Hotel Obsidian | Afternoon

[defenderofdesmoines]

You know, Annie led a life of pretty unique experiences. But watching her husband's alternate-universe son try to dislodge the spear that had recently killed her apparently (and thankfully) immortal brother-in-law from the wall of a pretty ugly hotel suite, while the world was ending, was...definitely a new one.

"So, I think we all learned something about gun safety, and how you should never point any kind of gun at a person, right?" she offered, glancing from Stanley's efforts up to Diego. She didn't really want to cross the line into lecturing the kid herself -- it did not feel like her place, but this seemed appropriately...responsible-nearby-adultish to say. "We were really lucky this time."

Like, Stanley could have been hanging out with one of his other, much-more-killable uncles when the harpoon went off, to start.

[for the husband and the AU stepkid, and NFB for distance, obviously! ETA - also going NWS omg]

Comments

[knife_bender]

"So lucky," Diego agreed as he watched Stanley struggle to get the harpoon out of the wall. "You know how many kids would wish their cool dead uncle would come back to life?"

Such a weird thing to say.

Seeing that Stan wasn't going to be able to do this himself Diego walked over and put his hands on the harpoon. "Together on three. One...two...three!"

The harpoon came out of the wall with a loud crack. Diego didn't notice at the time but it also pulled some of the wall art out slightly. Surely that wouldn't lead to some big misunderstanding later, right?

[defenderofdesmoines]

Ugh, the father-son teamwork involved here. Annie caught herself smiling softly at them, in spite of how...incredibly strange every single piece of this was.

They could figure this out. Diego already was, look at that.

"Nice work, you two," Annie congratulated them both, moving over to give Stanley a congratulatory high-five.

[knife_bender]

Diego found Annie high-fiving his kid pretty cute too. He was glad that she was handling this so well. Way better than he would if the tables were turned, probably.

"Okay, put all this stuff back where you found it," Diego said, handing him all of the bottles he had grabbed to dissolve Klaus' body. He kept piling things in his arms and on top of his head, causing him to laugh.

"And don't forget to take your ear medicine!" Diego called as Stan went out the door, arms full of bottles.

Bottles, again, that he planned on using to dissolve his uncle's dead body.

[defenderofdesmoines]

That was one of the cutest things Annie had ever seen. Ever. Ever.

In a way, though, it made her incredibly sad, given what they'd learned this morning. As good as Diego was at being a father right out of the gates, she wasn't sure she could, or should, tell him what she knew, anymore. What was the point in telling Diego that Stanley wasn't his only child in this universe, when the other one might never even be born?

"'Don't forget to take your ear medicine?'" Annie echoed, watching Stanley's exit before turning to Diego with an affectionate, questioning look. "Listen to you."

[knife_bender]

"You'd be saying the same thing if you saw what I saw," Diego said, making a grossed out face. "So nasty."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Ew," Annie agreed without needing further description, but that fond expression wasn't really going anywhere. "Poor kid, that's probably rough to deal with."

And in spite of how fucking weird all of this was -- Annie actually liked Stanley quite a bit. He was funny and smart and good at rolling with stuff, and...in a lot of ways, she could see Diego in him, now that she was allowing herself to look.

Mostly as far as his attitude. She remembered meeting thirteen year-old Diego, a couple years back.

[knife_bender]

"He's lucky he's cute," Diego said, moving to put his hands on her hips. This had been their first time alone in what? Days now? "You're pretty cute with him, you know."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh yeah?" Annie actually felt like she'd been pretty awkward with poor Stanley (not that she could be blamed, she felt like, but still) so that was nice to hear. Especially given that Annie was a little lacking in confidence as far as her own parenting capabilities. "I mean, you wanna talk about being cute with him -- you have no idea what you've been doing to me, here."

The way she was sliding her arms up around Diego's neck probably was a helpful indication that she didn't mean how, like, mad and confused she'd been at first.

[knife_bender]

"Oh?" Diego asked, lifting his eyebrows. "I'm not sure what you mean."

Judging by the look on his face, that was a lie.

[defenderofdesmoines]

God, she'd missed him.

All of this was difficult and confusing and frightening enough without the stupid moody wall Annie had purposely put between them for a little while. And maybe she could apologize for that? But an apology was going to lead into -- explaining. And there was going to be a time and a place for those explanations (or maybe there wouldn't be, what with the kugelblitz and how everything was hinging on a weird old man, at the moment), but it wasn't right now.

"Turns out," Annie replied, leaning up for a kiss, "you're kind of a DILF."

[knife_bender]

"The daddy thing doing it for you?" Diego teased before kissing her. "Lucky me."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Kinda." Kind of a lot, actually, and it would have before, but with the pregnancy and her non-kugelblitz-related concerns in play, his behavior was also a turn-on in a more romantic, security-granting way. She was getting another peek at a future she really hoped they'd get to have, where maybe they wouldn't lose themselves even if they had a kid or two.

But it was also, as the narrative said, how much she just missed him. They'd been sleeping apart! And kind of fighting a little! So Annie was going onto her toes and winding her arms tighter around Diego's neck as she needily deepened the kiss.

[knife_bender]

"Should I say something sexy?" Diego joked, sliding his hands down to the back of her thighs so he could lift her up. "Like go to your room or don't hit your sister?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie was all too willing to be lifted up, immediately wrapping her legs up around his waist for a little extra security.

Hopefully the door was locked, since no one was gonna go check on that now.

"That's hot," Annie decided between kisses, nipping at Diego's lower lip. "You're all authoritative."

[knife_bender]

"Who's your daddy?" he teased as he carried her over to the tacky bed.

[defenderofdesmoines]

That, actually, got him a breathless little laugh, even as much as all of this was really kind of doing it for Annie. "Oh, I fucking love you."

Also, while she was being carried here, you know what she could work on? His knife harness. That was called foresight, everyone.

[knife_bender]

"I love you," he replied, gently sitting her down on the bed so he could shrug off his conveniently undone knife harness. "What do you think--should we consider this décor after we buy our house?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh, for sure. What is with your universe and stuffed animal heads?" Annie wondered, because the buffalo was really kind of the focal point of this room. "But the pink walls are kind of...so tacky they're almost cool?"

Almost? And it was a very flattering lighting situation, with all the pink, which Annie certainly appreciated considering she was proactively pulling her shirt off now that she was safely deposited on this bed. (She was also, firmly, shoving away any thoughts about whether her body looked different, suddenly. She knew it didn't look any different from how it had on Monday, before she'd known she was pregnant. But, again, the flattering lighting was also not going unnoticed.)

[knife_bender]

"And the furry blankets, love it." There had been a sweet fur rug as well but, you know, Klaus had destroyed that with his blood.

Diego tossed his shirt aside before joining Annie on the furry blanket in question. If her body looked any different (it didn't), he certainly didn't notice.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, this whole place definitely has style," Annie observed, reaching for him pretty much as soon as Diego was back within reach. "God, I feel like I haven't even seen you since we got here."

Like, she had, but she'd also felt vulnerable and weird and sick, and he'd been preoccupied with Stanley (which, again, had now swung around to being something Annie liked a lot) and she'd bitten his head off a couple times, and she'd gotten herself kidnapped for a full day, so -- maybe it was reasonable for it to feel like that. Or, at least, for Annie to kind of need to reconnect right now, the way they usually did when things were like this.

[knife_bender]

"I know," he said, leaning down to kiss her again. "I've missed you."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I've missed you, too." And she was also sorry for her oversensitivity and being snappish, but for right now, she was just kind of pouring that apology into the way she kissed him back.

Everyone kind of hadn't been their best self since arriving here, anyway. "Maybe this can just be our room now."

Until they figured out the kugelblitz thing, or until it wasn't something they needed to worry about at all. One of the two.

[knife_bender]

"I like that idea," he murmured, pressing himself closer to her. "Dibs. There--it's ours."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That seems easy," Annie teased, pulling Diego closer (and not being shy about using her strength -- again: she'd missed him) with a sigh and draping her legs idly across his. "I was prepared to offer Chet all my Sparrow merch for this kind of privacy."

Peace, quiet, a chance to reconnect with Diego and maybe even talk after. Totally seemed worth giving up the whole tote bag, honestly.

[knife_bender]

"Can we burn that stuff?" Diego murmured, ducking his head down to kiss her neck.