defenderofdesmoines | MHA #2 | Late, late Friday night

Annie missed sleeping all the way through the night.

It still happened occasionally, but the restlessness and bad dreams that had started up in the spring hadn't ever really gone away -- they'd just improved as she'd felt safer and less stressed out. And sure, there were things that tended to help -- she'd slept wonderfully in Australia, and there were plenty of times she was just so exhausted for one reason or another that she just fell into bed and didn't wake up until the alarm went off the next morning.

But there were still times like tonight, when Annie had woken up out of a light doze and stared at the ceiling for way too long before creeping out of bed (quiet enough to not wake Diego, she hoped) and padding out into the kitchen. It wasn't any one thing so much as a dozen little things -- worry about work, of course, and whether the next time she stepped into the tower would be the time Homelander just fucking lost it. Concerns about how Summer was doing off in space (like, obviously she was amazing, and Annie would never tell her this, but she was praying for her anyway.) Missing her mom, now that they barely talked.

And, of course, the thing she thought about all the time now, because it was inescapable: there were five people lost in time, and she couldn't do anything about it. And while Annie did her best to keep a positive outlook there for Diego's -- and Five's -- sake, it was exactly the kind of thing that liked to sneak up on her in the middle of the night and remind her that she should worry.

So that was why she was taking her little bag of Almond Joy miniatures and wandering over to the guest room door, listening close for movement within before tapping lightly on the door.

[for one!]

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He wasn't sleeping, you were sleeping.

Five startled awake from his dozing sitting up with a book in his lap. "Yes?" The knocking continued to be weird to him.

He was a guest in her home! Annie wasn't going to just barge in, God.

Annie stuck her head in, looking from Five and his book over to the super intimidating board she didn't understand. "Sorry, did I wake you? I'm just up and wanted to see if you were."

Well, maybe next time she made her insanity board, she'd get on his level.

"I'm awake," he said, rubbing his eyes. Thank god he was young enough to handle this.

"You don't have to be," Annie noted, kind of amused as she stepped into the room and went over to look at the board. "It's not a normal time to be up, I'm just -- I couldn't sleep."

And so here she was, stress-eating candy and trying to make a friend. She held the bag out to him. "Almond Joy?"

Five narrowed his eyes at the candy for a moment before accepting it. Annie was basically as far from the Handler as could be, after all.

"Thank you," he said, peeling it open. "What's got you up?"

Annie wished she was that stylish. She'd rock the hell out of a birdcage veil.

She waved vaguely at his board. "Worry. This happens -- I wake up, I start thinking, I can't go back to sleep, I go eat candy."

Diego, of course, had no idea. Or, at least, Annie didn't think he did, but she also didn't really consider what a light, paranoid sleeper he was and thus how he probably totally knew and just humored her.

"Do you think you're getting closer?" she asked hopefully. "No pressure. Just curious."

"What has Diego told you about this?" Because he'd break the news about the power of familial love or whatever.

"Not a lot," Annie replied, shrugging. "Just that you're working on it." And Annie herself had mostly been focused on the emotional side of things, rather than the nitty-gritty-technical side. "It seems like you guys might have talked or something while I was gone, though?"

Or at least, made up to a degree that no one was going to start another fight and knock over furniture. Probably.

Five sighed, settling back a little. "We've come up with a hypothesis about why I was able to teleport us all in the first place."

And it was hokey as hell.

"Okay," Annie replied, looking interested as she unwrapped another Almond Joy. "I didn't know it was that hard for you to do multiple people."

Granted, her experience had been on more of a one-on-one basis, and hadn't really involved time travel, strictly speaking.

"Teleporting people through space isn't the same as time," Five said with a dismissive little wave. "But I was somehow able to do it on the fly. When it took me decades to manage it on my own before then."

Ugh, this was the worst.

"Our father always told us that we were stronger together and I think he might have meant literally."

Annie was gonna need a minute with this, hang on. "Like, your powers are literally stronger around your siblings?" she asked slowly, skeptical. "Just yours?"

It would be kind of hard to tell if Diego's improved, probably. How do you have extra perfect aim? Especially since Annie just thought he was preternaturally agile thanks to ballroom dancing lessons or whatever.

Edited 2021-10-08 13:59 (UTC)

"Probably all of us," Five replied. "Klaus sure as hell couldn't manifest anyone before."

"I heard about Ben," Annie said softly, nodding. And frankly, she was still kind of in awe over that. (Less in awe over how he had been around the whole time and had been in that backseat with Klaus, probably, sigh.) "But also Diego said that Klaus talked to your dad, and that seems impressive."

But, like...okay, really?

"So you guys are...you're literally stronger together?" she asked, slowly smiling. "The answer is teamwork?"

Y'all were right: she was never, ever going to let this go.

"More like physical proximity to each other," Five said, really trying his best to kill her joy over this. It wasn't going to work, but there he was anyway.

"So would, like, hugging help?"

No, Five, you made it worse.

"No." Well, maybe.

"So if you try to find the others with Diego, you think you'll be more successful?" Annie asked, trying to follow along. "That's promising."

And it made her worried, selfishly, for Diego, but what else was new? She was kind of always worried about Diego, these days.

She was also offering out more candy because of that hugging comment. (Even if she actually thought she might be on to something, there.)

"I think that Diego and I will... recharge each other's batteries. Or overcharge them. I'm not sure if that's possible without the others, though." He had theories, Annie. So many theories! Half the white board was those insane theories.

Also, look at him trying to communicate. Kinda.

"I love that," Annie told him sincerely. "You guys can literally make each other better. That's kind of beautiful."

And it was the first scrap of hope they'd had in awhile, so she was all about it.

She paused, clearly trying to decide whether to ask something else, and then just going for it. "Do you think they're okay? Wherever they are?"

"If we can get this right, no time should have even passed for them." No one better have started a cult if that doesn't work.

"That's what I keep thinking!" Annie felt super validated by her very basic grasp on time travel, yes. "Like, that seems like it's the point, that you can get right to wherever they are. Whenever they are."

And she was just gonna press her luck, if he was communicating. "You must be really worried about them. I would be." But she would, you know, show it. In a non-feral way.

"They're my family, of course I am." He just didn't know how to show it in a normal human way. "Vanya... Vanya especially. She was always my favorite sibling growing up."

Not in a creepy Luther and Allison way.

And look at how pushing worked this time! Maybe because he was tired. Or maybe because of the candy bribe.

"She was really kind to me at your dad's funeral," Annie shared with a little smile. "I liked her a lot. Like, way more than I was expecting to, after the book and everything."

She still liked Vanya a lot! She just also was...kind of afraid of her. Just a little. Going through a wall and hearing about how she blew up the moon could do that.

"The book," Five said, taking his time with his Almond Joy. "I have to wonder if she would have still written it if Ben and I were there."

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MHA #2 | Late, late Friday night

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