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❛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘ. ᴘᴀɴ ᴇғғᴇᴄᴛ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐄 𝐈 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ᴛʀᴀᴠᴇʟ ɪɪɪ ꒱


❝ IF ANYONE IS PUT OFF BY
MY LIKING GIRLS THEN I
CAN JUST KILL THEM ❞

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An introduction of Numbers Five and Eight [ SPARROW TIMELINE ]

[ age five ]

Growing up in a house full of superheroes meant that your childhood would be far from normal. Training occurred every day from dawn 'til dusk except on Saturdays from noon to half-past noon. Even with special abilities, kids will still be kids up to a certain point. Marcus liked use his excess energy to run. Ben liked to draw. Alphonso liked to make jokes as often as he could. They all had a streak of immaturity in them that came out even when they tried to hide it in the face of their father.

Deianira was just as childish as the rest of them even though she pretended that she wasn't. Sloane was her favorite sibling because she was the least irritating to be around. Today, she hesitated for a moment outside of the fifth sibling's bedroom before she knocked on the door. The blonde greeted her brightly. "Hey, Nira."

"Sloany," she replied easily. "Do you want to play ball?"

"Ball? You know dad won't let us."

A rather mischievous smile formed on the young girl's face. She raised her hand to let a red orb glow above her fingers. "Yeah, ball. We can use our powers and say we're training to practice our control."

Her explanation seemed to appease the other Hargreeves. "Alright. I just hope that dad won't be too upset—"

"He won't be," Deianira countered immediately. "And if he is, we'll just get Pogo on our side."

Her suggestion was met with no further argument, so they went outside to play. They stood several feet apart in the courtyard as the brunette started up her power again. "Okay, so I think that if I throw this to you, you can catch it with your powers. Then you can use your gravity to send it back to me."

It took several tries since Deianira's red ball kept disappearing as soon as it left her hands. Eventually, she was able to keep its corporeal form— and even went so far as to create the illusion of a real ball. Sloane had trouble catching it after that, but she was able to adjust to how much gravity she needed to use to keep the sphere from dissolving once it reached her.

Soon enough, some of their other siblings came out to join them: Fei tried to get her birds to steal their toy, Ben attempted to use his tentacles to grab it out of the air and Christopher used his lasers to try to shoot it out of the sky. Their father quickly caught on to what they were doing but since they were technically adapting their powers for sport, he just watched them from his office window and jotted down his observations in his red notebook.

𓅪𓅪𓅪
[ age eight ]

"Fei?"

The short-haired girl didn't bother to turn around from where she was preparing a meal for her birds. "Go away."

"I wanted to talk to you," Deianira insisted. She stood at the threshold that separated her sister's aviary from the rest of the house.

"Go bother Ben."

"Please, Fei. I don't think he'd understand. I feel funny."

"Go see if Grace can make you feel better then."

The brunette huffed. "It's not like that. I mean. . ." Here, her voice dropped to a whisper: "I have feelings."

"So what? Everyone does."

"I have feelings for a girl."

Still, her sister seemed entirely unperturbed. "Sloane? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that all of our siblings except for her know."

Deianira stared at the other girl's back with wide eyes. "How on earth could you possibly figure that out?"

"You're pretty obvious. I mean, you're rude to all of us except for Sloane and if any of us try to scold her for something you're right there, like a great Argentavis or an omen of death."

She huffed. "You're no real treat to be around either, Fei. But I don't think that I'm supposed to feel like this."

Finally, Fei set down her cleaver and turned to face the other girl with a raised eyebrow. "Why? Because you call the same man dad so it's technically incest?"

"What? No. Girls aren't supposed to like girls."

"Whoever told you that should have their skin peeled off their face and fed to my birds. You can like whoever you want to like, Deianira."

"I never asked— I never wanted these feelings. What am I supposed to do?"

Despite her lack of sight, her sister was able to give her a look that implied that she was very stupid. "Tell Sloane, you idiot."

"I couldn't! What about dad? Or our siblings?"

"You told me."

Deianira tried to come up with an excuse. "But. . . you're different! You're— our personalities are the most similar, so I knew you'd understand—"

"And so will our siblings," Fei cut across her calmly. "You're making a big deal about nothing. Although I would advise you to not tell our father just yet. Perhaps you should wait until we're older and your powers have developed more so you can protect her."

The brunette still wasn't entirely convinced. "Maybe I should just put it all off until I'm stronger. Then if anyone is put off by my liking girls I can just kill them. It just seems like it would be easier if I wasn't the only one."

"Well, if Sloane likes girls— which I'm almost certain that she does— then you're not the only one. Besides, I'm on your side and sort of in the same boat."

"You like girls too?"

"I said sort of, idiot. The only relationship I'll ever have is with my birds and the other Hargreeves. See? It's not so hard to tell people."

". . . Do you want to tell our family together?"

Fei scoffed and turned back to her task to indicate that the conversation was coming to a close. "This is something that you've gotta do on your own, Deianira. But, if anyone does give you a hard time, my birds have been getting a little tired of eating cattle animals every night."

𓅪𓅪𓅪
[ age ten ]

As much as Deianira had a soft spot for Sloane, there was one criticism that she would give the fifth member of the family: she was entirely too forgetful. Her head was stuck in the clouds most of the time as she daydreamed about what life outside the Academy could offer. This lead her to leaving behind her items after class, after training, at the dining table and in Deianira's room.

There would be little things like hair ties, pennies and erasers or even large items like schoolbooks and shoes. Every time Deianira came across something of Sloane's in an incorrect place, she would roll her eyes with amused exasperation and pick it up without saying a word. Most of the small items would go into a drawer in her desk while the oversized ones would be wedged amongst her own books or set on her shoe rack. Sometimes, the blonde would wander into Deianira's room to look for her misplaced items and most of the time, the brunette would already have found them.

"Nira?" Sloane asked as she entered the eighth child's room.

"Mmm?" the brunette was lying flat on her back on her bed. A red ball of energy hovered in the air above her as she tossed it carelessly between her hands.

"Have you seen my favorite pencil? I think I left it in the classroom after the math test. Or maybe I left it in here while we were studying. . ."

The red ball dissipated into the air only to reform around the handle of a particular desk drawer. It opened by Deianira's will and Sloane's pencil lifted out of it, covered in the same scarlet smoke. The girl let out a relieved breath as she took it from the air. "Oh, good. I was afraid it would be missing forever!"

Deianira gave the girl a rare, fond smile. "Then you'd just have to make another pencil your new favorite."

A knock on the door prevented Sloane from answering. After giving permission to enter, Jayme was revealed on the other side. "Hey," she greeted them in her monotone voice. She was entirely unsurprised to find them together. "Fei wants to train with me but I've only got one hair tie— I think Sloane's been stealing them. Can I borrow one of yours? I know you have them in that drawer." She pointed to the one she was talking about.

The brunette instantly jerked her hand towards it and used her power to slam it shut. "Absolutely not! Just wear your hair in one braid. Why do you always have to wear two?"

Her sister huffed. "Thanks for nothing. Fine. I'll just suffer, I guess."

After she left the room, Sloane gave the girl a reproachful look. "Nira, would it really have been so hard to let her borrow one?"

"Yes, because the world is selfish and cruel and so am I."

She neglected to say the real reason: she used Sloane's forgotten trinkets as a way for the blonde to start a conversation with her. (She was afraid that if she didn't have them, the fifth child would forget about her existence as well.)

𓅪𓅪𓅪
[ age sixteen ]

Despite Fei's support from nearly six years ago, Deianira had never been comfortable with facing her feelings. So, she put off declaring them until she felt that she was entirely ready. In order to prevent herself from looking like a fool (e.g., blurting out that she 'loked' Sloane), she made sure to practice what she wanted to say. She planned out everything from her confession to what she would wear to the exact date that she would do it.

On October first, 2005, Deianira knew exactly what Sloane's birthday present would be. Birthdays weren't really observed in the Hargreeves household— especially because there would be so many of them— but Deianira wanted to chose a date that Sloane wouldn't forget. At five o'clock (even the time had been picked out precisely) she knocked on the blonde's door. As expected, the fifth Hargreeves greeted her with a cheerful welcome.

Deianira did her best to ignore the nervousness that was threatening to make her stumble over her words. On a daily basis, she was confident and outgoing; clamming up now would be the worst possible thing to happen. It would cramp her style and make her confession a total nightmare rather than a night to remember. Clearing her throat, she held out a neatly-wrapped rectangular package to the other teen. "Happy birthday, Sloany."

Sloane's expression became impossibly brighter and she leapt forward to wrap the brunette in a hug. Deianira froze at the unexpected contact— touch wasn't something that was familiar in the Hargreeves household— and tried to ignore the butterflies that erupted in her stomach. As always, Sloane smelled sweetly of apple blossoms and peonies. The blonde didn't seem to mind her lack of response and she pulled back with an exuberant smile on her face. "You remembered!"

She chuckled slightly. "We've got the same birthday. How could I possibly forget?"

"No one's said happy birthday today," Sloane replied. Her tone took on a slightly disappointed note and Deianira couldn't help but feel a prick of guilt.

(Behind the scenes, she had gathered all of her siblings except the fifth one to threaten them to not wish anyone a happy birthday. She thought it would make her own birthday wish more meaningful if it was the only one. She'd be the first one to admit that she was selfish.)

"Well, a thousand happy birthdays from me, Sloany. Does that make up for it?"

The blonde gave her an affectionate look. "Even one happy birthday from you would make up for it, Nira." She turned her attention to the present. "What did you get me?"

She held it out again. "Open it and see."

Sloane did exactly that and her gaze lit up at the sight of the blue cover. It had an image of the leaning tower of Pisa on the front set against an azure sky. The title read Jetset Life. "I love it!"

It was Deianira's turn to give her a soft look. "I'd give you the world if I could but I thought that this is the next best thing. You can make a list and maybe. . . if you'd like. . . we could travel together one day. I mean, you don't have to chose me, but I'd really like it if you did."

The teen looked up from the book to meet her eyes. Her brown gaze was warm and full of fondness as she hugged the travel guide to her chest. "Of course I'd choose you, Nira. You're the only one who really understands why I want to see the world. You don't even complain when I ramble about how much I want to leave all this behind."

There it was. The perfect chance to tell Sloane how she felt. Deianira cleared her throat again. "Sloane, I understand if what I'm about to say means that we can't be friends anymore. It's. . . unorthodox, to say the least and it's alright if you don't feel the same way. But. . . the reason that I don't mind— and more than just 'don't mind,' but love— listening to you is because. . . I love you. You're everything that I can never be— sweet and kind and imaginative— and I love that about you. If I could, I'd get us both away from here in a heartbeat."

She kept her gaze studiously on the back synopsis of Jetset Life as she refused to meet the other girl's eyes. There was a moment of painful silence before Sloane reached out and placed a gentle hand on top of her slightly darker one. Even then, Deianira thought that the blonde might be giving her a kind rejection. But then she began to speak: "Nira, it's alright— I understand." There was a minute's pause before the blonde added: "and I love you too."

At her response, the brunette's gaze jerked up to meet the other girls'. "Really? I thought for sure that you didn't swing that way—"

Sloane gave her an amused smile. "I promise you that I do. And I mean it— I really do love you. I know you act like you don't have a heart and you don't care about any of our siblings, but you always make sure to check on everyone during our missions and you refuse to leave anyone behind. You can be kind and sweet if you try."

She let out a disbelieving huff. "I really thought that you'd be more surprised by my confession. I've gotta admit that I'm feeling a little let down."

The blonde couldn't hold back the light giggle that escaped her lips. "I kind of guessed already. And. . . Fei might've told me what you were planning earlier today."

Deianira's eyes narrowed. "I swear I'll wring the necks of all her stupid nosey birds."

"Niraaaa," Sloane drawled out teasingly. She tugged on the girl's stiff arm. "C'mon, don't ruin our birthday with murder. You still need to ask me an important question."

"A little murder might actually make our birthday better," she argued lightly. "But fine, since I'm feeling generous today Fei's birds get to live to see tomorrow. And you're right, but you should be a little more patient, Sloany. I'm getting there." She took the other girl's hands in hers— Sloane had set her new book down some minutes ago— and met her eyes. "Sloane Hargreeves, would you do me the honor of being my girlfriend?"

The teen gave her a beaming smile despite Deianira's unnecessary dramatics. "Of course, love."