✓ Chaos Theory | Diego Hargreeves [1]

【CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX】

—chapter twenty-six.

  ❛ we're not kids anymore, diego. ❜  

FOR SEVEN BLISSFULLY IGNORANT MINUTES after waking up, Elodie did not remember the events of last night.

She slept a little later than she normally would, slapping snooze several times over as her sleep-deprived brain craved a couple more minutes of rest. When she finally woke, she chalked her aching muscles and irritated senses to a restless night and nothing more. Wasting no more than a minute staring up at the ceiling, she forced herself up and at 'em, sliding her feet into the socks set out the night before and padding off to get dressed.

It was only halfway through buttoning up her top when her previously blank mind finally recalled last night's events, and her mood immediately soured.

"Shit," she cursed, hands finding the bathroom counter, slamming angrily against the hard surface. Her eyes met the reflection across from her; an angry woman glared reproachfully back, frowning the very same emotions she had running through her. Shame curdled in her stomach, bitter and mirthless. 

"You're a fool, Verbeck," her reflection hissed. Elodie couldn't agree more.

There was no secret, not with her own self at least, that she had still a soft spot for Diego Hargreeves. Whether that be his fault or her own -- maybe if they had done things differently, separated properly, whatever the case, she still felt something for him. And hell, even seven years later she still thought of him a lot. Still mourned that loss when sleep escaped her weary soul, and still quietly wondered about the 'could-have-beens'. But she had made a point a few years back to not cave again. Her heart couldn't take the stress and the real world called her name. Diego had to remain in her past and she'd vowed to keep it that way.

Obviously, however, that promise didn't stick.

Her entire morning routine was spoiled then with the thoughts of that damned vigilante - as would be the rest of her morning, too. Elodie cursed and grumbled her way through getting dressed, straightening her hair and yanking it back, and trying to appear as put together as she possibly could. Twenty minutes later, her eyes were red and teary, her foot ached from being stubbed into her shower twice (for both foot, dammit) and things, to say the very least, were not going so swell.

Elodie tried to fake a smile when she entered their kitchen, though, ruffling Ellis' shaggy locks as she always did. He hardly glanced up from the bowl of cereal before him, but he did mumble a 'hey' to her which was suffice.