assholic | Open Post

If her goal was to get Diego to smile bashfully, Jessica succeeded. Words evaded him but she initiated a soft kiss that he happily returned in acceptance of what had been said.

She started to answer his question while giving him something to eat. It was more than comfortable, almost second nature when they were together. Being with Jessica opened his eyes to what it was like to be really cared for. Cliche or not, he never knew love like that before.

Her response made him think. Jessica was the first person who he'd ask the question to that didn't have an immediate response. He thought about his upbringing and how what he wanted to be was more about what his father wanted him to be. The soulmates both had to grow up fast in different ways.

"So do you wanna stay a PI?" he asked as she took a bite. "Seems like a good fit. Maybe instead of people cheating, you can help them find missing people. The shit cops don't have time for. Or don't make time for." There were reasons why Diego didn't make it through the police academy. The main one was having to follow someone like his father who had an agenda and no real desire to help people.

Diego also couldn't help want to make their world safer, even if he truly believed Jessica was able to take care of herself.

"I do that too. There's just more cases of people trying to catch cheaters. Or needing proof they aren't. I've had missing persons cases. Insurance fraud. Court paper service. So far, it's what works best for me. I can put in my own hours, I'm my own boss, and it turns out, I'm pretty good at getting to the bottom of things." Maybe that came from so many years of never knowing all the answers. All those questions about what happened, what she was, her family...

She watched him eat, then leaned in and licked a bit of sauce from his lip. "What about you? You can be something here, Diego. Danny can always work his rich boy magic and whirl you up some papers to make you legit here. If he won't, I know people. So we get you an ID, make you unkickoutable, and then what? Do you want to take any classes? Any goals on what Diego Hargreeves wants to be? You don't even have to keep the same last name, you know. Diego Sexypants would work." She teased because she could, but she hadn't really asked him about how he felt about his given name. How he felt about ties to that man that hadn't done anything good for him.

It was difficult not to interject that she could stick with helping people instead of getting in the middle of someone screwing...literally. Yet it wasn't a subject he needed to push at the moment. Jessica also distracted him by leaning in to lick the corner of his mouth.

"I'm not already someone here?" he couldn't help but ask. Jessica knew where the defensiveness came from and hopefully wouldn't be offended. "Could always take the name Jones." His dark eyes started intensely into hers. They looked away for a second. "But I should keep Hargreeves if my brothers or sisters show up."

"You're the most important person here." She set the sticks down and moved her hand to trace around the edge of his eye, then under it. Dark. Such dark, pretty eyes, and they looked at her with all these feelings that she'd thought were bullshit. You couldn't tell what someone felt by their eyes-

Yet here she was, looking at him and seeing this whole orchestra of emotion play out there. "You could, if you wanted to. Diego Jones doesn't sound so bad." He mentioned his siblings and there were mixed feelings there. Siblings that held a long of tangled emotions, but it wasn't as if she didn't understand. Trish and her weren't related by blood, but by trauma and living under the same roof. "But I meant what do you want to do, papi? 'Making me ecstatic' isn't a financially sound employment plan." There was a grin there, then she gave him a quick kiss before she gathered more food to feed to him.

Whatever tension might've risen had quickly fallen as she immediately answered that he was the most important person. He was sure only his programmed version of a mother had ever thought that about him, if she could even actually think. Diego might never let go of Grace as his mom. She was the only light in a childhood of darkness. However, Jessica was true happiness. A future. His future.

Her green eyes grounded him and her spanish made him smile. He took the offered bite, mulling things over while he ate. Diego shoved the bite into his cheek and spoke. "I could make a sizable bank if I fought a few matches but..." His head swayed from side to side as he finished chewing the bite. "...you're not exactly a fan of that option."

Understandably so as he didn't want her to get hurt. "I'm good with teaching at the dojo and working security for Luke. I get a little dancing in at the club," Diego gave a little shake of his hips with a smirk and wink. Jessica was incredibly hot when her possessive streak showed.

"My thoughts on your fighting are that if you start trying to make bank with underground fights, I will too. In enhanced arenas." And he wouldn't want that at all, so she considered that a win on her side.

Of course, then he had to go say that, and there was a little spark of something close to territorial fury in her eyes before she grabbed at the neck of his tie and tugged. "Dancing at the club, huh?" So what if she felt a little shiver of pleasure at that wag of his hips. Everything he did seemed to be designed specifically to turn her on. She was learning to live with that. Diego was her walking aphrodisiac. "Do I need to come down to the club and stake my claim?" Because she would. Right in front of all the understandably interested hotties- and Luke. Some part of her knew that needed to happen sooner than later. Maybe sooner would be best.

"They don't have to be underground fights. I can fight regulation. But the only thing you're fighting is a cold."

Yet his objection wasn't much of one, admitting defeat because he'd commit murder if he ever witnessed someone hitting her. Jessica seemed ready to do the same just for someone hitting on him which amused him more than it probably should. His arms wrapped snug around her.

"You can put a ring on it, if you want but it's just dancing, Mami. You've got nothing to worry about."

"You haven't seen the way they look at you. Which is, incidentally, the same way I look at you. Like I want to put you in my mouth and suck on you until you melt down to gooey caramel." His arms went around her and she lifted her hand to smooth over his hair.

"Another reason to get you actual 'legal' papers. So I can put a ring on it." Just casually dropping that there, since they were already talking about a new home and a new life. She knew there was no one else but him, and if she was ever going to bind herself to someone, it was going to be the person that she actually loved. "They get handsy. They want to touch. I want to break their fingers. So keep your ass against the wall where they can't admire it, and then we get can you a ring you can flash at them. Then point to the convenient hole in the wall I'm going to make and tell them that will be their face if they don't screw off."

"They can look at me however they want. I only have eyes for you," he returned with a hand at her cheek as his dark eyes looked intently into her lighter set. Yet he wasn't going to dance if it worried her. "No touching allowed. With or without a ring. I'd never disrespect you like that."

Not that it seemed she thought he would. Diego enjoyed her possessive streak but he didn't want her to sour the relationship she had with Luke...even if there was something appealing that Jessica would make it known who she was with now. Number Two lit up when she brought up the reason for getting him legal papers.

"So for the record, you'll marry me and not just to ward off women at the club?"

He had to ask.

That catch. It broke her heart a little that she knew that he thought there might be strings attached to it. "I'll marry you because I love you. There's no one else for me, Diego. Never will be. And there's never been anyone that's come close to filling the spot you have in my life. So it just makes sense to make it legal. With all the shit that happens around here, I want to make sure if one of us winds in up in the hospital, the other can sign them out. Or be called if they wind up in jail. Besides," she said, wiggling in his lap a little, "I'm kind of looking forward to the day you threaten someone pissing you off with your wife breaking them in pieces."

She grinned, food forgotten as she sat there with an arm around his shoulders and the other playing with his hair. "It's not you, Diego. Not you I don't trust. Hell, a ring is just going to be a red flag to a bull to some of them. I want you to know I'd never think you'd stray. It's not about disrespect. I can feel how much you love me. No one's ever... I've never felt that before. I just want them to know ahead of time that if they're going to flirt with a married man, they shouldn't be shocked if they get slapped if they go beyond flirting to touching. No touchy."

Her answer made him light up. A full smile graced his lips, Diego mostly stuck on the fact that she loved him and felt there was no one else for her. It was the first that someone returned his feelings in the same manner that he felt them. Like Jessica, he was sure there was no one else for him. He'd been nervous about the M word and it took an enormous weight off of his shoulders that she was not only on board but comfortable with the idea.

"I'd never want my wife to get her hands dirty, but have no issues with you tossing someone around or the car they drive."

He nuzzled the tip of her nose with his own but then went to grab the chopsticks and get her a bite of food. Diego paused as she responded about trusting him. All the times he'd been hurt before, none of it mattered with Jessica. He believed what she said and felt the same way. His head leaned in to give her a tender kiss, then pulled back to meet her eyes again.

"No touching. But promise me you'll just snatch them off. A slap from you could be literal overkill. I'm happy to make out with my wife before every shift, wherever I work." And with that, he held a wide grin again and moved the food in front of her mouth for her to eat.

The way he lit up was so visible, she found herself echoing that smile in a way that made her feel dopey. He was so gentle with her when he never needed to be, but it was just the way he was wired. The people in his life had really missed out on something so precious with how callous they were with him.

Their loss. She'd keep him all to herself.

That tender kiss and those heart-melting eyes as he fed her, she opened her mouth to take the food, hand smoothing over the tie she'd wrinkled. "I make no promises. Some of them can be feral and I've seen too many people treat security and bouncers like objects." Her time with Trish showed her there was a subset of people that just refused to see others as equals, or even sentient beings. She hadn't been to Luke's club any time recently, so she couldn't say for sure what his clientele was like, but she knew entitled people, and they were everywhere. Besides, look at him. Who wouldn't want to try to touch every inch of him?

He fed himself after Jessica took her bite, opting to focus on finishing the takeout before continuing the conversation. There were only a few bites left.

What she said wasn't unreasonable. Diego didn't leave her words hanging in the air for any other reason than to finish their food. Once the final bite was taken, he left the chopsticks in the container and licked his lips. "I'm flattered, Babe. I really am. If you don't want me to dance at the club then I won't. But I'm pretty sure if you start attacking your ex's clientele, I'll be out of a job which'll make it hard for me to post your bail."

There was a lot of humor in his tone, a smirk also matching the teasing response.

She could hear how ridiculous it sounded, and she gave him a flat look. "It's not about the dancing and you know it. I want you to have something, Diego. Something that's yours. Working at Luke's is good for now, but I want you to have something that's yours that you want to do. You're more than walking sex in a suit, and there's a lot of shady shit that happens in Harlem. Especially with people like us." And yes, she lumped Diego in with others like her who were enhanced. He might have been born the way he was instead of inherited or experimented, but he was different, just like her. And that put a target on his back.

"Walking sex in a suit, huh?" he chuckled with eyes looking away. As much as Diego liked to talk shit, it was just that--shit. With his siblings or anyone who gave him shit. Jessica meant her compliments and he struggled a bit with that. A tint of red was on his stubbled face with a matching shy smirk.

He returned to looking at Jessica. "I've always just wanted to save people. I tried the cop thing and there's too much red tape. My father raised us to be heroes but it was more to do his bidding than actually helping anyone. I know there's not really any money in being a vigilante. It puts a target on my back which will put one on yours too. So maybe I just teach self defense."

Once again, he was willing to give up anything that could hurt her. She was giving him everything he had ever wanted; to be loved.

"Luke can hire pretty muscle to stand around and who wants to be groped. If you want to do something with doing good, we'll find something. You don't have to 'just' do anything, Diego. And for the record," she said, leaning in a little and cupping his cheek, ghosts of her own hiding in the depths of her eyes, "there are some people you can't save. And that's not on you."

A sigh, because her wanting to keep him safe would stifle him. "There's always a target on my back. But we'll find something that's yours, Diego. Something that you want to do that you're good at." She just didn't know what beyond the fighting and vigilantism. Yes, he was good at both, but that wasn't a living. That was a calling. Even Devil Boy had a day job before he ran around in tights at night.

His head cantered to one side when she first responded. "Luke is pretty muscle." Diego knew the man had been a bartender but wondered why the Bulletproof man of Harlem needed security when he was a living tank. Yet the murmur simmered as Jessica cupped his cheek and told him that there were some people he couldn't save.

He swallowed thickly, eyes falling along with his heart. Her memories flashed through his mind but so did his own. He was too late for Eudora. Too late for Grace. The same could be said about Vanya. All the memories made his heart lurch and his eyes water. "But there are people I can save."

Jessica wasn't wrong. He wasn't Bruce Wayne where he could use an inheritance to pay for being a masked crusader. New York was also proving a lot trickier than The City in fighting crime. Yet he honestly didn't have the first clue on how to earn an income if it wasn't winning a match or working security. Diego forced a smile and willed down the water that had collected in his eyes.

"Sounds great." It was a lie. Not that Diego would be opposed to finding a career, he didn't believe he'd be successful at one. Having an unconventional upbringing meant he didn't even have a high school diploma. He had an easy time obtaining his GED to go into the police academy but ultimately had no way to gauge how smart he was.

His childhood was filled with a varied education, more than the average child had been required to learn; latin, calligraphy, ballroom dancing, welding to name just a few ...in addition to the various martial arts and hand to hand training. Yet his world was also different than this one where Diego could hardly work a cell phone.

He brought his hands to her hips and gave Jessica a quick peck to the lips before standing in an effort to sell the notion of everything being fine. "I need to get those suits out of my bag. Probably iron them before putting them in the closet."

"Not compared to you." There was complete honesty in that statement for her. Had she been attracted to Luke before? Yes, of course. Part of that was the allure of someone that she couldn't hurt, and yet she'd gone and hurt him both physically and emotionally. She'd killed his wife and almost killed him with a shotgun. Kilgrave being the means behind that didn't erase the guilt buried inside her. But the moment she'd looked into those puppy eyes that were staring back at her, Luke had faded from her thoughts.

Those eyes filled with tears, and she felt that grip inside her squeeze around her heart. It hurt, and that might have been the echo through their link from him, or hers singing up through to him. There'd been people neither of them could save. Reuben. Hope. Trish, and that one hurt more than anything. He moved to make her stand and she could feel that pain still there, still bouncing between them. He pecked her on the lips when he stood and she opted not to move. She stood in his path, hands reaching for his. "Don't do that. Don't sugarcoat or lie to me to make me think it's okay. I'm not your boss. I'm not your master. You're a big boy and you can do, and will do, whatever you want. I just... I want to give you options. We can look at classes that are available to see if there's anything you like. I'm not dumb, Diego. I know you're not going to want to fit into the mundane box office life anymore than I did. We're not those people. I'm okay with that. I just want you to find something so that you-"

She cut herself off, sighing and lifting her hands to run through her hair, stepping back for a minute. "I know you hate relying on me and my funds. You need your own placement here. Your own... stuff. Your own money. I approve and applaud that. But let's just say that our situation is a little different than most. So it's okay to me that we're relying on me until you find what you want. I don't think less of you. You're not worthless, Diego. You're mine. If I'd come crashing into your world, you think I wouldn't lean on you a little until I figured out what I could get away with?"

That was the killer for her. That he felt he had to prove himself. She knew exactly why that was such a deep mark for him. Reginald goddamn Hargreeves. The whole expectation of never being enough. Even his 'name'. Number Two. Talk about breeding complexes. She just didn't know how to get it through to him that he had absolutely nothing to prove here. There was no Reginald. No siblings. No expectations. Just them.

There had been a genuine smile when she basically called him prettier than Luke. Diego didn't see it. Even before going to Harlem's Paradise, people made no secret that they fawned over Harlem's Hero. Jessica wasn't a groupie but he'd seen how she watched him before crossing the line with Luke. Yet there was no reason not to believe her. And as far as he was concerned, it only mattered what she thought so he smiled.

However, the conversation turned and Diego only felt one failure after another. Two people who had looked out for him, who cared about him more than anyone else, had died because he failed them. His father died without ever acknowledging his worth. Now Jessica wanted him to be someone successful and not just work for someone else. He was sure he'd fail her too.

Yet she pulled the rug from under him. --No. She slapped him in the face with truth. He was wrong to hide the truth from her. That was exactly what he attempted to do, fearful that the honeymoon period would be over and Jessica would realize that he wasn't enough. He'd make things worse by secretly fighting or taking jobs she wouldn't approve of so he could bring something to the table.

"I never thought I'd have a life with someone. It's something I didn't even allow myself to dream about because that's all it was, a dream. Now I have it and I want you to be proud of me. I want to bring something to the table but all I'm good at is fighting. That might be the only way I can make decent money."

He shook his head, not wanting to make her feel like he wasn't happy. "It's been months that I've been leaning on you. I don't know cell phones or iPads or lap computers..." Laptops. Diego struggled with technology. He couldn't even figure out how to turn on the car that Danny wanted him to drive at work. There wasn't a place to put a key. There wasn't a key at all.

"...You've been patient. More than patient. I don't feel stupid when you're showing me something. You run your own business and so do your friends. I..."

A hand lifted and ran roughly over his spiked hair then his face. His shoulders slumped in defeat. Here he'd talked to her about a future, living somewhere else but his only way to help provide that would be take whatever handout he could find. She didn't seem to care but Diego did enough for both of them.

"I know you're not worried about me paying you back or paying for things but I want to make you proud of being with me." He really did have a stigma for measuring up. Diego had never been enough before and it haunted him enough to doubt for the moment that being her soulmate would save what they had.

"Diego. Baby. No. You've been here for what, two months? Three? You've barely acclimated to what the world's done around you. You expect to just pick up new shit because you're an adult?" She gave him a look. It was full of all the sass she could muster. "There's people that are born and raised in this world that have no idea what the hell they're doing. You are... god. So much more than you think you are, and I wish whatever shitty, bitchy part of your past that sticks to you was physical so I could beat the shit out of it."

He slumped and she hated that. She leaned in and she kissed him, because his pain made her rabid with the need to make it go away. "Us, Diego. We. Mr and Mrs. Everything I have is yours. Always. And when you get things, they'll be ours too. That's the whole point of being a couple. And we're not just a couple. We're soulmates. I am so proud of you. You've landed here and instead of crawling into a ditch and crying about woe is you, you put on your ridiculous panty-mask and ran around trying to help people. What's not to be proud of?"

She cupped his face with her hands, looking deeply into eyes that melted her. "We've had a whole lifetime of being here to figure our shit out. Me, Luke. Hell, Danny beat up a dragon in Tibet and the only reason he's doing so good now is because his parents were richy riches and he came back to a fucking fortune. You think he runs Rand Enterprises? There's a whole hive of worker bees that do things he doesn't have a clue about, all necessary to keep his money coming in. He's smart enough to step back and let them. We just need to find your niche, babe. There's one. There's more than one. But you're acting like we're on a timetable. We have forever. There is no rush. I'm never getting rid of you. Even if you get depression and camp out on the couch. I'll either cuddle with you or boot you in the ass if you need it. Because there is no happiness for me without you."

Mr and Mrs. She still wanted to be with him. Marry him. Her love filled a void in him that Diego never fully understood the depths of until that moment. He had always thought of himself as a lone wolf once leaving the Umbrella Academy but he chose to be alone than having the constant reminder of never being enough.

It seemed something foreign to Jessica who insisted he was more than enough. His shoulders lifted as she defiantly rejected his notions of being less than she deserved. While his posture picked up, Diego melted into the touch at his face. His arms wrapped around her. In the end, she had him donning his completely smitten grin.

"Just don't use the steel-toes," he quipped in the end. Diego needed to kiss her before uttering another word. His mouth connected with hers and poured everything into the kiss; adoration, affection and appreciation. For her to call him 'baby' had really set the tone. She never balked at him for using it but their connection told him that he'd been the first.

Now she had used it on him and he had desperately needed it. The kiss said that too. He pulled back for a breath, slowly opening his eyes to look at Jessica. "I don't think I could ever get depressed while with you. But it's good to know you'll still cuddle with me if I do." He nuzzled the tip of her nose with his.

"Mr and Mrs Jones has a nice ring to it. You gotta forgive me if I want that sooner than later. Not just because I think you'll get me a nice ring," he teased through an impish grin.

The smile soothed her, and the way he leaned into her, the way he relaxed in a way she could feel through their bond had her letting out that breath she'd been holding. She kissed him back, because there was no world in where he could kiss her where she wouldn't respond. Even pissed, she didn't think she'd be able to keep from kissing him back.

"I'd more than cuddle you. I'd do experiments on what sexual act got you undepressed the fastest. Can a sexy latino guy stay sad with his dick in someone's mouth?" This? This was better. The teasing was better. The pain in his eyes always broke her and she would give a lot of herself, make herself open and vulnerable to him, for him to make it go away. It hurt to know he didn't expect that because he hadn't had it.

"What kind of ring do you want? Matching set?" She was going to be up Danny's ass to get Diego's papers done sooner than later. The sooner she had a legitimate piece of identity in her hands, the sooner she could drag him to the courthouse and make it legal.

"Mmm. I think we'll need a bigger couch," he quipped huskily as what she said prompted his voice to drop an octave. Diego was convinced that Jessica talking about putting him in her mouth would never stop turning him on. In that instant, his brown eyes had gone from desperate to happy and now hungry but he reeled himself in.

She talked about wedding rings and he simmered slightly back to the less feral look of joy. "Definitely matching. Not something flashy so we never have to take them off. But something only we have." Diego swayed a little with Jessica in his arms as he thought for moment. "Engrave them with something to make them ours."

"We'll look stuff up on the computer later. Right now," she sighed happily, moving so that she rested her head on his shoulder, her arm sliding around him as they kept up the slow, steady swaying to music that wasn't really there. "Right now, I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be than just here. I missed you while you were gone."

Having other things to do on their own was a good thing, and a little space was probably healthy, but some part of her would always want him close enough to taste, to know he was safe and sound. But she needed him happy more than she needed him in her pocket.

He gave a nod. Still interested in what they would come up with for rings but happy not to look at a computer again today. There had been a lot of that with Danny during the day. Diego also missed Jessica and had done a number on himself, tormented over maybe pushing too hard, too fast on a next step. He'd never been so happy to be wrong in his life.

It also taught him to trust his instincts, instead of remaining stuck in his terrible past life. He breathed in Jessica and exhaled contently while holding her close. "I missed you too. It's probably not a good time to tell you about working tonight," he uttered the end with his face in a slight wince at how she'd take that bit of news.

"Luke did say to swing by the club if I was interested so maybe I'm not interested?"

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