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Trooper Station | Saturday

Now that Diego had a shred of hope after talking to Five this week, he could focus more on his actual job. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be much going on at his actual job. Nary a Bee Lady call to be had.

But! He was ready should anything actually happen. For right now he was going to be a cliché cop eating a donut at his desk.

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And look, here was Annie to complete the cliché with a cup of coffee for him. She bounced in after her usual Saturday run, looking way too chipper for someone who'd spent half the night eating Almond Joys and looking at a conspiracy board. Hope kind of just made everything a little better, though.

"Anything exciting in the world of Fandom crime?" she asked with a bright smile, shooting a brief look of longing at the donut before busying herself with her (boring, black) coffee. Not today, after last night's candyfest. She had some self-control.

Diego didn't even have to listen to radio to know about the candyfest. Annie thought she was sneaky, but Diego's paranoid light sleeping habits were deeply ingrained.

"Absolutely nothing is happening," he said. "Not even the usual weird stuff. Guess the weirdos are going on vacation too."

"Poor Boston," Annie said lightly. "But that's good. It's nice to have it be kind of quiet around here. I guess we missed some crazy shit last weekend, by the sounds of it."

She couldn't even tell what had happened, based on radio. A bunch of new people had shown up? Something like that.

"We have good timing," Diego said. "I haven't really been in the mood for crazy shit lately."

"Understandably," Annie replied, taking a seat and immediately stretching her leg out to play a little footsie under his desk. Comforting footsie. "Turning into a pony or a forest maiden or whatever would kind of suck more than usual, I think."

She paused, trying to decide if she should hold onto this longer. "I talked to Five for awhile last night."

Clearly this was a revelation. Never mind the fact that it had been reported on radio, that Diego was and had been a light sleeper for as long as she'd known him, and that Annie was not, in fact, sneaky at all.

He figured as much. She had been gone on a longer candy break than usual. "Yeah? He manage to act like a human being?"

"It was kind of nice. I think we sort of bonded over candy," Annie shared. "He also likes Charleston Chews."

All this proved was that you had an old man's taste in candy, Annie.

"That's because he's like a hundred years old." He probably also liked candy corn.

Oh, probably. Look at Annie make a friend! She was so happy about this!

"And apparently has acquired great taste in that time," Annie replied airily. "Told me a bunch of other stuff, too."

The way she was smiling probably said a lot about what he'd told her. Because it was the sweetest thing. Just the nicest, most wholesome answer that it could have been.

Yeah, Diego didn't need to think very hard on that to guess correctly. "It's not what you think."

It was not wholesome. It was just about general proximity.

Five had also tried to pop her earnestness balloon, and it hadn't deterred her last night, either. "It's kind of what I think. You guys are stronger together."

As a family!

"We're stronger if we're standing next to each other," Diego said. "In theory. I haven't seen it for myself."

"Five said hugging wouldn't help but I think it might just have been reflex," Annie shared, because of course that's right where the proximity thing sent her brain. "He said that the only reason he was able to teleport or...time-teleport, whatever -- you all in the first place was because you were together. So you've kind of seen it, right?"

Shhh don't notice the part where it had only kind of worked.

"It's just a theory," he said again, because while he had hope he didn't want to get them up too much. "Five wants me to test it out on my powers but I'm not exactly sure how."

"Klaus' stuff seems to kind of back up that theory," Annie pointed out gently. It was the first scrap of hope they'd had in awhile, and she was going to cling to it. Per usual, Annie was prepared to just have her hopes sky high, and risk disappointment rather than not be optimistic. "But yeah, I was kind of wondering that too, when he told me. Maybe -- I don't know, try throwing stuff from even further away?"

But she'd already seen him nail someone in the eye from, like, a football field away, and he'd stuck a knife in a wall five stories up on their first date, so Annie was clearly grasping at straws.

"Maybe," he replied, though he had some serious doubts. "It'd be easier to tell if my powers were, you know, showier."

"I think it's kind of great how not-showy they are," Annie offered loyally. "Sometimes I wish mine were more subtle, like yours are. I can't, like, use my powers in public like you can. But at the moment, yeah, it would be useful if it was something where you weren't, like, already starting with perfect aim."

"Five said I'd just know when I could do something," he said. "Which is like the least helpful advice ever."

"It's also kind of helpful, because like...you'll know when you feel it, I guess?" Annie offered. "So there's no reason to be frustrated until you...do feel it. But I know that's not helpful, either, so I'm sorry."

She took a sip of her coffee, shrugging sympathetically. "But it's kind of nice to know something, right?" Even if it was just a theory!

"Yeah, I guess," he said. "More than we had last week."

That was downright optimistic of him.

"And Five seems like he's in a better mood. Or at least he's being kind of nice," Annie shared. "He sort of let me hug him at the birthday party, and he, like, actually talked to me last night."

Rather than hissed or deflected or answered in single syllables.

"Weird," Diego joked. "Maybe he really is losing it."

"It was almost like just having a normal conversation with my boyfriend's brother," Annie teased, raising her brows. "And it made me feel better, at least."

Because that had been the whole reason she'd been up in the first place -- as much as she insisted on maintaining that optimism, doubt tended to creep in when it was dark and she was too sleepy to argue with it.

“Good,” he said genuinely. “Feels like we can breathe a little now.”

"A little," Annie agreed with a smile. "We've got something to go off of, now."

And that felt a whole lot better than just stumbling around in the dark.

"And maybe we can work on things a little while everyone's gone." Annie paused, considering. "Or, like -- okay, if Five goes on the trip, we'll actually have our apartment to ourselves again."

This was clearly the win-winningest of all situations.

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