MHA #2 | Tuesday Morning

[defenderofdesmoines]

For those of you playing at home: no, Annie had not yet found her engagement ring.

To be fair to her, she had found nine of the decoy boxes by now, which she thought was pretty damn impressive, thank you. She had them neatly lined up in the guest room, next to the previously well-organized white board that now boasted an increasingly untidy list of the found decoys' locations and of crossed-out rooms she'd searched. Organizing her thoughts had been a good idea, but as the search had worn on, Annie's patience with keeping things neat had frayed a bit.

That was also true in a more literal sense, as their apartment was a disaster by now. She'd pulled bookshelves out from walls, and books off of those shelves. Half of her and Diego's drawers were pulled out of their dressers and counters and sitting on the floor. She'd emptied the bathroom's medicine cabinet and left everything from her backup bottles of conditioner to the first aid kit sitting out, just so she didn't mistakenly retrace her steps.

It didn't help that she'd had pause her search to work yesterday for Memorial Day -- though on the bright side, she'd managed to confer with Maeve (read: whisper frantically at Maeve while they both made wistful faces next to various monuments in DC), and that had led to some untapped ground at her teammate's suggestion.

"Oh my God, I see a box!" Annie yelled from on top of a stepladder in their bedroom, shining an illuminated hand into an air vent. Nine decoys in, and you'd think the excitement would have worn off. And it had a little, in the sense that Annie didn't feel like she might faint every time she found one, at least. (The minute she found a box that made a noise when she shook it, though? Different story.)

[for the guy!]

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[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, lots of stuff," Annie replied thoughtfully, angling her head to accommodate him as she trailed her hands along his arms. Getting to enjoy Diego in short sleeves was one of the few perks of summer, and she lightly traced the fingers one of one hand up under his sleeve, brushing her fingertips against the scar from when she'd cauterized his shoulder last year. "All your clothes, for the most part. I should check the breast pockets of both your oran...."

No, wait.

Wait, there was totally something she never used. Well, she used it on him, but --

Annie pulled back, her sentence trailing off and eyes going wide as she brushed her fingers against his scar again. And without a word, she turned and started off towards the bathroom, slow and quiet in contrast to when she'd torn off to the kitchen a couple days ago.

[knife_bender]

This time Diego did get a flutter of nerves as she raced off. Because, yeah, she had found all ten decoys, there was really only one option left.

He got up from the couch and followed after her, unable to contain his excitement this time around. It was just impossible to keep a straight face at this point.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Once Annie arrived in the bathroom, she found exactly what she'd been looking for right away. She'd left it out when she'd searched the bathroom earlier, after all.

She carefully opened the first aid kit, already pushing past the way her stomach was doing a little flip and her knees felt unsteady. For the first time since she'd found that first box in the fern, she knew it would be real this time if she'd figured it out.

And there, nestled in with the gauze and the bandages and the antiseptic, was another little velvet ring box. "Oh my God."

[knife_bender]

"Well would you look at that." Diego leaned against the doorframe, trying to act like he wasn't practically vibrating from nerves right now.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie carefully -- reverently, even -- pulled the box out of the first aid kit, looking helplessly up at Diego.

"I," she started, her mind not providing anything to come after that, having gone completely blank save for a blaring klaxon of nerves. Her voice was kind of unsteady and scratchy out of nowhere, too. "Um. I -- do you...?"

She was not actually shaking this box, because she knew she didn't need to, but her hand was trembling as she held it up towards him, unsure. Did he want to open it? Should she open it? Maybe he had a plan?

Annie had never been this nervous in her life. Even if she knew both the question and the answer that were coming, it didn't change the fact that everything was about to change for them.

[knife_bender]

Diego took the box from Annie's hand, being gentle with it. He looked down at the box, suddenly drawing a blank on what was next. He had been rehearsing it in his head for, oh, months now, but now the time was actually here.

"You ready?" He was aware they were in a bathroom right now. Did that sort of thing matter?

[defenderofdesmoines]

Impulsively, Annie leaned up and kissed him quickly. Just kind of as a -- reassurance?

This was irrevocable and huge and life-changing. It didn't matter if they'd talked about it together for months, or practiced what they'd say (because Annie had, too.) And it didn't matter if they were in the bathroom. (Frankly, they'd had some amazing times in this bathroom. It was as good a place as any.)

"I'm ready." And already primed to burst into tears at any second, but ready.

[knife_bender]

It was okay; he was probably going to cry too. Tell no one.

Diego got down on one knee--he knew that was a must--and opened up the box. The ring was in no way to everyone's taste--it was huge for one thing, and more than a little gaudy. But as soon as he saw it he knew Annie would love it.

"Annie January," Diego started. "will you marry me?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

The ring nearly did her in.

Not the size or the diamonds -- like, it was beautiful and perfect and maybe honestly kind of deadly between how big it was and how sharp it looked. But just the fact that it was gold and white and a star was just....

It felt like being seen, just like when he'd had that action figure made for her, well before every toy manufacturer in her own universe was pouring gold plastic into injection molds.

"Of course I will, Diego," Annie murmured, swallowing hard and blinking away tears that were already making it hard to talk in spite of how hard she was smiling. And maybe she actually needed to say the word? "Yes."

[knife_bender]

Diego immediately broke out into a grin, standing up to put his arms around her. Like, he knew the answer would be yes but hearing it was still a relief.

He'd put the ring on her finger in a second, first he needed to just hold her for a moment.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I love you. I love you so much." It felt like that needed to be said -- even if, you know, it totally went without saying -- as Annie slipped her arms around him.

She was also kind of crying for real now, too. Unmistakably happy tears, yes, but between the anticipation of the last couple days paying off and being completely overwhelmed with her feelings for Diego, they were also unmistakably necessary tears at the moment.

[knife_bender]

"I love you too," Diego murmured, burying his face against her neck. There were tears happening here, too. "Worth the wait?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yes." Annie would have told him he -- and the proposal, and the ring -- was worth waiting much, much, much longer for, but she was not at her most poetic at the moment. "So worth it. You actually got down on one knee!"

Somehow that had been surprising. Maybe because she'd been hunting for her engagement ring for two days and hadn't expected him to veer back into charming tradition once she'd found it.

[knife_bender]

"Well, yeah, it's what I was supposed to do." He didn't want to mess anything up! "Can I see your hand?"

He didn't think he needed to specify which one.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh my God," Annie murmured, mostly just incredulous this was even happening, still. But she obediently held out her left hand, splaying her fingers so it would be easy to get the ring on.

Hopefully it fit. She hadn't put on any of her usual half-dozen rings in the hopes that she'd have a new one to accessorize with, and that assumption was paying off.

[knife_bender]

Man, he hoped it fit. Or at least was just slightly too big. Anything but too small, since he had a mighty need to see it on her hand.

He took the ring out of the box and gently slid it onto her left finger. This also felt like A Big Deal.

[defenderofdesmoines]

It fit beautifully. Like, miraculously so. Annie gave her fingers an experimental little wiggle, breathing out a happy little sigh as she swiped at her eyes with her other hand. "Diego, it's gorgeous. It's perfect. A star."

Like, subtle, it was not. But it was her.

[knife_bender]

"I thought you'd like it," Diego said, pleased with himself. "Allison was trying to get me to go for subtle, but I know you better than that."

Klaus, of course, thought it could be bigger.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Allison hasn't seen me in uniform." Once she did, it would probably make a lot more sense. "And the first aid kit was the perfect spot to hide it -- oh my God, I'm so dumb, I don't know how you didn't tell me when I was in here hours ago and just ignored it." Annie was still mostly addressing her ring, holding her hand out so she could admire it through the occasional stray tear, but she tilted her head up to beam at Diego. "You're amazing. I'm so lucky to be marrying you."

Saying it out loud! Probably going to say it out loud a lot for awhile, just for the novelty of hearing each other say it.

[knife_bender]

That was something he wasn't going to get tired of any time soon. Actually hearing her say it was kind of making him blush, shh.

"Guess we have a new use for that whiteboard, huh?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

Oh, God, that blush was so cute Annie might actually just collapse from it.

"Yeah." Realization dawned over Annie's face as she murmured, "We're going to have to plan a wedding. Oh, God, it's going to be so fun."

And now she was going up on her toes to kiss him again, both hands coming up to cup his face. Everything was overwhelming right now, but she didn't need to worry about planning a wedding or getting a dress or even considering the press ramifications of all of this. Right now, she just needed to kiss her fiancé.

[knife_bender]

Diego was going to definitely blush again when he heard fiancé out loud, so be ready for that.

Right now though, he was going to enjoy kissing his fiancée, reaching for her left hand so he could feel the ring there. That novelty was also going to take awhile to wear off.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I actually get to marry you," Annie murmured between kisses, gently twining her fingers with his and enjoying how he was clearly so pleased to see (and feel) the ring on her hand. "This is so surreal. I've been thinking about it forever."

Like, seriously. They'd started talking about this in September, and that was just when everyone started saying the scary words out loud. They'd both been thinking about this for...a year? (Maybe longer, if Annie was really honest with herself.)

[knife_bender]

"Me too," he said, laughing softly. "Thank god you found that ring today, I wasn't sure how much more waiting I could take."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Well, whose fault is that?" Annie teased fondly, still honestly really proud of all his various hiding spots. She leaned up to press a kiss to his jaw, because this was one of those times where it was just going to be hard for her to conceive of a moment when she'd want to stop touching him. "Most creative proposal ever."

Sure, sure, Maeve had used the words, 'fucking insane,' but all her other friends were going to be so jealous, probably.