Room 508, Thursday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

If anyone asked Kathy how she was dealing with the events of Monday's little destination adventure, she'd tell them she was doing just fine, thank you. She'd had her crying, she'd had a good talk, she'd drowned her brain out with purely physical pleasure for a bit, and now she was much better. The only lasting consequence of Monday was her new inability to walk past a certain empty room on the fifth floor without blushing a little bit. Everything was fine.

Granted, she hadn't gone out and patrolled as Banzai even once yet this week. And she was spending hours at the gym and in the salle, weight-training and working on the moves Eliot had been drilling into her for several months now. Oh, and she wasn't sleeping well at all, even with how exhausted she was. But those weren't related, either to one another or to Monday. They just...were. She was just adjusting after a week away. Or the change in seasons and the darkening days were messing with her natural rhythms. Or it was stress over college applications. Kathy had a hundred different excuses she could apply to the situation--or would if there were a situation.

Which there wasn't.

Because she was fine.

Take today for instance. She had dubstep blaring wile she did set after set after set of pushups. Beneath her on the floor was her Italian textbook; she was memorizing verb conjugation with every rep. On her bed were several dresses so she could figure out what to wear for the dance this weekend in between sets. In all, a completely normal day with nothing at all amiss.

See? Kathy was fine.

Comments

[not_every_mage]

Anders had wanted to visit Kathy, but one thing had lead to another on Tuesday, and he'd let her slip away after class yesterday, and now it was Thursday and they hadn't talked at all.

He wasn't sure she wanted to talk, actually. But he was going to try.

"Hi," he said from the doorway -- loudly, to be heard over the music. "Are you busy? I can come back if you're busy."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy had barely heard Anders; it was more movement where none was expected that had her turning towards the doorway, jerking into a defensive posture without even thinking about it.

...She was fine, shut up.

"Oh! Anders!" she yelled, muscles slowly relaxing as her mind registered no threat present. "Hang on, lemme turn the music down!"

Waving him in, she hit the button on her ipod, pausing mid-exhortation to shout to all the lost boys. The silence after that seemed very loud. "Hey," she said, giving him a sheepish smile. "Sorry about all that. I was just..." She shrugged and gestured to the room. "Doing some stuff."

[not_every_mage]

"I see," Anders said, hazel eyes darting over the room. "Exercising, studying, listening to music, and picking out clothes. I think you might win an award for multitasking."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well, you know me," Kathy said, looking surprisingly awkward for a girl as graceful as she was. "I like to stay busy. Homecoming's this weekend and it's not like I'll get much studying done then, so..."

[not_every_mage]

"So you need to make the most of your time now," Anders finished, nodding as if it made perfect sense. "Of course. Besides, no point wasting time."

He ... wasn't even sure what he was saying, let alone why. 'Remember the time that guy died on you' was not a good conversation-starter.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Exactly!" Kathy said with a frenetic nod. "So I figured I'd just combine a couple of things together to get them all done at once. No point in wasting--you just said that, yeah."

[not_every_mage]

"I did, but it -- never hurts to say things more than once, does it?" Anders asked, his smile also a bit frenetic. "But that's good. It's good that you're keeping busy, it really is. How, er, are you in general?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"You know, I think I'm okay. Adjusting. To everything. I mean, I know I kinda fell apart on you and Dante there and I'm sorry. But it won't--it won't happen again. If it does ever happen again. I mean, I won't fall apart if we ever do go back there, which I'm happy to never ever do."

Ever. Extra ever. Eleventy-ever.

"But I'm sorry. For being kind of the weak link. You had to take those last two out by yourself because I--"

the sharp crack of a gunshot the sudden limp weight in her arms hot wet salt across her face on her lips in her mouth crimson flooding down her shirt

"--I wasn't prepared for all that."

[not_every_mage]

"Who would be?" Anders asked, shrugging. He stepped a bit further in, closed the door. "Besides, somebody died in your arms. Something would be wrong with you if that didn't wreck you."

He smiled weakly. "Also, I'd second that vote on never ever ever going back there."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You seemed so much more together than I was," Kathy said quietly. "I just...shut down for a few seconds. You didn't."

And suddenly she was rushing forward, arms out to hug him tightly.

[not_every_mage]

Anders returned the hug, pleased but bewildered.

"I did my best," he said. "And I don't blame you for your best being different from mine. I fell apart plenty after we got home."

[OOC: Sorry for vanishing - date night.]

[spin_kick_snap]

Don't try to understand, Anders. Kathy was emotional right now. As he could see from what she'd been up to, thinking clearly wasn't really a thing she had going for her right now.

"You did? I--oh." she asked, surreptitiously wiping at her eyes. "At least you waited until you got home." She shook her head. "I'm sorry I bailed on you and Dante after we got home. I needed to--I just couldn't--you know. I needed some time. Some space."

[No worries, bb!]

[not_every_mage]

"I know," Anders said. "I must have too, or else I would have come looking for you. I -- honestly, I see what happened every time I close my eyes."

He hadn't been sleeping much.

[tigerundercover]

Raven came in with a bag full of ice cream and set it down in front of Kathy. "Alright, you've been extra twitchy all week. Eat ice cream and tell me what's wrong."

[spin_kick_snap]

Raven was the best. Literally the best.

Kathy was going to be stubborn and stupid, but that didn't stop Raven from being the best.

She'd swapped to sit ups at this point and paused halfway through one, looking up at Raven guiltily. "I..have I been bugging you?" she asked.

[tigerundercover]

"In that my best friend being weird and stressed out makes me unhappy, yes." Raven sat down on the floor next to Kathy and pulled out one of the tubs of ice cream. "Just like you would be if I spent a week tossing and turning and exercising myself into exhaustion."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Fair," Kathy said quietly, popping up to snag some spoons and bringing them back. Bowls were for the weak, dammit. "I'm sorry, I haven't meant to be be weird and stressed out, but that's a pretty fair assessment of the situation, I guess."

She gave Raven a crooked smile. "Any chance you'll buy that I'm really invested in becoming Homecoming Queen?"

[tigerundercover]

"I might've, if you didn't start with asking if I'd buy it. Plus, radio made it sound like something much more dire happened."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I wouldn't actually want you to believe it," Kathy admitted, shoving her hair back from her face. "Because then I'd be lying to you and you're my best friend. I'm not going to do that. Things got...things got bad, yeah. I, umm..."

She took a big bite her her ice cream. "Someone--a cop--died in my arms on Monday. Shot by another cop. To frame me and Anders. For reasons we're still not sure about."

[tigerundercover]

"Oh my god!" Raven pressed her hand over her mouth and shook her head. "Kathy! That's -- in Baltimore? Were you crime fighting?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"No. Thank goodness. I haven't done a lot in Baltimore since the fire." Which you know, she also hadn't really mentioned to her roommate. Damn, she needed to talk to Raven more. "This was in Dante's world. I guess he gets kidnapped every so often to go fight demons or something. Unfortunately, when he's snatched, the people next to him can get grabbed, too."

[tigerundercover]

"I get the feeling we're going to have to make this a regular ice cream fest appointment," Raven said. "What fire, and oh my god that's so creepy."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Can't argue with more ice cream and time with you," Kathy admitted. "And--yeah. Yeah it was. Dante disappeared, buildings around us started falling apart and injuring people, and we were attacked, and by the time Dante reappeared, two of the cops were dead and the demon he killed looked like a little old lady. It was...rough."

[tigerundercover]

"How do you end up in these situations?" Asked the girl who went to the ocean floor to fight off drugged up mutants and impersonate a cult leader to rescue a blues singer.

[spin_kick_snap]

Lucky for Raven, Kathy didn't know about all that and couldn't offer it up as a counterpoint.

"This one? I didn't go when Dante told us to. He said to get to a bus station. I said I wasn't going to leave him behind. Then he vanished and Anders and I tried to help the civilians, and..." She shrugged. "Then we got attacked by, like, rogue cops or something."