A Niceish Hotel | Night

[knife_bender]

Chalk this up as one of the most emotionally exhausting days of Diego's life, and it had to have been so much worse for Annie. He was more than happy to get her out of the Believe Expo and hole up with her in a hotel on Vought's dime (not that they knew that). It was a little surreal having to be incognito by paying everything in cash while Annie was off to the side in a makeshift disguise, but he could already see it was needed. It was all over the news whenever they passed a TV.

At least they managed to not get recognized on the way up to the room. Though, really, who would imagine Starlight hanging out with a guy that looked like Diego?

"Oh thank god there's a minibar," Diego said as soon as he opened the door to their room.

[For Annie and NFB due to distance! ETA warning for description of sexual assault in the comments]

Comments

[knife_bender]

He huffed out a small laugh. "I learned you are a terrible liar."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You didn't already know?" she asked, tilting her head to press a soft kiss to his jaw. "I'm just glad Five didn't decide to put his hand up, or something."

That would have been disastrous, and it had been pretty bad as it was.

[knife_bender]

"He's probably still enjoying the high of nailing me with a paint balloon yesterday." His need to be a terrible human had been briefly sated by that.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh, man, I miss everything fun," Annie said enviously. "Did he cheat?"

She suspected there had been cheating involved, yes. Because Five.

[knife_bender]

"Is it cheating if he teleported behind me and then teleported away?" he asked.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That's basically the definition of cheating, yes," Annie replied, tucking herself more firmly against him. "I mean, on the other hand, I'm not sure it's exactly fair for you to compete in anything where aim is a factor."

[knife_bender]

"I didn't even have the chance," Diego whined, putting an arm around her shoulders. "He used to do it all the time when we were kids too, but of course Dad said it wasn't cheating."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yet another instance of your dad just being patently the worst," Annie replied. "I feel like we need to sneak up on Five when he's sleeping or something to get back at him."

That seemed like the only time when you could count on him not immediately teleporting away.

[knife_bender]

"You really want to invite that retaliation upon yourself?" he asked lightly. "He said you were okay, by the way."

Which was high praise coming from Five.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie pulled away just enough to look up at him, disbelieving. "He did not."

Annie wanted to get that engraved on a plaque, not just because she knew that it was pretty high praise from Five, but also that she'd probably never hear it again.

[knife_bender]

"He really did," Diego said with a nod. "Probably won't admit it if you asked, but he did."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Like, today?" Annie asked. "Well, hey, look at that. I should call Ezekiel on Monday, because a miracle occurred at Believe Expo."

Probably as a direct result of her, you know, besmirching its name and ensuring she would absolutely not be invited back next year, but still!

[knife_bender]

He laughed. "Yeah, he gave me...I guess a pep talk? In his own way."

He would not be mentioning the offer of murder because he was keeping that in his back pocket, thank you.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That's actually very sweet," Annie said, softening as she nestled herself against his side, and reached out to lightly touch his arm. "Like after my speech?"

Look, she would never say anything to him about it, because he'd probably just hiss at her, but she was really glad Five had been there for Diego, right then. (For a given value of 'been there.')

[knife_bender]

He nodded. "Yeah, I talked to him and Steve before I found you."

[defenderofdesmoines]

That made sense, since Danny had found her, too.

"Did they help?" she asked, slipping her hand inside his robe's sleeve to lightly rub her hand along his arm.

As hard as this had all been on her, she couldn't imagine it was anywhere near easy for Diego. She also had enough perspective to know that while they could and would be there for each other through this, she alone probably wasn't going to be able to offer all the support he'd need right now.

[knife_bender]

"In their own way." Mostly by offering to murder. "They're not exactly in touch with their emotions."

It was probably best that they had found him, because he would have lashed out at anyone trying to, you know, actually offer emotional support while he was angry.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I think I got all of those," Annie commented lightly. (Well. And Jessica.) "What can -- is there anything I can do? I'm going to try to be around more than I have been, for one thing."

Assuming he was right and she didn't actually get fired.

[knife_bender]

"That's all I want," he said, leaning in for a kiss.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie leaned up into the kiss, sighing softly as she reached a hand up to cup his cheek.

"Even if I have to sneak in in the middle of the night to see you?" she asked, staying close.

Again, it really might just be easier if she was fired.

[knife_bender]

"It's cute that you think you can sneak up on me," he teased. "But I don't mind you trying."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Next time I won't send a text to warn you," Annie teased, trailing her fingertips affectionately along his neck. "And you'll just wake up the next morning and find me sleeping there."

No, it would probably result in another adorable story about him throwing knives at her bulletproof self.

[knife_bender]

"I would really like to see that happen." Or at least he'd like to see an attempt made.

It helped that he knew he couldn't actually hurt her if he got a paranoid knife throw in.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Then maybe it'll happen." Not any time immediate, since she had to give him time enough time to potentially actually find this surprising. (Also there was no way she'd be able to just go to sleep if she pulled this off. It would be so amazing she'd have to wake him up, probably!)

Annie frowned a little as her fingertips found something in the hair at the nape of Diego's neck, and she pulled her fingers back to examine them. "You've still got some paint," she noted, amused.

[knife_bender]

"Ugh." Diego reached back to confirm that, yeah, there was definitely some dried paint back there. "He got me right in the back of the head, it went down my shirt."