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Luther and Diego, with some input from Five and Ben, were quite wrapped up in their conversation about, well, to be honest, none of them could really remember what they had been talking about when Allison suddenly asked their mother if she, Klaus, and Vanya could be excused from lunch.
The second their mother gave their three siblings permission, Allison pulled Klaus and Vanya upstairs to do god knows what. Grace walked back to the table, collecting the empty, and nearly emptied, plates, Diego popped up to help her, taking the glasses left by Allison, Klaus, and Vanya to the sink.
“What do you think they’re doing?” Ben asked, looking back towards the stairs that half of their siblings had just walked up.
Diego, ever the helpful and polite brother he is, sneered “Why do you care?” and the look Grace gave him after had him muttering a “Sorry Ben.” before returning to cleaning the glasses.
“They’re probably doing stupid stuff,” Five muttered, “nothing useful, or productive! They’re just wasting time!”
Luther shot a panicky look at Grace, “Wasting time?” he asked, keeping an eye on Grace “We’re thirteen, we’ve got all the time in the world.” and was relieved that she didn’t seem to be questioning what they were talking about.
“They’re probably just talking,” Diego said as he rejoined his brothers, having finished his self-assigned task of helping Grace with some of the dishes, “just leave them alone.”
“That’s rich coming from you , Diego.” Ben said, giving him a rather nasty look.
Diego, as well as Luther and Five, looked at Ben with uncertainty and some confusion as her returned, “And what’s that supposed to mean, Ben ?”
Seeming to sense the brewing of an argument between two of her children, Grace called from the sink, without looking back at the table, “Play nice boys. No fighting in the house.”
The four of them replied back in variations of “Yes Mom.” with an assortment of levels of enthusiasm and sincerity.
Five kept incessantly tapping his foot on the ground and his fingers on the table, growing in more and more impatient as time was ‘wasted’ by whatever the hell Allison, Klaus, and vanya were doing. He wasn’t going to say anything for another few minutes, five at most, but Diego had been growing insistently annoyed with the tapping, and snapped “Would you stop?”
“This is all a waste of time!” Five snapped back, “We have far more pressing matters than whatever those three are doing upstairs.”
“Five-” Ben started while Luther said, “Would you two knock it off?”
Neither Diego or Five acknowledged that Ben or Luther had tried talking to them, as Diego hissed back at Five, “If you think it’s such a waste of time, why don’t you go get them?”
And Five, adding more fuel to the fire that was devolving into his and Diego’s screaming match, yelled back, “Maybe I will.”
“Both of you shut up!” Luther snapped at them, looking quite annoyed, Ben with a matching expression, “You’re both acting childish.” Before any of them realized what Luther was intending to do, their brother walked upstairs, stood at the bottom of the staircase leading upstairs and yelled for Allison and Klaus to hurry up.
Less than two minutes later Klaus walked in, no Allison or Vanya in sight, and asked, “What’s with all the yelling? Can’t you guys get along for five minutes without me?”
“Where’s Allison?” Diego asked.
Five quickly adding, “And Vanya?”
Klaus waved off their questions, telling them that they were both upstairs just talking. And told them nothing further about what they’d been doing. Five waited exactly three seconds, and even that was pushing it, before jumping upstairs, muttering he’d go get Allison, telling them to go back to Reginald’s office, before disappearing in a flash of blue.
Luther, Diego, Klaus, and Ben, listening to what Five had told them to do, headed back to Dad’s office. Just as they arrived to the office door just after Five opened them again from the inside. Luther switched out the second tape for the third just as Allison returned, offering up no details on what she, Klaus, and Vanya had been doing.
And without another word, Luther, Diego, Allison Klaus, Five, and Ben started the third tape, the fifth ‘episode’, Number Five.