right where you left me;
❛ DEATH TO JULIET ❜
❝ you haven't changed one bit ❞

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"What's the date?" Five demanded while pacing around the kitchen. "The exact date."

Rebecca could honestly not believe her eyes. The brunette boy was wearing a suit that was clearly way too big for him and he looked different yet exactly the same. Somehow, he was still the same age but his expression and the way he carried himself were very different. He was always serious and closed off but there was also always a glint of mischief and arrogance in his eyes. That look was long gone.

"The twenty-fourth." Annabeth answered curtly, her confused expression mirroring everyone else's.

Five hugged and placed a bag onto the table. "Of what?"

"March."

"Good." The boy hummed while nodding to himself. Rebecca squinted at him, annoyed at how casual he was being about the entire situation.

The Hargreeves and Blackwells only saw each other at weddings and funerals and when they did, nothing but chaos occurred.

"So, are we gonna talk about what just happened?" Luther broke the heavy silence in the kitchen. His question went ignored by his little brother who just kept making his sandwich while trying to ignore Rebecca's stare burning through his skull. Luther stood up and glared down at him. "It's been seventeen years."

Five scoffed and walked closer to him so they were almost chest to chest (well, chest to stomach). "It's been a lot longer than that."

A blue light flickered in front of him and he teleported to the other side of the kitchen. Luther's eye twitched. "I haven't missed that."

"Where the fuck were you, Five?"

Rebecca's sharp voice cut through the air like a knife. Sharon's eyebrows shot up at her anger and Landon winced at the hurt hidden behind it.

The banshee glared at the back of Five's head, his name leaving a bitter feeling in her mouth. She heard the way his heart sped up at her speaking up and tried her hardest not to soften at the fact that a part of him still cared. Despite how long they were apart.

"The future." He said in a monotone voice and teleported back to his sandwich. "It's shit, by the way."

"Called it!" Klaus exclaimed.

Five shook his head and opened the fridge. "I should've listened to the old man. You know, jumping through space is one thing and jumping through time is a toss of the dice." He finally looked up to meet Rebecca's eyes that never left him since he showed up. His eyes scanned her figure. "You're still a teenager."

"Hardly." Her glare never faltered. "I'm older than I look."

A ghost of a smirk appeared on his lips. "Ditto." He chuckled to himself. "You haven't changed one bit."

"I changed more than you think." Rebecca corrected him and finally broke their staring contest to look down at the table. "Seventeen years is a long time."

"Wait," Annabeth chimed in, her eyes narrowed at the boy, "why are you back now? Did you just figure out how to do that or did you have a reason to come back?"

"And how did you get back?" Vanya added from next to her.

"In the end, I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time." Five explained, not looking up from his sandwich. His siblings and some of the Blackwells shared looks filled with confusion.

Rebecca simply hummed and nodded to herself in understanding.

Diego squinted at Five and deadpanned, "That makes no sense."

"Well, it would if you were smarter."

Diego's confused look shifted into an angry one and he stood up to do something characteristically stupid when Luther stepped in front of him to stop him. Rebecca rolled her eyes at how fragile his ego was.

"How long were you gone if it wasn't for seventeen years?" Regina asked him curiously, placing her glass of whiskey down.

"Twenty-five years." He shrugged. "Give or take."

"So, you're forty?" Rebecca asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No." Five sighed, "My consciousness is forty. Apparently, my body is now fifteen again."

"Wait, how does that even work?" Vanya asked.

"It shouldn't." Rebecca answered for him, her voice only slightly mocking. "He must have fucked up the math."

"Of course you would say that." Five muttered to himself and then took a big bite of his sandwich. She gave him a confused look which he ignored. He picked up the newspaper from the kitchen aisle. "I guess I missed the funeral."

"How do you know about that?" Luther asked suspiciously.

"What part of the future do you not understand?" Number Five deadpanned. "Heart failure, huh?"

"Yeah."

"No."

Diego and Luther answered simultaneously. The others rolled their eyes at how childish they were being on the day of their father's funeral.

"We are not doing this again." Rebecca snapped at the Hargreeves brothers. "Pogo, your mom and I were the only ones here."

Five seemed unimpressed. "Nice to see that nothing changed."

Rebecca watched him make his way toward the exit and scoffed. "That's it? You have nothing else to say? You are just leaving again?"

"What else is there to say? It's the circle of life." He called over his shoulder and continued his way towards the stairs.

"Well, that was interesting." Regina hummed sarcastically and drank the rest of her whiskey.

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Five observed his portrait on the wall in the living room with curious eyes. "It's nice to know dad didn't forget me."

Reginald was not a loving man and he was definitely not a loving father. Yet, he seemed to care more about the kids he adopted after they were already dead.

He turned to look at Vanya and added, "I read your book, by the way. Found it in a library that was still standing. I thought it was pretty good, all things considered. Yeah, definitely ballsy, giving up the family secrets. I'm sure that went over well."

Five was not particularly close to any of his siblings but Vanya was the exception. They understood each other. He saw her as more than Reginald's secret weapon or side project and she didn't mind how cold he usually was.

"They hate me." Vanya frowned.

"Well, there are worse things that could happen."

Vanya gave him a curious look. "You mean like what happened to Ben, Charles and Rebecca?"

Five swallowed and hesitated before asking, "Was it bad?"

Vanya nodded and opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before she blurted out, "Everything kind of changed after Ben died. It wasn't like when Charles did. You saw that the Blackwells never drifted away from each other. Not like we did. Then we lost Ben and dad made us fight a group of vampires a month later." She scoffed. "He was so sure that we could handle it but we weren't prepared. We were still mourning. And then we heard her scream." A shaky breath left her lips. "She was bleeding out when we found her and it was bloodier than when Charles got shot. But we took down the rest of the vampires and before we were even finished, Rebecca was back on her feet. Her heart was not beating but she was walking around and killing vampires left and right."

Five's eyes widened and he chose to stay silent. He didn't know that much could change in seventeen years. It made him wonder if things would have been different if he never left them (her). Maybe he could have helped by teleporting one of them away from danger.

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Both families gathered underneath the oak tree. Rebecca thought that the fact that the rain started falling from the sky just when the funeral started was kind of symbolic. It was sad that she was one of the only people that was genuinely grieving Reginald. His kids hated him and her siblings did too. It was hard for her not to get attached to the only actual human being living around the Blackwell mansion.

"Did something happen?" Grace innocently asked, her red lips tugged into a big smile.

"Dad died." Allison forced a smile, "Remember?"

Grace's smile immediately fell. "Oh. Yes, of course."

Allison looked at Diego and asked, "Is mom okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, she's fine. She just needs to rest. You know, recharge."

Pogo reached them and looked at Luther encouragingly, "Whenever you're ready, my boy."

Luther opened the urn with Reginald's ashes and scattered them across the ground that was covered in leaves. Rebecca gripped Landon's forearm and stepped closer to him under their shared umbrella so the rain wouldn't get on her jacket.

"This probably would have been better with some wind." Luther said awkwardly.

"Does anyone wish to speak?" Pogo asked but no one volunteered. There were multiple things that Rebecca could say about Reginald but she didn't want to waste her breath because she knew that none of the people present cared. "Very well. In all regards, Sir Reginald Hargreeves made me what I am today. For that alone, I shall forever be in his debt. He was my master and my friend, and I shall miss him very much. He leaves behind a complicated legacy─"

"He was a monster." Diego cut him off. Klaus cackled, Rebecca sighed in annoyance and Regina snorted at his words. "He was a bad person and an even worse father. The world is better off without him."

"Diego." Allison warned.

"My name is Number Two." He snapped, "You know why? Because our father couldn't be bothered to give us actual names. He had mom do it. But only after Clara gave her kids names and he didn't want her to one-up him at anything."

"Would anyone like something to eat?" Grace spoke up, alert since the second she heard the words "mom" leave Diego's lips.

"No, it's okay, mom." Vanya told her softly.

"Oh, okay."

"Look, you wanna pay your respects? Go ahead. But at least be honest about the kind of man he was." Diego continued.

Luther glared at his brother and said, "You should stop talking now."

"You know you of all people should be on my side, Number One."

"I am warning you."

Diego ignored his warning and kept ranting, "After everything he did to you? He had to ship you a million miles away."

"Diego, stop talking."

"That's how much he couldn't stand the sight of you!"

Rebecca let out a long sigh and looked away the second the two started punching each other. The two were as mature as they were back when all of them were eleven. It used to be funny but now it was just sad and annoying.

"Boys, stop this at once!" Pogo exclaimed.

Marcel frowned and stepped closer to them in an attempt to stop the fight. "Guys, this isn't the time nor the place."

Landon handed Rebecca the umbrella and followed his brother in case things were going to escalate. He tried to pull Diego away but ended up getting a punch in the jaw from Luther who was originally aiming at Diego. Landon gaped at him. "What the fuck, dude?"

His and Luther's eyes glowed purple and Landon made him dazed enough to punch him in the face.

"For fuck's sake." Rebecca muttered at their childish behavior.

She watched the four "men" punch each other around for a couple of minutes. The Hargreeves brothers against the Blackwell brothers.

"I don't have time for this." Five rolled his eyes and started walking away when Rebecca's piercing banshee scream rang through the air.

It lasted for a solid thirty seconds and it was so strong that the men fighting ended up on their asses on the ground.

"Cut it out." Rebecca ordered. "This is your father's funeral! Your father is dead. And I know you don't care but at least show some fucking respect and save your petty fights fueled by childhood trauma for another day."

Annabeth nodded in agreement "Yeah. Get your shit together. You idiots are literally rolling in Reginald's ashes. It's disgusting. He was disgusting too, don't get me wrong, but don't fall to his level."

Regina whistled under her breath, "I think this funeral is over."