Vought Tower | Wednesday Afternoon

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie's enormous gold-and-white apartment was almost quiet for the first time in over two hours, now that she was gently all but pushing Ashley, Seth and Evan out the door. Her face hurt from smiling, her brain was tired from answering questions and leaping swiftly though conversational hoops before someone said something that could bite either of them in the ass later, and she wanted to get the fuck out of this uniform and take stock of how her fiancé was feeling, please.

But Vought was Vought, so. "I think this is going to turn out, like, so fucking great, Starlight," Ashley was saying, consulting the VoughtPad she was carrying with the rough coverage of the interview on it. "Spread looks great, you both look hot as hell, interview was perf -- this is going to be so good with, like, women between 15 and 45."

"Romance of the century," Evan added, glancing over Annie's shoulder at Diego with an assuring wave of his hand.

"So down-to-Earth," Seth added, looking from Annie to Diego and back again. "The girl next door with superpowers bringing her man home to meet her fans." He actually clasped a hand to his heart.

That was Annie's cue to actually give these people a physical push now, one hand on Seth's back as she steered them out the door and thanked them for coming before Ashley could say something racist to Diego again. (Annie was trying to nip that in the bud, but there had been a few times where all she'd been able to do was direct the interviewer not to use that comment and shoot Diego an apologetic look.)

And as soon as the door was shut and it was silent again, Annie leaned back against the door and closed her eyes for a moment before looking over towards Diego. "That...went okay?"

It had gone shockingly okay, by her standards, but if he disagreed then she'd make sure it went different next time.

[for the other person who's gonna be on the cover of People next Tuesday.]

Comments

[knife_bender]

"My face hurts," Diego said, rubbing his cheeks. So much smiling. The most smiling he had done since...he was a kid posing for magazine covers, probably.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yeah." Annie was more than a little sympathetic. "Try doing, like, weird faces to stretch it out, it kinda helps."

Even if it didn't, the demonstration Annie was doing of what she meant might have.

[knife_bender]

Diego copied that movement, realizing that this was probably the first of many times he'd have to fake smiles for hours.

"The smiling didn't look too fake, right?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"We'll get to see the proofs before they publish and we'll pick the smiles that look the least fake," Annie promised him, crossing over so she could flop tiredly onto the very couch they'd been sitting on for that interview.

Granted, her posture earlier had been a lot different.

"Are you okay? That was okay?" she checked, a skosh worried in spite of, again, how well that had gone. (Casual racism and commodification of their relationship from Ashley aside.)

[knife_bender]

"It definitely could have gone worse," he said, flopping down next to her. "They could have brought your team members in for color commentary."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"We'll get plenty of that in the next few months," Annie assured him, reaching over to lightly run a hand over his arm. They'd been pretty cuddled up for the interview, which had felt both natural and weird because the photographer had kept asking them to move a hand here or an arm there. It was nice to just touch him again without anyone telling her to make sure she wasn't blocking an angle. "Though hopefully not that much, since I don't really want to invite anyone but Maeve."

That was a nice thought. Annie hadn't been strongarmed into attending Deep's wedding -- for some reason -- so maybe the three current members of her team who had actually physically attacked her could stay off the guest list.

[knife_bender]

"Oh we definitely get final say in who is attending our wedding," Diego said. "I will be a groomzilla about it if you want so you don't catch heat."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"We can be co-zillas," Annie decided, smiling genuinely at the idea. "I've never heard of a groomzilla, but I'm super into it."

She shifted a little closer, sighing. "You did a good job. Proud of you."

She'd been really kind of worried about this whole thing, honestly. Mostly due to feeling really guilty about dragging Diego into the spotlight when she knew he'd rather avoid it.

[knife_bender]

"Like riding a bike," Diego said, sighing. "Ashley is...a lot."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"She was more okay before she got promoted," Annie offered, a little sad that that anxious woman seemed to be gone and replaced with an even more high-strung version. "I should have realized they'd be...gross about you. Especially since they're trying to, like, make up for Stormfront."

But they'd also always been gross about Alex, too.

[knife_bender]

"Yeah gotta admit, I didn't see that coming." But considering how close the Nazi incident was, it made sense. "Thanks for shutting it down so fast."

So fast, in fact, that it didn't give Diego time to lose his temper.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It's something I'll have to keep an eye on," Annie replied apologetically, clearly wishing she could just make it stop but -- well. They both knew the company she worked for better than that. "I should've seen it coming, really. They made a big deal of Elena being Latina when she was with Maeve, too, and Alex -- Supersonic -- has always had to deal with shitty little comments, too."

And she wasn't really on close enough terms with A-Train to get a feel for what he dealt with from Vought, but it probably wasn't nice, either.

[knife_bender]

"Maybe they'll be more subtle now that they've gotten it out of the way?" Hahahah absolutely not.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh, I love you," Annie told him, smiling a little as she leaned over to kiss him.

Which meant, no, they would not. When had Vought ever been subtle?

But she would be on the lookout for it, now, and that would probably help.

[knife_bender]

Diego smiled into the kiss, happy that they could do this kind of thing naturally again. He would never get used to being posed by photographers, no matter how much Allison coached him. "You're so glittery right now."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yeah." Annie bumped her nose against his, blinking exaggeratedly to show off her very glittery makeup. "And so are you, thanks to proximity. Maybe a little less so."

That was kind of a perfect metaphor for how this whole going public thing was going so far, actually.

[knife_bender]

"Think I'm pulling the glitter look off?" he asked.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I think you pull most things off," Annie told him, leaning in for another kiss and be-glittering him further in the process. "Including glitter."

And that interview, despite her trepidation.

[knife_bender]

"Thank you," Diego said, smiling again. "I do feel like I need to wash whatever the hell the put on my face off though."

Diego, at most it was powder to keep your face from being too shiny, calm down.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You were such a good sport," Annie sighed, actually relaxing a little as she sighed out a breath and shifted on the couch so she could start pulling off her cape. "But yeah. I wanna get out of this glitter and like...all the way into sweatpants. That was a lot."

That was so much that there hadn't even been arguments when she'd asked to keep the rest of her day cleared. They'd have a meeting in the morning -- or, well, she did, but Diego was invited now, as he would be to a lot more of her meetings -- to go over Vought's proposed further press coverage of the engagement.

But for today, at least, they'd be left to their own devices, and that was all Annie wanted.

[knife_bender]

"Sweatpants sound nice," he admitted, reaching up to help her with her cape. "It was a lot, but less than I was expecting? The premiere will probably be worse with all the shouting."

And, you know. With the likes of Homelander there. That would also make it worse.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yeah, I'm glad we did it this way," Annie admitted, shrugging her cape off and shooting a smile over her shoulder at him for the help. So cute, always. "Like, we're still going to get pelted with questions at the premiere, but we got most of it out of the way. And I was able to stay with you the whole time through this."

Which would not be the case on any red carpet events, including the premiere, where he'd probably have to go make small talk with A-Train or Homelander while Annie took solo photographs or buddied up with Maeve for some girl power poses.

[knife_bender]

Ugh, he didn't know which one would be worse to small talk with. Maybe he'd go stand by Hughie and Victoria Neuman.

"Nothing else today though, right?" he asked. "Sweatpants and bed are next on the docket?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

God, you knew it was bad when Hughie was the best choice.

"Sweatpants and bed and making sure that door is locked," Annie agreed with a sigh, getting back to her feet to go ensure the deadbolt was in place and kick off her boots in the process. "I would not put it past Ashley to just barge in here to tell us how well we're already polling with focus groups."

...and that felt gross to say about something she cared about as deeply as she did her relationship with Diego. Ugh. It was different when it was, like, the movie or one of her shows.

[knife_bender]

"Of course we're going to poll well," Diego joked. "We both look hot as hell and our interview was perf."