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Breathing doesn’t come naturally to Diego.
There are times where he forgets that normal people can’t hold their breath for an infinite amount of time.
He has played dead many times in front of his siblings just to see their reactions. It isn't funny anymore. It never was funny to anyone except him and sometimes Klaus from the beginning anyway.
But breathing isn’t a thing Diego thinks about a lot of the time. He breathes most of the time on instinct when he’s talking, eating or even exercising. It just won’t kill him if he doesn’t.
But the water tank in the basement is something that makes him breathe heavily. The idea of being trapped in a tank full to the brim of water, with thick glass blocking him in with a steel lid is terrifying. It’s the enclosed space that freaks him out, the way he has no choice but to hold his breath otherwise he will drown.
It happens on his designated solo training day of Tuesday. The second day of the week for Number Two. He’s in his Umbrella Academy wetsuit, a suit specifically for him to use when he’s completely submerged in water that he doesn’t get to wear when swimming in a standard pool.
He doesn’t really know how it happened. Just that somehow, he had opened his mouth and taken a small breath and he’s choking. He bangs against the glass, Reginald watching with morbid fascination because this is a new area they haven’t covered. What would happen if he did breathe underwater?
He’s not like Ben who has gills open up when in contact with water. He can’t breathe underwater and that’s the whole point isn’t it?
He’s coughing underwater because now he has to breathe in order to get the water out of his throat. He’s thrashing around, wasting energy on trying to get Reginald’s attention but he doesn’t care. He pushes off the bottom of the tank and starts scrabbling at the lid of the tank. His poor attempts do nothing.
Reginald eventually opens the tanks and Diego climbs out immediately, spluttering and coughing all over the place. He lies on the platform next to the tank, taking deep breaths and lets his chest rise and fall with it.
“Interesting” Reginald says from down on the floor. “We will continue with this next session”
Reginald leaves him alone, panting in his wetsuit after nearly drowning.
The thing is though, Diego feels fine as soon as he feels like all the water has left his body. It’s only an hour later, after he’s changed into his uniform and they’re sitting down for lunch that he feels like something is wrong.
He’s breathing like a normal person now like he normally does when eating but it’s harder than usual. Kind of like there’s a build up in his chest and his breaths are becoming shallow and quick. It’s making a strange noise and Five keeps sending him weird looks.
“Number Two” Reginald says loudly “Why on Earth are you making that ridiculous noise”
“M-My chest hur-hurts' ' Diego stutters out.
Here’s where another problem lies. Diego having difficulty speaking isn’t anything unusual either. He feels like he’s wheezing which is something he’s never done before and suddenly Grace is hovering behind him and gently guiding him out of his chair. He grabs hold of her hand, her synthetic skin warm beneath his palm. It’s soothing and her voice is calming him down.
“You’re alright, Diego” she says warmly, a smile on her perfect face. “It’s okay, we’re going to make you feel better soon”
Dry drowning. He’s drowning on land because of the water he choked on earlier. His vocal cords are closing over his windpipes. It’s strange to have a breathing problem when you don’t technically ever need to breathe.
Grace tells him to keep breathing, another thing that is strange to hear but she needs to fix the problem now otherwise he wouldn’t be able to eat or swallow. She places an oxygen mask over his head and he’s told to breathe in and out as normally as he could. He does so, feeling weird at the idea of being given oxygen in the first place.
Once he’s breathing regularly and isn’t making a wheezing sound, she wheels him to the x-ray machine. Diego reckons they are the only family in the entire world with an x-ray in their house, probably the only family to have a designated hospital area in the first place.
They’ve had to use the x-ray quite a bit so it was better to have one installed due to Luther breaking his arms many times during training and Klaus tripping down the stairs and breaking his jaw. It was easier and less questions were asked.
Grace ruled out water in his lungs with the x-ray and took him back to the hospital bed so he could get some rest. His chest starts to feel less tight as he lies there, the oxygen mask still on just in case but he finds that he can not breathe for longer periods of time.
The whole situation was stupid and breathing, Diego decides, is overrated as hell.