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

[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.

[knife_bender]

"You're like the only person I trust to appreciate it without ragging on me constantly," Diego joked. "I hope my trust isn't misplaced."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It won't be constant," Annie teased lightly, clearly even more touched by that trust (even if it was a joke, she would treat it seriously!) as she leaned over to give him a kiss. "Look, you have tiny knives!"

He probably was already aware of that but Annie was pretty excited.

[knife_bender]

"I noticed," he laughed, finding her excitement disgustingly adorable. "I hope my other gift doesn't pale in comparison."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It could never," Annie assured him, eyeing the other messily-wrapped (seriously it was so cute) package. "I think you're like, a natural at this. This is so thoughtful." And she would keep it somewhere precious. "Do you want yours or do I get to keep going?"

His first Christmas, he got to decide the present order. It was only fair.

[knife_bender]

Diego eyed the much prettier gift that Annie had. "Can I go next?"

Look, he was excited and he really wanted to see what she got him.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie's gift had a neatly-written tag and a bow and like, look, she'd done this a few times before and she was also Annie.

"Yes," she said, excitedly thrusting the little parcel over to him, and okay, she was maybe even more excited to see him open this than she had been over her own present, even if she knew she was going to have to explain it a little bit.

[knife_bender]

"Am I supposed to keep the wrapping paper?" No, he didn't realize what she had done was weird by most standards.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You can if you want but you can also just rip it," Annie said, watching intently. "Depends on how patient you feel like being. Some people save wrapping paper for scrapbooks and stuff." Some people being her, because of course she was going to save some of the paper from Diego's First Christmas, even if Annie had no idea how to even start a scrapbook. She was just kind of a sentimental packrat, sometimes.

[knife_bender]

Okay he was definitely just ripping it then. He had no patience and to be honest Annie looked just as excited as he did when it came to opening it.

"Holy shit--" Sorry about the cursing during Christmas rituals. "--Annie."

He carefully pulled the domino mask out of the box to get a closer look. "This is so cool."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Santa had admonished her language, too, so it was very understandable.

"So," Annie said, pretty much straight up giddy at this point, "the lenses are like what's in, um, like welding helmets? So you'll be protected from me." Which had been the whole impetus for getting him a fancy mask, anyway, and despite her giddiness, Annie was a little shy about that. "But also there's night vision and a tracking system. And I think it has a heads up display and you can, like, get police channels on it?"

She had played with it a very little bit on her not-as-hungover Sunday last week and had been impressed, because there was a lot more than what she'd requested, there.

[knife_bender]

"Really? This is like--wow." Congrats he was rendered speechless. So he just leaned in to kiss her instead, figuring that would be the better way to express how he felt about her gift.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie generally did not worry about scoring girlfriend points, but like, she was pretty sure she'd just gotten a bunch of those.

She leaned into the kiss, smiling. "I hope it fits okay."

It was a mask - there were only so many fit options, so it was probably fine.

[knife_bender]

She earned so many girlfriend points!

"I'll make it fit, don't worry," he said, the smile on his face not going away any time soon. "Seriously, I love it."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'm glad," Annie said, clearly taking so much joy in his reaction. "Santa also got me that cool Starlight belt, so, like, we have some new toys for the next time we go to Baltimore."

And she wouldn't even be hurt if he went without her while she was gone, though the Starlight-friendly eye protection was probably a clear indication that she'd meant for this to be used with her.

[knife_bender]

"Yes we do." Some seriously awesome toys. As dense as he could be sometimes he did understand this was meant to be something they did together and he had absolutely no problem with that. He couldn't believe she had gotten him something so cool.

"Here, time for your other gift." This one he had been slightly nervous about. It was one thing to give her the goofy action figure of himself but commissioning an action figure of her was totally different.

He had to admit whoever Pogo got to do the work did a pretty good job, considering all they had to go on was Diego's description of Starlight's powers and a few photos Diego had once he figured out how to use that part of his phone.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie was just going to curl closer to him while she carefully started opening this one, because she kind of couldn't believe this was still going. Usually having a late-December birthday meant she got fewer presents or that it all got lumped in with Christmas, so like, already this was kind of the best.

And once she had it unwrapped enough to recognize her own white-and-gold motif, Annie stopped - she wasn't bouncing or squealing or freaking out because she was actually kind of stunned by what she was seeing. "...oh my God, is this me?"

[knife_bender]

"It's supposed to be." If it looked bad he was totally going to blame it on Pogo, he would stoop that low.

[defenderofdesmoines]

No, it looked so perfect that Annie was a little worried she might start crying. "You got me my own action figure," she said reverently, clearing her throat. "Diego. Oh my God. How?"

[knife_bender]

"My memory, some stealthily taken pictures and Pogo's help," Diego said honestly. "Do you like it?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I love it." It was something she had wanted since she was old enough to know she wanted to be a superhero, and as awesome and sweet as receiving his action figure had been, this was so special and thoughtful that Annie was kind of at a loss. "It's the nicest thing anyone's ever given me."

So yeah, she was just going to lean in and kiss him, threading her arms around Diego's neck and hoping he could tell how much she liked it before she actually did burst into tears or something.

[knife_bender]

Diego smiled into the kiss, wrapping his arms around Annie's waist. That had been the best possible reaction and he couldn't believe he had been worried at first.

He owed Pogo so, so much.