Lotus |1| The Umbrella Academy

Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen:

It was a longer walk to Diego's place than he said, she was stick of having Five leaning up against her. The boy was half asleep and was laying almost all her weight on her, she had to stop and resort to wrapping her arms around his torso to hold him up until Luther stopped and noticed. He walked over and scooped his brother up again and they continued on, only taking another ten minutes or so to arrive at a small boxing place. She froze outside the little run down building, she really didn't want to go in there.  This was one of the places she managed to sneak into when she spent her first year without a home. The old man seemed to always find her after awhile and chase her out, yelling at her to go get a job. But she had tried that, and it never worked. Nobody wanted to hire a sixteen year old girl and she never felt like trying to explain herself, nobody ever believed her.

"Aren't you coming?"

She looked a Diego and then took a deep breath, following them in. She stayed close to Luther, trying to hide behind his big frame. They rushed passed the main area and turned down a narrow hallway, she trailed behind until Diego stopped at a room labeled 'Boiler Room' and unlocked the door. The room was big, and clearly he hadn't been kidding when he said he lived there. Luther walked down the steps and gently placed Five on the bed, the boy curled up and exhaled loudly, eyes fully closed now.

"If I didn't know he was such a prick." Diego paused watching him, "I'd say he almost looks adorable in his sleep."

Lotus didn't disagree as she stepped next to the two men and glanced at the sleeping figure, he did look awfully at peace.

"Well, don't worry. He'll sober up eventually." Luther waved a hand walking away from the bed, "Be back to his normal, unpleasant self."

Lotus turned and watched as both brothers wandered around, finding something to keep their interest. "Has he always been like that?"

"Like what?" They both questioned.

She rolled her eyes, "You know what I mean."

Both were silent but then shared another look, she wondered if they were thinking the same thing. She figured he had always been snarky and stuck up but believed that his time away officially sealed him off from emoting like a normal person.

"He's very driven, nevertheless." She said, "About this whole apocalypse thing."

"Yeah well—"

There was a knock on the door and they all turned staring at it, as if the person standing on the other side would somehow reveal themselves. Had the attackers that Five had called Hazel and Cha-Cha had followed them, but how had they had found them in the first place? Diego already had a knife out as he silently approached the door, he lifted a finger to his lips to indicate their silence. His hand wrapped around the knob and he swung it open, ready to throw the knife at whoever stood there. Instead, a yelp sounded from an older man.

"You throw one more of those damn knives at me I'm pressing charges!" He shouted peeking into the room, his eyes landed on Lotus and he scowled. "You!"

Lotus took a step bed and nearly stumbled on the leg of the bed, she frowned standing up straighter.

"Hi, Al." She waved, "It's been awhile."

"What do you want, Al?" Diego sighed ignoring the other twos brief mingle. Al turned and glared at him, "I ain't your secretary." He seethed stepping back out into the hallway, "But some lady called you, needs your help or something."

"What lady?" Diego asked, clearly interested. You could see his mind connecting the dots behind his dark eyes.

"I dunno. Uh, some detective." Al shrugged, "I think she said her name was, uh, Blotch or something."