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]

"Then I should probably bring you shopping with me to pick out this leather, eventually," Annie replied, leaning in to kiss his smile.

Sure, that wouldn't lead to fitting room sex or anything.

[knife_bender]

"I mean, I am kind of an expert on it," he murmured, bumping his nose against hers.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Exactly. So you'll know what to look for," Annie agreed, sliding an arm around his midsection. "I'm still kind of new to leather."

As in, the vast majority of her experience with leather was admiring other people (Diego, Maeve) wearing it.

[knife_bender]

"Can't be that new," he said. "Didn't even have a rebellious leather jacket?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh yeah, because I did a whole lot of rebelling before, like...last year," Annie replied, arching a brow. "I used to have probably-leather cowgirl boots as part of my uniform? But that was when I was really little."

And after a certain point, white cowgirl boots just became impractical as part of a working superhero uniform.

[knife_bender]

"I think I vaguely recall some little boots being involved when you were tiny," he said with a grin. "Of course I was also pretty focused on making sure you didn't get donut all over my furniture..."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"And trying to get me to say bad words and then threatening me with arrest," Annie added, tsking and shaking her head. "Such a bad influence."

[knife_bender]

"Well how else was I supposed to amuse myself when you're a kid?" he asked. He wasn't the storytelling and tea party type!

[defenderofdesmoines]

God, but picture that.

"By doing kid stuff," Annie replied, amused. "Are we going to have little foul-mouthed twins eventually thanks to you?"

Honestly, that sounded sort of cute, here in the distant past when they weren't really her little responsibilities yet.

[knife_bender]

"Honestly, that'll probably be Klaus' fault more than mine." Of course he couldn't imagine a future where they'd be raising the twins without his family around.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Well, considering that Annie couldn't see a future where they even got engaged without finding his siblings first, that seemed like a foregone conclusion to her, too.

"Klaus seems like the type to teach the kids whole phrases or questions to ask that we won't want to answer," Annie replied, narrowing her eyes a little. "Like, swears seem like a start."

[knife_bender]

"That's a very good point," he said. "And Five wouldn't be much better."

But he might give them old man candy, when Annie wasn't doing it herself.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I literally do not trust Five with our plants," Annie replied, gesturing to said plants. "So yeah, no surprises there. I wonder if they'll come visit again. Maybe they'll be little next time, like everyone else's kids."

She'd kind of liked being able to talk to them like adults, though. It kind of made it less weird, in a way? (And also probably more weird, in a way.)

[knife_bender]

"You want two little kids around before we're ready for them?" Diego asked. "You're a brave woman."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I don't know if 'want' is the word," Annie replied, making a little show of looking alarmed. "I'm just speculating. I think we were the only ones with teenagers, before."

And again, everyone else seemed like they'd kind of had a time of it with their little ones.

[knife_bender]

"Was Five's kid a teenager?" It was kind of hard to tell.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Tim doesn't count," Annie decided, frowning. "Because like...who knows. I think he seemed younger than the twins, but -- I don't know? That was so weird."

And had really only just raised, like, a lot of questions. Like a lot of them.

[knife_bender]

"Weird. Disgusting. An abomination," Diego said. "So many words to describe dear Tim."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Let's hope that he was a fluke and we'll never see him again," Annie decided, leaning up to press an affectionate kiss to his jaw. "I don't need the nightmares."

Especially since she was actually sleeping pretty decently most nights. Funny what a little consistency and work-life balance could do.

"Murder channel?" she prompted on that note, punctuating the request with a kiss to his neck.

[knife_bender]

"Murder channel," he said, reaching for the remote. "We can cuddle and comment on how crappy the cops are. It'll be romantic."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"So romantic. So much better than my usual Tuesdays," Annie decided softly, snuggling her head into his shoulder with a happy little sigh.

And her Tuesdays could sometimes be fairly exciting, but pretty much nothing beat cuddling with Diego in her book.

[knife_bender]

"This is the best Tuesday I've had in awhile," he agreed, making himself comfortable and maybe holding her a little bit closer to him. "Now you've spoiled me."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I could switch my schedule around," Annie teased, trailing a foot idly along one of his legs. "But then I'd probably have to be back at the tower on Saturdays, and who would bother you at work?"

[knife_bender]

"We definitely can't have that," Diego said. "I might literally die if I had to spend every Saturday at work alone."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"And I can't have that," Annie replied, shaking her head against his shoulder. "So I'll have to keep sacrificing Tuesdays. Along with Sunday nights and Mondays and Wednesday mornings. I can't believe we've been doing this for almost a year."

And here she'd worried about the distance making things difficult on their relationship. It wasn't always easy, and there were plenty of lonely nights (and mornings, and afternoons), but it wasn't so bad now that they'd figured out a routine.