MHA # 2 | Tuesday Morning

[knife_bender]

Diego had meant to arrange stuff for Annie's birthday sometime last week, but had not predicted he'd be a cat for eleven days. So he was kind of scrambling this morning, between that and trying to catch up on the weird shit that had happened while he was of the feline persuasion.

He managed to sneak out early and go to J,GOB to pick up some cupcakes and found some leftover candles from his own birthday in a drawer. It wasn't, like, spectacular or anything, but it was the best he could do on short notice.

[For the birthday girl]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

It was still pretty spectacular, considering Annie was just glad to not be waking up to the dulcet sounds of cat puke. And really, after last few days (or, again, the same day, over and over) plus the relief of Diego not being a cat plus the fact it was her birthday, Annie didn't even feel bad about sleeping in a little.

"You didn't turn back into a cat on me, did you?" she asked as she padded out from the bedroom to find Diego once she woke up, half teasing, half thinking that would be a very mean thing for the island to do on her birthday. She stopped short when she saw the cupcakes, though. "Oh -- awwww! Diego!"

Needless to say, given that he'd been a cat for eleven days, Annie hadn't expected anything.

[knife_bender]

Diego wasn't sure if his poor attempt at birthday'ing deserved that sort of reaction, but after eleven days of not being around, he'd take it whether it was deserved or not.

"Hey!" he said, giving her a grin. "Happy birthday. Cupcakes for breakfast okay?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Cupcakes are okay any time of day. You're so sweet," Annie assured him, crossing over to wrap her arms around loosely around him.

Eleven days of having only a cat to cuddle with meant Annie was going to be a little clingy anyway, but also look at the cupcakes. So cute! "I actually wasn't sure whether it was going to even be my birthday yet or whether it'd be Saturday now."

She ought to compare notes with poor Steph, really.

[knife_bender]

"I can see where there would be some confusion," he said, leaning against her. "I'm just glad I wasn't puking this morning."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"In the same spot, every day." Obviously he had heard this already but it had been kind of a focal point of the whole thing for Annie. "And really, the best birthday present is that you're you-shaped, again."

She punctuated that pronouncement by going lightly into her toes to press a kiss to his jaw, though she was also taking this opportunity to give those cupcakes a healthy once-over, too.

[knife_bender]

"That's a great present for me too," he said. "Sad I missed all the excitement though."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It mostly wasn't exciting. Mostly it was frustrating and confusing," Annie admitted. "But it was exciting for a minute. I got shot! And I took some of your knives to the fight. I hope that was okay."

She was pretty sure it was more than okay.

[knife_bender]

"You an take my knives any time. And I thought we agreed you being shot is not exciting if me being shot can't be counted as exciting," he joked. "We're supposed to be frowny faced about it."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie obediently adopted a very serious, very frowny expression. "It barely even hurt," she promised. "And Eliot made a shield and I got behind it after a few shots, even. So it wasn't even that exciting, anyway. But I missed having you next to me for the fight."

And he was right that if he'd been there, she would not have found his getting shot at all entertaining or exciting.

[knife_bender]

"Much better," he said, smiling. "It's been awhile since we've fought together. I blame the cat thing and the holidays."

Just no time to get to Baltimore when you were visiting people's families for Thanksgiving.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You were a cat for so long," Annie said dramatically, tightening her arms around him. "And yeah. Party didn't help, either. Clearly we'll have to go have a little date night on the mainland soon."

Weren't there, like, record numbers of break-ins around the holidays? Probably plenty of people, like, leaving their enormous houses to be robbed and maybe flooded while they were in France for Christmas or whatever.

[knife_bender]

"I like that idea," he said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "What do you want for your birthday other than cupcakes?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Honestly, I wasn't even expecting these," Annie replied, looking back to the cupcakes with nothing short of reverence. "My birthday's always kind of whatever, anyway, but like...a whole day with you, in actual human form, sounds pretty great at the moment."

And luckily enough, she'd already arranged to have these days leading up to Christmas off from Vought, and had pre-recorded all kinds of Christmas Messages from Starlight^TM so she could stay in Fandom for the week, so hopefully her phone wasn't a disaster of missed messages at the moment.

[knife_bender]

"I like that idea too," he said, leaning in to kiss her. "But I am willing to accommodate any special requests you might have."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"What if what I want for my birthday is for you to wear that shirt we got in Hawaii?" Annie wondered, pausing only long enough to get that thought out before leaning up to kiss him again.

[knife_bender]

Diego smiled into the kiss. "So long as I don't have to leave the apartment then, yeah, I could be into that."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It would make me so happy," Annie told him sincerely. Because orange. It really would. "I wouldn't make you go anywhere in it, promise. It's too cold for that."

And it wasn't snowing marshmallow anymore, either! Victories all around!

"And besides," she added, pressing one more kiss to his jaw before turning her attention to the cupcakes, "it's probably not staying on long, anyway."

Just, like, to be very matter-of-fact about that.

[knife_bender]

"I was about to say, I noticed you didn't say anything about pants," Diego said. "So I figured those were optional."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, unless we can find you some colorful pants, too. Ooh, maybe tear-away ones," Annie mused, reaching for a cupcake and then changing her mind and selecting a different one. "Honestly, colorful pants and no shirt? Phew, be still my heart."

She actually used her free hand to fan herself at that image. Only, like, half-kidding, too.

[knife_bender]

He laughed. "Maybe for your birthday next year. Still orange?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I think you'd look nice in blue, too," Annie maintained, taking her time with peeling the paper off her cupcake. "Light blue. Not 'look, it's not black' blue. So maybe blue pants. I feel like too much orange would ruin the hotness of the orange."

[knife_bender]

"Like tacky pants from the 70's light blue?" he asked.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie wrinkled her nose. "No, not when you say it like that." Though privately, yeah, Diego could probably make disco work for her, honestly. Such was the power of his hotness. "More like electric blue. I don't think, like, pastel colors are your thing."

Like, just so you know, Diego. She'd decided that for you.

[knife_bender]

"I completely agree with you there," he said, reaching for a cupcake. "If I wear pastel, call the police or a priest or something because something is wrong."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Pastel colors wouldn't suit you, even aside from like, how incredibly out of character that would be," Annie agreed. "But odds are that if I ever catch you in an unflattering powder blue, the island's probably doing a thing. Like when Five wore that dress and I let a chipmunk do my hair."

What a year it had been.