you were everything

I 24 I

☂ life is short ☂ 

Five sits up, wincing. He brings a hand to his forehead. 

'What the hell happened last night?' He groans, uncharacteristically flopping back down onto Diego's pillow. Luther hands Five a cup of coffee, which earns the smallest of thank you's. 

'You went to a party and cheated on Dolores with a stripper mannequin,' I lie easily, crossing my legs. Luther frowns, shooting me a side glance. 

'I-what?' 

'You drunk a whole bottle at the public library,' Luther frowns. 'Do you want to explain yourself?' 

Five's expression goes from confused to annoyed. 

'I'm not a child, Luther,' He seethes. 'You can't lecture me like I'm a stupid high schooler who spends his time drinking and watching porn.' 

'Don't forget the fan fiction,' I chime in, smirking. 

Five glares at me. 'What are you doing here?' 

'I stayed with you while you drank that bottle, moron,' I scoff. 'For the simple purpose of making sure you didn't accidentally get hit by a car.' 

'You didn't have to do that,' Five looks away with a huff. 

'Well I did,' I lean over. 'Do you remember anything about what you said?' 

He grimaces. 'Was it bad?' 

'Oh yes,' I tap my foot. 'You had some interesting things to say about your sex life.' 

Five groans, bringing his hands up to his face. 'I'm never drinking again.' 

'Okay.' Luther says, wide-eyed. 'Now that I'm thoroughly scarred-can you tell us more about this so-called apocalypse?' 

'What do you want to know?' Five asks, desperate to change the subject. 

'When is it?' 

'I can't give you the exact hour,' Five sits up, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. 'What I can gather, we have four days left.' 

'Why didn't you say something sooner?' Luther asks. 

'It wouldn't have mattered,' Five mutters. 

'Of course it would,' I say, frowning. 

'We could've banded together to help you stop this thing,' Luther points out. 

'For the record, you already tried that,' Five sighs, staring down at the floor. 

Luther leans back. 'What do you mean?' 

'I found all of you. Your bodies,' Five says grimly. 

'We die?' 

'Horribly. You were together. Trying to stop whoever it was who ends the world.' 

'Wait, how do you know that?' 

Five reaches into his pocket, pulling out the familiar eye. 

'This was clutched in your dead hand when I found you,' Five tosses the eyeball lightly, and Luther catches it in his right hand. 'Must have ripped it out of their head, right before you went down.' 

'Whose head?' I wrinkle my nose. 

'Like I said,' Five glances over at me, a saddened expression on his face. 'I don't know.' 

'There's a serial number on the back. Maybe-' 

'We tried that,' I blink. 'It was a dead end.' 

Five scoffs. 'It's just another hunk of glass.' He takes the eye back, turning it over in his hand once, before tucking it back into his pocket. 

As I open my mouth to say something, the door bangs open and a very perturbed Diego storms in. 

'Piece of shit!' Diego growls at Five 'Do you have any idea what you just did?' 

He moves towards the boy, ready to kill him, but I stand up, creating an invisible wall of air with my hand. 

'Let me go!' Diego scowls, trying to push against it. The blue energy swirls around Diego, and I cross my arms, letting it grow thicker. 

'We can do this all day.' I stare at him. 

'Calm down,' Luther says, standing up. 

'Fine.' Diego gives up, and I draw the energy back. 

'Wanna tell us what you're talking about?' Luther asks. 

Diego inhales deeply. 'Our brother's been pretty busy since he got back. He was in the middle of that shootout a Griddy's, then at Gimble Brothers after the guys in masks attacked the academy, looking for him!' 

'None of which, is any of your concern,' Five says. 

'It is now. They just killed my friend.' Diego clenches his teeth. 

'They shot me too,' I say, lifting my shirt slightly to show the wound. 

'You knew?' Diego rounds on me. 'You knew they were looking for him, didn't you?'

Five stands up. 'It's none of your business, Diego,' He steps in front of me. 'So leave her out of this.' 

Diego's eyebrows raise. 'I should've known you were both involved.' He glares at me. 'The outcast that no one wanted, and-' 

Five blinks in front of Diego in a flash, grabbing the front of his shirt. 

'I said, leave her out of this!' 

Whoa.