𝐀 𝐑𝐞𝐝-𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝'𝐬 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐞 | 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐬

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐰𝐨

The elevator dinged, and out stepped Victoria; twirling her black bo staff. She preferred to call it 'El Maestro Negro', as she was known for giving little Spanish comments. After all, her birth mother came from Spain, so she inherited the language, but instead took a British accent from her birth father. She wished that they were here; how she wanted to hear her father's grunts whenever he spoke or the sharp tongue of her mother. Their voices were all she could remember. After various decades, the image of their faces continued to fade more and more. It was the reason why-

"Let me go! Get your hands off me!"

"I saw what you did!"

Victoria looked up to see Chet, the hotel receptionist, holding Stanley quite tightly by his shoulder. She huffed, ran down the steps and up to them; Diego arriving from the other side. "The hell are you doing?" Victoria spat, shoving his hand off the boy. "Your son stuffed three mini muffins down his pants." Chet answered as he made eye contact with Diego. "And this is a buffet! I can take whatever the hell I want!" Stanley bit back. Victoria sighed through her nose, as Diego took Stanley by the shoulder and led him over to the stairs. She followed them, arms crossed.

"Time for some ground rules." "How about no physical assault?" Diego forced him to sit down. "Shut up and listen." He said to him, before sitting next to him. Victoria rolled her eyes and sat on the other side. Stanley simply pulled out one of the muffins, starting to pick bits from it and eat them. The red-head grimaced at the sight of it. "My father was a Hall of Fame asshole." Diego started to the two. Victoria gave a blank stare at him. "And when I was a little pissant like you, I made a promise to myself that I would never act like him to any kid of...mine." He went on, hesitating on the last word. 

The red-head looked at Diego with a small frown; slightly forming. She wouldn't admit it to his face, but it did hurt to hear that. Perhaps that was something they had in common, they each had a terrible childhood. Diego's was full of manipulation and training, whilst Victoria's was command after command, and working day and night. 

However, at the end of the day, Diego had parental figures, proper care and those that he could rely on. Where was that for Victoria? Where were the people SHE could rely on, growing up? Where were the two figures that told her how proud they were of her, every day? Who was even there for her as a child? Wait, what? This was no time for a sob story! Victoria shook the frown away, turning her attention back to Diego and Stanley.

"Yeah, stop. I'm gonna cry." Stanley sarcastically stated. Victoria chuckled at his sarcasm. Of course, that was something he had learned from her. "But I'm a busy man, with a lot on my shoulders, okay?" Diego said. "So, I'm not gonna let you slow me down either, alright?" "Yeah, you look really busy right now. Nice haircut, by the way." Victoria scoffed. He shoved the muffin away from Stanley, in a small fit of rage, turning to them. "You can stay until your mom gets back, alright? I'm stuck with you, ginger." He pointed a finger at the red-head. "But no more doing dumb shit, or else you and I are gonna have a serious problem. Me entiendes?" "Clara como el cristal, puta." Diego leaned back, a bit surprised by the Spanish outburst from Victoria. She simply gave a smirk at the man. 

He was about to question her, but something caught his eye. He looked to Stanley's ear; noticing a leakage of yellow liquid coming out. "Dude, your ear's leaking." He pointed out. "Oh, I forgot to pack my ear medicine." Stanley said. "You forgot it?" Victoria questioned. The boy, shamefully, nodded and Victoria just facepalmed. "Ear medicine?" "If he doesn't drain it...that...it leaks out. It also smells like cat puke." She explained to Diego. He and Stanley then stood up, walking towards the double doors. She looked at them departing with a offened expression. "Oh, what am I? Chop fucking liver?"