Apartment Above Lukes, Tuesday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

So, technically, Kathy's plan was to make tacos for dinner, but no one would know that from the state of the kitchen. She'd decided to make homemade guacamole (because what were tacos other than tasty vehicles for guac?) and now all the taco fixings were kind of pushed off to one side while she finished mashing up the avocados and chopping the cilantro and prepping the other stuff.

And texting Dante, because making tacos was the perfect opportunity for jokes, right? Especially with her shoulder still a little red from Pride?

Looking forward to putting all the tacos into my face tonight, she said, continuing their lazy conversation. No more sausage for me, but tacos are always the way to my...heart.

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

And answered by Kathy with a bowl of guacamole and a chip. "What do you think?" she asked, skipping over the hello in favor of what was really important. "Needs more cilantro or good as is?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante took the chip from her hands and swept it through the guacamole. He popped it in his mouth and munched thoughtfully.

"It's good," he announced, and brushed past her into the apartment.

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"Do come in," Kathy snarked, shutting the door behind him, then headed back for the kitchen where music was playing on her laptop. She really needed to figure out what happened to her ipod. "Can I get you to help with dinner, or are you in more of a 'sit at the table with a drink' kind of mood?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Thought you'd be done by now," Dante admitted. "What's left?"

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"Cutting up the last of the veggies and cooking the meat," Kathy said, making a face. "I figured I'd finish cutting stuff up if you're willing to saute the hamburger?"

She'd just...kind of put it off. For reasons.

[rebelseekspizza]

Oh.

Right.

"I can handle the chuck, don't worry," Dante said, tossing her a lazy salute.

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"Oooh, Dante cooking at the stove," Kathy said, happy to tease him and move away from the specter of why she was still reluctant to touch meat. "Sexy. Make sure to stir it nice and slow while making pouty model faces at me."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Your kinks are getting weirder all the time," Dante said, choosing to ignore that snark in favor of tracking down the meat.

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"I will have you know, there's a huge market out there of mostly-naked guys doing household chores," Kathy informed him, pushing a small package of beef his way. The busboy had run some up when she'd called down for it and she hadn't touched it since he'd left it on the counter. "It's a totally normal kink. You're lucky I'm not trying to convince you to lose your pants and wear a frilly apron instead."

She grabbed a beer from the fridge and cracked it, setting it down next to the stove for him as a silent sign of appreciation.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Apron and no pants? Now there's a look," Dante mushed, opening up the pack nice and quick. "Easy access too."

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"I'm not going to lie and say I've never thought about that," Kathy admitted, heading back to the table to finish chopping up the last of the toppings. "Gender fuckery and easy access. That's hot."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Maybe next time you pick up a dick," Dante said merrily, rummaging around until he'd produced a pan and got the stove going.

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While Dante rummaged, Kathy slipped quietly out of the kitchen, darting towards her bedroom. A quick dip into her special drawer and she was heading back to the kitchen again, placing a box from Dite's on the counter next to him.

"You were saying?" she asked.

Look, she wasn't trying to start anything. But was she supposed to just ignore that opening there?

Dirty.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante, his hands busy poking around the pan with a spatula, blinked.

And then he blinked again.

And then he laughed. "You got another one?"

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Kathy shrugged, a little self-conscious, and snagged the box back. "A bunch came in with an order," she said. "Good size and heft and it has a vibrating end for me, so it seemed worth picking up."

And now she had a boxed strap-on in her hands and nothing to do with it. Awkward.

"So, y'know, just watch all those comments about what might happen when I get a dick," she said with a wink. "Never know when maybe I'll take you up on it."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante made a faintly amused noise, reaching to snag her arm.

Part of it might have been a long-hardwired instinct to boost Kathy up when she looked self-conscious about something to do with getting laid; whatever it was, he leaned in to kiss her, nice but quick.

[spin_kick_snap]

The kiss surprised Kathy, over almost before she could respond, and she stood blinking at him for a moment before she shook herself. Her fingers brushed over her lips for a second before she gave him a soft smile in return. "I should probably go put this away," she suggested. "We've got tacos to finish prepping."

[rebelseekspizza]

"All right," Dante said easily, turning back to the browning meat. "But we'll have to break that thing in sometime."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Just say the word," she said, putting the ball squarely in his court. "It's your ass, after all."

Beat.

"And maybe your mouth again cause that really was pretty."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante snickered softly. "I'll add it to the list," he said.

Poking casually through the meat, he added, "So I'm giving that not-banging-other-people thing a try."

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"Oh?" Kathy asked, halfway out of the kitchen, her mind more about getting the strap-on back into her room in case Raven came home unexpectedly. That concern vanished as soon as what he said actually registered in her consciousness. "Oh!"

That was unexpected. And considering the context, she drew entirely the wrong conclusion from it. "Uhh, that's...great," she said, a little lamely. "Sorry, I didn't mean to push with the--the box. I wasn't assuming--look, being friends still is way more important than anything else we got up to, so whatever you've decided, I'm not gonna push. So don't worry about that, okay?"

[rebelseekspizza]

There was a long pause.

Dante cast her a confused look over her shoulder. "The fuck you talking about?"

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"Your decision to not sleep with anyone else," Kathy said, now thoroughly confused. She'd tucked the box beneath her elbow so she could worry at her hands. "I was letting you know that you don't have to worry about me trying to make you change your mind. We can keep teasing and joking and I won't have any expectations of where it's going to go."

[rebelseekspizza]

Now Dante was confused, too. "I kinda figured you and Anders were a package deal," he said, shoving some meat along the side of the pan. "Unless I got that wrong."

WORDS. STUPID.

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SO STUPID.

"I don't ever expect you to sleep with me just because we're both sleeping with Anders," Kathy said quietly, inwardly despairing. She'd thought that they'd gotten here because this was where they wanted to be, not because she and Anders were a package. She drew a long, shuddery breath and pushed that all aside to deal with later. "I--I'm sorry I gave you that impression. I tried not to demands--I'll be better. But you don't ever have to sleep with me if you don't want to, regardless of what Anders and I are doing. If I made you feel that way, I'm so sorry."

She fought to give him a smile, thin and weak though it was. One that said that they were okay, even if she wasn't okay right then, because they were what mattered. "If you want to try just sleeping with him, that's really great. And don't hesitate to call me out for being me, I guess, if I ever do or say something that makes you feel like I'm not holding to that."