knife_bender | 75 Godiva Street

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75 Godiva Street | Late Morning

It had been a long and sleepless, but satisfying, 4 weeks with the twins at home. They were turning a month old on Friday, and Annie and Diego finally decided it was time for them to be introduced to the rest of the world. Diego would miss their little family bubble they had for a month, but he had to admit he was looking forward to talking to adults again.

They had sent texts out to various people inviting them over if they so wished (he was not about to force people to see his children), and ordered a pizza now that they were done with the healthy food Donna had supplied them with. The twins were dressed in cute outfits that they probably wouldn't put up with a couple months from now.

Of course Maggie immediately spit up on her little dress but he figured people were gonna have to get used to that like he had over the last couple weeks.

[Open post, if you think you got a text you did]

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"Hey guys!" Annie called, wandering up with Ben cradled against her shoulder and a tired smile for both of them once everyone was inside. "You super did not need to bring us presents, aw."

But also like, she would and could go make that coffee right now. She was allowed 300 milligrams of caffeine per day and goddamn it, she would take every last one.

"New parents always need presents," Danny said, waving that off. Because everything was focused on the baby (babies) and therefore stuff fell to the wayside.

"I'm not in a position to argue that point," Annie decided, moving over to angle Ben towards Danny. "Ben, say hi to Danny."

Ben, shockingly enough, did not say anything. But he did blink, which probably meant something, right?

"A gentleman of few words," Danny said, beaming at her and the baby.

"Want to?" Annie offered, already shifting Ben into a little more of a hand-off position. "He might spit but I've got the hookup on a real fashionable towel, no worries."

Also, she had a feeling Danny may have encountered baby spit a time or two before in his life.

"I'd love to," he said, taking Ben from her carefully. He was for sure getting puked on by one of the babies. For sure. "How are you two holding up? It's one on one with two babies, after all."

"We're okay," Annie assured him, though she did look mighty relieved to not be holding a baby for a minute, here. "Like, I'm more tired than I've ever been in my life, but we're hanging in there."

Like, she'd thought she'd been tired when she'd been superheroing full-time and outrunning various psychopaths, but it turned out that actually, dual newborn power made the apocalypse look kind of easy and restful.

"At some point, and it sounds ridiculous, you'll look back at this time and feel like it was the best couple months with them," Danny said. Because he was for sure thinking it. "Mostly because kids always find new ways to test you."

Also, time made it seemed totally reasonable. It was not.

"Right now, they're mostly testing our ability to stay awake around the clock," Annie replied with a tired smile. "But I bet their methods will get more sophisticated as time goes on."

"Well, of course. That's kids," he agreed. "But they're worth it. Even in the moments where they wanna test you."

"You know they stole a margarita from us when they visited as teenagers during one of those weird weekends?" Annie shared, giving Maggie -- who couldn't even support her own head at the moment, let alone concoct a plan with her brother -- a fond look. "Or tried, anyway. I'm not sure if they're the exact same kids, but it's the kind of thing that sticks with you."

"At least you know what to expect now," Danny laughed, bouncing Ben gently.

"More pastries would've been stale by now," Steve said, "but coffee is always a good present." He grinned. "You look great!"

See? Steve's sister Mary had made sure to teach him to notice the parents and not just the babies! She'd done it by throwing rattles at him, but that was how McGarretts learned best.

She had also apparently taught him the magic thing to say to a woman who, to put it lightly, did not feel like she looked her...best. But Annie'd at least found a sweatshirt that didn't have spit-up on it! Yet!

"I missed coffee," Annie sighed gratefully, bouncing Ben a little both to soothe him and to adjust his position a little. "I take it you guys just got back from Hawaii?"

Look at her, knowing like...a vague approximation of the date.

Steve nodded. "We went to Jersey for Thanksgiving itself, then went back to drop the kids with Rachel again." He smiled. "And I needed to see the sun after the gray of the East Coast at the end November."

There you go, Annie, more context clues!

"I know how that goes." Had Annie, like, illuminated her own hands in the dead of winter just to provide herself a little SAD help? Absolutely. "Everything's good there? No, like, enemy planes landing on the street or whatever?"

Just like, to give a random example.

"Nothing all that weird since the nuke at Kono's wedding in the summer," Steve said airily. "Well. Does a guy getting murdered at an Elvis convention sound strange? It wasn't actually Elvis."

Steven, this is terrible small talk.

"Was he like, an Elvis truther?" Annie asked curiously. "Or did he just work there? Also, do you want to hold a baby?"

She didn't want to, like, baby-hog if Steven was open to having Ben drool a little on his shoulder.

"I'd love to hold a baby," Steve said with a smile, "but didn't want you to think that was the only reason we came over."

"It would be okay if it was," Annie teased, crossing over to gently hand Ben over. "I get it -- they're the new kids on the block, I guess we can pay attention to the babies."

Steve wasn't used to babies this little and so he held Ben a little like a baby and a little like something that could explode. "Well, so far they're behaving very well."

"Like a football," Annie advised helpfully, just casual enough to hopefully not come across as condescending. "And yeah, so far they're both little dreams. I mean, we'll see how that holds up once they're walking."

And considering the twins already refused to sleep at the same time, she was already anticipating their developmental milestones hitting at slightly different times, and had visions of a walking Maggie boosting a crawling Ben from his crib, somehow.

"Just say the word and I can put together a pretty sweet net trap to keep them in one place," Steve said, grinning and adjusting his hold on Ben so he wasn't being held like a grenade.

"Honestly not a bad idea," Annie decided, grinning at them. "Especially since we don't know if they'll manifest powers or not."

But if they did, it would probably be pretty early, given how things had gone for their dad.

"Just let me know," Steve said. "I can teach Diego how."

Because clearly their family home needed more traps, right?

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