A/N: This took longer to write than I expected. Oops. Also, this will be expanding to a three-shot (?) because as I wrote this, I realized there was a lot of stuff I wanted to write that just couldn't reasonably be fit into this one scene. A Part 3 is in the works! Again, warning for strong language and mentions of alcohol consumption. Lemme know what y'all think!
Disclaimer: I do not own Netflix's Umbrella Academy or The Maine's Right Girl. This is just for fun and not for profit.
The Right Girl
"Fucking hell," Diego moaned the moment he woke up, squeezing his eyes shut and contorting his face in pain. His head was pounding, like someone was taking a jackhammer to his skull. "I'm so fucking stupid, holy shit."
"I couldn't agree more, dumbass," a voice replied, one he knew all too well. "I've been telling you that for years, but you never learn."
A grin replaced the scowl on his face when he registered the joke a moment later. He attempted to sit up, but immediately regretted his decision as a sharp stab jolted through his brain. He fell back down with a grunt.
"Shut up, Vanya," Diego groaned, flipping onto his side and almost falling off what he now realized was a couch. "Let me live my life."
His eyes scanned the room to find the owner of the voice and make sense of his surroundings. It was familiar, but it wasn't his apartment. Soft light filtered in through the windows on the left, signaling the start of the day. The vintage blue armchair that sat in the corner, the ornate fireplace that appeared well-worn, the gray walls that were lined with cracks and picture frames alike, all were easily recognizable. He'd been here before countless times, especially in the state he found himself in now. It was Vanya's apartment.
Diego glanced to the right when he noticed movement in that direction. Vanya had stood up from leaning against the small island in her kitchen and was making her way over to him. She wore an oversized The Maine t-shirt and held a large mug in her hands, no doubt filled with black coffee.
"You don't even remember your life when you're drunk off your ass," she retorted, perching herself on the edge of her coffee table in front of him, just a couple feet away.
He was about to laugh and counter with his own witty comeback when he noticed something was off about her. Her smile was slight and strained, and her eyes appeared nervous as she stared into her drink. Her knee bounced restlessly, anxiously. She was obviously worried about something.
"Oh, shit," Diego muttered. "I don't even remember what happened last night."
It was a partially true statement. He wracked his brain for the memories of his time at the bar with Vanya, but came up short when he realized his recollection was fuzzy at best. They were all unfocused motion pictures without the sound, like silent movies saturated in hazy colors. He could see the cover band playing in the corner, the bartender cutting him off, a dark-haired girl looking annoyed, an amused Vanya dragging him out to her car, a condescending Five nagging him to sober up.
Wait, Five wasn't there at the bar last night. Was he?
Vanya pursed her lips and subtly nodded her head at his words. She figured he hadn't remembered, as it was customary for him to ask her for help recalling the previous night's events. However, he felt like a complete idiot this time around because of the disappointment written in the lines of her face. Something had happened that was bothering her.
He came to the conclusion that he must have done something wrong. Maybe it had something to do with that girl? Maybe it was Five?
"I'm not sure I even w-wanna know by the look on your face," Diego mumbled, his stutter slipping through because of his nervousness. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to go about apologizing for something he couldn't even remember doing, at least not yet, but he was willing to try. "W-was it bad?"
Vanya's smile widened, but it was still uneasy. She met his eyes before she spoke.
"You mistook a girl with long hair to be me," she explained, quietly chuckling at the memory. "It was quite entertaining until I had to pull your dumb ass out of the warpath of her fuming boyfriend."
Something in his mind clicked.
He remembered that.
His eyebrows furrowed. It certainly wasn't something that Vanya would get upset about, though. Something else must've happened. He pushed further.
"Is that all?" Diego questioned. The tone in his voice gave away that he knew something was up.
Vanya cast her eyes back down to her coffee, most likely contemplating her choice of words for what she was about to say.
She always said what was on her mind when asked, what she really meant when answering, and Diego liked that about her. She didn't mince her words, didn't beat around the bush, didn't fabricate lies. She was straightforward and to the point with every word that passed her lips, even if she unquestionably offended people.
That didn't bother him, though. He never had a sweet tooth for lies, and Vanya never sugarcoated the truth. Maybe that was one of the reasons why he'd harbored a secret crush on Vanya since sophomore year of high school.
For two years, their friend group offered him apologetic glances and words of pity as it was clear that he liked her, but she didn't like him. Diego had pined for her, and she never even knew it, or at least hadn't believed it when their friends told her.
He loved their friends, but that was a complete dick move to out him like that. At least she dismissed their musings as jokes. He wanted it to stay that way, too. He didn't know what he would've done if their friendship was ruined because of his stupid feelings.
However, senior year rolled around, and their friends were suddenly encouraging him to ask her out, to tell her how he felt. Well, everyone except Five. He was an overprotective smartass who thought Vanya was too good to even be friends with him, let alone date him. He knew he was just trying to keep her safe, but seriously, did he have to bruise a guy's ego?
Diego shot down the ideas of their supportive friends every time, though. It was undeniable that they were awkward around each other more than ever at that point, and he didn't want to exacerbate the situation. Sometimes, Diego thought that maybe she had figured it out, but he knew that she would've talked to him about it right away.
He made it his mission to get over his silly crush. It hadn't worked out so well considering he was still very much in love with Vanya six years after he had fallen for her. Every time he thought he had made some progress, just the touch of her hand, the curve of her smile, the melody of her laughter would bring him back to square one. Diego was too far down the rabbit hole to ever have hope of returning to the surface.
After a while, he decided he was okay with that as long as he still had Vanya, whether she was just a friend or something more. He loved her, and that was all that mattered.
His thoughts were interrupted when Vanya took a shaky breath. She must've decided on the right words, probably playing out how the conversation would go in her head, because she released a wobbly exhale and began to speak.
"We had a riveting conversation that I'm certain you'd like to be aware of," she said softly, still gazing into her drink. Her eyebrows were knitted together, and a frown tugged at the corners of her mouth as she traced the rim of her mug with her index finger.
His heart felt like it had been dropped in a garbage disposal and torn to shreds because she just looked so sad, and he wanted more than anything to make her happy again.
"What did I do w-wrong?" Diego croaked, his voice audibly troubled.
Vanya looked up at him and quickly reached out a hand to place on top of his own.
"Nothing wrong," she assured him. "You just said some stuff about me being attractive with short hair." A genuine smile faintly graced her lips before it disappeared again.
Another puzzle piece that made up the image of last night slid into place.
He remembered that.
He chuckled, but his heart wasn't in it, not even close.
"Damn, I'm a real charmer when I'm w-wrecked, huh?" he attempted to joke, but both parties knew it had fallen flat.
"Oh, that's not all," Vanya continued, still maintaining eye contact with him. "You also mentioned that you liked when I smiled and when I was happy, which should be a given since we're best friends."
Her voice cracked with the last few words she choked out, and her hand lightly squeezed his. She closed her eyes for a second, as if to gather her thoughts and her strength, and opened them again.
"But apparently you don't wanna be best friends with me."
Shit.
He remembered that. He remembered fucking up.
Diego swore that his lungs gave out, and he stopped breathing in that moment. How could he have been so stupid? How could he have done that to Vanya, to the girl he loved?
"F-fuck," he breathed. "I did not m-mean that, Vanya, I swear." He was grasping for words, for apologies, for explanations, for anything to say to make up for what he had done. "I was absolutely w-wasted last night, I had no idea w-what was coming out of my m-mouth. I am so fucking s-sorry—"
"Just shut the fuck up and let me finish, asshat," she cut him off with a bone-breaking squeeze to his hand.
Her tone wasn't loud and angry, like he expected it to be. Rather, it was soft and slightly irritated. Diego was effectively silenced, allowing her to talk again.
"You don't wanna be best friends with me because you like me more than that." Her cheeks flushed a rosy pink as she paused to bashfully break their intense eye contact, but quickly met his gaze again. "In fact, you admitted that—"
"I think I love you," he finished.
He remembered that.
Diego's heart felt like it was going to beat right out of his chest. He moved his mouth to speak again, but no words would come out. This was not good. She wasn't supposed to ever find out about his feelings for her. He was going to lose her now.
This must have been why she was so upset. Learning that your best friend was in love with you couldn't be easy if you didn't love them back.
What the hell was he going to do?
What the hell was she going to do?
"If you didn't fucking pass out right after that, you would've heard me say that I think I love you, too," Vanya said, her voice unsteady.
He didn't remember that.
Well, he supposed there was a reason for that.
She looked at him expectantly, likely waiting for an intelligent and earth-shattering response from him, one that would sweep her off her feet and make her swoon.
"Oh."
Diego winced at the word that had slipped out, if "oh" could even be considered a word. You don't just say "oh" when someone confesses their feelings for you. "Oh" means disappointment, dismay, dissatisfaction, nothing that described the way she made him feel. Over the moon, in seventh heaven, on cloud nine, any cliché paled in comparison to what her words did to him in that moment.
But all he could say was "oh". Fucking "oh".
He was a dumbass.
"Oh?" Vanya asked, dumbfounded. "Are you fucking serious, Diego?"
She pushed his hand away and roughly set her mug on the coffee table next to her, spilling some of the liquid from the container.
"You…you couldn't say…shit," she stuttered and raked her fingers through her pixie cut as she searched for the right words. "Just…damn, just…say something else, for the love of fuck."
This was the first time that Diego had ever seen her infuriated to the point she was speechless. She loved him back, and he was being an absolute idiot just lying there stunned with a sorry excuse of a word on his lips. Their shared aggravation in his stupidity seemed to light a fire under his ass as the paralysis incapacitating him dissipated.
He didn't think before launching himself at Vanya in spite of the howling pain that protested in his mind, throwing one hand around her lower back and the other on the back of her neck. He pulled her onto his lap and kissed her, his awful hangover immediately drowned by the euphoria of having her lips on his. It was intoxicating, and he decided he wouldn't mind getting drunk on her kisses instead of the hard stuff for the rest of his life.
After a few moments of pure bliss, Vanya pulled away with a swollen smile and a dazed look in her eyes.
"Or you could just do that," she said breathlessly, biting her bottom lip.
Oh yeah. She was the good stuff, and he was hooked.
He wanted to kiss her again, but there was something he needed to do first.
"I love you, Vanya," he whispered, caressing her cheek with his thumb. "I don't just think so, I know I do."
The memory of his first time telling Vanya that he loved her may have been clouded by his drunken stupor that night in her car, but he would clearly remember this moment forever. No amount of alcohol could ever make him forget.
He would remember that.
"I know," she responded with a grin on her face. "I love you, too, dipshit."
Diego laughed at her unique term of endearment, a smile playing on his lips. He would never understand why she chose him, why she loved him out of anyone in the world.
"Why the hell do you love me if I'm such a dumbass?" he asked, leaning in closer.
He could smell the coffee on her breath, and he was certain she could smell the liquor on his. Neither of them complained, though. They didn't want to be any further away from each other than they were right now.
"Because you're just…you," Vanya answered, her lips brushing against his and her thumb tracing his jaw. "I don't really know, but you must've done something right," she laughed. "Or maybe I'm just a dumbass, too."
Hope y'all enjoyed!
Part 3 will be up by next week.
~SOS~
