A/N: Hope you guys enjoy :)


Chapter Four: Would You Shut Up

Vanya was trying her hardest to listen to her student Leonard play the violin, one would think it would be easy for her ears to pick out every sound the instrument made, considering he was absolutely horrid at playing it. The screeching sounds of the poor strings was loud, like nails on a chalk board. Sympathy ran through Vanya's veins for her violin, this is the single worst treatment it's received in its long life, even when she first started playing in her teen years, she didn't sound this bad, even her youngest student learning this particular instrument who was 7 years old didn't sound this bad. The ear-splitting noise did manage to accomplish pulling her from her thoughts every once in a while, but for the most part she was able to tune out the shrieking violin, Diego occupied to much space in her head, leaving little room for anything else.

A part of her felt like a teenager with a crush, not being able to think or really live normally without that special someone they were crushing on popping up in their mind, distracting them, what with all these thoughts swirling her head surrounding Diego. She hadn't realized how much she missed him, she wished her thoughts were filled with hatred towards him for treating her the way he had but they weren't, she couldn't hate him. If she had thoughts like that then it would make things far easier than what she's currently experiencing, she would at least know where she stood with her hatred, there was no second guessing with that emotion, but right now she didn't know her own feelings and that was frustrating her.

She knows she loves him; she's known that long before now, she came to terms with her feelings for him weeks before that night that her and Diego slept together, but it was different to act on her feelings then when he had kissed her because she fooled herself into believing that they could have something beautiful together. Now she wasn't sure what to do with her love for him, where she should stand with it. What Diego had done that day, the words he had said to her, they should have been unforgivable, she should want nothing to do with him, she should be kicking him away from her and out of her life for good this time, but she wasn't going to do that, she didn't want to do that, even the thought of doing that hurt her heart.

"Mamma when's the bad music going to stop?" Vanya was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of Luna running into the open room door. She had pinched lines in her brow that reminded Vanya so much of Diego, her little girl was his spitting image, but it was certain expressions and ticks in her daughter's behavior that truly spoke of who her father was for Vanya. The pinched lines in her brows were one of them. Normally Luna kept herself occupied with her Disney movies and toys in the living room or in her bedroom while Vanya worked with her students, for being so young, Luna was very mature and patient.

Vanya used to have her in the room with her as she taught her students but as Luna got a bit older and learned to walk and talk, she decided she would rather not listen to the students learning to play, understandable seeing as most of the students Vanya had were beginners in their instruments and they didn't sound to nice playing them. Vanya found that it worked out fine for both of them for her little bug to be in the living room or her bedroom away from the lessons room, Luna got to watch her movies and be as loud as she liked and Vanya got to teach her students peacefully without any interruptions. Her little bug only came to the lessons room to ask for a snack or to ask her when she was going to be done. There's only been one other time she's asked when the "bad music" was going to end.

Leonard laughed as he stopped "playing", gently he put down the violin, giving it two pats before pulling his hand away, "I'm sorry Sweet Pea, I guess I'm pretty bad at this huh?" He teasingly asked but Luna looked at him and nodded her head with all the seriousness a two-year-old could muster, Vanya thought it was the cutest thing.

"I'll tell you what, I think I'm done for today, so you don't have to worry about me giving your daughter permanent ear damage." He turned his head and body to face Vanya, grinning at her with tease, Luna ran back out of the room glad she accomplished stopping the bad music, now that her mission was done she had no interest in staying.

"She's a cute kid." Leonard complimented her, he had gotten up from his seat and started putting on his coat, his movements slow and overly pronounced.

"Thank you." It was a compliment that Vanya didn't mind receiving, she did have an adorably cute kid and she was proud of it.

"How'd I do?" Leonard gestured to the violin that Vanya was picking up from where he had set it down to place it back on the pedestal she had taken it off of when the lesson first started, "I mean beyond the obvious bad, you think I could eventually get the hang of it?"

"Yeah, with enough practice I think you'll do fine." Vanya assured him even though she wasn't 100% confident in her own words, it would take a lot of practice and time for his musical talents to progress into listening territory.

"You can be honest with me; do you think it's odd to want to learn to play this late in life?" He asked her.

"Of course not, you are older than most of my students but that doesn't mean anything. Some of the greatest musicians started later in life and it seemed to work out great for them. If you love music, then you're in the right place." Vanya again wasn't completely confident in her assurance to him, but she wasn't about to discourage someone who wanted to learn an instrument.

"You're describing my dad with that one more than you're describing me I would say," he shyly admitted to her, "He loved music. He passed away a while back and I guess that's why I'm here, I'm trying to better understand him."

"I'm sorry." Vanya could understand the sentiment, his father loved music and he was trying to channel him through it, she hoped he was able to accomplish what he set out to find in concerns to his deceased father.

"Oh no don't be, we had a complicated relationship, we didn't understand each other and that led us to being two opposites that didn't attract." Also something Vanya could understand, her own relationship with her father having been in the problematic zone as well.

"Family you know...it's never easy and never not complicated right?" He asked.

"You have no idea." Vanya answered, and he didn't, family was beyond the normal complicated for her.

"I'm sorry for getting kind of deep with you there, I didn't mean to." He awkwardly apologized, the blush from earlier when he thought he had the wrong house returning to his round cheeks.

"Don't apologize, believe me I understand complicated family on a whole other level." Vanya said, with Diego running through her mind, not the kind of complicated Leonard was referring to but a whole other realm of it that she was not going to get into. Especially not with someone she just met and who happened to be her student, that was going beyond the boundary lines of what they should share with each other.

Vanya walked him to the front door and opened it for him, giving him a heavy hint that it was time to leave her home, he paused at her doorway before leaving completely, "I'm a woodworker, I have a shop in Bricktown and um you should come by sometime." He told her, Vanya panicked for a minute unsure what she should tell him that didn't sound rude, she wasn't prepared for this, for someone to be interested in her, for someone to look at her like she was a mystery they couldn't wait to unravel.

"I um I'm pretty busy you know with my daughter and other stuff." She didn't outright say "no" to him because that seemed callous, but she didn't want to make it seem like she was interested either, he was nice and attractive but there was the whole situation with Diego, plus Leonard is her student, it didn't seem like a wise decision to interact with him in a romantic way, ultimately giving him access to that part of her personal life.

"It's totally fine, I understand, another time maybe." He lingered in the doorway for a bit longer before giving her and Luna who had pulled herself away from her Disney movies a final wave goodbye before he left, the door thudding shut behind him. Vanya didn't know if that situation could have gone any more awkward if she tried. She stood at the doorway for a second longer, allowing her thoughts to gloss over Leonard and his poor flirting abilities before pulling herself away from it and turning to Luna, "Are you hungry again bug? Cause I am and I could really use some help in the kitchen." She over exaggerated a pained look of helplessness that wasn't too far off from the truth, Vanya was no good in the kitchen, how she got by everyday was a mystery. Luna giggled and led the way to the kitchen tugging Vanya along by her hand.


Luther walked down the long hallway of the second level in the manor, a slump in his step, he had just gotten back from Diego's boiler room house thing where he lived. Luther had waited there for hours, needing to talk to him but Diego never showed up. Once he got bored and tired of waiting, he decided to leave, maybe it was a good thing he didn't see Diego, they never got along, their conversations were more likely to end in arguments and fights than anything else. Plus, he could admit that he was just a tad grateful to have sat there in silence, lost with his thoughts, it gave him the time he needed to really think through his accusations from the previous night, and how wrong he had been for them. He came to the conclusion that he was looking for someone to blame, he didn't want to believe his dad was just gone and there wasn't anything unnatural about it, as big of an impact as he had on all seven children's lives, he couldn't have just died from something as normal as a heart attack, it seemed to easy, too simple for such an eccentric man. But sitting alone in Diego's room had allowed him to come to terms with the fact that he was just looking for a mission where no mission was to be found.

"Luther!" He paused in his steps to turn around only to see Allison jogging to him in a frenzied pace, she had told him that she was leaving so he was confused as to why she was still here. Seeing her but knowing he didn't have her was maddening for him. Diego and Vanya being something, enough of something to have a kid together at least, made him slightly envious of them. His first reaction to seeing Vanya's little girl and making the connection to Diego was shock and then it was anger and then it was envy. Diego tried so hard when they were kids and sometimes even now to be Number One but what he didn't know was some things such as having that piece of someone that was forbidden Luther wished he was Number Two, confident enough to go after it.

"I thought you were leaving?" He focused his attention on Allison before he could get lost in the whirl wind of his thoughts.

"Where were you? I was looking everywhere for you!" Allison snapped at him without meaning to, she was frustrated when she couldn't find him in the manor when she went looking. She spent hours searching up and down the entire place hoping he was hiding his large form somewhere, playing a twisted one-sided game of hide and seek.

"I went to talk to Diego at his place, I was waiting for him, but he never showed up." He stepped back when she had snapped at him, Luther didn't think she should be this upset about him leaving, it wasn't like he knew she had been looking for him.

"He was here earlier, I guess he was at Vanya's place, he took Five shopping or something like that." She softened her tone when she told him of where Diego had been.

"I was wrong about dad's death." Luther blurted out, he needed to get it off his chest that he was mistaken, it was better to let it out to Allison than anyone else, she wouldn't judge his mistaken assumptions or rub his feelings in his face.

"What?" Allison's mind whirled trying to comprehend what was being said.

"Yeah I just-I shouldn't have accused anyone especially not my siblings of..." Allison started to shake her head so Luther trailed off but then he started talking again when she said nothing "I should be the one trying to pull us all together, we're missing so much of each other's lives, Claire and Luna, Diego and Vanya, you know I shouldn't be tearing us further apart..." Allison finally got her head on straight and interrupted him.

"Would you shut up," she forcefully told him, now was not the time for him to be having a moment, "You were right about dad." Luther had shut up when she told him to and stood there blank minded on her statement of him being right about their father, what did that mean?


A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed, feel free to drop a review :)