May comes in like a lamb; Umbrella Academy

9

Mary, opening her eyes, stared up at the bland white ceiling above her, the water in the bathtub around her sloshing as she tensed her muscles. She wasn't surprised all the memories had begun to come back, she was just displeased. And quite honestly, disturbed.

Those thoughts would have been happy to her if she had grown up normally, and even more happy if Five had grown up normally. But to both of their despairs, that just couldn't happen.

In their own minds, the two of them knew full well that if they had both continued their life in the academy that they'd be about 30, and they'd look 30.

And they'd probably be married.

But since Mary was cursed to be 14 while 30 and Five had all the looks of a 14 year old as whole while he was actually 58, their used-to-be obvious chemistry kind of died down.

Mary lifted up her arm, watching the water drip down her unusually pale body. She sat up, picking up the small disposable toothbrush she had put at the side of the tub and closing her eyes to summon her snakes, all of them starting to poke her face in a friendly manner, making her laugh.

She rubbed a bar of soap onto the brush and started to individually brush her snakes, gingerly putting her index finger under their chins and rubbing the brush on their heads. This was the one thing in Mary's life she and her snakes had always been able to enjoy, no matter where she was at the time. And boy, had she been everywhere.

After she finished washing the rest of herself and her snakes, she stood in the tub and quickly yanked the towel that Klaus had left her off of the top of the toilet, wrapping it around herself and shaking her head, her snakes drying themselves off as she tied the towel on, stretching her arms. A knock came to the door, and she looked up, her snakes going back into hiding.

"It's Alison, I brought your dress from the laundry." The door had cracked open a little, and Mary reached over to open it all the way.

"Hey."

"Hi." Alison handed Mary her clothes, who thanked her. Alison studied her expression a little, frowning. "Mary, are you okay? You know, everything going on with Five, and now Ben's statue...of you want to talk I'm always here." She said kindly. Mary smiled. She would have talked to Alison, yet she was sure she didn't know how to put the stress she was in into words.

"I'm alright, thank you for offering. I think Five and I can sort this out together." She replied maturely, to which Alison nodded and smiled, leaving to give Mary privacy. Mary sighed as she pulled her dress back on, her brain now fixated on how to smooth things over with Five. Frankly, she wasn't even sure if things were rough, they just seemed...awkward. Mary hung her towel up on the black towel rack hanging on the wall and made her way back to her room, pulling back her hair into a wide and long ponytail.

Once she walked into her room she turned around, closing the door behind her. She heard a sudden sound behind her, startling her. When she spun around, she was faced with Number Five, who was standing no further than two inches away from her. She gasped, ready to scream just from pure shock that he was there, but before a sound could come out Five clamped his hand over her mouth.

"I have to speak to you." He said. Mary, now a little ticked, swatted his hand away.

"I figured." She muttered, smoothing out her dress. Five space jumped to lock the door, then he appeared sitting on her bed. Now that she could see more than his top half, she noticed a bleeding wound on his forearm. Sighing, she got a pack of bandages from her bathroom, as well as some alcohol and gauze.

She sat beside him on her bed, pouring some alcohol on the gauze and beginning to clean up his gash, not bothering to ask what had happened.

"We have a lot to talk about, don't we?" He asked, not much question in his voice.

"I suppose we do." Mary answered flatly. Five looked her up and down.

"You tried to stop me that day, didn't you?" Mary, scoffing, continued to use alcohol on his wound, noting the way that he barely flinched.

"Yeah, I did." Five continued to stare at her, the way he looked filled with an emotion Mary couldn't understand right then. Clearing his throat a bit awkwardly, he spoke up again.

"I saw your picture was over the fireplace. Where'd you disappear to?" Mary surprised herself with how fast and effortlessly she answered the question, as she started to bandage up his arm.

"The mafia." Five physically tensed, but played it off.

"No kidding." He chuckled softly, "How valuable a weapon you must've been."

"I guess I was."

"What lead you to leave?"

"You, mostly." As Mary finished bandaging Five's arm, she looked up to meet his shocked eyes.

"Oh."

"You know, I hoped that maybe you'd finally show up." She muttered softly, Five averting her gaze. A couple of silent seconds passed between the two as Mary cleaned up the extra bandages and everything else left over. Five turned back to look at her.

"You know, I tried everything to get back to you. To get back to everyone. It just...kept not working." He assured her. She smiled at him, laughing softly and shaking her head.

"Five, it's okay. If I could do what you can I'm sure I would've done the same thing." She said calmly, giving him a reassuring look. After the two sat silently yet again, Five broke the ice.

"Alright listen. You're the only person I can trust with all this information, so don't go spreading it around." He was suddenly facing her directly, a warning look on his face. Mary, quite confused, tilted her head at Five in a way to ask questions without opening her mouth.

"Why do you trust me?" She finally asked.

"Because I know full well you're the only one who will believe this." Mary was overly flattered by this, yet she didn't let it get to her head. Instead, she turned herself a bit so she was facing Five directly, crossing her legs.

Five leaned closer to her, placing his abnormally cold hand on top of hers.

"Mary,

you're the only one who will listen."