IGNIS : the umbrella academy [COMPLETE]

III

     THE PAIR EACH HAD A MARGARITA, sipping it occasionally.

     "I can't believe this is it," Five said quietly, "Harold Jenkins is dead, so the apocalypse has been prevented."

     Carla couldn't help but feel a tug in her chest at the mention of her cousin's death.

     Five seemingly picked up on what he had carelessly said, and quickly tried to move on in attempts to not upset her, "I guess I can grow old again now."

     He paused, turning his head away so he could wince at his poor choice of wording around the girl who didn't age.

     Something about her just slashed his high IQ to half. And normally he wouldn't care about upsetting someone, but the thought of Carla being hurt because of him stung more than he'd like to admit.

     He took a slow sip of his drink, and coughed slightly, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

     Carla couldn't help but laugh, "It's fine, really. Trust me when I say I've heard my fair share of anti-ageing jokes, mostly form Klaus."

     Five smirked slightly, "That doesn't surprise me."

     "Yeah," she then paused, "So you get to grow up again. That must be weird, having the mental age of an old man, but being stuck as fifteen."

     All the boy did was hum.

     Carla frowned, "What's up?"

     "You're gonna think I'm crazy," he muttered.

     "Please," she deadpanned, "You're sitting next to me, telling me something's crazy? I haven't aged in fifteen years!"

     Five cracked the smallest of smiles, "Valid point. It's just, ever since I travelled back, I've felt so disjointed. It's hard to describe, but I have the memories of everything that's happened, but it feels really... distant? And not really like the way I feel now?"

     Carla's eyes lit up, "So you feel it too?"

     "Feel what?" Five asked, in mild bewilderment.

     "That when your body doesn't age, your mind doesn't either? That wording's weird, but even though my mental age should be like thirty, I know I'm fifteen, and I only feel fifteen."

     Five nodded, "That's it! It feels like I'm genuinely fifteen again, but I thought I was just being strange."

     "Strange?" Carla quipped sarcastically, "We're not strange."

     Five chuckled, before pausing, and cautiously saying, "I don't mean to come off as rude or anything, but... what's it like being fifteen for so long?"

     Carla looked down at her drink, thinking for a moment, "It's like being stuck. Like the rest of the world is on play, but you're paused. It's really horrible, to be honest, because I feel like I've been robbed of... my life, if that makes sense. I won't get to grow old, to get married, to have kids, to have grandkids, to even get my own house."

     Five frowned deeply, eyebrows knotting together.

     "And I'm going to have to see those I care about get old and move on and eventually die," Carla thought of Klaus, and she swallowed thickly, "And I'll be left alone. Stuck."

     Five was clearly lost in thought, lips pursed, and after a moment he spoke up, "How did this ageing thing happen?"

     "My twin, Sarah, she had powers too," Carla began, "She could manipulate time's effects on certain objects, and one day we got into a... situation, and she tried to take on all six of them, with a gun pressed to her chest, just to save me. She lost control, killed the guys, but that was when I stopped ageing, and she ended up getting shot."