Vought Tower | Thursday Evening

[defenderofdesmoines]

Today had been exhausting, but Annie couldn't sleep.

She'd eventually gotten out of that press junket and had changed her clothes quickly up in her apartment before meeting Hughie (in Times Square, which was kind of genius; it was busy enough that no one would recognize her, and if they did, they'd probably think she was a lookalike) and passing the V off to him.

And now they waited.

While Annie knew, logically, that the news probably wouldn't break until morning, and that she would definitely be alerted when it did, she still couldn't seem to keep from checking things compulsively -- she'd checked her news feed on her phone every few minutes since this afternoon, and even now, late into the night, she had the television facing her bed on with the sound off just in case the lower third of the screen illuminated with a breaking news alert.

She'd done a bunch of push-ups and sit-ups in an effort to dispel this nervous energy and get her mind off things, and had spent a few minutes poking around on her favorite time-killing websites, but nothing was quite distracting enough. She was anxious and so excited about this that she might just vibrate out of her skin, but on top of that, she was lonely. It was so isolating, being in the middle of something like this without any help -- save for her reluctant partnership with an exhausted guy who she really hadn't quite forgiven yet.

And it was that loneliness that had her staring up at her ceiling in bed for a long few minutes before she reached over to her nightstand for her phone.

And then put it back down. It really was late, right?

...but that was also the point, maybe?

Half-hoping that he wouldn't answer, she went ahead and pulled up her texts with Diego, and typed in:

are you up?

[obv for boyfriend, yes. also go ahead and assume 'u up?' means what it means and proceed with NSFW-related caution.]

Comments

[knife_bender]

"And this is feminism?" He didn't get this branding at all.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"So I am told," Annie said with a little roll of her eyes. "Girls get it done, Diego."

Which almost seemed sort of dirty in the context of, like, still being all naked and kind of afterglowy.

[knife_bender]

"They sure do." No, the dirty of that was not lost on him.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Which just meant Annie was blushing a bit more and kind of burrowing against her pillow a little.

"Well now I'm not going to be able to hear that without thinking about this," she murmured.

Which, like, no problem. She was only surrounded by that phrase.

[knife_bender]

"Good." You think he'd be repentant? "I encourage you thinking of this at all times."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"At all times?" Annie echoed, amused. "People are going to think I have a skin condition, Diego."

Seriously, she could feel how hot her face was, still. It wasn't even embarrassment anymore, really, so much as...like, she did not expect all of that to work for her the way it had.

[knife_bender]

He laughed again. "Okay, only half the time then."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That seems fair," Annie decided, her smile turning soft and affectionate. "I assume you'll also be thinking about this at least on a part-time basis, too."

And she would certainly be texting him reminders, now that she was marginally less shy about it all.

[knife_bender]

"Pretty sure I'm going to have trouble not thinking about it," he joked.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I might be able to send you some pictures, too. To tide you over until the next time," Annie said, and it was a feat that she managed to maintain eye contact with the camera. "Or maybe you could take some of me when I'm there."

That idea had some merit.

[knife_bender]

Diego lifted his eyebrows, like the idea hadn't occurred to him before. "I really like the sound of that."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You're the one who's looking at them," Annie pointed out with a little shrug. "You should get what you want. And hey, I'm getting really good at having my picture taken. I take great direction during photoshoots."

Though she had a feeling that having Diego direct her would be very different from her usual experience with photographers. Just a feeling.

[knife_bender]

He smiled. "I don't think I will be as good at taking direction when it comes to photos. Even as a kid I was a photographer's nightmare."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Might be different when it's me directing." Read: bossiness would be involved.

Annie sighed contentedly, giving him a fond smile. "Did you refuse to hold still? Mess around with your brothers? Make faces?"

Like, these all seemed likely.

[knife_bender]

"All of the above," he said with a slight smile. "The worst was the shoots for the Teen Beat magazines, we were supposed to look appealing to, like, a tween audience but also like superheroes."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Gosh, I could never relate to that," Annie teased. "Oh my God, were you, like, a little heartthrob? This is adorable."

And now Annie needed to see these magazines.

[knife_bender]

"We were supposed to be," he said. "I don't know how well I pulled it off. Allison did it the best. Five was probably the worst at it."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Neither of those is surprising in the slightest." Like, Allison was the only one who was still consciously in the spotlight, and Five was...you know. Five. "Am I gonna have to bribe Pogo to get my hands on one of these magazines? Because I, like, desperately need a Diego Hargreeves fold-out poster if one's available."

[knife_bender]

"What, you are going to put it up in your fancy apartment?" he asked.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Maybe." She already had a bunch of pictures of adult Diego up in her fancy apartment, so why not. (She had thought about taking them down after the Homelander thing, but it almost seemed like it would be more suspicious, then?) "Would you sign it for me?"

It was kind of fun being back on the other side of fangirling again.

[knife_bender]

He laughed. "Yes, of course. I'll dot the 'i' in my name with a heart and everything."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh, wow." Annie made a big show of fanning herself, fluttering her lashes. "I bet you do that for all your fans."

She, naturally, usually dotted her own i's when signing autographs with a star. Obviously.

[knife_bender]

"Only the cute ones," he teased.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Lucky me," Annie replied with a bright smile. "And the really cute ones get given action figures, right?"

Which could not be seen from here, but she totally had it in a place of honor on her vanity, along with the bespoke Starlight figure. (Which was still leagues better than the cheap, barely-posable, giant-boobed hunks of plastic that Vought was pumping out.)

[knife_bender]

"Only my favorite people get given action figures." Which was a grand total of one person thus far.