___

Anita stood in the centre of the rug, directly across from where Ben was seated on the sofa, hands on her hips as she eyed him suspiciously. Ben didn't know how to interact with children at the best of times, and, considering he was completely exhausted, he had had an emotional breakdown in front of Klaus and Diego, and he was no long allowed to be by himself in case he passed out again, this definitely was not the best of times.

He let his eyes wander around the room, looking at anything but Anita, and pretending he couldn't feel her eyes boring into him.

'You live with Uncle Klaus?' she said, finally breaking the silence. Ben sighed and finally met her gaze

'Sort of...currently...yes, I guess.' She frowned at him like he was a particularly difficult maths problem she was trying to solve. He decided against explaining that he had recently been released from prison as it probably wasn't conducive to his goal of having this interaction end as soon as humanly possible.

'Are you Uncle Klaus' boyfriend?'

'What?! No!' he blustered.

'Pity.'

'Anita Grace, play nice!' Lila admonished without looking up from where she was setting the table.

'I aaam,' she huffed as she stomped over to her mother. She scowled in a way that Ben thought made her look eerily like Diego. It was a frightening sight to see his face on a five year old. 'And you said Uncle Klaus dates boys as well as girls.'

'He does love, just not this boy.' Anita threw Ben a glance over her shoulder before turning back to Lila.

'Pity,' she said again, putting extra emphasis on the word. Lila tried and failed to surpress a laugh while Ben cursed himself for not going to the boxing gym with Diego and Klaus.

'Trust me, baby,' she said as she straightened a place mat, 'it really isn't.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' Ben said, turning in his seat fully so he could look at Lila, forgetting that he wanted no part in this conversation.

'Yeah mommy,' Anita said, hands back on her hips, 'what does that mean?'

Before Lila could reply they heard the click of a key turning in the lock.