—chapter thirty-two.

❛ the day that wasn't. ❜

WHEN ELODIE FINALLY MADE IT HOME, it was well-past dark. The sun had fallen hours before and it was only through her own efforts that she could make it up the steps to her house, holding her hands out like mini torches to light the way. She made sure to tread carefully when she made it inside, slipping her shoes off and jacket to the appropriate hook like a teenager would when sneaking back from a party.

Luckily, Elodie had a lot of experience from her adolescence to work with.

It wasn't hard for her to find her little brother. He was collapsed on the living room sofa, curled up and fast asleep. He hugged a book to his chest, Eugene Onegin. He must tried to stay up waiting for her, but had failed to keep his tired eyes open long enough and dozed off. 

It was a sweet sight, even if she felt some regret, leaving him alone for so long. It was easy to forget how young Ellis really was from the way he talked and how much knowledge his tiny head could store. But in sleep he returned to his boy state, innocent and softly snoring away on whatever classic literature he had chosen for a bedtime story that week.

After taking a moment to reminisce -- and another to shake the cheesy moment off and to wipe her eyes, Elodie moved forward. She knelt by the couch and shook his shoulder carefully. "Ellie? Ellie, it's me..."

The boy grumbled awake, blinking rapidly until his eyes could focus on her. She watched as they widened then half-shut again in weariness. "What...I...whe..."

"It's okay buddy. You fell asleep," she told him, smiling as he rubbed away the ebbs of sleep. Her hands patted his knees reassuringly. "I just got back. Wanted to make sure you were okay."

Ellis nodded and stifled a yawn. "I got the call from Claire, she said you would be late coming home. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Sometimes Elodie thought she was strong; but it only took that soft, heartfelt remark to totally unravel all her emotional bonds. She could have cried right then and there. It took a lot not to, covering up her sniffle with a sharp cough.

"I'm okay. You ate and everything, yeah?"

Ellis nodded again. As he woke up more, his look sharpened and turned curious. That soft sleeping boy of moments before was set aside for his logical mind as he pieced together more of the puzzle. "Is everything okay?"

"Uh..." she hesitated, rolling the question over on her tongue. "Yeah. Things are, now."

"What happened?"

Elodie paused again. A sheepish smile pulled at her lips. "It's a long story."

"I've got time."

And so she told him all of it. Or, most of it. She explained how Diego and his brother had come to the bar -- Ellis got a kick out of learning about the eccentric brother's actions -- and how she had tagged along to go chase after these two villains with weird names, Hazel and Cha-Cha. His eyes widened as she recounted the shootout and how Diego led his own stubbornness get the best of him. She giggled through the part with the ice cream truck, explaining why they were even in one in the first place and how they barreled towards the psychos before being literally frozen into time. 

Apparently the boy she had thought one of their children was not a boy but a fully grown man stuck in his adolescent self; Five, he called himself, a fifty-something year old that had been lost several years before. He had the gift of bending time and space, Elodie explained to her brother, and had stopped them all before vanishing into seemingly, thin air.

She did not tell him the full story, or why it really had taken so long for her to arrive back home. It didn't feel necessary to share what Diego and her had talked about after, how she'd cried like she hadn't in years and how he had blubbered too, even if he was too chicken to admit it. There would be time later. She needed to understand it all, first.

Ellis yawned and rested his head against her shoulder as her last words died out. "Sounds like an adventure."

"That's one word for it."

"How even is that boy thirteen and fifty?"

Elodie shrugged. "I have no idea actually. He...Diego said something about time travel? But it didn't make any sense to me. I'm too dumb to understand, you'd be better at that."

"Hey. You're not dumb."

"Fine, I lack the education that you have to back up your understanding of supernatural weirdos like Five." Elodie frowned, contemplating the name. "Don't know why he doesn't have a name like the others...though maybe he just left before he could get one? Hm."

Her little brother smiled and sank back into her, snuggling into her side in a way he rarely would. They were not really affectionate beings, not in the most usual ways. Sure, she'd hug him a quick goodbye and make sure he was good in all aspects of a preteens life, but their idea of love was through little tokens and actions. But as he curled into her, his soft brown head of hair tickling at her jaw, Elodie wished she could have this moment forever.

She turned her head and pressed a kiss to his temple. "You should get to bed, you got school in the morning."

"Mm." Ellis peeled off her and she immediately missed the embrace, silently wondering if they would get that again. He headed towards the stairs wearily, only to pause at the very first step. "I forgot. I picked up the mail for you."

"Thanks bud. Anything good?"

He shrugged. "Don't think so. There was an ad for a guy running for city council...some letter, too."

"Like, a bill sorta letter?"

Ellis frowned. "I didn't look closely at it. But it didn't look like a bill. It was sent from..." the boy paused as he tried to remember what he had seen. "Uh...South - no, New York."

The words hit like a truck. Elodie had never experienced a real heart attack, but she certainly felt like she was having one as she stared at her brother, all oxygen fleeing her body and leaving her a gaping, wide-eyed, shell of a woman behind.

"I just put it on the counter," Ellis continued, oblivious to his sister's shock in his exhaustion.  "With the rest of the stuff. Just thought you would like to know."

"T-thanks," she choked out, still struggling with how hard her heart beat. It felt like a giant press was slamming up and down on her chest, forcing air in and out too quickly for her to grab onto. She had to physically cough out an 'I love you' and barely recognised that he said it back. She was already full consumed by the fact that there was a letter from New York City with her name on it.

Somehow she managed to get on her feet and moving. Elodie floated through the house as though in a trance, bumping into the kitchen doorframe without even hesitation, stumbling but then walking straight through again. Her hands fumbled at the wood of their table, struggling to find the envelopes as her eyes darted about and lights flashed in them, temporarily blinding her, searching for the familiar feeling of that crisp white paper.

Finally she found it and held tight, stumbling over to a chair to fall into. It was as thought; black cursive letters spelling just her name and then a neatly printed address and information box in the top. It looked inconspicuous, and yet it made her more nervous than maybe anything ever in her life before. Just one letter, holding all the secrets of the universe.

Or nothing at all.

Elodie did not sleep that night. She stayed up and sat cross-legged in her basement, reading and rereading the letter and processing just what it all meant. Somehow she managed to process it after the fifteenth time and found herself dialing a number she never had before, leaving a tearful message choked with emotions she had never felt before. She tore off pieces of her bulletin board and burnt them into a crisp, knowing they did not matter anymore because she knew the truth. She knew her place and a family that never existed to her before, and there was a hope surging through her veins that made her smile even through her tears.

Sure, not all the answers were available just yet, but they would be.

"Thank you," Elodie whispered, pressing a kiss into the letter before pinning it to the board. She stepped back and reviewed the jumbled masterpiece; pins and clippings and big letters spelling out a new truth. Her truth, even if it was just the very start of it.

And she smiled.

"YOU LOOK TIRED."

Elodie yawned into her mug, smiling sheepishly as she finished the tell-tale motion. "Yeah...didn't sleep much yesterday. But it's okay. I feel twice as good as I usually would on like, half so much sleep."

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing." She downed the rest of the dark liquid and set the mug down, wiping her mouth free of any spare droplets. "We should do something soon. Something fun. Tomorrow or something."

The boy glanced up from his cereal bowl, looking a little confused. "Hm?"

"We haven't spent the whole day together in a while, have we?" Elodie continued on without a response back. "I miss our good old times. Acting like tourists, getting the worst foods possible -- oh, we could ride the ferry out to the island! Does that sound nice?"

Ellis' soft brows fell harsh over his eyes as he considered his sister's words. He seemed surprised at the random outburst, and maybe that made sense -- if he was the one who had not slept and was rambling on about new plans for spontaneous outings, she'd probably question it too. Still, despite the shadow of concern, a smile tickled the boy's lips. 

"That sounds fun."

"Yeah?"

"Yes. Sure. Is there any incentive for this?"

Elodie shook her head, sending curls flying all around her like a tumbling halo of brown. "I just miss you. And I need to do something fun more often, else I think my cause of death is going to be boredom. Or way too much paperwork done at once. You feel?"

Ellis just smiled a little wider and went back to his cereal. But it was clear even in his subtle ways that he agreed.

She offered him a drive to school that day, but he declined. When Elodie protested, he said he was perfectly fine to walk and that she shouldn't have to get up so fast on her day off. No matter what she threw back, he refused to take her off, leaving her to hug him goodbye and watch him wander off on his own. Though, Ellis was forced to promise her that their outing would in fact happen -- or else, she had glared mockingly.

Her brother left still grinning, and that was all the world to her.

Elodie sank into her couch with a sigh an hour later. Her bones accepted the relief gratefully, aching as they were from so much pacing the night before. She leant her head back and smiled, eyes half shut, at the pebbled ceiling above. There was too much to do and people to talk to, bonds to be mended and those who left to be welcomed in again -- but she would be a fool, to ignore how nice to rest for a moment. Even the silence, did not feel so pressing then.

However, her peace was cut short, as it always was those days. Just as the woman's lids drooped shut, a loud knock pounded against her front door. She startled up, confused and stumbled over to the door. Her mind had no consideration for time or who the hell it could be and any bad outcomes were dashed as she threw open the door.

Elodie stopped with the door all the way wide, gripping tight to the wood. She stared open-mouthed at the man across from her, unsure what to say -- or do, after so eagerly greeting him.

"H-hi."

Diego's gaze was soft. He looked tired but still gentle in the morning light, his gaze warmed as it trailed over her skin. He shuffled awkwardly on the step.

In the back of her mind, Elodie realised she couldn't remember a time he had ever stood on her front porch or used that door to come in. Had he ever?

"Hi," he said back.

Her lips pursed and she realised that they were just standing there, frozen at the door staring at one another. She pushed the door open more, or at least the few centimetres left it could go, and stumbled back so he could step in. "Come in, come in -- sorry, should have, uh...come in," she finished awkwardly.

Diego had so rarely looked out of place in her home; somehow despite his affinity for knives and shiny harnesses, he always looked right before. But standing barely a step inside, wringing his hands like a bashful teen looked weird to Elodie. Maybe it was the fact that he was dressed down (or at least, sans harness -- she imagined that was hard to get on with a sling) or the fact he'd never bothered that side of her house. But she gaped at him regardless.

"What...what are you doing here?"

He shrugged stiffly. He looked nervous; more nervous than she'd seen in years, more than anything yesterday. Like something was about to go terribly wrong.

"Is it something new with those weirdos? Hazel and Chi-Chi?"

That made him smile, just for a second before it vanished. "Cha-Cha. But no. Nothing about them, or the ap-pocolypse."

Ah, right, that. She had very nearly forgotten that part in last night's frenzy. Elodie grimaced. "So no new updates on that little world ending thing?"

"No - not really. But I'm here...cause of that," he finished awkwardly. Diego shifted his weight once more and sighed. His eyes drifted away from hers and landed on the floor, staring down at the carpet as though he could not look anywhere else. "I h-have to say something."

Elodie softened, realising how nervous he was, and stepped forward. Her hands found his and her thumbs pressed soothing circles into his knuckles. "You can tell me anything. You know that, right?"

Diego didn't answer that. His eyes shifted to meet hers for a brief second, letting her catch the panic glimmering in them, before flitting back down again. "I - I don't know how to do this."

"What do you mean?"

"I - I can't," he stammered. Diego's cheeks were growing pinker and pinker by the second, and she could almost make out sweat on his face, growing as the seconds ticked by. "I can't."

"Can't...what? Diego, you're not making any sense. What's going on?"

He shook his head. "I -  I've done so much. So much...b-bad things. I kill and I call that my job. I'm a b-b-broken person, I push people away, I hurt, I...you know."

She frowned, moving her one hand to rest on his shoulder. "What's that gotta do with anything?"

"It's just -- I -- you deserve a good life, Elodie."

"Uh...what?"

"Happiness. Good. Someone who treats you right, who makes you happy ev-every day."

"God, Diego--"

He cut her off to continue the sharp, heavily concentrated words as though he could not stop. The syllables were not stuttered so much, but there were tentative gaps between the words as though he had to double check each thought before letting her hear it.

"I can't give that to you. The...happy easy life, that's not possible for me...you know that. And I, I know that. But even as I tell myself that, I can't let go of you. And I keep doing stupid shit like showing up and hoping things will just magically change. You know I-I I miss being able to hold you and not wonder what comes next."

"Diego," Elodie hissed again, that time not bothering to try anything more than his name. She blinked away the influx of emotions that built with his words. "I don't...I mean..."

For once, she couldn't figure out the right words to ramble out to make it right.

"I've been running for so long," Diego continued, words hardened the more he forced them out. He looked back to her finally, staring down at her in new determination. "I was scared shitless to come back to you. Scared I was going to fuck it up again. But then lately, and today when I was tying up Klaus, I--"

-Elodie moved her hand from his shoulder and held it up, frowning. "Hold on. Tying up Klaus?"

He groaned and hung his head. "Can I just finish? I can't -- I can't -- I can barely say this without your interruptions."

"Right, sorry," she nodded a little too eagerly. She shuffled a little nearer. "Continue."

Diego smiled in relief but then closed up again. He frowned through the rest of his speech. "When I was with Klaus, and he was telling me about his -- well, it doesn't matter, long story." A hand reached back to rub his neck as he collected his thoughts. "He made me realise that life is too goddamn short to wait. And that love is -- it only -- um, something about how we only get one chance and how -- god, I can't remember the rest."

She could see the panic rise again and immediately pulled forward, reaching up to pat his shoulder. "It's okay. All okay. You're really selling me on, well I don't know what you're doing right now but I think it's working? I mean, I don't--"

"--I just want to kiss you again," he rushed, words thrown like weapons of their own; but they fall soft on her ears, like a melody only the gods could sing. Diego's hands drifted up hesitantly and find hers, bringing her fingers down to his chest. They trembled against her skin; Elodie hardly noticed. "I want to kiss you without regret. Hold you and - and not wonder when I'll see you again, or miss you for weeks after and--"

It was Elodie's turn to cut him off. Words did not combat his that time, however. She rose, slipping a hand from his so she could pull his head to hers. Her lips pushed to his, harsher than she meant them to hit. For a second it was only her and he was frozen in her touch, still holding onto her right hand. But just before she could pull away, his eyes shut and he dipped down to chase her fleeing lips.

Their hands parted; hers flattened against his chest, smiling as his heart pounded against her fingertips. His pulled at her waist, tugging her closer, then when that was no longer enough he was pushing her back against the foyer wall, rolling her hips against his to exact a soft, stuttered moan panted into his open mouth.

They moved fast and carelessly, pulling at the other like somehow they would vanish without such tight grip. Breaths were quick huffs before pulling back in, begging for his tongue roiling against her own, or her teeth to bite down teasingly on his bottom lip. Her hands laced tightly into his hair and acted as an anchor as they stumbled through the rooms, attached wherever possible and unwilling to let go for even a second.

Elodie chuckled breathlessly as her back met another doorpost. His smile nudged against her own, lips curving around hers and begging for more as she pulled him into her room. For once, it was simple. Easy. Words weren't necessary; every time his thumb rubbed against her bare hip, or when his teeth scraped ever gently against her collarbone, she knew any answer she could ask for.

"C'mere," she whispered, dragging him back up to meet her lips. Her thighs laced around his back and as he shoved both of them down to the bed, she clung tighter, pressing everything she could to him. 

Silently, Elodie wished for him to never let go again.

HIS HANDS WERE WATER, RUNNING DOWN HER BODY, dripping up the skin until they fell down again. It tickled a little, but Elodie didn't say anything as she watched his long fingers shiver down the curve of her spine and to her thighs. He pulled forward then, pressing gentle kisses up from her back to her neck as she just sat, smiling like a daft retriever on Christmas morning.

The sun crept in from her hanging curtains, teasing their afternoon tryst -- but it only made her feel safer. Warmer. Even when his stubble shifted against her soft skin and made her cringe, him holding her to him, kissing her, pulling her back into his embrace -- it'd been so long since she had been held like that.

Elodie sighed, letting her head fall back into his bare chest. His heart beat erratically under her and she wondered if he felt the same nervous excitement she did. Slowly, her right hand searched for his, pulling his fingers just so she could kiss the bruised knuckles.

Diego hummed against her. "I missed you."

"Me too," she told him, voice rasping slightly. "You know how many times I would just want to stop and ask if we could do it all again?"

"And here I thought this was all one-sided."

"Oh, no. I wanted your ass bad, like you wouldn't believe."

"Well, that..." his lips lingered on her shoulder, smiling as he pulled away, "that makes two of us."

But Elodie couldn't return that same smirk. "You know when we had that fight, and I told you to leave, I -- I didn't think you really would. And when you did, I thought you were going to come back. That I just had to wait a little bit and you'd walk right back in, and I'd pretend to be really mad but we'd fix things again."

"I wish I had. I wanted to...I spent an hour walking around in circles, trying to make myself go back."

"Then why didn't you?"

"I was scared," he confessed. "I thought this time that you wanted me gone, that you meant it all. An' I got in my head, and I couldn't let go of what you said, and I...I realised you might be better off without me bringing you down. So I left, and I drank my ass out to the heavens and cried like a fool."

Elodie shifted, turning her body so instead she was laying on her stomach and could see his face. Diego avoided her gaze but still she watched. He was pretty, looking like an angel even with the thousands of scrapes and scars littered across his tanned skin, and the way his eyes drooped in that same sad weariness she'd worn every day without him. The sun gave him a halo, lighting his mess of hair up into golden light. At that moment, she wished she had studied art when in school -- because a sight like that deserved to be painted.

Drunk on touch and eager to keep their golden moments going, she pulled at his chin and kissed his pouting lips. "I never wanted to lose you," she told him. Her thumb traced his swollen mouth, reddened and pretty. "I was mad, yeah. And frustrated. And there was so much wrong that we had to work through -- but that's just it. I wanted to work through it, and make us work, but...you didn't come back."

"You could have called," he mumbled back. His teeth grazed over her thumb, jokingly nibbling at the digit. "Could'a reached out."

"So could have you."

"But..."

Elodie nodded. "I know. I wanted to. Should have. But I was scared too. Got in my head, convinced myself you'd hate me more if I called, and so I left it."

"C'mon. I could never hate you."

She smiled softly at his earnest words. "Well, that's sweet."

"I mean that," Diego said. He sat up then, forcing her to try the same, leaning back on her mess of pillows. His hands met hers and clung tight. "I never hated you. Hated myself, hated the world, but I could never make myself hate you. I - I mean, 'Lodie, I have l-l-l...I have..."

"It's fine. We don't have to get into it."

"Nah, I...I love you," and Diego hesitated after that. Tentatively his lips curled upwards, shy and lovedrunk. "I have loved you, since the day I met you and you made fun of my sunglasses."

Her gaze dipped low, eager to hide her tears from him. Suddenly the wrinkles in the blankets were worlds more interesting. "To be fair, they were ugly sunglasses."

"An' I loved you since the day I first walked you home. And the day you made me eat your crappy eggs with you, after saving my life. And the day I first kissed you. And the day you...every day, and every single fuckin' day after I left, I have loved you."

It was then that she realised that for once, the influx of emotions weren't making her burn. Even as he watched her and told her all of that, her heat didn't rise one second. She didn't have to pull her hands from his, or dart away and drag her body through ice. She was calm, and happy like a fool who just got asked to the prom.

It felt weird (like, totally wrong and strange and is this even happening, weird). But Elodie smiled anyways.

"Gee, Diego...and here I thought the girl was supposed to be the secret romantic."

"Fuck that," he mumbled. He pulled her into him, nestled so she was half on his lap, half cradled into his side, with his lips at her jaw and temple and finally, her lips. "I love you, mi amada."

She parted just a breath away from his lips, meeting his eyes. Her arms moved around his neck and she pulled him closer, if closer was even possible for how they sat. "I love you, too. And I want to make this work again."

"Me too." 

"Seriously. 'Cause I don't think there's anyone I can give so many shits for as much as you, as much as I've tried to find someone else."

"Oh, you have?"

"Just shut up and kiss me," she giggled, moving back to pressing kisses to his full lips. "Just...kiss...me, baby. We'll...work out the logistics later."

And just as he had seven years ago, Diego complied, holding her closer to him and letting the both of them embrace the paradisaical feeling of finally being back in one another's arms. And in those moments, everything was right in the world.

Until of course, they weren't.

Not me writing this delirious after three nights of shit sleep, tearing up like a fool over completely fictional characters...haha. Sorry for the awkward ending, but...my brain's tired, I doubt it'll get any better right now. 

Also! Something to note. Elodie does not know when the apocalypse is happening. She knows it is, but not that it's literally right around the corner. It's more of a potential thing than a great impending threat. 

Anyways. Sorry, you'll probably hate me in the next chapter. :)

Thank you for reading, let me know what you thought.