MHA # 2 | Thursday Evening

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie had actually enjoyed her half-a-week back at work. She'd done a little press (and like...things were going pretty well there, considering that she and Maeve were being lauded as heroes who had taken down a Nazi), she'd gone on an actual save last night, and today, she'd had a completely civil meeting about Citizen Starlight before she'd left to return to Fandom.

And because she thought she was funny -- and it was the first time she was coming home here, rather than visiting Diego -- she opened the door with a, "Honey, I'm home!"

The black cat on the couch gave her a bemused, slightly grumpy -- or was that just how cats looked? -- look.

And between how she was pretty sure Diego would never get a pet (especially without checking with her), the way the cat responded to his name, and -- let's be honest -- the expression on that cat's little kitty face...it didn't take long before she was sighing heavily. "I've heard this happens."

She pulled off her cape as she headed into the bedroom to change, texting Danny to let him know he could head over for wine at any time -- and, you know, while she was at it, probably best to let Rey know that their plans for a double-date this weekend looked like they'd changed.

And thus, she missed it when cat-Diego decided that her white cape was absolutely the spot to put his black, copiously-shedding self.

Naturally.

[expecting one but it can be open! Cat boyfriend modded with permission, of course. eta: contents of the Danny convo NFB, please!]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Well, and it's Steve," Annie had to point out, gently. "So you're just like -- like there's no talking about it?"

This was also a foreign concept to Annie.

[hatesparadise]

Danny too, honestly.

"I made a--" He gestured vaguely at his own neck. "--a mark on him and when I touched it to make sure things had actually happened, he looked like I had decked him or something. So, yeah. No talking."

Admittedly it had not been the right time to do. But he didn't know if there would ever be one.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Like he was upset?" Annie asked, frowning. "Well. Like. Not talking isn't going to help resolve that."

Like, sorry to be all therapy words about it, Danny.

[hatesparadise]

"Like crazy SEAL eyes of panic," Danny corrected.

He knew Steve's body language way too well.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Well, let him panic," Annie replied, shrugging a little. "He's a big boy. Is this just like, a one-time thing, though? You deserve to know."

Even if it made Steve panicky. Sometimes the best things were a little panic-inducing.

[hatesparadise]

Danny's ability to panic over things going to shit in his life was his thing, though.

"And if it was just, I don't know, this weird way of helping out a friend?" Danny asked. "Or worse, he felt obligated or something. I practically threw myself at him that first time."

Oh, multiple times now, huh?

[defenderofdesmoines]

Yeah, Annie caught that, too. "Okay, so it wasn't a one-time thing," she observed softly. "Like -- I have a lot of friends, Danny? And I've never 'helped out a friend' in the way you're saying."

You would all take your hugs and wine talk and maybe a fancy foot scrub treatment or something to get you through your hard times, and you would like it.

[hatesparadise]

"He spent hundreds of dollars right after meeting me so I could have a nice weekend with my daughter," Danny said. Because Steve needed people who would stick around and practically everyone in his life prior to Five-0 had taught him only how useful he was kept them there.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"So he's demonstrated in the past that your happiness is important to him?" Annie noted, not seeing the problem here.

Also, aww, Steve. That was cute.

[hatesparadise]

"He wanted me to stick around," Danny insisted. "People don't stick around in his life."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"And you have stuck around," Annie pointed out gently. "You've shown him you're not going anywhere, right?"

So maybe everyone here could use their words and talk about their feelings instead of just making panic faces!

[hatesparadise]

"That's easier said than done," Danny sighed, slumping back to drink his wine. "Christ, I've never had this sort of trouble with women."

Because he was a serial monogamist who had to be blatantly hit on to notice.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Well. I think Steve's kind of a special case, anyway," Annie noted with a little smile. She knew a thing or two about repressed, kinda closed-off dudes, maybe. "But, like -- it's not okay for him to string you along, either, no matter what his reasons are."

[hatesparadise]

"I don't think that's what he's doing here," Danny replied honestly. "I might be ready to say I like guys as much as I like women, but Steve... if he does, I don't know."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It sounds like he does." Like, she was being delicate here, but she presumed Danny would know if Steve had been into that. "But like. That's okay. That's his to figure out." And if she sounded a little dubious about that, well. She kind of was.

Still kind of sounded like stringing Danny along, even if he didn't mean to be doing it.

[hatesparadise]

"I'm also worried," Danny said, picking his words carefully. "That if it's a case of just me having some feelings here."

Which wasn't something he said lightly.

"How the hell am I gonna work with him? Is he gonna always second guess things? Am I?"

He already was, to be honest.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You have to confront it," Annie said, shaking her head. "You can't just, like, pretend it's not happening. And you can still work with him, no matter what. I worked with a boyfriend, for like, almost a year. If the partnership is there, it doesn't matter."

And clearly the partnership was already there. Like, that seemed like it was was the easy part.

[hatesparadise]

"Yeah," he admitted with a sigh. "I know that, I know that."

But feeeeelings.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie was quiet for a moment. "Do you think it's going to happen again?"

More importantly: did he want it to keep happening? (It sounded like a yes, but also, you know. Complicated.)

[hatesparadise]

Complicated was an understatement.

"Not without talking to him first," Danny said firmly.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Good," Annie agreed, just as firmly. "It's okay if he needs to figure stuff out. But you deserve...better than just that."

Particularly with the feelings involved here.

(And really, particularly because...while Annie was not really a betting woman, she would have put a pretty large sum on those feelings being returned. Just, you know. Feelings were terrifying.)

[hatesparadise]

"I'm still gonna need more of this to power through," Danny informed her, lifting his glass.

Also for tipsy pictures with the cat who was also Diego.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Duh," Annie agreed, reaching for the bottle to top off his glass. And they could wake Diego up to watch him chase a light bouncing off her watch or something in a few minutes. "Was it good, at least?"

Annie was apparently tipsy enough to ask the important questions. And he had invoked teenagers, so. Like. That was a question.

[hatesparadise]

"So, apparently his SEAL team calls him 'Smooth Dog' and I still think it's ironic, but..." Danny shrugged. "Really great kisser."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"'Smooth Dog'?" Annie had to repeat with something between distaste and amusement. "But aww, kissing! Better than the mistletoe?"

She suspected that was a yes.