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

[knife_bender]

"I wouldn't know anything about that," he lied. Badly.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh no, not you," Annie agreed, giving the arm around his shoulders a little squeeze. "Maybe it's more accurate to say that this might be why I'm good at seeing Maeve's intentions for what they are."

Annie was kind of getting a lot of practice at that, these days, between watching Diego with his siblings, and dealing with Five in general, and working with Maeve.

[knife_bender]

"You should be an expert by now," he murmured, leaning in for another kiss.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Maybe kind of," Annie murmured into the kiss, because yeah. Even if she didn't have to do a lot of interpreting when it came to how Diego acted with her, clearly.

But then, Annie was generally inclined to be just as transparently affectionate back, even if she hadn't known he especially needed it right now. She trailed her fingertips along his neck as she hummed into the kiss, just enjoying being close for the moment.

[knife_bender]

One thing he didn't regret about this whole mess was the affection that came after. He knew that eventually things would have to go back to semi-long distance, but he was taking advantage of this now.

So, yes, he was with her in savoring the closeness and just enjoying kissing right now.

[defenderofdesmoines]

The impetus for the affection -- the worry, the terror that there would be a finite number of times they could do this, the uncertainty -- that stuff, Annie could do without. But there totally was something to how all of that stress made the act of just making out on the couch something kind of special.

"We're missing out on all kinds of ninja warrior antics now," Annie murmured, not bothering to look and gauging that entirely off the sounds she could hear as she shifted to draw herself a little closer to him.

[knife_bender]

"Is that a complaint?" he asked, leaning in to press a few kisses against her jaw.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Definitely not. But I don't know if they need to soundtrack us," Annie replied softly, which meant that she was gonna show off for you, Diego. Her eyes lit up for just a brief flash as she concentrated, and the television neatly clicked off.

And now with the ninja warrior antics silenced, Annie shifted a little in his lap so she could straddle him, her arms going around his shoulders a little more tightly to compensate.

[knife_bender]

"I love when you do that," he said with a grin. "And not just because it reminds me of other times your eyes light up."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"There's something to be said for being able to turn off the TV without having to move from your lap," Annie noted, teasing a little as she leaned in to press a kiss near his ear. "Though don't think I'm not really grateful you like the eye thing."

The alternative was keeping them shut a lot, probably? So as not to freak him out? And that would just be weird and sort of difficult to maintain in the long term, so Annie was very glad that he liked it -- regardless of whether they lit up in a climactic context, or a fighting context, or just a I-don't-want-to-move-from-your-lap context.

[knife_bender]

"People who don't like the eye thing are nuts," Diego said, giving her another kiss. "I wish I had a cool eye thing."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Most people who see the eye thing are about to be on the receiving end of something pretty bad," Annie pointed out, smiling into the kiss.

But it wasn't like she didn't know perfectly well that that was part of what worked about it for him. Like, sure, sure, obviously her eyes lit up when she came, yeah. But fighting was also kind of like foreplay for them, so. That was a thing, too.