Like an Acorn

“You’ve gotta chill, seriously, if something was wrong they’d buzz me,” Bart reminded the anxiously pacing clone.

Five’s head snapped away from the slowly ticking clock at his words, “I should be there,” she reminded him for the billionth time, before reaching the rec room far wall and turning back again, her bare feet moving absentmindedly against the fuzzy carpeting.

“Why?” Bart asked with a light shrug as he turned back to his Xbox game content with his own disuse. “You’ve been here three days, relax a little,” he grunted, frowning as his Call of Duty character was blown to pieces. The grotesque display made the clone cringe.

“How can you stand to do nothing? I understand that I am not trained to be a part of the team, but this is my problem, and I should have gone with them,” she explained eyes darting back to the clock again as she bit nervously upon her bottom lip.

“I’m working… On beating Cassie’s kill streak, plus the mission was mode,” Bart scuffed vigorously pressing buttons on his controller. “If it’s Harley they’ll take care of it, it’s not like you could’ve done anything from the Bio-Ship anyways,” he continued grinning as his knife slit another player’s throat. “Because we all know they ain’t letting you on the ground,” he snorted throwing another lazy grin her way.

Five huffed a deep frown on her face as she shoved her hands deeply into the front pocket of the hoodie she still hadn’t given back to Conner. It was too comfortable and soft for someone like him.

“Still worr-y-ing! The quiet pacing is equally mode as the complaining,” Bart bantered back playfully, not looking up from his television screen as she continued on her silent rant.

Jumping as a loud click announced the decent of the coming elevator Five bounded across the carpeted floor. Almost sliding into a decorative post holding a vase of flowers as she landed on the tiled floor in front of the elevator. This whole ordeal was far too slow for Five as a group of shoes, legs, torsos, and then heads, lowered into her view in the almost invisible box. The girl’s eyes searched the loaded vessel for the familiar S or equally memorable scowl.

As the elevator came to a stop, she did not even attempt to back out of the way, so people could easily exit onto the second level, instead she bounced on the balls of her feet as people came through, this was the seventh time the elevator had stopped on her level since the mission had begun around three. Five was on her own mission and this mission revolved around-

"Conner!" She yelled loudly waving her hands as she broke through the crowd towards the boy who was unsuccessful in sneaking past her.

"Don't you have something to do?" he asked dryly, eyes disproving as he noticed she was still wearing his favorite sweatshirt, and Bart was doing a crappy job of keeping her out of trouble.

"It's funny you say that, because I don't," Five reminded him with a pointed index finger and a smile on her face. "So...." she asked with anticipation, practically hopping after him.

"So- what?" he grunted heading towards the kitchen. The clone following closely behind him, instantly forgetting she was supposed to stay with Bart.

"Sooo..... Was it Her? Was it Harley?!" she practically begged, a whiny tone entering her voice as she watched him open the fridge. Five's fingers tapped irritably against her outer thigh.

"No, Royal Flush Gang," He shrugged as if he couldn't notice her deflated look. Agitation creeping up his shoulders, as he pulled out his ingredients.

"Oh," she whispered shoulders slumping before she hoisted herself onto the kitchen island. Her feet slapping together as she watched him work.

"Sandwich?" he gestured in the single closest thing to a truce between the two that had ever been spoken.

"Sure," she smiled letting out a huff of air as he continued to speak.

"Then… you'd better get your ass off the counter, people cook there, and I'll teach you how to make one for yourself," he countered catching Five off guard again. Her eyes widened in surprise at his cursing, causing the girl to sputter all the while following his instructions. It’s not like she should have been surprised. Conner was crude. Uncivilized. Not a nice person at all.

“You realize it's untactful to follow kindness up with insults right? Perhaps if you asked things nicely people wouldn’t find you so disagreeable,” She stated taking the two pieces of bread from him, watching his sculpted chin move with irritation at her words, he was crafted like her. She’d not wanted to admit it the first day, but Megan had been right, his rudeness was less offensive with time. He was enormous in size and apparently attitude. Five could almost pretend that his words were helpful, it was important for her to do things for herself after all…. Even if he was mean, he was like her. Someone had spent hours crafting those features, just as they’d spend hours crafting her own. The other heroes were flesh and bone, born, so different. Existing was so easy for them. They understood how to act, how to feel, how appropriate certain reactions were. It was obvious Conner was just as confused as she was. Even if he was cruel, deep down she felt he knew this too.

“So this stuff is good?” She asked after silence overtook their actions, spreading mayonnaise across the bottom piece of bread she kept an eye on his movements, moving the knife exactly the same way he did all the while thinking of what to say. His grunt of response didn’t really give much to the conversation.

She couldn’t hold it back, the nagging in the back of her mind wanted desperately to irk him. “I should have been there,” she reminded, biting the inside of her cheek as she waited for his words, which she expected to be extremely bitter.

“That’s the last thing we needed,” he shot back while applying a healthy amount of turkey to his sandwich. “How could you have possibly helped? Hum?” He asked ripping almost violently into a head of lettuce. Five couldn’t help but grimace as he did so. Quickly she noticed his hands pull away from the vegetable at her alarm.

“Sorry,” he apologized before adding the torn green to his dinner.

“It’s fine,” she said lightly pealing a leaf before plopping it into her mouth. Crunching loudly as he looked at her with mild surprise; almost as much surprise as she'd felt hearing him apologize as if he actually meant it. The plant wasn't like the one in the greenhouse, it made no noise, no protests, it could no longer feel pain or require her care.

“Law of Nature and all, I don’t think it’s exactly cannibalism really… The plant is already dead it would be wasteful not to put it to proper use, in the cycle of things really,” she explained adding a few leaves to her own sandwich before handing the head over to Conner to put away.

“Like me, you’re being wasteful I can help,” she pushed edging back into their previous conversation.

“Help? You’re like taking an unarmed civilian into combat,” he growled taking a large bite out of his sandwich.

“This is my life! My life! Not yours! I did more damage to Ivy then you guys,” She yelled at him, backing away with anger in her eyes.

“Ha! The word you’re looking for is luck. You were lucky. You’re rather subpar as Cadmus goes… Which makes me wonder what you were really used for, haven’t talked about that now have you?” Conner accused casually.

“What’s that supposed to mean,” Five asked seriously, her anger dropping to nervous knots in her stomach. She suddenly wasn’t hungry anymore.

“I saw your simulation results, the one Babs did for fun with you yesterday, your combat ability is rather weak for someone trained by the government. What, you guys ran through like seven of them right? An hour long… Never once used any of your powers… Which makes me wonder what were you doing in all those simulations Cadmus was putting you through,” he taunted glinting as if he could guess what her talent really was.

“It’s obvious they weren’t improving your plant control, let me take a wild guess you’re a manipulator with fancy secreted poisons and pheromones,” he accused hitting the nail on the head silencing any attempt at retort from the clone.

“I thought so,” he smiled for the first time after scanning over her face, as if happy with himself for figuring it out all on his own.

“Like I told you during your interrogation, heroes don’t kill,” he reminded her, his voice returning to normal as he took another bite out of his sandwich as if he liked having this higher ground over the girl. His back pressed lightly against the counter as he watched her stand awkwardly between the counter and kitchen island.

Her eyes were fixed on the warm brown wood of the cabinets as she shifted her weight from foot to foot. She wanted to say something but wasn’t sure how to say it, how to make sense of her thoughts, how not to lie. She didn’t like lying; it felt so wrong, even towards Conner now he’d specifically asked.

“It was my job, I was created to do my job. You should understand that. I never killed anyone… real. Simulated people do not count. I’m not like- I… I don’t want to hurt people, I didn’t even want to do the simulation with Babs, but she was excited and this really isn’t any of your business,” she reminded him her words sped up towards the end.

“You’re dangerous, I think it is,”

“So are you,” she pointed out watching him continue to eat, Five’s eyes falling on her forgotten sandwich.

“I didn’t choose them, I could have, but I didn’t. Doesn’t this mean anything to you?”

“Prove yourself,”

“How can I prove myself if you won’t let me leave?! Three months from now I’ll still be here, Bart babysitting while you keep me locked away in this prison.”

“It’s been less than a week, you’ll get your chance, for now though-” his words were interrupted as Five let out a dramatic sigh.

“Just chill? Yeah, thanks…” She groaned taking a large bite out of her own sandwich chewing loudly as she stared daggers at him.

“No, do you ever l-i-s-t-e-n?” he groaned those perfectly white teeth coming together in frustration as he continued on, “I was going to point out, if you would’ve shut up, that if you wanted out so badly then you need to finish the placement packet.” He reminded her sternly only gaining a smug grin from the girl.

“You mean that easy packet I finished over an hour ago?” she smirked arms crossed in her best Babs impersonation (she was learning rather fast).

“You finished the educational placement packet in two hours?” he asked surprised for once, the thing had taken him at least three hours to complete.

“Yes, and I know you hid the second part so I’d fail,” she accused suddenly pointing a finger at him remembering how annoyed she’d been over his deception an hour ago.

“Second part? What second part?” he asked with a raised brow not at all shocked she’d accused him of trying to sabotage her chances.

“Bart gave me the second packet, the American Government section you left out,” Five said with a frown.

“There isn’t a second packet, Bart probably tricked you into doing his homework for him,” he informed her with slight annoyance as he pulled a bottle of water from the fridge the protective seal breaking in seconds after he started twisting. The cold liquid running down his throat as he chugged it.

“Oh,” she paused, “sorry,” she muttered suddenly understanding why Bart had taken that section back from her when she was done, “what now?” she asked watching his movements carefully.

“Boring stuff, we’re having your paperwork created, so you can start to fit into society, if you pass.” Conner challenged as if he found this doubtful.

“Papers?” she whispered brows furrowed as she tried to think about what this meant.

“Birth certificate, forged school records, social security number, things normal people need.” He listed off.

“Normal, because we’re normal,” she finally laughed the words almost a reminder to herself. Five finished her sandwich helping him silently clean up the kitchen. Once done Five followed Conner out of the kitchen.

Five was happy to let a smile consume her face as she saw the back of a familiar gray hoodie covered boy lounged across the overstuffed couch, and a laughing blonde punching away at the remote in her hands. She'd been so preoccupied with finding out about Harley from Conner, she'd forgotten with the mission over Blue would be back.

Cassie must have just gotten back from her tutoring. Bart had told her earlier that on Tuesdays and Thursdays she met with Static to get help on her chemistry homework. Apparently a lot of people got help from him on science courses, which explained why he was sitting legs crossed on the other couch leaning over a slightly familiar looking boy who was staring intently at some textbook.

The boy reminded her of something, but she wasn't sure what. He was wearing a simple red and black jacket, his face hidden behind sunglasses, even though they were far away from any real sunlight.

Starting to stride across the room intent upon introducing herself, Five was stopped by Conner who'd grabbed her shoulder, easily redirecting her movements to the opposite direction.

"Go change into the athletic clothes Batgirl brought you," he suddenly dictated without bothering to explain himself. Five was torn she wanted to go see who this new person was... She wanted to talk with people who wouldn't insult her. On the other hand this sounded interesting.

"Okay," she nodded not annoyed by his tone instead she found herself excited. She wasted no time going back to her room and changing quickly into the black athletic tights and shirt. Her hands busy at work pulling her brown hair back into a tight braid (just like Cassie had taught her the night before) as she was walking back outside the greenhouse. Conner had been standing self-supported for once as she came back out, quiet as they started down the hallway.

The freshly laced sneakers squeaked along the floor as they moved towards the training room Conner and Megan had taken her to on the first day.

Stepping into the room Five couldn't help but stare at the boy in the center of the room. His skin was a deep shade of mocha and his eyes were a soul piercing blue. This wasn't what caught her attention though, no- instead her eyes were transfixed on his gills. Black long slits which ran across his throat almost delicately. With each breath they shifted ever-so-slightly, just enough to cause a ping of wonder through her body.

"Greetings, I am Aqualad and I shall be monitoring the results while you complete your aptitude test," he smiled introducing himself to the startled clone. Five didn't have to look at Conner to feel the smugness radiating off of him, this obviously wasn't coincidental. She'd spent half an hour arguing with him and he'd purposely chose not to bring this up.

"You are nervous? This is okay, the test covers a wide range of skill sets; no one has ever failed all of them or proven masters of every one either. Do not feel pressure," Aqualad reassured her as he lead Five away from an amused looking Conner, who seemed content gloating from the doorway.