"𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑦, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑗𝑜𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚 𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠."
—𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑛 𝐾𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑟

𝒟.

𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃𝐍'𝐓 𝐁𝐄 happier.

He finally had the woman of his dreams back in his arms. Someone who was the human embodiment of absolute perfection, in his embrace. A woman who was beautiful, intelligent, funny, perfect—everything he ever wanted, clutched closely to him.

Except she wasn't.

Diego's eyebrows furrowed as he rubbed his eyes with one hand. He stared at the spot on the mattress that was now empty, with only a few wrinkles in the sheet as proof that there had been someone laying on it. 

Sunlight was pouring in through his high windows, and as he squinted at the clock, he realized that it was almost ten in the morning.

That didn't matter to him, however. What mattered to him, was the fact that the woman he had finally gotten with, was now missing.

He narrowed his eyes as he realized that there was a sticky note that on the pillow she had been resting on, and he felt a spike of fear. Had she suddenly regretted what had happened and ran away?

Tentatively, Diego picked up the note and held his breath as he scanned over it.

Diego,
Sorry that I have to leave without saying goodbye, but I have to head out to work and I don't want to wake you up :(
Last night was perfect—hope we can do something again soon.
Nat ♡

Diego let his breath out, relief washing over him. She hadn't regretted the previous night—in fact, it seemed that she had loved it.

Thank fucking God.

His thumb lightly traced over the heart she had drawn next to her name, and a soft smile appeared on his face.

His attention was quickly jerked to the door as a loud knocking came, and Nigel's exasperated voice came through a moment later, "You up yet or what, Diego? You got a match tonight! Come on!"

"I'm coming!" Diego called back gruffly, rolling his eyes.

He slid off the bed, reading over the note one more time before placing it on his desk; he most definitely wasn't going to throw it out any time soon.

Quickly, he put on his usual training clothes—a muscle shirt and some athletic pants—before taking a few sips of water. He grabbed a slice of bread from the bag that sat on top of his mini-fridge and stuffed it in his mouth, chewing furiously.

He grabbed his water bottle and a small towel and quickly headed up the stairs. He threw the towel over his shoulder before opening the door, and he was met by a very annoyed Nigel.

"Fuckin' finally!"

"No need to get your panties in a twist," Diego jeered as he stepped out and closed the door behind him. "I'm here."

"Yeah," Nigel scoffed, "about an hour and a half late."

"Slept in." Diego shrugged as the two men began to head towards the gym, the sound of grunts and low conversations becoming clearer and clearer as they approached. "Long night; cleaning."

"Yeah, cleaning?" Nigel repeated with raised eyebrows as they headed up a couple of steps and turned the corner.

"Mhm," Diego hummed as they entered the gym.

His eyes roamed over the room for a moment, seeing mostly familiar faces in the corners of the gym, all of them grunting and huffing as they punched. He lifted a hand towards Al, who was at the front desk, and the old man gave him a small nod in greeting.

"Don't lie," Nigel scoffed. "I saw the girl coming out of your room this morning."

A small grin appeared on Diego's face while the two of them headed towards the corner. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Nigel watched for a moment as Diego set his towel and water off to the side and began stretching. "And I gotta say, Diego, not sure how you got this one."

Diego's eyebrows furrowed as he stretched his arms over his head. "What d'you mean?"

"I mean, the girls you usually bring over are pretty cute, but her?" Nigel shrugged, raising his hands in defence as he pointed out, "She's just way out of your league, man."

"Trust me," Diego scoffed, "I know."

A twinkle of amusement appeared in Nigel's brown eyes as Diego picked up a pair of boxing gloves and slid them on. "How'd you do it?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Hm?"

"How'd you get such a hot chick to agree to bang you?"

Diego rolled his eyes as he adjusted his glove and gestured towards the punching bag in front of him. "Shut up, Nigel."

Nigel grinned as he took hold of the punching bag and spread his stance to balance himself. He held it steady as Diego began to throw punches, and after a few moments, he asked, "Now that you're done with her, you mind passing me her number?"

Diego shook his head. "Nah, man."

"Why not?" questioned Nigel, adjusting his grip as the punching bag was almost knocked out of his hands. "It's not like you'll see her again."

Diego's punches became a little stronger as he reassured the other man, "I will."

"Yeah?" Nigel raised an amused brow as he queried, "Now you're looking for something serious?"

"Not looking." Diego shook his head. "Already found it."

He snorted. "With her?"

Diego paused, steadying his breathing as he wiped his already sweaty forehead with the back of his forearm. "I'm telling you, man, she's the one."

"You think she . . . will want to be with . . . you?" Nigel asked slowly, his eyebrows furrowing as an entertained smile twisted his lips. "In a serious relationship?"

A look of offence crossed Diego's face. He leaned over and punched Nigel's arm lightly. "Hey."

"No offence, bro, you know I love you," Nigel reassured him, causing Diego to roll his eyes. "But . . . she just looks . . . put together. And you" —his face scrunched— "don't."

Diego sighed, beginning to bounce on his toes as he redirected his gaze to the centre of the punching bag. "Why don't we focus on the training, huh?"

Nigel retook his stance as Diego began to punch once more, but he seemed to not be done with the subject at hand. "So, what, one night with her and, all of a sudden, you wanna get married?"

Diego shook his head. "It's more than one night."

"Two nights?"

Diego punched the bag. "I've known her for sixteen years."

Nigel's expression quickly became baffled. "Really?"

"Mhm."

Nigel was quiet for a moment, and all Diego could hear was his own grunts and the hits against the punching bag.

"How?" Nigel, who seemed to finally have collected his thoughts, suddenly asked. "Wasn't that your whatever Academy days?"

"Yeah," Diego grunted as he continued punching.

"But—wait, you sayin' she was one of those kids?"

"Mhm."

"I thought you were all brothers and sisters?" Nigel pointed out, his eyebrows then furrowing deeply. "Diego—"

"No, man, she came when we were twelve," Diego quickly corrected him with an amused smile. "Never got adopted, never became my sister. Just lived with us."

"Fair enough." Nigel nodded, a look of relief settling over his face as he steadied the punching bag. "So, you've known each other for sixteen years, why now?"

Diego shook his head. "We dated back when we were seventeen."

"And?"

"Broke up 'cause she wanted to do university at the Academy."

Nigel tilted his head. "And you didn't like that?"

"That place was shit," Diego muttered as he stopped and rolled his shoulders back. He wiped the sweat off his forehead with his forearm as he continued, "I wouldn't stay there for anyone."

Nigel pursed his lips. "Huh."

Diego scoffed before bending his knees and raising his hands. "Enough gossiping, I need to focus."

𝒩.

Natalia entered her lab, slipping her lab coat on before tying her hair and putting on her safety glasses. She hardly noticed the smile that was on her face as she continued inside—the smile that had, in fact, been on her face the entire morning.

She folded her arms as she looked around. Maggie and Andrew were currently writing something on the whiteboard in the conference room (it looked suspiciously like hangman), Oliver was working diligently in the write-up space, and Rosalyn was coming her way with a stack of papers in hand. 

"Hey, Miss Boss Lady. I finished the lab report from Monday's experiment," Rosalyn greeted as she stopped in front of her. She narrowed her eyes, assessing Natalia's face for a moment before remarking, "You look especially happy today."

Natalia waved a dismissive hand. "I'm always happy, Rosy."

"Right, but you look a little too happy . . . ," Rosalyn corrected. She squinted her eyes and lifted her safety glasses for a moment as she peered into Natalia's face. She put them back on as she asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm perfectly fine," she chuckled. "Don't you have classes to go to or something?"

"I have a couple in the afternoon, but right now, I'm a free woman," Rosalyn answered as she followed Natalia towards one of the desks near the back. "So tell me, why so happy?"

"Rosy," Natalia sighed as she sat down at the desk, "I am the same amount of happy as usual."

"Oh, come on. I've known you for, what, two years now? You've never been this happy before," Rosalyn scoffed as she sat down next to her and placed the papers in front of Natalia. She leaned back in her chair, stroking her chin for a few moments before her eyes lit up, and she snapped her fingers. "I've got it!"

Natalia gave her a humoured smile as she sifted through the papers. "Yeah?"

"You" —Rosalyn tilted her head— "met someone famous."

Natalia shook her head. "Nope."

"You ate a really good pie?"

"No."

"You adopted a super cute puppy."

"I wish I had the time for a puppy."

Rosalyn gasped. "You're on drugs?"

Natalia stared at her for a moment, her nose wrinkling. "Is that a serious guess?"

"Oh, you're killing me!" Rosalyn whined. "Just tell me."

"You know, this is very unprofessional," she chided as she looked back at the lab report. "I'm a professor; you're a student."

"Nothing we do in this lab is professional!" Rosalyn pointed out with a scoff. "Andrew uses the computer in the write-up space to play Minecraft, Aaliyah and Santiago are gossiping about the others half the time, we've all been to your apartment a bunch of times, and Henry literally set a stack of papers on fire with his candle yesterday."

"Okay . . . ," Natalia sighed, her eyes squinting, "you've got a point there."

Rosalyn gave a firm nod before raising her eyebrows. "Tell me."

"I just . . . ," Natalia exhaled, rubbing her forehead. "I've started seeing someone, I guess."

A grin slowly spread onto her face. Suddenly, her eyebrows furrowed, and she quickly asked, "The guy who came to the lab yesterday?"

"Yeah."

Her smile immediately dropped as she seemed to realize something, and her expression contorted into one of horror. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry that I took interest in him, I didn't—"

"It's fine, Rosy," Natalia laughed, patting her shoulder.

Rosalyn gave her a small smile. She shifted in her seat, her eyes a little narrowed and slowly said, "So this guy really makes you this happy?"

Natalia smiled, giving her a half-hearted shrug. "Yeah, I guess so."

"That's sweet," she sighed, leaning her cheek against her hand. "Wish I could have a boyfriend like that."

"You'll find someone someday soon," Natalia reassured her with a small chuckle.

Rosalyn grinned. "I better."

𝒩.

Natalia took her jacket off as she shut the door behind her and locked it. She hung the jacket on her coat rack and headed towards the living room, to see that Klaus was laying down on the couch, popping grapes into his mouth, one by one.

Klaus sat up, quickly swallowing the grape he was chewing and placing the bowl on the coffee table. "Hey."

Natalia raised her eyebrows as she put her purse away. "Hi."

"So . . . you didn't come home last night," Klaus noted. "And you weren't here when I woke up."

She narrowed her eyes as she sat down next to him. "What are you—"

"You slept with Diego, huh?" Klaus guessed, causing Natalia to sigh. "God, finally."

She wrinkled her nose. "You're disgusting."

"Hey, but you did. That's great. You're welcome." He grinned before squinting his eyes and asking, "What was it like?"

Natalia let out a long groan. "Ew, Klaus. That's your brother."

He shrugged. "I'm just askin'."

She shook her head. "I'm not telling you anything about that."

"So, did you guys do anything else?" Klaus mused. "Or did you just go straight to fucking?"

Her eyes widened, and she slapped him on the shoulder, eliciting a giggle. "Wow, you gotta be that vulgar?"

"Obviously."

"You're so weird," she muttered. "Anyway, we went on a small date, yeah."

"And?" Klaus egged on, nudging her side. "What was it?"

She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously and leaned back. "Why are you so interested?"

He gave her a look that was just as suspicious. "Why aren't you telling me?"

"You know," she remarked, "I never pry into your love life."

"Well, I'm an open book," Klaus pointed out as he spread his arms out. "A couple of weeks ago, me and this really sexy—"

"Okay, I've heard enough," she sighed as she got to her feet. "I have to call Alli."

Klaus's eyebrows furrowed, and he shifted so his gaze could follow as she walked over to the table with the wireless phone. "Why?"

"I promised her I'd tell her about—" Natalia paused as she grabbed the phone, and quickly tried to save herself, "Uh, nothing. About work."

"Wow, so you're gonna tell her, but not me?" Klaus scoffed, placing a hand over his heart. "I thought we were best friends!"

"We are!" she insisted. "It's the reason I'm so goddamn nice and give you a place to sleep for free every other week."

He shrugged. "You are very kind. But you could be kinder. You can be kinder by telling me—"

"No."

"Oh, I see." Klaus slowly nodded, folding his arms as he leaned back in the spot. "This is the same thing as when we were seventeen, huh? Telling everybody except me?"

"How—" Natalia cut herself off with a groan as she realized. "Diego."

"Yep."

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you, Klaus, but you . . ." She searched for the right word before giving up and shrugging. "Well, you're you."

He scrunched his face. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

She waved a dismissive hand through the air before dialling Allison's number and raising the phone to her ear. "You take it any way you want to."