𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌 both to the library.
She quickly picked out a book (or rather, grabbed one at random), and found an empty desk. She sat down, glancing at Five, who was muttering under his breath, and she opened the book.
Five plopped down in the seat beside her, making no effort to hide his heavy sigh. He took a large swig of his bottle and kept it near his mouth as he swallowed.
The unusually loud gulp caused her to look up at him, and seemingly assuming her glance to be one of interest, he held the bottle out toward her.
"Wan' some?"
"No, thanks." She shook her head as she returned to her book, her nose wrinkling. "Do you really have to drink?"
"I'm upset. I drink when I'm upset." He rested his elbow on the table as he narrowed his eyes at her. "Aren't you upset? Why aren't you drinking? Be miserable with me."
"My metabolism is so fast that I don't have the ability to get drunk. It'll just burn through the alcohol in milliseconds," Valerie answered with a shrug, not looking up from her book. "So, it's not like it can distract me from feeling emotions."
"That sucks."
The bottle was more than half-empty by the time he stood up.
Her eyes quickly drew to him. "Where are you going?"
"Walk," he murmured. "Alone," he added just as she began to get up.
Valerie sighed as she looked back down at her book. "Be careful. Come back right here when you're done, all right?"
About an hour and fifty-two books later (speed-reading was pretty great), she heard two sets of footsteps come from behind her. Valerie ignored it as she continued to read, flipping a page every other second.
"Valerie?"
She set her book down and turned to see Diego and Luther, who both had looks of relief on their faces. "Oh, hey, guys. What's up?"
"What's—" Luther let out an angry grunt and threw his hands up in the air in frustration. "We've been looking for you and Five all day!"
"What? Why?" Valerie questioned as she closed her book and pushed it to the back of the table, her eyebrows furrowed.
"Because—wait . . . where is Five?" Diego questioned, craning his neck to see if he was anywhere in the room.
Valerie sighed as she stood up. "Follow me."
She put her book back into its previous spot and led the two boys out into the hallway.
Five was in the same spot as he had been when Valerie had last checked on him a half-hour ago: sprawled in the corner, fast asleep, the bottle of tequila empty in his hand.
"What the hell?" Diego scoffed as he crouched down beside him. "What happened?"
"The lead we were following kind of . . . blew up. Literally," Valerie explained with a small frown. "And he got really upset, and then, well . . ." She gestured towards the bottle and shrugged.
Luther scooped Five up into his arms as Diego walked towards Valerie and demanded, "We have to go. Now."
"What? Why?"
Diego glanced over at Five, who was still asleep before looking back at her and sighing. "We'll explain once Five's woken up. Come on, Jesse Quick."
Valerie gently took the bottle from Five's hand and threw it away before following Luther and Diego out of the library.
It was dark outside, and it seemed to have rained in the time that they had been occupied inside the library, with puddles flooding the road and sidewalks.
The four of them entered an alleyway, lit only by the glow of the curtained windows in the apartment building next to them and the faint moonlight that peeked outside the dark clouds.
"Well, we can't go back to the house," Luther told them firmly. "It's not secure. Those psychopaths could come back at any moment."
"Psychopaths?" Valerie echoed as she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Diego gave her a look that caused her to slowly nod. "Right. Wait until Five wakes up. Got it. So, where are we going?"
Diego nodded before deciding, "My place is closer. No one will look for him there."
Five then woke up, immediately letting out a loud burp and drawing their attention to him.
Luther looked down at him, his eyes narrowed as he warned, "If you vomit on me . . ."
"You know what's funny?" Five looked up at the sky, still a little drunk. "Aah! I'm going through puberty. Huh. Twice. And I..." he chuckled. "I drank that whole bottle, didn't I? That's what you do when the world you love goes bye-bye. Poof, it's gone." He looked towards Valerie, who was walking next to Luther. Five raised his hand and poked her cheek. "And, poof, you'll be gone." He then frowned as he stared at her, his finger still hovering close to her cheek. "But I don't want you to be gone. I love you."
Valerie felt herself blush and had to remind herself that he was still pretty drunk, so anything he said wasn't really valid. She looked up to see Diego giving her a smirk, knowing how she was feeling, and she leaned forward before slapping his arm.
"Shut up, Diego."
"I didn't even say anything!"
She gave him another glare before sighing. "Now that Five's awake, can you tell us what happened?"
"Two masked intruders attacked the Academy last night," Diego explained, becoming much more serious. "They came looking for Five. And Mom—they . . ." He sighed, his face suddenly growing distressed. "They killed her."
That made Valerie stop in her tracks. A statement so sudden, so unexpected, made her heart much heavier in her chest. "She's dead?"
"Yeah." Diego's expression hardened as he looked at Five and nodded. "We need to avenge her. So I need you to focus," he said sternly to the boy, pointing a finger at him. "What do they want?"
"Hazel and Cha-Cha," Valerie sighed, wiping her oncoming tears with the back of her hand. Five had told her all about the two hitmen and how they were after him during their long, boring stakeout.
"Who?" Diego asked as he turned to her, his eyebrows furrowed.
"You know, I hate code names," Luther stated with a scrunched nose, shaking his head.
"Ah, the best of the best." Five rested his head on Luther's shoulder, his words slightly slurred as he spoke. "Except for me, of course."
"The best of what?" Diego questioned, now more baffled than before.
"You know, Delores always said she hated when I drink," Five said airily. "She said it made me surly—"
"Hey!" Diego shouted as he stopped walking, turning around to face Five with an irritated expression.
"Hm? Yeah?" Five raised his eyebrows as Luther came to a halt.
"I need you to focus." Diego stepped closer to Five, pointing his finger toward him once again. "What do this Hazel and Cha-Cha want?"
An amused smile slowly spread onto Five's face. Clearly, he wasn't all too eager to discuss this with his brothers.
Diego sighed. "We just wanna protect you."
"Protect me," Five repeated with a scoff. "I don't need your protection, Diego. Do you have any idea how many people I've killed?"
Diego exchanged a look with Luther before shaking his head. "No."
"I'm the Four frickin' Horsemen. The apocalypse is coming." Five then turned his head and vomited all over the sidewalk they were on.
"Oh, Five," Valerie sighed, shaking her head as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
They arrived at a boxing gym after about fifteen minutes of walking, and Diego led them to the boiler room. It seemed as though this was Diego's place of shelter, with a bed, posters of the Umbrella Academy, and training equipment piled up in various spots.
Luther gently placed Five, who had fallen asleep again, down onto the bed. The three of them watched his sleeping figure, his eyes closed peacefully as his head rested against the pillow.
"Funny. If I didn't know he was such a prick, I'd say he looks almost adorable in his sleep," Diego remarked. He nudged Valerie as he raised his eyebrows and continued, "But I guess you probably would say that he—"
She clamped her hand around his mouth, effectively silencing him.
"Well, don't worry," Luther muttered with a small sigh. "He'll sober up eventually. Be back to his normal, unpleasant self."
"Yeah, I can't wait that long," Diego shook his head as he turned and walked over to his desk. "I need to find out what his connection is with these lunatics before someone else dies."
"All that stuff he was saying before . . ." Luther exhaled before shifting to face the other man. "What do you think he meant by that?"
Diego paused as a sudden thumping noise approached. He drew his knife and headed up a couple of stone steps before slowly walked towards the door. He carefully wrapped his hand around the doorknob before jerking it open and preparing his knife.
Suddenly, an old man's voice called out:
"You throw another one of those goddamn knives at me, I'm pressin' charges!"
Diego's posture immediately relaxed, and he sighed as he opened the door. "What do you want, Al?"
Al—a man who looked to be around his sixties—walked in, raising his eyebrows at Diego, who had tucked his knives away and gone down the stairs. "I ain't your secretary."
Diego nodded, muttering, "Yeah."
"Some lady called for you—said she needs your help."
"What lady?" Diego asked exasperatedly, looking up at him with lifted eyebrows.
"I dunno. Some, uh, detective." Al shrugged as he leaned onto the metal rails, pursing his lips together in thought for a moment. "I think she said her name was, uh, Blotch or somethin'."
"Patch?" Diego realized as he furrowed his eyebrows. A small grin tugged at the corner of his lips as he muttered to himself, "She needs my help."
"She needs you to meet her at that motel, a dump on Calhoun," Al told Diego as he handed him a piece of paper while he approached.
"When?"
"About half an hour ago," Al answered as he walked out the door. "Uh, said she found your brother."
Diego looked over to see Five still sound asleep on the bed. "Well, that didn't make sense."
A look of realization dawned on both Luther and Diego's faces before they simultaneously breathed out, "Klaus."