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]

"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.

[knife_bender]

"Oh my god I totally forgot Five in the dress," Diego said, laughing again. "I don't give him nearly as much shit for that as I should."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"There's pictures, even," Annie pointed out, totally getting a little frosting on her face in her excitement at remembering that. "We should print them out and stick them to his time math board."

Annie kind of considered the time math board to be redundant now that she knew that accurate time travel was just a hug away. ("Knew.")

[knife_bender]

They weren't going to hug, Annie!

"That would be a great Christmas present." He leaned in to help with the frosting issue. "Hold still."

Pfft, like he was going to use his hand to get frosting off her face when his tongue was right there.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Had they even tried a hug? Just to try!

But that wasn't really on Annie's mind when there was creative frosting removal happening. "Chivalry's not dead," she observed with a soft giggle, blushing very slightly as she obediently held still for him. "Good thing I didn't get it anywhere else."

Yup, Annie, good thing.

[knife_bender]

"I can think of other places I wouldn't mind licking frosting off of," he teased, nipping lightly at her jaw before pulling back.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yeah, I bet you can," Annie replied, blushing a bit darker at the implication. "But then I'd be all sticky, Diego." So sad. Look how sad she was! So, so sad. "So we'd probably have to take a shower to rinse off, too."

Sounded like an ideal birthday, really. Though first she was going to finish this cupcake she'd started, now that she was rescued from frosting.

[knife_bender]

"Oh no, anything but that," he said, taking the wrapping off his own cupcake. "What kind of birthday would that be?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"An awesome one," Annie replied honestly, "though a very different one than all my previous birthdays."

A pause, and then, "Like, last year I at least went to work, you know? And usually it gets kind of shuffled into Christmas, anyway."

Which she had never minded, but she was also still fairly new to having someone around who would go out and acquire cupcakes for her before she even woke up, too. She could totally get used to this.

[knife_bender]

"People really put your birthday with Christmas?" he asked. "That's not fair."

And that was coming from the guy who usually didn't celebrate either one.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh, yeah," Annie said, finishing her cupcake and being totally unladylike about making sure she went ahead and got all of it out of the wrapper. "It's so close that a lot of times when I was little I'd get combination presents for both. Like I wouldn't get much on my actual birthday, but Santa would bring stuff for both Christmas and my birthday. Everyone's just busy, you know? So I've always had, like, Christmas-birthday."

[knife_bender]

"Lame," he said, finishing up his own cupcake. He had eaten it much faster than Annie, but he wasn't especially ladylike either. "We are not doing that, ever."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Ever?" Annie echoed, both amused and obviously kind of touched. "Like, you're decreeing this for all my future birthdays?"

Way to keep just being the best, Diego. It had never even occurred to Annie as something that should change, but it meant a lot that he thought it should.

[knife_bender]

Diego nodded. "It's been decreed. I'll punch anybody that tries it."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It's the thought that counts, but I would also love to see that," Annie replied, moving to wrap her arms around him again now that cupcakes were dispatched.

Except -- "Oh, wait, hold still. You've got frosting." Spoiler alert: he did not have frosting. It was all a flirtatious ruse because Annie wanted to lick him. Deception! She was pretty sure he wasn't going to mind, though.

[knife_bender]

"It's only fair I let you get it," he teased, holding still so she could help him out with that.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie took her time, culminating her efforts in a light lick to the corner of Diego's mouth. You know, where all the frosting he'd gotten on himself was, definitely. "I'm all about fairness," she replied before leaning in for another kiss.

[knife_bender]

Diego wrapped his arms around Annie, just in case she got any ideas about moving away any time soon. If there had been frosting, it was long gone by now. He was just going to keep on kissing anyway.

It was cute they still made up excuses to kiss each other even though it was so unnecessary.

[defenderofdesmoines]

But it was fun to have a reason!

And case in point, Annie pulled back just enough to murmur, "Do you know about birthday kisses? Because the rule is you owe me twenty-four of these today."

And one to grow on.