MHA #2 | Tuesday Evening

[knife_bender]

Diego had spent extra time at the gym today, and if asked it was because he was feeling extra energetic. He wasn't trying to distract himself from the loneliness that set in whenever Annie left for New York. Nope.

Except yes. Tiring himself out allowed him to sleep better, at least. He took a shower after he got back to his apartment and into sweatpants, hoping he'd pass out in front of the TV pretty quickly instead of staring up at the ceiling all night.

[For the girl]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

"He is," Annie said quietly, shaking her head. And the strongest Supe in the world, so, like, awesome. "He kind of upped his ante on like...the stalker thing with us, too. He knew about Valentine's Day."

Which, you know, had been almost a full month and a half before Annie had auditioned for the team, so either he'd been watching them before she'd ever tried out -- unlikely, but very weird -- or he'd been doing research, which was maybe even more upsetting because of the sheer effort he would have gone through.

[knife_bender]

"All of it?" he asked. He didn't know what was worse, Homelander knowing Diego had powers or Homelander being a huge pervert.

Probably the last one.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"All of it," Annie confirmed. "I told him all he saw was me blowing my secret identity, but he knew...like, about the car."

So it was both! Both!

"He was all accusatory about you being secret," she added, a little helpless. "I tried to just say you were, like, private -- it's true -- and he busted that out."

And he'd had a hand around her throat, so Annie wasn't sure whether she had seemed convincing, or just desperate for him to believe her.

[knife_bender]

"That's really gross." He was stuck on the car thing for just a moment. Like...he was pretty sure you couldn't see much but clearly you could see something.

[defenderofdesmoines]

You could see them get in, you could see a light in there a few minutes later...and you could make an educated guess, given Supe biology.

So at least Homelander knew that, like, Diego looked after his girlfriend's needs? That was...reassuring, right?

"It's all so gross," Annie replied. "The stalking, the way he touched me, the -- Hughie stuff. Maeve tried to warn me how he was. I should have listened better."

Or, you know, Maeve could have been clear for once in her life, but that option didn't allow Annie to blame herself.

[knife_bender]

"To be fair, Maeve probably should have been less drunk when she warned you." He didn't know for sure that she was drunk, but it was an educated guess from what he heard.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Probably." She'd at least been working on it. "And I wasn't like...in a great headspace, either time she's talked to me about you," Annie noted.

Once it had been after the Deep thing, and once it had been after the last Homelander thing.

"He's made comments that make me think that he'd probably like you more if he knew you had powers," she added with a little wrinkle of her nose. "I think there's a reason he and Stormfront...like, get along."

She didn't know just how alike they were, yet, but they were both blatant bigots. She could see that much for herself.

[knife_bender]

"You have powers and he treats you great. God, these people suck," Diego said, shaking his head. "I'm really glad you got out of there."

Sure, they were about to go right back there, but they were safe for the night at least.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Yes, well, Annie was a person with powers who was helping, in Homelander's words, mud people, but she wasn't going to repeat something that disgusting.

"Me too," Annie said softly, and now it was hitting her all over again how close she'd come to being killed today. And how close she'd come back in New Jersey. And how this wasn't anywhere near being over.

And -- okay. Okay. She wasn't going to ask him again if he was sure he wanted to help, but she was going to slip her arms back around Diego and cling kind of tight, because she'd started shaking a little bit once she really allowed herself to think again. "I'm not used to dealing with people scarier than me," she said quietly. "Especially not bad people."

[knife_bender]

"I know," he said, holding on to her tightly. "This is all fucked. You're not alone in this, at least."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Hearing that made Annie relax just the tiniest, tiniest bit, even as her mind was protesting that she was alone in all of it, and that she was making a huge mistake by bringing Diego into the middle of this.

It was easy enough to ignore, given that she was also awash with relief at the idea of having him with her. That comfort was worth a whole lot, even if Annie kind of hated herself for how weak she thought it made her.

"I love you," she said softly. "Thank you."

It seemed like too little, just thank you, but it was taking a lot of effort for Annie to even admit that she needed this.

[knife_bender]

"I love you too," he said, leaning in for a kiss. "That's the only time you get to thank me, got it? I want to be with you. I asked to go with you."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie leaned into the kiss gratefully, sighing out a little more tension.

"It's going to be so dangerous," she murmured after a moment, staying close.

That was not a protest! Or an argument! Just...like, an acknowledgement of why she was and had been worried about involving him.

But Annie was also able to appreciate that Diego had been watching her leave and go off into what they both knew was a dangerous situation for weeks, and if he could trust her to be careful as possible, then she could extend the same courtesy to him.

[knife_bender]

"We're good with dangerous," he said. "Hasn't stopped us yet."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"We're good at, like, normal dangerous. Maybe even above-average dangerous. This is like...a step up from Hawaii-dangerous," Annie noted.

Hawaii didn't have a Homelander or a Stormfront, you know? Annie would totally take a whole week of explosions and sad CBS-style murder victims over dealing with either of those.

[knife_bender]

"Yeah, I know, I was trying to give the optimism thing a try." Clearly he was bad at it.

[defenderofdesmoines]

That actually got a real little smile out of Annie, and she rose onto her toes to kiss him again.

"I like optimism on you even more than I like orange," she said quietly.

And hey, the least she could do in return was have at least a little confidence that they weren't just walking into a total death trap, right?

[knife_bender]

"I don't think that's true," Diego joked. "You really like me in orange."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I do. You're ridiculous in orange," Annie agreed, smiling still. "But it turns out hope is pretty hot, too."

Who knew? Annie usually trafficked in plenty of optimism of her own. She hadn't really needed an outside source until pretty damn recently.

[knife_bender]

"It might be easier to get me in orange," he pointed out. "But I'll see what I can do to muster up more."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'll try not to be too...pessimistic, while I'm at it," Annie offered, feeling weird about having to say that when normally she knew she could be sort of annoying with how much she believed in people.

But, you know. It was hard to keep believing that everyone had some good inside of them when she saw so much of everyone's bad sides, these days.

"I'm already glad I'm taking you back with me," she added, because it was true. Even if she was now determinedly ignoring the very idea that he might get hurt, which scared her so much more than the idea that she might get hurt.

[knife_bender]

"Good. I want to help," he said, kissing her again. "Even if it's just by looking good. Or intimidating. Or both."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Just having you with me is going to help, I think," Annie decided, smoothing her hands along his arms.

But like, if he left her sight for any reason, she was going to worry the whole time.

So she'd just have to make sure they didn't get separated, right? Super easy.

[knife_bender]

That'll be easy! No way it'll go wrong.

"That relieves some pressure on me," he teased. "But I'm going to try to be more help than that."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I know. And I promise I'll actually let you," Annie said, quirking a little half-smile. "It's hard. The...asking for help with this, I mean."

Annie was usually pretty proud of her independence, and how strong she was on her own -- but if there was anything she'd actually learned from how poorly she'd handled things a few weeks ago, it was that it did not make her weak to ask for other people's support.