MHA #2 | Friday Evening

[knife_bender]

Diego had officially done the whole mall Santa thing and it was an experience he was never going to repeat again. If only because he was fairly sure no Santa should have been that handsy. But Annie got her picture and that was what mattered. He definitely won some boyfriend points for that.

They had decided to get the Christmas thing done early since she would be going home at some point and it might as well be now since the only weird thing going on was some creepy humming coming from the kitchen if you listened hard enough. That could be easily ignored.

Now he was on the couch watching Annie cover his apartment with an excessive amount of Christmas cheer. "You know it's just going to be me that sees this, right?"

[For the girl! edit and nsfw omg]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Then it's just for you," Annie decided, taking a step back to survey whether the lights looked all right and deciding they were fine. "Which, considering this is your first real Christmas and you just bravely faced Santa, is more than enough reason to decorate."

[knife_bender]

"Yeah are all Santas like that or was that guy just weird?" Diego asked.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That guy was really weird," Annie assured him, making a face as she went over to join him on the couch. "Like, usually Santa isn't quite that jolly, to start with."

Maybe it was just kind of late in this particular Santa's shift? But he sure had seemed to be under the influence of something.

[knife_bender]

"I hope you didn't get jealous of the grabby Santa," Diego joked. "I can't help my charm sometimes."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, I can't fault him for taste," Annie agreed, leaning in for a quick kiss. Though if that had gone on much longer, yeah, she might have embarrassingly started some shit with a mall Santa. "Maybe this is why they usually don't let cute adult men sit on his lap."

There had been an elf who had tried to talk them out of it, and now Annie was wondering if that poor, underpaid elf had known about Santa Grabhands.

[knife_bender]

"That's a good point," he said. "Safe to say I will not be doing that next year."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That's fine - the pictures will last forever," Annie assured him with a deeply pleased smile.

And she would be sharing them with everyone because pervy Santa or no, they were super adorable.

[knife_bender]

He sighed, putting an arm around Annie's shoulders. "Just how many people are you sharing those photos with?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Is there anyone you don't want me to share with?" Annie checked, leaning into him a little, because that was probably easier than actually listing all the people she planned to show them to.

She was still going to send one to Diego's mom, as requested. Hopefully it wasn't weird for her to send an android a Christmas card. (Or, at least, it was an acceptable level of weird.)

[knife_bender]

It was definitely the acceptable level of weird.

"Aside from some of my siblings? Go nuts," he said. "I don't think you have an address for the moon."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"No, I wish," Annie sighed. Because damn it, she would love to send something to the moon. "You're being such a good sport about this. Is your first Christmas experience okay so far aside from, you know, Santa's wandering hands?"

[knife_bender]

"For some crazy reason I'm pretty agreeable when it comes to doing the things you ask," Diego teased. "But it's been really good. My apartment is decorated, I got cool socks from Santa, kissed someone under the mistletoe. Unfortunately it was Danny but, whatever."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie looked entirely too pleased with herself as she drew something small and green out from her hoodie pocket. "I thought of that," she said, grinning at him, and held it up over their heads. "Oh, wow, Diego, look, mistletoe."

Because it wasn't like she could let the pushy mistletoe be the defining mistletoe experience of this holiday season, please.

[knife_bender]

"You've thought of everything," he said with a smile. He definitely didn't need to be pushed by mistletoe to kiss Annie. Like, at all.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Yeah, they, like, really did not need an excuse to be cute, but it was festive. "I just want to make sure your Christmas is perfect," Annie told him, pulling back just a little after a moment. "And I happen to know Santa brought you something besides socks, too."

Though she did think they were pretty cool socks, all the same.

[knife_bender]

"I have it on good authority that he got you something too," Diego said. "Covered Christmas and your birthday, even."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Both?" Annie asked, a little surprised. "Aw, Diego, you - I mean, Santa - didn't have to. My birthday's not even a big deal."

Though she was delighted since giving gifts was an important part of Christmas for him to participate in!

[knife_bender]

"Yeah, well, I thought you should get both," Diego said. "And I'm dropping the Santa thing 'cause this was all me, I'm taking credit."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You deserve the credit," decided Annie, beaming at him. "And I'll admit that maybe Santa didn't have that much to do with yours, 'cause I want credit, too." Even if Christmas wasn't really about getting credit for things. "Do you want to do presents now? Or, like, wait?"

Patience was not Annie's strongest suit so guess which one she wanted to do.

[knife_bender]

"Now's good," he said, trying not to look too eager about a gift exchange. And failing. Look, it was his first time.

He pulled away from Annie and got up from the couch. "Give me a sec, I hid them from you."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Look, Diego could have wrapped up some dead leaves and Annie would be excited that he'd even thought to do it, so he was by far not the only eager person here.

"Yours fit in my purse," she told him, trying to resist the urge to actually bounce with excitement as she went to retrieve it. "Really, it fit in my pocket - I've been carrying it around since the party."

Seriously, it had come from Santa. Kind of.

[knife_bender]

That was kind of cute and it just made him more curious. He grabbed the two (messily) wrapped presents and handed one to Annie. "Birthday present first."

That was the one that contained one of his old Kraken action figures. Knee socks, tiny knives and all.

[defenderofdesmoines]

The messy wrapping just made this cuter. Don't mind Annie just melting a little because she realized he probably didn't have a ton of experience wrapping presents.

She was very, very careful not to rip the paper - Annie was one of those people - but as soon as she could see what was inside, she was staring over at Diego. "Oh my God. Oh my God, is this you?" Of course it was him. Annie was just, like, in shock. "It's your action figure."

[knife_bender]

"Yeah, well, you seemed interested in seeing it," Diego said, laughing a little at her reaction. "I had Pogo find one."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It's better than I could have imagined," Annie assured him, holding it up so she could take in all the tiny knee-socked glory. "Oh my God, you were so adorable. This is adorable. Thank you, Diego."

Even more boyfriend points, there.