MHA #2 | Friday Evening

[defenderofdesmoines]

So, given that Annie was planning on throwing a super-early Christmas party here in two weeks and that she and Diego would be gone next week to see her family, it was completely reasonable for the apartment to already be kind of festive, right?

Whatever, Annie said it was and would be taking no questions, thank you. She hadn't gone totally overboard yet (had to save something for when they got back from Iowa, obviously!), but she had totally just adopted the habit of putting Christmas music on when she was home, and burning a Christmas candle (it smelled like wonderful Christmas treats that neither she nor Diego were capable of baking!) and there was totally a little stack in the corner of the living room of deliveries that had already commenced for the party. The return of Christmas kegs!

Right now, she was taking things into her own hands and winding a few strings of lights through each of her several houseplants (now safely inside and off the balcony, where they'd remain for the winter), and taking extra care with the spider plant that she had no reason to think wasn't the original spider plant from last spring.

"You know what," she mused aloud, "I think the lights might need to be a permanent thing, because you guys are looking great."

[for the guy who gets to live in Santa's workshop for the next month and a half.]

Comments

[knife_bender]

Diego was sitting on the couch like the "this is fine" dog meme, only instead of being surrounded by fire, he was surrounded by Christmas cheer. "Babe..."

Uh oh. He was using the "I'm worried you've gone insane" codeword. To be fair, it smelled like gingerbread in here with no cookies in sight and she was talking to plants.

And this was only the start of it.

[defenderofdesmoines]

What? Talking to plants (fine, technically exhaling on them) was good for them!

And the rest of it was normal too! "What?" Annie replied, as though she didn't know perfectly well what that codeword meant or why he might be using it. "Did you want to do a string?"

She could share her project, Diego, you just had to ask.

[knife_bender]

"You know what? I'm good," he said. "I don't want to mess up and throw off the Christmas vibe."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You could never," Annie promised sincerely. "It's an inclusive Christmas vibe."

She gingerly took one of his knives out of one of the plants, working the lights around the fronds, and then replaced the knife gingerly with a little demonstrative raise of her eyebrows. "See?"

[knife_bender]

Okay, as much as he was trying to be cool guy who didn't care about this party, that did make him laugh. "You gonna wrap tinsel around the ones in the couch?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That might be a tad much," Annie decided, grinning over at him. "But no one complained about getting stabbed at your birthday, so they're probably in there good enough that we don't have to take them out, at least?"

But then again, last year's Christmas party had included a lot more sleeping-over, so the odds of some drunk sleepy person rolling over into a knife were probably a lot higher.

Oh well, people, you knew the risks. It was a dangerous Christmas rager this year!

[knife_bender]

Someone was for sure getting stabbed, but it'd be their own fault.

"Any deliveries I should be worried about?" he asked, eyeing the already large-to-him pile of packages in the corner of the room.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie traced his gaze before looking back at Diego and biting her lip.

"Worried?" she repeated. "I mean, none of them are gonna, like, explode or anything."

But there would be more, of course. Just ask Rey. There would be so many more.

[knife_bender]

"Are you sure?" he teased. "Not even explode with glitter?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, I can arrange that," Annie told him, wrapping up with her final plant and going over to join him on the couch. "I think Steve's still got my glitter cannon. But the glitter is traditional!"

If you did something once and wanted to do it again, it was a tradition, right?

[knife_bender]

"Do you remember how hungover you were last year?" Diego asked. "And you had to do all that cleaning?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It wasn't that big a deal with the vacuum. And I had a bunch of help," Annie said generously. Really the biggest issue had been that she had been so hungover she'd thrown up in the shower, and then she'd had to change a lightbulb, which had of course seemed impossible at the time. "But I don't think I'll do a keg stand this year. That was probably a mistake."

No 'probably,' it had definitely been kind of a nail in the severity-of-the-hangover coffin.

[knife_bender]

"I admire your restraint," Diego said. "Will we make out in the pantry again though?"

'Cause that had been nice.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It's tradition," Annie told him, teasing as she leaned up to press a kiss to his cheek. "As is a demonstration of your lockpicking skills."

Which, especially after running into Summer last night, she was kind of feeling maybe she really did need to learn, herself.

[knife_bender]

"Good," he said with a grin. "Then I will not complain about whatever hideous sweater you want to put me in."

Even if it meant endless teasing from Five, which was absent from last year.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You'll let me put you in a new one?" Annie asked, clearly both impressed and still kind of touched that she was afforded this privilege. "It was fun shopping for it last year, even if you tried to nix tinsel."

Oh yeah, Annie? Why was that? What made it fun? So subtle.

[knife_bender]

"Well you did a very good job convincing me that tinsel would be a good idea." And he was a pushover when it came to Annie's requests, hold your shock.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I was very convincing." It had probably had something to do with how she'd climbed into his lap for negotiations. Just spitballing, here. "So like, we clearly have to up the ante this year. I'm thinking maybe reindeer antlers and-or something with jingle bells."

So he would jingle every time he moved. Surely Diego would love that.

[knife_bender]

Diego pretended to think on that for a moment. "Hmm...what are you going to wear to make this worth my while?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Well, I had planned to just wear that little skirt with all the bows on it that I wore last year and like a sweater with a snowman or something," Annie mused, casually draping her legs across his lap. "But you know what, I'd be willing to let you pick out something worse in exchange for getting to choose your sweater. You've been patient."

And she also trusted him not to put her in anything too scandalous. (At least, not for public consumption.)

[knife_bender]

"I do like you in a skirt," he said, sliding one of his hands over her legs. "I like the idea of me picking out your sweater and you picking out mine."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Awww, that's cute. You're definitely getting jingle bells now, though," she decided, tempering that threat by leaning up for a kiss. "Or maybe one that lights up."

And it went without saying that it would, of course, be in a bright color.

[knife_bender]

Diego smiled into the kiss, knowing full well that it would be the most colorful sweater ever. "Five's not invited, in that case. At least not without a sweater of his own."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh, if Five tries to attend without a sweater, there'll be consequences," Annie assured him, snuggling close. "Summer and I'll have extras, just like last year. He gets to either put on a sweater or get glittered."

She'd chase your teleporting ass around this apartment with a glitter cannon, so help her, Five.

[knife_bender]

"I love that," he said, pressing a kiss against her jaw. "Either way I win."