MHA #2 | Monday Morning

[knife_bender]

It had been twelve years since Diego spent a lot of time with a sibling and sixteen years since he had dealt with Five. Still, he should have known better than to tease his brother as much as he did about the Peter Pan uniform the island had given him.

When he had walked into his apartment on Monday morning the whole place was wrecked. Anything that had been on a shelf was now on the floor, all of the snacks (that he had specifically bought for that little shit)  were spread out in the kitchen and he was fairly sure Five bought a plant just to knock it over in Diego's living room. 

He stood there for a few moments, looking at the mess, and letting the anger just stew for a moment. Then he took out a knife and started stabbing at one of his couch cushions. 

Better the cushion than his own brother. 

[Post is open and angry lol. Five being an asshole modded with permission]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Well." Annie gestured to the rampant destruction. "It might be undeserved niceness and I might keep it, now. That poor plant."

She was just going to go over there and try to gather up the dirt back into the pot, at least. This plant didn't deserve to be a casualty of the weekend.

[knife_bender]

"Yeah the plant was an interesting touch," he said. "At least he remembered I'd never actually keep a plant in the house for him to knock over."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Well, now you have a plant," Annie said, trying to see the bright side. "I think this is the kind that like, cleans the air, too. He kind of inadvertently did you a favor?"

Because she was going to save this plant, so help her, and now he had a nice houseplant, so there. (Which...Annie would probably have to water.)

[knife_bender]

"What am I supposed to do with a plant?" he asked.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Water it," Annie suggested as she tried to right the plant. "Breathe the clean air it provides you. Enjoy its cute stripey leaves."

[knife_bender]

"Do you want it?" he asked. Because he had no use for clean air or cute stripey leaves.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I can visit it when I come over." And make sure it hadn't died. "It's your plant. Don't you think it'd piss Five off more if you, like, took care of his spite plant?"

The Annie way of getting back at people involved forcibly finding a route to positivity and making the best of it. It was occasionally kind of effective!

[knife_bender]

Diego sighed, knowing that Five probably wouldn't even notice, but Annie seemed determined. "I'm gonna end up killing this thing."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I won't let you," Annie assured him, carefully picking up the plant in its pot with most of the dirt and going over to kiss him again. "Look, let's try to find some positivity, here. This little guy's going to make the air so clean, and it'll be nice to see something green all winter! Something good has to have come out of this weekend, come on."

And plus, she might take it to class with her on Friday so that Five would definitely see it.

[knife_bender]

"Hey, my weekend was fine," Diego said. "My brother was miserable and I got to dance with a pretty girl at the ball."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"A pretty girl whose brain fell out of her ear," Annie said, rolling her eyes with a sigh. "Ugh, I was so, like, weak and dumb. Like, literally weak - that dress was so heavy."

[knife_bender]

"Well it was like a thousand pounds of tulle," Diego joked. "You were far from the only dumb person this weekend."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It was made with magic, I think," she informed him helpfully. "I don't know if I would have been able to do anything for myself without the help of a man or a chipmunk this weekend. Don't take it personally if, like, I make a point of doing stuff for myself for awhile." Because while she normally kind of adored his occasional old-timey chivalry, Annie was feeling a little like she needed to open her own doors and pull out her own chairs for the next couple weeks, if only to prove to herself she still could.

[knife_bender]

"Noted," he said, laughing lightly. "Should I ask you to do stuff for me too?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Maybe in the name of feminism, but I don't want you getting spoiled after all the doting," Annie teased. "You didn't aggravate your arm in like a swordfight or something, did you?"

Because thanks to not being in her right mind, she had actually gone a full forty-eight hours without asking about his injury (though she'd also largely lightened up about it in the last week, which meant she'd dropped down insistently checking on him once a day or so.)

[knife_bender]

"It's fine. I didn't get in any duels, I promise," Diego said, leaning over the couch so he could flip over the cushion he stabbed. There. Fixed.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie watched him, looking unimpressed. "Oh, sure, all better," she said sarcastically, sighing. "Diego, you've got to stop destroying your own stuff when Five pisses you off."

First the coffeemaker, now this.

[knife_bender]

"He wasn't around to throw stuff at," Diego said with a shrug. "But I know."

Look, it had been awhile since he had been angry enough to lash out at something. That was progress, probably due to Annie's influence!

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Throwing stuff at him isn't okay either!" Might as well establish here and now that Annie thought that throwing knives at one's siblings was not an appropriate way of expressing displeasure with them. "I don't think he's going to stop doing things to irritate you," the mess they were standing in being a case in point, "so we have to figure out a constructive way to deal with him."

She just wasn't quite sure what that was yet. But she'd figure it out!

[knife_bender]

Uggggggggh that sounded close to therapy words.

"Can't I just kill him?" Joking. He was joking.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"No. I don't think he'd hold still long enough, anyway," Annie said, and she was actually sort of serious. "Maybe he just needs to know you were kidding about his...outfit."

Which meant that, yes, she thought that Diego should suck it up and apologize first, even though what Five had done was clearly a million times worse.

[knife_bender]

Diego looked at Annie like she had shot him. And he had actually been shot so he knew he what that looked like!

“No.”

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie held up a hand placatingly. "Listen, I'm not saying you have to be his best friend or to grovel or anything - you're just never going to get an apology out of him, so why not just be the bigger person for your own sake?"

She was aware of how useless this was, but she had to try. It was what she would do, anyway.

[knife_bender]

“There are so many reasons why not,” he said. “It might actually kill me.”

Diego, be more dramatic.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Look, I’m sorry. I can’t.”

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Hey, that's okay." Annie also didn't want to push him too hard on this, even if she really did think it might be good for him to, like, address how he dealt with this sibling - specifically, Five - stuff. "But like...let's find something to do when this kind of thing happens that isn't destructive." Hopefully he was going to be able to use a punching bag again soon. Maybe that'd help.

She reached out to lightly squeeze his arm. "Like, where do you want your new plant to live? It needs to go by a window." And then from there she was going to help start setting this place to rights, because that would also probably help.