MHA #2 | Saturday Evening

[knife_bender]

Diego's usual Tuesday evenings were nothing glamorous. He was almost always alone (Five puttering around the guest room didn't count), and he fell into a sort of routine on the days Annie was in New York working. He'd work out, come home, shower, make a sandwich for dinner and then settle down with a book or TV until he felt like going to sleep.

Tonight was no different. He was currently post-sandwich, and well on his way to picking a channel to veg out to.

[3 for 3 today. For the girl!]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, you still deserve privacy," Annie assured him, leaning up to press a kiss to his cheek and giving his hand an affirming little squeeze. "Even if you didn't get nearly enough of it growing up. I still can't even imagine what that house was like when you guys were all teenagers."

Like, the years between Five's disappearance and Ben's death were probably rough for about a dozen reasons, not the least of which being rampant hormones and teenage dispositions.

[knife_bender]

"It was a lot of fighting and competition," he said. "And most of it was sanctioned by Dad."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, that much I can relate to," Annie replied, since her teenage years had also been very competitive, even if that competition wasn't within her own family. "And apparently no privacy. At least you had your own room. Seven kids -- most families would have doubled you up with at least one of your brothers."

At least they'd had all the room of a city block to spread out away from each other when they'd needed to.

[knife_bender]

"Dude, the mansion had forty-three bedrooms." Weird number. Almost like whoever built it was planning on housing forty-two kids plus himself. "I could have had six bedrooms to myself."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Well, now I'm disappointed you didn't commandeer extra rooms," Annie sighed, stretching contentedly and nestling her head against his shoulder. "You could sleep in a different room every day of the week. Keep a whole extra bedroom just full of like, sharp throwable things. Knives and throwing stars or whatever."

[knife_bender]

"Well we had an armory." Of course they did.

"Are you hungry?" Diego asked. "I had a pretty good PB&J for dinner. Could make another one."

[defenderofdesmoines]

As tempting as it was to offer further commentary on the armory -- of course they'd had an armory -- Annie was powerless in the face of cute offers of food.

"I had a smoothie while I was waiting for my portal," she admitted, her expression turning, like, stupidly fond considering it was a cute offer of food that a small child could also make, "but look how sweet you are to even think of making me one." She nodded to the TV, shifting to get even more comfortable. "What're we watching?"

Part of her kind of just wanted to sit on the couch and stare at him and see what he did while she was gone, because she was a weirdo who was pretty much obsessed with her boyfriend, but she also felt like she was getting a pretty good picture (and it wasn't all that different from what she'd generally pictured.)

[knife_bender]

"Haven't actually decided yet," he said. "I was thinking either the murder channel or see if there's any boxing going on."

So murder or near-murder. Such diverse picks.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Do you think TV boxing is legit?" she wondered, scooting to drape her legs across his lap, genuinely curious about his take on this. "Or is it rigged like TV wrestling?"

For the record: Annie did not really enjoy how wrestling in this universe (and universes beyond her own, generally) seemed to really share a lot of DNA with how supes were promoted in her world. Like -- capes, intro music, posturing on microphones....

[knife_bender]

"The hits look real enough. Maybe the outcome is rigged though." What with the seedy betting world. "I used to box for money, after I left home. I never had some mafia guy offering money for me to take a fall though."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Did you win a lot of matches?" Annie asked, with all the confidence of knowing he probably had. "I think it's kind of cool that you did something that didn't directly use your powers like that."

He could have probably made a killing betting on his own skill at any aim-based game.

[knife_bender]

"I won a decent amount." Look at him, being so humble. "I guess I could have gotten money throwing darts or whatever but it wouldn't be much of a challenge. And not as fun as punching people."

Apparently getting a normal job had been out of the question after he flunked out of the police academy.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I think a lot of people would have opted for the easier side hustle instead of wanting to be challenged," Annie replied affectionately, trailing her fingertips along his arm. Off the top of her head, she could think of at least three super-abled people she knew who used their powers to make money in a non-Vought-sanctioned fashion. "Do you ever miss it?"

[knife_bender]

"Boxing? Not really," he said. "Punching people? Kind of. I do miss the vigilante thing sometimes. Unfortunately I don't have the same cop connections in Baltimore than I did in the old city."

So if someone caught him punching strangers in the street on a regular basis they'd probably put him in jail rather than shaking their head at him and letting him go.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie frowned thoughtfully. "It's been awhile since we've gone out and fought criminals together," she agreed, tapping her finger on his arm as she thought. "I mean. I have cop connections in New York. But I'd have to find a cop who wouldn't tell the paparazzi. Or, like -- we could go do the vigilante thing in any city in my universe and if we get busted, I could probably smooth it out after the fact."

Which -- that could certainly be a way to for Starlight's boyfriend to finally meet the public, if a plan like that went south.

[knife_bender]

Diego smiled. "Am I legally allowed to fight crime in a city without Vought's permission?"

Not that he cared if it was legal or not, he was genuinely curious.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, technically, no. But realistically -- I'm pretty sure I can do anything I want, and you can by association," Annie decided, shrugging a shoulder. "Shy of, like, killing an innocent civilian, because someone might catch us on camera and that's really bad optics. Just ask Homelander."

Homelander, who had been strangely subdued and sort of absent from the tower -- and most press briefings -- in the months after that video had leaked.

[knife_bender]

"I am so happy you can now confidently say you can do whatever you want," Diego said, leaning in for another kiss. "It's kind of hot."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie hummed happily into the kiss, scooting a little into his side. Part of her wanted to argue a little, because that freedom definitely came with all kinds of baggage -- see also how unusual it was that she was home right now instead of hosting a new reality show or promoting a carousel of dreams -- but he also had a point.

"Is it?" she asked, lifting her brows playfully. "'Cause it's true. What are they gonna do, fire me? I'm the only one with a clean image. And also I have superpowers."

Which probably meant she couldn't actually do what she wanted or she'd risk losing that image, but still.

[knife_bender]

"And you are very good with those superpowers," he said, putting one of his arms around her shoulders. "Not to mention the fact you're the hottest and most charming of The Seven."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'm the most likeable," Annie corrected modestly. "I think Maeve's the hot one."

Though he was of course very welcome to disagree on that point, biases be damned.

[knife_bender]

"I mean, I'm not gonna say Maeve's not hot," Diego said, because he had eyes. "But you are way hotter."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I like that it doesn't bother you," Annie offered with a slightly-shy smile. "Some guys might get, like, all caveman-y about their girlfriend getting the kind of attention I get."

Annie was pretty over it, herself, but it was a lot better now that she was in the cape pretty much full-time. Less catcalling, anyway.

[knife_bender]

"I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm a pretty secure guy." Well. When it came to some things. Annie made it extremely obvious that she was into him, so that helped boost his confidence.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I have noticed. It's ones of your hottest qualities," Annie told him, proving all of that narrative right by leaning up to kiss him again. And the scant few areas where he did seem to lack confidence tended to tug right on Annie's heartstrings, and make her want to bolster that security in himself even more.

(And someday, she might finally be exposed to his stutter and all that went along with it, and would likely go into some kind of protective rage.)