[✔️] 𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑁𝐾 𝐹𝐴𝑆𝑇 | 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐎𝐍𝐄

𝐑𝐔𝐃𝐄 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆
"𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑔𝑜𝑡 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑖𝑡, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑒. 𝐽𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑑, 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑑, 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑡 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 ℎ𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛, 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔."
—𝑆𝑎𝑟𝑎ℎ 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑛, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑡ℎ 𝐴𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟

𝐈
— 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑎 —

𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐎𝐎𝐍 𝐀𝐒 Mara woke up, she headed over to Five's room, not bothering to change or eat before doing so.

Klaus, who had a silver bell that he had been clanging whilst parading around the house, had interrupted her while she had been heading to the room, and he told her about an emergency meeting that was taking place in the basement kitchen. After telling him that she and Five'd head over soon, he let her go as he went to tell Luther the same.

The boy was still asleep as she walked in, his eyelids fluttering now and then, and his nose scrunching slightly every once in a while. Diego had been right; without hearing the bitter tone of his voice or seeing him roll his eyes at every other sentence that comes out of a person's mouth, he was quite the adorable kid.

Silently, she flicked on the nearest lamp to settle a soft, golden glow around the room, and tiptoed over to him, making sure to stay as quiet as possible so that he wouldn't wake up. He must be tired, she figured, after dealing with everything that he had the last few days—and alone, at that.

Trying to be as gentle as she could, Mara lifted up the bottom of the light blue pyjama shirt that Grace had changed him into and gave a small sigh of satisfaction when she saw that the gauze hadn't been bled through.

"What are you doing?" Five mumbled, his voice scratchy as he slowly opened his eyes and squinted from the light.

"Just checking," she exhaled, lowering the shirt back down before turning her attention to his face. She pursed her lips, trying to gage his expression as he glanced down at his stomach, and questioned, "How does it feel?"

"It's all right," he muttered as he slowly sat himself up, though the winces he kept giving with every movement said otherwise. "Where are the others?"

"Went to follow a lead." Mara shrugged, glancing back behind her. "They haven't come home yet."

Five nodded as he slowly slipped off of the bed, ruffling his hair with one hand.

"C'mon," she sighed, turning towards the door and beckoning for him to follow, "Klaus wants to tell us something in the kitchen."

The two went down into the basement to see that Klaus and Luther were already there, Klaus pouring Luther a cup of coffee from the French press.

Luther, who was wearing a hoodie and pressing his fingers to his temples, barely glanced over at them as he kept himself slouched over the table.

"What's wrong with you?" Mara crinkled her nose as she sat down next to him, only receiving a glare in response.

"Here you go," Klaus murmured as he gave Luther his cup. "This'll fix ya."

Luther raised the cup to his lips, but before he could take a sip from it, Five grabbed it out of his hands and sat down at the end of the table.

Klaus finished pouring the coffee and handed the cups out as Five took a sip and scrunched his nose.