- Chapter Forty-Eight -
"Oh my God!"

"YOU SHOULD TRY CHEWING, YOU MIGHT ACTUALLY TASTE THE FOOD."

"I haven't eaten in days." Luther defended himself, scowling at Klaus' comment about how fast he was wolfing down his food despite the blatant honestly. Primrose didn't think she'd ever seen so much food go into someone's mouth so quickly...and she had been present for all of Klaus' overbearing challenges at drunken restaurants where he had eaten himself to sickness and had to call her to come and pick him up.

By the time she got there, he was still trying to push forward and eat more of the large steak that sat on the plate in front of him, shoving meat into his mouth with vicious ferocity. People were stood around cheering him on, though some of them were equipped with buckets at his side in case he decided to hurl without warning. He did eventually, but even then he carried on, determined to win the cash prize.

None of the challenges were ever won and Primrose always had to drive him home with a bucket on his lap and a protective blanket over her car so he didn't ruin her vehicle with his puke. Then in the morning he was up and at it again by the time Primrose exited her shower to prepare some toast for herself before she set off to work. Challenge night was Thursdays so that was her regular Thursday evening and Friday morning; she most likely shouldn't have given Klaus a key to her apartment when he was so reckless and could've lost it.

But he was always home safe on Monday morning when she started her morning routine out of her bedroom. That morning routine was her old life, her old self, now everything had changed and she was just waiting for it to hopefully get back to normal.

The only person who could help with that was Five, who looked as though he was ready to wait a while before exerting his power again whilst he swaggered over to the table the others were at in a white Hotel Obsidian bathrobe. He looked quite content as he hoisted himself up onto the chair in between Diego and Primrose.

"What's wrong?" Luther narrowed his eyes at Five suspiciously as he took a break from making all of his food disappear, for a moment he just rest his chopsticks in his takeout box and waited for his brother's response. "You look happy."

"I am insanely happy. Had a nap and a schvitz." Five told them and Primrose smiled a little at the fact that Five was happy and also at the thought of hopping into the sauna herself later, it might do her wound some good, hopefully Diego wouldn't come barging in like he did in the room earlier. "What does a man need?"

"Brothers who don't act like barn animals?" Klaus asked, earning a smile from Primrose as she looked at Diego and Luther who both had noodles spilling out of their mouths. She was chewing with her mouth shut, searching her box of takeout for a piece of chicken as Klaus surveyed the table.

"So I've been thinking through our little timeline snafu and I'm pleased to report that in my professional, expert opinion...we are totally in the clear." He said and Primrose beamed and exclaimed a little 'yay' before she dug back into her food, her stomach thanked her and she relished in the taste of the food.

"Awesome!"

"Great."

"So everything's totally fine?" Luther asked just to double check.

"More or less." Five squinted a little but he didn't look too worried about anything, not that that was at all comforting as saving the universe was more of a First World problem for Five. A trivial matter that didn't really live up to its name. "I mean, there is one...small thing. It's nothing we can't manage."

At this news, all Hargreeves siblings and Primrose looked at the boy with newly crestfallen faces instead of their happiness at finally eating some good food once in a while. Both Luther and Klaus stabbed their chopsticks back into the food whilst Prim and Diego exchanged exasperated glances and rolled their eyes at Five who hurried to calm them all down at their different reactions before looking around at the food to decide what to have.

His hand reached out towards Primrose's Moo Shu but she hit his hand away with a little scowl, picking up the box and holding it tight to her so he wouldn't steal any of her food. Five raised his hands in surrender, grabbed some chopsticks and scanned the variety of food for what he wanted. Meanwhile, the other Hargreeves siblings watched him with disbelief at his calm exterior.

"Spit it out, Boomer!" Diego yelled through a mouthful of food, holding a bite within his chopsticks. Prim raised her eyebrows at Five as he looked at his brother in disgust before sighing and giving up on the prospect of food.

"Fine, Diego, it's like this. Dad didn't adopt us as babies, but those babies still existed here." Five explained and Klaus groaned with a pout, but no one stopped to console him. "We just grew up in different places with different people."

"So?"

"So where are they now?" Five asked the table. Primrose guessed that she would also have a doppelganger as she wasn't one of the Sparrows, if she were to find her other half, Primrose would be living about 20 minutes from here. "Odds are, we all have an identical version of ourselves walking around out there, living completely different lives."

"Our doppelgangers!" Luther gasped in slight delight and Prim managed a half-smile but was too caught up in her own head with all of the what-ifs. What if her family was still alive? What if her doppelganger was just around the corner of this hotel? What if her other half was married...to Violet?

"Oh my God." She murmured, glancing at Five and abandoning her Moo Shu for just a second.

"That's a made up word." Klaus accused.

"No, no, no, I learned all about this in Texas." Luther assured, gesturing to Five who sat calmly watching him whilst the others paid attention to every little word that he spoke. "Tell them about the paranoid psychosis, Five!"

"Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, I thought you said this wasn't a problem!" Diego pointed at his youngest-and-oldest brother with his chopsticks, chewing the last of his food down as Five sent a look to Luther who had not helped their case at all. Primrose just sat back and watched the arguments.

"Okay, yes, technically if you're near your doppel for long, you'll go insane." Five let them know and Prim began to fret, she couldn't help it if her doppelganger was roaming around the city without a care in the world. "So if you ever see your other self-"

"Kill them."

"Sleep with them."

"- avoid them!" Five finished on an exclamation, looking at Klaus with a tilted head and narrowed eyes in confusion. Luther looked to him too, heavily disagreeing with the boys words where as Primrose just smile awkwardly at Klaus who didn't retract his statement at all.

"Oh come on, as if you wouldn't climb Luther Mountain." Klaus said and Prim just began to laugh, picking her Moo Shu back up and attempting to forget about everything circling around her head.

"Wait. How are we supposed to guarantee we never cross paths with ourselves?" Diego asked through his noodles whilst Prim slumped back in her chair and listened carefully to whatever scientific shit that Five decided to spew out in response; Luther still looked disturbed by Klaus' comment.

"Easy. We're the Benetton ad of superheroes, born all over the world until Dad brought us here, which he no longer did." Five explained, waving his chopsticks in front of him and nearly taking Primrose's eye out but she ducked before he could stab her. "Dopples probably aren't even in the same time zone as us. Prim, would you pass the Moo Shu?"

"Problem," She raised her hand in the air as she picked up her half-eaten box of food and passed it over to Five who took it gracefully and raised his eyebrow at the woman beside him. Diego began to slurp his noodles in a panic but no one took any notice. "I was born and raised here, I've never lived anywhere else. What about that?"

"Tell you what, I'll stop by where Armitage Labs used to be tomorrow and see if it's still up and running." Five mentioned as Diego hopped out of his seat and went running off, attracting Prim's attention as her eyes followed him confusedly. "If its still there, you have to be extra extra careful of not just you but your whole family. I'm talking Pansy, Aimee, Ronnie, Violet. If it is gone, well let's just hope you killed yourself."

"Lovely." Prim mumbled as she turned in her seat, watching as Diego turned a corner in a run, going down the Hotel hallway. "What is he doing?"

Taking two last mouthfuls of her food to calm her angry stomach, Primrose jumped out of her chair too, widening her eyes at the sight of the knife in the back of Diego's chair before she set off in a quick walk in the direction he had run in. She wiped her mouth first in fear that there was some sauce there but looking back at her hand, there was nothing. Luckily. Once she had turned the corner into the first hallway, she mentally rolled her eyes at the obscure build
of the Hotel.

Now she had no idea where Diego was, but she trusted her instinct and turned a few corners, walked down a few hallways, turned another corner until she could hear voices. Male and Female, and then nothing. Prim hurried and turned the last corner before she came face to face with Diego's back.

"Hey, what's up?" She walked forward, trying to catch his attention but when she did, he turned around and revealed something so horrifyingly shocking. "Woah."

Stood behind Diego, on the other side of the elevator which had closed with a ding mere seconds ago, was a little boy. He must've been about 11 or 12, looking at Prim like she was a boring English lecture he'd heard over a hundred times. He was quite small, his hair was  buzzed down to his head and he wore a small black leather jacket fit to his size. Prim looked from the boy, to Diego who was staring at her open-mouthed, back to the boy again before she looked back at Diego and his guilty face.

"Oh my God." She mumbled, putting a hand to her mouth and taking a step backwards as Diego took a step toward her with his hands out in front of him. "Oh my god. Diego, what?"

"Listen, listen, listen-"

"Do you have any food?" The boy asked, staring at the two of them and Primrose gaped again, looking at Diego whilst the boy waited for an answer.

"Prim-"

"Don't." Primrose hit Diego's hands away from her when he tried to reach out and touch her arms, attempting to guide her through the shock but she wasn't having him touch her when he was still obviously in a state of shock himself. "Diego, please tell me that's not your child standing right there."

"I-" Diego looked back to the boy quickly who smiled awkwardly and shrugged his shoulders a little before he looked back at Primrose and took a deep breath. "His name is Stanley-"

"Oh my God."

"And I swear to you I didn't even know-"

"You have a son."

"Lila just showed up out of nowhere and dumped him on me!"

"Dumped? Diego, he is your son."

"That I had no idea I had!" Diego exclaimed in worry, looking close to tearing his hair out as the two adults argued in hushed tones beside Stanley. "Listen, Prim, I promise you that I had no idea about him and Lila just showed up and told me I have a son and that's it's my time to take care of him, I promise-"

"Diego, shut up." Primrose waved her hands in front of her, cutting him off as he pleaded with her to understand. He looked sad, guilty and confused all at once and Prim's heart cracked a little but she walked over to Stanley nonetheless. "Are you okay, Stanley?"

"Yeah." He shrugged nonchalantly. "Just hungry."

"Okay, well we have Chinese food." She said and Diego watched as Stanley's eyes lit up slightly and he straightened his posture. "So...follow me."

"Awesome."

•*•*•*•*•
A/N: guys i'm so sorry it's been 4 months 😭