☂ 𝑰𝑵𝑺𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻 || 𝙵𝙸𝚅𝙴 𝙷𝙰𝚁𝙶𝚁𝙴𝙴𝚅𝙴𝚂 𝚡 𝙾𝙲 || 𝑩𝑲. 𝟐 ☂

15. DINNER WITH THE DEVIL

The walk from The Bird's Nest to Elliot's was strangely therapeutic to the girl, especially when she had the luxury of an undisturbed trip home due to her doing it invisible -- she didn't want any type of attention, especially at this time at night. Elaina held herself in her walk, thinking about how such a wonderful day could end like this. She should've just gone home after the salon, because if she did all she would've done is sleep and avoid A.) getting kissed by a guy Five hates and B.) her conflicting feelings on her father's letter about tomorrow night's 'supper'. It was just way too much for her to process to just simply take a taxi.

Elaina finally made it to Elliot's and made her way up the front entrance stairs, only to be greeted by Five, sitting crossed-legged in the armchair as Vanya softly snored, asleep on the sofa across from him.

"You're home late," he noted as he stared up at her.

Elaina looked over and noticed Vanya. "Yeah, there was something I had to do," she answered absent mindlessly. "When did Vanya end up here? I thought she was heading back to the farm."

"She showed up about an hour ago, upset about someone named Sissy, and crashed on the coach. She told me about the little get together you all had." explained Five as he got up from his seat and walked over to Vanya, pulling the blanket that covered her higher up.

"Mhmm, we had a great time at Allison's salon," confirmed Elaina as she walked over and stared down at her sister, moving a strand of hair off her face. "Oh, and Allison was able to give me that haircut I wanted," she informed, removing her headband and combing her hair with her fingers. "Like it?"

Five looked up at her as he walked over. "Yeah, I liked it when it was short last time, though it doesn't look like you went as short as before,"

"Al thought that it was best to keep some length, so we compromised," she shrugged.

He nodded. "So how was the trip to Birdie's? Vanya said you were going to have a talk with that kid. Did it go well?"

Elaina decided on the walk over to keep the kiss under wraps for now. Last thing she needed was Five trying to go out of his way to kill Tony, even if the teenager did deserve some sort of punishment for what he did. Death, however, might be a bit excessive. She just needed to find the right time to tell him later.

"Hm?" Elaina said coyly, looking away from him as she walked around Five towards the kitchen. "Oh, it could've gone... better. But I'm not even going to bother with that anymore. Waste of time," she tried to keep her tone indifferent, though the slight inflection of her tone made Five narrow his brows.

"Did something happen?" he asked, following her into the kitchen.

She pursed her lips and shook her head, heading towards the fridge and looking inside "Nope, nothing," she lied quickly, her head diving deeper into the fridge as she looked for anything she could take from the icebox. "Hey, so where did you go after Luther flung you off the stairs?" she asked, changing the subject and reluctantly pulling out a leftover cup of ambrosia. The girl internally shuddered at it.

Five he gave her a questionable stare as he leaned against the archway. "I ran into our old friend, Lila, when I blinked outside. Turns out she's The Handler's daughter,"

"You're kidding, right?" scoffed Elaina as she walked over to the drawer, pulling out a spoon. "I can't believe it,"

"And it gets worse," informed Five as he tucked his hands in his pockets. "She's trying to recruit me to assassinate the Commission's Board of Directors so she can seize control of the Commission,"

Elaina blinked as she looked at him. "Okay, and why the hell would you even entertain the idea of doing that for her?"

Five let out a deep sigh. "Because she promised if I did she'd assure us a briefcase to take us all back to 2019, completely eradicating both apocalypses when we do so," he explained.