MHA #2 | Saturday, post-hole evacuation

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie -- wearing her disheveled Starlight uniform with the top half shoved down around her waist, a men's bowling shirt, ripped tights and a pair of bowling shoes -- had basically run towards her apartment building as soon as Rey had touched Summer's ship down. It kind of felt great to be able to run outside again.

Part of her was a little disappointed (and confused?) as to why Diego hadn't been out there to meet them, considering she had absolutely no doubt that he'd been trying to get down to her. He'd been tenacious about figuring this out before she'd disappeared, and...like, she just didn't think he'd look less with her missing, you know?

And...okay, once she got to the apartment (after admittedly lingering in the sun a little bit), she found the door locked. Maybe he wasn't even home? But it wasn't like she'd kept great track of her keys when she'd fallen in that hole, either.

"Diego?" she yelled, beating on the door with an open palm. "I'm back!"

Like. She had kind of anticipated a more of a, like, welcome, during all of those hours she'd spent in that hole, if she was honest.

[for the flutternutter fan. ETA: not safe for work anymore.]

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[knife_bender]

If there were anything to make Diego hopeful after almost two full days of fluffernutter sandwiches and sleeping on the floor, it would be hearing Annie’s voice.

He sat up, pushing away the remenants of the last sandwich Five had left him.

“You’re gonna have to open the door yourself,” he called. “Sorry!”

[defenderofdesmoines]

What the hell?

"What?" Okay, so he was in there, but not opening the door? "Why? I don't have my keys and it's locked!"

At least he sounded...okay? Though, like, knowing Diego, that wasn't a guarantee that he wasn't just being all tough and stoic while laying on the floor with a broken leg or something. "Are you hurt?"

[knife_bender]

“Annie, just break open the door, please!” It was too embarrassing to explain, she just had to see it.

[defenderofdesmoines]

And cue the electronics in the apartment all collectively giving a buzz as Annie blasted the lock and knob clean off the door, and shoved it open.

"Are you --"

Oh. Well, that explained why he couldn't get to the door. And at least he didn't look...hurt?

"What the hell happened?" Annie asked, kicking the door shut(...ish) behind herself and hurrying over to where Diego was totally handcuffed to the goddamn radiator.

[knife_bender]

“Five.” Did he really need to elaborate?

[defenderofdesmoines]

"But why?" Annie asked, a little confused even with that helpful explanation as she tried to get a good look at the handcuffs. "Five did all of this?"

Like, setting aside the fact that Diego had somehow been overpowered (?) by a thirteen year-old, there was a lot going on here. He'd clearly been here for awhile. There was something sticky (???) on his face. He was handcuffed to a radiator.

She was going to just tactfully ignore the bucket entirely.

[knife_bender]

Diego sighed, handcuff clanking loudly as he tried to move his arm dramatically. "Monday Maeve texted wondering where you were so I knew you got stuck in the hole, and I told Five I was going to look for you and he handcuffed me to the radiator for the first time."

He held up the non-handcuffed hand to indicate there was more nonsense. "Steve broke me out on Tuesday which is why we need a new window and then Wednesday I threatened a raccoon with a bunch of people and on Thursday Five hunted me down with a tranq gun and locked me up again and I've been here ever since."

She had been better off in the hole, seriously.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"He did this to keep you from coming after me?" You know, maybe not everyone would find this whole situation romantic, but Annie did, and it was clear from her face how touched she was. She also maybe kinda owed Five one, even if this was -- you know, not how she would have handled any of this. "I knew you'd look for me! I kept telling everyone th -- wait, a tranq gun? Oh, Diego. I'm so sorry."

Like, Annie had mostly been bored in the hole, and totally needed a shower very badly, but he'd had a whole adventure. She was also now peering in at his handcuffed wrist in concern, since this all looked really uncomfortable, and she wasn't entirely sure how to free him. (At least, how to free him non-violently.)

[knife_bender]

"Of course I was going to look for you," Diego said. "I'd rather be with you in a hole than up here alone."

He looked down at his wrist. "I think you're going to have to break them."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It sucked so much being in the hole without you, but I'm glad you didn't end up down there," Annie told him with a little sigh, scooting closer on her knees to examine the chain. "Let me see if I can get you out of these."

She reached out to take Diego's cuffed hand, just to make sure she had as much clearance as possible, and pressed her opposite hand against the chain. Another electrical surge went through all the lights and appliances as the cuffs neatly broke in the middle.

Granted, now the radiator had a scorch mark, and they were never going to get their security deposit back. Ever.

[knife_bender]

As soon as Diego was free, he reached out to pull Annie into a hug. They both desperately needed showers and toothbrushes, but this had to be done first.

Honestly, Diego smelled more like old marshmallows and coffee than anything super bad.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie's shirt had a real eau de bowling alley thing going on, and that was in addition to how she'd poured green apple vodka on herself on Wednesday.

It had been a week for both of them, clearly.

"I'm so glad you didn't end up down there," she said, hugging him tight. "Oh my God, it sucked so much. Like, I'm fine, but it was like -- okay, wait, did you say you threatened a raccoon? Rey said a raccoon was behind this whole thing."

Which meant Annie kind of hated raccoons, now. Shame.

[knife_bender]

"A whole bunch of us threatened a raccoon. I never felt so stupid in my life," Diego said. "Well, until Five hunted me down in town like I was a rhino or something."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Well, we're all stupid. Collectively. 'Cause apparently this whole thing was, like, masterminded by a raccoon."

Annie had seriously never felt so, like...impotently dumb. Like, her whiteboard didn't have anything about this, and she didn't think that was her fault.

"What," she added, pulling back enough to reach her thumb up to gently wipe at his face, "has Five been feeding you?" Because there was a stickiness thing going on here. Candy, maybe? Peanut butter and candy?

[knife_bender]

"Fluffernutter sandwiches and black coffee." He needed to brush his teeth so badly.

[defenderofdesmoines]

So did Annie. "I've been living on nachos," she shared, making a face in commiseration. "And vodka. Orange juice, earlier in the week -- I took the bar down with me, so that made things...I guess better?"

But also she had missed him intensely, and been worried underneath all that blacklit-bowling-led optimism, so she was going to be kind of clingy for a minute. Even if they were both totally disgusting, at the present moment.

[knife_bender]

"That's a positive," he agreed, breathing a sigh of relief. "I was so worried about you."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I was worried we wouldn't get out," Annie confided, leaning in to hug him again. See? Clinginess. "I mean, I knew you and Steve and everyone were working on it, and Rey and some other girl were trying to take out the ceiling, but like -- I don't know. I missed you so much."

They kind of lived in each others' pockets as it was. Not even talking -- or texting, or sending pictures or emojis or whatever -- since Sunday had felt kind of awful.

[knife_bender]

"If something had happened to you and I was stuck here handcuffed to a radiator I probably would have killed Five when I got out." Or at least maimed him a bit.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Honestly, Diego, we were mostly so bored down there," Annie told him with a little shake of her head. "I kept trying to come up with stuff to do to pass the time, but no one was...like, hurt, at least. It was just frustrating. And I'm super gross."

As was he, but Annie could just politely point out her own completely disgusting appearance, okay? Her hair was so gross. Don't even look at it.

[knife_bender]

"We're both super gross." At least Annie had moved around in the last 48 hours. Diego might be stuck to this floor. Didn't help that the window had been open the whole time and it was July.

"We need to shower, immediately."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Together?" Annie asked hopefully, carefully starting to get to her feet and pulling Diego along with her. "We're going to have to...like, stick a chair against the door."

Ugh, Five. She would be annoyed about having to break the door. And, naturally, that was when she noticed the window. "Steve did that?"

Maybe Steve knew how to fix things?

[knife_bender]

"Yeah. We left that way too." And it had been awesome. "He also choked out Dolores."

He did feel kind of bad for Steve next time Five went up against him in paintball.

[defenderofdesmoines]

And while Annie was sort of jealous she hadn't gotten to rappel out a window or whatever, because that did sound awesome, she instead was going to pause in her quest to put a chair against the door to, instead, stare at Diego.

"He what? Why?"

Dolores was a...mannequin? Unless she wasn't, now. It had been a long six days down there.

[knife_bender]

"We all had a very stressful couple of weeks." Sometimes you got carried away and choked out a mannequin. It happens.

You know what? He was going to not mention the whole blindfolding and tying Dolores up thing. Not when he was already getting weird looks.