• GARDENER • Five Hargreeves

e i g h t

Edith, as usual, had awoken before Five, not remembering a thing. She'd confusedly turned to a peaceful sleeping Five, looking around at the scattered books, chalk, and empty bottles. Edith stood on wobbly feet, picking up all of the books. She calmly moved around the empty library, putting all of the books back into their place, all why wondering why they were in the empty library. She looked to a clock, seeing that it read two thirty in the afternoon.

Once Edith was finished with that, she picked up the duffle bag, filling it to the brim with bottles. Somehow, they couldn't all fit, leaving Edith to stand some of them around the boy. She snuck out of the library with ease, heading back to the van. It had been around a twenty-minute walk, giving the girl time to question why she had woken in the library, curled up into Five Hargreeves. The last thing she remembered was reading Vanya's book as Five wrote all of his equations on the wall with the chalk she had dumped into the bag.

She saw a shop nearby, going and buying herself a bottle of water for herself. Edith sipped on the bottle, making her way to the now open library. It had opened ten minutes ago, as it was now ten minutes past three. Edith rushed up the stairs, going back to the corner she knew Five was. He was still asleep, but now surrounded by whispering women. They were staring at the sleeping boy, giggling.

Edith pushed her way through, staring at the women. "I'm sorry. My brother.... he's a bit rebellious." She sighed, leaning down to the sleeping, drunk boy.

"Edith?" The girl stood, alarmed as she turned to Luther, and the man she assumed was Diego.

"Hey Luther, and you must be Diego." Edith stepped toward Diego, who stepped closer, pointing one of his knives at the girl. She rolled her eyes, stepping so that she was in front of Five as she stared at Diego.

"Who are you and how do you know my family?" Diego hissed, but Luther elbowed him.

"Diego, this is Eli and Miles' sister Edith. The one we were telling you about." He told his brother, who only put his knife away, keeping his untrustful gaze on Edith.

"Honestly, man, I don't like any of you Hargreeves children, and I know Klaus is the only one who trusts me to an extent, but can you at least tolerate me? I don't care if you like me or not, I'm staying." She sighed, crossing her arms as she looked at the two men. They both silently nodded, knowing that her words were true.

"Uh... is he..." Luther trailed off, looking between Diego and Edith.

"Drunk as a skunk." Diego confirmed, before turning to Edith. "Did you drink too?" Edith nodded at his question, confusing Luther.

"How are you not like him too then?" At that question, Edith turned to Luther, grinning.

"It's because I've been stuck as a sixteen-year-old for the past seventy-something years." The men gaped at her, in shock and confusion. "Yeah, I uh, look pretty young for my age."

Diego had decided that it would be better to go to his place instead of the academy, both of which were on the other side of town. It was already getting dark, but that wasn't so surprising as it was March, when it usually got dark quite early.

"Well, we can't go back to the house. It's not secure. Those psychopaths could come back at any moment." Luther said unhappily, carrying Five through the alleyway they were walking through.

"My place is closer; no one will look for him there." Diego replied, ready to guide the pair to his place.

"I don't get it. Why is the house not safe?" Edith asked, and Luther filled her in on everything that had happened. "Are my brothers okay? Are your siblings okay? What about Grace and Pogo?" Edith shot out, panic in her voice as she wanted to know if everyone was okay.

"Everyone was okay, but they turned Grace off." Luther told the girl, who stopped before shaking her head, catching up with the men. Five belched from where he lay in Luther's arms, and the man looked slowly down at his brother, "If you vomit on me..."

"You know what's funny? Aah! I'm going through puberty. Huh. Twice." Five threw his head back, scoffing at his own words as he tightened his grip on his mannequin best friend. "And I... I drank that whole bottle, didn't I?"

Edith shook her head, laughing, "Hargreeves, you drank a lot more than that. We both did." That caused Five to look at the girl, grinning widely.

"Aah, Gardener! You're a great kisser, you know." The three stopped at Five's words, all in shock.

"What?" Edith whispered curiously, watching as the boy sat up to look at her.

"That's what you do when the world you love goes bye-bye. You drink and kiss people! And the world... Poof, it's gone. What are you guys talkin' about?" Five ranted on, the three beginning to walk once more. Edith was walking behind them, staring inquisitively at Five. They kissed and knowing Edith she only did it because she knew that she would forget it. Why else would she kiss the guy? She hates him.

Luther sighed, "Two masked intruders attacked the Academy last night." Luther told Five, who was actually listening to his brothers.

"They came looking for you. So, I need you to focus. What do they want?" Diego asked, getting straight to the point.

"Hazel and Cha-Cha." Both Five and Edith said, both having distaste in their voice as they mentioned the assassin pair.

"Who?" Diego asked, whereas Luther said,

"You know, I hate code names."

"Ah, the best of the best. Except for me, of course." Five grinned sarcastically in his drunk manner.

"And me, you asshole." Edith added, persistent to get it into people's brains that she is better than everyone else in the commission and may just be equal to Five. Nah, she's better.

"The best of what?" Luther asked Five, who ignored him.

"You know, Delores always said she hated when I drink. You should've made me a Shirley." Five averted the topic, instead talking about the mannequin woman in his arms.

"Hey! I need you to focus." Diego said, walking so that he stood in front of Five. Luther and Edith had stopped, eagerly looking for what the boy would say. Instead, he just smiled at Diego, who was slowly getting annoyed at his brother's drunk antics.

"What do this Hazel and Cha-Cha want? We just wanna protect you."

"Protect me. I don't need your protection, Diego. Do you have any idea how many people I've killed? Or how many Edith has killed? No. You don't. I'm the Four frickin' Horsemen. The apocalypse is coming." Five said tauntingly at Diego, before turning to the side of Luther that Edith luckily was not at and vomiting on the ground.