EUNOIA ━ diego hargreeves

19

CHAPTER NINETEEN

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DIEGO WOKE up screaming, and Freya had to flick him in multiple places, multiple times to get him to stop fidgeting. He groaned in pain as she pulled out the last remaining of the knife that had been shoved into his stomach. "If you move one more time I swear to God I will stab you again myself."

"Why the hell am I naked?" He asked weakly, throwing his head back as she used the airwaves to finally get the weapon out of him. Heart thundering, because yes, he was shirtless, and yes, she was sitting over him, and the realization sent those flutters in her stomach again, but he was not completely nude. She gave him a sharp look.

"You're not naked," she replied, rubbing alcohol onto his wound, cleaning it before it had the chance to get infected. "I definitely would not be on top of you if you were naked."

"Back to denying that you have the hots for me, I see," Diego muttered, and she rolled her eyes.

At least he was feeling better enough to make his flirtatious comments at her, and she was surprised when she felt some sort of relief when she heard him say that. Freya snickered as she taped on some bandages, pushing down on his stomach hard enough to make him groan, and she grinned in satisfaction. He caught this, narrowing his eyes. "You're evil," he accused.

"Am not," Freya argued, before removing her leg from the other side of him, standing up.

Five appeared in the doorway, his brows raising once he saw Diego was awake. "Oh, he's not dead."

"Disappointed?" Lila questioned from her spot on the couch. She'd been watching Freya the whole time like a hawk, and if she were being honest, it creeped her out. Not that she was about to confront a mental patient though, she wasn't suicidal.

"To see you? Always."

"So much hostility in such a tiny package," Lila mused. Five ignored her, and grabbed one of the cotton balls from the table, sticking it to the side of his neck. "Did you cut yourself shaving? I could teach you to shave like a big boy."

Five huffed out an annoyed breath. "No, I just ran into an old family friend."

Freya glowered at the two of them, her hard gaze shifting between the boys as Diego pushed himself into a sitting position. "I told you going there was a bad idea. Did I not? Maybe next time you morons will listen to me!"

"Yeah, yeah," Diego mumbled, patting the empty spot next to him. Freya was still glaring at him as she reluctantly plopped down into the couch, her anger fading once she saw the paleness of his skin. "We get it. You were right."

"As usual," she added, and he scoffed, laying his head onto her shoulder.

"I feel like I've been asleep for twenty years."

"I wish I was that lucky," Freya answered. She felt Diego tilt his head up, his turn to glare at her. She smiled innocently down at him. "Oops, did I say that out loud?"

"You didn't untie him?" Five asked, interrupting their banter as he gestured to the unconscious Elliot who was in the kitchen.

Lila removed her gaze from Freya, raising her eyebrows in question. There it was again, that weird gut feeling, but it disappeared when Lila's face broke out into a sarcastic smirk. "Was I supposed to?"

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"You guys hungry?" Lila asked, popping her head into the bedroom they were sitting in. Freya glanced up from the book she was reading as Diego shifted from next to her. "Elliot is making moldy tuna."

"It's a tuna mold," Elliot corrected from the kitchen, and Lila scowled, rolling her eyes.

"Where's my shirt?" Diego questioned, and Freya clamped a hand around his wrist before he could even fully stand up. She knew him well enough to follow his train of thought. He shot her a sour look, which only made her grip tighten.

"You're not going anywhere. I did not just spend five hours pulling out that horrid thing and patching you back up just so you could go play hero and get yourself killed—for real this time. Sit your ass down."

Diego's eyes visibly widened, and he slowly shrank back onto the bed. Lila laughed loudly from her spot at the door, catching the attention of Freya. "You need to teach me how to do that."

"Do what?"

"Boss men around. It's very amusing."

Freya felt herself smile. "Taming Diego is like potty training a chicken."

Diego crossed his arms. "What the hell does that even mean?"

"It means butt out of our conversation," she threw over her shoulder.

Lila snorted, and turned on her heel to exit the room, leaving both of them alone once more. Diego's head fell onto the pillow behind him, and he let out a sigh. "I can't believe I got shanked by my own father."

Freya stared at him, a chuckle appearing in her throat, and it escaped her mouth before she could stop it. Diego glared at her, which only encouraged her more, and she was breathless within seconds. "Sorry," she managed, choking on her laugh. "Sorry. It's really not funny. You just scared the shit out of me."

She didn't even have time to register Diego's quick actions as he sat up onto his knees, rising to her level from where she was stood next to the bed. Her giggling faded as he reached forward to place his hand on her jaw, turning her head in his direction. Immediately, her stomach warmed when he closed the gap between them. She was almost positive he could hear the pounding of her heart. Then, before she could react, Diego pulled away, glancing at the wall behind her guiltily.

"Diego—"

"No," he shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that."

Freya frowned at him as he weakly pushed himself up, and slowly walked out of the room.

Why hadn't she kissed him back? The question pounded in her head, and she couldn't come up with an answer. Instead, Freya forced herself upright, and stared out the door, making awkward eye contact with Diego who was leaning over the counter, talking to Lila. She suppressed a sigh.

"Fuck."

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authors note:

rewritten as of 2/8/22

i was debating on making a love triangle with lila but i was like yeah no too much work i'm a lazy bitch but we'll see where this goes. i like angst 😏