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

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I think you've got that needle pretty well-threaded," Annie assured him, her smile turning a little dreamy at 'husband,' even in this context. "Trust me, I'll let you know if it's not welcome. But if we're going to be talking about stuff that involves you, I think it's only fair that you get a voice."

It was kind of the most important thing to her, in all of this stuff with Diego and the press: his needs, his privacy, and his personal autonomy all remaining totally respected and as intact as possible.

[knife_bender]

"Makes sense," he said as he tugged her zipper the rest of the way down. "Good thing I only work one day a week. Can be in plenty of meetings."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I can think of so many things to do with your non-working days besides wasting them on meetings," Annie replied, slipping off her bracers and then working her sleeves off her shoulders as she turned a little to kiss him over her shoulder.

But it was nice having her relationship with Diego and her work life actually sort of...blend. And more seamlessly than she'd expected, so far.

[knife_bender]

"Oh yeah?" he asked, trying for innocence and failing. "Such as?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Riding rollercoasters. Training for when we eventually go on American Ninja Warrior," Annie replied, punctuating each suggestion with a soft kiss. "Spending the whole day in bed with me."

Or not in bed, as the case often was.

[knife_bender]

"All great ideas," he said before kissing her again. "But I'm leaning towards the last one right about now."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie gave an appreciative hum, shifting so she could face him and actually deepen the kiss in lieu of a reply.

And you know what? Diego's genius might have been rubbing off on her, because lo and behold, Annie was slipping a hand down his chest to pre-emptively start on his pants. Before they even got close to making it difficult!

[knife_bender]

Diego made a pleased hum of approval, because that was some forward thinking that they rarely participated in. He started to gently tug down her dress, knowing that there would still be some tulle and tights in the way. Still, it was progress.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Honestly, they deserved applause. Maybe when everyone's hands weren't so busy.

Annie wriggled a bit to help a little with the whole tulle factor, but she might have admittedly been a smidge distracted with getting Diego's pants undone. But once she had that accomplished, she eagerly slid her hand against the skin of his hip, teasingly tracing her thumb along the waist of his shorts as she leaned up to kiss him.

[knife_bender]

"Your assignment in this was way easier than mine," Diego teased as he managed to push the tulle down.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You can get me back by wearing your tactical gear next time," Annie returned, shifting so she could kiss his neck while she gave a much more intentional wiggle of her hips to send the tulle to the floor.

Also, because she liked his tactical gear a lot, even if it was a lot harder to get off of him than people clothes.

[knife_bender]

"It has been awhile since we've done that," he murmured, sliding his hands over Annie's ass. Just assessing the tights, really.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Oh, sure. Annie was also doing a little assessing as she went ahead and pushed Diego's pants down, simultaneously giving his collarbone a bite.

Not anywhere that would be immediately visible, today. For once, she actually kind of cared about keeping it discreet when she marked him up.

[knife_bender]

There was another little grunt of pleasure at the bite. He hooked his fingers into her tights, pushing them down impatiently.

This must be a record for how quickly they managed to get clothes off.

[defenderofdesmoines]

It only took about a million tries before they managed to be vaguely efficient about it.

And it was still only vaguely, considering Annie was much more occupied with sucking a bruise into the skin she'd just bitten than she was with gracefully getting out of her tights. She did manage to shove them down further, between one impatient hand and an even more impatient foot, and like...there just wasn't really a sexy way to take off a pair of tights, unfortunately, even under the best and most focused of circumstances.

(Maybe she needed to consider a version of the uniform with stockings. That would have a lot of perks, actually.)

[knife_bender]

Hey, ripping them off was hot and efficient, but they could only go through so many pairs of tights.

"Need some help?" he teased lightly.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Almost got it," Annie promised, moving a hand up to Diego's shoulder so she could balance on one foot and kick off her tangled ball of tights. "This thing really does come off best with teamwork."

Much like with the zipper, the tights were occasionally an even clumsier production when she did this solo.

[knife_bender]

"Well we do excel at teamwork." Now was him leaning over to nip at the hand she had on his shoulder teamwork? Probably not.

[defenderofdesmoines]

It was close enough to teamwork. Or at least, Annie could have probably found an argument for it being teamwork-adjacent if she wasn't so busy responding to that little nip to her hand with a soft, pleased noise in her throat.

She leaned up to kiss Diego, a bit more aggressive about it now that they were both a little less encumbered by clothing, and wound her opposite hand up into his hair to immediately tangle her fingers there.

[knife_bender]

He was never going to get tired of her hands in his hair. Diego pulled her closer, wrapping one of his arms around her hips as he kissed her.

Look at how close they were to being naked, and they were still standing! A miracle indeed.

[defenderofdesmoines]

It probably helped that they could be pressed close while nearly-naked, all things considered. Unlike when they attempted to undress midstream while lying down, they could actually multitask this way.

Annie bit playfully at his lower lip as she arched up against him, going up on her toes to better knot her hand in his hair.

[knife_bender]

“You know,” Diego started, “if every interview we do ends like this I will do a couple a day, just say the word.”

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, I feel pretty comfortable saying that that seems likely," Annie admitted, smiling as she kissed him again. "Just knowing us."

Everything from beating up criminals to attempting to cook a frozen pizza tended to end up like this, for them.

[knife_bender]

“We do have our habits,” he admitted, moving to shuffle them over towards the bed. “Which are the best habits, by the way.”

There were way worse coping mechanisms out there!

[defenderofdesmoines]

"They are. I was kinda hoping they'd be lifelong habits," Annie admitted, allowing herself to be shuffled until the backs of her knees hit the bed.

Look, they hadn't left the honeymoon phase yet. It seemed unlikely to happen...like, for awhile. Maybe not until one of them was somehow hindered by age, at least?