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

[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."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"What a jerk," Annie said, but it was said sort of affectionately. (Don't tell Five.) She moved a little so she could press a kiss to his cheek. "I mean, it's definitely not sportsmanlike, even if you could argue about it being cheating or not."

Because really, what fun was it to compete if everyone wasn't on an even playing field? Winning was fun because you beat everyone, not because you tricked them.

[knife_bender]

To be fair, it wasn't like they were raised in an environment where competition was fun. More like competition was the only way to get any kind of parental affection. And that was only if you won.

"I've got a couple weeks to get my revenge," Diego said with a slight smile. "Shame you're not in that class."

However if she had been Diego would show no mercy.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It's so weird to hear about you being in a class," Annie teased. "And please, you're so lucky I'm not in that class."

She would also, of course, show zero mercy.

Winning was also not about being nice.

[knife_bender]

"Right? First real class I've ever been in and it's paintball." So it wasn't even a real class, really. "And I would kick your ass at paintball."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Maybe if you cheated," Annie acknowledged with a smile and a little shrug. "I don't know, I think I'd be pretty good at it. Better than that...relay race thing."

That had been so, so weird.

[knife_bender]

"Yeah, that looked rough," Diego said, laughing a little. "How did you get roped into that?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I have no idea how they even knew I was on the island," Annie said, shaking her head. "Is that going to be a weekly thing? Because you can come visit me on Wednesdays to get out of it."

But not every Wednesday, of course. No one could ever be that lucky.

[knife_bender]

"And miss the chance to see Danny get forced to do something stupid? No way," he joked. "But I appreciate the offer."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"See, tempting -- I was going to try to avoid the island on Wednesdays myself, but then there's the idea of seeing people I know have to wear shark hats and participate in human pyramids."

And by 'people I know' she meant you, Diego. She meant you.

"So maybe I can try to make Wednesdays a standing island day for me," she added, thinking about it. It was getting slightly, slightly easier to manage her schedule, and if she was able to negotiate with Ms. Stillwell after all this, it might be even easier.

[knife_bender]

It might be the only way she'd see Diego wearing color in the foreseeable future, it was true.

"And what are the odds of you getting chosen again, pfft."

Pretty high, Diego. Pretty high.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Probably pretty low, right?" Annie, this is called tempting fate, what you're doing, here. "The guy who designs all of those is like, Rey's teacher? And like, I've done her obstacle course and it's hard. I got stuck in quicksand when I tried."

So like, shark hats were clearly on the table, but also maybe quicksand.