Apartment Above Luke's, Sunday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

By Sunday morning, Kathy was ready to leave Boston. It was colder in Boston than in Baltimore and her attempts to forget herself in bars and clubs had had sub-optimal results. She was going to chalk it up to residual concern over Ezra's warnings about the Coterie, even if the truth was likely far more complicated.

With far more clothing, makeup, and accessories than she'd left with (look, they called it retail therapy for a reason!), Kathy quietly let herself into the apartment. Trading her shoes for her indoor slippers, she realized just how much she'd missed the place; it had only been theirs for a few days, but she'd already gotten into the mindset of thinking of it as home. And if this were home, she had to start acting like it. No more running away. She might not know what she was doing or anything like that, but at least she had somewhere she could feel safe to not know from.

She put her bags in her room, promising herself she'd put everything away later along with the rest of the unpacking she still had to do, and went looking for her roommate. Everything between them was still up in the air, including Kathy's own feelings, but avoiding Raven wasn't going to do much good for either of them.

[For the roomie if she's around, but open to visitors and phone calls!]

Comments

[tigerundercover]

Raven was curled up on her fluffy red chaise (the ugly blue loveseat was nice, but it was under the loft bed instead of the window and didn't get nearly as much sun), basking in the breeze from her open window and lightly dozing. She snapped awake when she heard Kathy get home and debated whether or not she wanted to go out and face the music directly or not.

She was leaning towards "not". She still had no idea how Kathy might react to seeing her.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy frowned at the stain where she'd dropped the vase on Valentine's Day. Raven must have cleaned it up, as all the glass shards and the flowers were gone. A glance in the trash showed both the remains of both the dead flowers and the vase.

Staring at them, she came to a decision. She made a quick phone call and was in the process of making dinner when there was a knock on the door. She settled up, then went back to cooking.

Half an hour later, there was a soft knock on Raven's door. "Raven?" she called, sounding tentative. "I made dinner."

[tigerundercover]

That was not what Raven expected.

She cracked her door open, saw the look on Kathy's face, then opened it enough to lean through. "Really?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"I mean it's just spaghetti," Kathy said, hands twisting around themselves. "Uhh, no meatballs. But I put a lot of veggies and some balsamic vinegar in the sauce, so it doesn't quite taste like it came from a jar?"

...That probably wasn't what Raven meant. Right.

"Really," she continued. "I thought we could maybe talk over dinner?"

[tigerundercover]

All of that sounded really promising. None of it had been factored into Raven's numerous rehearsed conversations in her head for when Kathy finally came home.

Still, she had to check.

"You're not gonna try to kick me out, are you?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy shook her head. "Are you planning on leaving?" she asked.

She wouldn't deny that she'd thought about it. But if she hadn't even been able to tell Raven to leave five seconds after Raven confessed to killing her family, there was no way she'd be able to do it now.

[tigerundercover]

"I thought about it," Raven admitted. "But . . . I don't really have anywhere else to go." She finally opened the door all the way and came out into the hallway. "So. Alright. Dinner."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I set the table," Kathy said, turning to head back to the kitchen. "Hope you're hungry. I'm bad at cooking for just two."

On the dining room table was a vase of flowers, a recreation of the bouquet Raven had given her and that had died on the floor.

[tigerundercover]

Raven stopped when she saw them, for a moment not sure how they could be there. It'd taken her forever to end up cleaning them up. There'd been a lot of crying involved.

"Kathy. When did you. . . ?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"They just arrived," Kathy explained. "I felt bad about what happened to the first ones."

She was almost tempted to joke that she now had the ability to bring dead things back to life, like that show about the baker, but she wasn't feeling particularly jokey right now.

Kathy sat, starting to spoon spaghetti onto her plate with more concentration than was actually warranted. "If you're looking for a definitive answer about what this all means or how I feel, I'm afraid I can't give you one," she said quietly. "But I don't hate you."

[tigerundercover]

Raven let out a soft breath through her nose, and sat down across from Kathy. "That's about the best I can ask for." That, and Kathy not looking at her like she was a monster. "Where did you go?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Boston," Kathy said. "First portal available that went somewhere I've never been. Turned out to be Ezra's Boston, which was a little...weird. Got to have the 'Hi, I'm alive again' talk at his work."

[tigerundercover]

"Wow," Raven said. "Um, yeah. A little awkward." She shook her head. "I talked to some people here, by the way. Not about you -- remembering. Just the stuff I did."

[justwantedfriends]

So, Kira listened to the radio. She didn't have a reason not to believe the radio. And yet, the idea that Kathy was back was just a little too amazing to fully believe. It had taken a while for her to gather the courage to go over to Luke's, but she finally went by and knocked on the door, listening a little to see if there was any sign of someone inside.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Kira!" Kathy had gotten Kira's flowers and had intended to call her and thank her, but then the disastrous conversation with Raven had happened and Kathy had fled, leaving all thought of flowers and friends behind. Hopefully any misapprehensions of Kathy not being excited to see Kira would flee with the spontaneous tight hug Kathy was going for as soon as she opened the door.

[justwantedfriends]

Oh god, Kathy was real and she was here, and that hug was not going to end any time soon on Kira's end. "Oh my god oh my god hi!"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy wasn't moving out of the hug, either. "Hi," she said, already crying because apparently that was what she did now? She cried. About everything. "It's so good to see you!"

[justwantedfriends]

Clearly, there was something causing a terrible allergic reaction and that's why both of their eyes were leaking. "Me? It's so, so good to see you. I wondered if maybe someone could--I don't know what happened but I'm so glad you're here!"

[spin_kick_snap]

And the chefs in Luke's were cutting onions. Just terrible.

"It was a wish," Kathy said, nodding. "A crazy wish and a trip to my Los Angeles and--zero out of ten, do not recommend--and I'm alive and it's all so surreal that I'm still not quite sure I believe it."

[justwantedfriends]

"So I should have just wished harder, got it," Kira said, pulling back a little to look Kathy up and down. "Are you okay? Physically, I mean. Like, all over?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"There was magic involved, too," Kathy assured her. "So it's not that you didn't wish hard enough."

At Kira's question, she gave an involuntary glance at her right shoulder, where she'd been bit. "Well, I haven't gotten a checkup yet or anything, but I think so," she said. "I don't even have any scars anymore."

Like, say, a small circle of teeth. As a random, hypothetical example.

"All the damage I, uhh, sustained while..." She trailed off and shook her head. "It's all fixed."

[justwantedfriends]

"That's good," Kira said, looking relieved. "You should still get a checkup though. Just to make sure." She frowned deeply and pulled Kathy in for another hug. "How's the rest of you?"

Like the crying parts, for example.

[spin_kick_snap]

"That answer's a lot more complicated," Kathy mumbled. Which was Kathy for 'not so great, actually.' "I think I thought I could just...step back into my old life, you know? The way you do when you wake up every morning. Except...nothing's the same as I left it. Everyone's changed and moved on. I've changed and I was dead. So I feel pretty...off-balance."

[justwantedfriends]

Kira frowned and nodded. "You were gone for a while," she said. "But no matter what's changed, we never stopped missing you. At least, I know I didn't. I thought about you all the time. It might be weird--I mean, it's got to be weird, you said it was--but if nothing else, we're all glad you're back?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded vigorously. "And everyone's made me feel that way," she said quickly. "But it's just a lot to sort through and deal with. Like, I keep forgetting I'm nineteen now. You know? Stuff like that."

She leaned back to give Kira a wobbly smile. "Sorry I wasn't here to wear a bikini with you at the picnic."