euphoria ➞ number five, tua [completed]

CHAPTER THREE - DO OR DONUT

"Many boys will bring you flowers. But someday you'll meet a boy who will learn your favourite flower, your favourite song, your favourite sweet."

-

CHAPTER THREE — DO OR DONUT

"What's the date? The exact date," Five sighed as he walked to and from the fridge.

I looked around for coffee as Number Seven, no, it's Vanya now, replied. "The 24th."

"Of what?" Five said, spreading peanut butter on the pieces of bread on his plate and placed marshmallows on them.

"March."

"Good, this means we can still do this," I glanced at Five.

I pushed my head through the cabinets as I continued my search for coffee.

"Is it weird that I still find this creepy?" Number Three, Allison said to me once I re-emerged from the cabinets.

I sighed. "It's just passing atoms between the spaces-"

"-of other particles in the surface you're going through, we know," Number Two, Diego, interrupted, rolling his eyes.

"And I see you haven't changed after all these years," I mumbled with a small smile as Five passed me a peanut butter marshmallow sandwich to me.

"So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?" Number One, Luther, asked.

I leaned against the table as Five prepared his own sandwich.

"It's been 17 years," Luther said, standing up from his chair.

Five scoffed before spacial jumping to a shelf. "It's been a lot longer than that."

"I haven't missed that," Luther grumbled.

"Where'd you go?" Diego questioned.

Five jumped back to the table. "The future. It's shit, by the way."

"Called it!" Four, Klaus, raised up his hand, smiling proudly to himself.

"I should've listened to the old man. You know, jumping through space is one thing, jumping through time is a toss of the dice," Five said in a matter of fact way.

Five looked up at our other siblings before he complimented Klaus, "Nice dress."

"Oh, well, danke!" Klaus replied.

"Wait, how did you two get back?" Vanya asked, pointing to the two of us respectively.

"In the end, I had to project our consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of ourselves that exists across every possible instance of time," Five replied casually.

Diego scrunched up his face. "That makes no sense."

Five replied with me in unison, "Well, it would if you were smarter."

Diego stood up in anger as I smirked at him, "Sit down, you big idiot."

Luther held his arm out to stop Diego. "How long were you there?"

"Forty-five years, give or take," Five replied.

"But I'm forty-nine years old, mentally," I said, tilting my head as I did the numbers in my head.

"This is confusing," Vanya commented.

"Well, that's time for you," Five scoffed.

"So, what are you saying, you're fifty-eight? And you're forty-nine?" Luther said, sitting down in disbelief.

"No, my consciousness is fifty-eight. Apparently, my body is sixteen again," Five smiled as nicely as possible to our siblings.

"How are you sixteen?" Diego asked, glancing between me and Five, trying to find the right words. "You both were so, uh, tiny when you left."

I looked over to Five, who shook his head. "That's a story for another time."

"Wait, how does that even work?" Vanya perked up with a question.

"Delores kept saying the equations were off, eh. Bet she's laughing now," Five shrugged.

"Can you stop talking about that doll?" I muttered, glaring at Five.

Vanya frowned. "Who?"

He gave me a small smirk in return before picking up a newspaper. "Guess we missed the funeral, huh?"

"How do you even know about that?" Diego scoffed.

"What part of the future do you not understand?" Five shot back with an annoyed glare.

"Heart failure, right?" I said.

Diego replied. "Yes."

Luther scowled. "No."

"Hmm," I nodded as I finished my sandwich.

Five clicked his tongue. "Nice to see nothing has changed."

"Um, that's it? That's all you have to say," Allison asked, her expression unreadable.

"What else is there to say? The circle of life," Five replied as he walked out.

"Well, that was interesting," Luther said, glancing at me.

I shrugged as I chewed the last of my sandwich.

"Anything to add, Zero?" Allison asked as they all looked over to me.

"Is Griddy's Doughnuts still in the running? I really need my caffeine."