Apartment Above Lukes, Friday Afternoon

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Kathy was prepping for Pride over the weekend. Most of the merchandise she was planning for the booth had already been boxed up at the store, but she was folding pamphlets and making bracelets out of embroidery floss and beads that she'd picked up from Hobby Lobby when she'd taken a trip over there to discuss which store was going to hand out the birth control. The bracelets all corresponded with the various Pride flags; it was like an eighth grade craft project up in here.

But it was fun and relaxing and made for nice breaks between constant pamphlet folding while still letting her feel like she was being productive. Win/win.

Comments

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And didn't she know it!

"Well yeah," Kathy said. "Safer sex supplies are an important part of Pride. And even if they're not exactly a part of the culture, kinky and poly people show up, too." She flushed a bit and smiled. "So I sorta belong, too."

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"Wasn't arguin' that -- I mean of course you --" Kathy should be filming this. "You want me to work at your sex booth?!"

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She should! Parker and Hardison would probably LOVE to see this. "Well..." Kathy was doing her best to not cackle, but it was hard. "More volunteer than, like, real work with a paycheck or anything. But yeah! You can do hair wraps while I offer safer sex advice or suggestions!"

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Eliot was going to end up turning purple by the end of this conversation. "I mean -- if you need me to do it, I can totally . . . you sure?"

He would be sitting right there. While she talked about sex.

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Well, it's not like he'd be right there while she was having sex!

"Why wouldn't I?" she asked. "Hair wraps and things would be cool! And maybe they'll want a guy's point of view instead of a girl's!"

Beat.

"You're sputtering."

[vdistinctive]

"Screwed up the pattern on this bracelet, too," Eliot grumbled. He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. "Of course I'll help you with your booth. Wouldn't miss it."

He'd just probably end up sputtering at least a few times while he was there.

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"Didn't you once tease me about how knives weren't foreplay?" Kathy reminded. "While I was a virgin?"

With every intent to leave that picnic not one, but then alots happened.

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"I wasn't your dad at the time."

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"At least you missed the era of having to come to you for The Talk?" Kathy said, face full of mischief.

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Eliot's current horrified expression was due to picturing Mr. Li giving anyone the Talk.

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"I had sex ed," Kathy said immediately. "And Mom explained the 'you're a woman now' stuff."

And now she was blushing, because she could tease Eliot about sex stuff whenever, but biology? That was awkward.

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"Well, at least I don't have to worry about doing that."

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"Though you may want to workshop your 'How to ask if your daughter is pregnant' conversation," Kathy said, snickering into her sandwich.

Which was amazing, by the way. She was going to eat, like, three.

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As though there were any doubt.

"Wasn't askin', was I. You were all set to be defensive about your big secret. Ain't my fault it wasn't that you were pregnant."

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"No you weren't asking," Kathy said, laughing so hard she messed up her knotwork. "You were already convinced I was!"

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"Not until you seemed to know what I was talkin' about!"

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"You were so vague it could have been anything! You just said you knew I had a problem I was dealing with or something! Which I was!" Kathy protested, her arms around her sides because her stomach hurt from laughing.

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"Right, and you were totally forthcoming."

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"In fairness," Kathy said, raising a finger, "I was pretty fucked up."

Beat.

"Still am. Less than I was, I think, but still am."

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"Less is good," Eliot said. "Less is real good. Anything in particular botherin' you? Or is all the same giant lump of overwhelming?"

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"I still feel like I'm just treading water," Kathy said, setting her bracelet down entirely to clasp her arms around her knees. "I don't have a direction. I don't even know what direction I should pick. I was looking at pamphlets and stuff for local colleges but I'm not sure if I was doing that because I wanted to, or because I thought I should, or because it was a distraction from everything else."

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Eliot nodded. "That's hard for anyone to untangle. There a reason why you gotta figure it out right now?"

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"I feel like it'll...give me something to focus on that's not...dwelling," Kathy said, trying to put her nebulous feelings into words. "I was always going forward, before. Now I'm just...paused. Maybe if I had a forward trajectory to follow, I'd have a way to tell how I'm doing."

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Eliot nodded. "There's value in learnin' how to just be," he said. "But there's nothin' wrong with setting yourself goals. How much into the future do you think you wanna be looking?"

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"I don't know," Kathy admitted. "I kind of get panicky thinking more than a week or so in the future. Anders and I are supposed to go on vacation, but we keep not scheduling it because scheduling means planning means I freak out."