WARNINGS: underage drinking, drunk characters, mentions of unhappy childhoods.
4 (II).
"In need of some liquid courage?".
"Nothing gets past you, huh?" the boy grits out, words sounding muffled by the jacket sleeve he's improperly using to wipe his mouth.
"You wanna ruin your liver all over again? It's back to being as good as new, smarty-pants, you should take great care of it…meaning, not be drinking in the middle of the afternoon!".
"You know, conversations like this one cause more harm than alcohol itself!".
He makes a show of slamming the red notebook closed, hoping she'll get the hint and stop nagging at him. But no, Delores has always made a point of distancing herself from his childish upsurges, and this time is no different: she curls her purplish lips, cocks an eyebrow and narrows her misty eyes until they're reduced to two thin slits.
"Sure. So, are you already drunk or just pissed off because the glass eye trail has literally gone up in smoke?". Five ignores her, with a hand he brings the bottle to his lips to take another long swig and with the other he keeps furiously scribbling on the fresh notebook. "All right. I'm off to sleep. You're gonna be hateful anyway, in a while, so-".
"Not this fast, I chugged enough to actually bring myself to open up!" the boy unexpectedly blurts out, then, slamming the pen down and turning to look at her. Delores stares back, looking as if she's baffled from what she's seeing. She should be practically blind, with those cloudy eyes, and yet...
"Oh my…it's gonna be one of those moments, then" she sighs, making abundantly clear through her tone of voice how she's resigned to suffer, since she can't do otherwise.
Again, Five ignores her.
"Listen, I know you're angry…and you have every right to be. But I still hope you know it wasn't about Handler. I had to get out of there in any possible way, if I wanted to give us a chance…". A pause, a belch, an indignant scoff on Delores' part. "Believe it or not, I did it all for you, too".
"Didn't seem like it at all" she says without mincing words, as her usual. But for some reason, that night Five is in dire need to make himself clear, and even starts gesticulating - uncoordinatedly so, since he's sloshed - to show how much he cares about what he's saying.
"I know, but…I had to work with what I had".
Delores manages to look haughty even in her miserable, mutilated state, as she gives him a moment to recover his dignity after such an outpouring. Five can tell he's not forgiven, even if she believes him.
"Life really sucks, sometimes" it's all she has to say, in the end.
"Yeah".
"I suppose I have to thank you, after all".
"Don't. You know you mean everyth-".
"I was talking about my hair. That blasted wig was killing me! Brown hair really don't suit me…and the hat! Good Heavens, did you see the hat?".
.oO°Oo.
In another part of town, other people order other drinks, but the outcome doesn't change.
"Hi. Can I have a Martini and an Old Fashioned, please?" Myery calls out to the barman, as she tiredly leans against the counter; he smiles at her.
"Wow, someone's had a rough day…".
"What? No, one is for me and the other for…that bitch of a friend that just disappeared" the red-haired woman grumbles, getting annoyed when she turns to look for the friend in question and doesn't find her in the vicinities. "Where did she go, to chat up someone already?".
A quick look at the bar's lounge and she finds her answers.
"Right, to chat up her ex…or her ex' famous sister. Sorry, gotta go prevent a catastrophe".
The barman laughs as she marches off, aiming toward the table at which nothing less than Allison and Vanya Hargreeves sit, amiably chatting with Lear.
"Hey, My-" Vanya greets with a kind smile, and for a moment Myery is almost sorry to have to interrupt her.
"It's Tess, now" she says anyway, and the two sisters look dumbfounded by her brusque tone. "Hi Vanya, hi Allison. How's it going?".
"Fine, thanks".
"Yeah!".
Both Allison and Vanya are sporting unexpectedly relaxed smiles and clutching onto tumblers; Myery assumes they're toasting to the few pleasant memories they might have made during their dysfunctional upbringing and serenely making peace with the fact that it has finally come to an end along with their blasted father. Suddenly, she remembers good manners.
"Oh, right, we should offer you our most sincere condo-".
"Sweet Jesus, if I hear yet another word of comfort I'm gonna yell!" Allison blurts out a bit loudly, making Myery frown.
"…have you Hargreeves kids been raised as catholics?".
"Bold of you to assume we've been raised…".
Vanya shakes her head and steps in before the situation becomes unpleasant.
"Thanks, girls, but there's no need for you to make the effort. We can talk about something else. For example, I was just about to tell…".
"Greta" Lear fills in, and Vanya nods, almost effortlessly repeating the fake name.
"…Greta that this morning I met…er…Lola? Yes, Lola".
"Lola?" asks Allison, abashed.
"You know, the one you used to argue with all the time" Vanya snickers.
"Oh!". Allison nods, looking uncertain, as if she doesn't know whether to be happy or not with the turn the conversation has just taken. "How is, huh…how is she?".
"Fine, thanks" Myery concisely replies.
"Could you please tell her I'm sorry? I've been terribly rude to her because of reasons, and…understandably, she didn't take it too well" Vanya tries to say, but Lear cuts her off.
"Relax, I'm sure she's already forgotten about it!".
Myery notices her friend sounds more enthusiastic than she would have thought to see her be in such a situation, but dismisses the thought right away.
"Yeah, Greta's right. Where is Lola supposed to find the time to hold a grudge against you, anyway? This is being a very stressful time, for her…you know, being back here, so many memories…your father dying, you guys starting to come out from everywhere…".
"How come you're saying nothing about Five?" Allison retorts with a giggle, surprisingly leaving both Lear and Myery splutter in dismay.
"F-five?" Lear whispers as Myery looks in alarm at the actress.
"What about him?".
"He's back!".
Vanya looks dismayed too, as her gaze darts between her sister, who keeps languidly smiling, and the two women standing next to their table.
"Shit, you didn't know?" she breathes.
Lear and Myery, both dumbstruck, silently turn to look at each other, and judging by how bewildered Vanya's voice sounds when she calls them up, they probably don't even bat their eyelids for some time; she cannot know, but they've had been carrying on a whole conversation with their eyes alone.
"Girls?".
"F-fuck!" Lear manages to grit out, shaking herself out of the stupor, "That's why Lola was acting weird! He's back!".
"Wait, weird how?" Allison queries, and Myery frowns.
"Edgy, evasive, snappy…sometimes nauseous…".
The two Hargreeves sisters exchange a fleeting glance, but keep their mouths shut. Allison looks like she's having the time of her life.
"Yeah…it all makes sense, now…" mumbles Lear, sounding engrossed.
"This morning she gave me the impression of not wanting to talk about it" Vanya offers.
"Well, it didn't exactly end well, between them…" Allison counters, and in a flash the mood gets so gloomy that Lear awkwardly looks down, Myery gets worried and Allison, once again, stifles a snicker taking a sip from her glass. Suddenly realizing the similarity between the abrupt ending of Five and Marben's relationship and the one between her and Lear, Vanya violently blushes and clears her throat.
For a small eternity nobody says anything. Then Lear reaches out to remove a paper napkin from the dispenser placed onto the table.
"All right, here's the deal" she says, fishing a pen from her purse and leaning on the table to scribble on the wipe.
"What deal?" Vanya blurts in an uncharacteristically shrill voice, while her sister leans over to try to catch a glimpse of what the blond woman is writing.
"Yeah, what're-".
Done writing, Lear closes the pen with a click and hands the napkin to the sisters.
"This is our phone number". Allison looks up at her, taken aback.
"…yup. I'm not gonna call you, you're my sister's ex". Lear scoffs.
"So that's why M-Lola can't stand you!".
"Get your brother to call, you witty" Myery steps in with an obviously fake smile, snatching the napkin out of Lear's hand and slipping it into Allison's bag.
"I was just kidding!" the actress giggles, looking at the red-haired woman with a false name fumbling with her purse as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Lear looks first at one sister, then at the other, and down at their glasses, one filled with what appears to be sparkling water and the other with something much stronger, finally understanding what's been off all along. Allison's tipsy, Vanya totally oblivious. And judging by the way Myery grabs her by the arm, she must've realized too.
"All right,we're leaving!".
"Jeez, I have to go too!" Vanya unexpectedly says, glancing at her watch. Her sister whines.
"What? Noooo, already?".
"Sorry, I have rehearsal in the morning, and I need to study some more before going to bed…I hadn't realized it was so late!" Vanya explains a bit anxiously, as she gets up; then she turns to Lear. "Which way are you going? We could share a taxi!".
Lear gapes at her, Myery and Allison likewise.
"Huh...we were just about to go drink somewhere e-". Myery elbows her in the ribs, and Lear instantly yields. "Of course. Let's go".
After a series of somewhat clumsy and hasty goodbyes, exchanged with more or less affection, Vanya retrieves her coat, her violin case and leaves with Lear.
Myery and Allison watch them head out of the door.
Myery then turns and prepares to extort some information from a drunk and lonely woman.
"If you don't mind, I think I'll be having my drink here" she says sitting down and abandoning her bag onto the chair vacated by Vanya. "Don't get your hopes up, by the way, I'm not gonna sleep with you neither drunk nor sober. Just so you know".
The famous sister of her friend's ex-girlfriend raises her hands, implying she has no nefarious intent even if the dopey glance with which she accompanies the gesture makes everything strongly contradictory.
"I'll be a gentlewoman. Promise".
Even if in a bit uncoordinated way, Allison beckons a waiter, who immediately rushes: he's bringing a tray on which the Old Fashioned and the Martini ordered by Myery stand out. The actress, hand still raised, looks at the poor guy, petrified with shame for having thought he had come to see her up close and with having to settle for someone else's drink of choice; Myery sees it all, and graciously welcomes the waiter with a smile to feign obliviousness. Once alone, she lets Allison pick which cocktail she prefers, and mentally rejoices when the actress reaches out to grab the Martini.
"So, is…everything okay, at the Academy?" Myery gently asks after a few sips, and Allison sends her a bleary gaze that somehow still manages to express wariness from above the rim of her glass.
"Why are you asking?".
"I heard there has been a shootout at your house".
"But…we didn't tell anyone…" the actress counters, sounding extremely confused. Myery shrugs and reveals the most harmless part of what she knows.
"Bette found herself passing by the Academy, last night, and ran away as soon as the first shot was blown".
"It was a break-in" Allison acquiesces then, slightly slurring. If she knows who answers to the name of Bette or has deduced it through the process of elimination, Myery doesn't know or question.
"No injured, I assume, since you're not exactly looking desperate…".
"Just a few scratches".
"I'm glad" says the red-haired woman, and she truly means it, but she's stayed for business, and so, a moment later she throws across the table an innocent "I almost feel bad for the burglars. In the sense, you guys don't exactly make the average family, I'm sure they're still wondering what hit them!".
"It wasn't a burglary" Allison clarifies; Myery looks up at her, posing as shocked. "They were looking for one of my brothers…".
"It must be quite a habit, then. All your brothers are troublemakers".
Allison erupts into a shrill snicker that makes Myery jump in surprise, then. When she sees the nurse's appalled face, the actress seems to realize how inappropriate she's being, so she awkwardly forces herself to sober up.
"To be honest, it doesn't happen as often as you might think".
"…I wouldn't have thought".
At that point, Myery wonders if she hasn't stumbled upon a great chance to get some answers for herself, in addition to those she has already managed to snatch for the Girls: across the table Allison is placidly sipping her Martini as she watches the coming and going of patrons or waiters, and lightly swings her head to the sound of music. Out of time. She looks as unsuspecting as she could ever be, and Myery decides she could as well try to get more personal.
"You know, I've always wondered...what's with you and my cousin?".
Allison chokes on her last sip. It takes her a few coughs and a couple of paper napkins to recover.
"Don't know what you're talking about".
"Right!" Myery scoffs. "You both claim you can't stand each other, and yet…no matter where we go or what we do, you always pop out and my cousin does something important for you or your family. It's intriguing".
"Yeah, well…casualness, huh?" goes Allison with a forced giggle. Myery's eyes are like steel.
"I don't believe in coincidences".
It's the actress' turn to stiffen, but since she's getting more and more drunk, it just turns out to be grumpy and a little bit endearing.
"I'm not sure where all this is supposed to be going, then…".
"Oh, you know damn right, sweetie. But I'll make myself clear anyway, to avoid misunderstandings of any kind: are you following us? Or selling information about us to someone?" Myery whispers, leaning over the table. Allison deliberately blinks a couple of times as if to clear her vision, then squints hard and leans across the table too.
"Who have you girls wronged?" the third of the Hargreeves asks in an unexpected bout of lucidity, and the red-haired woman just stares back with a deadpan expression.
"A whole lot of dangerous people. Most of which are now dead, but not everyone".
"Like who?".
"Oh, you know, the bad guys everyone's afraid of. The Seven Dwarfs, Oliver & Company, Scar and the hye-no, wait, Scar and the hyenas were freakin' insane, used to scare the shit out of me…".
"Wha-what you're saying makes no sense…".
"That's because you're sloshed. Anyway, with all those hoodlums after us you understand we already have our hands full and really don't need to worry about you too…".
"'m not following you" Allison admits then, shaking her head too emphatically and making herself dizzy in the process. Myery reaches a hand out and grabs her before she can fall off her chair.
"Fine, next question: are you rumoring her?".
"Who?" the actress snickers.
"My cousin". Allison's face contorts in a contemptuous grimace, and she places a hand on her chest in a way which is spectacularly reminiscent of her brother Klaus.
"No!".
"Don't act so outraged, missy, that's how you usually get off scot-free when you need something!".
"I truly just happen to bump into you girls, by chance, I swear. And it's not as if I ever asked her to help me…".
"Then it must just be her caregiving nature kicking in, every time…" Myery mumbles, sounding engrossed. On her part, Allison snorts.
"Caregiving nature?".
"Claire" Myery just says, and finally, Allison drops the sarcasm and looks down, pouting at the lonely olive lying at the bottom of her cocktail glass. Only then she does seem to realize she's really drunk.
"I think…I think I should go home".
Myery takes pity on her and decides to escort her, not trusting to let her go alone.
Allison insist on paying, then slips out of the bar hopping like a little girl, and when Myery catches up with her on the sidewalk, she has taken her heels off.
They set off down the relatively quiet street, missing a few taxis that don't want to pick up a visibly drunk woman while Allison keeps hopping and singing to herself and Myery follows at a short distance, without letting her stray too much, for fear she'll get run over by a car.
Not far from the bar, the red-haired woman gets distracted by the sound of violent retching coming from a dimly-lit alley to her left: she pauses for a moment to scan the shade, and the vision of Diego Hargreeves and a huge guy crouched next to someone - whose butt and skinny legs are the only, vaguely visible parts - hurling behind a dumpster on all fours catches her totally unprepared.
"What's wrong with this city?" she asks to no one in particular, looking ahead at her inebriated lump of responsibility, who happens to have found a snail into a flowerbed and has squatted down, barefoot, to coo and poke at the gastropod's antlers.
Then she resumes walking, unaware of Luther's and Diego's eyes which have risen just in time to catch a glimpse of swirling red hair before they disappear around the corner.
A/N:...antoher reunion, yet again not between Marben and Five. I know it doesn't seem like it, but remember that I love you and I am not doing this to torture you.
Tons of kisses.