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❛ ᴡᴀsᴛᴇʟᴀɴᴅs ᴏғ ᴛɪᴍᴇ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴀ ᴅɪsᴀᴘᴘᴏɪɴᴛɪɴɢ
ᴅᴏᴄᴛᴏʀ's ᴠɪsɪᴛ ꒱


❝ YOU THINK MY BUTT IS CUTE? ❞

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"You know that rumor that Twinkies have an endless shelf life?" Five asked once they'd gotten their coffee— his black, of course, and Dolores' extremely sweet.

Now, a soft smile graced her lips as she recalled the memory from what seemed like a lifetime ago, back before she could barely tolerate the boy she'd ended up marrying. It had been one of their better days, back then. She'd found his family's lunchbox as well and had made an attempt at being nice by sharing the treat, though her efforts had been for naught when they'd both realized it was desert-dry and hard as a rock.

"Well, it's total bullshit."

"I can't even imagine," Vanya said quietly.

"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."

At this, she gave him a confused look. "We?"

Dolores raised her hand. "I survived by pure luck. He found me days— weeks?— later in my basement."

The dark-haired woman stared at the brunette sitting on her brother's lap. It seemed impossible that they were married, let alone this slight, ordinary girl to have survived what they were claiming was to happen. She still wasn't even sure if she believed it. Five had been gone for years and with him just now turning up with a strange girl claiming the end of the world? It seemed impossible.

Seeming to have noticed the look on her face, Five sighed. "You got anything stronger?"

Vanya handed both of them the beverage. The boy took a sip of his immediately while Dolores stared into the depths of the dark liquor, remembering it as the same hue her father and uncle used to drink— her father and uncle who were alive in this timeline.

The seventh Hargreeves was silent for a moment and Five took that negatively. "You think I'm crazy."

"It's just. . . a lot to take in."

"Exactly what don't you understand?"

"I don't know," she started, before she studied him. "Why didn't you just time travel back?"

He rolled his eyes and scoffed as he took a sip of the drink. "Gee, I wish I'd thought of that. Time travel is a crapshoot. I went into the ice and never acorn-ed. You think I didn't try everything to get back to my family?"

"If you grew old there— you know, in the apocalypse— how come you still look like a kid?"

"I told you already," the boy snapped, "I must've got the equations wrong."

"Again," Dolores added with a faint smirk, though her comment was unwelcome as the boy turned to give her an irritated look that said: not now.

"I mean, Dad always used to say that time travel could mess with your mind. Maybe that's what's happening?" Vanya suggested as Five refilled his drink.

"Then how do you explain me?" the brunette pointed out, "I'm not something he manifested out of nowhere. I can't time travel, so that didn't mess with my mind." Here, her words became slightly scathing. How could Vanya not believe her own brother?

The boy set down the glass with a loud clink as he bristled at the implication Dolores wasn't real. He made his way over to her and grasped the girl's hand tightly, both to convince himself he hadn't made her up and to show Vanya that she wasn't just— somehow— in both of their imaginations. "This was a mistake," he said sharply, "you're too young, too naïve to understand." He tugged on the girl's arm. "Come on, Dolly," he added as he pulled her towards the door.

She remained rooted in her spot as Vanya called after him: "no, Five— Five, wait— I haven't seen you in a long time and I don't want to lose you again. That's all," she told him softly, "and you know what, it's getting late, and. . . I have lessons early, and I need sleep. I'm sure you both do, too. Here." She made her way to the couch and spread a blanket over the pillows. "I'm sorry, I only have the one—"

"We're used to sharing," Dolores told her with a faint grin.

"R-right," the woman realized, "we'll talk in the morning again, okay? I promise. Night."

"Night."

As Vanya disappeared into her room, Five turned to the brunette. "You are real," he said firmly.

"Of course I am," Dolores agreed, looking puzzled. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I didn't like her implying that you weren't," he answered, giving the closed door an angry look.

"Hey." She pulled his attention away from the room as she squeezed his hand three times. "She doesn't understand, yet. We'll explain it better to her tomorrow—"

"We don't need her," he decided, sitting down on the couch and pulling the girl with him. He brought out their remaining lead from the apocalypse and let the glass sphere sit in his palm. "We'll follow this tomorrow. We don't have time to explain everything again."

"Fives—"

He sighed. "I won't be mean about it." At her disbelieving look, he added, "I promise."

✧✧✧

The pair arrived at Meritech the following morning after having spent the night in their borrowed car. The building had a gray-on-white theme and even the patients and employees seemed to blend in with their surroundings. Dolores shivered slightly as she stepped closer to the boy to grasp his hand. "It's way too clean in here."

"Says the clean freak," he said with a faint smirk.

She huffed. "That's different. I'm not a clean freak most of the time."

He rolled his eyes. "Come on, the faster we get this done, the faster we can get out of here."

"And save the world," she added.

"Right," he agreed as they got in the elevator. It dinged on the top level and they stepped out to a similarly-colored room, though this had expansive windows that at least let in light.

"Can I help you?" A man who appeared to be a doctor stepped out of his office.

Five turned and walked over to the man while holding up the eye with Dolores following close behind. "I need to know who this belongs to," Five explained. The man stared at him.

"Where did you get that?" he asked. The boy rolled his eyes.

"What do you care?" he snapped back and winced as Dolores elbowed him. The boy sighed. "I found it in a playground, actually. It must have just—" He made a popping sound with his tongue. "—popped out. I wanna return it to its rightful owner."

"Oh, what a thoughtful young man," the receptionist praised from her desk.

"Yeah, look up the name for me, will you?" he asked in a falsely polite tone. A frown appeared on the woman's face as the man stepped forward.

"Um, I'm sorry, but patient records are strictly confidential," he explained, "that means I can't tell you—"

"Yeah, I know what it means," Five snapped.

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

Five took a step back as the man reached for the eye. "Yeah, you're not touching this eye."

"Now you listen here, young man—" the doctor started, and Dolores winced as Five lunged forward to grab the lapels of the man's coat.

"No! You listen to me, asshole—" the boy cut across him furiously.

The brunette leapt into action and placed her hands on the boy's chest to push him away from the doctor. "Hey, hey, hey," she said soothingly as she backed him up. "Just breathe, Fives."

She knew that if she wasn't standing in the way, Five wouldn't hesitate to send the man flying through the wall if he grew any angrier. As it was, he stood rigidly still with his hands clenched into fists by his sides as he stared down the doctor with a furious expression on his face.

"Fives," she said again, reaching up to cup her hand against his cheek and he almost instantly leaned into the touch. "Just breathe, okay? He's not worth it. We need him," she added more quietly.

The boy made an effort to follow her instructions. He took a few shaky breaths as her hand dropped from his face to grasp his clenched fists. She gently worked his fingers loose so she could tangle them together as she looked up at him. "Just trust me, alright? I can handle this."

His expression softened. "I do," he told her quietly, and he let out a long breath as he leaned forward to press a kiss to her forehead. 

Once she was certain he'd calmed down, Dolores turned back to the shocked employees with a bright, apologetic smile and began to work her magic. "I'm sorry about him," she said, "he's got some, uh, anger issues we're currently working through. He just really wants to support me, y'know? I've always been fascinated with prosthetics and I absolutely love watching those videos where soldiers regain the ability to walk or hold something, right? I've been interested in prosthetics for a long time and I've always wanted to meet someone who had one, so when we found this eye at the playground, I of course knew exactly what it was. I was hoping to meet the man or woman behind the eye and hear their story of why they needed it— as long as they were comfortable with sharing, of course."

"I'm sorry," the doctor apologized in a calmer tone. "As much as I appreciate your story I can't break patient confidentiality. I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you—"

"Well," Dolores said with a more cheerful smile, "I do have to congratulate you on your sticking to company policies. There are few employees who would uphold it as dutifully as you do, Dr.—"

"Biggs," he told her, looking pleased.

Five watched as Dolores spoke confidently to the man who had the audacity to call himself a doctor— an insult to his field, really. The girl's face was bright and animated as she gave him her full attention and plenty of praise, which he could tell the doctor ate up eagerly. She'd always had a way with words and had the ability to get whatever she wanted just by picking up on some invisible cues that he had no idea existed. She could spin whole stories by pulling true facts and twisting them around, or by making things up as she went with bits of truth here and there. As he'd watched her over the years, the one thing he had picked up on were that the elements of her stories were never completely false which made them more believable. They were also extremely detailed so that only someone like Dolores could remember each and every facet. And then, somehow, they were walking past the receptionist and towards what he assumed was the room where their information lay.

As the doctor led them down the hall, Dolores beamed happily at her success. They were one step closer to saving the world. She startled somewhat as Five's hand grasped hers and she looked up to see a slightly awed look on his face as he gazed down at her. "I don't know how you did it," he said quietly, "but you're incredible. You know that, right?"

The girl turned pink at his affectionate look and ducked her head, still unused to when she impressed her genius husband, even after all these years. The boy's fingers gently cupped her cheek and turned her face back towards him so he could press a soft kiss to her lips. Dolores' eyes closed immediately at the action and she would have let it last longer had they not been following the doctor. Regretfully, she pulled away and motioned to where he was walking away from them. "We have to keep up."

"Damn him," the boy said grumpily, earning a faint giggle from the girl as she tugged him along.

✧✧✧

"Oh, that's strange," the doctor murmured. The two teens stood near him as he studied the open file on top of the countertop.

"What?" Five demanded, stepping forward only to be pulled back by the brunette.

"Uh, the eye. It hasn't been purchased by a client yet."

"What?" Dolores asked, letting go of the boy's hand to look over the man's arm. "What do you mean?"

"Well, uh, our logs say that the eye with that serial number. . ." He peered at the paper more closely. "This can't be right. It hasn't even been manufactured yet." He glanced at the brunette, who he much preferred over the aggressive boy. "Where did you get that eye?" he asked, directing the question to her.

"Uh. . ."

✧✧✧

The pair left the building with lower hopes than they had when they went in. Five sat down heavily on one of the steps and sighed, pushing his hands through his bangs as he leaned his elbows on his legs. "This isn't good."

Dolores plopped down next to him and leaned against the boy's arm, wrapping her own comfortably around his. "We'll figure it out," she stated confidently, "we just need a plan B. We could check Ford's Theater."

"Probably another dead end."

They fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts as they tried to figure out what to do next. Dolores stared out at the street as she watched people and cars pass by in a busy rush, completely unaware that this was— quite possibly— their last week on earth. She thought about her past self who was currently going on about her daily life, completely ignorant to the fact that in the next few days she'd survive 'another' apocalypse.

The brunette frowned. Would Five come along and save her in this timeline? Her head tilted slightly on the boy's shoulder to look up at him before her gaze returned to the street. That was definitely something to consider. Was Five's past self already time travelling? Or was this his past self and there would be no Five to save her future self? Would her future self perish in a dark basement alone? They were changing the timeline and Five hadn't returned— to her knowledge— in the original 2019. Now that he had, did that mean apocalypse-Five wouldn't happen?

There were still days to go before apocalypse two occurred. There was still time to change future events. If Five wasn't going to be in the apocalypse, she somehow had to get a message to herself to not go into the basement on April first, for she'd rather die at the end of the world than weeks later. (Of course, this was if they weren't successful, though she fully intended on them stopping this thing.)

"Five," she said suddenly, startling the boy.

"Yeah?"

"What if we're too early?"

"What does that mean?" he asked, turning to look at her with a frown.

"What if the eye hasn't been made yet because the person hasn't needed it yet? They've still got a week to lose it, so—"

"So it could still be ordered by April first," he finished, his eyes widening slightly.

"Exactly. It could be ordered tomorrow, not today. It doesn't necessarily mean we've lost the person."

"But how are we going to track the serial number?" Five wondered, "I don't think Dr. Biggs would let us see the files again. It would be too suspicious if it suddenly turned up and now two of the serial numbers exist."

Dolores chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully for a moment before she brightened. "If someone loses an eye, it's probably a serious injury, right?" she asked, her tone almost comically jubilant for the question's subject.

"Yeah. . ." the boy agreed slowly.

"We could check the hospital in a few days' time to see if anyone's lost an eye. They keep records of house addresses and close kin when you're admitted and they'd probably file an order like a prosthetic under the patient's name for billing."

Five was silent as he processed the information before his expression became one of complete adoration. "You're a genius!"

Dolores turned pink and ducked her head. Two slim, familiar fingers slid under her chin and lightly tilted her head up so the boy could study her warm face with fondness. He leaned down and closed the space between them, his lips brushing softly over hers before he deepened it quickly, enjoying the faint squeak of surprise the brunette made as his teeth gently grazed her bottom lip, asking for entrance. She gave it to him readily and his senses became flooded with her presence.

The apocalypse disappeared into the far corners of his mind as it filled with the sweetness and familiarity of her kiss, of her soft lips moving contentedly against his, the warmth of her skin against his hand as he cupped her cheek against his palm. The busy sounds of the street faded away as all he became focused on was her, Dolores. He became breathless as the kiss lingered on, though he would gladly drown if it meant that he could keep kissing her forever. He knew she felt the same in the way she leaned into his touch, welcomed the press of his lips against hers, trusted him enough to let down her guard as she kissed him back.

The boy's free hand slid down to her waist and made to slide under her shirt, though he was stopped by an annoyingly familiar piece of fabric. Reluctantly, he finally parted from her and panted slightly as he cursed. "Damn this dress."

The brunette's expression brightened as she let out a startled giggle, the noise filling up the space around him. Dolores' eyes were a light, brilliant blue as she rolled them at him and her lips were now more red than pink and wonderfully swollen as she protested, "Fives, we're in public!"

He gave her a shit-eating grin, though he was sure is lips were in a similar state. "You've never cared before."

She shoved him gently and he allowed himself to sway slightly from the force. "You're being cheeky."

"You love it," he countered easily.

The girl brushed her hair out of her eyes as they turned up to sparkle at him. "I love you," she corrected him with a faint smile. An impatient look flashed across his face. 

"Alright, we're leaving," he decided, gently grasping her wrist and the two of them disappeared in a blue flash, none of the passers-by paying them any mind.

✧✧✧

Sometime later, Dolores helped Five adjust his tie as they straightened themselves out. The brunette drew her bottom lip between her teeth as she concentrated on the neat knot she was trying to make. She didn't miss the way the boy's eyes followed the motion, nor his words that came with it. "If you keep doing that, all of this will be for not."

A smile quirked on her lips as he gestured to their recently-neatened clothes and she shook her head. "Teenage hormones, am I right?"

"We're going to need to get you a new outfit," he continued, looking down at her dress. "It simply isn't practical for saving the world. Can you imagine having to fight in it?"

"Your sister managed just fine," the brunette pointed out with a faint smirk as she smoothed down his vest. "And if we're talking about a change of clothes, we should get you one, too. I'd love to see how you'd look in jeans."

"Jeans?" Five repeated, raising an eyebrow. "I've always been more into formal wear."

"Yeah, but they'd do wonders for that cute butt of yours."

"You think my butt is cute?" he asked, amused (and pleased.) The girl took his hand— and gave it the traditional three squeezes— as they stepped out of the nondescript alley. 

"I'm your wife," she answered primly, "I'm allowed to think your butt is cute."

"I never said you weren't allowed to say that, I just asked if it was really true."

They began to walk down the street, past the Meritech building, as she rolled her eyes at his smug expression. "I don't need to confirm it and inflate that ego of your anymore. It's a wonder that we can still fit in the same bed with how big it is."

He huffed. "Are you sure you're talking about the right Hargreeves?"

It was her turn to give him an amused look. "Yes, I'm absolutely positive. However, going back to the topic at hand, a change of clothes will have to wait."

"What? Why?"

"We should probably make sure we tell your sister you're okay."

"Why?" the boy repeated.

"Because we disappeared on her," Dolores replied, giving him a surprised look. "Surely you thought that she'd worry?" Five gave a noncommittal shrug. "Of course she would," the girl told him emphatically, "so we'll go back to the Academy since that's probably where she'll look, then we'll make a pitstop and go shopping."