fire ; diego hargreeves

17 ; the assassins

Once his shift had ended at the library, Alex had made his way to the academy. He'd received a text from Diego, telling him to get there when he could. So that was what he was doing. He knew that being back there was messing with Diego's head, and even though he didn't explicitly say it, Diego needed him.

Alex had arrived not too long after he'd gotten the text. He let himself in, and he wanted nothing more than to just hug Diego and kiss him. He'd even hug Klaus too. He wasn't that fond of Luther though.

"What's he doing here?" Luther asked, pointing a finger at Alex as he made it into the large living room. He looked angry at Alex's presence, like he wasn't supposed to be there. Whatever, Alex didn't give a shit. His main concern was Diego.

"Moving in, what the fuck do you think?" he retorted, coming and standing against a pillar.

Diego sighed, looking a little older than his years. It had to be being around his family doing that to him. "I told him to come over. If you're being weird over Dad's death, then I thought someone who was unbiased could help."

Luther didn't look amused. Alex wondered what the guy even did for a living. He raised an eyebrow, waiting for Luther to say something, stupid or otherwise. Instead, he turned around and flicked on the TV, putting the tape in.

From the middle of their group, Klaus leaned over and offered Alex some of his potato chips. Alex shrugged a shoulder and then leaned over and took some. "Thanks."

"I mean, do you really think Mom would hurt Dad?" Vanya asked, after the footage had been shown. Klaus ate his chips loudly, licking his fingers. Behind Alex, Allison took a sip of her drink.

Alex frowned and stepped closer. Something had happened, between the frames of the video. He glanced over at Diego and knew he'd spotted it too. It didn't help that the TV they were watching the footage on had a small screen.

"You haven't been home in a long time, Vanya," Neither have you, Alex thought, but kept his mouth shut. "Maybe you don't know Grace anymore."

"If he was poisoned, it would have shown in the coroner's report," Diego said, voice getting little higher at the end of his sentence. Alex could practically see the look Diego was giving his brother.

Luther looked at Diego like he was ready to fight him. Alex guessed that wasn't out of the ordinary for them. "Well, I don't need a report to tell me what I can see with my own eyes."

"Maybe all that low gravity in space messed with your vision," Diego said as he stepped forwards. He rewined the tape a little, and showed the continuity error both he and Alex had spotted.

Well, Alex new it had been there, but definitely hadn't seen the specific thing that was wrong with it. The screen was small, and the others had crowded around it.

And then Luther asked about the monocle, wondering where it was. Diego admitted he had the monocle, and that he'd thrown it away. Alex watched as the two brothers started to get angry, and Diego went into the fighting position Alex had seen him go into many times before. Alex reached over and slapped Diego's arm to stop him as Vanya stood between the two of them.

"Mom was, well, designed to be a caretaker but ... also a protector." Alex didn't like where the conversation was going. He suspected Vanya would soon be back on Diego's shit list.

"Which means?" Alex asked, not liking the fact he was asking. He figured it was better the stranger asked than someone in their family.

"She was programmed to intervene if someone's life was in jeopardy."

Alex didn't like how Luther immediately went to the concept of her hardware degrading, and shutting her down.

"Hey, asswipe, she's your fucking mom." Alex stepped in, voice clear enough, cutting through their voices. Luther turned and looked at him, and Alex had a faint realisation of how small he was in comparison to him. "What's the bet that Pogo had been around when your asshole dad created her? Pretty high, I'm guessing. So why don't you ask him to help and fix her hardware so that you don't have to, like, kill her."