MHA #4 | Friday Afternoon

[defenderofdesmoines]

You know, normally, when Annie had been thrown through something on the interdimensional fuckery scale like she had the past ten days (holy shit, it had not felt like that long), Summer would be her first stop just to try to make a little sense of what she'd been through with someone who got it.

But now that Annie had caught up on how much time had actually passed, and how much she'd missed, her own various issues were firmly in the backseat when she ventured across the hall with a pair of ice cream pints in a bag over one arm. She'd not only missed sangria night -- which was going to be a discussion they needed to have for multiple reasons -- but she'd missed sangria float night, which was supposed to be about Summer's breakup. Worst best friend ever, right here.

Hopefully Summer was around for a raincheck. Or the closest Annie's non-sangria-consuming self could come to one, anyway. So! Knocking, knocking -- chipper, perky, annoying-to-a-hungover-person, Annie-style knocking, la la la.

[for she whose apartment it is! and omg baby stuff is still NFB here!]

Comments

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Just do me a favor," said Summer, with a wave of an ice cream-laden spoon, "and promise you'll stop me if I ever get so pathetic that I actually start considering Leroy."

Yeah, she knew you were listening to all of this right now, you creepy little fucker.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"He's a squirrel," Annie reminded her helpfully. "I don't even know how that would work."

There was someone Annie was curious about, considering a conversation they'd had a few weeks back, but she also wanted to tread carefully just in case Summer had gone there.

"Have there been any, like, actual person-rebounds, though?" she asked, giving Summer a playful little nudge.

Two and a half weeks would not be enough time for Annie, but Annie was Annie, and Summer was Summer.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer'd had a relationship with a spaceship. She could probably make it work.

She wouldn't want to, of course, but she could.

And it probably went without saying then, that Summer's response was also very Summer:

"Not nearly enough," she said, with a sigh and a shake of her head.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You have, like, Tinder installed on your phone, right?" Annie checked. "I no longer have any bad-idea brothers-in-law in this universe, by the way. I mean, there's Five, but he's a million years old and missing an arm now."

Or very young, and missing an arm now. However you wanted to slice it (bah-dum-tss), he was not ideal casual hookup material. (Also, gross.)

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Annie," said Summer, with a look and a tone that suggested it was a good thing she loved her so much, otherwise she might need to be offended that she would have even suggested she didn't, "of course I do. I've been on it practically all week.

"But I was just thinking about asking about Klaus," she admitted, "so good instincts there. That's a shame, though. We could have been, like, sisters."

No, you would have probably ushered in another apocalypse somehow, if Fate ever actually allowed such an unholy union to occur.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Or started another cult! That had always been Annie's worry about a team-up, there.

"We're already like sisters," Annie decided, actually being sincere about it even if it was an offhand little comment. "But yeah, he's a little more than a text away now. My list of offerings as far as this goes has shrunk...significantly."

How did you feel about, like, obsessively-clean, burly divorced dads, Summer? MM seemed lonely, she could maybe see about making something work there.

[somethingwithturquoise]

You had her at burly.

"I fucking knew you were going to say something like that, you fucking nerd," said Summer, with a snort, grinning as she lifted her glass in a salute, "but? Truth."

She finished up the last of what was in her glass and made a tenuous reach for the pitcher for more without disturbing her ice cream set-up too much.

"But enough about me and my sad, sad love life," she declared. "Tell me more about this baaaaaaabbbby. And did you say Five is missing an arm?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie was totally on deck to help with that precarious setup, if anything started tipping. Like, never fear. It was her nerdy, faux-sisterly duty.

"Five is indeed missing an arm now. Diego was missing a few of his fingers for, like, a day, too," Annie confirmed. "And actually, it's kind of worse than that. Like, not for Five -- that's probably the worst thing for Five, but he's actually in pretty good spirits about it -- but everyone else lost their powers. Like, Diego got his fingers back, but he can't throw any better than me anymore. And they all lost their tattoos, and check it out." She reached up and tucked her hair behind her perfect, unpierced ear. "All part of the universe reset."

She dug into her ice cream with her spoon, letting that all sit for a second before adding, "Except the baby. The baby didn't reset. And it might be two babies."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Two?" asked Summer, brows lifting. "Two babies? But, Jesus, Annie, how fucking awful would that have been? Good job, you two." Summer toasted generally toward Annie's torso. "Way to stand your ground.

"How's Diego handling all that, though? Not having his powers? Wait, do you still have your powers?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I still have mine, because mine come from Compound V, I think," Annie confirmed with a nod. "Five has his, but lost the arm because he wasn't there for the reset part. And Diego's...he says he's fine?"

Which meant nothing, really, except that Diego said he was fine, and Annie wasn't gonna push too hard.

"But he's really excited about being a dad, and I think that distraction is helping," she added optimistically. "Oh, God, there was some crazy-ass bullshit with that I have to tell you about, holy shit, you don't even know about Stanley -- but yeah, it might be twins, because that's who keeps showing up on those weird weekends with kids here, and then in that twenty-year future thing? Diego didn't have powers, I didn't work for Vought, Five didn't have an arm, and the twins were a thing."