knife_bender | Totally Fancy Restaurant | Annie's Baltimore | Sunday Night

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Totally Fancy Restaurant | Annie's Baltimore | Sunday Night | NFB

This had been the first time Diego had a girlfriend on Valentine's Day and he wasn't going to let any lingering awkwardness from last week prevent him from going all out for it. The restaurant had items on the menu Diego couldn't pronounce which is how he knew it was fancy. Luckily it was a place that just required you to look nice but not force a tie on you. That was just one thing he refused to do after being forced to wear one for seventeen years.

"You know, it wasn't as complicated as I thought it would be to get a reservation in a specific restaurant in a specific universe," Diego said as he tried to find something in English on the menu.

Honestly it was easy to check to make sure it was the correct one if you dropped a 'Hey, was the latest Homelander movie any good?' to the person you were talking to on the phone and if they responded in kind you knew you got it right.

[For the girl! And now NSFW]

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"I already suggested it to him." So yes, definitely. "I think it'd be fun! I'm really curious about her."

Annie would regret all of this once she learned the truth about Dolores, yes.

Diego sighed. "The things I do for you."

"Yeah." And cue Annie's smile turning all fond and dorky and maybe a little shy as she reached one of her feet out under the table to nudge his. "You do a lot for me as it is. I really like my flowers."

And how he'd totally adhered to her whole brand, what with the yellow and white thing. And the note, with its promise of more romantic things in person.

"I liked mine too. Even more because I don't have to water them," he said with a smile. "Sorry I couldn't come up with, like, poetry or anything for the card."

Annie shook her head, reaching over for his hand. "It's perfect." She was going to save the card forever as it was, anyway, probably along with a couple of the roses themselves once they started wilting and she could dry them out. "And, like, there's kind of something I wanted to talk to you about, actually."

Because this was totally, totally the perfect moment Annie had been waiting for. It was a romantic holiday, he looked, like, impossibly handsome, they were in a super-romantic setting...though, if Annie had only been a touch more paranoid, she might have noticed the suspicious-looking guys who were definitely not waitstaff coming out from the back.

You know who was paranoid? Diego. He was all in with what Annie was saying at first because, yes, this was the moment and if she didn't say it he certainly would. But then he noticed the guys coming from the back. They certainly looked out of place and it only took a few seconds of staring for Diego to fully understand their situation. It was a big holiday, fancy restaurant, filled with people dressed up wearing nice jewelry and possibly with expensive gifts for their significant others on hand.

Kind of a perfect set up if you were into robbing people.

"Annie."

Annie was at first kind of mildly annoyed, because Diego, hello, she was clearly about to pour her heart out here and he wasn't even looking at her.

But she frowned, turning to follow his gaze, and it only took a second for it to click for her, too. "...those guys have guns."

They weren't even trying to be subtle about it, either. And Annie wasn't exactly super familiar with Maryland's firearm carry laws, but it probably didn't really matter since those guys didn't seem like they cared a ton about the law.

"Yeah, they do." Diego reached into the inner pocket of the jacket he was wearing, frowning because he thought it was a six knife kind of night.

As if to confirm what they already knew one of the guys (who had obviously seen one too many movies) shot up in the air to get everyone's attention. And, you know, alert everybody within a city block of a crime happening.

At least stupid bad guys were easier to take out.

Well, shit.

Everyone who wasn't a superhero just trying to enjoy their damn Valentine's Day reacted appropriately -- shrieks and gasps went up from the tables, the bartender dropped the bottle he was holding, and a waiter immediately fell to the floor with his hands on his head.

"Are you kidding me?" Annie murmured as the other several guys with guns took to the edges of the restaurant, waving their weapons menacingly as the ringleader started yelling the typical bad guy stuff about how no one had to get hurt. She was significantly less worried than the various civilians and more just sort of annoyed that this was happening right now, but, like...honestly, this was also sort of exciting. (Just a little. It felt a touch inappropriate to be excited when people were scared, but Annie had made her peace with that a long time ago.)

"If you can get the guy shooting the stupid ceiling, I've got him," Annie suggested in an undertone to Diego, nodding to the goon closest to them.

Diego nodded, hoping this would end up better than the last time this had happened to him. At least he trusted Annie not to go completely feral, unlike Five.

He brandished a knife, throwing it at the goon's wrist to get him to drop the gun. Any other situation he would have thrown more to incapacitate him but in this case he had to make the most of what he had.

Annie, meanwhile, was fairly happy to use the element of surprise here as long as she could -- which was not going to be longer than a few seconds, honestly. She moved quickly enough that the guy barely had time to register that some slender blonde chick was up out of her seat and in his face before she'd kicked him hard in the ribs and he'd doubled over in pain.

"What --" And that was all he got out before Annie neatly snapped his wrist and the rest morphed into a howl of pain. But at least he dropped the gun!

That really had no business being so hot, but Diego only allowed himself a couple seconds to enjoy it. The other guys definitely heard their buddy screaming in pain and now their attention was focused entirely on Diego and Annie. Hopefully one of these rich people were calling the cops now that guns weren't pointed at them.

Diego threw off two more knives at the next guy closest to them, still working on just disarming everybody. While he knew Annie could take a bullet he'd just prefer to lower the risk of it happening at all.

Great, that was half his ammo gone and there were still three guys left.

Of course, once the cops showed up, there would be a whole different issue to worry about, considering Annie really didn't want to deal with the press tonight.

Which was also why when one of those pissed-off, injured guys came charging at her while she was taking roughly two seconds to admire that stupidly hot knife-throwing action, Annie didn't just blast him right away. She grabbed him by the neck, threw him head-first into a light fixture, and then shoved her hand into his midsection to blast him into the wall. There was just the briefest flicker of the lights in response, and she'd take it. Not like, great for her secret identity, but not too obvious, either.

And with that taken care of, she could help one of these screaming couples a little bit. She offered a quiet, "It's all right, stay calm," as she distractedly pulled their table over as a barricade and looked over to Diego. "Good?"

"Yeah," Diego said with a nod. "I'm gonna be out of knives soon, but it's what--two more left?"

He could make do with a butter knife though, and it had the added benefit of just being humiliating to the person that got stabbed with it.

"Yeah," Annie agreed a little breathlessly, clearly considering something for a moment. She crossed back over towards Diego, swiftly picking up a chair in her path to throw it at her friend with the broken wrist, since he looked like he might try to get back up. "Here, hang on."

And like -- damn it, there had been a whole sexy plan here, and it was a little embarrassing out of context, now. But as soon as Annie was back by Diego's side, she planted her foot up on a chair and tugged her skirt up a little to reveal the surprisingly cute garter she had attached to her stocking.

Of course, it wasn't just a normal, surprisingly cute garter. It had three of his knives tucked into a holster attached to it. Annie had scoured the internet and special-ordered it weeks ago. "It was supposed to be a surprise," she told him, a little bit shy.

...it probably still was a surprise. Just not the way she'd intended.

Yeah, it was a surprise. A great surprise and it was almost like they weren't two seconds away from being shot at with the way Diego took a moment to just look. Like, it was hot, but thoughtful, and he really shouldn't be focusing on this right now while this whole thing was happening around them but oh well.

"Oh my god," he murmured, tearing his gaze away from Annie's leg to look up at her face. "I love you."

And now Annie was kind of forgetting for a second that all of this was going on around them and there were still two guys with guns who were probably really mad at them by now, because -- there it was.

"What?" She'd heard him, and it was clear from the way she was looking at him that she had, but just -- she needed a second to process it, because Annie had been on the brink of saying that for weeks, and the thing was that all her hesitation didn't seem to actually matter, now. Because it wasn't any less true whether it was said during a quiet, sappy moment, or after a disagreement or during sex or when she first woke up in the morning or any of the dozens of times she'd wanted to say it but talked herself out of it, and it was still true right now, with the chaos going on around them. "I mean." Annie shook her head, unable to stop herself from smiling at him. "I love you, too."

And that was when those guys decided to take the ample opportunity being afforded to them and actually open fire on these idiots, which led to Annie immediately throwing herself bodily at Diego before he could get shot. That might be the only thing that could actually ruin this right now.

Diego was more than happy with Annie tackling him right now, even if it was to avoid him getting hit by a bullet. They had been asking to be shot just then. Training totally went out the window and it was kind of Diego's fault.

"Okay we really need to be rid of these guys now." Because I love you's were said and Diego wanted to say it again when out of immediate danger. He slid his hand down to the garter Annie was wearing and wrapped his fingers around the hilt of one of the knives there. "Ready?"

"Super ready," Annie promised, a little out of breath. "I have more in my purse if you need, too." Which wasn't a sexy Valentine's Day surprise so much as just a thing she'd started doing a couple weeks ago, because Diego left knives all over her place and it had seemed like a better idea than just leaving them in the bed or under her couch.

She was also just going to do a little quick preemptive work here, since he seemed like he had enough knives to do some damage to these guys, and focus her attention on a black sphere on the ceiling that she'd noticed a moment ago. With a flicker of the lights and an accompanying shimmery sound, the camera cracked, which meant Annie felt a lot more okay sticking her palm out and firing a bright blast of light towards one of the shooters. Sorry for your eyes, Mister Evildoer.

Edited 2021-02-14 20:45 (UTC)

Diego knew better than to look anywhere near Annie while she was doing her thing without his domino mask on. Luckily Diego didn't necessarily need to look for long to see where the last guy was before ducking back down and throwing two knives at him in quick succession.

Which probably hurt like a bitch and all, and the one Annie had blasted was still waving his gun around even as he yelled about his eyes -- but the more pressing concern for Annie was the flashing blue-and-red lights she could see through the picture window at the front.

"Time to go," she murmured to Diego, her eyes fading quickly as she reached for his hand. "Or else we're gonna get really famous really fast."

"Yeah, no thanks," Diego said, taking her hand. "At least we took the car."

That way they didn't have to look like two people who had clearly been in a firefight in the streets trying to get an uber.

Yeah, Annie had at least not gotten shot -- hooray, her dress would survive! -- but so much for the amount of time she'd spent on her hair tonight, considering all the kicking and tackling. Oh well.

"Through the kitchen," Annie decided, leading the way through the back even as there was a cry of, "Baltimore PD! Get on the ground!" from the front.

"This is how I keep leaving restaurants in this city," Diego joked as he followed Annie. "I'm starting to get a complex."

"Maybe all Baltimores are cursed," Annie said, pushing her way through the back door and relaxing a little once they were in the alley. "Holy shit. Happy Valentine's Day."

This was what she got for wanting to do something fancy. They should've just, like, stayed in and ordered a heart-shaped pizza.

Edited 2021-02-14 21:42 (UTC)

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