She with The Flowers in Her Hair| Number Five

🌼CHAPTER 11: Donuts 'til We Puke🌼

Throughout the day, the children remained in their respective rooms not bothering to take advantage of the free day. Five was pacing in his room, mind cluttered as his thoughts went to the girl just next door, trying to comprehend the pain she must be feeling. As creepy as he thought it was, he held his ear to the wall that they shared. He muttered under his breath, desperately trying to hear any movement in the room, but he sighed when there was only silence. He stood up from his crouched position putting two fingers on his bottom lip, scrunching his forehead. He stayed like that for a few minutes before he got a bright idea. In a flash of blue light he ended up in the kitchen and began rummaging through the shelves.

His search ended with his arms full of random food, placing them haphazardly on the empty table. He breathed deeply before glancing at the ingredients he had strewn everywhere. His nose scrunched in frustration as he saw the bottles of ketchup and mayo, next to the jar of peanut butter. A bag with a loaf of bread sat behind a box of cinnamon raisins and granola bars. "Fucking shit..." he whispered as he began experimenting with food, some of the concoctions were complete abominations, spitting them out with just one bite. After a few minutes he struck gold, smiling as the taste invaded his mouth, the sweet treat was weirdly good to his surprise. Quickly whipping up another one, folding it up neatly in some parchment before he summoned another flurry of blue flashes taking him to his room.

The boy placed the wrapped-up sandwich onto his bedside table, proceeding to his desk. He took out a piece of paper and scribbled on it quickly, placing the paper in between the folded-up parchment. He stood up, taking the package with him, walking to the door but stopped in his tracks when he saw a figure already standing in front of his destination. There Diego was, tall and firmly stood in front of Ellie's door. Five growled catching the boy's attention, making him turn around. Now facing him, Five saw flowers in his hands, flowers identical to the ones that grew by the fountain in the compound, the stems bunched up like a bouquet, obviously intended to be given to someone else, that someone being a girl to be precise. The two boys began to glare at each other, their eyes trained on what the other held, a want to win beginning to bubble in their guts. Five was the first to speak, shoving the boy back, taking his place as he stumbled. "What are you doing here Diego?"

"Fuck off Five! That's none of your business." He piped, Five then began questioning him, firing insults that sparked a full-on whisper argument that was stopped by Ben and Allison that looked like they had the same idea as their arguing brothers, books and ice cream in their arms. "What the hell are you two trying to do?" She asked earning harsh stares from the boys, "Probably the same thing that you were planning." Allison not really appreciating Diego's tone ended up getting involved in the argument. Ben stood quietly on the sidelines as the three continued to argue in whispers, but the commotion made Number One walk out to witness the altercation between his siblings, with the exception of Ben. He looked towards Allison and the boys, sighing as he saw they were directly in front of Ellie's room, already certain that they were disregarding the 'leave Ellie for the meantime' thing. "Guys, we talked about this, we are supposed to let Ellie grieve, and have as much time alone that she needs..." He began his voice still low, but was interrupted by his sibling that cluelessly shouted out "They started it!"

Luther shot them a look about to shush them when the door they stood in front of swung open revealing an obviously still sad but somewhat smiling Ellie. They were startled to see the girl with the familiar look on her face, so different from the girl they had seen earlier that morning. They all looked at her face expecting her to morph into an expression of sheer distraught, but her smile didn't falter as she invited them in. The children followed her into the room, they looked around seeing the blue wallpaper with flowers, a bookshelf stacked with novels, and her bed neat except that it had a Klaus and a Vanya on top wrinkling the sheets.

The five kids that had just entered gawked at their siblings that had smiles on their faces. "What are you two doofuses doing here?" Diego said, pointing to them with an accusing finger. "I let them in Diego, actually I caught Vanya at my door, then we heard Klaus an hour later, then here you guys are." She defended the two, her hand going to the boy's shoulder in assurance, Diego softening at the touch. "Yeah Diego! She let us in, plus it's not like you weren't planning on checking up on her yourself, those flowers are pretty but I prefer the purple ones." Klaus said making the others chuckle, as a result Diego's face reddened and his ears heating up, only getting way worse when Ellie leaned over to kiss his cheek and take the flowers from him. "Thanks Diego. They're really pretty." Her sweet reply made the boy smile shyly, meanwhile beside them, Five stood as he clenched his jaw at the interaction, Ben snapping him out of his inner battle with a nudge. Bitter bile leaving a taste in his mouth as he watched Diego gloat.

An hour elapsed with the kids just talking, Ellie had finally told them the entirety of what happened to her parents, albeit she was shaky in doing so, she had insisted, saying that it would help her grieve and cope with the loss. Beyond that everything was fine, they talked like they used to, like normal kids, as normal as they could be anyway. In their defense, they had so little contact with the world that they probably didn't know what it meant by normal kids. "Guys I'm hungry! Can we sneak out?" Klaus asked to no one in particular, but all of them including Luther had a smirk on their faces. Ellie clapped her hands in delight as she  took out a chest from underneath her bed, their eyes bulging from their sockets when they laid eyes on the contents inside. Stacks of cash, hundred dollar bills were neatly piled, there was a good three million dollars in there. "Why are you guys gawking? Your dad is a freaking billionaire he has way more than this." The kids scoffed at her nonchalance "Uhh Ellie, We don't really have the need to handle money at all, we haven't had an allowance in our entire lives." She raised an eyebrow at them, then realized that their father was in fact a billionaire but still fully Reginald Hargreeves. Her hands dug in the chest once again pulling out seven stacks, she faced them with arms full of money handing each of them a stack.

"Consider it a gift, for when we do get out of here. Well, if it happens. Some independence from dear old daddy... Now, go get your coats."

~~~

The smell was a memory, a good one that Ellie refused to let go of or refuse to turn into a sad one. It reminded her of her father and his infectious laugh, the homely feeling it brought was clearly something she associated with her mother. She didn't want to cry about it anymore so she did, walking into Griddy's Donuts was comforting, more so than ever with her friends with her. The old woman behind the counter was surprised to see a bunch of thirteen-year-olds walk in so late at night but still gave them a smile asking for what they wanted. All of them asked for warm milk, except for Five that had bitterly-no pun intended-opted for a coffee. The night was nothing but laughter and donuts, for Klaus maybe the regurgitation of most of it but it was good, life was good despite everything. As fucked up as it was to say, they wouldn't have it any other way. 

EDITED