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Driving back from the airport was a huge relief, Diego was glad to have gotten the wedding out of the way. He was mostly just glad to be out of Luther’s company though. “Do you wanna...” Diego awkwardly trailed off, feeling bashful to invite his sister to spend more time together “...get coffee?” he suggested with a wince. From the corner of his eye Diego saw Vanya shoot her vision to him with confusion. He purposefully continued staring at the road ahead. “Sure?” she murmured tentatively, sounding like she thought he may be playing some kind of trick on her. “Great.” he gently returned, looking at their brother through the rear view mirror. “Maybe we should get take-out.” Diego mumbled, not particularly wanting to wake Klaus up, or leave him alone in the car. The man was insufferably irritating and destructive, it was better if he stayed passed out. Vanya nodded shyly, Diego turned to flash her a soft smirk.
—
“I’ll wait here.” Diego drawled definitively as he parked up, holding his wallet over to their sister. He knew she would be nervous stuck in a car with Klaus, even though he was unconscious. “You don’t have to pay.” Vanya murmured, looking across to Diego’s wallet with immense guilt. “I’m paying.” Diego bluntly insisted, shoving the wallet into her hand. Truthfully, Diego couldn’t really afford it, but that didn’t matter. It was his idea, and he was the big brother. Vanya smiled politely and pulled on the handle to exit the car. Diego groaned to himself when it didn’t open, stupid piece of trash car.
“You gotta do it like this.” he awkwardly leaned over his sister, wiggling the handle around aggressively. Vanya leaned so far back into her seat to avoid touching Diego that she could’ve done the limbo. It was strangely reassuring that they were both as uncomfortable with close contact. “Black coffee.” he requested as his sister got out. She was almost the same height stood on the ground as she was sat in the car. “Do I get him anything?” Vanya mumbled nervously, peering over to their idiot brother. “No.” Diego grunted, not in the mood to deal with Klaus giving himself third degree burns.
—
Ben chuckled as Diego hastily turned off the cheesy radio station on seeing Vanya approach the car. His brother leaned over to harshly yank the handle, opening the door. Vanya slid into her seat demurely, handing Diego his coffee and wallet. “Thanks...” Diego murmured, distracted by sniffing in the direction of Vanya’s drink. Diego was no doubt recalling the smell from when they were kids, mom would make Vanya chamomile tea when she was particularly stressed. It was depressing for Ben that he couldn’t actually smell it, but the label on the teabag induced nostalgia anyway. “Do you actually like that shit?” Diego inquired curiously, taking a sip of his own drink. Vanya nodded with a slight smirk, mirroring Diego by shyly sipping. “It smells like flowers.” their brother teased with a sly grin. “It is flowers.” Vanya softly sniggered, causing Diego to raise a playfully judgemental eyebrow. “This is me judging you.” he pointed towards Vanya’s tea with mock contempt.
The incoherent whimpering Diego had grown used to Klaus mumbling in his sleep predictably began. It always made him feel so goddamn uncomfortable. He didn’t want to even think about what made his brother so fucked up. He grabbed a box of Tic Tacs from the glove compartment. Hoping that they’d sound enough like pills to invoke a Pavlov’s dog effect and wake him up, Diego rattled them violently. Sighing with disappointment when his genius plan didn’t work, Diego decided to just throw them at his nose instead. “...prick.” Klaus halfheartedly mumbled, groggily rubbing at the bridge of his nose. Praying he’d pass back out, Diego glanced back over to Vanya. She looked rather alarmed. “Don’t worry, he does it all the time.” he nonchalantly assured her.
That didn’t make it better, if anything it made it much worse. Vanya forced a polite smile, briefly glancing over her shoulder to see if Klaus was asleep again. He was. “Do you think Allison’s happy?” Vanya mumbled reticently, feeling rather nasty due to her implication. Their sister hadn’t seemed truly at ease throughout the entire wedding, though she was putting on a cheery face. Diego took a long sip from his coffee, clearly trying to choose his words wisely. “I think she loves him.” he replied with a shrug, but it was evident he was holding something back. Vanya sighed gently, swirling the teabag around in her take-out cup. It would be disheartening if Allison’s marriage didn’t last, she seemed to be the only one of them who had their life somewhat together.
For Diego it was clear as day that Allison had rumored her husband into it, but he decided to keep that to himself. It was disappointing that it was evidently all a load of bullshit, he had wanted Allison to be happy with the guy. She never learned that her rumors would fuck up and she’d be left picking up the pieces. Diego would just patiently wait for the news to break that they were filing for divorce. It would happen eventually, he was certain. “Luther looked like his brain was gonna explode.” Diego chuckled, sadistically finding joy in his brother’s stress. It wasn’t like Diego was being an asshole... it was Luther’s fault for having a crush on their sister. He grimaced to himself at that thought, almost putting himself off his coffee. Glancing at Vanya, he noticed a suppressed smirk. “Yeah... he kinda did.” she agreed timidly, seemingly feeling guilty that she found it funny.
Startling awake once again, Klaus was relieved to have left the mausoleum even if he could barely keep his eyes open. ”Where’s mine?” Klaus whined petulantly, dragging himself to lean over the seats, pouting at their drinks. “You can hold coffee when you can hold your head up.” Diego grouched dismissively, poking him in the forehead with a single finger - which was irritatingly enough to make Klaus flop backwards. “Don’t interrupt!” Ben nagged, watching their siblings with intense enthralment. Klaus squinted at him in confusion, wondering what the hell he was interrupting. “They’re bonding.” Ben hissed, giving Klaus a shh gesture. He rolled his eyes, begrudgingly slumping back down to give in to his heavy eyelids.
Diego cracked his knuckles, annoyed that he was going to have to let Klaus stay over at his place. He’d already spent days with him, it was goddamn unbearable. Maybe he could just lock him in the car with the window cracked, like a dog. Finishing his coffee, Diego felt tempted to throw the cup at Klaus’ head just for the sake of it, but he decided that would just be mean. Cranking his creaky window down, Diego threw his empty cup out of it and directly into a garbage can across the parking lot. He brought his ancient engine spluttering back to life, and began heading towards Vanya’s building.
“You got college tomorrow?” he wondered gruffly, slightly concerned about how stressed his sister had seemed for the entirety of their trip. He hoped his worry wasn’t evident, that would just be plain embarrassing. “Yeah, only for half a day.” Vanya murmured softly, Diego could see her anxiously fiddling with her sleeve in his peripheral vision. “You gonna be good?” Diego awkwardly asked, feeling incredibly uncomfortable at the emotional subtext. He wasn’t sure what the hell he’d respond with if she said no. “I’m fine.” she all but whispered. Diego sighed with relief that he didn’t have to talk about feelings, but he knew she was clearly still anxious.
”What are you doing tomorrow?” Vanya muttered diplomatically, making the decision not to explicitly mention work since Diego had a habit of getting fired. “Probably goddamn babysitting.” he scoffed, causing Vanya to furrow her brow in confusion. “You know kids?...” she mumbled with bewilderment, trying to work out how on Earth her brother knew children. The only kids she knew were the ones she tutored on the side to supplement her income. It wasn’t like Diego taught children how to stab people, she hoped not anyway. Diego chuckled, turning to look at her with a bemused grin.
“No,” he turned back to the road “well, yeah actually. Dora has nieces we sometimes babysit. They’re brats, I kinda like ‘em though.” her brother admitted with a tiny yet fond grin. It made Vanya smile too, she wasn’t sure if she’d seen Diego with that expression before, except for when talking about their mom. It was endearing. “I meant him though.” Diego elaborated, glaring pettily at Klaus through the mirror. “Oh..” Vanya breathed quietly, that made sense.
Feeling a little flustered that he’d just expressed a morsel of emotion, Diego cleared his throat bashfully. “When do you graduate?” he blurted the first thing that came to his head. Diego wasn’t actually sure why the fuck he’d just asked that, he knew roughly the time period colleges graduated. “May.” Vanya muttered humbly, finally finishing her drink and placing it in the cup holder. Diego wondered if her stomach was absolutely tiny like the rest of her. “You gonna...” it made a pit of guilt build in Diego as he realised he knew almost nothing about the violin, he really ought to “...stay in the orchestra after college?” Vanya shyly hummed her agreement, picking her cup back up solely to fidget with the paper sleeve. “Maybe I could come see you perform some time?” he cringed at his own suggestion, knowing he sounded like an imbecile.
Although the suggestion was very sweet in intention, Vanya was utterly terrified of performing in front of any siblings - especially number two of seven. That wasn’t too far removed from performing for their father, though she felt terrible to compare Diego to him. “That would be nice.” she lied, picking her lip nervously. Vanya hoped he’d just forget this conversation, usually people forgot everything she said.
—
Reaching a space outside Vanya’s building, Diego got out to retrieve her luggage from the trunk. It was only half the size of a normal suitcase, but it still probably weighed more than her. Vanya timorously slid from the car, looking down to the floor and biting her lip. She was bowing her head to hide behind bangs that no longer even existed. Diego supposed it was a habit she never grew out of. “Do you need me to bring it to your apartment?” he wondered, glancing back to the car and considering that he didn’t trust that asshole alone in it even for ten minutes. “No, it’s fine.” Vanya murmured with a meek grin, looking straight back down to the ground afterwards. Diego decided he’d trust Klaus alone for a minute whilst he carried it up the front stoop, since he was still passed out.
Traipsing along behind her brother, Vanya felt awful about having packed so much. She should’ve considered that Diego would insist he carried her bag. He reached the top step and plonked the suitcase down, awkwardly shuffling his weight from foot to foot. He seemed to have attempted to reach for a knife to fiddle with, before remembering he wasn’t able to bring them on the plane. “Don’t die.” Diego requested with a small grin, clumsily patting his hand ever so slightly on her shoulder. Vanya didn’t allow his slight grimace to bother her, she knew he was like that with everyone - not just her. “You too.” she self-consciously smirked back. Diego began to saunter down the steps, the sound of him cracking his knuckles making Vanya’s skin crawl.
“Enjoy babysitting.” she teased, so low in volume that she worried perhaps Diego wouldn’t hear her. “Ha ha.” he called over his shoulder sarcastically. Vanya snickered slightly, turning on her heel to enter her building. This whole wedding experience had been utterly baffling. It was almost a relief that Allison was likely going to be the only one of them to ever get wed.