The Luckiest Girl In The World

Nah, that wasn't the way it worked. Heroes ran into trouble, thinking they could change anything, that was the problem.

"They were assholes," Dante agreed, since his ignorance to Anders' narrative meant he couldn't go off on a tangent about it. "They're the people who're going to be having your back?"

Half of 'em seemed more likely to be sizing up her ass while they were back there.

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"Not a huge fan of Max, but Nick was fine before you came in," Kathy said, finishing the order and folding her arms across her chest. "And Josh is a great guy. I mean, he's still grieving and he's out with us, doing what he can to protect LA because he knows how important this is."

Which, you know, was more than what these two seemed to get.

"And there are more of us than just them. Stealth, Zzzap, MidKnight, Blockbuster--every hero in LA knows that this is important to contain and fix. It's way more important than some petty, interpersonal grievances." Like Max being a creeper and Nick--she was really going to have to tear into him for this. "Why can't you two get that? We're talking the lives of ten million people here!"

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"Of course you think Nick was fine," Anders snapped. "He wants you."

He drew a breath, tried to organize his
less petty thoughts. "Look, I don't know about zombie movies, but in Thedas we
have blights. Demons rise and take over anything they can get their claws and teeth on. We have entire armies turned out to fight them, but people die. A lot of people die. Cities get wiped out. The last one was 400 years ago and people still tell the story. So the idea ten of you are going to save ten million -- it's ludicrous. It's a fairy story. The only thing anyone can do for it is get out."

Edited Date: 2016-04-09 06:53 pm (UTC)

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Dante shrugged, shoulder scraping lightly along the wall. "I don't know zombies where I come from, but we've got demons," he said. "Bad stuff like this takes off, it's going to get worse. Always does. And I've met you. You're not gonna stop if it gets too dangerous for you."

Edited Date: 2016-04-09 06:57 pm (UTC)

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Kathy was grinding her teeth now, glaring at Anders. "All right, let's table the zombie thing for a second. The hell is with you today? You've decided that Nick suddenly has a thing for me based on--what? Thirty seconds of interaction?"

And being less oblivious to this kind of thing than Katherine "I'm just Kathy!" Li.

"And because he supposedly wants me, I think he can do no wrong? I'm that vapid and petty and shallow?"

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"I decided it because I'm not blind, deaf or stupid," Anders retorted, with a glare of his own. "It's in everything he does around you. I don't know why you're falling for it, other than that you had a thing for him for ages. And are we really going to 'table the zombie thing'" -- that came out in his imitation of Kathy's voice -- "to argue about some idiot who turned his powers on us in the middle of a restaurant?"

Edited Date: 2016-04-09 07:40 pm (UTC)

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Dante rolled his eyes. At Kathy, not at Anders, with whom he thoroughly agreed. "Calm your tits," he supplied, helpfully. "Who or what wants in your pants is not the fucking problem here."

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She wasn't going to murder them. She wasn't. Because they were her friends and she loved them, no matter how much she wanted to throttle them right now.

"I'm not falling for anything," she said, managing not yell by sheer force of will. She also successfully refrained from flipping Dante off, so good on Kathy all around. "I'm furious at him for that shit he pulled. But he wouldn't have been able to do that if you two hadn't decided to high-handedly come and tell me what I can and cannot do! We're tabling the zombie thing because there's nothing to talk about! I'm going to help save my city while it's still possible to be saved! You can either help or you can go home, but what you don't get to do is tell me what I'm allowed to do!"

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Anders, meanwhile, felt utterly defeated. Reasoning hadn't worked. Shouting hadn't worked. Bringing up her sister hadn't worked. There was utterly no point in any of this, and for a heated moment he almost felt that getting eaten by a zombie would only serve Kathy right.

"That was a lot of words for 'la la la la, I'm not listening,'" Anders commented, and turned to the door. "Dante, let's go. Maybe if we leave now we can get a cheaper portal home."

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"I can just take her," Dante said mildly. From the doorway.

He hadn't moved just yet.

"Maybe if I hold her upside down for long enough, all the bullshit is gonna pour right out."

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Dante's threat forestalled Kathy from just throwing her wallet at Anders and telling him to use what frequent portal miles she'd racked up, so that was...something? Maybe?

Of course, that was only so she could turn to Dante, mouth agape in disbelief. "You wou--" She stopped herself, because the easiest way to ensure that Dante did to something was to tell him he wouldn't. "Don't."

Yeah, that wasn't much better.

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"Give him a reason not to," Anders said, folding his arms. "Kathy, you've known me forever. I'm not the type to just decide I know better than someone and tell her what to do. Usually I hate that. Dante's not exactly a dictator either. So if we're out here doing everything but begging on our knees, could you at least take us seriously?"

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"You gonna say 'don't' to the zombies when they get you in a tight spot?" Dante said. His voice went dipping low. It wasn't with threat, exactly. But that thing he didn't know or understand, that'd happened just now-- there were still dregs of demonic energy spooking through his veins, cooling his nerves and stoking the flames of worry turned anger.

He pulled away from the doorway. "'Cause I could. Right here, right now, I pick you right up, throw you over my shoulder, take you to Portalocity, we'll be home by morning. Nothing you and your bouncy superpowers can do about it." His eyes narrowed. "You think you're some kind of badass zombie fighter now? You're rainbows and taglines and leaving the bad guys tied up for the police. You're a fucking Saturday morning cartoon."

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Kathy opened her mouth, but no words came out. None. In just six words, Dante had managed to shred so much of her hard-won confidence. Her belief in herself and her abilities. She glanced down, both to hide the tears that sprang up in her eyes and to check and make sure that she hadn't gotten cut somewhere. Yeah, she knew her hurts were purely metaphorical, but in that moment, she almost couldn't be sure.

"I--I--" She pushed past Anders, towards to the door, blurring up to full speed. "I have to go."

Fuck them, they didn't get to see her cry.

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Anders instinctively grabbed for Kathy's blurry form, trying to get her shoulder or elbow or wrist -- anything, really, as long as it would keep her in the room. His words, too, were aimed only at that goal.

"Hey. Hey. He didn't mean it."

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"Don't touch me!" she snarled, yanking her arm out of his grasp and fleeing through the door, slamming it shut behind her. That door led directly to the parking lot and beyond; in the open, there was no way either of them could catch her.

At least the pizzas had been paid for?

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That could've gone better. Probably. The bottom had kind of dropped out of Dante's ability to care for a moment, here.

He crossed his arms and eyed Anders.

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Anders folded his arms and eyed Dante right back. It was that kind of a moment.

"What?" he asked. "I'm not the one who made her cry."

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And now Dante's eyes were rolling. "She'll be back," he said, turning around. He needed to go see if this place had a minibar. "And if not, fuck her."

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"Probably she went to tell the other heroes how awful her friends are," Anders said, which wasn't particularly fair to Kathy. "You're right. Fuck her."

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And there it was, a tiny fridge sitting underneath the desk. Dante squatted down by it. Sure, this stuff was probably expensive, but whatever. Kathy could deal. "Y'know, when she said 'superheroes', I didn't think she'd mean 'dickwads'," he said, finding a small bottle of vodka and another, slightly bigger one of whiskey.

He held up the vodka for Anders. "But there we were."

He wasn't feeling like being fair to anyone at all right now. Wasn't sure why, didn't feel like questioning.

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Anders took the vodka and poured a few fingers into one of the stupid plastic glasses, rummaging in the fridge for some juice to top it off.

"I wonder if everyone here with powers is an arse, or just the ones we were lucky enough to meet?" he said. "And Nick. I can't believe she chose that over me."

There were probably better things to worry about, but he ... wasn't.

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Dante's investment in that whole thing was lower - and different - from Anders', but he wasn't about to disagree on the Nick issue, either. "He looked like he was like five seconds from telling Kathy she seems mature for her age," he said, eyeballing the tiny bottle of whiskey.

Saying a quick mental 'fuck it' and slamming back some of it. He needed alcohol. Badly.

Edited Date: 2016-04-10 01:23 pm (UTC)

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Anders took a long gulp of his vodka and orange juice before answering.

"He must have just been holding off until she was legal," he said sourly. "Charming fellow. And that Max was just a creep. Can't imagine him saving anyone from anything."

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