[✓] 𝐼𝑁𝑇𝐸𝑅𝐿𝑈𝐷𝐸 | 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧. 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑

Luther didn't seem to hear her as he continued, "It was wrong of me to lash out on you guys. I'm a leader, I'm Number One, but I haven't been doing my duties and—"

"Luther, please—"

"—I'm very sorry for that. But I figured that maybe—"

"I can't really—"

"—we can just leave that in the past and focus on stopping this—"

"Luther!"

She had finally gotten his attention. "Hm?"

"I love you, but can we maybe talk about this later?" Valerie pleaded. "I'm, uh, in the middle of changing."

"Oh, uh, of course, I" —Luther stepped backward awkwardly, tripping over one of Elliott's marbles—"sorry, I'll just . . ."

Valerie shut the door and locked it once more, sighing as she turned around.

Five was watching with a small smirk. "'Changing'?"

"Oh, what did you want me to say?" she scoffed as she rolled her eyes and walked back over to the bed. "'Sorry, I was busy making out with Five'?"

"No, you should've said 'Sorry, I was busy having se—"

"Shut up, idiot!" Valerie leaned over and smacked his arm, eliciting a grin from the boy. "Put your clothes on and let's go. Luther's waiting."

"Are you sure you want me to—"

"Yes!"

After dressing themselves back into their uniforms (Five doing so quite reluctantly), they headed out into the kitchen to find Luther cracking some eggs into a large, metal bowl. A pile of about twelve eggshells lay next to the bowl on the counter, and the pile was only growing.

Diego was sitting at the small table that was a few feet away from Luther. His fingers clutched the edge of his coffee mug rather tightly, and he was staring straight at the wall in front of him.

Cautiously, Valerie sat on the chair opposite of him, her eyebrows furrowed. She waved a hand in his face, snapping him out of his small daze.

"Oh, uh . . . hey, Northstar."

"Hi." She gave him a small smile as Five reached across her and poured his own cup of coffee. "You good?"

Diego's eyes lowered to the table as he gave a meek nod and muttered, "I'm fine."

Luther grabbed a pot and placed it on the stove before switching the burner on. He poured his eggs into the pot and grabbed a spatula, tending to the food as it cooked.

Diego ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head slightly.

Valerie stared at him, her eyebrows knitting together in worry as she began, "Diego, are you—"

"I don't understand," he said as he stood up abruptly. "They keep following me."

"Wait, who?" Luther furrowed his eyebrows, not taking his eyes off of the yellow eggs that were now overflowing the pot.

"Those Dutch sociopaths," Diego answered as he stepped towards him.

"They're Swedish, you idiot," Valerie corrected as she rolled her eyes.

"Hired guns paid to eradicate us before we do any more damage to this timeline," Five continued off of her, leaning against the doorframe with his coffee in one hand and the other slipped in his pocket.

"Yeah, but why now? I mean, I'm" —he snapped his fingers three times, quite angrily— "fine for three months until you two showed up. Don't get me wrong, Val, I love you, but seriously."