Koreatown, Los Angeles, Wednesday

[spin_kick_snap]

After discovering that Anders could heal the infected, the heroes of LA had been buoyed up by the knowledge that they could stop the spread of the zombie virus. Regenerator couldn't change anyone who had become of full-fledged zombie, but he was able to heal those they got to in time. It helped that the victims tended to have as much as a whole day between when they were bitten and when they turned. Stealth got word out to the populations that were most vulnerable, promising 'free and discreet care' to anyone who needed it, for whatever reason, and soon people were coming to them, either to be healed by 'Genny or two get heroes to help transport the infected back. 'Genny set up a walk-in clinic in a warehouse Stealth had procured and rather than patrolling, Banzai had started helping him there. She was fast, she was agile, she was good at calming people down--she made an excellent assistant and a new rapport sprang up between them.

They were saving lives. They were making a difference. It even made having to move back in with her family (under the guise of visiting for 'spring break') more palatable.

This rush of good feeling lasted for three days. Just three days. They knew they weren't stopping new zombies from turning, but between the people they were healing and the zombies the rest were killing, they really thought they were making a difference.

They were wrong. They were so wrong.

It was Sarah who woke Kathy up from her nap, eyes wide and a little scared. The fear alone had the bottom dropping out of Kathy's stomach; Sarah didn't do scared. She'd gone to school everyday through Seventeen territory and hadn't even flinched. "Sarah," she said, holding out a hand. "What is it?"

"Something's happening," Sarah said, going to sit on Kathy's bed and curling up against her big sister. "Something big. There was some kind of terrorist attack today--like a biological thing. People were screaming and rioting and attacking one another on Hollywood and Highland. Just out in the street in the middle of the day! Like--people ripped one another's throats out and stuff. It's all over the net--people were taking videos and running and screaming--they attacked little kids! And the way they looked--!" Sarah shuddered, hiding her face. "It was awful. Like a horror movie but for real. I watched people die. It looked like some were getting eaten."

"You shouldn't be watching this kind of stuff," Kathy said absently, stroking her sister's hair while her mind whirled. "It's just going to freak you out. Don't worry, the superheroes will fix it."

"I hope so," Sarah said, cuddling close. "Cause the videos I saw? It looked like the end of the world."

[NFB, but Kathy's going to be calling people. If you want her to call you (or want to call her), ping in and she did!]

Comments

[not_every_mage]

"We aren't," Anders agreed. "But the songs seem a bit ... direct, don't they?"

By which he meant uncannily accurate to what he was feeling or wanted to tell Kathy. The music started again.

Shadows fall and hope has fled
Steel your heart
The dawn will come

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yeah, they do," Kathy said, quietly. "Should--should we talk about what the music is saying?"

[not_every_mage]

"We can if you want," Anders said, guarded. "It's not a secret that I miss you."

He feigned a coughing fit once he got the gist of the lyrics to the next song. Maybe she somehow wouldn't hear them.

I’ve seen love go by my door
It’s never been this close before
Never been so easy or so slow
Been shooting in the dark too long
When somethin’s not right it’s wrong
You're gonna make me lonesome when you go

Dragon clouds so high above
I’ve only known careless love
It’s always hit me from below
This time around it’s more correct
Right on target, so direct
You're gonna make me lonesome when you go

[spin_kick_snap]

Yeahno, Kathy heard the lyrics even over the coughing. Maybe that was more Fandom magic at work. Maybe it had started playing on her end, too, and it was just hard to notice. Did it matter? She'd heard them and Anders clearly wished she hadn't.

"I miss you too," she said. "I miss you now, so much. You were always a constant in my life, but now even moreso. And not being able to see you makes me feel off-balance. That's not a feeling I'm used to anymore."

[not_every_mage]

"Oh, darling," Anders said, the cold wall he'd tried to build around himself for this conversation melting away. "I know. I keep expecting to see you there every time I walk into my room. It's stupid that you're a continent away."

He had been furious at her about it, but not right now. Now he just felt sad.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I keep trying to tell myself it's good practice for next year, but I hate it," Kathy said, trying not to sound as miserable as she felt. "I'm lonely out here. I always was, but I stopped being used to it. And now it's like I can feel the negative space where you're supposed to be, but aren't."

Far away, I`ve been so long away
I get a little lost, hey, but I`ve found my way
See I`ve been, wondering why, I keep losing, hey
How I need you, yes I need you by my side
Holding on, I`m barely holding on
When I hear your voice, oh, I can keep on
See I`ve been, healing this long, all on my on
How I need you, yes I need you by my side

"Look, I'm telling him that," Kathy announced to the air. "I don't need your color commentary!"

[not_every_mage]

"Let me know if yelling at it works," Anders teased, and sighed. This hurt. He couldn't come up with words to make it hurt less. He couldn't even try.

"I don't know what to say," he finally admitted, sounding miserable. "You told me to trust you, and I'm trying. But I wish you'd come home."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I know you do," Kathy said, wishing she could just reach out and touch him. She just wanted to cuddle close and hold him. Be held. Share whatever comfort she could and take as much as he was willing to offer. "I do, too. But you know if I cut and ran--if I turned my back on helping when I thought I could still make a difference--I wouldn't be me. It's not that I don't want to come home to you. Hell, part of me wants to do exactly what you said and just take Sarah and run--but that's not who I am."

She hung her head. "I'm sorry I'm like this," she said. "I know this isn't what you signed up for when we started...this."

[not_every_mage]

"I knew you were the type to run into a burning building," Anders answered in a small voice. "I just never thought you'd find a burning building quite so big or quite so soon."

There was another rush of lyrics from Anders' side of the line:

Never knew I could feel like this
Like I've never seen the sky before
Want to vanish inside your kiss
Every day I love you more and more

Listen to my heart, can you hear it sing?
Telling me to give you everything
Seasons may change, winter to spring
But I love you until the end of time

He sighed. "...and of course we have to deal with this, too."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yeah," Kathy said, leaning against the wall at the head of her bed. "Fandom sure knows how to add an emotional sucker punch." She held the bridge of her nose as she recognized the music of the song that started playing on her end, even before the lyrics kicked in.

Boy, I hear you in my dreams
I feel your whisper across the sea
I keep you with me in my heart
You make it easier when life gets hard

Lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again...

"Glad the island thinks we need the help," she said. What to do? Just admit it? Play it off like the island was being overly dramatic? Just ignore it?

[not_every_mage]

"Maybe we do need the help," Anders said, a faint chuckle in his voice. "Look, we could just hang up and worry about this later. They're just songs. They don't have to mean anything."

(He knew they did.)

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy hoped they did. But island whimsy seemed an awfully fragile argument to place her heart on.

"That might be best," she said reluctantly. "Not that I want to let you go."

She didn't need help saying that, at least.

[not_every_mage]

"I don't want to let you go either," Anders agreed. "But this isn't a conversation for over the phone."

And it made a certain insane idea he was getting seem all the more important.

[spin_kick_snap]

"And if we ever decided to talk about--things," she said, stumbling over the words, but firm enough in her belief, "it should be without Fandom pushing for anything. In our own time, you know? Not because a certain island got impatient."

Kathy was sure that the lyrics to Lucky had gotten louder. She was choosing to ignore that.

[not_every_mage]

"The island shouldn't boss us around," Anders agreed. "Even if we should probably thank it for the pollen."

And now the same "Lucky" lyrics were playing on his side, too. He pitched his voice louder so she could hear him.

"Let's talk later. Take care of yourself, all right?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"So we needed one push," Kathy said with a laugh. "That doesn't mean we can't figure out the rest of it on our own."

The song changed again. Dammit, Fandom.

"We'll talk soon," Kathy promised. "And I'll be careful, I promise. And--just know I miss you, okay? And I'm thinking about you all the time. No ancient and thoroughly-over crush is going to change how I feel."

Every time I tried to tell you,
The words just came out wrong,
So I'll have to say I love you in a song.
Every time the time was right,
All the words just came out wrong,
So I'll have to say I love you in a--

"Bye!" she said and hung up.

[not_every_mage]

"Bye," Anders echoed before he realized he was talking to a dial tone. He leaned against the roof wall for a long silent moment, one that seemed even more silent because the music had stopped entirely.

If the songs could be believed, he loved Kathy. If the songs could be believed, she loved him back. And it didn't make a copper's worth of difference to her plans, as far as he could tell.

"Well," he told the wind and the rooftop garden with feigned cheer in his voice, "I'm thoroughly fucked."