Chapter Fourteen:

They were all sat around the bed where Five sat, taking his time as he finally explained himself. This time, there was no hints or him trying to avoid the conversation. He looked from each person and told them what had happened when he disappeared, his brothers would finally know what had happened all those years ago. The only thing that affected Lotus was the part about trying to save the world, and how to do it. When the boy finished, she didn't know what to say.

"So you were a hit man?" Luther finally questioned, eyeing him wearily. He stood up straight, trying to read Five's mind. The boy who he played with while they were kids, the one who looked as if never grew up. He couldn't possible have been a killer, he didn't have that mentality before he disappeared.

"Yes."

"Uh- I mean, you had a code right? You didn't just kill anybody." He dug for some morals, but Luther supposed that decades all alone would ruin someone's mind. Do anything to be with someone again.

"No code." Five shrugged, "We took out anyone who messed with the timeline."

Luther looked shocked, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What about innocent people?"

"That was the only way I could get back here—"

"But that's murder!"

Five scoffed, he gave a roll of his eyes as he stared at his brother. "Jesus, Luther. Grow up."

"Can you believe what he's saying?" He turned to Lotus and Diego, but he was still staring out into space. She didn't know what was playing over and over again behind his dark eyes, but she supposed it would haunt him for the rest of his life.

She paused, "Um... Kind of. I mean, what were you expecting? People are out to kill him."

"You two are insane."

"She did say to just let the world burn." Five chimed in, "Isn't letting billions of people die worse than killing off a dozen or... maybe more, I can't really remember."

Luther was squinted between both of them, "No wonder why you two haven't killed each other yet."

"I won't lie, it's been on my mind."

Lotus turned and glared at Five, "You wanna go, bud? I'm sick of you telling me what to do."

Five shook his head, back locking eyes with Luther. "We're not kids anymore. There's no such thing as good guys and bad guys. There's just people goin' about there lives, and then one day all those people die. Including our family." He sighed, "And Lotus."

She grinned, "Just glad to be included."

That earned another glare from Luther. She shrugged, "We may not have a lot of time left but I'm gonna try to enjoy every last bit of it. Besides, time changes everything."

"Profound." Diego spat, "Now everyone get out."

Lotus didn't need to be told twice, she was the first out the door and out the building. She leaned against the wall waiting for Luther and Five to join her, she had no clue what they were going to do next.

Five turned to the right and walked up to Lotus, waiting as if she had any clue what was going on. "Come on." He told her nodding ahead of them.

"Where are we going?"

"Somewhere."

She huffed walking next to him, another set of heavy footsteps sounded behind them. Five turned and glared up at Luther, "Not you."

Luther always surprised her. He was the biggest and toughest looking but whenever Five told him something, he would listen. It was weird, she thought. Maybe he didn't want to lose him again, and in fear of doing so he would give him his space so he felt like he needed to come back. They walked in silence for two blocks until Five stopped and squinted at the ground, "Shit."

"What?"

"I forgot Delores." He muttered but eventually drove his legs to move on in front of him, "I'll get Luther to bring her back to the Academy."

They turned and crossed a few streets, slipping between the comfort of shadows before they arrived at the Academy. The building was very intimidating, she realized staring at it from across the street. Five was already swinging the gate open before she rushed across, scrambling to catch up with him.

"What are we going to do now?" She asked, "Since all your leads are dead ends."

"We'll figure it out."

"So now I get to actually help?"

"You're very annoying, you realize that?"

Lotus rolled her eyes, "You sound like my mother."

"Your Mother sounds like a very smart women."

She pursed her lips as they took a few flights down to a lower level, they appeared in a kitchen that seemed less grand than the rest of the house. She already liked it down there better.

"Not really." She shrugged taking a seat at the table, the chair scrapping on the ground. "Considering she jumped off our apartment building."

Five took a seat next to her, his brows scrunched. "I'm sorry. You said something about it before, I should've of said that."

Lotus shrugged again, "Don't be. I— It's fine."

They sat in silence, her leg bouncing up and down under the table. She was anxious, but she didn't know why. Everything around her was calm, and even Five decided he was going to stay silent. After awhile he stood up and marched to the kitchen counter grabbing a loaf of bread, he tossed it in front of her and opened up a pantry. She watched as he grabbed other supplies and slid two pieces of bread from the bag and slapped them down into the table, after he was done with that he struggled to get the lid off a jar of peanut butter. Lotus figured he was making a normal peanut butter sandwich until he whipped out a bag of marshmallows and dumped a few handfuls on top of the pieces of bread. He placed the pieces together and pressed down before cutting it in half. He grabbed a plate and slid them onto it before placing it in front of Lotos with a satisfied smile.

"Made fresh." He winked at her, "I used to eat those all the time."

Lotus stared at the monstrosity in front of her but she didn't have to heart to tell them that she didn't like peanut butter or marshmallows.

"Is that peanut butter?" She asked staring at it, just to make sure what she saw the boy had done was real.

"And marshmallows." He grabbed one half, "Sorry, can't help myself."

He took a big bite and plopped back down in his chair. Lotus pursed her lips but picked up her half and took a much smaller bite, a look of surprise must have crossed her face because Five smiled and laughed.

"It's actually good, isn't it?" He took another bite, "It's better than cockroaches and expired twinkies."

Lotus chuckled, the sandwich was actually not that bad considering her distaste for the two main ingredients. But, of course it wasn't something anyone should be eating constantly. She took her time, making sure the sandwich would stay down before rushing to try and finish it. She had only one bite left but she pushed the plate away anyways. Five was done after three bites, he coughed and then held a hand over his chest. "Heartburn."

"You get heartburn?"

"I'm 58." He said getting up, he picked up the plate and lifted it to his mouth where he slid the that chunk of her sandwich into his mouth. He placed the plate in the sink.

"Poor kid is having big boy problems?"

He glared, "I don't appreciate that."

Footsteps sounded followed by the click of a cane, Pogo appeared with a warm smile on his face as his eyes landed on the two. "Enjoying some peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches?"

"We were just leaving." Five said, his face now emotionless again. She frowned, wondering how easy was it was for him to show people one thing while on the inside he felt something else. She had never been good at hiding her emotions, but what worked for her was pressing her problems down until she either forgot about them or had a breakdown.

"How is your shoulder, Miss Lotus?"

"Good." She nodded, "I can hardly feel it anymore."

Pogo smiled, "We will need to check up on its healing tomorrow, alright?"

Lotus gave a smile as a response and went to follow Five out of the room, they walked past him and towards the stairs.

"Did you get my note, Miss Lotus?"

She stopped, earning a confused look from Five. "Yes." She called out.

"You'll always have a home here." Pogo replied, "Have a good day, Number 14."

They continued walking up the stairs and when they exited out into the living room, Five nudged her arm. "Number 14?" She wondered if he had heard Luther call her that earlier, or if he just didn't want to comment on it then.

"Apparently I would've been Number 14 if your father had found me." She shook her head, "I don't know how you could stand having your name be a Number. Him just calling me that once makes me hate it."

Five shrugged, "I told you. I wasn't around when we were named."

"Do you want a name?"

They stood in the middle of the living room now, just talking. When he didn't answer she suppressed a laugh, "What about Bob?"

"No." He looked horrified, "Absolutely not."

"Greg?"

"No."

"Andrew." She questioned, "Or Alexander?"

"Not at all."

"Oh! Maximus?"

He shook his head, a small smile on his lips. "What am I? A wizard?"

"Not a good one." She replied, "I suppose your stuck with Five."

He nodded motioning for them to keep walking, and so they did. They made there way up more flights of stairs until they filed out into another hallway and into what she recognized to be his room.

"Wait here." He told her, eyes peering back out into the hallway. "I'll be right back."

She waited until he was out of sight before yelling, "No problem, Maximus!"

He shouted something back but she couldn't make out what he was saying, but what she could make out as clear as day, was the string of curse words before a door slammed shut and Klaus' familiar voice echoed down the hallway.

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•••

hello! thanks for reading and getting this far, I do hope you are enjoying this read.

but i have an odd question!

for those who make covers for stories, what apps do you use? the one i've been using isn't that great and is very glitchy lol.

sorry for wasting more of your time! thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day

byeeeeeee