Chapter Three: In The Air Tonight

A/N: As always, a huge thanks to those who have reviewed, favourited and followed! It's been a little while because I'm trying to figure exactly how Tori is going to fit in with the events of the show and how everything goes down - and of course, how her tumultuous relationship with Diego will develop. Anyway, I do hope you enjoy this chapter!

Bear in mind that the M rating applies in this chapter for a sex scene right at the end.

"What. The. Hell."

Tori could only gape at the boy sitting at the counter at Griddy's Doughnuts with a sickly-sweet smile across his far that was far from genuine. She hadn't seen Number Five in a very long time, before she'd even killed someone. Yet here he was in the flesh, looking no older than the thirteen years he'd been when he had disappeared. Deciding this was way too creepy for her liking, she marched determinedly up to the counter.

"What can I get for you, miss?" The woman – Agnes, according to the badge – asked. Although she'd been hankering for a donut, the sudden appearance of someone who'd been missing for more than half of Tori's life kind of put a hold on her need for a sugar fix.

"A coffee is fine." Tori sat down beside Five, who just raised his eyebrows as though her presence was mildly surprising.

"Toxin."

"I don't go by that name anymore." Tori's voice was hard as she accepted the coffee from Agnes and immediately took a sip. "Anyway, weren't you presumed dead or something? What's the deal?"

Five had gone missing way back, before anything had ever happened between Tori and Diego, before Celine, before she'd said goodbye to a life of crime and instead decided to try and do something better. She still hadn't really gotten to the 'something better' part of her life, but living a boring, everyday existence had to count for something.

"A whole lot of time-travel and equations that would baffle that pretty little head of yours." Five's condescending tone was enough to convince Tori that he wasn't the kid he appeared to be, if nothing else. The contempt made her eyes narrow. It'd be so easy to poison the black coffee he was casually sipping, but she liked to restrain herself from homicidal thoughts and violent urges.

"So, you're not actually a teenager?"

"Technically, I'm about twenty years older than you, so no." Five glanced at her, his expression devious. "I hear things have changed drastically for you. No Fabrizio and Giulian in the picture?"

Tori was spared the snarky answer she would have delivered by an insistent buzzing of her phone. When she picked it up, she realised that Jillian was attempting to call her. Heaving a sigh, she pushed herself away from the counter and headed into the ladies' room. She really didn't need Five to have any more dirt on her, particularly when she knew next to nothing about what had happened with him.

"Jill, what is it?"

"Don't sound so pleased to hear from me, jeez." Her best friend's tone was sour. "Anyway, my date for tonight cancelled so I just wanted to see if you were in the mood for a rom-com night…"

Jillian's nattering was drowned out by the sound of what could only be explained as gunfire. Tori's stomach twisted but there was also something else beyond the trepidation – something she could only explain as excitement. It had been years since she'd had a fight (no, nothing she did with Diego counted), and the idea that she could walk back out there into whatever this was…

"You've got to be kidding me," Tori muttered under her breath.

"What?" Jillian sounded impatient. "Where are you, Tori? There's some weird noise in the background."

"I'm going to have to call you back." Tori hung up before Jillian could protest. There was some shame in the feeling of exhilaration. She was a normal woman now, one who didn't indulge in the same vices she had in her younger years – with the guilty exception of Diego. He was the one thing she hadn't given up, and she was beginning to wonder if maybe she should, or even could.

By the time she shoved open the door to the bathrooms and stepped back into the café, the lights were flickering, there were dead bodies all over the place, and Five was nowhere in sight. Tori threw her hands up in the air, more perturbed by Five's disappearance than the actual corpses.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me."

Tori knew she had to be truly desperate to go to Diego Hargreeves for help, but who else could explain exactly what was going on with Five? It wasn't exactly like she was on speaking terms with the rest of the Umbrella Academy. That was how she found herself hammering on the door to the boiler room of the boxing gym where Diego worked and lived.

"Save it." Tori held up her hand as Diego's lips twisted into a smirk. "I'm not here for the reasons you think I am."

"Huh." Diego leaned in the doorframe. "So then why are you here?"

"Your brother, Five." Tori raked a hand through her blonde hair. "Do you want to even begin explaining what the fuck happened there?"

Diego caught her by the arm, tugging her inside before closing the door behind her. Tori's gaze raked over Diego's usual set-up. It wasn't much, but it was home for him, and she wouldn't judge him for that. It was difficult for people like them, who'd lived in the spotlight during their teen years, to find any place they could call home.

"Five? Where did you see him?"

"Griddy's Doughnuts, like an hour ago." Tori folded her arms over her chest. "I went to the bathroom to take a call and when I got back, several men were dead and Five had vanished. I get that he isn't the teenager he appears to be, but honestly, this was an absolute mess."

"Yeah, former villains would know all about that," Diego mused, making Tori tempted to hit him across the face. She restrained herself, although it did take a whole heap of willpower.

"I'm serious, Diego. I don't know if he left before it, or during it…but I just know you like doing your whole cute little vigilante gig. Thought you might want to check it out."

"You think it's cute?" Diego grinned, irritating Tori beyond belief. How she hadn't murdered him when she'd been a villain was often a huge question in itself.

"Why do you only ever focus on the most mundane part of what I'm saying?"

Diego tilted his head to the side. "Heard you visited Fabrizio earlier."

An unpleasant shiver ran up Tori's spine. "Where did you hear that?"

Diego shrugged. "Friends with a lot of the cops around here. I have to say, that's really convenient timing. Did he confess to the crime?"

"You mean murdering your dad?" Tori shook her head vigorously, her mind going over her interaction with Fabrizio. "That's just it. He says he didn't do it…and I believe him. Fabrizio is a lot of things, but he isn't a liar. He's got no reason to deny it."

Tori pondered the matter of Reginald's death, but what reason did she really have to believe it was anything more than natural? The man hadn't exactly been young, and although the family had their enemies, they'd been retired for some time now. The only people who might have killed him were his own children, a possibility that swirled through Tori's mind accompanied by deep uneasiness.

"Come with me," Diego insisted, drawing her attention back to the mystery of Griddy's Doughnuts and the mass murder she'd very clearly not witnessed there. "I could use some back-up on this. I don't think those people and Five were in the café at the same time by coincidence, and I don't think you do either."

Tori smiled wryly. "Ex-hero and ex-villain work together to save the day. Who'd have guessed?"

Eleven years ago

One might think it odd that a member of the mafia had such strong faith, but Fabrizio had instilled the idea of prayer in Tori from a young age. A heavily Catholic man, he wore his silver cross around his neck with pride, although he was often asking God's forgiveness. Many a time, he'd told Tori that she herself must be a gift from God, delivered to Fabrizio to assist in his work.

Tori had slipped into the empty church in the dead of night, picking the lock to kneel before God and whisper fervent prayers. She didn't know if she believed as Fabrizio did, yet it was comforting to have something to believe in. Glancing around, Tori stepped into the confessional. She knew there was no priest on the other side, but she needed to speak of her damning crimes aloud nonetheless.

"Forgive me Father, for I have sinned." Tori took a deep, shuddering breath. "Today I killed someone, and not for the first time."

There was silence, as she had anticipated. At nineteen years old, Tori had outgrown the vehement belief of her younger years. Now she spoke to God without any real conviction, voicing her doubts to thin air and knowing they likely wouldn't be heard. Coming to church was a ritual, not driven by blind faith.

Tori's anger grew. "Did you grant me these powers? The power to twist others and to kill so quickly and easily? Why make me deadly if you didn't want me to be such a creature?"

"You ask some interesting questions." The dryly amused voice by the curtain made Tori jump, and she tugged it open to reveal the hated smirk of Diego Hargreeves. Or Number Two, as he was often referred to.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Could ask you the same question." Diego's dark eyes raked over the cross. "Didn't take you for a particularly holy person."

Tori's cheeks burned with shame. "Get out! You have no right to be here."

"To be honest, I followed you in here because I thought you were gonna steal." Diego's words caused a silence between the pair for a few moments, before he stepped into the confessional too. With both of them in there, it seemed awfully crowded, and Tori was acutely aware of his closeness.

"Fuck off, Diego."

"I'm a sinner, too." He raised his eyebrows, amused. "Should I repent?"

"I'm not here to be made a joke of," Tori hissed through clenched teeth. She found herself pressed against the back of the confessional, neck craned back to glare at her rival. There was something alight in those dark eyes, and she was a little scared to realise that it was desire. Her abilities meant she affected those around her and made them feel things more strongly, things she could manipulate, but she hadn't expected Diego to look at her like that.

Sure, he was hot. He'd made it clear in the past that he thought she was too. But they were enemies. They couldn't share something more than barbed words in this moment…could they?

"You're an annoying little thing." Diego reached out and caught her by the chin, and Tori resisted the urge to smack his hand away. "But I don't think you're all bad."

Tori reached out and slipped one of his knives off his belt, pressing it to the exposed skin of his throat. Far from being deterred, his smile widened.

"If you think I'm sugar and spice and all things nice, you really don't know me at all."

"I don't think that." Diego didn't try and take the knife from her. "I think you're vulnerable and you hate yourself for it."

"Almost as much as I hate you," Tori whispered, but there was little heat to the words.

The next thing she knew, Diego was kissing her. The knife dropped from her fingers and clattered to the bottom of the confessional. Tori had kissed boys before, fumbling moments when she'd driven them crazy with her pheromone manipulation or when she'd wanted to prove to herself she could be a normal teenager. But none of those kisses had the passion and intensity with which Diego kissed her now.

Tori slipped her arms around Diego's neck, standing on her toes to try and take off some of the near-foot height difference between them. He pressed her harder against the wall of the confessional, one of his hands drifting to her hip to hold her tight against him.

This was a church, dammit. Fabrizio would be furious if he knew she'd done something like this in a confessional, of all places. Yet Diego was right – they were both sinners. So why shouldn't they sin?

Diego's lips drifted down her jaw, down the slim column of her neck. One of his hands paused at the hem of her shirt. When she didn't resist, he put his hand up, fingers caressing the warm, bare skin of her stomach. Tori gave a delighted sigh, fingers threading into Diego's dark hair as her body arched against him. She reached for his shirt, but he caught her wrist, and she realised there was no way he was taking those knives off around her.

Diego's hand groped at her breasts, the other hand slipping behind her to unclasp her bra. Tori's cheeks heated up, but she wasn't about to tell Diego she hadn't done anything like this before. She was worried if she did, he would stop – and as much as she despised herself for it, she didn't want him to stop.

Tugging her bra and shirt off, Diego kissed down her collarbone and over the curve of her breast. Tori gave a ragged gasp as Diego's lips closed around a nipple, while his fingers kneaded her other breast. She squirmed against him, feeling a surge of satisfaction when she realised how hard he was. There was a heat rising between her legs and she realised just how turned on she was, too.

Diego's free hand slid underneath Tori's skirt, fingers crawling up her thigh. She wanted to touch him back, but he didn't seem to want that, and she was putty in his hands anyway. Diego pushed her panties to the side, slipping one finger inside her and rubbing her clit with his thumb. Tori's low moan resonated through the confessional.

"Huh. You're already wet." There was no doubting the smugness in his voice.

"Shut the fuck up," she warned.

Diego spun her around so her back was to him, and Tori braced herself by putting her hands on the confessional walls to stop herself from falling. She heard him undo his belt buckle and felt a surge of nervous excitement. Diego gripped her hip and positioned his cock before pushing into her with a grunt. Being filled by him burned for a few seconds, before the pain receded to only mild discomfort.

"Jesus Christ," Diego's voice was low and husky, lips on the side of Tori's neck again.

A wicked smile curved her lips. "Shouldn't use the lord's name in vain."

Diego's fingers tightened on her hip and he started to thrust. At first Tori bit her lip to hide her initial soreness, but there was no fighting how his lips on her shoulder and his free hand on her breasts made her feel. It took only a few thrusts for her to find pleasure. She didn't even attempt to keep quiet then, moaning softly at his ministrations.

Tori kept her fingers splayed against the walls, hands braced to keep herself still as Diego fucked her senseless. Girls always said the first time was shit, but this…wasn't bad. His low groans made her even more aroused, and she began to rock her hips back against him to meet his thrusts.

Diego spread her legs further apart, allowing him to thrust deeper. Tori gave a soft whimper of pleasure at the new sensations she was experiencing, his fingers pinching at her nipples until they hardened. His hands on her breasts were rough, tweaking and squeezing until Tori moaned.

Diego's thrusts were hard and steady as he found a rhythm, one that caused heat to coil within Tori's body. She found herself able to do little more than moan and rock her hips in time with his thrusts, cursing this new power she'd given Diego over her body. His groans escalated in volume as his thrusts became faster.

"I'm gonna cum," Diego choked out.

"It's fine, I'm on birth control," Tori responded breathlessly, which probably wasn't terribly erotic but was also true.

Diego gave a series of short, sharp thrusts before he grunted and shuddered. Tori had the sensation of something warm and wet spurting into her. Diego panted and withdrew, shoving his cock back in his pants and doing up his belt. It took Tori a few more moments to compose herself, her panties sticky as she pulled her shirt and bra back on.

Diego opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but then he stepped out of the confessional, letting the curtain swing across again behind him. Tori raked a hand through her now tangled blonde hair, utterly confused and wondering where this left things between her and Diego.

She hadn't exactly expected romance. They were never going to be anything more than enemies – enemies who'd now had sex. He'd lusted for her, now he'd had her. Maybe that meant it was over, that whatever weird sexual tension they had would dissipate now they'd sated that craving.

Unfortunately, that was very much not the case.