Violet sat on the bottom step with her shoulder leant against the metal railing, fiddling with the ring in her lap and keeping her eyes down. She was sure to have her knees drawn up to sheild it from everyone's view, but she didn't really need to as the television they surrounded practically held everyone's attention.
"Authorities are asking for help identifying the several persons of interest at Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination," the newsreader spoke, the only sound in the silent room. "The FBI believes they may have been acting in consort with the alleged shooter Lee Harvey Oswald."
A picture of Vanya flashed on screen.
"Vanya Hargreeves, wanted in connection with the deaths of several FBI agents inside the Federal building at the Plaza; a cuban exhale known only as Diego-"
He scoffed. "-cuban?"
"-who recently escaped from the Holbrook Sanitarium," the image switched to one of Luther next. "A bare-knuckle boxer with suspected mafia ties who fights under the alias 'King Kong'."
Violet smiled down at her lap at that, unable to help herself.
The image turned to Allison. "Allison Chestnut, a radical responsible for instigating and organising the recent riots at Stadtlees lunch counter."
Allison had a few colourful words to say at that description.
"And finally Klaus," a mural artwork of the man from his many posters was shown. "The controversial cult leader and known tax evader."
"The FBI is asking the public to be on the lookout for this unidentified boy," the image switched to a grainy, half blurry picture of Five looking out from behind the fence. "Who they believe is being held hostage by the suspected terrorist network."
Then, to all of their surprise and Violet's dread, an equally grainy image of her was displayed - depicting her glancing over her shoudler with hair falling in her face, half shielding one of her eyes. Her whole body tensed at seeing the image.
"The FBI are also still on the hunt for the young girl only known as Violet; the missing victim of a brutal assault linked with the murder of Maxwell Nelson and the very recent arrest of suspect James Fellgrave," she could feel a few pairs of sympathetic eyes on her and held the ring tightly in a closed fist, her heart hammering as she stared at the images of the men who had attacked her, icy eyes boring back into hers. "The link between the two cases is unclear but the FBI urge the public to be on the lookout for the girl who is now also considered a hostage to the terrorist group along with the boy."
There was a heavy beat of silence as the newsreader switched over to something else to end the story, and Violet blinked heavily to try and disperse the image of those cold, ruthless eyes burned into her memory.
It didn't work. She exhaled slowly and looked down, noticing her hands beginning to tremble. She peered up shyly but only Five had his eyes on her from across the room.
It pained her to but she pulled her gaze back downwards.
She couldn't get the feeling of the mens frigid eyes on her, even though she knew the only ones on her now were Five's.
Her leg began bouncing up and down and she felt her heart beat was erratical inside her chest, sliding one hand to rest her palm over the skin. It pounded underneath her hand.
Voices conversing casually around her were lost on her ears. All she could hear was a high pitched ringing.
The images were gone, she was trying to keep her mind blank and empty, and yet her body was reacting like she was in the middle of the very attack that she had been trying to forget all the while she sat still on the steps.
Her skin warmed to an uncomfortable temperature. She exhaled shakily, keeping her head down, closing her eyes. Her heartbeat still thrummed under her hand on her chest.
Her other hand fiddled with the ring in her lap, index finger going between tapping the edge of it rapidly and rubbing her finger over the smooth metal.
"...the good news... restored the timeline..."
Her body felt like it was underwater.
"...most wanted people... world..."
Her leg blunced up and down without her even telling it to now, like a nerve was trapped and making it tremble at the erratic pace of her heart.
"...commission will hunt us.... go..."
Her mouth dried as she tried to breathe slowly. Their voices were shooting through her eardrums impossibly loud and she covered her ears, tucking her head down.
"You... the village idiot?"
Violet prised her eyes open and even though she knew everyone was preoccupied with Diego and Five arguing back and forth, her skin crawled as though everyone was watching her.
Suddenly the hardness of the concrete steps at her lower back made her feel sick.
It was like she was under him again, the stairs digging unforgivingly into her back and legs hard enough to bruise, no space between him and her body.
Then, in a flash that made her visibly flinch, it wasn't the stairs at her back but the barrel of the gun.
The scar on her chest burned with every shaky inhale she took.
Nausia rose within her and Violet pulled her arms around herself, pinching herself in the hopes the sting would distract her from this feeling. It did little.
"Turns out she does talk-" his voice spoke roughly in her ear.
Her head tilted to the side uncomfortably, face screwing up in discomfort as she tried to hold herself together.
And no one in the room with her seemed to notice her subtle struggle with her own mind playing cruel tricks, no one. Like she was a ghost in the room once again, as she had been their whole childhood.
Tears burned her eyes and Violet couldn't take it. She had to move. She had to leave. She had to get off the steps. She had to get their hands off of her all over again.
She stood abruptly, pocketed the ring and quickly made it halfway up the stairs when her eyes fell on a smear of crimson next to splotches on the corner of one of the steps that her foot was hovering over and she froze.
Eyes shot to her back, noticing her now that she was leaving because of the sudden movement.
The ringing amplified in her ears tenfold to the point she felt like she was swaying, the noise so impossibly loud it hurt to move her eyes.
Not that she could do that anyway, fixated on the blood stain. Hers.
Her legs carried her back down the stairs numbly, eyes still stuck on the blood, and when she was back on the ground floor she ripped her eyes away from it and stormed over to Five who cut himself off mid sentence, noticing the pale look on her face immediately.
She grabbed his forearm like a lifeline and made a small gesture, pointing upstairs and staring into his eyes and praying that he understood.
His mouth opened to say something, but her eyes were pleading, and suddenly he did.
They all stared after them, thoroughly confused by the sudden interruption as he blinked them both upstairs. Once she realised she was past the staircase and far away from it she dragged him further into the nearest room which happened to be the guest bedroom. She shut the door and released a breath, turning away from him and shaking her tingling hands out at her sides. She then began tapping her thighs with her fingers.
The room was deathly quiet and in it, the ringing dissipated.
She realised she hadn't heard him say her name the first time when he approached her side carefully, eyebrows pinched in heavy concern.
"Vi?"
She looked at him, swallowing back the lump in her throat. She felt stupid. She felt like an idiot. The thought that her siblings would ask questions about her sudden interrupting and dragging Five away made it difficult to calm her racing heart.
She needed a distraction. She needed to talk about something else.
She didn't want to admit that just seeing their faces again had brought her back to the attacks, had made her feel so small and so weak that she could scream in frustration.
She didn't have to admit it, though, because he could see it.
She could see in his eyes as he pieced it all together and internally scolded himself for not noticing sooner, for having continued talking to the others like it was nothing.
It was not nothing to Violet, as much as she wished it was.
"Hey," he reached gently for her hand at her side but didn't take it until she met his eyes and didn't actively pull away. "You're okay. You're here, you're okay-"
She turned automatically and surprised him by burying her face in the crook of his neck, letting him pull her into a gentle embrace that she practically melted into. Her muscles ached to twitch, her hands still shaking, and she actually wanted him to hold her tighter.
She couldn't voice it so tightened her arms around his waist and clutched the fabric of his blazer in her fists. He held her then even closer, strong arms around her shoulders, letting out an even breath as she screwed her eyes shut and listened to his soft breathing instead of her own erratic heartbeat.
The pressure of his body against hers was more than comfortable, something she pondered the concept of in the back of her mind.
For someone who despised the touch of another, she craved it with him like it was water and she was dying of thirst.
The pair of arms around her made her feel secure, grounded, and something about it soothed her thunderous heart beat into a lighter pattern that meant she could breathe a bit easier.
Five understood, in the comfortable silence as she calmed down, that she didn't want to vocalise anything at that moment.
She just wanted the rest of the world to fade away as he held her.
"Are you doing okay?" He murmured softly.
In response the girl just let out a heavy sigh against the crook of his neck, sending chills down his spine.
That was a no. But when was that answer going to be any different?
"You want to talk about it?" He felt stupid for even asking, but there was a little hope in him that she would nod and he would get to hear her voice and what was going on in her head.
She shook her head against him, still clutching him like a lifeline.
"Okay," he said. "We don't have to talk about anything if that's what you want."
God, she loved him so much.
The ring in her pocket seemed heavier somehow now, though she knew it was impossible.
The girl swallowed thickly. She lowered one hand from his back to find the object in her pocket and just held it between her fingers down at her side, fiddling with it, turning it in her hand for comfort as she considered if she should break the comfortable silence or not.
If he noticed that she was gripping him tightly with only one arm now then he didn't mention it.
Ask about it, or leave it?
She tightened her fist around the cold metal object, stopping her fidgeting all of a sudden.
Violet pulled away ever so slightly and he loosened his hold as she did, pulling back to look down at her curiously. He angled his head so he could see her face, gently tucking a bit of her long her behind her ear, making her look down even more, shy.
"You keep looking at the floor and my feelings are gonna start getting hurt," he chuckled a little, making her glance up at him briefly. "I'm not that bad looking, am I?"
Violet exhaled through her nose with a growing smile, shaking her head and eventually letting her eyes meet his.
They stayed there, still for a moment, just existing in eachothers company between shy eyes and gentle hands.
Slowly, however, her smile began to flatten out into something more like a frown and his expression mirrored hers quickly.
"What's wrong?"
Violet hesitated, chewing the inside of her cheek.
"Are you okay?"
She nodded then, looking down briefly, clutching the ring like it would disappear if she didn't hold it any tighter. "Now I am." She whispered, barely audible to him.
He scanned her face for a moment with a little frown. "Then what is it?"
"Why..." her nose scrunched up a little as she reconsidered her words. "Why didn't you tell me we were married?"
Her voice was so quiet he almost missed it, and yet it was equally so loud in the dead silent room that he blinked at her, taking a second to process what he had just been asked.
When he realised, his eyes closed and his lips pressed into a thin line. "Shit." He muttered, turning away briefly to collect his thoughts.
Violet wrapped her arms around herself in a comforting embrace, keeping her hands from fidgeting, and waited for his answer.
He ruffled a hand through his hair before turning back to face her curiosity.
"How did you..." he sighed in realisation and nodded to himself, muttering. "Right. The other me."
Her heart fluttered when he chuckled awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck and suddenly avoiding her gaze.
She couldn't help but bounce on her heels in the quiet.
A voice in her mind whispered - it was real, it was real, it was real.
Five looked at her, suddenly nervous himself, and read the sikent question in her eyes.
"I didn't say anything because I thought it would freak you out-"
"-it is." She cut in a little too sharply for her usual tone before snapping her mouth shut and turning to pace a couple steps away, not sure what to do with herself. "Sorry. I'm- I'm sorry."
She was tapping her other arm rapidly with her index and middle finger as she paced slowly.
He shook his head in astonishment. "I should be the one apologising," he started, almost laughing, but taking a step closer. She didn't glance at him, too preoccupied. "I don't really know what to say right now."
His tone was soft and genuine. He wished she would look at him but didn't blame her for not doing it.
"You don't have to, either. I don't want to force you into a situation you're not comfortable with. It- it doesn't have to mean anything, i mean, if you dont want it to, since..."
He scratched the back of his neck, realising he was rambling and suddenly growing bashful. He sat down on the edge of the bed with a sigh and she shifted, pausing her pacing before going to sit next to him, just a slither of space between them.
Her thoughts were racing.
She picked at threads on her jeans, digging her nails into the strings and tugging on and off. "Even if we..." she struggled, then, the topic of conversation making her skin crawl. "You know I can't-" she couldn't really say it.
The boy next to her exhaled in a laugh, making her look to him, not expecting it. He dipped his head down. "It may come as a surprise to you, Vi, but that's not really my thing either."
Oh.
Violet glanced at him in mild surprise, a lighter feeling hitting her all of a sudden in what he had revealed to her then. She was just wondering how them being married had played out in the other timeline and now he'd hinted to his asexuality, she felt warmer knowing it. Especially that he trusted her enough to say it to her so nonchalantly.
The thought that there would never have to be the pressure to be more physical than she was comfortable with - which she would never expect from him anyways as he was the only one who really understood her touch aversion - but still, insecurities had caught her in a trap and now she felt nothing but relief.
It was strange, though, to realise she had learnt something new about the very boy she thought she knew everything about.
She nodded in understanding, swallowing and glancing down at her lap in the silence that followed.
For a girl who had grown to live in silence, now it made her restless. Uncomfortable. Maybe it was because it was between her and Five and it shouldn't have been.
"Look," he began gently but seriously. "We can just forget it - it was another lifetime for me." He couldn't hide the twinge of disappointment running through him, though. And he most certainly wouldn't be able to just forget it. He wanted it more than ever but given the timeline mishaps, he couldn't expect anything from her. But he would be fine trying to work towards it all over again if it meant he had her by his side now and in the future. "I can't expect you to just-"
She wordlessly held something out to him in between her index finger and thumb, not looking at him for fear of his reaction.
His words died on his lips when he saw what it was, the breath stolen from his lungs.
"How...?" he asked in wonder, unable to tear his eyes away from his ring.
She bounced her knee up and down. "Other you lost it through the portal."
Slowly, carefully and still in a bit of a daze, his hand reached inside his blazer for something and he held up an almost identical ring beside the one she was holding.
She blinked at it in mild surprise, but didn't know why she hadn't expected him to have it. It was Five. Of course he would have it, it was his.
She lifted her eyes to meet his and they stared at eachother softly in the dim lighting of the room.
Shyly, she twisted the ring in her hand and spoke, laying it in her lap.
"You said you loved me."
His heart fluttered.
Hers picked up pace.
He was glad for the curtains closed in the room, the dim lighting hiding his warming cheeks.
"I do." He said back with certainty.
Warmth.
Her body was swathed in absolute warmth staring into his usually ice cold eyes as they thawed meeting her own. Like she was wrapped in a blanket of sunlight.
There was a moment there where Five held his breath, almost afraid that she wouldn't feel the same. She didn't say anything and his heart began to skip a beat.
She would be his, if he only asked. She realised it now that if at any point of her knowing him had he asked her to be his, she would have said yes before even processing the question.
And so she nudged him with her elbow, and whispered, "ask me."
He looked at her, calculating for a second. "What?" He almost hadn't heard her.
She nodded once, knowing that he had.
Five hesitated, his heart racing all of a sudden, and not because he didn't want to ask, but because he wasn't expecting Violet to be so bold.
Here Violet Hargreeves was, rendering him speechless.
She watched him softly, and smiled a little at his shock that he was working to process through.
He asks so quietly, then, so unspeakably softly that it sent shivers down her spine.
"Do you love me?"
His eyes were a picture of curiosity, lips pressed into a thin line, trying to keep his expression blank and even for her sake.
She looked up at him through a little curtain of hair falling into her face, tilting her head a little to shift it out of the way and nodded once.
He looks at her like she's made of sunshine and starlight, something out of this world, ethereal. Like he can't quite believe she's real.
"Ask me." She repeats herself, barely a whisper.
And now the lovestruck boy is confused.
He has on his face a lopsided smile. "I already..." then the realisation sets in and he stills, scanning her eyes rapidly.
There's an unreadable look in his eyes. she nods again, shyly, rubbing her palms over her thighs.
"Violet Hargreeves," he swallowed, shifting beside her so he was facing her properly. "would you, do me the utmost honour," he said quietly, seriously, aware of this little giddy feeling in his chest as he asked. "...of being my wife?"
Her heart skipped a beat.
He didn't get the response he was hoping for, nor the one he was fearing.
What he got instead was a shy peck of her lips on the corner of his, just missing his cheek. His eyes widened a fraction as she tore her gaze away, a light nervousness spreading across her body.
But when she gained the courage to take a peek up at him, he was staring at her already with a little smile forming on his usually stoic face.
And where normal couples did so many things neither of them could gain the courage to do together, this was it. This was all he could ask for.
And the press of her lips to his had made him melt.
It was the feeling he had craved ever since he got back, the feeling he had searched for his entire life.
And all Violet had to do was kiss him to bring the boy to his knees.
He let out a breath, arching an eyebrow. "I don't know if that counts. You might have to persuade me of your answer-"
She playfully shoved him and giggled while he gazed at her fondly, a boyish grin on his face. When her giggles subsided they were just looking softly at eachother.
The boy still couldn't quite believe it.
"I love you, too." She leant in to whisper in his ear with a secretive smile.
Their shoulders were resting against eachother after that, pinky fingers grazing eachothers, their hands next to eachother on the bed.
Five went to slide the ring he had been holding back onto his finger, glad for the familiar feeling encompassing him. The one he had missed. His heart ached at the weight it held on his hand.
Violet adjusted the one she had and slipped it on her own ring finger. She stared down at the sight of it, it feeling foreign but strangely right.
Five and her smiled and leant into the sides of eachother, his arm coming round to encircle her waist and shift her closer. She rested her head on his shoulder and it felt, then, that it was just like the old times back when they were kids.
Staring up at the stars with hopeful hearts and eyes of wonder, her head on his shoulder being such a rare touch that he could focus on nothing else.
And here he was again, unable to think of anything else but the girl against his side.
Now as she twisted the ring on her finger with her thumb, she couldn't have ever imagined herself without it.