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]

"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.

[knife_bender]

"Aw, what? I want to deal with quicksand." What a weirdo.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I couldn't move at all when I fell in. I was like, this little head sticking out of quicksand, that's it," Annie told him, shaking her head. "Rey had to levitate me out with her Jedi powers."

Which would probably translate here to Five having to teleport him out or something.

(Though, actually, Diego might have been able to make the jump that had landed her in the quicksand in the first place, so....)

[knife_bender]

"Are you telling me you didn't think it was a little cool to be stuck in quicksand?" It was always hyped up to be such a problem when they were kids and it turned out it didn't really come up in everyday life.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"More scary than cool." Because Annie had self-preservation instincts, psh. "It would have been more scary if Rey hadn't been there to levitate me out. I couldn't even lift my hands up to blast anything."

[knife_bender]

"I'm kind of sad I missed that," he teased.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It was last fall. I'm not sure we were even dating yet," Annie said, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "So I'm glad you missed it, since it probably was pretty pathetic to see."

[knife_bender]

"I wouldn't think it was pathetic," Diego said, holding on to her a little tighter. "Just...slightly hilarious."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Hilarious and pathetic," Annie supplied, curling herself against him. "I don't like not being able to defend myself."

The quicksand had been sort of funny, yes, but she also still wasn't really thrilled with whatever fight-or-flight response that had just, like, not worked a few weeks ago with The Deep.

[knife_bender]

"I know," he said, pressing a kiss against her temple. "I don't like it either."

He also didn't like not being able to protect her, which had happened in a big way.

[defenderofdesmoines]

And while Annie would argue that there was obviously nothing he could have done to protect her, feelings weren't exactly rational.

"Fortunately it doesn't seem to happen too often," Annie noted, trying to keep her tone light. "I'm staying out of quicksand. Learned that lesson."

And, less playfully, she added, "And I've made myself really clear with that asshole, too, even before I blew it all up tonight." Because even if she'd frozen in the moment, she hadn't frozen in subsequent moments.

[knife_bender]

"Good," Diego said with a soft smile. "I'm glad you scared the shit out of him."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"They sent me on patrol with him, like three days later," Annie said, looking sort of hurt about it still.

That was their thing! And like, even if Annie had had to patrol with pretty much all of her teammates since, there was something sort of horrible about having to do something they did for date night with her assailant.

"But he hasn't talked to me since then, so, guess it worked."

[knife_bender]

Vought really were the worst, weren't they?

"I mean, if you threatened to burn my eyes out I'd be pretty scared too."