As The World Caves In [Five]

Six

What's your favorite song right now?

Emery didn't have to know when Five would be back at the Meritech. The moment the sun peaked through the poorly casted blinds, Emery was up and groaning mentally as he shucked on his shoes and headed for the front door and massaging the kink that had formed in his neck on account of sleeping in such an odd position. Halfway through the night, Klaus had all but throttled Emery into bed with him where he proceeded to use him as a makeshift teddy bear. It was safe to say that Emery had only gotten to sleep half of what he hoped he would when Klaus had woken up halfway and started tripping over himself for a fix, claiming the voices were too loud.

Now early morning, Emery paused at the front door, hand on the doorknob, and sighed. He hated to leave one of the Hargreeves siblings for a second time before they woke up but then again, he thought it would be awkward if he were still here when Klaus woke.

Shaking his head, Emery swung the door open and closed it behind him before too much light could get in. He treaded down the steps and rounded the corner. Checking once for anyone that looked like they felt like kidnapping a child, particularly him, Emery started walking not to the prosthetic laboratory, but to the corner bagel shop he remembered passing.

He could only hope Klaus liked chocolate chip bagels and an iced drink. At least, that might take the edge off for the man.

✩

"Where were you?" Five asked when Emery begrudgingly met him at the top of the steps. He shrugged.

"Didn't think you'd care given the way you stormed off last night."

"I don't care." Five said, squaring his shoulders. "Come on." He said, opening the door and waltzing inside.

Emery clenched his fists but forced himself to take a deep breath before following Five, muttering a few choice words underneath his breath as he went.

The establishment was extremely open; wide windows decorated the space and natural light shone in, illuminating the whole place. It looked clean- but so unnaturally so that Emery knew he wanted out as soon as possible.

"Uh, can I help you?" Someone said as the two teens were surveying the area. Five turned around to see who had spoken and started walking towards the man, pulling the eye out of his pocket and holding it up.

"I need to know who this belongs to." He said.

The man donning a white coat looked at both of them, considerate, and asked, "where did you get that?" He said, obviously assuming they were just a bunch of meddling kids.

"What do you care?" Five said.

Emery rubbed a knuckle to his temple to massage away the growing migraine. "We found it, actually." He said. "At a playground, beneath the monkey bars?" He asked as if confirming the man in fact knew exactly where he was talking about. "It must have just... popped out."

"Right." Five said, donning his unfamous fake smile. "I wanna return it to its rightful owner."

"Aw," The lady at the front desk said, looking up from her work. "What a thoughtful young man."

"Yeah. Look up the name for me, will ya?" Five said, eager to get what he came for.

"Uh, I'm sorry, but patient records are strictly confidential." The man in the lab coat said. "That means I can't tell you.-"

"Yeah, I know what that means." Five interjected.

"But, I'll tell you what I can do. I will take the eye off your hands and return it to the owner. I'm sure he or she will be very grateful, so if I can just-"