MHA # 2 | Morning

[knife_bender]

It was weird waking up in his own bedroom after the last week and a half. Diego still felt like there was something he should be doing, but at this point it seemed like all he could do was wait for one of his siblings to call with news, and support Annie as best he could.

In this case it meant making a pot of decaf coffee in addition to a regular one. He loved you, Annie, but he wasn't ready to give up caffeine in solidarity yet. He was walking past the door to the spare bedroom with a cup of coffee in hand and stopped abruptly, listening. Was there someone snoring in there?

[For the brother and/or wife. Any mentions of pregnancy are NFB]

Comments

[apocalypsehow]

Five was indeed snoring, still very doped up from his very brief stint in the clinic. Because he was a feral cat who needed to recover in solitude.

Or in his brother's spare bedroom.

[knife_bender]

Diego slowly opened the door, reading to throw coffee at whoever was sleeping in his house, but already hating the fact that it'd be a waste of coffee and there'd be no guarantee he hit is target.

Luckily he didn't have to deal with the tragedy of bad aim or wasted coffee. "Oh what the fuck?"

[apocalypsehow]

Five made a disgruntled noise at being disturbed, opening one eye to look at the source of his ire. "Good. You're still alive."

[knife_bender]

"You're still alive!" Information that clearly needed to be said out loud. "Oh Jesus, your arm..."

If you had only been almost-murdered by Dad, Five, you could have hand your limb back like Diego.

[apocalypsehow]

Yeah, but he also wouldn't have this sick tattoo.

Five pushed himself up into a sitting position with his remaining hand, awkwardly wiggling the other one. "Yes, yes. Don't get sappy on me."

[knife_bender]

"What the hell happened to you?" Diego asked, holding out the coffee cup for Five. Which was a very loving action for him. "You have no idea what you missed."

[apocalypsehow]

You moved up sharply in the ranking of siblings in this moment, Diego.

"I ended up here is what happened. What happened to you?"

[knife_bender]

Diego's brain short circuited for a second as he tried to put the events of what happened in a way that vaguely made sense.

"Dad tried to kill us but Allison killed Dad, she reset the universe, Luther is alive and has a human body, all of us lost our tattoos and powers, Annie's pregnant, Dad's an alien and Allison and Sloane are missing."

...so...yeah.

[apocalypsehow]

Five took a long, slow sip of coffee at all that.

"I always knew something was off about the old man."

REALLY, FIVE?

[defenderofdesmoines]

Some time after Diego'd left Five to his coffee and peace, Annie came knocking.

Both literally knocking lightly on the door and also, helpfully, verbalizing a, "Knock knock?" as she poked her head in.

[apocalypsehow]

Five didn't actually hiss like a possum confronted by literally anything, but the reaction was close enough to it.

"If you're looking for a hand with something, I'm the wrong person for it."

Ah, the Hargreeves reaction to trauma.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Okay, maybe it was a little inappropriate, but that got a laugh out of Annie anyway.

"I actually came to see if you wanted breakfast?" she replied, dangling a silver-foiled pack of two Pop Tarts between two fingers as she leaned in the doorway.

[apocalypsehow]

And, like a cat hearing the treat container being juggled, Five was shoving himself upright with his remaining hand. "I thought you were supposed to be puking in the mornings, not this chipper."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It's a bullshit term. I'm sick whenever I'm sick," Annie replied, looking a little amused as she leaned against a wall. "You want 'em toasted? They're strawberry."

Donna January didn't raise no brown sugar-eating weirdo. (Actually, Donna January would hate that Annie had these in her home, period, but that was beside the point.)

[apocalypsehow]

"Sure," Five said, eyeing her for a moment like he was trying to decide on asking after Diego's well-being after everything. But that would break their very healthy familial bond. "How far along are you?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

Honestly, she didn't even have a great answer there. Diego seemed pretty determined to tell himself he was okay with all of this and just throw himself into fatherhood? Probably wasn't the least healthy approach?

"My guess is about a month?" Annie replied, tearing open the packet to start toasting one of the Pop Tarts with a hand, thus demonstrating that Diego was correct that she'd retained her powers. "Your dad didn't exactly pop out a prenatal growth chart, though."

Look who'd learned some new words since last night.

[apocalypsehow]

"You checked that it's true and not him trying to control you and Diego?" It was a perfectly rational thing to believe of his father, the actual alien.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Decaf is bullshit," Annie decided, about two sips into this cup of hers.

And good morning to you, too, Annie, you pregnant little ray of sunshine.

[knife_bender]

"I know, honey," Diego said, going to get another cup of his (caffeinated) coffee since he gave his away. "So, I have good news."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Is it that caffeine is actually safe for babies and science has been wrong all along?" Annie asked, tempering her bitching by moving over to press a kiss to his cheek while she added more creamer to her cup, like that might help.

[knife_bender]

"No, sorry," he said, laughing softly. "Five's in our guest room."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie actually paused to look over at him, her grogginess forgotten in favor of a smile. "Really? That's actually great news, holy shit."

Now Sloane needed to turn up in, like, their bedroom closet.

[knife_bender]

"Yeah," he said, sounding relieved. Allison he hadn't been too worried about; he figured she had managed to get what she wanted and was fine. Five he had been worried had gone down with the hotel.

"He's missing an arm though." He did not get the factory reset they did.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"So that probably means he still has his powers?" Annie guessed, sipping her bullshit coffee. "Good. That would probably be more traumatic than the arm."

He at least seemed way more reliant on teleporting than he did on, like, using both hands.

[knife_bender]

Diego nodded in agreement. "I caught him up on everything. Like, everything everything."