Not Even Close || Number Five x Fem!Reader

Chapter 111

HE STEPPED INSIDE the train with a sharp breath emitting out of his lungs, quietly panting as if he'd just run a mile.

As the train began to pivot, Number Five took a seat with his fiancée's orders in mind. Find another way, he recalled.

Truth be told, he didn't know if he could in this barren subway of alternate timelines. But if there was a different way — a way that he could especially take the burden off his love — he was eager to be the first to know.

The longer he waited for his stop, the more he began to space out into contemplation. There wasn't much to do in this train ride, other than to ponder and remember what he'd been through with Y/N.

The memories of them made him happy and sad altogether, for he remembered how unmerciful time had been to let them spend their six years feeling stuck and only one to feel each other's love be endless at last.

He dreaded the apocalypse disrupting what they have once again. I just got her back, he thought. After so many years, I just got her back.

I don't think I can stand losing her again.

The thought made him consider turning back, thinking to himself that he should just be in their timeline with her and figure this out with their family; or perhaps take her with him and let the world cave in. It was a selfish notion he was willing to take, but he knew that wasn't what she would've wanted.

When suddenly, the train finally came to a halt, to which he realized he wasn't the only person who boarded the train.

As he looked up outside of the windows, he spotted a figure pass by his car beaming at him with a wry smile. It caught his attention, as he could've sworn that the figure appeared awfully identical to him.

More frankly, he could've sworn that it was him — a version of himself.

With that, he bolted from his seat, fixated on the other Five as he began following him. "Hey, wait!" He called out after he got off the train. He could tell that his other self heard him, yet he deliberately continued walking with the presumption that he was heading for the same direction as he was, anyway.

He chased him to their left. His self's whereabouts made him even more curious as he found steps that led him below the station. In his 7 years of being stuck in this subway, not once did he have any idea there was a second downstairs in any station he and Y/N had been to.

Going down the said steps, he immediately felt the warmth of the neon sign flashing right in front of his face that read: 'Max's Delicatessen.'

Curiouser and curiouser, he internally commented. He felt like Alice getting completely lost in Wonderland.

And even more, when he found out that behind the glass door was a bunch of different versions of himself going about their lives as if it were an ordinary evening.

Five entered the premises with Ain't it a Shame? by Fats Domino playing in the background. He hung his coat on the rack next to the doorway shortly after. He couldn't stop glancing at every part of the diner. There were Fives that worked here, waiting, cleaning, and cooking; Fives lounging around, chattering amongst themselves; and Fives that were minding their own businesses, such as confusing happy hour being longer than it's supposed to be.

"Hey, you! Over here," when finally, he spotted the self he's been following up to this point. The other Five had a booth all to himself as he gestured for the newcomer to sit with him.

He approached his booth without a protest, but with utter bewilderment. "What is this place?" Asked Five.

"It's a gas station. The hell does it look like? It's a deli," his self replied wittingly.