The Last Umbrella- Five Hargreeves x OC story

Five I Trouble In Paradise

After the tense and unsettling meeting with The Keepers, Lila, Five, and I decided we needed to get out of there and talk about what had just gone down—privately. We ended up in a small, empty café, the kind of place that felt almost forgotten. It was the perfect setting to unravel the bizarre reality we were facing. I slid into the booth next to Lila, while Five sat across from us, his expression hard and focused.

"Look, if these artifacts are from different timelines, and now they're showing up..." Lila started, cutting straight to the point. The idea that objects from entirely different timelines were bleeding into ours was unsettling, to say the least.

"It's possible the old man's reset didn't take," Five said, referring back to that fateful day six years ago when Reginald almost ended everything. We thought we'd managed to escape the worst of it, but apparently, we were wrong.

Sophia's frustration was palpable. "How is that even possible?" she demanded, her voice rising with irritation.

"I have no idea," Five admitted, his tone clipped and serious. "But whatever this is, we can't say anything to the family just yet. All right? Not even Diego."

I thought we had finally escaped this—the constant threat of the apocalypse. I thought we might actually get to live a normal life, or at least as normal as we could hope for. But it seemed like no matter what we did, the apocalypse was always right behind us, impossible to outrun.

"Absolutely not. He thinks I'm at book club," Lila said, her voice tinged with a kind of bitter humor. Then she sighed, her tone becoming more serious. "It's easier that way."

Her words pulled me out of my thoughts. "You okay over there? You usually never shut up," Lila said, her concern mixed with a joking tone as she looked over at me as I was just staring at the cup of coffee sitting in front of me.

"What if it followed us again?" I asked, my voice low and strained. "What if this is temporary, like every other timeline? And lying to Diego? What about that is okay with you?" I could hear the frustration creeping into my voice. It wasn't just Lila that was bothering me, it was everything. The constant running, the endless cycle of disasters, the way it all seemed to circle back no matter what we did. All I had ever wanted was to settle down with Five, to have a life that wasn't defined by chaos and destruction. But here we were, trapped in another mess.

"Jesus, sorry I asked," Lila muttered, clearly taken aback by my response.

Five, ever the one to dodge emotional landmines, just took a casual bite of his donut after dipping it into his milk, as if this was all just another day at the office. "All right. Well, it's a good thing we never got married. Too much deception involved," he said looking directly at me, his tone so nonchalant it was like he was commenting on the weather.

His words hit me like a truck. I froze, staring at him in shock. I'd always thought that one day, after all of this madness, we would get married. I'd imagined calling him my husband, maybe even starting a life together that didn't revolve around saving the world. But now... Was this why he never brought it up? Did he not want to marry me? I gave him an awkward tight-lipped smile. "Yeah. Right" I said uncomfortably.

I glanced over at Lila, and she gave me a look that said she knew exactly what I was thinking. She could see how hurt I was by what Five had just said, but before she could speak, I mouthed "Don't," warning her to stay quiet. I didn't want to care about what Five had just casually admitted, didn't want to think about how much it hurt. But I did care, and it hurt more than I could put into words.

I cleared my throat, trying to keep my voice steady as I stood up. "I gotta use the restroom," I said softly, excusing myself from the table. I needed to get out of there, to put some distance between myself and the sinking realization that Five might never see our future the way I did.

As I walked towards the restroom, I could feel his eyes on me, but I didn't turn back. Lila watched me leave, and I could see the concern in her eyes. I think she was just as surprised as I was. To her, we must have always seemed so solid, so easy together. But now...

She turned her attention back to Five, who was still eating his donut, completely oblivious to the emotional mess he had just stirred up. Crumbs and milk were all over his face, and Lila chuckled, shaking her head. "Wow. Didn't your dad teach any of you Hargreeves men how to eat?" she teased, reaching across the table to wipe his mouth.

He pulled back, clearly annoyed by her maternal instinct. "Wait. No. Come here," she insisted, ignoring his protests as she wiped his mouth with her thumb, while he scoffed, still trying to pull away.

. . . . .

I closed the restroom door behind me, leaning against it for a moment as I let out a long, shaky breath. My chest tightened with the weight of all the unsaid things. Part of me wanted to march back out there and force the conversation we'd been avoiding for weeks—about our future, about what he really wanted. But I knew better. Five didn't do well with confrontations like that, not when it came to feelings.

Splashing cold water on my face, I tried to shake off the emotions creeping up on me. I stared at my reflection in the mirror, my thoughts racing. Why does it feel like we're drifting apart? I asked myself, but deep down, I already knew the answer. We were both fighting our own battles, but somehow, we were losing each other in the process.