[✓] 𝑃𝑅𝐸𝐿𝑈𝐷𝐸 | 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧. 𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑛

Word count: 3189

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐏 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄 their way over to the pub, which luckily was only a few minutes of a drive away from the Academy. 

The dimly-lit place wasn't all that busy, considering that it was the early afternoon, so it was easy to spot Luther. He was sitting by himself at one of the round tables, with a yellow mug in hand. 

"Look. Trying a little hair of the dog, are we?" Klaus teased as they approached the table, raising his eyebrows at the man who only grew irritated by the jest. "Hm?"

"Leave me alone," Luther muttered, pulling his mug closer to him as he kept his gaze on the table.

Diego sat down in the chair next to Luther as he placed his gloves on the table, and waved his hand toward the other three. "Give us a minute."

"Okay. Come on," Klaus told the other two as he nodded toward the table in the back. "Maybe they'll brood each other to death."

The three of them walked over to the table, leaning against it as they watched Diego speak.

"Look, Dad was wrong to lie to you," he murmured. "To all of us."

"Look, I did my time. All right?" Luther lifted his mug towards his lips but didn't drink out of it as he continued, "Four years up there, watching and waiting because he said the world needed me. Four years of nothing but soy paste and processed air because I was naive enough to believe that dads don't lie to their kids. But guess what? The joke's on me. I'm done. With all of it. With him. With you. With this family. You wanna save the world, you go right ahead. I'm fine to sit here and finish my beer and . . . get my . . . buzz on."

Valerie felt dizziness swoop upon her for a moment, and she lifted a hand to her forehead, her eyes squinted as she tried to steady her breathing.

It seemed that Five had noticed this as he turned towards her, his forehead creasing with worry while he whispered, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She gave him a reassuring smile, although she wasn't too sure how much she believed her own words.

Diego's voice floated towards them as he put his gloves back on, and he shrugged. "You want to turn your back on me, the guys, Valerie, that's fine. But Allison deserves better than that."

"Allison?" Luther repeated, his attention now fully given to Diego as his grip on his mug tightened. "What are you talkin' about?"

"Well, we got ahold of Harold Jenkins' police file. Turns out Vanya's boyfriend is a convicted murderer. Who would've saw that coming?" Diego paused. "A little hard to trust anyone who wears corduroy."

Luther's eyebrows knit tightly together as he slowly asked, "Wait, so . . . where's Allison now?"

"She decided to go after Harold Jenkins," Diego answered simply with a small shrug. "Alone."

Luther took a moment to process this before he growled, "You should have led with that!" He slammed his hand on the table as he got up, causing the others to flinch and the customers to glance his way. "Jesus Christ!"

He began to sprint around the tables and towards the doors, not paying any mind to the staring people. 

Valerie glanced at Five before sighing, and they all quickly followed. Another sigh left her mouth as Luther ripped the door off his hinges on accident, though the large man didn't seem to care as he continued out into the parking lot. 

"Where is Harold Jenkins?" Luther demanded as they (speed) walked towards the car, his voice rough.

"Pretty sure he and Vanya are at some cottage of his, up north," Diego answered as he gave a light shrug. "Near Jackpine."