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

22. FIVE TIMES THE TROUBLE

Luther managed to find them a table in the center of the bar, right under a banner that read 'America's 1st Irish President'. The four of them sat at the table in an intense silence as both Fives glared down one another from their seats across each other. Elaina lifted the glass of Guinness to her lips as she took a sip of the dark beer, cautiously watching the two like one would observe lions at the zoo.

"Well..." started off Luther, obviously feeling uncomfortable by the table's tension. "This is nice, isn't it? The four of us, together like this,"

"No," both Fives responded.

"If anything, it's a bit awkward," muttered Elaina into her cup before putting it down.

She looked over at her Five and saw a couple of drops of sweat rolling down his neck. Without a thought, Elaina grabbed a napkin from the table and started to dab it. Five's eyes shifted to look at her, she simply gave him a warm smile as she pulled her hand away. He cracked a small smile at her, grabbing the hand she held the napkin in and brought it up to his lips, planting a quick peck on her knuckles in gratitude. This only made her smile grow faintly bigger, making Five's gaze grow softer before they drifted back to his older self where it grew harder again. Elaina followed his line of sight, seeing the older Five's bewildered expression, clearly shocked at the small exchange between the teenagers. The girl's hand was still in the younger Five's grasp. In order to reduce the awkwardness, she removed her hand from his and slid it over to her glass of Guinness, making her Five look at her in confusion.

"Somebody explain to me how it is I'm having a pint of Guinness with my younger self?" asked the older Five, his hands folded in front of him on the table.

"Older, actually," corrected the younger Five. "I'm you, just 14 days older,"

"I have pubic hair smarter than you. How is that possible?" questioned the old man.

"I can explain," informed Elaina's Five. "You see, one hour from now, on the grassy knoll, before the president is killed, you break your contract with the Commission. I already know you're thinking about it. All those years in the apocalypse, we never stopped worrying about our family," the younger Five kept his eyes trained on the older Five as his hand slid over to Elaina's as he gripped it again. "Worrying about her," he nudged his head in the girl's direction. "Well, today you are going to do something about it. Today, you are going to attempt to time travel forward to 2019. However, you are going to screw up the jump and end up in this twip of a body, trapped forever, small, pubescent,"

"Okay," responded an overwhelmed older Five. "Even if I was to believe you, what am I supposed to do about it, not jump?"

"No, no, we need you to jump," clarified Elaina. "If you don't jump, he ceases to exist."

"What I need from you is to jump correctly," stated the younger Five.

"I'm listening,"

"The first time through, I got the calculation wrong. That's how I ended up in this body. But now I know the correct calculation."

"What is it?" asked the older Five.

A sarcastic smile stretched over Five's lips. "I'll be glad to tell you... in exchange for that briefcase you're holding under the table,"

"Yeah, yeah," chimed in Luther, summarizing the plan. "So you go back to 2019 as planned, but this time with the right math, so you remain a full-grown man. In exchange, we get that briefcase that you no longer need,"

"However, if you were to somehow jump exactly the same way you did before and end up in said 'twip body', I wouldn't complain," cooly mentioned Elaina with a casual shrug, making the older Five raise his gray brow. "Just putting it out there," she said before feeling her Five's grip on her hand tighten. "Ow,"