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❛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘ. ᴘᴀɴ ᴇғғᴇᴄᴛ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ᴛʜᴇ
sɪᴅᴇᴡᴀʟᴋ ᴇɴᴅs ꒱


❝ LET US LEAVE THIS PLACE
WHERE THE SMOKE BLOWS
BLACK / & THE DARK
STREET WINDS & BENDS  ❞

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Alexa woke slowly the next morning. It wasn't the automatic wake-up that came with a blaring alarm or a disoriented consciousness that followed a day of travel. It was more of a soft alertness as she was roused gently from sleep. As her eyes blinked open to the warm light of the Kugelblitz, she wasn't certain if she was awake or if she was still dreaming.

A cool breeze brushed against her bare skin, causing her to shiver and pull the sheet up to her shoulders. As she adjusted to being awake, she stretched luxuriously before she rolled over. The girl's eyes widened with momentary surprise as she took in the still-sleeping boy next to her. Five's hair stuck up in odd directions while his mouth hung open slightly. His head was turned towards her but he was laying on his stomach; one of his arms was outstretched in her direction while the other was draped off the bed.

Her memories from last night came back in a sudden rush and she blushed as she recalled what they'd. . . done last night. Her gaze travelled across his exposed back as the sheet only came up to his shoulder blades. The blonde's face warmed further as her thoughts skittered towards the gutter as. . . ways that she'd like to wake him up came to mind. Settling for the tamest option, she reached forward to gently push the boy's dark strands out of his face. As expected, the action caused him to stir. When his eyes flickered open, he smiled sleepily at her. "Hey."

"Morning," she greeted him fondly. "How'd you sleep?"

"That was the best night's rest I've had in a long time. Maybe ever."

Alexa smiled bashfully. "Really? It was that good?"

Five smirked at her in return. "I'd say. Come here."

He shifted so that he was lying on his side and lifted up an arm. Her expression brightened happily as she moved closer to curl up against him. Her eyes fell to the new tattoo on his chest. It had been a bit of a surprise to see it but otherwise hadn't been off-putting; she'd only made sure to be extra careful around the sensitive area. She lifted her hand to trace the lines of ink with a feather-light touch, earning a sharp intake of breath in response. The boy quickly caught her hand to intertwine it with his own. "Careful. If you keep doing that we might need a morning round."

The corner of her lips quirked up. "Who's to say that we weren't gonna do that anyway?"

"Really? It was that good?" the boy echoed her previous question, though this time it was said much more smugly.

"Shut up," she grumbled with faux irritation.

He chuckled quietly before they fell into a comfortable silence. It lasted for several long moments before he couldn't resist the urge to ask a question he'd been dying to know the answer to. "Lexa?"

"Hmmm?"

"Can I. . . ask you something?"

Her eyes flicked open again to meet his. "Of course. You can ask me anything. You know that."

"Right," he agreed. "Uh. . . when-when we were doing that mediation thing. . . what. . . did you see?"

Alexa frowned with some confusion. "What do you mean?"

"What happened after we closed our eyes? Did you. . . see anything different?"

The girl's gaze shifted away from him. "I don't think you'll believe me."

Five squeezed her hand reassuringly. "Try me, darling."

"Promise not to laugh? Or say that it's impossible? Or—"

He sighed. "Lexa, would I ever do those things?"

She gave him a look that clearly said 'yes. Of course you would.' "Would you like me to list my examples by date or alphabetically?"

"Okay, fine! I promise," he huffed. "But I'm not really that bad."

"Uh-huh. Have you heard yourself recently?" When he just rolled his eyes, she continued, but this time more seriously: "well. . . the reason why I think you'd react that way is because I did see something that. . . seems impossible. Um, it was a door that—"

"Apparently lead to nowhere?" he finished. At her wide-eyed look, his expression became extremely smug. "I told you that I'd believe you, didn't I?"

"How. . . what did you see?"

The boy nodded. "The same thing. Was yours the Umbrella Academy doors?"

"Um. . . no. It was steel. Kind of like the door you'd see in a bunker. What-what did you see?"

He hesitated for a moment before he admitted: "I think I saw your memories. Did. . . you see mine?"

Her eyes met his again. "Sort of. The door that appeared was kind of hard to open. All of the other doors looked like the main one and were embedded in this. . . underground passageway. I tried a lot of them but most of them were sealed shut."

"Really? All of the doors I came across were wide open," he commented. "So. . . did you see any of. . . my memories?"

She shrugged. "Only ones that I already knew about. Those were really far from the main door. Do. . . do you think that we were reading each other's minds or something?"

"Or something," he allowed noncommittally. "I don't think that you can read minds, Lexa. I think that it was more. . . the ability to access memories. It makes sense if you think about it."

"How?"

"Well, you said that you think your power comes from both your heart and mind. A person's memories are stored in their mind, but the feeling about them comes from their heart. It's like the capstone in your hypothesis."

She grinned slightly. "How can you make emotions sound so scientific?"

"It's only one of my many talents, mio angelo." He smirked at her. "Care to experience. . . another one?"

Alexa let her earlier thoughts return as she propped herself up on one arm to look down at him. "I'd love that. On one condition."

"And what would that be?" She sat up and kicked the sheet completely off of both of them. With a rather mischievous smile, she shifted so that she was straddling him. Five's eyes widened as he let out an awed breath. "Oh boy."

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

"I'm sorry."

On the other side of the hotel and two floors up, another (recently married) couple woke up to greet the final day. Sloane, who was resting her head on her girlfriend's— sorry, her wife's!— chest, shifted her head to look up at the brunette. With a puzzled frown, she wondered: "what for?"

Deianira smiled almost guiltily down at her while her right hand traced a soothing pattern on the blonde's bare arm. "I was supposed to take you to see the world. Now I don't think that you ever will."

The fifth Hargreeves propped herself up on her elbow to meet her wife's gaze softly. Her long hair fell over her shoulder and pooled against the pillow underneath her. "Nira, it's not your fault. You don't have to apologize for that."

"I know," she admitted. "But I also know that you wanted nothing more than to travel. The only place we'll be travelling to in the near future is the breakfast buffet downstairs."

Sloane let out a soft giggle. "That's something, at least. And Nira, the important thing— to me, at least— is that you're here. While it might not be an ideal situation for a wedding, we're still together. That's what matters above all else."

She gently flicked the woman's forehead affectionately. "You're such a sap, Sloany."

"You love me," the blonde countered lightly.

Deianira lifted an eyebrow. "That's not what I was contesting, love. I was merely commenting on the fact that you're probably the most sentimental person I know."

"And you're the least," Sloane returned. To make her words sound less harsh, she leaned forward to press her lips to her wife's.

While she meant for the kiss to be quick and chaste, the brunette deepened it (rather expectedly, if she was being honest.) As Deianira's tongue explored her mouth, she pushed herself up to place a hand on either side of the brunette's head. Sloane's body followed suit so that she was positioned on top of the Romani woman. As she pulled away for air, Deianira smirked up at her. "Shall we relive the consummating of our marriage?"

"Well, at least you didn't say practice because we certainly don't need to."

"So is that a yes?" The blonde leaned down again to— this time purposefully— give her a deep kiss. When they broke apart, Deianira gave her a small, sure nod. "That's a yes."

☂︎ ☂︎ ☂︎

After another (several) round(s) of lovemaking, Alexa and Five finally decided to leave the room. They walked out to the edge of the world hand-in-hand as they tried to recall the events— not including their. . . evening activities— from the previous night. They both remembered seeing Reginald making a deal with someone but the. . . passionate feelings they'd been experiencing had overridden any details that they could recall.

Alexa stopped the boy before he could sit down. "Wait, Fi. Don't go too close to the edge."

He turned to look back at her. "I'm not going to fall," he said in a slightly mocking tone.

"Not on purpose," she agreed, "but the edge might not be stable and extra weight could make it give way."

Five sighed, knowing that she was only over-worrying because she cared so much about him. "Alright," he conceded with surprising ease.

He then let go of her hand to sit down on a few feet away from the overhang, just enough to let his feet stretch out into the abyss. The blonde let out a sigh of her own at his stubbornness but relented; she took up the position between his legs and let her back rest against his chest. The boy wrapped his arms around her as they both looked out at the slowly revolving Kugelblitz. Occasionally, they took sips from the liquor that Five had brought with him, though they grimaced at the taste each time.

"I know I said this last night but it's just so. . . pretty. I wish I could paint it," she mused.

Five straightened at her words. He pressed a light kiss to her cheek before he stood. "Wait just a moment, I'll be back." He disappeared in a flash of blue.

Alexa shook her head fondly at his inability to just. . . be. She wasn't too bothered by it, though— it was one of the reasons why she loved him, after all— and contented herself with taking a few more sips from the bottle that sat next to her. True to his word, the boy reappeared a short while after and retook his position behind her. However, as he did, he handed her the items he'd brought with him. The girl's eyes widened.

"Where on Earth did you find these things?" she exclaimed happily; a pad of paper and colored pencils had landed in her lap.

He chuckled quietly, sending the gentle reverberations from his chest against her back. "I know it's not paints but it's the best that I could do on short notice. I saw them and thought of you."

She felt her face warm instantly at his explanation; it was almost as good as him saying I love you. The fact that he'd been thinking about her meant more to her than she could ever say.

"I don't care that it's not paints. I love it!" She shifted slightly to give him a perfunctory kiss on the cheek— impulsively returning his gesture from moments earlier in a much more excited manner. "And I love you!" she added hastily, almost as an afterthought— but he knew it wasn't.

Five wrapped his arms more securely around the blonde and rested his chin on her shoulder as she settled back down. His gaze fell on her hands as she began to recreate the scene before them. This time when he sighed, it was to let his shoulders— his entire being, really— relax. In the years he'd spent fighting to get back to his family, this was one of the things that he'd missed most: the peaceful moments from their childhood when it had just been him and Alexa. While he would never admit this to his girlfriend, the times they'd spent together in her room while she drew had been some of his favorite memories. He'd longed to experience that time again and now here they were, doing exactly that (albeit not exactly in the situation he'd hoped for.) Unfortunately, their happiness was interrupted by a very unwelcome visitor.

"Greetings, you two," their father spoke from above them. The pair made to jump apart as ingrained self-defense prompted them to act on instinct, but the older man waved his hand airily. "As you were."

"Reginald," Five returned coldly as Alexa settled back against him. She didn't even spare her father another glance and continued to draw the Kugelblitz in front of them.

"I take it you know why I'm here."

"How 'bout I save you some time? Give you the no up front."

Reginald watched the blonde for a moment. "You don't speak for Alexandra, Number Five. Surely you'd like to return the favor after I've done so much to help you with your powers?"

The girl's eyes barely moved from her paper except to study her reference. "I'll allow it," she answered simply. "Five can speak for me."

Five turned back to their father with a smirk. "We're not the least bit interested in this bullshit plan you've been cooking."

"It's not— as you so colorfully call it— bullshit."

Alexa snorted. "That's certainly an opinion. Unfortunately it's the wrong one."

The boy added to her sarcasm by taking a sip from their bottle, showing that neither of them wanted to engage in conversation with the older man. Regrettably, he was as stubborn as Five could be and ignored their social cues. "Mind if I join you?"

"Actually, we'd appreciate some. . . solitude." His words trailed off as Reginald sat anyway. The blonde let out an exaggerated exhale and sank against her boyfriend's chest. "It seems like we won't get any." He passed the bottle to their father.

Reginald tried some of it himself and gave a similar disgusted reaction. "Dear God!"

"Louis the thirteenth it ain't."

"I've had worse." He set the bottle down next to him only for Alexa to pick it back up. "It is impressive, isn't it?" He glanced down at the girl's artwork, which was a showcase of orange and brown hues. "You're quite good at that, aren't you?"

"Oh," she said, surprised. (Her original father had never, ever complimented her drawings. All he'd ever done was hang it up around the Academy— and that was mostly just for their mother.) "Thanks."

"Of course she is," Five cut in. Though his words were dismissive, his arms tightened around the blonde in a reassuring hug. He took the bottle that she offered to him. "All the ways that we could have screwed the pooch, this way is the most complete. I'm relieved, actually. This time everything goes. There's no Commission, no leaping away, no life spent going mad with the desperation to see a familiar face."

The last item in his list made Alexa's heart squeeze with sympathy. She'd always known that the apocalypse hadn't been remotely easy but Five had never truly shared what it had been like. If their father hadn't been there, she would have turned around to kiss him in an effort to take away the sadness that tinged the end of his sentence.

Reginald— who had never been the emotional sort— ignored the change in the boy's tone. He drank from the liquor bottle before he spoke again: "I've seen worlds end in ways that would knock your socks off, old man."

"Wow! Reginald Hargreeves, you never cease to surprise me."

"That is some comfort. You know, they all run together after a while but you never forget your first." Here, Alexa couldn't resist the snort of amusement at the man's unintentional innuendo. He sent her a (very familiar) look of disapproval in return. "Your home. Your original sin. You never stop wondering 'did I do enough to save the people I loved?'"

"Did you?" Five asked softly.

"No. . . but I was hoping you children could help me out with that."

The boy made a sarcastic gesture with the bottle. "And there it is. Sorry, Reg. I got a message from the future."

"What future?"

"My future self told me very explicitly not to save this world."

Their father burst into disbelieving laughter. "You are an arrogant son of a bitch, aren't you? 'Future you.' 'Present you.' The past is as much a mystery as the future. You ruined your life once before by not listening to me. Are you prepared to do that again?" He paused, before he addressed the girl: "you've been quiet during our conversation, Alexandra. I do hope you're pondering what your next move will be. I ask you this: are you willing to fail your family for a third time?"

The blonde jerked out of her comfortable position as if she'd been electrocuted. The orange pencil that had been resting in her lap rolled forward due to her sudden motion and almost fell into the abyss if it hadn't been for Five's quick hand that caught it. Alexa stared at the older man with wide, hurt eyes— to which he remained impassive. Her heart thudded in her chest as he so carelessly brought up the ghosts (some of them literal) that haunted her.

This time, however, facing her father's wrath— that she so feared— was different: she wasn't alone. The boy gently set the drawing supplies aside to wrap his arms protectively around her in a reminder that this time, they stood together. His eyes narrowed at their father. "Fine," he said gruffly. "We'll attend your stupid meeting."

"Excellent!" Reginald exclaimed, oblivious to the reaction his words had caused. He stood from the ledge.

". . . If you tell us what happened with you in the Buffalo Suite last night. Who were you talking to? Was it Klaus? Was it Ben?" At the mention of their not-brother, the girl flinched against the boy's hold. "Sorry," the boy added in a voice too low for anyone but her to hear.

"No one. I was alone," the man replied, clearly lying through his teeth. "Though I take it that you were too. . . preoccupied to remember. We should go— don't want to be late for the meeting."

As Reginald stared down at them with cold, unforgiving eyes— how could Klaus think that this version of him was better?— Alexa felt sudden tingles race up her spine to set the hairs on the back of her neck on end. Danger! Startled by the sudden warning, she reacted without thinking: she scrambled to a standing position and pulled on the boy's arm urgently. "Five, get up!"

Used to obeying her warnings during their early missions, he followed her request without questioning it. In the next second after he moved away from the edge, the place where they'd been sitting collapsed into the abyss. His eyes widened as he faced the girl. "Thanks for that."

After their already trying conversation with their father, she leapt forward instinctively and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug.