repressed love | ben hargreeves

11

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CHAPTER ELEVEN

It was the morning after Allison had dropped off Harlan's body. Ben and Fei had disappeared afterwards so I wasn't sure what had happened to him. Sloane allowed me to borrow some clothes from her. I was wearing a dark green sweater, tucked into a pair of brown corduroy pants with black heeled boots. I busied myself with making myself a cup of coffee in the kitchen, hoping to wake myself up. It felt strange to sleep in this house, despite it not being mine, it still held a lot of memories for me. Not good ones, either.

"Hey," Fei appeared behind me, a crow squawking with her appearance.

"Hey, Fei." I replied, slightly startled by her appearance. She was as stealthy as a panther. "What's up?"

"Ben is calling a family meeting," she started, folding her hands against her waist." "Both families. Luther is rounding up the rest of your family. Meet in the lounge room."

"Okay, thanks." I replied, giving her a small smile as she walked out of the room. After a minute, I grabbed my coffee and headed to the lounge room, already seeing Allison sitting in silence in the room. She gave me an acknowledging look before continuing to drink her coffee while smoking a cigarette. I took a seat on one of the couches, enjoying the silence she created. Ten minutes later, everyone else flooded into the room. Lila, Diego, Sloane, Five, and Luther. Klaus and Viktor were unaccounted for.

Mom had come into the room with a plate of cookies, one of her eyes was missing. "Lovely to meet you," Lila spoke, grabbing a handful of cookies as she sat down.

Fei entered, "Welcome. Please make yourselves at home." Ben was following right after her.

"Bitch, this is our home," Allison mumbled to herself.

"Excuse me?"

"Uh, jellybean?"

"Where the hell is Viktor and Klaus?" Diego demanded nobody in particular.

"With our luck, probably Kugelblitzed by now," Five stated.

"You're a dark little dude sometimes." Diego responded.

"Ooh, what happened to your hand?" Fei asked, gesturing to his bandaged hand.

"We don't have time for idle chitchat. Everyone, sit down." Ben interrupted.

"'Please' would be nice." Diego retorted before sitting. Fei sat next to me on the couch with Luther and Sloane sitting on chairs on the other side of me. Allison was on her own chair on the other side of the room while Five, Diego, and Lila sat on the couch next to her.

"No," Ben mumbled.

"So, uh.." Luther cleared his throat. "This is kinda nice, right? All of us here together. One big happy family. I feel like I'm sweaty. Am I sweating?"

"No, you're fine." Sloane responded.

I looked at Ben, making eye contact before mouthing to him, "shut him up."

"Sit down, Luther." Ben spoke, Luther sitting next to Sloane immediately. "Look, I know there's been bad blood between us. Whatever. Bygones, right?" Diego raised his hand, getting Ben's attention. "Question?"

"Yeah, if I kill you, do we get our Ben back?" Diego asked, Fei snickering from his question. "Hypothetically."

"Keep talking, and your hand won't be the only thing bleeding." Ben retorted, Diego slightly smiling after. Him and our Ben fought like that often.

"Okay, if the testosterone twins are done, I'd like to get back to a plan." Five brought us back to the task at hand.

Viktor rushed into the room, "where is he?"