polyfacetious asked: Liberosis Obscure Feelings Meme: (Accepting)
Liberosis: The desire to care less about things.
Vanya is saying goodbye to her girlfriend and her girlfriend’s kid. And honestly, with the Handler and all her minions, her shithead daughter included being mopped up by Herb and the Commission, there’s no reason to be in a hurry.
The fight is over. The Apocalypse is gone. Here, and in 2019, if Herb is to be trusted. (If they jump back into smoke and rubble and blood, Five is going to shove the briefcase so far up Herb’s ass that the zipper gets caught on his teeth.)
They had nothing but time. A problem Five has had all his life, aside from these last fourteen days.
Ekon is a goddamned oak tree next to him, even with the bloody lip and the bite marks. (Those weren’t from the fight. Those were from Five. Ekon finally stopped laughing at him, for the time being.) Five doesn’t know how to reconcile these two parts of his life occupying the same space.
And Ekon, the bastard, is still too good at his job, even retired. Five doesn’t have to point out and name his siblings. Ekon has heard enough stories, and he watches them move around each other, dark eyes hyper focused. He names them with a pointed finger, one by one.
Vanya. Luther. Allison. Diego. Klaus. Ben?
Five shakes his head. He jabs at the split skin on the corner of his lip for something to focus on. “Ben died after I left.” And Five had been so damned focused on doomsday that he didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to him.
Left is a hell of a word for it. Like it was a choice. Like he was anything other than a goddamn acorn in a hurricane.
“Apparently he hung around as a ghost for seventeen years, but he finally got the hell out of this godforsaken family.”
Sometimes, he wonders if he’ll ever be able to look at his family and see anything other than their bodies. Outside of the Academy. Being sucked dry by Vanya. Being swallowed up by nuclear blasts.
Five glances down at the briefcase at Ekon’s feet. “Back into retirement, huh? Must be nice.”
There’s a pressure building in his chest that Five won’t put words to. Because he knows what happens when they leave here. Everyone goes back into the wind. Back to their own lives.
And he’s back to being alone.