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

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shrugged. "Your priorities are different," he said. "No shame in that. Anyway, it's Anders. Get him a toy for the cat and he'll be good."

He'd gotten a massive cat tree. Oops.

[spin_kick_snap]

But tooooootally didn't do presents.

Kathy wrinkled her nose. "Even discounting the fact that I know your cats are already spoiled at hell...I dunno. That just seems--too easy." She couldn't really explain it well, so she just waved it away. "I'll think about it more and if I come up with something good, I'll see if you want in."

[rebelseekspizza]

"All right," Dante said. "Just get your pretty ass to the party either way?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Ain't a party till I walk in?" Kathy asked, lips quirking. "I suppose I can make time in my busy schedule of 'not much' to go to your party."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Just make sure to wear something skimpy," Dante said. "Make the seniors see what they're missing."

[spin_kick_snap]

"And here I was thinking this would be an excellent time to buy myself some leather pants," Kathy teased. "But I can do skimpy instead."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Nope, leather pants are good," Dante said immediately.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Not showing up in a catsuit," Kathy clarified. "That just looks desperate for attention. But leather pants have been on my 'to buy' list for awhile."

[rebelseekspizza]

"You have the right ass for it," Dante said.

Which was of course a good excuse to grab said ass.

[spin_kick_snap]

Which, in turn, involved Kathy pressing her ass against his hand to make sure he had a firm grip. "Look at me," she said, laughing. "Dyed streaks, leather pants, tattoos. I think I turned punk when nobody was looking."

Nobody thought of you as punk, Kathy. Literally nobody.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante let out a soft laugh. "Or close enough," he said.

He dropped a kiss on her cheek. Very, very carefully. "Anyway, party's not going to be that much of a big deal," he said. "You're staying. Anders's moving out, but I'm moving with him, so it's all cool."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You are?" she asked, surprised. "Can you do that?"

And then she remembered this was Dante and the number of fucks he gave to what the administration wanted was in the single digits at best.

"Do you guys have a place yet? You'll still be on the island, right?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"I don't think Anders has found anywhere yet...?" Dante said. "But yeah. On the island. I still gotta go to school or whatever and you're here, so..."

[spin_kick_snap]

She had to smile at that. In no small part because the Dante she'd met at first would have been fine leaving school if he'd had a good enough reason to go.

And also to know that she was a reason to stay.

"Normally, I'd offer my place to crash in until he did, but it's currently under construction," she said ruefully. "But mi almacén es tu almacén if he doesn't find somewhere permanent by Friday," she said, gesturing all around them so he'd know what word she'd swapped in for 'casa' there.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Thanks," Dante said, grinning back at her. "But hopefully we'll be good. Gotta get some big beds to make room, though."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Don't be fooled by the general superiority of all things Californian," Kathy said, going to toss her hair and remembering at the last minute to not do that. "California kings are longer than regular king-sized beds, not wider. If you're looking for width--" saaaaay to fit more people in, for example "--a standard king is the way to go."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante tilted his head. "Hey, you're the expert," he said finally. "Managed to find one for all of us."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm your nerd friend, remember?" Kathy said. "I did research. Standard kings give two people about three feet of room each. Two feet if you decide to squeeze in a third."

Like for reasons.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Standard king it is," Dante said, grinning. "Gotta have that squeeze space."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy returned it, warmed down to her toes. "Don't know if you ever noticed, but it's about the size of your two beds pushed together. Only without that little gap in the middle."

[rebelseekspizza]

"So nobody has to worry about falling out through the middle in the middle of the night," Dante mused. "Handy."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Maybe if you play your cards right, one of those will be my housewarming present to you guys," Kathy said. "...Hmm. Maybe my graduation present will just be a trip to Ikea. Y'all can't have much in the way of furniture at all."

[rebelseekspizza]

"We've got a lot of cat furniture...?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm sure Lachlan and Blondie will be thrilled to know that they've got more furniture than you do, but that's not going to do much when you're sitting on the floor hoping to put egg crates together," Kathy said, giggling.

[rebelseekspizza]

"We could probably sit on the cat tree I got Anders for his birthday," Dante said, smirking. "'S big enough."