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]

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.

[knife_bender]

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

[defenderofdesmoines]

"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.

[knife_bender]

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

[defenderofdesmoines]

"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??

[knife_bender]

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."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"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.

[knife_bender]

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.

[defenderofdesmoines]

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!

[knife_bender]

"I suspected as much," he said softly. "I'm sorry I left you for so long."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, technically," Annie pointed out, idly playing with his shirt's collar, "you were here the whole time. But it's really not the same."

For like, a lot of reasons.

[knife_bender]

"Absolutely not the same," he agreed. "I don't normally puke on your shoes."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Not normally," Annie agreed. "Especially not for four days in a row thanks to a time loop. Like, what timing, on all of that."

Especially since he would have probably turned back sooner without time loop nonsense!

[knife_bender]

"I hope I didn't do too much damage," he teased, giving her waist a squeeze.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It wouldn't matter if you did. The joy of time loops, apparently," Annie said, pressing a little closer in response. "Mostly I just wished you -- knifey, competent, you-shaped you -- were here the whole time."

And since he was here now, he deserved another kiss.

[knife_bender]

"Think I'm competent, huh?" he asked, smiling. Not a compliment he got very often.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Of course I do. It's one of my favorite things about you," Annie said, completely honestly. Diego's overall competence was why she couldn't be trusted to keep it in her pants when he started throwing knives. "You're so good in a fight. Better at, like, strategy than I am, too."

Annie had basically voluntarily gotten shot on Sunday, after all.

[knife_bender]

"I think we're both at the same level of strategy." Meaning they both tended to wing it and hope for the best.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Maybe," Annie conceded as she smoothed her hands along his shoulders. "But you notice stuff I don't. Reason number, like, a thousand why we make such a great team."

[knife_bender]

"We do," he agreed, kissing her again. "Which is why it's such a shame when one of us turns into a cat or a dog."

It had happened an awful lot this year.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Just makes me appreciate the times when neither of us is an animal all the more," Annie sighed, trailing her fingertips down his arms in a demonstration of that appreciation.

[knife_bender]

"That's an optimistic way of looking at it," he joked, not surprised by that at all. "So since it's your birthday we should be doing some of your favorite things, right?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh, look who's a birthday expert," Annie teased lightly, all but beaming at him. "I mean, yeah. Eating cupcakes for breakfast is a pretty great start to a day of Annie's Favorite Things. Orange shirt would be a nice addition."

And then beyond that she hadn't thought very far ahead, but she remained optimistic.

[knife_bender]

"What about picking you up?" he suggested.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Well, judging by the way Annie's eyes had darkened at that idea, and how her arms had just neatly slipped back up around his neck, Diego was really onto something, there.

"I mean, being picked up is definitely on my list of favorite things," she noted, already a little flushed. "Pretty high on the list, actually."

And it tended to lead to a lot of the other things on that list.