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]

"The mom died."

To a certain extent, that kind of said it all.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was not not going to ask if Raven killed her. Even if it was on the tip of her tongue to do so. More of that bread dipped in sauce helped keep her mouth busy until the impulse passed.

"What happened to the little girl?"

[tigerundercover]

"I'm . . . not sure," Raven admitted. "I got her out of the house, but when the other townspeople saw me -- the real me --" Raven reached up and rubbed at her shoulder, over the scar. "I stopped trying to talk to people after that."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy nodded, pursing her lips. There were a lot of blanks that she could fill in--she, too, sometimes rubbed at her shoulder in lieu of words, though her scar was purely internal now.

"But I thought you met someone," she said, instead of asking more questions about what happened. "Was that before then?"

[tigerundercover]

"No. That was in Virginia. The town was in Texas. Misfit was -- extraordinary." Raven finally smiled then. "They broke all the rules."

All of them. Quite literally.

[spin_kick_snap]

"The rules?" Kathy asked, propping her chin on her hand. This, at least, seemed less fraught. A nice change. "What rules?"

[tigerundercover]

"Just -- all of them. They didn't shave to look more like a girl or wear pants to look more like a boy. They didn't try to please people at all. And they didn't get scared and run away, even when I turned into a bear."

[spin_kick_snap]

"How did you meet?" Honestly, she could hear Raven talk about Misfit all day. It made her smile, which was in short supply around here recently.

[tigerundercover]

"We were in the mountains. Exes are attracted to sound, but it keeps wildlife away, so I'd sing or talk to myself while I walked and just -- kill whatever came at me." She said that too casually. Much too casually. "I stopped for the night at one of these little lean-to shelters along the trail, and I heard someone whistling and I was all set to -- but the sound had bounced around and I misjudged the direction, and suddenly they were just there. I freaked out, went bear, and they smiled. For the first time in months, someone was there who wasn't dead or terrified. It was like a miracle."

[spin_kick_snap]

Yeah, that casual 'I'd just kill' followed by the 'all set to' definitely had Kathy drawing some unfortunate conclusions.

"Did they say why they weren't terrified?" Kathy asked. "Did they know someone with powers before, or was it just not in their nature?"

[tigerundercover]

Raven shook her head. "They spent almost their whole life wishing they looked like someone different. So when I literally changed shape right in front of them, their response was 'cool'. I think they were a little disappointed that I couldn't teach them my trick."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I was pretty jealous when I first learned about what you could do," Kathy admitted. "Pretty much for the same reason, too."

[tigerundercover]

"Well. Not quite the same. Unless you've been more uncomfortable being a girl than you've ever let on."

[spin_kick_snap]

"...For a similar, but definitely not exactly the same reason," Kathy amended. "I spent most of my childhood wishing I have pretty blond hair like a Barbie's. And blue eyes. And..." She waved a hand. "All that stuff."

[tigerundercover]

Raven shifted to her old blonde disguise. It didn't fit the same way it used to. "All that stuff," she agreed. "Not that doing this was actually all that easy."

[spin_kick_snap]

It was hard, growing up in society and not fitting into the established mode. It had been rough for Kathy and she still came closer than either Raven or Misfit.

"No, I wouldn't imagine it would be," Kathy said. "Learning fine control that maintains even when you're unconscious. I can barely remember not to move too fast when I'm distracted by something else."

[tigerundercover]

"You have to slow yourself down whenever we're just hanging out wandering around together, huh." Why hadn't that ever occurred to Raven before? "I'm guessing that gets real old."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yeah," Kathy said with a rueful grin. "In fairness, I have to slow down for pretty much anything I do. If I move too fast, I can break stuff or hurt people. Hurt myself. You're lucky you missed those first few months when I was learning. I was covered in bruises all the time."