𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄 𝐈𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐃 to the kitchen after changing into a new uniform (it was the only thing that she had in her closet).

She raided the fridge, grabbing as much food as she could while telling herself that she'd just restock it later for everyone else. She had been deprived of food for twelve years, after all, so she was sure they'd be more than understanding.

She could feel her energy begin to flow through her as she scarfed down food, her stomach thanking her endlessly. If there was something she had missed more than her family, it was most definitely food.

She finished her food, but she was missing something. And then she realized. 

With a soft smile, she grabbed the peanut butter jar and closed the fridge door before putting it on the counter. She stepped onto the stool, wincing as she extended her arm and grabbed the mini marshmallows from on top of the cabinet, and stepped back down.

Pulling the bag of bread towards her with one hand, she used the other to grab a cutting board, and, quickly, she set to work.

She opened the bag and pulled out two slices of bread, and carefully placed them on the board. She then twisted the lid off the jar and grasped a knife before scooping some out and spreading it onto one of the slices.

Once she had put the lid back on, she opened the bag of mini marshmallows and grabbed a handful of them before gently plopping them on top of the peanut butter. She then pressed the other slice of bread on top, squishing it down slightly to make sure the marshmallows would stay.

After using the knife to slice it in two, she quickly put everything back where it belonged—except for the knife, of course, that went in the sink.

Valerie grabbed the cutting board and put it on the table, figuring that there was no point in using a plate.

She sat down, and as she took her first bite, she closed her eyes and leaned back, warmth spreading over her; this was the taste she missed most. It reminded her of home. Of Five.

As one hand clutched the sandwich, her other hand traced along the countertop. Her fingers roamed little grooves, and she couldn't find any more delight in the ability to feel again. 

"Whoa, slow down there, Speed Demon," Diego chuckled as he sat across from her on the island. "You'll give yourself a stomach ache."

"Worth it," she said through a mouthful of sandwich, though her words were a bit muffled. 

He smiled as he watched her move on to a box of granola bars, and softly murmured, "I missed you, kid."

"Kid?" Valerie repeated incredulously as she raised her eyebrows and unwrapped a bar. "It may not look like it, but we are still the same age, my friend."

"Nah, you're still a kid to me." Diego grinned as he reached over and ruffled her hair, receiving a glare in return. "So, how's life? Got a boyfriend?"

"You know" —she swallowed her bite of the granola bar— "it seems as though you don't know what the word 'void' means. Do you need me to pull out a dictionary for you?"

"No, I don't need—"

She sped away to the living room and came back a second later, a dictionary in her hands. She swiftly flipped through the pages until she found the word 'void' and read aloud, "'Void. Noun. Meaning: An empty space; emptiness.'" She looked up at Diego and raised her eyebrows. "Understand? No boys in empty spaces. Just Valerie."

"Ah, shut up." He scoffed, rolling his eyes in amusement. "I'm kidding. I know you'd never date anyone other than Five."

Out of everyone in the family, Diego was the only person who knew about her crush on Five. Or at least, the one she had on him twelve years ago; it was difficult to have a crush on someone who was lost in time.

She wasn't sure how he had found out, but he had questioned her about it when they were fourteen. Seeing that she was a terrible liar, his suspicions were quickly confirmed, and he was given a new topic to tease her about. Strangely, the teasing and the rebuttals she would make were a large part of the reason they had become so close.

"Don't even—" Valerie sighed as she bit into another granola bar and shook her head. "That was before. I don't like him like that now. He's not even here. He could be dead for all I know."

He had a mocking tone in his voice that told her he didn't believe her in the slightest, "Okay, sure."

"What about you? Are you married yet?" she asked with a grin as she unwrapped another granola bar. "Do you have children?" She suddenly gasped. "Do I have a niece or nephew?"

"Well . . ." He squinted his eyes as he tilted his head and shrugged. "You do have a niece. Except it's Allison's kid, not mine."

"Like . . ." Her eyebrows furrowed. "Allison and Luther's kid?"

Diego shook his head. "Nah. Allison and her ex-husband Patrick had a girl a few years ago—Claire, I think."

"Oh." Valerie sighed before gazing at her granola bar. "Well, still, that's nice. Anyway, if you don't live here anymore, what are you up to?"

"Well," he began, "I do—"

Suddenly, the ground shook, forcing Valerie's box of granola bars to fall off the kitchen island and upon the floor, where the bars then flew onto. 

The sunlight that had been glaring in through the windows a mere few seconds ago was gone, immediately dimming the room. The wind battered against the windows, causing the frame to rattle. 

"What the hell?" Diego muttered as he got to his feet, casting a worried look toward Valerie, who only frowned and shrugged.

She heard the sound of footsteps clambering down to the courtyard, and figured that everyone was heading there. 

She then grabbed onto Diego's shoulders before he could protest that speeding made him sick, and sped the both of them down to see the rest of the family stepping outside.

They were immediately met with strong winds and a darkened sky, which highly contrasted the sunny day that it had been ten minutes previous. 

Within the forming grey clouds in the middle of the yard, was some sort of blue vortex, through which they could see some sort of fence.

"What is it?" Vanya questioned, her eyes widened in fear as they all watched it grow bigger by the second.

"Don't get too close!" Allison shouted over the wind as she grabbed onto Luther's shoulder.

"Yeah, no shit," Diego said loudly.

"Looks like some sort of temporal anomaly," Luther yelled as he kept his eyes facing the front. "Either that or a miniature black hole. One of the two."

"Pretty big difference there, Paul Bunyan!" Diego shouted.

"Out of the way!"

Klaus, a fire extinguisher in his hands, ran through the group before stopping in front of the vortex. He quickly sprayed the contents into the vortex but to no avail. 

Upon giving up, Klaus hurled the extinguisher in its direction.

"What is that gonna do?" Allison asked incredulously as she looked towards the man.

"I don't know!" Klaus exclaimed as he waved his hands in the air. "Do you have a better idea?"

Klaus suddenly came back towards them as the vortex let out a loud crackle, and, much to their dismay, an old man began to pull through from the other side.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Luther grabbed Klaus's arm and pulled him behind him before he spread his arms out and demanded, "Everybody get behind me!"

Diego copied his movement and quickly followed, "Yeah, get behind us."

"I vote for running, c'mon!" Klaus yelled, but no one paid any attention to him.

The old man seemed to be screaming as he pulled through the vortex, though they heard nothing but the crackle of electricity and the winds that blew past them. His white hair became black and thick to their surprise, and his figure shrunk before he fell to the ground.

Once the man had completely passed through, the vortex disappeared, and day resumed as if nothing had happened.

He got to his feet, his dark hair ruffled, and his suit now oversized.

It didn't even take them a second to realize who it was upon him revealing his face.

"Five?" Valerie breathed out, leading the group as they walked over to him.

Five, however, only looked down at himself and then back up at everyone. "Shit."

About ten minutes later, everyone was sitting around the table in the kitchen, watching as Five grabbed a wooden cutting board and placed it on the table.

He sighed as he grabbed a bag of sliced bread from the cabinet. "What's the date? The exact date."

"The twenty-fourth," Vanya answered.

"Of what?" he asked irritatedly as he grabbed two slices of bread and neatly placed them on the cutting board.

"March."

Five gave a curt nod. "Good."

"So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?" Luther questioned as he got up from his chair, staring at the boy as he gave a lift of his shoulders. "It's been almost thirteen years."

Five scoffed. "It's been a lot longer than that." 

Before Luther could say anything in response, the boy teleported over to the cabinets, on top of a stool so that he could reach the bag of mini marshmallows.

"I haven't missed that," Luther muttered to himself.

"Where'd you go?" Diego questioned, his eyebrows raised as he turned to face the boy.

"The future," Five answered before he teleported back to his original spot and opened the bag. "It's shit, by the way."

"Called it." Klaus, who was sitting cross-legged on the end of the table, raised a finger.

"I should've listened to the old man," Five sighed as he grabbed the peanut butter from the fridge. "You know, jumping through space is one thing, jumping through time is a toss of the dice." He paused as he opened the jar, his eyes squinting before he nodded toward Klaus. "Nice dress."

"Oh, well," Klaus said with a grin as he adjusted the skirt, "danke!"

"Wait, how did you get back?" Vanya asked with furrowed eyebrows.

As he spread his peanut butter across one slice of bread, Five responded, "In the end, I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time."

Diego's face scrunched up for a moment before he looked towards Five and shook his head. "That makes no sense."

"Well, it would if you were smarter."

Luther held out an arm as Diego went to charge at him, effectively stopping him from doing so. He complied with the counter, though his stare remained hard on the boy. "How long were you there?"

"Twenty-one years," Five told them as he gave a small shrug, his focus on his sandwich. "Give or take."

"So what are you saying?" Luther fell back into his seat as everyone stared at him in shock. "That you're thirty-eight?"

"No, my consciousness is thirty-eight," Five corrected with a miffed smile. "Apparently, my body is now seventeen again."

Vanya tilted her head. "Wait, how does that even work?"

"Delores kept saying the equations were off." Five gave a small exhale as he finished preparing his sandwich and picked it up, shoving one hand in his pocket as he turned around to face the door. "Bet she's laughing now."

"Delores?" Valerie echoed with confusion, her eyebrows knitting tightly together.

"Hmm." Five overlooked her repetition as he turned back around and picked up the newspaper, whose front page announced the death of their father. "Guess I missed the funeral."

Luther's forehead creased as he inquired, "How'd you know about that?"

"What part of the future do you not understand?" Five scoffed as he raised his eyebrows mockingly. "Heart failure, huh?"

Diego and Luther answered at the same time.

"Yeah."

"No."

"Hmm." Five clicked his tongue as he put the newspaper back down and began to walk away. "Nice to see nothing's changed."

"Uh, that's it?" Allison questioned in disbelief as she turned to watch him leave, her eyebrows raised. "That's all you have to say?"

Five called out, "What else is there to say? The circle of life."

"What a dick," muttered Diego to Valerie, who then rolled her eyes and swatted his arm. 

Valerie sighed before speeding up to Five's room, which he obviously hadn't reached yet. She sat on his bed, folding her arms as she waited for him.

She looked around the room as her fingers reached up to the piano of her necklace, and a small smile grew on her face. 

There were a lot of memories embedded here and there: The window that he had almost fallen out of when he was first getting used to his spatial jumps, and she had had to run and save him; the dartboard that they always played with, except the darts were usually aimed at each other; this bed she was sitting on, where they would hushedly talk at night until the sun rose and came up with absurd ideas and stories . . . She had missed it.

Her attention drew to the door as it creaked open a few minutes later, and Five, who had a small frown on his face, stepped in.

His eyes squinted as he took notice of her presence, but said nothing as he walked over to his dresser and pulled the doors open. He muttered a quiet curse to himself as he realized that he had only uniforms to choose from, and reluctantly pulled one out.

A hanger and uniform in hand, Five turned around and slipped his free hand into his pocket. He examined her face for a moment before he questioned, "Why are you here?"

"Because I want to talk to you."

"Hold on," he suddenly said, his eyebrows knitting together tightly as he fully processed her appearance, "how come you haven't aged? Why is your body the same age as mine?"

She sighed, "I tried to follow you after you time-travelled. I guess I ran too fast or I did something wrong or something because I ended up separating from space and just ending up in time." Her lips settled into a frown as she recalled the very place she had been only an hour before, "It was this really terrible, completely black void. I was there for twelve years, or whatever that time is in there and ended up figuring out how to come back. But you become biologically immortal—meaning my body didn't age—so even though I'm mentally twenty-nine, my body is the one of my seventeen-year-old self."

"All right . . ." He placed the uniform on the edge of the bed before climbing on and sitting down next to her. He sighed before looking towards her and tilting his head. "But how did you know I went through time back then?"

"Because I know you, Five," she chuckled lightly as she raised her eyebrows, an amused smile growing on her face. "Also, you had just thrown a temper tantrum about not being allowed to travel through time, it wasn't hard to figure out. Idiot."

He rolled his eyes. "You didn't have to follow me."

"Of course I did. I thought that you were going to do something incredibly stupid, and I needed to stop you," she replied with a small shrug. "I was too late though. But I was right—you did do something incredibly stupid."

Five gazed at her for a moment, his eyebrows slightly furrowed. She expected his usual taut face to stay the same, but she was pleasantly surprised to see a soft smile appear. 

"I will say, Val, out of everyone, I missed you the most."

Valerie smiled. "Well, I missed you the most when I was in my little void."

He gave her a small smile before sliding off the bed with an exhale, leaving only a small indent in the spot he had just been in.

He picked up the uniform before holding it up to eye level and giving it a stare of disgust. "I hate this uniform."

"Trust me, I don't like it any better either," she laughed lightly as she got up, looking down at her own uniform and brushing off the skirt of the dress. "I'll see you later, Five."