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

[spin_kick_snap]

"Your deaths are a lot more personal, too," Kathy agreed, curling up a little closer. Anders was comfortable and comforting. She could use a bit of that comfort right now. "You stab someone--you're right there, looking at them in the eye. Guns make it cheaper. More distant. Easier. I know that's why Eliot hates them so much."

[not_every_mage]

"How does he feel about arrows?" Anders wondered, half-serious. Turning it into an intellectual question helped him distance himself a bit. "Or even what I do?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"He was impressed when I told him what you could do. And I think he's okay with arrows. But both of those require a lot more time and effort than just a gun. And do a lot less damage." She frowned. "Okay, maybe not less than fireballs, but...I've seen what a gunshot wound can do to someone. Even before all this. It's ugly. Arrows can nick arteries or puncture organs. But gunshots just go into someone and mess things up. You have to be skilled to be dangerous with a bow. Little kids have killed with guns because it's just point and shoot."

[not_every_mage]

"That is scary," Anders decided, and frowned. "You talked to Eliot about me? I don't know him."

Not that what he could do was any type of secret, of course.

[spin_kick_snap]

"He asked if I saw a doctor after the fire," Kathy explained, still feeling vaguely guilty, as if she'd been gossiping behind someone's back. "I explained I saw you cause you're better than a real doctor. He mentioned you sounded handy to have around and I had to agree. With, umm, details. Because you're awesome."

[not_every_mage]

Anders frowned even harder. He couldn't help but feel like the praise included in her response was in part because of the guilt he heard in her tone. And while he'd never hidden being a mage on the island, the idea that people he didn't even know knew details about his abilities set off some quiet fear in the part of his brain that had needed to hide for so long.

"Well, I am awesome," he said anyhow. "Don't mind me. I'm just trying to wrap my head around the idea someone I've never met knows that much about me. Though I suppose at this point the squirrels have made sure everyone on the island knows."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm sorry," she said, pulling away from him slightly and into herself more. "I know you weren't hiding what you could do, so I didn't think about telling him that you helped me when he asked. And he just said to remind him to thank you, because I told him that you saved my ass when I froze. It--It was bad out there already, but if you hadn't been with me in Limbo City, it would have been a lot worse."

Her praise of him now might have been motivated slightly out of guilt, but her praise to Eliot had been entirely legit.

[not_every_mage]

Anders drew a deep breath. It seemed like Eliot was calm about the mage issue, and Kathy was right that he'd never hidden. No harm had been done.

"Don't worry about it," he said evenly. "Though I should stop by the diner sometime so we aren't complete strangers. And you're welcome. Honestly, I don't know how well I would have done if someone died right on me. And you got yourself together enough to come home."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I think you'd like him," Kathy said. "He's been teaching me to knife-fight and some hand-to-hand on the side. He's also writing me a letter of recommendation for college." She sighed. "And he also went up one side of me and down the other for the stunt with the burning apartment, so..."

They had that in common?

[not_every_mage]

"I think everybody you know yelled at you for that one," Anders said, smiling fondly. "Maybe a few people you didn't know. I was thinking about hiring a choir to sing it at you. Don't go into burning buildings Kathy."

He'd helpfully sing that last bit, yes. Of course he would.

"Anyhow, he sounds fantastic. Didn't he also hit your father?"

[spin_kick_snap]

And what Kathy took away from all of that was 'Be smarter about running into burning buildings, Kathy.' Not that she was going to share that bit.

"He did," she said, dropping her face so he wouldn't see her expression. She was still conflicted about how to feel about that--or, rather, how she felt versus how she thought she should feel--but no one needed to see the small smile she wore when she thought about it. Or the guilt that usually came a moment later. "Then tried to take their order a minute later."

[not_every_mage]

"What did they order, ice?"

Anders wasn't hiding his smirk at the idea.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Anders!" Kathy sputtered, trying for appalled and not quite making it.

Shut up she wasn't laughing.

[not_every_mage]

"What?" Anders asked, grinning innocently. "I was concerned about his health is all. Isn't ice good for bruises?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"...I have a feeling that's what you're going to say the next time you shoot ice at someone," Kathy grumbled, fighting off a smile and failing. "You're a menace."

[not_every_mage]

"It'd have to be shorter to be a good battle cry," Anders pointed out. "Maybe I could use it after somebody else hits them. 'Here's some ice for that bruise!' might work."

[spin_kick_snap]

It did sound like battle dialogue, didn't it.

"Or after a fireball?" Kathy suggested. "Here's some ice for that burn?"

[not_every_mage]

"Even better," Anders nodded. "You've got the spirit of it perfectly. Now we need to think of a good one for you."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Something based on speed and kicking," Kathy suggested. "Unfortunately, I my powers aren't cool enough to lend themselves to an easy catchphrase."