knife_bender | MHA # 2 | Tuesday Evening

"Long story," she said with a sigh, shutting her eyes for a second just because she really didn't want to start crying.

Again. Like. She was usually pretty good unless a sad dog commercial came on or something, but she'd been crying so much since Saturday.

"I'm okay," she added, once she trusted her voice, and pulled her shirt up so he could see where she'd been shot on her abdomen. The place where the bullet had hit her was obvious -- her skin was pink, raised, and starting to form a welt. "He got me twice. I don't think the guy was trying to kill me, just keep me down."

It had worked.

"What the fuck, why?" he asked. It was nice to see that she wasn't hurt hurt, but with a welt that big it must have been a hell of a gun. "What is going on?"

"Diego, it's all so fucked up," she said, shaking her head. "Fuck."

She scrubbed her hand over her eyes for a moment. "You know that guy Hughie I told you about? The only nice person I've met in New York?"

Ugh, this was embarrassing.

"Turns out he's a bad dude, after all." Annie's instincts were so good! Look what a fucking great superhero she was, everyone. A+ detecting. "He's been using me for information."

Oh, god. That really wasn't great. And while Diego was raised to be suspicious of everybody even he was grateful that she had met someone that wasn't total asshole in New York.

Whelp, back to being suspicious of everyone.

"I'm so sorry," Diego said, immediately going to hug her but was mindful of her injuries. "Was it him that shot you?"

Annie shook her head against his shoulder, leaning into Diego because she was just so goddamn tired. "Friend of his, I think. But they killed Translucent. And they're blackmailing a bunch of other Supes -- including Ezekiel, which is why I fucking ran into Hughie last weekend, and I got him the backstage pass to meet him, and...I'm so fucking stupid, Diego."

Not to mention the Homelander thing.

And the Compound V thing, which...Annie wasn't even really ready to think about that, yet. She would tell Diego, of course, but it would come last, because she was still trying to process that information and her brain kept sort of...resetting.

Probably some kind of defense mechanism.

"You're not stupid," Diego said. "He manipulated you when you were really vulnerable, you couldn't have known."

Honestly, he doubted Hughie could have known just how vulnerable Annie had been until the Believe Expo thing happened. Which was pretty much the only thing stopping Diego from rounding up Steve and Five again to go off and kick that guy's ass.

Diego wasn't exactly sad to see Translucent go, but it was kind of terrifying these guys knew how to kill a Supe. He had been led to believe it was pretty much impossible, which was why he hadn't worried so much about Annie going out there and doing her thing.

Hughie would not be able to handle the fire axe, so that was probably for the best.

"I was trying to arrest him when his friend shot me," Annie murmured. "Homelander figured it all out."

And okay, trying really hard not to cry again, so Annie was just going to press her face into his shoulder to help with that effort. Which meant that what she said next was pretty muffled.

"I was wrong about Homelander, too. He's terrifying."

"What did he do?" He could understand Homelander being pissed about the security breach, but it hadn't been Annie's fault.

Annie wrapped her arms around him, hanging on a little tighter than usual. "He thinks I'm involved," she said softly, trying to keep her voice steady. "He thinks I'm -- doing it on purpose. That I got rid of The Deep. That I helped them get to Ezekiel. And Translucent disappeared right after I joined the team, so...."

So Annie was the number one suspect. She could even see how he got there. It wasn't even unreasonable.

"But you didn't," Diego said, running his hand along her back soothingly. "I mean, he has to believe that."

"He did his laser eyes at me in the middle of the meeting."

And it had been so incredibly scary. Annie almost felt bad for how many times she'd turned her own glowing eyes on people.

"So no, I don't think he does. I think he thinks I'm a traitor," Annie said with a little sniffle. "And there's -- Diego, he thinks you're involved."

And while the laser eyes had been scary as all hell, the idea of Homelander threatening Diego -- and that's what that had been, an implicit threat -- made her want to throw up or faint or, like, move to another dimension to keep him safe.

Diego pulled back slightly, looking confused. "How does he even know who I am?"

If he really thought about it he would come to the conclusion that he and Annie had been really bad about hiding their relationship.

"Because I haven't been taking the secret thing seriously enough," Annie sighed, shaking her head.

Of course she blamed herself. She was the one who'd been warned, even if Maeve had been so fucking cryptic about it that Annie hadn't known it had been a warning until too late.

"He had all these...pictures of you. From Believe Expo, and when you visited. And he was so pissed that I kept you quiet." She cleared her throat, adding, "Maeve told me to break up with you, after The Deep thing. Or at least, to pretend I didn't have a boyfriend."

As with all things Maeve, she had not exactly been clear.

"And I thought it was about the press, but...I think it was Homelander." Both because of how Maeve had reacted in there, and because of the years and years of Maeve-and-Homelander on-again/off-again romance. Annie now wondered how much of that, if any of it, was true.

"That's disturbing." Both the fact that Homelander had been watching them that closely, and the fact that he was mad she kept it a secret.

"You and I didn't do anything wrong," he said, trying to be reassuring. He knew that it didn't really matter if they had done anything or not, if Homelander wanted them dead they'd be dead.

"I know we didn't, but I'm not sure it matters," Annie said softly, shaking her head and leaning into him again before actually wincing a bit and pulling back. "Fuck me, getting shot hurts."

Like, thank God for bulletproof skin, but she was not going to be cavalier about it in the future. It was one thing to brag about, and it was another entirely to take two bullets that big at that close range.

"Yeah, it's not fun. And they got you, like, head on," Diego said, frowning. "Do you want me to get you some ice or something?"

This was the first time he'd been faced with an injury like this.

"That would probably good," Annie said, because she had no idea, either. She usually didn't...get hurt? Like at all?

She reached into her bag, pulling out the bullets. "I got to keep the souvenirs," she said, holding them out. "Fifty caliber rounds."

Both bullets were actually bigger than her hand, so...at least it was kind of impressive, right?

It was both very impressive and terrifying at the same time. "Jesus, Annie, I'm glad you're okay."

Diego would be way dead if that had happened to him.

"Here, lie down on the couch I'll get you some ice."

Annie did as told and went over to lay down on the couch, super unused to being in a position of needing to be taken care of like this. She went ahead and pulled her shirt off as she did so, dropping it on the floor with her purse (and the bullets, which she put back in her bag.)

She stretched out, peeking down at the welt on her chest, directly in the center of it above her breasts. The other was a little lower, and she gingerly nudged it with a wince.

"You're not allowed to get shot again," she called softly. "Not if this is what it's like for me."

"I have no plans to," Diego said, coming back over with an ice pack covered by a towel. "God, the one on your chest looks even worse."

"It was the first shot," Annie said, sighing. "That asshole has really good aim."

Royal Marine sniper training would do that.

"I just feel so stupid," she added, softly.

The Compound V stuff didn't make her feel any smarter. What other stupid shit did she believe in?

"You're not," he said, sitting on the edge of the couch. He went to gently put the ice pack against the welt on her chest. "You're trusting, and you see the best in people. It's a good trait to have, even if it backfired this time."

Annie winced very slightly, more at the cold than anything else. "It's backfired a bunch," she said, shaking her head. "I thought Homelander was nice, too, and...no. No. He's so scary. Maeve ended up getting him to back off, but...I thought was going to kill me. Maybe believing in people is dumb."

Because these days, everyone was just disappointing her, with a few exceptions.

Diego frowned, but didn't say anything. She was upset for good reason and Diego would let her be pessimistic for a bit if it made her feel better.

"Are you going to go back?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know yet," Annie admitted quietly, worrying her lower lip for a second. "There's one more thing."

And this was, in a lot of ways, the most crushing blow of all.

"Hughie...Hughie tried to tell me why they're doing all of this," she started carefully. "And apparently Vought is up to some really bad shit."

Which, like, was yet another thing that seemed obvious, and yet Annie was so embarrassed at how stupidly she'd just bought into the idea that they were the good guys.

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