Word count: 3853

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐇𝐒 of 2006's winter approached quickly, and the holiday season only helped in lightening everyone's spirits. 

Although they never celebrated things like Christmas—courtesy of Reginald ('Time spent on overly emotional words and gift exchanging is time wasted!')—the soft snow and festive lights outside reminded them of the celebratory times.

However, they didn't get to spend as much time as they wanted to out in the wintery delight. Most of the time, they were stuck inside, whether they were training or in class, although they couldn't be more grateful for the warmth.

The children were now all heading towards the training complex, snug in the heated building. They wore their usual green tracksuits that were the uniform of their training, which, despite being such a loud colour, were quite comfy.

Reginald, clutching his usual journal in one hand, brought them over to a tall, winding staircase, with narrow turns. 

He left the group at the bottom of the staircase as he headed to the top, where Vanya was patiently waiting with a whistle in her hand.

"This," Reginald began after reaching the top, his voice echoing around the staircase, "is a test of skill, stamina, quick-thinking, and adaptability. You must attempt to be the first one to reach the top of the staircase, racing against your siblings."

Elizabeth tightened her ponytail as she lined up at the start of the stairs with the rest of the students. She wasn't exactly the quickest person, but . . . 

Yeah, that was it. She was a pretty slow runner compared to people like Diego and Luther.

Once they were ready, Reginald gave a nod to Vanya, and a shrill whistle sounded.

The seven teens immediately set off, Luther and Diego leading the group as they all scrambled to the top.

Elizabeth suddenly stopped, an idea coming to her mind. A sly smile on her face, she pushed her hand in front of her and jumped through the portal she had created, then arriving next to Vanya at the top of the staircase.

"That's not fair, Elizabeth cheated!" Luther exclaimed as they reached the middle of the staircase.

"She adapted!" Reginald responded as he wrote something down in his notebook.

"Good job, Ellie," Vanya whispered to her.

Elizabeth grinned. "Thanks, Vanny."

Luther was the second person to reach the top, huffing, but the proud look on his face (which they were used to seeing) remained prominent. Then came Diego, followed by Five, and the cluster of Allison, Klaus, and Ben.

Five regained his breath before elbowing Elizabeth's side and muttering, "Cheater."

She giggled before elbowing him back. "Hell yeah, I am."

Reginald then instructed them to do it again. And again. And again. And again. Even when they were panting heavily and sweating like pigs; even when they begged for a break; even when Ben tripped and almost toppled down the stairs because of how tired he was, the same word would come out of their unsatisfied father's mouth. Again.

After almost an hour of running up and down the stairs, they were instructed to go to the training rooms, and to do as usual: partnered combat.

"God, I'm too tired for this shit. Wanna be my partner?" Five asked as they walked over to the room. "Actually, don't answer that. You have to be my partner, you were with Allison yesterday."

"Yeah, yeah," she chuckled as she rolled her eyes.

They entered the training room that they usually liked to occupy, and Five shut the door behind them.

"Don't cry too much when I win, all right?" He grinned as he turned towards her.

Elizabeth scoffed. "Bold of you to assume you're gonna win."

"Oh, I don't have to assume." A smirk grew onto his face as he met her in the middle of the dimly lit room. "I know."

She folded her arms. "Well, I'll have know, the percentages of—"

She was cut off as Five slapped his hand over her mouth and silenced her. He leaned forward, his eyes staring intensely into hers before he stopped, his face only a few inches, and whispered, "I don't need to know the goddamn percentages. I already know I'll win."

Elizabeth giggled as he removed his hand and pulled back, pretending that her heart wasn't going a million miles per hour. "Okay, Skinny Knees."

"Wha—they are not skinny!" Five immediately whined.

"Mhm." She tightened her ponytail as an amused smile grew onto her face. "Enough stalling."

"I'm not—you—I—" He huffed. "Whatever."

Almost immediately, Five teleported right in front of her and sent a punch her way. Reacting instinctively, she ducked and punched him in the stomach, causing him to stumble backwards with a small groan.

He recovered quickly and teleported behind her, but she was far too late to react. He kicked her back, forcing her to fall onto her knees. 

He dashed closer to her and kicked her once more, causing her to collapse to the ground.

After she got up, she turned and sent a blast towards him. The golden energy hit him square in the chest, and he hit the padded walls with a small grunt. 

Not wasting any time, he instantly teleported in front of her and dropped to the ground, kicking her feet in an attempt to trip her.

It worked.

She fell back to the ground with a groan just as Five got back onto his feet. He immediately stepped over her and dropped to his knees, pinning her arms to the ground.

"No portals this time." A smirk grew onto his face as he declared, "I win."

Breathing heavily, Elizabeth stared up at Five with a vehement expression. She swallowed. "I wanna tell you something, Five. It's important."

His eyebrows furrowed as his grip on her arms loosened. "What?"

She nodded her head, indicating for him to come closer to her. He heeded, apprehensively leaning his face close to hers.

Elizabeth tilted her head upwards and whispered, "You're an idiot."

She shook his grip off of her and pushed him off, and he fell onto his back with a grunt. She sprang to her feet, holding her hands up in front of her threateningly.

"So close," Five muttered to himself as he got up and brushed off his clothes. He looked up at her. "You still stand no chance."

"I'd think twice about that."

She was about to run towards him when he disappeared, and she could feel his presence behind her. Intuitively, she ducked, and thank God that she did because a foot flew exactly where her head had just been only a moment later.

"Dude!" she exclaimed as she backed away from him. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"You would've been fine." He grinned before teleporting behind her once more. His hands wrapped around her arms and he threw her onto the padded ground.

Elizabeth rolled away just as Five made to kick her, and she scrambled to her feet. She sent another blast towards him—less intense than the first one—and he gave a small yelp as the energy shocked him.

Taking this moment to her advantage, she kicked him in the stomach and sent him to the ground. She kneeled down next to him and grabbed a hold of his shoulders, pushing them down.

"I win."

"Not happening."

Five's hands instantly grasped her shoulders, and he turned towards his left so that he was now on top of her. Her hands fell off of his shoulders, landing rather roughly on the ground.

He hovered over her, a smirk making its way onto his lips. He leaned down closer, causing her heart to pound faster, and murmured, "I. Win."

Elizabeth glared at him for a few moments before letting her expression relax. "Fine."

"Good." His eyes flickered over her face, and his grip on her shoulders never slackened.

Elizabeth swallowed, resisting every urge to let her eyes fall upon his lips. It was difficult. They were right there. It was fair to say that it didn't take long for her to give in to her heart's desires.

It seemed as though Five was struggling to fight against the same battle, his eyes glancing between her own eyes and her lips. They soon settled on her lips, and he began to lean down further.

Her heart rate quickened and a burst of butterflies emerged in her stomach as his lips drew nearer and nearer. Her breathing slowed, synchronizing with his as his touch on her shoulders grew more tender.

His lips were getting closer and closer, her heart was pounding fast and faster, the warmth of his face radiated onto her more and more. Their faces were barely an inch apart when—

"Oh, sorry, I thought this room was emp—holy shit!"

Elizabeth immediately pushed Five off of her and turned her head towards the door to see that Allison was standing there, her eyes wide. Luther was right behind her, his expression equally as shocked as the other two scrambled to their feet.

"What are you doing here?" Five demanded, his cheeks tinging a furious red.

"We were just looking for a room," Allison giggled, her eyes having a teasing glint in them as she raised her eyebrows at Elizabeth. "But this room is . . . obviously occupied."

"No, it's—it's not." Elizabeth shook her head quickly as she stammered, "Nothing's happening in here."

"What do you mean?" Luther gave a small scoff. "You two are obviously—"

"Let's go, Luther." Allison gave a small wave of goodbye that was accompanied by a wink before she closed the door.

There was only silence for a few moments, the two of them unwilling to look at each other as they looked down at the padded ground.

Elizabeth bit her lip, her eyes glancing up at him for a split second. "I'm gonna go . . . uh, get ready for science."

"Yeah, you should" —he cleared his throat— "do that."

"Yeah . . ." She gave an awkward nod before making a portal and stepping through.

She arrived back in her room and immediately fell back on her bed. She closed her eyes as she tapped her fingertips on her stomach, a million thoughts racing through her mind.

Had Five actually wanted to kiss her? Surely not. There was no way he wanted to kiss her.

Deciding that it might've just been a heat of the moment situation, Elizabeth sighed and changed into her normal uniform. 

She grabbed the stacks of books that were waiting on her desk and headed back towards the complex to go to her science class.

She had barely made it down the stairs before Allison had come to her side.

"So . . . ?"

"So what?" Elizabeth asked innocently, tightening her grip on her books as she glanced at the girl.

"Did you guys . . . ," Allison looked around the hall before leaning closer and whispering, "kiss?"

"We did not," Elizabeth replied curtly. She dropped her voice to a whisper, noticing that Diego and Klaus were now trailing behind them. "It was probably an accident."

"Oh, to be young and—"

"Alli!"

"Fine." She grinned. "But seriously, you're naive."

—☾—

After supper had finished, Elizabeth headed back to her room, immediately grabbing her math textbook. They were having a test the next day, which meant that there was gonna be a study group in her room that night.

She sighed as she sat down on her bed, ruffling the textbook open to the chapter that they were on. She attempted to read over the lesson to refresh her memory (not that she needed to) but found herself reading the same sentence over and over again.

She couldn't get that morning out of her mind. How goddamn close she was to finally kissing Five. But maybe it wasn't meant to be.

Elizabeth rubbed her eyes. This wasn't what she needed to focus on.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. The knocker didn't wait for an invitation to come in, however, as they opened the door.

"Hey, uh, Elle?"

She closed the textbook and turned to the door with raised eyebrows. "Yeah?"

"I need—I need help with this." Five lifted a worksheet that had been part of the review package that Grace had given them the day before. "Can you . . . ?"

"Mhm." She slid off of her bed and took a seat at her desk, gesturing for him to take the one next to her.

Tentatively, he took it, his eyes glancing sideways at her as he did so. He placed the paper, his calculator, and a pencil in front of him.

"All right, so . . ." Elizabeth leaned forward on the desk, turning her body slightly so that she was facing more towards him. Her eyes analyzed the paper and she gave a small nod. "Have you tried any of these yet?"

"I mean, I tried," he mumbled. "But I failed."

"How come?" she questioned. "You did perfectly fine yesterday, and these questions aren't that different. Besides, you're great at math."

Five's eyes met hers for a moment as he looked up, but he quickly put his eyes back onto the paper. "I don't know."

"That's fine," she reassured him. "Okay . . . so first . . . Here, attempt the first question."

Five picked up his pencil, his eyebrows furrowing as he read over the question. After a few scribbles and a few clicks of the calculator buttons, he had solved the problem.

Correctly.

Elizabeth's eyebrows knit closely together as she scanned over his work. "I thought you said you didn't know how to do this?"

He froze in his spot, his eyes staying glued to the paper. "I don't."

She looked up at him, a look of bafflement on her face. "Then how the hell did you solve the problem?"

"I didn't."

"Then what's that?" She pointed towards the answer that occupied the bottom of the space, her eyebrows now raised.

"I don't know."

"Five," she sighed.

"What?" Five looked up at her with innocent eyes, although his gaze didn't settle for too long on her face.

Elizabeth studied him for a few moments; his forehead was creased, his eyes flickered from his papers to her hands that were set on the desk every other moment, his left hand nervously fidgeted with the stray strings of his right sleeve, and he shifted in his seat every couple of seconds.

"Five, is everything . . . okay?" she asked softly.

His attention slowly drew to her, and he quickly nodded his head. "Yeah, I, uh, I'm fine."

She narrowed her eyes at him but didn't press any further. "Okay. . . . The second one."

His eyebrows furrowed. "Hm?"

"The second question," she clarified as she gestured towards his paper. "Try it."

"Ah." Five nodded and turned back towards his paper.

He picked his pencil up and tapped the end of it against the edge of the desk for a couple of moments as he assessed the question. He began to scribble down his calculations, the scratch of the pencil being the only sound in the room. After putting the numbers through the calculator, he circled his final answer and looked towards Elizabeth for approval.

Elizabeth looked over it, her eyebrows furrowing. "Five."

"What?" He looked back towards his answer with a worried expression. "Is it wrong?"

"No," she corrected as she shook her head, "it's right."

"Oh. That's good, isn't it?" he pointed out with a shrug.

Her eyes flickered up towards his face, which then grew slightly agitated upon the eye contact. "You said you tried all of them and failed. How come you can answer all of them correctly now?"

"Um . . ." Five glanced down at his lap, his hands having folded on top of it. He slowly shook his head as he gave a lift of his shoulders. "I . . . don't know?"

"What's really going on, Five?" she asked as she shifted in her spot to face him. "Is everything okay?"

She had a feeling she knew what it was, but she didn't want to say, in the case that she was wrong.

He looked up at her, his green eyes nervous as they watched her shift closer towards him. "Elle . . ."

She let out a small sigh. "Just tell me."

He gazed at her for a moment, seeming to be thinking over something. Suddenly, he cleared his throat and reassured her, "It's nothing."

"All right." She frowned. "Third question."

With a nod, he gripped his pencil and completed the third question. And then the fourth. Then the fifth. And then the rest.

All without any help.

"Did you just want an excuse to be in my room?" Elizabeth questioned as she let out a small chuckle.

He glanced up at her as he rested his pencil beside his paper, a hint of a smile upon his lips. "Maybe."

She gave a small scoff, "You don't need math as an excuse to be in here. You know that well enough by now."

"I know," he mumbled, "I just . . ." The rest of his sentence was muttered so quietly that she was unable to tell what he said.

"Pardon?"

"Nevermind." He gave her one of the award-winning smiles that she loved so dearly. His expression changed suddenly, becoming serious. "Hey, Elle . . ."

"Mhm?"

"Are we . . . Is there . . ." He struggled to find the right words as he furrowed his eyebrows. "You . . ."

She gave him a small smile. "Whatever you're trying to say" —she gave a nod— "everything is fine."

He smiled. "Good."

She shook her head as she began, "You don't have—"

Elizabeth was cut off when the door opened, Klaus walking in, his notebook and pencil in hand. "What's up, party people? Ready to study . . . trigonometry?" The energy of his voice faded near the end of the sentence as he flopped down onto Elizabeth's bed. "Where are the other party people?"

As if on cue, the rest of the kids poured into the room, all of their hands stuffed with study notes and calculators. They all took their own spots, with Ben accompanying Klaus on the bed while the other four sat on the ground.

Allison, noticing that Five had been the first one there, sent a wink to Elizabeth, who only rolled her eyes in response.

"Okay, we're all here," Diego stated, ruffling his notebook open. "Help us."

"All right," Elizabeth sighed, turning her chair so that she was facing everyone as she crossed one leg over the other. "Before I start anything, does anyone have any questions?"

"Oh!" Klaus instantly sat up, eagerly raising his hand. "I do!"

"Yeah, what is it, Klaus?" Elizabeth nodded.

"So, like . . . how do you do" —Klaus squinted his eyes as he looked up at the ceiling— "everything?"

She sighed; she always expected a question like this from Klaus. "Well, how much did you study so far?"

Klaus swallowed. "Would you believe me if I said a lot?"

"No."

"Then I won't bother lying." A goofy grin spread onto Klaus's face as he shrugged and confessed, "I studied nothing."

"Klaus! You—okay, does anyone else have questions?" Elizabeth glared at Klaus before looking at the rest of the group.

"Yeah, I do." Diego raised his hand, looking down at his book with furrowed eyebrows. "How do you draw that sine wave thing? And the other kind of wave—I don't remember what it's called. Also, what is cosine law? And sine law? And trigonometric ratios? And—"

"Diego, did you not study for anything?" Luther questioned, a look of disbelief settled on his face. "The test is tomorrow!"

"Oh, sorry that I couldn't study for one thing!" Diego shot back as he folded his arms. "I was too busy finishing that stupid fucking chemistry assignment!"

"But we knew about this test from last week!" Allison exclaimed, her eyebrows furrowed as she stared at Diego.

"If it's any consolation," Klaus chimed in, raising a hand, "I didn't study either." 

"That's not consoling at all!" Allison turned to him, an incredulous look now on her face. "You two boys should be studying for these tests!"

"You guys are gonna fail." Luther scoffed as he shook his head furiously. "Why is it always you two? With this, J.F.K., Macbeth!"

"Because we're better than you guys and don't need to study in order to get a hundred percent," Klaus yawned, stretching his hands behind his head.

"I would love to know when the last time you got a hundred percent on something was, Klaus," Ben snorted, shaking his head.

Klaus straightened up and pointed a finger at him. "I'll have you know, I got a hundred percent on" —his finger lowered— "something."

"Mhm." Ben rolled his eyes.

"You guys should be more responsible," Luther said sternly. "If you can't even bring yourself to study math, how the hell will you do anything?"

"Okay, you know what, Luther?" Diego's voice rose. "You can take that and shove it right back up your—"

Diego's voice was soon drowned out as Allison shouted right over him, and her voice was then accompanied by everyone else's. Elizabeth rubbed her eyes, sighing as she watched everyone point fingers at each other and accuse them of being the worse student.

"Guys," she groaned, but no one seemed to have heard. She loudened her voice and spoke once more, "Shut up and listen!"

Almost instantly, the group turned to her, their voices dying down.

"All right," Elizabeth sighed. "Ben, Five, you two go sit on the ground with the others, and Diego, you go sit with Klaus."

Five and Ben heeded, but Diego remained firm in his seat.

"Now."

He groaned loudly as he clambered onto the bed, unhappily sitting in his spot.

Elizabeth walked over to the students on the ground and murmured, "You guys study with each other, I have to go teach those two . . . everything, I guess."

She took the empty spot on the bed, sighing before looking towards Diego. "Okay, let me just use your notes, Diego. Hand them over."

"Uh . . ." Diego gave an awkward smile as he looked down at the page his notebook was turned to. "I don't think you want my notes, my writing is . . . uh . . . too messy. Ask Klaus instead?"

With narrowed eyes, Elizabeth grabbed Diego's notebook before he could protest. Scrawled all over the page were drawings of superheroes, cars, and intricate blueprints for knives—pretty much all things not related to trigonometry.

"Diego, you dumbass!" Elizabeth smacked him lightly on the head with his notebook before dropping it into his lap. "Do you want to fail?"

"Maybe I do, butthead," Diego muttered indignantly as he picked up his book.

"Okay, and Klaus, I assume you have nothing written in your book?" She turned towards him, her eyebrows raised.

"You know it." Klaus winked.

Elizabeth sighed. "Oh, boy."