Trooper Station | Saturday

[knife_bender]

Diego had not known chill a day in his life until he woke up this morning. Later he might find it unsettling but right now he didn't really care. Didn't really care about anything, really. He strolled into work a half hour late, ignored the paperwork on his desk and started messing around on his phone. He'd get around to the working stuff later. At some point. Maybe.

[Open]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie had woken up in an uncharacteristically awful mood. Nothing had improved it -- not the workout she'd done (where she'd kicked a weight out of frustration and stubbed her toe), or the doughnut she'd eaten (it had been vaguely stale and not worth it, she felt) or even the pleasantly warm morning (which just reminded her that summer was coming and she was probably going to start being sweaty all the time, ugh.)

So when she made her way into the trooper station with her now-standard two cups of coffee, there might have been a touch of huffiness as she set one down on Diego's desk. "Black coffee. No whipped cream or anything, since you hate fun."

Which was a little mean by normal Annie standards, but she was also smarting a little from losing that race (and her whipped cream privileges) last week. Or, at least, she was now smarting about it again, since she was just kind of taking everything personally today.

[knife_bender]

"Hey, thanks," Diego said, picking up the coffee and taking a sip. "Tastes fine to me."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Your taste buds are probably warped," Annie informed him, flopping into a chair and crossing her arms like a sullen teenager. "Mine has stuff in it except I think they messed up and gave me toffee syrup instead of caramel, and just, like, God, how hard is it to get a drink right?"

On any other day, Annie would have just accepted it (and the toffee was actually kind of good?) but today it was just another in a list of things that were making today so stupid.

[knife_bender]

"Toffee's good," Diego said easily. "Better than nothing, right?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That's not the point, Diego," Annie replied with a huff, rolling her eyes. "It's not what I ordered. I just, like, feel like the universe is conspiring against me today."

Because of all these terrible -- terrible -- things that were happening to her, and not at all because of her own shitty attitude towards everything today.

[knife_bender]

"Oh I'm sure it's not," he said, leaning back into his chair. "Take a deep breath and let it out slowly. You'll feel better."

She really wouldn't, Diego.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie actually did blow out a slow, clearly-irritated breath, but didn't relax at all. If anything, her shoulders actually tensed up more. "This is dumb," she decided, because it was easier to be angry than to try not to be, today. "And I don't feel better. Kind of more annoyed now, actually."

[knife_bender]

Diego shrugged as if to say 'well, I tried'. "There's always yoga to relax."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"What's wrong with you?" The Diego she knew and loved would never suggest yoga. (Unless it was a ploy to get her to put on leggings, anyway.) "Did someone give you drugs? What's this? What's going on here?"

Oh, good, Annie, get accusatory because he's not irrationally angry. That makes sense.

[knife_bender]

"I didn't do drugs." At least not to his knowledge. "I don't know, I'm just having a good day, that's all."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Well, I'm glad you're having a good day," Annie said begrudgingly, sounding more sarcastic than glad about it despite her intention -- even if she was having the worst day ever, some part of her was vaguely happy to see him so relaxed.

Though, honestly, that was just kind of another source of irritation, in a way. "Even if it's, like, not fair at all." Annie's sense of fairness was pretty interestingly-tuned today.

[knife_bender]

"Has your day really been that bad?" he asked. "It's just one messed up coffee order."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"No, also the doughnut I ate wasn't great," it was merely sort of fine, "and I hurt my foot working out, and I think I slept weird," Annie told him plaintively. "Today sucks. But at least it's not hitting you."

None of those things was that bad. But at least Annie managed to sound a little more genuinely pleased about him being unaffected. "This is a good look for you," she added, gesturing vaguely towards him. "Just, like, relaxed." Even if it was sort of annoying, but what wasn't annoying today?

[knife_bender]

"It is pretty nice," he agreed. "Maybe that's why Klaus does all those drugs."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I don't know if Klaus is the best role model," Annie said, frowning at him. "Like, just keep doing whatever this is."

She glanced over at Danny's desk, drumming her nails against her own knee with pent-up tension. "Have you gotten into Danny's snack drawer yet today?" Because maybe cookies would help.

[knife_bender]

"Nah, Ralph gave me donuts." He was probably grateful Diego hadn't made him run today. "They were pretty good."

Rub it in, Diego.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Well, that just meant Ralph was on Annie's shit list now. (Not that Annie could confidently point out which one was Ralph on any given day, but still.)

"Well, good for you, I'm so glad they were good." And that time Annie knew perfectly well she sounded sarcastic about it, but she didn't really care because she was preoccupied with getting up to go over to Danny's desk. "I'm getting in here."

[knife_bender]

"Go for it," Diego said good naturedly. He was immune to sarcasm today. "Did you learn how to pick locks?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Nope. You haven't taught me." Because it was Diego's fault, obviously. She eyed the drawer for a second before just reaching out and giving the pull a swift, anger-fueled yank.

...turns out that not only was it not locked, but unchecked super-strength was enough to pull the whole damn drawer out and spill the contents onto the floor. "Shi -- shoot."

Still not swearing until Easter. Which was turning out to be a real test today.

[knife_bender]

"That's a shame." Seriously, Annie, if you punched him right now he would probably forgive you for it later.

[defenderofdesmoines]

She was at least picking up a little packet of cookies and throwing it furiously at his face. Annie felt that this was fairly deserved. (She would also feel terrible about it after today, because it was never okay to let your emotions lead you to violence!)

"I think I broke the drawer," she admitted, making a noise of frustration as she leaned down to peer into the empty spot where the drawer had been.

[knife_bender]

Did it help that Diego caught the cookies and immediately opened them to eat like Annie had gently handed them over?

"I think you did too," Diego agreed, popping a cookie into his mouth. "But it's not like Danny paid for the desk so it's fine. The station will cover it."

Did he know that for sure? Absolutely not. He just had a good feeling about it.

[defenderofdesmoines]

It did not help. It did not help any of this.

"Maybe I can fix it," Annie mused, making a half-hearted attempt at shoving the drawer back into the desk. She left it at a funny angle for a second before it just fell back out again, and with another exasperated growl, Annie just plunked herself down on the floor to get into the spilled snacks. She'd clean them up in a second; right now she was too frustrated and was just going to eat a little sleeve of crackers. "I wanna punch something."

[knife_bender]

"It is a good way to release some aggression." Though at the moment Diego could barely remember what aggression felt like.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Um, yeah," Annie agreed, giving the drawer another shove and sighing at it. "Maybe we should go to Baltimore tonight."

Correction: maybe she should go to Baltimore. Diego seemed like he was going to make any criminals they might find a high five and a free pass if they said they were sorry.