MHA # 2 | Saturday Afternoon

[knife_bender]

After work Diego had rushed home to enact his plan. He had promised (or warned?) Annie, that the only thing stopping him from buying an engagement ring was that he needed to deal with the whole lost siblings thing first. Well, they have now been found and Diego was wasting no time. He had taken Klaus and Allison out to Baltimore that very week and bought a ring.

Along with about ten empty ring boxes. Because he was going to have fun with this. Allison thought it was a bad idea but what did she know, she was divorced and her second husband was 60 years in the past.

[For the girl!]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

In a turn of events that was probably in no way surprising to anyone who had ever heard Annie talk about work, she was going to be bouncing back and forth between Fandom and New York a little more frequently to make up for going totally AWOL for ten days. Most of yesterday and a good chunk of today had been taken up with apologies and meetings and apologizing during meetings, including a meeting that had taken place while Annie had been parked in a cosmetologist's chair with foil in her hair. And as a result, Annie now had a slight strawberry tint to her hair, her highlights picking up more gold than her natural ashy blonde. (She didn't hate it? Beat wearing a wig, anyway.)

And while it might have made sense to just stay put through the holiday weekend and keep getting chewed out rather than dipping back to Fandom again, already -- Annie could only take so much.

"Heeeeey," she called, letting herself into the apartment.

[knife_bender]

"Hey!" Diego said, probably with a little too much nervous enthusiasm. He could immediately see that her hair was different but it wasn't jarring? He had been worried it'd be a huge change that she had to be saddled with.

"That isn't too bad," he said as approached her. "I like the color."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Thanks," Annie replied with a smile, obliviously twirling a lock of her hair as she moved over to give him a kiss hello. "It's shockingly subtle, for Vought."

Someone was maybe a little understandably gun-shy about proposed changes to her overall look.

[knife_bender]

"It is very subtle," he agreed with a grin. "I was expecting way worse. Like a platinum perm."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'm hoping we left the platinum days behind with the bodysuit," Annie admitted. Though that look was probably being printed on popcorn buckets across the nation as she spoke. "How was work? I wish I could've been here to visit you on your first day back after months away."

You know, for him.

[knife_bender]

"It's okay, Summer visited me," Diego said. "Brought me a cake. Most of it is still in the fridge. I'm just grateful it wasn't something from that book you gave her."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Awww, that was nice of her," Annie replied fondly, touched. "She was saying she wanted to bring something over, but she's good about not inflicting the mayonnaise-y stuff on people without warning."

And Annie also knew full damn well that Summer had wanted to see the hair. (Everyone should want to see the hair!)

[knife_bender]

Diego nodded absently in agreement, a little more focused on how he should approach the subject at hand. He reached for her hand, and started to lead her to the couch.

"I'm glad you came home today." Because he was so excited he might actually explode if he had to wait longer than the 24 hours he already waited. "How do you feel about scavenger hunts?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

...well, that was an intriguing question.

"Neutral to positive?" Annie answered curiously, letting herself be led and putting actual thought into the answer. "I guess it depends on what's being hunted?"

But considering how competitive they could be with each other, and how she could tell he was kind of nerved up about something, she was already very interested.

[knife_bender]

"A ring," Diego said, leaving it at that and seeing if she'd piece it together herself.

[defenderofdesmoines]

She did. It took a second, but she did.

"What?" Annie had heard him just fine, and she even understood exactly what he meant, but it was still -- that was a big thing to say, Diego, and she needed a second to deal with how her stomach had just dropped to her toes. "Like -- like a ring?"

She could have specified 'engagement,' but she was kind of reeling and figured that that emphasis could maybe do the work for her.

[knife_bender]

"The ring, even," Diego said, smile going a little wider at her reaction. "Klaus and Allison went with me to pick it out."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Okay, if Allison and Klaus had been involved...this was probably a pretty awesome ring. Like, those two were clearly the fashionable Hargreeves.

It wouldn't have mattered if it was a ring he'd gotten from the bottom of a cereal box, for the record. But Annie's brain was throwing a thousand thoughts at her right now and that was one of them.

As was what she was finally putting together. "Oh my God, and you hid it?" she asked, her mouth falling open in nothing short of abject delight.

[knife_bender]

Diego looked so pleased by Annie's enthusiasm. See, Allison, you didn't know shit.

"Yep," he said proudly. "Somewhere in this apartment your engagement ring is hidden and it's your job to find it."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie kind of just sat there for a second, staring at him, before leaning forward to take Diego's face in her hands and kiss him, smiling so much her face kind of hurt already.

"You are so smart, and so creative, and I love you so much."

And she was going to tear this place apart. Just as soon as she could think straight. This was going to require, like, strategy.

[knife_bender]

Diego's shoulders visibly relaxed when Annie kissed him, the nerves of before fading away. Like, they had discussed this multiple times, but the option of 'no, I don't want to marry you' was on the table.

But with the way he was being kissed right, he was pretty confident the answer would be yes when she found the ring.

"I love you too," he said. "Allison didn't think you'd like the game."

Annie's enthusiasm might die down when she found the third or fourth decoy box, but right now his idea looked like a success!

[defenderofdesmoines]

The answer was yes right now, but Annie kind of figured there was more coming once she found the ring. That seemed like it was probably part of it?

All the best games had really good prizes, you know?

"I appreciate Allison looking out, but this is awesome," Annie replied, pulling back and clearly sort of at war with herself where to start. She gave Diego's hand a quick squeeze, glancing around the room for a moment before her eyes landed on -- of course -- her little collection of plants.

"Do I get any hints?" Don't give her any hints, Diego.

[knife_bender]

"Absolutely not!" He wasn't even going to tell her about the decoys. Let her find out that joy for herself. "That takes the fun out of it."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Correct answer.

Annie blew out a breath, carefully getting to her feet as she looked around their living room. "Okay. I need to be like, systematic about this," she decided, already kind of debating making a list of places to search so she could make sure she didn't cover the same ground twice. The plants seemed like an obvious choice, and because they seemed so obvious, she was going to start with the couch.

She reached to pull up the cushion she'd been sitting on, fishing around deep in the couch for a moment before producing a knife -- normal, duh -- which she discarded.

[knife_bender]

Diego looked absolutely thrilled by all of this. "Oh, so you're just jumping right in there, aren't you?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Are you allowed to help me?" Annie countered, making a point now to playfully reach around him to fish around in those cushions, too.

It was obviously not in the couch. (A second knife was, though.) But she also knew that if he'd gone to this kind of effort and she found it right away, that would kind of suck, right?

(She need not have worried.)

[knife_bender]

"Me helping would also be cheating," he said. "But, hey, if you want to gather up a posse to help you look I'd be fine with that."

He was fairly confident in his hiding place. And the decoys.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"No, this is mine. Ours," Annie said, shaking her head and pressing a quick kiss to his cheek as she moved to look under the couch. "I have too many friends with slick powers that would probably help, anyway."

Like Wanda probably had a spell for this. For all Annie knew, ring-finding was a special Jedi skill.

"It's just the apartment, right?" she clarified, her head popping back up as she determined that there was no ring under the couch.

[knife_bender]

"Just the apartment," he confirmed with a nod. "I would have hidden it on the island but I would like to get married sometime in the next decade."

[defenderofdesmoines]

You know, you'd think that the fact she was hunting for her own engagement ring might have tempered Annie's reaction to hearing Diego talk about getting married to her, but no. She still kind of took a second to visibly melt at hearing that.

She was caught up in the game of it, of course, and she was kind of purposely getting caught up in it because if she didn't she would sort of collapse in on herself out of nerves and what this all meant, right now.

"I still would have found it," Annie decided, trying for cocky but her tone was soft and fond and kind of emotional, all the same. And that was a big promise considering she hadn't found it just in the apartment, yet.

And she'd put on enough of a show, now. Time to start looking in places she thought were obvious, and so she was heading over to start sifting thorough her plants.