(𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚟𝚎.) 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐍
❝ BUT WE SHOULD GO ANYWAY. ❞

☂

"Diego this is a setup."

"Maybe," Diego said, putting on a shirt while eyeing Poet who was talking with Paris. "But we should go anyway."

"Says the guy who's already been stabbed once this week," Luther commented, eating more of the food Paris had kindly given him. Diego turned to look at him while buttoning up his shirt.

"Oh, don't worry," he said, "me and him are gonna have words.

"Would you tell him that he's nuts?" Luther told Poet, gesturing to Diego. But the girl raised her hands up.

"It's your guys' decision, all of you," she said. "I'm not part of your family so I don't have a say if you should go or not."

"I think we should go," Vanya spoke from beside her. Poet smiled as Diego came behind her, kissing the place where a dark mark was hidden in the nape of her neck

"See?" Diego said, letting Poet button up his shirt.

"Vanya, of all people," Luther started, "you should hate Dad the most."

"Come on," Vanya said, "can he really be that bad?"

"Okay, well, let's see," Luther said, starting to name the things their dad did while Diego tucked in his shirt. "He isolated you from the rest of the family. Kept you hopped up on pills. And he brainwashed you into thinking you had no powers."

Vanya stared at him with wide eyes. "Jesus, this guy..."

"Yeah."

"I mean, come on, I have to meet him," Poet cleared her throat to stop the chuckle to come out of her lips since she saw Luther's facial expression, watching said man point at her boyfriend.

"You already know how this is gonna go," he said. "Dad is gonna play all his little mind games on us, get into our heads, and he's gonna turn us all against each other. You watch. And, Poet and Paris can't come because he'll see how powerful the two are and will probably do something."

"Luther, we're not 12 anymore," Diego said. "Alright? We're grown-ass men. And women.

"And we know that, Luther," Poet nodded, linking her arm with Diego and lacing their fingers. "After all, this is a family meeting."

Aunt Poet, Paris called out in his head. Aunt Poet.

Poet looked at where he stood by a window and left Diego's side to go to her nephew's. Ignoring Diego trying to convince his brother to go, Paris pointed at where three people or four stood at the end of the alley.

"Isn't that... grandpa?" Paris mumbled. Poet squinted her eyes.

"Holy shit that's dad..." she breathed out. She glanced over her shoulder to see if any of the three were paying attention, but Luther and Vanya were listening to Diego's lecture.

"No more "Number One," "Number Two" bullshit," he was saying. "From now on, it's..." He though for a second. "Team Zero."

""Team Zero"?" Luther questioned.

Paris snorted softly at hearing his words and Poet paid attention to her dad who she had noticed was surrounded by her two uncles and cousins. She focused on him only, blocking out everyone's thoughts and finding his voice in her head. She successfully found it and sighed when she heard them.

Where should I take Susan? She doesn't like anything but she said someplace expensive where she can brag about it to her friends... she did she was gonna hit me if I didn't but her jewelry either... she heard her dad's voice say.

"Oh, God," Poet spoke under her breath. "Mom hits him..."

"What?" Julian asked, appearing out of nowhere. He looked at where she was looking and furrowed his eyebrows towards where their dad stood. But they immediately backed away when their dad turned to look at them.

"Why are you hiding?" Poet whispered to her twin brother.

"I don't know!" Julian said. "Force of habit."

"Alright," Paris said. "He's gone."

Poet breathed out a sigh of relief and faced the two. "We need to be careful about crossing paths with him. If we do, it might change the future, resulting in Paris not existing."

"Alright," Paris nodded. "No crossing paths with Grandpa or Grandma. If we do, we lie about our names, okay?"

"Got it."

"Hey, what are you two doing?"

The two turned around to find Diego, Vanya, and Luther staring at them but the two waved them off in synch.

"We're fine," Poet nodded before stepping forward and looking at the three. Diego appeared by her side, wrapping an arm around her waist. Paris scrunched his nose in disgust when he realized why the two were being extremely touchy with each other. Luther did, too, and looked away from the two.

"You want cookies?" Paris asked him, ignoring what Diego and his aunt were doing. Luther nodded and Paris took some out of the backpack that he now brought from home. He also offered some to Vanya who was smiling a little at the couple.

"Thanks."

"So, I was thinking," Poet started, "of joining Klaus's cult."

"No."

"C'mon," the girl dragged out the word, pouting at him. "Please?"

"No," Diego shook his head. "I love you and I would let you do whatever you want that will make you happy, but basically treating my brother like a God is a no."

"Fine," Poet groaned.

Luther and Vanya turned to look at Paris as he continued eating. "So, you and Five?"

"What?" Paris immediately looked up from gazing at the cookies.

"You and Five," Luther nodded. "I know. Took me a while but it's pretty obvious now. It's—"

"Weird," Paris finished. "I know. I've been thinking about it for a while now and Five's 58, mentally. Physically he's... 13 and I've been wanting to talk to him about that."

"Well, whatever you decide Paris," Luther gave him a thumb up while Vanya smiled comfortingly at him. "I'm sure your aunt will support you. We'll support you."

"Thanks, guys," Paris smiled at the two. "Wow, Luther, I never saw this day coming where you're not an asshead."

"Poet, Paris said asshead," Luther called out to the woman. Paris gasped and gave him a glare, shaking his head and snatching the bags of cookies away from the man's hand.

"You don't deserve them," Paris mumbled angrily, squinting his eyes at them before passing the bag to Vanya. "Here, Vanya. You deserve them more than this tattletale."

Luther gaped at him and eyes the cookies. "But I want them."

"Well, you should've thought of that before you told on me," Paris huffed.

"She didn't even say anything to you!"

"But still, you traitor!"

"I'm sorry!"

"It's too late."

☂️

AUTHOR'S NOTE!

trigger warning in the bottom.
if you don't like death/anxiety/
depression, please don't read ahead
if any of those trigger you.

as much as i love five and
paris, ive been getting angry
messages about their relationship
and in the comments. what's with
the angry messages guys? 😭😭
but, we'll see how it goes my
lovelies. thank you all for your
concern. really. i love you all ❤️