- Chapter Thirty-One -
"You know?"

"Diego, this is a setup." Luther told them for probably the fifth time that day. Primrose, Diego, Vanya and Luther were all at Elliot's on the morning of the 20th November 1963 and Luther was going on and on about how he didn't trust the letter they had gotten from the elderly driver the previous day.

Primrose had gone home soon after that had happened, promising Diego to come around the next day so they could actually talk and catch up with each other when it wasn't about the end of the world of the siblings father. Except Ray had arrived at the house again when she got home so she and Allison spent a good couple of hours talking to him about what was actually wrong before she had gone to bed, making it later for when she woke up and therefore later when she got to Elliot's with windswept hair.

Still it seemed Luther had held off on his complaining until she got there, lucky her. She didn't know why Vanya was there with them but it was a pleasant surprise to see the woman there when she had ascended the stairs up to the balcony to see the three siblings. Diego had given her a charming smile, Luther had merely nodded whilst he scanned over the letter and now they were discussing it as Diego got ready to go out.

"Maybe." Diego replied to Luther's claim that the dinner was a set-up as he pulled on a button up shirt over a black t-shirt. "But we should go anyway."

"Says the guy who's already been stabbed once this week." Luther retorted with a roll of his eyes and Primrose winded her eyes in shock, whirling around to face Diego.

"You were stabbed?" She asked, her mouth falling agape as she gave him a once over and he began buttoning his shirt. Diego shrugged and lifted his shirt where a small bandage was on his abdomen and Prim shook her head exasperatedly.

"No big deal." He reassured casually and she scoffed out a laugh, smiling slightly amusedly at him. "Plus, there's no need to worry, me and him are gonna have words."

"Yeah, I've also got a couple of things to say." Primrose scowled at the back of the paper that Luther was holding. "I haven't forgotten how we just mulled over the fact that your dad killed my parents but you know...it's no big deal." She shrugged bitterly and Vanya put a hand on her shoulder, rubbing it slightly in comfort.

Luther glanced between her and Diego before looking solely at Vanya. "Would you tell them that they're nuts?"

"I think we should go." Vanya shrugged her shoulders, taking her hand off of Prim's shoulder and settling it back in her lap. Primrose smiled at her then to Luther, resting her case.

"See?" Diego murmured, giving Luther a look as he continued with his button up.

"Vanya." Luther said disbelievingly, looking at the woman with wide and incredulous eyes. "Of all people, you should hate dad the most. 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." He finished.

"So he's a total dick." Primrose summed up, nodding her head as Vanya glanced between the three in front of her all nodding their heads.

"Jesus, this guy..." Vanya trailed off, Luther nodding in agreement with a small 'yeah' and Prim shared a hopeless look with Diego which quickly dissipated at Vanya's next sentence. "I mean, come on, I have to meet him."

Diego smirked, Prim smiled and Luther clenched his jaw as he became aggravated and pointed accusingly at his brother. "You already know how this is gonna go. 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."

"Luther, we're not 12 anymore." Diego told him as Luther dug into a bowl of cereal. "All right? We're grown-ass men. And women." He added as Primrose cleared her throat exaggeratedly and Luther sighed at the fact he wasn't gonna win this argument. "Hey. Hey. We can handle him. Wanna know what's different this time?"

"What's that?" Luther mumbled, his spoon clanking around his bowl obnoxiously as he stared down at it like a scolded toddler.

"You got me." Diego said and Primrose watched the scene, amused. "We go in there as a united front. No more 'number one' or 'number two' bullshit. From now on it's...Team Zero."

He had perched himself on the arm of the sofa that Prim and Vanya were sat on, the both of them looking at him with raised eyebrows as he stared down at the coffee table, deep in thought as he came up with Team Zero. Primrose smiled slightly at the premise, realising just how softer Diego had gotten whether he cared to admit it or not.

"Team Zero?" Luther asked, looking in between the two of them before focusing on Diego who kept his gaze on the side of Prim's face before nodding his head and turning back to face his brother.

"Team Zero." He confirmed with a smile and a nod. Then, he stuck his fists out to his sides, one pointed towards Luther and towards Prim, she stared at his hand for a moment and so did Luther. "All the way."

It was awkward silence for a moment as he sat there with his fists out as no one except Prim fist bumped him, although Primrose only did it to save him from the embarrassment before he took them down with a nod and she laughed whilst picking up her white handbag from where she had placed it next to her.

"Ready to go?" She asked as she stood from the comfortable, flicking her hair behind her shoulder as she did so and looking down at Diego who was still sat on the arm of the chair.

"Yep." He got up off of the sofa, not grabbing anything and just ready to go straight away as Prim nodded and waved to the other two before setting off, Diego after her but they stopped when Luther called out after them.

"Where are you going?" He asked loudly, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion at them as they turned around.

"Out." Diego answered and went to continue walking so they could get their time alone for a conversation that they desperately craved. Luther's narrow-eyed glare made Diego elaborate only a tiny bit more before he ushered Prim down the stairs. "For a catch up, we'll see you at half seven!"

"Maybe." Luther grumbled, watching as the two of them descended the right staircase together, their hands ghosting the banister to the side but not actually grappling onto it as they went quickly down to the ground floor, step-by-step like children on Christmas morning.

Diego managed to get past Prim when they came off the stairs and he swaggered over to the door, pushing it open and holding it whilst Primrose slipped through with a grin and a giggle, making him smile to himself before he exited the building too, right on her tail.

•*•*•*•*•

Spending time with Diego was better then anything Primrose had done so far in the 60's, well maybe apart from punching Brian who had been incredibly homophobic to Klaus. After leaving Elliot's house, the two of them left the small neighbourhood and walked into the main town where plenty of people were milling around and buzzing for President Kennedy's arrival in a couple of days. It made Primrose feel a bit down since she knew what was to come but the determination in Diego's eyes when he heard the President's name was enough to stop her from voicing her beliefs that Kennedy would still fall victim to Lee Harvey Oswald.

She also thought that the glint in his eyes was oddly heart-warming; the fact that he was so passionate about saving a man's life made her smile. Although back in 2019 he was much more violent and aggressive, the underlying care that was present in the 60s version had always been there and that was the part of him that Primrose had seen. Eudora's death showed how much he really cared about what he did and despite the fact he had liked Patch then, Primrose had grown fond of the woman too and had yet another loved one taken from her.

Klaus' little incident with Hazel and Cha-Cha when he was kidnapped from the Academy had put a spanner in the works of Prim's happiness for a while; she was alone once more. They had lost Eudora; another fragment of her hard-working heart gone. Then the time jump happened and she lost both Klaus and Diego in one; the sadness settled in and she had taken time she needed to recover but done it quickly so she could be happy once more.

Now both Klaus and Diego were back, she had spent a lot of time with Klaus when she first saw him at his large mansion and they floated in the pool with cocktails for a while and now she was having her time with Diego as a break from the strenuous adventure of stopping yet another apocalypse.  She and Diego hadn't been in anywhere and just settled on walking about the town with ice creams in their heads, their free hands brushing ever so often as they relished in a small silence before picking up conversation.

"So how's the 60s treating you?" He asked, licking the scoop of vanilla ice cream that had been settled on top of his wafer cone. Their hands brushed together again, knuckles softly passing in a feeling that made Prim's breath catch ever so slightly in her throat; there was no stopping her giddy smile.

"It's been okay." She shrugged, wiping a bit of leaking strawberry ice cream off of the cone with her thumb and licking it off. The sun was an enemy when it came to cold treats in the middle of the day. "I haven't had a job in two years but I've got a good home, I live with Allison and Ray."

"Ray?" Diego looked at her, furrowing his eyebrows as he took another lick of his ice cream.

"Her husband." Primrose chuckled at the wide-eyed look on his face, bringing her hand up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear so it didn't get in her ice cream. "I know, it's not as shocking to me since I watched them grow together but to others..." She trailed off but he knew exactly what she meant.

"Luther." He said with an understanding nod and Primrose's smile grew wider, almost beginning to hurt her cheeks.

"So how's your 60s been?" She asked and although he continued walking, he froze slightly and took the next moment of small silence to stop their brushing hands and instead take her in his, interlacing their fingers.

Primrose blushed, looking down at their connected hands and enjoying how nice and pleasant the contact felt. She squeezed his hand in indication that she was okay with it and they carried on walking, now just a little closer together but Diego looked a it conflicted with himself, his eyebrows were pinched together slightly and he had a small, confused frown on his face as he finished off his ice cream and threw his cone in the bin that they were passing.

"It's been eventful." He answered eventually and she nodded, also finishing off her ice cream but keeping hold of her one for the next bin they went by. "I spent about 2 and a half months in a mental asylum-"

"What?" Prim spluttered and he laughed amusedly, his thumb tracing softly on the back of her hand which didn't help her reddening cheeks at all. "A mental asylum? What for?"

"I tried to kill Oswald." He told her as she threw her cone in the next bin they went past, walking past Stadtlers where Primrose settled her gaze into a scowl as Diego continued. "I was...unsuccessful and I got sent there where I've been told I'm crazy for the past couple of months. I escaped and here I am...hiding from the Dallas police."

Just as he said that, he pulled her hand quickly and she yelped but calmed down when she found herself around the corner of an alleyway next to Diego as he peeked around the brick wall at a couple of officers who were just going into Stadtlers diner.

"A criminal." Prim chuckled, turning around and staring at him with an amused glint in her eyes and a small smirk tugging at her lips whilst he stared at her with his own smile threatening to come out. "Britney Spears really knew what she was talking about."

Diego smirked now, that cocky one he always had that amplified his charming looks. "You're in love with me?" He teased and Prim stood up straighter, realising what she had accidentally said.

"I-I didn't mean, you know, love love, I just meant that..." She stammered, avoiding eye contact as he continued to smirk. "I meant that she was right when she, you know, said that she liked a criminal. Cause, you know, I don't love you but that's not to say that I don't like you, you know?"

She gave a defeated sigh and looked back at him again, furrowing her eyebrows hopelessly as he grinned down at her. He gave her hand a tight squeeze and she sighed, looking up at him and waiting for the endless teasing once more.

"I know." He murmured and she was taken aback slightly by the lack of humour he had added. "I also know that I said I loved you before we came to the 60s and...don't take this the wrong way but I'm pretty sure I was an emotional wreck that day and I don't think I actually love you...yet. But that's not to say I don't like you, you know?"

"I know." She murmured again with a smile and an even heavier blush on her cheeks. Diego began to stroke her hand with his thumb again as they waited behind the back alley, not thinking of moving. "I missed you a lot."

Diego only chuckled and moved his free hand up to cup her cheek, slowly leaning in and she took it upon herself to put her own free hand on his shoulder and boost herself up on her tip toes to press their lips together in a soft kiss. One much less rushed than the first one they shared at the police station back in 2019. It was like a zoo had been unleashed in her stomach the way it fluttered at the touch and the feeling of his hand on her cheek.

She unlaced their fingers and moved both of her hands to the back of his neck, pulling him closer as his went around her waist. Her cheek missed his touch but it felt just as pleasant on her waist as they kissed, smiling and eventually parting because Prim began to giggle quietly. Once their lips had disconnected and their foreheads rested against each other with an amplified feeling of giddy excitement, Diego muttered some more words.

"I missed you a lot too." He smiled softly and she did so too, her fingers messing with his hair a little bit. Another small smirk grew on his face. "You know?"

Primrose laughed once more, muttering an 'I know' and as she went to lean back in, Diego leant back and she became confused, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Wait, wait, wait." He said, his arms still circling her waist as she tilted her head at him inquisitively. "Let me say this. Primrose Armitage, not Hargreeves as Luther so wisely pointed out yesterday-"

She chuckled, taking a hand off of the back of his neck and covering her mouth with it as she laughed and Diego did the same through his words.

"- will you, finally, be my girlfriend?" He asked, cringing slightly at how middle-school it sounded. Prim put her hand back to it's previous position behind his neck. "Not exactly the best place to say it in an alley but..."

"Yes." She interrupted him with a large smile, laughing slightly. "Even in an alleyway."

They kissed again, smiling into it with their hearts filling up with joy, close to overflowing but they were happy all the same. The impending apocalypse was sure to make it difficult again but at least this time they had found each other before the main kick-off instead of in the middle of it. Primrose parted from the kiss again to glare at some old white women who walked past them, narrowing her eyes at the look they sent Diego.

Diego watched her with eyes that could only be described as heart-eyes, smiling softly as the women rushed away mumbling about her. Despite his sentence about not loving her yet earlier, fate seemed to be testing him.

•*•*•*•*•