Love Even Near the End; Five Hagreeves

15

"So it's official. My ears are broken, and the idiot with knives can't really sing," Ben says waltzing into the room, stopping in front of a mirror.

I sigh, helping Sloane with her dress at the moment. God, I really wish the hotel staff would kick him out of this room.

"Diego. You know his name is Diego." Sloane replies, currently sewing her dress while I help with the design.

"Oh, whatever," Ben says, fixing his hair.

"Maybe you should try and be nice to him and the others," Sloane says, not looking up from her dress.

"And why would I do that?" Ben asks.

Sloane finally looks up, tired of hearing his snarky comments.

"As much as I'd love to work out your anger issues right now, I have to get back to this. The wedding is in an hour."

"Fei is dead," Ben says.

"Yeah. I know. And so are the others." Sloane replies.

"Oh, so that's it? You're just gonna turn your back on the Sparrow Academy? I mean, you both heard Dad. We have training to do. Something big is about to go down." Ben says.

I really wanna beat his ass right now. But I'll be nice for Sloane.

"I wish you were talking about my wedding," Sloane says.

I look over at her. I walk up to her, giving her a quick hug as Ben makes his way toward us.

"Okay. Sloane, listen to me-"

"No. You listen to me." She leans forward, taking his hands in hers. "I'm sorry they didn't invite you to their bachelor party."

"I don't... I don't care about that." Ben denies.

"Yes, you do." Sloane and I say in unison. She looks over at me as I put my hands up in surrender.

She looks back at Ben, "You care more about being invited to the bachelor party than you do Fei or the others. Or even saving the world."

"That-" He nervously laughs. "That... That's crazy."

"Is it?" Sloane asks.

"All of us, we've never been alone. It's always been the eight of us. Now it's just us." She lets go of his hands, going back to sewing.

"So congratulations, Ben. You're finally Number One. Of one." She says, getting up.

"I'm a Sparrow, and so are you two," Ben says.

"Not anymore," Sloane says.

"Nope." I agree.

He gets up. "What's so damn special about them anyway?"

"They're a real family. They don't exist to sell action figures and tote bags." Sloane says.

"We were more than that," Ben says.

"Were we?" Sloane asks.

"Why is it so important for you to be a Sparrow?" I ask.

Ben walks off and even from a far distance I swear I could hear him say, "Because I have nothing else."

I just sigh.

"You okay?" Sloane asks me.

"I don't know," I reply.

She puts down her dress and sits next to me.

"I've just, I've never dealt with anything like this before. So it's hard to come to terms with. But I'm mainly thinking about what Five said." I say.

"What part?" She asks.

"The bucket list. It sounds stupid but I had so much planned. And now that the world is crumbling all of my plans have gone to shit." I say, tossing myself back on the couch.

"I get that. I mean, I'm lucky enough to be getting married right now. But I do get where you're coming from." She says.

"What all did you want to do?" She asks.

"Well. There were only a few things. 1. Get out of the Academy and get a life. 2. Find true love. 3. Live my life the way I envisioned it." I say.

She just smiles, patting me on the knee. "I'm sorry." She says.

"It's not your fault," I say.

She gets up and gets back to work on her dress.

"I know. Now that I think about it, I do think you can accomplish Number Two on your bucket list." She says, not turning around.

I just shake my head, smiling.

"I'm going to go and find myself something to wear for the wedding. I'll be back." I tell her, leaving the room.

I walk into the dressing store that they had inside of the hotel, surprisingly. I look around and see some of the others shopping as well.

I look around for something "modern" as Sloane wanted. Maybe something darker? I know I'm not supposed to wear white so that's something I can check off of the list. Then something catches my eye.

Perfect.

"Hell yeah," I mumble, walking toward it.