Twistin' The Night Away - Sam Cooke
I woke up the next morning to a loud conversation going on in the kitchen and a desperate need for water. I looked down at myself and saw I was just in my underwear and hoped to god that Diego was the one who took off my dress. I saw my suitcase in the corner of the bedroom and took out some clothes, quickly throwing them on and went into the kitchen.
"L-" my throat still hurt and my voice was still hoarse but I tried again, "Luther."
Everyone looked at me, including my oaf of a brother, and I ran to him to give him the biggest hug I could muster. Another part of the family back where they should be. It made me so happy that tears were streaming down my cheek when I pulled away.
"I don't think you've ever been this happy to see me." Luther said with a chuckle, using his thumb to wipe my tears.
"Be...before, I always knew where you were." I said.
"Malia... drink some water." Diego said, getting me a glass.
He handed it to me with a kiss to the forehead. I gulped it down as if it was ages since I last had it. I didn't think water could be so delicious. It was definitely my new favourite drink. Honestly, just give me all the water. I filled up my cup again and drank some more before sitting down at the table, sitting on one foot while the other dangled to the floor.
"What are we talking about?" I asked. I sounded a little better now that I had some water but my voice was still husky.
"Those Dutch guys that keep following me. First at the asylum and then last night."
"They're Swedish actually and they were probably paid to eradicate us before we do anymore damage to this timeline."
"Yeah, but why now?" Diego asked, "I was fine for three months until you showed up."
"Yeah... I was here for a year and no one messed with me." Luther said as he cooked a crap ton of scrambled eggs.
"Didn't come across them either." I added, taking a sip of water.
"Don't you usually take my side?" Five asked.
"You left me for dead." I couldn't help but tease.
"Low blow." Five muttered before speaking louder, "Look, even if it was my fault, which it isn't, we only have six days before the end of the world and the closest that anyone has gotten to dad is that driveway at the consulate." Five said.
"Well... that's not exactly true." Luther said, avoiding eye contact.
"What do you mean?" Five asked.
"I saw him."
Luther then explained that when he arrived here a year ago, he couldn't find anyone. With nowhere else to go, he hopped on a bus and took it all the way back to New York. The Academy looked a little different but also the same. When he entered, it was lively with a bunch of people milling about and Mr. Hargreeves was standing in the center of a crowd, talking about the future. When Luther confronted him, Mr. Hargreeves shot him down, demeaned him in front of everyone, and sent him on his way. So, Luther came back to Dallas.
During his explanation, he finished making his eggs and put them in a large bowl. He sat down at the end of the table, Five sat on the other side, and Diego moved me so he could sit and brought me down on his lap. I leaned my head on his shoulder as I listened to the end of Luther's story.
"That's pathetic." Diego said.
"Yeah, well at least he didn't shank my ass." Luther said through a mouthful of egg.
"No bro, he shanked your heart."
"That sounded really lame." I said huskily with a small wheezy laugh.
Elliott came into the kitchen but I didn't turn to look at him, "Is that my bathrobe?"
I noticed what Luther was wearing and grinned. It WAS Elliott's bathrobe. On Luther, it looked like a sweater. It was obvious but Luther still denied it.
"Guys, it doesn't matter who he shanked. He knows something about time travel." Five said and got up to get some coffee, "Malia, did you want any?"
I glanced over my shoulder, "Yes please."
"Umm... Wait... why don't you just do your thing and time travel this out?" Elliott asked.
"Anyone else care to explain?" Five asked, handing me a cup.
"The first time he did it, he ended up in the apocalypse." Luther said.
"The second time, he ended up without hair on his balls." Diego said.
"The last time I tried, I scattered my family across three years in Dallas Texas, possibly triggering a Dooms Day."
"Guys, you're all missing the bigger picture here." Diego said, "Dad is the ring-leader of a sinister plot to kill the president."
"Ignore him." Five said, "There is only one thing we need to focus on right now."
"And what's that?" I asked sleepily. Diego was rubbing my hip and it was soothing, tempting me back to sleep.
"We need to get the Umbrella Academy back together."
"Hell yeah, family meeting." Diego said.
"Fine but can one of you three get Allison please?" Luther asked, stuffing his face with more egg.
"You two still a thing?" Diego asked and then leaned his chin on my shoulder, "Do I need to talk?"
"She's married." Luther said.
I sat up straighter, "I missed her wedding AGAIN?"
"Dude, that's rough." Diego said to Luther.
"I can handle it."
"I'll get her." Five said, "But can you get Vanya without squeezing her to death?"
Luther rolled his eyes, "I can try."
Five blinked away as Elliott tried to talk to him but turned to us instead, "What should I do?"
"Prepare for company."
I stood up and stretched, "You're going to need lots of food... and probably booze. I'll go grocery shopping."
"Maybe you should rest a little more." Diego said, trying to stop me.
"I'm not going to sit around and do nothing. I was strangled a little, not disabled."
"You were strangled...a little? Have you seen your neck?" Luther asked.
"What do you mean?"
"He means it's purple." Diego said.
I went into the bathroom to examine it and sure enough, there were deep purple ligature marks around my neck. I couldn't go out looking like this, it would gain too much attention, raise too many questions. Even my turtle neck didn't cover it completely and there was no way in hell I was going to wear a scarf. Nothing will ever be wrapped around my neck again. Instead, I gave Elliott the money to get all the groceries that he wanted – instructing him that I would stab him in the thigh if he got anything weird – and went to lay down. Diego came in to lay with me when Luther left to get Vanya.
"I don't think I've been more scared in my life than I was last night." Diego said.
I turned over to face him, "You were being choked too but you asked Lila to save me. Why?"
"You don't ask many stupid questions babe, but that is definitely one of them." Diego chuckled, "It's because I love you."
Tears leaked from my eyes and I shut them to try and get them to stop but it did work. Diego wiped them away but they kept coming.
"What's with the tears?"
"Can I tell you something stupid?" I asked.
"Well, I do think it's time you take a turn." Diego joked but it didn't make me smile like it usually did. He rubbed my side in deliberate circular motions.
"The thought of me dying scares you right? Well... the thought of loving you scares me." I said quietly.
His hand paused as he asked, "What do you mean?"
"I've never loved someone this much before and it scares me beyond belief. I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop and for you to leave. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have you and it's so stupid because four months ago, I didn't have you and I was okay. I don't think I would be okay now, not even a little bit. I need you always and that's scary. I don't ever want to be alone again."
Diego brought his lips to mine in a soft sensual kiss, "Then let's get married." I slapped him in the face and he pulled away, "Fuck! What was that for?"
"I tell you what I'm most afraid of and your answer is marriage? Who even ARE you?" I asked and sat up.
He followed suit and grabbed my hands before I could leave the bed, "No, wait... Listen, that was probably the worst way to ask but I mean it."
I snorted, "Are you listening to yourself? You sound like a nutjob. Do you need to go back to the asylum?"
"Stop turning this into a joke Malia. I love you, have for a long time now. If we only have six days left that's fine but if we have more, I'd like to spend them with you as your husband."
"You really mean it, don't you." I said quietly, cupping his cheek.
"100 percent baby."
"Okay, I'll make you a deal. If we make it past the next six days, I'll marry you on the seventh. Whether we're in this time or our own."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Diego smirked and sealed it with a kiss.
We didn't do anything else. We just laid there and talked for a while. We talked about how we were happy the family was going to be together again and we talked about how let down we were that Lila was a fraud. I'd thought I found a friend in her and so did Diego. I told him I should have seen in coming since I was usually so good at reading people. He told me not to blame myself. There wasn't any imminent danger, so it was okay that I didn't sense anything amiss.
Later that afternoon, Luther arrived back with Vanya. Elliott was back before that and cooking in the kitchen but we didn't get out of the bed until Luther and Vanya walked in. We walked into the living room and I threw my arms around Vanya. She seemed hesitant but hugged me back. I wondered why but then remembered Five telling me that Vanya remembered nothing.
While we waited for the others, we sat in the living room. I was on the floor in front of where Diego was sitting in a chair. Luther and Vanya were on the sofa and Elliott had just sat down after placing this weird looking Jelly thing down on the coffee table. It looked like Jell-O and marshmallows slapped together and just the look of it had me feeling queasy.
"Do I need to stab you? I thought I told you nothing weird." I murmured, leaning back against Diego's legs.
"You know, Jell-O used to be a delicacy. In order to make it you had to boil down a whole mess of hooves. Horses, cows, pigs, it doesn't matter but not everyone has a mess of hooves just lying around." Elliott explained.
"Please stop talking." I said as nicely as possible but I was secretly itching to grab one of the knives Diego was fiddling with.
He didn't get the hint, "It's wasn't until a couple of sassy New Yorkers learned how to dry it out so the rest of us could enjoy it as well."
"If we have some, will you shut up?" Diego asked.
"Maybe." Elliott said.
So he did get my hint and just ignored it instead. Elliott has now resorted to annoying us into eating his food. That's actually quite devious. I watched him scoop it into the crystal desert bowls he brought out and turned my head to gag.
"I hope you know you're eating my share." I whispered to Diego.
"Whatever you say."
"So how are you feeling?" Luther asked Vanya.
"Honestly, pretty shitty." Vanya said.
"Where would you say you are on a scale of 1 to ending life on this planet?" Diego asked, flipping his knife in his hand.
"Really?" Vanya asked.
"Diego, put the knife away." Luther said, leaning forward.
"Stop being an idiot." I told him.
"The last time I saw this one, she had me suspended mid-air, sucking the life out of me with energy tentacles. I think I'm allowed a little time to process."
"You weren't the only victim stupid. She did that to all of us and we were able to let it go, so put the damn knife away." I said, grabbing it from his hand and placing it under the chair.
"Hey!" Diego exclaimed.
"Oh, I would love to see an energy tentacle." Elliott said hopefully.
"Sure thing. As long as you throw that goop in the trash." I said.
"Don't listen to her." Luther said.
Vanya looked at Diego, "I don't actually remember what I did. I'm sorry. If that means anything."
"It does. I just have a lot going through my mind right now." Diego said, "There is this girl that we knew. She was our friend, a good one... or so we thought."
The front door to the show room burst open and I heard a brilliant familiar laugh enter below. I perked up at the sound and shot to my feet. I steadied myself on the chair, having a bit of vertigo but then rushed to the banister over-looking the show room. Luther, Vanya, and Diego come up behind me. I looked down at one of the best things I've seen in forever. Klaus and Allison, stood with Five in the middle of the showroom and they looked up at us with just as much joy.
"Holy wow. I know this is impossible but did we ALL get sexier?" Klaus asked, taking off his sunglasses.
Diego, Luther, Vanya, and I went down the stairs into the showroom and I jumped on Klaus immediately, telling him how much I miss his ridiculous sense of humour. When Allison separated from Vanya, I hugged her too and said she was even more beautiful than before. I think Vanya and Five are the only ones that really look the same. Even Luther has a bit of a different haircut.
I turned back to Klaus as Diego got close to him, "Oh wow... you are drunk." He said.
"Well, just a little." Klaus said and pointed to Allison.
I pulled away from Allison and smelled her breath as I did so, letting out a giggle, "You're drunk too."
"Klaus is a very bad influence." Allison giggled but stopped, touching my neck, "What happened?"
"Oh, nothing big. A Swede just used my own dress to try and strangle me last night. At least I'm talking normally again." It was taking effort to speaking normally and it hurt a bit but I wasn't going to tell them that.
"Is Ben here?" Luther asked.
"Oh... uh, unfortunately no. Ghosts can't time travel." Klaus explained but then looked at an empty chair.
I smiled at the empty chair, hoping Ben was seeing it and then looked at the rest of my family. All of us were together again. It was a bitter sweet moment since we were once again, only gathered to stop the end of the world.
"Alright, I think it's time that we get down to business." Five said.
We all followed him upstairs and sat in various places in the living room. Since there was only so much seating, we brought the chairs in from the kitchen as well. Once we were all settled, Five stood before us, taking the lead.
"Alright, first off, I want to say I'm sorry. I really screwed the pooch on this whole going back in time and getting stuck thing. But the real kick in the pants here is, we brought the end of the world back with us."
"Oh my god, again?" Klaus asked, having found the alcohol. We all nodded. "All of you knew? Why am I always the last one to find out about the end of the world?"
"Klaus... you were one of the first to know last time. You were just too high to take it seriously." I said, lounging in the chair I was leaning up against earlier.
"Oh yeah. That's right... Oh no, my cult! They are going to be soooo pissed. I told them they had until 2019." He whined.
"We have until Monday." Five said.
"Well... god must have heard me last time. I asked for the next apocalypse to be on a Monday. It sucks having it on a Friday you know?" I said.
Five looked unimpressed, "How much oxygen did you lose while you were dying?"
"Is it Vanya?" Klaus asked, taking a swig of his beverage.
"Klaus!" Allison snapped.
"What? It's usually Vanya." Klaus shrugged, trying to make a point.
"Can you say 'usually' if it only happened one other time?" I asked, "For all we know, other apocalypses could have been diverted by other people."
Klaus looked up, "That's actually a valid point. Forget I said anything and carry on."
"Do you have any leads Five?" Vanya asked.
Diego handed Five a folder who handed it to Allison, "Yeah, we have one."
Allison opened and Vanya and Klaus looked over her shoulder, "Holy crap! Is that dad?"
"Yeah, and he's standing in the same place where Kennedy's assassin was said to be standing." Diego said, leaning on the back of another chair.
"Diego, Malia, and I have been trying to talk to dad about what exactly this means. So far we got nothing." Five said.
"Not nothing. We know he's planning to kill Kennedy."
"Maybe." Five said.
"It's really just speculation at this point." I said, agreeing with Five.
"Can't you be supportive just this once?" Diego complained.
"We actually don't know who or what sets Dooms Day in motion. Could be Kennedy or it could be something entirely independent. If we know something changes the timeline, we have to make it right again." Five said.
"So technically... since Kennedy dies in our original time line. We should let it happen." I said with a pointed glance at Diego.
"Or maybe in the timeline where Kennedy dies, there will be an apocalypse anyway. Just at a different time. Ever think of that?" Diego asked waspishly.
I opened my mouth to speak but shut it again. The idiot had a point. I love him but not in a million years did I ever think he would one up me on something such as this. I was both proud and irked with equal measure.
"The point is. We have to fix what's wrong." Five said, interrupting our little lover's quarrel.
"Yeah, but how are we supposed to fix it if we don't know what's broken?" Allison asked.
"Oh come on. Do the math. We know dad is having shady ass meetings with some shady ass people. We know he's going to be in that spot in three days to kill the president. So I think we all know what we have to do." Diego explained standing up.
I stood up and leaned over the coffee table to take the bottle of vodka from Allison, "Drink up? That's what I'm going to do if I have to keep listening to you talk about Kennedy." I took a swig from the vodka.
"No. We have to kill dad." Diego said at the same time Five said, "We need to find dad."
I took another swig of vodka, "We can't kill him. That affects our lives in a drastic way. We could end up erasing ourselves from existence."
"But none of us are supposed to be here, anyway right?" Vanya asked, "What if it's us that's wrong? Have any of us done anything to screw up the time line?"
We all looked around at each other silently, wondering what to say to that. Technically she has a point.
"Diego's been stalking Lee Harvey Oswald." Luther pointed the first finger.
"Are you kidding me? You're working for Jack Ruby!" Diego said, pointing his famously aggressive finger at Luther.
"Allison has been very involved in local politics." Klaus said lazily.
"Okay, you started a cult." Allison said, putting the limelight on him.
I took a really big gulp of vodka to avoid saying anything and when I choked it down, I looked around and everyone was looking at me, "What? I lived in the shadows this whole time."
"Yeah, working for the FBI as a Soviet hitman." Five said accusingly.
"You what?" Allison asked, completely blown away by that revelation.
"Well, Five is the reason Swedish psychos are trying to kill everybody!" I shouted.
"Hey! I said that wasn't my fault!"
"Boohoo, cry to daddy. But you'll have to do it before Diego kills him."
"Don't bring me into this." Diego snapped.
"Enough! Clearly everyone, except me, has made some sort of significant change to the time line." Five said.
"I haven't done anything important. I'm just a nanny on a farm. I don't have anything to do with all of that." Vanya said.
"Maybe you do and we just don't know it yet." Allison said.
"Five, stop acting like you're so innocent." I said but stopped when Diego whistled loudly, gaining everyone's attention.
"Listen to yourselves. Everything in our whole lives is connected to Kennedy. That can't be a coincidence. Luther is working for Ruby, Allison is protesting the government, Malia is killing Soviet spies, dad is on the grounds Kennedy will be shot, Klaus is... doing something weird but probably related. Clearly we were all sent back here for one very special reason – to save John Fitzgerald Kennedy."
All at once, everyone started to speak, defending their actions, "I didn't just kill Soviet spies. I only killed four... maybe five. They were actually a bigger problem than the history books gave them credit for. They were coming in from Cuba. That's not the point though. My job was to stop all terrorists, not just Soviets. Who knows, maybe I contributed to our current hist-"
"Guys, you all die. I was there. I saw it." Five interrupted all of our ramblings, making us all go quiet, "I want to forget it but I can't. I saw Russian nukes vaporize the world with all of you in it and war that never happened until we brought it here. And Hazel gave his life to save us so you all need to shut up and just listen to me. I don't know if the things we've experienced here are all connected. I don't know if there is a reason for everything but dad will. We need to talk to him before everyone and everything we know is dead."
"Alright, I'm out." Luther said, getting up and going to walk away.
"Did you hear anything I just said?" Five asked.
"Yeah, I did. I heard a fifty-eight-year-old man who still wants his daddy to come and fix everything. Well, you can count me out. It's time we all grew the hell up."
Diego went after him and so did Five. I stayed exactly where I was, taking swigs from my bottle of vodka. I gave Elliott enough money to buy the good stuff but he didn't which means he's hoarding some of my money. Then again, if the world is ending, it's really not going to do him much good.
"You know what I could really go for?" Klaus asked, "Tacos."
"Tacos does sound really good." I said sitting up.
"Shouldn't we wait?" Allison asked, gesturing the way the men just left.
"Who knows how long it will be for those men to duke it out. Vanya? Tacos?" Klaus asked.
"Is there any way that Tacos are going to cause the end of the world?" She asked.
Klaus stood up, ready to party, "There's only one way to find out right?"
"Totally down but let me leave a note." I said as I got up but nearly fell over. I bumped the coffee table and laughed, "I think the booze hit me quicker than I thought."
"Oh yay! I love drunk Malia! Drunk Malia is so fun!" Klaus said happily as I scribbled a note and left it on the table.
"Hold on hold on!" I said and crawled under the chair and grabbed the knife I took from Diego. I stabbed it into the note, pinning it to the table. "Okay, let's go!"
Allison, Vanya, Klaus and I found a little taco shop and ordered a whole bunch. We definitely ordered more than we could but I don't think we cared much. We were getting weird looks but none of us cared about that either. We stopped at the liquor store to buy more booze and then Allison took us to her beauty salon. She wanted to show us where she worked and it was lovely.
I sat down in one of the salon chairs once we were inside and I spun in a few circles before stopping with a giggle, "I don't think I should do that anymore. I might throw up."
"Please don't throw up." Allison said, giggling as well, "I don't want to get in trouble for bringing you here."
"Allison, you should totally do my hair!" Klaus said, lighting up a smoke, "You have your little meetings here right?"
"What? You have them in this shop?" I asked as Vanya sat in the chair beside me, "What is the last thing your group did?"
"We staged a sit in at Stadtler's." Allison said.
"No way! I heard about that in the news. That was you? Wasn't there like a massive riot?" I asked.
"Wait, a riot? What happened?" Vanya asked.
Allison went into full detail about the night of the riot and then the trouble she went through searching for her husband. She said she found him in this very salon, in a meeting that she wasn't invited too. She seemed very angry at her husband at the moment for the things he said to her before she went off with Klaus on a binge.
"And the nerve of that man! One little thing goes wrong and he's on a war path! I mean, he doesn't know who I AM? No, no, no Ray. You know exactly who I am." Allison said.
"Is that what Diego and I are going to act like when we get married?" I asked with a sigh, drinking bourbon now.
"You and Diego want to get married?" Allison asked, turning to face me.
I shrugged, leaning back to look at the ceiling, "We talked about it a little bit. We have this deal going on right now. If we make it through the next six days, we'll get married on the seventh."
"Really?" Klaus said, spinning in his chair, suddenly interested, "Can I be a bridesmaid?"
"Not a groomsman?"
"I like you better." Klaus said, waving his hand dismissively.
"Okay... if the world doesn't end in six days, you can be a bridesmaid." I said, standing up to cheers him.
"Is the world really going to end in six days?" Vanya asked.
"Well, it did last time and we did everything Five could think of, to stop it." Allison said.
"Hey, wouldn't it be weird if Five grew up all hot?" Klaus asked, standing up.
"What? Ew, gross!" Allison said.
"Oh who are you kidding Allison?" I giggled as Klaus started to act out a love scene while pretending to be both Allison and Luther.
"Hold on, we've never even kissed." Allison defended.
"Yeah but you guys make little moon sick eyes at each other and all that." Klaus said, sipping from his flask.
"Aren't we all brothers and sisters?" Vanya asked and then turned to me, "How does that work with you and Diego?"
"Diego and I never EVER identified as siblings. We never connected like that." I explained.
"And technically..." Allison started.
"Technically? Technically, if you have to use the word technically, you're already in trouble." Klaus said somewhat wisely but that might be the alcohol talking.
"Can we focus please?" Allison said, "It doesn't look like we're saving the world tonight but maybe we can at least try to save my marriage."
"No! No, because that is like asking a nun how to hump someone's leg." Klaus said, giving up on trying to pour more booze into his flask. He ended up spilling it and walking through it. "Who in this room knows shit about relationships? This girl who is in secret love with some farm frow..."
"Her name is Sissy." Vanya whined.
"...who is an improvement on her previous love interest." Klaus said, ignoring how Allison and I were shaking our heads for him to shut up but he didn't get it, "The serial killer."
"What?" Vanya asked.
"Meanwhile, I'm carrying a torch for a soldier I haven't technically met yet. And then we have Malia..."
"I think my relationship with Diego is pretty solid." I defended.
"You decided to come get piss drunk with us because you were tired of his incessant babble about saving Kennedy. With the way he was sneering at you, he's so pissed he probably doesn't want to see you again... or for a while at least." Klaus countered.
"Fair point." I muttered and took another swig.
"And Luther is in love with his sister." Klaus continued as if he wasn't interrupted.
"Again, we are not biological." Allison said.
"Yes, so please don't say that sentence ever again." I said quietly, twirling the bottle in my hand so the liquid turned into a tornado.
"Face it! The healthiest long-term relationship in this family is when Five was banging that mannikin."
"I don't think he actually... you don't think... do you?" I asked, looking at each of my siblings. I was completely disturbed.
"Oh yeah, he definitely was." Allison confirmed.
"You're the psychologist. You tell us." Klaus giggled.
"I think I'm going to be sick." I said and stumbled toward the washroom.
"The only thing the Umbrella Academy knows about love is how to screw it up!" Klaus finished with a flourish as I shut him and the other two off by closing the bathroom door.
I stumbled over to the sink and looked into the mirror. My eyes were bloodshot from the alcohol and the ligature marks on my neck were still very prominent. I wasn't healing from the strangulation as fast I had hoped. That's probably what all the looks were for when we were getting tacos actually. I looked like hell but that's not what I was focusing on.
Klaus said the only thing we knew about love was how to screw it up but I didn't want to screw up with Diego. If that meant being more supportive with his stupid plight to save Kennedy, I guess I could try. I mean, I've done some things I'm not proud of that most likely changed the timeline, so why can't he do his stupid thing to change the timeline too? The world is going to shit anyway.
I used the toilet, luckily not getting sick and then left the bathroom to see my siblings dancing around, "What did I miss?"
"We're all going to face our inner demons before shit hits the fan in six days!" Klaus exclaimed, "Come dance with me!"
I let him take my hand and we all danced around the salon to the fun Motown songs on the radio. It's the most fun I've had in ages. No ulterior motives. Just good, happy, care free, fun with my siblings. It felt amazing and we all collapsed in the salon chairs when we got tired. When it started to get dark, we decided it was time to leave and go do what we needed to do before the world ended. That meant I had to find Diego.
When he wasn't at Morty's, I searched everywhere else I could think of. That wasn't that many places though. He left with Luther and I remember Luther saying he really liked this outside BBQ place that made the BEST wings. So, I looked there next and sighed when I saw him at a table with Luther. I walked over and sat down, kissing him hard before he could say anything.
He pulled away, "Are you drunk?"
"Just a tiny bit. I was with Allison, Vanya, and Klaus... did you know they are A LOT of fun? I mean like A LOT." I said and then giggled, trying to kiss him again but he kept me at arm's length, "What's wrong? Are you mad at me because of before? Because I searched all over everywhere for you. Because I wanted to say I'm sorry for not supporting you. Because I love you."
"You said because a lot." Diego said and turned back to what he was looking at.
"Because I mean it." I said and then saw what he was looking at. I refrained from saying anything I would regret at the picture of Mr. Hargreeves he had in his hand and chose to comment on the other thing he was holding, "Is that an invitation?"
"To have dinner with dad. He wants to talk to all of us." Luther said.
"Oh! Hi Luther. When did we get this invitation?" I asked.
"Uh...Earlier this afternoon." He said and then went back to eating his wings.
"That certainly makes things easier for us then, doesn't it?" I said and leaned my head on Diego's shoulder but he shrugged me off.
I may have been drunk but I still knew a brush off when I saw it. I was also aware he barely looked or spoke to me when I sat down. I was hurt to say the least. I stared at the picture in his hand and then the invitation. I exhaled slowly before getting to my feet. I left without looking back. I knew he was pissed (even Klaus noticed and that's saying something) but Diego was evidently angrier with me than I originally thought but I didn't think I deserved such a cold brush off. I feel like we've been playing ping-pong with our emotions since we got in contact again and that was not drunk me talking.
I was around the corner, heading toward Morty's when he caught up with me but I kept walking, ignoring his presence. Well, I tried at least but he grabbed my arm and turned me toward him, placing his hands on my biceps to get me to look at him.
"Where do you think you're going?" He asked.
"Home." I said distantly.
"I'm not letting you walk home alone while you're hammered ten feet up a tree."
"You didn't seem to want me around all the much a few minutes ago and might I remind you, that I spent four months taking care of myself and another twelve years before that." I stared at a point over his shoulder.
"Look, I'm just trying to figure some things out alright?"
I shifted my eyes to his and glared, "I'm drunk, not stupid. Do NOT patronize me... You're angry at me and you won't even let me apologize."
"You're drunk Malia." He said with a sigh, letting go of my arms.
"That doesn't mean what I have to say isn't important. It also doesn't mean you get to push me aside until my mood suits you. You take all of me at any given time or you take none of me. So, which is it?" I said, starting to cry. God! Why was I crying so much lately? I felt like a child.
There was a beat of silence and I thought that was my answer until he opened his mouth, "All of you, always. What did you want to say?"
"I wanted to tell you that I was sorry for not supporting you and your Kennedy stuff. It was wrong to disregard your feelings like that." I said, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand but let out a whimper.
"So you think I'm right then?" Diego asked.
"No, I still think you're a fucking idiot but I love you and I'm going to try REALLY hard to be more supportive of your stupid conspiracy theories."
He chuckled and brought me in for a hug, "Just so you know, calling me a fucking idiot isn't really being supportive."
"I'm a crying drunk girl. What do you want from me?" I blubbered into his chest, hugging him tightly around the middle.
"Right now? I'd like for you to take a shower." He said into my hair, "You wreak of alcohol and... have you been smoking?"
"Course not. Klaus is just not mindful of his shit."