knife_bender | MHA #2 | Tuesday Evening

"That's kind of how I feel about the whole thing," Annie sighed, leaning into Diego a bit as she carefully peeled off one boot.

And then dropped a solid six inches in height once she could stand on her bare foot, wincing as she tugged off the other boot to throw it near its mate. "Like, don't get me wrong -- I'm glad you appreciate me in this thing." And honestly, his attention might help her feel a little better about it. "I just don't love...people who aren't you seeing me like this."

Like. Normally she barely even showed her collarbones.

"I know," he said, this time getting to lean down to kiss her. "I'll get some clothes from your place for you to wear back to New York later."

"I love you," Annie told him again, slipping her arms around his waist and already feeling more comfortable in bare (or, well, stockinged if not bare -- she was actually pretty grateful for the tights in this uniform) feet. "I'm stealing one of your shirts for now, though."

Oh no, anything but that.

"I'll let you keep one of my shirts, if you want," he said with a smile. "I should probably keep some clothes in New York anyway."

He had definitely learned his lesson about under packing last week.

"I do want. I would love that," Annie told him, smiling widely at the idea. It would be really nice to have something of his with her in New York, in her giant, lonely apartment. And it certainly wasn't a secret how much she missed him, even if she was still trying a bit to pretend things were better than they were, and that she wasn't lonely all the time.

And look, her feet hurt, but she was going to go up onto her toes to kiss him one more time before pulling back. "I got really used to it just being walking distance between our apartments." Because yeah, neither of them was really succeeding at this packing thing, considering Annie had packed a little bag and then had left it behind when she was running late.

"It was really convenient," he said, taking her by the hand to lead her to the bedroom. It was probably a good thing he hadn't bothered to get changed for date night yet.

"I mean, portals are convenient," Annie had to admit, padding along with him even as she was eagerly reaching up with her free hand to gently start working the pins holding her wig in place. "If you were some super-hot guy who lived in Maryland in my universe, this would have involved a flight."

So, you know. It wasn't ideal, but it could be worse, right?

"That is a great point." He honestly didn't know how their relationship would be if they had to do long distance like normal people.

He gave her an amused look when he saw what she was doing. "I'm sorry, I still can't believe they make you wear a wig."

Annie gave him a look in return, at least waiting until they reached the bedroom before she tipped her head over and pulled it off.

Her actual hair was pinned up, as she had said, in a little bun at the back of her head, and as soon as Annie had tossed the wig onto the nearest surface, she was tugging off her gloves so she could work those pins out.

"I feel like I'd understand it better if it was a different color from my actual hair," she noted, sighing. "But I just feel like a doll or something. Maeve doesn't have to wear a wig."

"Well, at least if someone grabs your hair in a fight you can escape?" Not that Annie was getting into too many fights these days. "And you'll really confuse them."

"Like a lizard," Annie said thoughtfully, actually considering that. "All right, I like that reasoning. I'll pretend that's why Vought's doing this."

Even though it was, you know, transparently not at all.

"I get to wear my old one for Believe Expo in a couple weeks," she added. "Because it's 'family-friendly.'"

Which just sort of drew a line under how the bodysuit was...you know, not.

"Yeah, this is the direct opposite of family friendly," he said, brushing his fingers against the zipper of the bodysuit. It had been taunting him since she walked in the apartment.

Annie smiled as she glanced down, taking a step closer once her hair was free of itchy, pointy bobby pins. "So maybe I can convince them to make this the special-occasion one?" she suggested hopefully. "I do like that the zipper has a star."

Vought totally understood her branding, and it was kind of cool? It was just less cool the way they were determined to put that branding on as little fabric as possible.

"I mean, I like the zipper in general," he said. "This is much easier to remove than your other uniform."

Then again, there was like 90% less clothing involved.

"I figured you might like the zipper." She had that one sports bra with the zipper that he liked, after all. It wasn't just speculation. "It's way easier to get me out of this thing -- I can actually get myself out pretty easy -- but the downside is, like...it kinda has to come off."

She colored slightly, because...man, that was something she had only just discovered about her more conservative uniform. As long as you were willing to do a little bit of clothes-ripping, it could stay on for all kinds of stuff.

"It's a trade off," he said, pulling the zipper down a little more. "But I will miss having to help you out of your other uniform."

It made him feel useful! And it was kind of sweet when she asked him to do it.

"You can help me out of this one any time," Annie replied, reaching out to skim her hands along his arms with a soft sigh.

And maybe she'd wear the other one just for Diego sometimes. For old times' sake, and all.

"Wanna see a fun trick?" she added, and her tone was sardonic enough that it was probably obvious that it was not really fun, nor really a trick.

"Oh, absolutely," he said, smiling. "What kind of trick?"

Annie wiggled the fingers of one hand at him dramatically. "Now she's a double-D," she intoned before reaching into her top and fishing around for a moment and producing a wobbly bit of silicone. "And now she's not."

It was sort of funny, doing it one at a time. One side of her bodysuit was quite form-fitting, still; the other was...roomier.

She pitched it across the room with a roll of her eyes, trying very hard to make it seem like she thought it was sort of dryly hilarious, rather than an insecurity she had grappled with long before Vought had ever come along.

Diego started laughing. "I didn't want to say anything, but I knew something was off there. Here I was thinking it was some sort of super scientific bra technology."

"Oh no, just good ol' push-up pads," Annie said, reaching in to grab the other one and fling it off with its wobbly friend. "I used to have friends who'd wear them in pageants."

Not Annie herself, of course, if only because she'd rather not call attention to her chest at all if she could help it.

"That is so weird." Seriously, they looked like little jellyfish or chicken cutlets or something. "Next time I want to take them out and throw them though."

It looked kind of fun.

"Deal," Annie assured him with a soft laugh. "It can be all your fun next time." And that kind of helped, actually. Making a fun little game out of her persistent body image issues. (What really helped more than anything, of course, was the knowledge that he liked her body, even as skinny and hip-less as it was without Vought's help.)

Without her boots, her wig, or those, Annie was starting to feel a lot more like herself (if a scantily-clad version of herself.) She reached up to wrap her arms around Diego's neck with a sigh. "It's not like this version has, like, fewer pieces," she pointed out.

"I am now realizing that," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist. "I'm really glad you still came here, even if you were running late."

It would have been easy enough to cancel and not go through town in that outfit.

"I had a hard day," Annie admitted, leaning up to kiss him as a little bit of the tension left her body. "Kinda really wanted to see you, even if I had to deal with the stairs in those boots."

Really the better choice would have been to text him she'd be late by an hour or so, and gone to change, but her afternoon had been crappy enough that she hadn't wanted to delay.

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