knife_bender | MHA # 2 | Tuesday Morning

"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.")

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.

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.

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

"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.

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

"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.

"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.

"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."

"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."

"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.

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

"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.

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

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.

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.

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.

"Really?" he asked. "Not that I'm complaining but--really?"

"It's a thing," Annie confirmed, looping her arms up around his neck. "Like, a thing I didn't make up. But I also totally slacked and didn't count to make sure I gave you thirty kisses on your birthday, either."

She probably still had.

"I was about to say--I did not know about this," he said with a grin. "You owe me some kisses."

"Do I?" Annie thought about it. "Are we going to actually make an effort to keep track today?"

She leaned up to kiss him again, lightly, before adding, "Should we get, like, a notepad?"

Was this a good use of the time math board??

Five might actually kill them if they did that.

"I have the feeling we're going to lose track very quickly," he said, kissing her again. "As in I've already lost track."

"Then we should probably just keep losing track," Annie suggested, wisely, leaning up to kiss him again and threading her fingertips through his hair.

That was what she wanted for her birthday, actually: for it to be just this side of impossible to keep track of such a thing.

That was an easy enough request. Diego slid his hands down to Annie's waist, squeezing lightly. When he kissed her again it was deeper, completely intent on forgetting the kiss count as soon as possible.

Annie had definitely forgotten, way too intent on how good this felt -- the kiss, the cupcakes (and the sweetness of the gesture), just having Diego back.

"I really missed you," she murmured, figuring that one was worth mentioning aloud as she nipped at his lower lip. "Case you can't tell."

He'd been a cat longer than she'd been stuck in the hole, even!

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