as the world ends, so does us | five hargreeves

chapter 3 | runaway

ROUGE WANTED nothing more than to lay her body down on the soft, comfortable mattress of her bed and let the pounding ache in her head drift away by burying it on the soft pillows.

Reginald had, once again, forced her in his vigorous trainings and thus, drained all the energy she had in her system. Despite her earlier session not involving some physical activities like Luther's or Diego's, it felt like every single nerve in her brain was cascading signals throughout her body, causing its spasms. Her eyes felt droopy and she just wanted to close them for one night, peacefully.

Every time she's this exhausted, she would put her headphones on and insert a music tape in her cassette player. Reginald, being the old, bland man that he was, never allowed his children to have electronics of their own as he believed they might lose their focus on the goal: Be a useful kid and save lives to make people send mugs with 'The World's Best Dad' printed on them to their doorstep. So, one night, when she and her friends sneaked out and held another one of their occasional sugar rush nights, they happened to pass by a music store on their way home. The girl had always taken an interest in music ever since she heard Vanya play the instruments; though, she never pursued in playing one. All she desired was to listen to songs like everybody else does and feel as if she was also out there in the world. So, as a reward for herself (well, there wasn't a reason for her to be given a prize), she manipulated the doorknob open to steal the portable Walkman.

Along with Cyndi Lauper's timeless voice came a sequence of impatient knocks from outside her bedroom door. Rouge reluctantly opened her eyes and took a big sigh. She pressed pause. Cyndi would have to wait.

So much for a peaceful night.

The girl, in her pajamas, got up and opened the door and was welcomed to see Five tapping his foot.

"The neighbors can't keep their mouths shut and their marriage intact... again," his chin motioned towards her room. "Mind if I stay for awhile?"

Without a word, Rouge opened the door wider to let him in. He entered and walked to sit on her bed.

"Don't mind me, you can sleep. I won't stay long," he said.

Rouge felt exhausted to leave him a response. She climbed on her bed, refusing to take her headphones off, and leaned her back on the headboard. Several lyrics passed before she opened her eyes again as Five leaned her body forward to place a pillow behind her. He was inaudible but Rouge thought he mouthed the words 'hurt' and 'back' or something.

"Thanks," she mumbled, half asleep.

Rouge was tempted to finally close her eyes and continue her disrupted rest. She was about to get swayed by the fading of the music (which was a characteristic of probably every 80s song) in her ears. But how could she get herself to sleep when Five was propped over his knees while constantly tapping his foot?

She pulled her headphones out, "What's bothering you?"

"I just told you, it's the neighbors—"

"How come you're so smart and such a bad liar at the same time?"

Five glanced at her momentarily before returning his eyes to the scenery before him. The faint light coming from the gibbous moon was enough for her to notice his tightened jaw and his fists that were clasped into a ball. She nudged him with her foot to which he ignored. If it were any other normal day, he would morph into a cantankerous old man and scold her for being gross.

She realized tonight might be different so she shifted her body and sat beside him with her legs folded. Their shoulders touched but none of them bothered to move an inch. The cold air inside the room was not strong enough to overcome the heat their systems felt after the contact.