MHA #2 | Wednesday Evening

[defenderofdesmoines]

No one had specifically asked Annie to try to stick to the island as much as she could lately, but she'd been doing her best. Partly because she wanted to, and partly because some things didn't need to be explicitly asked.

She had taken a quick trip to the tower earlier this week for some meetings she couldn't move, and seeing her teammates -- seeing one of her teammates, because let's be real, she really only had one teammate and then several assholes she also worked with -- gave her an idea.

An idea that she'd been working on via text message ever since, and was about to come to fruition here and now as she half-watched American Ninja Warrior and casually convincing herself that she could totally beat the dude on the screen's time (and she and Diego would absolutely destroy at the team version of this show, thanks for asking), and her phone gave a little buzz.

And when Annie looked at her screen, she couldn't suppress her smile at seeing that begrudging, all-lowercase answer. fine. "We're gonna have a visitor this weekend."

And now to convince her she didn't have to wear her breastplate.

[for the guy!]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Convenient for him," Annie noted, reaching to lightly thread her fingers through Diego's. "Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll come looking for money again."

Klaus' need for money seemed like such a force that it might actually supersede time travel nonsense.

[knife_bender]

Diego shook his head. "I don't want to get my hopes up. Best to just accept they're gone for now."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie wilted just the teeniest bit. Diego's approach may have been the more realistic one, but she kind of lived in a keeping-her-hopes-up kind of space, anyway -- even if she was spending pretty much all her time these days going back and forth between worrying about him and trying to pretend she wasn't. "I'll just keep my hopes up for everyone, then," she replied quietly, leaning over to press a soft kiss to his cheek. "Do you want me to tell Maeve not to come? It's not, like, a great time."

Much though the distraction might be welcome.

[knife_bender]

"No, she should come," he assured her. "It'll be a good distraction."

And he felt like he was already bringing Annie down lately.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Only kind of. She'd rather be brought down by him than to see Diego try to fake his way through being cheerful for her.

"Maybe she'll have some ideas," she added, shrugging a shoulder. "I mean, not that we have time travel where I'm from, but she's resourceful." A pause, and, "And maybe she can help me plan your party."

The party that was in every way a good idea.

[knife_bender]

"You're doing an awful lot of planning," he noted.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Parties take planning," Annie countered. "At least, if you want them to be good, they do. You didn't see all the planning that went into that Christmas party."

Not that this was going to be on the scale of the Christmas party, of course.

[knife_bender]

"You know you don't have to go all out, right?" he said. "It's not like I have anything to compare it to."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yeah, I know, but that's also why I want to," Annie replied, tracing her thumb along the inside of his wrist. "Because you don't. And you deserve to be celebrated."

Five was debatable.

[knife_bender]

"Okay," he said, pressing a kiss against her jaw. "I'm just saying, I'll be impressed by anything you do."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I just want you to have a nice birthday," Annie replied, smiling. "It's important to me."

Which, Annie would eventually come to admit, might not be possible. But goddamn it, she would try.

"I tried to find a place that would decorate a cake with knives, but no dice so far."

[knife_bender]

He smiled slightly. "You'd think there would be an influx due to Halloween coming up."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I could probably get something really tacky and gory with, like, a knife stabbed into the cake with blood frosting," Annie replied thoughtfully, shifting closer to press a kiss to his neck. "But I want it to be classy. You deserve it."

Five was getting a margarita cake. Annie knew of about three things Five liked, and with Dolores gone, she was down to two.

[knife_bender]

"When people think Diego Hargreeves the word 'classy' definitely comes to mind," he said with a grin.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, I could go in the other direction," Annie replied, lifting a brow. "Karaoke. Get a piñata. Hire a clown to do balloon animals. But I thought a grown-up party was more your vibe."

...actually, a piñata wasn't a bad idea at all.

[knife_bender]

"You really want me and Five to be armed with bats?" he asked.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"...I would be willing to supply one bat," Annie said carefully, "because that's how piñatas work. And it's your birthday."

Surely everyone could put aside their disagreements and resentment for a day, right?

[knife_bender]

...sure they could.

"It's still Five." Because Diego wasn't the problem here at alllllllll.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"And it's still you," Annie replied with the sincerity of someone wearing some serious love-goggles as she draped her arm around his midsection. "And I think a reason to relax might do you both some good."

It would do something, all right.

[knife_bender]

"Relaxing would be nice." He wasn't really sure if a birthday party was the way to achieve that, but he had had a pretty nice time at the Christmas rager. "And you're having fun with this too, right?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, I'm having fun planning something nice for you, yes." This party wasn't really about her so much as giving Diego something nice to focus on and relaxing him, and if Annie thought about that for about a second longer she'd realize that if that were really true, then a birthday party wasn't really the answer here. "And it's giving me a little project since I'm off work."

Off work for no reason that had nothing to do at all with her sticking around the island for his benefit. (And as it was, Ashley had been sending her remote projects to do. She had photoshoot proofs for Wish to look at, at some point.)

[knife_bender]

"I'm glad you decided to stick around." Because, yeah, he knew the reason she was really off work.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie gave him a soft little smile, trailing her fingertips lightly along one of his arms. The actual, physical clinginess hadn't really dissipated much in the last couple of weeks, either. "It probably won't last," she admitted. "Especially once the video's done. But I'm glad I've been able to shuffle stuff around as much as I have been so I can be here. It's worked out well."

And by 'worked out well,' she meant that she personally had fought with her manager on no fewer than five occasions regarding how many days per week they needed her in New York, and whether she could Zoom into meetings at that V-shaped table.

[knife_bender]

"I can't wait until that video comes out." Look, he saw the costume and heard the song separately. He needed to see it all pulled together with the CGI Translucents.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I can," Annie replied, but that was probably obvious. "Once it's out there, I'll probably have to do it live. Starlight in concert. You'll probably get to see the wig again."

And the butt pad.