"Do you remember that little mansion just outside the city limits?" Five asked. Peter was slouched in a foldable chair by the cement pillar that formed part of their current home. It was the circular layout of what had once been a library but was now nothing but rubble and overgrown plants. Nature retaking the planet. Their place was temporary as all their homes had been. Summer letting them sleep under the stars. Books and random things they had salvaged littered the corners. Five had found a blackboard and it stood to one side. Calculations drawn in chalk and charcoal littering it and the walls around it. A few drawings filling the gaps in between, which was Peter's contribute towards the decor.

He watched as Five took the chair by the second pillar. The man grinned at him through his white beard. Both of them in their fifties now. Hair long but brushed and relatively clean. Peter's curls were pulled back by an old bandana and his beard shorter than Five's. He still had some streaks of blonde in the grey but the other man's hair had turned completely white a few years ago. "The one with a skeleton in the pool?" He smiled at the memory. They had spent the night in the cellar together and read each other stories from books they had found.

Five chuckled. "Yeah, well it turns out that the wine cellar was untouched. Picked up a few cases of your favourite".

Peter gasped at his husband. "And you didn't give me any? Pass that!" He reached out to snatch the flask from the other's hand. Five held it out of reach. Peter leapt to his feet and grabbed it from his hands. "Ha!" He took a long swig. Then rubble clattered outside. Five jumped to his feet, grabbing at the gun. They both turned to see a woman in a black dress and red heels standing in the stones. The golden sun tinging the clouds above her. Peter jumped, a noise escaping his throat as he lifted slightly into the air.

Five was watching her through the scope of his rifle. Something they had picked up in their twenties and that he had meticulously kept maintained since. "Scaredy-cat", he muttered at Peter's yelp.

"How the fuck did she get here?" Peter hissed back as the woman came closer. She waved at the gun. All blonde curls, lipstick smile and fifties black dress. She was carrying a briefcase. "Time travel?"

"Well, that's one theory". Five grunted, his voice having grown rough with age and their survivalist life style. Honestly it was a miracle they they had survived as long as they did, even with their powers. As they watched, the woman tottered through the rubble towards them, heels teetering on the terrain. Peter narrowed his eyes at her.

"Who the hell are you?" He shouted at her.

"I'm here to help". She replied in a calm voice despite the gun pointed at her.

"Am I hallucinating again?" Five muttered.

"No I see her too", Peter whispered back. Five gave him a look. The blonde could read the expression on his face. Five was wondering why he had just asked his hallucination about another hallucination. Peter sighed. It was one of those days.

"Tell me why I shouldn't put a bullet through your head right now?" Five cocked his gun. The blonde woman stepped towards them, entering their home.

"If you did, you wouldn't hear the offer I'm about to make you. Which would be rather tragic given you two's current circumstances". She seated herself on a concrete slabs near their blackboard.

"Wait. Us two?" Five asked. He gestured towards Peter. "You can see him too?"

"Yes I can", the woman smiled. It was unfeeling. Peter didn't take his eyes off of her even when he felt Five lower the gun and reach for his hand. Their fingers interlocking. "I work for an organisation called the commission. We are tasked with the preservation of the time continuum through manipulation and removals", the woman was saying.

"I don't understand", Peter frowned.

The woman pulled a shiny cigarette case from her pocket and clicked it open. She began to roll a cigarette. "Sometimes people.. make choices that alter time. Free will, don't get me started. When that happens we dispatch one of our agents to, well... eliminate the threat". In an instant Five was dropping Peter's hand and raising the gun again. The woman chuckled. "No no no. You misunderstand me. You two are not targets. Though, you Peter, you came awfully close". She smiled at him and Peter scowled. "Your survival skills have made you both quite the celebrities back at headquarters. Well, that and your abilities to jump through time. Which we had no idea you could even do Peter!" She clapped her hands. The now lit cigarette between her fingers.

"Trust me, I didn't know either and I don't think it will happen again", Peter grumbled back.

"You're saying that we could actually leave here?" Five sounded worn, voice mournfully hopeful. Peter glanced at his partner sadly.

"In return for five years of service. When the two of you have done your time, you can retire to a time and place of your choosing with a pension plan too boot".

"If you can alter time then why not stop all this from happening?" Five gestured around at the destroyed landscape around them.

"That's quite impossible I'm afraid", the woman replied. "You see all of this, was supposed to happen".

"That's insane!" Peter burst out. "The end of everything?"

"Not everything. Just something". The woman paused then held out her hand. "So. Do we have an agreement?"

Five glanced at Peter questioningly. Peter met his gaze. Green eyes just as bright as they were when they first met decades ago as two little boys all alone in the world. They had grown since then but they were still two people all alone in the world. He nodded.

—V—

The twenty second of November 1963.

"Are you sure you got the calculations correct?" Peter asked as he watched Five thumb at his notebook. They were stood in the edge of a car park just where the hedge met the fence. The gap in the bushes providing a narrow space to gaze down the hill at the road where the entourage of the president was driving through. Peter adjusted his tie. The black suits that was the uniform for commission agents itchy. He stood on the ground now, form invisible to the casual passerby. He was nothing more than a blurred outline one might glimpse from the corner of their eye, but if you looked directly was invisible. It was abilities like this that made him and Five the Commission's best agents.

"Shhh", Five scowled at him. "I'm concentrating". In the background, a radio was announcing the president's journey. Peter shook his head at his husband. (It was sort of legal now. They had gotten married during a mission in Vegas of 2004 a year ago with stolen gold bands from a nearby pawnshop and a rather drunk Elvis impersonator officiating). "There!" Five exclaimed as he shoved his book into the other man's hands. Peter jerked and had to turn visible again to grab it. He tucked into a pocket and watched as Five clenched his fists and tried to channel his power.

"The commission won't let us go without a fight", he muttered. Five ignored him as a blue haze began to crackle the air in front of him. Peter could feel the energy surging around them. Through the blue haze, he could see blurry figures standing in a courtyard. "It seems to be working", he grinned as a red fire extinguisher came bursting through the portal. It clattered on the concrete.

"Are you ready to meet my family?" Five turned to him and held out a hand.

"Why not?" Peter smiled and took it. Then they were stepping into the portal. It felt like pushing against a giant foam wall. He could feel the energy crackling around him. It stung his skin and zipped his nerves. Then something seemed to burst and he and Five were falling. Peter yelped and let go of Five's hand, catching himself in the air just above the ground. Five hit the leaf scattered stone in a heap. Peter winced at the groan. With one final crackle, the portal disappeared.

"Peter?" Five looked up as he struggled to his feet. Peter was hanging in the air, staring at the now too big suit that hung on his body. He put his hands to his face to feel smooth skin where there had been stubble. The sleeves of his jacket and shirt hanging over his hands. There was a thud as a shoe slipped off his foot and hit the wet tiles. He stared at it and kicked his second shoe off. It narrowly missed the large man who looked too disproportionate to be fully human. That seemed to jerk everyone out of their heads.

"Does anyone else see a little Five and a floating boy, or is it just me?" A voice asked. Peter glanced at the five people staring at them before glancing at his husband. Five looked just like he'd been when they first met. Only now in a too big suit and angry. His husband who was now thirteen again, and from the way Five was looking at him, Peter was a child again too. (He was already paling at the thought of going through puberty a second time).

"Shit", Five sighed.

"I told you the calculations were off", Peter muttered.

Unedited