A/N: Diego and Vanya talk... Dun, Dun, Dun lol jk

Hope you guys enjoy :)


Chapter Five: You Know Eudora?

Diego sat outside of Vanya's perfect suburban home in his car, he was parked in her driveway trying to work up the courage to go knock on her door. He's the one who told her before leaving that they still needed to talk, yet here he is being a chicken shit about actually doing it. He was fine earlier today; he doesn't know what happened in the small amount of time that caused him to lose his nerve. He knew he probably looked like a stalker outside of her house this late at night, just sitting there, doing nothing but creepily staring at her house, but he didn't care, he was far too busy trying to conjure up his confidence.

After the total failure of finding some information on the fake eye, he had dropped Klaus off at yet another shady house in a sketchy neighborhood. Diego like the last time he dropped him off at a similar looking house, didn't feel right about it but he didn't do anything to stop Klaus from leaving his car, just made sure to tell his brother to be careful. Five whom he thought was coming back with him to Vanya's house asked to get dropped off at a clothing store, it was already closed but Five didn't look like he was concerned over that fact. Diego thought he was going to wait for him outside to do whatever it was he needed to do in there but Five had told him he'd rather be alone with "Delores", saying they needed some privacy after being apart for what felt like ages. Delores was apparently some mannequin that kept Five company in the future, Diego wasn't going to argue with that, if Five wanted to visit his plastic girlfriend he wasn't going to hear any disagreement coming from Diego's mouth about it, in any case he had no room to talk, lord knows people would raise more than just eyebrows at the woman he loves to.

Once Five assured him that he was fine and would make it back to the manor or to Vanya's okay on his own, Diego had left, that's how he ended up here, in front of Vanya's home, entirely lost as to what he should do next.

A tapping on his driver side window startled him out of his thoughts, Vanya was outside the window in a thin baby blue robe, a concerned expression etched on her face.

"Are you okay? I got a call from Eleanor saying there was some man in my driveway watching the house, she was a second away from calling the police just so you know." Amusement came through her concern, her eyes flickered over what she could see of him, trying to assess any potential damage, seeing nothing but intact leather the concern slowly faded until all that was left was her amusement.

"Yeah um-I'm sorry I didn't mean to stalk your house." He got out of the car turning around when she waved to someone behind him, there about three houses down by the curb to the road was an old lady in her purple nightgown and pink fluffy slippers watching them with suspicion, she had a flip phone gripped in her hand as if it was a weapon she wasn't afraid to use at a moment's notice.

"It's all good Eleanor, I'm okay, he's my friend!" Vanya quietly called over to her neighbor, carefully trying to not be too loud, afraid she would wake up the other less nosy neighbors, Vanya was smiling unnaturally big, waving her hand in the air, trying to give off an air of happiness.

"Are you sure!?" The old woman called back, not as quietly as Vanya wanted her to be, Diego couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him, most people had a guard dog to protect them, Vanya had what looked like a 4 foot nothing little old woman that was ready with a phone to raise hell, arguably better than a guard dog.

"Yup, I'm sure!" Vanya reached over and grabbed Diego's hand to pull him into her house, if she stayed out there for a second longer then Eleanor would continue asking her if she was okay and if she was sure. Vanya did not want to think about what was going through the old woman's head at seeing Diego, a man, this late at night, Vanya's pretty sure she's going to be the talk of Eleanor's quilting club this week.

"I like her, she has eyes peeled on your house, that's a good thing." Diego allowed himself to be pulled by Vanya into the kitchen where she let go of his hand so she could start heating up a pot of tea for herself, she desperately wanted to switch the tea to coffee, but it was too late in the night for that. Diego immediately missed the warmth from her hand, his palm twitched with his need to reach across and hold onto her hand again.

"I guess." Vanya doubtfully muttered under her breath, it wasn't that she wasn't grateful to have a concerned neighbor like Eleanor, she really was, her house had a security system without her having to install anything and pay money for it, but it was still weird to have someone watching over her and her house even after living here for a little over a year now.

"Do you want a cup?" Vanya motioned to the hot tea pot; she had resigned herself to accept it was too late for coffee, but she really wanted something warm to hold in between her hands, so tea would have to do.

"Sure," Diego nodded, it was quiet in the house, it was almost creepy how still everything had become, earlier it was a range of motion, loud and full of life but now everything was to quiet, to dark, and to lonely, "Where's Luna?"

"Sleeping." Vanya replied, she had put her little bug down to sleep a couple of hours ago, Luna fought her on it for a bit as she often did when Vanya announced it was bedtime but once her head hit the pillow she was out like a light, Diego nodded back but didn't verbally respond.

"Where's Five?" Vanya had expected Five to come back with him. She reached into her cabinet to pull out two coffee mugs, one pitch black and the other stark white, she filled the black mug for Diego before setting the cup of tea on the counter and sliding it to him, to which he tilted his head in thanks.

"A clothing store with Delores, he asked me to drop him off." Diego said it like Vanya was supposed to know who "Delores" was, she heard Five mention the name a couple of times but hasn't found the proper time to ask who she was and what she meant to Five. .

"Okay?" She unintentionally replied with question. Should she ask Diego? He seemed like he knew more about this mystery girl then she did, a clothing store though what an unusual place to meet at and this late at night to, then again Five wasn't just any run of the mill kid…man?

"She's a mannequin that Five found in the apocalypse and kept as a companion, that's all I know, that's all I want to know." Diego shuttered to think what kind of companion Delores was to Five, and exactly what she did to ease his loneliness. Five spent a long time in the future and went through his proper teen years and adult years by himself, so it was a question that Diego was more than happy not to touch with a 40-foot pole.

"Should we be concerned about that?" Vanya guessed she should have realized that Delores wasn't a real girl but it was still shocking to hear that she was a mannequin, but if her brother was happy then she supposed that's all that mattered, a little freaky for sure but she could roll with freaky.

"Nah." Diego shook his head, they had nothing to worry about, as long as Five didn't try any Voodoo spells to try to turn Delores human and end up accidentally turning her into a murder mannequin then they were all good.

It was quiet after that, the safer parts of conversation had come and gone, they were both trying to ignore the obvious elephant in the room. Diego didn't think this far ahead, he knew he wanted to talk with her but how does one even start such a conversation? He had assumed that this would be easier, that he'd be able to say what he wanted and hear what Vanya had to say in return with no problems, he didn't once account for the fact that he might freeze up.

Him and Vanya had moved from the kitchen counter to the little breakfast nook she had in the corner of the kitchen, they sat across from each other, several times both of them opened their mouth only to shut it when nothing came out.

"I d-don't-don't know where-where to start." Diego finally said with his stutter coming through, for the most part he had his stutter taken care of, but it came through sometimes when he was really nervous about something, like now.

"What happened that night Diego?" Vanya figured she'd start with her most pressing question, a question that she's tried to answer herself with no success. She started tearing up, she didn't like that she was getting so emotional so soon into talking to him, she had hoped to hold it off a while longer, "When I went to sleep we were fine, you told me you loved me and couldn't imagine a life away from me, only to kick me out the next morning...did you get what you wanted? Is that it! Was I just a piece of ass for you! A notch in your belt and once you fucked me you had no more use of me!" The tears that had started to pool into her eyes went away just as fast as they tried to come the more she talked, she didn't know where the outburst had come from, didn't realize she was angry. As her speech went on, the louder she got, and as much as she wanted to scream at Diego for hurting her, she had to take a deep breath and remind herself that Luna was sleeping.

"What! No, of course not Vanya!" Diego couldn't believe that she thought she was nothing more than a name on his bedpost, she was never that and she would never be that.

"Then what Diego? Tell me why!" If that was not it then what else could it have possibly been, why did he leave her? Why did he hurt her? Why did he make all those promises and then go back on them the very next morning?

"You deserved better than me using you," he whispered out, his chest was starting to hurt from the shame that was weighing on him, "I couldn't let you be in that position anymore, I shouldn't have put you in it to begin with, I'm so sorry."

"Using me? You just said you weren't-" he cut her off.

"I didn't use you for sex that night Vanya, I meant what I said, I love you, I want a home with you, and I can't imagine a life without you. I wasn't lying about any of that then and I still feel the same way now." He knew the next part was going to be the hardest part to tell her, admitting he loved her was easy in comparison, he wasn't ashamed of his feelings for her, but he was ashamed of everything else.

"Then what do you mean? How were you using me, Diego?" He needed to stop talking in circles and just say what he means because Vanya couldn't handle trying to unscramble his mess of words.

"You know Eudora?" Vanya nodded, she didn't know the woman personally, she's never met her, but she knows of her, she was Diego's friend before something happened between them and they stopped talking. Vanya never pushed for more information on the woman, the only reason she even knew the little bit that she did was because she found a photo of them at some party, they were standing side by side, Diego's arm around her waist smiling goofy grins at the camera. Vanya had found the picture when Diego had asked her to help him do some spring cleaning, it was buried beneath old clothing in his closet. She had asked who the girl was, Diego had told her his friend, said they had a fight, and he was no longer friends with her. He took the picture from Vanya and threw it away right after ripping it up, Vanya never brought the subject of Eudora up again.

"Yes?" She's confused on what the other woman had to do with the current topic.

"I lied to you that day you found the picture, about her being my friend," Diego confessed, he could see the hurt and betrayal start to leak into Vanya's eyes, "She was my girlfriend, a pretty serious girlfriend, we lived together, I was even thinking about asking her to marry me...but she left me, she said I was too caught up with dad's "legacy" and that I had issues concerning him that I needed to work on. It was constant arguing between me and her towards the end there, we didn't have a healthy relationship, but it still hurt like hell when I came home and all that was left of her was a shitty piece of paper that said, "I'm sorry" on it."

Even after a few years since that happened it still hurts to think about it. Diego knows where he went wrong in his and Eudora's relationship, but he wasn't the only one at fault for it ending in the disaster that it did. He and Eudora talked occasionally now, her having gotten back in contact with him not to long after Vanya had left from his life, she wanted his help on a case and even though her phone call was out of the blue, Diego had jumped at the opportunity for a distraction.

He didn't love Eudora anymore, that became evident when he met up with her and nothing sprang alive inside him, her presence was muted compared to Vanya's, her touch cold where Vanya's was warm. Diego had been expecting in some part of him, had even prepared himself for it, for feelings to come jumping back at him when she first contacted him and he went to meet her, but he felt nothing for Eudora in that aspect, he still cared about her, but he knew that the love he thought he had for her was nothing in comparison for the love he held for Vanya.

Eudora sometimes contacts him now when there's cases, she needs help with, but for the most part they stay out of each other's lives. Diego learned to forgive her for the truths she spoke that day, he didn't hold her leaving him against her anymore, she had every right to her feelings on their relationship at the time. Plus, had she not broken things off with him, the whole thing with Vanya wouldn't have happened.

"When she left me I was a mess, I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't think, I was angry and sad, I felt like no one wanted me, like I was damaged goods and I was doomed to live a life by myself because of the fucked up mess dad made of me," he had gotten up from his seat and was now standing up, sitting down was making him to fidgety, "I wanted someone to want me. I wanted someone to see me, to crave my attention. I needed that, I needed to feel like there was someone there that wouldn't leave me because they were just as alone." He paused to catch his breathing; he didn't know when he started crying but raising his hand to his face, he pulled it away with wetness on it. Vanya was quiet, she wasn't saying anything to him and that had him worried, she didn't have any emotions to her face or body, she was as still as a statue, just sitting there staring at him, he wished she would show something, any emotion to him so he could gouge where she was mentally.

"So, I went to you, because I knew you would be able to give me what I wanted with just a few nice words and some smiles. I'm sorry Vanya, I'm so sorry, I'm sorry," he kept repeating his apology, she was still just blankly staring at him, he kneeled to the ground in front of her and pulled her hands into his, holding them tight in his own like they were his lifeline, "I'm sorry, please say something." He begged her, but still she was silent.

"I love you. I didn't know that I would fall for you when I brought you into my fucked-up mess of a life, but I did Vanya and I love you and I'm so sorry, I didn't think about anything beyond my own selfish desires until that night, that's why I screamed at you the next morning. I couldn't let myself use you like that anymore, you deserved better from me, but I know now that it just made things worse. I lost you and I lost my daughter too and I don't know how to make it right, but I want to, so please say something." He pulled on her hands a little to get her to do something other than stare and blink at him.

Vanya didn't know what to say to him. It was a lot to take in, she didn't doubt that Diego was truly sorry for doing what he did, for hurting her, she could see the regret and the shame in the set of his shoulders, in the frown of his brow, and in the tears that were rolling down his cheeks. He lied about who Eudora was, he only got in contact with Vanya because she was a desperate lonely soul in need of attention from just about anybody that was willing to give it to her in that point of her life. He took advantage of her low self-esteem that was caused by their father, their siblings, and himself and used it against her to satisfy his own needs. He used her for months before that night, made promises that night and hurt her the next morning because he grew a conscience overnight. And yet despite knowing what she should probably do is kick him out and tell him to go fuck himself, all she could think about was that she loved him and they weren't given a real chance before because the start of their relationship was set on lies and broken hearts desperately trying to heal themselves but now could she take the risk of kicking him out and losing something that has the potential to be amazing? She's not sure what the right answer is if there even was a right answer at all.

"I can't forgive you Diego," she squeezed his hands that were clasped within her own when his face fell, more of his tears started leaking out of his eyes, "At least not right now, I don't know what to think right now. I'm hurt and I-I don't know what-everything is a mess, I know I love you but I need time to..." she stopped talking when screaming started coming from down the hallway, it was loud and piercing in the quiet of the house and it made Vanya's ears ring with panic...Luna.


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