MHA #2 | Tuesday Morning

[knife_bender]

Diego and Annie had gotten back from Australia super early, and she almost immediately had to get back to New York for work. Which left him alone at the apartment. Well...maybe he was alone. It was always hard to tell what was going on in that guest room.

Ugh. He was going to have to apologize for being a jackass, wasn't he? First he was going to make coffee, he needed coffee in order to do this.

A few minutes later he approached the guest room door, mug in hand. He knocked on the door lightly. "Five?"

Maybe he wasn't in there doing crazy stuff?

[Done spamming. For the brother!]

Comments

[apocalypsehow]

Five wasn't doing anything more crazy than usual! But he was reading that dumb magic book that had been inflicted on him.

"Are knocking in your own apartment?"

Oh god, we're they going to have an emotional conversation? He'd need that coffee to get through it.

[knife_bender]

Diego sighed and pushed open the door. "You missed out on the whole puberty thing with us. Never enter a sibling's bedroom without knocking unless you want to go blind."

Good life advice.

[apocalypsehow]

The face Five made said it all. "Klaus?"

[knife_bender]

"You know it," Diego said, leaning against the doorframe. "What the hell are you reading?"

[apocalypsehow]

"A birthday gift." Ugh, Belle. You're the worst.

[knife_bender]

"People like you enough to get you birthday gifts?" This apology was going great.

[apocalypsehow]

Five rolled his eyes because he didn't know the awkwardness waiting for him.

"What do you want, Diego?"

[knife_bender]

He sighed. "It's been brought to my attention that I could have handled the birthday thing better."

[apocalypsehow]

"Annie." Because Diego did not listen to anyone else. Mich like Five!

[knife_bender]

"Pretty much." Actually, Diego had come to that conclusion on his own, but it was easier for him to say someone else told him he was an asshole. "For the record, she also said you could have been better too."

[apocalypsehow]

Five crossed his arms as he leaned back in response to that. Because you begging for a mom comment here, Diego. Begging for it.

[knife_bender]

He was not dating Mom!

Diego rolled his eyes. "My point is--I know you care about them."

There. An apology. Don't expect more than that.

[apocalypsehow]

Hey, it worked for them.

Five sighed, defensive posture shifting to something uncomfortable because of emotional honestyand having to think about his feelings. "I know you're frustrated," he admitted. "I'm frustrated too."

[knife_bender]

Diego nodded. "I made coffee. It's probably crap, in your opinion, but..."

[apocalypsehow]

"It's fine," Five cut in promptly. "It's coffee. I lived through the apocalypse, a little bad coffee won't hurt me."

That was positively affectionate for him.

[knife_bender]

"Not going to stop you from making shitty comments about it though, will it?" Diego asked.

[apocalypsehow]

"I'll do my best." That wasn't a no.

[knife_bender]

Diego rolled his eyes. "And then we can think of how I can help you with this instead of being dead weight."

[apocalypsehow]

Five sighed loudly at that. "You're not dead weight," he ground out. "I'm stuck, okay? It took me decades to get back here, but I was somehow able to try again after a few months here and it doesn't make sense."

[knife_bender]

"Well we have to figure out a way to make it make sense." Look at him with that rare optimism. "Get you more power or whatever it is you need to make it work."

[apocalypsehow]

Five nodded, sort of latching onto that rare spark of optimism because he really needed it.

"I just need to figure out what the difference is."

[knife_bender]

"Well, what's changed?" he asked. "You've time traveled, what, four times now? Three of them were short notice, right?"

One due to a hissy fit, one due to a funeral and another due to the world ending.

[apocalypsehow]

Five frowned, teleporting over to look at his board of crazy. "That will be the key," he agreed.

Didn't Klaus try to ask a question about his abilities at some point?

[knife_bender]

"Okay..." he said, approaching the board like he had any idea what any of that meant. "So the location doesn't seem to matter, right? You were here once, in the city twice and...wherever the hell you were when you did it as an old dude."

The grassy knoll. He was on the grassy knoll, Diego.

[apocalypsehow]

"Texas." It was almost sharing! "Did you notice anything different during the week after the funeral?"

[knife_bender]

"You mean other than Vanya having superpowers and the rest of us banding together for the first time in twelve years to stop the apocalypse?" That had been his main focus the week after the funeral, Five.

[apocalypsehow]

"Yes, otherthan that." A beat. "And Ben still being around."

[knife_bender]

"You know, that was really taking up all of my focus," Diego said. "Shocking, I know."

[apocalypsehow]

Five shot him a look because it was his life for years.

"Think about it then," he said like he was completely exasperated with Diego. "Two heads are better than one. Marginally."

At least it wasn't Diego and Luther together.

[knife_bender]

"Fine," he said. "But shouldn't you be thinking about the last time you had to do all the crazy writing to time travel instead of winging it? What was different then, 'cause I wasn't there."

And therefore he couldn't be much help.

[apocalypsehow]

"Of course you weren't, I was alone." Waaaait a minute.

[knife_bender]

"Yeah," Diego said with a 'duh' tone. "That's why you need to figure out what was different."

Diego...wasn't getting it.

[apocalypsehow]

Five made an annoyed noise before wiping off part of the whiteboard with his jacket sleeve to start working on something. "That's what was different, idiot."

[knife_bender]

"You're an idiot," Diego mumbled, stepping back slightly when Five started writing on the crazy board again. "So you being alone is what's different."

Ugh, don't tell him the power of love and family is what made his powers stronger. That's so lame, Five. So lame.

And exactly the type of thing that Diego was a sucker for.

[apocalypsehow]

"Since I've been here, have you noticed any changes to what you can do?" Five asked, still frantically writing numbers down like this was A Beautiful Mind or some shit.

[knife_bender]

"I don't know," Diego said with a shrug. "I guess, it's easier to focus, maybe? Like when we were kids."

Of course he had attributed that to his father constantly making him practice rather than being around his siblings.

[apocalypsehow]

"Exactly," Five said, stepping back to look at his work. "Klaus couldn't manifest anyone when we were kids, but suddenly now can?"

[knife_bender]

"So, what, are you saying that you could time travel to the funeral because you were hanging around me?" he asked. "That Dad was right about all that 'stronger together' shit?"

Ugh, lame.

[apocalypsehow]

"Literally, yes," Five grumbled, making it sound like it pained him to agree with that.

[knife_bender]

Diego groaned. "Annie is never going to let this go, you know that, right?"

Like, she was going to think it was the cutest thing. He was already embarrassed for himself.

[apocalypsehow]

"...do we have to share it?"

[knife_bender]

"Of course we do," Diego said. "Especially if I need to be involved in this whole equation somehow."

[apocalypsehow]

"We can measure it based on how good your abilities become with me around," Five suggested. By what? Throwing knives at each other?

[knife_bender]

"What, like I aim better than I already do?" he asked. "How the hell am I supposed to know if my abilities get better? How did Klaus know he could contact Dad?"

[apocalypsehow]

"I don't know, he didn't say." Well, everyone sort of ignored him when he had tried to share, but, you know. The world ending and all that. "Maybe... maybe it'll be like the Ben thing. Or how I went from moving through space to moving through time. A new extension of what you can already do."

Like holding your breath forever or something else dumb.

[knife_bender]

Pfft who would have a lame power like that?

"So I'm just supposed to know?" he asked. "That is not helpful."

[apocalypsehow]

"I didn't know know I could move through time, I just... felt like it was possible." That totally helped, right?

[knife_bender]

It was not helpful at all, but Diego could tell when Five was actually trying to help. So as unhelpful as that was, Five would not get a shitty comment in return.

"Okay," he said. "Okay, I'll try to figure it out."

This would be so much more helpful if his powers were more showy than "good aim".

[apocalypsehow]

That was fair.

"Another thing the old man inexplicably knew," Five grumbled.