked down at the blonde girl standing resolutely in the path to Vanya's car. "Would you really have used your powers against me?"

Alexa looked up, eyes steely and her mouth set in a firm line. "You were thinking with what's between your legs not with what's between your ears so yeah, I would. I wasn't going to let two people I love tear each other apart."

She turned on her heel and stalked back to the car. She opened the door and climbed in before she closed it with loud slam. 

☂☂☂

The ride back was spent in the first chilly silence they'd had in a long, long time. Alexa kept her head turned to face the window, unwilling to look at him due to both the annoyance at the boy's brash approach to Vanya and the embarrassment of letting a particular L-word slip out that went unacknowledged. Five kept his gaze focused on the road, eyes narrowed as his mind circled consistently on their limited time. 

They arrived in the alley with minutes to spare and Five immediately made his way to the dumpster where he'd stored the briefcase. Luther came running into the alley. "Where is everyone?"

"You're the first."

"What?"

Klaus was next as he appeared at the other end, doing some sort of odd, leaning walk. Alexa wondered if he was still drunk.

"We made it!" he called out to them.

"What do you mean 'we?'" Five demanded.

Klaus groaned and seemed to fight with air. Not being the weirdest thing he'd ever done, Alexa was unperturbed by the sight. Instead, she watched in horrified fascination as he projectile vomited onto the alley floor.

"Oh, gross!" she exclaimed, stumbling backwards to get away from any residual splashes. Klaus collapsed on the ground and groaned.

"I can't believe it," Luther said. "I mean, you're here."

"We've got eight minutes left," Five said, checking the watch.

"I just had the weirdest dream," Klaus murmured from the ground.

"This is a nightmare," Alexa corrected him. "Where are the others?"

"We've got a minute left!" Luther exclaimed after several anxious ones had passed.

"What's going on guys? Are we going somewhere?"

"It was a simple task. A simple task! All we had to do was be here," Five exclaimed in exasperation. He paced agitatedly back and forth while Alexa nervously bit her lip, her stomach doing nauseous flips as the seconds slipped by. "Didn't have to fight a giant sea monster? No. An army of mutants? Nein."

"I can't believe this," Luther muttered.

"Are you really surprised?" Alexa asked quietly. "This is our family we're talking about."

"It was handed to us on a silver platter!"

Klaus sat up slowly. "Could you moan a little softer? My head's killing me."

"Listen to me, you useless puke bag!" Five growled as he stalked over to him. "We just blew our chance to save the world!"

The bag began whirring and clicking, a sign that it was warming up to be activated. Alexa shot it a worried look.

"Goddamn it," the boy growled and grabbed it by the handle. With a yell, he tossed it into the air and a blue portal appeared out of nowhere, sucking the briefcase in. He sighed. "We were that close. That close."

"Now what?" Luther demanded.

"Now nothing, Luther, alright?" Five shouted. He resumed his agitated pacing. "Make your peace with God!"

Alexa sighed. "I think you're being a little dramatic, don't you?"

He rounded on her. "Am I?" he shot back as his voice rose. "Am I? That was our one shot to get home and we completely blew it!"

"What about Allison and Vanya?" Luther asked.

"Screw them both," Five said bitterly. "They should've been here."

From the ground, Klaus groaned. "What about Diego? He's quite a responsible young man, no?"

"Something must've happened to him."

"Screw Diego, alright? Screw everybody! I was better off on my own in the apocalypse!"

Alexa's head shot up at that and she gave him a wide-eyed look. He-he couldn't mean that, right? She shook her head. Of course not. He's just upset right now.

"Five, come on," Luther insisted.

"You know what, Luther?" the boy said, turning on him. "It's every sibling for himself right now."

"Or herself," Alexa added.

"Whatever, alright?" he snapped, walking off.

"Did Five just get meaner?" Klaus whined.

"Klaus, go check on Allison, okay? Alexa, you've always been good with the old man, you're coming with me. Maybe you can get him to calm down," Luther commanded them. "Find the others and we'll meet back here. We've got Five."

Together, Alexa and Luther headed back upstairs to Elliot's apartment.