"We survived on scraps. Canned food, cockroaches, anything Riley and I could find," Five endet the Story.

Their sister was too stunned to speak.

She did ask herself all the time, what happened to Five and Riley after they disappeared. 

But hearing this... hearing the things they have been through...

It was save to say, it was a lot.

And that wasn't even half of the story.

"You know that rumor that Twinkies have an endless shelf life?" said Riley. "Well, it's total bullshit."

Riley smiled and Five's mouth twitched up.

That one candy had destroyed all the candy for them both forever.

But to be honest it was a funny story.

Riley and Five both thought back to it fondly, even though they were sick for several days afterwards.

"I can't even imagine," Vanya murmured.

"You do whatever it takes to survive, or you die. So we adapted. Whatever the world threw at us, we found a way to overcome it."

"'We' as in just you two?" Vanya wanted to know, pointing back and forth between the two.

Riley nodded.

"And you're really married?" Vanya asked afterwards.

To be honest she wasn't surprised.

Riley and Five have always had a stronger bond and were closer than the others– even Allison and Luther.

Now that Vanya thought about it, Riley and Five's relationship had never been siblings. It was always... more. Without anyone noticing.

On the other hand, they were 13 when the two left and what thirteen year old thinks about that at that age?

"Long story– You got anything stronger?" Five changed the topic, holding up his empty cup.

Vanya got up and made Riley, Five and herself some drinks.

First she gave the teenagers a glas. As Five took a sip, he realized Vanya was looking at Riley and him.

"You think we're crazy."

"No. It's just– it's a lot to take in," Vanya stammered.

"Exactly what don't you understand?" Five wanted to know, annoyed.

"Five, Sweetie–", Riley murmured, putting their hand on Five's arm.

Five looked down at them and his face softened.

"Please," Riley murmured. "Be nice."

The boy signed. He and Riley looked back at Vana.

Her face screamed that she had more questions– a lot of them

Riley motioned for her to ask any question she had in her head.

"Why didn't you just time travel back?"

"Gee, wish I'd thought of that–", Five rolled his eyes. "Time travel is a crapshoot. We went into the ice and never acorn-ed."

"Do you think we didn't try everything to get back to our family?" Riley wanted to know.

They sounded more calm and in the mood to deal with Vanyas questions.

"If you two grew old there, how come you still look like a kids?" Vanya asked and turned back to the others.

"I told you already. I must have got the equations wrong," said Five.

He went to the sink and poured himself a second drink.

"Dad always used to say that… time travel could mess up your mind. Well, maybe that's what's happening?" Vanya suggested.

Riley exhaled and exchanged a look with Five.

"This was a mistake," said the teenage-boy suddenly, looking at his sister. "You're too young–"

He put down his glass on to the kitchen counter.

Then he turned around. He took Riley's hand and wanted to leave Vanya's apartment with them.

Riley looked apologetically at Vanya and let the boy pull them along.

Five knew what he was doing, right?

"– too naive to understand–"

"No. Five... Five, wait", Vanya tried stop him.

He did suddenly stop infront of the appartement door.

So sudden, that Riley nearly walked into Five.

They took a step back and both truned around to face their sister.

"I haven't seen you in a long time, and I don't want to lose you again. That's all", Vanya tried to explain what was going on inside of her head.

"– And you know what, it's getting late, I have lessons early, and I need to sleep, and I'm sure you two do too."

Riley and Five nodded and and stepped away from the door.

Vanya quickly got two blankets and put one on the couch.

She stopped moving when she realized that there was only room for one person on the couch.

"Um– please give me a minute to come up with something. Okay?"

"No need," Five replied. "Riley sleeps on the couch, I sleep on the chair."

"The old armchair? Are you sure? It's going to be very uncomfortable," Vanya pointed out.

"In the apocalypse, we couldn't be picky either," Five said.

Vanya opened her mouth.

She seemed to consider whether or not she should say something about it.

In the end she decided against it and simply nodded.

It wasn't her business anyway and Vanya didn't want them to leave because she was annoying.

So, she wished the teenagers good night and handed the second blanket to Five before walking into her room.

Just a few minutes later, Riley sat on the couch, the blanket covering their legs and they tried to make themselves comfortable.

Five, on the other hand, was sitting in the armchair, not thinking about resting.

He was holding the fake eye, that he'd carried around since the first day of the apocalypse, in his hand.

They both sat together in comfortable silence until the teenage-boy got up.

"Wanna come with me?," he asked, heading for the door.

"Where to?" Riley asked.

They understood everything as Five held his eye up in the air.

"But what about Vanya?" Riley inquired, glancing at the door to Vanya's bedroom. Five followed their gaze.

"We'll talk to her later," the teenage-boy said. "She will understand when we explained everything to her."

The teenagers looked at each for another ten secounds.

"So, what do you say, ready for another adventure?" Five wanted to know and held out his hand.

Riley put their and in his and smiled at him.

"Always."

~~~

Riley and Five found themselves in the building of a company that made all sorts of prosthetics.

They got the address from the man in the diner.

They were waiting at the front desk for someone to help them with the eye– they wanted to know who his eye belonged to.

Most of the people employees or patients walked past the two.

After all who cared about kids?

Answer: One of the attending doctors.

At first he walked past them by the dest, but then he stopped and walked up to Riley and Five.

"Uh, can I help you?" the doctor asked, confused seeing two children here.

Children were certainly treated there, but neither Riley nor Five seemed to need a prosthesis or to have an accompanying adult who did.

"I need to know who this belongs to," Five explained, holding the eye up in the air.

The teenagers stepped closer to the doctor.

"Where did you get that?" the man wanted to know.

"What do you care?" Five replied.

Riley kicked his feet.

"We... We found it... at a playground, actually. Must have just–", Five clicked his tongue. "– popped out."

"We want to return it to its rightful owner," Riley explained.

"Oh... what thoughtful children," said the woman sitting at the front desk.

Riley smiled at her. At least someone was in a good mood.

"Yeah. Look up the name for us, will ya?" Five said fake kindly.

The desk-lady didn't seem to notice, but Riley did and they gave him a warning look.

It wouldn't help them if Five acted like an idiot and the poor woman didn't to anything to them.

"Uh, I'm sorry, but patient records are strictly confidential," said the doctor. "That means I can't tell you–"

"Yeah, we know what it means", Five interrupted the other man.

"But I'll tell you what I can do. I will take the eye off your hands and return it to the owner. I'm sure he or she will be very grateful, so if I can just–"

The doctor reached for the eye and Five pulled back his hand.

"Yeah, you're not touching this eye," he said to the doctor.

"What my boyfriend wanted to say", Riley tried so safe this situation and stepped between them. "– was that we want to give it back to the person ourselves. For school we have to write an essay about something that has happened to us and the last few weeks, and we thought that would be appropriate if we had a conversation with the owner of the eye."

"That's not what I wanted to say," Five said, standing next to Riley. "Just tell us what we want to know."

"Now, you listen here, young man–"

Before Riley could stopp him, Five took a step towards the doctor.

He grabbed the doctor by the collar of his lab coat and pulled him down.

"No! You listen to me, asshole–"

"Not again," Riley murmured.

They closed their eyes and placed their index finger and thumb on the bridge of their nose.

"– We've come a long way for this, through some shit your pea brain couldn't even comprehend, so just give me the information I need, and I'll be on my merry way. And if you call me 'young man' one more time, I'm gonna put your head through that damn wall," the teenage-boy threatened the doctor.

"Oh, dear," the woman at the desk murmured.

"Call security," the doctor said to her.

"That won't be necessary", assured Riley and resting a hand on Fives shoulder. "Sweetie, we are leaving."

Five didn't move and Riley added a loud and clear: "Now."

Then did Five let go of the doctor and Riley pulled him away from the slightly frightened man.

Riley took Fives hand and together the two left the building.

"Why the heck did you stopp me?", Five wanted to know, when they left the building.

"Because your plan didn't work."

"It would have", Five replied pacing around.

Riley raised their eyebrow and crossed their arms infront of their chest.

Afrer a few monents, Five stopped pacing– which meant, he had a new plan.

He turned to Riley and signed.

"Well, we have to think about something else. And I think I have an idea."

~~~~

The couple was sitting in his room.

Their thoughts were interrupted when Vanya appeared at the door.

"Oh, thank God," she murmured. "I was worried sick about you."

"Sorry we left without saying goodbye," Riley apologized.

"No, look, I'm the one that should be sorry," Vanya said. "Yeah, I was dismissive, and... I– I guess I didn't know how to process what you were saying. And I still can't, to be honest."

"Vanya, you don't have to apologize for everything", Riley assured. "We know that it's a lot."

"And maybe you were right to be dismissive," Five said. "Maybe it wasn't real after all. It felt real. Well… like you said, the old man did say time travel could contaminate the mind."

Riley's brow furrowed. They knew Five was lying, but sounded very convincing, even to Riley.

"Then maybe I'm not the right person for you to be talking to. Look, I used to see someone. A therapist. I could give you her information," Vanya suggested. "She could help both of you."

That was actually a good idea, talking to someone. Maybe just not for the reason Vanya thought.

"Thanks, but… I think I'm just gonna get some rest", refused Five. "It's been a long time since Riley and I had a good sleep."

"Okay", sighed Vanya and truned around to leave the room.

"I would take the number, just in case", Riley said.

Vanya stuck her hand into her pocket and pulled out a small peace of paper.

Riley took the peace of paper and Vanya left the room

Riley waited for their sister to leave and then turned to Five.

They wanted to say something, but the rustling from the closet stopped Riley.

"That's so..." said Klaus and stumbled out of the closet. "...touching, all that stuff about family and dad and time. Wow!"

"Would you shut up? She'll hear you," Five hissed.

He went to the door to see if Vanya heard him.

"Klaus, I thought we asked you to put on something professional," said Riley and pointed to the ridiculous clothes he was wearing.

"What? This is my nicest outfit," Klaus replied.

Riley raised an eyebrow and exchanged a look with Five.

"We'll raid the old man's closet," said Five and he and Riley left the room.

"Whatever. As long as I get paid," Klaus murmured and followed the two.

"When the job is done."

"Okay, but just so we're clear on the finer details–"

Riley and Five stopped and turned around.

"– I just gotta go into this place and pretend to be Five's dear old dad, correct?"

"Something like that," Riley said in confirmation.

"What’s our cover story?" Klaus wanted to know.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I mean, was I really young when I had you? Like, 16? Like, young and terribly misguided?"

"Sure."

"Your mother, that slut. Whoever she was. We met at the disco. And now I try my best that you don't make the same mistakes. Okay? Remember that. Oh, my God, the sex was amazing."

"WTF, Klaus–"

"What a disturbing glimpse into that thing you call a brain," said Five.

They turned around and walked down the stairs.

"Don't make me put you in time out."