Baltimore, Sunday Night

[spin_kick_snap]

Banzai rarely patrolled Sunday nights, taking the night off to rest and prepare for the upcoming week, but since she'd bailed on patrolling on Friday, it seemed only fair to make up for it tonight instead. Crime around the club and various campuses would be lower, but there were still plenty of drug deals, muggings, and various other, more dangerous crimes for her to stop instead. And it wasn't like Banzai was going to miss spending extra time manhandling drunk idiots into cabs and breaking up fights in alleys over stupid bullshit the participants couldn't even remember four steps away from the club itself.

The Ukranian mafia had all but vanished from the city over the past few months; apparently losing the Butcher was enough to convince them that Baltimore wasn't worth the effort. In a way, Banzai almost missed them; they were good practice for when she'd be going up against the Seventeens in LA eventually. Patrolling around Stanford (if she got in, please God let her get in) probably wasn't going to be all that much effort, so she was already making plans to portal down to LA proper at least once a month to get in a proper patrol.

Spotting Jewels, one of the working girls that was part of Banzai's loose confederation of informants, Banzai swung down from the rooftop to land on light feet nearby. Always good to check in, see if Jewels had heard of anything going down, make sure that no one was bothering her, pass along money and supplies to stay in Jewels' good graces, all that good stuff.

It felt good to get out and patrol. For all her speeches about wanting to do good for the people around her and make the world a better place, Banzai had to admit that the real reason she ran around in rainbows with a bokken on her back and rope darts in her belt was a lot more selfish. What could she say?

She loved this.

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

"You should go for it," Kathy said with an encouraging smile. "I'll be your wingman."

Kathy, that wasn't even what a wingman--never mind.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante laughed. "I don't need a wingman," he said. "Think I'm already halfway there if I want to close the deal."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Telling you, that sex smirk'll get him offering himself on the table if you use it right." She dragged the last nacho through the remains of the chili and reconsidered. "Or under the table, if that's how you wanna roll."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I'll go for it," Dante said, slamming back his shot. "Unless somebody wants to give me a better offer."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy gave him a speculative look; usually running around as Banzai got her blood going and having fun with Dante was an excellent way to calm it again. But tonight had been heavier on the patrolling and lighter on the action than usual and she wasn't feeling that usual tug of desire.

And if that changed while Dante was making a new friend, she could always call his roommate.

"I think I'm good tonight," she said with the satisfied air of someone who had had a very good past few days. "Let me watch the master at work. I can still flirt with him a little, though, right?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Nah, now I've got dibs."

Sorry, Kathy.

Dante snagged his beer again, then paused for a second as the shot hit him pretty hard. Good.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Aww!" Kathy pouted. "I don't wanna really flirt with him, just for practice!"

Well, she wasn't going to stop smiling at him. Especially when he was bringing her food. That was just ridiculous.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Nope," Dante said. "You're gonna get his hopes up for something or another."

He took a sip. Mmm, spinny.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy took her shot, wincing a bit as the alcohol hit her tongue. Still had some of her baby, non-drinking tastebuds left apparently. And she could feel it burn all the way down to her belly.

"You're the worst," Kathy informed him, sticking her tongue out. "I never set limits on who you can flirt with."

Except, you know, her sister. But she was pretty sure Dante would avoid Sarah on his own.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Hey, you're the one who isn't planning to actually get laid tonight," Dante said, flipping her tongue the bird.

"You don't jump into the ring in somebody else's match, right?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"I would to help!" Kathy insisted. "But then I'd let them get the take down and the credit for the catch."

Look, she didn't do boxing much. Or wrestling. Or...any other kind of fights in rings.

[rebelseekspizza]

"He'd think you were angling for a threesome," Dante pointed out.

Paused.

Smirked.

What? Good memories.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy wriggled in her seat. Even with her decision to go home alone tonight, those memories coupled with that smirk...yeah.

"I have a rule," she said. "No threesomes without me sleeping with the other two people individually already." Biting her lip, she added, "Besides, you smile at him like that and he won't even notice what I do."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Eh, maybe," Dante said.

... She was probably right.

"Though that was fun."

[spin_kick_snap]

There was a slow and sexy smirk crawling over Kathy's face at the reminder. "Fuck yeah it was," she said, almost reverently. "I'm up for a repeat of that pretty much whenever."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Well, you know where we live," Dante said, tapping his fingers against his bottle.

[spin_kick_snap]

"You know, those stairs are multi-directional," Kathy said, dragging her finger through chili since there were no more chips. Dante. "People can come up, too."

Just making sure that was clear--even if, yeah, it was more convenient for Kathy to come down.

"I also accept invites by text. Or dirty pictures."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante laughed softly. "You're just trying to get me and Anders to make out on camera," he accused.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Can you blame me?" Why would Kathy even pretend to deny that? "If I'd been more willing to interrupt for permission, I would have been filming the other day. That was hot."

[rebelseekspizza]

"You gotta give it to Anders," Dante said, with that special brand of philosophical one achieved when drunk. (It didn't help that the booze made his accent worse, either.) "He knows what to do with his mouth."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yeah he does," Kathy agreed fervently. "And--has he shown you his sparking trick? Because damn."

That had been a fun discovery, to say the very least.

"We're, uhh, going to prom together," she added. Casually. "You should see if Ez will take you. Or Isabela maybe? Is she a junior? Then we can all be there together."

[rebelseekspizza]

"He did," Dante said, smirking (though not that smirk). That's why the Sparkmaster had been hilarious, Kathy. Come on. "I dunno if prom is my scene. Maybe if Alana wants to go."

Was her and Anders going to prom something he had to remark on? Like, that didn't seem like a surprise.

[spin_kick_snap]

Yeah, she'd forgotten about the joke she hadn't gotten about five seconds after she'd been electrocuted. Who knew that lightning wasn't all that great for short-term memories?

"You'd go with someone as a real date?" Kathy asked, surprised. "See, I figured that wouldn't be your scene. I assumed you
d be more willing to go mostly stag and seeing who you could pick up in a fancy dress."

Which was why Kathy hadn't just invited him along weeks ago. She'd've rather no date than a date who didn't want to be a date.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Nah, not a real date, date," Dante said, rolling his eyes. "But I like Alana, and she's into that shit more than I am. So why not?"

He took another sip from his bottle. "And then I'd be sure to get laid afterwards."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I meant you'd act like a real date for her," Kathy said. "You know, with corsages and keeping your non-Alana flirting to a minimum and all that stuff." Wait. She didn't want to talk Dante out of going with Alana. "I mean, assuming that's what she'd want in a date. I don't know. She's not from Earth, so she may not care about any of that."