MCA #9 | Monday Morning

[defenderofdesmoines]

When Annie's alarm went off this morning, it was still dark outside, which was very normal considering how early she typically got up for training.

What was decidedly not normal was how she was in bed in her Starlight outfit, which was decidedly not comfortable, though thankfully her boots had been discarded in the middle of the floor at some point before she'd clambered into bed last night. It was also abnormal that Annie was alone in said bed, since she'd gotten kind of used to having Diego there.

That was explained pretty quickly, once she padded out to the living room and found him on the couch. "Good morning," she whispered, lightly perching on the arm of the couch and reaching out to touch his shoulder.

Hopefully he wasn't too mad about having to babysit all weekend.

[for he who took the couch]

Comments

[knife_bender]

"Morning," Diego murmured. He had heard her moving around but since there wasn't any shrieking he determined she was an adult again.

He titled his head up to look at her. "How are you feeling?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Taller," Annie answered with a little smile, moving to lightly run her fingers over his hair. "You were cute to let me have the bed."

Little Annie would have shared! And then relentlessly kicked him all night.

[knife_bender]

"Oh no, I know better than that," Diego joked, sitting up on his elbows. "I shared a bed with Klaus a few months ago; dude spent all night kicking me in the kidneys."

Klaus was on about the same emotional level as a four year old so it checked out.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That actually tells me a lot about Klaus," Annie noted, raising her brows. "Thanks for keeping me alive all weekend."

She was well aware she'd been kind of a handful, considering she was going to have to get the outfit she was wearing dry-cleaned.

[knife_bender]

"It wasn't that hard," Diego said. "Well, aside from the fact you kept escaping but I wasn't too worried about you killing yourself accidentally."

Now taking out the power on the island, that he was a little worried about.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Fortunately, she'd been a pretty happy little kid all weekend! Good news for everyone, especially the island's power grid.

"It was all the sugar," Annie decided lightly. "I don't think I was actually that hyper at that age." She at least had done a lot less running off as a real four year-old, anyway.

[knife_bender]

"I'm not in trouble for giving you all those donuts, am I?" he asked.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I think you're in more trouble for telling me to say a swear word and then threatening me with arrest," she replied as she started undoing the fastenings of her cape (yes, the child version of her uniform had transformed into the adult version complete with cape) - but given how she was smiling at him, it was probably not all that much trouble.

[knife_bender]

"I thought it was pretty funny," he said with a smile. "Need help with that?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yes, please," Annie replied easily, tossing her cape aside. "This thing is not comfortable to sleep in, and I'm a little worried about how many sprinkes I'm gonna find in here."

The answer was 'more than you'd think.' Especially considering how many she'd actually managed to eat.

[knife_bender]

"I found a lot in my shirt just from a hug," Diego said, getting up so he could help her unzip the back of the dress. He had caught on to the fact that she could barely breathe in the thing.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie started pulling off her gauntlets, peeking over her shoulder at him. "You were sort of good with me," she said with a little smile, sighing in obvious relief when she could breathe more easily. "Like, you're not awful with kids."

Not, like, great, but better than he probably thought he was.

[knife_bender]

"It's not like the bar was set very high from my previous example of fatherhood." All he had to do was use Annie's actual name and not lock her in a mausoleum and he was better than his own father.

"Holy shit did you like bathe in sprinkles?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie reached up to grab her star pins and shake out the bust of her dress, which made more sprinkles fall out onto the floor. "I swear I actually ate a bunch, too," she sighed. "Oh my God, they're everywhere."

And all she wanted to do was get back in bed. (Oh, God, and the bed was probably covered in them, too.)

[knife_bender]

"I think you've got some glaze on you too," Diego said. "Well, at least you weren't partial to jelly donuts."

That would have been more of a mess.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie let out an exasperated sigh. "Okay, you go see if there are sprinkles all over the bed, and I'm going to go rinse this off, and then maybe we can get a couple of hours of sleep in an actual bed." Because Annie wanted cuddles, okay? And Diego had slept on the couch for two nights but also, Annie wanted cuddles.

Obviously training was not happening today, although it did seem like her tiny metabolism had absorbed all of the sugar just fine, anyway.

[knife_bender]

"That'd be nice," Diego admitted. But first he was leaning in for a kiss because it had been a couple days and he was clingy.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie smiled into the kiss, leaning up into him. "Miss me?"

She was pretty sure she would have missed him, if their roles had been reversed. Having a tiny version of someone around was very much not the same.

[knife_bender]

"Yes," Diego said. "Even when you're covered in sprinkles."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I was nice enough to share," Annie pointed out. "Because even as a little kid, I thought you were pretty cool."

[knife_bender]

"Even after I almost made you cry?" he teased.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That was pretty mean," Annie admitted, "but like, also hilarious. You were definitely the most fun adult I saw all weekend. No rules, and all."

[knife_bender]

"I figured you could use some rule breaking." They both had upbringings that were way too strict. "Go de-sprinkle and I'll see what the damage is in the bedroom."

Most likely he was just gonna end up just tossing the sheets on the floor 'cause they definitely had some crushed sprinkles that needed to be washed out of them.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You're the best," Annie told him, already pulling her hair up as she leaned up for another kiss. "I owe you."

Like, seriously, she owed him a whole weekend of doing whatever the hell he wanted after all that.

[knife_bender]

Diego didn't think he really did much of anything, but he wasn't about to argue with her. He went to the bedroom to assess the damage and...yeah, that was a lot of sprinkles. Now he was even more happy to have slept on the couch.

He carefully pulled the sheet off, trying to contain the sprinkle explosion to just that one area and balled it up in a corner. That could be deal with later. Or maybe they could burn them and buy new ones. Either/or.