Trooper Station | Saturday

[knife_bender]

It had been an oddly quiet week and it looked like the theme would continue at work. He didn't even have annoying phone calls to deal with. So Diego would be spending his shift making paper footballs and launching them all at Danny's desk. He was hoping to get a mountain of them before he had to clock out.

[Open]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

Blame Danny for putting the idea to visit Diego at work in Annie's head. (Not that it was a bad idea, or one that she wouldn't have eventually arrived at on her own.)

"Well, you look busy," she observed dryly when she turned up around mid-day, holding two cups from the Perk.

[knife_bender]

"It's very important police business," Diego said, smiling when he saw Annie. "Hi."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Hi," she replied, wandering over and setting one of the coffees carefully down on his desk. "And here I was all worried I'd be interrupting serious crime-solving in the name of bringing you pumpkin spice."

Because this was a town with a lot of crime to solve on any given day, anyway.

[knife_bender]

"Aw thanks," he said, gratefully accepting the PSL. "The only thing you could possibly be interrupting here is me getting traumatized by one of the weirder troopers."

[defenderofdesmoines]

That got a little raise of her eyebrow as Annie took a seat across from him. "What kind of trauma are we talking, here?" she wondered.

[knife_bender]

"I heard way too much about one guy's manscaping habits," Diego said. "Things I never needed to know about my coworkers."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie snorted, wrinkling her nose. "Maybe he was trying to bond with you," she offered, not really thinking that was the case. "Was it the same guy who had the eyeliner with him last week?"

[knife_bender]

"Different guy, which makes it worse," Diego said. "Now I'm hesitant to talk to anybody but Ralph. And I only do that because he brings donuts sometimes."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yeah, stay on his good side at all costs, then," Annie advised, nodding firmly, because that girl loved herself a donut.

She glanced over at the desk that seemed to be the paper football goal. Target? Whatever. "So whose desk is that one?"

[knife_bender]

"Danny's," Diego said with a smile. "He loves me."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"How could he not?" Annie replied, slanting a look at him. "You're decorating his desk for him! So sweet."

[knife_bender]

"I'm a great coworker," Diego agreed with a nod. "If there were an award for being the best coworker I'd win it."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"If I was your coworker, I'd vote for you." Not that she was biased or anything. "Though I hear Danny brings in stuff he baked, so. He's got his eye on the gold, too."

[knife_bender]

"He bakes?" Diego asked. "He's never baked anything for me. Now I'm glad Klaus stole everything out of his desk when he visited."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"See, that kind of oversight is how you lose best coworker awards," Annie noted sagely, shaking her head. "Did Klaus hit everyone's desks, or just Danny's?"

One of those answers was funnier than the other, though Annie was aware she had the advantage of it not being either her brother or her desk at risk in this scenario.

[knife_bender]

"He hit as many as he could before one of the troopers arrested him." Typical.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"He sounds fun," Annie decided, hiding a smile by taking a sip of her coffee. "Do you know if he made off with anything good?"

It didn't seem worth it to be arrested over, like, paperclips, but Annie also had to admit that she'd probably take someone into custody for less if they were really annoying.

[knife_bender]

"In this place? Doubtful," Diego said. "But Klaus would try to pawn off a half-eaten bagel if it meant he could get booze money."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'm kind of sorry I just missed meeting him," Annie said, shaking her head. "Even if he'd probably make off with my purse or whatever. That whole visiting weekend kind of sounded like a waking nightmare for most people."

It was honestly something that gave her all kinds of anxiety to think about, even if it wouldn't be an issue for nearly a year.

[knife_bender]

"Do you think your mom will ever visit?" he asked.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I would sooner set my own hair on fire than invite her here," Annie answered, shrugging. "So...knowing my luck, probably."

Or maybe she'd have new friends from home who could come visit by next fall, instead! Who could say.

[knife_bender]

Diego laughed. "Tell me how you really feel, Annie."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"We have candy corn rain sometimes, I was a bat last weekend - which, by the way, it's bullshit that you didn't turn into a cat - and the literal, actual devil works at the same bar as me. No way," Annie said, ticking each item off on a finger. "Plus, like, she's just kind of high-maintenance, anyway, even if things were normal here."

[knife_bender]

"Wait, could you rewind back to the devil bit?" he asked. "What?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh yeah." Annie had had like, two weeks or whatever to come to terms with this, so she was going to try to be normal about it. "Yeah, apparently the devil lives here? Like the actual devil. Like his name is Lucifer and he just got back from Hell."

She could be casual about it, see? Noooo big deal to Annie. Nope.

[knife_bender]

"That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard." And it was Diego saying this so you know it was really weird. "You'd think he'd have something better to do."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That's what I said!" Annie told him, very glad someone agreed with her, here. "Apparently he does crime-solving things, too? Or used to? I don't know, I'm Catholic so the whole conversation kind of did a number on me."

And that was why her mom couldn't visit! Because Lucifer alone would probably render her catatonic.

[knife_bender]

"Uh, yeah, I can see why." He wasn't even religious and it threw him for a loop. "It cannot be understated how weird this place is."

And yet still low key enough that he was making a shitload of paper footballs while at work.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I feel like that really means something coming from you," Annie said, catching up with the narrative from a few comments prior. "O ye of the weirdest world of anyone I've met here."

Was space travel without cell phones weirder than having the actual, literal devil show up to fight crime-slash-play piano at a bar? It was at least a tie, Annie decided.

[knife_bender]

"I mean, someone around here has to have a weirder one than me," Diego said. "...I haven't met them yet but someone must."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I don't know," Annie hedged thoughtfully. "I mean, you win out of all the people I know, anyway. It's kind of an advantage. Feels like you probably freak out a lot less than I do."

Let's be real: Annie was also just kind of easier to rattle, regardless.

[knife_bender]

"I've been told that before since arriving here," he admitted. "But if I had turned into a cat I would have freaked out, trust me."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It was not fun to be a bat," Annie noted in agreement. "Though at least I made it home before I turned back into me."

Because, in the grand tradition of Fandom animal transformations, of course she had lost her actual costume in the process, and that would have just been the icing on the cake after the whole hair incident.

[knife_bender]

"If it makes you feel any better I was trying to keep an eye on you," he said. "Well until I got distracted by Danny being a vampire 'cause then I had to punch him to keep him from eating people."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That's sweet of you," Annie said, meaning it. "I didn't know punching vampires was an effective way to keep them from getting all bitey."

[knife_bender]

"I sort of figured it's an effective way to get most people to stop doing stuff." Until, you know, he broke his hand on someone with superpowers.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Yeah, Annie was just going to give him a look for that, because no, that was not a great, like, universal strategy. "Sure - remember the time when you punched me and I just stopped what I was doing and didn't blast you into a wall?" she asked, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Oh, wait...."

[knife_bender]

"That was all part of my very elaborate plan to get you to kiss me." Sure it was.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It really didn't need to be that elaborate," Annie assured him, blushing just a little bit. "Could've spared yourself some bruises."

[knife_bender]

"The bruises were worth it," Diego said with a smile.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Well, that was cute. Annie was not going to kiss him when he was at work, but it was probably pretty easy to read from her face that she was at least thinking about it.

"You don't get to call that a punching success story," Annie decided. "That was an anomaly."