Vought Tower | Monday Afternoon

[defenderofdesmoines]

Had Annie spent today doing something important? Maybe helping disadvantaged youths, or stopping a train full of people from hurtling off a broken bridge?

No, of course not. She had spent her morning shooting a commercial for her new oil-free facewash brand, WISH.

But, whatever. At least she was helping...teenagers fight acne? Right?

And more importantly, she was actually expecting a visitor today, now that she was done with her shoot and didn't have anything else lined up for the day. So, once she'd returned to her apartment, she'd wrangled herself out of her uniform and into a hoodie and some leggings -- like normal, because everything here was normal and this would go fine -- and sent Diego a text.

check in w/security when you get here, and then take the elevator up to the 99th floor. take a right, and my door has my name on it.

Or, well. It said Starlight, anyway.

can't wait to see you!!!!!!!! xoxoxoxoxo

Her effusiveness was a little put on, yes, but Annie was trying to get herself there. She really, really had missed him, even if she was already feeling a little uneasy about her decision to -- at least for this first visit -- try to keep things positive, and to just...move on from the stuff that had happened last week.

They didn't have that much time. Why ruin the few hours they had together right now by bringing up...you know, awfulness?

[for he who is visiting, of course! ETA: NWS]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

"So now Five's raiding Danny's desk?" Annie asked, and at least the amusement in her voice was genuine.

She tugged on his hand, pulling him a little deeper into the spacious apartment. "Come look at my view. It's ridiculous."

And the big windows were right off the bedroom, and -- look. She and Diego had their patterns, and part of her really wanted to kind of lean into that, right now. Maybe it would be easier to just...disappear into him? Hugging was nice (even if she was more sensitive to claustrophobic feelings now than she ever had been before), and being close to him was overwhelmingly comforting in a way she hadn't expected.

Maybe it would help with the awkwardness, too. (Or it would just make things worse, but Annie wasn't letting herself think like that right now.)

[knife_bender]

"It is a pretty nice view," he admitted, giving her hand a squeeze. "Show me around?"

See, an excuse to go to the bedroom. He was well aware of their patterns.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I guess it used to be all, like, fire-themed until a couple weeks ago, if you can picture it," Annie said, squeezing his hand in return.

See? Normal.

"Kitchen's through there," she said, pointing, "and, like, bed and bath are in here." She jerked her head towards the archway to her bedroom, which -- like everything else in here -- was white and yellow. "It's way too much for just me."

She meant the whole place, but...you know. Also the bed.

[knife_bender]

"They really like to be on brand here, don't they?" At least the white and yellow in here was classy. There could have been stars and glitter all over everything.

He led them towards the bedroom, keeping a light hold of Annie's hand. "What, you don't enjoy having that huge bed without me hogging half of it?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"No, it's too big," Annie said, completely honestly as she trailed along with him. She had taken to tucking herself up against a pillow, the way she usually cuddled against Diego to sleep. It wasn't the same. "I think I sleep better with you."

She was starting to get sort of nervous, which was ridiculous. But what if she couldn't be normal? What if she'd...lost the ability?

(That was absurd. They were so good at this. She and Diego were literally, like, experts at doing things in bedrooms with one another.)

[knife_bender]

"Yeah?" he asked, turning towards her and putting a hand on her hip. "Even though I put knives under the pillow?"

He knew that was a little weird.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I miss your knives." Again, completely honest, and maybe it was weird how comforting she found the idea of there maybe being a future where he put knives under the pillows of this bed, too? "Even finding them under pillows."

Annie carefully -- one might even call it hesitantly -- wound an arm up around his neck. So far, so good.

[knife_bender]

Diego gave her a soft smile, leaning into that touch. A moment later he was leaning in for a kiss, noting that the fact they hadn't even done that yet was another unusual thing happening here.

[defenderofdesmoines]

The fact that Annie hadn't greeted him with a kiss was noteworthy, yes, and even now there was the briefest pause before she was leaning up into him.

She didn't want to admit it -- even just to herself -- but hiding things from Diego was harder with her actions than with her words, even given how bad a liar Annie was. And so when she found she was able to relax a little and even affectionately, idly trace her fingers along the back of his neck as she kissed him back, it was a relief.

See, she could do this. And what was more, she could also feel the first little tingles of something like wanting for the first time in a week.

[knife_bender]

Diego's shoulders relaxed some when Annie kissed him back, feeling like they were moving back into more familiar territory. He moved a little closer, feeling a little more confident about his welcome here.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie gave a little hum, pressing closer to him and pushing away the fresh bout of nerves that cropped up in response.

She liked being close to Diego -- no, normally she loved being close to Diego -- and she just needed to keep reminding herself of that.

She ignored the way her heart was pounding -- not the usual warm, loving flutter that she was used to -- and, feeling a little like a fraud, deepened the kiss.

She wanted to want this. She'd get there.

[knife_bender]

He took her deepening the kiss as a good sign, and responded by sliding one of his hands under her shirt, just to enjoy the skin to skin contact that he had been missing. There was still something that felt off--and the fact that he was making slower, deliberate moves probably was a response to that.

Usually when they had been apart they didn't make it to the bedroom for their first round.

[defenderofdesmoines]

And while initially Annie tensed a little at feeling his hands on her, she relaxed again pretty quickly. This was normal. They'd done this a hundred times. (Maybe even a hundred times just that one week, honestly.)

Taking things slow was good. She felt -- awkward, and like she didn't even know her own body anymore. Parts of her were responding the way she was used to -- her skin was warm and tingling where he was touching her, and Annie knew logically that this would feel good and would likely help her to connect to him again.

She just had to push past this awkward distance that had never been there before. They'd never been weird like this -- like, even before they'd ever kissed, it had been more natural than this, and Annie couldn't help but blame herself.

That strange, guilty feeling had her trying a little harder to make it feel right, and Annie was up on her toes and dipping her fingertips into the collar of his shirt before too long, still hesitant but trying to work past it.

[knife_bender]

That was encouraging, and whatever part of Diego that knew this was awkward for a reason he couldn't put his finger on was quickly being drowned out by the part of him that had missed this a lot. Still, even when he pulled back slightly to go for the zipper on her hoodie he hesitated for a moment.

"This okay?" Which was something he hadn't felt the need to ask since...well, since the first time they kissed, really.

[defenderofdesmoines]

If Annie had been willing to be really honest with herself -- if she had sat with her feelings and thought about it -- she would have probably eventually reached a reluctant no, because she knew she was rushing this in an effort to make things feel just a fraction more normal than they had been. But then that would have led to why not, and she wasn't ready to answer that.

She might not ever be ready to answer that.

And for right now, the reason she was hesitant had absolutely nothing to do with Diego, or her feelings for him, or how much she wanted to be close to him and for things to just go back to how they had been before.

"This is great," she said, leaning in to kiss him again and reaching for his shirt before she could say something less believable -- it was already obvious that she wasn't doing a good enough job of acting normal, if he was asking that.

[knife_bender]

Diego immediately kissed Annie back, letting go of her zipper momentarily so he could lift his arms up to allow her to take his shirt off. It was kind of hard to question a reaction like that, and at this point he didn't really want to.

He was just as eager as she was to have this feel normal, even if he still had no clue why everything was this awkward right now.

[defenderofdesmoines]

And see, with his shirt off and quickly tossed aside, Annie found it a little easier to turn her brain off and give in to the physical side of things, the way she had hoped she might. This felt right, and even if she was a little nervous, it was easy enough to skim her hands gently along his chest and just take a little comfort in how familiar Diego's body was to her.

Which did turn her thoughts to less familiar, less welcome male bodies, and --

Nope.

She pushed that thought aside, moving closer with an eagerness that she at least wanted to feel, and started steering him a little more towards the bed.

[knife_bender]

Diego allowed himself to be led, busying himself with tugging down the zipper of her hoodie. This was easy, at least.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie shrugged out of her hoodie without hesitation, and willed her mind to just be quiet for a minute. She had plenty to distract her, and all she wanted was to just turn her brain off for a little and enjoy this. (After this past week, things that brought her joy seemed pretty thin on the ground, and Diego was still one of them.)

Her hands slid up to carefully push him down on the bed, much gentler than she might have if she hadn't been focusing on getting this right and making it Not Weird.

[knife_bender]

Diego sat down on the edge of the bed, keeping close enough that he could keep his hands on Annie's waist. He stroked his thumbs along her hipbones, feeling a little guilty that now that they weren't kissing he felt like he didn't know what to say, or if he should say anything. Why was he being so weird about this?

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie bit her lower lip, carefully moving to situate her knees at either side of Diego's hips and determinedly pushing aside an intrusive thought about whether it might not just be easier to try to tell him, rather than pretend she was fine?

But she still felt a little guilty for how weird she felt as she moved into his lap, and even guiltier when she moved in to kiss his neck at least in part because she didn't know what to say.

[knife_bender]

Diego let out a sigh, wrapping an arm around Annie's waist to keep her where she was. He closed his eyes and tilted his neck toward her, focusing on that feeling for the moment.

[defenderofdesmoines]

This was beginning to feel more natural the less Annie allowed herself to think, and hearing Diego sigh kind of kept her grounded in the here and now.

She pressed close, kissing along his shoulder and trying to focus on how good Diego felt and how much she loved him, rather than entertaining any kind of pointed, guilty thoughts.

It got a bit easier still when she shifted to kiss him again, a bit more enthusiastic as she attempted to tip them both back onto the mattress.

[knife_bender]

Diego happily went with her, smiling a little into the kiss when he felt his back hit the mattress. He was more confident about touching her now that he was distracted enough from his own thoughts. He slid his hands over her sides and back, with no real purpose other than enjoying the feel of her body against his again.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I missed you," Annie murmured, gently shifting her hips so she could lay out long beside him. Touching Diego was helping her to stay focused on him, which in turn was helping her keep from thinking too much about much of anything else, for now. She kept one leg draped over his as she skimmed her hands along his chest. "So much."