Barry's Old Warehouse, Warehouse District, Monday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

All of Kathy's cleaning yesterday had paid off and the warehouse was much more livable today. All the broken furniture had been tossed, though very little had been moved in to replace it, and everything that could be swept, scrubbed, or tidied had been. Kathy had ended up crashing up in the loft in a nest of pillows and blankets that she'd managed to scrounge from various stores around the island and Ikea. The loft itself was more of an open platform jutting out from a wall than a proper room, so Kathy hadn't even tried to make it resemble a bedroom. If anything, it was a colorful blanket fort with two hammocks strung in the corners. It was truly ridiculous, but she loved it. She'd also destroyed the stairs leading up to loft, replacing it with a knotted rope that dangled from the ceiling all the way to the floor. Eventually, she'd add a ladder and some kind of pulley system to help get other people up, but last night she'd slept more soundly than she had since Mexico, up in the air where nothing could get to her.

This morning had involved a run to JGoB's for frosted cranberry scones slathered with creamy honey-butter and now she was wandering the warehouse, debating how much furniture she'd actually need to replace and where it would all go while waiting for Dante to show up with the hair dye.

Not a bad Monday, overall.

[For the guy mentioned but also open!]

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

She hadn't meant for it to be one. Was it bizarre to find him attractive?

"Oh it was," she assured him. "Weird for me and I know what to expect from k-dramas. I figure it was even worse for Anders who had no idea and was still dating Nathan. Then we got separated and I ended up in some crazy old timey Western town full of profanity and racism and I ended up getting shot trying to keep peace between the white settlers and the Native Americans. It was all fucked up."

[rebelseekspizza]

Not attractive, but the hair and what it signified and the past two years, that was waves-hands stuff.

"And here I thought the stabby aliens were bad," Dante said. He brushed the tips of her hair with the mixture, making sure it was soaked through with his fingers. "Wonder if Fandom knew about you and Anders before you guys did."

[spin_kick_snap]

Heh, for once it was Dante overthinking things.

"Probably," Kathy said. "There was a day when the music just kept playing songs about secretly being in love with someone while we were on the phone together."

While she was in LA. Awkward.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante overthought stuff sometimes. He just never said so out loud!

"... Was that when I was here, or before?" Dante asked, moving to the other side of Kathy's head.

[spin_kick_snap]

"When I was in LA," Kathy said. "Back before we'd said anything. Before then--" She shook her head. "I don't even know if we can properly say we did love each other. Like that, anyway. I wouldn't let myself, remember?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Right, he had a boyfriend and you were hung up on some guy," Dante said.

[spin_kick_snap]

"By that time, I'd long gotten over Nikolai," Kathy snorted. "But Anders was dating Nathan and I wasn't sure whether he was actually unhappy or I was just imagining it because I was jealous. I couldn't stop my crush, but I felt super-guilty about it."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Oh, right, you were doing the noble 'nope, feel nothing' thing," Dante said, pressing the mixture against the last remaining bleach-free tips of her hair. "Glad I could come in and distract you from that shit."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Things were already kinda getting weird with Ez, Anders was paired off, and the ratio of guys at this school has always been weird. And then you showed up, the hot jerk in a battered tanktop. It was lust at first sight." Kathy's grin was directed at him even though she wasn't able to move. "My hero."

[rebelseekspizza]

"And you can't say I didn't make up for all that waiting in spades," Dante teased. He pulled off one of the gloves. "Okay, now it's just a forty minute wait."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy reflexively reached back to touch her hair, her hand pausing just inches away as she realized that would be a very stupid idea. "This is the bleach, right?" she checked. "To make the dye show up better?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"To make the dye show up at all," Dante said, looking amused. "Your hair's dark as fucking sin."

[spin_kick_snap]

She tilted her head back and smiled up into his eyes. "Seems appropriate," she said.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante smirked back at her. "Don't get any ideas," he said. "I'm not fucking you with that shit in your hair."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Hey now," Kathy objected. "How was that even a come on?"

It had been a prelude to a come on!

[rebelseekspizza]

"I know you," Dante told her. "It was getting there."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Hey now, I'm perfectly capable of hanging out with you for forty minutes without defaulting to sex," Kathy said.

Which was very true and yet didn't address the point at all. As her smile suggested she was aware of.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Sure, you're capable."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy laughed. "Fair enough," she conceded. "I'll be good." She folded her hands in her lap in attempted to radiate propriety. "Still gonna flirt with you though. If I weren't half-afraid that my hair would end up burned to a crisp from the bleach or whatever, I'd try to see how long it would take to convince you otherwise."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Fine, fine," Dante said, pulling out his watch so he could set the alarm. "Just don't push it."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy tilted her head to look at him. "I won't," she said. "Promise. I don't wanna end up with my hair falling out."

And he'd been firm enough in his no that Kathy wasn't going to do more than tease him about it.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Good," Dante said sagely. "'Cause we're gonna make you look even more awesome than Raven."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Flatterer," Kathy teased. "She and I had a good talk about whether or not you and Anders would be able to tell which of us was which if she shifted into me." She paused and added, "We also agreed we were never actually gonna do that to see."

They'd settled on that being 'potentially amusing, but way more likely to cause unnecessary drama.'

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante tilted his head and looked at her skeptically.

Very skeptically.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm serious!" Kathy said. "We agreed that it's off the table." Beat. "At least for you two."

Another beat.

"And we're probably going to pretend to be twins in Baltimore sometime."