[✔️] 𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑁𝐾 𝐹𝐴𝑆𝑇 | 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐈𝐗𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐇, 𝐇𝐎𝐏𝐄, 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄
"𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑖𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑."
—𝑅𝑜𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑡 𝐹𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑡

𝐈
— 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑎 —

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐀 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐒 she put her empty bowl into the sink, noticing the number of dirty plates and cups that had stacked up over the past couple of days.

With Grace now gone, there was no one who was there to do the cleaning, and no one had certainly stepped up to do so, other than Mara herself, of course.

She had spent the last couple of hours taking care of Grace's chores: dusting the shelves, making food for people, keeping everything tidy . . .

With a nod of defeat, Mara slipped on the rubber gloves that lay on the edge of the sink and picked up the sponge and dish soap before beginning to clean.

As she rubbed the sides of the dish with the sponge, she felt her mind wander off to Diego and wondered if he was all right. Sure, they had gotten into a little bit of a . . . scuffle, but still, she cared about him.

She understood his anger; his close friend had just died after all. And she was more than familiar with his impulsive and unpredictable actions.

She hoped he wasn't too angry at her. She wasn't mad at him, at least. Annoyed, sure, but not mad (what's new?).

Mara sighed as she dried the last dish and placed it back into the cabinet it belonged in before pulling off the rubber gloves. She would just have to wait until they came home. Assuming they came home.

She glanced out of the window, seeing that the sun was beginning to settle, and worry began to grow in her stomach. She had no clue where Diego was—

In fact, she had no clue where anyone was. The house seemed to be empty save for the lifeless shell of Grace, and Pogo, who Mara knew was occupied in his room. She knew that Vanya wouldn't be at the Academy anyway, and remembered that Allison had plans to visit her. She had arrived back at the Academy with both Luther and Five, but there was no trace of them in the home anymore, and Klaus had disappeared as well.

Hopefully, they were all right. But then again, they were them.

Mara then went up to the laundry room, grabbing her small pile of clothes from the dryer and bringing it back into her room.

She knelt down on the ground, letting the mound of clothes collapse to the floor before picking up the first shirt and beginning to fold it neatly.

Before she could move on to the next one, however, the door burst open and an excited voice called through.

"Mars Bar!"

"Klaus!" Mara replied with the same amount of enthusiasm as she grabbed another shirt and folded it.

Klaus stepped into her room, flopping onto her bed and giving her a wide grin as he asked, "How you been doin', girl?"

"I've been doing all right," she answered with a smile. "You?"

"Oh, the usual. Depressed." He gave a nonchalant shrug before leaning towards her and grabbing the half-folded skirt from her hands and inspecting it. As he flipped it inside-out, he questioned, "But you know who's not doing all right?"

She raised her eyebrows as she picked up a pair of jeans and gave him a curt nod. "Enlighten me."

Klaus tossed the skirt back into her pile of clothes before sighing and clasping his hands together. "Poor, baby Diego."