EUNOIA ━ diego hargreeves

24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

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TO SAY Freya was hungover was an understatement. She hadn't even remembered how she got back to Elliot's apartment the previous night. Her memory went like this:

1. The hair salon.
2. Leaving the hair salon and getting her shoes chucked on by Klaus while walking along him on the sidewalk.
3. Abandoning said shoes on said sidewalk in disgust.
4. Somehow in the apartment on the couch with Diego's voice bitching in her ear.

"Diego, this is a setup," Luther's booming voice declared, continuing to stir her from sleep. Freya winced and attempted to push herself farther into the couch cushions, like that would block her from hearing the very loud conversation in the room.

"Maybe," Diego agreed. "But we should go anyway."

"You know what you should do?" Freya grumbled, inaudible to everyone but herself. "Shut the hell up."

"Says the guy who's already been stabbed once this week," Luther said. She could almost picture the scowl on both their faces.

"Oh, don't worry," Diego assured, and Freya scowled, slowly flipping onto her back so that her face was no longer buried in the couch cushions. She watched as he buttoned up a dark orange shirt with black speckled dots, and forced herself to remove her gaze from his half-bare chest. "Me and him are gonna have words."

"Him and I," Freya mumbled her correction, but no one had noticed that she was even awake.

"Will one of you tell him that he's nuts?"

"I think we should go," Vanya admitted, shrugging. She seemed more timid than usual. Freya wondered if her conversation with Sissy had gone south.

And that was exactly the reason she would be keeping her feelings hidden from Diego. Despite their constant arguing (even if most of the time she argued with him because she simply liked getting a rise out of him and was in the mood for amusement) he was one of the most important people in her life.

It had taken a long time to admit that, but it was true. Crush or no crush, Diego mattered so much.

"Can you guys, like, take it down ten notches? Or whisper?" She requested, and immediately three heads snapped in her direction, hearing her for the first time.

"Hey," Diego approached her, concern clouding his gaze. If she weren't so focused on not puking in his face she surely would've been taken aback. "How's your head?"

Freya raised her hand and knocked once on the side of her head. "Solid."

Diego straightened and glanced to Luther helplessly, who only shrugged in answer. "Well, Vanya thinks we should go."

"Yeah, well, her of all people should hate Reginald the most."

Vanya tilted her head back as Freya pushed herself upright. "Come on. He can't be that bad."

"Oh, okay. Well, let's see. He isolated you from the rest of the family."

"Kept you hipped up on pills," Diego added.

"And he brainwashed you into thinking you had no powers," Luther continued.

Vanya snorted. "Okay, look. Now I have to meet him."

"Wait," Freya blinked slowly. "Meet him? What are you guys talking about?"

Diego said nothing, but she watched as he pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket, and stepped back over to her so she could grab it.