Summary: With the Apocalypse around the corner, will Diego and Vanya be able to fix their broken relationship and stop the end of the world at the same time? (3rd part of "Flawed" series).
Word count outside of Author Notes (Full Story): 66,193
A/N: THANK YOU to anyone who has read the 1st and 2nd part of this series and has favorited, followed, and/or left a review, you guys are the best! This story, along with "Flawed" and "Damaged" have photo collages, if anyone wants to go check those out. This story in particular has Fan-Art by shi-lisa that can be viewed through my AO3 account and/or my Tumblr account, both are under the same username "HunnyDreams42". Special thanks to shi-lisa for the billionth time for creating such beautiful pieces of art. Also, for anyone wondering where I got the chapter titles from, they're quotes from the actual chapters in the story.
Warning: Story contains pseudo-incest
Hope you guys enjoy :)
Chapter One: Can We Talk?
Diego couldn't help himself from roaming his eyes over Vanya's face and body, yesterday when they were at the manor attending their father's funeral, it didn't make for a good time to take in her appearance, not with their siblings giving each of them varying looks, making obvious connections. And certainly not with Vanya avoiding anything that was remotely in his vicinity, refusing to acknowledge him in any way. Today though he had her standing in front of him, not trying to run away or trying to pretend she doesn't see him, so he took his time studying her, assessing the minor differences. Not much had changed since he last saw her, only subtle differences could be seen, her hair was longer, the choppy short look she sported a few years ago was gone, she also had dark circles under her eyes that weren't there before indicating that she was tired, she had gained a bit of weight as well, all in the right places if you asked Diego, overall, he thought she looked really good.
"What are you doing here Diego?" Vanya asked him, he couldn't hear any anger in her voice just curiosity, like he was a regular visitor who just stopped by unexpectedly and she was curious to know why. He had prepared himself for her to be upset with him at the very least, but she didn't look like she was upset by his appearance, she didn't sound like it either, not yet anyways, he had yet to open his mouth to speak so that could change. Her calmness was commendable, Diego can't say he would have this composure if their situations were reversed.
"Can we talk?" He answered her question with one of his own. He glanced down to Luna, his daughter and God wasn't that an insane thought to have, he actually had a daughter, she was swinging her hand in Vanya's hand, staring at him with open interest, her wide bug eyes looking over him much like the way his own eyes just did to her mother.
"About?" She questioned him, Diego raised his eyebrow in response to that, he didn't want her to make this more difficult by pretending she didn't know what they needed to talk about. The situation was already a tough one, he didn't see a point in making things harder than they were already going to be. He couldn't fault her for it either though, the fact that she's still standing in front of him and letting him speak at all is nothing short of a miracle, he himself would have already walked away.
"You, me, us, Luna," he fired in quick succession, "just everything, we need to talk about everything."
"There's a me and there's you but there is no us Diego, you made your thoughts and your feelings very clear to me, so no there's nothing we need to talk about." She still didn't sound angry to his ears, just accepting of what she believed to be the truth.
"There's nothing to talk about? NOTHING at all to talk about Vanya?" He asked putting emphasis on the word "nothing", he kept his gaze on her but let his head tilt downward to Luna, who was now completely focused on jumping back and forth over a crack in the cement, wobbly on her legs but having fun playing a game well the boring grownups talked.
That question from him sent a spark of displeasure through Vanya's body, she felt tired and done with a conversation they had yet to have. She knew logically that ignoring him and walking pass him to go into her house wasn't going to go over well with Diego's short temper, but Vanya still allowed herself a moment to picture doing just that before she shook her head, she couldn't do that. That childish move wouldn't be resolving anything, it would just be creating more animosity between them. She didn't want to talk to him, but she knew she had to, he might not return Vanya's feelings for him but that wasn't a reason to keep Luna away from him, she couldn't do that to her daughter, take away her chance of having her father in her life. In her daughter's best interest, she couldn't tell Diego to not be in Luna's life if that's what he wanted, and unluckily for her the only way to know where they stood with each other and with Luna was to talk, no matter how much she didn't want to.
"Okay." She reluctantly agreed, making her lack of enthusiasm known, she gestured to her front door with her head, leading the way inside, she wasn't about to have a private conversation out in the open where her nosy neighbors could hear her business. Luna for her part looked relieved to finally be going inside, before Vanya could get the door open all the way her little bug shot threw it in all her excitement and went straight to her room, bangs and clanks of toys being pulled out of her toy chest could be heard filling the otherwise silent house.
Vanya led Diego through her living room, stepping over toys Luna had left on the floor that morning before their walk and into the kitchen so she could make them some coffee, she wasn't about to have a sit down without at least one cup of the caffeinated drink she was only slightly addicted to. Before she could walk through the small arch that led into the kitchen from the living room though, Diego grabbed her from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist he pulled her to the wall next to the arch, a blade in his hand and flying into the kitchen before Vanya had time to even process that she wasn't walking anymore.
A flash of familiar bright blue light appeared from thin air in front of her, suddenly Five was standing there, Diego's blade held loosely in his hand with an infuriatingly large grin on his face.
"You're getting rusty in your old age Diego." Five teased, Diego scoffed, snatching his knife back with a deep eye roll. Vanya for her part was still trying to recover from how quick Diego reacted to someone being in her home, her heart was going a mile a minute from the short burst of adrenaline she got.
"What are you doing here?" She was asking the same question to a different person in less than ten minutes, apparently her house was a popular one to be visiting today, if only she had gotten the memo, Vanya thinks this was possibly the most people that have ever been in her home at one time.
"I came to talk to you." Five stated losing his smile to replace it with a serious expression, Diego was still crowded into her personal space, so Vanya pushed him away from her and again made her way into the kitchen for some much-needed coffee. She couldn't deal with one of them without a cup, she sure as hell wouldn't be able to deal with both of them without one. Without a word they followed her, Five eyeing Diego and Diego eyeing Five, both suspicious as to why the other was there.
At the moment Vanya was a lot more interested in talking with Five, she missed her brother and she definitely wanted to hear what's happened to him in his time away. She knows he went to the future, he told them that much last night but he didn't give much more information than that, and even if he had Vanya was so preoccupied with her own thoughts on seeing Diego that she would have completely overlooked whatever else he had to say and Five didn't deserve that from her.
Plus focusing her attention on what Five had to say sounded far easier and simpler than going through a talk about everything with Diego.
"Get in line." Diego scowled at him, Five's talk would just have to be pushed back for another day, he could wait to talk, Diego was there first, he wasn't leaving without saying what he had to say to Vanya and he didn't want Five there to bear witness to their private conversation.
"What are you doing here?" Five questioned him, ignoring what he said, annoyingly seating himself on a bar stool connected to the island, making himself perfectly comfortable, an evident show that he wasn't leaving.
"Me and Vanya have some things to talk about." Diego squinted at the other seats around him, he even eyed where Five was seated so contently but he didn't sit down anywhere, he didn't want to seem like he was pushing Vanya's hospitality and willingness to let him into her home.
"Some things that by the look of it should have been talked about a long ass time ago, if you ask me." Vanya nearly forgot how blunt and unfiltered Five could be, he never did care if people took offense to his speech, he said what he was thinking and wasn't timid of the reactions it could possibly bring, most often times it was a smartass comment that people didn't appreciate being told.
"I am curious though, how long has this," Five motioned between them with a pointed finger, "been a thing?"
"It's not a thing." Vanya rushed to say, her and Diego did what they did, it was fun and happy at the time but then it wasn't and now it was in the past where it needs to stay, she couldn't afford a breakdown over Diego, she would like to believe she's stronger than that now, but she didn't want to test the waters by opening up old wounds.
"It's not a thing but you guys have a kid together?" Five looked like he was enjoying his tormenting far too much for Vanya's liking.
"It's not a thing, we're not a thing, now moving on, what did you want to talk about?" Vanya dodged Diego's gaze trying to catch her own by grabbing the coffee pot to pour all three of them a cup, she wasn't going to serve Five a cup because he looked at most fourteen years old but the way he almost lovingly looked at the pot clearly said he was about ready to jump over the island and steal it from her if she tried to withhold it from him.
"The future." Vanya hated when Five would be vague about things when they were kids, he loved purposely confusing his siblings, he often made a game of it by either being too vague with what he was talking about or being to detailed with what he was talking about, he always got a sick kind of pleasure from watching them try to keep up with him, it seems that trait of Five's hasn't went anywhere, strangely enough she's missed it.
From the corner of her eye, Vanya could see Diego stiffen from his place standing next to Five, he was growing impatient with the avoidance she seemed to be exhibiting, she wasn't doing it on purpose at this exact moment, it's not like she could very well ignore that Five was talking to her or kick him of her house when he came here to speak with her.
"What about the future?" Diego irritably asked, wanting Five to say what he wanted already so he could leave, just as he asked Vanya noticed red stains on Five, he's been back less than a day and he's already getting into the kind of trouble that leaves him bloody.
"Is that blood?" She waved to his shirt, she already knew it was, but she wanted to see what he had to say.
"Yeah, it is," leave it to Five to sound completely unconcerned about a bloody wound, "but it's fine now, I used whatever stuff you had in the medicine cabinet to clean it out and disinfect it." He reassured them; Vanya guessed she must have just missed Five showing up here when she and Luna went for their walk.
"Why were you hurt to begin with? Who hurt you?" Diego demanded, Five has always and probably will always have a talent for getting on his nerves but that didn't mean he wanted to see him hurt, Five was his brother, if someone was trying to hurt him, he needed to know.
"Some mistakes were made on my end, I thought I had more time, I was wrong." In typical Five fashion, it was an explanation that explained absolutely nothing, it just left Vanya and Diego more confused than before, left them with more questions.
"But that's not what's important guys." Five hesitated, he came here to inform and talk to Vanya, not Diego and Vanya but he supposed it didn't really matter now, he didn't have a choice short of not saying anything at all which wasn't an option.
"Then what is important Five?" Vanya couldn't believe the complete disregard he had for his own safety, of course him getting hurt was important.
"The world's ending in seven days." He bluntly said to them, Diego had to admire the complete lack of emotion in Five's face when telling them that. Both Vanya and Diego froze in their place, they didn't even dare blink, they were quiet, not entirely sure what to say to Five in response to the bomb he just dropped on them.
"I'm going to need more coffee." Vanya finally whispered to the still room.
A/N: Diego and Vanya aren't going to have it easy, not if I have anything to say about it "cue evil laugh" lmfao jk
Hope you guys enjoyed, feel free to drop a review :)
