The Park | Tuesday Afternoon

[knife_bender]

Diego had a bit of cabin fever so he switched up his usual tactical gear for sweatpants and a t-shirt and went for a jog. It was a little weird doing it by himself since he had gotten used to forcing the troopers to go with him on Saturdays over the last few weeks. Thinking about that naturally led to thinking about training with his siblings and how some part of him missed it despite himself.

It made for some broody jogging, even as he was blasting ABBA from his headphones.

[Open!]

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[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie was perched comfortably on a bench and screwing around on her phone in between texts with her mom. She hadn't heard back in awhile and was considering finding a real activity when she spotted Diego.

She waved at him with a smile, shoving her phone into her pocket as she did so.

[knife_bender]

"Hey," Diego said, stopping in front of the bench and pulling his earbuds out. "Just who I wanted to see."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh yeah?" Annie asked, her smile widening. "I don't want to kill your momentum or anything. You looked pretty focused, there."

[knife_bender]

"I can run any time," he said. "Mind if I sit? I don't think I'm too gross and sweaty."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Please sit," Annie replied, reaching out to tug his hand for added incentive. "You're not gross. But bench tax is you have to tell me what you're listening to."

[knife_bender]

Well now he was going to be hard pressed to let go of that hand now that he had it. That was on you, Annie.

"I don't mind paying that tax," he said, sitting down. He handed over one of his earbuds. "Go ahead."

S.O.S was playing from his iPod. Yes his iPod. Cell phones weren't a thing where he was from.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie took the earbud with her free hand, and within a couple seconds of putting it in, she was slanting a look over at him. "You keep surprising me."

Seriously, ABBA was about the last thing she had expected to hear. Not the least because it wasn't really the sort of thing she would run to.

[knife_bender]

"I have a lot of layers," he joked. "But seriously, ABBA rules."

He listened to a lot of pop better suited to a teenage girl.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You really do." Annie wasn't joking. She was smiling at him like she thought he was adorable, though. "And ABBA's great, just - surprising."

She scooted closer, trying to get a look at his - hang on. "Is that an iPod?"

[knife_bender]

"Yeah," he said, looking down at it. "Why?"

Listen, Klaus still used a walkman. They lived in a strange universe.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Did you get it from a museum?" Annie asked slowly. "Who has an iPod still?" A thought occurred to her, and she felt a little bad that she'd never thought to ask before. "Wait, are you from the past?"

Maybe he was from 1994 or whenever iPods came out?

[knife_bender]

"Kind of? 2019," he said. "I've gathered it's a sort of strange 2019, technology-wise."

He had seen people having cell phones here, of course.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yeah, no one used an iPod last year, either," Annie noted, giving his hand a little sympathetic squeeze. "I always just listen to music on my phone."

Using Voughtify, because of course her world wasn't exactly normal, either.

[knife_bender]

"We just have regular phones where I'm from." Just to make communication that much more difficult for plotlines. "Which I now know is weird considering everyone here has one."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"This explains so much about why you never text me," Annie said lightly. "Have you thought about getting one? People are pretty reliant on their phones, around here."

By people she meant herself, mostly, considering how much she texted.

[knife_bender]

“I probably should,” he agreed. “You know you’re going to have to teach me to use it like I’m an old man or something.”

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, you kind of are an old man," Annie teased, bumping his shoulder. "But I'll help. Though I might be a bad teacher since I have a Vought phone and no one else here does."

It was basically an iPhone with a V on it instead of an apple. She'd be fine.

[knife_bender]

"I'm only slightly old," he insisted. "I don't even have gray hair yet."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I like that 'yet,'" Annie decided. "You'd look good with gray hair. Not as good as you look here at - what, thirty?" Considering she'd been doing birthday-related math since he'd told her weeks ago, she knew full damn well how old he was, but it didn't hurt to check.

[knife_bender]

"Yeah, at least here I am," Diego said. "I don't think it hit October 1st back home which is really weird to think about."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That is really weird to think about." Annie winced in sympathy, tilting her head a little. "Like, you're suspended between twenty-nine and thirty forever, depending on where you are. Makes me grateful it's actually 2020 back home, for me."

[knife_bender]

"Does my old age bother you?" he joked. "I know you're younger but not that much younger, right?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'm twenty-two," she clarified, giving him a hopeful look because she was more worried about it bothering him. "Almost twenty-three. And no, it doesn't bother me at all. You're, like, over the stuff that seems to bug guys my age. It's nice."

[knife_bender]

"Oh that's not that bad," Diego said, smiling. "You probably wouldn't have liked me at twenty-three."

He was even more of an ass if you could believe it.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Why not?" she wondered, trying to picture him six (or seven?) years younger. "I like you now. Were you really that different?"

She was pretty sure she'd still think he was really cute, at least.

[knife_bender]

Well that's true he was still pretty cute.

"I was angrier," Diego said. "I had only been out on my own for a few years and growing up my life had been really, really regimented. It was a hard habit to break."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Did you get out of the house, like, right at eighteen?" she asked, frowning a little. "I mean, that makes sense with what you've told me, but...yeah, I could see anger being a thing."

Considering that, again, she was kind of angry about his very regimented childhood, and she'd only gotten the broad strokes.

[knife_bender]

"Yeah we all left pretty early." Those of them that survived anyway. "Except Luther, he stayed with dad. Well, until he got sent to the moon."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"...the moon?" Annie repeated, staring at him. "You can't just casually drop things like that. Luther got sent to the moon?"

[knife_bender]

"Yeah he's been there for, like, four years now? I only heard about it from Mom," Diego said. "No clue why he's up there but if Dad says jump Luther says how high."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Your world is the weirdest," Annie decided, reaching over with her free hand to squeeze his arm affectionately. (Because hello, she did not usually get to enjoy him in short sleeves.) "No one just goes to the moon where I'm from except, like, actual astronauts."

Though Homelander probably could make it there and back, now that she was thinking about it.

[knife_bender]

Diego smiled, leaning in closer to her. "Well that's why Luther is Number One. If Dad asked me to go to the moon I would have told him to screw off."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'm really glad you're not on the moon," Annie replied, and if that was kind of a dumb thing to say, it was probably fair since she was leaning in to close that little bit of distance between them. You got to say dumb things when you were about to kiss someone, it was allowed.

[knife_bender]

Diego thought it was a cute thing to say! And he got a kiss out of it. He was smiling when he pulled back slightly a moment later. "I'm glad I'm not on the moon either. I'd be missing out on stuff like this."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Kissing me is way better than going to the moon," Annie agreed. "Plus your muscles would probably atrophy." She was still hanging onto that arm of his, so no surprise that she would find that prospect completely tragic.

[knife_bender]

"That would definitely be as waste of time at the gym," he agreed. "Though now I'm tempted to see Luther if he's gonna come back from the moon all noodle armed."

Ahahahaha no that would not be happening.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"He would probably be pretty noodly if he's been there four years." Annie actually kind of felt bad for the guy, though she wasn't necessarily going to say so. "I can't believe your dad can casually stick a guy on the moon, but you don't have cell phones. That's a weird gap."

[knife_bender]

...

"You're right that doesn't really make sense." Neither did the talking chimp or the android either, for that matter.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It's okay, I will totally help you get a phone," Annie assured him. "And then you can mystify people with your amazing pocket-computer if you ever go back to look at Luther's noodle arms."

[knife_bender]

"I like that idea," he said, leaning in to give her another kiss. "Thank you."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie hummed a little into the kiss, pulling back a little after a moment to bump her nose against his. "I'm being self-serving, here, since then I can text you."

Like all the time. Get ready.

[knife_bender]

"Oh no, anything but that." And he would text back using his pointer finger to type like he was sixty years old.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Maybe they could get him a stylus! Like a real old person!

"And send you pictures," Annie added, and since she wasn't really a 'send nudes' kind of gal, she clarified, "Like the one from the party."

Which was in serious danger of becoming her phone's lockscreen sooner than later, assuming she could get over the prospect of him potentially seeing it and thinking she liked him a lot, oh no.