knife_bender | A Pawn Shop in East Flatbush

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A Pawn Shop in East Flatbush | Friday evening

To say today had been rough was quite possibly the biggest understatement ever. It had started with watching porn at way too early in the morning, went into cutting off a guy's hand to get his girlfriend out of jail and somewhere between that Annie had absolutely gotten her ass handed to her by Black Noir.

Diego was worried. He knew why Annie was playing it cool. Her mother was there, and Billy Butcher wasn't exactly someone you wanted to look weak in front of. But she had been hurt, and neither of them had gotten the chance to process that and he just really needed to make sure she was okay.

When everyone seemed to be as settled as they were going to be, he found his way to Annie's side. "Can we talk?"

[Last post for the day, I promise. For the girl! NSFW!]

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It was not the answer she wanted to hear, no. But in a way it was also one of the most profoundly touching things anyone had ever said to her.

They had been pretty loose with the L word since they'd broken the seal on it back in February, yes, and Annie had spent the months she'd been with Diego finding dozens of little ways to try to show him how much he meant to her -- but Diego had gone and proven it today.

And Annie knew she would have done the same in his position. There was absolutely no question.

"You shouldn't have," she whispered, blinking away tears. "I couldn't -- if I'd gotten out and you hadn't, I wouldn't...I don't even want that."

Getting to live because Diego had died saving her sounded like the greatest hell she could possibly go through.

Diego moved to very gently pull her into a hug. "I had to do something. I would have never forgiven myself if something had happened to you and I didn't even try."

He still hadn't forgiven himself for the Ben thing and it had been well over a decade since it happened.

Annie held back a wince as she carefully wrapped her arms up around him -- she was mostly mindful of knives, though her bruises were making themselves very known -- and buried her face against Diego's neck. "And I would never forgive myself if Vought killed you."

It was easier to admit that when she was holding onto him and feeling how very much alive he was right now.

Today -- all of this -- was exactly why she'd been so reluctant to bring him along. (But it was also exactly why she had made the right call, too, because she would have never gotten out of there without him.)

"Probably good it ended the way it did then, huh?" he asked lightly.

"But it might not have!" Annie insisted, shaking her head but keeping her face against his neck for the moment. It was comforting.

She took a second to get herself a little more under control. "What happened to Lamplighter?"

Because it had not looked...pleasant. Who the hell had gotten ahold of him? (And how had Diego escaped a similar fate? Oh, God, she couldn't think about that -- it was bad enough thinking about Black Noir getting him.)

"He did that to himself," Diego said. "He said something about wanting his dad to be proud of him and then just lit himself on fire in front of statue of The Seven."

He was not going to mention how upset he had been that he had been replaced on that statue by her.

"Oh, shit." Oh, that was -- unexpected and terrible in a way Annie hadn't been prepared for. A horrible, selfish part of her was immediately relieved because it meant that Homelander hadn't laser-eyed him, and Diego hadn't been in danger, too.

At least, not directly, at that time.

But that also kind of made a weird sort of sense, and helped Annie piece together something she'd been trying to figure out. "Well, he's the reason I got out, after all," she noted softly, finally pulling back so she could actually look at Diego. "The cell they had me in was lit by glow sticks. No power anywhere. I couldn't do anything until the fire alarms powered on."

Edited 2021-06-04 16:42 (UTC)

"That makes sense." He figured that Vought probably had a cell catered to everyone's powers except maybe Homelander's. "I was going door to door with his hand trying to find you, that's how I found your mom."

"With his hand," Annie repeated, looking kind of overwhelmed by that again. "I can't believe you did that."

And she was pretty much done telling him he shouldn't have, not just because it was over and done with, but because she was also slowly coming to the realization that this was just going to be something that she had to make peace with.

It wasn't exactly fair for her to admire his bravery and heroism, but then take it back if he dared endanger herself for her.

He shrugged his shoulder. "Could have been worse."

The fact that he was pretty crispy actually made it less gross and easier to hack through?

"I sent a picture of it to Five and told him I wasn't going to paintball today."

At least he could find humor in the whole thing.

And that actually got Annie to huff out a soft laugh. "If it were anyone but Five, I'd say that's going to freak them out, but since it is Five...."

He'd probably just have advice about technique or something. Five had probably taken off a hand or two in his weird, weird life.

"He might actually get jealous." The little weirdo probably thought that would be more fun than paintball.

Annie laughed again, actually letting it become the wince it wanted to when she felt her side pull a little. (And then she winced a little more, because the wince had pulled at her temples and she'd been hit in the face with a slab of concrete earlier.) "That reminds me -- did you and Five and Steve maybe take a trip to Ohio a couple weeks ago?"

Annie wasn't going to insult him by demanding he tell her the truth, but she was watching him closely to see how he answered.

Because yeah, she'd been pretty specific about Diego not hurting The Deep.

"I didn't touch the guy." See? Promise kept. "I'm not responsible for Five and Steve's actions."

Annie's smile was a little wobbly, but very genuine.

"You didn't have to do that, either," she said, very softly.

But she was clearly and obviously pretty moved that he had. And honestly kind of impressed that he'd found that loophole.

"Technically I didn't do anything," he reminded her. "But I wanted to do it. Was tired of feeling useless."

Annie's smile wavered just a little. She had to fight the urge to immediately blame herself for his feeling useless, even though she knew it wasn't really her fault, but that guilt was quickly replaced by heady, strong wave of emotion.

No one had ever done so much for her. No one had ever wanted to, before. 'Love' didn't feel like a big enough word for how Annie felt right now, because -- like, if you said, 'I love you,' to someone on the daily when you just wanted to remind them how you felt, what the hell did you say to someone who risked their life for you over and over? Who went and confronted your assailant (or, fine, apparently watched while other people confronted your assailant)? Who cut off a fucking human hand for you?

So, instead, she kissed him, her hands sliding up to cup Diego's face. Words were insufficient, right now. Action would have to do.

Diego relaxed into the kiss, careful not to lean too much into Annie right now. He had been worried she'd be pissed over the whole Ohio thing, so he was more than happy with this reaction.

It was also just reassuring to kiss her after they had such a close call today.

It was very reassuring to kiss him after what they'd been through, and while Annie kept one hand on his face, the other one was traveling down his shoulder, and along his arm, and up his back -- almost like she was trying to reassure herself that he was there.

And no, by all appearances, Annie was not at all pissed about the Ohio thing. She was also not being as careful as Diego was, and pressed herself a little closer, letting out a soft noise of pain into the kiss as her injuries protested the movement.

It wasn't going to stop her right now, anyway.

"Careful," he murmured. It wasn't a strict warning, seeing as he was kissing her again after he said it. Still, he could say he tried.

Annie hummed something like agreement before deepening the kiss and pressing herself a little closer, more insistently.

It wasn't like she was going to get more hurt, and while she was moving a little gingerly, she wasn't really in the mood to be careful at the moment. Not with that much adrenaline coursing through her, not to mention how intensely emotional she was feeling.

Diego wrapped his arms around Annie, wanting to keep her steady. He still remembered she had been limping earlier.

Still, he was getting distracted enough that he wasn't as careful with his touches. He had quite a bit of adrenaline running through him too and let's be real, they both needed to get it out of their system if they were expected to sleep here tonight.

Yeah, the limp wasn't going anywhere -- she'd gone through solid marble, after going through solid cement -- and Annie was overall a little more clumsy than usual, so she appreciated Diego's steadiness, there.

But yeah, she was also sliding her arms up around his neck and not really checking her own strength when she touched him, either.

Naturally this all happened the day after they had a bed. And something like actual privacy. Naturally.

At least they knew how to make do with what they had? But, yes, this timing was terrible and Diego did not really care right now.

He broke away for a moment, looking over at the sink. "Here, lean against this, get some weight off your leg."

Annie grimaced a little at the sink, just because it was kind of gross, but this whole room was kind of gross. She carefully positioned herself against the sink, clearly favoring her bruised side even as she reached for Diego to keep him close.

"Don't worry about hurting me," she murmured before kissing him again. "I just -- I need you."

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