fire ; diego hargreeves

5 ; the aftermath

When Alex woke up, he could hear someone swearing angrily. It took him a few moments to realise it was Diego. The Kraken, the weird guy. The guy who got himself all bloodied and beaten and managed to get into his apartment.

He clambered off the sofa, checked his watch for the time, and then saw Diego stumbling out of the bedroom into the living room-kitchen. The kitchen and the living room were two halves of a room. He moved closer to Diego.

"What, in the love of fuck, are you doing?" he asked, opening the fridge to get some milk for his breakfast.

"You've got no fucking food," Diego replied, shutting a cabinet door. Alex raised an eyebrow and reached over to the one by Diego's legs and revealed some food in there. He grabbed a box of cereal and waved it in Diego's face. "Why isn't it at average height?"

"Because I put it there once and now it's just there. How's your injuries?"

"Injured. But I'll live, thanks to you." Diego bumped his good arm against Alex's. "Thanks for letting me sleep here too. I know some other people who would rather kick me out than put up with my ass for the night."

Alex shrugged. "It's a pretty decent ass, so I'm not complaining." He felt the heat in his cheeks, noticing the same in Diego's. "What do you want for breakfast?"

"Whatever you have," he said, limping over to the sofa. "Oh, and for the record, you've got a nice ass too."

Alex felt his face burn even more so than usual as he tried his best to hold back the smile.

A few minutes later, he brought over some breakfast. He handed one bowl to Diego, who in turn devoured the food. Alex watched for a few minutes, amazed that someone could eat so much so quickly.

"Wh-wh-what?" Diego asked.

"Nothing. Just never seen someone eat like that," Alex said. He ate a spoonful if his own breakfast. "Don't mind me."

A little slower, Diego went back to eating. The two ate together in silence. It was mostly comfortable, if a little weird. This wasn't typical, but Alex wasn't sure what part of his life had ever been typical.

"You want to tell me how you ended up like that?" Alex pointed to Diego's face. "Your face looks a little bit like shit. Too bad your eye is so swollen."

Diego was quiet for a moment. "I was doing patrols - hey, this city's got some bad people running around - and a group of ten jumped me. They got in a few good hits but I got some in better. They had some guns but I had knives."

"Can shoot a gun quicker than you can throw knives though," Alex said, eyes lingering on the bandage covering Diego's bicep. That hadn't been fun stitching up.

"No, but I'm very quick. I curve knives, I tried to curve those bullets." Alex wondered if Diego's power actually extended into curving what others threw at him. "They fired a lot of them so I was bound to get hit," Diego shrugged a shoulder. "Shit happens,"

Alex nodded. "Still, I'm glad you're OK. Or as OK as you can be after being shot last night,"

"Aw, were you worried about me?"

Alex gave him an incredulous look. "Diego, you were in my apartment covered in blood and bleeding. I was worried you were gonna die." He shook his head and finished his breakfast. "I'm not working for most of today, but I do have to go to the bar tonight,"

"I would come visit the bar tonight, but I have a job and some healing to do,"

"Job?" Alex asked, finishing his breakfast. He put the empty bowl on the shitty coffee table.