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]

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.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Yeah, Annie was just going to kind of insinuate herself into his lap, here, don't mind her. "It looks just like me!" she said, having gotten ahold of herself enough to take in the details a little better. "Look at her little cape! This is amazing."

[knife_bender]

He was never going to complain about Annie in his lap. He pulled his arms around her a little more just in case she had any ideas about moving.

"I'm glad you like it," Diego said, pressing a kiss against her jaw. "So I totally rocked this Christmas thing, right?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You absolutely rocked it. You're a Christmas prodigy," Annie assured him firmly, nuzzling against his neck. "A Christmas expert."

She was going to take both of those action figures with her everywhere for a little while, just so she could pull the Starlight one out and show it to people proudly.

[knife_bender]

He smiled. "I had a good teacher."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I do what I can." No, Annie had really kind of done it up for Christmas, just for him, and she would probably keep doing it up for the next two weeks until she had to go back to Iowa.

But at least for right now, she was just going to lean in to keep kissing him, making herself comfortable in his lap since she wasn't planning on going anywhere for awhile.

[knife_bender]

Diego had absolutely no issue with that whatsoever. He slid one of his hands up to the center of her back while the other went to rest on her thigh, thus ensuring that she would have to untangle herself from him if she ever wanted to move.

It really was kind of nice to be kissing around all the Christmas lights. Not that he would say that out loud.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Taking a little inspiration from handsy Santa?" Annie teased softly, showing absolutely no indication that she wanted to untangle herself in the slightest.

The Christmas lights were super romantic, even if the inflated reindeer added a slightly weird touch to the scene.

[knife_bender]

"Well, I can't say he didn't have a good idea," Diego said with a smile. "He just had some major consent issues."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Fortunately I wouldn't have put myself here if I wasn't hoping for some handsiness," Annie replied with a little lift of her brows, shifting a bit to kiss along his neck. "Though I'm very sorry if Santa traumatized you."

[knife_bender]

"You wanna try to help me forget it?" he asked, tilting his neck towards her.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"'Try,' he says," Annie murmured, giving his earlobe a little nip even as she pressed closer against him, squirming a little in his lap. "I mean, I can give it a shot."

At least temporarily. The pictures, again, would last a lifetime, but Annie was gaining a lot of confidence these days in her ability to distract Diego from pretty much anything when she set her mind to it.

[knife_bender]

"No pressure," he said lightly, even as he was sliding his hands over to cup her ass. Let's all be glad the creepy Santa hadn't done that.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Probably just because they hadn't given him enough time.

"Mmm. So let's see." Annie moved her hands along his shoulders and arms, feeling critically before eventually resting them on his chest, and pretended to think about it. "I'm going to guess...twelve knives, before I go looking."

She knew she was probably low-balling it, honestly, considering he was in tactical gear (which had made for an outstandingly weird photo) and that anything could have happened in that mall.

[knife_bender]

"Twelve? Twelve is a light day," he said. "I had to make sure I was protected against Santa and his elves."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Fifteen?" Annie tried, biting her lower lip. "Twenty? How worried were you about Santa?"

Nevermind that Santa had totally been worth worrying about.

[knife_bender]

"My worrying was well founded," he pointed out. "Fifteen is right. Not the most I could have done."

But still way too many knives for a person to have on them.