knife_bender | MHA #2 | Tuesday Evening

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.

"Wanna talk about it?" he murmured. He figured he should offer it, even as he was focusing on kissing her.

"Just gross guys being gross."

Annie was pretty happy to not provide details (which he could probably fill in just fine, anyway) and focus on the super-not-gross guy in front of her at the moment. Her entire life kind of felt like it was full of gross people, these days, and hanging out with Diego -- who she knew loved the whole Annie package, not just the Starlight wrapping -- was a welcome respite from being objectified at, like, every turn.

"I'm sorry," he said, holding her a little tighter. "Did you want to actually go anywhere tonight?"

"I mean," Annie replied, very lightly brushing her fingertips along his neck, "unless you had your heart set on going out tonight, I'm pretty pumped about the idea of peeling off my eyelashes and ordering in or something."

And that way she wouldn't have to figure out clothes until at least tomorrow. Wins all around.

"Your eyelashes aren't real?" He was a guy, he noticed the change in boobs but not the eyelashes.

"Nope," Annie told him, fluttering those very thick lashes at him and trying to make sure she didn't accidentally shake them loose. Nothing worse than wandering around with half an eyelash falling off. "I mean, thank goodness my superpowers are, because like at this rate that's kind of it."

He laughed, leaning in for another kiss. "Go ahead and remove your eyelashes. We can stay in."

"Favorite boyfriend," she informed him, going onto her toes to return that kiss. "Your reward is that you get to finish taking my zipper down. If you want."

Only if he wanted!

"If I want," he repeated. "I've been waiting to pull this thing down since I saw it."

"And that is your exclusive privilege," Annie replied softly, lifting her brows playfully.

And Ashley's, apparently, but it helped that Diego was the only one she wanted pulling this zipper all the way down to her navel.

Underneath, she did indeed have on a bra (as well as her tights and underwear), but she had been assured that depending on the event she'd be attending and how much moving she'd be doing, tape was probably going to usually be deemed sufficient.

"Good," he said, looking down as he pulled the zipper down all the way. It really had no business going down that low, but Diego wasn't going to complain right now.

Once it was down all the way, he leaned in to press a kiss against her chest.

"I missed you," Annie murmured, shifting her hand to lightly brush over his hair with a happy sigh.

It had only been a few days. So, really, it was kind of a welcome return to form for Annie to feel all dorky and start missing Diego like, the second he'd left on Friday.

"I miss you too," he said, leaning into her touch. "But now all I'm doing is staring at your fake eyelashes."

Why did they exist? Who were these for?

Mostly to impress other straight women, honestly.

"Aren't they weird? They're also weirdly heavy," Annie replied, snorting. "All right, give me a sec and I'll take them off. They leave, like, a gross residue, so I kind of have to take all my makeup off at once."

So get your fill of sparkles and rose gold eyeshadow now.

"Take your time," he said, giving her another kiss. "I'll get you a shirt."

Annie lingered just a second -- all kisses were worth lingering over when you lived dimensions apart, okay? -- before heading into the bathroom to peel off those eyelashes and wash off her makeup.

She also just went ahead and wriggled out of her bodysuit and tights while she was at it, which meant she really felt like herself again when she emerged, bare-faced and smiling.

"Much better."

"I agree," he said, wandering over with a shirt in his hand. "Almost don't want to give you the shirt."

"I mean," Annie noted, reaching out to play with Diego's shirt -- the one he was wearing, that is -- and leaning up to kiss him, "you could always give it to me later."

"Good idea," he murmured, leaning in for a kiss. He quickly tossed the shirt in his hand aside.

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