EUNOIA ━ diego hargreeves

48

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
──-ˋˏ☂︎ˎˊ-──

"WHAT I'D like to know, is how the daughter of some random dry-cleaner ends up with a jar of marigold in the trunk of her car."

From across the bar, Freya watched Five turn it over in his hands, inspecting it curiously. Next to her, Diego was not impressed. "How do we know that's not just a jar of glow stick juice?"

"Why don't you take a sip and find out, tough guy?" Ben asked.

"I will if you will."

"No," Freya interrupted, firmly. "Nope."

"Okay, for the sake of discussion," Five brought them back to reality. "Let's say this is legit. Does anyone here actually want their power back?"

Freya bit the inside of her cheek. She had wanted a normal life so bad for so long, and now that she finally had it, did she really want to give it up? Obviously she missed her powers, it was hard not to long for something that had been with you your entire life, but were they really worth giving everything up?

"Yeah."

"Mm, no siree Bob. For once in my life, I am sober. And.. happy. But most importantly, 100% poltergeist-free."

"Free?" Allison repeated. "You hardly leave the house, and when you do, you're wearing surgical gloves in public."

"Yeah, well at least I'm in control."

Freya briefly wondered how different Klaus would have turned out if she'd been by his side when he was becoming sober—she would have loved to help him, but she couldn't balance both. She had her pregnancy to worry about, and then taking care of a newborn, there hardly seemed like the right time to help a recovering addict, even if she wanted to desperately. They were no where near as close as before, and Freya only had herself to blame because of it.

"Showtime," the chef announced, doing a series of flips and chops with two different knives.

"Look at this chump," Diego murmured to her, hand on her thigh. Freya didn't visibly react, she'd mastered the skill of being nonchalant whenever he got handsy in public. "Angle's all wrong."

"Mm," she agreed, watching the chef. That was another thing she missed, Diego's knife skill certainly was not a turn-off.

"Sloppy form."

"He's really good," Luther said loudly, and Diego's head whipped around to face him in offense. They clapped wildly while the chef finished his movements.

"Look, guys, it's a hard no from me too," Viktor told them. "I've got a bar to run, friends. Like, a real life."

"You're all nuts, all right?" Ben shook his head in disbelief. "We should be mainlining this shit right now. Cmon, big guy. I know you want it."

"I mean," Luther scoffed. "That's a tough one."

"Come on, you don't need that, Luther," Klaus discouraged. "Your life is fantastic."

"I don't know about fantastic but I'm... I'm, managing."

"Is that where the bar is set these days?" Ben asked. "Managing?"

"I'll do whatever the group decides. How's that?"

"Yeah, I'm with Luther," Diego agreed, nudging Freya. "You?"

"Um," she blinked a few times. She wanted to say yes, desperately wanted to say yes, actually. But they couldn't afford to be rash and impulsive anymore, not with Grace. "I'm going to say no."