defenderofdesmoines | Entries tagged with who: diego hargreeves

It had been a very long day.

Annie had gotten out of that tortuous rehearsal to discover that Diego had gone off somewhere -- which wasn't that big a deal, really, but it meant she didn't have any distractions to keep her mind off of how much she was regretting accepting this co-captainship.

Maybe this had been a mistake. Or...maybe she just needed to try harder.

In any case, she was pretty much tension personified as she leaned against a set backstage tonight, trying not to stare herself at how Homelander was just coldly staring off into the middle distance. Weird. Like a robot.

Of course, Alex was out on stage and demonstrating exactly why he didn't want to sing this song, so that wasn't helping either.

"Dangerous curves, she's my sweet sixteen,
Make my engine purr, you're my teenage queen,
Baby, baby, baby, got your license to drive,
Got your license to drive me crazy -- "

Like, yikes, they really should have gone with literally any of his other songs.

( Happy Birthday, Homelander! )

[once more taken from 3.02, 'The Only Man in the Sky,' and I should probably just warn for Homelander for the rest of the season, because he's not only gross/offensive here, but he's also moving into Obvious Trump Parody territory as of this post (and is also being played with aplomb by

knife_bender, still.) NFB, and to be continued in the comments! If you want to say you were watching the broadcast in Fandom for whatever reason and would like to call or text, that is totally fine too!]

It was one thing to be back in casual, professional contact with Hugh Campbell of the FBSA. Annie -- or, well, Starlight -- was on regular conference calls with Hughie and Ashley and other politicians and members of The Seven, and she'd appeared on a couple different morning shows with his boss, Congresswoman Neuman.

But it had been over a year since she'd gotten a text asking to meet somewhere, and Annie couldn't help but think that this couldn't possibly be anything good.

"We could have just met for breakfast if you wanted," she told him as she approached the park bench where they'd met, just like he'd asked for.

( Meeting an old friend in the park )

( And then off to rehearsal! )

[lots of this dialogue is borrowed directly from The Boys 3.02, 'The Only Man in the Sky.' Homelander is once more coming to you courtesy of the endlessly-amazing

knife_bender, and warning for racism and grossness in general from America's favorite hero. NFB, NFI, OOC welcome!]

It had been over a year since Annie had joined The Seven, and while she was pretty used to being in the spotlight, this movie premiere was actually kind of unique for a few reasons.

First of all, it wasn't every day you got to watch yourself on a big screen, on a set you knew was mostly green screen, and cringe a little as your bodysuited self faced down a Stormfront played by the hopefully-controversy-free Charlize Theron.

Secondly, Annie had received an insane offer today, and it had been impossible to concentrate on the movie given that. She still didn't know what she was going to do. (She knew what she wanted to do, but -- it was just a really big decision.)

Thirdly, everyone was here. Not just her team, but she'd spotted Hughie and his boss from the FBSA, Victoria, earlier. Mr. Edgar was out at the front of the throng of reporters with Ashley, and Adam Bourke was giving interviews in which he kept cross-hatching his fingers and talking about releasing the Bourke cut.

And Annie, for the first time ever during her tenure on this team, had someone with her on the red carpet.

"Are you ready?" she asked Diego, slipping her hand into his. As soon as they actually left the theater and stepped out onto the red carpet, it was going to be all flashes and attention.

( Red carpet reunions under here )

[borrowed and remixed a little from The Boys 3.01, 'Payback.' Preplayed with

knife_bender. NFB, NFI, but OOC welcome!]

American Hero had wrapped fairly early tonight -- Annie had told yet another hero who did not actually have a cape to hang it up and go, anyway, met with her producers for a moment after the show, and been left with enough time to actually make it back to the tower before her portal.

And good thing, too, since there had been a package left for her. Annie was very used to receiving Starlight swag -- honestly, at this point, she was pretty sick of it -- but this was...unexpected. There might have been an actual, audible, "Eep," of shock when she'd opened the box. (Though, really -- she'd just recently learned that Vought made porn in her image. Should it really surprise her so much that they also made other things?)

Anyway. She'd shoved one of the Starlight-themed items into a closet to...probably never be used, but the other had somehow made it into her bag to take home to Fandom with her. (Maybe it just fell in there, okay. Annie wasn't admitting to anything.)

"I had to kick off the guy with the electric shock powers," Annie was saying as she let herself into the MHA building and headed for her own apartment. She'd been on the phone since she'd gotten out of her portal in Fandom. "Both kind of a shame and kind of a relief."

She figured the guy she was on the phone with -- who she was also smiling at, as soon as she got the door open -- could understand that position after last year.

Of course she and Diego were people who talked on the phone right up until the moment they actually saw each other. What did you expect?

[for the fiancé, and that link is NSFW because my canon, everyone, let me show it to you. (and the post itself is also definitely going NSFW sooner than later.)]

So, that hadn't gone half-bad at all, if you asked Annie. The very first episode of American Hero had just wrapped. She had spent roughly an hour watching contestants try to curry favor and demonstrate their value to a bunch of people who probably didn't really care, she'd sincerely wished them all luck -- they all actually seemed pretty decent, to her? -- and then at the end, she had told one hopeful fellow superhero to hang up her cape and go.

Still such a dumb line. But it could have gone worse.

She'd gotten out from under the lights as soon as they'd called cut, resisting the urge to pull off her cape just yet and instead taking the bottle of water a PA immediately thrust into her hand. She needed to find Diego, who she knew was around here backstage somewhere, and hopefully they could just scurry off to her trailer sooner than later. For all that it had only been an hour of standing around and smiling, mostly, Annie was pretty ready to be out of the spotlight -- literally and figuratively.

"You did great," she told Moonshadow and Supersonic as they wandered by, smiling as the latter stopped to take another proffered water bottle from that PA and waving at the former as she kept going to her own room. "I mean, I'm not supposed to show favoritism or whatever, but just to say."

"So we're just objectively great," Supersonic contributed, grinning at her. "Good to know. You also did great, just to say."

"It's such a cheesy line," Annie offered, checking that her mic was turned off before dropping her voice to an undertone and rolling her eyes. "Like, what a way to tell someone they've lost out on a life-changing opportunity. Ugh."

"And it's discriminatory," Supersonic pointed out. "Some of us don't even have capes."

"That," Annie decided, "is a good point." Maybe enough to get a rewrite? (No.)

[for the fiancé who is around here backstage somewhere, and nfb for distance!]

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.]

For those of you playing at home: no, Annie had not yet found her engagement ring.

To be fair to her, she had found nine of the decoy boxes by now, which she thought was pretty damn impressive, thank you. She had them neatly lined up in the guest room, next to the previously well-organized white board that now boasted an increasingly untidy list of the found decoys' locations and of crossed-out rooms she'd searched. Organizing her thoughts had been a good idea, but as the search had worn on, Annie's patience with keeping things neat had frayed a bit.

That was also true in a more literal sense, as their apartment was a disaster by now. She'd pulled bookshelves out from walls, and books off of those shelves. Half of her and Diego's drawers were pulled out of their dressers and counters and sitting on the floor. She'd emptied the bathroom's medicine cabinet and left everything from her backup bottles of conditioner to the first aid kit sitting out, just so she didn't mistakenly retrace her steps.

It didn't help that she'd had pause her search to work yesterday for Memorial Day -- though on the bright side, she'd managed to confer with Maeve (read: whisper frantically at Maeve while they both made wistful faces next to various monuments in DC), and that had led to some untapped ground at her teammate's suggestion.

"Oh my God, I see a box!" Annie yelled from on top of a stepladder in their bedroom, shining an illuminated hand into an air vent. Nine decoys in, and you'd think the excitement would have worn off. And it had a little, in the sense that Annie didn't feel like she might faint every time she found one, at least. (The minute she found a box that made a noise when she shook it, though? Different story.)

[for the guy!]

Annie, Diego and Five -- along with the other four living Hargreeves -- may have arrived back in 2022 yesterday, but Annie anticipated that it was going to be a long, long while before everything actually felt settled. For one thing, it was a hell of a thing to find a four-bedroom house in Baltimore to rent on a moment's notice -- but thankfully, Annie's salary made things a little easier. (A little. She didn't have enough influence in this universe to do more than throw money at the problem, but she'd still found them a pretty decent house in like, an afternoon, anyway. Magic at work, right there.)

But for another thing, America's Super-Sweetheart had gone completely fucking AWOL for ten days, and thus had spent the better part of her first cup of coffee this morning getting screamed at over the phone by Ashley.

One promise of extra rehearsals with her choreographer and an assurance that she'd be there Friday afternoon for a hair appointment (she wasn't prepared to ask yet, but Ashley had mentioned that this was what she got for insisting on never wearing a wig again, so...there was that) later, and Annie was finally off the phone. She poured herself a soothing second cup of coffee, blew out a sigh in the hopes that some of that yelled-at tension left her shoulders, and sat down at the kitchen table to try to go through the paperwork involved in renting this house and transferring utilities to her own name.

It was fairly slow going, considering she was still pretty much exhausted despite sleeping hard last night, but at least it was a happy, relieved kind of exhaustion? This had been going on for almost a full year, and having everyone back and in one piece (and maybe even with some extra pieces, in fact!) was almost surreal. Surrealism didn't help her scan through real estate legalese any easier, but at least she didn't have much else to do at the moment.

[open for the dude who lives there, his brother who hates doors, or anyone who'd like to check in on these newly-returned time travelers]

Klaus was still feeling a bit shaky as he and Annie headed to Allison's house. At one point he visibly shivered. "I still feel so gross. Do you know what it's like to have your brother inside you?"

A question that could have been worded better, probably.

( Bonding with dead body removal )

[Largely taken from TUA 2.08, The Seven Stages, and preplayed with

knife_bender. Still no FB and no FI but OOC remains welcome!]

You know, when Luther came into the apartment and saw blood, he assumed Diego had killed somebody. But then he saw the dead guy was Elliot and knew that wasn't possible. Everybody liked Elliot. He made them jello!

"I can't believe he's dead," Luther said, helping Diego put a sheet over the dead (and mangled, ugh) body.

( Team Himbo threatens an old woman )

( A visit to your brother's cult )

[We still can't use our cell phones in 1963, and there still are no squirrels here! But OOC remains welcome, and this was preplayed with

knife_bender and

apocalypsehow, and taken from TUA 2.07, Oga for Oga.]

Was it a good thing that Annie now had so much experience cauterizing wounds that it hadn't taken her much time at all to get the skin on Diego's abdomen fused back together? For right now, it felt like good thing, at least. To her surprise and concern, he hadn't woken up in the process -- he'd stayed completely out (though breathing), all throughout the removal of his clothes (and when she was less worried, those institution-issued tighty whities were getting some commentary), and cleaning and dressing and briefly burning the wound.

Eventually, Annie had fallen into a restless doze at his side, though the slightest movement had her waking up and reaching to check on Diego every few minutes. And good thing, too, since this most recent time when Annie woke with a start as Diego shifted on the mattress, she noticed immediately that his wound had reopened.

"Shit." She should have gone back over that once she'd established he wasn't badly hurt anywhere else, really. Guess she'd have to do it now.

She moved to press a hand into Diego's chest, prepared to hold him steady in case this time he actually did wake up when she burned him, and moved her other hand low to his abdomen. The lamp in the room gave a soft hum, and Annie's hand illuminated, white-hot enough to re-seal that wound for good this time.

Sorry, Diego. Hopefully he stayed out for a little bit longer.

[for the stabbed guy who is, unfortunately for him, not staying out a little bit longer.]

Diego regained consciousness slowly. It wasn't the first time he had been sedated here, but it wasn't something you got used to. Especially when you woke up in a padded cell wearing a straightjacket. Eventually he got it together enough to get a game plan going to get out of his current predicament and back to Annie.

It took some time, but Diego managed first to wriggle out of his straightjacket (being flexible was a blessing in so many ways), and then use the pen he stole from Dr. Moncton earlier to pick the lock to his cell.

Soon he was wandering the halls looking for an exit, still moving a little slow due to the drugs in his system. It also meant he didn't see the security guard until it was too late.

"Hargreeves, what are you doing out here?" the guard asked.

Diego was silent for a few moments. "Sleepwalking?"

He moved tried to move as quick as he could to take the guard down, but he wasn't quick enough in his current state. The guard got him in a hold, pulling at his shoulder until Diego could feel a pop as the bone dislocated.

"Like to run your mouth, smartass?" the guard asked, tightening his hold on Diego. "It's gonna be hard after I break your jaw."

( Breakout time )

[Preplayed with

knife_bender and myself! I think we're still in TUA 2.01, so a lot of Diego and Lila's dialogue has been lifted from there! OOC welcome, but NFB/NFI]

So, this was the most promising lead they had, at this point. Annie was trying not to act nervous, given that she herself was the new variable this time so, like, no pressure.

"Should we try to bring anything?" she wondered, already just going ahead and ruining that attempt at acting cool by asking a worried question. "Just in case?"

( The time traveling goes great, guys )

[Preplayed with

knife_bender and

apocalypsehow. Hang on to your hats and glasses, folks, because The Umbrella Academy season 2 is finally here!]

Annie had had work today, and while her spot on Good Morning America had gone really well, honestly -- she was getting better and better at the whole press thing with every interview -- the Make-a-Wish event this afternoon had put her in a fantastic mood. Like. Not if she dwelled on the whole...why of it, of course, but just being there and meeting so many kids whose days all just seemed made when she'd gotten there -- it was the kind of thing that made Annie feel like she was actually making a difference, not just cashing checks.

And, as an added benefit, she'd had enough time to get back to the tower and change into her civilian clothes before going down to -- gasp -- actually meet Diego in the lobby! So he didn't have to ride the elevator with some fucking weirdo she worked with on Valentine's Day, at least! (And instead, Annie just had to hope that whoever viewed the elevator security footage valued their job enough not to try to sell it to tabloids or something!)

Now, she was watching on as Diego did something that they had discussed a couple weeks back, and made this apartment just a little bit more his space, too.

"How many of those do you think it can hold?" she asked, already impressed at how well he was hiding the knives he was stashing in her chandelier. They blended right in, who knew.

[for the guy putting knives in a chandelier, of course, and NFB for distance, natch.]

So, the thing about being a very in-demand person back home was that you tended to be kind of...well, in-demand. So while Annie could usually count on being able to skate out of work on Wednesdays in time to change her clothes and grab a jello shot or three, tonight had kept her late at the tower.

It was...sort of nice? Because it wasn't just a lollipop meeting they'd kept her for. She, A-Train and Maeve had actually talked about strategy, the saves they'd each done that week -- Noir had been there too but, you know, not a lot of talking going on there -- and how they were supposed to move forward as a team of five for the moment. Especially when their auxiliary member, if he even counted still, hadn't shown his face in New York since last year (because he was probably scared of it being burned off, or so Annie liked to tell herself), and their supposed leader could probably lose his position to a glass of water in a cape if it was left up to public opinion at the moment.

Which was why he hadn't been there, Annie assumed. She hadn't asked. She'd actually just enjoyed kind of...feeling like a team, for once. Only took the better part of a year.

In any case, it was very late when she'd managed to fire a text off to Diego to let him know she'd be later still, and thus she was trying to be very quiet when she let her still-uniformed self into the apartment awhile later, in case he was asleep. Equal parts courtesy and imperviousness to paranoid, half-asleep knife-throwing at work here, though Annie certainly wasn't really thinking about the latter.

[for the dude!]

You know, they'd really outdone themselves. It had hardly seemed possible, and yet, here it was: an even tackier Christmas party, somehow.

There were plastic, glowing snowmen in every corner of the apartment, along with small Christmas trees pre-strung with lights and tinsel but accompanied by little boxes of ornaments so guests could decorate themselves, should they so choose. There was an arts and crafts corner set up in the guest room, just below a yarn wall of time-travel craziness. There was music playing for the moment, but a karaoke machine set up for later, after drinking. There was a table of presents, with little, 'FOR ANYONE, LOVE SANTA' tags attached. There was a small platter of cookies in the kitchen with nearby icing and sprinkles for guests to decorate as they choose, because let's just mash all the Christmas party themes into one, okay? Let's just do it.

And there was alcohol. There was so, so much alcohol. There were several kegs (filled, of course, with Christmas ale), Annie's extremely alcoholic wassail, and every extremely moddable mixer and liquor under the sun. And, most importantly -- like, so important that they literally had a spotlight -- there was a table of Summer's jello shots.

As if that were not enough, there was snow falling indoors, thanks to a certain neighbor with an affinity for red, and a drone circling the party with a big, unmistakable sprig of mistletoe suspended from it. The Drone Mistle. Because Christmas puns.

[it's all up! open to ALL adults, and students are welcome to try to crash if they'd like!]

So, given that Annie was planning on throwing a super-early Christmas party here in two weeks and that she and Diego would be gone next week to see her family, it was completely reasonable for the apartment to already be kind of festive, right?

Whatever, Annie said it was and would be taking no questions, thank you. She hadn't gone totally overboard yet (had to save something for when they got back from Iowa, obviously!), but she had totally just adopted the habit of putting Christmas music on when she was home, and burning a Christmas candle (it smelled like wonderful Christmas treats that neither she nor Diego were capable of baking!) and there was totally a little stack in the corner of the living room of deliveries that had already commenced for the party. The return of Christmas kegs!

Right now, she was taking things into her own hands and winding a few strings of lights through each of her several houseplants (now safely inside and off the balcony, where they'd remain for the winter), and taking extra care with the spider plant that she had no reason to think wasn't the original spider plant from last spring.

"You know what," she mused aloud, "I think the lights might need to be a permanent thing, because you guys are looking great."

[for the guy who gets to live in Santa's workshop for the next month and a half.]

So, yesterday had been kind of a disaster, and really, Annie was still kicking herself for not seeing that coming. It wasn't her fault, exactly -- she'd moved past that line of thought -- but she absolutely had gotten caught up in the idea of planning and throwing this birthday party without really considering what Diego (and Five, but Diego was her bigger concern right now) actually would want.

Which was why they were now waking up to 600 acres of privacy. Annie had called in every favor she had, thrown her name around way more than she liked to do, and spent more money than she wanted to think about in the wake of the cakes hitting the ground. And while her assistant had promised her that what she'd secured for them (even on such late notice) was awesome, and they'd obviously had to trek up here last night before collapsing into bed, Annie was still kind of amazed once she woke up enough to look out the windows.

"Wow," she breathed as she sat up to look at the view, trying not to wake Diego yet -- they needed to talk about yesterday, still, but she also wasn't gonna deny the guy his sleep. Not after last night.

And the view would be here. Along with what looked like miles and miles and miles of quiet.

[for the dude and NFB for distance]

Let the record show that no one had asked Annie to throw anyone a birthday party, but that really hadn't stopped her from throwing the full weight of an Annie January effort into all of this.

The apartment was decorated fairly tastefully, she thought -- just because this was an unsolicited party didn't mean she wasn't keenly aware of who they were celebrating, here. So while there were streamers, they were a tasteful charcoal gray and silver combination. While there was glitter, it was black and vaguely iridescent. The napkins were printed in a tartan pattern that didn't exactly match Five's uniform, but the intent was clear. A banner carefully hung across one wall -- interestingly, also across a door that led into the guest room, since no one needed to go in there today -- that read HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIEGO & FIVE.

And, most importantly, there was a ton of food and drinks in the kitchen, not to mention the shots Summer was providing and the two -- yes, two -- cakes that Annie had ordered. (It hardly seemed fair to make them share, especially when this was the first time either of these guys had really celebrated his birthday at all.)

So: welcome to a birthday party for a man turning thirty, and his brother who was turning fourteen-slash-sixty-four. Probably the most normal birthday party you'll attend this year.

No one had specifically asked Annie to try to stick to the island as much as she could lately, but she'd been doing her best. Partly because she wanted to, and partly because some things didn't need to be explicitly asked.

She had taken a quick trip to the tower earlier this week for some meetings she couldn't move, and seeing her teammates -- seeing one of her teammates, because let's be real, she really only had one teammate and then several assholes she also worked with -- gave her an idea.

An idea that she'd been working on via text message ever since, and was about to come to fruition here and now as she half-watched American Ninja Warrior and casually convincing herself that she could totally beat the dude on the screen's time (and she and Diego would absolutely destroy at the team version of this show, thanks for asking), and her phone gave a little buzz.

And when Annie looked at her screen, she couldn't suppress her smile at seeing that begrudging, all-lowercase answer. fine. "We're gonna have a visitor this weekend."

And now to convince her she didn't have to wear her breastplate.

[for the guy!]

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Annie Hargreeves

2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S

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Page Summary

Vought Tower | Thursday Evening
Central Park, and then Vought Tower | Thursday Morning
The Lamplighter Memorial Theater | Friday Evening
MHA #2 | Late Tuesday Evening
The Vought American Hero Mansion | Tuesday Evening
Vought Tower | Wednesday Afternoon
MHA #2 | Tuesday Morning
MHA #2 | Wednesday Morning
Allison's House | Morning
Elliot's Apartment | Mid-Morning
Elliot's Apartment, Dallas, 1963 | Early, early morning
That Same Asylum | Night
Preserve | Morning
Vought Tower | Monday Evening
MHA #2 | Late, Late Wednesday Night (or Thursday Morning?)
MHA #2 | Friday Evening and probably onwards - the SECOND ANNUAL Christmas Rager!!
MHA #2 | Friday Evening
Somewhere in Australia, Apparently | Saturday Morning
MHA #2 | Friday Evening - Diego and Five's Birthday Party!
MHA #2 | Wednesday Evening

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Style: Starry Sky for Planet Caravan by momijizukamori

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Entries tagged with who: diego hargreeves

Navigation

Vought Tower | Thursday Evening

Central Park, and then Vought Tower | Thursday Morning

The Lamplighter Memorial Theater | Friday Evening

MHA #2 | Late Tuesday Evening

The Vought American Hero Mansion | Tuesday Evening

Vought Tower | Wednesday Afternoon

MHA #2 | Tuesday Morning

MHA #2 | Wednesday Morning

Allison's House | Morning

Elliot's Apartment | Mid-Morning

Elliot's Apartment, Dallas, 1963 | Early, early morning

That Same Asylum | Night

Preserve | Morning

Vought Tower | Monday Evening

MHA #2 | Late, Late Wednesday Night (or Thursday Morning?)

MHA #2 | Friday Evening and probably onwards - the SECOND ANNUAL Christmas Rager!!

MHA #2 | Friday Evening

Somewhere in Australia, Apparently | Saturday Morning

MHA #2 | Friday Evening - Diego and Five's Birthday Party!

MHA #2 | Wednesday Evening