Trooper Station | Saturday

[knife_bender]

Diego was in no way as hungover as he was last year, and for that he was grateful. The party had turned out to be a success and he didn't have to clean up anything after. Win-win.

Now he was eating a victory donut, since he could without throwing up this year.

[Open]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie was doing a lot better with her morning-after this year than she had last year. She'd paced herself, she had not done a keg stand, and thus she was just feeling kind of...generally not her best, rather than like she wanted to crawl into a hole and quietly die.

So. Second Annual Christmas Rager was thus far kind of an improvement over the previous year, at least in that respect!

But, since tradition was the name of the game, here she was in her sunglasses, bearing a cup of coffee for Diego along with the bagels she was taking back to the apartment. And while last year, this morning had ended up being something of a big deal for them and they'd induced vomiting noises from the staff, today she didn't hesitate at all before leaning in to press a kiss to Diego's cheek in greeting as she passed the coffee over.

You could deal, troopers. You could deal.

"How're you feeling?"

[knife_bender]

"I don't feel like I'm dying, so that's an improvement over last year," Diego said, taking the coffee. "Thanks. How are you doing?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie wobbled a hand back and forth as she took a seat with her own coffee. "Better than last year. Didn't throw up in the shower."

What an achievement!

"Our place is so trashed." But she had a glitter vacuuum, she probably had help, and she knew a witch who could probably get it all put away quick if needed.

[knife_bender]

"Did you expect it to somehow not be trashed?" he asked lightly.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"No, but it all looks so bad in the daylight," Annie admitted with a sigh, sipping her coffee. "Last night it looked better."

No, last night she had been drunk off her ass by the time she'd crawled into bed.

[knife_bender]

"Everything looks good after a handful of jello shots," he said, laughing lightly. "You need me to do anything?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I need you to stay here and have a wonderful day at work," Annie assured him with a faint little smile. "And hey, at least this year I don't have to fix a lightbulb."

That had totally been the worst thing she'd had to deal with last year.

[knife_bender]

"We were very well behaved in the pantry," he agreed. "...kind of."

They didn't break anything, anyway.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Better behaved than last year," Annie offered, sneaking a foot over to play a little footsie under his desk. "...kind of."

Better in the not breaking things way. Worse in the actual getting further in the make-out process than they had before breaking stuff last year.

But no one had come in to catch them, nor had they gotten locked in. Successes all around!

[knife_bender]

"And it didn't sound like anybody got stabbed by accident," he said. "Good for us?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh, that is one thing I need you to do -- you have to put the ones I stashed all back in their spots when you're home today," Annie said, eyes widening. "Like, I just feel like it's better if you do the hiding? I'm not the one who needs to find them, you know? And like, I fully expect knives in the Christmas tree, just eff-why-eye."

Because of course there would still be somedecorations left -- including their own tree.

[knife_bender]

"I can hang some off like little ornaments," he said with a nod. "You going to add your own personal touch to the tree? I wouldn't be surprised if Vought had a line of Starlight tree toppers coming out."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh, I myself am a Hallmark Keepsake Ornament of 2021," Annie told him with a sleepy little eyeroll, "so sure, she can go on the tree. Now that you've seen my mom's house, though, are you sure you really want to open that can of worms? Because there's a lot of Starlight stuff out there."

And Annie's mother had not done her the courtesy of putting literally any of it in the attic, as Pogo and Grace had done for Diego and his siblings.

[knife_bender]

"Let's not go that far," he said. "I'll thank you to never mention to your mom I was a kid superhero too because she'd go digging for that stuff too, I'm sure."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Are you kidding? She'd carve out a spot for a poster of you between the Starlight ones in the living room," Annie replied, shaking her head. It would be done with relatively good intentions, at least. From Donna's perspective. "I would never. She doesn't really get your deal, anyway, with how you're a Supe but not like how she's used to."

[knife_bender]

"I can get how she'd be confused," he said with a slow smile. "She'd probably be more comfortable with Five's powers. There's got to be some teleporting Supes."

One day you'd get showy powers, Diego. One day.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yeah, she'd think it was great because she'd understand what she was looking at, but you know who she would not be comfortable with?" Annie pointed out. "Five. Like, someday Five is going to meet my mom and none of us are ready, nor will we ever be."

On the other hand, most of Diego's other siblings would probably play real well with Donna. Just wait until she found out that Annie's eventual sister-in-law-to-be was a movie star, for example.

[knife_bender]

"I'm more worried about Klaus, to be honest." Klaus really did not belong around anyone from the Midwest.

[defenderofdesmoines]

And by Annie's face, she had not thought of Klaus.

(But the narrative had. Hence the 'most.')

"Klaus is just friendly enough to be worrisome," she agreed slowly. "Five, at least, is openly hostile."

Which was a...plus?

[knife_bender]

"Maybe he'll do that weird suck up thing he does sometimes," Diego said with a shrug. "Just to prove us wrong."

They could reverse psychology him!

[defenderofdesmoines]

"He'd better watch it, in that case," Annie said, shaking her head and then clearly thinking better of it. "She would love that. But to circle back to the original question -- I'm thinking a regular star is a better topper for the tree than, like, me."

Because yeah, he wasn't wrong. There was probably a topper she just didn't know about.

"And then the knives. A merging of our aesthetics." What weirdos.

[knife_bender]

"I like that," he said with a nod. "Knives and sparkles. Screams Diego and Annie's first joint Christmas tree."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Awwwww." Even as hungover as she was, Annie was able to manage some heart eyes at that. "Our themes go so well together. I mean, it helps that sparkles go with everything."

You know, in her opinion. Everything could just generally use more sparkles, particularly at Christmas.

[knife_bender]

"Do they though?" Diego asked. "I mean, they look good on you but..."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Tell me one thing sparkles don't go with," Annie challenged, lifting her brows expectantly.

[knife_bender]

"I mean, if I wore sparkles it'd mess with my vibe." You knew how important his vibe was, Annie.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That doesn't mean you don't look great in them, though," Annie pointed out. "You did all right sparkling a little with me at the masquerade."

Perhaps the trick was to sparkle as a couple and make it a united vibe.

[knife_bender]

"That was, like, the barest hint of sparkle," he said. "It didn't really count. And I wore a lot of black to offset it."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"All I'm hearing is that black and sequins go together extra well," Annie replied, smiling at him over her coffee cup.

[knife_bender]

Diego sighed. "Maybe for New Year's."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, if it's like last year," Annie pointed out, "you're not gonna have a choice."

Though the glitter-from-the-ceiling thing had worked out pretty well for them, in the end.

[knife_bender]

"If it's like last year we end up in the shower together," he replied. "So that I make an exception for."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I still have a glitter cannon," Annie mentioned, so casual. "Technically I have two."

One was just loaned out. Maybe forever?

"Not that we need an excuse, but like, if you're making exceptions...."

[knife_bender]

"Body shots first," he said. "Then we can discuss what we can do with glitter."

And somewhere in there they had to finally use those handcuffs.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I feel like I should keep a list," Annie teased, coloring slightly. "On my phone or something."

She was joking but also that seemed like kind of a good idea? Her phone was already full of illicit secret things, after all.