MCA #9 | Tuesday Evening

[defenderofdesmoines]

So, Annie was doing this Christmas party next Friday. And, really, regardless of the party, she had been tasked with ensuring Diego got the whole Christmas experience, this year.

And a vital part of the Christmas experience? Wearing weird, tacky, semi-humiliating holiday-themed clothes.

So, she'd invited Diego over and had managed to make hot chocolate without burning her apartment down, and was now lounging next to him on her couch with her laptop positioned on her legs. 

"How about this one?"

Did it matter that it was still two days before Thanksgiving? No, and stop judging her.

[for Rambo's ninja cousin. ETA: don't read this at work, omg.]

Comments

[knife_bender]

Diego sighed. "Here I hoped you would have forgotten about that."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I will never forget that," Annie assured him. "If it makes you feel better, though, my Starlight outfit at that age had legwarmers."

Just for about a year, until she'd graduated from Keds to the gold boots she still wore.

[knife_bender]

"I honestly don't know if legwarmers are better or worse than knee high socks," Diego said. "And you probably didn't wear yours until you were legally old enough to leave home."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It was the shorts that really made it memorable," Annie told him, softening a little because even if it was sort of hilarious, the circumstances surrounding his uniform were not. "And no, I did not, but I probably would have if someone had asked me to. Little you was kind of adorable."

Little her had not really appreciated it, of course.

[knife_bender]

"Little you was adorable too," Diego said. "But you got very defensive over Queen Maeve."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It was weird you didn't know who she was," Annie replied, smiling. No one else had, either - she just hadn't dropped a Seven reference on anyone else who had actually questioned it, was the thing. "And all I wanted at that age was to be in The Seven and I'd already read her book, like, twice."

It was also all Annie wanted at this age; she was just a little more chill about it.

[knife_bender]

"We had different superheroes where I came from," he said. "And they were fake. Well, aside from us."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You guys missed out," Annie told him with a tsk. "I mean, other than being superheroes yourselves." But seriously, the fangirling was kind of a huge part of the whole thing, for her. "You had a little attitude, though. I would've known that was you even if you hadn't mentioned your siblings or anything."

[knife_bender]

"That's impressive. You didn't even see me punch Duke." He had it coming though.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You punched Duke? He got me to buy him a latte," Annie remembered, feeling a little conned into it, in hindsight. "Were you okay? 'Cause, like, he was real tall."

Little Annie had been pretty impressed by not-as-little Duke, though adult Annie was also not especially surprised that there had been punching.

[knife_bender]

"Dude was being a complete dick," Diego said. "And he was proud after I hit him? Completely weird."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie wrinkled her nose, though she did take the opportunity to curl closer to him and reach a hand out to squeeze his arm. "I'm glad he didn't hit you back, I guess?" she tried. Though she also didn't doubt that Diego could've done some damage if they'd really gotten into it, being the smaller kid or not. "Sorry I was kind of a brat, too."

[knife_bender]

"You were a cute brat," he teased, putting his arm around her. "You're not the first person to make fun of the knee socks."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"At least you were braver than me, in all your knee-socked glory," Annie teased back. "Drinking coffee defiantly and all. I spent the whole weekend worried I was gonna get in trouble."

[knife_bender]

Diego snorted. "That is the most Annie thing I've ever heard."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I've chilled out a little." A little. "You think I wouldn't have liked you at twenty-three? Well, you probably wouldn't have liked me from, like, twelve to like, at least eighteen."

Case in point being the incredibly insecure, yet also weirdly bossy thirteen year-old she'd been over the weekend.

[knife_bender]

"Guess we met each other at the right time then," Diego said, leaning in to give her a quick kiss.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie smiled into the kiss, leaning a little into him. Look, if they was going to be kissing on her couch and not in some cold alley or a crowded bar or a park bench, then Annie was going to take the opportunity to be cuddly about it. "Sucks that this weekend's probably going to be normal and I'm stuck in Iowa for it."

Though it would suck more if she got back and found out everyone had been turned into sentient cars or something and she missed it.

[knife_bender]

Diego smiled. "If you just jinxed me and I turn into a turkey this weekend I am going to be very upset."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I will also be very upset," Annie told him, angling her head to press a light kiss to the underside of his jaw. "To have missed it. That'd be even better than seeing you covered in tinsel."

Surely someone would send her a picture.

[knife_bender]

"That's not very nice," Diego said, tilting his neck towards Annie to get more of that, thank you.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'll try to be nicer," Annie told him. And she said it into his neck on on the heels of another kiss, so see how she was following through?

[knife_bender]

"You're off to a good start," he said, placing a hand on Annie's thigh.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Yeah, Annie was just going to shove her laptop off to a neighboring cushion, since it was starting to get in the way, and that freed her up a little to press in closer as she kissed her way along his neck. "How nice do I have to be to get tinsel back on the table?"

She was looking to be pretty nice, anyway, regardless.

[knife_bender]

"Halfway to tinsel," he joked, moving his arm around Annie's waist to encourage her to move up onto his lap. "Still a distance away from me in a Santa hat."