STEADFAST

Much like the last time, Five woke up first. He decided he didn't want to go back to sleep after Luther checked on them (just to make sure no one's dead).

After he got dressed, he noticed Hazel flinching a little in her sleep. He sat down after putting a chair in front of her bed and almost came to the conclusion that she was having a bad dream. It wasn't until she gave a chuckle.

Five curled up his upper lip and tilted his head at this did she just chuckle? He thought to himself while a smile started to grow on his face. He let out a small laugh and repeatedly shook his head, scoffing a little.

Hazel, with a smile on her face, leaned on her right to get comfortable. The boy watched as she slowly lolled to the edge of the bed. Her eyes grew wide when she realized what was happening, and Five alertly came to catch her.

Hazel stopped herself from falling, her heart beating out of her chest. "I thought I was gonna fall!," she breathed out a ton of air.

"Morning to you too, then," He remarked and stuffed his hands down his pocket. "Let's go back to the academy, maybe Klaus is in there,"

"Alright," She stretched her arms and let out a small yawn, then got changed. Hazel lifted her hand up and made the second bed disappear "you know, you were in my dream," she reported

"Really?," His eyes shot up "w-what was it about?," he tried to keep his cool, but it was just all too exciting.

"Nothing," she fought back a smile and opened the door for them. "Let's go to the academy,"

*

Five and Hazel made their way into the academy, the boy stepping up the stairs while Hazel parted ways from him. At first he was confused, but then he remembered she lived down the basement.

"I wanna see it," Five called and stopped on the stairs "the basement, I wanna see it,"

"Why?," she stopped in her tracks and faced him "It's not as bad as you think, you know? It's actually got a pool,"

"Still, I wanna see what it was like for you," He explained and walked beside her, as if he was waiting for her to lead him there.

Hazel hesitated for a moment, but decided to let him in. The two walked down the halls and turned into different corners, finally arriving in the elevator.

"It's pretty down under," she cleared her throat, they were taking a little bit long going down. The doors finally opened and they revealed her lair.

"Huh," There was a side smile on his face as he whistled. His eyes gazed around the whole place, there was a pool, a mini gym, a bedroom "guess you had everything to survive down here,"

"Kinda," she shrugged "you go and look around and I'm gonna go and make some tea. Want some?,"

"Yeah, sure," he nodded and stuffed his hands in his pocket, "I want it the way you like it,"

"Okay then," Hazel walked into her kitchen and put the electric kettle on. She put the black tea leaves inside the ball tea strainers and waited for the tea to boil. When she did, she continued to mix it with some milk and sugar, then walked back into the main room with two mugs in her hand.

She assumed Five was watching T.V., which explained the faint noises she could hear. However, her pacing hastened when she realized the sounds were starting to sound familiar.

Hazel felt the blood in her body flush out when she saw Five watching the tapes of her and her bear. She arrived just in time to see him click the stop button and pause for a moment. She ran and dropped the mugs (making a table appear stop the fall) and immediately shut the set roughly.

"You told me to look around," Five immediately defended and watched Hazel, who was absolutely clueless about how to act.

It was a cocktail of emotions. Her skin crawled out of embarrassment and her fists clenched with anger. Tears threatened to brim her eyes out of sadness and blood left her body out of shame.

"You didn't see much, did you?," Her voice was shaky and her fists were clenched. Five struggled to answer that question; he didn't want to lie to her, but he was scared about telling her the truth.

"Um, how old were you?," He stiffened up his posture and got tense all of a sudden "I mean when-,"

"I know what you mean," she cut him off and crossed her arms "I don't know, 6? 7?, it's been a long time. That stuff doesn't matter any more,"

"Why do you keep avoiding this?," He mustered up his courage to say

"It's a bear," she replied immediately "it was nothing but a bear, you're making too big of a deal out of this,"

"Sure. Sure, I am. There's more to this and I know there are more tapes, you know it," he pointed

"Why? So what, huh?," she threw her hands in the air out of defeat "it's been years, Five, dad's dead! It doesn't matter now,-"

"Yeah, you're right, he's dead," he nodded "but the damage is still there, isn't it? That's why you're pushing anyone who gets even a little close to you away?,"

"Well you're one to talk," she put her hand on her hips

"Shut up, this isn't about me," He snapped "See, here we are again,"

"Don't tell me to shut up!," she barked "why are you so tense about this?! Why do you never let this go?! You're just so interested in every single detail that it-,"

"Because I care!," he blurted out impulsively. There was a moment of silence after he's said that. His eyes stayed wide and round and blood started to travel to his cheeks. "You know what, if you don't wanna talk about it? Fine, don't," he concluded with exhaustion. He slowly met eyes with her "we didn't know,"

"Yes, all of you have said that to me," she said impatiently and took a sip of her tea. "Again, it's fine. Really,"

"Sure," He said mostly to himself. He slowly walked to the tv and inserted a tape, a movie starting to play. "This is the one, right?,"

"Hm?," she hummed

"This is the one you were telling Klaus about?," He sat down her couch and turned his head to it.

"Yeah," Hazel whispered and sat down the couch with him, forgetting everything that had just happened beforehand.

HI GUYS! Thanks so much for voting and reading, I'm glad to say I've ranked 30 in #number five! Also, if you have any comments and suggestions, feel free to comment or message me.