MHA #2 | Friday Morning

[defenderofdesmoines]

So, with all the excitement, this had absolutely been one of the most memorable weeks of Annie's life.

It had, also, notably, been weirdly...inactive, in other ways. In, specifically, a way in which she was usually pretty active these days.

There had been the whole flaming-hot apartment/freezing-cold shower issue on Tuesday, the whole jello shot issue on Wednesday, and between life and training and packing (yes, the new place was furnished but what if she needed something?), she and Diego had been sort of...missing each other.

Which was why Friday morning, when Annie sleepily meandered into the bathroom and turned on the shower -- and the water came out pleasantly warm, as it should, thank you -- it only took her a moment to get an idea.

"Hey, Diego?" She ducked her head out of the bathroom, pulling a towel around herself loosely. "Can you come here?"

Her tone, at least, was very much not one of distress, so hopefully he wouldn't, like, feel the need to come running. (Unless he did. Seriously, it had been since before the kids got here. That was like centuries in sex time.)

[for someone(s).]

Comments

[knife_bender]

"Probably," Diego said. "But yelling at him will give me something to do while you're gone."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Maybe you guys'll, like, bond in my absence," Annie offered.

It didn't seem especially likely, but it sure would be convenient if Five was, like, easier to get along with.

[knife_bender]

"I'll probably bond more with the plant," he said.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Well, that's something." Honestly she'd been waiting for that, too, so she'd take it. "What did he mean about Klaus?"

Annie knew about the theft, and the substance abuse, and about the stylish ladies' sunglasses, but she did not realize that if anyone was a pervert in this family....

[knife_bender]

Well, at least she hadn't asked about Luther and Allison.

"Klaus is...let's just say he doesn't know the concept of personal space," Diego said. "Not, like, in a super gross way or anything. He just doesn't like being alone."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Give her a minute on that. She would get to Luther and Allison.

"So Five's not the only non-knocker in the family?" Annie asked, trying to read between the lines a bit there.

[knife_bender]

"Pretty much," Diego said. And because he was talking to Annie, and not his own siblings, he felt comfortable adding, "Dad really fucked him up. Like, more than the rest of us."

Except Vanya, but he didn't know that yet.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie softened into worry. "He -- how?"

She really needed to learn to stop asking questions about how Sir Reginald could be worse, and yet.

[knife_bender]

"Well, Dad liked to do specialized training for all of us, depending on our powers?" Diego said. "And Klaus can communicate with the dead. So he would force Klaus to do it. Alone. With a whole bunch of dead people around."

[defenderofdesmoines]

And here she had thought it was bad how Diego's dad had made a preschooler play with knives.

"You mean like...ghosts?" Okay, it sounded stupid to her, too, but there was knowing about Klaus'powers in the abstract, and then there was...like, actually trying to figure out what 'the dead' meant in this case.

[knife_bender]

"Yeah, he can talk to ghosts," Diego said. "His code name was The Séance."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"And your dad would lock him in with ghosts and make him talk to them?" Annie asked, confused. "Ghosts are a thing where you're from?"

How did you even, like, gather up ghosts to traumatize your kid with them?

[knife_bender]

You locked them in a mausoleum, of course!

"I mean, to be fair, they could be a thing where you're from and you just don't know it," Diego pointed out. "But, yeah. It's a thing."

[defenderofdesmoines]

No, people went right to heaven or hell where Annie was from, obviously, but now was not the time to ponder the metaphysical. They were both still in towels. (Though maybe she could pick Klaus' brain about that a little once she met him.)

"That sounds...traumatizing," she said slowly, really thinking about that. "I know I don't need to say I hate your dad, but -- yeah, I really hate your dad. And I'll cut Klaus some slack if he's...over-familiar?" Was that a good word to use?

[knife_bender]

"If it makes you feel any better, he's usually drunk or high so if he walks in on us he probably won't remember." That helped, right?

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That helps less than you think," Annie told him, but she did at least rise up to give him a kiss for trying. "And you know, while we're at it, you wanna elaborate on what the hell the twins meant about their Uncle Luther and Aunt Allison?"

See? She got there!

[knife_bender]

"Okay, like, nothing happened." He just needed to get that out there. "But growing up, Luther and Allison kind of...I don't know, they would hang out alone together all the time. It was obvious they had a thing for each other."

Despite, you know. The gross fact they grew up as siblings.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie usually tried really hard not to judge other people. Especially other people who had been through stuff she couldn't even imagine. And like, reflection would probably help her, here -- like, if she thought about it, the Hargreeves siblings had been totally isolated with each other through puberty, and it wasn't like they were actually biologically related....

But. She couldn't help her initial reaction, which was horrified disgust. "Ew. Diego, that's really gross."

[knife_bender]

"I know," Diego said, wrinkling up his nose. "We all think it's gross."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"So it's just...them?" Annie asked, hesitant. At least the fact that he was grossed out meant she didn't feel like she had to ask if, like, he'd gotten his first kiss from Vanya or something. "Did any of you ever talk to them about it?"

Because like not to get too 'I Hate Reginald Hargreeves; Ask How You Can, Too!' about it, but like, that was totally a thing any outside, caring adult would have seen as a marker for an abusive home, if there had ever been any goddamn outside intervention in that house ever, even one time.

[knife_bender]

"Oh, god, no, to both things." Talking? Preposterous! "We just ignored it until we left the house."

Which could be the title of Diego's autobiography.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That seems healthy," Annie said dryly, looking a bit relieved in spite of herself. "And I bet they're both probably over it. I mean, like I said before, everyone has dumb crushes when they're kids."

Though, like, her dumb crush on The Deep was a looooooooooooooooooooooooot more normal than having a thing for one's adoptive sibling.

[knife_bender]

"Yeah. They're probably over it." Diego did not believe that. At all.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"How did you end up so normal?" Annie asked, absolutely sincere.

And by normal, she just meant, 'not into one's siblings romantically, or usually high out of his mind, or a traitor, or a feral cat.' Because man. Allison was now compromised. Annie had been counting on her to be relatively okay. (She had at least been thoroughly prepared for Luther to be weird.)

[knife_bender]

There was a long pause. "Are you serious?"

Because his family generally treated him like he was the worst one. Well, worst next to Vanya.