𝐖𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 ━ five hargreeves

18│CONFESSIONS OF LOVE

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❛ ᴡᴀsᴛᴇʟᴀɴᴅs ᴏғ ᴛɪᴍᴇ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴄᴏɴғᴇssɪᴏɴs ᴏғ ʟᴏᴠᴇ ꒱


❝ DID YOU REALLY COUNT
ALL THOSE SECONDS? ❞

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Dolores allowed her husband to tug her from the office and (once he checked no one was around) he blinked them outside. Five's first instinct was to rage against whoever had hurt her— in this case, her uncle— and to make them pay for the wounded expression she was currently wearing. He knew she'd been so looking forward to a reciprocal "meeting of the families" and it was unfair— terribly unfair— to have her hopes dashed so brutally. Instead, he turned to her and tightened his grip on her hand as he softly prompted, "Dolly?"

Her blue eyes were watery and he could tell she was doing her best to keep the tears at bay. He frowned at the effort and dropped her hand, preferring to (uncharacteristically) initiate a hug. It was a welcome gesture and Dolores immediately buried her face against the soft fabric of his sweater. She held on to him tightly as the gesture encouraged the tears to finally escape her eyes.

She sniffled against his shoulder as the renewed loss of her family hit far harder than she would've thought— after all, she'd been most of her life without one— but she supposed it was the hope that she'd held was what she was responding to the most. In all of their years of the apocalypse and The Commission, she'd rarely cried and had always been able to put out a strong exterior even if she didn't feel the same inside. It was odd, almost, breaking down like this after having hardly doing so through all of the other difficulties she'd faced. It took several moments for her to regain her composure, but Dolores eventually pulled away and wiped at her eyes. "Sorry."

"You don't have to apologize," Five told her softly. "It's perfectly normal for you to be upset."

She gave him a weak smile. "You must hate him now."

"Pretty much, yeah. I did keep my promise, though," he added. "When I felt like strangling him I excused myself."

"Do you still feel like that?" she asked tentatively.

"I always will when I think of him," he answered, his tone bitter and expression angry.

"He's not usually that blunt," the brunette tried to excuse him, "but he does tell the truth no one wants to hear."

"That doesn't matter," he insisted. "He shouldn't have spoken to you like that and if you'd let me, I'd go back and take care of him right now."

"I know," she allowed, "but I need him. He's the only one who can change tonight. For me, at least."

This point distracted him and Five gave her a questioning look. "Are you sure you want to do that? The apocalypse is off, but if it were to happen—"

"You wouldn't be coming to save me," Dolores answered firmly. "I'm not going to subject myself to a slow and painful death. If nothing happens then I'll just be spending a rare night with my family."

His expression softened as he took in her determined one, her eyes slightly red from her previous tears but steely all the same. Hazel's question from earlier came to mind: if you never time travelled, what would have happened? He never would have met her properly, that was for certain. She'd be fifteen, the age she was now, and he'd be turning thirty. Even in typical circumstances they wouldn't have ended up as a "normal" couple.

"We always were an unlikely pair, weren't we?" he asked quietly.

"You can say that again," the brunette agreed, "but I wouldn't trade it for the world."